Chapter 9
CHAPTER 9
Whiteacre Falls seemed to be a sleepy, out-of-season tourist town made up of one main street sporting a combined hardware and grocery store, a café, post office, and not much else. The small veterinary hospital Zee had flown Zander to was probably the biggest building on the outskirts of the whole town.
Zee pulled our beat-up van into a bay and cut the chugging engine, and as we climbed out, I squinted into the sun’s glare, shielding my eyes. The warmth was weak, but coming from the gloom that seemed to permanently hang over the No Tel Motel, it felt like a summer’s day.
Zee led the way into the vet clinic where a couple of people waited next to pet crates containing their unwell pets.
A whole bunch of kitties suddenly got real hissy. I winced, and stepped back outside so they didn’t blow my cover.
Alone with my thoughts, my old friend guilt tried to knot my insides. Maybe I should have told Tom more about my reasons for leaving, but if I had, he’d have loaded the shotgun he kept behind the bar and baited my brother into buying a drink. Or worse, he’d have left the relative safety of the hotel, gone after Syros, and gotten himself burned to ash. Tom was family, just like the rest of the SOS Hotel staff. I’d killed my previous family—or tried to—but I’d protect my new, chosen one at all costs.
And if keeping them safe meant hiding out in the woods while solving a werewolf murder, then it was a small price to pay.
Zee reappeared and approached, his smile growing. He’d changed out of the camo vest into a dark oversized shirt over tight pants. It was about as casual as he got, and he still looked amazing.
“Hm,” he purred, sidling up next to me. “You look good in the sun, Kitten.” His knuckles skimmed down my cheek, and when his thumb brushed my lip, I tilted my head back and welcomed the soft, quick kiss.
“As dragon, during the rare times I wasn’t afraid, I used to bask in the sun by the sea,” I told him, opening my eyes and gladly losing myself in his glittery gaze. “Not much beats the feeling of sun on your scales.”
Zee gazed down at me, his expression suddenly serious. “Dayam, you’re beautiful.”
A blush warmed my face. “You really think so?”
“I know it.” His hand rested gently over my heart. “Inside and out, you’re the most beautiful thing I ever saw, and I’ve seen Daddy Spice naked.”
Snorting a laugh, I stepped back. “That’s a close second, though, right?”
“Oh, fuck yeah.” Zee nodded across the street. “The nurse took Zander in. She lives right over there.” He pointed to a single-story dwelling with a cute little porch and windows flanking either side of the front door.
We crossed the quiet street and started up the path.
“We should get a pupper,” Zee said.
“You’re kidding, right? We have a thousand gremlins and a pixie. Where the heck are we going to keep a puppy?”
“Adam, Little Jimmy is not a pet. They did a whole fucking media campaign about it.” He climbed the porch steps. “Had a song and everything, because folks keep capturing pixies and gettin’ themselves unalived. They smile so sweet then tear out your tongue, dance in your gore till day is sprung. And we can’t get a cat because cats hate you.”
I shrugged. “That’s a cat problem, not my problem.” I liked cats, they just didn’t like me.
“Dogs are loyal, and friendly, and they get away with biting people’s balls.”
Kinda like Zee.
“Not gonna happen.” I had to put my foot down somewhere, right?
“Meh, you’ll come around.” Zee knocked on the door and Zander’s chipper voice beckoned from inside, so in we went.
Zander, who had obviously made himself at home, was draped in a blanket on the couch with an array of snacks surrounding him. “They fixed my arm,” he said, raising his plaster-cast arm. “But I’m not allowed to lick it, else I have to wear a cone of shame. Can you believe that? Mia threatened to cone me. But she also gave me a lot of drugs, so I can’t complain!”
He looked well, especially since the last time I’d seen him he’d been in a bad state. “You’re doing okay, huh?” I sat in one of two armchairs opposite his couch. “We were pretty worried for a while.”
“Yeah, I’m alright. Thanks to you guys.” He flicked his floppy hair out of his eyes. “I don’t know what I’d have done if you weren’t there.”
“It’s what we do,” Zee smirked. “Being heroes an’ all. Speaking of heroes, your vet nurse, Mia, says you gotta take more drugs right about now.”
