Morgan sat on the couch watching TV until her dad came home around four. He announced he was pulling out the grill for cheeseburgers and assigned Morgan sous chef duties. While Morgan was making macaroni and cheese and steaming broccoli, she heard her phone’s ring tone sounding in the living room.
When she got to the phone, she saw Ris’s name on the caller ID. She answered the call and asked, “What’s up, lady?”
“Guess who’s got another date tonight?” Ris asked, her words tumbling out quickly.
Morgan headed back to the kitchen. “Hm… Let me think about this… It’s a very difficult question…”
“Shut up,” Ris said playfully. “Corbin called. But you already knew that, didn’t you?”
Morgan paused in her stirring of the macaroni. “Already knew what?”
Ris laughed softly. “Yeah right. Corbin told me to go to your place because we were being picked up there… by Kellen.” Ris’s voice dripped with suggestion. “Anything you want to tell me?”
Morgan rolled her eyes. “It’s not like that,” she said, checking on the broccoli’s progress. “Lucas is coming, too.”
“Now who’s big pimpin’?” Ris asked.
Morgan decided to ignore the comment. “So, when’re you coming over?”
“How’s now?”
“Fine. Have you eaten?”
“Nope.”
“Cheeseburger?”
“Hell yeah.”
Morgan smiled. “Okay, I’ll tell Dylan to put another burger on for you. And I’ll see you in a bit.”
“Bye.”
Morgan ended her call and headed out to the back yard.
“What’s up, princess?” Dylan asked when he noticed her.
Morgan smiled. “Ris is coming over. She and I are going out tonight and she wants to get ready together.”
Dylan raised an eyebrow. “So… I’m making another burger?”
Morgan nodded. “If you please. She hasn’t eaten yet.”
Her father nodded and, after putting the grill’s lid down, walked into the house. Morgan followed. By the time she got into the kitchen, Dylan was already in the process of making another burger patty. “So,” he said when he noticed she’d entered the room. “Going out with Corbin again?”
“I’m not going out with Corbin,” Morgan clarified as she walked to the stove, “but he’ll be there.”
Dylan held his hands up innocently. “Pardon me for asking.”
“No way. Off with your head.”
“Then who’s going to make you the perfect cheeseburger?”
Morgan considered this. “Fine. I’ll spare your life. This time.” She smiled.
Dylan smiled too. He placed the new patty on a plate and washed his hands. “So… is there anyone you are interested in?”
“Dad,” Morgan whined.
“It’s my job to ask,” Dylan said, turning off the water.
“Then I guess it’s my job to be mortified.”
Dylan dried his hands. “It’s true. Any other response from you would just be a letdown.”
Morgan rolled her eyes as her father grabbed the plate with the patty and exited the kitchen. She then turned her attention back to her sous chef duties. She strained the noodles and was mixing up the cheese sauce when the front door opened, revealing Ris and a large overnight bag. Ris waved before hauling her belongings in the direction of Morgan’s bedroom. When she returned she was smiling.
“How long till dinner?”
Morgan shrugged. “Probably just a couple minutes.”
“Okay, then. Not enough time to tell you about last night.”
“Not unless you want to share the details with Dylan, too.”
Ris shrugged. “I could always leave out the tawdry bits.” She grinned, an assurance she was kidding.
Just then, Dylan entered the house, hamburgers in hand. He greeted Ris cordially and invited her and Morgan to fix their plates. Then the three of them moved out to the dining room table.
Dinner conversation was filled with laughs as Dylan gently teased both girls about the evening’s plans. The girls, in turn, teased Dylan by informing him of all the borderline illegal things they intended to do on the night’s outing. Dylan just smiled and regaled them with stories of the stupid things he’d done as a teenager, like trying to impress a girl by riding his bike down a flight of stairs, an attempt which completely backfired when he fell off the bike and face-planted in front of his crush.
“It all worked out for the best, though,” Dylan said at the end of his story. “That girl wasn’t the one for me, so I guess it really didn’t matter that I embarrassed myself like that.”
Ris nodded appreciatively. “Very grown-up of you to say.”
He nodded. “I’d hope so. I am, after all, a grown-up.” He smiled for a moment, then his expression turned more serious, more sad. He glanced at Morgan. “Her birthday’s coming up soon.”
“I know,” Morgan said quietly. It would be the tenth birthday Chelsea would not be there for. But she didn’t say anything about that, and neither did her father.
The meal ended rather quickly after Dylan’s pronouncement. Morgan and Ris cleared their places and put their dishes in the dishwasher. Morgan put away the extra macaroni and broccoli and put the pans in the sink to be dealt with later. Then the two of them headed off to Morgan’s room.
