Paranormalcy (13 page)

S
itting
in Lend's warm kitchen, I couldn't believe what his dad had just said. “You were—You worked there?” IPCA was kind of a lifetime thing.

“Actually, I was APCA. I got out about a decade before IPCA was formalized. Didn't think I'd ever see the day that would happen. None of the countries was willing to work with any of the others on paranormal issues. I never did find out what triggered the change.”

I swung my foot awkwardly against the floor.

“You're looking at her,” Lend said, grinning.

David raised his eyebrows. “Really? Wait, Lend, you
haven't finished your story, don't think I'm going to forget.”

Lend sighed. “It's actually more Evie's story than mine, considering all I did was sit in an empty white cell. I didn't tell them anything, so they wouldn't let me go. Then their tagged paranormals started getting hit, and they finally picked up on this thing. Evie had a run-in with it, and—”

“You saw it?” David asked me.

“We both did,” I said. I tried to shut her image out of my mind, but when I closed my eyes it was like she had burned herself onto my eyelids. “I saw her once right after she killed a hag and Jacques—a werewolf. But I couldn't see her very well.”

“It's a woman? What is it?”

Lend shrugged. “Looked like a totally normal girl to me. But Evie can see through glamours.”

Every time I thought David couldn't look any more surprised he topped it. “You can see through glamours?”

I nodded. “It's a glamourless life.” My favorite joke hurt tonight. Lish always liked that one.

He sat down heavily in another chair. “Wow. The possibilities—I've never heard of anyone being able to—That's amazing. No wonder they were finally able to find common ground to form IPCA. So what is this thing?”

“I don't know. I've never seen anything like her.” My wrist shone up at me. Well, that wasn't quite true. Stupid, stupid Reth. “She's like—like living, liquid flame. She's so bright it hurts my eyes.”

“That's new. What's her glamour?”

Lend gave me an apologetic look, then shimmered as he transformed into Fire Girl. David swore softly, looking from Lend-as-fire-girl to me.

“I can't get her eyes right,” Lend said. Fire Girl's voice coming out of his mouth made me shudder. “Can't get Evie's, either.”

I felt guilty and dirty, even though I hadn't done anything wrong. David gave me a wary look. “And you brought her home?”

Lend shifted back to normal. “Dad, no, don't even start. She saved my life. That thing would have killed me. And Evie didn't just save me, she saved every werewolf there. She doesn't know who or what it is any more than we do.”

David shook his head, bothered. “Well, I guess we know what we're looking for now. Or at least a description. I have no idea
what
she is.”

I didn't know if he was talking about me or Fire Girl. “I'm not—You have to believe me. I'm not like her, whatever she is. She's horrible, and she killed—she killed my best friend.” My voice cracked. She took Lish away from me, from the world. I didn't ever want to think about her again, and I couldn't stand Lend's dad suspecting I was somehow in league with her.

“She broke into the Center tonight.” Lend put his arm around my shoulders. I appreciated that one little gesture more than I could say. He believed me no matter what.
When I looked up, I could tell his dad did, too. His eyes were gentle and kind again. “She must have planned everything, because they had called all their paranormals in and the werewolves were sleeping, so easy targets. We barely got out. I need to talk to Mom about what we saw.”

I was surprised again. I don't know why I'd assumed he didn't have parents. Maybe he was adopted; things like Lend don't just
happen
. And the timing of his dad leaving APCA would have been right around when Lend was born. I definitely wanted to hear more about this.

“Can't visit her tonight, it's too cold,” Lend's dad answered, which was even more confusing.

“Evie? Are you okay?”

I was shaking. “I'm cold,” I said, trying not to let my teeth chatter. More than that I was overwhelmed and beyond exhausted.

David stood. “I'm going to give you something for your leg; it'll hurt when the numbing wears off. And if it's okay I'll give you painkillers with a sleep aid. Would you like that?”

“Yeah. Thanks.” I wasn't looking forward to trying to fall asleep tonight on my own. I wanted to check out, leave reality.

He went through a cupboard, coming back with a couple of pills and a glass of water. I chugged them; they couldn't kick in fast enough as far as I was concerned.

