As if she’d heard Morgan’s words, Lia Roderick glanced over her shoulder. Instinctively, Morgan ducked against Lucas to hide.
“Really?” Lucas asked skeptically. “And you’re hiding why?”
Truthfully, Morgan wasn’t entirely sure why she felt the need not to be seen by Lia. Somehow it felt almost as if she were being caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to be doing. But if Lia was at this party—and in this room—then it must mean that she belonged. Which meant that Lia was either Veneret or—
“Do you think she’s a Natural?” Morgan asked suddenly.
“Didn’t Orrick say Naturals are really rare? What’s the chance that you and me and Corbin and Lia are all—”
Morgan made a face at him. “You moved me with your mind, but this you find outside the realm of possibility?”
Lucas shrugged. Then he smiled. Before Morgan could ask what he was doing, she saw the set to his face and knew—he was going to make Lia do something. He had stared this way at countless people the other night when he’d wanted people to compliment his hat. Curious, Morgan turned to see what he was trying to make Lia do.
Seconds passed as she watched. Then seconds more. When she glanced up at Lucas she saw a look of disappointment on his face. “Maybe it doesn’t work on other Naturals,” she said, placing a conciliatory hand on his arm. “You couldn’t get me to do whatever it was you wanted me to do, remember?”
Lucas nodded. Shook his head. “But I could yank you out of the road. And I can calm you down—you’ve said so yourself.”
Morgan shrugged. “It’s just a guess. Like I know anything about this stuff!” She smiled.
Lucas nodded. “Fair enough.” He glanced back at Lia. “So… you wanna go talk to her?”
Morgan raised a dubious eyebrow. “The last interaction I had with her, she was trying to manipulate my yearbook group to go on all the hard routes so she and her friends could have an easy—” Morgan stopped. “She’s a Pusher.”
“What?”
“A Pusher—she can make people do things. I saw her do it.” Morgan smiled and couldn’t help feeling slightly impressed. “But…”
“But what?”
“Corbin had a party a week or so ago, right? And someone wanted me to do a reading for Lia, and she was all like, ‘Oh, I don’t believe in that kind of stuff…’ It just… doesn’t really make sense.”
“Maybe she found out about it afterward.” Lucas considered this for a moment. “Wait—did you actually do the reading for her?”
Morgan thought back. “Kinda, yeah.”
Lucas nodded as if something was making sense to him. “Maybe it is you.”
“Huh?”
“Orrick said that you weren’t, like, giving your powers to anyone, but maybe you’re—I don’t know—activating us or something. Maybe you’re waking something up inside us.”
Morgan looked at him doubtfully. “Seriously?”
“Depends. Did everything start for Corbin after you gave him a reading?”
“Well, yeah…”
“See? Maybe you are doing it.”
Morgan was unconvinced. “So, you’re saying that I somehow turned Lia into a Pusher? And she then tried to use that ability to screw me and my group when we were selling ads?”
“I didn’t know what I was doing, if that’s any consolation.”
Morgan jumped and turned around to find herself face to face with Lia Roderick. After eyeing Lia for a moment, Morgan said, “Actually, that makes you lose esteem in my eyes.”
Lia huffed. “Like I had any to begin with?”
“Now, ladies, play nice,” Tesin said, walking up beside Lia.
Morgan immediately turned her attention to Tesin. “And when exactly were you going to tell me about this?” she demanded.
Tesin raised an appraising eyebrow at Morgan. “And what makes you think I answer to you?”
Morgan looked down. “I didn’t mean—”
But Tesin was talking again. “Lia’s been a little… hard to convince.”
Lia’s hand went automatically to the necklace she wore—a cross. She smiled thinly. “I just… It’s so incredible.”
“It is at that,” Lucas said.
Lia looked around the room, apprehension and wonder apparent in her eyes, and Morgan bristled.
“You seem to’ve come pretty far in your acceptance of this kind of thing,” she said coldly. “I seem to remember you saying you didn’t believe in this psychic stuff.”
“And she didn’t,” Tesin said firmly, an edge to his voice. “It took lots of effort to convince her I wasn’t crazy.”
“You?” Morgan asked, surprised.
Tesin raised an eyebrow.
“I mean—I guess I just thought—”
“That it was Kellen’s job?” Tesin supplied.
Morgan shrugged. “Well, yeah, I guess.”
