Witt stopped glaring at me and gave her an apologetic look. “All we did was ask some questions,” he retorted in defense.
Lily’s glanced at the other two officers standing by their cruisers. “You needed four people to ask me a few questions?” She asked in disbelief. Obviously, they had the backup in case they decided to detain her for further questioning.
Witt shifted uneasily, before quickly excusing themselves. “Yes, well, we have a busy morning ahead of us. We have another place to be, so we’ll be leaving now.”
None of us said goodbye, just staring at them as they both began backing up and turned to head back to their vehicles. Freya and Lily both stepped away from the door, so I could close it. I was a little surprised the cops didn’t notice that the actual door itself was for the inside of the house, rather than the outside. I could easily detect the difference, but maybe it wasn’t so obvious to them.
Which was good. One less thing to explain.
31: A Room Full of Secrets
I sighed heavily as I leaned against the door, focusing my second-sight behind me to make sure they were really leaving. Freya was hugging Lily for comfort, but she seemed to be doing alright. After a minute, I finally spoke up. “I’m really impressed Lily. You handled that very well.”
She smirked at me. “Thanks Sam. You did really well too.”
I scoffed. “I basically just played myself. The two of you actually put some effort into giving off the impression of innocence.”
“Oh Sam,” Freya chastised. “You don’t give yourself enough credit.”
I smiled at them and walked over to wrap my arms around them, completing the hug. They both leaned into me, turning slightly to rest their heads on my shoulders. “We just need to make sure they don't find out Lily has some control over her flames now. Not that her control played much of a role in this particular incident.”
They both nodded in agreement. Lily spoke up. “I have been practicing though. I can finally light my hands on fire at-will.” She looked up at me then. “I don’t know if I ever told you, but that’s why I don’t wear rings. My hands always get the hottest. Technically, I could wear a tungsten ring, but I figure what’s the point?”
Made sense, especially considering she had used her hands to melt the rest of the glass last night, and also used them to destroy the girl’s head. “So gemstones would melt then?” I wondered absentmindedly.
Lily nodded somberly. “On my hands, yes. I could probably get by with wearing a necklace without the gemstone melting, but tungsten chains aren’t usually very attractive in my opinion.” She sighed. “So usually, I just don’t wear any jewelry. If I burn up my clothes then they just turn to ash, but if I melt metal then it can be hazardous to others while it’s a liquid.”
I glanced at Freya wondering if she was thinking the same thing I was. I suspected she must have been, because she quickly changed subjects. “Oh, and I wasn’t planning on going to work today,” Freya announced. We both looked at her surprised, so she elaborated. “If the two of you are going to work, then I’ll hang out in my car close to your office. I want to already be there in case something happens.”
Lily shivered at the thought. “Honestly, I’m not sure I want to go to work today either,” she admitted. “I don’t know if I can handle being near John right now. I don’t know if I’ll be pissed or afraid, but either one could set me off.”
“Maybe you should both hang out in Freya’s car,” I suggested. “A stakeout of sorts. Knowing John, I wouldn’t be surprised if he approaches me and asks how Lily is doing. As far as he knows, I have no idea he was involved, and he’s enough of a pompous ass to do that type of thing.”
Freya was pensive for a moment, looking at Lily. “Yeah, that might work alright. But we still need to figure out how to discretely get him alone.” She then looked up at me. “Sam, you might have to prompt him for that date. Maybe tell him that I was asking about it.”
I groaned in annoyance.
“I know,” she agreed to my unspoken disapproval. “But nothing is going to happen between us. Obviously.” She paused. “I can invite him over to my office and slip something in his drink like we did with Nick.”
“And what if he’s smart enough to refuse?” I wondered. “What if he demands it be in a public place?”
“Then I’ll try to get a table close to the bathroom,” she suggested. “When he passes out, I can slip off to the men’s room and meet you in one of the stalls. I should still be able to read his mind as long as I’m not too far away.”
“How far exactly?” I wondered.
