Faeries Gone Wild Page 28

  “Something the matter?”

  Alec jerked back to attention. “Nope.”

  “Stay in touch.” With a pat on Alec’s shoulder, he shot off down the hall.

  Alec sort of half-closed the door on John. As Alec waited for John’s steps to clear the staircase, he thought back to the last time he’d seen that look of sated smugness.

  He’d been on top of it, in his own bed, buried in reams of platinum hair.

  How could he have missed the obvious set so clearly before him!

  Chapter

  5

  Barefoot, dressed in last night’s clothes, Alec marched down the hall and pounded on the door marked 2D. “Open up! I know you’re in there.”

  “You can’t know for sure.”

  “Well, I sure do now. Open up, Tia.”

  The lock rattled and the door opened the length of the security chain.

  “John Winter is your father!” Alec quickly accused.

  The door smacked shut, only to fly open wide on its hinges. Tia popped out in the hall to look around. Alec used the opportunity to herd them both inside.

  “I finally put it together, the string of clues. The way you asked for him first thing. The way you defended him—though I thought you were merely supporting me. But what really just cinched it was John himself in one of his pouts. Lounged at my door like his jockeys were pulled up too snug, then suddenly loosened. Sort of a catch and release. You look like that sometimes, too. Around the eyes. You share those startling baby blues. . . .”

  She opened her mouth and closed it. Folded her arms and kept them folded. “We are not speaking.”

  “There it is! The Winter glimmer!”

  She simmered with energy now, Alec noted. She never could keep quiet long, and under the circumstances—

  “Did he recognize me, Alec?” she asked in a burst.

  “Well, no. Don’t think so. C’mon, tell me how this is even possible.”

  “The usual way.” She made a crude motion with her fingers, jabbing one through a hole.

  He couldn’t help but laugh.

  “This is not amusing.”

  “Tia, Tia, I find you totally amazing.”

  “Suit yourself,” she said loftily.

  “Listen, I’m sorry I reacted badly last night.”

  “You don’t care to believe in Enchantments, that is your privilege.”

  “I must have always believed a little bit. I did acknowledge you at first sight. If I’d been alone, who knows what might have happened.”

  “What got you running back today, though, was my connection to your precious John, the idea that his blood runs through my veins.”

  “It did get me over here faster. I was already eating humble pie, though, wondering how I could ever get you to open your door to me, when John arrived to give the game away.”

  She sized him up. “This humble pie does wonders for you.”

  He shook his head. “To think that Winter blood flows through you.”

  “Yes. Though mine is rich violet in color, singular to the Luna species.”

  “So you’re Luna, huh?”

  “Yes.”

  “That common in Scandinavia?”

  “No.”

  “Am I going to have to pry every detail out of you?” he demanded.

  “Not sure I want to stick my throat out.”

  “Neck.”

  She whirled round just in time to catch him biting back a grin. “Next it could be a foot. Sticking a foot—”

  “Tia! That’s no way to talk to your fresh-start buddy.”

  Her stony face began to crumble. “You hurt me deeply last night, Alec. You would have thought I grew horns instead of wings.”

  “I had every right to freak over your strange origin. I also felt betrayed. You could have told me the truth sooner and didn’t. As it is, you went on to have that mini-breakdown at my place of work, where my fitness is already in question.”

  “I never meant to harm you. I was only reacting to insults that seemed directed at me. Don’t forget, my fitness is also in question—caused me to leave home!”

  “The crew is harmless. Responded in a way humans raised on tales will.”

  “So no one in your realm freely accepts the Enchanted.”

  “Oh, I think if you advertised around town, you’d find pockets of believers.”

  “But it isn’t mainstream anywhere.”

  “Like anyone who is different, I think you’ll suffer through a period of adjustment. It seems in your best interest to lead with your human qualities.”

  “I’m not sure that is best for me.”

