"When did she pass?" Val asked quietly.
"About eighteen months ago. Sudden," Del shrugged. "She always said that's how she'd want it, so I guess she got her wish. Stunned the rest of us, though."
"I'm sorry for your loss," Ari poured a club soda for herself and added a slice of lime.
"There you are," Janie walked into the room, followed by Nico and Mac. "Want a drink?" she turned to ask both.
"I'll take a Coke with lime," Nico said.
"I'll have what this man is having," Mac nodded in Del's direction.
"I'll fix Nico's if you'll do the Scotch," Ari told Val.
"Coming right up," Val lifted the bottle of Scotch to pour into a glass.
"I hope you know how strange this sounds," Del told Nico over dinner. "It would be difficult for anyone to take your word on this, you know."
"Burke already called the boy's aunt," Val said. "Nico says she and her neighbors are also in danger, although I'm not sure why at this point."
"A young shifter in the middle of humans is never safe," Laronda observed. "I speak from experience when I say that, too."
"I agree with that part," Val gave her a brief nod. "The boy needs a pack around him at this age. There are things that he can only learn from being with a pack, because that's how wolves survive."
"Every shifter needs someone to watch their backs," Janie said. "A support system makes you safer. I've always felt far better when I'm on the ranch and know there are others of my kind around me."
"Laronda won't tell you, but she was an orphan," Del said. "Someone killed her parents on a full moon. Neighbors found her in the house the following day and, since they never found her human-looking parents, put her in foster care."
"I'm sorry," Ari turned toward Laronda. "That was horrible for you, I know."
"You've had a taste of the same thing," Laronda agreed. "It's one of the hardest things I've ever had to deal with."
"Do you remember them? Your parents?" Nico asked.
"I was four, so there's not a lot I do remember," Laronda sighed. "Dinner is excellent, Mrs. Jordan."
"Mary Kate has a way with lamb," Janie smiled.
"The chops and sauce are wonderful," Lance agreed.
"Back to the werewolf boy," Mac began. "Are any of you four interested in going with us to pick him up?"
"I'll go," Mona offered.
"I think the boy should have a chance to see that there are other shifters interested in his wellbeing," Laronda said. "I'll go with Mona."
"I'll go," Val offered. "With you, Nico and Ari with us, I think that should be enough, don't you?" Val spoke to Mac.
"More than enough, and I'm grateful for the offer," Mac acknowledged Val's, Mona's and Laronda's agreement.
"I'll need some time with the kid before the full moon, too," Val said. "To get him ready to run with the pack."
"Will this journey occur after dark?" Claudio floated into the kitchen, his feet barely touching the floor. Ari imagined it was only a formality—to appear as if he were walking to reassure the mortals in the room.
"I suppose it can," Val said. "Would you like to join us?"
"Yes, if you don't mind, although I've already fed."
"Please, sit," Val indicated an empty chair at the end of the long, formal table. "I wouldn't mind if you came with us Saturday evening."
"We'll need two cars," Nico said. "And we should let them know a crowd is coming."
"A crowd isn't a bad thing," Mac said as the table fell silent. "Just in case we need multiple witnesses later."
"Witnesses for what?" Mona frowned. Ari nodded at Mona's question—it was something she also wanted to know.
"In the past, people have been whisked away from harm, only to be accused of terrible crimes afterward," Mac replied, his eyes hooded.
He remembers things from the past, Nico's voice sounded in Ari's mind, making her jump.
Did she hear me? Ari heard Nico's voice again, only this time, Mac answered in her head.
I think she may have, Mac agreed, turning his full gaze on Ari.
Dear Jesus, make it stop, Ari begged mentally.
Mac's laughter exploded, startling the entire table.
"You could have warned me," Ari accused as she glared at Nico and Mac. Dinner was over, Lance and the others had left the ranch and Janie and Val had gone to bed. Mac asked Ari for a few minutes of her time before she retired for the night.
The telepathy that they now shared was the topic for discussion.
