Manipulation (Shadows) (20 page)

“We’ll stop in Florida, Addison.” Micah gives me a smile. “And if you’re not using what you can do, the shadow people will most likely leave you alone.”

“Really?” For the first time I feel some relief. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.” Micah nods. “And the one who’s here never comes close. I promise, okay? They used to freak me out, too.” A corner of her mouth pulls up. “Actually, they totally still do, but Landon doesn’t seem to mind them.”

It actually makes sense, when we were at the hotels, working with the clerks, that’s when it was the worst. But when Dean and I were alone in our room, just together, we were left alone. How did we not see it? I just need to find ways for them to leave me alone. Never use what I can do.

At least I feel like we’re moving toward something and that it won’t be as frantic as our last journey. I can’t believe I left New York only a few days ago.

*
*
*

We’ve dropped anchor. Micah and Landon seem perfectly relaxed, so I’m trying to be, too.

I take the first shower in the teeny bathroom. Dean takes the second.

“Please say I can stay in here with you.” Dean stands at the door of the bathroom.

“I wasn’t aware there was a choice,” I tease.

“There’s another tiny room back there.” He gestures with his head.

We’re in clean sheets, in clean pajamas and it feels wonderful. Micah said she’s getting good at acting on compulsion, and I have a few things to wear, thanks to her. So does Dean. Pajamas and shorts anyway.

“Addie?”

“Yeah. Of course.” Our night last night feels like an eternity ago. This is our redo. “Definitely here.”

He lies down, and I let my head hit the pillow next to his.

“Did you ever think you’d be in a place like this?” He smiles at me and brushes a few stray hairs from the side of my face.

“On a boat sailing south, possibly to The Bahamas, without my family?” I ask.

“Yeah. That.” He smirks.

“No.”

“Are you sorry?”

“That I’m here with you?” I’m sorry that any of this is happening, but I’m definitely not sorry about Dean.

“Yeah.”

“No.” I stare into Dean’s deep eyes. “I’m not sorry I’m here with you.”

“You know I’d do anything for you, Addison.”

“I know.” I take his hand in mine and hold it between us. Both of us knowing that I could at least give it a good try to get him to do what I want. “I’ve got it.”

“You’ve got me.”

THIRTY-SIX

Dean

Two days in, and I hardly remember what it was like to not live on a boat.

“Come on Addison!” Micah looks at her across the table. “This is the fun part of what we’re doing.”

“I don’t have a suit.” Addie frowns.

“You can borrow one of mine.”

“You…uh…have boobs. And I don’t.” Addie laughs.

“You have boobs.” I reach out and pinch her thigh.

“Barely.”

“Well, I have one that ties and is too small. You can borrow it until we get to Florida.”

“It’s not too small.” Landon chuckles, shaking his head.

“Trust me.” Micah’s eyes open wide as she looks at Addie. “It’s too small.”

“I still say it’s perfect,” Landon insists.

Landon and I exchange glances and laugh. Too small in swimsuits is a good thing.

“Us guys are going to head out on deck. We’ll see you two when you figure out suits.” Landon stands.

“Unless you decide you don’t need any.” I chuckle.

Micah throws each of us a dirty look. “Why do we keep you here?”

“For protection.” Landon flexes his muscles.

Micah throws a dishtowel at him. “We’ll see you guys in a few.”

I follow Landon out to the bow. The sun’s hot. We’re in a cove with a scattering of small sailboats similar to his. I sit on the large mesh trampoline and let the sun hit my bare chest and stomach—this whole boating thing is not so bad at the moment.

Addie picked up on sailing right away, she’s spent time on boats. I’m stronger than she is, which is good for handling lines, but she gets the navigation in a way that I don’t fully grasp yet. I’d rather be on land, and the tight spaces aren’t my favorite, but I feel like I’m in the right place.

Only two days with them and we’re settling in. We sleep next to one another but we’re more careful now. We kissed last night, and it felt like our first kiss all over.

Addie steps out into the sun and I choke. Her suit is blue and is tied on with tiny little strings.

“Careful Dean. We don’t want to have to rush you to the hospital,” she teases.

I’m just wondering how I’m going to keep my hands off of her. I stand up from my spot on the netting across the front.

“Pool’s open!” Landon runs up the side of the boat and dives off the front into the water.

Micah steps up to the edge.

Landon laughs from below. “Just do it, Micah. You’re always glad once you’re in.”

I take Addie’s hand. “You game?”

She bites her lower lip. “I don’t know.”

“Come on, Addie. I get that we’re on this journey, but we’re also at a destination, you know? How many people today will get a chance to jump off a sailboat to take a swim?”

“Okay.” Her eyes pierce mine.

