“Huh. Guess I’m the last one to know. I feel like such an ass.”
“For what it’s worth, I heard Kevin tell Sarah that you were his best friend and he didn’t want to hurt you.” Maybe that wasn’t my story to tell, but I didn’t care too much about Sarah. I cared about Mace, though. And, oddly enough, I cared about Kevin—and their friendship.
“He should have thought of that before. And, no, he says he never slept with her.”
“You don’t sound convinced.”
Mace closed his eyes and leaned back against the side of my bed. “She wanted to. I went to see her after Kevin confessed. She says he treats her better than I do. She said with me she felt like she was just a substitute for the person I really wanted.”
“What’s she talking about? You were totally into her. What other girl have you even spent time with?”
“You. She was jealous of you.”
I swear to God the bottom fell out of my stomach. “Me? Is she on crack? I’m with Ben.” And I totally wasn’t Mace’s type. Was I? Never mind, because he wasn’t mine. “Why?”
“Because we have history.”
“She’s jealous because you found me lying on the floor in a pool of my blood and tears, begging to die? That’s fucked up.”
He laughed at that—thankfully. “Yeah, I know.” His expression sobered. “I can’t decide if I’m happy that I know what she’s like and that we’re done, or if I’m just really pissed off. I feel betrayed, y’know?”
I nodded. “Yeah.” I didn’t really. I hadn’t dated much, and no one had ever cheated on me before because they thought I was crazy and might go psycho on them if they did.
“Can I crash here for a bit?” he asked. “I don’t want to go home and have to explain it all. Not right now.”
Nan probably wouldn’t like it, but she’d like me letting him drive any farther even less. “Sure.” I pulled the quilt off my bed and handed it to him. I gave him the extra pillow, too. Then I climbed back under the covers. My bed was still warm.
“Hey, Lark?”
I peered over the side of the bed. He was cocooned in the quilt on the floor so tightly I had no idea how he’d accomplished it. “Yeah?”
“Thanks for being my friend.”
Aww. I smiled. “You’re welcome. And if you’re still here when Ben comes by to pick me up, you get to explain why. Got it?”
“Got it.”
He curled up into a ball and promptly passed out. I watched over him for a little while just to make sure he was okay. Out of the small group of people I considered friends, Mace had been the big surprise. I felt more of a connection with him than I did even with Roxi. I couldn’t explain it, but if I had to move away tomorrow, Ben and Mace were the people it would break my heart to leave—and my grandmother, of course.
The fact that Sarah thought our relationship was romantic was just one more reason not to like her.
She was obviously nuts.
WREN
I didn’t go to Noah with what I’d learned. I was going to wait on that. There had to be a reason why he didn’t tell me Kevin was a relative. Maybe he didn’t even know. I wasn’t going to jump to conclusions, and I wasn’t going to ask about it so soon after him losing a friend. Never mind that the friend was a bastard and a villain. Instead, I stayed in the Shadow Lands a while, letting it balance and recharge my spiritual energy, and then I went home to tell Lark what I’d found out.
And found Mace asleep on the floor of our bedroom while Lark was sprawled across most of the bed.
Was that a window screen leaning against the wall? The strangest things seemed to happen to my sister when I wasn’t around.
An advantage to being a ghost is that I was very, very quiet. I sat down on the edge of the bed and waited for the alarm to go off. It did just that a minute later; Lark’s cell phone suddenly came to life, blaring a song that always made me want to dance.
Mace bolted upright. “What the hell?”
I laughed. He was a mess. Lark didn’t react with the same surprise. “Wren?” she mumbled. “Wren?”
That was my cue. Part of the whole “working on my electronic interaction” agenda apparently included learning how to turn off my sister’s alarm, so she could remain wrapped in the warmth of the bed.
I turned off the alarm. Mace fell back to the floor. I heard a thump, and he swore.
“I think he missed the pillow,” I said.
Suddenly, a wave of blankets crashed through me. I shuddered. God, I hated the feeling of fabric disrupting my energy. I’d tried to explain it to Lark once, and she said it sounded like trying to floss her teeth with yarn. I had no idea if that was accurate or not, but she understood me better than anyone else.
“Get up!” my sister cried. “Mace, get the hell up!” She almost stepped on him as she jumped out of bed.
He groaned and sat up once again. His thick sandy hair stuck out in all directions, and he looked like he was about five years old, all rumpled and sleepy.
“What?” he demanded groggily. “What time is it?”