CHAPTER 1

Jade

Agony.

Defeat.

Rage.

Indecision.

Jade trembled, her clasp once loose, now a murderous quaking that she couldn't shake. Sweat began to bead on her upper lip and she rolled the fullness of it into her teeth, biting just shy of pain, to relieve her mental pressure.

Nothing worked.

The Empath teacher, Megan Tulle said, "Come on Jade, concentrate. If you don't master this exercise, you'll never hone in on anything."

Jade's brows furrowed, she was trying as hard as she could... but the emotion... the rawness of it, was a bath of filth. She just wanted to get away. She pressed, the details finally coming to her. A boy, her age... his... identity, she couldn't place him but he was familiar to her.

Finally she gave up. "I don't know who he is!" she said, exasperated.

Tulle smiled, squeezing her shoulder gently. "It'll come, you've just got to keep working on it. The negative impressions are quite difficult to manage."

Yeah, Jade thought, shuddering.

She looked around at the rest of the class and saw various degrees of expressions. It would have been funny had she not just swept through the murky swamp of someone that was deeply disturbed. Jade rubbed her hands up and down her own arms and asked Ms. Tulle where that had come from... that hoodie she'd been touching.

"Same place we always get our stuff. Lost and found." Tulle shrugged a blouse-encased shoulder, her sensible pumps tapping to the low music she played in the class. It was pretty lame, Jade thought, classical.

Jade deliberated. No, she needed to say something. "Ah... Miss Tulle?" she asked as Tulle began to sweep through the desks, checking on the other student's Clairvoyance exercises.

She turned, cocking a brow.

"He's bad, Miss Tulle, really bad."

She frowned, moving back through the rows of desks. "What do you mean? I touched the hoodie myself and knew the tone of it but didn't sense..." she shrugged.

Jade tried to articulate her unease, "It's not normal negative impressions. It's got... a touch of death."

"Death Intent?"

Jade nodded. "Yes."

"Are you sure? Because that's reportable and with you only a sophomore...?" she let the sentence trail off significantly and Jade's shoulders slumped in defeat. She wasn't sure if she wanted someone that maybe had a super-bad day, threw on a hoodie, then lost it at one of the six high schools in Kent to get nailed by the cops.

Especially Garcia and crew.

Jade's eyes dropped. She bit her lip again. She wasn't one hundred percent sure.

She met Tulle's eyes and shook her head. Tulle gave her steady eyes back. "Maybe we gave you too intense a sample this first time, Jade. We're aware that your skill set has expanded to clairvoyance and possible precog..." The "but" hung there between them and Tulle shrugged.

Jade reached out and touched Tulle, who immediately shied away. "Sorry," Jade said. How could she forget the first rule of Empath class the prior year?

Never touch another Empath.

It was sorta like flashing your boobs in public. Jade stifled a laugh.

Tulle's eyes narrowed and Jade tried to contain herself. "What's so funny?"

"Nervous tic. I really like to laugh when things get serious," Jade said, the ghost of a smile riding her full lips. That was definitely Caleb's influence, Jade knew.

It made her warm to her toes just thinking about him, distracting her dangerously from the conversation at hand. She felt a slight flush of heat on her face and hoped her dusky coloring was sufficient camouflage.

"Well, your thought process on this sample is serious, Jade," Tulle was back to serious business again, studying Jade closely. "Some of the best Empaths in the state work closely with the police. If your clairvoyance is fine-tuned enough to pick up Death Intent then I suggest you start learning the difference. Now."

With that, Tulle turned and threw the offending hoodie back in the sample tube marked: Clairvoyance Samples.

Jade sighed. It didn't matter that she might have clairvoyance in spades. She had been pegged as a level two Empath but was now showing what the committee of "they" coined as, "expanded and related abilities." Unfortunately, when she felt violence in the samples she always had the same reaction.

Fear.

She'd lived with fear until her dad was semi-permanently gone from her life and she wasn't about to start embracing it now. Screw that noise. Caleb said she was too compassionate. She just thought she was too weak. Too scared to face someone that could be the very same flavor of attacker that she'd suffered in her childhood.

No repeats, thank you very much.

Speaking of Mr. Stud, she glanced at the pulse-clock on the wall and grabbed her backpack, nothing more than a sling, really. What did they have to carry but the required water bottle and pulse-pad? Hers was a gorgeous pack with the brand name emblazoned on the front in metallic hot pink. She knew it was an extravagance, but Caleb had seen her admiring it at the mall and snatched it up for her birthday last week and she'd been totally smitten with it.

Sweet sixteen.

Even she couldn't believe she was finally at that magical age. The verge of womanhood easing away the soft edges of childhood with insidious progression. She didn't mind, she was ready to be grown up. Ready to be independent and out on her own. Ready for emancipation from her dad. The restraining order could go into permanent effect once the paperwork went through. She so couldn't wait. Caleb felt the same. He'd wrangled his parents into helping so they could push it through. Aunt Andrea wasn't great at pushing, obviously. She'd let the last three restraining orders die out and need to be re-implemented. It'd been a huge hassle.

The bell rang for class dismissal and Jade walked through the Empath class door and saw Caleb before he saw her, his attention on Jonesy, per usual. She soaked in the sight of him, thinking she'd never get bored with Caleb. They'd been dating awhile now, gone through a ton of stuff together, and still, every day was new with him. She was thinking of how different he looked since they first got together a year and a half ago.

She saw how his thick chestnut hair fell forward to just brush the tops of impossibly long, soot-colored eyelashes as he stuffed his one hand in a pocket, the other elaborating some detail to Jonesy (who would forget it ten seconds later), the muscles of his forearm bulging from the movement.

