Chapter 8
The next morning, Eli slowed his steps as he neared the shop and took in the murder of crows wandering around outside the front door. Were they ordinary birds who'd found something to peck on or were they crows who could turn into human-like shapes?
"Morning." Eli spoke low, hoping no one was around to hear him greet a flock of birds.
All five of them turned in unison, and a shiver worked its way down Eli's spine.
Not ordinary birds. One of them began to grow, and Eli looked around, hoping yet again no one was nearby.
When he focused on the crow again, he was looking at a man who looked to be in his thirties, fine-limbed and sinuous.
How did their muscles work? If he flew a lot, would it show in his human shape?
His gaze dropped to the man's chest, but Eli forgot all about checking his muscles when he noted what should've been chest hair was small feathers. It was the same farther down.
Eli yanked his gaze away when he realized he was inspecting another man's dick on an open street.
"I'm Byrd, and Thano sent me to let you know the bag is still at Romeo's, and he didn't mean to steal it."
"Oh." Eli hadn't spared the bag a thought. His mind had been occupied with Romeo's books and what would happen if anyone found out he'd been there to look at them. "That's...eh...thank you for letting me know."
Byrd nodded but didn't move or shift back into bird form. When several seconds had gone by, Eli took a step forward. "I always enter from behind."
Byrd raised an eyebrow, and Eli wanted to move closer to see if the dark of it was hairs or tiny, tiny feathers.
"Interesting."
His husky voice had Eli looking at his eyes instead of his eyebrows. "What?"
"That you always enter from behind."
Eli gaped. No words came. What could he say? "The...eh...back door."
Byrd grinned, and it was a nice grin, but Eli wanted to run.
"Joshua Fagan from Fisherman's Lake will be here soon. I need to unlock the door."
Byrd swept an arm out. "We won't be in your way. We only want to look in the box of shinys."
Oh, God. Eli stepped through the group of crows and unlocked the front door. "There isn't much." What would crows do with kitchen utensils?
The crows paid him no attention and marched into the shop one after the other, their heads bobbing with each step. Eli looked around one more time. This was insane. Byrd walked in behind him.
"No naked men in the shop, either get dressed or shift back to crow."
Byrd shrugged, and soon a wave of black feathers washed over him before he shrank. Amazing and creepy all at once.
He stepped around them and grabbed the box.
"Here it is." He put it on the counter, and the crows flew up, squawking and pecking at each other as they looked into the box.
Eli walked to the back, crossed the small, mostly empty storage room, and unlocked the back door.
It opened the moment he turned the lock, and a sound of surprise left him.
Joshua grinned at him on the other side. "Hiya."
"Were you waiting by the door?" Had he heard him talk to the crows?
"Not waiting, I've walked between the dock and here a few times." He gestured at the crates stacked on the ground. "There is some fish that needs to be placed somewhere cold."
"Fish?" Joshua wasn't a fisherman.
"Finn was going to come here to see if you wanted to buy them off him, so I said I'd buy them from him and sell them to you. Save him the trip."
It wasn't often Eli had fish, and he didn't know if he had enough money to buy them, but he'd take them. He'd have to forgo his salary this month.
"I have a couple of sacks of flour too. The Finnegans hung onto a little extra back in the fall in case of emergency, but they said they could spare a couple now since there will be new product coming in soon."
Eli nodded. He'd been worried about flour.
Joshua looked at him. "Have you heard anything else?"
"No, nothing." Silence fell and a sense of doom settled around them both.
Joshua sighed. "Let's get this inside so we can head to the bank. I want to leave for home before they can fine me."
"It's insane."
Joshua nodded but grabbed a crate of what Eli believed was rhubarb. Not the most useful crop, but better than nothing.
He walked a few steps inside and froze. "What the hell?"
Eli followed his gaze to the crows. "Oh, they're crows."
"I see they're crows, but what are they doing in your shop? You can lose your license if you have a pest problem."
"Shh." Eli's hushing had all the crows' eyes turn his way. Eli believed Joshua stopped breathing as he took in how the crows watched them. "They're other crows," Eli whispered close to Joshua's ear, unsure of how well crows heard.
Joshua nodded. "Right." He sent Eli a terrified look, and Eli patted his shoulder.
"Let's put the crates here, and I'll get it on the shelves after we've been to the bank." Eli gestured at the area in front of the meat display. "Where is the fish?"
"The crate underneath the one with the radishes. I put them on ice, but I didn't have much, so they need to get into a refrigerator."