“Where are we going to put her?” David asked. “The
guest rooms are off-limits tonight.”

“Oh, yeah. She can sleep in my room. I'll take the couch.”

“That's okay, I'm fine on the couch.” I didn't want to be any more intrusive than I already felt.

“Saving Lend's life and breaking him out of the Center earns you a bed, I think,” David said with a smile.

“I'll take you up and get you a sweatshirt so you won't be so cold.”

“Thanks.”

“Come back down when you're done, young man. We've still got some things to talk about.”

Lend held back a sigh and nodded. The phone rang and David answered it. “He's home.” He sounded relieved. “Everything's okay. We've got some new intel, too.”

Wondering if that was Lend's mom, I stood and followed Lend up the stairs. He passed a couple of doors. Both were bolted shut with thick locks—on the outside. Nervous that his door would feature that nifty little security measure as well, I was relieved when he stopped and opened a bolt-free door.

“Oops,” he said, picking some things up off the floor before I could see them. “Sorry, I've never had a girl in my room.” He smiled sheepishly as he shoved them in a dresser drawer.

I gave him the best smile I could manage. “I've never been in a boy's room, so we're even.” It was great, with
sketches and band posters tacked up all over the pale blue walls. I wanted to just stand there, looking at how he defined himself through his room. That way I wouldn't have to think or be alone.

“Oh, here's a sweatshirt.” He pulled a dark green hoodie out of the messy closet. I put it on; it was nice to have my wrist covered up again. Plus, it smelled like Lend. It was a fresh, cool scent, like what you'd expect by a cascade or waterfall. I hugged my arms around myself, trying to get warm again.

The bed was the only thing that didn't quite fit the room. It was a four-poster, and the headboard and footboard were elaborate, scrolling metal. It didn't go at all with the simple, soft-looking blue comforter. I put my hand on one of the poles. “Iron.” I smiled in relief. Obviously Lend's dad knew his faerie lore. It made me feel a little bit safer—at least as far as Reth was concerned. Iron couldn't protect me from nightmares, though.

“I'll be downstairs if you need anything, okay?”

I turned and smiled. “Thanks.”

He stood there for a moment, looking awkward, then leaned in and gave me a quick hug. “Thank
you
,” he said, then left, closing the door behind him.

I held my breath. I didn't want to be alone. I wanted to call out, ask him to come and stay with me until I fell asleep, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I'd already spent the entire night bawling in front of him.

I turned off the light, but as soon as it was dark I could see spots that reminded me of Fire Girl. I flipped the lights back on. No dark for me tonight. Climbing into bed, I curled up to get warmer under the covers.

In spite of my best efforts, I couldn't keep my mind from drifting to exactly what I didn't want to remember. Here in this warm house with a family, I was alone. I could never go back to my home at IPCA, never tell Raquel just how much she meant to me.
Oh, please
, I prayed to the silence,
let Raquel be okay
.

But my poor, sweet Lish was gone forever. In her place was the terrible beauty of Fire Girl, walking death in the sterile hallways of the Center. In my mind, she was still gliding through the rooms, cheerfully sucking the life out of anything and anyone she found.

I hoped she would never get out.

I
walked through the Center hallways, blinking against the white. The place was empty. I kept expecting to find bodies, but it was pristine, abandoned. I stood in front of my unit, then walked through the door without it opening. That was strange.

She was already there, sitting on my purple couch. “There you are.” She smiled pleasantly at me. We definitely had the same eyes, but her lips were a little wider than mine. She looked like she was a few inches taller, too.

“Why aren't you on fire anymore?” I asked. “And, hey, that's mine!” She was wearing the zebra print dress.

“Oh, chill out.” She rolled her eyes.

“Where's the fire?” I looked down at my wrist—mine was gone, too.

“It's right there.” She gestured toward the corner, where the liquid flames pulsed and shimmered, spherical with constantly shifting edges. I held out my hand toward them. For the first time I realized they were beautiful. I wanted them.

“You can't get them yet,” she said. “Have a seat.”

