Maria shot Alex a panicked look. Isabel was going to lose it, right in front of the sheriff! What should we do? she thought frantically.
Michael grabbed a napkin from the dispenser and shoved it at Isabel. "Thanks for getting her started again," he snapped.
"We've been trying to cheer her up," Maria jumped in. "Nikolas was a complete jerk to her last night."
Isabel buried her face in her hands. Michael pulled her against his chest and glared up at Valenti.
"Well, if you hear from him-any of you-I expect you to call me immediately," Valenti told them. He turned and strode away.
Silence stretched out at the table. Maria didn't even hear anyone breathing. She knew she wasn't.
"Okay, he's gone," Max finally announced. Maria let out her breath in a whoosh.
Isabel sprang to her feet. "Give me the keys, Max. I'm going home."
"Izzy, come on, stay with us," Max said.
"No! I can't stay here." Isabel's voice rose higher and higher. Maria noticed her getting some curious looks from the people in the next booth.
"One of us could go with you," Liz volunteered.
"Or we all could," Maria added.
"I need to be alone," she snapped. "All of you just stay away from me." Max pulled out his keys, and Isabel snatched them out of his hand.
Maria watched as Isabel half ran out of the place. Doesn't she know that now is when she needs us the most? Maria thought.
Isabel chipped a little more wild cherry nail polish off her big toe. She added the tiny red flakes to the pile on her bedspread. She should never have let Michael coax her into going to Flying Pepperoni. She needed to be here, in her bedroom, where she could work on her little nail polish mountains. As long as she kept chipping and piling, she could blank out and turn the inside of her head into a buzzing gray screen.
But when she stopped, the screen got clear and a little movie began to play. A movie of Sheriff Valenti shooting Nikolas. Over and over and over.
The movie theater in her head was ultra-high-tech. It even came with odorama. Every time she heard the shot, she smelled the gunpowder, the odor of a row of firecrackers set off all at once. The sharp scent of her nail polish wasn't nearly strong enough to block it out.
Nikolas had always said humans were like insects. He'd said if Valenti got too close, he'd just squash him. And Isabel had believed him. She'd started thinking she had no reason to be afraid of the sheriff. That she had wasted years being terrified of a man whose powers were no match for Nikolas's or even her own.
But Nikolas was the one who had gotten squashed last night. Leaving behind an ugly spot on the floor, like any good bug. And now Isabel remembered why Valenti had filled her nightmares since she was a little girl. She remembered that she would always be hunted and that she would never be truly safe.
Isabel chipped another piece of polish off her toe and carefully added it to her little mountain.
She glanced at the clock. Max wouldn't be back from Flying Pepperoni for at least an hour. But as soon as he got home she knew her brother would be wanting to talk, wanting to tell her whatever they found out from Ray. As if she cared. As if she wanted to know anything more about her history, her stupid alien powers. If she were just a normal girl, none of this would have happened.
Isabel chipped the last speck of polish off her big toe. She carefully added the red flake to the very top of her mountain and studied her feet. Not one dot of color left. She grabbed her bottle of nail polish and started to paint them again. She worked fast, not worrying about being sloppy. She wanted to get her toes painted and dry so she could start chipping and piling again.
She heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Max must have followed her from Flying Pepperoni, worried about his baby sister. She wished he'd leave her alone. Him and Michael and everyone else.
A knock sounded on her bedroom door. "Go away, Max," Isabel said.
"It's not Max-it's Alex. Can I come in?"
Isabel sighed. She couldn't deal with Alex right now. If she stopped focusing on what she was doing, the movie in her head would start back up. She knew it. And she wouldn't be able to take it. She couldn't watch Nikolas die again.
"Your mom gave me some ginger ale and saltines to give to you," Alex called through the door. "She said your stomach was upset."
She really did not want to talk to him. Maybe if she didn't say anything, Alex would go away. She finished painting her last toe. She grabbed a magazine and fanned her feet. She wanted the polish chippable-now. Then she could get the movie to stop.
"It's too late to pretend you aren't in there," Alex announced. "You already said something."
"Did someone invite you over here?" Isabel snapped.
Alex was probably getting sad little puppy eyes on the other side of the door. But too bad. She hadn't invited him.
"Nope. I know I'm always welcome," Alex answered.
Isabel tested the polish on her toes. Still too wet to chip. "What? What do you want? Do you want me to tell you that you were right about Nikolas?" she demanded. "Okay, you were right. He was dangerous. He almost got us all killed. You know everything. Okay? So go."
She heard the doorknob turn, heard Alex mutter a curse when he discovered it was locked. "That's what you think?" he exploded. "You think I came over to get my jollies off making you tell me I was right all along?"
Good, Isabel thought. Get mad and get out. She waved her hands over her toenails. Almost done. Almost.
Alex sighed. "Why is it always so hard with you?" he mumbled. "Let me spell it out. I came because I wanted to see if you're okay. You went through something pretty traumatic. I thought you could use a friend."
Oh, great. Now he was going to be nice to her. She couldn't take it. She and Alex… they had something sort of nice starting up before… before Nikolas came to town. But Nikolas had totally blinded her to everyone else.
Isabel's eyes filled with tears. How was she going to survive without him? She didn't have one thing to remember him by. Not one picture. Not anything. She wished she could have that ring he always wore, the one with that strange stone. She could hold it in her hand and at least know that it was something Nikolas had touched. Something Nikolas had… had…
Isabel's throat began to burn. She felt a tear slide down her cheek. Nikolas… oh, God, Nikolas…
The smell of gunpowder flooded her nose. She scraped at her toenails, trying to block out the image of Nikolas dying. But the polish wasn't dry enough to chip. It smeared across her fingers, wet and red.
Isabel choked back a sob. What was she going to do? She'd go crazy if she couldn't make the screen go blank.
"I'm not leaving," Alex said, his voice quiet. "Yell at me. Give me your ice princess thing. Whatever. I'm not leaving. If you don't want to talk, fine. I'll talk. I'll tell you about my champion Little League season, for starters. One of the best times ever. I can still smell the grass in the outfield. And taste that flat purple taffy from the snack shack…"
Alex kept talking. And his voice, his voice made the screen go blank.
Isabel stood up and crept over to the door. She sat down and leaned her cheek against the door. Listening to Alex describe every moment of the very first game of the season.
He was so normal. A nice, normal guy.
She wished she could be normal like him. A nice, normal girl who couldn't see auras or dream walk or heal. A girl who didn't ever wake up screaming from dreams of Sheriff Valenti with the eyes and teeth of a wolf, a wolf intent on hunting her down.
I can be normal. I'll be just like Alex. I'll never use my powers again, she decided. Never.
Michael glanced at his alarm clock. Ten-thirteen. He'd only been in bed for thirteen minutes. It felt like thirteen days. He wasn't tired. At all. He only needed two hours of sleep a night-one of the cool things about not being human-and he wouldn't even be needing those two until later.