VETO STOOD BEHIND HER, holding his jaw. “You hit hard,” he teased.
“Veto! You scared me to death.” She wanted to be angry with him but she felt too happy to see him. “How did you get in here, anyway?”
“The kitchen window.” He handed her a single red rose.
She took it, sniffed the sweet fragrance, and made a mental note to nail the window shut.
She tilted her head in a flirty way and looked Veto up and down.
He wore a black leather jacket over a plaid button-up shirt and khakis. A gold earring glistened in his ear and he had gotten a haircut. He smiled as if he knew she was admiring the way he looked.
“I couldn’t meet you at school.” He touched her chin lightly. “I had things to do.”
She rolled her eyes. “What else is new?”
He took her hand and pulled her toward the door. “But now I have time. Come on. This is the first time it hasn’t been raining. Let’s go to the park so I can tell you everything.”
“Everything?” She looked up at him, expectant.
“Yeah,” he said as he opened the door. “Todo—and I’ll answer all your questions too.”
She set the rose down and grabbed her keys.
As they walked toward the park, Jimena felt as if a terrible worry were being lifted from her shoulders. People smiled at Veto and said hello. Three little boys ran up to him and asked if he wanted to buy candy bars for their Little League. There was no doubt in her mind now that he was real. She leaned against him as they walked down the crowded street. She wondered how she could have ever thought he was a ghost.
“When are you going to tell me?” she murmured.
“Soon,” he promised. “Wait till we get to the park. Right now I can’t get enough of this sunshine.”
“I know.” She lifted her face to the sun and enjoyed its warmth.
Children in bathing suits and shorts jumped in the rain puddles that shimmered gold.
They crossed the street through the grid-locked rush-hour traffic and entered the park. A tecato drifted toward them, his heroin-thin bony hand shaking a cup at them. His few begged coins rattled at the bottom.
Veto stared at the addict, then shook his head sadly. His reaction surprised Jimena. In the old days he might have yelled at or lectured the man.
Jimena turned and looked up at Veto. There was something different about him but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
A woman wrapped in a rebozo sat on a beach chair with a bag of mangoes between her feet. Veto handed her a dollar. She took a knife, cut the mango into six easy slices, dropped the slippery yellow pieces into a sandwich bag, and handed it to Veto.
He gave one to Jimena and took one himself.
Veto took a bite and the juice ran down his chin. He didn’t try to wipe it away but closed his eyes and held his face up to the sun. “This is heaven, you know. Sunshine and mango and you.” His eyes opened and he looked at her in a strange way as if he were trying to memorize every thing about her.
“Kiss me,” he whispered.
She leaned over and kissed his sweet lips.
“Let’s go watch the old men play chess.” He took a handkerchief from his back pocket, wiped his hands, and gave the hankie to Jimena. She wiped the sticky juice from her hands and face.
Veto took her hand and pulled her to the corner of the park where the old men had set up chairs and tables. They were hunched over, concentrating on the checkered boards. In the old days Veto liked to come here and watch the men play and then whisper their mistakes into Jimena’s ear.
They stood behind an old man wearing a tandito and Stacy Adams shoes. His tattooed hand hovered over the castle. Age had blurred the letters written in his skin.
Veto studied the board.
Jimena felt a change in her moon amulet and looked up. Her breath caught. Karyl and Morgan were five feet away, their backs to her. They apparently hadn’t sensed her presence because they were concentrating on the lake. Were they waiting for Cassandra? She shielded her hands against the glare on the water. The geyserlike fountain in the center continued spraying water, but she didn’t see any paddleboats. The pedalo boat ride looked closed.
“Oye,” Jimena whispered to the old man with his hand on the chess piece. “When do the boat rides open?”
The old man looked up at her, annoyed.
“Domingo, solamente domingo.” He looked back at the chessboard.
“You want to go for a ride?” Veto asked. “The boat rides are only open on Sunday, but I can steal one.”
Had Cassandra stolen a paddleboat?
She glanced back at Karyl and Morgan. She didn’t need a premonition to know they were up to something bad. Her moon amulet vibrated against her chest in warning.
