by Nicole Thorn
I shoved my feet into my sneakers. I couldn’t even wake up Jasper and Juniper. It would take time, and I’d have to explain what happened. And Kezia too, since she’d been sleeping in Jasper’s room. I couldn’t risk losing Callie. She was only sixteen, and her father . . . He would be so devastated if she died. Especially after all the worrying he’d been doing over her lately.
I shot out of my room, and down the stairs, not caring if I woke them on my way out. Keys, keys, keys, need to find the freaking keys. There they are! I snatched them up, and darted out the door with nary a moment wasted. Right up until I slammed the keys into the ignition, and Zander came out of the house. Ga! Why couldn’t he have stayed sleeping.
He rushed out, and I had a debate with myself on leaving him out there . . . He got to the car door before I could. The door popped open, and Zander leaned down. “What are you doing, Jasmine? It’s after two in the morning. The—” he stopped himself from saying the end of that sentence.
Instead of pushing it, like I normally would have, I said, “I have to go! Get in or get out of my way!”
It didn’t surprise me when Zander came around to the other door, and climbed into the car. Since he was huge, and my car tiny, it looked sad, watching him try to fold himself into the seat. He had to push it all the way back, and still, it hadn’t been quite enough. Not that I would slow down to switch cars. I had already pulled out of the driveway, and turned the fucker around.
“Where are we going?” he demanded. He, much like me, wore sleep clothes. He had pajama bottoms, and a thin top, with his shoes on. He must have realized something was up before I had even bolted out of my room.
“I had a vision,” I said. My voice shook a little. I realized that I trembled all over. My fingers tightened around the steering wheel, but my arms would not stay steady. I took in several deep breaths, and pushed the images aside, like I had taught myself to do many years before. People never believed you were okay when you were practically sobbing next to them. When my heart beat steadily, and my breathing sounded even, I continued. “It was about Callie.”
“The Oracle?” he asked. “What’s wrong? What happened?” The concern in his voice matched my own. Strangely, it calmed me down even more, and I melted against the seat.
“She’s out wandering around,” I said. “Or she will be. Or she was.”
“Jasmine?” he asked.
My hands tightened further. “My visions aren’t like Juniper or Jasper’s. Jasper knows that everything he sees happened already, so there is nothing he can do. Juniper sees what’s happening right that moment, so there really isn’t anything she can do either. Mine can be happening in seconds, hours, days, weeks, or years. They aren’t fixed like my siblings’ are. So, I don’t know if it has happened yet.”
“What?” Zander asked, his voice soothing. He put his hand on my knee, and it really shouldn’t have been so comforting. “What happened in your vision?”
“She was outside, walking down a road. Yelling at the sky. Trying to make sense of what the gods were telling her, because too many of them were saying something all at once. Then she tripped, and fell into the middle of the road, and a car came by . . . ” I had to swallow before I could finish talking. “It didn’t see her in the middle of the road, because she was real low down, and it went right over her. Like she was a piece of trash. I can still . . . ” I trailed off, because I couldn’t say the words. I didn’t want Zander to know how much it affected me.
His hand tightened. “Can still what?” he demanded, still in that gentle tone. It shouldn’t have been so easy to fall into his demands when he didn’t use his Charm, but it was. I wanted to tell him.
“I can still hear her bones breaking,” I whispered.
His hand tightened again. “Okay. Jasmine, where are we going?”
“I was going to her house. I figured she’d probably be on that road, and maybe it’s a vision of tomorrow. Or the next day. I can tell her not to wander around at night, ya know?”
He nodded again. “You need to pull over.”
“What?!” I shouted. “If I don’t hurry, she could die!”
“I know that, but if you keep driving ten miles over a hundred with your hands shaking, we could die before we get to her.”
Well, when put like that . . . I pulled over. Zander came around the hood, and I climbed over, into his seat. He pulled away from the curb while I buckled up. Despite what he said, he didn’t drive any slower than I had. He just did it without his hands shaking, or tears in his eyes.
