“But-”

His arms came around me, and I felt the softening in him that I needed, even as his body became harder than ever. The hug clogged my throat with emotion, because I knew it was a good-bye hug. I held on, and closed my eyes. “You make me feel so safe, Kel.”

“You are safe. I’ll make sure of it. Even when-or if-I change back.”

I blinked back tears. “Another promise.”

“I mean it.”

No one had ever said such a thing to me before, in a voice so fierce I didn’t doubt he’d keep me safe if it meant his own life.

I’d never wanted anyone to say such a thing. I don’t know if I was ready to want him to.

I wasn’t.

Of course, I wasn’t.

I was young. Twenty-seven. I was a modern woman who could take care of herself. I always had.

But a small part of me stared at him with a bunch of what-ifs suddenly flowing through my head.

But before I could finish processing, a shockingly loud BOOM sounded, shaking the ground beneath us. The shelves rattled, the furniture jumped.

Not to mention us.

With an oath, Kellan grabbed me off the bed and dragged me to the doorway, but as fast and loud and hard as the Earth had rumbled, it stopped.

Everything went completely, almost unnaturally, still. Not a sound, not a remnant shudder, nothing.

And then, from out of the darkness and through the windows, came a high-pitched scream.

“Marilee?” I gasped, reaching for Kellan. “Was that Marilee?”

I’d never seen him so grim. He pushed me back into the bedroom while at the same time flipping off the light, flipping off all the lights. “Wait right here,” he said urgently. “Stay still, and don’t make a sound, all right?”

“Kel-”

“Say you’ll do it.” He pushed me behind the door, thrusting something into my hands.

I stared down through the dark at his flashlight. “I don’t need-”

“Listen to me. This thing is heavy. If you swing it just right-”

“Kel-”

“A nice hit to the head will make an assailant kiss the floor long enough for you to get away.”

“Oh my God.”

“Promise me you’ll use it if you need to.”

“I don’t-”

“Promise me.”

He was so fierce, so serious, and I think that scared me more than anything else had so far. “You think something very bad is happening.”

“Promise me, Rach.”

“I promise,” I said very quietly, instead of clinging, as I really, really wanted to do.

And then he was walking away from me, hands out in front of him, staggering slightly, heading directly for the coffee table instead of the door. “Kel-”

Too late. He tripped right over it, going down flat on his face.

I ran to his side just as he rolled over.

“Out of all the abilities I could have gotten,” he said through clenched teeth as he rocked back and forth holding on to his shins, “I had to get worthless superstrength, when a little grace would have done me.”

“Are you all right?”

“I will be.” He got up, felt around for me and pulled me close for one beat. “Stay here.”

I let him get to the front door, fumbling, limping now, before I called his name softly. When he turned around, blind in the dark, I walked to him and slipped him back the flashlight. “You need this more than me, Superboy. And here’s something else to chew on. I’m going with you.”

“You are not.”

“Am, too.”

“Not.”

“Kel.”

“Rach-”

The front door whipped open, almost slamming into us. In the doorway stood Serena and William, both with their clothes askance, hair mussed, eyes wild, looking as if they’d been interrupted right in the middle of a good time.

“Thank God,” Serena said at the sight of us, and pushed her way inside the dark guest house. “We don’t have a lot of time. I assume you have the laptop. Can I have it, please?”

“No,” Kel said.

“It’s imperative.”

“I’m sorry.” Kel said this with genuine regret as he shook his head forcefully, not looking at me, while I-the only one with clear vision in the dark-very carefully and slowly backed away, slipping the laptop from the coffee table to beneath the couch, out of sight. The Blackberry, being smaller, fit beneath my shirt. I didn’t know why I needed it, but it felt important.

“I don’t know what the hell is going on,” Kel said to Serena and William. “Or whom to trust. Until I do, you’re SOL.”

Serena looked in my direction.

“Shit out of luck,” I translated for her. “And I think he means it.”

“You don’t understand-”

“That would be correct,” Kel agreed. “We don’t understand. A point that pisses me off greatly.”

She sighed, and William shut the door, then locked both the handle and the bolt. “No, no lights,” he said urgently when I reached for the lamp. “We have to hide you. Now.”

