The Halfling (Aria Fae #1) Read online

  “You’re a strange one, Aria Fae,” he said.

  Rose returned just then with an arrangement of multicolored tulips. She set it on the counter and scurried away, raising her eyebrows at me and making my cheeks flush.

  “I can’t repay you for this,” I said, gesturing at the board.

  Caleb shook his head, still staring at me in that way that made me shift uncomfortably. “It’s a gift,” he said. “Please, accept it.”

  I ran my hand over the skateboard. It was not a cheap one. He’d surely spent a couple hundred dollars on it. All the boards I’d owned my whole life probably didn’t add up to the cost of this one. I knew that his family was loaded, but it didn’t matter how much money one had, something this expensive was not just a gift.

  “I can’t,” I said. “Return it and get your money back.”

  He stared at me a moment. “Tell you what, you accept the board, and I’ll tell you how you can make it up to me.”

  My lips twisted a touch and I felt my brows furrow. “I should tell you now that I’ve got a mean right hook,” I warned.

  Caleb laughed at this. “I’ve no doubt you do,” he said. Reaching into his pocket, he handed me an envelope. “Just come to this, and we’ll call it even. You can even bring Samantha with you.”

  I looked down at the envelope he’d placed in my hand. It was made of thick, silky stock. “What is it?” I asked.

  “Just a little get together,” he said. “Do you have a dress?”

  Raising my eyes to his, I tried not to think about how handsome he was, and failed. “If I say no, you gonna offer to buy me one?”

  “Something tells me material things are not the way to your heart, Aria Fae.” He reached into his pocket again and handed me another card. Written on it was just his name in fine print. “But if you should be in need of a dress, my family owns a few boutiques downtown. Just give them that card and they’ll let you have whatever you want. Samantha, too.”

  “How many girls have you given this card to?” I asked.

  “None,” he answered, and a look at his aura told me this was true.

  “I… I don’t understand what you want from me,” I said, because it was also the truth.

  More of that nervousness touched his aura, and it’d be a lie to say that it didn’t soften me. “Right now?” he said. “Your number would be nice. That way if I want to get a hold of you I can just call instead of wandering aimlessly around Grant City.” His voice lowered and he leaned forward. “You never know when we’ll need to save each other’s lives again.”

  I almost told him I didn’t have a phone, but then remembered that I did. Sam had given me one. With this thought came the remembrance that Sam had a crush on this very attractive, if over the top, young man standing before me, and I wondered how she would feel about all this.

  But, really, I was only seventeen years old, and raging with hormones I couldn’t understand… Was there really even a chance of me turning such a request down?

  It would seem not. I scribbled my number on the receipt for the flowers and said, “I’ll take the board, but I’m not making any promises.”

  I needed to see how Sam felt about all of this before I moved any further.

  Caleb nodded, biting his lip with his perfect teeth. Taking the arrangement he’d paid for, he said, “Fair enough, Aria… but now that I have your number I’m going to text you incessantly until you agree.”

  Before I could respond to this, Caleb Cross was out the door, my eyes following him every step of the way.

  CHAPTER 33

  “That’s a hell of a gift,” Rose commented, conveniently reappearing after Caleb’s exit.

  “You’re telling me,” I mumbled.

  “Do you like Caleb?” she asked.

  I sighed, leaning against the counter and running my hands over the smooth wood of the skateboard. “Is there a young lady in Grant City that doesn’t like Caleb Cross?” I asked.

  Rose laughed at this. “You’re a smart girl, Aria. That’s part of the reason I like you.”

  After this exchange, we closed up shop and I set out toward my apartment riding my new skateboard. I wasn’t sure how to feel about all the happenings of the day, and I kept going over and over my interaction with Caleb in my head.

  But I had to admit it felt good to have a board again. I loved the wind in my hair and floating along the sidewalks, and this new board was way smoother a ride than my last one.

