by Pati Nagle
He gazed at me and his eyes softened. “You are a friend. It doesn’t matter how long you will live. As long as you are here, I am your ally.”
That gave me a warm feeling that I wasn’t sure I deserved. I looked down at my plate. “Thanks.”
Len came back with Caeran’s glass and a pitcher of water. “Where did Bironan go?”
“To find the others. They will go back to the theater and try to track the alben.”
He glanced at me as if expecting a smartass remark. I was about as far from wisecracking as I could get.
The others must be his other cousins. He’d brought four of them down here, then brought Nathrin back to Madera’s. Madóran‘s.
So there were three here still. I thought of them tracking down the alben and hoped they’d succeed.
“Amanda, please stay here with us for now,” Caeran said. “That will make it easier to protect you.”
I pressed my lips together and nodded. “OK.”
“And please do not leave the house alone.” He looked at Len. “Nor you. She will be hunting you, too, now.”
Len sighed and nodded. “Sorry I screwed it up. I was just trying to help.”
“You did help. She had the better of me.” He took her hand.
I pushed my fries around on my plate, suddenly missing Savhoran.
“Stay together for now, if I am not with you,” Caeran said. “I would take you both back to Madera’s, but…”
I looked up. “Take Len back. She should be safe. Not her fault I can’t go.”
“I want you both where I can watch over you,” Caeran said gently.
That made me feel small. I bit back a snide comment. If it hadn’t been for Caeran, I’d probably be dead.
I ate a few more fries and listened to them making plans. They would go with me to my dorm tomorrow and collect up my stuff. Whatever didn’t fit in their spare room would go in the shed out back.
I tried to work up some indignation about their high-handedness, taking over my life like that, but the truth was I was grateful. The thought of living in the dorm over the summer with a supernatural stalker prowling around made me shiver. My only other alternative was to go home. No thanks.
I stood up. “Guess I’ll turn in. No, don’t get up, Len. I can find the guest room.”
The room looked like it had been hastily tidied. A candle was burning on Len’s desk and my bag was sitting by the bed. I put the bag on top of a banker’s box by the wall and took out my toothbrush and all that. Then I sat on the bed and cried a little. The day had been stressful to say the least.
How many times had I screwed up, just that day? I didn’t want to think about it.
I got ready for bed and failed to sleep, haunted by the memory of being taken over by the stranger I now knew as the alben. I gave up when the sun started glowing through the curtains, and got up to look for breakfast, being actually hungry by that time.
Two of Caeran’s cousins were in the living room. I said “Hi” as I passed through on the way to the kitchen. Couldn’t shake the feeling they were watching me like I was a bug.
Len’s fridge looked like Mr. Healthy eater did the grocery shopping. I was longing for a cinnamon roll, but the closest I found was some wheat bread. I put a couple of pieces in the toaster. At least Len still had butter.
I heard the front door open, then Len and Caeran came in. They joined me at the table and Len set a pepper spray canister in front of me.
I grimaced. “Do I have to?”
“Yes. I have one, too, and we got a couple of spares. They’ll be in the laundry room cupboard.”
“Isn’t there any other way to stop them?”
Len raised an eyebrow. “Garlic, maybe? A lot of that is myth, Man.”
“What about sunlight? Will that get them?”
She glanced at Caeran. “It’ll give them a rash, but that’s about it.”
She showed me how to use the spray. I put it in my pocket, hoping I’d never need it.
When I’d finished eating, Caeran went with me and Len to campus and emptied out my dorm room. I turned in my key and put in a request for a similar room come August, though thinking about school seemed surreal when I had a homicidal immortal stalking me.
For a couple of weeks things were quiet. Caeran or one of the others escorted me to and from work. Gradually I learned to tell his cousins apart and remember their names.
Caeran insisted that we stay in at night, so I set up my flat screen TV in the living room and started watching movies most nights. Len usually watched with me, and occasionally Caeran or one of his cousins joined us. I put on Fellowship of the Ring one night, just to see how they’d react. They seemed to find it funny; there was a lot of chuckling and comments in their language that they wouldn’t share with me and Len.
Len got the job she wanted in the medical lab. “You should apply for one, too,” she told me over lunch the first day she worked there. “We could work together.”
“Thanks, but I’m not into medicine. Think I’ll stick with the library.”
“Man, it’s not just a job. It’s a project. To help the ælven.”
I paused with a slice of pizza halfway to my mouth. “Huh?”
She glanced at Caeran, then leaned toward me across the table. “Madóran has some ideas for a cure for the curse, but he doesn’t have access to modern laboratory equipment. That’s why I’m taking pre-med. I’m going to do the research.”
“But it’ll take years to get to where you can even start!”
She nodded. “That doesn’t matter much to the ælven.”
“It matters to you! You’re committing a chunk of your life to this!”
She looked at Caeran and her eyes got soft. “Yes.”
I stared at her, wondering when she’d gone nuts and why I hadn’t noticed. Things that happen gradually can sneak up on you.
Len looked at me. “You could help.”
“Uh….it’s not what I had in mind.”
