Curiosity etched into Luc’s face as he stared up at the girl. “This is … different. Unexpected.”
My heart was pounding against my ribs like it was going to beat its way out while Luc was staring at her like she were an interesting science fair project.
Sarah lifted her head. Her eyes—whoa, her eyes were black orbs with a center that was …
I looked at Grayson.
Sarah’s pupils were like that of a Luxen’s, like Grayson’s, when they were about to take on their true form. Her pupils were like two stars in a dark night.
Dawson and Luc had just said she was human, and while I might not be a doctor or scientist, I knew they weren’t human eyes and that humans didn’t levitate.
The fine hair all along my arms stood up.
She came back to the floor, those weird eyes scanning the room. Her lips peeled back when Luc moved forward. A low snarl reverberated.
Was she growling at Luc?
Her head turned sharply, and I sucked in a breath as our gazes connected. Her nostrils flared as she sniffed the air. She took a step toward me. Her head cocked to the side, and a low, eerie trilling sound came from her.
I pressed back against the wall, flattening myself. I had no idea what was going on, but I so did not want to be the center of her attention.
Luc sidestepped, blocking me once more. “Easy there, Sarah. I don’t want to hurt you.” The smell of burned ozone filled the air as a faint whitish hue surrounded his body. “But I will.”
Sarah’s head jerked toward Luc. A moment passed, and then she moved—and she moved fast. She darted past Luc, rushing past the bed and the chair that had been sitting there, toward the square window.
She didn’t stop.
I tensed. “She’s going—”
Racing across the room, she jumped. Glass shattered, sending shards to the floor. A curtain came down, and then Sarah was gone—gone out the window and down to the alley below.
All of us were stuck in place, standing in silence until Luc sighed heavily and said, “Well, I was thinking about replacing that window, anyway.”14“So, we’re just going to pretend like that didn’t happen?” I asked, sitting in one of the common rooms on the third floor. Luc had left with Grayson and Dawson, who were also joined by Zoe … in her Wonder Woman outfit … to try to locate the girl since she wasn’t sprawled in the alley, a mess of broken bones and tissues like a normal human would’ve been if they’d pitched themselves out the window.
Kent placed a fresh Coke on the coffee table in front of me. “Welcome to my world. Just a regular Halloween here at Foretoken.”
I stared at him.
“You said she … levitated?” Emery asked, drawing my attention back to where she sat across from me. Emery was dressed like Catwoman, head to toe, deep blue leather. Heidi was in her red, white, and blue outfit, and Kent was still dressed as Pennywise, so it was really weird to be having this conversation right now.
I picked up the drink with shaky hands, welcoming the splash of carbonated bubbles against my dry throat. “She totally levitated off the floor.”
“And this occurred after she spewed black swamp water everywhere.” Kent sat on the arm of my chair. “And something blue. I have no idea what the blue stuff was.”
Heidi shuddered as she tucked a strand of crimson-colored hair back. “What could’ve made that happen?”
“Zombie bite?” Kent suggested helpfully. “Because I really think she turned into a zombie. Maybe a vegetarian one since she didn’t try to eat us, but definitely a zombie.”
I blinked once and then twice.
“I checked in on her earlier, before you got here.” Emery glanced at Heidi. “She had a pretty high fever, but I really thought it was just a flu. I figured she’d caught it somewhere on her travels, and with everything that happened to her boyfriend, she had to be emotionally and physically drained.”
“That was definitely not the flu,” Kent commented. “Unless a flu now causes your veins to turn black under your skin.”
“I don’t know anything that causes that,” Heidi said.
I sat back as my gaze fell to my Coke. That heavy, uncomfortable feeling from before resurfaced. Sarah had said something that kept cycling over and over in my head.
They did something to me.
“It was a lot like what happened with Coop,” I said. “But also not the same. Like, he didn’t levitate or have black veins, but he was superstrong.”
“Whether it was like what happened to that Coop kid or not, I’ve never seen anything like that.” Kent kicked a striped leg up on the couch beside us.
That was saying something, because I had a feeling he’d seen a lot of things. It was also telling that I wasn’t more freaked out—like running from the building screaming and flailing kind of freaked out. Three months ago? I totally would’ve been. Now? I was disturbed by what I’d seen, but I’d also seen a lot of weird, disturbing stuff since Luc had come … back into my life.