* * *
BEN PICKED me up after the show, as he sometimes did, and we drove to New Moon, as we often did, to have a couple of beers and decompress. It was a good spot to be. Billie Holiday was playing on the stereo. Shaun was bartending. Between customers he was chatting with Becky and Tom, who were two other werewolves from my pack. Seeing them there, smiling and contented, gave me a warm and happy feeling. The pack was all right. Everything was fine.
Cormac was waiting for us at our usual table in the back. He already had a beer and a basket of buffalo wings, and was leaning back in his chair, surveying the place like he owned it. My alpha Wolf should have bristled at that, seeing his appraising attitude as a challenge. But I didn’t, because he was Cormac, and while he may not have been a wolf, he was part of the pack.
Ben and I sat opposite him, and Shaun brought us our usual beers. There we were, perfectly normal, with all the shadows safely outside.
“What’s next?” Cormac asked.
“Quiet,” Ben said. “That’s what’s next. Peace and quiet. No vampires, no magic, no nothing.”
He glanced at me with a certain amount of trepidation, like he expected me to argue. I had no plans to argue. Well, not exactly. I had plans. I pulled a sheet of paper from my pocket, unfolded it, and held it up.
“What’s that?” Ben asked, suspicious. Cormac leaned forward to study it.
It was a flyer I’d printed off from a Web site, announcing the First International Conference on Paranatural Studies to be held in London. We were going mainstream—at least, scientifically mainstream. I grinned at them over the top of the page.
Ben groaned. “No. You’re joking.”
“They’ve asked me to be a keynote speaker,” I said. “Cool, huh?”
“I suppose you’re going to spin this as being good for your career, a great opportunity for publicity and a chance to increase your credibility,” Ben said.
I blinked. He had the patter down better than I did. “Yeah. That’s exactly what I was going to say. Plus, London! I can go visit London!”
“Are you okay with spending eight hours on an airplane?”
To tell the truth, I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I thought I’d be okay on an airplane for eight hours. But Wolf whined—locked in a tiny metal box with all those juicy people for that long …
This was going to take some planning.
I said, “This will be a good way to meet people. Find out what’s going on in the rest of the world, you know?”
“Another quest,” Ben said. “No—you’re past quest and into crusade, aren’t you?”
I glared. “Is there a problem with that?”
He grabbed my hand, kissing it, melting the argument away. “No problem at all. It’s what makes you you.”
Cormac was scratching his chin.
“What?” I asked.
“Would being a convicted felon keep me from getting a passport?”
“You want to come along?” I said.
He shrugged and looked at his beer. “Amelia wants to go home.”
Ben pursed his lips. “I’ll look into it, see what we can do.”
“What about you?” I asked him. “Are you okay with this?”
“If you’re going, I’m going. You don’t have to ask,” Ben said.
My heart actually may have skipped a beat at that. He said it so decisively, it really meant I love you.
“Besides,” Cormac said. “It’ll take both of us to keep you out of trouble.”
“It’s a scientific conference, what could go wrong?” I said. They rolled their eyes at me as if to say, really?
Well, we’d just have to find out which of us was right, wouldn’t we?
TOR BOOKS BY CARRIE VAUGHN
Kitty Goes to War
Kitty’s Big Trouble
Discord’s Apple
After the Golden Age
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Kitty's Big Trouble kn-9 Page 23