by Peter Glenn
Still, for Mei to grant something that powerful out of the blue for someone I’d never seen before... What was going on today, exactly? So many oddities in just a few short hours. Nothing was adding up. I’d have to ask Mei about it more later, but for now, I had bigger problems to deal with.
Problems like the unconscious girl lying in the middle of the room. What was I going to do about her? Ostensibly, she wasn’t really my problem. I hadn’t granted her sanctuary, but Mei had. And I would do anything to help out Mei. She was my rock in this crazy world. The one friend I’d kept through thick and thin for the last fifty or so years. So if she mattered to Mei, she mattered to me.
That, and like I’d said earlier, I’ve always had a thing for lost causes. And that girl was totally a lost cause.
“So who is she, then?” I asked Mei.
Mei’s eyes trailed over in the direction of the fallen girl for a minute, then she looked me square in the eye. “No clue. Never seen her before.”
“What? But then why...”
“Grant her sanctuary?” she finished for me. She shrugged again. “Like I said, it’s part of the pact I made with the old magic. Anyone in dire enough need to ask for sanctuary must have it granted.”
I nodded, but inside, I was even more confused. Now I really had to find out more about this mystery girl. I rose from my seat, making another squeaking noise as my wet jeans rubbed against the leather, and took a step toward her.
Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I caught a hint of movement coming from the bundle she still held, wrapped tight in her arms. Then it was gone again.
“Ugh, my head,” a voice said from slightly behind me.
I spun around to find Elden trying to stand, rubbing the rather large bruise on the back of his head. His hat had come off just slightly, and I could see the hint of a pointed ear sticking out from underneath it.
“You all right?” I asked him. I held out my hand to help him up, which he graciously accepted.
“Uh, yeah, I think so,” he said, flashing me a grin.
I got a good look at his mouth. His teeth ended in little points. All of them. So he wasn’t human either, then, though he’d taken great pains to hide that fact. Good information to file away for later. Of course, it made sense. Why would a human be looking for a fae? Most humans were smart enough not to interact with their kind more than necessary. He must have been a fae, too.
“Thanks,” Elden said. He sat back down on his stool and rubbed his bruise, then adjusted his hat so it covered his ears again.
“Always happy to help,” I said, smiling.
“Can I get you anything?” Mei offered as I helped Elden back to his seat.
Elden glanced at her for a moment and shook his head. “No, I think I’ll be okay. Sorry, I just... that light really shook me up,” he said slowly.
“Just take it easy,” I said. “You fell, but you should be just fine once that bruise goes away.”
Elden nodded. Mei stood there for another moment, then headed off to take care of another patron.
“You sure I can’t do anything to help you?” I asked him.
Elden’s eyes lit up. “You could take my case?” he said with a wry grin.
I let out a long sigh. I’d almost forgotten about why he’d come here, with all the earlier commotion. “I’m not sure yet,” I told him.
His eyes darkened, and he lowered his head.
I shook my head slightly and reached out to comfort him, but he recoiled a bit—likely from pain—so I stopped short. “Look, I’m sure your friend is in dire straits, but a missing fae? The fae are notoriously tricky people. I’m just not sure I’m the right guy for the job.”
Elden nodded. “I understand,” he said. He took a long pull from his martini. “Well, I’ll still pay for your drink anyway.”
Aw, man. Now he was kind of making me regret my earlier decision by being nice and all. Why’d he have to go and do that?
“Thanks, Elden.” I raised my glass and we clinked them together, then I took a sip of the sweet liquid. I don’t know what Mei did differently from other bartenders, but her drinks were always so much better. Must be magic, I decided.
A strange noise from behind me grabbed my attention, and I spun back around to face it. It sounded almost like... crying? Was Mystery Girl finally awake? Was she the one that had made the noise?
No, one quick glance at her face told me otherwise. She was still out like a light. But what was it, then?
“Hey, did anyone hear someone crying just now?” I asked.
Everyone looked at me kind of weird. Even Yuri.
