Page 9 of Forget Me Not

Penn pulled harder on his arm. “Cal can take care of himself. Move. The faster a doctor clears you, the faster you can see Cal again.”

“He’scrying,”Ray snapped at her.“I’ve never seen a fairy cry.”

“Yes, you have,” Penn replied, then extended the talons she normally hid to dig holes in Ray’s suit jacket. “Nowmove, Branigan.”

Callalily turned away from him, slowly following Benny to look behind a large trash bin as though there was magic to be found there. With his back to Ray, he wiped at his eyes, just once.

“Penn.” Ray turned to her.

She did not soften. “You can go over there if you know how to make him feel better. If you don’t, then I suggest you do what he wants. You usually end up doing that anyway.”

Ray exhaled through his nose. “He’s…”

“Pack. Or he was.” Penn pulled and this time, Ray went. His head pounded with every step.

Pack. Ray had a pack. He had….

“We have to find who did this,” Callalily remarked to Benny, back still deliberately turned to Ray. His skin there was unmarked as well. His wings were agitated, but that was nothing Ray couldn’t tell from his voice.

“You know how strong he is. And he wasn’t gone for very long. That means whatever this was, if it was magic…”

Callalily scoffed.

Benny continued smoothly, “If it was magic, then they had to have it ready.”

Callalily sniffled but spoke clearly. “So, aimed at him specifically? I kind of doubt a trap for any person wandering down here would erase just memories of me and you. But there’s a rabbit hole we’re not going to go down right now. We’re searching for clues. And then I am going to my… to Ray whether he wants me to or not.”

“Cal.”

“Benny.”

They both went silent. Ray was worried for the moment before he realized that they likely knew each other well enough to have a conversation without words.

Then Penn marched him out of the alley and into a wider space, with lines on it to mark places for cars to park, although it didn’t look like anyone had parked there in a long time. The delivery entrance to a probably closed business had graffiti of two fairies fucking on the door. It was fairly well done. The artist had even used glitter.

“Are we in the fairy village?” Ray wondered, straining to hear Callalily’s heartbeat.

Penn stopped short to face him. “Okay. I need you to pull it together. Just for right now. Word will get out, but for now, I need you to be composed. I need you to be intimidating and silent until we’re in the car, okay?”

Ray could feel his eyebrows draw together, but he nodded. He was always composed around others, around humans. “It was only….”

“It was Cal. I know.” Penn stretched up to briefly cup Ray’s cheek. “And you’re in pain and you’re scared. But they won’t understand, and they’ll—just keep it together until we get to the car.”

She resumed walking, unobtrusively leading Ray because he had no memory of where to go. But the chatter grew louder, and then the flash of a camera light nearly blinded him as they turned onto a sidewalk and into the street.

Two uniformed officers were standing at the nearest corner, hands on their belts, already turned in their direction. Ray didn’t know them by name, but Penn must have asked them to stand there since they weren’t near everyone else. Penn nodded to them without slowing down or releasing Ray’s arm. If she greeted them aloud, Ray didn’t hear. City smells hit him, more obvious than before, more about people than garbage. Sweat and cars and bus exhaust. A hundred apartments with cooking food, and somewhere not far away, either a liquor store or a bar.

A bar, Ray realized, staring blankly at small side streets full of tiny apartments whose windows and fire escapes were decorated with ribbons and cheap lawn ornaments and wind chimes. He was in the village, not far from Mami’s, a local icon, and in front of him was some sort of crime scene.

Part of the street had been blocked off by tape and groups of officers standing around, although the humans and beings on the other side of the tape were not pressing forward. There were several cars with their lights still flashing blue and red parked outside the perimeter. A lot of cars, although Ray couldn’t see what warranted this many. A photographer was working. CSU was walking in and out of a building just off the street, which was also guarded. Investigation didn’t imply active danger.

Ray winced away from all the noise but sniffed the air again, which smelled of cooking onions and grease, and tires, and something chemical from the building being investigated. And something sweet. Something like pears.

He turned, looking back to the alley they’d come from. The two officers watched him and Penn steadily, one of them nodding while on his phone, but Callalily wasn’t anywhere near.

“You have your weapon?” Penn asked quietly, still leading Ray away. “Phone?”

“Yes.” Ray reached into his pockets to make sure the phone was there and undamaged, touched something crinkly instead. He pulled out two old-fashioned, striped, wax paper bags. One held a candy necklace and a candy ring wrapped in hard plastic. The other was full of pear drops.

---