Mind Games (Mindjack Origins) (3 page)

I think several nasty curse words that would horrify my mother, but Jessica’s out of range. When she finally disappears around a corner, Kira folds her arms and fixes a stare on me. “So, you want to tell me what
that
was all about?” she says. “I swear your girlfriends are getting stranger all the time.”

My head whips back to her. “She’s not my girlfriend!”

“Really?” Kira says. “With the way she was looking at you, and you checking her out all the way to the corner?” She shrugs. “You could do worse, Raf. She seems nice and she’s cute in a trying-way-too-hard kind of way.”

My shoulders drop. “She’s not my girlfriend.” My voice is low, weak. Of course, that’s precisely the rumor Jessica will stir up after the Gamesdance. If I’m lucky, Kira won’t hear it. I grit my teeth. Tony is behind all of this, helping me out by stabbing me in the back.

“Whatever, Santos,” Kira says. “So, are you going to come over this Saturday to help me get through some of those sim-casts?”

Saturday? That’s the Gamesdance. The one I’m apparently going to with Jessica. “Um, no. I can’t, I’m … busy.”

Kira glances down the hall. “Right,” she says. “How about Sunday? No school on Monday. We can stay up late and eat that awesome popcorn my mom likes to buy from the Boy Scouts.”

“I’m…” I swallow. “I’m leaving on Sunday.”

“Oh.” Kira frowns and picks up her gym bag from the floor. “Well, I’m doing Mr. Hampton’s take home test tonight, along with my other finals. Finishing up early. Don’t really see the point in sticking around here, you know? With nothing to do but study, this zero’s getting some A’s and getting out.”

I grimace at her use of the word
zero
.

“I guess…” She pauses. “I guess this is goodbye then.” She puts on a million watt smile, the one she brings out when things are bleak and getting worse. “Well, have a nice summer, Raf. Have fun with the Twisters, and, you know, don’t break too many hearts in Indiana.” She turns to walk away down the hall.

I should say goodbye. I should tell her to stop, explain what really happened with Jessica. But I don’t say anything, just watch her go.

Maybe Tony is right. Maybe I need to stop waiting for Kira to go through the change. Maybe I need to forget about the fact that I know everything about her: the way she likes her hot cocoa lukewarm and her ice tea ice cold; that she likes her music classical and her runs long and strenuous. Maybe a summer in Indiana is just what I need to forget the way she makes my skin prickle and my heart pound. Maybe I should date someone like Jessica—only less horrible—to help me forget. Even if I doubt it would work.

But I’m certain of one thing: the next time I see Tony, I’m going to punch him in the face.

Kira and Raf’s story is just beginning!

Open Minds

(Book One of the Mindjack Trilogy)

Available in ebook and print

Amazon
, Barnes and Noble

When everyone reads minds, a secret is a dangerous thing to keep.

Sixteen-year-old Kira Moore is a zero, someone who can't read thoughts or be read by others. Zeros are outcasts who can't be trusted, leaving her no chance with Raf, a regular mindreader and the best friend she secretly loves. When she accidentally controls Raf's mind and nearly kills him, Kira tries to hide her frightening new ability from her family and an increasingly suspicious Raf. But lies tangle around her, and she's dragged deep into a hidden underworld of mindjackers, where having to mind control everyone she loves is just the beginning of the deadly choices before her.

praise for OPEN MINDS

“
Open Minds
pushed me to the edge of my imagination and then tossed me over the edge as I screamed for more. Quinn has created an intensely dangerous world both inside the minds of her characters and outside—a world that left me asking myself questions I would never have asked before. When you can literally control the thoughts of others, how far will you go? Quinn takes the reader to this reality with breathtaking control and sparkle. Read this and you'll never look at your thoughts the same again.”

—
Michelle Davidson Argyle
, author of
Monarch
and
Cinders

“
Open Minds
boils with action, adventure, and surprises. I was fully invested in this inventive world and the protagonist. A story that had me imagining
what if
, long after I finished it.”

—
Terry Lynn Johnson
, author of
Dogsled Dreams

Coming May 23, 2012

Closed Hearts

Book Two of the Mindjack Trilogy

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other works by

Susan Kaye Quinn

Life, Liberty, and Pursuit

a teen love story

Full Speed Ahead

a short afterstory to
Life, Liberty, and Pursuit

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About the Author

Susan Kaye Quinn grew up in California, where she wrote snippets of stories and passed them to her friends during class. Her teachers pretended not to notice and only confiscated her notes a couple times. She pursued a bunch of engineering degrees (Aerospace, Mechanical, and Environmental) and worked a lot of geeky jobs, including turns at GE Aircraft Engines, NASA, and NCAR. Now that she writes novels, her business card says "Author and Rocket Scientist" and she doesn't have to sneak her notes anymore.

Which is too bad.

All that engineering comes in handy when dreaming up paranormal powers in future worlds or mixing science with fantasy to conjure slightly plausible inventions. For her stories, of course. Just ignore that stuff in her basement.

Susan writes from the Chicago suburbs with her three boys, two cats, and one husband. Which, it turns out, is exactly as much as she can handle.