I wiped the betraying bits of water away. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
He patted my knee again. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll get to her in time.” He said it with such confidence. Like there no other option existed. But I knew better. I knew that my visions weren’t fixed, and could be changed. A thousand different futures could happen. I also knew that getting to one before it occurred took more luck than skill.
My mind went to Bill.
Sometimes, absolutely nothing could be done. Even if I had warned him, begged him to go to the hospital, he would have looked at me like I had too much beer. I’d tried before. I always failed. I didn’t say any of this to Zander. He didn’t need to know that I mourned a man I had known for thirty minutes.
We took a corner sharply, and our speed threw me against the door. Zander got the car under control again as I looked up. And saw her. Callie. He yanked the wheel over to the side as she gazed up at the sky, saying something. It took us precious seconds to get the car stopped, but the second it halted, I threw my door open, and stumbled out.
I hit my knees, and holy fuck the ground felt cold. Snow and winter, and this outfit had been a mistake. Screw it. Who needed skin? I scrambled to my feet, ignoring the little hurts all over my body.
Callie tripped, and stumbled to the side. Her knees knocked together. I moved as fast as I could, but it didn’t feel fast enough. I was only human. The girl went to the ground. She would die right in front me. Like I had to see it all again, because I couldn’t get my body to move fast enough.
But then Zander ran forward. He hauled Callie up as the headlight bared down on them. He had a choice. I could see that choice in his eyes. He could either slow them both down, and get them both clipped by the car, or he could toss Callie away, earning a couple of bruises, and take the hit himself. Thus, keeping her completely safe.
I saw the choice he made.
And it was the wrong one.
He tossed Callie aside, and the car plowed into him. Unlike Callie, he did go over the hood. Flew right up into the air, and landed on his back a few seconds later. The car didn’t even stop. It sped up, getting the fuck out of there before the police could be called. I ran toward Zander.
“What the fuck is wrong with you!?” I shouted, dropping to my knee next to him. “You big, dummy! Why the hell would you do that?”
He groaned, and opened his eyes. “Don’t I get a thank you?”
“NO!”
“Thank you,” Callie called.
“Do you realize that you could have died? Then what? I’d go back to Kizzy, and be like ‘oh, sorry I got your brother killed while you’re being so nice to mine. Don’t worry though, we saved the girl’? You idiot. You big dumb idiot! And look at you. You’re bleeding all over the place, and you have to be in so much pain. I’m going to kill you for this later!”
He groaned as he sat up. “Jasmine, I’ll heal in like two minutes.”
“That’s two minutes where I have to stand here, watching you be in pain. Do you realize how awful that is? Would you sit there for two minutes while I was in pain for doing something stupid? No. You wouldn’t. Because it was stupid!”
He smiled at me. His teeth looked bloody. I grumbled, crossing my arms over my chest. “You’re stupid.”
“Thank you for being worried,” he said.
“Stupid.”
Callie came over to us, shuffling her feet. “Are you okay?” she as
ked timidly. “I shouldn’t have gotten you hit by a car. Do you think they make a card for that? Maybe I could send you a cake with the words written in icing.”
We stared at her. She blinked. “Mom always says that when you do something bad you should send the person you wronged something. Cake sounds good. I’ll send you a cake.”
“Are you okay?” Zander asked.
“Are you?” she retorted. “I mean. I’m not the one that got hit by a car, and all bloodied and torn up. I’m sorry. Those looked like really cool PJs. I’ll send you a cake, and try to find another pair of PJs for you, because good PJs are hard to find, and you should always hold onto them.”
“I’m fine,” Zander said. He got to his feet, and I looked him over. It did appear as if he was fine. All his little hurts had vanished. So, I thought it perfectly reasonable that I socked him in the shoulder the second he focused on Callie. “Hey!” he said, rubbing the sore spot, and giving me puppy dog eyes.
