“You know perfectly well, seeing a ghost is much more acceptable,” Mother says. “And that is the perfect setup.”
I slide the glasses back up over my eyes and point CeCe’s nose into the sun. “Anyway, I always tell my … conquests that I’m new in town. I always make sure the body I borrow is indisposed or miles away. And I always skip out before we find ourselves in the same breathing space. So chill.”
“For the love of a ripe cadaver, you’re in the girl’s home!”
“And she’s in Europe! Your point?”
My mother stands speechless, dressed in some woman’s body that would’ve had a good twenty years left on it had it been allowed to carry on. She’s holier than Swiss.
“What are you talking about? What does this Nicolas person in a cage have to do with anything? And I have no idea where Timber Lake is.”
“What a waste of a perfectly good human ride. You could at least try to spend a few hours a body to understand the humans you are murdering, and the world they thrive in. What the heck do you do in there?” I point CeCe’s disciplining finger at my guardian. “Tell me you at least mix and mingle? Surf the net? Surely you know what Facebook is?”
The eyes Mother is wearing look gobsmacked.
“Do you even try to be human?” I taunt.
My mother ruffles the old lady’s brows, tightens parched lips, and spits, “I’m going home. Don’t call me during your descent into hell.”
“I won’t be the first, and surely not the last, of our kind to find themselves there,” I yell at her swiftly moving human form.
I can tell Mom is really pissed, because she dumps the host she is wearing, and just before the old lady winks out, I get a good look at the dark creature that is doppelganger as it slides into a drain on the other side of the pool.
I’m restless now, and all I can think about is the release I felt with Blue Eyes the other night in the alley behind the bar. The three after were a total disappointment. Crap. I wish I’d gotten his cell number. But catch and release has been my motto forever, because until I find the right one, I will never hit them twice.
I remove CeCe’s sunglasses, spring from the chair, and make a running dive into the pool. When I surface, I feel a bit better, but it doesn’t discourage me from considering another night out—a long night out.
Chapter 2
CeCe
“Damn it! This body has a burning desire to take in nourishment way too often. What an annoyingly gross necessity,” I mutter as CeCe’s need carries me into a small eating establishment on the side of the highway.
It’s only six forty-five in the morning, barely daylight. I guess this is what I get for staying out all night. I’d hardly showered and dressed before my host’s stomach started growling.
The place I enter has only three booths and five tables scattered around a twenty-by-twenty room, one third of which is kitchen. The overwhelming tension in the air makes it hard to breathe.
My head is spinning with boisterous chatter and clatter. To my right, a massive woman dressed in a muumuu of riotous flora is shouting for immediate service and, with an annoyingly loud voice, croaking to no one and everyone about perishing before the waiter gets food to her. Which I seriously doubt, given her girth; her body should be able to feed on itself for a considerable time before those brightly colored flowers wither and die.
I look around—no waitress or waiter—but a deep masculine voice fights for top billing over the crowd. “Sorry folks, I’m on my own today. Help yourself to coffee, it’s on me. Orders will be up shortly.”
Prickling curiosity and a heady feeling of hopeful possibilities push me to walk across the room, lean over the counter, and take a look. The guy with the voice causing such an unusual reaction in me is hidden by a stainless steel cook-grill, hanging pots and pans, and a cloud of steam coming off the grill.
Strong arms and thick fingers pull clothes-pinned tickets across a line of monofilament attached to the bottom of a head-high shelf over the grill. The movement thrusts a rush through my being—not CeCe’s—and an unfamiliar flush of warmth, both of which my doppelganger has never experienced. Heat radiates to my temples. I feel my life force push and swell under CeCe’s skin.
When the man leans out and we make eye contact, the room fades around us. I freeze, mouth open. Intense gray-green eyes sparkle like the light captured on the surface of the stainless steel grill.
For the first time in my life, I wish I didn’t always have to be someone I’m not. CeCe? What a stupid name! I guess I can call myself Echo—not like doppelgangers have names—because, after all, I am only a reflection of a real human. The weight of sadness taints my throbbing bulk sheathed in a Florida tan, brown hair, and big almond eyes. Will I ever find a body I can share for a human lifetime? Or at least the portion of a human lifetime I would care to take part in.