Immortal

From their place in the bowels of the Underworld, the Furies, Daughters of Night, summon their son. They are skeletal winged creatures, the black of rotting flesh thinly stretched across their hunched, quivering bodies, not much more than flesh sacks barely able to contain the power of each of their morbid talents.

He was birthed eons ago from the womb of vengeance, conceived by jealousy, and grown in constant anger. Bred to defend mortals, he was sent from their underground realm to the world above, and there, away from their poison, he learned compassion. At first only so that he could mimic and blend. Later, after centuries, humanity took hold within him, causing the Furies unending confusion with their errant son, this man who grew up and away from them.

Alekos appears, his Herculean body glowing from the descent, the return home. “Yes, my mothers?” He steps down from the ledge he was summoned to, his torn jeans dragging through the souls of the doomed as he strolls toward the three creatures in the dark. He can hear their wings rustling with the excitement of his return. Although he had been there only weeks before, they had not seen him in years. Time ticks by slowly below. As he approaches, they gently grab him and lead him farther into the nothing, farther from the whines of the tortured.

He removes his feet and snaps his fingers. Oil lamps flicker on, revealing a cave wet and putrid with chaos and death. The three figures huddle together staring at their son across a crude stone table on which sits a bouquet of night-blooming moon flowers the delicate color of infants’ flesh. Slowly they begin to rock back and forth as if they are one and not three. Their eyes are dark and endless, and drip with the blood of the tortured. The snakes in their hair alternate between attacking and caressing one another.

The Furies click with amusement as his mind is flooded with pictures of a beautiful young woman: long chestnut hair, chocolate eyes, olive skin, and a black dress. They have chosen her for him. He blinks and stands. Alekos knows he was only there for this—the gift of his mission. It is now time for him to depart, and for the first time in centuries he feels nervous, excited, alive.

They close the black holes that served as their eyes, grip each other tightly, and send their too beautiful son to the modern world with the sounds of their shrieks echoing their farewells.

Ryan Tedder’s melodic voice came booming out of my black cell phone, waking me from a much-needed nap. I groped around my nightstand unsuccessfully for my glasses. Seriously blind as a bat, I quickly gave up on reading the glowing caller ID box. Instead I flipped open the phone.

“Good! Well, I was just calling to remind you to bring your camera tonight. We’re going to have so much fun at Taylor’s hotel party! I can’t wait! Being seniors is sooo much fun! What are you wearing?”

Bridget sucked in air. “No way! Those new strappy heels from Saks? That is so not fair! We’re going to look super hott, like always. Ugh, hang on, my mom is yelling at me.” She moved the mouth piece of her cell away and I could hear her muffled whines at her mom. “Okay, Mom. She wants me to tell you not to forget your cell phone because that gross serial killer guy just killed someone else. Well duh, he’s a serial killer, jeez. Sorry, she is so protective and weird. But anyway, I have to go finish getting gorgeous. See you at the Ambassador at ten! Love you, and don’t forget the digital!”

As I sleepily wandered the five feet from my bed to my ocean-themed bathroom, I could hear my mom screeching at me from her room down the hall. “Jenna! Do you know where my gold strappy shoes are? I just bought them and they’ve already mysteriously disappeared.” She walked into my room and looked around.

I poked my head out of the bathroom door, my hair falling straight into the toothpaste I had just squeezed onto the brush. “Mom! If you’re going to come in here anyway, why do you have to yell at me from down the hall?”

“Oh, umm, nope. Haven’t seen ’em. Sorry.” I hardly ever lie to my mom, she’s too good at catching me, but this was different. It was the first party of my senior year of high school, and I had to look the best. And I’m sure Paul had seen them already. She’s been with the nerdy mortician for like six months. Besides, gold is hot right now, ask anyone.

She started to leave, and her dark curls bounced around her shoulders, making her suddenly look a lot younger than a forty-something-year-old mom. She paused at the door. “And Jenn, don’t forget to take Mr. Pepper. He’s in his spot by the front door.”

I began wrapping my fingers around my tangled hair in an attempt to turn it into an intentionally messy low pony when the cute Ryan Tedder again blared through the room. I quickly clipped up my hair and glanced down at the sink where I had set my phone. “Connor!” The picture of his goofy smile, sandy shaggy hair, and gray eyes made my stomach jump.