Veto could always read her emotions. Already he was scanning the park, trying to see what she saw. He put his arm around her and pulled her closer to him. “What? You see something? Wilshire 5?”
“I don’t bang hard anymore. It’s something else. You wouldn’t understand.” She caught the look on his face. He didn’t like being excluded from her thoughts.
“Dime. Tell me.”
The two men playing checkers sensed the command in Veto’s voice and looked up.
“Nothing.” She tried to make her voice sound carefree. “I’m just getting a headache maybe from all the sun.”
Veto recognized the lie. “La verdad, Jaguar. Tell me the truth. I’ve seen too much now for you to keep anything from me. Ojalá, more than you’ll ever have to deal with or see.” His eyes looked tired now. “Anything that’s bothering you, you can tell me.”
“I see some people I don’t like.” That was true, even though it wasn’t the complete truth.
“If they give you trouble, I’ll take care of them,” he promised. “You know I will.”
“This is a different kind of trouble,” she whispered, her voice low with warning.
“No hay nada I can’t handle.” He spoke it like a solemn oath.
She nodded. There had been a time when that was true. Was it still? Could he help her find out why Karyl and Morgan were waiting by the lake? Maybe he could go over and talk to them, distract them while she had a chance to get in closer, and see if they were doing anything. But that was too dangerous. She would never risk Veto.
“So forget about them,” Veto nudged her. “You’re safe with me. Come on. I have important things I want to tell you. Let’s go sit on a bench.”
She started to follow him when thunder roared from the ground like a diesel truck bearing down on them at full speed. The ground shook and the vibrations traveled up her leg and through her back.
Veto grabbed Jimena and held her tightly against him.
All around them pandemonium broke loose. People ran away from trees, cars, and buildings, fearing this tremor might be the prelude to the big one.
Jimena glanced at Karyl and Morgan. They weren’t running like the others. They stood and slowly walked to the edge of the lake. They were smiling as if the earth tremors had somehow made them happy.
The earth stopped shaking, but her heart was still beating wildly.
The water in the lake lapped at the sides and spilled over onto the asphalt path.
People laughed nervously. The two old men were picking up chess pieces and returning them to their chessboard.
“Ha, you’d do anything to get out of a losing match,” the man in the tandito teased his friend.
The other old man smiled and picked up a knight from the dust.
Jimena remember how Veto had become so frightened before when he heard the earthquake thunder. She glanced up at him. He didn’t seem afraid this time. She started to ask him why, but stopped.
The afternoon suddenly collapsed around her and she was filled with a cruel sense of déjà vu. Veto was standing exactly as he had stood in her premonition. She swirled around looking for Cassandra, afraid she was suddenly going to appear.
She shuddered. “Leave, Veto.”
He looked confused. “I wanted to explain things to you.”
She shook her head. “Go.” The memory of Cassandra reaching for Veto closed in tight and she started to tremble.
“What?” Veto asked with true concern. “What’s wrong?”
Everything seemed to move in slow motion around her as utter panic took hold. She looked behind her. How could she tell Veto about the premonition and make him understand how dangerous Cassandra was? Even if she could explain who Cassandra was, Veto would want to stay and fight.
She started to speak but her mouth felt too dry and she had to clear her throat first. “Things around here aren’t the same as you remember them. There are other dangers.”
He looked at her oddly, but he was still standing as he had been in her premonition.
Why wouldn’t he go? Or at least, move. She shoved him hard, and still he didn’t move.
“Jimena?” He reached out for her, filling her with an absolute sense of doom.
She felt suddenly trapped in a horrible dark hole even though she was standing in full sunlight. The sun now felt cold on her skin. She heard the stealthy snap of a footstep behind her and turned quickly. It was only a child trying to sneak up on a pigeon. She looked back at Veto.
“Veto, if you ever liked me, just do it. Just go. Please.”
He took slow easy steps backward spreading his arms. “Ya me voy, all right? I’m going.” He paused. “Where do you go with your friends?”
“What do you mean?” she said in a dry voice.
“Where do you hang out?” he continued as he took impossibly slow strides away from her. “Tell me so I can come see you.”
