Page 33 of Soul Sucker

“What are you doing?”

Vadim jumped as Ella poked his arm. He was snapped back into reality with a speed that made him want to vomit. He glanced down at the sleeve of his jacket where a large yellow blob of frosting now rested.

“Give him a second, Ella. He was in the Fae-Web,” Alexei said.

Vadim swallowed hard and refocused on the offensive frosting.

“You can see into those things, Morosov?”

He got out his handkerchief and tried to decide whether he would make matters worse by trying to rub the stain off. There was really no other option. He’d have to get the hotel to dry clean the jacket for him tonight.

“Morosov?”

He dabbed at the stain, then wet his handkerchief with water to blot out the stickiness.

“What, Ms. Walsh?”

She rested her chin on her hand and studied him. “I was asking if you could see into the Fae-Web. Liz tried to tell me what it was like, but I couldn’t really understand.”

“It’s…different.”

She snorted. “That’s a lot of help.”

“It just is.”

Her brown eyes narrowed. “So what percentage of Fae are you exactly?”

“I have no idea.”

“If you’re more than fifty percent Fae, Morosov, don’t you need a permit to live on this side?”

“You should know, gatekeeper. Isn’t it your job to police Otherworld creatures?”

“One of my jobs. I can’t tell with you. Your shields are too good.”

“What a shame.” He returned her earlier smile with interest.

She looked across to Alexei, who was still helping himself to the box of donuts. Vadim noticed they’d managed to eat about half-a-dozen between them already. “How much Fae do you have to be to make that thing work?”

“To operate it? At least thirty-three percent. To see it?” Alexei shrugged, his gaze skipping over Vadim. “That depends on your line.”

“Your Fae line?”

“Yes. Some families are more powerful than others.”

“I’ve noticed that. Sometimes it’s harder to remove one memory than another, although they initially seem the same.” She turned back to Vadim. “Can you create one of those things?”

He repressed a shudder. “No.”

“I wish I could see into one. I bet things would make a lot more sense on a case.”

“It’s not quite that straightforward. Fae logic is not the same as human.” He glanced at Alexei who looked amused. “In fact a lot of it is both misleading and irrelevant. That’s why we need Alexei and Liz to interpret the data for us.”

“He’s right, Ella. Sometimes even I don’t understand what my Fae-Web is trying to tell me.”

“Until it’s too late,” Vadim said. Alexei had the grace to look abashed. Vadim stood and pushed in his chair. He took off his jacket and laid it over his arm. “Will you both excuse me? I need to clean off my sleeve properly.”

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