B008IJW70G EBOK (14 page)

      “Yeah, Mom. It’s me.”

      Phew. If they hadn’t got in the car yet she should be able to talk them out of coming. 

      “Honey, where have you been? What happened? Why haven’t you called? Where are you?”

      “I’m fine, Mom. I’m at,” she paused, “
Grandma’s
, I just haven’t had my phone on.”

      “Tom, it’s Riley!”

      She balked at her mom’s loud scream for her dad. Was she seriously that excited about hearing from her? 

      The time had gone fast for Riley, but she guessed for her mom, time without either of her daughters had been hard. She never should have waited so long to phone, but it wasn’t like she’d done it on purpose.

      “Mom, are you there?” she asked. 

      “Of course I’m here! You don’t know how worried I was.”

      “I’m sorry, Mom,” she said, honesty making her voice crack. “Gran’s kept me pretty busy, I didn’t mean to worry you. Please don’t worry.”

      “I think we’ll come and get you, don’t you think? It’s time to get you back home.”

      “No.” Riley yelled. She took a deep breath and tried to calm her voice. “I mean, I’m really liking it here, Mom. It’s helping me, you know, come to terms with stuff.”

      Her mom went quiet. “Honey, are you sure? You don’t have to pretend.”

      Riley waited, composing herself. She didn’t want to screw this conversation up, and she really did feel torn between here and home. “I miss you guys heaps, but I want to stay. Please.”

      “She wants to stay, Tom.”

      Riley listened for her dad’s response as he spoke to her mom. 

      “Leave the poor girl alone. If she’s happy, leave her be.”

      Riley realized she’d been holding her breath. 

      “Did you hear your father?”

      “Yeah. He’s right Mom.” She held her breath again, waiting for her mom to agree. 

      “Okay, for now then. But you call, Riley, every day.”

      “Okay, Mom. I’ll call, I promise.”

      “I love you.”

      Riley did shed a tear then. A wet trickle hit her cheek. It wasn’t that she wanted to go home, but she loved her parents. She hated thinking of them brokenhearted with no children at home. Both their daughters gone. And now possibly never coming back, or not for long anyway.

      “I love you and Dad too. Heaps. Bye.”

      Sophia knocked on her door then. As if she’d been listening, waiting for her to say goodbye and hang up the phone. 

      “You okay in there?”

      Riley nodded then realized Sophia couldn’t see her action. “Yep, I’m fine. Just give me a minute.”

      “Only checking. I’ll see you in the morning.”

      Riley wiped her tears away and shook her head, trying to get rid of her thoughts. But it didn’t work. The tears only started to fall harder.  

      She tried to console herself with thoughts of Hunter, of how she’d felt being in his arms and at his side tonight, but nothing could take her mind off her parents. Or her future. Of giving up life as she knew it to stay here. 

      Even thinking about Claudia hadn’t helped. 

      Why did making the right decision have to be so hard?

Riley couldn’t do much about her puffy eyes. She’d lain in bed crying for what had seemed like hours after speaking to her parents. But today was a new day. A fresh start of sorts. 

      Because today, she should be seeing Claudia. And she’d definitely be seeing Hunter, which made her smile even wider. Last night it was as if she was being sucked into a dark, fierce hole. Today? Her future, her decisions, didn’t seem so ominous.  

      “Hunter’s here,” Sophia called out from somewhere in the house. 

      She’d expected him to just be waiting out at the tree later. Not quite this early. But she didn’t care. So long as he came, it could be midnight and she wouldn’t mind running out to greet him. 

      Riley gave her hair one last brush then swung open the door to her bedroom. Before hitting what felt like a solid wall of stone. 

      “Oomph.” She looked up at Hunter. He hadn’t even moved with the force of her running into him. Six-feet-whatever of impressive… yep, muscle. She couldn’t think of a better word. 

      “You okay?”

      “Can everyone stop asking me that?” she mumbled. 

