Кирстен Уайт - Paranormalcy

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?

HIJINKS AND HIGH SCHOOLS

I woke up early the next morning, relieved after a dreamless sleep and buzzing with excitement to go to a real, live high school. I took a quick shower and got ready. It was nice to be able to do my hair and makeup—it made things feel a little more normal. I chose a shirt Lend had picked out for me (pink and sparkly, how cute was that?) and was ready to go forty-five minutes before we needed to leave. Lend hadn’t even woken up yet. With nothing else to do, I went downstairs to eat breakfast.

David was sitting at the table with Arianna and the two werewolves. “Oh, hey,” I said, feeling like I had intruded. David smiled at me, and Arianna even gave me a nod. Stacey and Luke barely looked at me. I think I scared them. Awesome.

“Cereal’s in the pantry—help yourself,” David said. I did, finding a bowl and spoon and then sitting at the counter to eat. I tried not to listen to their conversation, but it was a small kitchen. “If we just knew how it was killing them.”

“Wait, what?” I turned around to face the group. “Are you talking about the girl that’s killing paranormals? I saw her.”