Excerpts

Chapter One

Milo was gone.

Correction: Milo had been taken, just like Sasha had been taken. Just like Lacey had been taken.

And even though it didn't make a bit of sense that a healthy, muscular nineteen-year-old boy could have been kidnapped as easily as two tiny, defenseless little girls, I believed what Dana had just told me when she'd called and woken me out of a deep sleep.

Milo is missing.

I'd gone from pajama clad and snoring in my bed to fully dressed and moving fast as I used my Greater-Than homing powers to race to find him. First, I'd hopped onto the back of Dana's motorcycle, because she'd called me, ready to roll, from the midnight-dark suburban street outside the house I shared with my mom.

But now we were on foot. We were running on a trail through one of Coconut Key's many abandoned town parks as I felt the familiar tug of Milo's presence calling to me, getting stronger by the second.

He was here. I was getting close, I knew it, so I ran even faster.

I can run pretty fast.

But right now it didn't seem nearly fast enough, as thick branches from the overgrowth of the tropical, beachside brush crashed against my sides like horse whips, reminding me of the way that Sasha and Lacey and dozens of other kidnapped little girls had been herded together and tortured like farm animals.

"Slower," Dana huffed from behind me. "Bubble Gum! You need...to go...slower."

My heart pounded manically in my chest, which had nothing to do with how fast I was running. I needed to find Milo. I needed to find him. I glanced back to see Dana lagging behind, pumping her arms furiously by her sides.

She'd ditched her knee-high leather stiletto boots and resorted to bare feet. Still, she was clearly winded and struggling. But I was already going far more slowly than I wanted so she could keep up.

My hair slapped me in the face, and I had to spit out several long, red strands to tell her, "Faster! We both need to go faster!"

Dana tried, her red-leather bomber jacket making squeaky sounds as she moved. "Remember," she called breathlessly as I pulled farther ahead. "Remember...that...there wasn't...blood..."

Oh! And that was supposed to make me feel better?

Apparently, there'd been no blood when Dana returned to Milo's campsite, but she'd told me that there had been signs of a serious struggle. And Dana had such a bad feeling about it, she'd woken me up in the middle of the night to help find him.

That was saying something. Because Dana was way better at this Greater-Than-slash-superhero thing than I was. Also? It took a lot for her to ask for any kind of help.

So no. I didn't slow down.

The thick, wild brush opened up to the toddlers' playground, long deserted and vandalized. Bent and twisted swings creaked drunkenly in the warm wind, and what had once been whimsical rocking animals listed forlornly on their springs. I leaped over the still-noxious residue from a pair of split-open port-a-potties, shooting a quick "Don't step in that" back to Dana.

Back in the fall, just a few months ago, before we'd rescued Sasha, Dana and I had been in this very park. Tonight that seemed like forever ago.

So much had changed since then.

"Skylar...please!" Dana huffed. Even her use of my real name instead of one of her vaguely insulting terms of endearment didn't slow my pace.

But then my foot caught on something, and I looked down to see a decapitated head grinning up at me from the gravel of the path. I screamed but tried to swallow the sound, because I immediately saw that it wasn't Milo. It wasn't even human. It was the head of a stone statue of a little girl, complete with pigtails and a button nose. She'd once adorned the park, along with a little stone boy and their little stone dog. I might've been able to keep my balance if I hadn't then tripped over her dismembered stone legs. I was going too fast, and now I was going down, and that gravel was gonna hurt.

But Dana caught me with her powerful telekinesis, and for a few short moments, I knew what it felt like to fly. It was nice to have friends with Greater-Than superpowers. But then she put me down and pinned me in place as she finally caught up.

"You need to breathe. Take a moment and think." Dana's voice was low and intense, and in that moment, I realized how quiet the rest of the world was too. The loudest sound was my own labored breathing. I could hear the creaking of the swings and the wind in the leaves of the trees that formed a canopy overhead.

But Milo had been taken. It was all that mattered to me right now.

I felt like I was going to throw up.

"Use your brain, Sky. Signs of a struggle. But no blood. What does that mean?"

I looked around me. Still thoughts. Still thoughts. "It means he's probably still alive."

"Good," Dana said in a gruff whisper. "What else does it mean?"

I didn't know. I just wanted to find him. Now. I could feel him. He was somewhere nearby. I shook my head as I struggled to sit up, but Dana held me securely in place.

"If someone's taken Milo," she asked again, less patiently this time. "What. Does it mean?"

