Dying Dreams (Book 1 of Dying Dreams Trilogy) (23 page)

At the scrapyard office, she met an older woman, missing most of her teeth, with the voice of a lifetime smoker. She laughed when Liza asked about the ocean drills. “Ocean destroyers what we call them. What you want with that filth?”

Liza had worked out her story, but the woman’s brash tone sent it right out of her head. She took a deep breath to center herself, and it came back to her. “I’m a graduate student at the college and I’m doing a project on ocean drilling. Thought it might help to see the parts in person.”

The woman narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “You want something like that, you got to go farther out. Vandyke industries was the factory that built those drills and they’re some two hours from here. If there was anything to be found it’d be there.”

Liza nodded, feeling defeated, and headed back toward the bus stop. The evening was dim, but warm and humid, the street still noisy with life. People laughing and parents shouting for kids to come in for dinner. She could smell the rich scents of multiple dinners and her stomach rumbled. It was time to go home. She’d get something to eat and look into Vandyke industries, and finally go to sleep and get the dream over with. She was planning what to have for dinner and didn’t see the kid until she was on the ground, her lip throbbing. She cursed herself, silently, for not paying attention to her surroundings, for forgetting for a moment where she was.

The kid peered down at her, a wide sneer on his face. He didn’t look older than fourteen, with wide blue eyes that filled most of his face and a mouthful of pointy teeth. He tugged on her bag and she let go, because there was nothing in it worth fighting over. And because she had no interest in hurting a kid. Getting mugged seemed like the appropriate end to the day she’d had.

The kid disappeared and she heard the pounding of footsteps and a shout of triumph. She pulled herself to her feet, every part of her body responding with pain. Getting knocked flat onto cement would do that to a person, she supposed. She limped to the bus stop, feeling shaky and scared. She looked around for the kid or more trouble, but the street was suddenly silent. She no longer had her phone, so she didn’t know what time it was, but the bus only showed up every half hour and she anticipated waiting for a while, in a neighborhood where a kid could mug a woman while everyone watched and did nothing.

A hand on her elbow made her spin away and drop into a defensive pose. She should have run, but she didn’t really have anywhere to go. An older man with dark skin, a full head of grey hair, and sparkling amber eyes smiled at her. “Shoulda used those instincts when Gerard hit you.”

“You know him? Tell me where to find him and I’ll do a better job.” She didn’t really have any intention of going after the kid for a beat-up bag, the five bucks she had in her wallet, and an old cell phone even if it was the second one she’d lost in two days, but her pride stung a bit. The first chance she got to actually use her self-defense training, and she failed.

The old man’s grin widened and he handed over her bag. “I’ve already spoken to him. There’s no need for violence.”

“Thank you. How did you…?” She looked around, expecting to see the kid peeking out from behind a tree, but there was only her and the old man on the street. Everyone else had gone inside, the interiors of their homes lit with warm light, while they took advantage of the three hours after dark that they got to use electricity.

The man stuck his hand out and Liza shook it, noticing for the first time that his skin had a slightly purple tinge to it. When she looked at his face again, she saw it was more elongated than she’d noticed before and his ears were pointed. “I’m Curtis. I apologize for the trouble. Can I walk you home?”

“You’re fae,” she said without thinking. He just looked so unique and beautiful and kind. She wanted to know more about him.

He dropped her hand like it was hot. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She slapped a hand over her mouth, then dropped it and started babbling. It wasn’t one of her finer moments, but the guy had just saved her purse and she’d insulted him for his trouble. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t say that, right? I just found out I’m fae like two days ago, and I’ve just started being able to tell when other people are fae and you… and I… I’ll shut up, now. I’m sorry. I’ll go.”

“Why don’t you come in and have dinner? I can explain some of the finer points of being fae in this world.”

No matter how kind he seemed, going into a strange man’s house seemed like a really bad idea. “Thank you, but I haven’t slept in two days and I really need to get home.”

He nodded. “I understand. How about I buy you dinner at the diner up the street? You need to eat.”

“Why?” He looked a bit offended, so she tried to explain. “You seem really nice and I appreciate you saving my bag, but why do you want to buy me dinner? Why are you interested in talking to me at all?”