      Hunter cupped her chin with his hand and raised it, studying her face. “You’re not okay.”

      He frowned. She’d never seen his face pull down into a frown before. 

      “Let’s just go, all right?”

      He unhooked his palm and reached for her hand. “We need to hurry.”

      She let herself be pulled along with him, out the door. They didn’t even stop to say goodbye to Sophia, but then she probably knew where they were going. She and Hunter seemed able to communicate pretty promptly when they needed to. 

      “Are you going to tell me what this is about? Why we’re in such a rush?”

      He grinned. “Just follow me. Get undressed and change as soon as we hit the forest.”

      At least running this fast beside him took her mind off her parents. And once she changed, they would be the last thing occupying her mind. She hoped Claudia was still on the agenda.

      “Come on Hunter, tell me.”

      “I’m taking you to Claudia, but we need to get a move on. Sophia’s orders”

      Riley ran faster than she ever, in her entire life, had before. 

      Danger or no danger, whatever the reason for needing to see her so promptly, she wanted to see her sister. And nothing was going to stop her.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Riley had never been quite so exhausted. Or exhilarated. Not even that first day when she’d discovered her ability. 

      “
Slow down.”

      She still didn’t like being told what to do, but she was fast learning that Hunter’s commands were worth listening to. 

      He must have heard her grumble though.
“When you’re the leader you can order me.” 

      She kicked out at him with one leg but he dodged her. She couldn’t ever imagine being the one to give orders, but then she’d never exactly imagined doing this either. And she still couldn’t even catch him unawares with a sly kick. 

      “
Why are we slowing
?” If she had to follow his orders she was at least going to ask questions. 

      He gave her one of his delicious, teeth-baring feline grins. Maybe he was trying to look fierce, but she took it as a smile. 

      “
I didn’t think you’d want to be sweaty and out of breath for seeing your sister.”

      She glared at him. She wasn’t exactly capable of getting sweaty as a cat, and it wasn’t like they needed to use their mouth for communicating. She could be exhausted and still think what she wanted to say. Unless she was actually able to talk properly to her sister? 

      “
Stop
.” 

      This time she didn’t even hesitate at his command. Riley locked her paws into place and froze. She could feel everything around them. The movement of the leaves bustling back and forth on the trees, the rustle of a small animal as it moved, the gentle whoosh of air as it passed through Hunter’s nostrils. 

      Then she felt him move backward, slink away. 

      She spun around. Frightened. She didn’t want to be alone out here, even for a second. 

      “
Where are you going?”

      His eyes said it all before he even spoke to her. Happiness mixed with sadness, like he was pleased for her but worried too. Like he was torn between leaving her and staying by her side. 

      “
I’ll be nearby, you’ll be safe. I just want you to enjoy it when she comes
.” 

      Riley shook her head. She felt vulnerable. Alone. 

      “
But I want you here. You belong here with me.” 

      His mind was obviously made up.

      “
Just think her name
.” 

      And he was gone. 

      Riley didn’t like being alone, not when she knew it wasn’t safe for her out here. But she did what Hunter had said. He wouldn’t ever put her in danger, at risk. She had to trust him. 

      And think about Claudia.
Claudia
! Even thinking about the possibility of seeing her again had been exciting, but the fact that she was about to see her? It sent tremors through her entire body. 

      “
Claudia
.” She called her sister’s name in her mind, just like Hunter had instructed. 

      Riley kept her body still, absolutely motionless as she waited. 

      “
Claudia
.” She said her name again, louder in her mind this time, like she was ordering her to appear, desperate to see her, to believe that she was still here. Somewhere.

      A gust of wind blew a hefty breath of air through the trees around her. Riley looked over her shoulder, mind alert with the worry of danger. 

      And then she saw her. 

      “
Claudia
.” 

      Riley had to blink. Twice. Three times. 