“Friday night I’ll be at Planet Bang.”
“I’ll see you there.”
She nodded.
Jimena watched Veto run from her with a sigh of relief. He was far from her now, and she felt that he was safe again.
At last, she looked back at the lake. Karyl and Morgan were gone now. She scanned the park, but she didn’t see them anywhere.
The sun was low on the horizon when she finally walked back to her grandmother’s apartment. She was going to call Maggie right away.
Jimena had picked up the phone and started to dial Maggie when someone knocked on the door.
She went to answer it. As soon as she opened the door, Serena, Vanessa, and Catty rushed inside with worried looks. Serena’s tongue stud clicked nervously against her teeth.
“What?” Jimena looked from one to the other. She couldn’t tell if they were angry or frightened or both.
Vanessa spoke first. “Tell Jimena what you told us.”
Serena cleared her throat. “Stanton gave me a warning.”
Catty kicked off her clogs and paced in chunky-striped socks that crawled up her pink tights. “I still don’t understand why he would tell you. It has to be a set-up.”
“Let her speak,” Jimena broke in.
Serena stretched on the couch and cuddled a pillow.
“Because,” Vanessa started to explain. “He uses us whenever someone threatens his position. I believe him. This isn’t the first time he’s told us something.”
Catty walked over to the couch and fell on it. “I don’t trust him.”
“Tell Jimena,” Vanessa coaxed Serena. “She can make up her own mind.”
Serena began slowly, “Stanton told me that Cassandra has suddenly become favored by the most powerful Atrox Followers, the Cincti.”
“Cincti?” Jimena translated the Latin. “Encircled? I don’t understand.”
“Cincti is what Followers call members of the Inner Circle,” Serena explained.
Catty shook her head. “This is too much to believe.”
Serena continued softly, her words heavy with concern, “In all the centuries that Stanton’s been a Follower, he’s never heard of anyone who is not an Immortal being allowed to visit the Inner Circle.”
“Why would they choose Cassandra then?”
Jimena asked. “She’s definitely not an Immortal.”
“That’s my point exactly.” Catty leaned forward. “Why Cassandra? I think Stanton’s setting us up.”
“I don’t.” Vanessa argued. “I think he uses us when it’s to his advantage. And it’s definitely to his advantage if we can stop Cassandra.”
“He needs us to stop Cassandra,” Serena said. “If Cassandra succeeds, then her place of power will be higher than his.” Serena hesitated now as if she were trying to regain a measure of calm. “Cassandra wants revenge.”
“She probably wants to get even with him for those ugly letters she cut into her skin.” Catty nervously picked at the funky snake designs on her nails.
Jimena looked at Serena. Serena wasn’t telling Catty and Vanessa the really bad news. Stanton had jilted Cassandra to be with Serena. Jimena could only imagine how much Cassandra wanted to get even with them both . . . if she knew. Maybe that’s why the Regulators hadn’t come after Stanton and Serena. Maybe Cassandra hadn’t told the Atrox, because she was planning revenge on her own terms. Jimena shuddered and looked at Serena.
A worried look crossed Serena’s face, but her voice was steady as she continued. “Stanton said she’s been allowed to visit the Inner Circle because she has a fail-safe plan to stop the Daughters of the Moon.”
“To stop us.” Vanessa repeated the words for emphasis. “That’s why she’s been acting so nasty.”
“Does Stanton know what her plan is?” Jimena asked.
Serena shook her head.
“Go on,” Vanessa urged. “There’s more.”
Serena pulled a tube of lip balm from her pocket and rubbed it across her lips before she went on. “The Cincti have allowed her to go back into the past to change one event so she can start her plan in motion.”
“Has she gone already?” Jimena’s fingers went automatically to her amulet. She pressed it into her palm.
Serena nodded. “Whatever they changed, they’ve changed it already.”
Jimena looked from Catty to Vanessa and back to Serena. “Does Stanton know what event she changed?”
“No.” Serena shook her head. “But whatever it was, it worked, because she was able to set her plan in motion.”
“That’s one reason I don’t believe Stanton,” Catty put in. “You can’t go back and change something unless it was always meant to be.”