“Oh, well, that’s cool. I just wanted to see if you’re coming to Taylor’s thing tonight. There’s gonna be a DJ, and his older brother’s bringing vodka and beer and stuff, so it should be pretty awesome.”

I fought off the urge to call Bridget and babble semi-hysterically about Connor actually calling me, and instead trotted to my closet on a wave of happy he’s-almost-my-boyfriend thoughts, where my black Tinkerbell cocktail dress hung waiting. Then I began digging my mom’s cute gold shoes out of hiding from under my dirty clothes.

“I’m not yelling this time. Ew.” She looked at the wad of clothes I’d grabbed to camouflage her shoes. “Don’t tell me you’re wearing something dirty to your little get-together thing tonight.”

“Sorry. Anyway, Paul’s here so I’m heading out on my date. Maybe I’ll even have a little sex. Hehe.” She made herself giggle and turn red as she left me with that disgusting mental picture.

Oh barf! Is everyone having sex except me? I stood up and thought about Connor. Wait! It’s been an hour already?! I whipped around to face the clock: 9:03. Shit. I frantically dressed myself, found the shoes, and ran into the bathroom to put on my face. Luckily, it only takes a little eyeliner and mascara to bring me back from the dead. I checked my phone: 9:21 P.M. Okay, shoes, and then the thirty-minute drive to the Ambassador. The shoes, however gorgeous they may be, took about twenty minutes for me to buckle. I’m not a contortionist; feet aren’t supposed to bend like that. Stupid (gorgeous) shoes.

I ran downstairs, grabbed Mr. Pepper and my gold clutch, checked for lip gloss and my ID, and nearly tore the key hook out of the wall in my efforts to bolt out the front door.

“Please start.” I sent out a quiet prayer as I ran down the front sidewalk, crunching autumn leaves on my way. I got in and turned the key to my 1969 cherry-red Mustang. It’s a super cute car, it just doesn’t always run.

Vrrrrrooomm. “Success!” I took off down the street and got about five miles away from my house before my super cute car died. I dropped my head against the steering wheel, banged it a few times, and felt around the passenger seat for my cell phone. “Of course, you forgot it, Jenna. And the camera! Dammit! Bridget’s gonna be pissed!” I slouched down in my seat, smashing the puffiness of my dress, and silently cried for my mommy.

As if my mom had miraculously appeared, her words trickled in through my tears: “Jenn, use your bus pass, you silly girl. I got it for you because your car kind of sucks.” Well, duh. I stopped crying and checked my eyes in the rearview mirror. Thank God for waterproof eye makeup and close bus stops. My mom’s gold shoes were definitely not made for walking.

When I got to the bus stop I chose to stand alone while three other people crammed themselves on a bench made for two. This would be so much easier and way less gross if I had just remembered my phone. Now I have completely passed being fashionably late and entered the “you think you’re too good to actually be here” time. And what if Connor is dancing with someone else?!

I could feel him getting closer so I shoved my hand into my clutch. “No bud, I don’t think you understand! If you say another syllable in my general direction,” I whipped out the pepper spray so the Mr. Pepper label was clearly visible, “I will spray this right in your—holy hell!”

“Hey Jenna! I was just calling to remind you to bring your camera tonight. We’re going to have sooo much fun at Taylor’s hotel party! I can’t wait! Being seniors is sooo much fun! What are you wearing?”

“Creepy. Anyway, try not to go crazy ’til after tonight, k? Ugh, hang on, my mom is yelling at me.” Bridget’s familiar whines were muffled. “She wants me to tell you not to forget your cell phone because that gross serial killer guy just killed someone else. Well duh, he’s a serial killer, jeez. Sorry, she is so protective and weird. But anyway, I have to go finish getting gorgeous. See you at the Ambassador at ten! Love you, and don’t forget the digital!”

I hesitated, staring at her as she stood in the doorway. She was surrounded by a strange vanilla-colored cloud of mist. I rubbed my eyes and blinked a few times, and it went away. “Mom, what did you say?”

“My shoes. The gold ones. From Saks. Look, Jenna it’s okay if you wore them, but I really don’t have time for this. Paul’s going to be here,” she looked down at her watch, “in less than an hour. So?”

I sat up in bed, staring out the door. It was just a dream. A really weird, freaky dream. I bet if I think about it longer I’ll have played poker with the beaver and Abe Lincoln like in that insomnia commercial.

