T*Witches: Building a Mystery (2 page)

The pizza place was comfortingly busy. From just inside the door, Alex inspected the noisy place, while Cam checked the big booth near the front window that was practically the property of the Six Pack.

"They're not here yet," she said. "Are we early?"

"Just lucky," Alex cracked.

Beth checked her watch. "Five minutes late," she reported.

A waitress in sandals and sunglasses sauntered over to the girls. She looked at Beth. "Ugh. You've got something stuck in your teeth," the waitress told the rangy girl. "Something green and gross."

"Oh, no!" Beth frantically brushed a finger back and forth over her front teeth. "How heinous. Did I have it all the time we were outside?"

"I don't see—" Cam began, as Beth bolted for the bathroom.

"Over there, kids," the waitress cut in, pointing to the tiny table wedged into the back corner, directly under the noisy dripping air-conditioning unit.

"Are you new?" Cam asked.

"What's that supposed to be, a blond joke?" the waitress demanded.

"No way," Cam said reddening. "It's just that I'm, you know, like a regular here and I've never seen you before and I usually sit at the big booth."

"She's expecting friends," Alex explained.

"Believe me, girls, your party has arrived."

"Do I know you?" Cam stared at the waitress. "There's something so familiar about you."

Ever since her twin's arrival, all of Cam's senses had become sharper, but most especially her sight. Now she squinted hard at the waitress's sunglasses.

At first she saw only her own reflection in the dark lenses. Then the supersight she'd developed lately kicked in. The lenses began to lighten until they were almost as transparent as ordinary glasses. And she saw the waitress's eyes. They were gray, a fierce and fiery gray, outlined in black.

Cam gasped. "O.M.G.! Your eyes. You have the same eyes as us! Are you...?"

"No, no, no, no!" The waitress stepped back, offended. "Spare me. Don't even go there! Do I look
old enough
to be your mother?!"

"How did you know what she was thinking?" Alex demanded.

"But your eyes," Cam said. "I only know one other person with those eyes. Not counting Alex, of course."

"Officer Ileana!" Finally Alex had been able to place the voice.

"Call me Goddess," their waitress muttered.

They'd met her once before, Alex realized. She'd been dressed as a policewoman that time. She was the bony man's partner—the old man who Alex knew as Doc and Cam called the bleacher-creature. He'd been in a police uniform, too, the first time they saw him together. His badge had identified him as Officer Karsh.

Whatever his real name was, he had come to them in dreams all through their strange, separated childhood. And only a month ago, he and his beautiful young colleague had saved them from the hulking, bearded bad guy in the hobnail boots. Officer Ileana, this very waitress, this stunning woman, had accused the creepy man—who'd said he could take them to their birth mother—a dangerous liar, maniac and a murderer.

"Over there," Ileana demanded, shooing the twins toward the isolated table under the air conditioner. "We'll need privacy."

"Are you undercover?" Cam asked.

"More like underappreciated," Ileana replied sullenly. "Let's go. Move it."

"No." Cam bristled unexpectedly. "It's too noisy, too cold, and our friends are meeting us up front."

"They'll be late," the waitress said, and, when Cam looked at her curiously, she added, "The roads around here are awful. They probably got a flat or something."

Grasping Alex's arm, Cam turned on her heels and headed for the Six Pack's booth next to the front window.

"I told Karsh you were difficult," Ileana said, following them.

"I am not difficult," Cam grumbled over her shoulder.

"Sit!" Ileana commanded.

Obediently, Cam and Alex slid into the booth. They sat facing the plate-glass storefront. Daylight streaming in the wide window hurt Cam's sensitive gray eyes. Alex squinted up at Ileana, who stood looming over the table, menus in hand.

"I'd like a diet Coke and—" Cam began.

"I am not here to take your orders," the sunglasses-wearing waitress cut her off. "
Au contraire
. I'm here to issue some. A warning, actually. You remember—"

"Ileana... Goddess... whatever. You were the one who whispered to me outside, right?" Alex asked.

"And pulled my hair?" Cam added, narrowing her eyes at the frustrated witch.

"Wake up and smell the pepperoni. I was trying to get your attention," Ileana hissed back through gritted teeth. "A task I'm still working on."

"Well, you didn't have to pull my hair," Cam insisted.

But Alex's attention was sidetracked by someone walking past Pie In The Sky—a long-limbed boy wearing faded jeans and a black jacket so old and worn that the leather was flaking.

He was cute, definitely, but beyond that... there was something about him that made Alex's heart quicken, that heated her chilled blood and set her face aflame.

The boy seemed to sense that someone was watching him. He glanced at the window, straining to see inside. His intense eyes, ringed by pitch-black lashes, were cool and blue.

