Unfaithful (32 page)

It was a huge sport motorcycle, and I was its target.

“Gemmaaaa!!!” A roar of desperation drowned out the customers’ cries of alarm. Evan tackled me with all his strength, knocking me to the floor and holding me tight. Despite my disorientation, I looked over his shoulder as, shielding me with his body, he raised his arm toward the window. A massive burst of energy shot from the palm of his hand and hit the glass like a tornado. There was a deafening explosion inside the café and the window shattered before the motorcycle could make impact. The deafening noise of the thousands of shards falling to the ground pierced my eardrums.

Trembling like a leaf, I felt Evan’s hand rest gently on my hair. The explosion had thrown the bike abruptly off course, sending it hurtling in the opposite direction toward the gas pump. Inside, a murmur rose among the customers but Evan didn’t seem to notice anything but me. “You okay?” he asked, stroking my forehead with his thumb, clearly shaken.

My heart was in my throat and I could barely breathe, but my first thought was of him. “Evan, you shouldn’t have. Everybody saw you!” Concerned, I peered around at the looks on everyone’s faces.

“I don’t give a damn!” he growled. “Are you okay?” There was desperation in his voice and his eyes burned into mine as he caressed my cheek. I nodded. Taking a deep breath, he held me against him and kissed my forehead. “I wasn’t expecting that. If I hadn’t seen it in time—” He was so upset the words caught in his throat.

“Evan—” I stopped, suffocated by a bone-chilling foreboding.

He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. I was sure my fear had communicated itself to him. One look was enough for Evan to grasp it. Neither of us paid any attention to the other customers who had gathered around the window, murmuring in shocked concern. Only Evan and I existed.

I saw a flash of hesitation in his eyes before he looked at me decisively. “No,” he said firmly, answering my unspoken question. “It was just a coincidence.” Fire rose in his gaze. “An accident.”

Although there wasn’t a trace of doubt in Evan’s voice, a nagging thought throbbed at my temples until my head ached:
There was no such thing as coincidence.
He’d told me that himself.

“Incredible!” someone in the crowd said.

“Did you see that?!”

“It was that guy, I’m sure it was,” someone else whispered, gesturing in our direction.

“How on earth did he do it?” another person wondered aloud.

I looked at Evan with concern but he instantly reassured me, whispering in my mind:
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of them. I’ll convince them they never saw us. They’ll think there was a gas leak.”

I nodded and his hand squeezed mine as he helped me to my feet. All at once, there was a deafening roar. The gas pump the motorcycle had crashed into burst into flames, sending a violent wave of heat our way.

Everyone ducked and backed away, covering their faces with their arms. Evan wrapped his around me, shielding me with his body. “Come on. We’ve got to get out of here,” he ordered me, pulling some hundred-dollar bills out of his wallet. He left them on the table and led me toward the door without sparking the least interest in the crowd who suddenly seemed to be looking through our bodies. He hadn’t even needed to glance at them to convince them we weren’t there. We’d become ghosts, invisible to their eyes.

“Evan.” I stopped him and pointed at the security camera.

He stared at it and in less than two seconds the metal melted. Only when we reached the car did  he let go of my hand. My heart was still pounding. I looked toward the road and caught my breath. The lifeless body of the motorcycle rider lay on the asphalt. Everything had happened so unexpectedly no one had noticed him.

All at once an unnaturally fast movement froze me in my tracks.

“Evan.” I stifled a whimper, my gaze riveted on the other side of the street. “Someone’s there.” A shudder of terror slowly spread through me.

Evan’s eyes shot to where I was looking. He frowned and turned back to look at me. My human sight couldn’t make out the details of the figure across the street—not like Evan’s could. Or had all the confusion just clouded my senses?

When he spoke, his voice betrayed anger rather than concern. “It’s Drake.” He pressed his lips together, his face full of fury. “He came for the rider.”

Another shudder shook me, more violent than the last. I’d never seen any of them in these circumstances. Unable to look away, I swallowed, trying to moisten my parched throat.

“Christ, Drake! You should have been more careful!”
Evan growled in his brother’s mind, allowing me to listen in.

The blood froze in my veins and I couldn’t take my eyes off Drake. Although he’d become like a brother to me over the last few months, right now it felt like I was seeing him for the first time. He wasn’t alone any more in the middle of the empty road. A less attentive glance would have told me there were three people there, but I knew there weren’t. Until a moment ago, the lifeless body lying on the asphalt and the young man beside Drake kneeling over it had been the same person. But then again, a less conscious glance would never have been able to fathom the ghastly sight.

I felt Evan’s eyes on me. He was frowning and studying me carefully. “You can
see
them?” he asked. From the look on his face I couldn’t tell if he was more stunned or upset. “Both of them? You
can see them?
” he whispered, not taking his eyes off mine.

“Is that bad?” I asked timidly. My hands were trembling.

“No. But it’s not normal.” Evan looked at me as if he were looking through me. I would have given anything at that moment to know what he was thinking. He licked his lips and came back to reality just in time to realize how much his answer had shaken me.

The Ferrari drove onto the on-ramp as unspoken words filled the space around us. Neither of us could find the courage to break the profound silence. Though I was confused, one thing stood out in my mind: Evan’s remark and the look on his face had upset me more than everything else that had happened.