But the moment she said Milo's name, a barrage of images exploded inside me like a rapid slide show of the most heart-wrenchingly magnificent photos I'd never taken. His dimples. His skin. The way his eyes softened when he smiled at me. The crazy feeling of his thoughts in my mind whenever we touched. The sweetness of his lips, the heat of his body against mine...

It was then that I smelled it.

Vanilla.

Vanilla, coming from somewhere nearby.

Milo.

And Dana could no longer hold me back. In fact, as I launched myself to my feet, I knocked her onto her ass.

"Sorry," I hissed as I took off running again.

I could hear her cursing and scrambling to follow as I spotted a dark, squat building in the distance. It was a typical Florida hurricane-proof, concrete-block, fugly one-story structure, its outline illuminated by a full moon peeking through the thick branches of the banyan trees.

But as I got closer, something told me to slow down. It wasn't necessarily a danger-just a presence. I could smell it, along with Milo's familiar vanilla. And yeah. I know it sounds crazy. But I can smell things like evil and fear and anger and even love. It's one of my biggest Greater-Than skillz-being able to smell intense emotions. Frankly, I'd rather be able to burp deadly lightning bolts, but you are what you are, and that applies to Greater-Thans like me and Dana, too.

This time, though, I couldn't quite pinpoint the other non-vanilla smell. It wasn't unpleasant. It was just-there. And the familiarity of it, lingering around me, was irritating.

I was about to tell Dana that someone else was with Milo-but then that vanilla scent-the unmistakable, lovely, perfect scent that I knew belonged to my almost-too-perfect boyfriend-enveloped me like a fleece blanket around my psyche, and I was certain about the most important thing in my world at that moment.

"Milo's in there," I said, pointing at the building. "We have to get to him. Now."

Dana nodded and pressed a deliberate finger against her lips, instructing immediate quiet. She then began moving closer to the structure with the stealth of a cat.

I followed alongside her, longing to simply race inside the building to where Milo most certainly was being held. I could feel him now, his presence pulling me like a rope pulls a boat to shore.

It was all I could do not to call out his name in the darkness.

But Dana kept her movements deliberate and slow, and I knew, despite everything vibrating inside of me, that this was the safest way.

Dana tapped me twice on the arm as we continued toward the building. I looked over at her, at the intensity in her eyes.

"What do you see, what do you think, what are you feeling? What should you be paying attention to?" Dana's whisper was so quiet, I wondered if maybe I was simply reading her lips instead of actually hearing her voice.

What did I see? Concentrating, I gazed ahead. The building was dumpy and gray looking, a soiled and windowless stucco mass. On the left-hand side I could see the sad remains of a fabric awning, its colors a faded candy-cane-striped pattern. Underneath it, a ledge jutted from the outside of the wall, and an ancient sign with the words "Hot Dogs 6.99" was festered and yellowed against closed aluminum.

Snack kiosk.

The side we were approaching had two open doorways, although I couldn't see inside to where they led. To bathrooms, maybe. And yes, there on the wall were the vandalized remains of the familiar signs, with the woman's icon a now-headless triangle with legs.

I squinted as we edged closer to the abandoned snack kiosk, as if somehow that would make it possible for me to see inside the building without actually being inside.

But while I could literally smell trouble, X-ray vision wasn't on my superpower résumé. And the visions-comma-psychic I was sometimes able to have were still about as reliable as the phone and Internet service these days-which meant they were seriously hit-or-miss. And, to make everything ten trillion times worse, I have even more trouble capturing important visions when I'm stressed out or scared.

Like right now. When, for all I knew, my perfect, wonderful, amazing boyfriend was in mortal danger.

Stress level on a scale of one to ten? Yeah. It was hovering between thirty-seven and thirty-eight, with occasional spikes of five million.

Dana, on the other hand? She had some G-T powers that could help us out. "How many people inside?" I hissed, my super-quiet whisper not quite as super-quiet as hers.

As a seasoned Greater-Than, Dana had excellent control over her unique powers-one of which was an ability to sense all of the living beings around her, both visible and hidden. Most of the time, if she focused hard enough, Dana could tell me the number and proximity of the rats in the nearby palm trees. Or of the number of bad guys in a makeshift Destiny farm. It wasn't X-ray vision, but it was pretty close.

