Page 13 of Forget Me Not

Ray knew how to behave around humans. Penn was aware that but stressing it anyway. He put on his coat while watching her. “Do they think this has incapacitated me? In a career-ending way?”

“How do weres usually react to—” Penn stopped, glancing to Ray’s hands. “Eat your snack.”

A snack was not enough, should not have been enough.

“I’m not hungry,” he said anyway, making Penn’s lips curl.

“You’re always hungry.” But she tipped her head back in exhaustion and maybe to keep an eye on him, so Ray dutifully ate the candy bar in two bites. “You want to tell me what happened now? Or do I have to guess?”

Ray stared.

She regarded him knowingly. “You were expecting to see him with me.”

Ray was not going to ask how she knew. “Why should he be here?” he wondered instead. Penn’s snort said more than words could. “Nobody likes hospitals,” Ray added. Especially not fairies.

“Pretty sure you proposed in one,” Penn announced casually, too quick and sharp not to notice Ray’s start. “Well, in your emotionally stunted, wolfy way. No, you’re not married,” she said a moment later, the corners of her mouth turning down at whatever she saw when she looked at Ray. “That is actually part of the reason he’s not here right now. Human laws, human rules.”

“He’s…” Ray ended the growl that rose in his throat. Rules wouldn’t have stopped him. Not for something like this. Not for Callalily in a hospital room somewhere. Callalily was half-fairy. He could be hurt, and seriously, likely much easier than a full fairy could be.

“Ray.” Penn came over to fix Ray’s shirt collar, forcing Ray to bend down. “Rules are less Cal’s concern at the moment. Or ever. He probably would have snuck in despite not technically being your family—don’t snarl.” Ray clenched his jaw. Penn fixed one of his shirt buttons then glanced up once, curious. “He says he would be here, but that you wouldn’t want him to be. Not with all of the others around.”

Ray looked toward the door, then met Penn’s eyes.

Penn was so tired.

Ray swallowed his questions, asked another, simpler one. “Can we go now?”

“Oh yeah.” She perked up. “Now that the human doctors have done all they can, we’re moving on to other sources.” She opened the door to wave Ray through.

The moment he stepped out, the conversation between the officers by the chairs stopped.

“There he is!” one of them called out, as though Ray needed a cheerleader.

They were all uniforms. No detectives. Ray glanced to Penn, but she kept walking, smiling her most polite smile that also told people to get out of her way, which they usually did.

“Here I am,” Ray said dryly, the pounding behind his eyes getting stronger at the mingled colognes and deodorant and stale coffee scents coming off them. He didn’t mean to smile, to show a hungry hint of fang, but he knew he did. “Thank you for your concern. I’ll be sure to mention it to Callalily.”

Penn made the tiniest sound, objection or surprise or warning, but she didn’t stop walking, so Ray didn’t either. She jerked her head toward a restroom and then paused, so Ray ducked inside to wash his hands, and emerged to find the corridor bustling with activity but the officers still quiet, watching them.

Watching Ray.

“I don’t know any of them, not by name,” Ray remarked as they stopped in front of the elevators. It occurred to him that his memory might not be reliable in this. “Do you?”

“One or two.” Penn’s answer didn’t help him.

Ray frowned, first at his shoes, then back down the hall. “Were they here in case I went feral?” It would take a lot to subdue him. Tranquilizers, many tranquilizers, would have done a better job than several officers not used to working as a team. If Ray had been out of his mind, he would not have held back, and not even a few bullets would have stopped him, not unless someone had very good aim.

But he had never done such a thing, never even come close, and he hadn’t done anything to make anyone think he would.

He swallowed. His throat was dry despite the water. Penn was carefully not saying anything.

Ray stuck his hand into his pocket, crinkling the wax paper bags. The scent of sugar and pears drifted up to his nose. He pulled in a breath.

Penn reached over to take his other hand and squeeze it before letting go.Yes.

Ray had too many things to think about it to let himself contemplate the humiliation of being subdued in public, or the suspicious whisper that said none of those officers were likely trained in anything like that, and would have found a faster, easier, deadlier way to resolve the situation.

The elevator doors opened to show an empty carriage. Ray and Penn got on. Ray waited until the doors closed again. “They know what he is to me, but that’s how they speak of him?”

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