Eli walked out of the back door and carried back both crates at the same time. There were some leafy greens next to the radishes.
Once they'd carried everything inside, Eli turned to Joshua. "Do you need to check it over or do you know the price already?"
Joshua tapped his forefinger against his temple. "I have it summed up, but I still haven't carried the chickens up from the boat."
Right, chickens. Eli had forgotten about the chickens. "Do you need help carrying--" Before Eli could finish the sentence, the door to the shop opened and the man from the hotel walked in. Eli had believed he'd left by now. Hadn't Elijah said he'd stay for one night?
Everyone froze, and it took Eli's brain a second to piece together what the star-shaped badge and the gun at his hip meant. Sheriff.
"We're not open yet, Sheriff."
"Only doing my rounds." He gestured at the crows. "What's this supposed to mean?"
Fuck. "They're crows."
He reached for a notepad and a pen, and Eli looked at Joshua. Since when was anyone allowed pen and paper?
* * * *
Thano was tying his tie when there was a caw outside. He sighed. No one came to his house unless something had happened.
He went to open the door and watched as Lark shifted to be able to talk to him. "There is a detective with a shiny star on his chest and a gun who threatened Eli."
Ice filled Thano's chest at the mention of a gun in the same sentence as Eli, but then he shook his head. "What?"
"We went to tell Eli about the bag."
Thano nodded. He'd asked Byrd to tell Eli the bag was at Romeo's.
"When we got there, Eli hadn't arrived yet, so we waited."
Thano nodded again to get her to hurry the story along.
"When he came, Byrd told him, and he let us into the shop. We wanted to look at the shinys."
This could become a problem. Maybe it had been a bad idea for Eli to have agreed to sell the shiny to Fala. Now all crows would want something, but they didn't all have money.
"No one is stealing from Eli, right?" He gave her a stern look.
"No, we're only looking."
But sometimes crows couldn't help themselves. He nodded anyway. "And then?"
"Then another man came. He and Eli carried food into the store while we were on the counter looking at the shinys."
"Joshua Fagan?" Thano should've been there. He wanted to know what Joshua Fagan looked like.
"I don't know, but they acted as if they belonged to the same murder. They talked about fish and chickens and radishes."
Must've been Joshua Fagan. He was to come with goods from Fisherman's Lake.
"Before they could go to the bank to trade money, another man came."
"Who?"
"He didn't say his name. I know he's a good guy because he had the shiny star Romeo read about in one of the books, but my gut didn't agree."
Crows. "What do you mean?"
"I wanted to fly away when he came. And then he gave Eli a warning and wrote something on a pad of paper."
Thano frowned. "He wrote something?" No one was allowed pen and paper. Only those at the bank and Mabel were allowed pen and paper.
"A warning." Then she shrugged. "Or he said he gave Eli a warning and would be back."
"And then?"
"Eli told us we had to leave the shop, so he and the other man could go to the bank."
"Okay, thank you for letting me know. Is Conal in town?"
"I didn't see him, and Romeo's car is by the house."
Conal most often borrowed it since it was a bit inconvenient for a wolf to carry clothes. He was a little annoyed Conal hadn't reported to him about them having appointed a sheriff. He'd only been off the board for a day, and already he was missing information.
"Byrd stayed behind. He's waiting outside the shop for Eli to come back from the bank. The rest of us flew back."
"Is Byrd alone in Last Hope?" This unnerved Thano. Crows could fly, but if there was a man with a gun who gave people warnings, a crow wasn't safe.
"He said he'd hang with the wild crows and watch over Eli."
Nodding again, Thano straightened his tie. "Tell Fala I have baking powder for the cupcakes."
Lark's eyes widened. "Oh, we're making cupcakes?"
"We still lack a few ingredients, but Eli said the hardest thing to get hold of was baking powder."
"Where did you get it?" Small midnight-blue feathers formed on her shoulders and upper arms as her excitement grew.
"I went to Grave Ville and asked Samir for it. Eli said he couldn't get hold of any."
Her eyes widened. "Grave Ville." Then she nodded. "I could've gone to Grave Ville."
Thano smiled. Maybe it would've been better to send the crows. As a general, crows got along with crows from other territories, at least as long as they didn't fight over anything shiny. "Maybe next time you can go."
She nodded eagerly, then more feathers formed on her body. "I'll tell Fala."
"Do." Thano watched as she shifted fully and flew off, then he sighed. Had it been a mistake to leave the board?