My fingers nervously picking at the short hem of my white cotton dress as I balance my open bottle of elixir on my knee. Telling myself to calm down, to just let it go, we’ve been over this a gazillion times already and it only serves to make me more wound up than before.

Gazing out the window as Damen slows to a stop, allowing an older woman carrying a surfboard in one hand and a dog leash with a yellow Lab attached in the other, to make their way past. The dog reminding me so much of my old dog, Buttercup, with his wagging tail, shiny yellow coat, happy brown eyes, and cute pink nose, I actually do a double take, as that old, familiar pang curls its way through my gut—a constant reminder of all that I’ve lost.

“Did you remind her that she’s the one who introduced you to Ava, which inadvertently led you to the job at Mystics and Moonbeams?” Damen says, bringing me back to the present as his foot switches from the brake to the gas.

I nod, peering into my side-view mirror, watching the dog’s reflection shrink smaller and smaller. “I mentioned it last night, and you know what she said?”

I look at him, allowing the scene to stream from my mind to his. Sabine at the kitchen counter, a pile of vegetables waiting to be washed and diced before her—me in my running gear determined to get out of the house without a hassle for a change—both of our tasks coming to a screeching, slamming halt when she decided to go for round fifteen in the never-ending battle of her versus me.

“She said it was a joke. Aparty thing . Meant for entertainment purposes only. That it was never meant to be taken seriously.” I roll my eyes and shake my head.

About to say something more, not even close to the finish, when he looks at me and says, “Ever, if I’ve learned nothing else in my six hundred years of living, it’s that people hate change almost as much as they hate for their beliefs to be challenged. Seriously. Just look at what happened to my poor friend, Galileo.

He was completely ostracized for having the audacity to support Copernicus’s theory that the earth wasn’t the center of the universe. To the point where he was tried, found suspect of heresy, forced to recant, and then spent the rest of his life under house arrest, when, of course, as we all know, he wasright all along. So, when you think about it, compared to that, I’d say you’re getting off pretty easy.” He laughs, giving me a look that practically begs me to lighten up and laugh too, but I’m just not there yet.

Someday I may find this funny, but that day exists in a far-away future I cannot yet see.

“Believe me,” I say, placing my hand over his, aware of the energy veil dancing between us. “She tried the whole house arrest angle, but no way was I going for it. I mean, it’s really unfair how I’m supposed to just automatically accept her and the black-and-white world she chooses to live in, and yet, she won’t even give me a chance to explain myself. Won’t even consider my side of things. She just automatically pegs me as some crazy, needy, overly emotional teen because I just so happen to have abilities that don’t fit into her close-minded views. And sometimes it makes me so mad I just—” I pause, pressing my lips tightly together, unsure if I should actually allow myself to really voice it out loud.

Damen looks at me, waiting.

“

Sometimes-I-just-can’t-wait-for-this-year-to-be-over-so-that-we-can-graduate-and-go-somewhere-far -away-where-we-can-live-our-own-lives-and-be-done-with-all-this.” I exhale the words so quickly they all run together so that one is practically indistinguishable from the next. “I mean, I feel bad for saying it, especially after all that she’s done, but still, the fact is she doesn’t even know the half of what I can do.

All she knows is that I have psychic abilities—that’sit ! Can you even imagine how she’d react if I told her thereal truth? That I’m an immortal with physical powers she can’t even begin to fathom? Like the power of instant manifestation, and, oh yeah, let’s not forget about that brief bout of time travel I engaged in recently, not to mention how I like to spend my free time in this charming little out-of-the-way alternate dimension called Summerland where my immortal boyfriend and I make out in our various past-life guises! Can you imagine howthat would go over?”

Damen looks at me, eyes glinting in a way that instantly fills me with a swarm of tingle and heat, smiling as he says, “What do you say we don’t find out,okay ?”

He stops at the light and pulls me near. His lips grazing my forehead, my cheek, down the length of my neck, until finally, finally, melding with mine.

Moving away just seconds before the light turns green, and glancing at me when he says, “You sure you want to go through with this?”

The warmth of his deep, dark gaze holding the look for just a tad longer than necessary. Allowing me plenty of time to sayno , that I’m not at all ready, not even close, so he can turn the car around and head somewhere else. Somewhere nicer, friendlier,warmer —like a far-away beach or maybe even a Summerland retreat—a small part of him hoping I’ll consent to just that.

He’s over the whole high school scene. Has been for centuries. I’m the only reason he’s here. The only reason he stays. And now that we’re together, blissfully reunited after several painful centuries of being ripped apart over and over again, he just doesn’t see the point to all this. Views it as some sort of useless charade.

And even though I don’t always see the point either, since it’s pretty hard to actually learn anything when the knowledge comes as easily as reading our teacher’s minds or placing our hands on the cover of a book and intuiting the contents inside, I’m still determined to hang in there and see it all the way through.