Micah squeezes her eyes tightly and jumps off.

We step up to the edge and I understand Micah’s hesitation. It’s a long ways down.

“The longer you think, the harder it’ll be.” Landon’s swimming on his back, Micah next to him.

“Ready?” I take Addie’s hand.

“Together?” She smiles wide.

“Together.” I give her a squeeze.

one… two…

three…

And we jump.

EPILOGUE
 

Landon

The closer we get to Florida, the tenser I am. I have to admit that when I want us to not be seen, we’re not seen. I’m trying to wrap my head around it, but in the meantime, I’m using it.

Sleek, white boats came out yesterday, and I’m glad we’re sailing because o
f the engine noise, and they dro
ve past, but I have no doubt they were looking for us. I knew. I knew just like Micah knew she’d have to buy clothes and make dinner for four the night we met up with Dean and Addison.

I feel this weighted responsibility. I know I make Micah stronger, and it seems like everyone’s talents are sharper. I know it’s not up to me to keep us all safe, but it feels like it is.

As we head further toward whatever we’re drawn to, I still have no idea why. I have very few answers on The Middle Men aside from them being a cutthroat organization who wants us. I have no answers on the shadows, aside from me not being afraid of the one that’s on my boat.

There are too many unknowns right now, and without the group I have on my boat, I might go crazy.

And I wonder who Micah stocked the other bedroom for…

THE END

(
of book two
…)

A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Always my family.

They really put up with a lot.

Thank you Nyrae Dawn for the brainstorming session you let me in on that was the beginning of Insight.

Thank you author Wendy Higgins of Sweet Evil and Sweet Hope for your “insight” as an author of paranormal.

And Morgan Shamy, whose energy is delightful and contagious.

And Allie Brennan who is not only an amazing author but has such a knack for seeing a story for what it is, and knowing where it needs to go.

Thanks to my parents for deciding to retire on a sailboat and allowing my family to join them in The Bahamas… Because without that, the legend may have never come to me, and this series might not be what it is…

(KEEP SCROLLING FOR THE BEGINNING OF SEEKER

A
BOUT THE AUTHOR

I’m honestly not all that interesting, and still find writing bios a bit intimidating. I grew up in Alaska, but spent enough time out of state, that I often wonder about my sanity in living here again. I taught myself to play the guitar, and my husband and I have built two homes. I have two kids – one with special needs, and one with so many food allergies, he’s more work than my other.

I wear juvenile T-shirts, live on Shirley Temples and salted carmel hot chocolate, and need good music to write, or think, or drive, or keep the final threads of sanity I cling to.

You can find me in these places:

@jolenebperry

jolenesbeenwriting.blogspot.com

jolenebperry.com

on Goodreads, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble, and probably a few places I forgot about…

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE SHADOW SERIES

INSIGHT
was “born” when I was helping my good friend, Nyrae Dawn, brainstorm on a contemporary idea she was playing around with. I ended up with this idea of a girl who was afraid to touch people because she got “visions” when she did. She saw and felt things she couldn’t control, and that’s how Insight started. Nyrae told me to have fun with it, but she needed a contemp, not a paranormal. I planned for it to be a stand-alone, and didn’t know it wasn’t until I got to mid-point of my first draft of …

MANIPULATION,
which took a rather dramatic turn when Dean and Addison go “on the run.” This was the moment I knew I wanted Micah and Landon, and Dean and Addie to meet up. At first, I simply wanted to write stories of people with different odd “talents.” The Middle Men and the legend from The Bahamas came later, and had to be threaded through the two stories. The reason I did it this way is that I wanted to see the back-story of how a group like the Cullens began. Or the movie, Unbreakable, where the MC slowly discovers his “superhero” ablities. The shadow series hopefully shows how a powerful group like that comes into their own. OR… since this is book two and not book three… how a group might fail to come together. Or how two opposing sides have the ability to ruin each other. Which brought me to…

SEEKER.
Oh, to be in the head of the “bad guys” is a very, very fun thing. Once I knew I wanted each book to have a predominantly different MC, I knew exactly how I wanted to do the last book, and that’s from the eyes of a girl named Kara, who prides herself in being a fabulous Seeker of new talent for The Middle Men. We get a look inside the organization as well as what drives them. Now, I will say that we HAVE to know what’s happening with our people aboard the sailing vessel, Moonshadow, so the POVs alternate between Kara and the people we know from the sailboat. So don’t worry, we will get our fix of Micah, Landon, Dean and Addison as the story unfolds and we learn more about the Bahamian legend, Voodoo, the shadows, and The Middle Men…

I’VE WRITTEN LOTS OF BOOKS
and plan to write lots more. My already released titles are:

LDS FICTION:
The Next Door Boys, Left to Love, My Forever
.

