Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined (Twilight #5)(52)

I fumbled for my wallet. “Um, let me—you didn’t even get anything—”

“My treat, Beau.”

“But—”

“Try not to get caught up in antiquated gender roles.”

She walked away, and I rushed to follow, leaving the stunned waiter behind me with what looked like a hundred-dollar bill on the table in front of him.

I passed her, hurrying again to get the door, ignoring what she’d said about antiquated roles. I knew she was faster than I could probably imagine, but the half-filled room of watching people forced her to act like she was one of them. She gave me a strange look when I held the door open—like she was kind of touched by the gesture, but also annoyed by it at the same time. I decided to overlook the annoyed part, and I scrambled past her to hold the car door, too. It opened easily—she’d never locked it. Her expression was more amused than anything at this point, so I took that as a good sign.

I almost ran to the passenger side of the car, trailing my hand across the hood as I moved. I had the nerve-wracking feeling that she was regretting telling me so much, and she might just drive off without me and disappear into the night. Once I was inside, she looked pointedly at my seat belt until I put it on again. I wondered for a second if she was some kind of safety-first absolutist—until I noticed that she hadn’t bothered with hers, and we were racing off into the light traffic without a hint of caution on her part.

“Now,” she said with a grim smile, “it’s your turn.”

9. THEORY

“CAN—CAN I ASK JUST ONE MORE?” I STUTTERED QUICKLY AS SHE ACCELERATED much too fast down the quiet street.

I was in no hurry to answer her question.

She shook her head. “We had a deal.”

“It’s not really a question,” I argued. “Just a clarification of something you said before.”

She rolled her eyes. “Make it quick.”

“Well… you said you knew I hadn’t gone into the bookstore, and that I had gone south. I was just wondering how you knew that.”

She thought about it for a moment, deliberating again.

“I thought we were past all these evasions,” I said.

She gave me a kind of you asked for it look. “Fine, then. I followed your scent.”

I didn’t have a response to that. I stared out the window, trying to process it.

“Your turn, Beau.”

“But you didn’t answer my other question.”

“Oh, come on.”

“I’m serious. You didn’t tell me how it works—the mind-reading thing. Can you read anybody’s mind, anywhere? How do you do it? Can the rest of your family do the same thing?”

It was easier to talk about this in the dark car. The streetlights were behind us already, and in the low gleam from the dashboard, all the crazy stuff seemed just a little more possible.

It seemed like she felt the same sense of non-reality, like normality was on hold for as long as we were in this space together. Her voice was casual as she answered.

“No, it’s just me. And I can’t hear anyone, anywhere. I have to be fairly close. The more familiar someone’s… ‘voice’ is, the farther away I can hear him. But still, no more than a few miles.” She paused thoughtfully. “It’s a little like being in a huge hall filled with people, everyone talking at once. It’s just a hum—a buzzing of voices in the background. Until I focus on one voice, and then what he’s thinking is clear.

“Most of the time I tune it all out—it can be very distracting. And then it’s easier to seem normal”—she frowned as she said the word—“when I’m not accidentally answering someone’s thoughts rather than their words.”

“Why do you think you can’t hear me?” I asked curiously.

She stared at me, eyes seeming to bore right through mine, with that frustrated look I knew well. I realized now that each time she’d looked at me this way, she must have been trying to hear my thoughts, and failing. Her expression relaxed as she gave up.

“I don’t know,” she murmured. “Maybe your mind doesn’t work the same way the rest of theirs do. Like your thoughts are on the AM frequency and I’m only getting FM.” She grinned at me, suddenly amused.

“My mind doesn’t work right? I’m a freak?” Her speculation hit home. I’d always suspected as much, and it embarrassed me to have it confirmed.

“I hear voices in my mind and you’re worried that you’re the freak.” She laughed. “Don’t worry, it’s just a theory.…” Her face tightened. “Which brings us back to you.”

I frowned. How was I going to say this out loud?

“I thought we were past all these evasions,” she reminded me softly.

I looked away from her face, trying to gather my thoughts into words, and my eyes wandered across the dashboard… stopped at the speedometer.

“Holy crow!” I shouted.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, looking right and left, rather than straight ahead where she should be looking. The car didn’t decelerate.

“You’re doing one-ten!” I was still shouting.

I shot a panicked glance out the window, but it was too dark to see much. The road was only visible in the long patch of bluish brightness from the headlights. The forest along both sides of the road was like a black wall—as hard as a wall of steel if we veered off the road at this speed.