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“That’s what SHE said!” Maria crowed. I
grabbed up the pillow she had thrown at me and threw it back at
her.

“Yeah, that’s exactly what she said because
I’m a she!”

“That doesn’t even make sense!”

“I know!”

We stared at each other, and then doubled
over with laughter that was too short lived because Maria began to
cough, but waved me away when I made a move to help her.

“I’m ok,” she said as she cleared her throat.
“This flu thing has just been hell on my throat and lungs, but I’m
getting better.”

“I’m glad,” I said as I walked over and sat
down on the edge of her bed.

“Soooooooo,” she said and narrowed her eyes
at me playfully as she smirked. I sighed and rolled mine at
her.

“So what?” I grumbled and shifted
uncomfortably. “We were paired up as partners on a project for Mr.
Miller, which means we have to work together. He was with me at the
bookstore today looking for information and asked to come along
when I said I needed to swing by and visit.”

I had made the conscious decision earlier to
keep Akira’s interest in her and her disappearance to myself,
because I didn’t know how she’d react and it wasn’t really my story
to tell. I wasn’t sure why I felt so strongly about protecting the
secrets Akira had trusted me with, but perhaps the fact that he had
shared them with them was what prompted this sudden attack of
loyalty. Maria accepted my comments with a nonchalant shrug and an
“I see”, which told me that she still plotted something in that
over active brain of hers because that sly smirk had yet to leave
her features.

I was just about to ask her what, exactly,
she saw when there was a knock on her bedroom door. I opened it to
find Akira standing on the other side balancing a rather large
silver tray that was loaded down with a tea pot, a glass of water,
some tea cups, honey, and a small assortment of cakes and cookies.
I stood back as he made his way in, then moved over to Maria’s desk
and cleared out the mess of books so that he would have a place to
set the tray down other than her bed. Maria eyeballed the tray of
goodies, then looked at me as her eyebrows crawled up to her hair
line. I shrugged.

“You know your mom, takes every opportunity
to host some sort of party,” I said as I grabbed the glass of water
and made the introductions since I couldn’t remember if Maria had
“officially” met Akira or not.

The next hour passed in idle chatter as we
attacked and eventually demolished the pile of goodies Maria’s mom
had sent up. Maria asked us about our project and was fascinated by
it and the individual mythological beings we had decided to focus
on. She grumbled about how she never got to be involved in cool
projects like that, to which I retorted that if she had applied
herself, she would have gotten into AP English and been able to
take part in a cool project like us. She stuck her tongue out at me
and I threw another pillow at her as I glanced at Akira out of the
corner of my eye. I wondered if he’d watched her mouth the way he
had mine the two times I had pulled the same move on him. But his
eyes were on me, which served to fluster me more when I got caught
sneaking a peek, so I took it out on Maria by beating her over the
head with yet another pillow.

“Uncle, uncle, uncle!” Maria cried and
flailed her arms around.

I sat back with a grin that quickly faded
when I realized that this was the most relaxed fun I’d had with
Maria since she had vanished. It was like having my old,
pre-disappearance friend back, and the realization made my eyes
well up with tears that I didn’t want anyone to see and question me
about. I drew myself up and clamped down on my emotions while I
forced another smile.

“Very well,” I said. “I shall have mercy upon
you this day, but prepare thyself for a rematch!”

“Yes, Lady Jane,” Maria snarked with a grin.
It had long been an old joke between us for her to call me Lady
Jane after I discovered that my mother had named me after Lady Jane
Grey, and I took it upon myself to try and talk royal every once in
a while because it amused me and annoyed Mom, and Maria liked to
run with it whenever she could.

I was still fighting off the urge to break
down and sob like a baby, so I decided that I’d take the tray back
downstairs to the kitchen, which would give me a chance to get
myself back under some semblance of control before I started
blubbering as badly as Maria had been earlier. As this would only
serve to alarm her and embarrass me, I figured retreating would be
the better part of valor instead of trying to stick it out and hope
it’d go away.

