T*Witches: The Power of Two

by Randi Reisfeld

  "Is there a chill in the air, or was she just totally bummed to see me?" Alex asked, a moment after the door slammed behind Beth.

  "She's not usually like that," Cam said, distressed. "I think she's just—"

  "Jealous?" Alex asked. "Wow, I'm getting good. I didn't even have to read your mind for that one."

  While Dave filled out dozens of forms for the DNA test, Emily sat uncomfortably in the waiting area of Biogentech labs with the girls, her beloved daughter and the gray-eyed stranger who looked so much like Cam, but was not.

  The unknown girl, Alexandra Fielding, was wearing scissored jean shorts and a T-shirt that looked like it hadn't been washed in ages. The girl herself had been sniffing at the shirt whenever she thought no one was watching.

  Emily disapproved. Of the child's careless clothing, her offensively dyed hair, her angry independence. And, most of all, of how her presence, her very existence, had unlocked a painful family secret and destroyed the peace and stability of their home.

  Yet there was something about the girl that Emily wanted to embrace and protect.

  "Are you okay?" she asked, touching Alex's choppy hair, which felt surprisingly soft, like the warm pelt of a wild creature.

  Alex pulled her head away. "Sure," she said. Emily's gentle touch unnerved her, felt too weirdly like Sara's caresses.

  "We're fine, Mom," Cam said snappishly. It was the first time her daughter had called her Mom since discovering that she was adopted. "Shush," Cam said, eyes fastened on the TV across the waiting room, which was tuned to CNN. "I want to hear this."

  As they seemed to be doing every fifteen minutes, the news channel was rehashing the few facts and endless opinions about the dreadful disappearance of Marleigh Cooper, a girl just three years older than Cam.

  Alex was squirming, trying to fight back the rising tide of anxiety building in her stomach. She tried to focus on the magazines in the waiting room, on the other patients, anything besides the real reason they were here. Finally, her eye fell on the same TV screen Cam seemed to be glued to.

  "Vanished," the announcer was recapping. "The singer left her seat at the soccer game to get better reception on her cell phone. And she hasn't been seen or heard from since. Every day, the mystery deepens."

  The actual lab work took practically no time. It was waiting for the doctor to test them that ate up half the day.

  It was midafternoon by the time the girls were tested. As promised, there was nothing painful about the procedure. A lab technician took blood samples from each of them. She said she'd be running three different tests and would notify the family when the results were in. "Although," she added, looking from Alex to Cam. "I'd say chances that you two are closely related are pretty good."

  "We're going to wait to talk with the doctor," Emily told them, when they walked back out into the marble-floored, icily air-conditioned reception area. "Why don't you girls go out? It's such a gorgeous day. We'll be here for a while."

  And find out before us? Cam brooded. And lie to me again, like you did all my life?

  "Don't worry." Dave smiled at them. "We'll tell you the absolute truth, just as soon as we know. Which won't be for at least ten days—"

  "Promise?" Cam asked.

  "Absolutely," Dave said.

  When they were outside, standing on the sun-drenched steps of Biogentech, Alex said, "Nice going, dude. Looks like your ESP is kicking into high gear."

  "What makes you say that?" Cam asked.

  "Your dad didn't say that out loud, that stuff about telling you the truth—"

  "But he must have," Cam argued. "I heard him—"

  "Exactly!" Alex grinned. "You're getting good at it."

  "Really?" Cam didn't know whether to be excited or alarmed. She settled for confused.

  "Okay, where are we? And what is there to do in this town?" Alex looked up and down the street. A row of shady elm trees dappled the quiet avenue. Flower baskets hung from the whitewashed porches of charming old houses. A salty sea breeze ruffled Alex's hair and delivered to her senses the spicy-sweet tang of well-tended gardens. "You could have your own theme park here," she teased. "Only instead of Big Sky, you'd have to call it Too-Cute World. What kind of trouble can we get into in a place this quaint?"

  "Actually, I know just the thing—"

  "The last time someone said that to me," Alex reminded her, "I wound up on your doorstep."

  "No, remember that duck pond I was telling you about? We could walk over," Cam ventured.

  "And meet up with Beth, right? You're pretty sure that's where she's baby-sitting," Alex said, adding, "you're all bummed about her."

  "Look, it's weird for her," Cam started to explain, "but if you don't want to..."

  "Weird for her, huh?" Alex shook her head. "In the lottery of weirdness, she hasn't picked a single number."

  "'Cause you've already got the winning ticket?" Cam knew what Alex was thinking.

  "More like the losing one."

  Cam felt a stab of guilt. "I didn't mean—"

  "Anything by it. I know. Forget it. Suddenly, I have this uncontrollable urge to visit a duck pond."

  Chapter 24 — Duck, Duck, Goose

  "Who knows if she'll even be here," Cam murmured as the look-alike teens entered the pond area of the park. Which was, Alex thought, exactly what she imagined it would be. Green, clean, a picture-postcard scene. Just like all of Marble Bay—or what she'd seen so far.

  So far... as in, far away. From everyone who mattered.