Whipping off her glasses, Ileana fixed Cam with a gray-eyed glare. "All I ask is five uninterrupted minutes of your precious time. Five minutes of your undivided attention. If you'd caught my drift outside this Parmesan palace, it would've been a lot easier—on me. But noooo. Why should anyone make things easy for me! Okay, here's the drill. I came to warn you. Someone will come to you offering friendship praise, love... whatever you find attractive—"

"Wow, who was that?" Alex watched leather boy move out of sight.

"Hello!" Ileana roared. "I'm speaking to you—both of you! I didn't pop in for the garlic knots! I'm here to warn you against—"

"Warn us against what?" Alex asked, tuning back in to the conversation.

"Listen to me!" the witch-waitress ordered. "I haven't much time left. You met him once, the renegade tracker in the hobnail boots. He's a murderer. And a coward. Since he dares not show his bearded face again, he'll send someone else to lure you to him. Beware, then—of anyone trying to get close to you, anyone who seems drawn to you. And"—she looked pointedly at Alex—"anyone you feel drawn to."

Bearded face. Hobnail boots. The guy who tried to get them this summer, Cam remembered.

Beth was heading for their booth. "There was totally nothing in my teeth," she grumbled.

Cam and Alex exchanged guilty glances, then turned back to Ileana, who'd obviously used the ruse to get rid of Beth for a few moments.

The kitchen's swinging door flapped loudly. The haughty waitress was gone.

Sitting between Cam and the wall, Alex tried to slide out of the booth to follow her. "Move," she implored her twin

"Oh, no," Cam said. She was looking out the window at a trio of laughing girls piling out of a red SUV. "Great timing. My friends are here."

Alex glanced once more at the kitchen door, but she knew Ileana had left the building.

"What did you tell your friends about me?" Alex wanted to know.

Cam shrugged. "Nothing much."

"Just about Montana, Alex. And that you two are sisters and how her mom isn't your mom but maybe your mom is hers. Nothing much." Beth laughed.

"Hey, Cam." A tall, good-looking boy in a waiter's apron was striding toward their table. "I didn't see you come in. Hey, hi, Beth. How's it going, uh, Alex, right?"

She'd met him before. Jason was his name. He was going into his final year at Marble Bay High, Alex remembered. A hottie with a driver's license, who'd helped them out of a jam a couple of weeks ago. Jason, the lovesick senior who was into Cam.

"Oh, hi, Jase." Cam threw him a smile. It wasn't a hundred-watt halogen, but the boy seemed satisfied.

"What can I get you guys?" he asked, not taking his eyes off Cam.

"Um, where's... the new waitress?" Beth asked, peering around him. "Blond with sunglasses, likes to play tricks on unsuspecting customers?"

Jason was clueless. "There is no new waitress," he said.

Cam's friends stormed the table. They were all talking at once, complaining about the flat they'd gotten on the way over, teasing Jason, high-fiving Beth, ragging on Cam about the soccer game she'd blown the day before summer vacation, and demanding to know what her big surprise was.

Then they saw Alex.

"Who... I mean, what...?" The gracefully athletic Asian-American girl with the glossy black braid actually clutched her heart and took a step backward. "Is this a joke?"

Who's the neat freak?
Alex wondered, taking in the girl's fresh white tee, crisp khakis, and spotless white sneakers.

Telepathically, Cam did the cheat sheet.
Kristen Hsu
, she silently told Alex.
She's artistic... very into computer graphics. Which, I guess, is kind of precise and orderly—

What a relief,
Alex responded.
Knowing that we'll have so much in common.

Eyes and mouth wide open, Kristen turned to see whether the others had checked out Alex yet.

"So, uh, you guys are... related." Sukari Woodward, pretty, plump, and brown-skinned, sporting granny glasses and a peroxide-blond 'fro, laughed out loud at herself. "Brilliant, right? Just me keepin' it real."

"And that, folks," Cam narrated, "was the hypothesis of Dr. Sukari Woodward, brainiac and science buff."

"Related?!" Kristen cracked up. "It's like the Olsens on steroids!"

"You met her in a theme park in Montana" Sukari said. "Dag, what was it called, Xerox-land? Do they make copies of everyone who goes there?"

"No," Kristen said, "I bet they have a ride called the Cy-
clone
. Get it, clone?"

"Well, I think it's cosmic," a whispery voice noted. "Totally astral." This from the third member of the trio—a sunny redhead in earthy sandals, a gauzy Indian-print sarong and one long feather earring peeking through her tangle of curls. "You two look almost identical."