Actually, I didn’t have anything in mind. I hadn’t decided on a major. I felt no strong ambition to be anything in particular. Independently wealthy would be nice, but failing a winning lottery ticket or getting a lot better at poker than I was, I needed to figure out a career. I’d toyed with the idea of business school, not very enthusiastically.
But medicine? That was a lot of work, and a lot of stress, and nothing I was interested in.
Caeran turned to me. “It would help Len to have company in this effort.”
“So you help her,” I said.
“I will, but it is human company I mean. She does not have that.”
“Just think about it, OK?” Len said. “That’s all I ask.”
I held in a sigh. “I’ll think about it.”
Wherever I went, Caeran or one of his cousins was always with me. It got on my nerves at first, but I got used to it. Sometimes I got jealous looks from other girls on campus, and that reminded me that these guys—all of them—were freaking gorgeous.
Funny, but I wasn’t that interested in them anymore. I kept thinking of Savhoran.
Finally I scrounged up the courage to write him a note, and bugged Len for Madóran’s address. I kept it short. I said I was sorry he was ill, and apologized for distressing him. I understood that I couldn’t be near him, and I’d love to hear from him if he wanted to write. Gave my email address and Len and Caeran’s street address, wrote a cover note thanking Madóran, Botched one envelope before I remembered to write Madera on the outside, and stuck it in the mail before I could chicken out.
That night I turned the TV on to watch a movie, and the local news came up.
“The campus killer has struck again at UNM…”
I sat staring, my hand still aiming the remote at the screen, my skin crawling. The victim was another guy. The newscaster sketched the details, then a tape of an on-scene reporter came on.
Len came in from the kitchen and joined me on the couch. She was frowning.
“…discovered ea
rly this morning on the north golf course near Bratton Hall…”
I sat up. “Bratton Hall? That’s near the medical lab, isn’t it?”
Len nodded. Coincidence?
Caeran wandered in as the story was wrapping up. He watched in silence, then looked at Len.
“You should not go back to work.”
“I can’t quit,” she said.
I muted the TV. “Maybe just take a leave of absence?”
She turned to me. “I haven’t even worked there a month. They’d think I’m nuts.”
Caeran came and sat beside her. “There will be other jobs. The risk is too high now.”
Except it wasn’t just a job. I gnawed the back of my thumb. “We’re home before dark. All the killings happened at night.”
Caeran shook his head. “The alben can hunt in daylight. She prefers not to, but it is not safe to assume she never will.”
“I can’t quit, Caeran,” Len said.
They stared at each other, long and hard. Finally Caeran sighed and went out.
He was even more obsessive about watching us after that. No more just walking us to and from the car—when Len and I were out of the house, one of the cousins was guarding each of us at all times.
I started going a little stir-crazy. I taught the guys to play Texas Hold’em, and every night we weren’t watching doing homework or movies I bugged them to play poker with me. Lomen picked it up fast and seemed to really enjoy it, and the others weren’t bad. Len played too, though she wasn’t a great player. Too timid.
I was starting to feel really claustrophobic. I had to take a stand somewhere. I was damned if I was going to let a stranger who wasn’t even human shape my life, so at breakfast one morning I screwed up my courage.
“I’d like to play in a poker tournament. There’s one Tuesday night at Sandia.”
Caeran gave me his flat look. “It is too dangerous.”
“It’s a room full of people in the middle of a casino. You think the alben would go there?”
“It is better to stay home at night.”
“Tuesday’s my birthday. This is what I want for my present.”
He frowned and turned his tea mug in his hands. “Lunch would be better.”
“It’s a weekday. We’re working.”
“Why don’t we go to Sunday brunch?” Len said.
“Because I want to celebrate on my birthday. It’s just one night, Caeran. Please? You can bring your whole family if you want. I know Lomen wouldn’t mind—he might even like to enter the tournament.”
He pressed his lips together. Len put her hand on his arm. He looked at her, then sighed.
“All right.”
“Great! Thank you thank you thank you!” I was so happy I could have hugged him.
“Where is Sandia?” he asked.
“North end of town. Way north.”
“Is it near the theater?”
“Not really.”
“Going anywhere is a risk.”
“But the alben is more likely to stay near campus, right?” I said. “She’s done all her hunting there so far.”
“Almost all,” Caeran said, looking at me.
I remembered the movie theater parking lot, and shrugged away a shiver. If I couldn’t go out for one night, with four ælven protecting me…
That night the guys came over, and I brought up the plan. Lomen agreed to it instantly, and asked me a bunch of questions about the tournament and the casino. He wanted to play too, which mollified Caeran a little. We’d be in the same room.
So that they wouldn’t have to split up to watch us both, we decided Len would come along too. She didn’t want to play, but she could stand outside the poker room and watch. Like most casinos, Sandia’s poker room was in the back, not near the front doors.
I spent the intervening days getting excited about it, waffling between nervousness and anticipation. When Tuesday morning came, Faranin escorted me to the library. I liked him—he didn’t look down on me. We were all getting to know each other a little better.
Lunchtime the drill was Caeran escorted Len from the lab to the library, then we’d eat at the Student Union Building or one of the restaurants on Central. Since we planned to have dinner at the casino, we just grabbed a bite at the SUB.