“And get the laptop,” Serena said, turning on a small penlight, using it to search around, single-minded in her mission for the computer. “I know you have it.”

“Why do you have to hide us?” I asked.

“You’re going to have to trust us,” William said.

“No, we’re not.” This from Kellan.

“Oh, we don’t have time for this!” Serena pushed her way through the living room toward the kitchenette, searching there as well. “This is serious. You must trust us. Now!”

“Why?” Kellan asked. “Because you’ve been so honest so far?”

Serena had the good grace to look a little ashamed. “I know, it’s hard.”

“What was that loud boom?” I asked. “Who screamed?”

“Now see, that’s what we don’t have time for.” Pressing himself flat against the wall, William craned only his neck and peeked out the window, seeming satisfied with whatever he saw.

Or didn’t see.

He nodded at Serena, who frantically waved for us to follow her into the kitchen.

I looked at Kellan, who stood firm. “Tell us what that loud rumble was.”

“If you hide right now, without further delay,” Serena said without answering, “everything will be okay. I promise you.”

“If you ever answered a question,” Kellan countered, “things would be better.”

“There’s no time for questions,” William said grimly.

“Or answers.” Serena gestured us close. “Please. You must come with us.”

William still had his back to the front wall, silently keeping watch out the window. He turned his head and looked at Serena. “Still clear. But not for long. Cut the flashlight.”

“Please,” Serena begged us, slipping her flashlight into her pocket, then resorting to grabbing first my hand, then Kellan’s. “Just come. It’s your lives that are in jeopardy here.”

It was that, and her palpable fear and undeniable desperation, that ultimately reached me.

Our lives were in jeopardy?

We let her pull us into the tiny kitchen, where she opened the pantry door. Inside the small closet were shelves filled with stock and enough dry goods to last for months, and as a result, there wasn’t room for the four of us to stand.

Serena shoved us all in there anyway, with William taking up the rear. To shut the door meant plastering us all up against each other, which she did. I had my nose in Kellan’s armpit, my elbow in William’s ribs, my butt to Serena’s.

And then I saw what I hadn’t taken the time to see yesterday. What I couldn’t have seen yesterday because I’d been in here before “the swap.”

There was a trap door, similar to the one that led to Gertrude’s hidden office, which led down to a basement that I could already tell I wasn’t going to like because it was dark and cramped and quite possibly filled with spiders.

“In,” Serena said, and opened the door and pushed us onto the stairs landing. She and William followed.

The stairs creaked and trembled beneath our weight, which didn’t make me happy. “I don’t know-”

“In,” Serena repeated firmly.

Once at the bottom, Serena flicked her small flashlight on, and we surveyed our surroundings.

Just as I’d seen from above, the basement was small and cramped, basically empty but for a few crates and boxes. It had a high, narrow window, through which moonlight flitted in. It was a gorgeous night, clear and bright.

“This way,” William said, and pointed to what looked like a paneled wall but was really-

“Great,” Kellan said. “Another door.”

Which opened to a big, yawning tunnel.

“Are there any normal, plain doors in this place?” Kellan asked, but it must have been a rhetorical question, because no one answered.

William gestured for Serena to go first, which she did without hesitation. Then he looked at Kellan and me. “I’m sorry. I know you don’t understand, but this is for your own good, tr-”

“Yeah,” Kellan said grimly. “Trust you.”

The two men looked at each other for a long beat, Kellan’s face steely and pensive, and most definitely not trusting.

“Okay.” William scrubbed his hands over his face. “This is going to sound pretty whacky, and you’re going to think I’ve been sharing some funny tobacco with Axel, but I swear to you, it’s the truth.”

“Just spit it out,” Kellan said. “How exactly are we in danger?”

“This place is…special.”

“Will-”

At Serena’s protest, William took her hand, then continued with his explanation. “It’s special in that people-people who are different-come here because this is the only place they get a break from their lives.”

“Different how?” Kellan asked.

“They have…abilities,” William said. “And when they come here, they’re relieved of these abilities for the duration of their stay. Like a vacation of sorts.”

“And you…you’re special?” I asked, wondering if humoring an obviously insane person could be dangerous to my health.

“Yes,” Serena answered. “We have-had-abilities. William could see, um”-she glanced at him-“everything, and I had a special strength.”