“They each have names, though,” Indigo said, her voice high and childlike, matching her small frame and somewhat mousy appearance. A smattering of freckles dusted her button nose, on which sat large, black-framed, rectangular glasses. Thick bangs covered her forehead, and her brown hair was loosely pulled up into a messy bun. “They aren’t all called the Violator. That’s just their group name.”
“Oh yes, correct.” Edgar nodded dramatically. “Indigo is correct—how silly of me to forget. We have given each flower a name, as befits a friend. So here is…” He hesitated as he hovered over the seedling near his blood-crusted leg.
“Ethel,” Indigo helped.
“Yes, right. Ethel. And we have Florence the Flower over here—”
“Alliteration was necessary with that one,” Indigo said with a little smile.
“Ton, over there. Jan, Cathy-Jane, Marsha-Marsha-Marsha… Let’s see. Wayne and Garth—”
“Party on.” Indigo lifted a fist.
“Yes. They are rambunctious. Dean and Billie-Jo. Jolene—”
“‘ Jolene, Jo- lene ,’” Indigo sang, the tune from Dolly Parton’s song.
“Very musical, that flower,” Edgar responded. “She really likes singing.”
Austin had gone still, his automatic defense against the strangeness of this house and its crew.
“Let’s move on,” I said firmly. More basajaunak gathered around, silently watching. “I notice that they are still. Too still. They aren’t reacting to the breeze.”
“Oh yes,” Edgar said, now walking through the stalks. “That is because they are dormant at the moment. They are just taking it in, as it were. Learning how to coexist. They interact, sure, but only when prompted. Once they age up and are settled in one location, they’ll act like normal flowers until they’re either among friends or enemies.”
“How long do we have until they settle in?” Austin asked.
“If stable, about a week. Meaning, if we take them to Alpha Kingsley’s tomorrow and quickly find them a new home, they’ll be active adolescents within a week. If we do not find them a home quickly, then it will take longer.”
I put a hand on Austin’s arm. “These aren’t like the other attack flowers, which only tolerated the people they imprinted on in their youth. Obviously that wouldn’t work if we had them around Kingsley’s territory.”
“Correct. Yes, thank you, Jessie.” Edgar bowed slightly. “I have learned from my mistakes, Sir Alpha. Have no fear—with help from the basajaunak and Indigo, I have baked a sort of safety system into these flowers. If anyone they know vouches for a stranger, then they will treat that stranger as a friend. Until the stranger tries to do them harm, of course, and then they will attempt to kill that stranger in the bloodiest way possible. They are not very forgiving to bullies or enemies, these flowers.”
Austin’s eyebrows climbed.
“And!” Edgar lifted a spindly finger. “And their transportation pots”—he bent down to pat the plastic tub of one of the seedlings—“will allow us to take them home if Alpha Kingsman doesn’t want to keep them. They will allow us to dig them up as long as they feel their pots near them.”
“Kings ley,” Indigo corrected him softly.
“Yes.” Edgar inclined his head.
“You see…” Indigo stepped forward. Her toe hit a pot, though, which made her stumble. She reached out to brace herself but must’ve realized she’d likely crush a flower that way. Instead, she completed the fall, flopping down between two flowers and flailing a little.
“Whoopsie.” Edgar hurried to help her up. “That pot jumped out in front of you! I saw it. Silly flower.”
Indigo’s face turned red, and she smiled in embarrassment. “I’m a little clumsy. My mommy always said, ‘Thank the Lord you got the gift of healing, child, or you’d be in a bad way from those two left feet.’”
“What doesn’t kill us, as they say,” Edgar told her.
“You see,” she started again, “the flowers in this batch and the one before it really love people.
They love attention and fun. They love children and laughter. We’ve brought a couple into town and coaxed them out of their stupor. They had the best time! As long as the shifters in Kingsley’s pack make an effort to visit the flowers, even just once, they will become friends. If the flowers are treated as part of the community, they’ll lovingly guard the perimeter or—what they’d like more than anything
—the parks or nurseries. They’re designed to protect the community spaces of the pack. The town.
The homes. The gardens. The vulnerable.”
Edgar’s grin was sly. “And the Annihilator was created for the wilds. For the first line of defense.
For destruction.”
I stilled. “The Annihilator?”
“It’s our secret project. Those flowers can be a little…temperamental, but we’ve put in a couple fail-safes that should work. They really should. Don’t worry, Jessie, you’re going to love it.”
It seemed I hadn’t been keeping as close of an eye on the situation as I’d previously thought.
TWO
Jessie
THE NEXT MORNING, I was still stewing about the Annihilator flowers as I stood on the porch, watching the final preparations for our departure. To my utter shock, Austin had agreed to take them with us. He figured it was safe enough if they were kept out in the wilds, where only the shifters’
sentries ventured. The flowers would imprint on them, wreak havoc on any intruders, and all would be well.
I’d reminded him that he was operating on the assumption that the flowers wouldn’t grow legs and terrorize the community. He’d assumed I was joking.
I most certainly was not joking.
This was his show, though. I’d take lead with the gargoyles, and he would take lead with the shifters—including his interactions with his brother. So now psycho-killer flowers were being transported in their plastic pots to unsuspecting shifters who didn’t deal in fantastical and volatile magic. Super.
“Jessie, we’ve got a problem,” a familiar voice said from my left.
I barely stopped myself from sighing as I turned to look at Nathanial.
“What’s up?” I said.
“It’s the basajaunak.”
Terror froze up my middle. “Please don’t tell me they’ve changed their minds about helping.”
He minutely shook his head as Ulric jogged up, his dyed hair combed flat to his head. Clearly he was trying to look a little subdued for Kingsley’s shifters. It wasn’t working.
“The opposite,” Nathanial said. “More have shown up. We no longer have room for them on the chartered flights.”
We’d made space for two dozen basajaunak and our various cargo.
“How many more showed up?”
“A dozen, all parents. They’re watching out for their kids. The lead basandere is one of them. She said she’s not operating in a leadership role here, but she wants to keep an eye on things. They have all agreed to fight.”
Austin walked up wearing a white T-shirt and faded blue jeans. We’d all be changing into nicer clothes after we landed.
I relayed what Nathanial had told me.
Nothing about Austin’s expression or bearing changed. He’d completely done away with the looser persona he’d adopted for Ivy House soil, and even the mildly thawed persona he now displayed in the territory at large. He was back to being a tough, blank-faced alpha shifter, something that would be expected of him in Kingsley’s territory.