Lucas turned on the radio for something to listen to. Neither of them spoke, save for Morgan’s occasional directions.
Adrenaline coursed through Morgan’s veins and she knew Lucas was feeling the same thing. Everything seemed clearer, sharper, brighter as they drove. The world seemed to have both sped up and slowed down. It seemed to Morgan that time was slipping by as they sped down the freeway, yet she felt as though she could count individual leaves on trees as they whipped by.
After about fifteen minutes, they ended up in a few cities over in the trendy downtown area of Oakdale. The streets were bustling with activity, and Morgan smiled.
Lucas pulled off the main drag and found a parking space in a small lot. When they got out of the car, Lucas immediately walked over to the meter, checking his pockets. “Got any change?” he asked.
Morgan made a face. “I hate meters. I’m always afraid I’ll put in too little.”
“How long do you think we’ll be here?” Lucas asked.
Morgan didn’t look up as she dug through her purse. “I don’t know… maybe an hour?” She found her change purse and shook it dubiously. “I don’t know if I’ve got enough—”
“Uh, Morgan?”
Morgan looked up at Lucas. He pointed at the meter. She took a few steps closer and saw that the timer on the meter was set to an hour.
“Cool,” she said. “That was lucky.”
Lucas laughed. “No, you don’t get it. It was at zero a second ago.”
Morgan gave him a confused look. Then she shook her head. “No. You’re not saying that I—”
“I think you totally just moved the timer with your mind,” Lucas said, sounding gleeful. “Go ahead—do it again.”
“I don’t know how I even did it a first time,” Morgan muttered. But when she looked at Lucas, his face was so encouraging that she shrugged and turned back to the meter. “Maybe we need… an hour and a half?” She watched the timer expectantly, but nothing happened. And she got mad. “See,” she said, turning to Lucas, “I can’t—”
But Lucas was grinning. He nodded toward the timer. Morgan looked back at it. It now read an hour and a half.
She started at it. Unlike the incident with the glass, this act didn’t cause panic to rise. Instead, she grinned and looked up at Lucas. “I totally just moved that.”
“This is so cool,” Lucas said quietly. He grabbed Morgan’s hand and pulled her toward the downtown area. As they joined the throng of people on the street, he gave Morgan’s hand a squeeze. “It’s like I can… feel everyone’s excitement.” He paused and pointed at a woman with curly hair and a vague smile who stood next to a man. “Except her,” he said. “She’s pissed at her boyfriend.” He looked at Morgan. “How do I know that?”
She looked at the woman Lucas indicated and had the distinct impression he was right. “I don’t… I don’t know,” Morgan said honestly.
“God, this is awesome,” he continued. He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, causing people behind them to grumble angrily and divert around them. He pulled on Morgan’s hand, forcing her to face him. “You’re doing this. You’re letting me do this.”
Morgan shook her head. “I’m not, though—”
“But you are, I know it,” he insisted. “You’re… sharing this with me.”
“I have no idea how, though,” Morgan said.
He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter how.” Giving her hand another squeeze and starting down the sidewalk again, he said, “I feel… infinite. Like I can do anything.”
Morgan couldn’t help smiling. “Okay, there, Superman.”
Lucas seemed too excited to focus; his eyes scanned the crowd as they walked. “Hey, check out that guy’s fedora,” he said, pointing.
Morgan looked at where he was indicating. A man was sitting at a table outside a restaurant, surrounded by a group of people. He wore a dark gray fedora with a black band. “Stylish,” Morgan said.
“I love a good fedora,” Lucas said.
She laughed. “You should ask him where he got it. Maybe he got it somewhere around here.”
Lucas nodded thoughtfully. “It is a nice fedora.” He gave Morgan’s fingers a final squeeze before releasing her hand. “I’ll be right back,” he said, heading over to fedora guy.
Morgan watched him go. Fedora guy did not look pleased when Lucas addressed him, but moments later he stood up, handing his hat to Lucas. After the brief exchange, Lucas walked back to where Morgan stood, the fedora atop his head.
Morgan stared at him incredulously. “What just happened?” she asked.
Lucas shook his head, shrugging. “I don’t know. At first, I thought the guy was going to hit me or something—when he stood up. But I started thinking, like, dude, I just want your fedora. And then he handed it to me.” Lucas’s eyes grew wide. “I think I made him give me his hat.”
