I nodded. “Thank you, Nora. I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t helping me.”
She shifted uncomfortably, making me wonder if she wasn’t used to people thanking her. “How are you feeling? Any signs of an attack coming on?”
“No. I feel great. Really energized. And my arms have been tingling. It may sound dumb, but I feel like some of Rebecca’s magic is lingering inside me.”
“It will probably wear off.”
“When the next attack hits?”
“Most likely.”
I wondered when that would be.
“You probably won’t need to feed as often, though. A witch’s life force combined with the energy in their powers should sustain you longer.”
“So, I am stealing their powers, too.”
“I wouldn’t go trying to do spells or anything, but in a way, yes, you are.”
That seemed surreal. Their magic was healing me. Too bad I couldn’t drain their magic alone. It would’ve been nice if that were enough to sustain me without having to kill the witches, too. Still, Nora had been right. This was better than attacking innocent people. At least these witches were doing bad things. Evil things. Of course, so was I.
“Don’t feel guilty,” Nora said, making me think she really could read my mind with her witchy powers. “You’re saving people from them. In the end, you’re doing a good thing.”
I hoped she was right. I tried to tell myself she was.
I left the nurse’s office and went through the motions for the rest of the day, not paying attention and only half-caring if my teachers noticed. In last period, I started seeing spots. Luckily, I was sitting down. I didn’t want a repeat of my fainting in the diner. We were supposed to be reading from our science textbooks and figuring out this experiment that seemed completely impossible. I was glad we weren’t actually performing the experiment, only mentally going through the steps so we’d know what to do in lab tomorrow. I could just see me falling onto a Bunsen burner and singeing all my hair off.
I gripped the edges of my desk to steady myself in case I started to get woozy from the head rush the visions could cause. My sight disappeared, and I waited for whatever was about to show itself to me. It had to be Rebecca. Unless…
The curtain rose. There were flowers everywhere and a long red carpet. It was a garden. Someone was getting married. The wedding party was assembled in front of the audience. Their backs were to me, so I wasn’t sure who I was looking at. Was this Rebecca’s wedding—or at least the one she would’ve had?
The couple was exchanging vows now. I could see the girl’s face. It wasn’t Rebecca. That meant this had to be the mystery guy. The one I kept seeing. The guy who seemed familiar in some way. I begged the vision to zero in on him. If only he’d turn his head.
The couple kissed, and her head blocked my view of his face. It was torture not knowing whose life I was stealing. And why was I seeing so much of this one person’s future? All my other visions had been different. One glimpse at each victim’s future. But this guy—I was seeing different parts of his life, and he got younger in each vision.
The couple separated and turned toward the audience. My heart clenched in my chest. Oh, God no! I felt more than faint. I felt like I would collapse into myself. Fold up until there was nothing left of me. The mystery guy…
It was Ethan.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
MY heart raced as my vision ended. I blinked back tears, thankful for the darkness. I couldn’t look at Ethan’s face anymore. If I was having visions of him, of his future, it meant I was somehow draining the life from him, too. But how? In my sleep? When I touched him? Oh God, I couldn’t stay away from Ethan. I couldn’t. He was everything to me. The only part of my old life I still had. The best part, too.
My cheeks burned with hot tears. I was sure I could see again, but I kept my eyes closed, not ready to face the world. I knew people were probably staring, but I didn’t care. Nothing mattered right now. Nothing but Ethan and how to stop him from dying.
Nora. I had to tell Nora. She could use her powers to help me. To help Ethan.
I opened my eyes and grabbed my things. To hell with asking permission and getting a hall pass. I didn’t have time to play by the rules. Ethan was running out of time. I stood up and stormed out of the room. Mrs. Stevens called after me, but I ignored her.
I was halfway down the hall when I remembered Nora had told me not to go anywhere by myself. I whipped out my phone and dialed her number.
“Sam?”
“Yeah,” I sobbed into the phone. “I need to talk to you.”
“What happened? Did you see Dylan again?”
“No. It’s something else. Something worse.”
The dismissal bell sounded above my head.
“Go to work. I’ll meet you there.” She hung up before I could say another word.
Students poured into the hallways. I quickly wiped my eyes with the backs of my hands. I couldn’t let Ethan see me like this. I wasn’t ready to confess everything and tell him he was dying. I just couldn’t.
“Hey,” Ethan said, coming up behind me.
I whirled around and kissed him, right in the middle of the hallway. I ran my fingers through his hair and pulled him to me. Kids cheered and yelled comments all around us, but I ignored them. I wasn’t letting go of Ethan. I wasn’t wasting a single moment with him.
“All right. That’s enough,” Mr. Ryan said.
Ethan gently pulled away from me. I was breathing heavily and fighting back tears.
“Ms. Smith, this is a school, not your bedroom. Please, take this somewhere else.” Mr. Ryan stared at me until I moved.
I didn’t respond. I grabbed Ethan’s hand and pulled him down the hall.
“What’s gotten into you? Not that I’m complaining. That kiss was amazing, but what was it for?”
I stopped at the end of the hall, and it took all my might not to kiss him again. “I just—”
“Whose phone is that?” He pointed to my hand.
“Huh?” I looked down. I was still holding the phone Nora had given me.
“That’s not the phone I gave you.”
“Oh. Um, I found this at the diner when I was cleaning up the other night. I forgot all about it. I guess I thought it was my phone when I grabbed it from my bag.” I put the phone away before Ethan asked to see it.
“So, are you going to tell me why you felt the need to maul me in the hallway?”
“I guess after what happened earlier with Dylan I realized how lucky I am to have you. I mean, I already knew I was lucky, but seeing someone totally creepy like Dylan makes me appreciate how wonderful you are.”
He leaned in and kissed me. Not a traffic-stopping kiss like I’d given him earlier. A sweet kiss.
“And that thing with Dylan, it was nothing. Only some creep trying to scare the new girl.”
“Well, I don’t like anyone trying to scare my girl.”
“I don’t think I’ll be hearing from him anymore. I got him taken away in handcuffs.”
Ethan smiled. “Yeah, that’s something I’ll be picturing for a while. He got what he deserved.”
“If it makes you feel any better, he told me he didn’t want to come anywhere near you after you kicked his ass at the cottage.”
Ethan put his arm around me and walked me to the car. “Guess I knocked some sense into him.”
I didn’t want to point out that beating on Dylan hadn’t stopped him from coming after me. I was going to let Ethan have his moment.
Nora was already at the diner when I got there. She was sitting at the end of the counter, drinking coffee. Ethan kissed me before he headed to the kitchen. I put my purse behind the counter and put on my apron, trying to act natural and not go running to Nora.
She waved her hands in the air and mumbled into her coffee. I narrowed my eyes at her, and she smiled. “We can talk now. No one will hear us.”