"It's the blue streaks," Beth pointed out Cam doesn't have any."

"No, really, Cami," the redhead said, "she is so the yin to your yang!"

"Ladies and gentlemen, Amanda Carter," Cam reported.

Laughing, 'Manda took a seat.

Jason took their orders.

Sukari took over the bench on Beth's side of the booth.

And Kristen took out her cell phone and speed-dialed Bree.

They had been warned. The bearded psycho in the heavy boots was trying to find them. He couldn't go after them himself, so he was sending someone else. "And we're supposed to watch out for what?" Cam asked on the way to school two days later.

"Anyone who's drawn to us or who we're drawn to," Alex recited.

"Kind of cramps your social life," Cam observed as a crossing guard signaled that they could step off the curb now.

"After meeting your crew, that's fine with me," Alex cracked.

A block away, the plaza in front of Marble Bay High was swarming with kids. All of them strangers to her except for Dylan, who had left for school with his own pals. And five of Cam's Dirty Half Dozen, which was one of the names Alex had started calling the Six Pack. The Lollipop League was another. And the Jellybean Jar.

"Dag, it must feel whack," she remembered Sukari saying, "leaving all your homeys behind."

And then Kristen, twirling her silky black braid like a bullwhip, going, "Didn't you hear her, Suki? She only had two friends in Wyoming. Lulu and Evan—"

"Montana," Amanda had corrected in her breathless little whisper. "And it was Lucinda, not Lulu. Lucinda and Evan. Anyway, that's not what she meant, Kristen. You meant you only had two
best
friends, right, Ali?"

Red curls, ebony braid, peroxide-blond 'fro. They looked more like they belonged in a jellybean jar than a soda pop Six Pack, Alex remembered thinking.

She'd had a monster headache by the time they left PITS. And so had Cam, they discovered, when they compared notes on the way home.

By the time they'd reached Cam's house, the worst of Alex's pain had let up. Only to be replaced by a bigger headache: Dylan.

Cam's cutie-pie brother had decided to have his long blond locks chopped—and streaked blue—like Alex's. Which had put Cam's mother Emily into orbit.

Emily had glared daggers at Alex all through dinner.

"Come on, let's review," Cam said now, as they turned onto the school's wide central walkway. She pointed discreetly. "They're all over there."

Alex groaned, but complied. "Okay, so the curvy, cocoa-skinned blond in the granny glasses is Sukari. Black-haired, slightly edgy, that's Kristen. Kristen Hsu, right? And the pale redhead in hippie-dippy retro wear is Amanda. Beth is Beth. And... whoa! That's gotta be Bree. She looks exactly like her voice—all tight and screechy!"

There was something about the short, skinny girl—from the blond streaks in her expertly highlighted hair to the oh-so-cool perfection of her platform slides—that hit Alex like nails on a blackboard. Lucinda and Evan had an expression for the type. "T-cubed." Too. Totally. Trendy.

Brianna was waiting for them, Kristen at her side, at the arched front entrance to the school. "Wait. Don't tell me," the petite girl drawled, extending a tennis-bracelet-bedecked arm. "You must be Alexandra." She peered over her sunglasses and looked Alex up and down like a pint-sized inspector grading meat. "You look exactly like—"

"Cam?" Beth prompted facetiously.

"Excuse me?" Brianna raised an eyebrow at Cam's tall, frizzy-haired best. "Did I call for a ventriloquist? I move my mouth, and
you
do the talking? I don't think so."

"Dag," Sukari laughed. "She dissed your butt, Beth."

"I was going to say," Bree finished, pointedly ignoring Sukari, "that you look
exactly
like Kristen described you."

"Oh, really? And how's that?" Cam asked, flashing a warning glare at Brianna.

"Indescribably weird!" Bree answered, offering her palm to Kristen for a high five.

Cam glanced quickly at Alex. No words, spoken or unspoken, were necessary for her to read her twin's intentions. Alex's gray eyes had flicked to the freshly hosed bottom of the archway, specifically to the shallow puddle of water coating the marble slab on which Bree stood.
No
, Cam thought.
Oh, Alex, don't!

I'm cool,
her grinning twin silently assured her. And actually, Alex's eyes were cool, furiously frosty, as she watched Bree skid suddenly on a glass-smooth slick of ice that had somehow formed beneath her feet.

Bree teetered and twirled, reaching out for balance.

Kristen ducked, trying to get out of her way, but Bree's flailing hand caught her and sent her crashing back against one of the great oak doors thrown open to welcome Marble Bay High students. Kristen slid to the ground, the door at her back, her long legs splayed before her.

Stop it!
Cam silently scolded Alex.

