A flood of images bombarded my brain.
She’s a Seer, I heard in my head just as Alex said aloud, “Nice to meet you, Talley. Cool name. Very non-generic.”
“Thanks,” I said, still trying to filter through all the information he was throwing out at me. The magnitude of it was about to drive me to my knees. “My mom went into labor with me at O’Talley’s restaurant. It was the only thing her post-childbirth, drug addled mind could come up with when they asked her for a name.” The story wasn’t true, my mother was nowhere near O’Talley’s when she went into labor with me, but it gave Alex the information he needed on who I was. O’Talley’s was the place where my father always met with any Shifter who wasn’t part of the Matthews Pack.
If that information meant anything to Alex, he didn’t show it. His attention immediately went back to Scout, whose scowl would have been more impressive if you could ignore the way her eyes were practically sparkling as she looked at him.
While the two of them bantered about, I concentrated on making sense of what I pulled from Alex’s brain. I hadn’t purposefully tried to take thoughts from someone since my first experiment with my mom and Toby once my Sight manifested. I hadn’t been prepared for the chaotic flood I got for my efforts. I couldn’t discern any one thought or image, but I could pick up on some emotions. Adoration. Hope. Joy. Love. And all of them were aimed at Scout.
Well, that was an interesting turn of events.
I glanced over to see Scout once again facing the stage. Or, more accurately, she wanted everyone to think she was facing the stage when in truth she couldn’t stop casting furtive glances over her shoulder at Alex, who was now roped into a conversation with Ashley Johnson. Although, from where I was sitting, he was sneaking more peeks at Scout than she was at him.
Scout and Alex sitting in a tree. K-i-s-s-i-n-g…
I coughed into my hand to hide the giggle bubbling up from my throat.
This was great! Perfect, really. Scout needed this so bad. After the whole Ashley-and-Dalton-hooking-up-in-Scout’s-bed debacle, she had been very gun-shy about dating. Actually, gun-shy might be too tame a word. She was phobic. She wouldn’t even talk about boys and dating. Every time I tried to mention a guy I thought would be good for her, she would roll her eyes and then proceed to listen to some really loud, angry music for a few days.
But she wasn’t rolling her eyes at Alex. And I could almost hear the sappy love songs playing on her iPod.
I looked over my shoulder to get a better look at him, since checking out the guy your best friend is falling in love with is the obligation of BFFs everywhere. He was cute. More than cute, really. His eyes were the color of a sky before it storms. His hair was a nice, rich brown and had that artfully messy look guys pretend they don’t use a ton of product and time to acquire. Even just sitting there, listening to Ms. Ryder’s enthusiastic description of the course, he had a hint of a dimple showing. He was tall, which was good since Scout isn’t exactly a petite girl, and his hands--
Covered in blood. Blood everywhere, but none of it was his. It all came from her stomach, which no longer had enough flesh to look like human skin.
Bile once again surged in the back of my throat. I dug a fist into my stomach to keep from getting sick all over the place and closed my eyes.
Scout. Blood. Someone who looked like Alex, but wasn’t.
Okay, closing my eyes was not a good idea.
I concentrated on Ms. Ryder’s red boots as they pranced all over the stage, hoping the bizarreness of seeing a teacher in red cowboy boots would keep my brain from snapping back to that horrid not-really vision. Thankfully, it worked. I spent the rest of the hour following those boots with my eyes and trying to decide what to do.
The guy I saw carrying Scout wasn’t Alex. I might have thought it was at first, but once I got a good look at Alex and saw the vision guy multiple times in a matter of minutes, there was no mistaking the two. Vision guy was bigger, darker, scarier…
Mr. Tall, Dark and Insane.
Alex’s brother was going to kill Scout.
All the air left my lungs, and the room tilted. This couldn’t be happening. I couldn’t let it happen. I had to do something. I had to stop him. I had to--
You have to get a grip, Tal.
It was Jase’s voice in my head. Not like he actually spoke the words to me like he might on the night of a full moon, but the voice in my head sounded like him. It’s what he would have said if he were here, and he would be right. Panicking wasn’t going to help anyone with anything. Anyway, I didn’t See the future. I knew this. So, why was I getting so worked up?
Because you keep getting a high-def vision of Alex’s brother carrying around my dead, mutilated body?
My head was turning into a Donovan family reunion.
I rolled my shoulders, dropped my jaw, and took a deep, slow breath in through my nose. It was a trick I picked up in my two weeks as a yoga student. According to the instructor, it was impossible to remain stressed when your shoulders and jaw were relaxed and you had plenty of oxygen. I was more than a little surprised when it worked.
It was time to think this through logically. No more freaking out. I could do calm, cool, and collected. I just needed to do that whole shoulder, jaw, breath thing again.
Once I was good and oxygenated, I reviewed the facts. Yes, I had thought my powers were manifesting over the summer when I thought I Saw an unknown male walking with a ripped up Scout in his arms. However, ten minutes later, when my mom was trying to calm me down, I had my first experience with my true Sight. Multiple experiments over the next few hours proved I was a Soul Seer. Since Seers can only See one thing, the not-really vision was forgotten.
So, what was going on now? Why did I keep reliving that horrible scene every time I looked at Alex?
Rephrase the question, my mother’s voice echoed in my head. Why do you keep reliving that horrible scene every time you look at the new Shifter?
That was it. Alex was an unknown Shifter in our Territory, breaking most every rule known to our people. He was a threat. So, of course when I looked at him, I was reminded of my crazy not-really vision from the summer. In it, Scout had obviously been mauled by something with claws. Something like a Shifter in coyote form.
But why does he have the face of Alex’s brother? Hmmm…? You don’t think that is a bit too convenient?
It was. Or, it would have been if I actually knew what Alex’s brother looked like, or if I could honestly remember if the guy in front of me now was the same one I Saw initially over the summer. It seemed logical that my brain was filling in the face with Alex’s features. And since I got an I-love-Scout vibe off of him the moment I shook his hand and knew he would never hurt her, those features had warped enough to create what I thought his older brother might look like.