Clearly, she’d asked the universe for patience on more than one occasion.
When her eyes popped open again, she looked as though she’d come to terms with her lot in their friendship. “Look, if the two of you are going to argue, I’ll just do this alone. We’re here to find Cormac, and find Cormac I darn well will. After what the Great and Wonderful Roz told us, we need to find him. All we have to do is locate him, fix the problem, and we go home. Now, I’m going to do that. With or without you two pains in my derriere.”
With that, Wanda stomped up the hill at a speed so rapid; he almost couldn’t believe he was actually witnessing a feat so incredible.
But then he reminded himself, you turn into a grizzly bear at random, moron. At least, that’s the breed of bear he thought he was, but it was all still very unclear. Even after three years and fifty or so romance novels on the subject of bear shifting—his only resource for research.
And hello. What was there to find at all unusual about a woman who moves at the speed of light or, for that matter, a werewolf and a former vampire who knew someone named the Great and Wonderful Roz?
Nothing. That’s what. Who was he to discriminate when all he needed was a mama bear and baby bear to complete this nightmare of a fairytale gone painfully awry?
So whoever these women were, they were like him—whatever that meant. They clearly understood what had happened to him. And they knew his sister.
And she is alive.
Christ, Cormac had to hold on to the tree he was propped up against to keep from crashing to the floor of the forest in relief.
All this time, three solid years, hiding out in this prison that was frozen more often than not, trying to find out what happened to Toni without being discovered himself had been a continual nightmare.
So why not go and introduce yourself to the nice, if not squabbly ladies, Cormac? Find out what they’re up to?
Because how did they know Toni? Maybe they worked for Stas, the fuck who’d kidnapped his sister to begin with and owned every cop this side of the universe. Maybe these women were just his polite henchmen. Okay, so the Nina woman wasn’t so nice, but maybe these paranormal people stuck together, and finding Cormac meant they got some kind of bounty.
He did have very sensitive information—even if the police wouldn’t take him seriously.
You’re paranoid—she is alive and well, Vitali. Look at them—look at all three of them. All drama doused with perfume, pricey boots, and potty mouths. Do they really look capable of working for a freak like Stas?
No. But one could never be too paranoid when it came to what had happened to him and Toni three years ago. Nope. He was going to silently wait this one out.
The last time he’d rushed, he was turned into a goddamn grizzly bear.
So wait he damn well would.
Quietly. From behind them, as they all began to move upward and far too close to his cabin for comfort.
Flexing his fingers, he felt the phantom ache of his missing digit, hacked off by none other than Stas himself, a total maniac who just happened to be his sister Toni’s ex-boyfriend and a mid-level player in a much bigger Russian mob organization.
A noise behind him, subtle, maybe even only in his mind, made him forget about the ache in his finger and stand up straight.
Cormac tilted his head again and sniffed the air. If there was anything valuable in this crazy-ass transformation he’d gone through, it was his heightened sense of smell.
It was badass. He could scent a fish from a mile down the creek, a bush full of ripe berries football fields away. In fact, in the beginning of whatever had happened to him, he could scent everything. For a time, it had been unnerving, but over the course of the last three years, he’d grown accustomed to it, nurtured it, and read fiction to try to understand it.
And what he smelled was perfume. Light, fruity. Maybe peaches and tangerines? None of the three women were wearing anything fruity. In fact, Nina wasn’t wearing anything at all but the scent of Buffalo wings and Coors Light with a hint of Kit Kat bar.
Cormac whipped around as the women continued upward, closer and closer to the only place he felt even remotely safe.
His eyes scanned the dollops of snow like whipped cream on the trees, the landscape hilly and covered in rocks, looking for this new scent, but seeing nothing.
Must be his damned imagination.
“Wait the fuck up, for Christ’s sake!” Nina yelled to her counterparts, struggling to push her way through the deep snow. “Jesus, this isn’t the flippin’ Olympics, Color Wheel Queen!”
“I told you that backpack would weigh you down, didn’t I? You only have a side of beef in it. Now pick up the pace, Ex-Vampire!” Marty shouted back, her devilish giggle swirling around the forest like tinkling fairies.