I sat down on the far end of the couch, narrowing my eyes. I knew I should be scared of her. I wasn't. “What is this?”

“A dream, you dork.”

“Oh.” I frowned. Weird. “Are you going to kill me?”

“I might have earlier, by accident. Sometimes I get carried away.” She flashed an impish grin. “It's kind of hard not to get lost in the rush. But now that I know who you are, I would never.”

“Who are
you
?”

“Oh, sorry. I'm Vivian.”

“You killed my best friend. I thought I'd have nightmares.”

She shrugged. “That wouldn't be very nice of me, coming in here and scaring you. I just want to talk. I've been trying to get through to you for a while now.”

“So, wait, you're really here? Where am I?” What had Lend's dad given me in those pain pills?

“You don't know anything, do you? We share a soul now, so I thought I'd drop in, introduce myself properly.”

“What do you mean we share a soul?” I glared at her. “I don't want to share anything with you; I've got my own soul!”

“Seriously, chill out. You're so tense. We share
a
soul, not
your
soul. I borrowed some from Reth when he brought me here; he had a ton in his hand, which was weird; usually you can only pull from the chest. I wanted to see if I could drain him—I've never done a faerie before, they won't let me touch them—but he pulled away before I could get much. Man, that was a nice trip.”

“Wait, he gave you some of the fire stuff too? I hate it! It burns like crazy!”

“You must be doing it wrong. It's the greatest feeling ever.”

I shook my head. We were getting off topic. “What are you?”

“Tsk-tsk, so rude. We're the same thing.”

“We are
not
the same!” She was getting on my nerves. Even in my dreams no one would give me a straight answer.

“Don't be stupid, Evie. If I'd known you would be so pissy, I wouldn't have come. I guess you don't want answers after all.”

I knew I should be sad or angrier, but my emotions seemed removed. The fire in the corner kept distracting me. I wanted to watch the flames, touch them. It was all I
could do to keep my eyes on Vivian. “I don't want anything from you. You killed my best friend, remember?”

“No, not really. Who was it?”

“The mermaid.”

“Oh.” She looked puzzled. “She was your friend?”

“Yeah.” My eyes drifted to the corner. They weren't like flames, exactly, more golden and wavering. Almost like this great shade of nail polish I had once. But on fire. That didn't make any sense. I shook my head, trying to clear my mind.

Vivian shrugged. “Sorry. But I was doing her a favor.”

“A favor?” I couldn't look away from the corner now; I didn't want to.

“Giving her rest. Some peace. Don't you think the weight of all those millennia would be heavy? Besides, those things aren't supposed to be here. I'm just letting them go. Releasing them, if you will.”

“Oh,” I murmured distractedly.

“It's what we're supposed to do, you know,” she prodded.

“Oh?”

“It would be more fun if we were together. Could be a sisters' thing.”

I stood up. I had to touch it, see what it felt like.

“You can't have them yet.” She sounded annoyed. “Besides, those are mine. We'll get you some of your very own, soon. And then you won't be cold or alone. Aren't you
tired of being cold and alone?”

I could touch it now, if I just reached out my hand. “What is it?” I lifted my hand and, knowing I would get burned but not caring, plunged it inside.

The fire scattered, swirling around and past me. I turned to Vivian. She was the glowing, brilliant figure again. “Told you. You're empty. I'll help fill you.”

I nodded, tears in my eyes. I wanted that. I didn't want to be empty anymore. Vivian walked closer to me, all heat and light, then cocked her head. “You've got to go. I'll talk to you soon.” I could feel her smiling underneath the flames, and then everything went dark and cold again.

V
ivian?”
I opened my eyes, panicked, and stared at the ceiling. Where had she gone?

“Evie, wake up.” Lend's voice startled me.

“What are you doing here?”

He smiled. “It's my room.”

I sat up, looking around. Everything from the day before clicked into place, and I wished it hadn't. It was like losing Lish again.

“Sorry,” Lend said, “but they need you downstairs.”

I blinked, trying to get my eyes to focus. “Who's they?”

He shrugged uncomfortably. “Just some people my dad
works with. I'm sorry, I let you sleep as long as I could.”