This particular talent of Dana's had helped us out a lot, back when we rescued little Sasha from an Alabama Destiny farm. It wasn't foolproof, of course. There were times when Dana couldn't access her power. Like me with my fledgling psychic visions, her ability ebbed and flowed, with no clear rhyme or reason. But right now I wanted at least an idea about what we were fighting here... Were two bad guys holding Milo prisoner in that kiosk? Or twenty? I looked to Dana, hoping for the answer.

But she shook her head and grabbed at her temples. "I can't-" she started.

"Yes! You can. Try!"

"Trying." Dana shook her head. "No go."

I opened my own eyes wide and threw my palms up in the air, staring at her like maybe if I looked pissed enough she'd snap out of it and make things happen. But Dana's eyes were narrowed and intense as she nodded past me at the building that squatted in the darkness. Taking one hand, she nudged me against the side of the nearest banyan tree. It was the last large object keeping us hidden before we reached the clearing surrounding the kiosk.

It was kind of obvious that Dana wanted me to suggest a game plan.

I shrugged again, exhaling in exasperation. I didn't know. How was I supposed to know what to do? Dana was always the one with the plan.

But I didn't care anymore. Milo's presence here was drawing me like a magnet, and, for all I knew, he had mere moments left to live.

Dana was watching me, waiting impatiently, so I used both my pointer fingers and waved them in opposite-moving circles, to signal that Dana head to the left and me to the right. We'd check for other entrances or windows, and meet up around the other side.

It was all I had to work with. I didn't know what else we could do.

For a second, I thought about channeling my water-based telekinesis and overflowing the toilets inside-maybe that would make whoever was in there come running out. I could definitely do that, providing there was water in the long-abandoned pipes.

But it seemed like a ridiculous, stupid plan compared to actually going inside.

I didn't tell Dana this because I knew she'd think it was too dangerous and try to talk me out of it, but once she turned that corner, I was planning to say eff it and run right through the men's room doorway. Because I didn't care who-or what-was waiting in there anymore. All I cared about was finding Milo.

Dana looked unhappy, but she nodded, and together we backed away from the banyan tree. Her movement was still silent, but I immediately stepped on a branch. The crack underneath my sneaker might as well have been a gong, and I winced.

Dana glared at me but kept moving to the side of the building with the awning. I took several more baby steps, keeping my pace excruciatingly slow as I pretended to angle right.

Once Dana rounded the corner and could no longer see me, I stopped crawling and started sprinting, moving like lightning toward the doorway that was now directly in front of me.

Milo. Milo. Milo.

"Freeze or I'll shoot you, your boyfriend, and your little dog, too!" The distorted voice rang out-deep and authoritative, but computerized with a metallic filter. Whoever had spoken was about eight feet to the right of me.

Harmless.

It was more of a feeling than a thought, and it came to me immediately, even before I stopped and sharply turned, twisting my neck so fast that nerves shot painfully down my spine.

Shadowy shape-low, almost square, and solid.

Nope, not a threat.

All those hours of training paid off as I moved instinctively into a defensive crouch, even as I strained to see more clearly in the darkness.

Black male. Seated. Five foot eleven, one hundred sixty-four pounds. Definitely not a threat.

"Calvin?" I called out, my voice clear as a bell in the darkness.

The figure inched forward-or, I should say, wheeled forward-out of the shadows.

It was definitely Calvin.

"Order me to blast him with my power!" And that was Dana, rocketing herself around the corner of the building with the intensity of a SWAT team member, minus the whole humongous-gun-and-Kevlar-vest thing.

"What?" Order her...? And double-what because... "No, Dana, it's Cal," I told her. "It's"-I searched for the words-"robot Cal."

My best friend, Calvin, was wearing a ridiculous-looking padded jacket, along with a helmet that seriously resembled something Darth Vader might rock on a fashion-flunk day. His legs, bent and resting against the sides of the wheelchair, were covered in what looked to be oversized steel pants, of all things. And even though I couldn't see Cal's face, thanks to his helmet, I knew he was grinning inside that absurd costume.

I realized at that moment that if Cal was here and safe...

"That is not Cal!" Dana insisted as she continued barreling toward us. "That is an evil, terrible monster!"

I ignored her, because if Cal was safe... "Cal! Where's Milo? Did you already find him?" I asked, but then refused to wait another moment for an explanation. I turned and again charged toward the doorway of the snack kiosk men's room-

-and crashed directly into my perfect, wonderful, and very-much-alive-and-safe and smiling boyfriend.

Why was he smiling?

Oh my Lord you're okay you're all right oh Milo Milo Milo...

