I rubbed my eyes. Being able to find Raquel, or even Anne’s office, had always been a long shot, but I’d secretly hoped we’d run into someone that we could pump for information or something. I had no doubt that Reth with all his glamoured glory could get some poor sap to spill all sorts of beans. But we hadn’t seen a single soul the whole time we’d been stalking the halls.
Wait. The whole time I’d been following Reth through the halls.
I looked at him, my eyes narrowed. “You’d really like it if this whole effort was a failure, wouldn’t you?” Much as I doubted he cared one way or the other about Raquel’s future, one thing he was invested in was me. And no Raquel meant no more faerie names, which meant no more touching Lend. Maybe forever.
He tilted his head to the side, face inscrutable.
“I can’t believe this.” I turned on my heel and stalked back down the hall. “Of course you wouldn’t really be helping me.” I knew where we should go, and without Reth to lead me in paths to deliberately avoid any and everyone, I was going to find something out.
I walked as fast as I could without looking crazy in case we did run into someone, quickly navigating the labyrinthine halls to my old training room. I pulled my hand up just short of trying to palm the lock. Odds were, nothing would happen, but what if they’d coded the place to recognize my hand and set off an alarm?
“Bleep,” I muttered.
“Problem?” Reth said, leaning in way too close to my ear. Faeries and personal bubbles, honestly. I tried not to shiver at the way his breath trailed warm and sweet down my neck.
“No.” Screw technology, I would do this old school. I pulled my hand back, made a fist, and then knocked. Loudly. Repeatedly. Maybe a bit desperately, because I was fast running out of time and if he didn’t open the door…
The door slid open, revealing the shocked and angry face of Bud. “What the—”
I pushed him back into the room and let the door close behind us, shutting Reth out in the hall.
“What are you doing back here?” His face was an unhealthy shade of red. “Are you daft? You were lucky to get out of here once. If they catch you again, you can bet that—”
“I need help. They’re going to try Raquel.”
He let out a heavy breath and rubbed his eyes, staring at the floor. “I’d thought as much.”
“Do you know where they’re keeping her? I need to break her out before the trial, because after that I might not ever be able to find her again.” It was too terrible to think about. I wouldn’t lose Raquel, not like I’d lost Lish.
He put his calloused, heavy hands on my shoulders and fixed his muddy brown eyes on mine. “Listen, kid. I always liked you. And I liked Raquel, too. But, trust me, you don’t want any part of this. Best to leave IPCA to itself and get free and clear again, forever. Disappear.”
I opened my mouth to argue when it hit me—that look in Bud’s eyes? It was fear. Bud was like a grizzly bear. He was stronger and tougher than even a werewolf, and he didn’t have any supernatural abilities other than his infinite capacity to yell at me for not practicing my self-defense techniques.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
He dropped his hands and sat wearily on a beat-up folding chair surrounded by free weights against the wall. “This place, well, it’s never been perfect but I always believed in the core of it. That we were doing good. But ever since Anne-Laurie LeFevre swooped in, it’s all gone to pot faster than a gremlin can chew through the hull of a supertanker.”
“With the arrests?”
“More than that. There are rumors—and I stay out of all this, mind you—but rumors of dealings with creatures we’re meant to protect the world from. Things that sure as all heck go against our charter. Things it’s safer for both of us not to know about. I’m asking you to leave it be. I’ll keep an eye out for Raquel, but she made her bed with IPCA and she’ll have to sleep in it. She wouldn’t want you here any more than I do.”
I scowled, my stomach crawling inside my abdomen like a living thing. Something serious was going down here to have Bud scared. I was in over my head.
Eh, what else was new. I shrugged. “Raquel wouldn’t leave me. I’m not going to give up on getting her out.”
He sighed heavily. “You always were too stubborn. I’ve half a mind to set off the alarm just to get you to run away.”
“Aww, come on. You wouldn’t do that. We both know I was your favorite student.”
He snorted.
“No idea where they’re keeping Raquel?”
“None. And if I knew, I wouldn’t tell you. Get out. Have a life. And stay out of mine. You’re more dangerous than anything else here.”
