Feral Pride

by Cynthia Leitich Smith

  Coffee in hand, Ms. Kitahara moseys across the room. “I hear you’ve got a solid lead on that blasted shifter-human trafficking ring.”

  Freddy is marking counties with color-coded pushpins on a mounted map of Texas. “And I hear you wrote the most glowing recommendation in the history of the interfaith coalition for your grandson.”

  She uses a purple pushpin to mark Austin Antiques. “Yoshi doesn’t much care for me. Ruby says if I don’t make it better, I’ll lose them both.”

  Good for Ruby. Kayla went to Freddy and Nora about Ms. Kitahara’s gun-happy temper. They suggested Yoshi move in to the hideout house with Junior and his cat. You know, to watch over the arctic ass — I mean, to keep the kid company.

  Across the hall, campaign volunteers ooh and ahh at the young Cats in formal attire. This a staged photo op. The Capital City News videographer scrambles to take full advantage. Most of the room draws out their handhelds, which flash as they take pics of their own.

  Mayor Morgan makes a show of shaking Yoshi’s hand. He leans in to kiss Kayla on the cheek. “You sure about all this, pumpkin?”

  Her smile is spectacular. “Bring it.”

  HOURS LATER Yoshi picks up Kieren at the Morales McMansion for the after-party at Sanguini’s. The Wolf has recovered enough to shift out most of his injuries. He’s still sore and moving slowly.

  He and Quincie skipped the big dance. They’re not really the prom types. Neither is Yoshi, but Kayla was born for that sort of thing. Where she goes, he follows.

  At Sanguini’s the teenage crowd looks grown-up. They’re swaying to a three-piece string band. Noelle is stylin’ in a slinky, low-cut black dress. She’s singing “Strangers in the Night.”

  Yani, the hostess, leads my friends across the dark blue carpeting to their table.

  The expediter Jamal announces that Quincie will join them in a moment. Without bothering to ask, he drops off two orders of each of the predator appetizers. “Compliments of Chef Nora.”

  The official story is that Quincie was knocked unconscious when she fell and hit her head (that’s true). The tranquilizer — at shifter dosage — slowed down her metabolism to the point that Yoshi couldn’t detect a pulse (that’s not).

  Jess is a first-timer at the restaurant. She spears a chicken-fried rabbit’s foot and pops it into her mouth. Her eyes widen. She covers her lips. “We’ll need another order of this.”

  “You’re already hungry again?” Brenek cracks his knuckles. As a werebear, he’s charmed by the idea of a human girl with a healthy appetite.

  “I like that one of us is driving the Bone Chiller,” Kieren says to Yoshi. “But don’t you already have a car?”

  One of us? With me and Travis out of the picture, the Wolf could use a guy friend. Speaking of Travis, the archangel Michael mentioned that he and Zachary would be leading my welcome party when I reach “the reunion desk of the Penultimate.” I’m not sure what all that means. I’m almost ready to find out. Almost.

  Another angel, the miraculously recovered guardian Joshua, salutes me from the service station. When this is over, he’s on deck to comfort anyone who needs to talk.

  Yoshi puts his arm around Kayla. “The Chiller is enormous, and I’ve got more people in my life now.” The Cat says that like it’s a revelation. After growing up on a Kansas farm with only his big sis for company, I guess it is.

  He adds, “It’s like how Wonder Woman can carry a passenger or two, but to transport half the Justice League, she needs her invisible plane.”

  “What did you say?” Aimee asks, coming up behind him with Quincie. She’s adorably sweaty. Her turquoise-streaked blond curls are a mess. She’s been washing dishes in the kitchen with Junior. “About Wonder Woman and the plane?”

  The Cat blushes. He runs his hand over his face.

  Kayla nudges him with her elbow. “Got you.”

  That’s my cue. “I’ve obviously been a good influence on him.” The light is low, flickering. I appear corporeal enough to anyone not looking too closely. I’ve chosen to show myself in an AWESOME POSSUM T-shirt and faded jeans, like I’ve been washing dishes, too.

  At the mic, Noelle stumbles over the lyrics of “Fly Me to the Moon.” Can the crowd see me? I don’t think so. Other than my friends, no one reacts.

  We’re in the slipstream between earth and the celestial plane. I don’t need my shifter instincts to read their feelings. It’s in the way they hold themselves and one another. It’s in every memory we’ve already made.

  Aimee marches right up. “About the DCU animated series —”

  “About the online RPGs,” I reply, upping the ante. We never got around to discussing the superhero animated series. There was always too much to say about graphic novels and live-action films and TV. Skipping to online role-playing games, that’s reckless. Crazy.

  It’s how we express our true feelings.

  “RPGs, huh?” Aimee reaches for my hand, but her fingers slip through. She falters, tangled in grief. She lowers her head, nodding. “Okay, Lossum. Dazzle me.”

  “Look up,” I whisper, shape-shifting one last time.

  My mane unfurls in black-and-blue butterflies. It’s a glimpse of heaven.

  My tribute to our love and the heroes we’ve become.

  Dazzling.

  Feral Pride is the roaring finale of a trilogy that includes Feral Nights and Feral Curse. The books are set in the same fantastical universe as my Tantalize series, which features Quincie, Kieren, Zachary, and Miranda as co-protagonists and is made up of Tantalize, Eternal, Blessed, and Diabolical, as well as two graphic novels, Tantalize: Kieren’s Story and Eternal: Zachary’s Story, both gorgeously illustrated by Ming Doyle. Several characters, settings, and mythologies overlap.

  Together, the Feral and Tantalize series take place over the course of one fictional academic school year. In reality, from draft one of book one to the release of Feral Pride, the journey was fifteen years. If I could go back in time and tell my inner fifteen-year-old that someday she would grow up and get to do this as her job, she would’ve been spinning over the moon.

  Much is owed to the readers whose questions about the early books inspired my writing the later ones. If you’re new to the universe, all the novels can stand alone, although Tantalize and Blessed are best appreciated in concert and Feral Pride is clearly crafted as a finale.

  The incident involving Zachary and the minor hell-spawn Duane in Austin’s downtown Whole Foods parking lot is brought to life in my short story “Cupid’s Beaux,” which is centered on the guardian angel Joshua. Other short stories set in the universe include “Haunted Love” and “Cat Calls.”

  Returning to Feral Pride, the Bigheart name is Osage and used with permission of the real-life Bigheart family in Austin. However, none of the fantasy elements in either series are drawn from Native American belief systems or traditional stories.

  I unabashedly admit taking some serious liberties with the Austin Police Department, the Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office, the California Institute of Technology, and the Texas Department of Safety. Along those same lines, to my knowledge, the Austin Zoo & Animal Sanctuary is not staffed by werecoyotes.

  More wholly fictional elements include make-believe businesses, locales, media outlets, and publications such as The Archangels’ Code of Conduct, Austin Antiques, Austin News Channel, Bastrop County Examiner, Bikes & Babes, The Blood Drinker’s Guide, The Book of Lions, the Brazos Boys, Capital City News, Catchup, Daemon Island, Donna’s Diner, Fayard & the French Horns, the International News Network, MCC Enterprises (and its subsidiaries), the city of Pine Ridge, the Screaming Head Colds, Shifter Scene, Southwestern Cuisine, the Texas Talker, Tia Leticia’s Salsa Bar, and Whispering Pines Resort.

  This is the point in these notes where I usually admit, with some regret, that Sanguini’s: A Very Rare Restaurant is fictional, too. But this time I’ll say this instead: If you’re an investor and want to make Sanguini’s a reality, have your people call my people. We’ll see. />
  Finally, I do my best to track my literary, cinematic, pop cultural, historical, and other influences as I write. It’s partly to pay tribute, partly to give credit, and perhaps most of all to remind myself that Story is all about connections and conversations that include me and each of you.

