Paranormals

Chapter 7: Hide and Seek

I wake up in the hotel room six hours later. Bright sunlight shines between the cracks in the blinds covering the door leading to the balcony, speckling the floor of the room with patches of light. The gentle sound of waves crashing on the shore registers in my mind, and for a brief moment, all seems right. Then the events of last night come crashing back, and bolt upright in the bed.

I'm mated to a vampire, a very old, dangerous one, and I just displayed my linking abilities in front of him and two others. With the big mouth Lombardi has, I have no doubt that news my special ability is halfway across the world by now. And once the vampires know, it's only a matter of days before somebody leaks the secret to the shifters, and I'd bet my life that the entire supernatural community will be very aware of my linking by the end of the week.

But there's also other issues. We still haven't reached any agreements with Lombardi, and his newly made vampires are still on the loose, terrorizing the state of California.

In short, my life is a disaster of apocalyptic proportions.

I walk over to the bathroom. The girl in the mirror doesn't look like me at all. She wears a crumpled party dress, and her face is smeared with makeup. Large, scared grey eyes stare back at me. I study her for a moment, and slowly, her expression switches from scared to determined.

I can do this. The world knowing about my abilities doesn't lessen my advantage or effect me. Sure, I'll be stared at by supernaturals everywhere I go, but that already happen. And as far as the mate is concerned, it will be alright. I've survived sixteen years on this planet without one, and I don't need one now. We can go our seperate ways and be fine. I'm the same Casey Aguirre I've always been, and nothing can change that - not even a vampire with a voice like satin.

With these thoughts, I turn away from the hotel mirror and step into the bedroom, beginning to make the bed. I'm lucky nobody checked into this room while I was sleeping. It would have been difficult to explain how I'd ended up sprawled across the bed in a hotel room I never checked into, with no record of me entering on the hotel cameras. I clean up the room a bit, leaving it as close to untouched as possible.

Standing by the window and looking out to the beach and shining waters below, I sigh. I wish I could stay longer. Relax on the beach for an hour, maybe take a swim. Nevertheless, I start to link home, hoping there's no vampires waiting for me.

Just in case, I link to my neighbor's backyard, in a patch of trees. Even though the supernatural community is now aware of my abilities, humans are not, and I need to keep it that way. Peeking over the fence separating our house from theirs, I deduce I'm safe. The only car in the driveway is my mom's van, and something tells me that the vampire representative wouldn't drive the tired Honda Accord parked across the street.

Moving quickly, I hop the fence and come out of my hiding spot. Walking up the steps, I ring the doorbell. I hear shuffling in the house, and when the door opens, Ben practically attacks me.

"Where have you been?" he demands.

"At a hotel in the Caribbean. It was nice," I respond.

"We were worried about you! Mom thought you were dead," he says. Concern is etched into his features.