  Cam put her hand to her forehead to block the sun from her eyes and scanned the area. Clusters of kids were kneeling by the pond, using remote controls to guide toy boats in the water. Joggers, dog-walkers, kids on scooters, and Rollerbladers shared the path that circled the pond.

  Doesn't anyone have to work around here? Alex wondered, surveying the panorama. On a bench across the pond, she spotted a woman who looked uncannily like her mom. Alex's heart leaped for a second—then turned to stone as she remembered that Sara was gone. Anyway, she reminded herself, even if they'd had a place like this in Crow Creek, Sara wouldn't have been there, reading a book, relaxing on a bench. Two jobs didn't leave time for lightweight luxuries.

  The more she saw of Marble Bay, the less she liked it, Alex had decided, when a quick-thudding sound, like a steady drumbeat, interrupted her thoughts. She turned toward the noise, and saw Cam waving and hurrying toward Beth, who she'd just spotted.

  She was at a picnic table, talking to a carrot-topped kid whose arms and legs were bird-thin. The thudding noise was coming from the child. The little girl's head was down. She was chomping on her fingernails, her legs swinging to the speed-pulsing drum sound.

  It was the child who'd attracted her. It was the child's heart she was hearing. The girl was frightened. But her head was down and whatever she was thinking was turning inward, not out. Alex couldn't make out the words.

  "Beth!" Cam callout out as, trailed by Alex, she came within shouting distance of the pair. "Hey, I hope you don't mind us crashing. Kinda figured you'd be here."

  Beth could never mask her feelings. In spite of what had just gone down between them—Cam's bff was clearly stoked to see her. Even if she had brought Alex along.

  Beth waved back. "So, how'd the DNA thing go?"

  "We won't know anything for a while," Cam answered. "A couple of weeks, I think." Her phone rang. "It's Bree," she mouthed after answering it. She motioned for Beth and Alex to come over and listen with her.

  Whatever Brianna Waxman had to say held less than zero interest for Alex. The nervous, carrot-topped tot, however, was another story. As Beth listened to Cam's call, Alex eased herself onto the picnic table bench next to the child.

  The little girl was staring down at her hands, fingernails ragged and red. Although she must have known Alex was there, she didn't look up.

  "Hey, I'm Alex Fielding. And you're Jenny, right?"

  The child didn't respond. But the beating of her fluttering heart grew louder, more pani
cked.

  "You're really sad, aren't you?" Alex pressed gently.

  Jenny shrugged. "I was a bad girl," she said.

  "Impossible," Alex contradicted the child. "The minute I saw you I knew you were nice. I heard your heart beating fast, and I said to myself, why is that good girl feeling so..."

  "Bad," Jenny said.

  "Well, sad is what I was thinking," Alex said.

  "That rhymes," Jenny noted, glancing up at last. "Sad and bad..."

  And also mad, Alex heard the girl thinking. I did a very bad thing and now I'm sad. And Marleigh is gone. And everyone's gonna be mad at me.

  "No, they aren't. I'm not," Alex assured the girl.

  Jenny looked up suddenly. "Hey, you heard me," she said. Then she saw Evan's necklace, the tarnished little skull hanging from the chain around Alex's neck.

  Alex felt Jenny stiffen beside her. Felt a wave of cold fear shudder through the child.

  "Jenny, what is it? What's wrong?" she asked.

  "You're not nice," the little girl said suddenly, squirming away from Alex. "You're bad. You're bad, too."

  "Wow, they're on to him. I can't believe it!" Beth rushed back to the picnic table. "Alex, listen to what Bree just found out."

  "It's a Marleigh bulletin, right?" she guessed.

  "When Marleigh and I were talking at the game," Cam came over and filled in the blanks. "She said something about a 'fan' of hers who'd been sending spooky e-mail—"

  "And the FBI found him!" Beth was pumped. "Well, I mean, they traced the source of the e-mails. They all came from the same computer. Which just so happens to be located right here. In Marble Bay!"

  "At the Music & More store," Cam explained.

  "Marleigh's mother told the police about the stalker letters she'd been getting," Beth explained.

  "And rumor has it, according to Bree, that they were sent from a computer at the Main Street M & M," Cam finished.

  "How heinous is that?" Beth demanded, mindlessly stroking Jenny's hair.

  Cam's stomach knotted. What did this mean? That her hunch had been dead-on? That Marleigh really had been snatched by some sicko who idolized her? The memory of the singer's pale face, when she'd told Cam about the fan who signed his name "Devoted," came flooding back.

  Could Cam have prevented anything bad from happening if she'd stayed in town? If she'd listened to the wrinkled old man when he'd said, "Don't go. She needs you now." Those were his words.

  But if she hadn't gone on vacation she wouldn't have met Alex.

  She needs you now. Those were the same words I heard, Alex was thinking, that's what the man in my dream told me. But that was before I even knew about Marleigh's disappearance.

  Startled, Cams eyes widened. She zoned in on Alex, who smiled at her. "Did you just say—?" Cam started to ask.

  "Didn't say. Thought," Alex answered aloud.

  "Shush," Cam whispered. Okay, this whole mind reading thing was weirding her out. Even if there was something extremely cool about it.

