by Holley Trent
“I did break my legs, Mommy,” Cruz said. “You said so.”
“No, I thought so because your … ” December shuddered hard. “Your bones were … ugh.” She shook herself and then reached for the basket of taco shells. “Anyway, do you remember what the people at the hospital said? They said you weren’t broken.” She looked to Hannah who was doing some weirdly nervous and rhythmless drumming on the tabletop with her fingers.
Hannah wasn’t squeamish. Tito knew that for sure. The woman was a registered nurse and had worked in emergency rooms before getting sucked into the Family Foye. She was likely, just as every other weirdo in the room, pondering how fast a healer Cruz must have been to have self-mended one or more broken bones before her mother could get her an X-ray.
Born Cougars were fast healers, but Cruz wasn’t a Cougar.
Not exactly. Tito wasn’t quite sure what she was. Etzli didn’t have any magic, so Cruz was a new frontier for him.
“Ever broken anything else, Cruz?” Tito asked.
She shrugged. “No? Maybe?”
“I swear I watch her,” December said softly. “She’s just so fast. Look away for one moment, and she’ll have found a way to get up on a roof.”
Cruz grinned hard.
“That’s not funny, Cruzie.” December’s voice was a bit crazed, her eyes wide with fright. “You scare me when you do that. I worry that your kindergarten teacher will catch wind of all your stunts from preschool and decide she doesn’t want you in her class.”
“You should move to Maria,” Ma said. “Teachers here are used to slippery children.”
Tito cut her a glare that she ignored, as always.
“She’s right, Dee,” Sean said. “After all, the school system here managed to graduate four Foyes in a single generation, so they must be doing something right.”
December poked some tomato into her tacos and shook her head. “Tempting, but nah, I don’t think so. Even if I could afford to move, I have a support system—small though it is—in Tucson.”
“I would help you,” Ma said.
December twined her fingers together atop the table and stared at her plate.
With Cruz in the room, candor couldn’t have been an easy thing. Tito was feeling out of his element, too.
The screen door at the front of the house creaked open and then clattered shut. Fifteen footsteps later, Glenda Foye was in the dining room with her hands fisted on her hips and staring at each person one by one. “If I go into that kitchen, am I going to find a mess?”
Belle waved a dismissive hand. “We’ll clean up.
“Good. Now with that out of the way,” she looked to December. “Hello, I’m Glenda Foye. This is my house, but nobody ever seems to remember. I don’t even know why I bother locking the doors.”
“I’m December Farmer. I’m … ”
You’re what?
Her gaze met his only briefly. She looked away before he could open his mouth to query her.
She fiddled with her tacos, and tilted her head leftward. “And that’s Cruz.”
Glenda tucked her hands into her sweatshirt pockets and looked over Cruz’s head at Tito.
Tito could never guess what Glenda knew and what she didn’t. She was a born and bred cowgirl, a tough cookie who didn’t wear her emotions on her face. After a couple of decades in her acquaintance, though, he was pretty good at guessing when he should avoid being alone in a room with her. Belle may have been an alpha’s daughter, but Glenda was on a tier above that—the lady who’d shoveled the alpha’s bullshit. In spite of him being substantially older than her, she tended to treat Tito like one of her sons.
Glenda didn’t coddle her boys, so whatever she had in mind to say to Tito wasn’t going to be sweet.
He closed his eyes and rubbed them.
“Cruz wants to try her hand at riding, Mom,” Belle said. “I was thinking we could see if Pudding would be a good fit.”
“That slow, lazy thing?”
At the confusion in Glenda’s tone, Tito opened his eyes.
“Yep. You know.” Belle made a come on, come on gesture. “Pudding?”
“Pudding.” Glenda nodded slowly, and whispered, “Right.”
There wasn’t a single Cougar, witch, or “other” that had managed to spook that horse yet. He could barely keep up on a trail ride, but he never threw a rider. He didn’t have the damn mojo to try.
