He watched both girls gain distance from him; the pulling sensation he’d felt for sixteen years moved his feet forward, but not before revealing himself to the vendor.
“I’ll take this one,” he said, picking up the owl and handing over the correct amount.
His height aided in keeping track of her, not that he needed to see her to know where she was. Her sister broke away, joining a set of girls near the food cart. He watched the girl hesitate before moving toward her father and mother.
Holding the small owl in his hand, he charged forward through the crowd. He was out there for everyone to see, he knew with every fiber of his being he shouldn’t be, but to touch her, just once, would satiate him for the rest of eternity.
“You dropped this,” he said, lightly brushing her thin shoulders.
She stopped, as if feeling the same jolt of energy he had.
She turned, her head dipped low toward his, her eyes hidden under thick black eyelashes. One hand reached up to cover her mouth.
What he would give to be one of those hands, he thought
The other touched the owl in his outstretched hand.
“This isn’t—”
“Mr. Black said it was a gift,” he said, willing with every fiber of his being for her to stay with him, only for a little while.
He moved his hand closer to hers and she delicately took the figure in her hands.
“I—” she said, her head tilting up to his.
A loud ringing broke the dream from my grasp. Ally’s cell phone screen blinked white and I grabbed it. I struggled with the buttons.
“How do you turn this thing—”
Cooper plucked the phone out of my hands and touched the screen, moving his finger across it.
I flopped back on the bed.
He tossed the phone on the bed next to me. “It’s Heather.”
I picked it up and looked at the screen. “So?” I scrubbed Ally’s face, wiping the sleep away.
“You should answer her,” he said, standing by the window. “Ally would.”
Well, I’m not Ally. Technically.
“Give me a minute to wake up,” I said, draping an arm over Ally’s eyes.
The dream floated to the front of my vision. The girl in the market. And that man. My soul tensed, remembering the overwhelming feelings he had for the girl, yet I never saw her face. Or his for that matter. I couldn’t wrap my head around the passion he felt for the girl, yet it penetrated deep within me.
“Hey,” Cooper said.
I peered under Ally’s arm at Cooper’s outstretched hand cradling the cell phone. A low dial tone rang.
“Hello?” Heather’s tinny voice floated from the small speaker.
I snatched the phone from his hand. “In a hurry, are we?” I hissed.
He shrugged and I put the phone to my ear. “Hi,” I said.
Heather’s voice held my ear for over an hour, talking about random things that I had no idea about. Luckily she didn’t take enough breaths in between words to give me a chance to speak. I grunted in reply to her diatribe about who wore what on Friday. Who was going to the dance with who.
Yadda yadda.
Midway through the conversation, Cooper held up a finger in a be-right-back motion. I clamped a hand over the speaker to tell him not to leave me with the chatter-mouth but he disappeared.
“Oh! Brody wanted to know if you and Seth were still coming tonight?” Heather said. “His parents are away until Tuesday. It’s our last Brody party.” She hesitated. “That is, if you feel up to it?”
Who had a party on a Monday night? Technically Ally was excused from school for as long as it took her to heal, but it still seemed strange.
I hesitated. Where was Cooper to answer this for me? Would Ally let a near-death experience stop her from going to a party? The Shadowed already had her soul; did they really care about her body? The Guard had watched Ally closely before she had been taken; maybe Cooper could beef up security for one night.
“Sure,” I said.
Heather squealed and I pulled the phone from Ally’s ear. She jumped into another one-sided conversation about what she was going to wear. I eyed Ally’s closet, taking mental notes.
Cooper didn’t get back to the house until later that afternoon. In the meantime, I’d showered and had lunch. I convinced Marie that I needed my strength so she made me a heaping panini with the fresh sourdough bread. If Cooper didn’t see it, he didn’t have to know about it.
When he appeared in the bedroom, he found me holding up a flowing pink shirt and black skirt against Ally’s body.
“What’s the occasion?” he asked, leaning against the closet door frame.
I smiled, hoping to draw on his Ally-Guard relationship. “Heather invited me to Brody’s house for a little get together.”
“Absolutely not,” he said.
I shoved the clothes back onto the pole. “And why not?”
“Brody only invites friends over for blowout parties, not little gatherings. You’re better protected here—”
“She was able to go to the mall that day!”
Cooper’s nostrils flared. “This is different.”
“How?” I asked, tucking Ally’s arms against her chest.
He gripped the door frame with one hand. “It— it just is.”
“Heather mentioned that Ally never misses this,” I said. “Didn’t you want me to be her? Wouldn’t this constitute being her?”
Cooper shook his head.
“Come on!” I begged. “I’ll use the crutches!”
“No,” he said.
“We can leave whenever you want.”
He pressed his lips together. “No drinking,” he said. “And, you will stick by me or another Guard at all times.”
“Deal.” I waved a hand toward him. “Now scoot; I have to change.”
“What’s the deal with Krystal?” I asked Cooper from the bathroom. I couldn’t fit any of Ally’s skinny jeans over the cast so I’d chosen a burgundy sundress, one of the few that reached her knees. “She acts like Ally isn’t even her friend.”
“Lately she’s been a challenge for Ally,” Cooper said. I could hear him pacing in front of the doorway.
I twirled in the dress, checking in the full length mirror to make sure it fit right.
It was in her closet; of course it fits.
“Do you think she had anything to do with Ally’s disappearance?” I asked, grabbing a comb and running it through her hair.
Cooper stopped pacing and stepped into the bathroom. “What do you mean?”
“She seems upset that Ally only broke her leg. Do you think she was the one to push her?”
Cooper shook his head and started pacing again. “No, it had to be the Shadowed. They’d have to—”
“Possess her?”
“Not possible.”
I