“Thought the little lady was crying for a second, but she’s clearly unconscious,” Hank said.
I grimaced a little. Guess I was hearing things. “Sorry. Must have been my bad.”
The noise came again, louder this time. And it was definitely coming from the direction of the girl.
“Now that was odd,” Hank said. He was still kneeling next to Mystery Girl, a stern expression on his face. “She’s clearly still out, but there’s no mistaking that sound.”
“Good,” I replied. “Glad to know I’m not going completely crazy.”
“Waah!” the noise rang out, even louder than before. This time, it was followed by a series of soft movements from within the silk-wrapped bundle in Mystery Girl’s arms.
“Is that–” I started.
“A baby?” Hank finished.
I nodded.
The big man shrugged. “Only one way to find out. Tacobeh!” he turned to look at the shaman. “Help me get this bundle out of the girl’s arms.”
Tacobeh nodded, and the two went to work, pulling on the bundle as gently as they could to try and free it without doing any damage to what was more than likely a tiny baby inside it. In the end, it took a few odd shoves and quite a bit of cursing from the werewolf, but they managed to free the bundle.
I peeked at the pinkish thing inside it. It was, in fact, a small baby. I figured it was maybe four or five weeks old at most. It still had that deep pink skin that you found in newborns and didn’t seem to want to open its eyes. That could have been because of the light, but either way, it was still small.
The baby was wearing a light pink onesie that had giraffes on it. The outfit was nothing out of the ordinary. It could have come from any shop in the city, so it did little to help pinpoint where the bundle of joy could have come from.
Hank held her—I was assuming it was a her, based on the clothes—in his arms and rocked her gently. The crying stopped almost immediately.
“Aww,” I said, looking at the big man holding the little girl. “You two are so cute together!”
“Is very cute baby,” Yuri added a moment later. Somehow during the commotion, he’d gotten up and was now standing right next to me, even though I hadn’t heard him move.
I looked up into his eyes. There was a glint of glee there that I hadn’t seen in him even once the entire time I had known him. Did the big man have a thing for babies? That would be so typical of him.
“Where are you from, little thing?” I asked, looking at the baby again. I gingerly reached out with one hand to try and touch her little cheek, but I retracted my hand before I got too close.
While it was true that I didn’t want any of my own, I didn’t hate babies or children. I even thought babies were cute. Well, some of them, at least. Not all babies are cute. Sorry, but it’s true. But no, I liked them well enough, I just didn’t want to pass my immortality curse on down to anyone else, and my siblings’ children had all turned out immortal, so I could only assume mine would, too.
So long as they were someone else’s, I liked them just fine. I’d even helped watch my brother’s baby a time or two back in the early 1900s. I just hadn’t spent a lot of time around one in a hundred years or so, so I was severely out of practice. And more than a little hesitant to harm the thing.
Also, Mystery Girl had been holding on to her for dear life, meaning she must be someone pretty s
pecial. Which only added to my overall anxiety about her. If Mystery Girl had gone through all that trouble to keep the baby safe, I really didn’t want to do anything to mess it up now.
Thus, I kept my distance.
“Is that your mommy down there?” Hank asked the baby.
Of course, there was no answer, from the baby or the mystery girl. The girl was still unconscious, after all. But it would make sense. It was as good a theory as any.
“Do you have a name, little one?” he continued.
“Hmm,” Tacobeh chimed in. “Maybe. Look at the back of her onesie.”
The sheriff gently turned over the baby while continuing to rock her and keep her calm. We all looked at the small word written there on the back of it in some kind of marker. “Grace.”
“Grace, huh?” I said as Hank turned her back over. “That’s a very pretty name.”
“Well, while you four are standing there looking dumbfounded over the baby, isn’t anyone going to help out the girl who risked her life to bring her here?” Mei shouted from behind us.
I turned around to face her, a weak grin on my face. “Sorry,” I said. “I just...”
“Got all googly-eyed over an adorable infant?”
I lowered my head. “Yes.”
