New York: Allie's War, Early Years

I found myself replaying the guy's words, though. Was there any chance in hell that seeing him here was just a coincidence, like he said? Or had he followed me to the club? Had they run my papers after I tried to intervene with the seer, found out I was adopted and decided to take a closer look? I'd been court-ordered to take more racial-cat blood tests than anyone I knew, all because they'd never been able to find my birth parents after I'd been born.

Which meant that whoever my biological parents were, they'd been living off the grid. Which meant they were probably criminals, or worse.

Lucky me.

Either way, that didn't explain the note that morning. And the guy hadn't scanned my barcode, at least not that I'd noticed, so he must've used an imaging device to track me. Those were illegal for anyone not in SCARB. So either he was some kind of rich nut with criminal tendencies...or Jon was right and he really was with the World Court.

Neither thing boded well for me.

Why hadn't I shut up about the thing with the seer? I had enough eyes on me; the last thing I needed was SCARB thinking I was a seer sympathizer. Or worse, trying to sucker me into some Third Myth terrorist group, maybe to entrap me.

By now, I'd nearly forgotten why I'd decided to go backstage in the first place.

I was halfway down the corridor before I pulled my head back together. I stopped at the second security checkpoint, waving to the guy running it and showing him my badge before he motioned me to walk past. From the color of my badge, he pointed at the first door on the left, the changing room they'd assigned to Eye of Morris.

I paused for a minute outside the door, trying to collect my thoughts before I went in. I was still drunk. Being screwed with by ponytail guy hadn't sobered me much, just made me feel vaguely out of control and paranoid.

I'd seen Corey, Drake, Winters and Hayden out at the bar, so Jaden should be alone.

Well, hopefully, anyway. If he was surrounded by a bunch of hangers-on, then I'd just say hi and good luck with the show and take off. No big deal. I was still being supportive girlfriend, which he seemed to want.

Taking a breath, I opened the door.

The room was empty. I thought maybe I'd missed something and scanned it again, pausing on piles of clothes and the ratty couch shoved against one wall.

But no, it really was deserted.