by Berinn Rae
“Sydney? What are you doing here?” he asked.
Sydney glanced Cali’s way and gave a welcoming wave before returning her attention to Felix. Her bright expression darkened slightly.
“Niella told me what she Dreamed. Way to leave me in the dark. I went looking for you but you were gone. I came as soon as I could. What the hell do you think you were doing, anyway?” she scolded. “You could have gotten seriously injured, you dumbass. You have no idea who — ” Her gaze caught on Collette, noticing her for the first time. Recognition flashed briefly. Her voice dropped, and Cali could just barely detect the fear behind it. “What is she doing here?”
Felix shook his head.
Sydney turned to Cali. “Was she the one that attacked you?”
Something tickled in the back of Cali’s mind. “She said she was following orders.”
Felix and Sydney both shared a look.
“She’s a full-forced Illusionist, Felix. This wasn’t the regular cookie cutter Dream from Niella.”
Felix’s face was solemn. “I know.”
“How’d you take her out?” Sydney walked a small perimeter around Collette as if looking for signs of life.
Cali wanted to step forward. She wanted to boast that she’d taken a Taser to Collette and hadn’t needed Felix’s help. Only her vision started going black again. A sudden wave of exhaustion hit, and she reached out blindly.
Warm fingers grasped hers before everything went dark.
Chapter 3
Felix wrapped his arms around Cali as her body went limp. It lasted only a second. A dizzy spell? Had she fainted? Either way she was back on her feet shortly. She averted her eyes from his as she pushed away from him. He wished she wouldn’t do that.
Put space between them.
He bit back a growl of frustration.
“I’m okay,” she said before he or Sydney could ask.
Sydney, ever the doctor, came up and got right in Cali’s face. Cali gave a start but she didn’t back down.
Felix’s lip curled.
“Too much, too soon,” Sydney diagnosed.
“Huh?” Cali said articulately.
Sydney leaned back, arms crossed. “You used too much of your powers too soon. I take it you’ve never used them this much, if at all?”
“Power?”
“You’re a Silencer. You know … ” She wiggled her hands in a way that had Felix biting back a laugh. “You manipulate sound. I’m a Shielder.” She thrust her hand out. “Sydney Spencer. I block everyone’s powers around me.”
Cali hesitated before shaking her hand. “Cali Crazar,” she said carefully. “Nice to meet you.” She turned on Felix. “And you’re what? The Vanisher?”
He grinned at her sarcasm. “Eraser.”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course.”
“I don’t know about you guys but I have a feeling we need to get out of here.” Sydney kicked the unconscious Collette without remorse. “I’m sure there’s going to be reinforcements when she doesn’t report in.”
Felix couldn’t agree more.
Collette. Here.
Shit.
Shitshitshit!
The scar along his shoulder burned insistently. Every scenario he played out in his head ended poorly. Collette showing up here couldn’t be coincidence. She had to know. The way she eyed Cali … it was as if she knew Cali was his missing half. His Mirror Mate.
Was this some kind of revenge gig then? An eye for an eye? The poetic and barbaric justice suited Collette to a T. He’d destroyed her Mirror Mate so she would get his?
Well, it wouldn’t fucking work that way.
He reached for Cali’s hand, wanting the contact, craving it like he’d never craved anything before in his life. His whole body was tuned into her, and it took all his control to stay his more intense impulses. “We should go out the back in case anyone was left in that van two houses down.”
Cali swung her hand out from under his right before they touched. Their eyes locked. Felix grew hot and cold all at once.
Fuck, he wanted her.
Those insanely dark eyes left his quickly. Had she seen the carnal need raging within him? “I can’t leave. All this” — she encompassed the whole house — “aren’t we supposed to, I don’t know, report it to the cops? We were attacked. What if my parents come back? They probably made a run for it.”
“They didn’t leave.” He tried to say it gently. She needed to understand that her parents hadn’t been real. “They were an Illusion. Like whatever it is you saw in the hallway. I’m guessing they were Collette’s doing. They were planning this, Cali.”
Her fisted hands came to rest on her hips. “Oh, yeah? And how the hell did they know I was going to be here? I don’t live here anymore.”
“A Dreamer,” Sydney spoke up softly.
Cali spun on her. “A what?”
“Dreamer,” Felix answered for her. “They have visions. Past, present, future. They usually don’t have control over it unless they’re a full-forced Dreamer.” Was that how Collette had known to find Cali? But the only full-forced Dreamer he knew was Kevin, and he was in no position to help Collette.
“Look,” Sydney said. “We’ll explain everything to you, but we really need to get a move on. For whatever reason someone is after you.” She stared pointedly at Collette. “That’s bad news in my book.”
“I can’t just get up and leave,” Cali persisted, stubbornly.
Sydney gave him an exasperated and somewhat expectant look.
He gave her his own look. “What?”
“Can’t you do something here?”
“What do you want me to do?”
“She’s your Mirror Mate,” she said. “Can’t you, I don’t know, control her or something?”
Felix gave her a wry smile. “I don’t think it works that way, Syd.”
“Well, it should,” she huffed. “It’d definitely make this easier.”
