The Halfling (Aria Fae #1) Read online

  Sam watched the newscast over my shoulder and read subtitles to me quietly, a slight flush touching her cheeks.

  “People have been reporting being rescued by a masked woman,” Sam whispered excitedly. Sitting up a little straighter, she said, “They’re doing an interview with the liquor store owner… the one you helped the other night.” She laughed, her cheeks growing pinker still. “He just called you a sexy ninja woman in a mask and hood.”

  Now it was my turn to go red.

  “Aria,” Sam whispered, her blue eyes glittering behind her glasses. “You’re famous. People are starting to talk. This is amazing. We’re really making a difference.”

  I couldn’t be too pleased, though, because I remembered who had brought the news to my attention in the first place. “Caleb suspects me,” I said, gesturing to the phone. “Why else would he send that message?”

  This sobered Sam. “You’re right. What are you going to write back?”

  I shook my head. “Nothing… and this means we can’t go to the party, either. I can’t have too many people knowing about me, Sam. You and Matt are one thing… Caleb Cross is a whole other.”

  “Agreed,” she said. “Anyway, I don’t trust anyone who has that much money.”

  I smiled. “You’re such a little rebel, you know that?”

  Her grin kissed her ears. “You and me, Aria Fae. We’re gonna save this town.”

  Big words, those were, big words.

  CHAPTER 36

  Sam and I agreed that it was best to avoid Caleb Cross at all costs, albeit reluctantly. She went home to try and crack that laptop he’d given her, and I stopped by my place to grab some food before heading to the flower shop for my shift that afternoon.

  Caleb texted me three more times, imploring me to respond, but I ignored them. A cute face and deep pockets were not enough to make me lose my mind, and for that, at least, I was grateful. There were many females who could not say the same.

  Unfortunately, the boy knew where I worked, and when he walked into Roses around three-thirty, as if he’d come directly after school, I ducked behind the counter like a jack-in-the-box in reverse. Rose raised an eyebrow at me.

  Feeling utterly stupid, I rose out of my crouched position to see Caleb leaning over the counter, staring at me with an amused grin on his handsome face.

  “I was starting to suspect you were avoiding me,” he said. “But I guess now I know.”

  “I was tying my shoe,” I lied, and shot a glance at Rose when she snorted.

  “Right,” Caleb said.

  Rose slipped into the back room without a word, and I suppressed a sigh. “Caleb,” I said, “What do you want?”

  “Honestly?” he asked.

  I nodded.

  “I want the truth.”

  Biting my lip, I said, “I can’t give that to you.”

  He smiled, those dang dimples appearing in his cheeks. “Not yet, anyway. But I’ll earn it. Come to the party. Please.”

  Studying him, I released a slow breath. “I’ll make you a deal,” I said at last.

  “I like deals.”

  “You promise not to ask any questions, and I’ll come to your party.” One side of my mouth pulled up, and I pushed some of my long hair out of my face. “I’ll even get the dress.”

  Caleb’s eyes ran the length of me, and they practically sparkled like a Disney prince’s when he took my hand and kissed it. “Deal,” he mumbled.

  I pulled my hand away, shaking my head. “Remember what I told you about my right hook?”

  He grinned. “I remember. So, Saturday. You’ll be there?”

  “I’m bringing Sam,” I agreed.

  He put his hands together, palm to palm, as if praying. “Perfect,” he said. “She have any luck with that computer I gave her?”

  “She’s working on it.”

  Tossing me one more heart-breaking grin, he was out the door, the bell on the top following his exit. Rose magically reappeared from the back room. “Marry that boy,” she commented, “and you’ll be set for life.”

  I couldn’t help a little smile at this. “I prefer to earn my own, ma’am.”

  “I knew you’d say that,” Rose said. “You remind me of me when I was younger.”

  “Thank you,” I said. Nobody had ever said that to me before. I usually was just told how strange I am.

  The rest of the time at the shop passed quickly and uneventfully. I put together arrangements, rang up customers, and cleaned the store when there was nothing else to do. Before I knew it, my shift was over, and it was time to meet Sam and Matt back at the factory.