  “Just one of the many things we’ll have to work out. What I need first is a better idea of exactly who you are.” He moved to her sofa, identical to his own minus some beer stains, and patted the cushion beside him. She didn’t join him, however. Instead she chose to pace.

  “All right, Alec. Here goes.”

  * * *

  Alec’s head was spinning thirty minutes later. A small girl grappling with her half-breed existence in a world of Enchanted creatures. An existence due to a young robust John sailing the Irish Sea off the Isle of Man. Lured forth by a siren’s song? High on rum and elderberry wine! Making love in the forest!

  “Mortals rarely remember the experience,” Tia ultimately explained. “At the most it seems like a dream.”

  “Still, you’ve been hoping John would remember.”

  “Of course! While my eyes, hair, melodious voice, even teeth, are unquestionably human, I do share Mamma’s facial features. There’s a chance, albeit slim, that I could jog loose a memory he’s always mistaken for a dream.”

  “Just the same, I think he would have said something by now, don’t you?”

  “He’s seen so little of me, really. Given time . . .”

  “John has long been grounded in practicalities. Wealth and power fuel his dreams.”

  Tia hung her head. “I don’t want to disrupt his life in any way.”

  “Your news has the potential to do just that. If a whiff of his adventure got through to the media, they’d attack like hungry sharks, until John’s dignified public image was picked clean. Even worse, in my opinion, would be the suspicion that he cheated on his wife. You and Ken are both twenty-eight.”

  “I am almost twenty-nine. And faery gestation is faster. His tryst with Mamma could be months off,” she reasoned hopefully.

  “Only John would know the timetable, and only then if he remembers.”

  “You are so quick to his defense at every turn, Alec.”

  “It’s what I do. What we do for each other. Family strategy.”

  “Exactly what I want for myself! Can’t you see that?”

  It all was, in fact, sinking in with clarity. Particularly his unwitting new role as middleman.

  “Come on, Alec. Do you think you can see to my best interests along with John’s or not?”

  His heart twisted under her achy yet defiant gaze. He launched from his chair to embrace her. “I will do everything in my power to get you into John’s life, of course. If you follow my strategy.” Her chin wobbled slightly, but it was hardly the nod he was looking for. “C’mon, Tia. I have every right to guard my relationship with the man. If you cross some line, it will be the end for both of us. Once John stops trusting someone, he’s out for good.” Reading her pained surprise, he added, “John isn’t a saint by any stretch. Never one to yield.”

  “Not even for a long-lost daughter?”

  He smiled faintly. “He did always fancy one. Use your patience and charm wisely, you might at least become the lovely mortal girl he stole away from somebody else.”

  Plainly, this idea fell below her expectations.

  “Tia, that might be the limit with John—forever.”

  “But you’ll be willing to accept my Fey traits . . . won’t you?”

  “A work in progress,” he confessed mightily.

  “I suppose I should appreciate your honesty,” she begrudg
ed.

  Pinching her chin, he pressed his mouth to her forehead. “I came back. You let me in. Give us a chance.”

  Tia was thrilled when Alec allowed her to choose the itinerary for their day. Missing the natural glories of the Isle of Man, she chose to spend the day in Central Park. Roaming bridges, glades, meadows, bridle and lake paths that she’d swiftly explored on wing had her relating animated memories of her home.

  “Sounds beautiful,” Alec remarked as they paused by a duck pond.

  “Oh, indescribably so. Hope you’ll want to visit one day.”

  “That’s possible?”

  “I can arrange transport one way or another. The rest would be up to you, your decision to believe what you see.”

  John must have believed, Alec realized. People sure ran deep and mysterious. “Do you expect to return often?” he thought to ask.

  “I don’t know. I’ll need some arrangement with Mamma.”

  Alec pushed aside a hank of silver-blond hair to plant a kiss on her cheek. “I’ll do everything I can to make that happen, Tia.”