“Oh, that's okay, then. Can I go to the bathroom first?”

“Of course. It's right down here.” I followed him out into the hall and he pointed out the bathroom. “Hey, who's Vivian?”

My stomach dropped as the dream flooded back. “Don't know,” I blurted, walking into the bathroom. Why did I feel guilty hiding a stupid dream from Lend? I shook my head, trying to dismiss it as a meaningless nightmare. After all, Vivian had said a lot of the same things I'd heard from Reth. It was probably my brain trying to process everything that had happened. Ignoring the nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach, I swished some toothpaste around my mouth.

Lend was waiting when I came out and I followed him down the stairs. The two bolted doors were open now. Wondering what I would find, I walked into the kitchen behind Lend and stopped dead.

Lend's dad, two werewolves, and a vampire. It was like the setup to a bad joke or something. A doctor, two werewolves, and a vampire walk into a bar. “What'll you have?” the bartender asks. “We were thinking him,” the vampire answers, eyeing the doctor.

Okay, jokes weren't my strong point.

The yellow eyes staring warily out at me from the werewolves and the shriveled corpse face of the vamp—I automatically reached for Tasey before remembering
I didn't have her. I didn't know where she was, either, which made me all sorts of nervous. All their ankles were covered by pants, but I was certain there weren't any trackers underneath.

The vampire's glamour was a pretty, goth-looking woman in her early twenties. Black hair streaked with crimson; heavy eye makeup; and all black, skintight clothing. Way to blend in there. The two werewolves, holding hands, were a man and a woman in their thirties; he was tall, with his head shaved, and she had curly brown hair, cropped very short. There was something familiar about her face, but I couldn't place it.

Of course, now the bolted doors made sense. Holy crap, I had just spent the night of a full moon with two unneutered werewolves. And a vamp, too, although one vamp I was pretty sure I could handle, even without my beloved Tasey.

“Lend, you little monster,” the vampire said, glaring. “Don't you ever pull that again.”

Lend hung his head. “Sorry. I didn't mean for—When did you get here?”

“Just now.” She turned to me. “So.” She sounded witchy. I didn't like her. “IPCA, huh?”

“So.” I raised my eyebrows (wishing I could raise just one like Lend did), “Bloodsucker, huh?”

“Yeah. So are Luke and Stacey.” She jerked her head toward the werewolves.

“Okay, sure. Since I'm stupid and don't know they spent last night as wolves.”

All three of the paranormals looked surprised. “Fine,” the vamp snapped. “Did you figure out what David is yet?”

I gave her a flat stare. “Did you really wake me up for this? Because unless one of you did something to him last night, he's human.” I glanced over at him to make sure. Yup, just human.

David cleared his throat. “We wanted to ask about this.” He moved to the side and gestured at the table, where I saw Tasey—yay Tasey!—my communicator, and Lend's ankle tracker. David looked sad. “You brought IPCA technology to my home. Will they track you?”

“No!” Truth was, I hadn't even thought about that stuff in the confusion last night. There wasn't a problem with it, but he had a right to be worried. “Trust me, they'd already be here. The tracker is deactivated and my communicator doesn't have GPS or anything. It kept getting screwed up and reset every time I went through the Faerie Paths so they got rid of it. They always knew where I was anyway, since the only way I ever left was with a faerie. They can't track the communicator unless you hit the panic button, I promise.”

The vamp cut in again. “Sure, but you could still call them, couldn't you?”

I glared at her. “Yeah, because I really want to get locked up for the rest of my life. Sounds like a party. In fact, I think
I'll turn myself in right now!”

“Like they wouldn't kill to get you back,” she sneered.

I exhaled sharply, trying not to yell at her. Vamps grated on my nerves more than any other paranormal—the disconnect between their glamours and real faces was just too much. “Listen, corpse girl, do you know what I did? I broke section one of the charter. As in,
the
section. As in, let a paranormal loose without authorization and be locked up for the rest of your mortal life. Even if I wanted to go back, which I don't, and even if there was anything to go back to, which there probably isn't, I couldn't. So bite me.”

