“Because your husband gossips like a church lady.”
“Please. Don’t insult me. Church ladies line up around the block to take gossip lessons from Raphael.” Andrea grinned. “No, seriously, why?”
“Because if you tell Raphael, the entire Pack will run over here to gawk at him, and I can’t do this right now. I have shit to deal with.”
“Is it Roland?”
“No.” I told her about Serenbe.
“Well, fuck,” she said.
“Yep.”
We sat quietly for a while. Conlan was sprawled on my lap, making a low rumbling noise. It was almost like purring. It felt oddly comforting.
“If you had to shoot a dog in the eye with an arrow from a regular bow, what’s the longest distance you could do it from?” I asked.
“Regular bow, I could guarantee a shot at forty-five yards. If it was a highly trained archer who wasn’t me, maybe thirty, but an eye is a small target and dogs like to move.” Andrea sighed. “It can never just be peaceful, can it?”
“Oh, I don’t know. The past eighteen months were pretty quiet.”
She snorted. “What about the Cherufe burning down City Hall two months ago?”
“It only scorched City Hall.”
“And before that there was the Raijū thing. And before that . . .”
I held up my hand. “Okay, yes. But you know what I mean. All these were normal. This thing in Serenbe isn’t normal. This is magic on a massive scale.”
Andrea sighed.
As if on cue, a magic wave rolled over us. Conlan raised his head, shook himself, and lay back down on my lap.
“I need Curran to come back,” I told her. “He was a baby lion before. It would really help.”
“What is up with your lion anyway? This is what, his third one?”
“Fourth.”
Curran once explained to me in excruciating detail how he hated to hunt. According to him, he was a lion, he weighed over six hundred pounds, and the last thing he wanted to do was run through the woods chasing after deer. But since Conlan’s birth, he and Erra had hatched a plan to extend the Guild’s reach past Atlanta for a strategic advantage when my father eventually came calling. Usually this strategic outreach involved hunting some sort of monster on the outskirts of Atlanta. It took Curran three or four days to catch it, and my aunt insisted on going with him.
“He takes Erra with him. That’s the most puzzling part.”
“Maybe they’re bonding.”
“My aunt, who continuously reminds me that I married a barbaric animal, and my husband, who thinks she’s an insane murderous bitch, are bonding?”
“Stranger things have happened.”
Andrea reached out and petted Conlan’s head. He sniffed her hand.
“You remember Andrea,” I murmured.
“Of course he does. He was just a little scared. Changing is confusing. So, what triggered it?”
I looked at her.
“Baby shapeshifters turn because they get scared. That’s why a lot of them shift at birth. Leaving the womb is scary. He didn’t turn even when Doolittle terrified him. There had to be some sort of severe threat. What were you doing when he shifted?”
The box. That had to be the thing.
“I was answering the door. Someone left a present for me on my doorstep.”
“Was it a nice present?”
“No.” I got up. “I’ll show you, but I think we’d better leave him here.”
We locked Conlan in the bedroom and went downstairs. I got out two bottles of sangria and poured Andrea a glass. She tasted the wine.
“Mmm, I can’t understand why you won’t drink this stuff.”
Because at some point in my life, I was a borderline alcoholic. “Why do you drink it? You can’t even get a buzz.”
“Because it’s delicious.” Andrea pulled one of the bottles to her and refilled the glass.
I left her in the kitchen to get the box. It still sat where I’d left it. I picked it up and walked back to the house. The moment I stepped through the kitchen door, Andrea put down her drink. The content smile melted from her face.
Something thumped upstairs, followed by a loud snarl.
“What is it?”
Andrea bared her teeth. “I don’t know. It smells bad.”
“How bad?”
“I can’t explain it. Bad like something really big that could eat you. Like something you should get away from. I’m a former knight of the Order and I really want to go back to my vehicle and take off just so I don’t have to smell it. No wonder the little guy flipped out.”
Andrea flicked the box open. Her expression grew long. She took the rose out and waved it at me.
“I know,” I said. “It may or may not be romantic.”
“It’s red.”
“Yes, and some cultures believe that red roses sprang from spilled blood.”
“Aha, keep telling yourself that.”
“That’s my line.”
Andrea whipped toward the door. “A car is coming. Sounds like one of your Jeeps.”
Curran. Finally.
Something crashed upstairs. It sounded like splintered wood. Not good. I walked to the stairs. “Conlan, your daddy is home.”
A thing perched on the stair rail. It was furry and upright, with oversized arms and curved black claws. Gold eyes stared at me from a face that was half-human, half-lion.
“Holy shit.” I stumbled back.
“What is it?” Andrea reached me and saw the thing. Her eyes flashed red. A shrill hyena laugh broke out of her mouth.
The small fluffy monster with Rottweiler fangs gathered himself for a leap. This should not be happening. Toddlers couldn’t maintain half-form. That was not a thing.
Calm and soothing. Calm and soothing. Mother-of-the-year voice.
“Conlan.” I started toward him one step at a time. “Come here. Come to Mommy.”
Andrea moved into the foyer from the kitchen, slick and quiet, ready to cut off any attempt at escape.
Step. Another step. Another foot and I could grab him.
The front door swung open and Julie stepped inside.
“Shut the door!” I barked.
Conlan sailed off the rail, bounced onto Julie, knocking her down, and shot outside.
Damn it!
I ran after him, leaping over Julie, and almost collided with Curran. Grendel bounced around us, barking up a storm, because my life required a giant hyper poodle right this second.
“What the hell was that?” my husband snarled.
“That was your son!”
“What?”
“Which way did he go?”
“Into the woods.” Julie rolled to her feet.
My aunt manifested next to the Jeep, a slightly translucent apparition in blood armor. “I told you,” she said. “I told you not to marry a shapeshifter. You did it anyway. Now this happened.”
“What do you mean, it’s our son?” Curran demanded.
“What is going on with this family?” Julie brushed off her jeans.
Derek sprinted into the driveway. “I heard yelling.”
“Will everyone shut up!” I snarled.
Sudden silence descended on the driveway.
“There is an eighteen-month-old running around in the woods in half-form. I’m going to get him. Help or get out of the way.”
I turned and ran into the woods to find my baby.
CHAPTER
4
“SHAPESHIFTERS HAVE PROBLEMS,” Erra said.
I used tongs to grab the meat off the grill and deposit it onto a platter. During his hunting expedition, Curran had caught and butchered a deer, which I found in the cooler in the back of his Jeep, which was a good thing because I was starving, and I was pretty sure he was, too. It had taken him approximately thirty seconds to catch up to and apprehend our son. Once I was sure that everyone was okay, I left them in the woods and went back to the house. They had been gone for about an hour now, and I had a feeling they would be back soon, looking for food.
“The Wild is unpredictable,” Erra said.
“I’ve had a trying couple of days,” I told her. “Normally I love listening to a blistering lecture on my failure to choose a proper husband. It’s my absolute favorite. But if you don’t stop, I will put your dagger into the stables.”
Erra fixed me with her stare. “Sometimes I despair at your lack of respect.”
“I had the best role model. She once punched the head priest of Nineveh when he told her to bow. Maybe you’ve heard of her?”
She snorted. “He was an insufferable prick.”