New Revelations: Second Sight Book Two (14 page)

“I wish I knew. It was hard to not have an existential crisis when I woke up like this. Do you remember anything from when you were in the coma?”

Kate shook her head. “No, the only thing I recall is the
vision of Matt Spencer. What about you? I read they put you in a medically induced coma because of your injuries from the ski accident.”

“Not a thing. A few days after I came to I began having visions of my family.
I thought they were just really
vivid dreams until I realized I was in their head.
Everyone obvious
ly thought I had lost my freaking
mind when I told them.”

She digested this information and felt a
sudden
kinship to Declan. Although he was egotisti
cal a
nd shifty about his motives, Kate
realized they had a lot in common.
The main difference seemed to be that he was
comfortable with his psy
chic abilities while she still struggled with her gifts
.
She had hated being psychic because it made her feel like an outsider. Her new perspective was to stop caring about what others
thought and try to use her abilities
to make a difference in the world.

Kate
sent him a sideways glance.
“Do you ever have your own dreams anymore?”

“No, do you?”

“
No, I miss them somet
imes. It would be great to
get lost in my own imagination instead of having to relive other peop
les’ memories night after night,
”
she revealed.

As she felt Declan’s
stare on her face, she decided it would be best to
mingle instead of spending time with his unnerving presence. “You should probably go and find Trish. I don’t want to make a new enemy.”

“Don’t worry about her. She’ll forget all about you when she’s screaming my name later,” he joked.

“You pig!” S
he smacked his arm and then sent a wave as she walked away.

Kate didn’t dare glance backwards as she headed upstairs to find Julie.
Declan’s hot and cold moods confused her and put doubts in her mind about their budding friendship. She had questions for the psychic, but wasn’t sure how much she’d like his answers
.

***

By
midnight
, t
he party
was wild enough to make her expect
the police to
come by and
bust it up any minute. Gage and Julie had a large circle of friends and those friends seemed to invite even more pe
ople. The upstairs and base
ment were crammed full of warm bodies—
making it practically impossible to not feel sexual
ly violated if you attempted to
walk around. Julie had accompanied
her for awhile, but her hostess duties prevented her from spending too
much time actually enjoying her own party. Out of boredom, Kate
ended up drinking more than she intended. Sh
e had switched to water and figured
she’d have to stay
at the party for
a couple
more
hours to sober up enough to drive home.

Declan had made himself the center of attention and was enjoying the distinction of being fresh meat for the ladies of
Thompson
College
. Trish was only
one
in the harem he seemed intent on gathering.
The men of the party seemed irritated over the number of girls dancing and flirting with the unfamiliar face
.

Declan’s antics made Kate
feel reli
ef and nausea simultaneously. They had only exchanged a few words since their heart to heart earlier. As the hours passed, Kate began to
crave Jared
’s soothing presence
more than ever.

“Here, have a shot!” Gage came up behind her and handed her some noxious looking drink in a paper cup.

“No, I’m good,” she countered.

“Katie, I won’t leave you alone until you do it,” he threatened.

The thought was enough
for her
to swallow the horrendous thing
down
in one gulp. She tried not to gag as the liquor burned her throat. “What the hell was that?” she sputtered.

“A Sammy Jager—it’s
Sambuca
and Jagermeister. A few of these and you’ll finally be able to loosen up and have a good time.”
He ignored her glare and continued speaking. “Hey, can I ask you something?”

“It is a free country.”

He ran his fingers through his blond
e
locks
and stared at the wall behind her
.
“Julie got wasted the other night and admitted she asked you to
read my mind…”

Kate
didn’t let him finish
,
“As I told you a million times before, I don’t read minds.”

“Whatever, but do you mind telling her no? She said you hadn’t seen anything incriminatin
g and you’re not going to,” he promised. As he shifted from side to side, he confided,
“
I love her and I would never cheat on her.”

Taken aback by his serious expression, she swallowed back her
come back. “Ok
, I wasn’
t trying to invade your privacy. S
he was just concerned that something was going on.”

Gage looked heavenward.
“Julie
can get crazy jealous. I don’t know why. Why would I hook up with someone else
when I’m with the hottest girl I ever seen?”

His final sentiment was practically
romantic poetry
coming from a guy like Gage. Kate
apologized again and promised that she would no longer try to have visions about him. To be honest, she was relieved. Her eyes would probably burn out of
her skull if she had to go through another
vision of him participating in a
Resident Evil
marathon with his friends
or fooling around with Julie in the back
seat
of his car.

Gage glanced behind him at the dance floor before turning back to her. He was still drunk, but coherent enough
that
she guessed Julie had gotten him to scale back on the alcohol.
In a weird way, Julie and Gage
did balance each other out well. With a wry grin, he asked,
“What’s with the super psychic stud?”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s eye fucking you from across the room.
It’s
pretty obvious he wants you,” Gage replied
.

