A Monster and a Gentleman (6 page)

Oren had leaned into the open door, reaching for his phone. He straightened very slowly. The things she said finally penetrated his shock, and he realized she was not some random passerby.

“Who are you?”

She smiled. Her eyes were a startlingly bright blue, like the ocean surrounding tropical islands. When she didn’t answer, Oren’s gaze narrowed. His reality had been expanded to include a whole world of possibilities when he’d joined this project and learned about the monsters. He has an unexplainable accident and then a scantily clad woman who is both scary and beautiful pops up next to his car?

Yeah. Right.

“What are you?”

Her smile widened to a grin. “You are smart. Does that mean you didn’t do it or that you hid your actions?” She spun in a little circle, laughing softly. She stopped abruptly, focusing on him with an intensity that was truly scary. She was like the creepy kid from
The Ring
, all grown up and sexy, which made her
extra
scary.

Oren let out a slow breath, then leapt into action. He dove into his car, slammed the door shut and put his foot on the gas.
 

The car jerked forward, clumsily gaining speed. Oren didn’t look back. With one hand, he fumbled with his phone and called Cali.

“Oren, what’s up?”

“We have a problem.”

“Another one?”

“I was just ambushed, by…a thing.”

Cali cursed. “Describe it.”

“This is going to sound dumb, but it was a woman. She was gorgeous, but scary, with all this hair. I almost crashed my car and when I stopped she was there, smiling and laughing.”

Cali sighed. “I’ll call you back.”

“Don’t—” the line went dead “—hang up.”

Realizing he was headed back to the set, Oren quickly changed course. He didn’t want to lead her—uh, it—back to everyone else.

At a stop sign, he looked over his shoulder. There was nothing on the road behind him. Oren sighed and faced forward.
 

“You drove fast.”

“HOLY SHIT.” Oren practically hit the roof of the car. The woman was leaning in the open passenger door. His foot slipped off the brake and the car started to roll. She slid into the passenger seat and closed the door. Oren slammed his foot on the brake. She frowned at him, then buckled her seat belt.

“How did you...no, scratch that, are you here to kill me?”

“If you’re a threat, then yes.”

Oren blew out a breath. “Glad we got that cleared up.”

She smiled, and for a moment she was simply beautiful. Not scary, not otherworldly, but a happy, beautiful woman with skin the color of cream and ocean blue eyes.

“Who are you?”
 

“I’m Maeve.”

“All right…Maeve. I’m Oren.”

“I know.”

“I was afraid of that. How do you know who I am?”

“I know who you are because I need to know. To protect my people.”

“That’s not an answer to ‘how,’ but we’ll leave that for a moment so I can ask who ‘your people’ are?”

She examined his face for a moment before turning to face forward. “Where are we going?”

“We?”

“Yes. I’m staying with you.”

“Staying with...okay, seriously. Who are you and why are you following me?”

She said nothing. Oren stared at her for a moment. He’d always figured he’d never again experience this sort of surrealism now that he no longer put himself through daylong coke benders. But if there was one thing the past few months had taught him, it was that there was still plenty to learn and discover in life.

“Okay then, how do you feel about hamburgers?”

She raised a brow. “I detest hamburgers but love bacon cheeseburgers.”

Oren laughed and put his foot on the gas.

Maeve dunked a fry in ketchup and watched the man—Oren—as he ate. He was having a turkey burger with salad on the side. They were at a small restaurant that sat in a blocky building. There were few cars in the parking lot and only one other group of people in the restaurant. When he’d pulled in, he’d said that this was safer, whatever that meant.
 

He’d first ordered a bacon cheeseburger as she had, but then immediately changed his order to something he didn’t seem to be enjoying. Maeve felt his desire for what was on her plate so strongly that her own stomach rumbled, despite the mostly eaten burger and fries. She pushed the plate towards him.

“You want this.”

“No, I’m fine…wait, how did you know I wanted it?”

She smiled.

“I wasn’t drooling or something was I?”

“No,” Maeve said, her lips twitching.

Oren sighed and picked up a handful of fries. “So you knew, as in you could read my mind?”

“I cannot read your mind.” Technically that was true, but she’d given him an answer only to the asked question. She loved talking to humans. They never had any idea how to get the answers they wanted, especially from someone like her, who was descended from a race who drew their pleasure from confusing humans.

“So I’ve decided something.”

“You have?” Maeve put her elbow on the table and rested her chin in her hand to watch him eat.
 

“Yes.” Oren took a big bite out of her burger and closed his eyes in bliss. It wasn’t until after he’d chewed and swallowed that he opened his eyes. “I’ve decided that either I was in a car accident and now I’m in a coma having a weird dream or you’re one of them.”

“Them?”

“A monster.”

Maeve stuck out her lower lip. “That’s a mean thing to call me.”

Oren looked discomforted. He was handsome, with nice cheekbones, deep eyes and strands of gray in his dark hair.
 

“Oh, I’m sorry, I thought that’s what you…I mean, that’s what Runako and Luke and the others say.”

Maeve smiled. “That’s what they say because that is what they are. There is no better word than ‘monster’ to describe them.” Her head tipped to the side. “And you’re sure I’m one of them?”

“I’m sure you’re not human.”

Maeve laughed. “No, I’m not human.”

“So you are a…what should I call you?”