YA CONTEMPORARY:
Night Sky, Knee Deep, Spill Over, My Heart for Yours
(co-authored with Steph Campbell),
Dizzy
(Co-authored with Nyrae Dawn).

NEW ADULT CONTEMPORARY:
A collection of short stories –
10 Weeks
(Co-authored with Janna Watts), and
Falling
, which takes place in my backyard, and uses a lot of people I know in real life. Look for
3 Sides to a Circle
(Co-authored with Janna Watts), coming spring 2013
, and
After All
, coming summer 2013
.

IN BOOKSTORES:

Look for
Misplaced
(co-authored with Nyrae Dawn) to be released Fall 2013 with Entangled Publishing, and
Used To Be
, (though I’m predicting a title change) to be released Spring 2014 by Albert Whitman Teen Publishing.

CONTINUE TO THE NEXT PAGE FOR THE
(unedited)
BEGINNING OF SEEKER…

PROLOGUE

Micah

My sides hurt from laughing. The last storm passed, and despite it being hurricane season, the weather today is about perfect. The sails are full, and we’re moving along at what Landon says is a good clip, but if sailing weren’t still so new, I’m sure I’d complain about the snail’s pace we’re making compared to what a speed boat would do.

“Okay. Try again.” Landon holds out his hand, his smile still huge and Dean takes it.

Landon frowns as he concentrates and then he jerks away laughing. “Well, that’s just mean!” he protests.

Dean falls to sitting on the mesh net on the front of the boat—like a trampoline between the two pontoons that house our bedrooms below.

“Couldn’t help it.” Dean smirks. “It’s not like either one of us have been able to make you guys do anything. Though, getting you to jump off your own boat was probably a long shot.”

Addison and Dean’s talent of manipulating people doesn’t seem to work on Landon or I. It’s that I can feel the thought creeping in. I can even feel my body wanting to obey, but I don’t have to. I’m not sure it would be the same if I didn’t know it was coming—but so far, I have. And as much as I looked forward to boating with just Landon, I’ve never had a group of friends, so they’ve been a lot more than distraction—for me at least. I need distraction right now. Distraction from the unknown and the known—being stalked by The Middle Men, and the shadows is terrifying.

Addison flops down next to Dean leaning her head on his bare shoulder. In the few weeks they’ve been here, they’ve grown closer by the day, though I can’t imagine what it would be like to fall for someone who has the ability to manipulate the way they do. They’ve both spent their whole lives getting people to do small things for them, and I wonder if they sometimes accidentally put ideas in each others’ heads by accident.

Their gift has gotten us out of more than one round of questions at harbors, which has definitely helped keep us away from The Middle Men. We’re heading south, though we still don’t know exactly where. All four of us feel the need to keep going and keep running, so we are. The uncertainty is what’s killing me.

Landon shrugs. “Can’t help my mad skills.”

We’ve all be practicing blocking each other’s gifts. Landon’s a shield and he also seems to make us all stronger. Though, with the addition of Dean and Addison I have more control over my visions than I ever thought I’d have, so maybe it’s just the energy we all share—according to Addison’s little sister’s research, that’s exactly what it is.

“Finally good weather!” Landon yells as he throws his arms in the air laughing.

It’s been a problem since we left the Carolinas. We’ve spent as much time stopped and tied up as sailing. Maybe more. It’s exhausting for Landon to use his gift to keep us hidden when we’re so still, but he does it. And so far, The Middle Men haven’t caught up since before we picked up Dean and Addie.

After seeing how we’ll be treated by The Middle Men if they take us, I want no part of whatever they want to “talk” about.

Landon’s head cocks to the side as he looks at the mast.

“Is it back?” I ask as another shiver slides through my body. I will never get used to the moving shadows that follow us.

“It’s not that.” He leans further over as he squints near the rigging.

My chest tightens as wariness settles in.

“I think I see a way
in
,” he says as he steps up on the broad roof of the boat.

My heart hammers. “A way into where?” Even though I know.

Landon likes the shadows. Or at least doesn’t mind them nearly as much as the rest of us. He watches them move in and out of the dark line created by the mast and sometimes I swear he’s trying to communicate with them. He’ll sit there for an hour or more just watching.

They’ve chased me through the woods, chased Dean and Addison from New York, and still they follow us. And still we don’t know why.

“Keep away from there, Landon.” I tense up knowing how rash he can be.

A shadow person steps out from the shadow created by the mast. Its charcoal eyes on Landon. The edges of its shape are smoky and smudged, making them look like something out of a nightmare rather than my nearly daily life. I gasp as I almost always do because the idea of them is so foreign that it still doesn’t feel as if they could be real.