Before I could torture myself again with the memory of his expression, his voice pulled me out of my torment. “It’s not bad,” he assured me, as though I’d just repeated my question. His fingers caressed the red leather of the steering wheel. “At least I don’t think it is. It’s just strange—and incredible.” He sought my gaze. “But there’s nothing wrong with you,” he repeated to make sure the message had gotten through.

I looked at him, pressing my lips together, and then gazed out the window. Silence returned.

Miles later, as the car roared along at such a speed it would have been virtually invisible to anyone we passed, I began to realize how ridiculous it was for me to be so uneasy. I couldn’t blame Evan for being shaken up by something he’d never seen before in his whole life. Especially since it had something to do with me.

“Do you think we should be worried,” I asked timidly, “if I can see all of you sometimes?”

His comforting smile broke the tension tingling under my skin. “No, not at all. I’ve always told you you’re special, Gemma. Besides, if it hadn’t been this way, if you hadn’t noticed me that time in the woods, who knows? Right now we probably wouldn’t be here talking about it. This
strangeness
of yours changed my life.” He turned to look at me. “Because it let me fall in love with you.”

I tried to convince myself. “You’re right, it’s stupid to get all worried about nothing.”

Evan nodded confidently. “I agree.” His words ushered in another moment of silence, this one calmer. His hand slid off the gearshift and touched mine, resting on my seat.

A corner of his lips curved seductively upward, forming a crease on the right side of his mouth. “Well.” He drew my hand to his mouth and kissed my palm, then rested it on the gearshift. “Ready for your surprise?” He winked at me and his half smile broadened, wiping away every last trace of concern from my mind. Sometimes I wondered if Evan occasionally used his powers on me.

I waited a moment before replying. “You mean we’re there?”

“I mean we’re
almost
there,” he said.

In the silence that followed I tried to interpret his answer. I decided it was best to pick up the conversation where I’d left off. “When you say ‘almost,’ what do you mean, exactly?” I said, starting to blather. “Because, you know, the meaning of the word can be totally subjective. You can interpret it in different ways depending on your point of view, so do you mean in ten minutes or half an hour or an hour or what?” I raised an eyebrow.

Evan held back a smile as we turned onto a small, steep road. I had absolutely no idea where we were. He tilted his head and looked at me as the car came to a halt. “I mean
now
.”

Impatient, I freed myself from his gaze and looked out the windshield, surprised and confused when I saw where we were. Confused, mostly. There was nothing around us except an arid, sandy stretch of uninspiring land. I honestly didn’t know what to think, but I tried hard not to let Evan’s attentive eyes see my bewilderment. I studied the desolate landscape, still not understanding why he would bring me there. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that in the meantime he was studying
me
. There was a mocking grin on his lips that was starting to exasperate me. Clearly something had escaped my notice.

We got out of the car. All at once Evan disappeared, reappearing at my side so fast the dirt beneath our feet didn’t even stir. It was like when someone yanks a tablecloth off a table without disturbing the objects on top of it. He nodded at something behind me. “That way,” he said, pleased, his eyes fixed on mine. At least the nerve-racking wait for the mystery to be revealed had finally come to an end—whatever the surprise was.

I looked over my shoulder and started, not sure whether I was amazed by the size of the building behind me or the fact that I hadn’t noticed it before. Still, it was nothing that really enthused me. Was this the surprise? The structure seemed to be constructed of metal and looked a lot like an old abandoned warehouse. I honestly couldn’t imagine why Evan had been so enigmatic about bringing me to a place like this. In any case, it seemed best to wait before telling him how puzzled I was.

He held out his hand to me. I took it and followed him toward the building. Something in the façade started to move and a low rumble grew stronger the closer we came. In seconds the entire façade broke into two equal halves from top to bottom as the two giant doors opened toward us without anyone touching them, revealing the entrance. The sunlight at my back prevented me from distinguishing the dark shapes I glimpsed in the vast interior. From the distance they looked like embalmed giants.

“Evan, what’s in there?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.

“Your surprise.” His tone was finally serious.

I stared at the huge building, wondering what might be hiding behind all those layers of dust. The air was damp, despite the desert-like surroundings, and billowy clouds had built up overhead, almost obscuring the amber-colored sky. The scant rays of sunlight that peeked through them didn’t follow me as I crossed the threshold and the darkness swallowed me up. It took my eyes a minute to adjust and I realized that what Evan meant to show me was something enormous hidden beneath a thick canvas tarp that was covered with so much dust I could barely tell what color it was. I opened my mouth to speak, but my voice was drowned out by a different noise. Evan had grabbed the green tarp with both hands and yanked it off with a single jerk, a cloud of white dust rising from the fabric and filling the air. When it cleared I saw what it had been concealing.

The words died in my throat and I swallowed.

“What on earth—What is it?” I asked, bewildered.

Evan smiled, finally satisfied. “I didn’t think I would need to explain,” he said, a sly, amused look on his face as I squinted at it.

“No, I, I mean, what—” All I could do was stammer. “Evan, that’s a
plane
! Where on earth did you get a plane?” I asked, still confused.