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He smiled. “I figured. How about I start at the beginning?”
“A very good place to start. ”
“You already know my dad was APCA. Some of the things they were doing really bothered him. The imprisonment, regulations, forced sterilizations, tracking--”
“Whoa, hold on--forced sterilizations?”
He glanced at me. “You didn't know? They were worried about what would happen if a werewolf got pregnant by another werewolf. Had this whole panic, ethics debate, so on and so forth, then made any paranormal-?human hybrid breeding with another paranormal or human totally illegal, and, umm, made it so no werewolves they caught could ever reproduce. ”
All those neutering jokes I had made--they weren't jokes. “Oh,” I whispered, horrified. “I had no idea. ” I thought about all the werewolves I knew, Charlotte especially. She had always been so sweet and attentive. She would have made a great mom. And IPCA took that away from her after everything else she had already lost. “I think that's the worst thing I've ever heard. ” Then it really hit me--would they have done that to me? Would I have been seen as a breeding risk? Even the term, “paranormal breeding. ” They really thought of all paranormals as animals. What else did IPCA do that I didn't know about?
“Anyway, he was on an extended assignment trying to track down evidence of nymphs or sprites. He found my mom. ”
“What is she, exactly?”
“Kind of the equivalent of a nymph. She's a water spirit, an elemental. She thought he was funny and kept showing up to talk to him. And my dad fell in love with her. ” He smiled. “That was all it took to convince him that he was done with APCA. They weren't about to let someone who knew as many secrets as him quit, so he faked his own death by drowning. They lost a lot of operatives in those days and it wasn't a hard sell. ”
“So did your mom and dad--” I stopped, suddenly aware of what awkward territory I was heading into.
“She's made of water. If you tried to touch her, your hand would go right through. ” This was so not adding up, and I didn't want to try to come up with an explanation. Fortunately, he continued. “But all elementals have the gift of choice. My mom decided that, after all the ages she'd been around, she'd like to see what really being alive, being human, was like. So she took on a mortal form and lived with my dad as husband and wife. But she couldn't leave the water--she didn't want to. She didn't tell him, but she took on mortality for only one year. That was long enough to make me. ” He smiled and blushed. “And at the end of the year, she gave my dad a son and went back to the water. ”
I looked at him in amazement. He was incredible. My original idea of him as water come to life was exactly right. I wondered what Lish would have thought, since she was a water paranormal, too. It stung, knowing that my best friend had never met this boy I was crazy about. They would have loved each other.
“So you really are one of a kind, aren't you?”
He shrugged. “Guess so. It was hard for my dad when I was little. I changed form constantly; it was like a game. I had to be homeschooled until I was old enough to understand that it would be really dangerous if people found out about me. Plus, you met my mom--she wasn't exactly the most helpful parent. ” He glanced at me warily, as though he expected me to laugh. “So. . . that's where I came from. ”
I smiled, shaking my head. “You are so freaking awesome. ”
He laughed, obviously relieved. I was way too happy. Part of it was Lend opening up to me, part was knowing I had a place with his family. But besides that, I hadn't been in a car in like six years. I eyed him in the driver's seat with undisguised envy.
“Tell you what,” he said, noticing my stare. “I know you can't get a license, but I might be able to do something better. ”
“What?”
He smiled. “How would you like to come to school with me tomorrow and see a real, live locker?”
I'm pretty sure I squealed.
After our shopping was done (I was so eager to get out of Lend's clothes, I changed in the store bathroom), we got back into the car. I was pretty sure he had checked me out a few times. I hoped s
o, at least. Goodness knows I was doing my fair share of sneaky staring. “You hungry?” he asked, pulling out.
“Oh, my gosh, I'm starving,” I said, just now realizing it. I looked at the clock on the dashboard. It was three in the afternoon.
“Let's get something to eat, then. ”
“Aren't you grounded?” I teased.
“My dad said be back by dark. It's not dark yet. ”
We drove a couple of blocks to a small diner. I had never been on the East Coast before except for a few late night jobs, so I enjoyed looking around. Lots of trees, hinting at buds. We walked into the diner and my jaw dropped.
Every single person in there was a paranormal.
“Umm, you do know this whole place is filled with werewolves, vamps, and a couple of other things I've never seen before, right?” I whispered. Lend laughed, sitting down in a booth.
“Well, yeah. My dad owns it. ”
