“How does that make a difference?”
Aunt Lizzy removed the last of the items from the recyclable grocery bag and folded it before adding it to the stash hanging on a hook above the open shelving. Ranger grabbed one of the beef sticks she’d bought and began gnawing on it.
“When the witch brought the tree back from Europe fifteen years ago, it was little more than a sapling. She had gone to where the dryads are weak and couldn’t stop her from taking one of their own. Miranda, her adoptive mother, has done something to ensure she stays under her power. The dryads in the city started to feel her as she grew older, but they cannot get to her where she is. Some have tried, but the lock on the door is spelled, and if anyone tries to break through, the witch stops it. The same is true of the fire escape. Once a warlock tried to rappel up to the roof from the fire escape, only to find there was a keep-away spell on the ledge. The witch has protected against normal means, which is why you have to be the one. You fly in and don’t trigger her warnings.”
Ranger chewed on the beef stick and considered this. “Why do you guys care? You’re not a dryad.”
“What I am is none of your concern. I can’t reveal my powers here without putting the mission at risk. Why do you think I had a protection spell invoked before you moved here? If she finds out, we will be evicted, and the tree taken away. There are too few like her in this world.”
Ranger shouldn’t care, and yet…
“Why can’t the dryads deal with this? Why do we have to do it?”
“Perhaps they will, in time. This is something I was asked to do, and so I’m doing it. The dryad is a captive and doesn’t recognize her own power. The Hamadryad are bonded to their trees, but they have a body outside of that form. They don’t usually shift from one to another. The witchery is hurting the girl.”
“I’m not sure what else I can do besides go up there. She’s been a tree every time, if there’s even a girl in there at all.” He didn’t admit to the sense of rightness he experienced on the roof.
“For now, you continue to go up to the rooftop. Dryads have awareness when they are in their other shape. Talk to her. Make her like you.”
Ranger tried not to let his fear show. “Doesn’t that mean she’ll tell her mom?”
His aunt shook her head. “Wouldn’t she have done so the first time you went on the roof? For now, you wait, and listen. Do not try to approach her at school. Not yet. We can’t tip our hands. Next time I hear her in the apartment, we will make an excuse to go over there. Then I will introduce you.”
The knock on the door surprised Taimi. Her mother frowned at the door. The knock came again, sharp and staccato. Her mother checked the security camera and her grimace deepened.
“It’s that woman Lizzy and her nephew Ranger.”
Taimi tried to keep a neutral face so her mother wouldn’t suspect her curiosity. Ranger. He had to be the boy who kept coming up to the roof. She was dying to meet him in the flesh.
“That’s the boy who just moved in, right?”
Her mother nodded and didn’t get up. “I can’t imagine what they need. Rent isn’t due yet.”
Taimi bounded across the room and yanked open the door. A boy was a rarity for her, and everything she’d learned had been over the Internet or from her mother’s friends. There was a world of difference between grown men and kids her own age. It was something she had too little of, after the time she had been playing with Hester’s grandson and tried to tell him, at the age of six, that she spent her nights as a tree. Hester recommended her mother spank her and whisked her grandson away from Taimi’s influence, never to visit again.
Others would call her deprived, but in this modern world, she kept up with things even with her limited wakefulness. She wasn’t ignorant, with all her school learning, just unaware of how the world worked. Here in New York City there were plenty of things going on all hours of the day. She’d go crazy if she was stuck in some burb with nothing to do in the time she was permitted to be awake.
“Hiya!” Taimi said, her gaze going from Lizzy, the aunt, to the strange boy. Her mother made a noise behind her, but Taimi widened the door before she could stop her.
Ranger at ground level was not that different from the boy who flung himself onto the nearby bench, but somehow proximity made a world of difference. He was tall, near six feet, with a lean build and hands and feet that suggested he had some filling in to do. His hair was a mop of brown waves against his neck. He had the sort of features that reminded her of the boys all the girls were squealing about on social media sites. She may have sighed over one or two of them as well. But those boys were far away, and Ranger was standing in front of her.