"We didn't know if or when it would show up," Mac attempted to defuse the situation. "There have been some who didn't get it until much later, and a handful who didn't get it at all. Those weren't the best of times," he added.
"Does this mean you're going to be in my head all the time?" Ari demanded, feeling angry and betrayed.
"It's telepathy, not mind reading," Mac explained. "I can't read your thoughts, and I'm grateful you can't read mine I assure you. If I don't specifically send a message to you, you won't hear from me."
"Are there any more surprises coming?" Ari frowned at Mac.
"I've asked for discretion," Nico sighed. "You're displacing your anger, Ari. It should be aimed at me, not Mac."
"Right. This is exactly what I was afraid of. It's a boys' club, and the woman gets left out."
Before Mac could stop her, she'd turned swiftly and ran toward the door of the media room.
"That went well," Mac rumbled.
"I just—I just can't tell her some things. Not yet," Nico sighed.
"Because it would scare the hell out of her?" Mac crossed his arms as he studied Nico.
"I know what my nightmares are like," Nico responded. "I want to spare her as long as I can."
"She may or may not appreciate that in the long run," Mac pointed out.
"I know. I'll live with her being mad at me."
"She's mad at both of us; don't delude yourself."
"Yeah."
Hunter sat on Erly's porch, studying the neighbor he'd known for most of his life. Erly was the only black man living in the area—that Hunter knew of, anyway. He'd mowed and trimmed Erly's lawn during the day; darkness had fallen, he'd had supper with Aunt Catherine, then sneaked back to see Erly.
Fireflies winked in and out of the trees surrounding Erly's small cabin, bringing fairy tale settings to life around them.
"I've known for a while that you shift," Hunter said, breaking the silence.
"You think I didn't smell the wild on you after you shifted the first time?" Erly hmmphed at Hunter's statement. "I even know what kind of shifter you are. Can you say the same about me?"
"No." Hunter hung his head.
"Nothin' to be ashamed of," Erly said. "But it is somethin' you should learn. It's a good idea to be with your own kind—at least for a while. Catherine can't teach you the lessons another werewolf can."
"Will you tell me? What you are?"
"Not a lot of us left," Erly shook his head. "Kinfolk all dead, I believe."
"Tell me, in case I run across another, someday," Hunter wheedled.
"All right, but keep it to yourself. I'm a black jaguar, and those are rare in both natural and shifter forms. I've been mistaken for everything from a giant housecat to a chupacabra," Erly chuckled.
"Sounds like you're lucky to be alive."
"We're both lucky, in this day and time."
"Aunt Cathy refuses to come with me," Hunter's voice betrayed his loneliness.
"I'd come with you, if I could. It'd be nice to be surrounded by shifters for a change, where I didn't have to hide twice—once for being a shifter, and twice for being black."
"Are there black werewolves?" Hunter asked.
"Some," Erly replied. "Shifters are more accepting than other folk, most times."
"I'll ask if you can come, since Aunt Cathy is dead set against it," Hunter said. "Be nice to have a familiar face, you know?"
"I know what you mean," Erly agreed. "I'll pack a bag, just in case."
"Take care of yourself, boy, in case I don't see you again."
"You do the same, Erly."
Hunter dropped off Erly's porch and made his way across the lawn, toward his aunt's house. He had no idea what the future held for him, and he wanted answers.
Ari felt out of sorts as she drank coffee in the kitchen on Saturday morning. She'd offered to help Mary Kate fix breakfast; Mary Kate told her to take a seat and have some caffeine.
"Ari," Janie walked in, her cell phone in her hand. "Lance wants to talk to you." She held the phone out so Ari could take it.
"Hello?" Ari said, holding the phone to her ear.
"Ari, there's been another outbreak of zombies in the Houston area," he reported. "That means Laronda and Del have to fly to Houston. I'm going with them this time, but Mona is still going with your bunch to get the boy."
