Something seemed all too
familiar about the place as I moved down the sidewalk. Storefronts I'd somehow
seen before when I knew for a fact I hadn't because, of all the places I'd
been, Maine wasn't one of them.
I spotted Dimitri's from
down the block just as the tingling sensation started at the base of my skull.
Immediately, I was aware that Xander had sent me to meet another Wraith. While
that notion made a tendril of fear twist through me, it was what I saw next to
the décor shop that made me damn near stop in my tracks.
The little diner restaurant,
itself, seemed innocent enough. The images it brought to recall, triggering the
reason why the place seemed so familiar, were not. I'd been there before, only
not while I was awake.
The fear melted away from
the heat of the anger that took its place. I mean, Xander could've had me drive
to Oregon or even further, but if the point was to see if I'd follow
instructions—well, I still would have left Marshall behind, failing.
I stopped in the alleyway
between Dimitri's Antique & Vintage Boutique & Décor and Alexis Diner,
listening to the footsteps that fell too quickly as they ran and jumped from rooftop
to rooftop.
“Real funny, Xander! I've
been here—done this countless times
over the years. I don't care to do it in real life,” I yelled much louder than
necessary, making a lone woman in the front corner of the diner glance out the
window at me before continuing to eat her meal.
A pause from the soles of
shoes connecting with concrete, then I heard as those rubber soles pushed off
propelling the mystery man—or Xander, as I'd found out months before
then was the mystery man in my dreams—into a leap which created a shadow I'd
seen before. Only that fear that accompanied me in the dream version wasn't
present. Irritation, on the other hand, was.
Flashes of dreams went
through my mind. An alley of darkness. A kiss of breath through my mind by a
river. A caress of bodies in my bed. Blood matted pale blond hair in a forest.
A goodbye with a promise in front of Innocence's mansion. It all left me
wondering why I'd been rejected back at my house. Was it because Xander knew I
acted out of revenge?
“I'm not playing this game.
You get the hell down here, now, or I'm leaving,” I shouted, earning another
glance.
Hush. The word whispered through my mind.
“Fuck it, I'm done. Done
with the games. Done with whatever the hell the telepathic shit is. Done!” I
turned on my heel and took a step in an attempt to leave the alley.
He was in front of me. The
tips of his fingers on his right hand touched the ground. His knees bent with
one pointed up in front of him and the other directly below his mass pointed
down and stopped two inches or so before it'd made contact with the pavement.
He straightened his body to a standing position in one smooth motion. He took a
second to look at the woman inside the diner and move his head back and forth,
causing her to turn back to her food with a blank stare.
I brought my hand up and
back. “You're an ass, Xander,” I said, sending my hand open-palmed toward his
cheek.
He clicked his tongue at me
as he snatched my hand to a halt before I could slap him. “Now, Coral Ann, your
mother would've been appalled by your lack of manners.”
His voice wasn't right, and
I looked closer at his face. It lacked the same quality his voice did: age,
wisdom. Before the word left him, I realized that it wasn't Xander who stood in
front of me, but someone who looked like a younger identical version of him.
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