ONE OF A KIND

Arianna wasn't dead. Or deader, I guess. I never thought I'd be so relieved about a vamp, but the girl had guts. Back at the house, David patched up her ribs while Stacey and Luke holed themselves in upstairs, avoiding me after hearing what had happened. I didn't blame them. I was like a plague: where I came, bad things followed.

“How did you hurt Reth?” I asked as David finished checking Arianna's ribs. I realized Reth had a new name, but had no idea what.

David stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled something out. It looked like brass knuckles but the wrong color. Iron. Brilliant. “Designed them myself.”

Was he cool or what? “Can I get a set?” Lend and I asked at the same time.

David laughed. “I'll see what I can do.”

“What if Reth comes back?” Lend asked.

“There's a reason he didn't come to the house. We're not very faerie friendly here. But I wouldn't underestimate your mom's power. Now that he knows the water elementals are protecting Evie, I don't think he'll try anything. Soon he'll forget he was ever interested in her.”

I hoped that was true, but I seriously doubted it. It sounded too dismissive, too like Raquel. I wasn't just some pretty thing Reth wanted to dance with--his interest in me ran far deeper. There was some sinister purpose behind it all. Still, David was obviously faerie savvy, and with Cresseda's protection, maybe I really would be safe. Until I had to leave here, of course.

“There are a few other tricks,” David said, walking to the counter. He grabbed a loaf of bread, took out two slices, and handed them to us. “Keep a bit of stale bread in your pockets all the time.”

“Okay,” I said, frowning dubiously at the bread.

He laughed. “It works. Faeries don't like things that tie them to our earth. Bread is the staff of life for humans--they won't touch it. Same thing with iron; it binds them here, rings too sharply of imprisonment. That's why it hurts them.”

“Cool!” Bread, at least, I could take with me everywhere. “Can I have my taser back, too?” Tasey wasn't much good against faeries, but I felt kind of naked without her.

Frowning thoughtfully, he finally nodded and gave it to me. I had to restrain myself from stroking the pink grip.

Arianna fixed her clothes, glaring at me. “Why's the faerie so obsessed with you anyway? You're not that cute.”

David cleared his throat loudly. “Lend, why don't you take Evie into town, get her some clothes and things?”

My heart leaped in my chest. That sounded promising. “I can stay?” I had been waiting for him to kick me out since we got here. I figured it was a sure thing now with the added Reth threat. I wouldn't want me around, either.

“Of course.” He smiled at me. “You brought my son back. You're always welcome.” I wouldn't cry, not again, but that one sentence meant the world to me. Maybe I wasn't totally alone, after all.

Lend frowned. “You're trying to get rid of us so you can talk about all this, aren't you?”

“Yes.”

“Fine.” Lend held out his hand. “Keys? And a credit card?”

David pulled a card out of his wallet and handed it over with the car keys. “Be back before dark. You're still grounded.”

“I promise not to have any fun,” Lend said solemnly.

“Get out of here, you bum,” his dad said, shaking his head.

We climbed into a plain silver sedan. Maybe I'm weird, but watching Lend drive was sexy.

“So,” he said, “I'm guessing you have some questions?”

“Just one: what's the limit on that card?” He looked shocked until I started laughing. “Kidding. I'm not going to push my luck, don't worry. I would, however, like to get pants that aren't yours, no offense. And I do have a few questions--real questions.”

He smiled. “I figured. How about I start at the beginning?”

“A very good place to start.”

“You already know my dad was APCA. Some of the things they were doing really bothered him. The imprisonment, regulations, forced sterilizations, tracking--”

“Whoa, hold on--forced sterilizations?”

He glanced at me. “You didn't know? They were worried about what would happen if a werewolf got pregnant by another werewolf. Had this whole panic, ethics debate, so on and so forth, then made any paranormal-​human hybrid breeding with another paranormal or human totally illegal, and, umm, made it so no werewolves they caught could ever reproduce.”