"I think we'll be okay," Ari told him. "Val, Claudio and I should be enough protection—if it's needed."
"Mona will have a weapon with her if she needs one," Lance said. "I don't anticipate trouble, but it's always best to be prepared."
"You're right. Thanks for letting us know, Lance. I appreciate it."
"Take care, then, and we'll see you when we get back."
Ari handed the phone back to Janie after Lance ended the call. The pain flared between her shoulder blades again, as if in warning. She ignored it.
"I can't believe they're finding more of those creatures," Janie shoved the phone into a pocket of her jeans. "Val and I were hoping that part had run its course. Oh, there's something else. Last night, Renault sent a text to Val, with some pictures he took of the Franks hauling dead cattle off the property. Renault says he could smell the disease in them as they were loaded. He said he recognized it. I called Lance this morning—Del offered to get the Department of Agriculture involved and go around the worthless Sheriff we have. Val's moving our herd to the east side of the ranch as of this morning."
"What disease?" Ari asked, although she was afraid of the answer.
"FMD," Janie said. "You probably know it by Foot and Mouth disease."
"And with all those cattle penned up in small spaces," Ari sounded grim.
"Yep. The best way is to put all of them down and clean every bit of equipment, clear out stored food supplies and get rid of any rodents in the area. If Franks thinks he'll go ahead and get the live ones to market, well, the authorities should be on their way now."
"This could hurt your business," Ari began.
"This could hurt the entire cattle industry in Texas," she huffed. "Exports could be shut down, too, and that will cripple the state's, if not the country's, beef supply."
"Idiots," Ari growled.
"We'll have to wait this out, and have our herd checked for the disease," Janie said. "Clueless assholes."
"What happened?" Nico walked into the kitchen, with Mac close behind.
"Foot and Mouth, more zombies, only Mona tonight," Ari counted off the latest.
"Ari's still pissed," Nico turned toward Mac.
"I get that." Mac moved around the island to get coffee.
"I think I liked the raven better," Ari grumped.
"I can turn freely, now, and only when I want," Mac leveled a hooded stare in her direction. "It's easier to communicate like this, and I can hold my own coffee mug."
"I'm not asking you to change." Ari turned her head away from his uncomfortable gaze. You're asking me to change, without warning me of what's coming, she snapped mentally.
That—is true. My apologies.
Right. Apologies not accepted.
We are in a bad mood today.
The full moon is coming. Most shifters are in a bad mood. I call it PMSS—pre-moon-shift-syndrome. The males get it too. You're welcome.
Janie looked from Ari to Mac and then back to Ari. "I hope Mona and the vamps can keep you two from killing each other tonight." She thumped her coffee cup on the island and stalked out of the kitchen.
Chapter Ten
"Haven't been on a military plane since I left the military," Lance said as he, Del and Laronda walked across the tarmac to climb aboard the C-12 Huron waiting for them.
"I hate prop planes," Laronda complained, hefting her overnight carryall onto a shoulder.
"It's a short flight," Del said, reaching the bottom step first.
"Short and bumpy, guaranteed," Laronda followed him up the metal steps. "And after this, no doubt we'll board a small coast guard cutter to take us to the yacht in question."
"How did they get infected? Do you know?" Lance ducked his head to step onto the aircraft, going from bright sunlight into the dim, cooler interior of the plane.
"We don't have that information, yet. We're still trying to track all stops on their logs."
"You think they made some not-so-official stops?" Lance slid into a seat across the aisle from Del's. Laronda chose the seat in front of Lance's so she could easily talk to both men.
"It's possible. There's one theory that they may have been in contact with one of the tankers that showed up outside Corpus Christi."
"Offloading drugs?" Lance asked.
"That's part of the theory, yes. They found cocaine aboard the yacht, so they're waiting for our arrival before removing anything—except for the catatonic zombies."
"Who called it in?"
"Fishermen. The boat wasn't moving, so they trawled close to it and saw two bodies lying on the deck."
"Have heads been removed?"
