I looked at Simon's concerned face and I felt a rush of love for him. It gave me the courage I needed to go through with this. I would be able to get answers from my aunt on how to help Simon get rid of his vardoger.
"I'm okay. Just a little nervous." I remembered my excuse about my aunt being wary of strangers. "It's probably bes
t if I just go in. I don't want my aunt to feel any more awkward than this probably is going to be."
Simon leaned over and gave me a quick kiss. He smiled at me tenderly. "She'd be crazy not to love you. I'll be out here waiting."
I nodded and opened the car door, stepping out into the cold. The walk to the front door seemed to last forever, and when I rang the doorbell, the door immediately swung open as if my aunt had been watching my approach.
A tall angular woman stood in front of me. Her light brown hair was long and wavy, streaked with grey. Her brown eyes were alert and focused as she looked back at me. I could see the strong resemblance to my father, but Aunt Brenda's face was more open while my father's face always looked closed and disapproving.
"Hi," I said, not knowing what else to say.
Aunt Brenda smiled. "Hi. I'm so glad that you were able to come." She looked behind me at the car sitting in the driveway. "Is that the friend you're staying with?"
I had told my aunt that I was in Connecticut staying with a friend for the weekend, but I hadn't told her much beyond that. I could tell by her expression that she was reassessing my label of friend. Even from far away, you could tell that Simon wasn't the type of guy any girl wanted to merely call her friend.
"Yes, that's him."
"Well, come in, it's cold out there." Aunt Brenda ushered me in and paused before closing the door. "Does your friend want to come in?"
I shook my head. "I don't think that's a very good idea. He doesn't know what's going on."
Aunt Brenda accepted my explanation and led me into the living room. Just like the outside of her house, the inside was small but neat and tidy. It looked comfortable and well lived in.
She guided me to a well worn couch and sat down next to me. "I know these aren't the best circumstances, but I'm so happy to finally be able to see you again. You were so little the last time I saw you. Now you look so much like your mother that it's a shock." She gave a rueful smile. "Of course, I see plenty of George in you too."
A part of me wanted to forget all the vardoger stuff and just ask Aunt Brenda about my mother. I knew so little about her, and here was the woman who had apparently been her best friend. But I knew I had to get my priorities in order. I had already spent way too much time thinking about Simon. I couldn't continue to be distracted.
"I'm happy to meet you too. I hate to just get right down to why I'm here but..." I faltered, not wanting to be rude.
"I understand. It's not every day that you learn that there are things out there trying to exterminate people, and you're one of the few people gifted with the sight and power to stop them."
There was that word again. Gift. It was a euphemism for curse.
"I've been processing everything that you've told me but I still have a lot of questions."
"Of course. I've only given you the tip of the iceberg." Great, there was more? "What are your questions?"
"Well, how do you know when a vardoger is going to overtake their person? That the connection is strong enough for them to try? I mean, you have to know when they're going to attack to stop them, right?"
Aunt Brenda nodded. "It's different for a lot of seers. The longer you do this, the easier it is to tell. But for me it's the day after I have a vision of the person being killed and their spirit leaving their body." She looked at me closely. "Have you had those type of visions? Not every seer has them. Only the more powerful ones do. Others just get a sense of foreboding that tells them an attack is imminent. It's not an exact science."
I felt a rushing in my ears as blood pounded into my head. I had seen Claudia's spirit leaving her body, rushing out of her mouth.
"I had one the other day," I whispered. "Friday night. Of a girl I go to school with." I looked up at my aunt, not really seeing her, as images of Claudia's spirit leaving her body crowded my vision. "Does that mean she was killed yesterday?"
Aunt Brenda sighed, looking at me sadly. "Most likely. How seers sense things...they seem to be hereditary. So it's no surprise that your warnings are similar to mine."
I felt as if I had been struck physically. Yesterday, when I had been so happy with Simon, laughing and kissing, Claudia had been killed. I had been so wrapped up in my own happiness that I had neglected what was most important. People's lives. After that horrific vision, I could have picked up the phone and called my aunt. I could have tried to save Claudia. It would have been a long shot to make it back to Rochester to try, but an effort was more than nothing. Maybe I could have tried to call Claudia, to warn her.
I felt sick and, at that moment, I hated myself. Aunt Brenda was studying me and she broke into my thoughts. "There's no use feeling guilty about it, Caitlin. You can only do so much. You're still learning. And not all seers are meant to fight vardogers. Some are afflicted with the visions but don't have the strength to actually eliminate vardogers."
"But you fight vardogers, right?"
"I do."
"And you said this stuff was mostly hereditary."