The Survivors: Point of Origin (book 2)

Visionary, pt. 1

WHEN WE WALKED OFF THE PLANE IN DALLAS THAT MONDAY NIGHT, I could hear Corrina’s excitement all the way down the corridor. She was screaming in her head, Sadie has a boyfriend! Sadie has a BOYFRIEND! Then, seeing the scene through her eyes, I watched as the world in front of her began to shake violently. She was jumping up and down. I laughed out loud.

“What’s funny?” Everett asked, nudging me as we walked down the corridor at the super-busy DFW airport. This was my first trip to Texas. From Corrina’s love of the place, I was excited to see it.

“Corrina’s freaking out,” I said. “Like, a lot.”

He smiled. “What’s she saying?”

I rolled my eyes and let my voice take on Corrina’s enthusiastic pitch. “Sadie’s got a boyfriend! Sadie’s got a boyfriend!” I mused. “Over and over and over again,” I said, returning to my normal voice. “I think it’s really more of a squeal than actual speech.”

Everett laughed, too. “This is going to be great. I can already tell how much fun it is to be around someone who calls me your boyfriend,” he said.

“How’s that?” I asked. As we got closer to baggage claim, Corrina’s mental screams grew deafening.

He paused and turned toward me. “Have you ever even once called me your boyfriend?” he asked.

“Out loud?” I asked. I thought about it. “Maybe when I told Corrina about you?”

“You did no such thing!” he said, jokingly offended. “I was there, Sadie. On Twitter, remember? You specifically said ‘Oh, yeah... I’ve been traveling with this guy, Everett. He’s...cool.’ It was so romantic.”

I rolled my eyes again. We had come to a stop in front of the giant revolving door that would take us out to baggage claim and toward the bouncy Corrina. “Okay, boyfriend,” I said, dragging out the emphasis. “You ready for this?”

He smiled his most devious smile and grabbed me by the waist so my feet just skimmed the ground and kissed me. I realized too late he was pushing through the revolving door so that Corrina got a full view of this. She screamed out loud.

“Eeeeee! Sadie!”

“Oh, I’m sorry...” Everett said, pretending he hadn’t realized she’d see us.

I shot him an icy stare. Couldn’t resist, he said in his mind. Then he smiled again, flashing his beautiful teeth. I could not resist that smile. Everett had acquired the ability to shield me from his mind — a bulwark, he had called it — but over the past few weeks, he had learned how to push specific thoughts outside his mental armor so I could hear him when he wanted me to. Conversely, I had learned to crawl over the top of the mental rampart and graze a few things — sometimes thoughts but, more commonly, feelings and strong emotions — from his mind. He didn’t know that, though. I knew he would not like me doing this. I even knew it was sort of...wrong. But I was making so much progress with my powers! I was beginning to have faith that one day I’d be able to dance back and forth across the bulwark at will.

“Corrina!” I said. She jumped into my arms just the way she had the last time I had met up with her days before her wedding in Tupelo, Mississippi. That was just over six months ago, but my entire world had shifted, shaken, and reshaped since then. The clearest evidence of this was the striking presence of my supernatural boyfriend being introduced to my only human friends.

“You’re here! You’re here!” she said, clapping her hands together. “And you!” she said, directing her gaze at Everett. An awestruck expression quickly appeared on her face. Her eyes went soft, and the sides of her mouth curled up into a syrupy smile. “Hello, there,” she said. I got the impression she was trying to refrain from whistling at him. As Everett smiled back at her, she had only one clear thought: Oh. My. God.