He smiled. “Kellen’s not, like, my boss or anything. We’re more like… coworkers.”
Lia placed a hand on Morgan’s arm and Morgan started.
“Look, I’m sorry I was such a jerk that night at the party.” Lia smiled. “You were right, though. Your reading.”
Lucas glanced from Lia to Morgan and back again. “What’d she say at the reading?”
Lia looked at Morgan, as if waiting to see if she was going to explain. When it became apparent that she wasn’t, she spoke. “She said change was coming, and that I should embrace it.”
“Hear, hear,” Lucas muttered. Just then, something seemed to catch his eye.
Morgan turned to where he was looking and saw Corbin walking toward them. Alone.
“She’s with Kellen,” Corbin said before Morgan could even ask. He looked around the makeshift room, nodding. “Cozy in here.”
Lia shifted perceptibly toward Corbin. “It certainly is,” she said.
Morgan rolled her eyes.
Corbin seemed to notice Lia for the first time. “Wait—what’re you doing here?”
“She sneaked past the doorman,” Morgan said sarcastically. “Why do you think she’s here?”
After a moment, Corbin’s face broke into a grin. “That’s fantastic!” he said, wrapping his arm around Lia’s shoulders in a brief squeeze.
“I’m glad you think so,” Lia said.
Morgan noticed how Lia remained close to him even after he released her. Hadn’t she put it together that he was here with someone else?
Corbin glanced at Morgan and Lucas. “How’s it going in here?”
“Lots of handshakes,” Lucas supplied. “How’s Ris liking the party?”
“She’s easily amused; I’m sure she’s having a ball,” Morgan said.
Corbin laughed. “She hasn’t stopped dancing. I was actually kinda glad when Kellen showed up. I needed a break.”
“Well, it’s not much of a break in here,” Morgan said. She briefly explained about the mental wall she’d been keeping in place.
Corbin gave a low whistle. “Sounds rough.” He glanced at Lucas and Lia for verification.
To Morgan’s surprise, Lucas just shrugged.
“I don’t see the need to put up a wall,” Lia said airily. “I haven’t got anything to hide.”
Morgan caught Lucas’s eye, and he grinned at her exasperation.
Wen approached them then and clapped Corbin on the back. “How’s it going?”
“Great,” Corbin said.
Wen nodded. “Good.” He motioned around the room. “Plenty of people here who wanna meet you. Come on, let me introduce you…”
Corbin allowed himself to be led away. One glance at Tesin told her that she was expected to get back to mingling as well, but the thought of interacting with these strangers again wearied her.
“I’ve gotta pee,” she announced.
Lucas raised an eyebrow. “Good for you…?” he said slowly.
She waited for another second, partially feeling as if she needed clearance from Tesin. When he said nothing, she decided it was safe to go.
; Morgan ducked out of the room. She skirted the wall, figuring if she walked far enough, she was bound to run into a bathroom.
There were people everywhere. Most were dancing, but some were just standing around, impeding her progress. She wove around groups and individuals, avoiding being hit by flailing limbs only narrowly on a couple of occasions.
The first wall was a wash, and the second wall consisted of more curtains. Wondering whether the bathroom might be tucked behind this section, Morgan poked her head in.
Her first thought was that she’d walked in on a couple. There were two people seated on a couch in the corner of the empty makeshift room. The guy was close to the girl—hovering over her face, almost. Morgan froze, her heart pounding. She knew she should turn away, walk away, but there was something so strange about the scene. So familiar about the guy’s disheveled brown hair. So recognizable about the sparkly clips in the short blond hair of the girl—
“Ris!” The name escaped before Morgan had fully come to the realization that the girl on the couch was her friend. She crossed to the couch, and before she was close enough to reach either party, Kellen looked up at her, a lazy smile playing on his lips.
“Morgan,” he said, his tone pleasant, silky. “How’s it going?”
“What the hell are you doing?” Morgan demanded, her eyes on Ris, who didn’t seem to have noticed Morgan’s arrival.
Kellen shrugged easily. “Getting better acquainted with your friend.”
Morgan turned to him, glaring. “What’s wrong with her? What’d you do?” She looked at Ris again, waving her hand in front of her friend’s face. Ris’s eyes remained unfocused and her jaw was slack. “She looks like she’s been—I don’t know—drugged or something!”