Oh, all right,
her twin groused. A nanosecond later, Bree flopped down, hitting the ice-coated marble with a resounding
thwack
.

Cam and Beth helped her to her feet, while Amanda and Sukari, both giggling, hoisted Kris.

"Nothing bruised but my pride," Brianna assured everyone, dusting off her skirt. She glanced at Alex, studied her suspiciously for a second, then shrugged and announced, "However, a lawsuit against the school is not out of the question."

Ten minutes later, they were all inside by the tenth-grade lockers. While Cam and company caught up with school friends, Alex fiddled with the lock Emily had given her. She was trying to remember the combination; she had the first two turns down, but wasn't sure of the third.

A pleasant scent of soap and leather muddled her thinking. Before she could trace it, a hoarse voice offered, "I can open it for you, if you've lost the combo."

Alex looked up into the cool blue eyes of the leather-jacketed boy she'd seen walking past the pizza shop.

"That's okay. I know the combination." Suddenly Dylan was at her side. "You're new around here, right? I'm Dylan Barnes."

"Yeah, we moved here in July. Cade Richman," the boy introduced himself. He looked from Dylan back to Alex, taking in their blue streaks and look-alike haircuts. "Oh, are you two...?"

"Oh, no. Definitely not. He's my brother," Alex explained. "Actually, he's not even
my
brother, he's my
sister's
brother. I'm Alex Fielding." Cade was staring at her, bewildered but amused. Alex laughed. "It's a long story."

He scratched his head, his hair a tumble of ink-dark curls. "Sounds complicated," he said with a crooked smile. "Okay, well, nice meting you guys."

"I'm new, too," Alex called after him.

"Cool." He waved. "Catch you at orientation."

She looked up. Six faces, mouths open, eyes wide, were staring at her.

"Who was that?" Beth was the first to cross the hall.

"His name's Cade—" Dylan started to answer.

Kristen brushed away his attempt. "Cade Richman. Rumors are already flying. Got kicked out of some other school and dumped here. He's trouble."

"I never saw him before and hope never to again," Brianna insisted. "Coffee, chocolate, boys—some things are just better rich. I mean, torn jeans, that cruddy leather jacket, and those mountain-man boots? Not my type."

"Mmm," Sukari countered. "Tall, tasty, and intense—he's mine."

"Only it's Alex who cast a spell over him," Amanda teased.

Alex locked eyes with the feather-earringed redhead.

"Don't mind 'Manda," Sukari told her. "She's, like, all into chanting, scented candles, and simmering herbs. She's our local witch."

"Right. When Camryn isn't doing her mojo thing," Beth added, grinning at her best. Cam's mojo was what the Six Pack called the uncanny vibes, hunches, and premonitions their bud was known for. Until last season's championship match. When the soccer ace had suddenly suffered a space-out in the final moments of the Marble Bay Meteors' most important game.

"Oh, you mean like during... soccer play-offs?" Bree purred innocently.

Amanda gasped.

"Put a sock in it, Bree," Sukari ordered.

"Or what?" Bree laughed. "Gonna get 'Manda to put a hex on me?"

Beth and Kristen apprehensively watched Cam, who seemed unaware of the rumpus around her. "Did you see his boots, Als?" she murmured. "He was wearing boots."

Alex looked down the hall again. Cade was leaning against another bank of lockers, looking, as Sukari had put it, tasty and intense. And, no, she hadn't noticed before, but he was wearing boots, scuffed black motorcycle boots.

Alex forced herself to laugh. "Sure, like a gazillion other guys in the world," she told Cam. "That doesn't make him... you know, bad to the bone."

But she'd picked up on Cam's train of thought: The killer, the big, bearded bozo they'd been warned about, wore boots, heavy clunky boots, even in the sweltering summer.

So did that mean whoever he sent to snag them would share his fondness for funky footwear? No way, Alex decided, determined to get inside Cade's head, to prove Cam wrong.

But she couldn't. The buff boy's mind was murky and shut down. There was something stirring there in the dark, a devastating secret, which Alex couldn't decode. She couldn't read it, she realized, because Cade refused to think about it. He was hiding something, not just from her, but from himself.

Cam was on a similar mission. Cade was a stranger. Only Kristen seemed to know something about him—and that wasn't much. Except he was clearly someone Alex was attracted to, and his boots had reminded Cam of the scary guy they'd met the night Ileana and Officer Karsh had rescued them.

Was Cade the murderer's messenger?

Cam's sight grew hazy. The hall chaos faded as a pounding in her ears got louder. She trembled, though she knew what was happening. It had happened before she'd met Alex, but never with the intensity she'd experienced since.