Ow! White light burned through my mind along with a picture and a memory. I had an insanely vivid flash of the guy at the bus stop, and two words screamed through my mind: “FIND ME!”

Leaning over, I slowly picked up my phone from off the floor. Connor. Just like before. This time I hit the ignore button with shaky fingers and turned the phone on silent. Maybe I need some water. I’ll rehydrate. Wake up. As I got out of bed, I felt something jab the bottom of my foot. I picked up the frame to my glasses, which I had just smashed. Wait. I can see? I shouldn’t be able to see. I stuck my finger in my eye. No contacts. Weird déjà vu dreams curing blind-as-a-bat-ness?

I stared at myself in the bathroom mirror. Is this what people look like when they’re crazy? What the hell? What the hell? What the hell? “Jenna, just go get some water and some extra-strength Tylenol,” I told myself, hoping speaking my thoughts out loud would bring some sanity to my mind.

“Hey! Paul’s here so I’m heading out on my date. Maybe I’ll even have a little sex. Hehe.” I cringed as she flitted past me. That doesn’t get any better the second time around. I glanced at the clock on the wall: 9:03.

I took comfort in doing something as normal as getting a glass from the cabinet. My cabinet, my normal cabinet. And water from my sink, my normal sink. A cool fall wind blew in through the partially open window, bringing the familiar smell of autumn leaves to me. Just like before. Just like when I was walking to my car. My brain launched itself into another flashback seizure as my mind’s eye filled with another painful vision. I dropped my glass and it shattered, raining shards of crystal at my feet.

I didn’t even notice anything wrong with my foot until I was upstairs putting on my shoes. I was shocked by the small pieces of glass that had stuck in my heel. Blood was staining my fuzzy green carpet. As I painlessly pulled out the glass, I brought it to my face. Holy crap! My blood wasn’t my blood anymore! It was no longer bright red and penny-smelling. Instead it was dull amber, and the sweet, soothing smell relaxed me and made me feel at home.

My foot was completely healed by the time I put on my Coach tennis shoes and ran down the stairs and out the door. Am I like that chick off of Heroes? The one who heals herself over and over again?

I hesitated as I reached my car. “Jenna, maybe driving is not such a good idea. Not only are you getting weird voicemails in your head, but today seems to be some sort of twisted repeat, so why would your car work this time?” I find that sometimes talking to myself is the best way to sort through my problems, and I am such a good listener. “Where is a do-gooder neighbor when you need one?” I looked but of course, chivalry is dead, and so was my neighborhood.

“Aaaah! I just want to be at the freaking bus stop, people!” I closed my eyes and threw a mini temper tantrum, stomping my foot like a toddler in a toy store. There was a sudden rush through my body that made me feel like I was falling off a tall building. When I unsquished my face and looked around I realized I was there, at the freaking bus stop! And I was sitting on my butt in the middle of the sidewalk.

“You!” I scrambled backward through a pool of my amber blood, and was amazed when I felt only adrenaline and not one bit of pain from coming into such close contact with the concrete. “I’ve gone completely insane and it’s all your fault! Turn me back!” He reached out and grabbed my flailing hands to pull me up and I was smothered by a rush of calming autumn air. My eyes opened super wide and fixed on him.

“I—I think I’m bleeding.” Pressing my hand against the back of my head, I came in contact with damp tangled hair. No wound, no pain, just really nappy wet strands. “Well, I thought—”

“Huh?” I said, brilliant. Okay, the guy was so majorly hot it was making it hard for me to think. Tall and blonde and delicious. A complete Justin Hartley look-alike. Yummmm.

Not knowing what else to do, and feeling completely, utterly overwhelmed, I stuck out my hand for him to shake, and added my best attempt at a hair flip. “I’m Jenna,” I said, while the leaves danced around my feet.

Now, I know the whole “don’t go places with strangers” thing, but you have to realize that in the middle of all of this unreality, this guy made sense. I know it sounds bizarre, but he just felt right, and I knew I should trust him. Like I knew that he had been there waiting for me.

He smiled, then motioned for me to follow him. I scurried to keep up with his long strides while I tried to untangle my hair and watch his cute butt at the same time. You could bounce a quarter off of that thing! Oh my God. I sound like my mother. Talk about gross. I almost ran into him when he came to an abrupt halt beside a florescent green car. “What is that?”