Morgan went directly to her closet and stared at her clothing blankly. She wasn’t really thinking about clothes. After a minute, she turned to Ris to ask for some assistance, but Ris wasn’t paying attention to her. Instead, Ris was holding the photograph Morgan kept on her bedside table, looking down at it thoughtfully. Morgan went to stand beside her.
“She’s really pretty,” Ris said quietly, careful, Morgan noticed, to use the present tense. Once, years ago, Morgan had thrown a fit when Ris had referred to Chelsea in the past tense, as if she were dead.
Without even realizing it, as she looked at the picture, Morgan allowed her mind to reach out. She became aware of a variety of emotions swirling through Ris’s mind: sadness, worry, confusion. But then there was something else—not thoughts, per se, but impressions. They were jumbled, but Morgan was able to sort a few out—Where could she be? If she’s still alive, why hasn’t she come home? I wonder if she left on purpose—
Morgan turned away from the picture and took a few steps away from Ris, anger coursing through her veins. How dare Ris even suggest that Chelsea had left of her own volition? How dare she?
But then, suddenly, Morgan came to her senses. Ris hadn’t suggested it. Morgan had been traipsing through her friend’s inmost thoughts. If anyone had the right to be mad at the moment, that person was certainly Ris. Taking in a deep breath, Morgan turned to Ris and smiled. “Weren’t you going to tell me about your date?”
Ris set the picture down in its place and looked up at Morgan, grinning. Then she launched into a description of the details of the previous night, from what Corbin wore to what they ate to what covers the band they saw butchered. Morgan listened and nodded encouragingly as Ris spoke.
It wasn’t until Ris got to the end of her description that Morgan realized one piece was conspicuously absent. “What about the end of the night?” she asked.
Ris looked at her, an expression of mock confusion on her face. “What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean.” Morgan wiggled an eyebrow suggestively.
Ris just stared at Morgan a moment before sighing. “Fine. No kiss. Well, not really. He kissed me on the cheek.”
Morgan nodded in light of this information; she didn’t know whether she was displeased with this knowledge or not. “Well, there’s always tonight,” she said after a beat.
Ris smiled. “That’s what I’m thinking.”
“Only—” Morgan said, thinking of the last time she’d been out with Corbin and Ris, “—I would lay off the drinks this time if I were you.”
Ris gave a humorless laugh. “I think I learned that one on my own. I was just so nervous last ti
me… but tonight it’s water only for me. Maybe some pop.”
“Soda,” Morgan muttered.
Ris tossed a stuffed penguin in Morgan’s general direction.
Morgan didn’t flinch and the penguin hit the wall behind her. “Okay, if we’re going to get ready for this thing, let’s get ready.”
“Okay,” Ris agreed. She walked over to her overnight bag and unzipped it. “I brought a handful of choices for us to try on…”
“Of course you did.”
Ris turned to Morgan and made a face before continuing her excavation of the overnight bag. They spent the next two hours or so getting ready, occasionally walking to the living room to get feedback from Dylan on their looks. He was, predictably, not particularly helpful, but Morgan liked the idea of making him feel involved in their craziness.
By the time the doorbell rang, the girls were dressed and ready to go. Ris opted to wear a short dress with leggings and a variety of sparkly clips in her short hair for decoration. Morgan was ordered to wear a silver dress which was, in Morgan’s opinion, indecently short. Ris also put Morgan into knee-high boots that made Dylan’s eyebrows hitch up when he saw them.
Dylan insisted on opening the door—“So you girls can make an entrance.”—and seemed surprised to see not one but three guys on his front porch.
“And which of you is Corbin?” Dylan asked as Morgan and Ris approached the door.
The impressions Morgan got from the guys as they caught sight of her and Ris made Morgan blush. Behind her father’s back, she raised an eyebrow. Only Lucas looked in any way abashed.
Corbin held his hand out for Dylan to shake. “Corbin Starling. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Abbey.”
Dylan shook Corbin’s hand and eyed Lucas and Kellen warily. “And you two are…?”
“Lucas Kenrick,” Lucas said promptly, also offering his hand for Dylan to shake. “I go to school with your daughter. And Corbin. And Ris.”
Morgan smiled at Lucas’s obvious nervousness. She wondered if he’d ever met a girl’s dad before.
After Dylan shook Lucas’s hand, he turned to Kellen, suspicion in his gaze. “You don’t go to school with Morgan?”
