Paranormalcy (Paranormalcy 1)

“Evie, wake up. ” Lend's voice startled me.

“What are you doing here?”

He smiled. “It's my room. ”

I sat up, looking around. Everything from the day before clicked into place, and I wished it hadn't. It was like losing Lish again.

“Sorry,” Lend said, “but they need you downstairs. ”

I blinked, trying to get my eyes to focus. “Who's they?”

He shrugged uncomfortably. “Just some people my dad works with. I'm sorry, I let you sleep as long as I could. ”

“Oh, that's okay, then. Can I go to the bathroom first?”

“Of course. It's right down here. ” I followed him out into the hall and he pointed out the bathroom. “Hey, who's Vivian?”

My stomach dropped as the dream flooded back. “Don't know,” I blurted, walking into the bathroom. Why did I feel guilty hiding a stupid dream from Lend? I shook my head, trying to dismiss it as a meaningless nightmare. After all, Vivian had said a lot of the same things I'd heard from Reth. It was probably my brain trying to process everything that had happened. Ignoring the nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach, I swished some toothpaste around my mouth.

Lend was waiting when I came out and I followed him down the stairs. The two bolted doors were open now. Wondering what I would find, I walked into the kitchen behind Lend and stopped dead.

Lend's dad, two werewolves, and a vampire. It was like the setup to a bad joke or something. A doctor, two werewolves, and a vampire walk into a bar. “What'll you have?” the bartender asks. “We were thinking him,” the vampire answers, eyeing the doctor.

Okay, jokes weren't my strong point.

The yellow eyes staring warily out at me from the werewolves and the shriveled corpse face of the vamp--I automatically reached for Tasey before remembering I didn't have her. I didn't know where she was, either, which made me all sorts of nervous. All their ankles were covered by pants, but I was certain there weren't any trackers underneath.

The vampire's glamour was a pretty, goth-?looking woman in her early twenties. Black hair streaked with crimson; heavy eye makeup; and all black, skintight clothing. Way to blend in there. The two werewolves, holding hands, were a man and a woman in their thirties; he was tall, with his head shaved, and she had curly brown hair, cropped very short. There was something familiar about her face, but I couldn't place it.

Of course, now the bolted doors made sense. Holy crap, I had just spent the night of a full moon with two unneutered werewolves. And a vamp, too, although one vamp I was pretty sure I could handle, even without my beloved Tasey.

“Lend, you little monster,” the vampire said, glaring. “Don't you ever pull that again. ”

Lend hung his head. “Sorry. I didn't mean for--When did you get here?”

“Just now. ” She turned to me. “So. ” She sounded witchy. I didn't like her. “IPCA, huh?”

“So. ” I raised my eyebrows (wishing I could raise just one like Lend did), “Bloodsucker, huh?”

“Yeah. So are Luke and Stacey. ” She jerked her head toward the werewolves.

“Okay, sure. Since I'm stupid and don't know they spent last night as wolves. ”

All three of the paranormals looked surprised. “Fine,” the vamp snapped. “Did you figure out what David is yet?”

I gave her a flat stare. “Did you really wake me up for this? Because unless one of you did something to him last night, he's human. ” I glanced over at him to make sure. Yup, just human.

David cleared his throat. “We wanted to ask about this. ” He moved to the side and gestured at the table, where I saw Tasey--yay Tasey!--my communicator, and Lend's ankle tracker. David looked sad. “You brought IPCA technology to my home. Will they track you?”

“No!” Truth was, I hadn't even thought about that stuff in the confusion last night. There wasn't a problem with it, but he had a right to be worried. “Trust me, they'd already be here. The tracker is deactivated and my communicator doesn't have GPS or anything. It kept getting screwed up and reset every time I went through the Faerie Paths so they got rid of it. They always knew where I was anyway, since the only way I ever left was with a faerie. They can't track the communicator unless you hit the panic button, I promise. ”

The vamp cut in again. “Sure, but you could still call them, couldn't you?”

I glared at her. “Yeah, because I really want to get locked up for the rest of my life. Sounds like a party. In fact, I think I'll turn myself in right now!”

“Like they wouldn't kill to get you back,” she sneered.

I exhaled sharply, trying not to yell at her. Vamps grated on my nerves more than any other paranormal--the disconnect between their glamours and real faces was just too much. “Listen, corpse girl, do you know what I did? I broke section one of the charter. As in, the section. As in, let a paranormal loose without authorization and be locked up for the rest of your mortal life. Even if I wanted to go back, which I don't, and even if there was anything to go back to, which there probably isn't, I couldn't. So bite me. ”