“Maybe she could go ride with Lily,” Glenda said. “Lily wanted to video the trail conditions before the rain comes, anyway, so she knows what normal is supposed to be.”
Belle gave December a pointed look. “Lily’s my cousin. She works and lives here. She’s super-sweet and loves kids. If you’re okay with Cruz going out with her, she’d most definitely appreciate the company. Gets lonely out there sometimes.”
December sighed with resignation. “Sure, I guess. I worry she’ll fall off, but when’s she ever going to have another chance to ride? Cruz, finish your … ”
“Already done!” Cruz beamed.
Sure enough, her plate was empty, save for a few specks of taco shell. She’d eaten three in no time flat.
“I guess that hot sauce didn’t bother you,” Tito said.
“Nah.”
“Like peppers, too?” Ma grew them in abundance. He couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t.
“Mommy doesn’t cook them. They make her thump her chest.” Cruz demonstrated by banging one of her little fists over her sternum.
“Anything else you’d like to share, Cruzie?” December asked quietly.
“No, thank you.”
Glenda waved Cruz over. “Come on, you. Let’s see if we can find you Belle’s old helmet. It’s not like we ever throw anything away around here.”
Cruz bounded to the doorway and took Glenda’s hand. “Bye, Mommy.”
“Be careful, and listen.”
“I’ll listen.”
“Listen and obey.”
Ma chuckled. “Watch out for her. I know that expression she wears very well. Someone in this room has a similar one.”
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that someone in this room can’t stay out of trouble,” December said.
Glenda whisked Cruz away, likely intuiting that the tension in the room was about to come to a head. As soon as the screen door slammed shut, everyone started talking at once, except Tito.
Tito closed his eyes and said a prayer to any-damn-one that he could survive the ordeal.
Hannah blew a loud, sharp whistle as she was prone to at Cougar gatherings and silenced the room. “All right, Tito. Let her have it.”
“Have what?” December asked.
“Words, Dee,” Sean said. “Lots and lots of words.”
“You mean someone’s finally going to answer my questions?”
“Yeah,” Tito said quietly. “Go on and ask them, but I don’t think the answers are going to satisfy you.”
“Try me,” December said.
“All right. Ask the first one.”
She cleared her throat.
He straightened up in his seat and met her narrowed gaze. He wouldn’t look away, though. He owed her at least that much.
“Who was in that SUV—the one that was following us, and that had tried to run me over earlier?”
“They fuckin’ tried to run you over?” he shouted, looking at Sean.
“I didn’t see that,” Sean said. “Must have been before we picked them up.”
“What the hell!”
“I’m asking the questions,” December said tartly. “Who was in the car?”
Tito flopped back in his chair and shrugged. “I don’t know who all was in the vehicle, but I can tell you one for sure. He’s my cousin. I guess he was recently … released.”
“From jail?”
“Something like that,” Tito muttered.
What Necalli had done was the supernatural equivalent of a prison break. The weirdoes still needed to figure out how, and Tito needed to track him down b
efore he hurt someone. It wasn’t a matter of if, but when. Unlike Tito, Necalli had no qualms about causing mortals pain. He was stuck in a warlike mindset of hundreds of years ago, and not modern times.
“Why would he want to bother me?” she asked. “And what was he talking about when he was saying those things about Cruz?”
He racked his brain for how to explain that, without saying things like “blood sacrifice” and “demented demigod” but was having trouble coming up with diplomatic words in any of the languages he knew. “Uh.” He grimaced. “Suffice it to say he doesn’t like the idea of anyone being connected to me. He’s jealous, and also there’s an old beef with me and Ma.”
Ma was the one who’d banished him and the rest of his gang of shapeshifter ne’er-do-wells through the portal, but even before she’d done that, the two hadn’t had the most loving of familial relationships. Ma was no-nonsense, and he was nothing but nonsense.
“How did he find out about me? And Cruz? We hadn’t been here that long.”
“Overactive grapevine.”
“And is that how Mrs. Estobal found out we were here?”