"That's in the works, if it hasn't happened already."
"Six bodies on the boat; all of them in the same shape," Laronda turned in her seat to speak with Lance. "We're working on IDs, too, but if they're from Mexico or points south, that may not be easy to do."
"Laronda and I think they may have dropped anchor, waiting for another mode of transport for the drugs, then succumbed while they waited. If somebody else did show up and they boarded the boat before getting the hell away from there," Del shook his head as he left his thoughts hanging.
"Then we may have others infected. Is forensics examining the boat?"
"They've combed every inch of it and took samples and fingerprints. That's how they know the bodies were infected."
"We'll go onboard in haz-mat suits, just like they did," Laronda said. "Don't need to take chances with this shit."
"Too damn contagious," Lance agreed. "Sure would like to know what it is and where it came from. Since no official announcements have been released, Dallas media is speculating that all this suspicious activity could be anything from a government experiment gone wrong to an attack by a hostile foreign faction to a virus from aliens—the outer-space type."
"I'm guessing that last one's from the stations that don't fact check their reports," Laronda sighed.
"You guessed right."
"Buckle up, we'll be taking off soon," the co-pilot informed the plane's three passengers. "ETA is fourteen hundred."
"What's it like—this close to the full moon?" Nico asked as Ari shifted in her chair and sighed for perhaps the twentieth time.
"Skin feels wrong," Mac replied when Ari appeared unwilling to answer the question. "Itchy. You just want to become—your other self. It's not comfortable."
"Feds showed up at the Franks' ranch," Janie walked into the game room upstairs. "I hope they get that mess sorted out."
"You feel the same?" Nico asked her. "Mac says that Ari wants to shift; it's why she keeps moving restlessly and sighing."
"It's the same for all of us, and the day before, the day of, and the day after a full moon isn't the best time to ask personal questions," Janie told him.
"Oh. Okay."
"I know you're curious. Practice patience. We'll answer your questions next week."
"Good enough," Mac gave Nico a pointed look. "Next week it is."
"Sundown is at eight-forty-ni
ne tonight—I think we can leave at nine or shortly after," Janie said, changing the subject. "We'll need Mona and Claudio's assistance, since the boy's a shifter, too, and will be as itchy as we are."
"Are we prepared to take on additional passengers, if his aunt changes her mind?"
"We are. Burke is bringing his van and will meet us there. We'll be able to carry several away if it's necessary."
"Good." Nico shifted in his overstuffed chair. "They're all in trouble—everybody who lives around Hunter and knows what he is."
"More people than just his aunt knows?" Janie asked, her voice sharp as she stared at Nico. "You're just now telling us that?"
"Yeah." Nico made himself smaller in his seat.
"Then I'm really glad the vamps are coming. I dislike walking into what could turn into a massacre. We keep this secret for a reason. That child has placed himself and us in mortal peril." Janie, clearly angry, stalked out of the room.
"But we're in mortal peril anyway, aren't we?" Ari rose from her chair and followed Janie's path out of the media room.
"I told you they're hypersensitive around the full moon," Mac sighed. "Back in the day, shifters of all kinds would disappear for at least three days and go back to the wild just to feel more comfortable. Nowadays, they can't vanish—it would draw too much attention."
"Sounds like a tough life to live."
"It is and always has been—in this universe of existence."
"I should have realized that."
"You're still learning. Give it time."
"Were you there—during the uh, event?"
"No. I was born a few centuries later. Cursed not long afterward."
"You're not going to tell me, are you?"
"Not if I can help it. I warn you—it has never appeared in anyone's dreams, either, because it's not relevant."
"Look at you, being all private and stuff."
"I deserve the privacy, kid. Just like you do."
"And Hunter doesn't understand how private he should have been."
"I believe it's his aunt who owns that faux pas. She should have taught him better and she didn't. She's placed his life in danger, probably without realizing that even your best friend can let something like that slip. Humans tend to misunderstand these things."
Raven, Red Page 13