“Does an old man need a reason to buy a meal for a beautiful woman?”

She shook her head and studied him for a long moment. She wasn’t immune to flattery, she just viewed it as a method of manipulation.

He chuckled. “I take care of the people in this neighborhood and you’re in my neighborhood, so I feel obliged to offer you what wisdom I can. Us fae need to stick together.” His smile widened as Liza looked at him, not hiding her doubt. “Or I’m just a nosy old man, who thinks you’ve got an interesting story to tell.”

Logic and sense told her she should walk away, but instinct screamed at her to stay. She liked Curtis and she felt safe on that dark street with him. “Okay, how about I’ll tell you my story if you tell me yours?”

He sucked his teeth for a moment, like he was really considering. “You’ll have to be sworn to secrecy.”

“I know how to keep a secret.”

“Uh-huh,” he said. “Somehow I doubt that, but let’s go talk, anyhow.”

He took Liza’s elbow and led her up the street to a diner that looked rather dingy and dirty on the outside, but was immaculate on the inside. “Hiya, Curtis,” a woman, with snakes in her hair and a name tag identifying her as Marie, said when they walked in. “You want your usual table.”

Curtis gave a regal nod and led Liza to a table for four in the back corner of the diner. “Order anything,” he said. “It’s all delicious. The cook was trained at Le Cordon Bleu, and won the James Beard Foundation award for best chef in the Southeast in 2058.”

“Then why’s he…” She stopped herself. There was something about Curtis that made her forget all of her tact.

“Why’s he working here?” Curtis said, his expression hardening just a bit. “He’s also a troll and, after he was registered, he was no longer allowed to work in five-star restaurants. So he came to me, and I helped him start this diner.”

Liza ordered a linguine with clam sauce and a salad, and Curtis ordered the catch of the day. While they waited for their food to come, Curtis told her about Gerard and his get rich quick schemes, mugging people being the latest in a long line of ideas.

“What he won’t understand and won’t accept is that he’s registered fae, so he’ll never be allowed to be rich.”

“Never be allowed?”

“Fae can’t go to college, so he’d have to work his way up in some company to have a shot, but fae aren’t allowed to hold jobs where they supervise more than five other employees, so he could work the hardest and be the smartest, but he’ll never have the income or the position to reflect that.”

Her appetite faded. “I suddenly don’t blame him for turning to crime.”

Curtis nodded. “It is understandable, but it’s not right. He must learn to make his own way, to get around their rules, until a better day comes.”

“A better day?” The food arrived, allowing Curtis to pretend he hadn’t heard the question. The food was so good it took Liza’s breath away. The two of them didn’t speak again until they’d cleared their plates.

“Oh my. Holy carbons. That was the best meal I’ve ever had. Thank you for bringing me here. I think I’ve just found my new favorite restaurant.”

“You’re welcome any time, but don’t bring humans with you. They aren’t too popular around here.”

“You don’t like humans.”

“Humans don’t like us. There’s a difference. We may have to live by their rules, but they kept Denan from having the career he could have had as a chef, so they don’t get to eat his food.”

“Makes sense,” Liza said.

“It doesn’t make any sense, but it is the way it is.” He leaned back in his seat, a toothpick magically appearing in his hand. He put the toothpick between his teeth and grinned. “Story time,” he said. “Being a gentleman, I will allow you to go first.”

Liza found the words pouring out of her. She didn’t hold anything back, even though a little voice in the back of her head was screaming at her not to tell him everything. When she was done, she slumped in her seat, out of breath.

“Sorry about that,” Curtis said.

“Sorry about what? I’m the one who seems to have verbal diarrhea.”

“No, sugar, that was the compulsion spell I put on you. It’s my first lesson to you, actually. Never, ever trust the fae.”

Liza knew she should be angry or hurt, but she was just curious. Her instinct told her she could trust Curtis, no matter what he said to her. She wondered if that was another spell. “You put a spell on me that made me tell you everything?”

He nodded.

She stared at him and readjusted her world view to accommodate this new trick of the fae. “Can I do that?”