Taimi’s lips widened in a giant grin. “Hi, Lizzy. Did you need a cup of sugar or something? That’s what Mom says. Neighbors come over for a cup of sugar. We don’t have any sugar here. We don’t keep it unless we’re baking.” She stuck out her hand. “I’m Taimi. Who are you?”
“I’m Ranger,” he said after a moment’s hesitation. Her mom’s chair clattered behind her and scraped along the floor as she made a hasty exit from the table. It was too late. The visitors were already inside. Taimi watched Lizzy shut the door, cutting off any attempt her mother might have made to shoo them out through a still-open portal.
“Nice to meet you.” She shook his hand like in the movies, with a firm, quick grip. Witches and warlocks didn’t shake hands, they were more the “blessed be” types. He smelled of a strange mix of aftershave and smoke, as though he had stood too close to a fire.
“What can we do for you, Lizzy?” Her mother’s voice was cold, without welcome. “We are eating breakfast. It’s a bit early for company.”
Lizzy waved a hand toward their dining table. “I thought it was time to introduce the kids. They must go to the same school. I thought they could walk together.” Lizzy’s voice was innocence itself, but there was something behind it that made her mother stiffen.
“That’s not necessary,” Miranda said.
Ranger stood there, shoving his hands into his pockets. She wondered what he would think if she told him she had observed him on the roof.
He would think she was crazy. She couldn’t tell him or anyone what was going on. The compulsion her mother had put on her long ago had worn off, but now it was replaced by more adult caution. If anyone recognized what she was, she would be whisked to some government lab, poked and prodded and twisted, her blood and sap taken every day while they tried to figure out how a girl turned into a tree and then turned into a girl.
“Ranger could walk with her.”
Miranda put a warning hand on Taimi’s back, and she retreated.
As soon as she moved away, Taimi found she missed his touch. There was a solidity to Ranger that made her yearn to be closer to him. He was a degree hotter than she was used to, but maybe it was a boy thing.
“No,” Miranda said. “Taimi does not walk with strangers. Now if you will excuse us, we must get ready.”
It was a clear dismissal. Ranger was studying her with curiosity. A shiver ran down her back, one she quickly hid. She couldn’t allow her mother comprehending that this boy affected her. If she did, she would find a way to get rid of him.
“As you wish,” Lizzy said and raised a hand to them.
“Nice to meet you,” Ranger said and beamed at Taimi. Warmth burst through her like sunshine. “Maybe I’ll run into you at school.”
After they left, Miranda rounded on Taimi. “You stay away from that boy, do you hear? I will not have you talking to him, either here or at your school. Stay away from him, or you will be sorry.”
Taimi hugged Ranger’s nightly visits to herself. Any notion of telling her mom fled.
“I will. He doesn’t appear that interesting. No problem.”
She sat down, hoping she’d convinced her mom that she had no interest in Ranger. She would have to be careful. Maybe she could find a way to say hello to him. She’d have to ensure she wasn’t observed.
; Yes, she’d have to be very watchful. But where there was a will, there was a way.
Chapter 2
Taimi searched for Ranger in the halls the next day but had no luck. He was a grade ahead of her and the school was big, but she’d been hoping to beat the odds.
The few classmates she was friendly with made brief chitchat with her before taking off to be with their closer friends. Girls her age hung out at movies, or in game rooms or whatever at night, not sitting in a pot.
Mean Miss Wanda, as Taimi had dubbed Miranda’s school spy, walked to Taimi as she was stashing things in her locker. She waited for the inevitable lecture from her mother’s coven mate when she slammed the door. The school was buzzing with activity as kids made plans to go into the city, or do sleepovers, or any number of things that were forbidden to Taimi. Most of the time she accepted it. Today, with the memory of Ranger’s palm in hers still fresh in her mind, Taimi minded.
