“Come and dance with me, my love.” His voice was like the color gold—bright and sparkling with the promise of warmth. So much warmth. I smiled, closing my eyes and letting myself be pulled up off the couch and into an embrace. He rested his cheek against mine and the heat spread out, through my face and then down my neck, inching toward my heart. “My heart,” he whispered. I nodded against his cheek. His heart.
My vid screen beeped, jarring me out of the trance. I jumped back and shoved Reth off me. The heat slowly drifted away from my heart. It had been close. Too close.
Reth looked disappointed. He held out his arms. I swore. “What is your freaking problem? Get out! Now!”
“Evelyn.” His voice was a magnet with his warmth still in me. I leaned forward against my will.
“No!” Ripping myself away from the pull, I ran to the partition dividing the TV room from the kitchen and grabbed my communicator. “Get out.” I glared, my hand over the panic button. His beautiful face fell. I wanted to comfort him. Closing my eyes, I lowered my finger. “Out. Now.”
I could see the light of a door from behind my eyelids and waited until it faded to open them again. Reth was gone.
I went over to my vid screen and turned it on. “What good are freaking palm-coded locks when faeries can make their own doors any time they want to!” I shouted at Lish. Her green eyes widened in surprise and concern. I took a deep breath. It wasn’t her fault. “Thanks for the interruption,” I added.
“Reth?”
“Yeah. Can you file a report for me?”
“Yes, of course. We will try to make his instructions more explicit.”
I shook my head. He always found a way around them. My guess was when they told him to go get me today he applied it as a blanket statement rather than a simple onetime retrieval command. “What did you need?”
She looked embarrassed. “I wanted to ask about the disturbance. I will talk to you tomorrow.”
“Yeah, I’m kind of exhausted. I’ll come visit and tell you everything, okay?”
“Do you want to spend the night here?” When I first came to the Center and had bad dreams, I would drag my blanket and pillow in and sleep on the floor next to Lish’s aquarium. She’d tell me stories until I fell asleep. I was tempted, but felt too silly about not being able to spend the night alone because of a stupid faerie.
“I’ll be okay.” I forced a smile. “Thanks, though. Good night, Lish.”
The mermaid’s eyes smiled, and the vid screen went blank. I plopped back down on the couch. Reth had been so close. Again. And—worst of all—part of me wished that we hadn’t been interrupted. But I had learned the hard way with faeries. It’s all about possession and taking advantage, and, unlike human boys on all the TV shows, they aren’t in it for sex. They couldn’t care less about that. They want your heart, your soul. I was never giving mine back to Reth.
Deciding that hadn’t stopped the ache of missing him, though.
I spent the rest of the night wide awake, wrapped in three blankets and freezing. When the clock read 4 A.M. I gave up. I got dressed in my warmest clothes and walked to Containment. Lend was curled up asleep on the floor. I sat against the wall and watched, fascinated, as his body flicked through identities the way I click through channels. After maybe an hour he went into his strange water-and-light state. I was so tired I could barely focus my eyes at all—and suddenly I could see him. It was like once I stopped trying so hard to look, he was just there. He actually had hair and normal features—cute even, if he had pigment. Even more surprising, he didn’t look much older than me.
After a moment his eyes opened and met mine. Color flooded through him—he was wearing me again. The eyes were still flickering, trying to find the right shade.
“What are you?” I whispered.
“What are you?”
Offended, I frowned. “Human.”
“Funny, me, too.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Funny, neither are you.”
I set my jaw and glared. What a jerk. “Why did you come here?”
My voice came from his mouth, disconcerting as always. “I could ask you the same thing. Are you going to kill me?”
I–no, that’s not what IPCA does,” I said. “They don’t kill paranormals, they—”
Lend raised a hand to stop me and sat up, large eyes narrowing. “Are you going to kill me?”
“Why would I kill you?”
After a moment he let out a deep breath. “I don’t think it’s you.”
“What’s not me?”
Standing, he stretched. Did I mention how weird it was watching my body do this stuff? He even had the hair right—a little messy this morning, since I hadn’t bothered to brush it yet.
“Can you please go back to normal?” I wanted to look at him more now that I could see him better.
He smiled, flashing my perfect teeth at me. I had to go through three years of braces for that smile; no fair that he could copy it in a second. “Normal? What’s that?”
“How you really look.”
“Can you take off all your clothes?”
Okay, weirdest thing ever—I just asked myself to take off all my clothes. It doesn’t get much creepier. “Why on earth would I do that?”
“You asked me to be naked; I thought it was only fair.”
“I just meant stop wearing me. Be yourself. But yourself with clothes.”
“These are my clothes. But, if it bothers you.” I melted off him and he grew a few inches. In my place was a teenage guy. Black hair, dark brown eyes, olive skin, and, oh yeah, absolutely gorgeous. Like, belonged on one of the shows I loved so much gorgeous. “Better?” His voice had changed,
deepened, and I wished I was talking with an actual teenage guy.
“Definitely.” I looked closer. Still Lend under there. Even the dark eyes didn’t hide his water-colored ones; I could see him shimmering through.
“This seems to be a popular one.”
“Yeah, I can imagine.” Then I frowned, curious. “What does your real voice sound like?”
“What makes you think this isn’t it?”
“I think it would sound different. Softer. Like water.” I realized how stupid that sounded, but his smile dropped off and he gave me a considering look.
“If you didn’t come here to kill me, why are you here, Evie?”
Awkward. Here I was, no makeup, ratty hair, in front of the hottest teenage guy I’d ever seen, fake or not. Why was I here? “It’s my job.”
His smile returned, this time with the usual ironic twist to his lips. “Oh. Your job. Quite the career for someone your age.”
“You’re not much older than me.” Now that I’d seen him better, I was sure of it. Corrupted mortals like vampires show their real bodies’ ages—old and nasty—underneath. True immortals, like faeries, have eternal youth, but there’s something different in their faces. All those years don’t add lines; they smooth, like a piece of glass turned around forever on the ocean floor. No mortal has that polish. His face was neither old nor ageless.