Jade sighed, thinking that she was in lust. Not a terribly keen position to find herself in. Wasn't it the boy's job to chase her around because of her feminine wiles? Her lips curled into a smile. She thought she had that part down pat too. Caleb dug her, she reminded herself. As if on cue, he turned his head and those chocolate eyes pierced her. Pierced her heart, stealing her breath.

She moved forward, his eyes taking in her face, her body, everything, happiness and comfort a warmth cloaking her as she approached him.

*

Caleb

I stopped mid-sentence with the Jonester as I caught sight of Jade's smooth stride making her way across the hall toward me and was bowled over by her as she drew closer. I tightened my expression, I knew she'd put a hand on my skin and know everything but... couldn't a guy have a little mystery? Sometimes the Empath Girlfriend was a blast. Like when we were making out. I liked it then. A. Lot.

But now, in front of the hundreds of students filtering through the hall, I'd like to not have everyone know that I was Jade's puppet. A willing one.

Jonesy smirked. "Meow..." he began.

"I'm not whipped, Jonesy," I growled out, itching to punch him a good one in the arm. "I'm waiting for the day when you have a girlfriend long enough to look at her like she means something to you," I said.

Jade caught what I said as she moved in against my body and I tucked her under my chin, inhaling that vanilla smell that was Jade's.

Mouth-watering.

Jade turned her head against my chest to look at Jonesy scathingly. "You know, Jonesy... you could've gone out with Sophie," Jade said with real feeling.

The LED lights flickered in the hall twice and Jade laughed. "Can't take back the leakage, Jones."

I laughed and Jonesy gave me a dirty look, struggling for nonchalance. "I don't care who she goes out with," he said.

"Right, whatever," Jade said, disgusted.

I spoke against her hair, "Be nice, babe."

She pulled away from me, her beautiful green eyes sparkling. "It's true. He could've had a great girlfriend instead of the skank-a-thon and been way happier."

True, I thought. But that might be too much wisdom for Jonesy, whose expression was darkening by the moment.

"Listen Jade," his eyes sought mine and the message he found was tread careful, pal. "She has sent me nothing but a bunch of lame-ass mixed signals. This is easier. I just date whoever and don't worry about feelings and crap. No hassles, no guessing, no perpetual PMS. You feel me?" he finished, his thumb in his chest.

I felt him. Of course, Sophie was way more high maintenance than Jade. She had a hot-ass temper and so did Jonesy. Like fuel and flame. I didn't know if it would ever work out. What Jonesy didn't recognize was he did care about her. It was in the way he looked at her. And now she was dating a dude in the peripheral group of Dickheads: that would be the Carson Hamilton and Brett Mason brigade. It was a fight waiting to happen. And Sophie wasn't above flashing her new boyfriend in Jonesy's face.

And he wasn't beyond getting into a jealous rage over it.

Denial was a beautiful thing.

"I do feel you, Jonesy. But I think it's you that's going to be feeling it," Jade said with knowledge. I stroked her back and gave Jonesy The Look. Back off, it isn't worth it. His eyes flicked to mine then back at Jade.

Don't ask, don't ask.

"Is she going out with somebody?" Jonesy asked in a low voice.

I groaned.

Jade looked at me and smiled evilly. She would put the screws to Jonesy and he'd be feeling some pain.

Jade flicked her hair over her shoulder, a chunk making a black stripe on her bright pink backpack. The new purses of the pulse-age, I thought randomly.

She nodded, shrugging, feigning an indifference I knew was contrived. She totally knew everything about Sophie. "Yeah... I think it's some guy in her AP class."

"WTF?" Jonesy all but yelled.

Jade jumped and I pulled her in tighter. "Hey man, effing-cool it," I said, starting to get pissed. He was going to have to take the teasing if he didn't want to commit. He couldn't say he didn't give a hot shit then freak at the mention of a new guy scenting Sophie. Buck up or shut up.

Jonesy straightened. "Okay, you two are so smart. You know what the thing is for APs?" he asked, looking profoundly smug, which made my sense of unease deepen exponentially.

"Ah... no, Jones, can't say I do," I said.

"Astral Projection sex, dimwits," he elaborated like, double-duh, as Jade liked to say.

I got a visual of people humping in the air or something, like a cartoon bubble and couldn't stop the irrational laugh which ensued.

Jade put a hand on my chest. "No, Caleb. Not helpful."

Jonesy glowered. "What's so funny, asswipe?"

Gum snapped behind me and an arm flung itself around Jade.

Tiff.

"How's it hanging, Jones?" she said with a sharp slash of a grin.

"Oh... effing splendid. Did you know..." he began.

"Sophie's having AP sex with Buddy? Yeah," her gum snapped as emphasis.

I covered my mouth, I couldn't believe Tiff... where angels feared to tread, Tiff entered.

Nice.

Jonesy's hands flexed into fists and at that exact moment Sophie sauntered by, her hair bouncing in a fluffy honey cloud on the middle of her back, high-heeled boots clicking on the recycled quartz flooring as she came by.

What was really eye-catching was the hand that was stuck in her back pocket, an appendage on her butt.

It was Buddy, fellow AP student and possible in-the-clouds sex partner.

Well, hell.

I reached for Jonesy too late. He was over there in three strides, his chest almost touching Buddy's.

Terran came jogging up, his carrot-colored hair having deepened to copper over the last year. He grabbed Jonesy's shoulder and said, "No, Jones."

"Not now, John," Jonesy said, flinging John's hand off.

This was gonna get bad, fast.

"Caleb, do something!" Jade said.

Tiff said, "Nah, let them beat the shit out of each other. I never did dig Buddy anyway, he's got eyes for Carson," she said, winking.

Brother.

I launched over there but Sophie took care of everything for all of us.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?" she asked Jonesy, her aqua eyes on fire.