She didn't mean to cry out, but she couldn't help it. It was partly pain and partly a reaction to something she saw in his eyes, something fanatical and ugly and hot like fire. She found herself gasping, more afraid than she could remember being since she was a child.
“Yes, I'm sure,” she said, breathless, staring into that ugliness without letting herself look away. “He went down there and around the headland.”
“Come on, Jordan, leave her alone!” Logan shouted. “She's just a kid. Let's go!”
Jordan hesitated. He knows I'm lying, Cassie thought, with a curious fascination. He knows, but he's afraid to trust what he knows because he doesn't know how he knows it.
Believe me, she thought, gazing straight back at him, willing him to do it. Believe me and go away. Believe me. Believe me.
He let go of her wrist.
“Sorry,” he muttered ungraciously, and he turned and loped off with the others.
“Sure,” Cassie whispered, standing very still.
Tingling, she watched them jog across the wet sand, elbows and knees pumping, Jordan's wind-breaker flapping loose behind him. The weakness spread from her stomach to her legs, and her knees suddenly felt like Silly Putty.
She was aware, all at once, of the sound of the ocean again. A comforting sound that seemed to enfold her. When the four running figures turned the corner and disappeared from her sight, she turned back to the dock, meaning to tell the red-haired guy that he could come out now.
He already had.
Slowly, she made her jellied legs carry her to the dock. He was just standing there, and the look on his face made her feel strange.
“You'd better get out of here-or maybe hide again,” she said hesitantly. “They might come right back…”
“I don't think so.”
“Well…” Cassie faltered, looking at him, feeling almost frightened. “Your dog was very good,” she offered uncertainly, at last. “I mean, not barking or anything.”
“He knows better.”
“Oh.” Cassie looked down the beach, trying to think of something else to say. His voice was gentle, not harsh, but that keen look never left his eyes and his mouth was grim. “I guess they really are gone now,” she said.
“Thanks to you,” he said. He turned to her, and their eyes met. “I don't know how to thank you,” he added, “for putting up with that for me. You don't even know me.”
Cassie felt even more queer. Looking up at him made her almost dizzy, but she couldn't take her eyes from his. There was no sparkle now; they looked like blue-gray steel. Compelling-hypnotic. Drawing her closer, drawing her in.
But I do know you, she thought. In that instant a strange image flashed through her mind. It was as if she were floating outside herself and she could see the two of them, standing there on the beach. She could see the sun shining on his hair and her face tilted up to him. And they were connected by a silver cord that hummed and sang with power.
A band of energy, linking them. It was so real she could almost reach out and touch it. It bound them heart to heart, and it was trying to draw them closer.
A thought came to her, as if some small voice from deep inside her was speaking. The silver cord can never be broken. Your lives are linked. You can't escape each other any more than you can escape destiny.
Suddenly, as quickly as it had come, the picture and the voice vanished. Cassie blinked and shook her
head, trying to wrench her mind back. He was still looking at her, waiting for an answer to his question.
“I was glad to help you,” she said, feeling how lame and inadequate the words were. “And I didn't mind –what happened.” His eyes dropped to her wrist, and there was a flash from them almost like silver.
“I did,” he said. “I should have come out earlier.”
Cassie shook her head again. The last thing she'd wanted was for him to be caught and hurt. “I just wanted to help you,” she repeated softly, confused. Then she said, “Why were they chasing you?”
He looked away, drawing in a deep breath. Cassie had the sense of trespassing. “That's all right. I shouldn't have asked-“ she began.
“No.” He looked back at her and smiled, his wry one-sided smile. “If anybody has a right to ask, you do. But it's a little difficult to explain. I'm… off my turf here. Back home, they wouldn't dare come after me. They wouldn't dare look at me cross-eyed. But here I'm fair game.”
She still didn't understand. “They don't like people who are-different,” he said, his voice quiet again. “And I'm different from them. I'm very, very different.”
Yes, she thought. Whatever he was, he wasn't like Jordan or Logan. He wasn't like anyone she had ever met.
“I'm sorry. That's not much of an explanation, I know,” he said. “Especially after what you did. You helped me, and I won't forget about it.”
He glanced down at himself and laughed shortly. “Of course, it doesn't look like there's much I can do for you, does it? Not here. Although…” He paused. “Wait a minute.”
He reached in his pocket, fingers groping for something. All in an instant Cassie's dizziness overwhelmed her, blood rushing to her face. Was he looking for money? Did he think he could pay her for helping him? She was humiliated, and more stricken than when Jordan had grabbed her wrist, and she couldn't help the tears flooding her eyes.
But what he pulled out of his pocket was a stone, a rock like something you might pick up on the ocean floor. At least that was what it looked like at first. One side was rough and gray, embedded with tiny black spirals like little shells. But then he turned it over, and the other side was gray swirled with pale blue, crystallized, sparkling in the sunlight as if it were overlaid with rock candy. It was beautiful.