All those neutering jokes I had made--they weren't jokes. “Oh,” I whispered, horrified. “I had no idea.” I thought about all the werewolves I knew, Charlotte especially. She had always been so sweet and attentive. She would have made a great mom. And IPCA took that away from her after everything else she had already lost. “I think that's the worst thing I've ever heard.” Then it really hit me--would they have done that to me? Would I have been seen as a breeding risk? Even the term, “paranormal breeding.” They really thought of all paranormals as animals. What else did IPCA do that I didn't know about?

“Anyway, he was on an extended assignment trying to track down evidence of nymphs or sprites. He found my mom.”

“What is she, exactly?”

“Kind of the equivalent of a nymph. She's a water spirit, an elemental. She thought he was funny and kept showing up to talk to him. And my dad fell in love with her.” He smiled. “That was all it took to convince him that he was done with APCA. They weren't about to let someone who knew as many secrets as him quit, so he faked his own death by drowning. They lost a lot of operatives in those days and it wasn't a hard sell.”

“So did your mom and dad--” I stopped, suddenly aware of what awkward territory I was heading into.

“She's made of water. If you tried to touch her, your hand would go right through.” This was so not adding up, and I didn't want to try to come up with an explanation. Fortunately, he continued. “But all elementals have the gift of choice. My mom decided that, after all the ages she'd been around, she'd like to see what really being alive, being human, was like. So she took on a mortal form and lived with my dad as husband and wife. But she couldn't leave the water--she didn't want to. She didn't tell him, but she took on mortality for only one year. That was long enough to make me.” He smiled and blushed. “And at the end of the year, she gave my dad a son and went back to the water.”

I looked at him in amazement. He was incredible. My original idea of him as water come to life was exactly right. I wondered what Lish would have thought, since she was a water paranormal, too. It stung, knowing that my best friend had never met this boy I was crazy about. They would have loved each other.

“So you really are one of a kind, aren't you?”

He shrugged. “Guess so. It was hard for my dad when I was little. I changed form constantly; it was like a game. I had to be homeschooled until I was old enough to understand that it would be really dangerous if people found out about me. Plus, you met my mom--she wasn't exactly the most helpful parent.” He glanced at me warily, as though he expected me to laugh. “So...that's where I came from.”

I smiled, shaking my head. “You are so freaking awesome.”

He laughed, obviously relieved. I was way too happy. Part of it was Lend opening up to me, part was knowing I had a place with his family. But besides that, I hadn't been in a car in like six years. I eyed him in the driver's seat with undisguised envy.

“Tell you what,” he said, noticing my stare. “I know you can't get a license, but I might be able to do something better.”

“What?”

He smiled. “How would you like to come to school with me tomorrow and see a real, live locker?”

I'm pretty sure I squealed.

After our shopping was done (I was so eager to get out of Lend's clothes, I changed in the store bathroom), we got back into the car. I was pretty sure he had checked me out a few times. I hoped so, at least. Goodness knows I was doing my fair share of sneaky staring. “You hungry?” he asked, pulling out.

“Oh, my gosh, I'm starving,” I said, just now realizing it. I looked at the clock on the dashboard. It was three in the afternoon.

“Let's get something to eat, then.”

“Aren't you grounded?” I teased.

“My dad said be back by dark. It's not dark yet.”

We drove a couple of blocks to a small diner. I had never been on the East Coast before except for a few late night jobs, so I enjoyed looking around. Lots of trees, hinting at buds. We walked into the diner and my jaw dropped.

Every single person in there was a paranormal.

“Umm, you do know this whole place is filled with werewolves, vamps, and a couple of other things I've never seen before, right?” I whispered. Lend laughed, sitting down in a booth.

“Well, yeah. My dad owns it.”

“Oh.”

“After Mom went back to the water, he was left with a very paranormal son. He knew how bad things were with the government agencies, so he decided to do something about it. He runs sort of an underground railroad for paranormals, shielding them from IPCA, giving them jobs, helping them control the nastier sides of themselves.”

“What about the vamps? Does he let them suck someone dry every now and then?”

“There are lots of other sources of blood. They all know that if they break the rules, he won't help them anymore. Most of them are young vamps, too. They still remember what it was like to be human and don't really relish the thought of killing. Plus they're helpful with the whole mind control thing.”

I felt kind of bad. I had never even considered giving vamps the benefit of the doubt. “Do you have any hags?”