“If you ever scare me like that again, I will have Juniper sanitize you.”
His eyes widened.
“I’m fine, by the way,” Callie said. “Just scraped knees. Thank you for keeping the car from making dough out of me. I imagine it would have been very painful, and I cannot heal like a demigod.”
“See,” Zander said. “She cannot heal like a demigod, but I can. There is no reason to beat me up for it.”
“There is every reason,” I grumbled, shivering in the cold air. But he did save Callie, and I probably would have done the same thing in his position. “But you’re forgiven,” I finally relented. “We should get in the car before my nipples decide they don’t like me anymore.”
Zander had the strangest look on his face while I hightailed it back to the nice warm vehicle.
Callie climbed into the back, shivering. “I was trying to get to you,” she said. “My parents won’t let me drive anymore, so I was walking. The gods were saying so many things, and I couldn’t keep up. I knew that some of it was about the two of you.” She shrugged apologetically.
I hunched my shoulders. Zander’s mother was a god, so it made sense for them to talk about him. I was but a lowly seer. A twenty-one-year-old seer to boot. I shouldn’t have been more than a spec to them, so if they talked about me, that was concerning. Hell, I wouldn’t even be a seer for my entire life. Just until Juniper popped out the next three.
So yeah, I didn’t want to think too much about the gods paying attention to me, but at the same time . . . Well, how are you supposed to ignore the gods paying attention to you, and not get killed? Pretty sure there isn’t a way.
Zander and I looked at each other, and I sighed. “Do you have any idea what they were saying to you?”
“I forgot some of it, and the rest was so many arguments. I think they sometimes forget that they’re transmitting to me, and they start arguing. I’m almost positive I heard Zeus and Hera have sex once, but I can’t be sure because I don’t know if Zeus actually ever sleeps with her, or just with other people . . . ”
Zander and I looked at each other again, this time for longer. “I think it’s best that you don’t think too hard on that,” I said. “Anyway, did you remember anything they happened to say?”
“Only one thing.”
“What?”
“They are watching you,” Callie said.
“The gods?” Zander asked, patiently. She had already told us this. I began to wonder why the gods wanted their Oracle to be insane, because she didn’t make much sense right then.
“No. Not the gods,” Callie said. “Someone else is watching you, and they aren’t very happy.”
I slumped in my seat. I was about to declare defeat when I thought of something. “Zander, did you see the driver?”
He looked at me. “What? Oh. No. It was too dark.”
“I didn’t see the driver either,” I said. “In my vision, or as I was watching you go over the windshield. I was looking right at the windshield, and I didn’t see anything inside it. What about you Callie?”
“Nope,” she said, cheerfully.
I worried my lip.
“Is that so odd?” he asked. “We were pretty distracted. Or at least, I was. Ya know. Car and body met. Kind of distracting.”
I frowned at him. “You get no sympathy from me, Zander. We should get Callie home before her parents realize that she’s missing and call the cops. That’s just what we need.” Zander started the car, and only then did I wonder if he felt well enough to drive. Too late now, I guess.
While he got us back on the road, I turned around to look at Callie. “I’m happy that you aren’t hurt. It would have upset me very much if we hadn’t been in time to save you. However, you can’t do that. No more wandering around at night, okay?”
She frowned. “But I had to tell you—”
“Here is my number. Wake me up at all hours if you must, but do not leave your house after midnight. For my sanity. Please.”
She took the number and nodded. “All right. That makes sense. I promise I’ll be good. I’m sorry that you two had to come save me. If I had been paying more attention, then the car wouldn’t have almost murdered me, either. Kind of rude how it sped off after that.”
Yeah, well I had some theories about that anyway. We pulled up outside of Callie’s house with the headlights off so that we wouldn’t wake her parents. She climbed out of the car with a farewell, and rushed into the house while we watched. The second she got inside, Zander said, “What are you thinking?”