  Reaching into my pocket, my fingers brushed the envelope he’d given me, and I decided I would tell Sam what happened and get a feel for her reaction. I’d let her decide if she was okay with it, and if she wanted to attend the ‘get together’ he’d invited us to. With that decided, I felt mildly better, but the effects of the grief I’d taken from that man earlier in the day still lingered, and by the time I reached the warehouse an hour later, I was itching for the adrenaline that I knew would chase it away.

  When I got there, climbing in through the window, which had become my personal entrance, I saw that Sam and Matt had not spent the day idle. Standing on the landing outside the office, I looked around the warehouse, my head nodding in approval.

  “Nice work,” I said, making Matt give a little jump before looking up and spotting me.

  “Do you have any other way of entering a room?” he asked. “One that doesn’t involve startling the crap out of me?”

  Chuckling, I jumped down from my higher position and landed on the warehouse floor. “Why would I want to stop doing that?” I asked.

  He shook his head, and Sam hurried over to us. “How was work?” she asked.

  “Fine,” I said, deciding we’d talk about Caleb Cross when Matt wasn’t around.

  “You want to see what we did while you were gone?” she asked, the excitement practically sparking around the edges of her aura.

  I followed Sam and Matt around the warehouse as they showed me things. They’d somehow managed to get tables and chairs and even a rolling whiteboard in here. They’d set up maps on the wall of Grant City, areas marked and color-coded. There were some free weights in my training area now, and when Matt went over to a light switch on the wall, his face was alight with pride.

  “And then Matt said, Let there be light,” Matt said, and flicked the switch, lighting up the large warehouse. “And there was light!”

  I laughed, suitably impressed. “Nice work, guys. This place is really starting to look like a lair.”

  Matt rubbed his hands together. “I haven’t even shown you the best part.”

  “Oh, no?”

  He led me over to one of the small tables they’d set up, and lying atop it was my jacket… Except, he’d made some additions.

  I ran my hand over the material as Matt pointed this out to me. “See the buttons on the pockets? Those are now cameras that send a live feed back to Sam’s computers over there. The entire thing, including the hood, is also now lined with a super strong structured polymer composite.”

  I nodded. “And, in English, that means?”

  Both Sam and him chuckled at this. “It means,” Sam answered, “that your jacket is now friggin’ bulletproof! Boom-shaka-laka!”

  Laughing, I blinked in disbelief, picking up the jacket and studying it. “It’s still so lightweight, though.”

  “You’re darn right it is!” Sam said. “Matt is working on some matching leggings for you, that way you’ll have a whole suit. How cool is that?”

  I couldn’t help the rush of dorky excitement I was feeling as well. “It’s cooler than ice,” I said. “What’s this?”

  “Oh, ho, ho,” Matt responded. “That is the coolest part of all.” He picked up the jacket and pressed the top front button. As he did so, the face of the little button opened and I saw there was some sort of red liquid inside.

  “What does it do?”

  “It’s an emergency fallback,” Matt said. “That red liquid you see is a chemical that blinds temporarily.” He lifted the right sleeve of the jacket, where
more buttons had been added to the cuff. “You can activate it by pressing this button here, and it’ll spray up to fifteen feet in front of you. Sam can also set it off in case you’re unable.”

  I’m pretty sure my eyebrows were kissing the ceiling and my jaw hugging the floor. “Why haven’t you two cured cancer already?” I joked.

  “Come check this out,” Sam said, calling me over to a bank of a couple computers.

  Looking at the screens, I saw that they had set up cameras all around the warehouse. Nothing would come near the place undetected.

  “Guys,” I said. “This is incredible.”

  They both grinned at my praise.

  “So what do you say?” Sam said. “You ready to go fight some crime?”

  I couldn’t help the smile that lifted my lips as I took my upgraded jacket and shrugged it over my shoulders in answer.

  CHAPTER 34

  “Who the hell are you?”

  “That’s why you need a codename,” Sam’s voice mumbled in my ear.

  “Not helping, Coach,” I gritted out as I ducked a blow from the man standing opposite me.