  With that in mind, I respectfully nod to Neal Adams, Robert Angel, Kathi Appelt, K. A. Applegate, the Austin Independent Business Alliance, Dan Aykroyd, Francis Bacon, Donald P. Bellisario, E. Nelson Birdwell, Len Blum, Tim Burton, Robert Butler, Martin Caiden, Lorne Cameron, Stephen Carpenter, Cesar Chavez, Chris Chibnall, Ron Clements, Christina Crawford, Roald Dahl, Frank Darabont, Princess Diana of Wales, Paul Dini, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, William Dozier, Ted Elliott, Tina Fey, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Bill Finger, Ian Fleming, Gardner Fox, Mahatma Gandhi, Mark Gatiss, Michael Gleason, William Goldman, David Greenwalt, Monty Hall, Laurel K. Hamilton, Stefan Hatos, Don Heck, Michael Hirst, David Hoselton, John Hughes, Carmine Infantino, Joan of Arc, Kenneth Johnson, Bob Kane, Kellogg Company, Simon Kinberg, Rudyard Kipling, Jack Kirby, Karey Kirkpatrick, Eugene Kolkey, Jim Kouf, Eric Kripke, Guy Laliberté, Glen A. Larson, Stan Lee, Deborah Joy LeVine, C. S. Lewis, Larry Lieber, George Lucas, Niccolò Machiavelli, Elliot S. Maggin, Christopher Markus, William Moulton Marston, Stephen McFeely, Robert McKimson, Irene Mecchi, Steven Moffat, John Musker, George Orwell, Outhouse Designs, George Papp, Zak Penn, Martin Provensen, Harold Ramis, Frank Robbins, Jonathan Roberts, Gene Roddenberry, Terry Rossio, Erno˝ Rubik, Haim Saban, Julius Schwartz, Jeffrey Scott, Dr. Seuss, William Shakespeare, Mary Shelley, Yuko Shimizu, Charles M. Shulz, Joe Shuster, Jerry Siegel, Joe Simon, Frank Sinatra, Gilles Ste-Croix, Abraham Stoker (the old master), Stephen Thompson, Bruce Timm, Toei Company, J. R. R. Tolkien, the Tudors, Gy Waldron, Red Wassenich, Morton Weisinger, David N. Weiss, Joss Whedon (the new master), Lee Ann Womack, Linda Woolverton, Cecily von Ziegesar, and Brian Yansky.

  Thanks to my editor, Deb, for keeping me on track on a thrilling ride that lasted longer than either of us expected. Thanks to my agent, Ginger, for securing my ticket to adventure. I likewise appreciate the efforts of all the fantastic — and perhaps fantastical — heroes at Candlewick Press, Walker Books, and Curtis Brown Ltd., especially Carter, Mina, Hilary, Andrea, Liz, Sharon, Erika, and Andie. Thanks to Greg Leitich Smith, who read every manuscript in the Tantalize and Feral series out loud, pen in hand, in our 1920s hideout house. At least twice.

  My friends Donna Bowman Bratton, Carmen Oliver, Nancy Werlin, and Austin’s awesome writing and illustration community (including expats and honorary members) assisted with research, helped brainstorm, and offered countless hugs and encouragement.

  I also greatly appreciate the efforts and support of booksellers, teachers, librarians, bloggers, homeschoolers, and book-loving noisemakers (especially YAs) for making sure my novels found their readership.

  All of you — or as we say in Texas, all y’all — are my heroes.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.

  The epigraph originally appeared in Jungles and is provided courtesy of Frans Lanting.

  Copyright © 2015 by Cynthia Leitich Smith

  Cover photograph copyright © 2015 by David Sucsy/Getty Images (skyline)

  Photograph on title page copyright © Image Farm Inc.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.

  First electronic edition 2015

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2014944625

  ISBN 978-0-7636-5911-0 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-0-7636-7709-1 (electronic)

  Candlewick Press

  99 Dover Street

  Somerville, Massachusetts 02144

  visit us at www.candlewick.com