“No,” Kellen said simply.
“Kellen’s a friend of mine,” Corbin offered helpfully.
Dylan didn’t take the bait. “What school are you at?” he asked, still looking at Kellen.
“Not in school.”
“How old are you?”
“Nineteen,” Kellen said.
“Morgan’s only seventeen,” Dylan said.
Morgan groaned. “And since Kellen’s not my date, his age in relation to mine isn’t an issue.”
Dylan glanced at his daughter. “So, Lucas is your date?”
“No,” Morgan insisted quickly—perhaps a bit too quickly. “He’s my friend. The only ones on a date are Corbin and Ris.”
Dylan looked unconvinced. For a moment, Morgan wasn’t sure what her dad was going to do. He was clearly uncomfortable with the situation, but he couldn’t very well forbid both Morgan and Ris to go out. And if he forbid Morgan, he wouldn’t feel right about Ris being alone with three guys. Morgan watched the conflict brewing behind his eyes and then, suddenly, the conflict was gone. Dylan’s shoulders relaxed. He smiled.
“You’ll have your phone on you?” he asked Morgan.
“Of course,” Morgan said, eyeing her father suspiciously.
“You can have my number, too, sir, if you’d like,” Corbin said from the doorway.
Dylan waved a hand absently at Corbin. “That’s not necessary.” He looked from Morgan to Ris and back again. “Have fun, girls.”
“Thanks, we will,” Ris said quickly. She grabbed Morgan’s forearm and pulled her out the door as if afraid if they waited around Dylan would change his mind.
Kellen directed Morgan to sit in the passenger seat and for Corbin, Ris, and Lucas to sit in the back. As Corbin and Ris debated who should ride in the center, Morgan leaned in close to Lucas.
“Did you do it?” she whispered.
“What?” Lucas asked.
“Do your… calming thing on my dad?”
“No.”
Morgan wanted to ask more, but Corbin, Ris, and Kellen were already in the car.
Corbin, ever the gentleman, was in the center of the bench seat, flanked by Lucas and Ris. As soon as Kellen put the car in gear, Ris began prattling away—a habit when she was nervous. She asked Kellen where they were going, asked Lucas about work, asked Corbin about his shoes. Even though she’d spent the last few hours with Morgan, Ris asked Morgan some questions, too. After about five minutes of incessant chatter, Morgan turned in her seat to look at Lucas. She raised an eyebrow at him and glanced pointedly at Ris, hoping Lucas would catch her meaning. After a moment, Lucas nodded and glanced at Ris. Slowly, Ris stopped talking, her shoulders relaxing. She turned to Corbin and smiled. When Morgan turned forward in her seat again, she caught Kellen shooting her an approving look.
Kellen turned on his radio and the rest of the trip passed quickly. Their destination was a large warehouse downtown, and Morgan was unsurprised by the presence of valets dressed in black pants and white button-up shirts. Four valets came to Kellen’s car and opened all the doors. Kellen handed over his keys and led the group inside.
Whatever Morgan’s expectations for the décor of the warehouse were, they were quickly forgotten when she entered the space. The warehouse was enormous and open, painted white from floor to ceiling. Lights twinkled up in the rafters and down support posts. Different color flood lights flashed across the dance floor at unpredictable intervals. Hundreds of people crowded the space, some dancing to the music, some talking, some watching.
A woman in black and white walked up to them, proffering a tray of exotic-looking drinks. Kellen waved her away and led them further into the room. When they got near the center, Kellen muttered something to Lucas, who was closest to him, and disappeared into the thronging mass around them.
Ris, who had noticed only that they had stopped moving, immediately started dancing, touching Corbin lightly on the wrists. After a glance in Morgan and Lucas’s direction, Corbin began dancing as well.
Morgan glanced at Lucas unsurely before the two of them also began to dance. Under the guise of rhythm, Morgan moved closer to Lucas. “Where did Kellen go?”
“Just said he’d be back and for us to stay here,” Lucas replied.
Morgan nodded and continued to sway to the music. She scanned the crowd, hoping to catch a glimpse of Kellen. It was not Kellen’s face that caught Morgan’s attention, however: in the far corner of the dance floor, Morgan thought she recognized someone.
“Lucas, is that—”
But before Morgan could finish her question, she felt a presence at her side. She turned to see Wen standing just a few inches too close to her. “Come with me.”
Morgan’s hand went involuntarily to her heart. “Wen, you scared the crap outta me.”
Wen seemed unfazed by this information. He jerked his head in the direction he intended them to go. “Bring Lucas.”