He grinned. “As entertaining as that thought might be, now is not the time to dwell on it.” They needed to get out of here. Apart of him wanted to stay so he could question Collette when she awoke, but she was too unstable. Who knew how strong she’d be when she woke up? A full-forced Illusionist was nothing to mess around with. Especially one you’ve scorned. Ignoring his inner voice, he turned to his predicted Mirror Mate. She seemed to be handling everything relatively well, considering she hadn’t flipped out and called him a freak yet.
He tried for logic. “Let’s say your parents were real. If they left, then I’m sure they’re getting the police as we speak.”
That did it. Some of the edge left her shoulders and she rubbed at her temples. “That man … ” She gestured down the hall to where it dead-ended into the kitchen. “He’s gone, too. There isn’t even a sign of his blood. How is that even possible?”
His eyes caught Sydney’s.
They were both thinking the same thing. Someone was going to painstaking ends to set Cali up.
What the hell was Collette up to?
His confusion grew, as did his anger.
Cali started toward the kitchen, pausing to pick up a large, duffel-type purse and sling it over her shoulder. Her attention crept to where the first Illusion had been. She was trying to piece it together, to explain it to herself, and Felix kept quiet. She was strong, but even the strongest of people broke when their world was flipped too fast.
Hell, he’d locked himself in his room for two months when he’d first used his powers.
He understood all too well about the fear, the loneliness, that feeling of being lost.
“Are you guys some type of special military branch?” she finally spoke up.
Sydney held back a laugh.
“Not exactly,” he hedged. What to tell her? They didn’t even have a name for their little super squad. All he had was, “Hey, we go out and try to prevent disasters when Niella Dreams of them. And don’t forget we even save cats from really high trees!”
The truth was that th
ey were a small group. Very small. They had no idea if there was a military branch out there and personally he really didn’t want to be some mad scientist’s wet dream.
It was those types of thoughts that made secrecy so important to people like them.
“I know it’s not a lot to go on,” he began and then stopped. He cocked his head.
Cali’s whole body tensed. “What?”
It came again. The slamming of car doors.
Sydney dashed to the front door and locked it. Cali jumped over Collette to pull back the curtains in the living room.
Her face froze. “Jared.”
Felix couldn’t help the white-hot jealousy that crashed through his body.
“Garnet.” Cali spoke a second later.
Sydney hustled to pull Cali away from the window before she was spotted. “Who?”
“My brother and sister,” said Cali.
The tension riding Felix’s body eased.
“Right,” said Sydney. “Time to move.” She handed Cali off like a football, and Felix ushered her back toward the kitchen.
He heard Cali mumbling under her breath. “What are they doing here?”
A key jingled in the door.
Sydney drew up beside him. “Tell me again how this is going to work?”
He was supposed to have a plan? Didn’t running in and saving the damn day count? “Uh, we run out the back and circle around to our cars?”
They’d reached the kitchen. The floor was clear of any bodies, though Cali kept searching the floor as if it held the missing answers.
As soon as they made it into the backyard they heard a male voice call out from the front door. “Cali?”
Felix cursed under his breath.
“Well, you can’t blame them for searching for her,” said Sydney. “They did, after all, park behind her car in the driveway.” Something flashed across her face as soon as the words left her mouth, but Felix had no time to try and figure it out.
He wanted to run his hand through his hair but was too busy steering Cali. “Not now, Syd.”
She strayed to one of the windows on the side of the house and peeked in. “They’ve found Collette.” That didn’t give them very much time before the police would be called. “Where’d you park?” Sydney asked him.
Hadn’t she seen where he’d parked? “One house up,” he told her. Then, with a sinking sensation, and a sudden understanding of her earlier expression, he asked, “Where’d you park?”
Sydney winced. “Don’t go getting mad at me. You’re the one that took off without telling anyone. I was just trying to help.”
“Where did you park?” he repeated.
“In the driveway?”
“Dammit, Syd.” This was not what he needed. Sure enough, as soon as they cleared the gate that led into the front yard, they saw Sydney’s white Toyota Yaris trapped between a beat-up Nissan parked in front of it and a new Ford Ranger behind it.
New plan.
“We can’t get to your car, Syd, so we’ll pile into the Hummer. I hope you didn’t leave anything valuable inside.”
“I didn’t know her brother and sister were going to come by,” she defended.
Cali seemed to wake up from her shocked stupor. “Neither did I,” she shot back.
Sydney ignored the comment. “Felix, the car’s registered in my name. It has all my information inside the glove compartment. I have to move it.”
“No time,” he told her. He hated to do this to Sydney, but the less they were connected to whatever it was Collette was involved with, the better. He wasn’t so much worried about the police finding them, but rather whoever Collette was working with finding them.
They stopped a few yards short of his Hummer, and he turned to Sydney’s car.
Sydney eyed him up and down. Realization dawned. “Felix, don’t you dare, I just bought that this spring.”
The back of his neck began to prickle. He focused on her car. Fatigue beat at the edges of his awareness, warning him that he’d already used his powers a lot that day.
He waved his hand.
Her car blipped out of existence. There one second, gone the next.