Morgan glanced back at the man’s table. His companions were glaring at Lucas. “And on that note, I think we should get moving,” she said, pulling Lucas by the arm.
But Lucas wouldn’t be moved. “First—wait.” He turned his head from side to side. “How do I look?”
Morgan rolled her eyes. “Dead sexy—now let’s get going.” She grabbed his wrist and pulled him down the sidewalk.
Lucas smiled, allowing himself to be towed away. “That’s what I figured.”
They walked in silence for a block. When they stopped, waiting for the crosswalk signal, he turned to Morgan. “Do you really think I made that guy give me his hat?”
Morgan shrugged. “The evidence seems to support it.”
Lucas considered this. “That seems kinda freaky, though, right?”
“What d’you mean?”
“Um, I just made some dude do something. I mean, how would you like it if someone made you do something?”
“I dunno,” Morgan said. “I mean, I guess it depends on what it was.”
“I think I should test it,” he said. “You know—see if I can make someone else do something.”
“Fine,” Morgan said. “Try to make me do something.”
Lucas smiled. Shook his head. Smiled again. “Really?”
“Go for it.” She raised an eyebrow at him. “Just… don’t make me, like, cluck like a chicken or anything ridiculous.”
Lucas nodded. He positioned himself directly in front of Morgan and looked into her eyes. His eyes narrowed in concentration.
After a minute, Morgan turned away. “Okay, you’re creeping me out. What’re you trying to make me do, anyway?”
Lucas shrugged easily. “Doesn’t matter—you didn’t do it.” And without waiting for a response, he started across the street.
Morgan followed him. “Maybe it won’t work on me. You should try someone else.”
“Okay,” Lucas said when Morgan caught up to him. He pointed at a woman a few yards ahead of them. “Watch her.”
Morgan watched dutifully. After a few moments, nothing happened, and Morgan was about to ask Lucas what he was doing when the woman stopped and turned around. She scanned the crowd for a moment before her eyes locked on Lucas.
“Nice fedora!” she called. Then she turned around and continued on her way.
Morgan raised an eyebrow at Lucas. “Seriously? Egomaniac…”
Lucas shrugged. “She’s right, isn’t she?”
Morgan rolled her eyes, smiling. “You have the ability to make people do things, and the best you can come up with is to have someone compliment your hat?”
“I didn’t think you were giving it the respect it deserves,” he said simply.
“Spoken like a true freak of nature,” Morgan muttered.
“Says the founding member of the freaks of nature club,” Lucas countered easily. He proffered his arm to Morgan and, with a smile, she looped her arm through it. Laughing, the two set off down the street.
Morgan felt invigorated. The energies of the people around her converged on her. As they walked, Morgan found she could force the feelings to the back of her mind where the
y were barely noticeable, like white noise, or she could bring the feelings forward then attach a certain emotion or frame of mind to a specific person. After a while, Lucas seemed to figure this out, too, because he began pointing at different people, quizzing Morgan about how each one felt.
After describing the mental state of perhaps the hundredth person, Morgan sighed. “Let’s sit and people watch,” she suggested.
“How’s that different from what we’re doing now?” Lucas asked.
“Um, there’s sitting involved?”
Lucas grinned and scanned the immediate vicinity. “There’s a bench,” he said, pointing.
“Yeah,” Morgan agreed. “A bench full of people.”
Lucas raised a meaningful eyebrow at her. “Just wait,” he said. Then, with a smile, he turned his attention to the three guys occupying the bench. After a minute or so, they got up and walked away. Lucas waggled his eyebrows at Morgan and led her to the bench.
Morgan sat and turned her attention to the people streaming past them. Lucas, who seemed to have grown bored of their previous activity of identifying people’s emotions, formulated a new game. He appeared to be seeing how many people he could get to compliment his fedora as they passed.
After Lucas managed to make a third biker guy compliment the hat, Morgan groaned. “Seriously, enough with the fedora.”
Lucas turned to her, an exaggerated pout on his face. Then he smiled. “Okay, your turn.”
“My turn what?”
“Try to do something.”
“Like what?” Morgan asked.
Lucas shrugged. “Dunno. Flex your mystical abilities.”
Morgan sighed, unsure what to do. But then she grinned wickedly and turned to Lucas. In one fluid motion, his fedora lifted off his head and landed in Morgan’s hands. She grinned and put it on.