“What do you mean—you can’t change time?” Jimena asked. “They already did.”
“Because,” Catty explained. “Time isn’t like a river with one day following the next. We just think of it that way because that’s the way we’ve been taught; everyone talks about tomorrow or yesterday, but really all time occurs at once.”
“Yesterday and tomorrow happen at the same time?” Vanessa rolled her eyes. “That’s impossible.”
“No. How else can I go back and forth in time?” Catty asked. “It’s because time is like a huge lake—it exists all at once. We just experience it one day at a time. That’s why I can never do anything to change what has happened in the past. Because if I were going to change something, it would already be part of our experience. See? So Cassandra couldn’t have changed something. It was something that was always meant to be.”
They all stared at her dumbly.
Jimena thought a moment. “So you’re saying, if Cassandra changed something in the past, because it is already past, as far as we’re concerned it’s not something that has been changed, because it already happened to us.”
Catty smiled. “Yup.”
“I’d still like to know what she did,” Jimena said.
“Me, too,” Vanessa agreed.
“So just supposing that what Stanton said is true, what are we going to do?” Serena asked.
“I can’t believe you’re buying into anything that a Follower said.” Catty stood. “You got anything to eat? All this talk has made me hungry.”
Soon, they were sitting around the table in the kitchen dipping fried tortillas filled with melted cheese into a pot of homemade salsa.
“So we need a plan,” Vanessa said finally.
“Let’s go see Maggie,” Catty suggested.
“We always do that.” Serena took another quesadilla. “Let’s at least try to figure something out by ourselves first.”
“Well,” Jimena started. “I saw Karyl, Morgan, and Cassandra in MacArthur Park today.”
“What were they doing this far from Hollywood?” Catty wondered.
“Do you think it has something to do with Cassandra’s plan?” Serena asked.
“I don’t know,” Jimena answered. “Earlier today when I saw Cassandra she was stepping onto one of the paddleboats. That was odd, because the boat ride is closed on weekdays. It’s only open on Sunday. And when I went back later, I didn’t see Cassandra, only Karyl and Morgan. And remember the earthquake this afternoon?”
“It didn’t feel like a quake,” Catty put in.
“When we had the tremor, Karyl and Vanessa didn’t get scared like everyone else, they seemed—” Jimena thought, trying to find the right word for the expressions she had seen on their faces.
“What?” Serena licked her fingers.
“They seemed happy or maybe excited, but not in a bad way,” Jimena answered. “Everyone else was running and screaming, but they smiled as if they’d been looking forward to it.”
“Could they have discovered a way to make an earthquake?” Vanessa didn’t hide the amazement in her voice.
“Impossible.” Catty rolled her eyes. “They were probably just hoping someone would get hurt.”
“Still the Inner Circle would be really powerful. . . .” Serena let her words trail off. “Do you think?”
“Maybe we should stake out the park,” Jimena suggested. “And see if we can discover what Cassandra is up to.”
Serena nodded in agreement.
“That’s a good idea,” Vanessa said. “I’ll bring a flashlight so we can study.”
“Please.” Catty playfully punched Vanessa. “Why do you have to ruin every adventure?”
“We have to get into a good college,” Vanessa reminded her and then stopped.
Catty looked down at the table. “It seems kind of silly to study unless . . .”
“Unless what?” Vanessa asked.
Catty stared at her. “Unless you’ve already made your decision.”
Vanessa blushed.
The girls looked at each other. Their gifts only lasted until they were seventeen. Then there was a change, a metamorphosis. They had to make the most important choice of their life. Either they could choose to lose their powers and their memory of what they had once been, or they disappeared. The ones who disappeared became something else, guardian spirits perhaps. No one really knew. They didn’t like to think about it.
“Let’s not start worrying about that now,” Serena broke in.
“Yeah,” Jimena agreed. “Let’s concentrate on the present.”
“Okay, so let’s start tonight,” Vanessa suggested. “We’ll camp right out there with all the drug dealers, addicts, and homeless people.”
“Sounds like fun,” Catty laughed. “What else can we do?” Serena asked. No one had an answer.