  Tia drew a small tight smile. He probably would. Still there were so many unexpected terms. Could she conceal her faery origin if necessary to fit into normal human society? Could she stand to be around John, playing the friend, while bursting to reveal their kinship?

  Alec expected these things right now. Insisted it was for the common good. She felt she had no choice but to trust him until, if, and when she knew better.

  On the last leg of their outing, the couple wandered outside to the neighborhood market. Alec stood by with a plastic basket while Tia inspected produce with a squeeze and a sniff.

  “Rest assured, I know my onions,” she whispered when the market’s owner, old Mr. Bellamy, glared at them for the umpteenth time. “Other vegs as well.”

  “Still, pick up the pace,” Alec urged. “I’m getting hungry.”

  “Such things are never rushed in the Enchanted Realm.” She wrinkled her nose over a misshapen potato.

  “Those spuds all look the same.”

  “Yet they are not. Vegetables, and fruit for that matter, are as varied as humans and faeries.”

  Bellamy loved that one, Alec noted with a grimace. He wondered if he could ever get used to public amusement over Tia’s sincere observations. Felt like hell no!

  “Have you considered planting your own garden, Alec?”

  Alec liked that idea. Bellamy, not so much. “I think a garden would be nice. Someday, when I have that dream house—with a yard.”

  “Maybe some space in Central Park could be adopted.”

  Alec handed their basket to Bellamy.

  It was sometime after dinner in Alec’s apartment that he and Tia decided to tune out the History Channel in favor of the bedroom. It was sheer relief to abandon the cares of the fully clothed, as well as worries over species, and issues of paternity, to focus on the timeless act of intimacy.

  Later, lying in the darkness beside a gently snoring Tia, Alec had no clue of the time. His boxers were presently covering up his clock radio on the nightstand. There seemed nothing wrong with allowing the traffic sounds outside his brownstone to lull him to sleep.

  A perfect plan, if the cordless phone, standing to attention underneath Tia’s scrap-of-lace excuse for panties, hadn’t started to ring. Flicking off the panties, he grabbed the handset. So intent on sniffing the pan ties, he hadn’t bothered to check the caller ID. “Hello.” He cleared his throat. “Simon here.”

  “Busy, Alec?”

  He flung the panties to the foot of the mattress. “No, sir. What’s up?”

  * * *

  Tia awoke to a dark room and empty bed. Alec’s boxers no longer concealed the clock. The green numbers glowed 3:38.

  Pulling on Alec’s gray T-shirt, she padded out to the living room, where a single lamp glowed. She was certain he’d be watching the TV box humans so admired, but the screen was blank. The tickle of spring breezes soon drew her to the window—and Alec, perched on the fire escape.

  She eased onto the sill. “Can’t sleep?”

  “The chief called. He’d like me to take my fitness test day after tomorrow.”

  “That’s wonderful!”

  “Ya think so?”

  “It’s the only way forward. You didn’t turn him down, did you?”

  “No, told him to pencil me in.”

  “That’s a step.”

  “Considering he writes everything in ink, I’d say the date is set.”

  “So you’re angry that you didn’t have a choice?” she tentatively asked.

  “I’m angry because I know I won’t pass! Then the truth will be out. My last shred of hope for a quiet recovery over.”

  “All is not lost. You made it out here.”

  “Barely. Looking down still makes me sick to my stomach. I would never conceal this weakness from the department—probably couldn’t anyway.”

  “I can help you, Alec, if you let me.”

  “What can you do that my physical therapist and shrink could not?”

  Shifting on the sill, Tia flapped her arms.

  “Don’t say it.”

  “But you’ll love flying!”

  “Most men only have to jump through hoops to get the girl.”

  “It would take your complete trust,” she acknowledged. “But it may be the only quick fix dramatic enough to work.”

  He surveyed her dubiously. “You have experience carrying passengers?”

  “More than one on occasion. After extensive training.”

  “You get high marks?”

  “My wingspan is shallow, likely due to my human genes. But I passed.”

