Time for me to find out. I crept toward the door that led to the stairway up to his apartment, until I felt it. I looked around wildly, not seeing anything out of place. It had been bad enough at school, surrounded by people, but here it was enough to make the fear from Sunday morning thrum through my veins, making me want to puke.
“Miss Penchent?”
The small voice behind me nearly scared me out of my jeans. I whirled around to face the owner of the voice and came eye to top of bald head with a small older guy. I looked down into his watery greenish eyes almost hidden by a bulbous nose.
I crossed my arms in front of my chest, sure my heart beating this hard had to be visible. Should I admit that was my name? Who was this guy? “What’s it to you?”
“Please drop the attitude, Miss Penchent. I’m here to offer you a job.”
My face hardened into that expression that Nina called the block, arms tightening even more. “I didn’t apply for any jobs.”
“No, but you are certainly qualified. Willingly or not, you will be coming with me and hearing what we have to offer.” He tilted his head, the sun reflecting off the giant bald patch on top.
“Oh really,” I snarled. “Is it you that’s been following me all day? And just how is a man your size going to drag me off in the middle of an apartment complex with no one noticing.”
The dwarf sighed, loosening his red tie with one hand. “I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this. If you insist on continuing to be rude, we will have no choice but to do this the hard way.”
I raised an eyebrow in challenge, tensing up a little. No way this pipsqueak was making me go anywhere. Wade was a big guy and he’d had a hard time getting me down. Wade. Coincidence that this guy found me outside Wade’s apartment? I didn’t think so. Curiosity was definitely one of my weaknesses, but I wasn’t ready to die twice in one week. Though, this could be my only chance to go after Wade. And what would it hurt to just see what the guy had to offer? If he tried to take me into a building or whatever, I could reevaluate.
With an absolutely serene expression, the dwarf lifted his wrist to his mouth. “Snatch is go,” he said, hopefully talking into something. If not, he was even more nuts than I’d first thought.
What were the chances this was connected to last week and ending up in the woods? Almost no doubt. “No, wait. I’ll go with you.”
“As you wish.” The dwarf moved his wrist back up to his mouth. “Cancel the last order, subject has agreed to come of her own volition.” He put his arm down and looked at me, not blinking. “Please follow me.”
He took off around the building, moving fast for the length of his legs.
I ran after him. I caught up when he paused at a brick wall in a secluded alley. As soon as we locked eyes, he stepped into the wall. Literally. The wall bowed around him and he disappeared.
Great. So much for being in a public place. I had a feeling he wasn’t just going to leave me alone if I didn’t follow. What happened if he tracked me down and confronted me in front of Dan or Nina? Not going to happen. Better to just get this over with right now. Plus the guy was starting to tick me off. Did he really have to be so rude?
I closed my eyes and jumped through the wall. It felt really weird, like the time I fell in quicksand at Yellowstone, before mom dropped me at the home. It held me out for a second more, then snapped me forward and spit me out, nearly sending me sprawling across the floor.
The dwarf was waiting for me on the other side, back lit by cool blue lights floating along chiseled stone walls.
“Stay close,” he said and bustled away.
“Where are we?” I asked, shuffling along in the sandy footing.
“Now is not the time for questions. Let me get the pleasantries out of the way, even if you don’t seem to be a pleasant person.” The dwarf spun around and faced me, then went into a deep bow. “I am Mr. Cumat.”
A giggle tried to escape. How did he take himself seriously? I held it in and gave him a polite smile. “Nice to meet you.” I dropped the smile. “Now where are we?” I’d been asking that question too much lately.
Mr. Cumat snorted at me, no doubt considering how rude I was being. “We are in one of the tunnels.” He turned and continued down the tunnel, apparently expecting me to follow.
“What tunnels?” I asked, staying only a couple steps behind him. “You can’t just say one of the tunnels and expect me to know what that means.”
As we moved farther in, the walls changed from stone to some building material that was such a bright white it was nearly blinding. The walls themselves seemed to be the source of the only light in the hallway, now that we were past the entrance at the little floating lights were gone. I’d definitely never seen anything like this before. The floor changed from the sandy footing of a cave to white tiles.
The dwarf sighed and pinched the top of his nose as he walked. “The tunnels that lead from Faerie to the human world. Do you know nothing?”
I was going to ignore the last part of that. “You mean I could take this tunnel from my world to Faerie?” Doors started showing up along the walls. Lots of doors. I inched toward the middle of the tunnel.
“Not your world, the human world. You forget where you’re from.”
Oh no he didn’t. “I’m not forgetting where I’m from, that little ball in the sky called Earth, that’s where I’m from.”
“That is where you were born, but not where you are from.”
I crossed my arms and stopped walking, heat starting up my neck. “You aren’t taking me to Faerie, are you? This isn’t going to work if you think you’re going to get me to take one more step toward that place.” Faerie was chock full of liars, deceivers and all other kinds of low lives that I really didn’t want to be around. Plus, there was all kinds of weird stuff there that would probably find a way to kill me. At least according to my mom.