      But when Claudia laughed, turned her mouth upwards into that pixie-grin that Riley knew so well, she knew it was true. 

      Her sister was alive. Or at least here, before her. Somehow.

      “
Riley
.” 

      She watched her sister’s expression change but it was in her mind that she heard her. Kind of. It was like a normal conversation but it wasn’t. Because they’d always kind of communicated in silence when they’d had to. That whole twin communication thing.

      If she were human, Riley’s eyes would have been flooded with tears. She would have been so choked up she couldn’t have said a word or moved a muscle in her body. 

      Claudia stepped forward. Her feet seemed to float over the ground, whispered over the dead leaves below. 

      Her sister’s hands reached for her, both of them. They touched her fur, caressed her head as Riley leant in toward her. 

      
“I’ve missed you so much,”
she told her.

      Claudia dropped to her knees and kissed her on the top of her head. Riley squeezed her eyes shut and nestled into her hold. Lapping up the feel, sight, smell of her sister at her side. 

      “
Me too, Riley. You’ve got no idea.”

      “
But I saw you, Claudia. I saw you dead. I don’t understand
.”

      Claudia pulled back and knelt on the grass. “
Me neither.”
She reached one hand back out so they were still touching, still connected. 

      “
You look beautiful
,” Riley told her.

      Claudia laughed. “
So do you.”

      Riley drank in the sight of her sister. Took her fill of her so she’d never forget her. Committed every inch of her to memory, worried this was an illusion that was about to be snatched away. 

      Claudia looked the same and yet she didn’t. Her hair seemed longer, like a red-brown, thick cape that fell over her back and shoulders. Her eyes were green, like her own, but sparkling. Magical. 

      And her face. Oh my. Her pale white skin, so much lighter than Riley’s own, was covered in pale violet swirls. Intricate patterns covered her forearms, tickled down her neck on one side, and met in a delicate swirl over her cheek and up over her right eye. 

      “
When did you get so creative?”

      Claudia smiled and stroked her fur. Like a mom comforting a small child.
“I’ve got a lot of spare time.”

      Riley didn’t know what to ask her first. What to say to her. What to tell her. “
There’s so much to find out. I…”

      Claudia raised her hand.

      “
We’ve got time for that later. We need to talk about you first.”

      No. Riley didn’t want to talk about herself, not now. She needed to know what Claudia was doing, where she spent her days. What she was. How she existed. 

      “
Do you live here?” 

      Claudia shook her head and shuffled closer, letting her cheek fall to Riley’s back. Riley closed her eyes at the gentle thrum of her sister’s hand over her body. At the closeness she felt. 

      They’d always had the whole twin connection going on. Knowing what the other thought, being able to communicate without hardly saying a word. What she’d missed most, more than the sight of Claudia or her presence in her life, was the closeness that had always been in her mind and heart. The closeness between them that had been there all their life, from when they’d been little girls. 

      When that had died, when her heart and mind had seemed hollow and alone, that was her lowest point. She’d started to deal with it as best she could, started to cope with the feeling, but now it was gone. 

      To be replaced by a warmth within her from having Claudia back beside her. In her life again. Like her internal light had been switched back on after being submerged in darkness. 

      “
I did pass over, Riley. But I became something else. Something more.”

      
“Did it hurt? Are you okay?”

      Claudia kissed her head again then stood, walking a few steps before turning back. Riley watched as her white cotton dress fluttered about her, making her look ethereal, otherworldly.

      
“Tell me about Hunter.”

      Riley was pleased she was in leopard form. The blush in her cheeks would have given her away in an instant. 

      
“How do you know about him?”

      Claudia’s eyes sparkled, like diamonds had been crushed around her pupils and were vying to escape. 

      
“I know everything, Riley. I’m your guider. I see everything.”

      Okay, so maybe she already knew
exactly
how much blushing had been going on.

      Claudia obviously picked up on that. On her thoughts, even though she didn’t mean her to. Damn twin sense!