Page 29 of Midlife Shifter Unexpected

“How do you know this? I thought you were a rambling man and just ended up settling down here for no reason whatsoever.”

“Before I came to Cougar Creek and before I started wandering around America, I was in the military,” Matheus said.

I wasn’t surprised. The neat look, ridiculously musclebound, fitness focused. It didn’t surprise me one bit.

“You know these people from the military?”

“Something like that.”

Whatever his relationship was with them in the military didn’t seem to translate that well. A row of tall, skinny black-haired people came walking toward us.

“Good Lord, are they all related?” I asked.

“Not really, but kind of,” Matheus said. “They’re all connected. The families go back a long time. They’ve all lived in this region for generations.”

“They aren’t trash,” Matheus said sternly. I liked his response.

“You’re right. I’m sorry.” It was impossible to convey my embarrassment, but an apology was a start.

“Gordy,” he said, walking up to the woman who stood at the center of the group. “I have some bad news for you. Two of your own are dead. Looks like a ritual killing outside the cemetery.”

The woman stood tall, her face still. Not a single emotion showed on her face, not a single weakness, nothing. She just stared at him.

“Who did it?”

“Nobody knows. Sheriff Ted is obviously doing his due diligence and has called in the coroner’s office. He might call in the FBI special crimes unit, but if we can produce the murderer, it will stop a lot of the problems before they start. The last thing we need is a lot of people nosing around our business.”

I looked sideways at Matheus. “In your business?” Suddenly the burly man wasn’t seeming so goody two shoes. Not that I knew how not goody two shoes he was. Not yet, anyway.

“I care for the community.”

“Do you have something to do with those two people dying?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Absolutely not,” Matheus said. “I just recognized the symbols. They were the same symbols they carved on me when I was taken prisoner in the war.”

“Prisoner of war?” I asked. “Which war?”

He stared at me blankly. “For our kind there is only one war in recent history. The Legendii war is what separated the demigods from the Fae.”

“And the rest of us just got shuffled along at their discretion,” Gordy nodded. “This isn’t a safe place to talk. If you want to talk to us, we need to go inside.” She motioned her way to the nearest house trailer, with pink flamingos stuck in the ground outside, their little plastic wings whirling in the wind. I’d never seen anything so kitsch in all my life.

Matheus walked in like it was a normal to be invited into a supernatural’s house. Who was I to judge? I lived in a two-bedroom, one bath cottage. Some of these places were probably better decked out than mine.

I followed him quietly up the patio stairs.

Chapter 21

When we got inside the house, Matheus went immediately to the yellow dining room table and sat down as if he’d been here before . I glanced around the inside of the trailer. It was a doublewide. It wasn’t small, but there was no place to sit close enough to be part of the conversation he was having. I made my way into the living room and sat down comfortably on the worn black leather sofa that was there that clashed dramatically with the brown and orange shag rug that lay across the floor. Three young people came in and perched all around me. They looked to be in their late teens, early twenties. They stared at me like I was an oddity.

“I’m sorry for your loss.” I broke the silence. “My name’s Bianca. I’m a friend.”

The girl to my right nodded, her head bouncing rhythmically in a motion the others repeated. “I’m Enid,” she said. “Sad day when we lose our own people, and under such vile circumstances.”

“Do you think you might recognize any of the symbols we found at the site?” I couldn’t bear to tell them the symbols were carved in the flesh on their bodies. “We need to find out who the symbols are connected to, to know who killed them

“Do you have drawings of them?” Enid asked.

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