“You will not be taken to Faerie right now, if you cooperate. And why do you seem to think that would be a bad thing? It is the place of your ancestors.” I glared down at him and he threw up his hands. “It’s useless to argue about this now. Shall we continue?”
“Not until you give me a better idea of why I’m here. I’m not going any farther until I know. Did Wade send you?”
The dwarf muttered something to himself. He looked like he was about to speak when a voice from down the hallway interrupted him.
“Hey Cumat, you need any help? Starren said to...”
Was that… no way I could be so lucky. I spun around to get a better look. Sure enough.
“Trish!” Wade blinked several times. “I thought…” he trailed off.
I lunged at him without thinking, taking a swing at his face. He dodged and grabbed my wrists, tight but not enough to hurt. I struggled for a second, every possible way I could kill him going through my mind. But first I needed to get free.
“Thought I was dead? Do a better job next time,” I snapped. I stopped struggling, trying to get him to relax his hold. I assessed for a moment, and noticed a couple of weird things. Wade was wearing some funky clothes. Like really funky. And he looked like a couple of the blows I tried to land had hit, an almost sick expression on his face.
I took a step toward him holding back a growl. This was going to hurt, but it was worth it. I jumped up and planted both feet in his chest, pushing as I pulled back against his grip. We fell and I scratched at him, clawing and kicking. He wasn’t going to get a second chance at killing me.
“Trish, stop!” Wade yelled. “I don’t want to hurt you!”
I wiggled my elbow free and slammed him in the gut, getting a satisfying ‘oopmph’ as all the air left his lungs “Coulda fooled me!”
“No need to get violent, Miss Penchent,” Cumat called. “I’ll have to call security.” He looked at Wade, then back to me, tangled on the floor and glaring. “You two know each other?”
“Yes,” we said in unison. I sneered at Wade, just to let him know that I
didn’t appreciate us being on the same page.
“And you don’t get along?”
“No!” we chorused again.
“He tried to kill me,” I spat out. Security or no security, I was not letting him get the drop on me again. Not now that I knew what he wanted, even if I didn’t know why.
“I didn’t try, I did!” Wade yelled back. “How are you here?”
His admission was like a punch in the gut, making me pause. I’d never told him how I felt about him, but still, we’d been dating for almost a year. Didn’t he care at all? He could just throw that out there and have the gall to seem freaked out that I was still breathing?
He let go of me and we both scrambled to our feet, staring each other down. Wade had some very gratifying scratches down his face. Served him right.
“What do I know, I’m just a retrieval specialist. They never tell me anything,” Cumat’s voice hardly registered over the roaring in my ears. Did he not care that Wade had just admitted to murdering me? “Of course, if they know each other they wouldn’t get along, the girl is terribly rude.”
“I’m here to make sure you don’t do it to anyone else,” I spat out and launched myself in his direction. I got a good swing in before he grabbed my wrists and jerked me around, gripping me in a bear hug.
I kicked back and caught him in the knee.
“Security!” the dwarf yelled in the background.
“I got this, Cumat,” Wade panted out.
I slammed my head back and got him in the throat. I’d been aiming for his nose, but the throat worked fine. He gasped and then shook me until I was dizzy.
“Trish, stop. We need to talk.”
Really? Seriously? “You should have tried that before you shot me!” I bit down on his forearm and he yelled. Then he crushed me to his body so hard my chest couldn’t expand enough to get a breath. I batted at his arm, trying to pull it away enough to get some air, but he was just too strong. I couldn’t do anything.
He must have felt the fight go out of me. His grip loosened a little “Truce? You won’t attack me?”
If I agreed to that my stupid fae ancestry would never let me go back on my word. But I liked being able to breathe. “Not for… an… hour,” I gasped out.
His arms went to his sides and I stumbled away from him, moving to the wall and propping myself up. He bent over and put his hands on his knees, watching me. That look meant he knew I would be keeping track of that hour.
“All done, Miss Penchant?” Cumat asked primly.
“Not by a long shot.” That came out much stronger than my last attempt at a sentence.
“Well, that is unfortunate considering you’ve been assigned as partners. You are going to have to learn to work together,” Cumat broke in, putting himself in danger from both sides.
“I had no idea this job opportunity you mentioned included people like him, people who off other people in their spare time,” I shot out, getting angrier as the words poured free. “I won’t work for a place like that. Plus you haven’t even gotten to why this is so important for me, anyway.”
“Is that what you think?” Wade yelled back, straightening up and moving close to tower over me. I squared my shoulders and pulled myself to my full height. Which was nothing compared to his. He was probably trying to figure out how to finish me off. “After a year together, all the things we said to each other, that I wanted to kill you?”
“What else am I supposed to think?” Heads popped out of doorways down the hall. Our screaming was starting to draw others attention. I didn’t care. Let everyone know what kind of guy they worked with.
“Now, now, let’s try to keep this from escalating into-”
Both our glares turned to Mr. Cumat.
Wade’s shoulders slumped. “I didn’t want to hurt you,” his confession came out almost as a whisper.
