New Revelations: Second Sight Book Two (13 page)

When she walked into Gage’s house, she
s
aw that a swarm of people
had
already
arrived. Kate
guessed she wouldn’t know too many of her former
Thompson
College
classmates
considering the fact she had been
a hermit until last month.
She had an uncomfortable date with Gage’s friend Sebastian right before she got together with Jared.
However,
Julie had assuaged Kate’s dread over running into him by letting her know he wasn’t able to make the party.
Social
gatherings still gave Kate
anxiety, but she decided the best defense against awkward questions about her gift was to play it coy.

Since Julie was
a good head taller than
Kate
, it wasn’t hard to spot her
in the kitchen mixing up
drinks.
Gage was standing behind his girlfriend with his head resting on her shoulder.
Gage looked as though
he had participated in a few pre-game drinks
judging
by his red face and unfocused stare.

“Hi,” she chirped to Julie and handed her a tray.
“
My mother and I
baked some cookies for tonight.
”

Before Julie could slap his hand away, Gage reached inside and grabbed a handful. “God, these look awesome!” With his mouth filled with food, he questioned
,
“But where’s the rest? It looks like so
meone already ate half the tray.
”

Kate looked down at her top to see if she
had
left any residual cookie crumbs. “Sorry I got hungry on the way here. I’m trying to stock up before my fast begins tomorrow.”

“Kate, you’ve been saying that
you’re
going to stop eating
for weeks now and it’s always after a major food binge. I told you that you didn’t need to lose any weight, you look fabulous,” Julie said. Julie was tall and thin which afforded her
the opportunity
to be generous with the compliments.

Gage was looking at her with an appraising eye. Only he could make her feel like a calf up for auction. “I wouldn’t go that far
, Jul
.
She could probably stand to lose
five
to ten
pounds.”

“You’re such an animal, Gage,” she hissed and left the kitchen despite Julie’s protests. After a quick
loop around the main floor, Kate
decided to h
ead downstairs to the basement.
There was always the possibility she would recognize someone and not be stuck standing in a corner all alone.

Most
of the partygoers
were from
Thompson
College
which Julie and Gage still attended. Kate had dropped out her freshman year after contracting meningitis. It hadn’t been really enough time to make any lasting friendships with anyone besides her roommate Julie. Her high school friends were freaked out over the hubbub around her psychic visio
ns and she was no longer
in contact with them.
If she ran into someone around town, they would exchange small talk for a few minutes. However, after noting their darting glances, Kate guessed they probably wouldn’t want to be caught dead hanging out with the psychic freak.

Kate
saw
Lauren
, a girl
she remembered from her
freshman
English
Comp
class. Luckily, Lauren recognized her too and she had someone to talk with until she found Julie again. Catching up with her was a nice distraction and actually fooled her into believing she still fit in with other college kids her age. After
f
ifteen minutes, Lauren turned to her. “Do you have a boyfriend?”

“Yes, but he couldn’t make it toni
ght…” she trailed off and felt the
pang of missing Jared once again.

“Oh
,
ok
…
because this really hot guy has been checking you out from across the room,” Lauren whispered with a giggle.

The slick move would’ve been to nonchalantly glance over, but Kate instead whirled her head to look behind her. Sure enough, Declan was lean
ing against the wall with a plastic cup
in his hand and an unsettling stare. Grudgingly, she had to admit he looked pretty good in a plaid button down and a pair of jeans. His
facial hair had grown out
more in the couple of days since she last him and it made him appear
simultaneously rough and sexy.
He looked like every mother’s worse nightmare and every girl’s erotic fantasy.

Lauren was still talking to her. “Wow, does he go to school here? Trish looks way into him.”

A very cute girl Kate didn’t
recognize stood a few inches in front of Declan
. If it was Kate
standing there
, she would’ve clocked him for paying so little atten
tion to what she was saying. Trish’s
straight red hair fell past her shoulders
and
complemented her perfect creamy complexion. Every few seconds, she would move slightly closer and get a little friendlier with her hands.

Kate could acknowledge
that things were tense after their last meeting. However, Declan should’ve at least made an effort to say hello
before finding some poor girl to pet his ego
.

“He’s actually a friend…” Kate
paused at the word since she wasn’t sure how to categorize Declan. Maybe a colleague would be a more appropriate term.
“I guess I should say hi to him.”

Lauren laughed at her tone. “You don’t so
und
happy about it.”

“It’s sort of a complicated friendship.
It was great to catch up though,” she said sincerely and smiled.
“
Are you hanging out for awhile? I could find you in a bit.”

