Twilight (The Mediator, Book 6) - Hardcover

Cabot, Meg

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060724676 ISBN 13: 9780060724672

Publisher: HarperTeen, 2005

Synopsis

Suze has gotten used to ghosts. They wake her up in the middle of the night. They haunt her locker at school. She's even spotted a few down at Carmel Beach. Suze is a mediator, after all, and communicating with the dead is all in a day's work for her. The last thing she ever expected was to fall in love with one: Jesse, a nineteenth-century hottie.

But when she and Paul Slater, himself a mediator of undeniable power (and dubious intent), discover that the powers they share aren't limited to helping ghosts resolve their earthly woes, but can also be used to determine whether or not they become ghosts in the first place, Suze can't help but freak. Not because she suddenly knows how to alter the course of history, but because Paul can, too. And Paul would like nothing better than to prevent Jesse's murder, keeping him from becoming a ghost and allowing him to live a natural life at last ... but in the nineteenth century. Meaning Jesse and Suze would never meet.

Suddenly, Suze is faced with the most important decision of her life: allow the only guy she's ever loved to have the life he's always longed for ... or keep him anchored forever in half-life at her side. Will Jesse choose to live without her, or die to love her?

About this title

About the Author

Meg Cabot was born in Bloomington, Indiana. In addition to her adult contemporary fiction, she is the author of the bestselling young adult fiction series The Princess Diaries. She lives in Key West, Florida, with her husband.

Reviews

Grade 7-10 - This sixth entry in the series focuses on Suze Simon's attempts to save the love of her life, ghost Jesse, and on her continuing adversarial relationship with another mediator named Paul. The narrative incorporates ghosts, time travel, and romance, and somehow stays grounded in some sort of reality. The characters are engaging, the plot is kicky, and the humor is actually funny. Fans of supernatural series books and the author's "1-800-Where-R-You" titles (S & S) will find a lot to like here. - Amy Patrick, New York Public Library
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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Mediator #6: Twilight

By Meg Cabot

HarperCollins

ISBN: 0-06-072467-6

Chapter One

I found the stone exactly where Mrs. Gutierrez had said it would be, beneath the drooping branches of the overgrown hibiscus in her backyard. I shut off the flashlight. Even though there was supposed to have been a full moon that night, by midnight a thick layer of clouds had blown in from the sea, and a dank mist had reduced visibility to nil.

But I didn't need light to see by anymore. I just needed to dig. I sunk my fingers into the wet soft earth and pried the stone from its resting spot. It moved easily and wasn't heavy. Soon I was feeling beneath it for the tin box Mrs. Gutierrez had assured me would be there....

Except that it wasn't. There was nothing beneath my fingers except damp soil.

That's when I heard it-a twig snapping beneath the weight of someone nearby.

I froze. I was trespassing, after all; the last thing I needed was to be dragged home by the Carmel, California, cops.

Again.

Then, with my pulse beating frantically as I tried to figure out how on earth I was going to explain my way out of this one, I recognized the lean shadow-darker than all the others-standing a few feet away. My heart continued to pound in my ears, but now for an entirely different reason.

"You," I said, climbing slowly, shakily, to my feet.

"Hello, Suze." His voice, floating toward me through the mist, was deep, and not at all unsteady ... unlike my own voice, which had an unnerving tendency to shake when he was around.

It wasn't the only part of me that shook when he was around, either.

But I was determined not to let him know that.

"Give it back," I said, holding out my hand.

He threw back his head and laughed.

"Are you nuts?" he wanted to know.

"I mean it, Paul," I said, my voice steady, but my confidence already beginning to seep away, like sand beneath my feet.

"It's two thousand dollars, Suze," he said, as if I might be unaware of that fact. "Two thousand."

"And it belongs to Julio Gutierrez." I sounded sure of myself, even if I wasn't exactly feeling that way. "Not you."

"Oh, right," Paul said, his deep voice dripping with sarcasm. "And what's Gutierrez gonna do, call the cops? He doesn't know it's missing, Suze. He never even knew it was there."

"Because his grandmother died before she had a chance to tell him," I reminded him.

"Then he won't notice, will he?" Despite the darkness, I could tell Paul was smiling. I could hear it in his voice. "You can't miss what you never knew you had."

"Mrs. Gutierrez knows." I'd dropped my hand so he wouldn't see it shaking, but I couldn't disguise the growing unsteadiness in my voice as easily. "If she finds out you stole it, she'll come after you."

"What makes you think she hasn't already?" he asked, so smoothly that the hairs on my arms stood up ... and not because of the brisk autumn weather, either.

I didn't want to believe him. He had no reason to lie. And obviously, Mrs. Gutierrez had come to him as well as me, anxious for any help she could get. How else could he have known about the money?

Poor Mrs. Gutierrez. She had definitely put her trust the wrong mediator. Because it looked as if Paul hadn't just robbed her. Oh, no.

But like a fool, I stood there in the middle of her backyard and called her name just in case, as loudly as I dared. I didn't want to wake the grieving family inside the modest stucco home a few yards away.

"Mrs. Gutierrez?" I craned my neck, hissing the name into the darkness, trying to ignore the chill in the air ... and in my heart. "Mrs. Gutierrez? Are you there? It's me, Suze.... Mrs. Gutierrez?"

I wasn't all that surprised when she didn't show. I knew, of course, that he could make the undead disappear. I just never thought he'd be low enough to do it.

I should have known better.

A cold wind kicked up from the sea as I turned to face him. It tossed some of my long dark hair around my face until the strands finally ended up sticking to my lip gloss. But I had more important things to worry about.

"It's her life savings," I said to him, not caring if he noticed the throb in my voice. "All she had to leave to her kids."

Paul shrugged, his hands buried deep in the pockets of his leather jacket. "She should have put it in the bank, then," he said.

Maybe if I reason with him, I thought. Maybe if I explain ... "A lot of people don't trust banks with their money-"

But it was no use.

"Not my fault," he said with another shrug.

"You don't even need the money," I cried. "Your parents buy you whatever you want. Two thousand dollars is nothing to you, but to Mrs. Gutierrez's kids, it's a fortune!"

"She should have taken better care of it, then," was all he said.

Then, apparently seeing my expression-though I don't know how, since the clouds overhead were thicker than ever-he softened his tone.

"Suze, Suze, Suze," he said, pulling one of his hands from his jacket pocket and moving to drape his arm across my shoulders. "What am I going to do with you?"

I didn't say anything. I don't think I could have spoken if I'd tried. It was hard enough just to breathe. All I could think about was Mrs. Gutierrez, and what he'd done to her. How could someone who smelled so good-the sharp clean scent of his cologne filled my senses-or from whom such warmth radiated-especially welcome, given the chill in the air and the relative thinness of my windbreaker-be so ...

(Continues...)

Excerpted from The Mediator #6: Twilightby Meg Cabot Excerpted by permission.
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Edition details

• Publisher: HarperTeen
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060724676
• ISBN 13: 9780060724672
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 245