“Psh. I’m the epitome of cuteness. See? Perky! That’s me. Not dangerous.”
He shook his head and opened the door. “Out. And please, kid, I never want to see you again.”
“Thanks, Bud. Again. For everything. I’m pretty sure that knife of yours saved my life.” He looked at my hands expectantly like I’d have it there. “Oh, uh, yeah. Kind of lost it.” Before he could glare I hugged him, then walked out and heard the door slide shut behind me. I’d expected Reth to be waiting, but he was nowhere to be seen. What was the evil creature up to now?
No matter. That was probably as much information, worthless as it had been, as I was going to get. I turned and hurried alone toward Raquel’s old office, letting myself hope that they’d found Raquel and she’d be there with them, sitting behind her desk and practicing her arsenal of sighs. As I passed a cross hall I caught sight of someone. My werewolf guard buddy from before. Bleep, bleep, bleepity bleep. Stopping short of putting a hand up to shield the side of my face, I walked as fast as I could without looking like I was panicking.
He didn’t see me. He couldn’t have seen me. Oh, please, please let him not have seen me.
“Hey! You!”
Could nothing go my way today? I broke into a run, skidding around the corner with Wolfie right behind me. I had just enough time to register Bud at the end of the hall and wonder what he was doing out there, when Bud melted away to reveal the water form of my boyfriend, collapsing to the floor in an unconscious heap.
Time for plan B. Or plan T, really. Time to see how much Wolfie liked Tasey.
PICTURE IMPERFECT
Wolfie growled, narrowing his eyes. “You know, the best way to get a predator to chase you is to run.”
I snorted. “Oh my gosh, did you practice that line in front of a mirror or something?”
He lunged and I dodged to the side, but the hallway was too narrow to maneuver much. I had to keep him away from Lend. I turned to sprint in the opposite direction but was jerked back, my feet nearly slipping out from under me. Wolfie had my collar in his huge hand. I undid the buttons, reached into my suit jacket, and pulled out Tasey. He tried to yank me backward, pulling off my jacket with the effort. Tasey on, I twirled to jab it into his stomach, but he was too fast.
Bleep, I hadn’t fought a werewolf ever, and had never had to tase one who was actually expecting it. He grinned maliciously as we circled each other, each looking for an opening.
“I can smell your fear.”
“Again with the lines! What do you think this is, a B movie? News flash: you are not a tortured hero and we’re not going to have a hot make out scene after we fight.” I feinted forward, but he twirled to the left and slammed his fist into the side of my head. My vision exploded into stars, everything narrowing and closing off as my brain tried to process the pain.
Taser, Taser, Taser, I thought, desperately trying to claw my instincts out of the blow-to-the-head stupor, but before I managed to, he had grabbed my hand and smashed it down onto his knee. Tasey clattered uselessly to the floor as he twisted my arm behind my back, forcing me to bend over in pain.
“Whose movie is it now?” he hissed in my ear, pushing me to my knees.
“That’s quite enough of that,” Reth said, and I’d never been so glad in my entire life to hear his smooth, g
olden voice. Wolfie abruptly let go of my arm. I jumped to my feet and backed up.
Reth had a finger underneath Wolfie’s chin—the werewolf security guard’s face was blank bordering on slaphappy as he stared at Reth. Judging by the look on Reth’s face, though, Wolfie was going to meet a very bad end. Immediately.
“Wait!”
“Hmmm?” Reth didn’t look up at me.
“Don’t kill him.”
“May I remind you that you can no longer control me? This thing was going to hurt you.”
“It’s not his fault. I mean, he’s a jerk, sure, but he didn’t ask to be here.” And it was a little bit because of me. Dang guilt. I picked up my jacket and Tasey. “Can you just make him go to sleep or something so he can’t sound an alarm?”
Reth finally looked at me, his eyes narrowing. “You are far too attached to the transient lives of this realm, Evelyn. If you opened up your vision like you should, you’d realize that none of this matters.”
