Bloodfever
Page 33

Ive been choking on coincidences longer than I care to think about. You?
Yes, I agreed. And I intend to get to the bottom of them.
You do that, Ms. Lane.
He sounded positively hostile. I could tell he was about to hang up. Wait a minute. Whos IYCGM?
If you cant get me, he gritted.
And IYD?
If youre dying, Ms. Lane. But if I were you, Id call that one only if I was sure I was dying, otherwise Ill kill you myself. I heard a man in the background laugh.
The line went dead.
You see them, too, I said in a low voice, as I sank down onto the bench next to the lightly freckled redhead.
Id found a sidhe-seer on the campus of Trinitya girl, like myself.
On the way back to the bookstore the weather had cleared so Id detoured to the college to people-watch. Although the sun was only weakly pushing through the clouds, the afternoon was warm and people had gathered on the commons, some studying, others laughing and talking.
When you see something from Faery, Barrons had advised me, look not at the Fae, but the crowd to see who else is watching it.
It had proved sound advice. Itd taken me a couple of hours, but Id finally spotted her. It helped that there were so many Fae in the city. It seemed every half hour or so, a Rhino-boy walked by with one of his charges. Or I saw something totally new, like this one wed both been watching.
The young girl glanced up from her book and gave me a blank look that was sheer perfection. A halo of curly auburn hair framed slight features, a small straight nose, a rosebud mouth, an impudent jaw. I pegged her for fourteen, fifteen at the most, and already her sidhe-seer faade was nearly flawless. It made me feel downright gauche. Had she taught herself or had someone else taught her?
Im sorry, what? she said, blinking.
I glanced back at the Fae. It was stretched on its back on the edge of a multitiered fountain, as if soaking up the intermittent rays of sun. It was slender, diaphanous, lovely. Like those dreamy, translucent images of Fairy that are so popular in todays culture, it had a cloud of gossamer hair, a dainty face, and a petite, slim boy-body with small breasts. It was nude and not bothering with a glamour. Why should it? The normal human couldnt see it, and according to Barrons, many of the Fae believed sidhe-seers had died out long ago or dwindled to inconsequential numbers.
I handed the girl my journal, open to the page on which Id been sketching it.
She flinched, clapped it shut, and glared at me. How dare you? If you want to put yourself in danger, have a fine go at it, but dont be dragging me into it with you! She grabbed her book, backpack, and umbrella, sprang up, and bounded off in a flash of felinegrace.
I dashed after her. I had a million questions. I wanted to know how shed learned what she was. I wanted to know whod taught her, and I wanted to meet that person. I wanted to learn more about my heritage, and not from Barrons, who had agendas within agendas. Who was I kiddingeven though she was years younger than me, it was lonely in this big city, and I could use a friend.
I was a good sprinter. It helped that I was wearing tennis shoes and she was in sandals. Though she dashed down one street after the next, pushing through tourists and vendors, I continued gaining, until finally she ducked into an alley, stopped, and whirled around. She tossed her fiery curls and shot me a glare. With a cats luminous green-gold eyes, she performed a lightning quick scan of the alley, the pavement, the walls, the rooftops, finally the sky beyond.
The sky? I frowned, not liking that at all. Why?
Blimey! How did you survive this fecking long?
She was too young to be cursing. Watch your mouth. My motherd wash yours out.
She shot me a look of pure belligerence. My mum would have turned you over to the council and had them lock you up for being a danger to yourself and others.
Council? What council? Could it be? Were there that many of us? Were they organized, like Barrons said theyd been in olden days? You mean a council of sidhe
Stow it, she hissed. Youll be the fecking death of us!
Is there one? I demanded. A council ofyou knowpeople like us? If so, I had to meet them. If they didnt already know about the Lord Master and his portal, they needed to. Perhaps I could turn this whole nasty affair over to someone else, a whole council of someone elses. Wash my hands of it, single-mindedly focus on my revenge, maybe get some help pursuing it. Had my sister known them, met with them?
Shoosh it! She scanned the sky again.
It was making me uneasy. Why do you keep looking up?
She closed her eyes, shook her head, and looked as if she were invoking Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and every last one of the saints in a bid for patience. When she opened them again, she hurried over and plucked the journal from beneath my arm. Pen, she demanded. I dug one out of my purse and slapped it in her palm.
She wrote: You and I are here, but the wind is everywhere. Cast no words upon it you dont wish followed back to you.
Thats awfully melodramatic. I tried to make light of it, if only to dispel the chill inching up my spine.
Thats one of the first rules we ever learn, she said with a scathing glance. I learned it when I was three. Youre old. You should know better.