Page 10 (1/2)

POETRY AND HOLDING HANDS

Lend was lying on his bed with his back to the door when I got there It ht about letting hiured he probably wouldn’t want to I tossed the pair of basketball shorts at his head It would be nice to look at hih his projected clothes

He sat up, startled Then, seeing ain today I liked this one’s smile, but underneath Lend’s sh"

I sighed, feigning nonchalance "Some of us have a life, you know"

"Yeah, I remember what that was like" He pulled the shorts on underneath the covers "Weird to have real clothes again"

"Aren’t you freezing?"

He gave me a funny look "It’s not cold in here"

"You’re crazy"

Pulling off the covers, he stood up I laughed; the shorts were hanging over a pair of khaki pants The pants dissolved, leaving a great set of legs

"So, have you been practicing?"

I sat on his bed "Yeah, but I’ood" I handed hi

"No, these are a lot better And you’re really good with color"

I beamed He passed the sketchbook back to me and our hands brushed I smiled and shook my head "So weird"

"What?"

"I just--I don’t know, I always expect you to feel like water or so The first time I touched you to put on the ankle tracker, I orried hed "Nope"

"I thought it would be like putting my hand in cold water But you’re really warm"

He put his hand on top of mine My heart did a happy ju"

"See? Cold in here Told you" I couldn’t help but frown a little when he moved his hand away

"Hoas your week?" he asked

"Pretty boring Probably not as boring as yours, though"

"Probably not"

"What are they even doing with you? Are they going to just keep you in here forever?"

"Hopefully not I’ve got so They’ve run tests on me, but I’m afraid I wasn’t very cooperative And Raquel’s been to talk tothrough her stuff"

"I’m a little curious about that as well"

He smiled "I’ll bet Of course, it’s your fault I’m stuck in this rooht Actually, I didn’t have to "No, it’s your own fault your plan was so crappy a helpless teenage girl caught you"

"Helpless? Hardly I see electrocuted"

"Oh, yeah, there was that"

"You’re not wearing your Taser today You didn’t last tihtfully

"Planning so?" I wasn’t nervous Well, maybe a little, now that he said that

"Nope, not at all I’ain, howinto the Center included punching people and running?"

He put a hand on his chest "Ouch You’re right, though, I didn’t have any idea what I was doing It was pretty desperate"

"That’s all right We all do stupid things Last week I was following a vamp and burst into a room that I hadn’t checked out first Turns out there were a whole bunch et out?"

"Reth" I frowned

"Who’s Reth?"

"It’s a long story"

Lend leaned back "I’ve got nothing but tiht of ht of hoonderful Reth had made ht faeries were angels They were so beautiful and mysterious Then Reth came when I was about fourteen At first he was like all the others--cold and distant But when he found out what I could do, he started talking to uys--well, I guessI had ever seen Pretty soon he was co to me When we talked he heldot to see hi to take irl doesn’t want to hear that?"

Lend frowned, looking bothered "So, were you guys, like, dating?"

I sighed, heartsick re how much I had loved Reth, depended on hi Inorot warmer, faster He’d coht, dance with ht he was perfect Sometimes when he held me, my heart would be so warm it felt like I would burst

"Then one day I went on a simple retrieval, just a olf Those are pretty easy--the people are so freaked out they’re relieved to have souy had been a olf for a couple of years and he actually liked it So when I found hiry and hitReth was there His face--it was pure fury There was nothing human there He put his hand out and the olf flew back into a tree Then Reth wasout and--the as--It crushed hie and the screams out of my head "As much as I still loved Reth, it scared me so bad that I wouldn’t talk to him or see his clearly I don’t knohat he was doing--Raquel thinks it wasn’t even real" I scowled "So now every time he sees ain, trying to get to my heart"

Lend was quiet for a while "Why don’t they just send hiic They think because they know a faerie’s name they can control him, so they don’t care They don’t kno stupid they’re being"

"IPCA doesn’t know a lot of things"

"Yeah" I frowned, trying to get the memory of Reth’s warmth out of my head "So, your turn What did you do out there? Do you have a fao to school? Where do you live? Have you always been like this?" All the questions I had been saving up for hied to keep that one inside

He just laughed "I think, considering Raquel has decided to join us, we’ll have to talk about those things another time"

I looked up Raquel stood in the doorway, hands on her hips and looking like she could spit fire "Oh, bleep," I , I waved "Hey, Raquel What’s up? Did you change yourhere?"