“What about Corbin?” she asked automatically.
“I think he’s a little busy with your friend. And, unfortunately, she’s not invited right now.”
Morgan glanced over at Corbin and Ris. They were still dancing, attention focused on each other; Morgan wondered if either of them noticed Wen’s arrival. One thing was certain: Lucas noticed. He watched Morgan curiously. Morgan beckoned to him and the two of them followed Wen.
They wove their way through dancing groups of people, Lucas keeping the fingertips of one hand pressed gently against the small of Morgan’s back as if to keep from losing track of her. Wen led them to a curtained-off area, behind which a few dozen people sat or stood in groups. No one paid them much attention as they entered. It wasn’t until they crossed to where Kellen was seated that a few sets of eyes flicked up at them.
“What’s with the cloak and dagger?” Morgan asked as sh
e sat next to Kellen.
Kellen shrugged. “We’re well-practiced at being secretive, I guess.”
As Lucas took a seat beside Morgan, he scanned the room. “Why are people looking at us?” he asked.
Morgan glanced around, too, and saw several people casting surreptitious looks in their direction. “Do they know who we are or something?”
“Well, they are psychic,” Kellen said lazily.
Morgan and Lucas exchanged glances.
“So, why did Orrick want us to come here tonight?” Morgan asked.
Kellen made a sweeping motion with his hand. “To be around your own kind.”
If he said something else, Morgan didn’t hear it. She was suddenly overwhelmed by what felt like white noise enveloping her senses. Instinctively, she reached out, taking hold of Lucas’s hand. As he squeezed her fingers, she felt the buzzing fog receding, but not dissipating entirely.
“What is that?” she whispered.
“Them,” Wen said, glancing up at the others in the room. “They’re curious. Just trying to feel you out.”
Morgan closed her eyes. Taking in a steadying breath, she focused her energy on blocking out the noise the others were producing in her mind. She thought of the wall she encountered when she tried to read Lucas and concentrated on that. Slowly, by degrees, quiet returned to Morgan’s mind. She looked up at the strangers in the room; several people were watching her and a few nodded appreciatively. Morgan made a face. “You could just ask me,” she called.
Wen chuckled softly. “Not exactly the way we do things.”
“Still,” Lucas said. “A little rude, don’t you think?”
“Not if you can block it. And you both can.”
Morgan considered mounting an argument to this point, but decided that this wasn’t exactly the venue for it.
Lucas seemed to be thinking along the same lines. “Since we’re kinda new to this whole thing, why don’t we keep this meeting more… low-tech.”
Wen nodded. “As you wish.” He stood up, and as soon as Morgan and Lucas followed suit, the people in the room began to crowd around them, many smiling and offering their hands for Morgan and Lucas to shake.
And then the conversations began. Some people asked Morgan about herself—but trivial, banal things like her favorite this or her least favorite that. Morgan asked questions, too, and received occasional answers as people pushed and shuffled to get closer to her. As the minutes passed, she was separated from Lucas and Wen, but this didn’t concern her much. If she pushed out with her mind, she found she could sense they were nearby. She could sense everyone, actually, but there was something familiar about the way both Lucas and Wen felt; whereas, the energies from the other partygoers was somehow foreign. It was almost like being able to pick out the voice of a friend in a crowded room.
How much time had passed in the meet and greet, Morgan wasn’t sure, but at one point, she noticed Tesin standing over against a wall. He didn’t notice her looking; he was too busy surveying the room. His eyes seemed to be following someone. Morgan tried to catch a glimpse at who was holding his attention, but she couldn’t see through the ever-thickening crowd of people. With a shrug, she allowed herself to continue to be passed from person to person, answering the same questions again and again, consciously attempting to keep her wall in place. Every few minutes or so, she was aware of someone trying to penetrate her defenses, but she was able to keep her wall up. At least she was pretty sure she was.
Growing tired of smiling and shaking hands, Morgan decided to go say hello to Tesin. He was a familiar face and she was at least relatively certain that he wouldn’t attempt to enter her mind. Nodding politely as she edged by people, Morgan made her way toward the wall where Tesin stood. However, when she was less than ten paces from him, she saw another person approaching him—someone familiar. The person she had thought she’d seen earlier.
Morgan changed directions abruptly, turning toward where she knew Lucas was. She pushed her way to him and tugged on his arm.
“What?” Lucas asked, turning to her.
“Look,” she said, nodding her head toward Tesin. When Lucas turned his attention where she’d indicated, she continued. “Am I on crack, or is that Lia Roderick?”
fourteen