As soon as we collided, my super-special Greater-Than telepathy-with-Milo-and-only-Milo clicked on, and I felt my thoughts echoing in Milo's mind.

He'd turned the collision into a bear hug, and as he wrapped his arms around me, I felt his confusion. Skylar, of course I'm all right. What did Dana tell you?

I wrenched myself from the embrace to turn and glare at Dana, even as I instantly understood. This was a training exercise?

"Are you kidding me?" I said.

Dana ignored me as she stomped around and muttered choice words that started with F and ended in -ing.

Calvin removed his helmet. And yes. He was grinning, although his smile started to fade when he saw the thunderous expression on my face.

"Fail! Fail, Sky! This was not good!" Dana paced furiously back and forth in her bare feet as she plunged her hands through her short blond hair and glared back at me.

"Excuse me?" I exclaimed. "Not good? You got that right! This was not good at all!"

I sensed Milo directly behind me as he chimed in. "You didn't tell her this wasn't real?" he asked Dana. His voice was low, but that didn't mean he wasn't angry. The more upset Milo was, the quieter he got.

I, however, got louder. "This was really just a game...?"

"Of course I didn't tell her. Why would I tell her?" Dana answered Milo before she stopped pacing and planted herself directly in front of me. "This was no game, Princess. This was a test. A pop quiz."

I could feel my jaw drop. "A pop quiz?"

"And you flunked," Dana declared. "Miserably."

Calvin started giggling into his steel-encrusted sleeve. He always giggled when he was nervous or uncomfortable, so I forgave him.

Dana, however, was a different story. She'd gotten me out of bed with the heart-stopping news that Milo was in grave danger-to give me some kind of twisted test?

"First off"-she was still barking at me-"you didn't acknowledge your weaknesses. This was a potentially highly dangerous situation, and you know damn well you suck at stealth. And you also know that I'm just as capable of being stealthy as you are not. Yet your master plan had us both circling the building. What you should have done was assign the task of perimeter sneak-and-peek to me, while you stayed put, which is your best shot at staying silent-although that's questionable, too. Instead, by crashing through the brush the way you did, you put us all in harm's way. Lover-Boy included!" Dana jabbed at the air in Milo's direction.

Milo opened his mouth as if to speak.

"Then you didn't even stick to your shitty plan," she continued, cutting him off before he even began. "Once you went all Rambo by making a run for it like you did-which I could hear, even from around the corner, P-effing-S: you basically turned yourself into a giant target. No, not a target, the target! You're the target, Bubble Gum!

"That is a truth that you must never, ever forget! If and when some nasty-ass em-effers grab Milo or Calvin or your mother or the sweet little old lady who lives next door...? They're doing it to get to you! So what did you just do here? You put a freaking bow on your head and gave yourself to them on a silver platter, special delivery!"

"You're, um, mixing your metaphors," Calvin pointed out.

"You not only didn't stop to think about the bad guys' motives or goals"-Dana ignored him as she continued to skewer me-"but you also didn't take that butt-ugly truth a logical step further. Because if you had, you would've realized that if and when someone grabs Milo in order to get to you, once they have you, they're not gonna just let him go, like thanks for your help, bro, here's money for a cab. No! Once they get you, he's dead. So congratulations, you just killed Milo!"

She was right. To some degree. But I had to blink hard to keep my tears from escaping. I was still that angry that she'd let me believe that Milo was really in peril.

And I might've muttered an apology for failing her little late-night class in Abducted Boyfriend Rescue 101, if she hadn't piled on and continued her rant about everything I'd done wrong.

"And what the hell was that with Calvin anyway?" Dana huffed at me. "You just stop in the middle of a clearing"-she gestured to the open space we were standing in, between the kiosk and the jungle-"and have a conversation with someone who potentially wants to knock you unconscious, throw you in the trunk of their car, and take you to a Destiny farm where they'll bleed you dry?"

"I wasn't-" I started.

"He says freeze and you freeze?" Dana asked. "What were you thinking? Why were you thinking? You should've at least tried to blast him with your telekinesis before you even turned around!"

At this, I exploded. "That's bullshit!" I exclaimed, the foul word exiting my mouth like a glob of poison. "And you know it! I knew it was Cal!"

"His voice was disguised," she argued.