“Matters to me. So please. Put him to sleep. Temporary sleep, not euphemistic sleep.”
Finally, Reth’s eyes relaxed and he turned back to Wolfie, tracing his fingers across the guard’s forehead. Wolfie’s eyes rolled back in his head and he dropped, none too softly.
I didn’t feel bad about that. “Thanks. Where were you?”
“I had some business to attend to.”
“What, like, forgot to fill out your last IPCA time card? Pick up your personal effects? Clean out your old cubby?”
He actually smiled, the corners of his perfect, straight lips pulling up. “Something like that.”
Positive he wasn’t going to give me a real answer, I turned and walked the length of the hall to where Lend was still lying, peacefully asleep and, ah bleep, totally naked. Hadn’t expected that one. I mean, it made sense that he’d come without real clothes so he could imitate anyone regardless of what they were wearing, but still. Not really the time or place for boyfriend nudity.
But I couldn’t very well leave him here to wake up alone. Where was Jack? If he’d ditched out on Lend, he was so going to pay.
Raquel’s old office door slid open, and the little demon himself poked his head out. “There you are. Had to use the Faerie Paths to get in and open it from the inside. Took a couple of wrong turns to get there.” He looked down and saw Lend. “He’s a terrible sentry. I would never fall asleep on the job.”
“Shut up and help me get him inside.” We each grabbed an arm and pulled Lend into the room. Reth sauntered in behind us, carrying Wolfie. “Can’t you dump him somewhere else?”
“Would you rather I leave him unconscious in the hall for anyone to stumble upon?” Reth walked to the corner and dropped him on the floor.
I set Lend’s head down gently, then sat in the white chair at Raquel’s desk. The whole place was as pristine as it always had been when she was here, but it felt wrong to be behind the desk in her place.
Jack sat in one of the extra chairs, draping a leg over the side. “We got nothing. Any luck?”
“None. An old friend says that IPCA’s into some bad stuff, but he couldn’t or wouldn’t say what. It doesn’t give us anything to go on.” I opened the nearest drawer and my heart jumped painfully in my chest. At the top of the pile of papers was a photo of me. I was probably thirteen, on one of our field trips to the Museum of Natural History in New York City, posing like the huge T. rex. I reached out and trailed my fingers along the edge of the photo, touched that Raquel had printed and kept it.
Also, wow, braces and bangs were so not my friends.
Pulling out the photo and setting it gently on the desk, I rifled through the rest of the papers, but they were the usual government bureaucracy nonsense—forms and forms and more forms.
“I doubt you’re going to find anything useful there,” Jack said. “If you knew you were in trouble with IPCA, would you leave incriminating evidence in the unlocked drawers of your desk? It’s probably between her mattresses or something.”
“Yeah! That’s where I keep my secret stuff.”
Jack rolled his eyes. “I know. It’s not very creative.”
Resisting the urge to punch him again, I nodded. “Okay. Reth, how soon is Wolfie going to wake up?”
Reth didn’t bother responding, simply glaring at me like he couldn’t believe I would question his efficiency in rendering werewolves harmless. He looked uncomfortable standing in the room. It wasn’t that he was too big for it, because he was very lean and narrow although quite tall, but somehow it felt like he took up more space than the room could afford. Like it couldn’t contain him. No wonder faeries never hung around inside if they didn’t have to.
“Jack, have you ever been to Raquel’s room? Could you open a door there?”
“Raquel and I didn’t see each other socially much. I kept waiting for a dinner invitation, but alas.”
I looked at Reth hopefully. “You?”
“Must we really waste more time? Not all of us here are immortal, and I’d think you and Jack would more carefully guard what little you have. We should go immediately to my queen.”
“Can you get us in or not?”
He looked at the ceiling, his features dripping with disdain for the entire operation. “I suppose if you were to stand immediately outside her door I could use my sense of where you are to navigate into her room and open the door from inside.”
“That’s my pretty faerie boy!”
“If you ever address me like that again, I will make that abomination on your head permanent.”
I put my fingers up to the brunette wig, horrified. “You wouldn’t.”
