“M-gate?” He looked vaguely disgusted. “No, I dematerialize and ride the air currents to my destination.”
Fascinating. He didn’t have to travel with the fog to move unseen. It explained a lot of the sightings, and how he was sometimes said to appear out of thin air. She’d have to remember to put that in her notes.
“Can you take passengers?”
He shook his head. “No. Unless you can become incorporeal, you would just fall through my arms.”
Elise colored as she pictured herself cradled in his arms, sweeping through the fog banks over the water at night. Butterflies fluttered low in her stomach. Of course, that sort of thing only happened in feeds, but even practical, driven Elise could indulge in a fantasy every now and again.
Shaking herself, she replied, “Well, since you can’t take me with you and you don’t know where I live, you’ll just have to take the train with me.”
She gave him her usual sunny smile to cover her nerves. Taking a step out of the shadows, she was surprised to find he still held her hand. Looking pointedly at where they were connected, she said, “Ah, you can let go. I promise I won’t lose you in the crowd.”
“Why?” He stepped close behind her. Cal’s expression was aloof, but she didn’t miss the way he scanned the crowd, nor how tense his shoulders became when a family with several young children in Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum t-shirts squeezed past them. One little boy clutched a colorful sparrow-shaped kite in a chubby, clawed hand.
“Oh, it’s just—”
Cal nudged her forward, toward the entrance of the wharf and the m-lev station across the street. His fingers tightened around hers as his aquiline features hardened into a mulish expression. “I watch people holding hands all the time. I want to do it.” He lifted his chin, adding, “It’s part of my terms.”
Elise swallowed. He hadn’t told her much the previous night, but she didn’t have to be a reporter to see the context hovering around his bargain. No one who wanted to try living a normal life had ever truly had one. Until that moment, she hadn’t quite grasped what that meant.
Has no one ever held his hand before?
“Okay,” she replied, smoothing out her expression so he wouldn’t see her dismay. “We need to go to the other side of the street and take the outbound train.”
Cal eyed the stop across the street, his brow furrowed. She wondered if he’d ever been on an m-lev before, but that question was quickly answered when she had to help him board. Elise didn’t blame him for his trepidation. Although San Francisco’s public transportation was top of the line, running on a combination of super charged magnets and a constantly monitored m-grid, the speed at which they traversed the hilly terrain and packed streets unsettled even seasoned riders.
However, like most public services in the EVP, it was blessedly free, so no one complained too much.
The ride took thirty minutes and was mostly fine. Cal sat beside her silently, his black eyes sweeping over the other passengers every few seconds like he thought they might whip out weapons when he wasn’t looking. He never let go of her hand.
The only part that truly seemed to unsettle him was the ride through the inky darkness beneath Twin Peaks. The tunnel was only a little over two miles long and notorious for the secret alcoves and underground passageways that fed directly into the Markets up above, though the EVP government routinely sent Patrol out on sweeps to close off the illegal tunnels.
Elise was used to the stretch of pure blackness at the end of her rides home, but Cal wasn’t. As soon as their car dipped smoothly underground, his fingers clenched around hers, his entire body vibrating with tension.
“It’s okay. It’s just a tunnel,” she whispered, taking in his suddenly rigid profile. His hair, which had previously only swirled with a gentle current against his back, began to whip around them, drawing the curious eyes of their fellow passengers.
Cal turned his head to stare down at her. His expression was as aloof as it always was, except for the marked tightness around his eyes and mouth. “I don’t like being underground,” he explained, barely audible over the low rumble of the m-lev.
Elise wanted to pinch herself. Of course an elemental wouldn’t enjoy being underground. She couldn’t imagine how unnatural that would feel to someone literally made from the sky.
Squeezing his hand, she soothed, “It’s almost over. We get off at the next stop, and then we walk up a hill. No more tunnels.”
Cal nodded, but his grip on her hand didn’t loosen until they were exiting the brick-lined station and stepping into the sunlight. It wasn’t a quick walk back to her place, but Elise didn’t mind. The trek up the steep hill to her new apartment gave her time to think.
Bringing Cal home with her was a risk. There was no telling what he was capable of. Being a weather witch meant she had some small ability to protect herself, but against a force of nature like Cal? Elise wouldn’t stand a chance.
But what was the worth in uncovering a story without an element of risk? She’d made a deal, and she intended to keep it. Getting the truth about what exactly Cal did for the city and why would be worth it.
At the very least, it was a good excuse to keep him close.
By the time they got to her floor, Elise was flushed with exertion and giddy with nerves. Would he like her home? Did it matter? What was she going to do with him once he was settled? She’d promised him something totally amorphous. Just how far was she willing to go to give him the experience he wanted?
If she could stop thinking about his eager but infuriatingly chaste, world-shattering kiss, she might actually be able to dig up an answer or two.
Unlocking her door with an old fashioned key and a slightly out of date thumbprint scanner, she sucked in a deep breath and stepped inside.
As soon as she crossed the threshold, a pleasant, androgynous voice called out, “Welcome home, Elise. Would you like me to turn the lights on?”