"I knew it was him," I insisted. "And yes, his being here made me a little confused, but-"

"All the more reason to send out a mental shock wave," Dana insisted. "I mean, yes, considering your limitations, it probably wouldn't've worked-"

"You seriously are on my case because I didn't hammer my best friend with a big ol' telekinetic left hook to the balls?" I laughed humorlessly, because last time I'd checked, Dana had been adamant about not letting me use my extremely limited water-based TK to try to move people-not even in a no-stress training session, let alone one like this. Although as I looked at Cal, I realized his robot suit wasn't just for visual effect.

He knew what I was thinking and tapped on his chest. The sound he made was similar to that of a drum kit's hi-hat. "Pretty sure this technology makes me Skylar-proof. Not only did we crash-test both the suit and the chair, but we're pretty sure you can't move me because you can't access the fluids in my body. The metal shields me. Neat-o, huh? The suit's just a loaner-we've got to give it back-"

"As in, we need to return the stolen goods?" I interpreted.

"Semantics," Dana said dismissively as I shook my head.

"It's not the easiest thing to move around in," Cal continued, "and I gotta admit it's toasty warm in here, but..." He shrugged as he glanced over at Dana. "Hot blond chicks can talk me into things."

That pissed me off even more. "Dana! Seriously! Did you mind-control Calvin into doing this?"

Dana shook her head. "Cal signed up willingly. The point here is that whether you knew it was Calvin or not, that was not the right time to stop and have a freaking chat!"

I shook my head, exhausted and angry, but also tremendously relieved. I turned to look at Milo, who was still standing slightly behind me. The important thing was that he was safe.

I didn't think the moonlight was bright enough for him to see the tears that were brimming in my eyes, but he reached out and took my hand and our connection immediately clicked on.

I'm so sorry. His thoughts immediately filled my mind. I love you.

I kind of laugh-sobbed as I nodded and squeezed his hand. I love you, too. I had to let go of his hand, or I would've started to cry. And I was not going to cry in front of Dana. She was my friend, yes, but these days she felt more like my worst frenemy.

She was still stomping around, trying to turn this farce of a so-called test into a teaching-and-learning moment. "You know, Bubble Gum, if you'd waited for me-your teammate-you could have given me the command to move him." She pitched her voice higher. "Dana, zap the monster! And I would've..." She nodded, her brows furrowed in concentration, and we all watched her use her powerful telekinesis to blast Calvin's chair high into the air. He whooped like he was on an amusement-park ride, and she twirled him a few times before she gently set him down on the other side of the clearing. "Done that."

"Oh, snap!" I heard Cal call from the distance. Then, "Hey, can I come back now?"

Dana's grin flashed and then faded so fast, I might not have seen it if I wasn't looking directly at her. But then she nodded again, lifting Calvin back through the air and placing him in the exact spot where he'd been before. Along with Calvin came the return of Dana's scowl, as she once again tried to stare me down.

But I held her gaze and lifted my chin as I stood my ground. The biggest fail here was hers. "Dana, you made me believe that Milo was in serious danger! I honestly thought he was going to be killed!"

"That's exactly what I was going for!" Dana insisted. "A truly emotional response from you-so that you could learn to perform under pressure. Hell, if I'd had someone train me this way when I was first honing my skills...? I'd be thanking them, not bitching about it."

Bitching. Bitching?

Once again, Milo took my hand. She doesn't understand, he told me through our telepathic connection. "Let's talk about this later," he told Dana, even as he silently told me, After Lacey was taken and Dana's father was put in jail...it's been hard for her to let herself love anyone.

He'd met Dana in a really shitty foster home when they were both in their early teens, after her dad had been convicted of brutally murdering her little sister, Lacey. But Dana had recently come to believe that Lacey was still out there, somewhere, held prisoner by horrible people but potentially still alive. And this knowledge was making her extra crazy. We were all trying to be considerate of her feelings, but tonight she'd pushed me too far. And to call me bitchy, to boot?

I was thinking in emotional whirlwinds rather than clear sentences, but Milo caught the gist of it anyway.

Still thoughts. He sent what had become our calming mantra back to me, even as he told Dana, "It's late. Sky needs to get some rest. We all do."

Dana looked from Milo to me to our tightly clasped hands, and she scowled. It bugged her that we could communicate this way-she said it was rude, like whispering in someone's ear at the dinner table-so we tried not to do it so blatantly in front of her.

But right now, I didn't give a crap. I held tightly to Milo as I glared back at her.

"Whatever," Dana said impatiently. Then, as she turned away, she said more quietly, "What a disappointment."

