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"What, like, forgot to fill out your last IPCA time card? Pick up your personal effects? Clean out your old cubby?"
He actually smiled, the corners of his perfect, straight lips pulling up. "Something like that. "
Positive he wasn't going to give me a real answer, I turned and walked the length of the hall to where Lend was still lying, peacefully asleep and, ah bleep, totally naked. Hadn't expected that one. I mean, it made sense that he'd come without real clothes so he could imitate anyone regardless of what they were wearing, but still. Not really the time or place for boyfriend nudity.
But I couldn't very well leave him here to wake up alone. Where was Jack? If he'd ditched out on Lend, he was so going to pay.
Raquel's old office door slid open, and the little demon himself poked his head out. "There you are. Had to use the Faerie Paths to get in and open it from the inside. Took a couple of wrong turns to get there. " He looked down and saw Lend. "He's a terrible sentry. I would never fall asleep on the job. "
"Shut up and help me get him inside. " We each grabbed an arm and pulled Lend into the room. Reth sauntered in behind us, carrying Wolfie. "Can't you dump him somewhere else?"
"Would you rather I leave him unconscious in the hall for anyone to stumble upon?" Reth walked to the corner and dropped him on the floor.
I set Lend's head down gently, then sat in the white chair at Raquel's desk. The whole place was as pristine as it always had been when she was here, but it felt wrong to be behind the desk in her place.
Jack sat in one of the extra chairs, draping a leg over the side. "We got nothing. Any luck?"
"None. An old friend says that IPCA's into some bad stuff, but he couldn't or wouldn't say what. It doesn't give us anything to go on. " I opened the nearest drawer and my heart jumped painfully in my chest. At the top of the pile of papers was a photo of me. I was probably thirteen, on one of our field trips to the Museum of Natural History in New York City, posing like the huge T. rex. I reached out and trailed my fingers along the edge of the photo, touched that Raquel had printed and kept it.
Also, wow, braces and bangs were so not my friends.
Pulling out the photo and setting it gently on the desk, I rifled through the rest of the papers, but they were the usual government bureaucracy nonsense-forms and forms and more forms.
"I doubt you're going to find anything useful there," Jack said. "If you knew you were in trouble with IPCA, would you leave incriminating evidence in the unlocked drawers of your desk? It's probably between her mattresses or something. "
"Yeah! That's where I keep my secret stuff. "
Jack rolled his eyes. "I know. It's not very creative. "
Resisting the urge to punch him again, I nodded. "Okay. Reth, how soon is Wolfie going to wake up?"
Reth didn't bother responding, simply glaring at me like he couldn't believe I would question his efficiency in rendering werewolves harmless. He looked uncomfortable standing in the room. It wasn't that he was too big for it, because he was very lean and narrow although quite tall, but somehow it felt like he took up more space than the room could afford. Like it couldn't contain him. No wonder faeries never hung around inside if they didn't have to.
"Jack, have you ever been to Raquel's room? Could you open a door there?"
"Raquel and I didn't see each other socially much. I kept waiting for a dinner invitation, but alas. "
I looked at Reth hopefully. "You?"
"Must we really waste more time? Not all of us here are immortal, and I'd think you and Jack would more carefully guard what little you have. We should go immediately to my queen. "
"Can you get us in or not?"
He looked at the ceiling, his features dripping with disdain for the entire operation. "I suppose if you were to stand immediately outside her door I could use my sense of where you are to navigate into her room and open the door from inside. "
"That's my pretty faerie boy!"
"If you ever address me like that again, I will make that abomination on your head permanent. "
I put my fingers up to the brunette wig, horrified. "You wouldn't. "
"I suggest you do not attempt to find out. "
Swallowing hard, I pointed to Lend. "Can you take him with you so Jack and I don't have to carry him?"
Not taking his eyes off me, Reth picked up Lend, letting his head loll uncomfortably to the side, then walked through a faerie door and out of the room.
"That guy is scary," Jack said.
