Staring at his puzzled face, his hazel eyes called my attention. The other wolf’s eyes had been blue. What did it mean that he had the same color light as the werewolf that'd challenged Clay? I really wanted to believe it was just a coincidence. I had to call Sam and get a description of Elder Joshua to be sure the man before me was who he said.
“How are things going with Clay? Any other problems? Is he becoming too aggressive?”
“Everything is fine. He’s very polite.” But missing when I really need him, I thought. Convenient that Elder Joshua just happened to show up when Clay wasn’t home.
“We were surprised to hear of a challenge. Usually, strong ties aren’t challenged,” he commented.
I didn’t know how to respond so I remained quiet.
He reached into his pocket and withdrew a business card. “Well, if you need anything give me a call, or call Sam. We’re here for you.” He handed the card to me.
The card simply had his name and number printed on it, no title or business name. I nodded, hoping he would leave so I could give into the panic attack I barely held back. He smiled, bobbed his head in farewell, and turned to leave.
I closed the door and tucked the card into the front pocket of my jeans. This time I watched through the peephole as he got into the car he’d parked in front of the house. The door muffled the sound of the engine as he started it.
When he drove out of my line of sight, I closed my eyes and leaned my forehead on the cool wood of the door. First, a wolf with a uniquely colored spark challenged Clay. Then, Elder Joshua appeared with the same color. For more than two years...through every visit to the Compound...not once did I ever see a variance in the color of a werewolf spark. Just like humans, they remained consistent.
If not for the challenge, I wouldn’t have worried about it. But I knew without a doubt, I’d never met Clay’s challenger before. And if I’d never met him, why would he dispute Clay’s tie with me? I needed to know who the challenger was and why Elder Joshua had an identically colored spark. Yet, no one knew about my ability to see the sparks. I could ask Sam outright if Joshua was different to their kind in some way. The best I could do was verify Elder Joshua’s identity without raising too many unwanted questions. I needed to calm down and call Sam. If I called sounding freaked out, he would probably send Joshua right back over.
I pushed away from the door and turned to go into my room. Someone stood right behind me. I produced a full-throated someone’s-sawing-off-my-arm scream before I realized it was Clay dressed in jeans, t-shirt, and running shoes. By his shocked expression, I’d just scared him as bad as he’d scared me.
Heart stuttering, I clapped a hand over my mouth. No way would I call Sam now. I wasn’t even sure I could speak. The hand over my mouth shook from the adrenaline rush.
He tilted his head, studied me, then reached into my pocket to pull out the card. He glanced at it, shrugged, and shook his head, clearly puzzled. How did he even know it was in there? Had he been watching me?
I dropped my hand and did another round of deep breaths to try to calm down.
“Did you see who was here?” I asked. My voice wavered so I cleared it.
He shook his head.
“How did you know that was in my pocket?”
He briefly lifted the card to his nose. So, he could smell the other werewolf? That was good.
“Have you ever met Elder Joshua before?”
He shook his head.
“Have you ever smelled him before?”
Again, he shook his head.
I closed my eyes briefly and let out a relieved sigh that sounded a bit like a sob. Joshua wasn’t the werewolf Clay had fought. Even though I remembered blue eyes, I’d still worried.
The new color variation bothered me, though, and I wished I had someone to talk to. Now that Clay had confirmed Joshua wasn’t the same werewolf from the challenge, I didn’t see much point in calling Sam other than to yell at him for sending Joshua over.
Lost in my own thoughts, I jumped when Clay lightly tapped my forehead with his index finger.
I gave him a weak smile. “You want to know what’s going on in my head?” I guessed.
He nodded, and I finally recognized that my someone-to-talk-too stood right in front of me.
“I’d like to know what’s going on in my head sometimes, too.” If only I could figure out those lights. “Let’s make dinner while I talk. Let me know if you hear Rachel or anyone else.”
He nodded, kicked off his shoes, and put them in my room before joining me in the kitchen. He took the lead on dinner prep and gave me busy work so I could talk. I started to peel a potato while he clanked pans on the stove.
“That was Elder Joshua at the door. He stopped by because I haven’t talked to Sam lately, and Sam asked him to check up on me. I guess he was worried after that challenge.” I picked up a second potato. “Something was odd about him, Clay.”
When I was quiet for too long, Clay nudged my chair on his way to the sink with the potatoes I’d peeled. His way of saying I should keep talking, but I struggled with how to tell him everything.
“I’m different,” I said abruptly.
He turned from the sink, looked at me, and shrugged as if to say it didn’t matter.
“No. Really different. It’s kind of hard to explain. Sam told me I was different when he met me, but he doesn’t know all of it. He said that I was rare because I was one of only a few humans compatible with werewolves, just me and Charlene.”
I sighed and ran my hands through my hair. Based on my mom’s reaction when I’d told her the truth, the idea of telling someone everything scared me.
He picked up two more potatoes and handed them to me. I started peeling again as he went to the stove. I spoke slow, essentially thinking aloud.
“Since as long as I can remember, I’ve seen lights. Not with my eyes, but in my mind. When I was younger, I had to close my eyes and concentrate to see a relatively small area around me. As I got older, I didn’t need to concentrate as hard and could see a much larger area. Now, I can see these lights at will, briefly, with little effort, and over a longer distance. And I don’t need to close my eyes.
“These lights are people, Clay. I can see the neighbors moving around in their houses right now. It’s not an aura I’m seeing.
“To put it in perspective, I can see a square mile around us, but in my mind, the area looks like an inch. The lights within that area are small pinpricks, but I can see them so clearly, they could be the size of quarters three inches from my face. And all those dots are the same color. Every human around us has the same yellow light with a green halo.”
Clay handed me a glass of water, breaking my train of thought. He rescued the potatoes I’d cubed into tiny pieces.
“Thanks.” I took a drink and studied the glass for a moment before continuing. “You and I, in the middle of those dots, stand out. I have the same yellow light as everyone else, but my halo is orange. I’m different from the people around us. Even from you. Werewolves have a blue core with a green halo. At least, that’s all I ever saw in the past two years, until the night you were challenged. That werewolf had a blue-grey light. Now, imagine my shock when I opened the door and saw a man, who introduced himself as Elder Joshua, with the same color light. Only the difference in the color of their eyes kept me breathing.
“I’ve been like this my entire life, and I have more questions than answers about this second sight. Why are all humans green and yellow except Charlene and me? We’re human. Why does Charlene have a red halo? Or me an orange halo? The only similarities are the yellow cores. I’ve been thinking it means human, but don’t know what the halos mean.
“And I’m sure that you’ve caught on to the whole guy situation. I call to them somehow, as if I’m a beacon or something. Do I really send out some kind of signal?” I looked up at him questioningly.