Endlessly (Paranormalcy 3)

"Really? We'll get rocking chairs and be all cute and wrinkly!"

"You'll be wrinkly. I'll just pretend to be. "

I punched him lightly in the stomach, but closed my eyes, my own soul once again singing out louder than the others in me. "Best plan I've heard this week. And, trust me, I've heard a lot. "

"I love you forever, Evie. "

I pulled back and kissed him, all the energy and light in me springing up in joy and passion and happiness. "I love you forever, too, my Lend. "

"Wow, your lips are really hot. Literally and metaphorically. But mostly literally. "

I laughed, stepping back from him. "Yeah, comes with the bursting-with-eternal-souls territory. "

Reth collapsed to the ground next to me, his breathing shallow and frantic. "Lend?" I said, my immortal voice still managing panic.

Lend reached down and picked Reth up, carrying him to the edge of the gathering. I turned to the group, suddenly aware of our very, very large audience, a collection of souls in every color of the rainbow (as well as some definitely not in the rainbow I knew) and the bodies that held them standing, waiting, watching. It was a good thing David's property was on the edge of a state forest, because there were a lot of paranormals here.

I took a deep breath, my eyes trained on Reth's chest to make sure it was still moving. To my relief he lifted his head and pushed out of Lend's grasp with a disgusted sound, choosing to sit on the ground instead. He was still okay. But for how long. . .

"We've got to do this now. " I lifted up my hand, and-

"Stop," a woman shouted. Everyone turned to see someone in a power suit and sensible pumps stomping out of the trees toward me. It was not Raquel. Raquel was running after her, swearing rapidly in Spanish and trying to grab Anne-Whatever Whatever.

"Wow, you are so not invited," I said. She was a lot less threatening now that I could see straight through to her soul, a pale, quivering, barely there thing.

"Stupid girl, you have no idea what you're doing!"

"Really? Because I'm pretty sure you have no idea what I'm doing. "

She stood directly in front of me, huffing with exertion and anger. Lend loomed protectively beside me, but I wasn't exactly worried she'd whip out a Taser and try to take me in. All her faerie cronies were on my side now, and I didn't see a single paranormal or even another human backing her up.

"What do you think will happen to IPCA if you take all these creatures out of the world?"

"Hmm. I believe the answer falls somewhere under the categories of Don't Know and Don't Care. Take your pick. "

"Oh? You don't care? You may think you're helping by banishing this group, but how many vampires and werewolves are leaving? Hmm?"

I looked around. The only vampire I could see was Arianna, standing next to David, and a couple of werewolves who had come out of the woods after Raquel. I shrugged. "They don't belong in that other world. "

"They don't belong in ours, either, but here they are! How exactly do you propose IPCA continue to keep people safe from paranormal menaces that will still be alive and well among us when you take away the faerie magic we depend on?"

I remembered the werewolf guard who had been turned against his will. And there was poor Arianna, innocent of anything other than falling for the wrong boy. As bad as IPCA had been-and, whoo boy, it had its bad points-it did fill a necessary role in the world to address problems that the average person had no idea existed.

"But you're doing it wrong. " I frowned. "I mean, you're all about capture and control. Look at my friend. " I pointed to Arianna, easy for me to pick out of the darkness next to mortal Raquel and David. "She's never hurt anyone in her life. She's done nothing but try to make the best out of the crap hand she's been dealt. In fact, she and David have devoted their lives to doing what IPCA should have been doing all along: helping and guiding the people who need it most instead of automatically treating them like criminals and killers. "

"Evie, if I may?" Raquel stepped forward, regarding Anne-Whatever Whatever with cool, professional detachment. "I'm afraid your brief and disastrous reign as head of IPCA has come to an end. As has IPCA as a functioning international body. Which is why I've already set in motion everything necessary to form the United Paranormal Aid and Rehabilitation Group. Each geographical area will act with cooperative autonomy, and the focus will shift from containment to education and aid, with minimal policing only when necessary. " Only Raquel could talk like an official memo. I glanced at Lend, shocked to see him smiling at Raquel.

"You have no right!" Anne sputtered.

"Oh, I think you'll find your most powerful contacts immediately came out of an inexplicable fog once the Unseelie faeries stopped working with you. They want answers. I have them. So while you have been running around, desperately trying to grasp at power, the rest of us have been finding solutions. "

"I won't let this happen! I'll-" Her shrill voice cut off, although her mouth kept moving. I turned to Reth, who raised an eyebrow at me from his seat on the ground.

"I am not going to miss humanity," he said.

I laughed. "Humanity's not going to miss you, either. "

Raquel smiled, then motioned to the werewolves, who were only too happy to come and bodily haul away a now rapidly flailing Anne-Whatever Whatever.