She shook her head. “Honestly, I’ve never tested my range, so I’m not sure.”
“Then we should test it,” I prompted. “You can drink my blood while reading Lily’s mind.”
Unexpectedly, Lily looked panicked and she tried to slip out of our arms. I moved mine automatically, but Freya kept a hold of her.
“Umm, maybe not,” Lily squeaked.
“Lily,” Freya chastised, letting go of me and holding her in place with both arms. “What don’t you want me to know?”
“N-Nothing! I just, umm…” After a second, she dropped her head in defeat.
Freya pulled her in tighter, moving her lips to her ear. “Lily, I’m not going to hate you for thinking something bad about me.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about,” she admitted. “I’m afraid you’ll misinterpret my thoughts. Or even worse, use them against me next time.”
Freya pulled away and looked at her seriously. After a moment of silence, she spoke. “Lily, I love you. I don’t want you to hate me, so I definitely won’t use your thoughts against you.” She scoffed. “Whatever that even means.”
“Promise?” Lily asked in a whisper.
“Promise,” she said firmly with a nod.
Lily sighed heavily and began pulling away. Freya let her this time. After a second, Lily looked up at me. “What do you guys want me to do?” She wondered.
Freya answered her. “We’ll go in the kitchen, and you can go to the other side of the house in the living room. That’s like almost forty feet. If I can read your mind from that distance, then it won’t matter as much which table we get in the restaurant.”
Lily nodded and complied immediately, turning to walk to the other side of the living room. I interlaced my fingers with Freya’s, prompting an unexpected smile, and walked with her into the kitchen. We agreed that she would wrap her legs around my waist like earlier and squeeze my arm if she wanted me to move closer. I eagerly grabbed her firm butt while she gave me a few kisses on the neck before sinking her teeth in.
As we slowly moved closer to Lily, one step at a time, I began to become discouraged when we entered the hallway again, followed quickly by the living room. Finally, Freya didn’t squeeze my arm and I was relieved to see that we were still at least ten feet away. If we got much closer, then our restaurant plan definitely wouldn’t work.
Lily’s expression was anxious as she waited patiently.
After a few more seconds, Freya finally pulled away, her expression impassive for once. Which was…very strange. Usually she had some type of reaction. She blinked a few times before looking at Lily hesitantly, observing her standing nervously with her finger interlaced in front of her. Neither of them said anything, so I decided to break the awkward silence.
“Well,” I said breathlessly, looking at Freya with my eyes and focusing on Lily with my second-sight, “I’m going to set you down Freya, and then we can measure out the distance.”
Freya nodded still looking at Lily, her expression remaining neutral.
I paused for a moment, before running to grab my phone. I then held it next to Lily, tapping the screen to indicate the start, and walked back over to Freya to indicate the end. The GPS measured the distance to be thirteen and a third feet. “Exactly a hundred and sixty inches,” I announced, “which is just a little over thirteen feet.” I looked at Freya expectantly, but she was still just staring tenta
tively at Lily. I attempted again to get her to respond to me. “Freya, when was the last time you peered into Lily’s mind?” I wondered seriously, touching her shoulder to get her attention.
She finally looked up at me. “It’s been about eight years,” she admitted. “Nothing too shocking has happened since then. Not until recently at least.”
“Freya…” Lily whined unexpectedly.
Freya sighed heavily. “It’s fine Lily,” she replied, sounding almost a little sad. “I won’t use your thoughts against you. If anything, it makes me a little happy to know.”
Lily shifted uneasily, but didn’t say anything.
“Umm, am I allowed to know what’s going on?” I asked seriously.
Freya shook her head. “Sorry Sam, but just like I’m leaving it up to you to tell Lily all your dark secrets, I’m leaving it up to Lily to share as well.”