Mei let out a small laugh. “It’s okay, dunderheads.” She reached her arms out. “Give me the little lady, and you four see what you can do for the girl.”
Hank seemed reluctant to let the baby go, but he eventually placed her into Mei’s outstretched arms. Then we all turned our attention on Mystery Girl.
“Little man think she’ll be okay?” Yuri asked.
I took her arm in my hand, feeling for a pulse. Her skin was warm and soft to the touch, which was a good thing. I felt around for a minute, then finally felt the gentle throbbing of her blood in her wrist. It was a little faint, but she had a steady pulse.
“She’s going to pull through,” I told him, nodding. “Might be a bit before she comes to, though. Can anyone help her with her injuries?”
I scanned her body again. There were so many bruises and cuts covering her exposed skin I couldn’t find any areas that hadn’t been damaged. Just what had this girl gone through? The only spot that appeared to be undamaged on her was the spot behind where she’d kept baby, Grace. She must have tried really hard to make sure no harm had come to her.
“Mei, maybe your healing bourbon would help her?” I asked.
She shook her head. “She’d have to drink it first, remember? Hard to make someone drink when they’re unconscious. You could just as easily make them drown.”
It was true. It always seemed to work just fine in movies and TV, but if you weren’t awake enough to force your body to swallow, it was entirely possible it would forget to do so.
“I can help,” Tacobeh offered.
He knelt down next to the girl and moved his hand up and down one of her arms. A shiver ran through her flesh as he moved over it, and I tried to jerk his hand away, but he shushed me and warded me off.
“Shh,” he said. “That’s it. Accept the healing power of the spirits. Let them guide your own spirit back to health.”
He started to sing in a low voice, though I couldn’t make out any discernible words in his song. Even so, it was a beautiful tune, and the entire room was moved by it.
When the song ended, I looked down at the arm he’d been working on. It did look a little better. The cuts appeared to be less deep and the bruises just a little less pronounced than they were before. She still didn’t look to be in very good shape, but it was still an improvement.
“Wow,” I said, my eyes glazed over in amazement. I hadn’t ever watched healing magic at work before. Sure, I’d been injured my fair share of times, but it’s harder to look at some of your own injuries than you’d think. At least for me.
“Shh,” the shaman said again. He put a hand behind her head and lifted it up gently, then used the other hand to glide over her face, humming that same tune from before while he worked. “Rest easy, child, and let the spirits heal you.”
All at once, a certain stiffness that had been there in Mystery Girl’s body went away, and she looked relaxed. Peaceful, in a way, in spite of her myriad injuries.
For the first time since she’d teleported into the bar, I felt like things were going to work out for her somehow. I should have known all along, though, since this was Mei’s we were talking about. Anything could happen at Mei’s.
“Waah!” the noise came from behind me, rousing me from my thoughts again.
“What is it?” I asked, turning to face it.
“It’s Grace,” Mei said. She was holding the little baby at arm’s length like the thing had bit her or something.
“What’s wrong with her?”
“I don’t know,” Mei shook her head. “She won’t stop squirming and crying!”
The baby wailed again at the top of her lungs as if in response, filling the room with her cries.
“Aww, poor thing,” Yuri said, frowning at her.
“Well, does anyone know what to do?” Mei asked.
“Here, let me try to rock her again,” Hank offered.
Mei handed him the baby, and he rocked her back and forth a bit, but it didn’t make any difference. The little girl’s face had turned beet red, and she was still crying as hard as she could and shivering a little bit.
“Maybe she’s cold?” I offered. “Her body’s shivering.”
Yuri waved a hand dismissively. “Baby just mad is all. Not cold in here.”
Well, he was right about that. I had almost dried out completely by this point, it was so warm in the bar. “Well, what then?”
Hank shook his head. “I don’t know.” He looked over at Sally. “Here,” he said, shoving the baby toward her. “You’re a girl, you take her.”
Sally reared back and held her hands up in a defensive position. “Oh, no. No way am I taking that... thing.” There was a hint of distaste as she said that last part. “I’m a siren, remember? I don’t do land babies.”