“I should have seen the driver,” I said. “Details are different in visions than they are in real life. They are sharper, crisper. They stay in my memory for longer. I know exactly where the cracks in that road are. I know how the moonlight looked shining down. I can still hear the sound of Callie’s bones breaking. I know the look on her face as the car plowed into her. And I cannot for the life of me remember what the driver looked like.”
Zander turned to look at me. He tapped the steering wheel. “Maybe it was a fluke?”
I frowned. “I’m not sure anything is a fluke when the gods are involved.”
He thought that over as we pulled out of the driveway. “You know what you’re saying, right? That someone with enough power, or knew where to find the power, blocked part of your vision. Why would they do that?”
“To keep themselves safe,” I said.
“Then why not block the whole vision? Why let you see the Oracle dying, thus giving you the chance to save her at all?”
I frowned over that. “Maybe they didn’t have enough power for that. Maybe they thought I would realize there was something off. I mean, it would have been odd if I didn’t see the Oracle’s death at all, and that would have tipped me off more than a stray thought about how I couldn’t see the driver. And if she had died, I’m not sure I would have thought about the driver.”
He tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. “You realize what you’re saying, right?”
“Yeah.”
“That someone is working against the gods to get the Oracle killed, and they’re paying attention to us now, possibly because we are trying to prevent them from killing the Oracle.”
“Yes.”
“And that now we’re in their crosshairs all the more because you might have pissed them off.”
“Yep.”
“Great. At least we’re on the same page.”
CHAPTER SIX:
Caskets and the Living Dead
Zander
I mean, of course someone wanted to kill us. It would have been dumb to think that we would’ve been safe, just because we wanted it really hard. We deserved this after all. Who were we, some kids who wanted to not die? Fuck us. Fuck us and wanting to live to see our adulthood.
I felt fine now after that awesome driver decided that I needed to get hit and he had his Big Mac Attack, making him need to drive off. Dick. My clothes got blood all over them and Jasmine looked so upset that I got hit. Worse things had happened to me that she’d seen,
so she should have been calmer. I mean, you didn’t hear Jasper talking about when Kizzy got ripped open those few times. Because we healed right after. I could get gutted and then go to the movies. I was a strong fella. But no. Jazz had to freak out on me. Because she cared, I let it go without trying to make it all better for her. She wouldn’t want that anyway.
But I worried about Callie and her mental issues. We wouldn’t be there every time she started wandering off into the darkness. Something would eventually kill her if we didn’t figure this out. Some jerk who wanted to pick a fight targeted all of us. What did a couple of kids mean to some random person? We had no more enemies. None that I knew of, at least.
We got back and I stayed up the whole night. Jasmine slept, and our people did the same. They would have to be informed of what happened soon, but I didn’t look forward to raining on Kizzy’s new happiness. Or Jasper’s. He was a good guy. He touched my sister’s naughty bits, but he was a good guy. He’d be dead otherwise. Dammit.
I stared at Nemo in his tank as he swam around in Cheeto water. Jasmine shouldn’t feed him those, but I thought it worse that he ate them. Weird little Beta thing that wasn’t a Beta thing. I didn’t know what to do about him, or about his mama, or about any other damn thing in the world.
“If I die,” I said to the fish. “I hope I can save Jasmine so that you can at least eat.”
The fish ignored me. Two headed jerk.
***
I put my fingers in the tank, feeling the cool water on my skin as I leaned there like a pathetic lump. It was too early to be up, but I wouldn’t get back to sleep. I didn’t even dream anymore. I just laid there, sad and a little too tall for my bed.
“Hey fish,” I sighed. “Could you bite me so I can feel something other than sadness?”
Nemo floated up to me, and both heads poked out of the water. He didn’t bite. He licked. He fucking licked me. Could I not even get murdered when I asked for it? Damn.
I waited for the sweet, sweet pain of freak teeth, but it didn’t happen. I was a guy, standing with his hand in a tank. There was something wrong with me.
