“None at all.”
He nodded and waved to a friend. “I’m going to go catch up with Adam. See ya around?”
“Yeah, see ya.”
He was there when I left school, waiting outside the doorway I’d been going out the last few days. The one opposite from where he usually parked. Obviously he’d been watching.
“Get in,” Zander called through the open passenger window.
Was he crazy? “No thanks,” I called, walking faster. Though every bit of my body screamed at me to run, I fought it. Don’t show the predator your fear, right?
I heard his car door slam shut behind me and I turned to face him, folding my arms across my chest.
“You can’t avoid me forever, Cassie.”
“You’re the one who’s been avoiding me, Zander. I’ve been at school every day. Haven’t seen you there.”
“I’ve been busy.”
“At the escort service?”
He smiled. “I like a girl with a sense of humor. Yes, as it happens. And other things.”
“You didn’t do anything to that boy, did you?” It had occurred to me later, after I’d watched him and his mother walk away with no idea who they were or where they lived, that Zander might keep after him, do something that would leave him f**ked up. It had also occurred to me that maybe that’s what happened to Demetria, what was wrong with her. “The mark left him, you know,” I said. “Right there at the mall. It’s not his time anymore. I would have told you, but …”
Zander held his hand up wearily. “No, Cassie, I didn’t go after your little boy. He’s fine.”
I was careful to hide my relief, wary of showing Zander how important it was to me. Instead, I asked the other thing that had been weighing on me, “How did you find me, Zander?”
“What do you mean?” He frowned. “I waited outside school. It’s become pretty obvious to me that this is where you go during the day.”
“No, I don’t mean today. I mean, how did you know I was like you?” It was the one thing I hadn’t gotten to ask. And one I thought I might need to know in case things with Zander were beyond repair, which seemed pretty likely.
“I sensed you,” he said. “You know … the way we do.”
“No, I don’t know. I didn’t sense you.”
“Maybe you just didn’t recognize it,” he said.
Very possible. “What’s it like, this sensing?”
“Like anticipation,” Zander said immediately, his eyes gleaming. “A prickle of fear or excitement. My heart speeds up, feels like it’s beating harder, there’s a nervous, tingly feeling, kind of like …” He paused, looking for words.
I thought about the way I’d always felt around him, the magnetic attraction. So powerful. Liv had called him “smokin’ hot” so I’d assumed he just had that effect on everyone. “Like being in love?” I said.
The gleam disappeared and he stared at me so hard I wished I could yank the words back into my throat. I thought about maybe offering lust or infatuation instead, but decided just to shut up.
“I wouldn’t know,” he said finally. “I’ve never been.”
It’s a good thing I was over him—mostly—or that might have really stung. Not that I’d have expected him to say he was in love with me or anything, but I wouldn’t have expected such a flat, cold denial either.
“Anyway,” Zander moved on, “like I was saying before, I’ve been busy. Attending to others. Maybe the ones you doomed when you decided to save your little boy. Would you like to hear about them?”
“No.”
“Let’s see,” he continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “There was the lady at the supermarket. I’m pretty sure she was a mommy, saw a carseat in the back of her minivan. Didn’t get that one quite right, I don’t think.” He shrugged ruefully. “What can you do? Then there was that girl at the park—”
“Stop.”
Zander was nodding. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I nailed that one. The feeling was very strong with her.”
“Stop it,” I said louder, not even realizing I’d grabbed his arm until he removed my hand, squeezing my wrist in a way that made my fingers numb.
“Oh? You don’t want to hear about it? You were so very curious when we first met.”
I felt faint and nauseated, but spoke as firmly as I could. “Well, I’m not curious now. I’ve learned all I need to about you, Zander.”
“You think so?” His words were casual, but his voice a notch higher than usual, betraying strain and anger, barely hidden. “We’re not finished, Cassie. We’re meant to be together. I’ll give you a little time. I can see you’re still working through some things. But you need me. You might think you don’t, but you’re wrong.”
“I have to go,” I said, unable to keep my words from shaking. Just a little, but I knew Zander noticed.
I turned and started walking. Quickly. Hoping he wouldn’t follow.
He didn’t. Not physically, though I felt him as if he were just behind me, watching. As if he’d always be watching. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be rid of him. I didn’t need him, but he needed me. And I wasn’t sure he’d ever really let me go.
Chapter 30
I went to the funeral home, mostly because that’s where my feet took me. My brain wasn’t capable of thought after dealing with Zander. It just followed the preprogrammed path to my assigned shift.
In the storeroom, I went to work: slicing open the boxes, stacking package after package, crushing down the cardboard for pickup. After four of them my hands stopped shaking.
Meant to be together. That’s what Zander had said about us. As much as it scared me, there was a strange part of me that actually still wanted it. Badly. Thinking about him, the heat of him close to me, still made me flush with … anticipation, as he’d called it. It would be something special, the ability to share this secret and have the partner that I’d always hoped for. We were a perfect fit: I have a power, he has a power.
But together we are deadly. Literally.
I kept thinking about the way he’d looked when we saw the boy at the mall, when I gave him what he needed to fulfill his role. But he never seemed that interested in helping me fulfill mine. He’d said it was my job to decide when to warn someone, but when I had, he’d been furious.