Betrayed Read Online Free PDF Page B

school. Students fil ed the hal way, some heading to lunch, others to their next class. The ones who went home for lunch or grabbed something at nearby fast-food joints stood in the something at nearby fast-food joints stood in the foyer and stared glumly at the snow. Already a fresh blanket covered the ground. But the snow wouldn’t bother Bran. If he couldn’t drive, he’d teleport and come get me.
    Keeping vigil by the wal , I watched the street.
    Five minutes passed. Wind picked up, sending snow from trees and raised flowerbeds into the air.
    We were in for a nasty storm and Bran was stil a no-show. A psi scan of the val ey was fruitless.
    Wherever he was, he was physical y okay. I’d know if he were hurt.
    Five minutes passed.
    Another psi scan and disappointment trickled through me. Grampa was gone, which meant Bran was probably out with the Cardinals, but that was no excuse. It took a fraction of a second to teleport in and out. He should have come to tel me he wouldn’t make it.
    I removed my coat and left the hal , occasional y glancing back, hoping Bran would appear. Nothing. First, he didn’t show up last weekend, now this. He’d better have an explanation.
    Dragging my feet, I continued on toward the cafeteria though my appetite was gone.
    Christian, my source for everything physics, and two of his geek friends stood near the cafeteria entrance when I walked up. They squeezed against the wal to let me pass. I smiled at Christian and waved.
    Inside the cafeteria, my friends were already eating. Kylie, looking more Gothic than usual in black, and her rocker boyfriend Cade were doing their usual lunchtime routine—cuddling and feeding each other. She went to L.A. to visit her aunt during Spring Break and had a nice tan.
    Could she be the medium? Kylie befriended me when I was new in the val ey. We parked our trailer next to theirs at an RV park when we arrived in Cache Val ey, before we moved to our house on the eastern bench. Later, she helped me when I couldn’t find my class on the first day of school. She was blunt and funny, but had a morbid interest in the supernatural. As did her boyfriend. I never gave Cade my phone number, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t have learned it from Kylie.
    Hmm, maybe I should put on my Sherlock Holmes hat and start investigating this medium mess. Feeling a little better about Bran not showing up, I studied the rest of my friends.
    Seated across from Kylie and Cade were McKenzie, Nikki, and Amelia. Nikki, a Korean-American,
    and Amelia—Kylie’s
    cousin—were
    geniuses and loved everything science, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t be mediums.
    McKenzie
    had
    undergone
    another
    transformation as the semester progressed. Instead of baggy sweatshirts and loose jeans she’d favored after the near-rape by boys under demonic influence, she now preferred skinny jeans and flirty tops. I hoped self-defense lessons had boosted her confidence and not some newfound psychic ability.
    My gaze connected with Zack’s as I waited in line for my food. He and Nikki broke up months back, and he no longer sat with us even though he stil played in Cade’s rock band. He now ate with his skating buddies. He and Amelia liked each other a lot, but because Nikki was Amelia’s friend, they chose to do nothing about it. I broke my vow not to read my friends’ thoughts after I watched them play eye-tag during lunch. The jury was stil out on whether I should use my abilities and play Cupid. I might have to catch him alone before I exclude him as a suspect. He’d cal ed me a few times looking for Kylie and Cade.
    Squeals of “I missed you… How was Spring Break…?” fil ed our table when I joined the others.
    Everyone talked at once, and I lost track of who did what during the break. I sat beside Kylie and waited for my chance. The promise to never use my powers on them became harder and harder to keep.
    I was close to tel ing them to shut up when Kylie bumped me with her