“Eww gross,” Kate said and
she could feel her cheeks burning. “And not exactly accurate. He’s been all over a ton of girls
since he got here.”

“Whatever you say,” he said with a shrug and then met her eyes. “But if some guy was looking at Julie like that, he’d be missing his two front teeth by now.” Gage leaned down closer to her as she stood there feeling at a loss on how to reply. “Just be careful, Kat
e. Jared seems like an ok guy
and I know you wouldn’t want to screw things up with him.”

“Thanks Gage,” she said and felt an ungodly urge to hug him. “Jesus, are we having a moment?”

“Yeah I think so.” His expression exactly matched the distaste in her tone of voice.
“Let’s not do this again.”

“Agreed, we’ll get back to our regularly scheduled program of feeling only loathing for one another.”

He smiled and ruffled her hair
before walking away. She tried to avoid looking over at Declan, but now that Gage mentioned it, he had been staring at her an awfully lot. Even now, his eyes seemed to burn tiny holes through her.
When their gazes
locked across the room, he pulled the girl he was dancing with close
r while still staring at Kate.

Kate broke contact first and swallowed hard.
Was he only using the girls at the party to make her jealous?
Maybe his promise to not pursue her had only been a line. She couldn’t bring herself to believe that he was being since
re
with her.
H
e still had to earn her trust. It made it implausible to put her faith in someone who seemed intent on playing her.

***

Jared’s phone went straight to voicemail twice before she de
cided to give up on calling. Kate
guessed since it was after
one o’clock
in the morning, he had turned off his phone before crashing. It was
frustrating
since he had asked her to call him when she was ready to leave the party.
Although she would feel bad about dragging him out of bed, she was certain Jared wouldn’t mind as long as it meant getting her home safely. Instead
, she was stranded at Gage’s house.

The shot had h
it her
hard and
soon after
Julie had coerced her into doing another shot with her. She was by no mean
s falling down drunk, but she would never
trust herse
lf to drive. This left
the option
s
of either calling a cab or sleepi
ng on the floor of Gage’s ro
om. Trying to sleep on the filthy
and uncomfortable hardwood floor in Gage’s bedroom was not
going to happen
. Going home by taxi made the most sense to her.

As she prepared to say her goodbye
s to Julie
and Gage
before calling a cab, she heard someone creep up behind her. “Are you leaving?” Declan asked as she turned to face him. Trish hung on him as if he
were
a life raft that she wouldn’t dare want to let go.
Her ginger hair was mussed slightly and her cheeks flushed. Her kitten smile made it
obvious
the two of them had been lip locked and h
is kisses left her desiring much more
.

Kate had avoided him most of
the night. Declan’s unsettling glances and
Gage’s proclamations about D
eclan wanting her provoked her
to stay as far away as possible from him.
As much as she was falling
hard for Jared
, Kate didn’t want to i
nvite any unwanted feelings for the psychic into her heart. She rationalized away any stirrings
in her gut by telling herself
any girl would feel something i
f a charismatic and good-looking
guy began to take notice in her.

“Yes, I’m
going to say goodbye to Gage and Julie befor
e I head out,” she responded and fiddled with her purse from nervousness. When Declan didn’t reply, she said blandly, “It was good to see you.”

His brown eyes watched her warily.
“Are yo
u ok
to drive?”

“I’m going to take a cab
,” she replied.

“I’ll drive you home,” he offered. Trish shot him an
exasperated
look which he pretended
not to notice.
Trish’s grip on his arm tightened, but Declan untangled himself from her grasp.

“I’ll be fine,” she assured him.
“
Anyway haven’t you been drinking all night? You probably shouldn’t drive eithe
r,” Kate
said matter-of-factly.

“Nah, I’ve just had soda. Let’s go,” he replied and then tilted his head to speak to Trish. “I’ve got your number so I’ll give you a call.”

Kate felt her jaw drop as Trish’s face twisted into rage. Before she had a chance to reply or do bodily harm to Kate, Declan grabbed Kate’s hand and pulled her towards the door.
Declan pushed through the crowds and did not pause until they were through the
front door and the cool
air greeted them.

“What the hell? I didn’t even see Julie,” Kate protested once they were outside.

“Send her a text. That
girl was about to flip her shit,” he said shortly.
“
Better to get out now while we had the chance,” he said and took quick strides away from the house.

Obediently, Kate followed along.
The street was empty and dimly lit. A buzzing streetlight gave the night an eerie feel. Declan didn’t bother to check if she was behind him as he rushed down the road.

“You can’t be serious?” Kate demanded as they stopped in front of a Hummer.
Declan opened the passenger door
. Her short legs and
intoxication
made it a struggle to get positioned onto the step rai
l of the SUV. Declan saw her fu
mbling
attempts
and
decided to help
give her a boost in by pushing her backside.