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CHAPTER 1

Jade

Agony

Defeat

Rage

Indecision

Jade tre that she couldn’t shake Sweat began to bead on her upper lip and she rolled the fullness of it into her teeth, biting just shy of pain, to relieve her an Tulle said, "Come on Jade, concentrate If you don’t "

Jade’s brows furrowed, she was trying as hard as she could but the emotion the rawness of it, was a bath of filth She just wanted to get away She pressed, the details finally coe his identity, she couldn’t place hiave up "I don’t knoho he is!" she said, exasperated

Tulle sently "It’ll coative iht, shuddering

She looked around at the rest of the class and saw various degrees of expressions It would have been funny had she not just swept through the murky swamp of someone that was deeply disturbed Jade rubbed her hands up and down her own arms and asked Ms Tulle where that had co

"Saged a blouse-encased shoulder, her sensible pu to the low ht, classical

Jade deliberated No, she needed to say soan to sweep through the desks, checking on the other student’s Clairvoyance exercises

She turned, cocking a brow

"He’s bad, Miss Tulle, really bad"

She frowned, h the rows of desks "What do you mean? I touched the hoodie myself and knew the tone of it but didn’t sense" she shrugged

Jade tried to articulate her unease, "It’s not norot a touch of death"

"Death Intent?"

Jade nodded "Yes"

"Are you sure? Because that’s reportable and with you only a sophonificantly and Jade’s shoulders slumped in defeat She wasn’t sure if she wanted someone that maybe had a super-bad day, threw on a hoodie, then lost it at one of the six high schools in Kent to get nailed by the cops

Especially Garcia and crew

Jade’s eyes dropped She bit her lip again She wasn’t one hundred percent sure

She ave her steady eyes back "Maybe we gave you too intense a sample this first time, Jade We’re aware that your skill set has expanded to clairvoyance and possible precog" The "but" hung there between theed

Jade reached out and touched Tulle, who iet the first rule of Empath class the prior year?

Never touch another E your boobs in public Jade stifled a laugh

Tulle’s eyes narrowed and Jade tried to contain herself "What’s so funny?"

"Nervous tic I really like to laugh when things get serious," Jade said, the ghost of a s her full lips That was definitely Caleb’s influence, Jade knew

Ither dangerously froht flush of heat on her face and hoped her dusky coloring was sufficient caht process on this saain, studying Jade closely "Some of the best Empaths in the state work closely with the police If your clairvoyance is fine-tuned enough to pick up Death Intent then I suggest you start learning the difference Now"

With that, Tulle turned and threw the offending hoodie back in the sahed It didn’t ht have clairvoyance in spades She had been pegged as a level two E what the committee of "they" coined as, "expanded and related abilities" Unfortunately, when she felt violence in the samples she always had the same reaction

Fear

She’d lived with fear until her dad was seone fro it now Screw that noise Caleb said she was too coht she was too weak Too scared to face someone that could be the very same flavor of attacker that she’d suffered in her childhood

No repeats, thank you very lanced at the pulse-clock on the wall and grabbed her backpack, nothing , really What did they have to carry but the required water bottle and pulse-pad? Hers was a gorgeous pack with the brand name emblazoned on the front in ance, but Caleb had seen her ad it at the mall and snatched it up for her birthday last week and she’d been totally smitten with it

Sweet sixteen

Even she couldn’t believe she was finally at that es of childhood with insidious progression She didn’t rown up Ready to be independent and out on her own Ready for eo into perh She so couldn’t wait Caleb felt the sa so they could push it through Aunt Andrea wasn’t great at pushing, obviously She’d let the last three restraining orders die out and need to be re-i for class dish the Empath class door and saw Caleb before he saw her, his attention on Jonesy, per usual She soaked in the sight of hiet bored with Caleb They’d been dating awhile now, gone through a ton of stuff together, and still, every day was neith hi of how different he looked since they first got together a year and a half ago

She sa his thick chestnut hair fell forward to just brush the tops of i, soot-colored eyelashes as he stuffed his one hand in a pocket, the other elaborating soet it ten seconds later), the hed, thinking that she was in lust Not a terribly keen position to find herself in Wasn’t it the boy’s job to chase her around because of her feht she had that part down pat too Caleb dug her, she reminded herself As if on cue, he turned his head and those chocolate eyes pierced her Pierced her heart, stealing her breath

Shein her face, her body, everything, happiness and co her as she approached him

Caleb

I stopped ht of Jade’s s her way across the hall toward htened my expression, I knew she’d put a hand on uy have a little mystery? Sometimes the E out I liked it then A Lot

But now, in front of the hundreds of students filtering through the hall, I’d like to not have everyone know that I was Jade’s puppet A willing one

Jonesy san

"I’ to punch hi for the day when you have a girlfriend long enough to look at her like she ht what I said as she ainstthat vanilla s