  On the way over, I found my thoughts wandering toward Thomas Reid, my mysterious neighbor. I hadn’t seen him for a couple days, and I wondered where he was going during the nights, what he did during the days. One would think my mind would be on Caleb, but oddly enough, it was Thomas that came to mind.

  “He’s too old for you, Aria,” I mumbled to myself as I jumped down to the warehouse floor.

  “Who’s too old for you?” asked Sam. Then, she grinned. “Oh, that hottie neighbor of yours, huh?” She nudged me and waggled her eyebrows. “That who you’re talking about?”

  Hiding a smile, I shook my head. “Focus, Sam,” I said.

  Matt had wandered over to us. “I got your pants!” he said.

  I raised an eyebrow at this.

  Blushing, his curly hair bobbing around his face, he pulled me over to a table where an outfit was laid out. My upgraded jacket was there, along with a black shirt and matching leggings that was lined with the same polymer material as the jacket.

  “Oh,” Matt said, reaching into his pocket. “We can’t forget this.”

  He handed me a new mask, this one just as simple as my other one, but of much better quality.

  “Please,” Matt said. “You gotta put it on.”

  Running my hands over the outfit, I said, “Look at us. Getting all legit.”

  “Too legit to quit!” Matt said.

  Sam shook her head, laughing, “Matt, you’re fan-boying way too hard, my friend.”

  I took the outfit, went to a segregated part of the warehouse, and pulled it on. When I stepped back out to where they could see me, Sam said, “Okay, now I’m fan-girling way too hard.”

  Outside, night was beginning to fall over the city. The familiar rush of exhilaration filled me as my companions set themselves up behind the small bank of computers and other devices.

  “You ready?” asked Sam.

  I nodded, climbing up to the office landing by way of wall and a flip.

  “Be careful,” said Matt. “People are starting to hear about you now. Word is spreading.”

  I promised to do so and was out the window and traversing the rooftops of Grant City in a flash. People needed help everywhere, and finding them was not difficult with Sam’s tech and my super senses.

  That evening, I saved an old lady from getting crushed by a taxicab, stopped a purse snatcher, broke up an altercation between two drunk men, and even came across another junkie who was trying to kidnap a woman.

  This particular lady I didn’t have to tell to run. She took off as soon as I had the junkie distracted. He was a skinny, small man of no more than thirty, with open sores on his face and a smell that would choke a skunk. I had to breathe through my mouth so as not to gag as he charged at me in that uncoordinated way drug addicts had.

  I stepped easily out of his way. “Guess you haven’t heard about me, huh?” I said, evading him once again.

  With swift, expert movements, I had him on his stomach on the concrete, his hands zip-tied behind his back. “Where were you taking that woman?” I asked, adding some bass to my voice. “The docks?”

  The man squirmed beneath my foot but had no chance of escaping. “You stupid bitch,” he spat.

  I rolled my eyes and bopped him on the head with the end of my staff, not too hard, but with enough force so that he knew how I felt about the name-calling.

  “Who is Dyson? What
do you know about him?”

  This was the third kidnapping I’d stopped, but the first times I hadn’t gotten any answers. Both Sam and Matt had scoured the Internet for something on the man named Dyson, but their searches had yielded nothing, which meant on paper, Dyson didn’t exist. Or at least, that alias didn’t.

  I needed a real name, something to go off of, and I wanted this junkie to give it to me.

  At some point, probably the moment I’d stepped onto that boat and found all those bound and gagged women, it had become a personal mission of mine to get to the bottom of the sex trafficking that was obviously taking place in Grant City. And something told me that Dyson was the key to unraveling the mystery.

  I gave the druggie captive under my boot a little nudge, holding the staff where he could see it. “You want to rethink that answer?” I said.

  “Go to hell,” the man mumbled.

  “Police are on their way,” Sam said in my ear. “That woman who you just saved called them. They’ll be there in two minutes.”

