Supernaturally (Paranormalcy 2)

"Sylph? Really?" He looked at his dad, understanding how excited David would be over this. Or maybe Lend's interest was based on the fact that he was half elemental. I wondered how much that world called to him, how much he wanted to know about it and therefore himself.

Best not to let him dwell on it. I wanted him to stay firmly in this world. "Yup. So your mom?" I would have offered to go with him later, but the truth was Cresseda still kind of scared me. Elemental immortals function on such a different plane than us, there's very little that connects. Speaking to one is like trying to understand theoretical mathematics before you have your times tables down-you come away doubting you even understood what numbers were to begin with.

It was so weird to think that Lend came from Cresseda. He was so human, so connected. But that'd have to fade eventually. Would he slowly stop caring, slowly become like his mother, beautiful and strange and forever other? Or would he just snap one day-give up this life for an eternal one? How long would it be before he became like the other immortal elementals?

"She's more likely to show up for you," David said to Lend. I looked over at

him. He was so good at hiding the pain from his son, but I could see it written in the downward turn of his shoulders.

Please, please don't let that be me someday.

Lend seemed torn about leaving me with Raquel, but nodded. "I'll be right back. " He hurried out the door.

"Before there are any more distractions, let me lay out the terms. " Raquel steered me to the couch and sat down. "You would be working for IPCA as a temporary, contract employee. "

"What does that even mean?"

"It means that you work for us because you want to, and only on the projects that you choose. If you want to stop, you stop. You don't have to come back to the Center. We'll call when we need you. There's no obligation, no oversight other than mine. You won't be back at IPCA, not really-you'll simply be helping me on some things that your abilities are particularly suited to. "

I frowned. She was willing to admit that I wasn't really dead, and she had figured out a way for me to work with them without working for them. IPCA was all about control. If they were going to relinquish it to have my special glamour-piercing vision back, they must really be changing.

"How? What did you tell them? Didn't you get in trouble?" I asked.

"Stranger things have happened than paranormals coming back from the dead. Since we never had 'proof' that you were dead, my fellow Supervisors didn't question it when I said I'd found you alive. I made it clear that you wouldn't communicate with anyone other than me, and refused to contact you until it was unanimously agreed that you would be completely autonomous, no longer classified or regulated by IPCA. "

"You didn't get in trouble?"

"After the severe mismanagement last April that resulted in so many deaths and disappearances, no one is left in a position to get me 'in trouble. '"

"But they agreed to all that? Really?"

Raquel sighed, an I need a vacation one. "Honestly, we're struggling. After Viv- After those unfortunate events, we're severely understaffed. We haven't been able to respond as quickly or efficiently to vampire or werewolf reports, our tracking measures seem to be failing us entirely for paranormals that usually stay in one specific area, and there are unconfirmed rumors that a troll colony has taken over a neighborhood in Sweden. Also"-she grimaced-"a poltergeist has targeted the Center and no one has been able to pinpoint its location for an extermination. "

"Basically you guys suck without me. " I couldn't keep the smug grin from my face. It was kind of gratifying to know that, without my eyes, IPCA was falling apart.

Raquel looked at the ceiling and heaved another long-suffering sigh. "That's one way of putting it. "

"This isn't Evie's problem," David interjected. "If IPCA is tanking, I say good riddance. " My eyes narrowed involuntarily, defensiveness for my old employers flaring up. Sure, the vamps here were self-regulating, but I had nearly been killed by one as an eight-year-old. The rest of the world wasn't a paranormal haven like this town. Things were scary. Things were deadly. And most people had absolutely no idea, which meant they had no way to protect themselves.

Raquel ignored him. "Your assignments would be simple and safe. And, as I said, entirely voluntary. "

"How is that going to work? I'm in school. " As boring as it was, I needed to do well. I had to get into Georgetown like Lend.

"We'll work around your schedule. "

"That's sounding suspiciously Faerie Paths dependent. "

Lend slammed the front door, his face clouded with worry. "She wouldn't come. "

David shook his head. "She doesn't always. Don't take it personally. " That was interesting-did Lend not know that Cresseda wouldn't show up for David anymore? Raquel looked sharply at Lend and then David; it was clear the wheels in her head were turning, but I had no idea why.

Lend rubbed a hand over his face, then looked at Raquel. "What are you doing here, anyway?"

"I'm here to ask for Evie's help with some projects. Yours, too, if you're willing. "

David stood up straight and Lend's jaw clenched; even his glamour rippled with barely contained anger. "We're not. "

Was he answering for me? As much as I loved him, that wasn't his call. "Lend, can I talk to you?"