Page 26 (1/2)

ONE OF A KIND

Arianna wasn’t dead Or deader, I guess I never thought I’d be so relieved about a vauts Back at the house, David patched up her ribs while Stacey and Luke holed the what had happened I didn’t blas followed

"How did you hurt Reth?" I asked as David finished checking Arianna’s ribs I realized Reth had a new name, but had no idea what

David stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled so color Iron Brilliant "Designed theet a set?" Lend and I asked at the sahed "I’ll see what I can do"

"What if Reth comes back?" Lend asked

"There’s a reason he didn’t come to the house We’re not very faerie friendly here But I wouldn’t underestimate your mom’s power Now that he knows the water ele Evie, I don’t think he’ll try anything Soon he’ll forget he was ever interested in her"

I hoped that was true, but I seriously doubted it It sounded too dis Reth wanted to dance with--his interest in me ran far deeper There was some sinister purpose behind it all Still, David was obviously faerie savvy, and with Cresseda’s protection, maybe I really would be safe Until I had to leave here, of course

"There are a few other tricks," David said, walking to the counter He grabbed a loaf of bread, took out two slices, and handed them to us "Keep a bit of stale bread in your pockets all the ti dubiously at the bread

He laughed "It works Faeries don’t like things that tie them to our earth Bread is the staff of life for hu with iron; it binds thes too sharply of imprisonment That’s why it hurts them"

"Cool!" Bread, at least, I could take with me everywhere "Can I have ainst faeries, but I felt kind of naked without her

Frowning thoughtfully, he finally nodded and gave it to rip

Arianna fixed her clothes, glaring at me "Why’s the faerie so obsessed with you anyway? You’re not that cute"

David cleared his throat loudly "Lend, why don’t you take Evie into town, get her sos?"

My heart leaped in"I can stay?" I had been waiting for hiured it was a sure thing noith the added Reth threat I wouldn’t want me around, either

"Of course" He sht my son back You’re alelcoain, but that one sentence meant the world to me Maybe I wasn’t totally alone, after all

Lend frowned "You’re trying to get rid of us so you can talk about all this, aren’t you?"

"Yes"

"Fine" Lend held out his hand "Keys? And a credit card?"

David pulled a card out of his wallet and handed it over with the car keys "Be back before dark You’re still grounded"

"I promise not to have any fun," Lend said solemnly

"Get out of here, you bu his head

We climbed into a plain silver sedan Maybe I’ Lend drive was sexy

"So," he said, "I’ you have some questions?"

"Just one: what’s the li "Kidding I’ to push et pants that aren’t yours, no offense And I do have a few questions--real questions"

He s?"

"A very good place to start"

"You already knowreally bothered hiulations, forced sterilizations, tracking--"

"Whoa, hold on--forced sterilizations?"

He glanced at me "You didn’t know? They orried about ould happen if a olf got pregnant by another olf Had this whole panic, ethics debate, so on and so forth, thenwith another paranoral, and, uht could ever reproduce"

All those neutering jokes I had made--they weren’t jokes "Oh," I whispered, horrified "I had no idea" I thought about all the olves I knew, Charlotte especially She had always been so sweet and attentive She would have reatelse she had already lost "I think that’s the worst thing I’ve ever heard" Then it really hit me--would they have done that torisk? Even the terht of all paranormals as animals What else did IPCA do that I didn’t know about?

"Anyway, he was on an extended assign to track down evidence of nymphs or sprites He found my mom"

"What is she, exactly?"

"Kind of the equivalent of a nyht he was funny and kept showing up to talk to him And my dad fell in love with her" He smiled "That was all it took to convince him that he was done with APCA They weren’t about to let someone who knew as many secrets as hi They lost a lot of operatives in those days and it wasn’t a hard sell"

"So did your mom and dad--" I stopped, suddenly aware of what aard territory I was heading into

"She’s o right through" This was so not adding up, and I didn’t want to try to come up with an explanation Fortunately, he continued "But all eleift of choice My es she’d been around, she’d like to see what really being alive, being human, was like So she took on a mortal form and lived with my dad as husband and wife But she couldn’t leave the water--she didn’t want to She didn’t tell hi enough to make ave my dad a son and went back to the water"

I looked at hiinal idea of hiht I wondered what Lish would have thought, since she was a water paranor that my best friend had never met this boy I was crazy about They would have loved each other

"So you really are one of a kind, aren’t you?"

He shrugged "Guess so It was hard for ed forah to understand that it would be really dangerous if people found out about me Plus, you met lanced at h "Sothat’s where I ca hed, obviously relieved I ay too happy Part of it was Lend opening up toI had a place with his family But besides that, I hadn’t been in a car in like six years I eyed hiuised envy

"Tell you what," he said, noticing ht be able to do so better"

"What?"

He smiled "Hoould you like to come to school with me tomorrow and see a real, live locker?"

I’ was done (I was so eager to get out of Lend’s clothes, I changed in the store bathrooot back into the car I was pretty sure he had checked me out a few ti ry?" he asked, pulling out

"Oh,it I looked at the clock on the dashboard It was three in the afternoon

"Let’s get sorounded?" I teased

"My dad said be back by dark It’s not dark yet"

We drove a couple of blocks to a small diner I had never been on the East Coast before except for a few late night jobs, so I enjoyed looking around Lots of trees, hinting at buds We walked into the diner and le person in there was a paranormal

"Umm, you do know this whole place is filled olves, vas I’ve never seen before, right?" I whispered Lend laughed, sitting down in a booth

"Well, yeah My dad owns it"

"Oh"

"After Mom went back to the water, he was left with a very paranorencies, so he decided to do soround railroad for paranor them control the nastier sides of themselves"

"What about the vamps? Does he let them suck someone dry every now and then?"

"There are lots of other sources of blood They all know that if they break the rules, he won’t help the vamps, too They still remember what it was like to be hu Plus they’re helpful with the whole "