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took my hand, more gently this time, and led me out a
back door of the club. “It’s hard to speak in there over the music. And what I
want to talk to you about is not something you want to shout out in a loud
club.”
    We walked away from the warehouses and down toward the
waterfront. I wondered where we were headed, but we didn’t speak as we walked
hand in hand.
    Tristan turned to me and grinned like a schoolboy. “I’m very
glad you came with me.”
    I couldn’t help but smile back, and then turned away,
running my finger over my bottom lip. “Sure. Where are we going?”
    “Hold on. We’re almost there.” He led us to an old cemetery
enclosed by a black iron fence.
    “A graveyard?” I asked with incredulity. “Why on earth are
you taking me here?”
    He walked over to a back corner where there was an opening
in the fence and crawled through.
    “I want to see something. And I want to see what you feel,”
he said. “Wait here a minute.”
    He walked into the middle of the cemetery and looked around
him. The look on his face was difficult to read. A little sad, a little scared,
and maybe a little repulsed. A troubled look returned and I was reminded of the
first time I saw him, with haunted eyes on an angelic face.
    After a few moments, he walked back over to me. He reached
his arm out for me to climb in with him.
    I hesitated. Why was he taking me into a cemetery at night
and what the heck was he talking about? What I feel? What does that
mean?
    “What are you doing?” I asked. But I gave him my hand
anyway.
    I crawled through the opening, which was no easy feat
considering how tight my dress was, and followed him into the graveyard.
    “Shh,” he said. “I need to concentrate.”
    He looked at me. He looked around me. He turned a complete
360, and then he looked all around the area surrounding me again.
    “Interesting,” he said.
    “What’s interesting?”
    He didn’t answer me, but under his breath, he muttered, “I
wonder.”
    “You wonder what?” I asked.
    Realizing he had spoken aloud, he looked at me. “I’m trying
to figure out why it happens. What are you?”
    “What am I? I’m a woman. A very confused woman right now.
What else would I be?”
    “No. You’re not an ordinary woman. You’re different.”
    “You’re not going to give me a line that I’m special or
something, are you?” I said. “Because I think after that dance, we should be
well beyond pick-up lines.”
    “I didn’t say special and it’s not a pick-up line. I said
different.”
    “Oh yeah. That’s right,” I said with a wave. “I know. We’re
different from the general public. We’re freaks. We hang out in a nightclub
wearing weird outfits because we fit in with the other freaks.”
    “That’s not what I mean, Maya. I know why I’m different. But
I don’t know why you are.”
    “You’re not making sense.”
    “Just follow me.”
    He brought me into the middle of the old cemetery to a
concrete bench for visitors. I scanned tombstones dating back to the late
sixteen hundreds, carved with skulls or other objects as well as names. Most
were slanted or decrepit. Who knows how much longer they would last before they
disintegrated?
    “Close your eyes.”
    I did.
    “What do you feel?”
    “Utterly confused.”
    “No, Maya. Focus. What do you feel ?”
    I took in a few deep breaths and concentrated. “I feel a
little nervous. I mean it does feel kind of scary to close your eyes at night
in the middle of the cemetery. And a little forbidden. As if we’re teenagers
running around in the shadows. And to tell you the truth—and maybe this is
easier to say because my eyes are closed and I can’t see your intense eyes—but
I’m also a little turned-on.”
    “This turns you on?” he asked.
    I opened my eyes. “A little bit.” Then I sighed. “There you
go again, looking at me with those eyes.”
    “I’m just looking at you. Listening to you.”
    “It’s the way you look at me.”
    “Does it