“You bastard,” Sydney hissed at him. “You owe me big.” Her face was deadly. The expression was almost comical on her sun-tanned face. She’d get over it. Sydney couldn’t stay mad at someone for longer than five minutes. Her incessant cheerfulness always overrode her anger.
When they reached his Hummer, he gave Cali a gentle nudge, signaling her to go around to the passenger seat. Sydney was already crawling into the back.
Once in the safety of his own car, he could breathe a little easier. Cali hesitated before getting in completely, a noise escaping her throat once she closed the door.
“Everything all right?” he asked.
Her eyes widened and a flush spread across her cheeks. “Fine.” She stared out the window, arms crossed.
He wanted to press her for more details. Wanted to know if she had the same urge as he did to reach out and touch her. The setting sun flickered in through the car window, casting her in shadows. It exaggerated her dark hair and eyes. The mascara along her eyelashes seemed to glitter.
Sydney poked her head up between the two seats. “Hey Romeo,” she burst into his thoughts quietly. “We going to get a move on or what?”
Cali turned.
He’d been caught but she didn’t look away timidly. Her chin rose and her eyes narrowed.
Looks like she’s finally breaking through the shock.
“You hustle me out of my parents’ house to stare at me in a car?”
A smile split his lips.
Oh, yeah, he thought. This is going to be fun.
Chapter 4
Cali stared out the car window, trying to ignore her body’s hypersensitivity to Felix and where he was in proximity to her. The scent of the ocean and freshly baked bread still lingered inside the Hummer, teasing her. The smell was positively intoxicating and she hadn’t been able to help the moan of appreciation she’d let slip when she’d first entered the vehicle.
Felix had caught her red-handed, but she’d stared him down until he’d had to look away to start the car.
She’d let him think what he wanted. She was here for answers. She already knew they wouldn’t hurt her, and she had to admit she was damn curious how Felix could make things disappear while that other woman, Collette, seemed able to make anything she wanted to appear. Not to mention her own inner turmoil as to what had been happening to her.
Did she believe them when they told her she could manipulate sound?
Yes.
No, she lied to herself.
She was going along to get answers. If she was in danger then it would seem idiotic to leave without any knowledge as to why. Someone was after her. Felix had come to help her. Felix had powers. Collette had powers. She had powers. What other explanation was there when she’d blacked out earlier? That prickling at the back of her neck … it hadn’t been natural.
Questions consumed her, and she leaned her head back against the headrest to ease the ache that was starting.
There was only one way to get what you wanted. You had to chase after it.
Well, this was her, chasing it.
Buildings blurred past as they continued along the freeway. Their “getaway” was anything but fast-paced and exciting. Felix had pulled away from her parent’s house as if he hadn’t a care in the world. Now he kept his white H2 going at a steady five miles per hour above the speed limit as they headed westward, farther out toward the coast.
The freeway exit they took wasn’t all that far from where Cali lived. The surprises kept on coming when they pulled into a small shopping plaza and parked outside a veterinary clinic.
Cali leaned forward to get a better look out the windshield. She tried to figure out the reason behind them stopping but none of the establishments popped out as offering getaway type necessities. There was the vet, a pizza place, laundry, groomers, and a dental off
ice.
“Why are we stopping?”
“Welcome, Cali” — Sydney poked her head between the two front seats to say with much pride in her voice — “to our unofficial headquarters.”
“This?” Cali couldn’t help but blurt.
Felix shot her a cocky grin from behind Sydney. “Watch what you say about Sydney’s baby.”
“What’s wrong with my clinic?”
Felix got out of the car, smothering a laugh.
Despite Sydney’s petite size, she had a level stare that made Cali squirm. She didn’t want to insult her.
Beneath those perfectly arched golden brows her eyes glittered with amusement as she waited for Cali’s answer.
“Nothing’s wrong with it. I was expecting something” — she floundered — “bigger.”
The mirth behind Sydney’s eyes faded.
Oops.
Felix saved her by opening the passenger door. Cali would have fallen out if she hadn’t been belted in. She quickly undid the clasp and climbed out of the car, ignoring the hand Felix offered.
No touching, she told herself. No matter how badly you want to.
Felix dropped his hand and disguised his disappointment by leaning in to study Sydney. Both his eyebrows rose into his hairline. “Wow. What’d you say to her?”
Embarrassment flushed Cali’s cheeks. “Nothing.”
Sydney squeezed through the gap between the front seats to exit through the passenger side. “She called my clinic small,” she said indignantly.
“Ouch.” Felix bumped his shoulder against Cali’s. “I told you to watch what you said to her.”
Her shoulder tingled where he’d touched her. She glared at him.
Sydney didn’t waste any more time on them as she went straight to the front door. She tried the handle but it was locked. She took out her keys, and still the door wouldn’t open.
Cali tried to see through the glass. “Are you sure this is your clinic?” she asked skeptically.
Sydney narrowed her eyes and shook her head. “You’re Felix’s Mirror Mate all right,” she mumbled. “Yes, this is my place,” she spoke up, exasperated. “Joel must have Locked it.” She pounded on the door.
