Kiersten White

“You should be more careful. Miss Lynn really doesn't like you."I sighed, pulling out my gym clothes. What school chooses yellow and brown for their colors? Gross. Just,gross. "The feeling is mutual.”

“At least it was gym and there was a little wiggle room.Or so I thought. Miss Lynn,that hideous creature, was waiting outside the door, marking off girls as they came in.”

“Wait, aren't they notoriously lusty?"There was a pause at the other end of the line."Oh,you are not going to that lab again."Lend laughed and I closed my eyes, picturing how he would look in front of me. "Trust me, there's only one paranormal I'd like to be notoriously lusty for me."I sighed. "Okay, but I don't think I can find a hag on such short notice.”

“The whole thing reeked of faerie mischief."Screw you. Me and my magic hands will be fine, thank you very much.I'm staying right where I am.”

“Are you kidding me?You come here and use your stupid faerie mojo and then you back away from me? Is there anything in your golden head that makes sense? What,you thought, hey, Evie's probably having a bad night, why don't I go mess with her? While you're at it, there are probably some puppies you could kick!"I whipped around, stalking back to the diner.I should have known-had known-this was a bad idea.Idiot Evie.”

“I snapped my lips shut againt the yes that was about to come out. Could I hit Reth? Could I please, please just ht him?”

“You just can't help topping your own levels of crazy,can you?”

“When he was IPCA and required to wear a glamour he almost never did; I couldn't figure out why he would care now that he was free. (Which was mostly my fault,but, really, a girl can't be expected to outsmart a faerie when running from her own death,now, can she?""Still cold,my love? I can take care of that.""Yeah,I remember.I think I'll pass.”

“The knowledge that I could hurt him if I needed to-if I wanted to-gave me a heady feeling of power.It probably wasn't healthy.Still, if he did something stupid and forced me to drain him, well, I wouldn't cry about it.”

“I looked at the door, at war with myself. On the one hand, I hated going anything Reth wanted me to. On the other hand, there was a mop with my name on it inside."Fine, but if you try anything-""Really, Evelyn,how I've missed your charming company."Keeping a wary eye on the faerie, I followed hi, through the alley. We made our way down the lamp-lined street, his step so light it bordered on dancing. I felt like a graceless clod next to him. Then there was the aspect of his ethereal, near-angelic beauty compared to my..well, for the sake of my self-esteem, it was probably best not to compete.”

“Bleep!" I screamed to the wall in front of me. "Bleep, bleep, bleep !" I kicked the dumpster, then grabbed at my foot. Now I was dirty, my toes hurt, and I felt like an idiot.”

“It flopped into my leg, leaving a vile, dark smear of disgusting on my jeans. Brilliant.”

“Seriously. Fifteen percent or I'm slipping garlic powder into your next Bloody Mary."He fixed me with a scowl that could launch a thousand horror novels. I smiled. Muttering murderous things under his breath,he pulled out his wallet and handed over the money."Come back soon," I chirped, beaming as I went back to the cash register. I might not have Tasey on me regularly, but I could still best vamps.”

“How did you learn? To use the Paths, I mean?"His mouth twisted into an impish grin. "Don't let my good looks fool you. I'm terribly clever."I rolled my eyes. "Clearly. But you still shouldn't be abot to use te Paths."He shrugged, standing. "Watch and wait long enough, want something bad enough, and you can figure out a way to make it happen. I make a lot of things happen." Smiling enigmatically, he reached out a hand to my wall. "I'll pick you up later?""I haven't agreed to anything!" I narrowed me eyes."Of course," he said, distracted as he focused on the white lines snaking out to make a door. "So, I'll pick you up later, then.""No! Don't you listen to anything? Tell Raquel I'm not going to-"Before I could finish my sentence he walked through the faerie door, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like, "Girls are annoying."The wall formed again behind him, becoming the innocent recipient of my withering glare.Jack might look my age, but he was like a little kid on a sugar high-in need of a good spanking.Good heavens, that sounded creepy.”

