The Sight Seer (9 page)

“Go out with me, and I will,” he said, leaning in so close he could kiss me if he wanted to.
Which he probably did, and I definitely didn’t. I curled my hand into a fist so I could punch that smug look right off his face, but then Harrison was there, shouldering his way between us.

“Gabi, come on, sit by us.”
Harrison was already gathering my books. Clearly I didn’t have a say in this. I picked up my bag and walked to the empty desk behind Penny, ignoring the snickers from my classmates. I threw myself down in my chair, biting down hard on my tongue so I wouldn’t start screaming.

Penny turned around, blue eyes wide with shock as she breathed, “What is wrong with you?”

“Shh, Pen, leave her alone,” Harrison scolded, placing my books on my desk. “We’ll talk after school. My house, alright?”

“Can’t,” I mumbled, crossing my arms over my desk and plopping my head on top of them.
“Got a shift at the Corral.”

Harrison didn’t look happy about that.
Great, another friend alienated. What the hell was going on? Yesterday I had gone to bed feeling happy, and that had been destroyed in a matter of minutes today.

I wished I could blame Rafe, but that would just be the easy way out.
This wasn’t his fault. He hadn’t told me to lie to and ignore my best friends. No, that was all my doing. And letting Christian bait me? Since when did I let him get under my skin?

“I get off at eight,” I whispered, watching as Mr. Farnsworth walked in and clapped his hands for attention.
“We can talk then?”

Penny and Harrison exchanged glances and Penny surprised me be answering for the two of them.
“We’ll meet you there.”

Chapter Seventeen

As if today couldn’t get any worse, Evan was waiting for me at the entrance when school got out.
When I saw him standing there, surrounded by a pack of drooling girls, I froze, muttering, “Oh
hell
no.” Did he want to destroy my life? Was that his evil plan, cooked up with Rafe? Because they were close to succeeding, let me tell you.

I was walking with Penny and Harrison (even if they weren’t talking to me), when they noticed me falter.
“What’s the matter?” Penny asked, genuinely concerned. She must have seen the panic on my face and realized I was in BIG TROUBLE. Or was about to be, as soon as Evan spotted me.

Hey, maybe if he doesn’t see me, I could get away with this!

“Nothing,” I said, speeding up. I tried going left, out of his line of vision, but it was hard cutting through the crowd that had formed.

And it didn’t matter, anyway.
Evan must have spotted me because the next thing I knew, he was waving his hands high over his head and calling, “Gabi! Gabi, over here!”

I swear the entire student population turned to stare at me.
Cheeks flaming, I tried to turn myself invisible.

“What, there’s another one?” Brittany, a vicious brunette my age, sneered from somewhere to my right.
“How many boys is she playing with?”

Who cares what she said.
It was Penny I was worried about, Penny whose face had tightened with anger. “It’s not what you think,” I started.

“It never is, is it?” she said before turning on her heel and stalking away.

“Pen, wait,” Harrison called, chasing after her. He shot me a resigned look over his shoulder and I grimaced. But I understood. There was no reason Penny needed to be angry at both of us.

Meanwhile, Evan was still calling for me, that idiot.
I was going to kick him right between the legs if he didn’t shut up. Pushing through the crowd (I practically had to shove aside the slobbering girls), I glared up at him. “Evan. What. The. Hell.”

“Hello!”

Hello. He was standing there with a stupid smile on his face telling me
hello
.

Sorry, Rafe, but your best friend was going to die today.

“Gabi, who’s your friend?” Hannah asked, pushing me aside so she could get a look at Evan. She shook her massive chest in his face as she held out a hand and said, “Hi, I’m Hannah.”

Evan
checked her out with an appreciated look on his face. “Why hello there, honey. Gabi didn’t tell me she had such beautiful friends.”

“That’s because we’re not friends,” I snarl
ed as I shoved Hannah aside. “Evan, why are you here?”

“I came to see you, of course!”

I could practically see Hannah’s ear prick up from beneath her overly dyed blonde hair. (She was a natural brunette. I know because she buys the blonde dye from my store once a month.) “What about the dark-haired boy she was hugging yesterday?”

“Who, Rafe?” Evan asked innocently.
I groaned. Great, now Hannah had a name.

“Yes,
Rafe
,” she practically purred. “Which one is Gabi dating? You or Rafe?”