I passed Mrs. Dupree in the living room on my
way to the kitchen, and I thanked her warmly for the goodies and
the tea. She gave me a regal nod of her head in acknowledgement
with a warm smile, and I helped the maid wash the delicate utensils
despite her protest. I assured her that it was the least I could do
since they had provided the treats, and it gave me enough time to
ensure that I was once again in control of my emotions by the time
we were done and I returned to Maria’s room.

I had almost reached the landing when I heard
a strange, choking type of cry, and I nearly tripped over the last
stair as I vaulted up and threw myself into Maria’s room. Akira had
one hand loosely wrapped around Maria’s neck and two fingers of his
free hand pressed against the center of her forehead. His eyes were
closed and his face had a faint, glowing sheen to it that vanished
when I blinked. What really grabbed my attention was Maria’s hands
as she clawed feebly at his arm with tears rolling down her cheeks.
Her eyes were wide and frightened.

“What the hell are you doing?” I half hissed,
half yelled as I desperately tried to keep my voice down so that it
didn’t alarm Mrs. Dupree. I hurled myself at Akira. The hold he had
around Maria’s neck loosened further as he registered my voice, and
I grabbed him by his shoulders and jerked him away from my
friend.

“No!” he cried as his fingers left her
forehead and he fell backwards onto his butt. My attention
immediately turned to Maria who had thrown herself into my arms and
buried her head against my chest. Her entire body shook with
sobs.

“Go away,” I snarled at him over my shoulder
as I wrapped my arms around Maria’s form.

“Jane,” he said as he climbed to his feet,
his face angry and disappointed all at once. I didn’t even take
time to dwell on the fact that he had used my first name instead of
my surname because every single muscle in my face tightened as I
glared at him.

“GET. OUT!” I snarled. My voice was no less
effective as a growl as it would have been had I shouted the words
at him at the top of my lungs. His eyes darted from me to Maria and
back before he gave a curt nod, turned on his heel, and left. I
waited until I could no longer hear his footsteps on the stairs
before I turned my attention back to my terrified friend.

“Maria, what happened?” I asked and shook
Maria’s shoulder in an effort to try and get her to loosen up her
hold a little. She hiccupped, took a few breaths, hiccupped again,
then pulled away and laid back down on her bed with her back to
me.

“Nothing happened,” she said dully as she
stared at the wall.

“Don’t you dare give me that,” I growled, not
in the mood for another one of her random mood swings. I reached
out and yanked her shoulder so that she had to face me. “You looked
like you were in pain and terrified! Did he attack you? Was he
choking you? What happened???”

“NOTHING!” she yelled at me. “He didn’t
strangle me, he didn’t hurt me, things just felt funny and my head
got woozy, that’s all! He just took me by surprise, you don’t have
to get all Amazon Woman on me!”

“Amazon?! Maria . .”

“Go away,” she said and faced the wall again.
“I’m tired and I don’t want to talk anymore. Thank you for
visiting, and I’m sorry that I’ve worried you.”

I drew back; hurt, confused, and angry, but
confusion and hurt had started to win out over anger. I fought with
even more tears as I turned my back on my best friend. I recognized
that tone of voice, and I knew from years of experience that I
wouldn’t get any more out of Maria regarding anything. I had taken
a step towards the door when her voice issued again. I stopped but
refused to turn around.

“Be careful around him, Jane,” she said, her
voice a strange, scratchy monotone. “He’s not what he appears to
be.”

I didn’t acknowledge or deny her warning even
though it went hand in hand with my own suspicions regarding Akira,
and walked out of her room and down the stairs. I felt a little
guilty. Even though she was better, she was still recovering from
being sick, and all of this couldn’t have been good for her. I was
able to bid a semi cheerful good-bye to Mrs. Dupree, who made me
promise to visit again sometime soon when Maria had fully
recovered, and then exited the house.