“And then I picked up the nearest object-a shoe-and threw it at Jack's head."What are you doing in here, you little weasle?"He picked up my shoe from where it had clattered to the floor after hitting the door behind him. "How do you walk in these heels?" He sat and removed his own shoe,trying to jam his foot into my purple sling-back.I stalked over and yanked it awway. "What are you, five? Answer my question."He looked up at me, impossibly big blue eyes wide with innocence. "I thought we were friends, after you made me strip and all.""I'm calling Raquel.""Fine,fine. I was just doing some reconnaissance?""Reconnaissance?""Oh,sorry,that's a big word,isn't it? It means I was scoping the scene, getting the-""I know what it means! What,is IPCA investigating me now? Screw them, they can forget about any help from-""Do you ever let anyone else finish a sentence?" He smiled at my glare, flashing his dimples. "That's more like it. You're much prettier when you aren't talking. True of most people, I've found. Anyhow, I needed to see the address Raquel gave me so that I could find it again.”

“Jack jumped off the couch, pulling his shirt back on. "Next time,if you'd like, I'll just come without one," he said,grinning at me.”

“How?" I had seen it with my own eyes, but I still didn't believe it. Then something struck me. "Take off your shirt!""I'm not that kind of guy!" He frowned thoughtfully. "On second thought, why not?"I blushed angrily and looked at Raquel. "What is he? I don't see anything!""He's not 'anything'.Just a talented boy.""Then how did he make a door? How did he get through the Paths?""Wait,so am I allowed to put my shirt back on? Or did you want me to remove my pants,too?"Lend and I joined forces in a dark glare. "Only if you want me to vomit," I snapped.”

“I bit my lip. "I, well, we were high? Really,really high. And it was this weird cloud and lightning and faerie thing. I didn't know where it was taking me or why,and I was so scared I did the only thing I could think of.""Which was?" Lend prodded, worry shadowing his face.I shrugged, a small, guilty gesture. "I took some." Hating the concern in his eyes,I rushed on. "Only a little bit-not enough to hurt it,really, just enough to surprise it, and then we fell, and it tried to drop me, but I grabbed on and some trees broke my fall. And afterward the Cloud Freak was okay,really,it was. Just kind of pissed. And then it flew off." I didn't mention the erratic flight pattern. It was probably woozy.”

“You seem to forget that I'm Evie's legal guardian.""And you seem to forget that there's absolutely nothing legal about your guardianship, considering all the documents were forged.”

“I hadn't seen Reth since he had come to visit me in the hospital after I released the souls, and I never wanted to again.Him or any of the other creepy, manipulative, amoral, psychotic, insert-furhter-negative-adjectives-of-your-choice-here faeries. Especially after today, if the sylph was with them. I wasn't about to draw their attention to me by holding hands through the Faerie Paths.She smiled. "I understand. In fact, one of my first initiatives was weaning IPCA from faerie magic dependancy. I think you'll be pleased to find that we now use them a mere forty percent of the amount we used to.""Forty percent, huh? That's still about one hundred percent more than I'm happy with.”

“I'd tell him, though. Soon. Soonish. Eventually.”

“Wow.A sylph.I think that's the first confirmed contact ever!"I raised my hand. "Umm,hello? Girl who was kidnapped by said sylph? Anyone want to fill me in on what it is and why it decided to give me an aerial tour of our fine state?”

“Freedom was a foot away when they turned back to me. The one who kept speaking, a tall vamp with a handsome curly-haired glamour, shook his head. "Sorry." He bared his fangs in an apologetic grin. "We're glad you aren't what's hunting us, but we're no friends of IPCA. And we're all very, very, thirsty.""What, no flirting?" I asked, trying to buy time. "Aren't you going to at least try to be sexy? Think of all those vampire fans out there--they'd be so disappointed." I pulled out my silver knife. Probably should have paid more attention during my knife training. "Tell you what. Let me go and I promise not to tell anyone that you aren't suave.”

“You'll be fine, just some minor burns and hypothermia, which was kind of hard to explain.”

“You cannot control faeries. Can. Not. They aren't logical or rational. They don't obey the same laws (physical, social, emotional, traffic - you name it) that we do.”

“Tell you what," he said, noticing my stare. "I know you can't get a license, but I might be able to do something better.""What?"He smiled. "How would you like to come to school with me tomorrow and see a real, live locker?" I'm pretty sure I squealed.”

“Eyes like streams of melting snow, cold with the things she does not know. Heaven above and Hell beneath, liquid flames to hide her grief. Death, death, death with no release. Death, death, death with no release.”

“Sometimes I wanted to take a memory - one perfect memory - curl up in it, and go to sleep.”

“Come on." He jumped up and grabbed my hand. "Let's do something fun.""I can't! I have to work, and then I have a date.""Frying-pan boy again? I thought you guys broke up.""No! Why would we break up?”