I nodded as I considered that. Really, Lily already knew most of the bad stuff. I didn’t think that any of my other secrets would matter that much to her. I finally walked up to Lily, wanting to reassure her. “It’s fine if you don’t want to tell me,” I began while placing my hands on her shoulders. Her charcoal suit was a little rough to the touch, but it was warm from her elevated body temperature. “But just so you know, you can tell me anything, and I’ll still love you.”
Lily nodded once, slowly looking up to meet my gaze. She seemed a little embarrassed, but it was obvious she didn’t want to share.
Deciding not to press the issue, I looked back at Freya. “So can we work with this distance?” I wondered.
She grimaced. “Well, I wish it was a little further,” she admitted. “I’ll have to suggest I have bladder problems, or something, in order to get us a table right next to the bathroom.”
I laughed at that. “Do you even use the bathroom?” I wondered.
She smirked at me. “Well if you really want to know, I do have to pee every once in a while. And I would have a period if I wasn’t taking contraceptives.”
“How long have you been doing that?” I wondered seriously.
She bit her lip. “Well, ever since I found out about you,” she admitted. “I started taking them like two weeks before I kidnapped you.”
“Oh.” I glanced down at Lily, but she didn’t seem too shocked by that revelation. I doubted she knew, so I figured she just must not care anymore. I glanced at the time on my phone. “Well, I guess I’m going to get ready for work. I’m already going to be running late at this point.”
“I think I might go after all,” Lily chimed in, still sounding nervous.
I looked at her in shock, but Freya spoke up before I could. “Oh Lily, stop it. I’m not going to do anything to you.”
My eyes widened in surprise as I looked from her, back down to Lily. “You’re afraid Freya would hurt you?” I asked seriously.
“No,” Freya retorted, prompting me to look up again. “She’s afraid I’ll try to–”
“Freya!” Lily snapped.
“Oh alright. Whatever. The point is, Lily you can trust me.”
“Promise?” She asked seriously.
Freya sighed heavily again. “Yes, I promise.” She then looked at me. “Oh, and Sam? We woke Lily up last night after all.” Lily immediately groaned, looking mortified. Ironic, since I felt like I should be the one embarrassed. “She’s not mad, but would prefer we didn’t do that again.”
I wrapped my arm around Lily’s shoulders. “We won’t,” I reassured her. “We had already decided that this morning.”
Lily nodded, keeping her gaze on the floor.
32: An Unexpected Clue
A week. A whole damn week and we still weren’t any closer to figuring out where my boss, John, had disappeared to. He was our only lead in solving the shadow company mystery, and all three of us wanted him to pay for trying to get Lily killed.
Yet we were at a dead end.
The day after the incident, I had gone to work as planned, with Lily and Freya hanging out in her car close to the office. But John wasn’t there. He didn’t show up to work or even call in to say he wasn’t coming.
Now that a week had gone by, and no one had heard from him, there was an official missing person’s case filed.
Freya had tried looking into any trail he might have left, such as purchasing a plane ticket or even hiring a super to fly him somewhere. But it was as if he had just stopped existing. Not even my astral trailing ability seemed to be helping. I tried visiting his office, his house, and Freya even drove me around the city to see if I could pick up anything. But there was nothing. I sensed nothing unusual, certainly not like what had happened after Lily had been kidnapped.
I wasn’t fully aware of how to even use my ability, but I figured that if it was triggered by my emotions then I had plenty of those to go around. I wanted revenge, though oddly enough I didn’t exactly feel hatred. More like a strong sense of justice. A desire to do to him what he intended for Lily.
An eye for an eye.
We did learn one thing during that week, though it was bittersweet. As it turned out, I wasn’t able to switch souls around, at least not with animals. I doubted that meant animals didn’t have souls, or at least astral forms, because I definitely sensed something inside of them. Granted, even inanimate objects seemed to have a faint astral presence.
Either way, I wasn’t able to pull the astral part away from the physical part.
Either my astral limbs would pass right through the body, or else if I tried to constrict them then I ended up slicing through.
Yes, a few chickens died as a result. But that just meant Lily and I had a great dinner later that night. I cleaned up the birds and, with a little sensual provocation to ignite her passion, Lily cooked them up for us with her flames. There was something exciting and primal about it.