I felt a pang at that, and I realized that at least part of me felt bad about letting her down. I wanted to be a warrior-in many ways, I longed to be more like her. But at the same time, I was still so angry at what she'd done. The two feelings battled their way through my chest in the form of a solid lump that wouldn't go away no matter how hard I tried.

"Well," Cal said as Dana stomped off down the trail on the other side of the kiosk, opposite from the way we'd run in. I knew from a brief telepathic blast from Milo that Calvin's car was strategically hidden about a quarter mile away, near another hole in the fence. I also realized that Cal's robot suit really was unwieldy. He wasn't rolling along the root-covered path-Dana was using her TK to float him along behind her. He turned to look back at me. "I know it was a little too real for you, Sky, but I gotta confess, I had fun."

Fun? I heard myself make another one of those vaguely sob-like sounds. I was still so upset, I just wanted to get away from everyone. I wanted to go home so I could be completely alone to curl up in my bed and cry...

And yeah, I'd sent that thought straight to Milo. I felt him realize that I'd lumped him in with the generic "everyone" I wanted to get away from, and then I caught a very solid wave of his own distress. Skylar, if I'd known she wasn't going to tell you this was just a training exercise, I never would have agreed-

I know, I thought over him. I really do know that. I was just so scared-I don't know what I'd do if I lost you.

Holy crap, had I actually thought that aloud? Well, no, of course not aloud, but I'd certainly expressed my feelings in an orderly, easy-to-understand sentence with a verb and a noun, instead of the messy and wonderful wave of emotion that Milo and I swirled around in when we shared our precious and too-infrequent private time.

I pulled my hand away from him to cut our connection. I didn't want to be that girlfriend, needy and terrified, desperately clingy and relentlessly weepy.

But Milo's eyes were intense as he grabbed my other hand and stopped to pull me gently in front of him. We stood facing each other for a moment as he held my gaze. You will never. Ever. Lose me. I promise.

You can't promise that, I told him, fighting to keep my tears from escaping. But I couldn't do it. I could feel them start to roll down my cheeks. If Dana were there, she'd have been yelling "Fail! Fail!"

Yeah, Milo told me. I can.

I shook my head. He couldn't promise that the same way I couldn't promise that someday I wouldn't be grabbed and made to disappear the way that Dana's sister, Lacey, had. I was a Greater-Than, as were both Dana and Lacey, and there were lots of very bad people out there. People who would harm and enslave us, and use our blood to make a dangerous and addictive drug called Destiny-if they discovered our powers.

I would find you, Milo told me as we stood there in the silence of the night. You know that, right? If they take you, I will find you.

His face hardened, and I couldn't help but shiver. My boyfriend was sweet and gentle-with me. But he'd survived a terrible childhood that I still didn't know all that much about. Somehow, despite our telepathy, he managed to keep those thoughts and memories walled off from me.

He added, But no one's taking you anywhere. As long as I draw breath, I won't let that happen. That I can promise you, Sky.

And that I believed. Milo would fight to the death to protect me. And to protect Dana, too.

She'd vanished down the trail with Cal, but now she backtracked and tossed a key ring with a jangle and a thump into the dirt at our feet.

It startled me, and I jumped apart from Milo, quickly wiping any traces of tears from my face.

But Dana had already turned and started walking away. "Take her home on my bike," she commanded gruffly, and then vanished again into the shadows. She didn't bother to ask if I remembered where we'd left her motorcycle. She knew that I did. She also knew that I hated riding it, even with my arms wrapped around Milo's waist. The only thing that had gotten me on it earlier was my need to find him as quickly as possible.

"Shit," I muttered.

As we both looked down at Dana's keys gleaming in the moonlight, a breeze swept Milo's long hair into his angular face-a beautiful face so familiar and dear to me, even though we hadn't really known each other all that long. He pushed his hair back and pulled me into another embrace as he smiled at me-just enough to make his dimples appear.

I'll walk you home, he told me. And come back later for the bike.

It would take us an hour to get to my house on foot, another hour for him to get back here...

It's okay.

And despite all of the craziness of the past few hours, and all of the craziness that had occurred in my life before tonight-and there had been a crapload of crazy in my seventeen years so far on planet Earth-despite all of that, I knew that as long as Milo was with me, it was okay. It was and it would be.

So I took a deep breath, pulled Milo with me into the shadows of that fugly snack kiosk, and kissed him with all the passion of a girl who'd just thought the love of her life had come back from the dead.

Little did I know that this latest deadly round of craziness was only just beginning.