“Are we ready to go?”
“Actually, I wanted your opinion on something,” Meghan said, grabbing my arm. She pulled me over to a table that held half a dozen dismembered legs.
“Do you like the diamond pattern better, or the fishnet?”
“Uh…” I wasn’t an expert on hosiery. But the diamonds looked a little less hooker-y. “Diamonds.”
“Really? Because I also kinda like the rosettes.”
We stood there for another ten minutes talking over the specific details of each pattern until I was ready to pick up the mannequin thigh and slap Meghan in the face with it. Finally, the rest of the girls walked up to us.
“Okay,” Meghan chirped brightly. “Thanks for your help!”
“Which one are you going to get?”
“None of them. I still can’t decide.”
I closed my eyes and let out a long breath. I liked to browse as much as the next person, but I had my limits.
“Let’s go!” Trish said.
I was so eager to get out of there I didn’t realize, at first, that I had turned left when everyone else had, apparently, turned right. For a few seconds, I stopped dead, looking around in panic as I blocked the walkway. The mall was packed, and I took shelter by a kiosk to stay out of the flow of rabid Christmas shoppers, trying to spot Stephanie’s signature knit hat, but I was jostled roughly by a passing shopping bag.
“I’m so sorry,” the man said, grabbing my arm to steady me. “I was trying to avoid that lady with the stroller and I ran right into you. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said, backing away. He was cute, five o’clock shadow, nice jacket, shopping bag from an upscale store—and he set off my danger radar big-time.
“Oh,” he said, looking down, “you dropped your list.”
He reached down at the same time I did, and his hand brushed mine. I snatched the list of stores and stood, feeling ridiculously creeped out. Which was stupid, because nothing about this guy was overtly creepy. He was probably just a normal Christmas shopper trying to be polite and apologize for bumping into me. Adrian was getting in my head too much. And despite him saying I didn’t have to be scared of all men, I was scared of all men. Which was bullshit.
“Thanks,” I said, smiling politely. I was about to open my mouth to say more when right behind me, I heard someone exclaim, “Caitlin! Is that you?”
I turned, and there in all her petite, chic glory, was Mariana.
“It is you!” she exclaimed, taking my arm and leading me away from the shopper man. Her smile was tight, her words were rehearsed. She looked so gargantuanly out of place, stuck in among the humans. As soon as we were out of earshot of the man—who was staring after me strangely—Mariana whispered, “We discussed your trip and decided I should come along just in case.”
I stared at her. “Was that him?”
Mariana shrugged, eyes constantly scanning the crowd around us. “I cannot tell. The number of people makes it impossible to determine if anyone is a void.”
Another new term. Yay. “What’s a void?”
“A being who does not emit emotional energy. Vampires cannot sense one another, or demons, just as demons cannot sense us. Crowds muddle our perception, which is why we did not want you coming to a place as populated as a … mall.”
My apologies, oh great Vampire Lady, for wanting to get some Christmas shopping done, at Christmastime. What an absurd thing for me to do.
I raised an eyebrow at her. “If it was him, do I need to be worried?”
Mariana shrugged, which was not comforting. “I doubt he would try anything here, and I will be watching you for the remainder of your time. Just try not to draw attention to yourself.”
I suppressed a smart reply. Draw attention to myself? Right, I would definitely do that, because I’m a moron.
Mariana melted back into the crowd just as Trish finally wandered back to me, craning her neck at Mariana’s retreating figure. “Was that Adrian’s aunt back there?”
Unable to think of a quick lie, I said, “Yeah—just ran into her. Crazy.”
“A lot of people from all over Warren County come here. Though it would have been really funny if she’d seen you in Victoria’s Secret.”
She grinned at me while I shook my head—and then realized Mariana probably had seen me go into Victoria’s Secret. We caught up with the rest of the girls and Laura kept us moving with her notebook of tasks, getting us to the food court by one thirty. Just as I was about to take my first bite of pizza, I thought I saw a man looking at me. I peered closer and realized that he was actually waving at someone behind our table who was walking over with a tray of food. But I soon found three other guys I swore were eyeing me creepily. Swallowing, I looked over at Trish’s shopping bags.