“Ah, Mia... she’s the best. She’s letting me stay here while I get fixed up after she heard about what happened to my place. The fire... Ugh. Bunch of dickless pricks. They really do not like pink.”
“Yeah, well. I uh... I think the pack saved what they could from the remains but there’s not much left.”
He flapped a hand. “They’re just possessions. The important thing is I’m okay.”
That was a positive way of looking at events. “We’re not certain it was the pack who burned your cabin. We think it was something else.”
“That thing? The big horrible angry monster thing? What was that?”
“Maybe a loup-garou. At least, that’s what Victor thinks.”
Zander’s eyes widened. “A loup-garou?” he whispered in awe. “Wow.”
“Do you know what that is?” I asked.
After a few thoughtful beats, Zander asked, “Is it French?”
“Uhm, maybe?” I wasn’t sure why the language was important, and Zee shrugged when I looked to him for an answer. “Don’t you speak French?” I asked Zee.
“Moi? What the fuck gave you that idea?”
“You just said moi ? That’s French, Zee”
His face got all gnarly with denial. “No it’s not.”
“Yeah, it is.” Wasn’t it?
“No, it’s not. It’s Zee. I speak Zee .”
Was it Zee or French? Now I wasn’t sure. “Hold up, are you French?”
“No, Kitten.” Zee rolled his eyes. “I’m a demon.”
“I know, I... never mind.” Anyway, the language didn’t matter, and trying to keep these two focused was like trying to catch two ping-pong balls at once. “Victor said it’s maybe a loup-garou that attacked you, which is like a shapeshifter. So it can shift into a humanoid wolf, but it isn’t lupine like you and the pack. It’s different and more dangerous, bigger and stronger.”
“Wow, sounds badass.” Zander grabbed the glass from a side table, and using a wide straw he fished for a bunch of bubbles at the bottom. “Bubble tea? So good.”
“The popping bubbles are the best!” Zee joined in.
“I know, right. You guys want some?”
“Thought you’d never fuckin’ ask.”
“Oh, uh, I can’t get up... Kitchen’s right through there.”
Zee sauntered out the door and clattered about somewhere near the back of the house. Hopefully Mia wouldn’t mind a seven-foot demon rummaging through her kitchen cabinets for bubble tea.
“Do you have any idea why the loup-garou would come after you?”
“It wasn’t just some random attack?”
“We don’t think so. Cameron was killed, probably by this beast, and then it almost got you not long after we arrived at your place.”
“Seems to me that maybe it’s after you guys.” Zander pointed the thick straw.
“Cameron was killed before we arrived, so we don’t think so. It could be random, I guess, but what if it’s not? Can you think of any reason it might want to hurt you? Has anything out of the ordinary happened lately? Have you seen anything weird?”
“I don’t know what you want me to say. I don’t really get out much, just stay in my cabin... which is gone now... I guess...” He sniffed and looked up. “Wow. It’s really gone. What am I gonna do? This couch is nice but I can’t stay here.” His eyes got all big and glossy.
Zee reappeared with a drink and thick straw, and leaning against the doorframe he swirled his bubble tea. “Bubbles fix troubles,” he sang. “You can fill the whole straw with ’em, pour ’em on your tongue, and pop them all at once.” Which he did, all at once, then spoke around the many bubbles. “Ish like shome kunna fuckin’ parshy in yuh mowff.” He gulped, then blinked. “What?”
“Zander was just wondering what he’s going to do now his house and everything he owns is gone.”
“Oh fuck, right. So sad.” Zee did not sound sad. “Hey, I know. You can come back to San Francisco with us. We’ve got plenty of room... and dildos.”
“Really?” Zander brightened, and sniffing, wiped a tear away.
Oh dear. “Uhm?—”
“Yeah, sure. Right, Adam?” Zee fluttered his lashes, and Zander’s eyes got even bigger and full like a scolded puppy’s, but I knew Victor would scowl and say we needed every single room to turn a profit, and we’d just spent all that money renovating them, and then there was my brother... but Zander’s big brown eyes... and... but... “I guess?”
“You guys are the best!”
“We so fuckin’ are.”
And apparently, we had a full-grown pupper now.