“Well I’m pretty sure that shooting someone in the chest will do that.” He actually looked sad. More sad than I’d ever seen him. But he was either a murderer or crazy, and I wasn’t sure which was worse.
“Miss Penchent, I’m sure you would understand the position Wade was in if it was explained to you. It was all part of the job.”
“All part of the job?” Did that make it better or worse? Had the whole relationship been part of the job? “Oh, well then, I guess it’s fine if the job told you to do it. No way you could stick up for your girlfriend or anything, that would just be too archaic.” Part of the job? What kind of work was this, that expected you to kill people you were supposed to care about? I seriously was not getting involved with these people. Before I knew it, they’d be asking me to kill Dan. Or worse, Nina.
“I wouldn’t have done it if you hadn’t been fae.” He was back to yelling. This was a whole new side of him. I’d never seen him angry. Everything I knew about him was probably wrong. “You were supposed to go to Faerie if something like that happened, just like everyone else.”
Okay, now I was really confused. So confused I couldn’t even be angry for a minute. He didn’t just say fae, did he? Because he really wasn’t supposed to know about that. “What? What’s a fae?”
He gave me a look that said he totally knew I was bluffing.
“When one of the fae dies on Earth, they are sent back to Faerie. In extreme cases we use it to get criminals back, or in your case sent home for evaluation. We weren’t sure how you would react to a summons, or even if you knew that you are fae, so it was decided this was the best method to return you to Faerie,” Mr. Cumat interrupted. “And that is all you can know for now. Shall we continue and meet your new team leader?”
“You were going to force me to go to Faerie? No way. I’m not working for you loons.” I planted my feet and made sure my expression was sending out my feelings about this place loud and clear. I should be plotting my revenge against Wade, not trying to help him. Even if he was just trying to send me to Faerie, which I was having a hard time believing, he had risked my life without even thinking about it.
“Miss Penchent, I do believe that working here will bring you great satisfaction. Those who work hard are always well rewarded.”
“You expect me to go around killing people and just trusting you that they pop up in Faerie, totally fine? Seriously?” Wade at least should have known I wouldn’t go for this. But then, he had looked surprised to see me. Maybe he didn’t know the dwarf was bringing me in. I gave him another glare. “There is nothing you could possibly give me that would make me want to work for you.”
“Really?” Oh, now the little dwarf was looking so smug. If only I could wipe that expression off his face. He was making me mad enough that his next words took a moment to register. When they did, it was like waking up in the woods all over again. “Nothing can compel you to work with us? Not even your freedom?”
Chapter Four
“What? Why would you even say that?” Now the people down the hall were really going to get a show. I didn’t care; I was mad.
“Ms. Penchent, no need to get upset. Your happy home here on Earth will be your reward for helping us with a particularly hard case. If you should choose not to join us for this case, you give up your freedom. Are we clear?”
I glowered at him for a moment, contemplating all the different ways I could use to make him talk, to give me a better explanation for what was going on here. Wade cleared his throat behind Cumat and shook his head. He knew me well. I sent daggers streaming out of my eyes in his direction, but they seemed to glance off. He didn’t even look offended. After the shock of seeing me alive had faded, he went back to his normal cool, reserved self. Fine, two could play that game.
“Give up my freedom how?”
“Whose child are you?” Cumat asked, sounding exasperated. “Didn’t they teach you anything about protocol?”
I crossed my arms in front of my chest and deepened my glare. No doubt my mom had been on the run for a reason. It wasn’t like people did that for fun. Which meant there was
no way I was telling him who my mom was.
Cumat sighed. “I suppose that if they didn’t take the time to teach you manners, I should not expect you to know anything else. All fae children born in the human world are supposed to return to Faerie when they come of age, to be trained in the ways of the fae. Living on Earth without being trained is strictly forbidden. If you have been living here without permission, you have been violating the law and you will be imprisoned if you refuse to work for us. You are not on any of our lists, therefore we assume you were not returned?”
It sounded like a question, but he already knew the answer. Was that why Mom had always kept us on the run, never living in one place longer than a month? Was she trying to keep me away from these people? She’d never had anything good to say about Faerie. Not much to say at all, actually. A cold feeling, strangely like fear, started in the pit of my stomach. I kept my face impassive.
“Do you even know who your parents are?”
“No.” Truth. Mom had never said anything about who my father was, and I really didn’t know that much about her either. Especially now that it had been so long since she had left me and it was hard to tell if my memories were accurate or just things I’d made up as a kid to make me feel better.
“That explains so much,” Cumat muttered. “If you refuse to help with this job, you will be taken to Faerie for training. If you do agree to help us, the Council has decided to allow an exception to the rule.”
Wow, they must be desperate. From some of the things Mom had said, it had become pretty obvious that fae were sticklers for rules. Somehow I got the feeling I wasn’t going to like what they asked me to do. It had to be bad or they wouldn’t have to blackmail someone into doing it. But the choices were to stay with Dan and Nina, something I’d figured out wasn’t so bad, or get dragged off in handcuffs to some other world. Did they even have handcuffs? Probably not, they’d probably use some kind of magic.
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