  Crouching so that I could meet the man’s eyes, I removed a blade from my boot and held it near his face. His eyes widened in fear, and I responded with a smile.

  “That’s plenty of time,” I said.

  CHAPTER 37

  Of course, I didn’t torture him. That was not something I was comfortable with, not a part of my training, and as an Empath, torturing someone would likely result in as much pain for me as it did to the subject.

  Often times, though, just the threat of pain was enough to get people to talk, and this was the case with the skinny druggie I was threatening. Problem was, he didn’t know a lot. Addicts don’t usually have much in the way of will power.

  “Oh, God,” he cried. “Oh, no, oh, please, don’t hurt me.”

  “Talk,” I said, my voice threatening. “Who is Dyson?”

  Tears were streaming down his cheeks, cutting tracks in the grime there, and his sore-infested mouth was bleeding in some places. He looked up at me with terrified eyes, one side of his face still pressed to the pavement.

  “I don’t know anything about him!” he said. “I swear to God! No one does. We just bring the women to him, and he gives us the Magic in return. That’s all I know!”

  Due to the drugs, his aura was fuzzy, but I knew enough about people to know he was telling the truth.

  “How do you get a hold of him?” I asked.

  The man wiggled beneath my foot. “There’s a phone in my pocket. We’re supposed to text when we have someone. He meets us right after.”

  I dug through the man’s pockets, telling myself I would need to wash my hands as soon as I was able, and indeed found a cellphone inside. Flipping through the messages, I confirmed what I’d been told.

  Lifting my foot off the man, I heard sirens in the near distance, and I knew it was time to go. I’d gotten what I needed anyway.

  “Thanks,” I told the addict. “You tell your friends no more women are to be taken. If they try to kidnap any, I’ll find them. I’ll hunt every single one of you down, and I won’t be as forgiving.”

  With that, I turned to go, but the man called out to me.

  “That’s if he doesn’t hunt you down first,” he said, and bursted into a fit of giggles that for some reason sent a chill up my spine.

  With those words ringing in my ears, and the confiscated cellphone tucked into my jacket pocket, I headed back to the warehouse.

  My head told me tonight had been a victory, a battle won, but my gut told me the war had only just begun.

  CHAPTER 38

  “This is huge,” Sam said, taking the cellphone from me and bringing it over to her laptop. She found a cord and plugged the two together. “It’s our first lead.”

  Matt didn’t look quite as enthused. “Did you hear what that man said?” he asked. He shifted uneasily. “This Dyson guy sounds like someone we might not want to mess with.”

  Sam snorted. “Aria can handle him,” she said. Then looking back at the screen, she added, “Damn it. The number in the texts is anonymous. Dyson must use a burner.”

  I agreed with both of them, and said so. “Don’t worry, Matt. I was trained not to underestimate anyone. I’m as careful as I can be… and we’re, like, too legit to quit, remember?” Looking over at Sam, I lowered my voice so only Matt would hear me. “Besides, this is personal for her,” I added.

  He still didn’t look completely convinced, but at last, Matt nodded. “I know. I know it is.” His voice was a whisper as well. “But her mother’s gone, Aria, and you getting killed won’t bring her back… On top of that, imagine how bad she’d feel if something happened to you. I’m not sure she could take it. Losing her mom has been tough enough.”

  Matt looked over at Sam, a certain affection flashing behind his eyes but disappearing just as quickly. This was the first time I came to the realization that Matt was secretly in love with Samantha. Looking at his aura now, I wondered at why it’d taken me so long to recognize it. He’d been hiding it for so long, he’d gotten good at hiding the feelings from himself.

  This only endeared me further toward him, and I placed a hand on his shoulder. “I know you’re worried about both of us,” I said. “And that means more to me than I can tell you, but I can handle this. Especially when I’ve got you two watching my back.”

  He accepted this, and the three of us decided to call it a night. After all, tomorrow would be Friday, and that meant Sam and I were going back to school. It was nearing midnight, and we all needed to be getting home.