She looked like she was going to take me up on it, but David interrupted. “That's enough. We're all on the same side here, Arianna. Lend told me everything that happened and I think Evie's right—if they could track her, they'd already be here.” He picked up the communicator. “It's been beeping off and on all night. We found it with your clothes in the bathroom.”

My heart leaped. Raquel! She had to be worried sick about me. If I could call her, let her know I was okay…then they'd know exactly where I was and I'd be locked up for the rest of my life. “They're probably trying to figure out whether or not I'm dead,” I said sadly, then paused. How many times had I told them not to work with the faeries, urged them to trust Lend and figure this out together? Of course, my classification was proof enough of how IPCA really saw me. And no matter how I felt about Raquel, she
was
IPCA. I shook my head. “Let them think I'm dead.”

The woman werewolf spoke, her voice gentle, fear in her eyes. “Did you really see it?”

It took me a moment to realize she was talking about Fire Girl. Vivian. I closed my eyes and nodded. It was just a stupid dream; I didn't actually know her name. I didn't want to talk about it anymore; I didn't want to think about it anymore.

“How's your leg?” Lend's dad asked.

“Oh, it's fine. Hurts a little, but nothing major.”

“Good. We're going for a little walk.”

“Okay.” Confused, I looked over at Arianna. Vamps stayed away from sunlight. Not because they'd burst into flames or anything, but because in direct light their true selves showed through. Only a little, but they avoided it just the same.

“You'll probably want long pants,” Lend said. “It's kind of cold today.”

I followed him upstairs. He rifled through his clothes, frowning. “You're skinnier than I am.”

I laughed. “Umm, yeah, kind of happy about that.”

He looked up at me and grinned. After a minute he pulled out an old, worn pair of flannel pajama pants. “These are a couple of years old; they probably won't fall off.” He handed them to me and stood there. I raised my eyebrows and he blushed. “Oh, yeah, I'll let you change.”

After the door closed I slipped out of his shorts and
pulled on the red and blue flannels. They were a couple inches too long, but they'd stay on. Those combined with the oversized green hoodie meant I wasn't exactly looking hot. I sighed. I could have used a shower, too, not to mention some makeup. My eyelashes were as blond as my hair; without mascara I felt like a five-year-old.

I opened the door and Lend smiled. “They look better on you.”

“Wow, they must look just awful on you then.” I smiled back.

He handed me my boots, which completed my ensemble of ridiculousness. To make matters worse, he looked downright adorable in a thermal shirt that fit him just right (trust me, I noticed) and a pair of jeans. I looked at his face. I loved his eyes—his real eyes. They were always the easiest of his features to pick out.

“Are you doing okay?” he asked, and his soft, sad look made everything rush in again.

“No, not really, but I'm trying not to lose it in front of everyone.” I willed myself not to cry. I might bawl like a baby during
The Notebook
, and, sure, I cried myself to sleep sometimes…okay, a lot…but that was by myself. I didn't like doing it in front of other people.

“Let me know if you need anything.”

I smiled, wanting to get a move on so I could stop thinking about things that made me sad. It was weird being on Lend's turf; I was a lot more confident when we were both
in the Center. Like right now, I really wanted to hold his hand, but I wasn't brave enough to try with his dad and that stupid vamp downstairs.

Lend and I met David and Arianna outside and I got a better look around. A narrow paved road led away from the house through the trees, but we turned to the right and walked down a barely-there path into the woods for about twenty minutes. The trees were budding, the air crisp and clear with a hint of warmth. Spring was on its way. I tried to focus on the sun streaming down through the branches.

“Where are we?” I whispered to Lend.

“Virginia.”

Through the trees ahead, I saw a pond fed by a wide stream to our right. We came through the last of the trees and stood on the banks. The pond was oval, fairly large, and pale blue, reflecting the cloudless sky. The edges were crystallized with frost.

“Oh, good,” Lend said. “She can come out today.”

I frowned at the horrible idea that maybe they were friends with a hag. But the look on Lend's face—excited and happy—reassured me that I wasn't going to meet a violent end. “Who?” I asked.

He smiled at me. “My mom.”