I grabbed Evan by the elbow and gave him a huge shove towards the curb.
“Oh, so sorry, Hannah, but we really need to get going.” In Evan’s ear I whispered, “If you say anything, I will
kill
you.” I could feel him shaking with silent laughter as we walked away, but at least he kept quiet.

About half a block later, Evan took me by the elbow and steered me towards a side street.
His black car was illegally parked by a hydrant, but I had a suspicion he could charm his way out of any ticket the police would try to issue him. Opening the passenger side door, he cleared off a pile of old receipts and empty fast food containers from the seat and gestured for me to get in.

Instead, I stood there, arms crossed over my chest as I glared at him.
“Seriously?”

“Come on, Gabs, I just want to talk.”
He flashed me a charming grin that he probably assumed worked just as well on me as it did on my stupid, brainless classmates.

It didn’t.

“Evan, you just ruined my life. I really don’t feel like talking.” I turned around, fully intending to walk away. “Besides, I have work.”

He grabbed my elbow.
“Sweetheart, please. Let me drive you to work. This is important.”

I tried to jerk my arm away, but his grip was too strong.
“I am
not
your sweetheart. And what the hell could you possibly want to talk about?”
Please don’t let him say Rafe.
I was not in the mood to discuss our non-existent relationship with yet another person.

“What do you think?”
Gently, Evan pulled me closer, his lips looming dangerously close to mine. I turned my face away before he could get any ideas and he laughed. Putting his lips next to my ear, he whispered, “Silver Moon.”

I shivered despite myself.

“Fine,” I heard myself say. “I need to go home to change. You can drive me there and then to the Corral.”

Evan raised one eyebrow.
“Gabi. You do
not
work at the Convenience Corral, do you?”

My glare was enough of
an answer for him. Throwing back his head, he laughed loudly.

“I’
m glad you find this so amusing.” I made a show of pulling out my phone and checking the time. Hey, wait. If I texted Rafe, he would come over and drag this lunatic away, right?

“Don’t,” Evan said, covering my hand with his.
“Leave Rafe out of this. You won’t learn anything if you call him here. He doesn’t like talking about certain things.”

I fixed Evan with a look.
“Like the elders?”

Looking over his shoulders, as if he were worried people were hiding in the bushes or behind trees, Evan pulled me towards the car.
“Get in and we’ll talk.” Dropping his hands from my shoulders, he went to the driver’s side and slid in. “It’s your choice, Gabi.”

Knowing I was bound to regret this, I opened the passenger side door and got in.

Chapter Eighteen

After instructing Evan to remain in the car in front of my house, I let myself in and dashed upstairs to deposit my school bag and grab my lime green shirt. There was no way I was wearing that in the car so Evan could see. Even with a jacket over it, he’d probably still see it. It was
that
bright.

Running a brush through my hair, I quickly tied it up in a ponytail, put on some lip gloss, and dashed out of the room, purse in hand.
I still had plenty of time until my four PM shift, but being late to work was about the last thing on my mind right now. No, the more time I had with Evan, the more questions I could ask.

But he surprised me by starting the conversation with, “So.
Rafe.”

“What about him?”

“You like him?”

I almost died right then and there.
If this was what he had kidnapped me for, I was going to beat the snot out of him with my purse. “Evan, come on.” I turned my face to the window so he wouldn’t see me blush.

“I’m just saying, it’s nice that Rafe is hanging out with girls.
With him it’s all baseball and demons. Demons and baseball. What about girls, I’d say. And he’d ignore me!” He pouted.

Because you’re a pain in the ass, Evan.

“So you have my support if you’re going out,” he continued.

I rolled my eyes.
“I’m so happy to hear that, Evan.” My words dripped with sarcasm, but I don’t think he noticed.

“So, are you going out?”

“God, Evan! You know what I am to Rafe! His demon eyesight!” I hit my hand against the window pane for extra emphasis. “So you and the rest of the world can stop imagining whatever it is you think we’re doing together, alright? I’ve seen him
three
times. God, I’m so sick of this!” To my horror, I felt tears pooling in my eyes, and I quickly wiped them away. I was not going to cry in front of Evan, who was practically a stranger.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

Startled, I looked over and saw he was actually serious, for probably the first time in his entire life. “Thank you.”

He brightened.
“But hey, if you’re not interested in him, you can always go out with me!” He wiggled his eyebrows and I laughed despite myself. I knew he wasn’t capable of being serious! “There you go,” he said. “I knew you could still laugh.”

