“I do.”
She nodded and started off again.
“Where are you staying?” Brendan called.
“Here and there,” came the reply, and then she was gone with a lazy wave of her hand.
Brendan turned and headed for home. When he arrived, he suffered his parents’ prying questions about his new girlfriend. They were far more excited about the prospect than he was comfortable with. At last, he made his retreat to the attic. Brendan threw himself onto the bed, his head filled with the possible disasters that could arise from Charlie hanging around. He had to find a way to get rid of her.
At some point he fell asleep, in spite of his worries. With all the bizarre events of the day, he’d failed once again to talk to Harold and Dmitri.
^ 30 Busking is the art of street performing. In my opinion, busking should be avoided at all costs. If you are a performer, try to perform indoors. First of all, one doesn’t get rained or snowed on. Second, there’s usually a stage or some other sort of platform to perform from. Third, any performer who plays for spare change and the odd half-sandwich from a passerby is not really a performer at all, although I read about an eccentric French pop star who only accepts payment in the form of bacon baguettes.
^ 31 The term lutin is an ancient French name for Fair Folk. The word isn’t used in France anymore, but medieval farmers brought it with them to Eastern Canada when they settled New France. Lutins are reputed to be mischievous and playful, causing minor problems like curdling milk or tipping cows in the night.
^ 32 Toronto does have a reputation for being a little bit stuffy and boring, but only among people who’ve never actually been there.
NIGHT RUNNING
Brendan felt he had barely closed his eyes when the covers were torn from his bed. He drew in breath to shout, but a hand clamped over his mouth. Panic flooded his body with adrenaline. Without thinking, he tapped into his warp powers, grabbing the wrist of his attacker and flipping the person to the ground. He pinned his foe face down on the wooden floor.
“Hey! Relax, will you?” Charlie’s voice sounded pained. She struggled against Brendan’s grip but he held tight. She may have been small but her muscles were like steel. It was like pinning an eel.
“What are you doing here?” Brendan released her arm and stood up. The warp reflexes were already fading. His limbs quivered as the adrenaline drained from his system. He stepped aside and allowed Charlie to sit up. “I thought I was done with you for the night.”
“I see you have some warp skills,” she said, straightening her shirt. “Impressive.”
Brendan wouldn’t be distracted. “Yeah, whatever. What are you doing here? This is my room.”
“You’re really uptight, you know? This is my room! This is my house. This is my family. You should listen to yourself,” Charlie said, clicking her tongue. “You have serious selfishness issues.”
“Whatever. I’ll ask you again, what are you doing in my room?”
“It’s nice. Cozy, even if it does smell a little bit. And as I said, I like your family. I’ve been looking in on them. All of them are sleeping, peaceful. It’s quite beautiful.”
Brendan went cold at the thought of Charlie with her spirit animals stalking through the house in the dark, looming over his sleeping parents. He studied her face in the moonlight.
“Don’t ever do that again,” Brendan said evenly, with all the menace he could muster.
Charlie cocked her head and looked at him as if she suddenly understood that wandering around people’s houses at night was frowned upon.
“Don’t worry. I won’t hurt them. I told you, I like them.”
“Who cares if you like them? You shouldn’t even be here! I have one rule: my Human family is off limits. I let everyone know that.”
Charlie looked out the open window at the dark backyard. “Oh, yes. I’ve heard the rule. But I chose to ignore it. I thought you’d appreciate that.” She turned her head to look at him, the contours of her smirk etched in moonlight. “After all, you break our rules daily. You chose your Human family over your own people.”
“That’s none of your business.”
“It is my business. I’m a Faerie. That makes it my business. But there’s no reason to get all defensive. I like you, Brendan. And we actually have a lot in common.”
“We have nothing in common!” He realized he was almost shouting and lowered his voice to a harsh whisper. “Just get to the point.”
“I got to thinking after we split up in the park. I thought you should get out and see what you’re missing. There’s a whole world you’re not experiencing.”
“I’ll experience it in the morning,” Brendan whispered. “Now get out!”
“I’m going out and you’re coming with me.”
“What? It’s two in the morning! Where could we possibly go?”
Charlie smiled mischievously. “There’s plenty to see at night. We are the People of the Moon, after all.”
“Oh yeah? Well, I’m not really interested in going out in the middle of the night. If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll get some sleep.”
“Sleep?” Charlie scoffed. “You’re a Faerie! You don’t need to sleep. You’ve been living with Humans too long.”
“Keep your voice down!” Brendan hissed, cocking an ear for the sound of his parents stirring below. There was no sound, save for the creaking of the house and the dull hum of a car passing by. “I know I don’t need sleep. I like sleep. And I’d like some right now.” Brendan had become aware through spending time with his new Faerie friends and family that Faeries didn’t require sleep the way Humans did. Instead, they entered a meditative state for as long as they needed to restore their strength. Like all the new Disciplines Brendan was struggling to learn, a meditative state was hard for him to reach and, once in it, hard to maintain. It was another failure in a long list, but he wasn’t about to reveal his shortcomings to Charlie.
“Forget it! We’re going out!” She grabbed Brendan’s arm and hauled him across the floor. Now it was his turn to be manhandled against his will.
“Let go of me!” Brendan said, trying to pull away as she dragged him to the window. She may have been slight but she was incredibly strong: her grip was like a vise around his wrist. In spite of his greater height and weight, she dragged him inexorably across the floorboards.
At that moment, BLT streaked in through the open window and jerked to a stop in front of Charlie’s face. “Who are you?” she demanded. “And where are you taking Brendan?” She raised her little fists in a challenge.
“Oho!” Charlie laughed. “Qui est? Une petite pugiliste! Tweezer!”
The ferret slithered from beneath Charlie’s hoodie and curled protectively around the girl’s neck, baring its teeth.
“Uh-oh!” BLT backpedalled in the air as the furry creature hissed at her.
“Leave her alone,” Brendan demanded in a harsh whisper.
“Worry about yourself, mon ami!” She grabbed Brendan by the front of his T-shirt with both hands and flung him out the window.
“Brendan!” BLT cried, zipping out after him like a tiny comet.
Brendan barely had time to marvel at the strength required to lift him from the floor before he realized he was falling. Again, his body instinctively kicked into high gear. He could feel every cell fizzing as he phased into warp time. He twisted himself in mid-air, kicking out with one bare foot against the brick wall of the house as it unreeled beside him. The impact spun him around so that he landed on his feet with a soft thud in the backyard. The snow crunched under his feet. The shock of the ice on his bare soles made him yelp, even with the resistance to the cold afforded him by his Faerie blood. He felt every flake of snow and blade of frozen grass beneath, a sensation that he had yet to become used to or tired of, for that matter.
BLT streaked down from above and clutched at his shoulder. “What’s the idea, leaving me at the mercy of that rabid beast!”
“I hardly had a choice!”