Lauren he
aded to play beer pong
while
Kate cautiously made her way over to Declan. By this time, Trish had completely flattened her body against his despite it not being crowded in the basement. Although Kate gave her a friendly smile, Trish shot her daggers u
pon her approach. The girl
definitely didn’t want an unknown girl
trying to interrupt their flirting.

“Hey,” Declan addressed her. W
ithout warning
, he
shifted
towards her. Although he just moved in for a k
iss on the cheek, Kate
stiffen
ed
. His scruff grazed her skin and his lips were soft as they brushed against her cheek.
Declan
lingered for a second too long and grinned at her flustered expression when he pulled away
.

“Can we talk?” she asked and decided to silence her inner spaz and tackle
the weirdness
with Declan head on.
Setting some ground rules could get rid of the awkwardness
and allow them to continue looking for Max together
.

“Sure thing,” he answered and turned to Trish. “I’ll
look for you later.”

Trish did not look happy about being dismissed and although she gave Declan a charming smile, she sh
ot Kate a murderous look when Declan
turned
his face
away
from them both
.

“I’ll be waiting for you,” she purred
into his ear
and Kate refrained from gagging.

Kate should’ve
been
encouraging a rendezvous between the two of them, but
she
needed to get a few things off her chest
first
. If the
embarrassment
lingered, there would be no possi
ble way she would enjoy the rest of the
party.
As Trish sauntered off,
Kate could practically smell the lust that still lingered in the air.

Barely me
eting his gaze, Kate
commented, “I thought you had a girlfriend.”

“What made you think that?”

“
I heard a girl with you the
night I called you to meet me at the sub shop,” she replied.

“Well, if you ever bothered to ask me anything about my
self, you would k
now I’m single,” Declan
said with an edge. With a lighter tone, he added,
“
She was just one of my many adoring groupies.”

His statement felt true and Kate
felt guilt plague her. In the shor
t time
they’d
known each other
she realized that she never did ask him about himself.
She knew nothing about his family or any of his past visions. However, he basically
just
admitted to being a womanizer which made her decidedly less regretful.

Instead of pointing out his many faults in life, Kate took the high road.
“Sorry, I’ve had sort of tunnel vision lately and
have
only been concerned with finding Max.”
She paused. “So…what should I know about you? What is your family like? What do you like to do when you’re not seducing the masses and saving the abducted?”

Declan fiddled with his watch. “Kate, we don’t have to make small talk.”

Kate blew out a long sigh. “Thank god because I seriously suck
at it.”

“Why don’t you instead tell me about your visions? Did you see anything more about Max?
”

Quickly, she gave hi
m the lowdown on her visions about Ally.
Neither vision had featured Max which made her wonder how she was treating the boy. The more he resisted being her replacement for
Zachary
, the more violent she
might
get. Kate relayed how she had called with her tip, but hadn’t heard if Max had been located or not.

“I mean it would have to be in the n
ews—
right?
” she questioned rhetorically.
“
I can’t under
stand why they haven’t found either of them
yet
. Without drawing a road map, I feel like I provided as much inform
ation as possible to determine where she’s keeping Max
,” she sighed.

He shrugged. “Who knows? She may be using an
alias or ha
s g
one into hiding since taking him
. Just keeping working on it to see if you fin
d out anything else to tell the cops
.
”
He added,
“
I had a vision of Max, but it took place before the kidnapping.
It was Christmas morning and his parents gave him
a puppy as a gift. It was cute—
made me feel for the little guy.
I
only
wish I could’ve helped some more.
”

They stood side by side against the basement wall as the party gained momentum. The music had been turned up and they had started to yell in order to be heard over the hip hop tracks.
Kate almost started cracking up as she imagined
Jared taking in the scene. She didn’t picture him drinking cheap beer out of the keg or trying to grope her in one of the dar
ker corners of the basement.

Turning to face her, Declan
gave her a solemn look.
He leaned in close to
guarantee
she was able to hear him clearly.
“I’ve wanted
to call you. I owe you an apology about the other day.” Shoving his hands in his pockets he said with an uncertain tremor in his voice
,
“I should’ve never said those
things about seeing us hooking up
.
You’ve made it very
clear that you’re happy with your boyfriend. I crossed a line and I’m sorry.”

His words made the tension she had been feeling fade away and she
grinned with
relief. “Good because I w
ant us to be friends. Besides the fact that I can count the number of friends I have on one hand, you would be my first psychic buddy.”

“It is nice to talk to someone who knows what it’s like,” he agreed.

“Why do you think it happened to us? I mean people almost die everyday, what made us so special to come back from the dead with these powers?”

It was an intense conversation to have in the middle of a party, but it was something that
had
always plagued her. Did she have a higher purpose? Who gave them their second sight?