“I suggest you do not attempt to find out.”
Swallowing hard, I pointed to Lend. “Can you take him with you so Jack and I don’t have to carry him?”
Not taking his eyes off me, Reth picked up Lend, letting his head loll uncomfortably to the side, then walked through a faerie door and out of the room.
“That guy is scary,” Jack said.
“Tell me about it.” We left Raquel’s office, checking both ways, then walking as calmly and quickly as we could. We were halfway to Raquel’s room when I froze in terror at the sound of Anne-Whatever Whatever’s voice.
EAVESDROPPING AND READING NOTES
Looking frantically up and down the hall, I let out my breath, relieved. Anne-Whatever Whatever was nowhere to be seen. But I could still hear her, which meant she was way too close for comfort. I put my finger to my lips to shush Jack. He put a finger to his lips, too, but used the middle one instead of the pointer.
“Wait here,” I hissed.
I tiptoed down the hall with my back to one of the walls until I got to the corner, where I could make out words.
“…know about the deal. I assure you I haven’t forgotten.” Anne-Whatever Whatever sounded equal parts annoyed and nervous. “We’ve been tracking their progress, and I’m confident they are no closer to making a gate.”
How did she know about gates? IPCA didn’t usually pay attention to faerie lore. I startled, nearly screaming as a hand came down on my shoulder. Jack gave me an exasperated look, leaning in to listen, too.
“And the Empty One?” This voice was definitely not Anne’s. It was like birdsong formed into words, and something about it made a spot behind my eyes start hurting. I needed to see who that voice belonged to. I was sure it was a faerie voice, but which one? That wasn’t how IPCA officials talked to named faeries.
“I’ve told you, she’s a silly, stupid girl. We’ll get her away from her protections and next time she won’t escape the Center.”
“Our displeasure is not to be taken lightly. Do not think you can try to gain an advantage over my queen by keeping the Empty One for yourself.”
“You keep up your end of the bargain and get me more names, and I guarantee that Evelyn will never make a gate. Yours will be the only exodus from this world.”
What the crap? If this was what it sounded like—and it sounded like the government agency char
ged with protecting the world from paranormals was conspiring with the very worst of the lot—it was big. Scary big. No wonder Bud had been nervous. I had to look, had to see if I could tell which court the faerie belonged to. If the Seelie Court was playing all the sides, I was so done with them. I started to lean forward; Jack’s hand tightened around my arm like a vise. I shot him a glare. “I need to see,” I mouthed. He didn’t let go, so I ducked down and peeked my head around the corner.
Anne’s back was to me, but I had a full view of the faerie. A faerie with midnight blue hair and eyes, her cold white skin dotted with pricks of light like stars. A faerie straight from the Dark Court. A faerie I knew for sure that IPCA didn’t have named.
Which meant Anne-Whatever Whatever was making deals with uncontrollable faeries. Unseelie uncontrollable faeries.
Oh, bleep.
I pulled back, heart racing as I waited for the faerie to yell or sound an alarm. Nothing. Jack and I slipped off down a side hall, taking the long way to Raquel’s unit. We made it without incident, then stood there. I shuffled my weight from foot to foot, trying to relieve some of the soreness and wondering how long it would take Reth to figure out where I was and get into Raquel’s room.
The door slid open in reply.
Jack and I darted in, letting out twin sighs of relief. Lend, of course, immediately dropped to the floor. Naked, still. I doubted Raquel had anything in his size.
“He was rather upset waking up in the Faerie Paths with me,” Reth said.
“I can’t imagine.” I quickly scanned Raquel’s austere living room area. “There, help me get him into that closet.”
Jack grabbed an arm and we dragged my poor boyfriend across the floor and shoved him into the tiny coat closet next to Raquel’s vacuum. I added watching Lend walk to the things I missed most about him.
We closed the door and after a few moments a loud thunk sounded. “What the—Where am I? Evie?”
“Right here,” I said, tapping on the door. “You’re in a closet in Raquel’s unit.”
Endlessly (Paranormalcy) Page 12