“Where did you find that one?""I have no idea. I'm a magnet for crazies, I guess.""They must be able to sense a kindred spirit.""Your one to talk. Don't you have more hordes of the undead to lead in a glorious revolution?""Zombies not undead. There's a fine distinction. And no. Right now I'm scouting new talent. The glorious revolution comes tomorrow.”

“Where are you going?" I asked, feeling guilty for not being able to hang out with him."To find a faerie to kill me, of course." He winked at us, then pretended to fall straight through when the faerie door opened. Even Arianna laughed as the door closed behind him.”

“He sighed heavily. "Girls are mean. At least faeries simply kill you if they don't want you around." He put a hand on the wall, leaning against it and tapping his foot impatiently.”

“Why does IPCA use them if they’re evil?” he asked, confused.“They aren’t evil. They aren’t even really immoral, per se. They’re amoral. They don’t operate on the same level that we do. For a faerie, the only thing that matters is what they want. That’s their good. Anything else is superfluous. So like how they kidnap people, not a big deal—they want the person, they take him. Or killing someone. If you live forever, how much does one mortal life matter in the scheme of things? When you exist outside time, cutting off the forty years a person has left is a non-issue. They don’t even notice.”

“He winked at her. She giggled. And I threw up a little in my mouth”

“Bud, my self-defense and combat skills teacher, was still trying to get me to learn knife fighting. "Silver knives! Painful and sometimes deadly to nearly all paranormals!""Tasey!" I countered. "Hot pink and sparkly!”

“Knowing where I came from didn't change who I was.”

“I scooted over, patting the bed next to me. "No such luck. And now you get to watch forty straight hours of Easton Heights with me!" He turned on the first disk, shaking his head, then got onto the bed next to me. "Small price to pay for getting to hold your hand." I wasn't cold anymore.”

“Oh, bleep.”

“Lish tried to swear--which is always funny, because the computer won't translate it. It went something like this: "Bleep stupid bleep bleep faeries and their bleep bleep bleep obsessions. He had better stop bleep bleep bleep the bleep bleep rules or I will bleep bleep bleep the little bleeeeeeeeeeep.”

“Yes, I have a driver's license."I leaned back against the wall, sighing. "Man, that must be so cool." "It ranks right up there with lockers. In fact, sometimes I put my license inside my locker, and it's so cool I worry that the whole thing might explode with the sheer coolness of it all.”

“Lend.”“Lend?” Raquel asked.“Yes, as in, lend me your self.” He shimmered into Raquel again.“Why not Borrow?” I asked. “Better yet, Steal?”

“Normal? What's that?""How you really look.""Can you take off all your clothes?"Okay weirdest thing ever-I just asked myself to take off all my clothes. It doesn't get much creepier. "Why on earth would I do that?""You asked me to be naked; I thought it was only fair.”

“No,you're officially banned from listening to us. Or thinking about this. Or even thinking about thinking about this, understand?”

“What are you?" I whispered. "What are you?" Offended, I frowned. "Human." "Funny, me too." "No, you're not." "Funny, neither are you." I set my jaw and glared. What a jerk. "Why did you come here?" My voice came from his mouth, disconcerting as always. "I could ask you the same thing. Are you going to kill me?”

“I can’t see through clothes or anything. Just glamour skin. Except I can see through all of you, since your clothes aren’t real.” I stopped, horrified. “I mean, I don’t look—It’s hard to see you, and I like looking at your real face, but I don’t try to see anything, because—Oh gosh, this sounds terrible.”He had a funny look on his face, like he wasn’t sure what to think. “Huh. That’s never been an issue before. Maybe next time you could bring me some shorts.”

“I don’t want to be like her, like Vivian. I don’t want to hurt anyone. Am I going to hurt people?”“No one can make you do that, child. You are caught between two worlds, much like my own Lend. You will want the fire, you will want to be filled. It is your nature. I hope you do not fall, but she is much stronger than you are.”She smiled at me, reaching out as though she would wipe away my tears. “Cling to what is good in your life. Be good to my son.”

“Yo soy carne muerta.”

“High school’s actually kind of boring. It’s a little bit like living in the Center. Everyone thinks they know everything about everyone else, but really there’s a lot more under the surface.”

“Why’s the faerie so obsessed with you anyway? You’re not that cute.”

“Many of the male faeries had their shirts unbuttoned and chests bare. (How’s this for freaky: no nipples or belly buttons.)”