  I was near the docks again, the area rife with crime and people in need of helping. Thus far this evening I’d already stopped a car-jacking, a purse snatching, and I was now involved in a scuffle with a Black Magic junkie who’d been trying to kidnap another woman.

  “Run,” I told the scared woman. It was beyond me why the victims only stood there staring when I swooped into rescue them. I’d always thought that was something that just happened in the movies, but apparently people actually had to be told to move in these situations.

  After a moment of staring at me, my black mask and wide hood no doubt as unexpected as the staff that knocked the man in front of me off his feet, the woman followed orders and scurried away.

  The man I’d knocked down was on his feet again in a second, baring drug-rotted teeth at me. The crazed look that I was beginning to associate with Black Magic use was shining behind his eyes. My powers of persuasion had no affect on him, so a beating and restraint until police arrived was the only option.

  Grunting, the man charged at me, and I sidestepped this attack cockily, hitting him in the back with my staff and making him stumble. He swung around faster than I anticipated, though, and gripped my arms in his meaty fingers hard enough to bruise.

  A swift punch to his face freed me, along with a few of his useless teeth. Finally, he hit the pavement of the alley I’d found him and the woman in. Pulling a zip-tie out of my back pocket, I secured his hands behind his back and straightened, admiring my job well done. All the darkness I’d felt from earlier in the day had vanished, as if swallowed up by the cloak of shadows I moved in at night.

  “How far are the police, Coach?” I asked.

  “A minute thirty out,” she replied. “Better high-tail it.”

  I scaled the building beside me using the small ledges of windows and pipes, climbing up onto the roof of the tall building a handful of seconds later. Standing on the edge, so high up, a cool breeze kissed my face, and I watched as red and blue lights entered the alley below me a minute later.

  “What’s next?” I asked.

  Faintly, I heard Sam clicking away at a computer. “There’s another robbery going down at 17th and Holmes. Twelve blocks west and two south. Police have yet to respond… Think you can beat them?”

  I was already off running, leaping between the tall buildings of Grant City, landing on my feet and not pausing before leaping to the next. My staff was once again tucked neatly into an inner pocket Matt had added to my jacket, and the lights of the city glowed like stars on the earth. My heartbeat was steady but rapid, my strong senses taking in and analyzing so much in so little time.

  I felt all but invincible, and with each person that I saved, this feeling only grew. I got to the site of the robbery and handled the situation as flawlessly as I had the others. Upon returning to the warehouse Wednesday night, I was practically floating on cloud nine.

  Matt gave me a high five as I jumped off the landing outside the office and landed on my feet. “Dude,” he said. “You are the most badass person I’ve ever met.”

  I smiled, my cheeks flushed with exhilaration. “This coming from the kid who set up a top-notch security system in an abandoned building and turned my ordinary jacket into a bulletproof vest.”

  “Yeah, but watching you leap over the rooftops… It was like flying!” Matt said.

  I laughed, because he was right; it had been like flying.

  What I didn’t know was that the higher one flies, the harder they fall.

  CHAPTER 35

  Thursday morning brought the last day of suspension for Sam and I. Matt told us he would meet us at the warehouse after school, and I assumed Sam slept in.

  I, on the other hand, having been born and raised a soldier, arose with the sun. I felt fresh and ready for the day, and had no doubt that all my success in crime-fighting the night before was in direct correlation to this.

  I went about what was becoming my routine here in Grant City; I went for a run, came home and did some strength training and stretching, hopped in the shower, got dressed, ate like a pregnant cow, and waited for the text I knew I would be receiving from Sam.

  Sure enough, I didn’t have to wait long. My phone dinged and I was meeting Sam at The Grind twenty minutes later. She was waiting at a low table near the back of the coffee shop when I got there, waving me over upon seeing me.

  I could feel the gazes of some of the men in the shop following me, and I struggled not to roll my eyes. Men of every race were always ogling girls that were too young for them, and it got on my nerves. Every decent-looking young lady can relate to what I’m talking about, and I had the added knowledge of auras to confirm the inappropriate, creeper-like feelings that overcame them when they looked at me.