“Taimi.” Taimi gave Wanda a blank stare, schooling her features to reveal nothing. There was nothing for Miranda’s mole to report back.
“Hello, Me…Miss Wanda,” she said, eyeing the slim black woman with a shock of curly black hair with what she hoped was impassivity. “How are you today?” A friend she’d had once years ago had told her to always be polite to adults. The girl had come and gone from Taimi’s life, and she was sure that her mother had a hand in it.
“Bye, Taimi,” someone called. “Catch you tomorrow.”
She raised a hand to the masculine voice. For a moment she thought it was Ranger and her spirits jumped a little, but it was Petey, a boy from down the block.
“I’m fine,” Wanda said with a distinct chill in her voice. “Your mother said to watch you. You haven’t been causing any trouble, have you? You are not ignorant of the rules.”
She had the rules memorized, upside down and backward. So many rules, so many restrictions. She was allowed to go to school but there was always someone watching. Plus, the compulsion not to tell people, even if faded, stopped her from being able to express what she was. Not that anyone would believe her. If she showed them, she would be taken away. She had had a healthy fear of the government instilled in her. If they found out her secret, she would never have a life again.
“I haven’t been flirting with boys,” she said. It wasn’t a lie. She hadn’t run into the new senior, the one with the brown messy hair who smelled like fire. Maybe he smoked. But he didn’t have that nicotine stench, it was more like wood burning on a cool night. It reminded her of the nights when her mother had people over, and they had a blaze in the firepit away from the plants.
“Be sure that you don’t,” Wanda admonished, glancing at the emptying school. “Your mother is waiting. She will be timing you as soon as I tell her you’ve left, so no stops along the way. You are to go straight home and do your homework.” She glanced at the sky. At this time of year, the sun went down late so Taimi had a little more daylight but not enough. Never enough.
Taimi sighed. She’d planned on stopping at the local market on the way home, get a snack or two outside of her mother’s proscribed diet, but couldn’t afford the time. She had no doubt that her mother would be paying attention to Ranger’s comings and goings as well and flagging if he got too close to her.
She hoped he visited tonight.
When the lights went out in Taimi’s apartment, Ranger shifted and flew up to the balcony.
When he came around the corner, her branches swung, and her leaves fluttered before settling down. Ranger didn’t dare hope that it meant she was glad he was there. He’d hung out with girls back in Queens but there was something about Taimi. Maybe it was as simple as that she understood what it was to be different.
He flopped onto the bench and stared up at the tree. Ranger wondered how much Taimi retained in the other form. There was a noise from beyond him and Ranger froze, straining his ears to hear if it was her mother coming up the stairs. It was late—after midnight—but her mother didn’t keep regular hours.
The sound came from the rooftop from the higher building nearby. There were a couple of tree branches near the edge, and they were swaying in his direction. He could almost hear words in the air, like a plea or an imploring. He couldn’t quite make it out, but there was a note of prayer in the susurration of the wind.
The branches gathered in an arrow. It was almost like they were trying to form pictures.
Ranger slumped back down. Gardens crowded his vision all of a sudden, greenery everywhere in the cityscape night lights. All around him was the moan of trees, the wind picking up almost audible words and throwing them toward him. The trees appeared to be angling toward the rooftop.
“Well, tree,” he said, remembering at the last moment not to call it Taimi. She didn’t grasp that he was a dragon. Everything rode on the fine edge of disaster. He found that it was calming to speak out loud. Taimi the tree shivered, a minute movement that sent pollen down. There was something wonderful about her in this form.
He got up and put his hand on the trunk. A branch came down and grazed his head like a woman would caress his hair. He wanted to lean into that stroke. Ranger cleared his throat. He had to go. The other trees were making noise and it might draw Miranda’s attention. Yet he was reluctant to leave. He preferred to stay with Taimi until she turned into a girl at dawn. But that was too big a risk.