  “I suppose we could take a shot at it. If you remember I’m no Peter Pan.”

  She laughed melodiously. “Oh, Alec, there can be only one Peter Pan.”

  “Silly me.”

  “I would like to add one condition,” she said rather defiantly.

  He slanted her a weary, wary look. “What?”

  “Your promise that we’ll attend the banquet Saturday.”

  “Gee, I’m already under enough pressure.”

  “You’ll feel like celebrating if you pass your fitness test.”

  “That’s a huge if.”

  “Your chief invited me, so in a way I don’t even need your okay.”

  “You’d go without me?” he squawked.

  “I know I won’t have to, Alec. You’ll pass and want to celebrate.”

  “How ’bout we leave it as a maybe?”

  The next night, Alec brought Tia to the fire site on 56th Street. Together they stood on the sidewalk in front of a broken-down two-story building tucked between a high-rise and a trendy boutique, presently a dark hollow shell, void of life. The property was surrounded by orange fencing, as well as No Trespassing signs, bearing multiple threats of punishment by law.

  Alec forced a grin. “What a week. Scored a new girlfriend who can make me insane and cure my insanity all at the same time.”

  “A true example of irony.”

  “Your average American couple, really.”

  “You say the nicest things,” Tia said wispily.

  Alec gazed up with a deep, tense breath. “Guess it’s time.”

  “We could have taken flight anywhere, Alec. Even from your fire escape. Are you sure you want to be here?”

  “Yeah. If I’m going to face my demons, this is the only place to do it. Plus I’ll finally get a look at the scene without technically trespassing. We won’t be touching a thing, not even the floor.” Digging into his pocket, he extracted a small LED flashlight. Clicking it on, he confided that he had brought two.

  “I won’t need one. I have excellent night vision. If you tell me what you’re looking for, I can be of great help.”

  “Any signs of arson. Deep charring on walls and flooring. The smell of accelerant. Multiple fire patterns.” He extended his arms, sending his beam of light skyward. “They grow up and out in a V pattern. These are all th
e things we hope not to see.”

  “For John’s sake.”

  “To some extent. Off-the-record. Officially, this isn’t even happening,” he related edgily. “The best I can ever do is tell John I got a reliable tip.”

  “Which means I won’t get a mention,” she complained.

  “Tia, please, while the night is still dark.”

  “Yes, we do need the cover of darkness. Flying this slow, even the Earth’s lowest creatures can spot me.”

  “Knock humans all you want. You’re still one of us.”

  “I will attribute your weak humor to nerves.” She sighed with strained patience. “First lesson is a caution. Flying is like mergence, Alec. Once you do it, you’ll want more. And more.”

  He clipped his flashlight to the string of his black hooded sweatshirt. “Don’t distract me now, honey.”

  “I am only saying it will take enormous energy to carry you. I won’t be pressured in the future by your every whim.”

  “Huh. It does sound like sex. Married-couple sex.”

  “Now you’re distracting me, Alec. I can’t think about a wedding and teach you the ropes.”

  “Stick to the ropes. What do we do first?”

  In response, Tia went into transmutation mode, bowing her head and rolling her shoulders slightly. Wings sprouted, her jeans and top melded into a backless rose petal dress.

  Alec inhaled sharply, certain he’d never get over the wonder of it all.

  “Touch one, Alec,” Tia urged, stroking the tip of a gossamer limb against his cheek. “Soft enough to caress. Resilient enough to polish silver.”

  The graze of the iridescent material against his skin sent an electric current down his spine. He struggled to focus on something mundane. “You use your wings in your work?”

  “That’s right. A zip over gossamer webbing gives each metal piece I create a lasting sheen.”

  He blinked, urging back his bearings. “Okay. Lasting sheen. Now what?”

  Tia removed a silken braid that had appeared at her waist during transmutation. Stepping up behind him, she drew the rope around his middle several times, cinching them snugly together.