Kellen chuckled, leaning back against the arm of the couch. “Come on, I didn’t drug her. Please. Give me a little credit.”
“Oh, so I suppose your boyish charm just overwhelmed her, then, huh?” Morgan slapped Ris’s cheek gently, hoping to get a response from her.
Kellen grabbed Morgan by the wrist. “Don’t bother. She’ll come to in a little while.”
Morgan wrenched her wrist from Kellen’s grasp, glowering at him. “How can you be so calm? Look at her—there’s something wrong.”
“I assure you, she’ll snap out of it. There’s nothing wrong with her.”
“How can you say—”
“Because I know what happened to her,” Kellen said, as if the answer were obvious.
Morgan stared at him, waiting for him to continue. When he didn’t, she prompted him. “Care to enlighten me?”
Kellen seemed to weigh his options. Finally, he shrugged. “I suppose you’ll find out soon enough anyway,” he said, more to himself than her. “Like Orrick told you earlier, the abilities the Veneret possess are diminishing. We think—well, there are a few schools of thought on the matter, but, basically, the thought is that the more people there are in—you know—the world, the more the basic energy available to those people is spread thin. Now, the Veneret have always been able to wield this power in a way that the common just can’t, but the common still have some power in them. But, really, it doesn’t do them much good—they don’t know how to use it.” He made a face, as if what he was saying wasn’t coming out the way he wanted it to. “Sometimes, in order to bring our abilities to where they should be—where they were meant to be—we can… siphon off a little energy.”
Morgan just looked at him blankly, attempting to process this information. After a long pause, she said, “Wait—are you telling me you… stole Ris’s energy? Like, her life force or something? What are you, some kind of vampire?”
Kellen rolled his eyes. “Please. That’s ridiculous. Vampires don’t exist. And I didn’t steal anything, really. I’m merely taking back a little of what rightfully belongs to me.”
“I think Ris would disagree with that,” Morgan snapped.
“Trust me. She won’t even notice.” He smiled. “She didn’t notice before.”
“Before—?” But Morgan knew what he meant. “At that first party—it wasn’t the alcohol that made her pass out like that. It was you. And that’s why she didn’t wake up the next morning.”
“Well, let’s be fair. She did consume a fair bit of alcohol. If she hadn’t, she might have slept an hour longer than usual, but beyond that, you’d never’ve noticed.” Kellen crossed his arms over his chest and surveyed Morgan. “Now, while I’m sure this wasn’t the best way for you to learn about this, it is something you need to know. We can do more with a little borrowed power than we could ever do by ourselves. You’ll see that.”
Morgan let out a humorless laugh. “I will not,” she insisted. “I’m not going to suck the life out of unsuspecting people. I don’t care how powerful it’ll make me. If that’s what I’ve got to do, count me out.” Morgan stood. Her first instinct was to stalk out of the room, but then there was Ris to consider. She hesitated, and in that moment of indecision, Kellen pounced.
He was on his feet and standing in front of her almost before she could blink. He placed a hand on either of her shoulders, holding her in place. “You’re not going to tell anyone about this. Especially not Corbin or Lucas. Especially not Ris. You’re going to keep this to yourself.”
Morgan felt her mind fighting against these plans, actively making plans to send text messages to Corbin, to Lucas, to get them to come save her and Ris. But even as these plans formed, Morgan began to question the wisdom of them. There was really no need to concern the guys with this. Kellen said Ris was okay. And when he’d taken the power before, Ris had been fine afterward—she’d just needed a little extra sleep. Ris would be okay, so there was no need to make a big deal over this. In fact, Kellen’s point made sense—
It doesn’t make sense. The Veneret are already more powerful than regular people. Why do they need more power?
—the common weren’t using the power for anything, so why not take it? Put it to the use it was meant for? It was logical. It was fair.
It was right.
By the time Kellen released Morgan from his grip, Morgan felt completely calm. In fact, she couldn’t put her finger on what exactly had been her qualm to begin with. When she glanced at Ris, she saw that her jaw was not slack anymore, and she seemed moderately more lucid, though she still wasn’t focusing on Morgan.
She looked back at Kellen, convinced he’d just said something to her. After a moment, she thought she remembered what he’d said, so she replied, “Yeah, I should go find the bathroom.”
Kellen shrugged and turned back to the couch.
Morgan left the room, continuing her search for the ladies’ room.