“No.”
“You said you were going to answer my questions. You’re not giving me real answers.”
“I don’t think you want the truth.”
“You haven’t been besties with the truth in six years, so why start now, right?”
“Dee, that’s not fair.”
She shrugged. “I’m telling the truth, though, aren’t I? I seem to remember you telling me one night that you’d be back, and then I never heard from you again. I had to track you down like you were a missing dog, and I guess that’s appropriate.” She looked at Ma and cringed. “Sorry.”
Ma shrugged and took off the glasses she didn’t even need.
“I appreciate your offer in helping me move here—”
“It’s a good offer, Dee,” Sean said. “I’d take it if I were you.”
“How weird would that be, though? I’ll have to keep crossing paths with a man who doesn’t want anything to do with me or our kid—”
“I never said that,” Tito said.
She rolled her eyes. “Frankly, I’m not masochistic enough for that. I’ve been struggling this long, and I’ll keep on doing what needs to be done back in Tucson.”
“Tito or no Tito, right? You’re not even giving me a chance.”
“You’re not exactly jumping up and down to volunteer.”
“That’s because by the time we all stand up from this table, you’re not gonna want me to volunteer for anything. You’re gonna want to get as far away from me as I’ve been trying to be from you for all these years.”
“You’re full of crap.”
He closed his eyes. Nodded. “Yeah. Other stuff, too.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Same stuff that makes Cruz quiet as a mouse. Same stuff that makes E.R. visits a waste of your time and money. Same stuff that makes her light up like a missile on some folks’ radar.” He looked at Ma, but said to December, “The same stuff that’ll always make her a target for folks who live and breathe to make others miserable. Who’ll do shitty things to rip away any semblance of happiness she could try to eke out for herself. Folks who’ll resort to killing if they don’t like her idea of happiness.”
“Enough, Yaotl.”
“No, Ma. You wanted me to say stuff, and that’s what I’m doing. I’m gonna tell her why I didn’t jump up and down about her being here. Hell, he already discovered her, right? Just that quick. I’m sure he’s still just as creative as he used to be, and maybe this time when he gets good and warmed up, he’ll take me down, too.”
“Tito, what are you talking about?” December asked.
“Show her, Ma. Show her who you are. Show her who Mrs. Estobal is, too. Let’s go ahead and rip off the Band-Aid, huh? Then she can see how weird everyone else in the room is just before she makes the stunning discovery about the other weirdo in her life.”
Ma was barely holding her power in check. He could feel the heat of it lashing against his skin, squeezing at his lungs, but he didn’t care. What she was doing to him, she was doing to every Cougar in the room, too. Because they were friends, they were tolerating the disruption. It wasn’t the first dramatic argument he and Ma had had around them. They’d seen worse.
“You think I don’t know Necalli was there before they died? You think he didn’t find me and gloat about how he wiped out damn near the entire calpulli?”
“You never said anything,” Ma said.
He shrugged. “I figured if you wanted to be hush-hush about my own damn family, so could I for a change. Go on and show her what you are, Ma.”
“If that is how you wish to proceed,” Ma said in an ominous, low voice, “fine.”
She put her glasses into her purse, slowly pushed back from the table, and then stood.
She’d never been the sort of goddess to make a spectacle, and she didn’t choose that moment to turn over a new leaf. In fact, if the people around her hadn’t been watching carefully, they may not have noticed the change at all. She shifted so smoothly and easily that the transformation seemed like a mirage.
From old lady to Mrs. Estobal to some face Tito didn’t recognize, and another. Then, to her standard, youthful form.
She pressed her hands to the table edge and looked at Tito before settling her gaze on December. “Well. There you have it. My people called me ‘the pretty lady,’ but I will respond to whatever name you use to call me.”
The room was eerily quiet. People had stopped eating, stopped breathing even.
Then came a small gasp, and the shake of a head. “No.” December reached for her fork and held it out like a knife. “All of you, stay back.”