She was holding herself in, not allowing his past or future to touch her, though she could feel them. They waited, dark shadows at the edges of her vision, a low hum in her ears. “Monster is fine. It’s a simple term and covers many possibilities.”

He raised a brow. “And what kind of possibility are you?”

“The dangerous kind.” Oren’s eyes widened and Maeve casually took a sip of her water. When he started eyeing her fries distrustfully she decided to stop teasing him. “I am, as you suspect, one of Luke’s Clan-mates.”

Oren leaned back in his chair. “I’ve never seen you, so you must just have just arrived in L.A.”

“Yes.”

“Which means you’re here because of what happened, because of the leaked photos.”

“Yes.”

“So are you…some kind of monster detective?”

Maeve considered that. “I do find answers, solve problems.”

“And they sent you after me?”

“You are the one who collects the film and stores it?”

“I am, and yes, I know, that makes me the most logical suspect.” Oren seemed tired—weary, even. Maeve had to push back the impulse to open herself to his past and future. She didn’t want to know, not just yet. She was having fun.
 

They so rarely let her near the humans.

“It does.”

“I’m innocent, and if you’re really some great detective, you’re wasting your time hanging around with me.”

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

Oren signaled their server, then passed over some cash when she stopped at the table. Maeve took a minute to examine what the woman was wearing. She needed clothes appropriate to Los Angeles, and this little dress thing Henry had bought her didn’t seem right.

“Shall we?” Oren half-rose, straightening fully when she too stood.
 

“Where are we going?” Maeve asked as he led her out of the small restaurant.
 

“I’m going to call someone, if you’ll excuse me.”

“You’re going to call one of the males?” Maeve corrected herself when she saw his expression. “One of the monster men you know?”

“Actually, one of the women who owns Calypso Productions, the studio making the movie.”

“They won’t tell you anything.”

“Why not?”

“Because I told them not to.”

“And why did you do that?”

“Because I wanted to meet you and wanted you to meet me.”

“You wanted the meeting to be without prejudice.”

“Yes.”

“And that’s why you made my car crash?”

“You did not crash.”

“Fair enough.”

Oren held open the passenger side door for her and Maeve climbed in. When Oren too had climbed in, Maeve twisted in her seat to face him.
 

“I didn’t even know there were female monsters.”

“Of course there are females. There must be for our people to live on.”
 

“That makes sense. I just never heard any of the guys talk about them.”

“There would never talk about me.”

“Why?”

“They’re afraid of me.”

Oren dropped his hand from the keys, leaving the car off as he slowly turned to face her. “They’re afraid of you?”

“And they should be.”

Maeve grabbed his arm and released her control. The center of her vision went dark. Feelings and fleeting images in ultra-bright colors flooded her mind—his past. Then gray shadow images replace the colors—his future. The images came hard and fast, too much for her to understand or process now, but she would remember them as she had for every person she touched this way.

Vaguely she could hear Oren shouting and cursing, trying to get out of the car.

She’d forgotten how startling it could be for humans to see the
Bean Sí
.

His future was hazier than most. She pushed, trying to clarify the images, to understand what sort of man he would be and see what clues she could find in his future to explain his present. The harder she pushed, the hazier the images got. She gave up, withdrawing.

The visions stopped and Maeve bowed her head. She felt her hair, which rose away from her in an unseen wind when she Saw, fall against her body, the long strands thumping softly. She opened her mouth, jaw cracking as her face returned to her normal human-like appearance.

Her body tingled with energy and magic, which she took and locked away. Sometimes Seeing drained her, other times it filled the well within her. Despite the fuzzy future vision, this Seeing had filled her with energy.
 

Maeve opened her eyes, excited to see his reaction to what she really was.

Oren was slumped in his seat, head back and eyes twitching.

“No!”

Maeve threw herself at Oren, touching his face. She slid her knees on either side of him, straddling him in his seat and dropping her head to his chest. His heart was beating and she could feel him breathing.
 

What had she done?

He had no magic in him, no natural barrier to protect him from the beyond that she touched when she Saw. When she pushed into that beyond—the Everafter—looking for his future, she must have drawn him too close to something no human mind could understand or experience except through the allegories created by their religions.
 

Terrified, Maeve put her hands on either side of his head, not touching him. She waited, but the churning need to wail didn’t come. He was not dying. If he had been, she would have felt it.
 

She could always feel death. Her ancestors, the fae
Bean Sí
of Ireland and Scotland, had been advisors to the great kings, looking into the future and warning of approaching death. When death came, it was the way of her kind to cry out, mourning a passing that had yet to happen. In human myth, they’d been accused of bringing death with their wails, when really they only warned of the approach.

And now Maeve had hurt a human, something she hadn’t wanted. She’d been careless, more interested in experiencing Oren’s company than in planning out how she would use her powers to confirm or dismiss his involvement.

Under her, Oren stirred.

Maeve pressed her hands to his face, holding his head as he woke. Relief flooded her as his eyes fluttered open.

His eyes widened when he saw her. His lips were puckered up like a fish’s due to her hands pushing on his cheeks, and it made him look silly and cute.
 

“I’m sorry,” she said, releasing his face to stroke his hair. It was soft under her fingers. He licked his lips, drawing his attention there again. Maeve leaned away, her back against the steering wheel, surprised as she felt something deep inside her stir to life. His gaze met hers and something moved between them, something she hadn’t felt in a long time.