  "The cyber-psycho probably kidnapped her. She's in trouble," Alex said.

  "Or was," Beth added, holding Jenny close to her, as if to shield the already frightened child.

  Cam struggled to keep the rising panic out of her voice. "Listen to us. If jumping to conclusions were an Olympic event, we'd be Team Gold. We have no idea if any of this is true."

  "Don't we?" It was Alex.

  Chapter 25 — Voices in the Night

  Half Moon Cove was a small crescent of pebbly beach, separated from Marble Bay's main road by a three-foot-high stone seawall. On balmy summer nights, when families with small kids had long gone home, it was a perfect private place for Cam's friends to meet.

  Later that night, Cam and Alex decided to meet Beth there.

  But Beth was nowhere in sight when Dave dropped the girls off.

  Decked out in yet another nasty thrift-store ensemble that she'd dug out of her duffel, Alex followed Cam down the mossy stone steps to the cove.

  "I'll pick you up around nine-thirty," Dave called after them. "Call if you need a ride sooner."

  "I will," Cam answered over her shoulder, before amending, "I mean, we will."

  She shot Alex an apologetic look, but the Montana-girl's gaze had already traveled past the beach and was fixed on the bay beyond. A dense mist hung in the early evening air. You could almost stick your tongue out and lick it.

  Which Alex seemed about to do.

  "Your first beach?" Cam guessed.

  "Technically." Alex pressed her lips together and continued to stare straight ahead.

  "You never even went to a beach on vacation?" The second it came out of her mouth, Cam wished she could take it back. Way to be insensitive, she berated herself. Alex worked all summer, and after school and weekends the rest of the year. There wasn't much time for vacations.

  Cam braced herself for a sarcastic comeback, but Alex, walking in step with her toward the shoreline, just said, "We have lakes and streams and all. And this creek not far from home. And—"

  "Your mom used to take you there," Cam said.

  Alex nodded, then clutched her belly, as if her hands could stop the hollow churning in the pit of her stomach.

  "I know that feeling," Cam said, surprising herself as much as Alex. "I've had it, too. That empty feeling. It's homesickness."

  "Homesickness?" Alex was nauseated, overwhelmed by the briny smell of the bay. "Trust me, it's not my home I miss—that rancid sardine can in the woods."

  Cam touched her elbow. "We don't have to stay here. We can go back, if you want to. I'll square it with Beth. I know this must feel weird—"

  "This you think is weird?" Less than a month ago, she'd been in Montana, finishing ninth grade, living with her mom, being hassled by a scummy landlord, hanging with her friends. "On the bizarre-o-meter, Barnes, tonight doesn't even register."

  For some reason, that struck Cam as funny. "I'm sorry." She clapped her hand over her mouth and apologized for the giggle that escaped her.

  "You want to know what's weird?" Alex shot her a lopsided grin. "Your idea of what's weird. Now that's seriously special."

  Giddy and tightly wound, Cam tried not to laugh.

  With a hard look she couldn't hold, Alex repeated, "Seriously special," then cracked unexpectedly.

  Which totally broke Cam up.

  "Over here, you guys!" Beth waved to them, setting off a new round of laughter. Clad in jeans and a cropped short-sleeved T-shirt, Cam's closest had just gotten there and staked out a spot at the far end of the cove.

  They were still laughing when they reached her.

  "What's so funny?" Beth sounded cautious.

  "Nothing," Cam responded without thinking.

  "Nothing I'd understand, you mean." Beth tried to make it sound like a joke, but Cam knew her too well.

  Reflexively, she took a step away from Alex. "I didn't mean it that way."

  "Forget it," Beth said breezily and turned to Alex. "Was this, like, your first dinner at chez Barnes? Did Mrs. B. make her famous chicken Parmesan? Oh, wait, I bet Mr.... I mean, Dave, barbecued. That's what they usually do when Cam has friends over."

  "Actually, we had takeout," Cam began, before Beth interrupted.

  "Not that you're a friend, exactly. I mean, you're family, right? A sister. A twin. Probably."

  Silence, thick as the mist, hung in the air.

  Beth cut through it. "Soooo... anyway, I heard a little more about the e-mails they traced back to Music & More. The FBI's supposed to be closing in on a suspect."

  "The one who called himself 'Devoted'?" Cam asked. "They know who he is? Do they think he kidnapped Marleigh?"

  "How can it be a kidnapping? There's no ransom note," Alex pointed out.

  "Maybe it's not about money. Maybe he did it for"—Beth clutched her heart dramatically—"love."

  Cam and Alex exchanged a glance. Beth was trying to hard. Time for a topic change.

  "Speaking of love," Cam said with a twinkle in he
eye, "Beth thinks this guy Justin in the pizza place is into me."

  Beth rolled her eyes. "Okay, first of all, it's Jason. And second of all, yeah, he is. He's not trying to hide it."

  "From who?" Cam asked. "What exactly did he say to you?"

  To Alex, Beth said, "He's a senior, seventeen, he's got his license, and he's my friend. Of course he tells me stuff."