Xeke took a sip of his Coke and tried to tune out George’s endless ramblings. George was a nice guy, but he talked more than Ruddy, especially when he was drinking—and he was usually drinking. The way his eyes flitted around the room made Xeke half-expect enemies to jump out of the shadows any second ... and then there was the constant foot tapping.

  Xeke squeezed his eyes shut. Teri, where are you?

  It had been days since they’d seen or heard from her. Everyone was on edge, but Ruddy was in the worst shape. He was wandering the streets right now looking for Teri. Xeke had begged him to be discreet, but—it was Ruddy. The mere implication that he was being obvious was enough to hurt his feelings.

  Xeke caught himself clenching his fists again. He forced himself into a relaxed posture and smiled at George.

  George stuffed another piece of bread in his mouth and washed it down with a loud swallow of beer. “So I spent a few years up in Colorado. Teaching old farts how to ski. You know, man. That sort of stuff. I was out in California when the Event happened. I’d wandered out there, met a girl—you know how it goes.”

  Xeke nodded, as if he too had spent his youth wandering around the country chasing women.

  “She was all involved in the environment, man. We were gonna go chain ourselves to some tree and save the forest.” George laughed. “Crazy, right? But she was the kind of girl you wouldn’t mind be chained to a tree with, if you know what I mean.”

  George’s eyes flitted around the room again. Xeke resisted the urge to stomp on his foot to stop the tapping. “How did you wind up in Cloudcroft?”

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Oh, I was hanging around Bakersfield, helping them rebuild. It’s a mess out there. No one’s in charge. But they needed workers and they were willing to pay. Gave me food, a place to stay. One day this gang rolled in from LA. More like an army, really. Said they were in charge. Took out the mayor, police chief. Armed to the teeth. Nothing anyone could do.”

  “Damn,” Xeke said.

  “Yeah. Not really my scene. I took off. Bummed around for a while, doing odd jobs. Eventually, I started … well, you know. Strange things started to happen around me.”

  Xeke smiled. “Yeah, I can relate to that.”

  “It was kind of cool at first. People were more curious than anything. But things got bad after Bethel.”

  Shit.

  “I hit the road after that. Thought I was going to starve for a while. Then I heard a rumor about Cloudcroft from a teke in Tempe. Made my way here.” His eyes darted to the side as he killed off the rest of his beer. “It’s safe here, man, and it ain’t a bad life.”

  “I guess not,” Xeke said. “Steaks, beer, Cokes—must be hard to get that kind of stuff up here.”

  The foot tapping stopped. “Oh, it’s not that hard. Adrian takes care of us. He knows a lot of important people.”

  “Yeah, I can see that,” Xeke said. “He must be pretty rich. All of this stuff is expensive, even in the cities. Out here it must cost a fortune.”

  George looked down. “I guess. You’d have to ask Adrian, he handles all that stuff. I’m just a ski bum with a little talent.”

  The waiter put another beer on the table in front of George. He grinned and Xeke heard a flare of telekinetic power. The foamy head swept onto the table.

  “See? You don’t have to hide here,” George said. He lifted the mug without his hands. “You can be exactly who you are.”

  Xeke widened his eyes. “Wow. You can … how did you do that? I can barely nudge things.”

  George laughed. “I was the same when I got here, man. It gets easier if you practice. Maybe I can teach you a few things.”

  “That’d be great,” Xeke said. “Seems like I’ve got a lot to learn.”