Кирстен Уайт - Paranormalcy

“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