  For obvious safety reasons, I escorted Matt and Sam back to their places, and then took to the rooftops to return to my own. Flying high, I was. Flying high.

  When I got back to my apartment, landing on the fire escape outside my window, I decided I wasn’t ready to retire yet. I wanted a bit of quiet time where I could sort my thoughts and my feelings. So much had been happening so quickly, that I hadn’t had any time to pause and reflect.

  I knew the perfect spot. Instead of just leaping up there as I had done the first time, I stood and listened, concentrating on my ears to determine whether or not anyone was on the roof of my building. And by ‘anyone’, of course, I meant Thomas Reid. My ears confirmed that the roof was unoccupied, and so I climbed my way up, deciding not to examine whether or not his absence disappointed me.

  Taking a seat on one of the crates Thomas had been sitting on last time, I stared out at Grant City. It astonished me how quickly I’d become accustomed to the sounds, the smells, and the feel of life here. It had its blemishes, its downfalls, no doubt about that, but it also had a certain charm to it, an allure I hadn’t quite put my finger on.

  For the first time in the last half-week, I thought about my past life, about the things I’d been cut off from when I’d been kicked out of the Peace Brokers. I thought about my old high school, my apartment back in Blue Hook. I thought about my mother. Mostly, I thought about my mother.

  I hoped she would be proud of me, and told myself that I was doing a good job, that were she somewhere watching me, she would agree. My entire purpose had shifted in this world, my purpose in the other supernatural worlds having vanished completely, but I had a new direction now. I was really helping people. Was that not equal to the work I’d done before? Did it not count toward something?

  I didn’t know the answers to any of this, and I sat silently, watching the lights of Grant City sparkle, feeling the sting of tears in my eyes.

  So I nearly jumped out of my skin when Thomas Reid spoke behind me. In fact, much to my horror, I did jump up and take a swing at him before I could stop myself.

  Luckily for his face, he blocked the blow with expert speed and ease. He was still holding my arm when I realized who he was, and our proximities made heat rush to my face and a twist in my stomach. Upon noticing this, he stepped back, immediately releasing me.

  “Oh my God,” I said. “You snuck up on me! I’m sorry.”

  He studied me a moment with those hazel eyes. “You throw
a punch at everyone who sneaks up on you?” he asked.

  Shaking my head, I said, “People don’t usually sneak up on me. You move with impressive silence for being as large as you are.”

  I don’t know why, but these rambled words embarrassed me, and I snapped my mouth shut, determined not to utter anymore of them.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  He’d put some distance between us, so I could think a little better. But his question made me realize there was a lingering tear on my cheek, and I swiped it away quickly.

  “Nothing,” I said. “Allergies.”

  He nodded, his aura dubious. “Allergies,” he agreed.

  Not believing it possible that I could embarrass myself further, I turned toward the door that led inside, not wanting to test the theory.

  Thomas stopped me in my tracks with four beautiful words. “I have extra food,” he said.

  Eyes narrowed, I turned back toward him. “I don’t need charity, Thomas.”

  He shrugged, taking a seat on the crate I’d vacated.

  I told myself to continue on inside, but my traitorous mouth said, “What kind of food?” And, yes, it came out sounding slightly sheepish.

  He didn’t smile, his face remaining the inscrutable mask, but I saw the amusement touch his aura nonetheless. “Burgers, fries… cookies.”

  Warily, I made my way back over to him. Unlike other men, I didn’t get any creepy vibes from Thomas Reid, and didn’t pick up even a hint of inappropriate manner toward me. In fact, his aura was mostly just shadowed with demons of the past, tainted with grief. That, and loneliness. I knew people well enough to know that he was not a man who had friends, or who got close to people.

  Being half Fae, I had no doubt that his acceptance of me was a result of my Faevian allure, of my Halfling nature. It was one of my greatest gifts, after all. People wanted to trust me, wanted to like me. Apparently, Thomas wasn’t immune to this. For a reason I cared not to examine, this made me a bit sad.

  Taking a seat on the crate beside his, I mumbled, “Well… I guess I’m a little hungry.”