Claire stared in awe as he retrieved his guitar from the closet. "Is that how you got into my apartment yesterday?"

"Aye."

"That's much cooler than regular lock picking."

"It does have its uses." Alec grabbed two music stands and placed them in front of a pair of chairs. Claire sat down next to him as he took his guitar out of its case, then withdrew two sets of sheet music and handed one to her. "I was thinking we could sing this."

Claire glanced at the sheet music, puzzled. The song was t.i.tled "Stick with Me Baby." "I've never heard this before."

"No? It's one of my favorites. The best version was sung by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss."

"Alison Krauss?" Claire let out a nervous laugh. "I've barely started to learn how to sing cla.s.sical music, and you want me to sing like her? I think that's a little out of my league."

Alec's lips twitched with the effort to hold back a smile. "I don't think so."

"Will you sing it through once for me first? Mr. Lang always does that."

"No need. It's not a complicated song. I'm pretty sure you can do it."

She made an impatient noise. "I'm honored that you have so much faith in me, Alec, but I'm still really new at this. I can't sing something I've never heard."

"Let's just give it a shot."

Claire threw up her hands. "Whatever you say, maestro. You've been warned."

Alec played the opening riff and plunged into the vocals. Claire took a deep breath and hesitantly began to sing along. As he'd expected, her voice was instantly in tune and in perfect harmony with his own. She was able to translate the notes on the page into song instinctively, just as he did-as if she'd been familiar with them all her life.

The look of astonished delight on Claire's face as she sang almost made him laugh out loud. By the final chorus, the harmony between them was perfect. The joy he felt seemed to reverberate throughout the room. Alec strummed the last chord with gusto and shot Claire an exuberant smile. "Bravo."

"Holy c.r.a.p!" Claire leapt up from her chair with excitement. "Did I really just do that?"

Alec let go the laugh that had been building inside him. Seeing her this happy made him feel lit up from within, something he'd rarely experienced before. "Just like I knew you would."

She stared at him, ecstatic. "How did you know?"

"I told you before-we can all sing. My kind can take it one step further and sing anything, even if we haven't heard it before. You're closer to us than anyone else alive, so I figured there was a good chance you could do that as well."

"Wow. Wow. Wow. I guess that means we don't need to rehea.r.s.e at all?"

"Nope." Alec grinned as he began packing up his guitar.

"But when I mentioned it just now, you didn't say a word!"

"I thought it'd be more fun for you to figure it out for yourself," he answered, dropping his guitar case inside the storage closet and relocking it by touch. He turned to find Claire standing right in front of him, arms crossed.

"I blocked out the whole afternoon to work on this. I told my mom you'd drop me off at six thirty."

"Great." Alec withdrew his pocket watch from his jeans and clicked it open, glancing at the timepiece's antique face. "That gives us almost three hours before she expects you. What would you like to do with that time?"

Claire fell silent, her eyes on his. "Well, I guess we could go to the library and study. I have a ton of homework...."

He nodded in agreement, although he had no interest in studying at the moment. "There's reading for English, a worksheet for Spanish, twelve problems for calculus, three chapters for history...."

"A lab write-up for bio...."

A lock of hair fell forward into her eyes. Alec smothered his impulse to reach out and brush it back. "Twenty equations to solve for physics...."

"Physics must be a cakewalk for you," Claire teased. "Or maybe not, since the laws don't really apply to you."

"So, homework it is?" As Alec's eyes locked with hers, his heart beat faster, hoping she wouldn't say yes.

"We could always ... do it later."

"But then we'd be forced to go someplace fun," Alec said jokingly.

Claire opened her mouth to reply, but he cut her off, remembering her caveats last time.

"I know, I know. It has to be outside, and full of witnesses."

Claire shook her head, smiling. "That isn't a requirement anymore, Mr. MacKenzie. In fact-shouldn't we be worried about going to a public place? I mean, in light of the rule about relationships with Nephilim? What if we're spotted by another Grigori?"

"Don't worry, Vincent is the only Watcher who's looking for us, and he's on the East Coast at the moment. Plus he doesn't know you're the Halfblood."

"Well that's good, because the place I was thinking of does just happen to be outside and chock-full of people."

"Where's that?"

She smiled. "How do you feel about Ferris wheels?"

twenty-two.

Claire savored the last bite of the crisp, cinnamony churro Alec had bought her as they wandered down the Santa Monica Pier past fast-food restaurants, portrait artists, and vendors selling sungla.s.ses, jewelry, I HEART L.A. T-shirts, and other tourist memorabilia. She loved being with Alec. With him at her side, her fear of the Grigori Council was beginning to dissipate. Claire felt invulnerable. Happy.

And excited. Every time she stole a glance at Alec's handsome face, and caught the warm glimmer in his green eyes, her heart rate sped up a little.

"You've told me a lot about the Grigori, but I'd love to know more about you," Claire said. Seagulls cried overhead as the pair headed to the amus.e.m.e.nt park in the middle of the pier. "Are you really from Scotland?"

"Born and raised." Alec finished his own churro, and they paused to drop their napkins and wrappers into a trash can.

"Do you really have an aunt in Korea and an uncle Gregory who pays your tuition?"

"No. I made them up-sorry."

"How do you know Korean, then?"

"I've been able to understand every language on the planet since the day I was born. Every Grigori can do that."

"Are you serious? You can speak Swahili? Mongolian? Basque?"

"Every language. It's like our singing talent. I don't necessarily know I can speak or read a language until the situation presents itself. When I hear someone talking, I automatically understand what they're saying and can respond just as easily."

