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“The rest of Stephen. Samson and Igor. The other werewolves you killed in Avon. They weren't all at the zoo.” If I thought I could've stabbed Zakar here and now, I would have, but I knew better than to catch a veritable Cheshire cat.
You'll have to ask the necromancer, he replied with a breezy sigh, flipping one ear back against his skull. Or the smart, fetching specimen of a familiar with the skills to summon Ingram from death.
I paused. "At what cost?”
Nothing, when you tether through me. But there is...Something I ask for. Zakar twined his way between my legs. A small favor. Insignificant.
I frowned. “Go on.”
The cat flashed a pointed smile. Pet me.
“What?” He repeated his reply, dark toes kneading my leg. I nudged him away with my sneaker. “If this is some sort of perverted—”
Oh, honey, the cat drawled. Not on our first date.
Whatever temptation I had for agreeing to his help shriveled to anger. “Get the hell away from me,” I hissed.
I'm asking for affection. Zakar sauntered onto the steps. As a knight asks for a lady's favor. A touch to keep me going through the dark days ahead.
“So you'll drag his spirit back from hell if I scratch you behind your ear?”
The cat twisted around to lick his shoulder. I'd get you an audience with the Prince of Wallachia if you'd let me sit in your lap during the meeting.
I’d heard enough and rose.
Zakar sprawled across the step, stomach turned to the sky. Head hanging off the edge, he watched me leave with a kitten's curiosity. One day soon, little lamb, the wolves will come for you. You'll want me by your side then.
???
There weren't any cars in or around Calico Finn's driveway. The garage doors were shut, the shades drawn. Talon pack's alpha opened the door, dressed in white jeans and a pink chambray shirt.
“Thank God!” she murmured. “He wouldn't tell me where he took you.”
I hugged her hard as I could with one arm, thanking her a hundred times more. “Are you alright, Cal?”
“I wasn't about to leave Aiden alone to face this new world.” Slinging a red purse over her shoulder, she shut the door. “I was about to pick up Aiden and Mila,” she explained. Her attention shifted onto my attire. “Goodness! I hope this isn't all you've got left in your wardrobe. Come on upstairs. Take your sister's clothes for all I care.”
"Later.” Going through Rhetta's belongings wasn't high on my list of priorities. "I'm lucky I still have active insurance. I need physical therapy and at least one more operation, depending on how things heal around my shoulder.”
The woman scowled. “Did you forget who used you as bait to draw out the wendigo? Marcy Davins won't be around long enough to schedule a single PT session.”
“Cal—”
“I'm shocked, shocked, they let you alone," she continued, waving me further into the house.
I followed.
In the kitchen, she opened a high cabinet and removed an envelope. “Ever since Harlowe brought you to the hospital I've been working on a fix. We didn’t escape the brink of hell for a reaper to drag you down.”
She passed me the packet. Inside was a new girl. A passport and driver's license with a picture of me I didn't remember taking. But I did recall getting drugged on her couch the night after I pissed off August.
“I can't accept this,” I said with more optimism than I should have. “We’re in a new world. Sheriffs don't have to kill.”
“And I don't have to buy new boots this winter, but I will." Cal pushed the documents into my hand. “We're family, Marcy. Doesn't that mean something to you?”
“My family died years ago.” I folded the envelope edge.
“Well, I haven’t,” she huffed, adjusting a grey sleeve cuff. “Neither have Mila and Aiden. Your grandmother wanted you to escape the darkness in this world, Marcy, no matter the cost. You were the only one left who could. Didn’t work out as she intended, but that just means you don’t have to be alone. You have a pack, if you'll accept us.”