“It looks like a giant green popsicle.” I slid in onto the white leather seat, distracted by the vintage-ness of the old muscle car, while he went around and got in on the driver’s side. I was just getting ready to open my mouth and tell him I had a thing for old cars too, when he leaned over and grabbed my arm.

“Dead!” I tried to pull back from him. “What the hell?” My heart felt like it was going to pound out of my chest. Instead of letting me go, Alek pressed his body close to mine and wrapped me in his arms.

Like his voice was a drug, my body seemed to dissolve into him and I gasped as, still in his arms, I began to float above his Jell-O-colored car. White specks of light surrounded me. I looked up at Alek, who was drifting with me. His eyes glowed the red of a rising autumn moon.

I looked below us and saw everything. There I was, dressed in my LBD and my mom’s hot but uncomfortable shoes, pouting and sullenly complaining to myself while I waited for the bus. There sat the three people crammed on the tiny bench, and then there was Alek, appearing from nowhere. I glanced questioningly at the Alek who floated with his arms around me. His eyes still burned hunter red, and they stilled the questions on my lips.

I looked down again and saw myself point Mr. Pepper at Alek’s face. At those eyes that were just as red then as they were now. I could see myself yelling something, and at the same time I stepped back. It was then that mom’s gorgeous stiletto heel missed the curb, and horrified, I saw my arms windmilling as I fell backward, hitting my head on the concrete with a sickening thud.

And that was it. I didn’t move as the people at the bus stop surrounded me, obviously not knowing what to do. Through the middle of them walked Alek, but he was like a shadow in darkness. No one seemed to see him at all as he bent over my still body and whispered, “Your death was a gift, given by the ancients through me. You have been chosen. I am your teacher.” Then he bent and covered my dead lips with his.

Okay, it was happening, but it wasn’t. People were running around down there—literally walking through him while he kissed me. And even though they couldn’t see him I could feel him. What he did to my dead body, I could now feel happening in my hovering soul as I drank in the exchange of death with life. I should have been terrified. I should have screamed or passed out or flailed against him. Instead I closed my eyes and let my soul absorb what I had seen. I accepted his gift and knew my world would never be the same.

When I opened my eyes, I was back in the car pressed against Alek’s chest. There were no sounds coming from inside of his muscular body, no breath, no heart thumping. I pulled back and stared at him.

His strong arms were still around my waist and I wondered how they stayed so warm if he was dead. If we were dead. His smile was still in his eyes when he said, “No, it’s not like that, either. You’ll see.”

“So we kinda match!” I blurted. What? As he chuckled at my dorkiness I pulled away and positioned myself back on my side of the car. This was depressing. With all this new power I could feel inside of me, I was still the same lame eighteen-year-old with no game.

“What was that?” Still smiling, Alek pulled his keys from his pocket and turned on the car, but for a moment I could swear disappointment flashed across his face. Would he really have kissed me again if I hadn’t gone all superdork on him and then vaulted to the other side of the car?

“Yeah, umm, we match.” I tried to stay as perky as I had been when I ruined the moment. “We’re both strong, fearless creatures of night sent here to . . . do . . . stuff. What exactly do we do?”

“We all have different abilities.” He cleared his throat in preparation, and I wondered how many times he had had this conversation. “I can affect time. That’s how I got you to the bus stop, since you were taking too long getting there on your own, and that’s also why you woke up today . . . again. Guess you could call that part a side effect. But, I’m not too sure what your ability is, but you’ll figure it out pretty soon. It’s the same for each of us, but different. You have to discover your own way. I was sent from below—”

“Well, kind of.” He sighed and cleared his throat. “There are these ancient monsters whose spirits have been locked in the Underworld, and occasionally they find some way to escape. If they do, their only goals are to find a body and create the same chaos they did centuries ago. I’m the first of my kind, our kind, that were made to find these creatures and send them back. So, we’re more like—”

He laughed. “I guess you could call it that. I know where to take you, and we’ll just wing it from there.” He put the car in gear and started driving down the street.

I stared out the window, trying to make myself teleport or move things with my mind, when I noticed the reflection of my eyes. They were flashing from their normal plain brown to brilliant amber. That was good, right? I kept looking out the window and tried to concentrate. We passed a crowd of people leaving a late night movie when it happened again.

“Oh my God! That’s it! I just thought it was part of me going crazy, but really it was my hidden superpower.” I giddily turned to Alek, expecting him to know what I was talking about.

