Supernaturally (12 page)

Honestly a Liar

R
aquel
frowned at me over the top of her black coffee. “Just looking at your drink is giving me a cavity.”

“Good thing IPCA has excellent dental.” I smiled and used a candy cane to stir my double whipped cream hot chocolate. The coffee shop was small, with warm yellow walls and poofy chairs in dimly lit corners, the scattered patrons hunched over laptops typing out caffeine-fueled works of dubious genius. I had picked this place because they stocked Christmas flavors ridiculously early (in spite of the various spiders and bats hung in honor of Halloween), and because it was thirty minutes by bus outside my town, so there was little chance of running into someone I knew. I doubted any of my werewolf or vampire buddies would recognize Raquel, but I preferred to avoid finding out.

“This is nice.” She wiped at a spot on the table, again, and glared at a couple making out in the corner opposite us. At least she’d agreed to meet me here. Mostly because I’d flat-out refused to go back to the Center to debrief about the mission.

Well, to lie about nearly everything, if you want to be technical.

We’d already gone over my story about the trolls passing through. I resisted the urge to ask if the vampire had said anything about them. If he had and I was caught, I’d know. I hated keeping secrets from Raquel, but some things called for it. Jack had mentioned the near drowning, so I fed her some nonsense about how the fossegrim hadn’t killed me because a stray current separated us and let me get out of the water. No reason to give her more to worry about. The uber-vamp was information overload enough for one visit.

I shivered at the memory of his grip on my wrist and what I had wanted to do to him. “You’re not letting him out of Containment, right?”

“Of course not. He’s far too unstable for even the most basic assignment. But you were right not to tell anyone else why he’s so strong. It’s a disturbing development. I’ve never come across a vampire who targeted paranormals, and the fact that it helps him overcome natural vampire weaknesses—well, it’s best kept strictly under wraps.” She heaved a
things are never simple, are they?
sigh.

“Good. Guy’s a psychopath, even by vampire standards. And that’s saying something.” I leaned back, trying to find a position that didn’t hurt my bruised tailbone. I’d have to figure out how to hide it from Lend when he came tonight.

No. No more hiding.

“Hey, what about the elementals? Do you think maybe the vampire—” I felt slightly ill, worrying about a repeat of Viv’s spree. I didn’t think I could handle more paranormal deaths that I had to figure out.

Raquel shook her head. “No, I don’t think it’s related. There haven’t been any deaths or bodies. Nearly every elemental we’ve identified and have contact with has disappeared, but elementals are unusual—you understand. We’ve only been keeping track of them for a couple of decades now, so for all we know, this is common behavior.”

I nodded, relieved. No more violence. I’d have to tell Lend, make sure he knew that it wasn’t just his mom who had disappeared. Of course, I wasn’t sure if that made it sound better or worse.

Raquel took a sip of her drink. “It’s too bad about the trolls, though.”

I gulped my hot chocolate, scalding my throat. “Yup. Too bad. Still, I brought in a dangerous paranormal, which was always the goal, right?”

“Of course, and you did well. I’m sorry it wasn’t as easy an assignment as I promised.”

“Yeah, well, get Jack a GPS or something. He’s a step above faeries, but only just. At least
they
never dropped me straight into a river. Don’t give me any assignments near cliffs, okay? I shudder to think where Jack might toss me out.”

“Next time let him step out first.”

I laughed, shaking my head. “Good idea.”

To my surprise, she asked me about school, and it felt both surreal and perfectly natural talking with Raquel about my big
Dracula
essay, the English test I’d fallen asleep during that morning because of the troll adventure, and my complaints about Miss Lynn. I flashed back to all the times I used to pretend Raquel was my mom, daydreaming about doing something like this with her.

It was nice.

“And how is Lend?”

I looked down into my dwindling hot chocolate. “Not so great. I, uh, kind of didn’t tell him I was working with you again.”

She raised her eyebrows. “And he found out.”

“Yup. You can imagine it didn’t go over very well.”

She nodded sympathetically and took my hand in hers. “Lend and I certainly didn’t start off on the right foot”—only Raquel would refer to Lend punching her and then us imprisoning him in an IPCA cell and interrogating him as being the “wrong foot”—“but he’s always been good to you, and I have no doubt you two will be able to work this out.”

“Thanks. I—”

But her communicator beeping shoved us out of our little snippet of normalcy. She read the message and gave her
there aren’t enough hours in the day
sigh, then looked up at me to apologize. I waved my hand.

“No worries. You go save the world. I’m gonna finish getting a cavity.”

She paused. “I really am sorry, Evie. Sometimes I worry that pulling you back in was the wrong thing to do. Perhaps it was selfish on my part. But I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.” She smiled, patting my hand. “I’ll be in touch.”

“I know.”

“Let me know if you need any help on that essay. And if I can help with the Lend situation.”

