resigned myself to giving up gracefully, but just as she moved forward, her engine sputtered and her car shuddered to a halt.
Sunny let out a burst of surprised laughter as I whipped my wagon into the parking space. I spared a ‘you win some, you lose some’ sort of shrug for blue-car-woman as we got out and walked toward the hospital entrance. She glared at me over the painful noise of her starter grinding.
“Poor thing,” Sunny said with mock sympathy.
The faint tinkle of faerie laughter rang in my ears.
“I guess they just don’t make enough good parking spaces for everyone to have a faerie guardian,” I smirked.
We stopped at the front desk to sign the log and get our ‘Visitor’ stickers, and then headed up in the elevator to the maternity wing. I wrinkled my nose at the antiseptic odor in the hallways as we followed the room number signs that mapped our way to Rachel.
When we found the right number, we peeked our heads through the doorway of a small, private room with a hospital bed for Mom and a corner fold-away cot for Dad. An infant’s Plexiglas crib on wheels rested in a pool of sunshine beneath the window, but the baby was in Rachel’s arms.
“Rachel!” Sunny whispered excitedly as she moved forward and made room for her greeting card and gift on the bedside table. Rachel didn’t seem to notice any of it as she gazed down at her daughter.
“Meet Molly,” she said with a radiant smile, tucking down a soft white blanket to give us an unobstructed view.
Rachel’s husband, Brian, greeted us with a, “Hi guys, thanks for coming.” He looked dazed but happy.
Lorien appeared just above my shoulder and I jerked my head in surprise. “Ooh, she’s so cute…I love babies! How could anyone resist that pinched, purple wittle face?” she cooed in a sugary falsetto.
I did an admirable job of schooling my expression, but Sunny made a choking sound that almost ruined my efforts. Rachel and her husband beamed at Sunny, and she recovered quickly with a heartfelt, “She’s precious!”
“She’s beautiful,” I agreed.
We fussed over Molly for a while, Sunny and I doing our best to ignore Lorien as she flitted around making fawning noises. I could have sworn that the baby was cooing back at her. But when Sunny and Rachel started in on the family gossip, I decided to give them some time alone to catch up.
“I think I’ll go for a walk and maybe browse around the gift shop. Can I get anybody anything?” I offered as I stood.
They all declined and I stepped out into the hall with Lorien alighting on my shoulder to accompany me. “I don’t suppose you know where the gift shop is?” I whispered as we reached the elevator.
“Try the second floor,” she suggested.
I smiled at a cute male nurse in black scrubs as I stepped on and we rode down in silence. I stepped off and waited for the doors to close before muttering “Now where?”
“Go to the end of this hallway, then take a right,” Lorien answered promptly.
I made my way down the corridor and glanced around before speaking again. “So, you really have a thing for babies, huh?” I whispered.
“What are you whispering for?” Lorien asked with a smirk.
“Because people who roam hospitals talking to themselves usually end up in the psych ward,” I griped, snapping my mouth shut to smile at an elderly woman as she tottered out of the doorway in front of me wearing a paper-thin hospital gown. The nurse at her elbow gave me an odd look.
I glared at Lorien and she smothered a laugh.
“Hilarious,” I whispered. “I’m glad you get such a kick out of making me look like a lunatic. And do you have any idea how hard it was to pretend you weren’t darting around making goo goo eyes at Molly up there? If Rachel and Brian hadn’t been so preoccupied with the baby, they would have thought Sunny and I were both nuts.”
“You need to relax and worry a little less about what other people are thinking, Sydney,” Lorien pronounced. “Besides, who can resist making ‘goo goo eyes’ at babies? They’re so sweet and guileless with their little newly aligned souls. They’re beings of pure love, and that’s a rare and special thing. It only lasts so long before the world teaches them differently.”
I pondered that depressing thought as I trudged to the end of the hallway and hit a dead end. I frowned. “There’s no right at the end of this hall. It’s a patient’s room. Lorien?” I looked around for her, but she had disappeared.
I sighed, wondering if I’d done something to drive her away.
My eyes settled on the occupant of the room to my right. A woman lay pale and unconscious in the bed, lifeless but for the machine that was forcing breath into her body. She had long, light brown hair, much like mine, and similar features as well. I took an involuntary step forward, but froze when the light clicked off in the bathroom and a man crossed the scratched tile floor to stand at her side.
He bent over her, his black t-shirt stretching across well-defined shoulder and back muscles. He wore faded jeans and his tanned arms were covered in tattoos of runes and Celtic symbols. His startlingly blue eyes expressed surprise as he glanced up to find me staring at him.
“Sydney?” he asked as he straightened, his voice rough beneath his thick Irish brogue.
“Agent Sparrow?” I croaked, shock, and something warmer, traveling across my nerve endings at the sight of him. He’d starred in a few of my more explicit fantasies over the past week, but seeing him here was the last thing I’d expected.
“Do you know her?” he asked softly, indicating the girl in the bed.
“No. I…I’m visiting someone else,” I sputtered.
“What are you doing here then?” he asked, his cobalt eyes narrowing in a mixture of confusion and suspicion.
“Lorien said…I mean my friend said…I was looking for the gift shop,” I finally managed, cringing at how awkward I sounded.
A slow smile dawned across his face and my stomach quivered in response. “Lorien?” he queried, one dark eyebrow cocked in a knowing expression.
“You know Lorien?” I asked uncertainly.
“I’ve had the pleasure,” he said dryly.
“Oh. I wasn’t sure if you could see her,” I replied, and then winced at my stupidity. Of course he could see her. He was a half-faerie policeman who arrested death djinns.
He chuckled at my obvious discomfort. “How would you like to have a cup of coffee with me, Sydney?”
My pulse quickened. “Sure,” I answered, suppressing the urge to grin like an idiot. It was hospital coffee, for Goddess’ sake, it wasn’t like he’d asked me out on a date.
“Good. I have a feeling it was Lorien’s intention that you and I have a chat. Just let me finish up here.”
He reached out to gently place his hand on the unconscious
