Fen snickered. “She got a nice shot. Bet your eyebrows show up well. What do you think? Should we promise them a press conference later?”
Carter nodded. "I think they'll lay off if we offer to put it together ASAP."
“I'm up for it.” She gave him a mischievous yet tender smile that made him melt inside. “So we're in love.”
He touched her hair, marveling that this was a thing he could do now. He could touch Fenella Kim's beautiful, silky hair. "We are. It's pretty great, isn't it?"
She slipped her hand into his. "It's the best."
Chapter 18
Carter wasan old hand at press conferences. Before he’d been kidnapped and turned into a monster, he’d enjoyed them. As he stood side by side with Fen before a mob of both paparazzi and reporters for respectable news outlets, he reflected that this was the first press conference he’d actually had a good time at since then.
It was the delightful culmination of a wonderful weekend. He and Fen had enjoyed shopping together in Georgia, where they’d slipped into each other’s dressing rooms and admired each other naked and clothed. They’d spent the night at the hotel, which had been even better, and then had the treat of waking up to headlines likeELDON MCMANUS ARRESTED IN KIDNAPPING AND FRAUD PLOTandRIVAL CEOS ESCAPE KIDNAPPING BY OTHER RIVAL, and they’d laughed atFENELLA KIM AND CARTER HOWE STAGE SWAMP SEX SCANDAL.
They’d flown back to Refuge City, where they’d been forced to separate to deal with a whole lot of company business, not to mention police business, but they’d sent each other texts during meetings. At last everything had been sorted enough that once they were done with the press conference, they’d have the rest of the day off. They’d spend it together, of course.
He glanced at Fen, and caught her glancing at him. They smiled at each other. Bulbs flashed, and he knew that whatever goofy look of lovestruck adoration had been on his face would be plastered all over magazines tomorrow. He didn’t care. He did adore her, and there was no reason to hide it.
The photos of Fen wouldn’t be goofy. They’d be gorgeous. She looked incredible in one of the new outfits she’d picked out in Georgia. It was another one of her iconic black-and-white business suits, but he especially liked the short, slightly steampunk-styled jacket. Her hair had been professionally styled, her makeup was perfect, and her nails had been manicured in a startling, eye-catching copper. She looked like she could take over a company and kill a man before breakfast. Only he knew that she could forage in the wilderness and made dad jokes and swore like a British sailor.
He hoped she was enjoying the press conference as much as he was. She’d done her part beautifully, but her public persona was more buttoned-down than his so it was hard to tell. Fen had been crisp, cool, and collected as they had alternated telling the story of how they’d been kidnapped, dumped in a swamp, and hunted, how they’d been attacked by men with paint guns, how a fortuitous alligator attack had allowed them to turn the tables on the hunters and question them until they’d learned of Eldon McManus’s plot against them, and how they’d then been rescued by the security agency Protection, Inc: Defenders, whose team Carter had recently joined as a technical consultant.
And also, that they were now dating, and they would appreciate some privacy in this challenging yet happy time.
“Thirty minutes for questions,” said the press manager.
The room exploded with shouting and waving hands. Carter had always thought of this part as like a cartoon of a boy fishing: you throw out your line and pull it back in, and sometimes you get a fish and sometimes you get an old boot.
Fen pointed. “The reporter fromRefuge City Times,in the pink shirt.”
TheRefuge City Timesjournalist asked, “Can you tell us a bit about how your relationship developed while you were in the swamp?”
Carter relaxed. That question was definitely a fish. Fen smiled and told the story of the pawpaws and how they’d built a compass together. The reporters laughed appreciatively.
“We realized how much we had in common,” she concluded. “Eldon McManus meant to destroy us, but he accidentally did us a favor. Maybe I’ll send him a box of chocolates in jail. Next!”
Carter indicated a baby-faced reporter who had determinedly shoved his way into the front row. He had a soft spot for ambitious young people. “The gentleman fromNexus News, in the brown jacket.”
The Nexus News reporter asked, “Did you invent your own contact lenses?”
That question was so out of left field that it wasn’t even a boot. It was more like a banana. “I don’t wear contact lenses.”
“Then how are you making your eyes change color?” the reporter asked.
Carter’s entire body went ice cold with horror.
“See, there they go again,” said the reporter. “They’re black now. They’ve been aqua for most of the conference, but when Fenella Kim talked about how she was kidnapped, they turned red for a while. Are the colors random or a pre-set pattern, or are you manually changing them with your cell phone?”
Carter’s stomach felt like it was filled with concrete. He knew what those colors meant. His color-communication monster used aqua for happy and shades of red for angry. Black was terror.
Eunice hadn’t been bluffing. He really was turning into a monster.
He had to get out of sight before he sprouted tentacles.
“Yes, you got me.” He forced a chuckle, amazed at how smooth and calm his voice sounded. Inside his mind, sirens were wailing and emergency lights were flashing and all his monsters were shrieking and gibbering. His head felt like it was exploding. If he didn’t get out of there soon, his head might literally explode, and then reform as some monstrosity that would send everyone screaming and running.
“I meant to save the reveal for the end of the conference, but I just got a message that I have urgent business to attend to, so this is the end for me anyway. Yes, I’m wearing my latest invention, Howe Enterprises color-shift contacts. They’re a prototype, so no details yet—I was just so thrilled with how well they worked that I had to show them off. And that’s it for me, good-bye!”