When she left, I felt warmer inside from more than the cocoa. In spite of what a mess the last mission had been, things worked out. And having Raquel back in my life meant more to me than I’d ever imagined it would. That was worth a few near-death experiences in Sweden, right? Lend would understand. I’d make him understand.

One bus ride and three hours later I was exhausted from trying to figure out how to do just that. Lend hadn’t given me a specific time when he’d be there, so I lay on the couch with my phone, shifting positions until I found one that didn’t hurt my tailbone.

The previous night’s adventures caught up to me, and I dozed into fitful sleep. A gentle hand brushing the hair away from my face woke me up. Lend crouched on the floor, eye level with me. “Hey,” he said, his voice soft.

“Hey!” I sat up quickly—too quickly, and squeaked from the shock of pain.

“What’s wrong?”

“Noth—” I stopped myself. “I bruised my tailbone pretty bad last night.”

“How?”

“I fell down on a step.”

“Where?”

“In Sweden.”

Some of the concern dropped off his face and he sat back on his heels. “Oh. And what were you doing in Sweden that made you fall down on a step?”

“Fighting with a vampire?”

His face went stony. “So you’re totally safe working for IPCA again. Great. Are you going to come back with broken bones next time? See, this is exactly what I was talking about! IPCA gets you in its clutches again; and you’re lying to me, hiding things,
and
you’ve already been trapped in the Center and hurt! Why were you fighting with a vampire?”

I shook my head. “It wasn’t supposed to be about a vampire, I was just supposed to—”

“No! It’s never what it’s
supposed
to be. I can’t believe Raquel sucked you back into doing their dirty work for them.”

And suddenly I went from desperate to explain to full-on pissed. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. You think because the vampires around here play nice that they do everywhere else? What good does David’s little experiment do to protect people from the paranormals that don’t want to discover their own better nature? Some of them
are
monsters, Lend. You know that! Yeah, IPCA sucks sometimes, but at least they’re doing something! I’d love nothing more than to sit around this town serving pancakes, but guess what? You aren’t the only one who wants to help paranormals! I might not do it the same way you do, but don’t you dare accuse me of doing IPCA’s dirty work. Your precious vampire? He was stalking and murdering troll kids! And if it weren’t for me, who knows how many more he would have killed?”

“Troll kids?”

I scowled. “Yeah, I went to Sweden to track down a troll colony.”

“You found them?”

“Of course I found them. Because that’s what I do, and I’m good at it. The trolls asked for my help, and because they weren’t bothering anyone, I protected them from the thing hurting them. And, before you ask, no, I didn’t turn the trolls over to IPCA, but, yes, I did turn over the psychotic vampire. So maybe they are using me, but I’m using them, too, and I’d appreciate you not acting like I’m an idiot who does whatever anyone tells me to.”

He was quiet for a minute, and I braced myself for his next argument. “I’m sorry.”

“I— Wait, what?”

“I’m sorry. You’re right. I don’t get why you feel like IPCA’s the best way to go, but I’ve never been able to be impartial about them. I don’t like it, and I’m not going to like it; there are too many ways you can get hurt. But if you feel like it’s important, then I can deal with it. You’re not an idiot—I know that—you’re the brightest, best person I’ve ever known.”

“So . . . we’re okay?” Hope fluttered in my chest, releasing some of the anxiety that had been tearing me apart this whole week.

“Just promise me you’re done lying. I hate that IPCA is still a part of your life, but I can accept it if you stop hiding things from me. That bothers me more than anything else, that you feel like you can’t be honest with me. You see me like no one else does—the real me—all the time. I want the same thing with you.”

I nodded, tears in my eyes. He was right. He couldn’t hide from me. It wasn’t fair for me to hide things from him.

“So no more lies?”

I swallowed hard.
You’re immortal, Lend
. “No more lies,” I lied.

He sighed, relieved, and sat next to me, cautiously putting his arm around me and resting his head against the back of the couch. “So, umm, what do you want to do now?”

I wished I knew.

Lies, Lips, and Lunatics

I
can’t
do it,” I whispered, sick to my stomach.

Lend put his hand over mine, wrapping his other arm around my waist. I leaned my head back against him, grateful for this. For us. Things weren’t back to normal, but they were getting there.

“Sure you can.” He pushed my finger down on the Enter key, and, just like that, I’d applied to the one and only school I wanted to get into.

“I’m going to throw up.”

“Well, in that case, please use the bathroom, because I have to sleep in here tonight.” He laughed, lightly kissing my neck.

I flopped back onto his bed, rumpling the familiar blue comforter. Being together in his dad’s house felt like old times, when we first broke out of the Center and I was living here. “I should have read over my essays one more time. And what about my SATs? My math score could have been better. It should have been better. And my stupid English grade.” I covered my face with my hands. “I can’t breathe. Could you breathe when you applied? Is this normal?”