  Also, I wasn’t just decent-looking. I was strikingly beautiful, and I knew it. It wasn’t something I thought a lot about. It just was. Faevian kind often have a certain allure to other races.

  I took a seat across from Sam, and she smiled, pushing her glasses up her nose. “People always stare at you when you enter a room, don’t they?” she asked.

  I accepted the cup of coffee she had for me, taking a sip before answering. “It’s not always as awesome as it may seem,” I said.

  Sam laughed. “What amazes me is that you can say that and somehow manage not to sound arrogant.”

  I sipped at my drink. “Oh, I’m plenty arrogant,” I said, grinning.

  Leaning over to look under the table, Sam said, “That’s a nice board.” Her blue eyes rose to mine. “Where’d you get the money for that?”

  This reminded me that I needed to talk to her about Caleb, and I figured it was better to just get it over with.

  “Caleb gave it to me,” I said, and watched her aura closely as she absorbed this information.

  Sure enough, a touch of jealousy leaked into it, but she just said, “Oh… he did?”

  “Yeah… and he invited us to a party, too.” I reached into my hoodie pocket and placed the envelope Caleb had given me on the table between us, the card with his name on it beside it.

  “A party?” Sam’s eyes lit with excitement. “We have to go!”

  My eyes narrowed a touch. “You’re not upset?”

  “I’m a little jealous,” she said, pushing her glasses up. “Caleb obviously likes you, and he’s like, the hottest guy in town, but it’s not like I called dibs or anything.” She’d picked up the envelope and was pulling out the expensive invitation tucked inside. “Besides, I told you before, when Caleb Cross invites you somewhere, you don’t ask questions, you just go.”

  “And I told you that reminds me of a cult leader,” I replied. “And we’d have to get dresses. By the looks of that invitation, this is a black tie affair.”

  Sam sighed. “I don’t suppose he offered to deliver a gown?” she joked.

  I cleared my throat. “As a matter of fact, he kinda did
.”

  Sam leaned forward, shaking her head in disbelief. “Don’t you ever tell me how unawesome being friggin’ beautiful is, Aria Fae,” she said. “The party is on Saturday. We are so going. I’ve always wanted to see the inside of the Cross mansion, anyway.”

  For some reason this made my heartbeat quicken. “It’s at his house?”

  She nodded, pointing at the invite. “That’s the address right there. You’ve probably seen it, or the top of it, at least. It’s massive. Sits on a hill on the upper west side. Looks like a dang museum.”

  As she said this, I realized I had seen it, and I knew exactly what Sam was referring to. Traveling along the rooftops in Grant City had offered views of the place I doubted many ever got to see.

  “That’s his house?” I said, almost not believing it. I wasn’t sure ‘mansion’ was a big enough word for the structure I’d seen.

  Sam laughed. “I told you, his family owns like half of Grant City.”

  These words made some sort of leap, some kind of connection in my head, but I couldn’t quite put a finger on it. “Did you ever crack into that computer he gave you?” I asked.

  Her eyes widened. “Oh my God. I totally forgot about that. We’ve been so busy… I guess that’s what I’ll do today.”

  In my pocket, my phone buzzed against my leg. I pulled it out and checked the screen. “Speak of the devil,” I said.

  Sam stared down at the phone in my hand as though it were suddenly a magic wand. “He asked for your number?”

  I laughed. “Sam, he gave me a skateboard, invited me to a party, offered to buy us dresses… but the number part, that’s what amazes you?”

  “It all amazes me. Every bit of all of this.”

  Nodding, I said, “Me too.”

  Looking down, I read the text from Caleb. “Are you watching the news?” I read aloud, my eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

  Then a realization struck me and I hoped I was wrong. Looking over at Sam told me she was thinking the same. I got up and went over to the flat screen on the wall, flipping the channel to the news station. Nobody in the coffee shop complained, and I reclaimed my seat across from Sam without looking at the screen.