“Hey!” Lucas called once he realized what happened. “No fair!” He reached for it, but Morgan stood and took off down the sidewalk.
Lucas ran after her, but Morgan was able to keep a few yards ahead of him. She wove around people and between crowds, laughing like a lunatic. Ahead, she spotted a group of people coming toward her, walking like an impenetrable wall, so she cut toward the street to get around them, glancing over her shoulder to see where Lucas was.
Several things happened in quick succession. Morgan turned forward just in time to see a broad-chested man directly in front of her. She didn’t have time to course-correct and the man, having seen her coming, put his arm out to fend her off. His arm sent Morgan to the curb where she tripped and started falling, face-first, into the street. She saw headlights coming straight for her but didn’t have balance enough to change directions.
Then she was on the pavement—the sidewalk, not the road. She felt like she’d had the wind knocked out of her and her ribs were sore. She looked around for her rescuer and saw Lucas sprinting to her side. No one else was around her.
“Morgan, are you okay?” Lucas demanded, squatting beside her. His hands fluttered over her, feathering touches on her cheeks, her shoulders, her arms.
“What happened?” Morgan asked, swatting at Lucas’s hands. “I thought for sure I was dead.”
Lucas let his hands come to a rest on Morgan’s forearms. His head shook slowly from side to side.
“Lucas, what?” Morgan demanded.
“I think…” He took in a breath. “I think I pulled you back.”
Morgan just stared at him for a moment, confused. How could he have pulled her back—he was nowhere near her when she slipped. But then she realized what he meant. The same way she managed to take his hat, he managed to pull her out of harm’s way.
“Okay,” Morgan said after a minute. “Enough excitement for tonight. We should get going.”
Lucas nodded absently. He stood and offered Morgan his hands. She took them and he pulled her to her feet. As they started walking, Morgan winced.
“What’s wrong?”
Morgan took another step. Winced again. “I think I twisted my ankle—on the curb.”
Lucas put his arm around her waist and Morgan put her arm over his shoulders, allowing him to help her back to the car. Neither spoke as Lucas drove back to the coffee house. Lucas didn’t turn on the radio.
Morgan stared out the window but didn’t really see anything. The white light that served as her energy throughout their escapade was still thrumming through her veins, but she pushed it down so she could start processing events.
Wen called her a Feeler, but his description did not include the ability to move things with her mind. But then why had she been able to do it? And what about Lucas? Was he right about Morgan sharing the ability with him, or… Morgan though of how she met a wall when she tried to read Lucas, the same kind of wall she’d met when she tried to read Wen.
Could Lucas be a Natural, too?
When they got back to the coffee house, Lucas got out of the car to help Morgan out and over to her car. He helped to steady her as she dug through her purse for her keys. After she unlocked the car and opened the door, she leaned against the car and turned to face Lucas.
“Well,” she said slowly, “thanks for an interesting night.”
“That’s what I should be saying to you.” Lucas smiled.
Morgan just looked at him for a moment. She rested her hand on his chest. “Thanks,” she said quietly. “For, you know, saving my life.”
Lucas gave a small smile but didn’t say anything. Morgan felt a gentle pressure against her hand as Lucas shifted forward incrementally.
“I’m still wearing your hat,” Morgan said suddenly. She removed her hand from Lucas’s chest pulled the hat off her head. She set it on him and smiled. “Goodnight, Lucas.”
Lucas nodded. “Yeah. See you.”
Morgan got into her car and Lucas closed the door behind her. She waved at him and he made his way back over to his car. She put the keys in the ignition and started her car, but before she could put it into gear, she heard her phone beep. She fished through her purse for a moment before finding the phone. She smiled—a text from Ris: OMG having so much fun.
Morgan hit reply and started typing when a knock at her window made her jump. She turned, expecting to see Lucas. But it wasn’t Lucas.
Morgan rolled down her window. “Kellen?” she asked. “Stalker much?”
Kellen leaned down so his face was even with Morgan’s. He looked pissed. “What were you thinking?” he hissed.
