Page 68 of A Wolf After My Own Heart
“What a fanciful notion!”
Devoss grinned, showing his sharp little teeth. Not for the first time, Lila thought he’d make a formidable adult. “She won’t run anymore. She’s like me: Why would she leave the place she wants to be? They’ll put up with us hiding for a bit, but ultimately, bedtime is bedtime.”
“Bedtimeisbedtime,” Lila replied. “Can’t argue that.”
“I can’t tell if you’re making fun of me.”
“You should always assume I am,” she admitted.
“Besides, Sally’s just a kid. She needs, y’know, stability and a warm bed and a house n’stuff. A shed’s not so great for that.”
“No, it is not,” she agreed. “I’ve got some hand warmers in a box somewhere. I’ll squirrel them out to you later.”
There was a thwap as Daniels finished scribbling and whacked Lila in the shin with her sketch pad.
“Ow! Jesus.”
Squirrel’s not a verb. Don’t make it one.
“What I do and do not turn into verbs is no concern of yours, sunshine. And have you guys thought this through? You’ll be chilly,” she warned. “Temp’s supposed to drop to forty tonight annnnnnd you’re both giving me ‘are you stupid’ looks because I just remembered you can grow your own fur coats at will, fine, forget I said anything. Also, isn’t this a school night?”
“You don’t have to go to school the day after someone tries to burn you up,” Devoss said, and the hell of it was he sounded genuinely serious. “It’s a rule. And tomorrow’s Saturday, so.”
“Fair enough. Now that we’re done with the post-awkward conversation chitchat, I have to go polish some eyeballs.”
Before she could get away, Caro’s hand shot out quicker than thought and snagged the cuff on Lila’s jeans. “Gah! I mean, can I help you?”
Daniels was looking up at her; Lila couldn’t imagine what she’d seen in her brief life with those big brown peepers and didn’t want to. “Thank you,” she said in a soft, low voice. “For everything you’re doing for us.”
“It’s just a shed,” she said, and left.
6. Is it me, or does Macropi, Garsea, and Oz sound like a personal injury law firm?
Chapter 25
“A life well-lived and at the end, you’re pieces of meat on a slab.” Magnus shook his head. “Poor lass, you always did tell me you’d go first. But I never thought it would be so soon.”
“You’re certain this is Susan Smalls?” the ME asked. He was short and muscular, about five foot five with a shaved head and deep-set brown eyes behind rimless glasses. In his scrubs, he looked like a green fire hydrant.
“Aye, and no mistake. Look here.” Magnus stepped closer to the table and pointed to a mangled wrist. But not, on closer inspection, mangled in the crash. “She almost lost her hand at Shakopee. I got a tourniquet on it and we ran…oh, five kilometers at the least. To the nearest Shift-safe hospital.”
“I had wondered at that.” The ME, Dr. Gulo, was eyeballing Magnus with no small amount of interest. Oz figured he knew why. Like Annette explained when they were kids, werebears are rare bears. And she’d know. “You were both Shakopee survivors?”
“Barely.”
“I only ask because it’s on my mind—the tenth anniversary of that glorious mess,” Gulo added.
“Glorious?” Nadia asked. “What an altogether ridiculous word. It could have been a bloodbath. That’s not hyperbole, so many would have died, we would have been bathing in their blood. Would have been, if some of those idiots hadn’t come to their senses in time.”
“I meant ‘glorious’ in the literal sense: worthy of fame. Or infamy, in this case.” Dr. Gulo shrugged. “Ancient history. If you count a decade as ancient.”
“Ridiculous bullshit! I can’t even think of Shakopee without embarrassment. So that’s quite enough o’that.” Magnus stopped staring down at all that was left of Sue Smalls. “This was all you found?”
Dr. Gulo inclined his head. “We were lucky to get what we did, given that the crash site is on land owned by a Stable.”
“Lucky,” he replied, and shook his head.
“I have to say, Dr. Gulo, this is the most immaculate morgue I have ever seen. Not that I’ve seen any particularly dirty morgues, mind you.” Nadia looked the way she did when she got advance notice of a Macy’s sale: delighted and a little surprised. “It’s quite,quitesomething.”
