He gave me a "fine, but what's he doing in my house in the middle of the night" look.
I pretended not to know what it meant.
And I didn't speak ASL, so he was out there, too.
Not fair, I supposed, but I didn't want to lie to him--and I really didn't want to tell him the whole truth.
"They need to get away from here," said Stefan.
"And I'm taking you back to the Tri-Cities." He looked like he was going to say something else, but glanced at Chad and shook his head.
Probably something more about Blackwood.
"Let me put some clothes on," I said.
"I think better when I'm not running around in a T-shirt and underwear." I dressed in the bathroom--getting a good look at the second bite while I did so.
Then I covered them both up with my new used silk- embroidered red scarf.
Go back home? What would that accomplish? For that matter what had I accomplished here? I'd come to help Amber and get out of Marsilia's sight for a little bit.
That had succeeded--or at least not hampered Adam's negotiating.
I didn't know that I'd helped Amber at all ...
not yet.
I stared at my pale, sleep-starved face and wondered how I was going to do that.
Blackwood had them in his care.
I shivered.
Though there was nothing I could pinpoint, no cold spot, no smell, no sound--I could feel something watching me.
"Leave the boy alone," I told my unseen watcher.
And every hair on my head tingled with sensation.
I waited for it to attack or show itself.
But nothing else happened, just that momentary connection, which faded more slowly than it had come.
Stefan knocked.
"Everything all right?" "Fine," I said.
Something had happened, but I had no idea what.
I was tired and scared and angry.
So I brushed my teeth and opened the bathroom door.
Stefan and Chad were leaning on opposite sides of the hallway, discussing something that had their hands moving a mile a minute.
"Stefan." He threw up his hands and appealed to me.
"How can he think Dragon Ball Z is better than Scooby-Doo? This generation has no appreciation for the classics." I stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek.