by Lola Kidd
She didn’t laugh at his terrible joke. “Why would they assume we’re sleeping together? Is this a thing for you?”
“Kind of?” he admitted. “Not that I sleep with all the people I’m investigating, but I get around, okay? I’m a young guy and I’m not opposed to Speed Mating. Plus, you’re my type. It isn’t a stretch that I would hook up with you and try to keep it on the downlow.”
“I’m your type, huh?” She smiled a little and his heart flip-flopped in his chest. Yeah, she was his type all right. He and his animal were in total agreement there. Tally was gorgeous. It really was a shame that he couldn’t hook up with her or he’d have already done it. He’d have done it the first day he saw her. At the least, he’d be pushing hard to get her to consider him as an option. They were sharing meals already. That was basically a date. He had to wonder if she liked him as more than a source. Maybe in some alternative universe they were lovers too.
That was a bad line of thought to let himself wander down. He needed to pay attention. Stay on his feet. Keep his head in the game. He had managed to talk his way out of this magic mess. Now wasn’t the time to entertain silly thoughts about romance, love, and mates.
Chapter Twenty
Tally was in Zach’s bed...without Zach of course. She’d gotten all of her things from the hotel after dinner and came back to his place. She texted Bettina to let her know the change of plans. She’d also gotten an email back from a few of the professors already. All had told her they couldn’t help. Oh well, there were still three she was waiting to hear from before she decided her next move.
Staying in town was slightly more dangerous than before, but it wasn’t like leaving was going to do her any good. If anyone wanted to hurt her, they knew who she was already. It was super easy to figure out where a person lived these days or at least get close. And that was only accounting for methods she knew about. Keepers had to have some extra methods that she didn’t know about that would make it very easy to track her. At least here she was working and she also had a partner.
For the time being she was going to trust Zach. If he did anything that set off her internal “oh shit” meter, she would leave immediately. So far, it seemed like he was telling the truth. His boss had wanted to use magic on her for some unknown reason, and he’d found out about them from his cousin. She wanted to meet the cousin now but wasn’t sure how she’d get Zach to agree to that. If they were all in cahoots, it would be pretty obvious when they were all together. It would be harder to coordinate a lie in real time while she was standing there.
Sleep was hard that night. There was so much on her mind, she barely got a wink. When she got up, Zach was already gone. There was a note on the kitchen table with his spare key sitting on top of it. Wow, she’d never gotten a key to a guy’s place before. Yes, they weren’t in a romantic relationship, but this was still a pretty big deal. Even if she didn’t trust him, he had to have some level of trust in her.
Over breakfast, she checked her email and almost dropped her cup of coffee. She had a lead! One of the professors was willing to talk to her and it seemed like she knew something. Tally checked the time. The woman had office hours in the afternoon. There was enough time to get ready and drive over if she left within the hour. She rushed to get ready and texted both Zach and Bettina. She wasn’t going to be making it home for dinner tonight.
The drive over was uneventful and it was incredibly hard not to speed. She wanted to be there already. She had her laptop with all her research and a list of questions to ask. She was glad she’d prepared for an interview just in case. She wasn’t even nervous. She wondered why she didn’t do this more often. Maybe she’d try the technique to ask Zach about meeting his family. There had to be a way to do it “sneakily” without making him doubt her or doubt their relationship.
Once at the school, it took a while to find parking. This was clearly a school with a large commuter population. She was at the office hours a few minutes early, but she had to run to make it. A very sweet-looking older woman got there a few moments later and seemed startled but happy to see Tally waiting.
“Are you Tallulah?”
She extended her hand. “I am, but please call me Tally. Professor Game?”
“The one and only.” She opened the door to her office and ushered Tally in, shutting the door behind them. “I canceled my office hours today for my students. No one was planning on dropping by anyway and I’ll add an extra day next week. It isn’t often I get a member of the general public coming to speak to me.”
“Really? Your area of research seems like it was made for reporters looking to talk about shifter-human relations.” This was true. While a little boring and dry, Game researched shifter and human personality disorders and their effect on socialization. That was exactly the kind of thing Tally wanted to hear more about, though all of her research was around the human form of the shifters. She was hoping Game knew something about animal disorders.
“Yes, that part does fascinate people at dinner parties, but it’s the animal part that’s not so interesting apparently. Can you tell me more about what you’re working on?”
“Yes. I’ve noticed a string of shifter attacks on humans. They aren’t anything major, but it seems very out of the ordinary since the attacks are random and not motivated by any of the normal factors. I’m having a hard time tracking down any of the shifters or their victims. Even news stories are hard to come by. While I search for real-life examples, I’m also looking for possible explanations. Mental illness seems one of the more obvious ones.”
“Wonderful. That ties in well with one of my interests that I’ve had a hard time finding funding for. It’s actually very hard to test for mental illness in shifters’ animals since they’re so secretive. I’ve yet to find one willing to talk to me. However, from studying animals I’m convinced that it is possible. I was actually going to try to talk to the human who was attacked yesterday. I’m sure you’ve heard about it. The shifter is still at large. I’m hoping that by following this story, I might be able to find a subject.”
“What attack? I’m sorry to say that I’m not on the up and up. I’ve been working a side story the last few days.”
“The night before last in a nearby town, there was a man who was attacked by a buffalo. He says that the shifter came out of nowhere. The man is a very respectable citizen. No drug use, no criminal activity, and no criminal record. There seems to be no reason a shifter would attack him.”
Tally looked up from the notes she was scribbling furiously. “Where did this happen?”
“Near a town called Lake Magnolia. It was just inside the city limits so I’m surprised that it was reported at all. It’s a shifter town and I assume if they were sure it was an unprovoked attack, they wouldn’t have let it get out.”
Tally couldn’t believe what she’d just heard. “Lake Magnolia? Are you sure? I’m staying in that area and I haven’t heard a thing about it.”
Professor Game reached for her keyboard. She turned the screen of her computer to Tally. “See, Lake Magnolia. Not surprising you haven’t heard about it. This isn’t exactly major news. I have alerts set up for specific wording and this popped up. I’ve screenshot everything because I expect it to get deleted soon.”
“Has this kind of thing happened before?”
“Yes. There was an attack on a human woman two or three years ago, I think. The only thing I saw was a report about a scorpion shifter running amok across a farmer’s field and something about a car accident. I think the two are related, but I couldn’t find any names and the farmer couldn’t help me much. He was contacted by the Abbott KOPs, but that was a dead-end for me of course. Dragons do not talk to humans. Which is why I believe that that is a safe space for crazed shifters. The dragons have the money and an airtight zone to keep it all under wraps.”
The professor was talking very fast and Tally almost couldn’t keep up. It was refreshing speaking with someone as passionate about conspiracy theories in real l
ife.
“Wow. That makes me think that if I search for other dragon towns I could find more stories like this.” Something she hadn’t done before. She’d only been to two dragon towns in her entire life. They were kind of hard to find but searching for a certain cost-of-living threshold should make it easier. That was her next move after she was done here. Prof. Game was a good choice. Her research was going to give Tally direction again. She wasn’t dead in the water or at a dead-end. It was a great thing her trip to the area had been extended slightly.
“Good plan. There are some funny events I can point you toward too. In the area of course.” Prof. Game started clicking things and the printer in her office got to work. “I would love to read anything you come up with.”
“I would love it if you did. Any critique or ideas are very welcome. In my career, I don’t get to work with such esteemed professionals often. Usually, they blow me off if I’m being honest. And I get it,” she added quickly. “I mean, I do some ‘crackpot’ work that can look hinky to outsiders.”
Game chuckled. “Same here, sister. I’m glad this story is going to get out and be read by people outside of academia.”
A kindred spirit. How nice. Now she couldn’t wait to talk to Zach. He was hiding something from her. Something very important she felt.
Chapter Twenty-One
Zach waited for Tally to get back. He had gone for a three-mile jog that had turned into seven while he waited. He was nervous. This whole thing with a professor could go any number of directions. He wasn’t sure—once again—which side he should be on. He kept reminding himself of what Rhett had said. He was on the side of truth and justice. He didn’t have to worry so much. He just had to keep in mind he was doing this for the good of everyone and it would be enough. Still, he didn’t need to ask his animal what side it thought they were on. The hippogriff was fully in the Tallulah camp.
When he saw her headlights pull into the driveway, it took all his power not to run to the door to greet her. He played it cool on the couch instead. He tried to arrange himself so he looked relaxed and at ease. The opposite of how he was feeling.
“Honey, I’m home!” she joked when she opened the door. “How was your day?”
She took off her shoes and joined him on the couch as he told her about his day. “And that’s it. Are you hungry? We could order a pizza? I haven’t had time to cook.”
“What about Chinese?”
“Perfect.” He grabbed the menus from the kitchen and they picked out what they wanted. “How did your day go?”
“Great! Better than I could have hoped for. Professor Game is a conspiracy theorist herself. We had a very lively discussion. I think I have a new lead to follow. Which is pretty amazing since Lake Magnolia is basically a dead-end for me at this point.”
He nodded. That meant she would be moving on. “Where to next then?”
“Well, first I want to check out a story Game told me about what happened here.”
Shit. He knew what was coming. “Oh?”
“Yeah, apparently there was a suspicious shifter attack here the other night. Just on the outskirts of town.” She was staring hard at the side of his head. He could feel her eyes burning a hole in the side of his face. He didn’t dare look up. He kept his eyes trained on the menu in front of him.
“Are you ready to order?” he asked. She gave him what she wanted and he put it in. “So an attack? I know we had a shifter matter but I haven’t heard anything about a human?”
“Really? That’s funny. The articles I read were pretty certain it was a human. Real nice guy who’s never been in trouble before. The shifter is still at large. I’m surprised I had to hear about this from a third party though, since I have a source in the Lake Magnolia Keeper office. But whatever, right? The reports were wrong. It wasn’t a shifter-human thing at all.”
He took a deep breath. Time to gamble and play with the truth a little. “I said it doesn’t look like a shifter-human matter. I heard it was two shifters, but it isn’t my case. Rhett’s handling this one.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Are you saying he lied to you or that you misunderstood?”
“For sure I must have misunderstood. There’s no reason Rhett would lie to me.”
“What about the magic thing? Did you ask him about that?”
He paused while he thought. Best not to tell a direct lie here. “I have not...I’m going to be honest, I don’t really want to. I know that makes me a coward but I’m not ready yet. I need to think about this a little more before I go accusing my boss of trying to manipulate a human’s mind.”
She nodded. “I get that. You’ve known him for years and you barely even know me. Of course you’re going to give him the benefit of the doubt. Are you interested in this attack at all?”
“Yes! If it’s a shifter-on-human attack for no reason, it would be a big deal. That doesn’t happen around these parts if at all. I can’t say I’ve heard that before without some kind of past conflict.”
“Right. That’s what makes my claims so hard to back up. People don’t talk about this kind of thing. It’s taboo. That’s why I’m so curious about what’s happening right now. This could be huge if it’s true and we’ve gotten to it before the shifter is even found.”
“Yeah, but how do you think you’d get access to the shifter? Wouldn’t they just keep him or her locked up after finding it?”
“Probably, but I can still talk to the victim and keep harassing the police to put out info on the attacker. It’s a matter of public safety and arrests are public record. I mean, there are still police blotters in the paper you know.”
Zach leaned back to give himself a moment to think. She was right. If she got this out there and told people what happened, it would be all over the place on local news. It was near the shifter-human border and the humans would not take kindly to this at all. They were already suspicious enough as it was. Damn. He hadn’t talked with Rhett much about the case yet. His boss had been on the phone all day and then headed off in shifter form to track the guy down with Beau.
His double life was starting to get complicated again. He was curious about this case but he couldn’t share it all with Tally. Which sucked because she would probably have some interesting insights. But it was too risky to tell her anything. This very much sounded like another shifter gone mad. It would only strengthen her resolve and make her stay in town longer. As much as his animal would love that, it might prove disastrous in the current climate.
“Sure, but I’m not sure you’re going to be able to find the guy. We don’t even know where he currently is.”
She rolled her eyes. “Jeez, I only wish we had a source in the KOP station. They might be able to help us figure it out.”
He laughed. “True. Okay. I’ll check to see where he is tomorrow.”
“Great. That would be a massive lead. Combined with the stuff from the professor, this is shaping up to be a pretty good week. Possibly on the verge of a major breakthrough. I honestly can’t even believe this luck.”
He couldn’t either. “Why do you think the mental stuff is so important? You didn’t get any definitive proof.”
“No, but it is a good lead. This is something. Game is a professor and she believes this stuff. If she could get shifters to talk to her, she’d be able to get proof. It makes logical sense too. I really wish you’d been there with me to hear her talk. You’d understand more why I’m so excited about it. I don’t do as good a job explaining since I’m no good at this kind of technical stuff. I have so much more research to do. Plus, she told me about the attack.”
Whoopie. “I’ll take your word for it. If you say it’s something major, it must be major. I really wish there was more information I could get for you. Nobody wants to talk about it or thinks it’s a big deal.”
“That’s kind of more proof to me though. I mean, if it really wasn’t a big deal, people would be willing to speak with you freely. Maybe this is something really top-notch. Like you don’t ha
ve enough clearance to know about it.”
“Yeah, that could be.” That was what it was. He knew there was more to this story since it happened to Beau. Something else he couldn’t tell her about. This was really starting to annoy him. “This would all be so much easier if you were a shifter yourself.”
“Don’t I know it. Though, I might not want to investigate it as much if I was a shifter. I mean, my grandparents were shifters and they would never talk with me about certain things.”
“Guess you’re just a little unlucky. You didn’t get those good genes.”
She laughed. “Well, still pretty lucky and I did get some of the good genes. I’m immune to the Compelling and there’s always a chance that I could have a shifter kid too. You never know how genetics work.”
“True. Would you want to? Have a shifter baby I mean. Knowing what you know now.”
“Like knowing it could go mad at any time? Yeah, sure. humans do go crazy too. It isn’t a shifter-specific thing.”
“But you wouldn’t be a part of its life like you would be with a fully human baby. There would be this whole thing you couldn’t know anything about. That wouldn’t bother you?”
“Not really. I did have shifter grandparents like I said. It’s just like having a kid any other way. There’s always going to be things about your kid that you don’t get to be a part of. That just isn’t a thing for me.”
“That’s a good way to think about it.” This was a stupid line of questioning. He didn’t know why he even asked. But it did give him a good feeling inside that she’d still want to have shifter babies.
Chapter Twenty-Two
It had been a strange night. Something was off about Zach and she couldn’t quite figure it out. They’d talked normally over dinner and watched one of his favorite shows on the DVR afterward. It had all seemed fairly regular, but there was an underlying feel in the room that she couldn’t put into words. He was tense but trying desperately not to show it to her.