“I can see stuff.” It was just like with my mom, the weird vanilla smoke I’d seen around her. I leaned over Alek and pointed out the window to a cluster of people. “Like, I know that the girl in the pink cardigan and those really cute fuzzy boots is completely and totally in love, because I can see hot pink misty ribbons floating off of her. Oh, oh, and look at him.” I pointed to a guy standing on the corner holding a WILL WORK FOR FOOD sign. “The smoke stuff around him is all brown and nasty. Hey! He has cancer.” I paused, thinking hard, and suddenly knew. “He has lung cancer. He’s gonna die. Soon.” I shivered, not sure how I felt about my new superpower. Plopping myself back in my seat, I stared out the window and watched rainbows of smoke dance off people and twist through the autumn air, and knew things I simply shouldn’t.

“We’re here.” Alek turned off the car, and when I opened my eyes I half-expected to see creepy boat docks or a dark alley. Instead, we were in the middle of suburbia parked in front of a brick house identical to the ones on either side of it.

“You’re kidding. This is the monster hideout where I’m supposed to fight crime?” Alek was already out of the car, and I hurried to catch up with him, following his longer legs up the driveway and past a very familiar SUV. “Hey!” He spun around and motioned for me to be quiet.

I lowered my voice, and spoke urgently. “But this is Paul’s nerdy old Isuzu. He’s dating my mom. Look, it has to be his SUV.” I pointed at the window. “He has like fifty tacky evergreen air fresheners hanging from the rearview mirror because he smokes in his car and doesn’t want my mom to notice.” Obviously Alek didn’t care, because he kept walking until he reached the side door and I had to scramble again to keep up.

“What? Hell no! Didn’t you just hear me? This is Paul’s house and there’s no way I’m going in there. Your monster radar is all wrong. Besides, he’s on a date with my mom, and look, the lights aren’t even on. They’re probably not here, or worse. Ew. They might be—” Alek pressed one hand over my mouth and used the other to guide mine to the door.

Suddenly, the cold sluggishness of fear crept through the door and made ribbons up my arm. I tried to pull away, but Alek wouldn’t let me. Rage and disgust followed. Their hot nails tore at my flesh, though the only marks they left were in my mind—on my soul. Alek let loose my hand and repeated, “We’re going in there. Remember, trust me. I’m your protector.”

As soon as he finished his sentence we were on the other side of the door. I really wish he would warn me before he popped us places. Alek nudged me toward the stairs and back into the reality I was trying unsuccessfully to escape. Like ghosts, we slid noiselessly up to the second floor. With each step the suffocating stench of smoky fear grew stronger. I wanted to vomit. At the top of the steps Alek took the lead. I let out a tiny sigh. Okay, right. He was my protector. Besides his superpower of zapping us places and kissing me into being a weird kind of vampire, he also must be super strong (as well as super hot). With him in front he could beat up any ancient boogey monster things lurking in the dark.

We walked into a room absent of all furniture except a metal table, the kind that morticians put dead bodies on. The cold room stank of bleach and blood, and the mixture became red and white ribbons of smoke that bit at my eyes. I scanned the room, amazed at how easily I could see through the smoke and shadows.

It was in one of those shadows that I saw her curly brown hair. I tore out from behind my protector and flew to her side. “Mom?!” The silence burned my ears. “Mom! Mom!” The soft vanilla I’d seen surrounding her earlier barely lingered within the rust-colored tendrils of hopeless-ness and panic, blinding me with fear. Tears washed my face, and my throat was hard and dry. “Alek, she’s not moving. And I don’t know what’s wrong!” He was immediately at my side. I scrubbed at my eyes, wiping away tears and blinking through the otherworldly mists. He picked up my mother’s limp body. She looked so unnaturally still and helpless it made my stomach roll. Mom was never helpless! She couldn’t be!

The man approaching me looked like the Paul I knew only briefly. Then my eyes grew hot and his body wavered, like heat rising from a hot summer road, and his true form was revealed to me. The smoke that swirled in and out of his body was terrible. It made his evil naked, and bared, he was fully exposed to me. I saw the sick creature he truly was. The souls of the people he had murdered shrieked purple ribbons of smoky agony from within him and tried to claw their way out from beneath his gray flesh. His eyes were fixed on me, but they wriggled in sockets swimming with parasites. Putrid lie-filled glop fell from his scorched lips and ate the ground where it landed.

