Chapter 3

• Jeri knocked on the door and then opened it, and stuck her head into the room. “Fade?” She always looked for her, even though the chances of her being visible were as close to zero as possible without it being there. She went inside. “How are you doing?” She looked around the room for any indication of where she was.
• “By the window.” Fade answered in her usual ‘I’m bored with life’ tone.
• Jeri closed the door. “I wanted to see if you wanted to watch a movie.”
• “At the theatre?” Her voice hitched with excitement.
• “No. Downstairs.”
• “Oh. Aren’t you going out to help the others? Solrelm kids and all that?”
• Jeri grinned. “I don’t think they need my help with that.”
• “I thought Capri said all hands on deck to help.”
• “When they need it, they’ll ask.” She sat on the end of the bed and smoothed out the cover beside her. “I’m sorry you can’t go out.”
• “You always say that.” Her voice was still coming from near the window. “Where would I go? I see enough of the world from here.”
• “It’s boring—or that’s what you usually say.”
• “When it starts bugging me too much, being stuck here, I just think about reality shows and how the humans can’t even manage their own lives, but they need to watch someone else’s.”
• Jeri couldn’t argue with that. She had her own reasons for not going out today. In truth, she found reasons almost every day not to.
• “He’s watching you. Or was. He just went to Nova’s.”
• Jeri got up and went over to the window. “Who?”
• “The blond one—prince crazy’s brother.”
• “Trendan.” Just saying his name caused her to lose her breath.
• “He doesn’t think anyone can see him, but I do, and he’s watching you.” The curtain moved, leading Jeri to believe that the teen had moved away from the window.
• She looked outside and at the roof where he had been standing. “I know.”
• “What are you going to do about it?” The bed springs creaked.
• “I don’t know.” She turned around and looked at the bed, even though she wouldn’t be able to see her. “You know an awful lot for someone that doesn’t leave their room.”
• “Busted.” Fade chuckled softly. “I don’t go far. I don’t do it in the daytime. I mostly just circle the block.”
• “What are you going to do if you become visible?”
• Another chuckle. “You mean besides freak out because I’m naked? Probably dance.”
• “You’re naked?”
• “Under my clothes, yeah.” The springs creaked. “Listen, do you think we could talk to Nova or Prince crazy about me not being visible? They do it. The soul suckers, so they have to know.”
• “I can ask Capri…”
• Fade scoffed. “She doesn’t want people to know about me—about most of us.”
• “She’s only protecting us.”
• “I know. I know. I’ve been like this since I was twelve, Jeri. Five years of being like this—”
• “I’ll see what she says, and then I’ll talk to someone from Solrelm that can maybe help.” She crossed her arms over her chest and looked at the floor because she had no idea where Fade was in the room. “One of the princesses from Alterealm has just learned how to do it.”
• “It?”
• Jeri jumped because Fade was right beside her, talking in her ear. “Become invisible. She’s part Solrelm and Alterealm.”
• “Maybe they can tell me what I am—you know, the cluster-er, the mix of DNA I have creeping in my blood.”
• Jeri had tried to see Fade’s unique DNA combination, but it wasn’t one of her skills. Espy had tried to because she saw things, but your body’s makeup wasn’t one of them. “I’ll try, okay? I’ll see if Capri agrees.”
• “Yes.”
• Arms circled her and crushed her against what Jeri could only assume was a body taller than her own five-foot-six.
• “Thank you.” She released her. “Now you just have to decide what you’re doing with your stalker.”
• “He’s not a stalker.”
• Fade laughed. “Creepin’ around the building hoping to see you isn’t stalker-like at all.”
• “I’m sure he has his reasons.”
• “What do you think they are?” The bed springs creaked loudly this time as if she’d just dropped down onto it.
• “I know what they are. It’s our souls. They’re connected.” That was one way to put it. Jerika knew the whole truth but didn’t want to speak it out loud because it would make it completely true, and she wasn’t there yet. She looked at the bed. “I’ll go see what Capri is doing and talk to her.”
• “Thank you.” It sounded like she yawned. “I’m going to grab a nap. Staying up all night being creepy is tiring.”
• Jeri smiled. “I’ll talk to you later.” She left the room and closed the door quietly. Going down the hall, she paused in front of Vex’s room. She knew she wasn’t sneaking out of the building. Vex didn’t leave the room ever. She felt bad for her. To live that way. When Capri had found her, she was barely alive, and if it weren’t for Capri healing her, she wouldn’t have lived this long. She was only twenty-two but looked forty and had a good reason to be that way. Vex couldn’t go near people. If she did, she seemed to suck the life from them. Sighing, she went down the stairs.
• Most of them wouldn’t have survived if Capri hadn’t found them. With the realms working together now, Jeri wondered if that meant those like her and the other women part of the Gemini league—would they be the last born like this? If the realms were controlled, and order restored, would there by no more DNA mixing that created children? Then again, if there were still those born like her, at least they’d have the help of the realms that were responsible. She hoped it was going to be that way. She loved the women here and her life wouldn’t be worth living without them, but the suffering each one of them had gone through before Capri, wasn’t something she’d ever wish on anyone else.
• “You’re broody again.”
• She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked at Em. From the looks of it, she’d tried to tame her curly black hair by trapping it in tight braids. The hair was working its way out despite her efforts. “Fade wants me to talk to Capri about getting one of the Solrelm people to see if they can help her.”
• Em looked up the stairs. “You think they have the answers?”
• Jeri rubbed her hands up and down her arms. It was a comfort thing. “I don’t know. It’s worth a try.”
• “Okay. Maybe the real question is do we want the seventeen-year-old on the loose?” Em grinned.
• Jeri laughed. “It can’t be any worse than the rest of us were.”
• “This is true.” Em pointed to the door to the garage. “We’re going for a ride; you want to come?”
• Jeri shook her head. “No. I’m going to go talk this over with Capri.”
• “Okay.” Em shrugged. “She’s in her office.”
• “Thanks. Have a good ride.”
• She paused by the door, her hand on the handle. “Karma and Sym are coming, so it’s bound to be eventful.” She winked and went out into the garage.
• Jeri cringed and then grinned. Poor, unsuspecting humans had better behave with those two out together.