Claire was impressed. She tilted her head toward a young couple nearby who were conversing quietly in what clearly wasn't English. She lowered her voice. "Okay. What language are they speaking?"

Alec slowed his footsteps, then leaned in so only Claire could hear him. "Farsi, I think."

She could feel his breath, warm and sweet, on her cheek. It made her skin tingle. "Have you ever spoken Farsi before?"

"No, only Arabic."

"What are they saying?"

Alec stopped to listen, keeping his eyes averted. "The guy's saying that they've known each other a long time, and he knows he should ask her father about this first, but-" Alec's eyes lit up. "Oh, this is good. I think he's getting ready to propose."

"Really?"

Alec's face was just inches away, his arm and hand nearly brushing hers. Claire longed to feel the warmth of his touch, wished desperately that he would take her hand in his-but she knew he was as worried about her getting an unwanted vision as she was. Reluctantly, she pulled back and they kept moving. When they were farther away, Claire turned to look behind them.

As Alec had predicted, the young Persian man was down on one knee, whipping a tiny red velvet box from his pocket, which he opened to reveal a ring. The woman gasped and began to cry with joy.

"That is so cool," Claire said. "It's like magic. Maybe it goes back to the Tower of Babel, when all the world spoke one language."

"Maybe."

They pa.s.sed through the entrance of the amus.e.m.e.nt park.

"So if you used to travel the world, policing all the bad Awakened, how did you pay for it?" Claire asked. "Did you have a safety-deposit box full of pa.s.sports and stacks of cash, like the CIA?"

"We had access to bank accounts around the world, but it wasn't like a salary. We took what we needed for each job."

"Where'd you get the money to come here?"

A cautious expression crossed his face. "I ... slowly put that money aside, a wee bit at a time."

"Isn't that kind of like embezzling ... from G.o.d?" Claire asked in faux shock.

Alec shrugged and grinned at her good-natured teasing. "Honestly, I don't know where the money comes from. But I worked hard for it and like to think of it as saving meticulously."

They'd reached the ticket booth for the Ferris wheel now. It towered above them, stopping intermittently to pick up pa.s.sengers. After Alec bought their tickets and they'd moved into the waiting line, Claire asked more seriously, "How long did it take you to save?"

"Thirty years."

"Wow. You've been planning this since before I was born?"

Alec glanced around them a little uncomfortably, but the only other people in line-a young mother tending to a couple of children-were paying no attention to them. He continued under his breath, "Aye. For a long time, this whole thing was just a dream I was toying with. By the time I mustered my resolve, I had saved enough to afford a place like Emerson."

"Well, I'm happy you did."

Handing over their tickets, Claire and Alec climbed on board the bright red gondola and sat down facing the ocean.

"Do you really find this kind of thing fun?" Alec asked dubiously as the wheel lurched them forward into the air, high above the pier.

"Yes! Whenever I ride one of these, I feel like I'm flying-something I've always wished I could do."

Alec nodded with a small smile. "Oh, I see. That would be an attraction."

The breeze felt cool against Claire's face. Sunlight sparkled on the deep blue ocean below. Since it was a Monday afternoon, the wide expanse of pale sand was nearly devoid of people, except for the occasional stroller and a few surfers in wet suits, charging out with their boards to conquer the waves. Claire leaned back against the gondola seat, very aware of how close her jeans-clad thigh was to touching Alec's. "What made you pick Emerson, specifically? Was it because of our lovely Los Angeles weather?"

"Partly. And because it's a school where students seem to actually enjoy learning. I thought-I hoped-that it would help me fit in and remain inconspicuous."

"So you had no idea I was here, or that I was a Halfblood?"

"Not until Vincent told me. If I had known, I would have chosen someplace else, for fear of being spotted by the local Watcher." He glanced at her. "So I'm glad I didn't know. Otherwise, we never would have met."

The look in his eyes was so sincere, it filled Claire's stomach with b.u.t.terflies again. The Ferris wheel paused with them in midair, affording a panoramic view of the coastline. "Is that why you showed up at the mall the other day? Because you thought I was the one Vincent was looking for?"

"Ah. Funny story, that." Alec cleared his throat. "Actually, the first person we zeroed in on was Neil."

"Neil?" Claire started laughing. "Are you kidding? Why?"

"He sings. He's an amazing athlete. He's got a charm quotient that's off the charts."

"That's a power?"

"It can be. In its most potent form, it's called mind control. So I followed the four of you to Twin Palms, waiting for a hint of Neil's aura or to see if he'd be approached by the Fallen."

Claire shifted so she could face him. "And here I thought you followed me because you were jealous." As soon as the words left her mouth, hot blood rushed to her face. Did she really just admit that? Really?

Alec's eyes met hers. "Do you want me to be jealous?" he asked quietly.

Claire felt as if her tongue was lashed to the roof of her mouth. "I..."

Alec leaned in closer. "Well?"

Claire's heart skipped a beat. A shiver ran through her limbs, even though she was warm. His lips were so tantalizingly close. Her heart thundered in her chest. She wanted him to kiss her, wanted it more than anything.

At that moment, the Ferris wheel started up again with a jolt that broke the spell. Hot disappointment washed through her. Alec leaned back, a look of sudden awareness and regret on his face. "Maybe we shouldn't...," he began. "I mean, until you learn to control your gift better. I wouldn't want you to..."

"You're right," she agreed reluctantly, her cheeks burning. "We probably shouldn't..."

They fell silent. The Ferris wheel whirred around in a smooth and faster cycle. The wind was in her face again, and Claire was grateful for the breezy distraction as she willed her body to cool down and her heart to resume its natural cadence.

Alec studied her with a slow grin. "I feel like I'm under strict Grigori law again."