“I’m having a horrible day,” I muttered, pulling out my compact mirror to make sure my eyes didn’t look red.
With my luck, Bernard would think I was doing drugs and fire me on the spot. My eyes looked alright, but there was a deep frown line between my brows that I tried unsuccessfully to smooth out with my finger.

“It’s not true, you know,” Evan murmured as he pulled into the Corral’s parking lot.
“He’s not just using you for your Sight.”

I would not let him get my hopes up like this.
Crossing my arms across my chest, I leaned back in my seat. “And he told you this?”

“No, he di
dn’t. But he’s…different, now.” Evan stopped when I held up a hand.

“Can we talk about something else?”

He shrugged. “Sure. What do you want to know?”

“How did the elders screw up?”

“Gabi.” Evan winced. “I really can’t tell you that.”

“Then why did you mention it in the restaurant?” I insisted.
“Clearly you wanted me to know about it.”

“I just…
” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t want you to think Silver Moon is this wonderful, amazing organization. It has its fair share of skeletons in its closet.” Evan frowned. “Rafe is still loyal, but I’m just along for the ride. I kill demons because they need to be killed, not because I care about the organization. And you, Gabi,” he said, staring me in the eyes, “would be wise to stay far away from them.”

My heart skipped a beat at his serious tone.
“Why would I go near them? Unless you or Rafe brought me to whoever it is that’s in charge.”

“Lucky for you, Rafe and I are the only hunters in the area.
Headquarters is down in Manhattan, but we’re barely called there. In their eyes, I don’t take this seriously enough, and Rafe is, well…”

I heard his voice from last night:
A misfit. A mistake.

“So clearly, we’re not worth the time or effort.
But if they found out about a girl who had the Sight…” His words trailed off, but his meaning was clear. They would be interested in me, the anomaly. “Rafe is kind, too kind for his own good, I say, but he would never abuse your ability. But the others?” Evan’s blue eyes darkened. “You don’t want to know what they’re capable of.”

Thoroughly scared out of my mind, it was all I could do to nod.
Great. So between demons being real, and my friends hating me, now I had to worry about people from something called Silver Moon coming after me. I was just having the best day ever. And to top it all off, I had a four-hour shift at the Corral!

Life sucked.

Evan must have noticed how frightened I was because he placed a comforting hand on my shoulder and squeezed tightly. “Sorry, Gabi. But I thought you had a right to know. Rafe wouldn’t share this with you because he’s too nice.”

“And you’re not nice?”

He flashed his teeth as he grinned. “I’m very nice, Gabi. Want to find out, later?”

“No thank you,” I said, resisting the urge to smash my fist in his face.
Why bother—it would definitely hurt me more than him. “You know, we talked about you as well. Me and Rafe, that is.”

He froze, the smile vanishing in an instant.
“What did he say?” He actually sounded worried, which I found strange.

“Oh, that you’re a giant flirt and I shouldn’t take anything you say seriously.
Which I pretty much figured out two seconds after meeting you.”

Evan visibly relaxed.
“Is that all? Well, he didn’t say anything that wasn’t true. This realization hasn’t crushed you too badly, has it, babe?”

I rolled my eyes.
“I’ll try not to lose too much sleep over it.” I put my hand on the door handle but paused before I opened the door. “Thanks, though, Evan, for filling me in on the serious stuff. It’s scary, what you said, but I think you’re right. It’s better to know this stuff instead of stumbling around blind.”

“You’re perfectly safe here, Gabi,” he swore.
“I mean, there are demons lurking about, but Silver Moon won’t bother you. We’ll protect you. Both of us.”

Strangely, his words had a calming effect on me, and I was able to get out of the car and go to work without suffering a major breakdown.

But when I got out at eight, Penny and Harrison were nowhere in sight and all of my previous misery from throughout the day came crashing down. I pulled out my phone and saw a brief text Harrison had sent hours ago saying Pen was too mad to see me right now. He offered to come meet me and see me home anyway, but obviously it was too late for that now. Damn Bernard made us stash our phones in our lockers in the break room, which is why I completely missed his text. Watching the bus pull away without me on it, I did the unthinkable and called Dad to come pick me up. And I might have been crying, too.

“Sweetheart, what happened?” he asked the moment I got in the car.

“Daddy, I have no idea.” And I meant it.

Giving me a concerned glance, he pulled away from the curb without another word.