Lend laughed. “We're accepting, not suicidal.”

I sighed in relief. “Okay then. That's pretty cool, I guess.” Truth was, the whole thing made me more than a little nervous. The sentiment was great, but expecting all these creatures to control their natural instincts? Sounded dangerous. How many lives were worth risking to give a handful of vampires more freedom?

A waitress came to take our orders, interrupting my thoughts. She knew Lend and was drop-​dead gorgeous, with blond hair, blue eyes, and these absolutely luscious lips. Her non-​glamour face was just as beautiful, although it was mottled brown and gray. We both ordered and she turned around. My jaw dropped. Underneath her glamour her back was hollow like an old tree, and she had a tail. “What is she?” I whispered.

“Nona? Oh, she's a huldra. Tree spirit.”

Watching her and the other paranormals in there, things shifted for me. They were vibrant, happy, not hurting anyone. This was a good place.

I used to think that IPCA was some noble organization, protecting humans. But I thought it helped paranormals, too. The werewolves and vamps had jobs, and all paranormals had protected status. However, this recent information gave me a new perspective. IPCA acted on absolutes, and I was increasingly realizing that nothing was absolute in this world.

Lend's dad wasn't totally right, but he was probably more right than my former employers.

I thought of something else. “With all the stuff you know about IPCA, how were you so calm while we--they--were holding you? I would have been freaking out.”

He laughed. “Oh, trust me, I was terrified. Beyond terrified. I kept waiting for them to cut me open or something. Lucky for me they were distracted with the dead paranormals, otherwise I don't even want to think about it.”

“Man, I thought you were like some supercool operative and knew exactly what you were doing. Now I find out you weren't even supposed to be there in the first place.”

“I've got a lot of practice acting. I do it every waking hour, after all.” He had a point--he acted with his whole appearance.

“Well, I guess I still think you're pretty cool.”

“Thank goodness.” He shook his head in mock relief. “Of course, I can't really act in front of you.” He gave me a small, shy smile. It must have been so weird for him that I could see him like no one else. I kinda liked it.

“You don't need to act for me,” I answered, then blushed. Wow, was that dorky or what? Pretty soon I would tell him how dreamy I thought his real eyes were, and how much I'd like him to hold my hand in a non-​the-​world-​is-​ending-​and-​I'm-​being-​nice sort of way. He smiled bigger and we both went back to our food. Good thing too, because I was probably one step away from blurting out hey, wanna be my boyfriend?

When we left, half the restaurant waved cheerily to Lend, most of them giving me curious looks. I figured it was a good thing they didn't know who I was. I tried not to stare at anyone, pretending like I couldn't see what they really were. Besides the tree spirit waitress, there was a woman who had fins underneath her glamour legs, several werewolves, a couple of vamps, and I was pretty sure I had seen two gnomes working in the back. This place was even weirder than the Center.

Remembering my old home made me feel more pangs of guilt. I didn't even know if Raquel was okay, and I was sure she'd be really worried about me. But there was so much she never told me, so much she hid, it was easier to push down the guilt in favor of anger. And Lish I tried not to think about at all. If I were still in the Center, her absence would be like a hole in my heart. Here I was so removed from my previous life that it made it a little easier. I could pretend she was still there in her tank, waving her hands around and making the computer say bleep.

When we got back to his house, Lend sighed. “I'd better call some friends and find out how far behind I am in my classes.” He pulled out his phone.

“Lend?” David called.

“Yup,” Lend answered. “We're back, we already ate.”

“I know, Nona called and told me you were there.”

The person Lend was calling picked up and he started talking. I didn't know what I was supposed to do. My impulse was to go to Lend's room. I always thought the Center made me claustrophobic, but now I suspected I had the opposite problem. All that time today in open spaces and outdoors made me kind of twitchy, nervous to get back inside. How lame was that?

And I still couldn't get over what Lend had said, especially about the sterilizations. “David?” I asked, walking into the kitchen.

“Yes?” He looked up from the table.

“I--I didn't know. About IPCA, I mean. The things they do.” I looked guiltily at the floor, remembering all the werewolves I had brought in. And now I had abandoned them for this safe, happy home. “I want to help, if I can.”

