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No answer. My hands shook so badly the amulet knocked against my neck.
“Go on,” Simon said. “We’re right here. Anything happens, I’ll get it back on you. ”
I started lifting it.
“No! Please, baby. Too dangerous. Not here. He’ll come. ”
“Who’ll come?”
Silence. Then I thought I heard her whisper, but it was too faint for me to make out.
“She’s trying to warn me about something, but I can’t hear it,” I said.
Simon gestured for me to take off the necklace. I raised it over my head-
“What the hell are you doing?” a voice roared.
Derek strode into the room and yanked the amulet back down. “You’re summoning without your amulet? Are you crazy? A ghost lured you onto the roof this morning, could have gotten you killed. ”
Simon got to his feet. “Ease off, okay? We were trying to get hold of Liz. Then a spirit wanted to warn Chloe about something, but she couldn’t hear her, so we suggested she take off the necklace, see if that would help it materialize. ”
Derek’s trademark scowl didn’t waver. “Just because you suggest it doesn’t mean she needs to listen. She knows better. ”
“No, but the suggestion made sense,” I said. “I was being careful. If you had stopped to watch instead of charging in here, you’d have seen that. ”
Derek kept glowering, looming over me. No one looms like Derek, but I’d had enough experience to stand my ground.
“I’ll leave the necklace on,” I said, “but I’m going to try again. If she’s still here, then I might take it off. ”
“Who is it?”
“I-I-” I faltered, chest seizing. “M-maybe my aunt. I-I-don’t think so, but…I should try again. ”
Some of the anger drained from his face then. He ran a hand through his hair, sighed, then nodded. “Okay. You should. If she comes back and she seems to be trying to warn you, then…we’ll see what we can do about the necklace. ”
I could point out that it was really my decision, but he was calming down, and I wasn’t about to crank him up again.
So I tried one more time. No luck.
“She didn’t want me summoning here,” I said.
“Yeah? Probably because you could call up that half-demon jerk. ” Derek paused, then took the sarcasm down a notch. “We’ll go for a walk tomorrow, get farther from the house, and try again. ”
“I’ll come,” Tori said. “And if the idiot shows up?”
She lifted her fingers. A ball of energy appeared, whirling over the tips. She grinned and whipped her hand back, throwing it like a softball. It hit the wall and exploded in a shower of sparks, scorching the faded wallpaper.
“Whoops,” she said.
Derek spun on her. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Showing off. I didn’t know it’d do that. ”
He strode over and wiped the wall. The marks stayed.
“No one’s going to notice it,” Tori said. “And if they do, they sure aren’t going to blame my spells. ”
“I don’t care. Someone could have seen you. ”
“So I’ll get in trouble for marking the wallpaper. I’ll survive. ”
“You don’t get it, do you? We can’t do things like that. They’re already worried about how powerful we are. We need to tone it down or we’re going to make them so nervous they might decide we really should be locked up in a lab. ”
“Now that’s going a bit far,” Simon said. When Derek turned on him, he lifted his hands and lowered his voice. “Look, I know why you’re freaking out-”
“I’m not freaking out. ”
“Okay, just…I think we have to be careful, but they already know about the experiments. They don’t expect us to be normal supernaturals. Yes, you probably shouldn’t go throwing furniture and Tori should nix the fireballs, but in general…well…”
“They should know,” Tori said. “If we’re trying to convince them that the Edison Group messed us up, then they need to see the proof. They should know I can do stuff like that. They should know you can toss a couch across the room. They should know Chloe can raise the dead. ”
“No. ” When no one answered, Derek looked from face to face, then settled his glower on me. “Absolutely not. ”
“Um, I was the one keeping my mouth shut,” I said.
“I’m just saying, for all of us, we need to tone it down. We can’t give them any reason-” He glanced up sharply. “Andrew’s coming. ” One last glare at the scorched wallpaper, and he hustled us out of the bedroom.
Andrew wanted us in bed, so Simon left to check his blood sugar for the night. I went downstairs for some water and was getting out a glass when Andrew popped in.
“Simon tells me you’ve been having trouble sleeping, so I’m going to give you this. ” He laid a small pill on my palm. “It’s a half dose of an over-the-counter sleep aid. I’m not telling you to take it. I’m not going to ask if you did. I’m sure you got enough sleeping pills at Lyle House. I just think it’s important for you to get a good night’s rest. If you decide to take it, there’s water in the fridge. ”
He left. I stared down at the pill. Taking it seemed like a cop-out. I had to learn to deal with ghosts because they weren’t going away anytime soon. But he was right-I needed sleep. Being rested would help me train better tomorrow. And yet…
“Take the pill. ”
I jumped. Derek walked over to the counter and grabbed two apples from the bowl.
“You need your sleep. Toughing it out isn’t going to impress anyone. It’s just stupid. ”
Ah, Derek. Always so encouraging.
“How about you?” I said. “You thought you were close to your Change again. ”
“It won’t happen tonight. But if it does, I’ll…” He shrugged and bit into an apple.
“Come get me?”
“Yeah,” he mumbled through a mouth full of apple.
I filled my glass from the pitcher in the fridge. “So what do you think-?”
I turned midsentence and found I was talking to myself as the kitchen door swung shut.
Eight
I TOOK THE PILL and fell right to sleep. When I woke up, I did feel refreshed, but the room was dark. I’d left the window shade open last night, like I always did. Tori must have pulled it down. I yawned, rolled over to check the clock…
3:46 A. M.