He grinned and chomped on his toothpick. “I like you, child. Which is why I’m going to tell you my story. That’s another thing you should know about the fae, if we tell you we’re going to do something, we will do it, even if it kills us.”

“Is that some genetic trait? Will I have to do everything I say I’m going to do?”

“It’s the code we live by. We don’t have much left of our home world, and we hold onto honor and tradition as tight as we can. If you want to be truly fae, you will have to learn and live by the same code. But let me tell you my story first and then we can talk about your honor and your magical abilities.

“I am an elf,” he said, sitting up a bit straighter. “I was king of all the elves and a good many other of the fae when we all lived in Faedenhelm. Our land suffered more extremely from the pollution the humans created. No one is sure why, perhaps our land was more fragile or tied more closely to Earth than we realized, but it doesn’t matter why. Faedenhelm withered. Many of my friends and family died. We couldn’t adapt to the changes, most fae couldn’t, though there are a few ogres who did all right and still live over there. We evolve more quickly than humans, but it wasn’t fast enough. We had to leave and come to the land of humans, where we were forced to register ourselves in their systems and reduced to begging and scraping for everything we have. This neighborhood is mine and I take care of and rule over everyone who lives here. I protect them. If you come to live here, I will protect you.”

She wanted to understand what he was offering her, but even more than that, she wanted to know, “What was it like? To live in Faedenhelm?”

His mouth turned up at the corners and his gaze grew distant. He told her stories of music and dancing and laughter. Of a land so well-tended it fed every fae who lived on it and filled their days with the beauty of green growing things and wildlife that thrived. Elves are very tightly connected to the land and they did well and were happy when the land thrived, he told her. It sounded like a place she could fall in love with, and she felt his misery and his homesickness as her own. When he was finished, and she had polished off a piece of apple pie, there were tears in her eyes. “Will it ever heal?” she asked.

“If it does, it will not be in my lifetime,” he said. “I’m five hundred years old and the dying of my land took a toll on me. My father lived to be a thousand, but I’ll be lucky if I see seven hundred.”

So not in her lifetime, either. “Can you tell me about the magic? What can I do?”

He studied her for a long moment. “Fae don’t ever do anything for free. You say the humans are drilling in the ocean again. They are betraying whatever trust we had placed in them. You keep searching for the answers and share with me what you learn, and I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

Liza was sure she’d be fired if Reynolds ever found out the deal she knew she was going to make with Curtis. “And what will you do with that information?”

He leaned forward, elbows on the table. “I’ll keep it to myself. I can promise you that much. Come see me again and I’ll tell you more of what you want to know, if you tell me what I want to know.”

“Why not just use another compulsion spell on me?”

He chuckled. “Oh, don’t think I won’t, if you aren’t open and honest with me. But I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.”

She liked Curtis’s honesty. She didn’t see how it could hurt to share what she learned with him, especially if she learned something that might help him and his friends. She hated the idea of people drilling into the ocean floor as much, if not more than, he did. “Okay, it’s a deal, but I don’t know how much I’ll actually be able to tell you. I’m new at this and I’m not even supposed to be investigating the drill.”

“Of course you aren’t.” He gave her a smile so sweet she forgot he was a powerful fae. He looked more like someone’s gentle grandfather. “It’s late. How will you get home?”

“I’ll take the bus.”

He nodded. “Then I will wait at the bus stop with you.”

It was after midnight by the time Liza got back to Marcy’s. She was bleary-eyed and exhausted, but there was no mistaking the man glaring at her from his seat in front of Marcy’s door. He looked so angry and she didn’t want to face him, she wanted to turn back around and walk away. Well, only part of her wanted to walk away, the other part wanted to wrap herself around him and kiss him. She pushed that desire down and glared back at him.

“What happened to your lip?” he asked, concern clouding his face. The anger didn’t leave, and she realized it wasn’t anger, it was fear and worry.

She touched her lip and felt the scab that had formed. “I got mugged. It’s fine,” she said, when his hands fisted and he looked behind her like her attacker might still be there. “I’m fine. I got my bag back, and a really nice elf bought me dinner.”