Len was grinning when they got to the library, and she kept looking at me sidelong while we got our food. When we were all settled at a table I called her on it.
“What?”
She grinned again. “Caeran brought in the mail.”
Caeran took an envelope out of his pocket and handed it to me. No return address; beautiful handwriting. Postmarked Guadalupita.
I looked up, hope burning in my chest. Len’s grin widened.
“Happy birthday!”
= 6 =
I tore the envelope open. The letter was brief, and didn’t say anything all that important. What was important was that Savhoran had answered me. I stared at his signature a long time before I even looked at the message.
“How’s he doing?” Len asked.
“Um. He says he’s adjusting. Madóran‘s helping. He’s trying to plan how to live with his affliction.”
Caeran raised his head. “Good. He is staying, then.”
“At Madóran‘s? He doesn’t say so…”
“That’s not what he meant,” Len said, glancing at Caeran.
Caeran didn’t say anything, just stirred his salad around with his fork. Len looked at me.
“He meant Savhoran’s not giving up.”
“Giving up?”
“Many who fall under the alben’s curse choose to end their lives,” Caeran said. “It is one more burden than they can take.”
It had never occurred to me that being gorgeous and immortal could be a burden, but the sadness in Caeran’s eyes made me think again. I had enough regrets in my own life, short as it was. Multiply that by a couple dozen and I could see how it might weigh you down.
I read Savhoran’s note again. It actually sounded cheerful when I took into account that someone in his position was a potential suicide. He was definitely trying to be upbeat.
He didn’t say anything about wanting to see me again, which was understandable. I was just glad he had written at all. I put the letter back in the envelope and tucked it in my pack.
“So,” Len said, “there’s another lab tech position opening up. You should apply.”
“Yeah? What did you do today?” I asked.
“Cleaned lab equipment.”
“Think I’d rather shelve books.”
“It would be easier for Caeran if we both worked in the same place.”
“Excuse me? This is temporary.” I looked at Caeran. “Just until you guys catch the alben or she goes away, right?”
He met my gaze. “I do not think she will go away.”
“Doesn’t she know you’re going to—you know?”
His eyes turned cold. “She knows. She thinks she can overcome us. If she caught one of us alone, she would have a good chance of it.”
Len squeezed his hand. I had a feeling there was more to it than Caeran had said.
I changed the subject, mentioning that a recent movie had come out on DVD. We talked about trivialities for the rest of the meal, then they escorted me back to the library.
“See you at four-thirty,” Len said, giving me a quick hug.
The afternoon crawled. I re-read Savhoran’s letter several times. Started thinking about what to write in my answer. I was more a text-and-email person, but probably Savhoran didn’t have an address; I’d never seen Caeran or any of the others use the Internet. As long as he was responding, I’d write letters.
Len and Caeran, along with Lomen, who’d been watching outside the library, picked me up and took me home. The others had gone ahead to the casino, no doubt to scout things out.
I went to my room and put on one of my nice tops. Half my clothes were still in bags from the move; I needed to get a dresser. I brushed my hair and put it in a sp
angly clip.
“Happy birthday,” I told myself in the bathroom mirror.
I was finally twenty-one. Woohoo.
When had I stopped looking forward to being legal? This whole thing with Caeran and his family had knocked me off balance.
I went out to the living room. Lomen smiled at me from the couch. I grinned back, starting to feel excited about the evening.
“Ready to take all their chips?” I said.
“Yes!”
“Oh—I forgot to warn you, it’s best to bring cash for the entry fee.” I felt a pang of guilt for not having mentioned this before. I didn’t know what Lomen’s cash flow was like, but he seemed unphased.
“How much is the fee?”
I winced. “Fifty dollars.”
I’d saved up for mine. Lomen just shrugged.
“No problem,” he said, smiling.
We drove over to the casino, girls in the front, elves in the back. Len parked underground and the four of us marched to the elevator in a tight group, with Caeran trying to look all directions at once.
We went to the poker room first so Lomen and I could sign up for the tournament, then met the other two cousins outside the buffet. I would have been happy to eat there but Caeran continued past it toward the elevators. I started to protest, and Len slid her arm through mine, grinning.
“Happy Birthday. We’re eating at Bien Shur.”
The casino’s best restaurant, one of the most expensive in town. I glanced at Lomen again, hoping this wasn’t going to hurt his pocketbook. He seemed unconcerned.
We rode the elevator to the top of the building. Caeran had reserved a table on the north side, by the windows overlooking a spectacular view of the mountains. He took a seat facing the entrance.
I opened my menu and gulped at the prices. Len caught my eye.
“Our treat,” she murmured. “Order anything you want.”
I was starting to wonder if Caeran was rich. I’d assumed he and Len were renting the house, but what if he’d bought it? And then there was Len’s car, which she’d got last fall. It was used, sure, but it was a recent-model Subaru, much nicer than the elderly Saturn she’d driven before she met Caeran. I glanced at him and saw that he was talking with the wine steward, a nicely-dressed individual who looked like he was from Sandia Pueblo.