“I have to go,” he said, and the tree shook as though trying to get a question out, but he could hear nothing but those near words again. “I’ll…um…see you later.” Tomorrow he would find a way to locate her at the school. He had been warned off, but that didn’t matter. He would succeed in this.
“Good night,” he said and fled back the way he had come.
She was walking toward the main door and freedom when Ranger stopped her. Taimi’s heart jumped and she grinned like a lunatic.
She checked for the ever-present Mean Miss Wanda but the other woman wasn’t around.
“Going my way?” He held the door for her. Other kids plowed through the doors, heading for the street or cars or shared rides to get them to their next destination. Some waved to Ranger and Taimi as they passed.
It was silly to be so happy. Nothing could come of knowing Ranger. Maybe when she was eighteen things would be different. Not that things would change, even if she were a legal adult. She’d still be a tree. She had no way to live a normal life.
“I have to get home. Mom gets mad if I’m late.” She hurried toward their building, preferring to slow down and linger with Ranger.
“We’re just walking,” Ranger said.
They passed the 2 Baci Pizzeria where she sometimes ducked in for a slice, and the Quincy Market where she grabbed contraband snacks. She glanced at him, enjoying his lanky build and the way he hooked one thumb into his bursting backpack. There was something comforting about Ranger, although the tingles inside her had nothing to do with ease.
“Tell me about yourself,” she said, not daring to let her hand brush his. She didn’t have the courage. She had never been on a date with a boy. All she grasped about the opposite sex was from school, the Internet, and the few warlocks her mother had in her life.
He grinned. “Not much to tell. I was from Queens, but my folks had to go away and couldn’t take me, so they sent me to live with my aunt.” His voice shaded with meaning, telling her there was more to the story.
“That must suck.”
He shrugged, his backpack moving with his shoulders. “It is what it is. What about you? Is it just you and your mom? No dad?”
There was no way to explain the complicated relationships and Taimi didn’t bother. Instead she trotted out the falsity that had become part of her psyche all these years.
“Dad was never in the picture. I don’t even know who he is.” No lie there. As a dryad she wasn’t “born” by normal means. She wasn’t sure how it all worked. What she’d been able to read on the Internet didn’t explain how new dryads were created. Just that they were bonded to trees and always
female.
“Too common a story in the big city.” Ranger said it as if it were no big deal.
“Yeah. I guess it is.” They passed Cpt. Dan’s Good Time Tavern and turned the corner. They were too close to the building and she dragged her feet to delay returning home, to spend more time with Ranger, but she knew she couldn’t. “Do you miss your folks?”
A shadow passed across his face. “Sure. Sometimes. They check in. They won’t be gone forever.” He paused. “Taimi, I know you’re a tree.”
She stared at him, her heart beating fast. She couldn’t have gotten that right. Nobody was familiar with what she was, except her mom and the witches. The old compulsion not to tell bubbled within her, but it no longer held absolute sway.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She backed up a step, glancing at the city street, wondering if she should flee.
“I come to your rooftop and sit under you and watch you. Taimi, it’s okay. There’s nothing to be afraid of.” He took a deep breath, his skin roughening into what looked like scales for just a moment before they faded. “I’m different, too. I’m a dragon.”
Ranger didn’t understand what had possessed him to tell Taimi his truth. In all likelihood he had just destroyed his life and any chance they had of gaining Taimi’s trust. It had been too much too soon. Just because he felt like he’d been in her life forever didn’t mean he had.
He shouldn’t have done it. It had been the height of stupidity.
Lizzy came in and Ranger tried to appear innocent. He should tell her, and he would—tomorrow. Lizzy might send him away. It was important that he find out what, if anything, Taimi had done before he figured out his next move.
Ranger kept an ear on the hallway, listening for any kind of unexpected noise. His aunt was not without power, but she didn’t have the ability to turn a girl into a tree every night. He wasn’t sure she could protect him if Miranda were to come at him. He might have to run, if Taimi ratted him out.
Queens of Wings & Storms Page 10