“I told you and Lend, I don't want you involved in this anymore.”

“No, not the killer thing. I mean, with other things. With what you're doing here.” It hit me. “The werewolves! All IPCA's werewolves were taken out of the Center! We can help them.”

“Where?” David stood.

My heart sank. “Oh. I don't know. I made a faerie get them out so they'd be safe. I have no idea where she took them. The Center is in northeastern Canada, if that helps. Maybe she just took them outside?”

“It's in Canada?”

“APCA wanted it here but the other countries pitched a fit. Everyone hated APCA because you guys always had the best technology. One of the conditions of forming IPCA was that the main center had to be off US ground, so they picked Canada since it was fairly neutral.” Politics. Honestly.

He frowned thoughtfully. “If they're still unsupervised, we might have an opening. I have a few contacts I could try. They've got to be somewhere.”

“What about the ankle trackers?”

“We've been working against IPCA for a long time, Evie. I couldn't do this without a few key people on the inside. We'll figure something out.” He smiled. I felt a little better. At least I'd done something to help Charlotte. Hopefully.

But him saying he had someone on the inside made me remember Raquel. I cleared my throat, nervous. “Umm, could you maybe find out if some of my friends are okay?”

“If you mean Raquel, I've already contacted my sources and they're going to let me know where she is as soon as they find out.”

I let out a relieved breath. “Thanks!”

I went into the family room and sat down on the couch next to Lend. Not next next to him like I wanted to, but close. After a few minutes he closed his phone and sighed. “I'm dead. This is going to take me forever to make up. I'll be right back. I gotta go see what books I have here so I can get started.” He grabbed the shopping bags and went upstairs.

I watched him leave, jealous of his life. I'd even take real homework.

“Oh,” Arianna said, her voice flat. She had just come in the room and looked annoyed that I was there. “I was going to watch TV.” She gave me a just-​try-​to-​stop-​me look.

“Be my guest.” I didn't move, giving her a don't-​think-​you-​can-​bully-​me-​bloodsucker look.

She sat down in an armchair next to the couch and pulled out a couple of remotes. After searching through a menu, she selected a show and hit play.

“No way!” I sat up. “I totally love this one.”

“You like Easton Heights?”

“Umm, best show ever.”

“I know, huh?” The eyes of her glamour were lit up, excited. The dead eyes underneath even looked a little animated. “I missed a couple of episodes while I was out looking for that twit,” she said, glaring at Lend as he walked in the room.

Lend sat down on the couch--closer to me than he had been before--and then noticed the show. He sighed heavily. “Great. I am kind of trying to get some--”

“Shhh!” Arianna and I said at the same time.

After catching up on all the episodes she missed, Arianna and I had a long, slightly heated discussion over who Cheyenne should end up with. She wasn't as much fun as Lish, but she certainly knew her Easton Heights. I wondered what Lish would think, knowing I was talking about our show with an untagged vamp. At least Lish would have my back in the argument.

“You know she belongs with Landon,” I said.

“Oh, as if! He'll never reform. She should just accept that Alex is going to make her happy.”

“You're crazy! What about the time Alex got drunk and went to that club where he made out with Carys before he found out they were actually cousins? Yeah, that's stability.”

Lend stood. “Evie, we've got to wake up early tomorrow for school.”

“Oh, yeah, good point.” I was pretty exhausted. “We'll talk about this tomorrow,” I warned Arianna.

Lend and I walked up the stairs together. “You can have your room back,” I said.

“Don't worry about it. It's not a full moon anymore, so Stacey and Luke can share a room again. I'll take the extra one.”

“I could take the extra one.”

He shrugged, smiling. “I already put all your stuff in there--don't worry about it. We'll get you settled more permanently tomorrow.”

I really, really liked the sound of that. After getting ready for bed, I bumped into him in the hall again. “I had a great time today. Besides the whole Reth attack, I mean.”

“Me, too.” We were both quiet, and then he leaned forward, giving me a strange look. For a second I thought he was going to hug me or--holy bleep--maybe even kiss me and I got all excited. Then he just smiled and said, “Good night.”

“Oh, umm, night,” I said back, not even managing to hide my disappointment.

I was never going to get kissed, was I?