Morgan stared at him, confused. “What are you—”
But before she could ask the question, Kellen was holding his cell phone out to her. On the screen played a video. She watched for a moment, confused. But then she realized what she was looking at. It was the street she and Lucas had been on not half an hour earlier. She watched the crowd and saw a fedora flip in the air. Then there was someone in a fedora running down the sidewalk. It was her. She watched, mesmerized, as she saw herself look back, smiling, to see where Lucas was. And then she saw as she was knocked out of the way by the broad-chested man, saw as she tumbled toward the road, directly into the path of an oncoming Hummer.
Then it was as if she was lassoed. Morgan watched the screen as she doubled over, completely changing directions and landing on the sidewalk.
Kellen stopped the video. “Well?” he demanded.
Morgan was baffled. “How’d you get that video?” she asked. “Are you following me?”
“I didn’t take the video,” he said. “We have people everywhere. Someone saw you and wondered what you were up to, so she took this video. A good thing, too.”
“You have people spying on me?” Morgan demanded.
Kellen didn’t seem to hear her. “Weren’t you listening? The only reason the Veneret exist at all is because we keep our abilities a secret. And there you are, out flaunting your abilities on a crowded street.” Kellen sneered. Then he looked at Morgan sharply. “And who’s the guy you’re with?”
“Lucas,” Morgan said.
“You say that li
ke I’m supposed to know who you’re talking about.”
Morgan pointed to the coffee house. “He works here. He’s probably made your drinks before.”
Kellen squinted at the coffee house for a moment. “Dark hair, always wants to suggest what you should be drinking?”
Morgan nodded. “Yeah, that’s him.”
Kellen looked at Morgan, and for the first time since their conversation began, he didn’t look angry. “Really?” he asked, sounding surprised. “And he…”
“Pulled me back from the road, yeah,” Morgan said. “And he made a guy give him that fedora.”
Now Kellen looked baffled. “Seriously?”
“How is any of this shocking to you?” Morgan asked. “You’re the one who’s been telling me about all these abilities. I saw you—you can move things with your mind. Why is it a surprise that someone else can?”
“It’s not that it can be done that surprises me,” Kellen said quietly. “It’s the who. I’ve been coming to this place for a while and I never… I didn’t realize…”
“That he’s a Natural?” Morgan ventured.
“It fits,” Kellen agreed.
Morgan nodded. “You know how Wen can kind of block himself off?” she asked.
Kellen nodded. “Most Feelers can.”
“Yeah, well, Lucas can do that. I tried to read him earlier and I couldn’t get anything. Is that maybe why you didn’t realize—”
But Morgan was cut short by the look on Kellen’s face.
“If he can block, he’s probably a Feeler,” Kellen said, more to himself than to Morgan. “But if he got the hat and pulled you back, that means he’s a Pusher and a Mover, too…”
“Is this a good thing, or…? I mean, what does it mean?”
Kellen glanced at her, seeming almost surprised to see she was still there. “It means I’ve gotta make some phone calls. Morgan, do me a favor?”
Morgan nodded.
“Don’t show off. If it gets around that you are…” He looked directly at her. “Let’s just say people won’t be happy. No matter who you are.”
“And… who am I?”
Kellen managed a smile. “I told you. You’re special.” He turned serious again. “Promise?”
Morgan nodded again. “Yeah, promise. Kellen… I’m sorry. I guess we weren’t thinking. We just felt so—I don’t know—so powerful. We had to do something.”
Kellen just stared at her blankly. “You… you both felt like that?”
“Yeah.” Morgan looked at him quizzically. “Why? Isn’t that normal?”
Kellen’s face remained expressionless for a moment, but then he smiled. “I’m beginning to think there’s nothing normal about you.”
Morgan felt herself blush and looked away.
“Look,” Kellen said, “I’ve gotta get going in light of… recent developments. What are your plans for the rest of the night?”
Morgan sighed. “Go home like a good girl,” she said.
Kellen nodded. “Good girl. I’ll be in contact.” He waved and turned, walking toward what Morgan presumed was his car. He didn’t get three steps before his cell phone was at his ear.
Morgan rolled up her window, put her car in gear, and headed home. By the time she pulled into her driveway, she was in a pretty good mood. Besides the whole almost dying thing, she’d had fun with Lucas, and she was confident that Ris was having a good time on her date with Corbin. When she cut the ignition and headed toward the front door, she was even able to keep the limping to a minimum. But her good mood dissipated immediately when she opened her front door. There at the kitchen table strewn with papers and text books sat her father and Lynna Rochester.
twelve