Lend sat down next to me, his weight sinking the bed enough that I rolled into his side. “It’s normal. I felt the exact same way. But if it helps, you look much cuter freaking out than I ever did.”

I peeked out through my hands. “But what if I don’t get in?”

He wrapped his arms around me. “No more worrying about it. You’ll get in.”

“Good. Someone needs to keep an eye on you and that dirty little dryad of a lab assistant.”

He laughed, squeezing me until I couldn’t breathe. “Why would I ever want a lusty tree nymph when I could have a hyperventilating Evie?”

I worked my arms free and jabbed his sides, tickling him until he released his grip. And then, unable to resist how adorable his mouth was when he laughed, I kissed him, letting my stress melt away in his lips. Good heavens, the boy even
tasted
good.

Just when I was relaxing into a good make-out session, we were interrupted by raised voices downstairs.

“Were you guys expecting visitors?” I asked, sitting up.

Lend disengaged his fingers from my hair. “Not that I know of.”

The voices got louder, obviously arguing. “Wait a sec—that’s Raquel.” Great. Of course she’d show up just when things were feeling okay between Lend and me again. I didn’t need IPCA drama right now to remind him of my lies. We hurried down to the kitchen. David was backed up against the counter, his face a strange mixture of anger and sheepishness. Raquel faced him, pointing a figure at his chest and punctuating each sentence with a jab for emphasis.

“Don’t talk to me about trust, David Pirello! Don’t you
dare
talk to me about trust! If you know something about where they are and you haven’t—”

David cleared his throat loudly, and Raquel turned around to see us standing there. Her face was flushed with emotion, something I’d rarely seen. She looked pretty, with rosy cheeks and shining eyes. The scowl diminished the effect somewhat, but she quickly shifted to a neutral expression.

“Oh. David didn’t tell me you two were here.” She smoothed out her skirt as though that could release the emotion she’d pent up again as soon as we entered the room. “Evie, I wanted to ask you about how your college search is going.”

I smiled suspiciously, positive that wasn’t anything close to why she’d come. “Dandy. Finished applying for early decision to Georgetown about five minutes ago.”

“You should get applications ready for at least three others, to be safe.”

I resisted the urge to glare. My school counselor kept saying the same thing, but as far as I was concerned, there was only Georgetown. “Good advice. Thanks.”

“What are you doing here?” Lend asked.

“There have been some recent developments that I wanted your dad’s opinion on. Sadly he wasn’t helpful.” She shot David a glare. He looked grumpy. “Evie, let me know how the applications go.” Smiling at me, she walked past us and out the front door.

“Since when does she use normal doors?” Lend asked.

“She’s being polite.” I frowned, feeling protective of her.

“What did she really want?”

David shook his head. “More elementals and location-specific paranormals slipping out of their network. Anyway, it’s not our concern. IPCA creates problems; they can handle them, too. More power to anyone who gets past them.”

I shifted awkwardly on my feet. I had no idea whose side I was on in this particular case. Probably both. Or neither. Lend was quiet, and I racked my brains for something I could say to fill up the ever-expanding silence.

My cell phone rang in my pocket. Thank heavens. “It’s Arianna—just a sec.” I opened the phone and walked into the other room. “Arianna? What’s up?”

“Is there a reason there’s a blond boy jumping on your bed, or should I kill him?”

“Don’t bother,” I growled. “I’ll kill him myself.” If I had to deal with Jack screwing around in my life again . . .

Lend walked in as I snapped my phone shut. “Something wrong?”

I put the phone in my pocket, carefully avoiding his eyes. This wasn’t an IPCA job. And we were having a happy afternoon before Raquel showed up. No reason to strain things.

I sighed. The truth. I’d tell him the truth whenever I could to make up for when I couldn’t. “Jack’s at the apartment bugging Arianna.”

Lend scowled. “What’s wrong with him?”

“No idea. I’ve got to get back for a shift, anyway.” I’d really been slacking at the diner lately. I didn’t need the money anymore, but they still needed the help, and I felt guilty about ditching. Plus, working was an easy way of keeping an eye on Nona. I hadn’t spotted any more faeries, but that didn’t mean nothing was going on.

“Want me to come help out?”

I smiled at him, grateful he wasn’t freaking out over Jack. No doubt it was taking some effort. “You should pick out a movie. That way we don’t both have to stink like greasy food. I need a nice date to look forward to.”

“I meant help with Jack.”

“Oh. No. He’s just a little unbalanced and lonely.”

He put his arms around my waist, frowning. “Can’t he be lonely and unbalanced around someone else’s girlfriend?”

“I’ll suggest it. Pick me up at eight?”

He leaned down and kissed me softly. “Yup. Call me if you have any problems.”

I doubted I’d call Lend, but had no doubt that where Jack was, problems would follow.