Hank groaned, and the baby kept crying, but he took her back, holding her near his chest and rocking her again, even though she kept crying. “Well, what’s the problem, then? Does anyone know how to help her? Sevin? Isaiah?”
Both Frenchie and the magician put their hands up and shook their heads. No help over there, then.
“Here,” Yuri said at last. “Give me baby.”
Both Hank and I stared up at the big Russian like he’d grown another head. We’d seen him do a lot in the months we’d known him, but holding a baby? Those giant hands of his looked like they were more likely to crush a baby than cuddle one.
“Please,” Yuri said. “Is like back home.”
Hank shrugged, not sure what else to do, and he handed the baby over to Yuri.
“Shh, little baby,” Yuri said. He rocked her gently in one of his big arms. With the other, he placed a finger gently at the edge of her mouth.
“Waah!” Grace cried again. Then, suddenly, the crying stopped. I peered up at her in Yuri’s arms, barely able to believe it myself. She appeared to be sucking on the tip of his finger.
“Aww, cute baby,” Yuri said, smiling down at her with the biggest grin I’d ever seen. “Baby just hungry. Need food.”
“How do you know that?” I asked, my head cocked to the side.
“Is simple.” Yuri shrugged his shoulder. “Baby not tired or stinky. Must be hungry. Babies only need so much.”
“Well sure, if you put it like that, it seems easy enough,” I muttered. “Anyone know where to find some baby food? What do babies even eat at this age?”
Like I said, I was way out of practice.
“Usually, they take bottles,” Hank said. I was willing to believe him. He had two children of his own, though they were grown by now.
“Right,” I said, nodding. “Anyone happen to have a baby bottle on them?”
“Maybe we should check Mystery Girl?” Mei chimed in. “She brought the b
aby with her. Maybe she has some stuff on her.”
I nodded. “Good idea.” I knelt back down next to Mystery Girl again and checked her over.
Her outfit was fairly basic. I couldn’t even detect any pockets on it. Which was quite common for women’s fashion, to be fair. For some reason, designers never seemed to think girls needed pockets. Regardless, she didn’t appear to have any, and she wasn’t carrying any bags or anything, either.
“No luck,” I called over my shoulder. “She’s got nothing.”
“Well, someone’s going to have to go get some baby supplies, then,” Mei said, hands on her hips, “or we’re going to have a baby meltdown in a few minutes.”
“Good call,” I told her. “Any volunteers?”
The whole room went deathly silent, except for Yuri, who was cooing at the baby. He was the obvious choice, but I didn’t want to take the baby away from him, and at the moment, I couldn’t risk taking the baby out of the bar, either. We still didn’t know what had brought Grace and Mystery Girl here in the first place, so they needed to stay.
It was a full moon tonight, which nixed Hank. He’d start changing over to wolf form soon. Sally had already mentioned she didn’t do babies, and I sure had no idea where to even find baby supplies.
Which left only Isaiah and... “Sevin!” I called.
“Moi?” Sevin replied, looking completely stunned. “What do you want with moi?”
“Sevin, old buddy,” I said. I walked over to him and put my hands over his shoulders. “Would you be a dear and go pick up some supplies for baby Grace, please? I’m sure Mei would be happy to pay you back.”
I flashed Mei a grin as I said the last part, and she frowned back at me. But hey, she was the one who had offered sanctuary, not me.
“But I have not cared for a baby. I do not know what to buy!” he protested.
“Now, now, Sevin. That’s not a problem.” I patted him on the back. “Hank or Yuri can get you a list. You just have to go and get everything on it and return as quick as you can. Easy, right?”
Sevin’s expression soured, and his face looked a little ashen, but he nodded. “I suppose, mon ami. Anything for you.”
“Thank you, Sevin,” I told him. “It means the world to me.” Out of the corner of my eye, I could see baby Grace start to squirm again, and it looked like she was about to belt out another series of wails. “And the sooner the better, eh?”