Then something changed. They must have sensed they were being watched. Slowly, they looked in the direction of the tree she’d been silently sitting against. And she knew that these two women saw her even though she was in utter darkness.
They, however, stood in the light that came from the nearby church. And what she saw told her two things about these women. One was that they were both Asian and probably related. They had the same noses and jaws. And second, they weren’t human. The light reflected off their eyes the way it did the wolves and foxes in the forests. Her mother, when she still lived, used to tell her about people like this. People who were only “a little” human. Her mother had told her they were dangerous. Deadly, in fact. Because they were more animal than human.
Yet after living in the forests for so long, she’d also learned that most animals were only dangerous when hungry or startled. Since the digger had just gotten out of prison, she’d probably want something more filling than a scrawny girl who hadn’t eaten in two days. And neither the digger nor the driver had been startled.
They watched her for several seconds until the digger put her forefinger to her lips and said, “Shhhhh.”
Grinning, the digger winked and went around to the passenger side of the car. The driver got in her side. Doors were slammed closed, the engine revved, and they sped off. Disappearing into the night and leaving her alone with her beloved forests and the animals in it.
She was guessing the digger was right, though, about someone coming for her. No one would be looking for the digger. No one would dare.
* * *
Charlie pulled the stray out of the bathtub and quickly wrapped him in a big towel. She gasped when the dog wiggled his way out of the towel and fell to the floor, but laughed when he turned on the towel and grabbed it with his fangs, desperately tugging one way, then the other.
“Do not rip my towel,” she warned. When she heard it tear, she quickly released it. The dog stopped tugging once there was no longer any resistance, then shook all over, water flying everywhere.
Charlie laughed harder, holding up another towel to keep from getting drenched. Then he stopped, spun around, and charged out the door. Charlie slid quickly across the floor on her knees, diving on the dog and again wrapping him up in the towel. They wrestled on the bedroom floor outside her bathroom until the dog began to lick her face.
Yeah. She was keeping this dog. Not that Berg would like that. He barely tolerated Benny, who had been his dog before he’d met Charlie. As part wolf, Charlie shouldn’t be much of a dog fan either, but she’d discovered long ago that she was definitely a dog person. She just liked them.
Pulling the dog into her lap, Charlie noticed Vargas for the first time. He was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, forearms resting on his raised knees.
And he was staring. Blankly.
Good Lord, what had Max done to the poor guy?
“Hi, Zé. You okay?”
“You had bears walking through your living room,” he said, still gazing at the wall behind the bed Charlie shared with Berg. “I was going to warn you to get out while you still could because you were so nice to me earlier and I didn’t want you to be eaten, but then I saw the size of your bed . . . and this.” He held up one of Berg’s sneakers. “I kept thinking, ‘What could fit a shoe like this? What kind of being?’ Then I realized . . . a bear.”
Charlie didn’t have the heart to tell him there were bigger bears than Berg and his brother and sister. Bears that wore bigger shoes. Tiny, their landlord, had three older brothers who were several inches bigger and wore size twenty-four shoes. One of Tiny’s sisters had restrained a carjacker once by yanking the man out of the car, throwing him to the ground, and stepping on him with her giant foot until the cops came. All of Tiny’s siblings and cousins called him “Tiny”—and he was six-nine!
But Charlie knew that poor Zé wasn’t ready to hear any of that yet. She was sure Max had already freaked the guy out. She was really good at that. Really good at terrorizing people without actually meaning to. Well . . . at least sometimes she didn’t mean to. Other times, she absolutely meant to. It really depended on Max’s mood.
Charlie got off the floor and sat down on the bed, facing Zé. She still held the dog in her arms.
“I know this is hard for you. All these years you thought you were just a guy, but you’re not.”
That green gaze moved from the wall to Charlie. “So you’re one, too?”
“Yeah. All three of us are. Actually . . . everyone on this street is.”
His eyes narrowed a bit. “Then do it,” he ordered. “Become whatever it is you become.”
Charlie shrugged. “Can’t. Due to fucked-up genetics provided by my idiot father, I can’t shift to wolf or honey badger.”
“Of course you can’t.”
“I can only do this . . .”
Charlie unleashed her fangs and roared. Zé jerked, his back and head hitting the wall behind him; the dog in her lap yelped and ran to the bathroom. He spun around so that his butt ended up slamming the door closed.
Retracting her fangs, Charlie focused on Zé and grimaced. “Ooops. I really didn’t mean to scare him.”
“Did you mean to scare me?” Zé demanded. “Because you did!”
* * *
“You kidnapped a cat?”
Max glared across the yard at her best friend, Dutch Alexander. They’d been friends since Max had met Dutch in junior high.
“I did not kidnap a cat.”
“You borrowed one?”
“Very funny.”
He moved closer and she continued to dribble the basketball she was holding. She’d set up a basketball hoop by their garage. It wasn’t for practice so much as something to do with her hands. That’s all basketball had ever been for her: something to do with her hands. You know . . . something other than punching someone in the gut or slashing someone’s face with her claws.
“Do you not understand what you’ve done?” Dutch demanded.
“Of course I do. I saved his life, thank you very much. And, even more impressive, I’ve taken the time to explain to him that he’s one of us. That he’s a shifter.”
“You saved his life? So he’s alive?”
“Of course he’s alive.”
“What do you mean, ‘of course’? You left a shitload of bodies back there.”
“So?”
“It was the Netherlands. One of those countries where they care about that sort of thing.”
“I don’t see what the big deal is.”
“Your cat works for our government. They think he’s dead and they’re looking to nail the ones who killed him.”
“But he’s not dead. He’s in the house.”
Dutch took a step back, tossing his head dramatically. “He’s here?”
“First off, you need to calm down.”
“No, first off, you need to get him out of your house, and make sure he forgets that you ever existed.”
“Except I’m unforgettable.”
“I see,” Dutch said, shaking his head.
“You see what?”
“You’re trying to make me insane. You’re trying to make my life harder than it already is.”