AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“The hair grew in over time.” She adjusted her bun. “Nothing was different with my eyes until my first shift, and didn't know I couldn't die until I got flattened by an eighteen-wheeler one night while I was being a rebellious teenager and hunting apart from the pack.”
Looking anxious, Jaz poked his head around the hall. “Hey, we've gotta leave if we want to make it to Bradley in time.”
“It's a temporary stop in Dallas,” Mina explained. “We'll figure a place out once we've put on distance, but it won't be enough. It'll never be enough.”
At that point, the room was a blur. Wiping my eyes, I asked, “Did Gram ever mention a Ronan Delevant?”
The question appeared to catch her off guard. “Yeah, he watched over me while Grandma Davins drove around with you. They hunted together. Talon was off-limits, but I knew what they did. Alphonse and Lacey—”
“My parents, Lord rest their souls,” Cal added.
“—They knew, too. Grandma Davins took me once on a trip to the morgue to see the bodies of some of the monsters she’d slain. She wanted me to know being a beast didn't mean I had to be beastly, or someone like her, or Ronan or a reaper himself would come. Fat lot of good that did me. A wendigo wants to eat my baby.” She tapped her nails on the counter, eyes fixed on the front door. “Are we done? I've got a flight to catch.”
Closing my eyes, I sighed. “Guess so.”
“Great.” She pushed off the stool and elbowed Caelan in the back on her way past. The sheriff took it in stride better than I would've. Without looking back, she whipped open the front door. “See you around.”
Calico was a warm voice in my ear urging me to sit. She stroked my shoulder.
Shaking her touch, I ran onto the front steps. “Mina!”
Halfway to the car, her head turned. “What?”
“I’m sorry. If I'd had even the slightest inkling you were alive, I'd have—”
“But you didn’t. Have a nice life, sis.”
Jaz loaded her bag into the back of his car. Soon, they were backing down the driveway, and then my sister and husband were nothing but taillights down a dark road. I stood watching until the lights disappeared, then collapsed on the steps and cried.
A few minutes later, Calico came outside and shut the door behind her. Crickets sang in the bushes. Setting a box of tissues between us, she kicked out her legs beside mine. “I can get you on the same flight,” she whispered. “Harlowe volunteered to drop you off.”
“She doesn’t want me on the same planet, let alone plane.” My heart felt tired beneath the glow of the porch light.
The rumble in the woman's throat was sad. “She needs time, is all. Homeschooled by strangers, old enough to understand her own grandmother had abandoned her to the wolves, forced to learn new customs and rules with the threat of death hanging over her. Rhetta struggled with the emotional trauma of her transformation so badly my parents were forced to corral her into keeping friends with those capable of surviving the occasional mauling. Meanwhile, she watches you enjoying the freedom of a normal girl with family, friends and education. It's not easy to see someone live the life you wanted because you couldn't fit under a bed for the sixty seconds it took your grandmother to run down the hall and shoot your grandfather in the head. And to top it off, my mother allowed Gen to babysit so she could see Rhetta. Watching Gen go home to you watered the jealousy in her heart until it blossomed into rage.”
“She never visited,” I said. “If she knew, why not tell me?”
“She loved you something fierce at five; she’s loved you all these years the same. Gen claimed it was for your own safety you never knew, and Rhetta obeyed.”
“Oh.” I swallowed hard. “Will she ever come 'round?”
“She might.” Cal twisted one of her dark curls. “Don't suppose you and the reaper have a plan for killing this thing?”
Mrs. Serrano’s car pulled onto the street. With the trees lining Cal’s drive, it was difficult to see the houses, mine included, but we heard her garage open and close and then returned to our thoughts.
“Before he died, Zakar told us that, being a spirit, we can't kill the Wendigo, but we can contain it. There's a book back in his shop. It might be the wendigo speaking through him, but we can’t be sure. Maybe Zakar was sick of hosting, maybe he knew the wendigo was going to off him.”
“Or he’s sent you chasing daydreams in the eleventh hour. If you go to that zoo to confront him, know my pack will not be coming. They won’t die for you.”
“I wouldn’t ask them to.”
Cal turned her face toward the silent constellations of the midnight sky. “Nothing personal, sugar. Somewhere right now, a pack of undead wolves roam beneath the starlight. I'll not have fangs tear us apart when there are sheriffs available.”
“Caelan's not bad,” I said. “I’d take him over the wendigo.”
“He's not good, either. You could find a nice, human, hell, even a werewolf, with less baggage. Or,” she grinned, “if you want to try something different, I’m available in a few short weeks.”
Gathering my thoughts, I ran a hand through my hair. “Worst part of this mess is I don’t even know how to talk to my best friend anymore. I felt shitty enough lying to her about my past. Now, I'm lying about the present and not sure what to say.”
