“Julie’s avoiding me.”
“Can you blame her?” Curran asked. “She knows she’s in trouble. She’s hoping you’ll cool off.”
“Avoiding me makes me more pissed off. Eventually, I’ll go and find her, and she won’t like it.”
“No, you won’t,” he said. “You’re too busy with—what was it again you were going to do?”
“Ha. Ha. Nice try.”
“Tell me.”
“No.”
“Tell me.”
“No.”
The door in the house across from us opened. The place used to belong to my human nemesis, but she and her husband decided that we had poisoned their entire neighborhood and moved out. George and Eduardo snapped up their house. Curran had offered them one of the spare homes he had purchased, and initially they moved into the place next to Barabas. But once our neighbors put their house on the market, George and Eduardo walked through it and had to have it. I never asked where the money to buy it came from, but Mahon and Martha visited them often and Eduardo let it slip that they had no mortgage.
George stepped out onto the porch and waved at us. “Hey you, we have dinner!”
Curran’s eyes lit up. “They have dinner.”
I laughed and followed him out of the car to the house. The magic was so strong tonight. I could’ve stayed here on the street so I could feel it spread through my land and sense all the things within my borders soak it in.
The inside was bright and warm. The scent of roasted meat, fresh bread, and honey swirled around me. My mouth watered.
A big table had been set in the dining room, crammed to the brink with food. And Mahon and Martha sat at the table. Oy.
“Tam-tam-da-dam!” Natalie, George’s younger sister, waved her arms. She looked a lot like George and her other older sister, Marion—same wild curly hair, same dusky skin, same bright big eyes. Natalie was seventeen and squeezing every last moment out of her childhood.
“Is that death march for me or for him?” I asked.
“For both.”
“What are all of you doing here?” Curran settled into the seat next to Eduardo.
“Roof needs fixing,” Eduardo said. “They came to help.”
“And you didn’t invite me?” Curran loaded his plate.
I sat next to him and George put a plate in front of me. “Eat.”
I grabbed a big roll out of the basket, speared a chunk of roasted venison, and dug in. Mmm, food.
“There is plenty of work left for tomorrow,” Mahon said. “Besides, you’re busy with your Guild, aren’t you?”
“I’m sure I can find an hour or two somewhere,” Curran said.
“Has anyone seen Julie?” I asked.
“We’ve seen her,” George said. “We’re supposed to tell you that she’s not dead, but she is staying over at the office tonight.”
I’d growl, but I was too hungry.
For a few minutes nobody spoke. Shapeshifters worshipped food with a singular devotion and I was too starved to make conversation. We chewed, got more food, and chewed some more.
If I ate another bite, I would explode. I sighed, decided I did not need another roll, and drank some iced tea.
Martha was smiling at me across the table. Older, plump, with medium brown skin, she looked a lot like her daughters. She usually said little, at least to me, but I had watched her knit several sweaters and shawls during the Pack Council sessions.
She smiled brighter. “You’re getting married.”
Mahon grinned next to her. “Three out of four.”
Reminding him that he was adamantly opposed to Curran and me getting married would ruin the mood.
“Now if only we could find a nice boy and marry that hellion off . . .” Mahon said.
The hellion stuck her tongue out. “Maybe I’ll marry a girl.”
“That will be fine,” Mahon said. “As long as she loves you.”
Natalie rolled her eyes.
“Are you thinking of children?” Martha asked.
“Mom!” George and Natalie said in the same voice.
“No,” Curran said.
“Yes,” I said at the same time.
He turned to look at me.
“Thinking,” I said. Please don’t ask me anything else about children.
Martha grinned even wider. If we turned off the lights, she and Mahon would probably glow.
“Are you thinking of children?” Mahon asked George.
Eduardo choked on a piece of bread and coughed quietly.
“Dad, keep your paws out of my marriage,” George said.
Curran frowned. “I’ll be right back.”
He got up, brushed my shoulder with his hand in passing, and went outside.
“Someone’s pulled up to your house,” Eduardo told me.
Shapeshifters and their hearing.
“While he’s gone,” Martha said. “Come with me.”
I followed her into the back room. She took a small box from the night table and gave it to me.
“Something old.”
Something old? Oh! The rhyme. Something old, something new, something I didn’t remember and then there was blue in it somewhere . . . I opened the box. A dark chain lay inside.
“Go on,” Martha said.
I picked it up. Heavy for its size. The chain kept going and suddenly a bright green gemstone emerged, about an inch and a half wide. I held it to the light. A bear, carved with painstaking precision, down to the fur.