Page 18 of City of Love

It was almost as if each sensation was a living being, talking to her, playing with her. She felt… connected.

She wondered briefly what an unpleasant sensation would do, such as pain, but she dismissed the thought, focusing on a sip of wine instead, the flavor so alive and complex it was as though the grapes were blooming and ripening in her mouth.

By the time the waitress brought their food, Lexi was thoroughly caught up in the conversation, learning more about their world, and finding the sound of their voices and laughter warm and soothing. She realized as she sat there eating and drinking with two virtual strangers, that for the first time in her life she felt comfortable in her own skin. She wasn’t alone in her nature. She wasn’t a freak.

Here in this world, with these people she’d known for a couple hours at most, she felt normal.

Vik took another peek at her timer. “It’s after ten, ladies. We should probably head out. We’ve got enough time to wander a little, maybe check out some shops as we make our way back to the club.”

Lexi’s heart sank. She wasn’t ready to go home yet, and still had a ton of questions. Her mind wandered repeatedly to Gideon, wondering how her previous visions of him were supposed to play out. There had to be more to her future here than this one visit. Hell, she planned to be back as often as she could. Her list of lessons to be learned and sights to see was long.

They strolled back down Front Street, where many of the shops were still open and busy with customers. Alana pointed them toward a store she thought Lexi would get a kick out of as it was known for items unique to that world.

Entering the shop, Lexi picked up a particularly beautiful crystal pendant, citrine in color and shot through with sparkling silver veins, when she felt a mild electric shock to her hand. “Hey, you guys, what is this? We have crystals in my world, and supposedly they give off energy, but I’ve never actually been zapped before. This is pretty cool.”

No response.

“Alana?”

Now halfway into the shop, she turned to look back at her companions, but didn’t see them. She glanced around the store checking the corners, but they were nowhere to be found.

She stepped back outside, figuring something must have caught their attention out there, or that perhaps they hadn’t realized she’d gone in ahead of them. But no, they weren’t out there either.

A trickle of fear caught at her gut. What are you worrying about, Lex? No big deal. They’re obviously around here somewhere.

But they weren’t around there, anywhere.

She hopped in and out of the neighboring stores. Nothing. Glanced up and down the alleyways running off Front Street. Nothing.

Now she was growing irritated, and more than a little nervous.

Feeling self-conscious, she hugged her arms around herself, suddenly wishing she hadn’t loaned Alana her sweater earlier in the evening when Alana had been damp and chilly from the rain. Wearing only her low-cut, ultra-short dress, Lexi felt exposed and vulnerable. She had to get off these weirdly foreign streets and back to the club.

She turned up Church Street intending to cut across on Second when she hit a dead end. Some kind of historical structure—a battle memorial it looked like—closed off the entire street.

What? There shouldn’t be a memorial here. This street should go through. Then she remembered Margot’s warning that the two Philadelphias didn’t always match up.

She darted down an alley she was unfamiliar with and ended up in what looked like a private garden, so she headed back the other direction.

Now she was getting flustered. She leaned against the nearest streetlight to catch her breath, and glanced up at it. An actual gas lamp, flickering against the indigo of the night sky.

You may not be a freak in this world, Lex, but you are nevertheless seriously out of your element.

Looking at her timer, she realized to her horror she only had ten minutes left. Shit!

Turning around, she took a deep breath and mapped out the route in her head. All she needed to do was go back down Church Street to Front Street, Front Street to Market, and straight up to the corner at Fourth Street. Easy peasy, cool and breezy.

But she was neither cool nor breezy.

She was running now, with spiked heels on cobblestone streets, and sure enough, one of the stilettos caught in a crack and down she went, twisting her ankle as she did so.

A hand reached out to help her up. She took it, and as she looked into the face of the round-bellied, elderly gentleman who was helping her, she froze. He had a fringe of long gray hair circling his otherwise bald head, and he wore his wire rim spectacles low on his nose. He looked for all the world like Benjamin Franklin, one of Philadelphia’s most famous citizens from history long past.

No, it couldn’t be.

“Thank you,” she muttered, as she brushed herself off.

“Do you need assistance?” the gentleman asked.

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