But the end results made me suspect that I was only able to move myself from one body into another, and nothing more. Granted, I didn’t even know how to do that and had no reason to try it.
We were all a little disappointed, especially after Lily’s idea that we might be able to keep her after all by putting her soul in a new body when she was older. Well, Freya and Lily were disappointed. I was confident that I was the only one who was slightly relieved by this turn of events, only because I didn’t like the idea of being capable of playing God. Or the idea of killing someone innocent to keep Lily.
Even though she hadn’t put much thought into it yet, I suspected it would bother her eventually to know someone young had died to keep her alive. It might even make her regret living, and I’d prefer she died of old age rather than suicide.
It wasn’t until I went grocery shopping with Lily, of all places, that we finally got a clue. She was wearing a pleated FRIL mini-skirt that had the appearance of black vinyl, along with a metallic bronze latex tank-top coupled with a black latex mini-jacket. Needless to say, I was heavily distracted and barely knew what she was picking out for food. I didn’t particularly care either way, since I’d eat almost anything.
We were just passing through the clothing section as a shortcut when I sensed motion in my second-sight. Normally, I wouldn’t have paid too much attention since I was used to guy’s stopping to gawk, but the moment I saw it I knew it was different than the other shoppers moving around.
I stopped in my tracks, my head snapping in that direction, causing Lily to bump into my shoulder. “What’s wrong?” She asked urgently, sensing my sudden tension.
Without thinking about it, I reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her along with me as I headed straight for the source. Lily barely had time to snatch her FRIL purse from the cart. Surprisingly, she didn’t try to resist or ask questions though.
Considering her life had recently been in danger, she was willing to follow my lead without comment. I watched as John, or rather just the remnants of John’s existence, began looking around confused in the checkout line before abandoning his cart and walking towards the exit.
Knowing he wasn’t
really there this time, I rushed to keep up with him and was right behind him as he exited. I unexpectedly felt disoriented as I saw that it was both daytime and night-time at the same time. In the past version of reality, I saw a black car pull up with darkly tinted windows. However, the barrier didn’t prevent me from seeing who was inside it.
I froze solid in shock when I saw Nick’s girlfriend, Camila in the driver’s seat. There was a guy in the back too, though I didn’t recognize him. John rushed to get in the vehicle, and then leaned across to plant a heavy kiss on Camila’s lips.
“Shit,” I exclaimed underneath my breath.
Like a world away, I heard Lily’s voice. “Sam,” she said urgently. “What’s wrong? Are you seeing something?”
I nodded absentmindedly, the scene before me suddenly freezing in place, with John and Camila stuck with their lips locked. The sight was gross on numerous levels. Besides the fact that John was like twenty years older than Camila – and actually looked like it – she really did look like the gross kind of nerdy. Her forehead was way too big for her face, the space between her eyes was too narrow, and her glasses were thick like Nick’s. In many ways, her and Nick were perfect for each other, but apparently Camila had at least one other boyfriend on the side. Maybe two, if the guy in the backseat was any indication.
“Run and get the car,” I said urgently, unsure of how long they were going to stay frozen in place.
Lily nodded, taking off into a sprint while pressing an arm against her chest to prevent her breasts from bouncing excessively. The moment she pulled up with her car, Camila took off in a rush.
I quickly jumped in and instructed Lily to go.
“Do you want to drive?” She asked urgently.
I shook my head. “No, I might cause an accident if I do. It’s disorienting seeing two versions of reality at the same time.”
Lily nodded and slammed her foot on the pedal. I told her where to turn and then called Freya on my phone. After what had happened with Lily, we decided to sync all our phones, in order to register on each other’s GPS systems. Lily hadn’t had her phone on her when she was kidnapped, but for all we knew it might come in handy if something like that happened again.
The Daily Struggles of an Immortal (Immortal Supers Book 1) Page 21