My jaw muscles twitched when I saw Akira
leaning against the passenger side door of my car, but I knew I
couldn’t just climb in and drive off and leave him here, even
though I really wanted to. There were times when I was just too
damn nice, and unfortunately, this was one of them. Neither one of
us said a word as I unlocked the doors and we got in. I carefully
reversed out of the drive way even though I desperately wanted to
give into impulse and lay down some rubber, but I erred on the side
of logic and didn’t give in.

“Jane,” Akira began, and I shot him a glare
so hot I was surprised I didn’t melt the window by his head. From
the look on his face, he was surprised, too.

“Don’t,” I grated out between clenched teeth.
“Don’t say a word until I no longer feel the desire to wrap my car
around a tree, passenger side first. Just sit still, shut up, and
let me calm down.”

His eyes glanced to my hands, which were
wrapped so tightly around the steering wheel that the bones and
tendons stood out against skin made white by tension, and he nodded
once and turned his attention out of the window. I concentrated on
driving, on the mechanics behind it as I took the twists and turns
carefully and refused to slam my foot on the gas peddle despite my
desire to do so. I took a detour onto the Blue Ridge Parkway and
headed towards Asheville instead of back towards Mr. Baker’s. The
drive to the mountain city was one of the prettiest stretches of
the Parkway, and I knew that the scenery would help to sooth my
temper. The rage drained off little by little as I took in the
beautiful splendor of the mountains ablaze with the reds, oranges
and golds of fall. An occasional green showed small areas of pines
and mountain laurel, and slowly my hands relaxed on the steering
wheel so that I was no longer white knuckling it. Only then did I
feel that I was calm enough to speak and be spoken to without
wanting to maim something.

Chapter Eight

“What,” I said, my voice flat and hard, “were
you doing to my friend?”

“I’m guessing you’ve calmed down now?” he
asked.

I took a deep breath and managed to get a
handle on my temper before I grated out, “I’m talking to you and
not ripping your head off, aren’t I?”

“I’m not sure,” he said. “You’re still kind
of snarling.”

“Akira,” I growled warningly as my fingers
began to tighten on the steering wheel again.

“Ok, ok,” he said and rubbed his face with
his hands. He suddenly looked far more tired than I had ever seen
him before.

“Are you familiar with energy work at
all?”

“Energy work?”

“Things like Reiki healing, chakra balancing
and cleansing, to name a few.”

I had to think for a moment, and then said,
“The healing system that was developed by a guy named Usui in
Japan? Something about chi and using it to focus on trouble spots,
clear blocked energy, etc, right? And charkas are the seven points
of power shaped like fans or wheels or something where our own life
energy is sent circulating throughout our bodies, right?”

“More or less,” he said. He winced a little
at my less than graceful understanding of just what he was talking
about. “I’m a Reiki Master, and one of my skills is that I’m able
to track and locate an individual based on their energy signatures.
It works especially well if they’ve come into contact with another
person.”

Intrigued despite myself, I asked, “How does
that work?”

“It’s a little like picking up the end of a
glowing thread and following it through a maze to the other end. If
the connection is strong enough, I can actually see where the
person I’m looking for is located. I may even get really lucky and
it’ll be a place that they’re planning on staying for a while.”

“You can do this with anyone?” I asked. My
head started to throb slightly as I tried to imagine what he was
talking about and failed miserably.

“Pretty much, yeah. There’s a few exceptions,
and it’s never to be used for a frivolous reason.”

“What would be a frivolous reason?”

His eyes slid in my direction and then he
focused out the windshield again. “Trying to figure out if you’ve
been with anyone romantically recently would be considered
frivolous.”

My heart leapt and I focused on settling it
back in place without giving away my reaction to his words. Why
would he want to know that, and why the hell did I get those stupid
little flutters in my stomach at the thought that he would be
interested in knowing if I had dated anyone recently? I focused
again on my questions and pushed those thoughts to the back of my
mind.

“Wait, so it’s like mind reading?”

“What?” he looked startled. “No, not at all!
I can’t read thoughts.”

“Then how would you be able to figure out
what it is you’re looking for?” I asked, trying not to allude to
the whole “romantic connection” thing.