The Hidden - Jessica Verday [66]
There was something more behind his words, and the look in his eyes had my heart beating faster. Suddenly all I could think about was the white dress in my closet and the fact that his death day was almost here.
When we got home, Sophie was there with Mom and they were both bent over the kitchen table. A bunch of papers were spread out between them.
“Hey, sweetie,” Mom said as I walked in.
Sophie said hi too, and tipped her head at Caspian when Mom wasn’t looking. I slid my book bag next to the chair and went to grab a bottle of water. “What are you guys doing?”
Mom looked up, all excited. “I’m studying for my real estate license. Sophie is walking me through the process.”
“She is?” I paused with the water bottle halfway to my mouth. “Why?” I directed my question to Sophie.
She smiled at me. “Since I’ve been spending so much time here lately, I thought it would be something fun for us to do together.”
So much time. Right. Hanging around in case Vincent stops by again. I nodded at her and chugged the rest of my water. “Have fun.” Turning my back, I walked up to my bedroom with Caspian. And found Cacey there.
Waiting for us.
She was messing around with the perfume supplies on my desk and didn’t even bother to act guilty that I’d found her pawing my stuff.
“Seriously, what is up with everyone wanting my perfume?” I said.
She glanced up. “Oh, hey, Abbey.”
“Cacey.” I lifted an eyebrow at her.
No Sorry I was looking through your personal belongings when you weren’t here, or Whoops, you caught me!
She just smiled sweetly at Caspian. “How are you, dead boy?”
“I’d be a lot better if you weren’t pissing off Abbey right now.” He crossed his arms and scowled at her, but Cacey just threw her head back and laughed.
“Trained him right up,” she said with a wink at me. “Isn’t he just the cutest little guard dog ever?”
Her voice had a syrupy-sweet quality to it that grated on my nerves, and I almost found myself wishing for the burning smell and creepy crawly spider sensation that she used to bring. “Did you need something, Acacia?” I asked. “Even you have to be bored of hanging around this place for so long. Anything new?”
“Ooooh, someone’s been talking to Uri. He spilled the beans about my name, huh?” She shook her head and then sat down at the desk chair and swung her foot.
“He spilled the beans about a lot,” I said.
“Oh, Uri,” she sighed. “Between the two of us, he’s the nicer one. If you haven’t gotten that yet,” she said in an exaggerated whisper.
I rolled my eyes at her.
“As far as what we have on Vincent? Nothing. That is why I’m here. And you are so right, by the way. I’m ready to move on.”
“Do you guys have any idea where he is?” I prodded. “Or what he’s doing?”
“Nada. Zip. Zilch. We’ve got nothing.”
I let out a frustrated breath and paced over to the bed. “So, what’s next? Can I please have some idea? What are we waiting for?” I didn’t want to say it, but I was almost ready for them to just take me and get it done with already.
I glanced over at Caspian. Well, maybe not ready yet …
“Can’t you guys just use your mind mojo to find him?” I asked. “You can communicate telepathically with each other, right?”
“Only with our partners,” she replied. “Which means that I can only communicate with Uri, Sophie can only communicate with Kame … You get the picture.”
“But what about the mind-bendy thing? The feel-good mojo? That affects others. Can’t you tap into that?”
Cacey shook her head. “It only works with humans. Sure, there’s the persuasion bit. A very little bit, but it’s mostly just memory reading.”
“Is that like mind reading?”
“No. Memory reading. Just what I said.” She looked annoyed.
“Explain it to me.”
“We can tap into memories. Whatever happened to someone at an earlier time.”
“So, wait, you can read all of my memories?”
I fought hard to keep myself from blushing, but I could feel the heat creeping up as thoughts of Caspian and the hotel room instantly flooded into my brain.
“Recent ones, mostly. Uri’s better than I am at going back farther. And Sophie and Kame