Belle brought her cell phone up to her face, tapped something out on it, and then set it onto the table. “Since the cat’s out of the bag—no pun intended, because I sure as heck wouldn’t want to make light of the situation, but Steven figured out where your cousin got out, Tito. Or rather, a ghost told him. He’s going to go take a look later, I guess.”
“A ghost? What is wrong with you people?” December shrieked.
“Dee,” Sean said softly, “I’m still the same guy you’ve always known. You just didn’t know everything about me.”
“You can do that?” She pointed the knife toward Ma. “What she did?”
Sean shook his head slowly. “No. Not that.”
She turned her hostile gaze toward Tito.
He already knew what she must have been seeing. He could feel his flesh rippling and the muscles beneath his skin aching to relax into their natural shapes, but he willed his body to maintain its form. He didn’t know how much longer he’d be able to. Being around December affected his self-control, and needed to get the hell away from her.
“Wait. Cruz is … What’s wrong with my daughter? Is she like that?”
“There’s nothing wrong with her,” Ma said. “She’s absolutely perfect.”
“Okay. Right.” December pushed her chair back and took several big steps away from the table, still pointing the fork at them. “I’m gonna go. Th-thanks for the tacos.”
No one moved, but they likely all knew that December wouldn’t get very far, anyway. She could try to leave town, but there really was a storm coming no woman in her right mind would want to drive in. Further, Tito could have a bunch of Cougars rounded up and circling her in fifteen minutes or less if push came to shove. He hoped circumstances didn’t escalate to that. He preferred to handle his business as privately as possible, but he’d do what was necessary to ensure December was safe.
And Cruz, too. He couldn’t be passive when it came to that little girl. She had his laugh.
The screen door slammed against the frame, and everyone in the kitchen who wasn’t standing before stood.
“Don’t let her leave, Yaotl,” Ma said.
“I won’t. Even if she shouldn’t have come here in the first place.”
&n
bsp; chapter FIVE
December had to run hard and for what seemed to be a long time before she caught up with the ladies on the trail with Cruz.
Cruz looked a little embarrassed to see December jogging up, and December knew what the child must have seen: a sweaty, winded, and dusty woman who held her expression in an embarrassing cringe.
“Stop the horse!” December called up to Mrs. Foye. “Let her down. We’ve gotta go.”
“Is there an emergency? Did something happen?”
“Don’t try that on me, lady. You’ve got a bunch of crazy people in your house, and you know it.”
“I see.” Mrs. Foye shared a look with the curly-haired blonde on the other mare. The lady must have been the Lily who Belle had referred to.
“Excuse me, ma’am?” December said in a huff. “Did you hear me? We’ve gotta be going now.”
“I heard you, I just happen to think you’re being a bit rash. I don’t know what you heard or saw, but trust me—no one here’s going to hurt you.”
“You’ll have to excuse my rudeness, but … I can’t believe you.” December grabbed Cruz’s horse’s reins and got him turned around. “Given the company you keep, I’d be stupid to not assume you aren’t like them. Whatever they are.”
“What are you talking about, Mommy?” Cruz asked.
And Cruz?
December stopped tugging the pony long enough to give her little girl a good, hard look.
Cruz didn’t look strange. She wasn’t what those people were. She was just a sweet little girl who had a knack for stealth, running really fast, and making her mother think she’d broken bones.
“Just a normal little girl,” December whispered.
“I don’t know what they told you,” Mrs. Foye said, “but I’m not going to let you leave here thinking that’s the truth. She’s not. She’s never going to be, just like my kids weren’t.”
“You mean—”
“You didn’t give me a chance to tell you.” Mrs. Foye shrugged. “I’m just a plain old cowgirl who married an extraordinary man.”
“Mommy?” Cruz queried. Her horse was getting restless, and December didn’t know anything about horses, so she led him back to the others—just for the moment. She had to put Cruz’s personal safety ahead of all else. They could leave as soon as Cruz was off and clear of the giant beasts.