So they’d missed another of them.
Probably for the best. There were too many pack members loitering around for Niamh to make an easy snatch and run. Someone would get in the way, they’d probably miss their target, and then the mages would know their invisibility spells weren’t so invisible.
This way, the mages only knew to stay away from the basajaunak, something they likely would’ve done anyway. Niamh’s little crew could make a return trip and grab the three odd dressers in this town, no problem—they just needed to come at the right time.
And the other towns bordering the territory? They’d probably all hosted some of these bad-dressing mages. They could round them all up. It would just be a matter of getting to them before word got out that some of their brethren had gone missing.
No problem. Niamh had gone up against tighter deadlines with a lot more dangerous creatures.
This detail was gearing up for an epic bar hop.
FIVE
Jessie
I STOOD beside one of the vans that would transport the basajaunak as the people who’d gone to the bar returned to the parking lot. It took a moment for me to realize Sebastian had a cape on, and I spent another moment blatantly staring.
“It wasn’t my idea,” he said.
“But why…” I turned as he passed a grinning Nessa and climbed into his van.
“I think it really suits you,” she told him, leaning against the edge of the door. “Can you flutter it?”
“Shut up,” he said from within.
“Nice and slow,” Dave said as he tried to help Her fit into the interior. They were nine-foot-tall creatures with a lot of girth. We hadn’t really thought the transportation angle through. “Pull that leg
—”
“Do y’all need some help?” a man called.
I turned to find a man in his late forties or early fifties at the edge of the parking lot, a plastic bag in his hand from the quickie mart down the street. He wore a thick flannel coat and dirty blue jeans with work boots and a beat-up old trucker’s hat.
“Only, I saw you strugglin’.” He half turned to point down the sidewalk at a pickup truck parked by the curb. “They’re awful big creatures for that little bitty van. Where y’all headed?”
I hesitated for a moment, not sure if I should answer. There was almost zero chance this character could be a mage, not in that outfit, but I didn’t know how the pack was perceived in the border towns.
I didn’t want to spark any animosity.
Dave didn’t have any such qualms. “We are going to the shifter pack a half-hour away,” he called.
“Oh yeah?” the man replied. “Well, I got a camper that would probably help. It’d give y’all a little more legroom, at least. How many are ya?”
The basajaunak gathered next to the motel, standing near trees or within bushes, suddenly became visible. They’d been told to stay out of sight until they boarded in case another invisible mage happened by. If we could grab one before heading to Kingsley’s, we’d have one less to worry about later. Plus, it kept the basajaunak out of the way.
“Didn’t see them over there.” The man looked around for a moment, maybe counting them up.
“Lemme give my buddy a call. We can at least transport some of ’em.”
“He seems like a do-gooder,” Dave said as Phil stopped next to us and put his hands on his hips.
“He seems like he wants to help,” he continued, giving me a hopeful look.
“The vans are pretty tight,” Phil said.
Austin glanced over, in the middle of directing people into the vans in the order he wanted them to arrive at his brother’s territory. I knew he wanted to make a flashy entrance. A bunch of camping trailers would not fit the image he wanted to project.
Her paused to hear the verdict, her position—halfway in and halfway out—looking incredibly uncomfortable.
I sighed and looked back at the man. “I’ll pay you for your time,” I told him. “You’d really be helping us out.”
“No problem.” He put his hand up in a wave that turned into a thumbs-up. “I’ll be back right quick. You just wait there.”
He half jogged back the way he’d come, wasting no time.
My heart swelled, and I motioned Her out of the van. It always made me a little gushy when perfect strangers went out of their way to help me. I hadn’t experienced any of that growing up in L.A.
As I left them, making my way to the cargo vans at the back to check on the killer flowers, I noticed Mimi sitting on a bench in front of the motel. She made a point of nodding her approval.
Given the importance of image to shifters, I was suddenly nervous that Austin wouldn’t agree.
Putting that out of my mind, because what was done was done, I rounded an open cargo door and stared into the sleek black van. Even the killer flowers had been given top-of-the-line transportation.
Indigo sat amongst them, reading. These were the calmer flowers, the ones they called the Violators, which I would absolutely be changing to the Protectors, because Violators sounded seriously icky.
“How are we doing?” I asked her.
She looked up, blinked a couple times, and then glanced around at the flowers. They stood stock-still, waiting for permanent placement before they started interacting with their surroundings.
“Doing well, I think,” she said. “They didn’t seem to like the airplane much. I think it was the pressure change. But being in the car? I think they like it just fine. Don’t you, Violators?” Her voice changed, as though she were talking to a pet. “Don’t you just wuuv car rides? You’re going to be at your new home soon, isn’t that exciting? Yes it is, huh? Yes it is!”
“Okay, then.” I gave her a thumbs-up. “Looking great. We’re just waiting on some transportation help, and then we should be on our way.”
“Okie-dokie.” She smiled at me, adjusted her glasses, and went back to reading.
The second van, transporting the other half of the Protectors, held Hollace, also reading a book.
Out loud. To the flowers.
“Hey,” I said as I looked in at him. “How’s it going?”
He paused for a moment, lowering the book. “Fine. Edgar had to go do that thing with Niamh, so I said I’d take a turn watching the seedlings.”
“Okay great. We’re—”
“I heard. Campers, basajaunak, waiting. What do you think the accommodations are going to be like there? A tent in the woods, kinda like the basajaunak lands, or more like O’Briens?”
“I think more like O’Briens, though I’m not sure how much space they actually have for guests and strangers.”
He nodded and looked back at his book. “Life has never been dull since I joined this outfit.”
I grimaced. “Regrets?”
He lowered the book again to meet my eyes. “Not even a little. I’ve had enough dull for a while.