Landon glances over his shoulder. “Do you trust me?”

Oh, no. I shake my head.

A corner of his mouth quirks up. “You don’t trust me? My own girl doesn’t trust me?”

“Because I know you’re about to do something stupid.” I move toward him and try to plead with my eyes. We both stand, staring and I try to see into the future. Ahead. What will happen, but all I’m getting from him is now.

Hopefulness. Eagerness. My worried eyes. Anticipation.
Definitely now.

“I think we need them. Can use them. Or help them. Or they can help us. You know I don’t think they’re bad.” He’s practically begging for my okay, and that means that if I beg him to stay, he will. But I’m not sure I can tell Landon no—especially not when I know how he feels.

Every cell in my body wants to scream. Instead I say, “I don’t think this is a good idea.” The fact that it might not work doesn’t even cross my mind. If Landon sees a way in, I believe him.

Landon takes one small step toward me, and I want to close the distance and ask him what he’s thinking.

“We need this. The information. We’re still traveling blind. I can do this. Please trust me.”

“I trust you, Landon. It’s the shadows I don’t trust.” Worry continues to build, trying to suffocate me.

“Don’t worry.” He winks. “I got this.”

“But—”

I don’t get to finish. Landon steps sideways, and I expect nothing to happen, but instead as he moves through a door that only he can see, I see nothing. In seconds he slides through and disappears from sight.

I leap onto the top of the boat and wave my hands around where he vanished, but feel nothing. Not even the cold the shadows sometimes bring. My body goes numb as my legs go weak and my heart takes off. He just…stepped through something and completely disappeared?

“Holy shit,” Dean whispers, and Addie stands stunned.

This can’t be happening. He was just here. HERE. I wave my arms around again as if I’ll magically figure out how he moved through and squint at nothing. What did he see? How did he get through?
How will he get back?

“He’ll be okay.” Dean gives my back a quick pat, and I can feel him send the thought.
Be calm.

Right now I will it to work, but it doesn’t.

“But we’re moving,” I protest.
What if he’s left behind?

Dean’s face holds a brief moment of panic before he shrugs. “We’re always moving and they seem to come and go without problem.”

Addison steps up next to me as I stand, still staring at where Landon just
disappeared
, her long hair blowing out behind her, and I seem to be frozen to the spot.

“It’ll be okay, Micah,” she whispers, only her voice shakes as much as I’m sure mine would.

Dean’s white as a sheet, and Addie’s frozen. He takes her hand, and I know they’re talking the way only they can—without words.

Dean clears his throat. “He’ll be fine. I’m going to check our heading.” And he steps down to the steering station.

Addie gives me a careful pat on the back, which shows no vision aside from her and Dean together, and all I want to see is Landon, but I can’t, and without him here, I’m not sure I could force myself to see anything outside of the way my talent used to work—random with touch.

I stare at where he disappeared, and try to see into the shadow created by the mast and the sail. He can’t have just
gone
. And if he did, there’s a part of me that wants to join him, if for nothing else than to bring him back.

I step just under the mainsail and the air cools slightly. A form slowly takes shape. The eyes are a bit blurry, but it’s definitely a shadow person. Heart hammering like metal on metal, I don’t run away this time, just stand and stare. They just took Landon, and I really want them to know how much I need him back. I wonder if there’s a way to convey that without words.

“Please. I need him back,” I say, wondering again if they can hear anything we say.

A hand of the shadow person reaches toward me slowly.

No
…

“Landon?” Did they turn him into a shadow? Is that the only way
in
? And if so, how do you get
out
? But it’s impossible to tell. The edges of the shadows are like mist or smoke, not solid.

A hand comes up, and I can just make out the sign language on the smoky edges of his fingers. “I love you.”

Landon
.

The weight in my chest is nearly crippling. What does this mean? Is he saying goodbye or that he’s okay?

“I need more from you? Can you come back? When will you be back?” My voice is desperate, but I don’t care at the moment. I just want him here and not there.

I hold my hand to his, but all I can feel is cold. I try to grasp him, but there’s nothing to grasp, just a thin layer of smoky ash on my hand.

“Take me with you!” I yell.

Landon shakes his head and touches my cheek with a cold, smoky finger.

And just as quickly as his shadow appeared, he slides back into the darkest part of the mast’s shadow, and I follow with my eyes the subtle twitching of darkness as it travels toward the water.

Dread starts to fill me as I wonder if the last picture in my mind I have of Landon will be the blurry
, smoky edges of something that doesn’t look real. The thought tears at me, and as it hits me that he’s really not here anymore, my legs give out, and I fall to sitting on the deck wishing I’d have begged him not to go.