He had stopped moving toward us, and his body shimmered again, changing back into the Paul my mom had been tricked into caring about. “So, Mommy first, or you and your boyfriend?”

And it hit me. The rest of my new gift became clear. I turned to Alek, and in a commanding voice I barely recognized as my own I ordered, “Alek! Get her out of here! Call 911!”

Then I turned and faced the demon. “How about you start with me, asshole?” As I spoke I threw my arms wide and all of the tendrils of emotion swirling in the room rushed to me, wrapping around me, filling me with an incredible surge of power. I felt the dark emotions that had shimmered around Alastor enter my body and I knew the anger and hatred and awful strength of pure evil.

My mouth grew teeth I didn’t know I had and my body began to vibrate with the power of the emotions I’d absorbed. I didn’t think. I just felt and acted. I launched myself at the man my mother had trusted, wrapped my hands around his throat, and tried to tear off his suit of flesh. I had never felt so wild and so free. It was good to feel his flesh tear, to see his eyes bug out, to hear his whimper of terror. I was bloated with it, filled with darkness, and I wanted to rip him to pieces.

But before I could, Alek was pulling me from my opponent. He threw me against the wall so hard that, had I been alive, I would have surely died. By the time I shook off the shock and got to my feet, Alek had already finished him. He’d snapped his neck. Let him off easy. I threw myself at Alek, knocking him back. My fangs cut into my bottom lip and the amber blood that trickled onto my tongue only made my rage grow as Alek regained his balance. But instead of hitting me back, he calmly wrapped his arms around my anger-bloated body, and held me tightly. The hollow sound of his chest and the autumn air that was his scent surrounded us, and like a cool fall rain following a baking hot summer, his presence washed the anger from me, leaving me so weak that I began to cry.

“You can’t let it control you. That’s where the horror stories of vampires came from—that’s why so many of us have inspired bad B movies and the nightmares of humans. It’s what happens to us when we lose control. If we let our powers overwhelm us, then we become the monsters we’ve been created to hunt.” He set his chin on my head and I could feel him inhale the dried amber blood in my hair. “Feeding off him was enough. Don’t let him taint you. You have to learn to keep the energy and let the evil go. His soul is back below in a far worse place than you could ever imagine, let that be punishment enough.”

His voice was so deep, so incredibly gentle, and his eyes so warm that I lost myself in them. And then I saw the mist that surrounded him. It was a bright, brilliant amber—the same color as my blood. It reminded me of a clear and early dawn and new beginnings. The tendrils of gold wrapped around me, around us, and I couldn’t help myself. I tiptoed and kissed him gently on the lips.

At the sound of my mom’s weak voice Alek and I sprang apart and I ran to where she lay just outside the room of death. I felt Alek move behind me, shielding her view of what used to be Paul.

“It’s okay, Mom. It’s gonna be fine,” I said, reaching out to hold her and breathing a sigh of relief as I saw the vanilla mist that surrounded her, once more cream-colored and healthy, completely free of the taint of death.

Alek stayed by my side, holding my hand and helping to strengthen me, keeping me from becoming overwhelmed by all of the tendrils of urgency, pain, and fear that surged with the presence of the police and EMTs and the neighbors who had started to mill around the front yard like worried sheep. He guided me to my mom, through the chaos that was invisible to everyone else but that I saw as mist within fog, so thick and swirling it was overwhelming. Mom was completely conscious, though she had a nasty bump on her head. I was still feeling a little sick with worry until I heard her tell an EMT that if she could just have a few Xanax and a glass of wine she’d be fixed right up and could go on home.

“Yeah, I’m coming,” I said, then I turned to Alek. I looked into his blue eyes and saw a future so different than anything I could have dreamed that I suddenly felt shy. “Uh, I’m going to ride with her since, ya know, she’s hurt.” I giggled nervously. “Well, of course you do, you were—” He pulled me close and kissed my babbling lips. Leaves swept around my feet and wind rushed through my matted hair.

I jumped into the back of the ambulance and watched his cute butt as I walked all the way to his car. When he got to the bright green thing he looked back at me and his eyes glowed softly. “Hey,” he called. “I think you were right before. I think we do match.”

I grinned like a fool as the doors to the ambulance closed and my mom started pestering me with who is that tall boy? questions. As I tried to make up believable and not-get-me-in-trouble answers, I watched through the little glass windows while tendrils of caressing amber clung to the ambulance, guiding . . . protecting . . . ushering me into a whole new life.