It wasn’t a particularly unpleasant shiver. Not a sense of danger, or impending doom. But something was definitely off, and she turned back to the kitchen slowly, and then had to stifle her instinctive scream.
He was leaning against the kitchen counter, and for a moment she couldn’t see him clearly. He was a mass of changing colors – swirls of vivid brightness dancing, and then everything settled down, like a camera coming into focus, and it was only a man standing there, a tall man in a dark suit and blond hair, watching her.
The back door to the house was still closed and locked with a chair full of unread newspapers in front of it, and Lizzie had been standing in the only other door, watching her sisters take off. That door was still open behind her back, and she ought to run for it, fast. She was a chicken and she knew it, but the one thing stronger than her fear of confrontation was her curiosity.
‘How did you get in here?’ Dumb. She should have asked him who he was.
‘Doesn’t your sister know better than to turn into an owl in the middle of the day? Owls are nocturnal – if someone notices, there are bound to be questions, even in this town. Especially in this town.’ His voice was deep, mesmerizing, and just slightly annoyed.
She stared at him. He hadn’t been there when Dee shifted, and even if he’d seen it he wouldn’t have believed it. ‘What do you mean, especially in this town?’
One of the bunnies hopped across his foot, and he leaned down and picked it up, a soft, tiny creature in his elegant hands. She watched, mesmerized, as he stroked it, the long fingers caressing the fur lightly before he set it down on the table, where it lay in silver splendor, a fork once more.
‘Who the hell are you?’ she said, finally asking the right question.
He moved into the light, and she could see him quite clearly. Elegant, with long golden hair, dark eyes, impeccably dressed, with a silver stud in one ear. A little on the thin side – he was too well dressed for Mare, and Dee didn’t like blonds. He was probably in his early thirties, though there was something almost ageless about him.
‘Either your worst nightmare or your salvation,’ he said. ‘It’s up to you.’
She didn’t like men in suits, she didn’t like men who just showed up in her kitchen, no matter how gorgeous they were, and she definitely didn’t like his lack of answers. ‘I’m getting out of here,’ she said, turning to make a run for it.
The door in the hall slammed shut, followed by the very audible click of the lock.
‘I don’t think so,’ the stranger said. ‘You’ve been causing too much trouble, and I intend to put a stop to it. There’s nothing worse than amateurs messing with the laws of mutability. The repercussions can screw things up on a global level, and it can’t be ignored any longer.’
‘Amateurs?’ Lizzie echoed, seizing on the one tangible insult.
‘Well, you could hardly consider yourselves in any way adept. Your sister Deirdre transforms herself without any control; sooner or later she’s going to do it with a full audience and then where will you be? And your younger sister’s attempts at psychokinesis are pathetic, though so far not intrinsically dangerous. You, on the other hand, are likely to blow up this house and the entire neighborhood if you don’t cease your brainless experiments.’
‘Who the hell are you?’ she said again, trying for a tone as cold and deadly as his. It wobbled a bit, but it was a fair approximation.
‘Elric.’
‘Elric? That’s a ridiculous name.’
He closed his eyes in exasperation, and for a moment she could look at him without him seeing her. He really was quite astonishing, even if he still seemed to shimmer a bit about the edges. She didn’t like men in suits, but it was still the best-looking suit she’d ever seen. Or maybe the best-looking man…
He opened his eyes. ‘You’ve never heard of me.’
She shook her head. She could dive out the window, she supposed. If she’d only had Dee’s ability she’d be something entirely different at this point – with luck she’d have turned herself into a man-eating tiger and disposed of him.
There had to be something she could do. Like turn the floor into Jell-O, but then she’d be trapped, as well. And she’d be just as likely to turn the worn wooden flooring into a sea of rats.
‘Sit down.’ Elric picked up another bunny as it hopped across the floor.
She didn’t move, staring at his hands as he stroked the furry creature. Elegant, dangerous hands.
‘I want you to go away,’ she said.
I’m sure you do.’ He set another fork on the table, then began to scoop up the other three that lay scattered on the floor. ‘But you’ll sit anyway. We need to talk.’
‘If you don’t leave I’ll call the police.’
‘You’re not calling anyone. You don’t want people knowing your secrets any more than I do.’
He had a point.
‘Then I’ll turn you into a rabbit.’
Oh, my God, it was the wrong thing to say. He laughed, and it was like a rainbow of color flashing through the room. A woman could be fool enough to fall in love with a laugh like that.
And then he put his hands on her, and she was lost. It was nothing more than the touch of his strong fingers on her shoulders, pushing her down into the kitchen chair, the same long fingers that had been so gentle with the baby rabbits, but it felt as if those shimmering colors shot through her body, and she sat down, hard, staring up at him.
He looked startled himself, as if he’d felt those strange colors, too. But then, of course he would – they emanated from him. He reached for a chair, then changed his mind, choosing one farther away from her, and sat. ‘Don’t look so nervous, Elizabeth Alicia,’ he said, his voice gentle on the Spanish pronunciation of her middle name. I’m simply here to stop you. You’re messing with things you don’t understand, and those things could explode in your face. Literally. Apart from the fact that you’re drawing unwanted attention, you could wind up dead. Alchemy is a tricky business, and you don’t seem to have the first clue as to how to go about it.’
‘Lizzie,’ she corrected him. And how do you know my name? Know so much about us?’
‘Everyone knows about the three of you, everyone with our kind of power. I’ve come to stop you before you do something irreversible.’
She was halfway to the door before she remembered it was locked, and any man who could turn her bunnies back into forks had to be capable of stopping her escape with little more than a blink. She felt completely foolish in turning around, but she didn’t have much choice. He was waiting for her.
‘I’m not going to hurt you, Lizzie. But you’re too dangerous to be left on your own. You need to make peace with your family. Someone your age should be in much greater control of her gift. You need guidance, teaching, things you gave up when your sister took you and disappeared. It’s a wonder you haven’t been caught – your half-assed attempts at alchemy upset the tenor of the cosmos.’
‘The tenor of the cosmos can take care of itself,’ Lizzie said. ‘We’re not going anywhere near our family or anyone else. We do fine by ourselves, thank you very much, and we don’t need anyone interfering.’
‘You screw up by yourselves. Haven’t you practiced your craft, learned its possibilities?’
‘No. We don’t want to do anything that could bring us unwanted attention, either from the people in town or People Like You.’
‘You can’t just ignore your powers. They misfire if you don’t work at them.’
‘We don’t want them.’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘All right. Then give them up. I can make arrangements.’
‘Not yet.’
She was really beginning to annoy him. ‘Whatever the problem is, I can fix it.’
‘You can’t fix everything,’ Lizzie said gloomily. ‘God knows I’ve tried.’
‘Maybe you can’t fix everything, Elizabeth Alicia,’ he said, ‘but you don’t even know me. Your sisters’ mistakes are only minor inconveniences – they might draw unfortunate attention but they don’t disturb the flow. You, on the other hand, are messing up big time, and I have no intention of leaving until you agree to stop what you’re doing.’
‘Then prepare to be here for a while,’ she said.
‘I’m on a mission, and I don’t give up easily. Once it’s accomplished I don’t intend to do magic ever again. Until that point there’s nothing you can do to stop me.’