The Old Witcheroo (31 page)

The dark blond with the brown eyes leaned close. “Mmm. Those smell good.”

I put the sandwiches into a bag, added three servings of homemade potato chips and three baggies with a dill pickle spear each, napkins, and plastic silverware. Jo Jo arrived with three coffee to-go cups.

“Anything else?” I asked.

“Your name,” the blond said.

I looked up, startled by the question. He had the hint of a smile on his wide mouth, and I noticed tiny gold flecks in his brown eyes that almost glittered like…well, glitter.

“Chavvah,” I said. “Are you all with the council or just in early for the Jubilee?”

Brown eyes made some very direct eye contact, and his smile grew wider. “I’m Randy Lowry. My father is the head of the council. I’m just a humble handyman.” He pointed to the redhead. “That’s Hans Fisk. Council member representing the big cats of Arkansas.” He jerked his thumb at the good-looking guy with pale green eyes. “And that guy is Dominic Tartan. He’s a friend of Thomas Decker, one of the Missouri Reps.”

Dominic stepped up and held out his hand. “Enough about us,” he said when I gave his hand a shake. “I’d like to know more about you. Like when do you get off work?”

I laughed. I couldn’t help myself. One, he was very cute. And two, I’d spent the last eight months with people seeing me as damaged goods. It was really nice to have a man look at me like a woman and not a victim. “Considering I own the place, not until it closes.”

“I’d love to have a drink or something if you’re interested.”

“Tartan!” Randy Lowry said grinning. “Dude. You stole my thunder.”

Dominic laughed, and I liked the ease of him. “Snooze, you lose, Lowry.” He winked at me.

I shook my head and smiled. “Not tonight. I’m beat.” I took pleasure in his disappointment. God, how I wished Billy Bob were in the restaurant now! Oh, my God. I did
not
just think that. Ack! “But I’ll be available Sunday afternoon if you’d like to get a bite to eat down at Blonde Bear Café?”

Dominic grinned. “It’s a date, Chavvah.”

I cast a coy glance his way as he turned to leave. “Looking forward to it,” I said softly. He stopped, turned back, and smiled.

“I have a date,” I said out loud after they left. Suddenly, my stomach felt squidgy, and I resisted the urge to run after Dominic and cancel.

After seven, the place was nearly empty. I walked to Sunny, who’d put her feet up in one of the booths. I put my hands on her shoulders and rubbed. “Why don’t you go home, hon? It’s been a long day, and I don’t expect them to get any shorter this week. I’ll finish cleaning up.”

She reached across her large, ballooning breasts and patted my hand. “I suppose you’re right. Besides, I need to get home and empty these suckers before they explode.” She gave me a wry look. “Again.” She sighed. “I should have pumped before the dinner crowd, but we’ve just been too busy.” She handed me a wad of bills from her half-apron. “Some really great tips today.” She put her finger to her temple as if she were getting a vision. “I see new drains in our future.”

“Woo hoo.” I knew her visions had been scarce since giving birth to Jude. I think it bothered her more than she let on. “If you say it, it must be true.”

“You don’t have to say that.” She grabbed her boobs with both hands. “Noooo,” she whined.

I looked at her chest, it was hard not to, and damn, and the front of her pink top was soaked. “You’re leaking all over the place. You need to start wearing nursing pads or something.” She complained they gave her saucer-nipples.

She crossed her arms over her breast, making the milk flow harder. “I think that’s my cue to leave.”

I smiled. “Do you want me to call Babe to come get you?” The door jangled again, and my brother sauntered in as if on cue. “Speak of the devil.”

“Hey, baby,” Sunny said, more tired and worn out than a few seconds ago.

I realized she’d been trying to be chipper for our customers, for me even, but with Babe here she could let her guard completely down. She didn’t have to pretend. I glanced at my scars. One of these days, maybe I could stop pretending.

My brother was tall and built like a boxer. He’d slicked back his normally shaggy, brown hair and wore a blue, button-down dress shirt under his leather jacket, and a new pair of black slacks. As mayor, he’d been in charge of getting the Tri-Council meeting organized, and he looked nearly as worn out as Sunny.

“Damn, you look rode hard and put away wet, Babe.”

“Not yet,” Sunny quipped, followed by a giggle. Babel’s haggard expression changed instantly to a leering grin.

Ew. I chose to ignore them.

“Hey, Chav.” He leaned down and kissed my cheek, but his eyes never left Sunny. “Aww, darling. You’re having a rough go.” He held his hand out to her. “You ready to go home?”

Sunny scooted to the edge of the booth and turned her swollen feet out.

“Damn.” Babel winced. “It’s time I got you off those turnips.” He scooped her into his arms. Sunny laughed as he spun her once. He didn’t seem to mind that his shirt got wet from her boob leakage.

“Get on out of here, you two.” I shooed them toward the door. “I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

When eight o’clock rolled around, I was happy to see the last of our customers leave. I took my apron off, hung it on a hook just inside the kitchen door, and sat down to put my feet up. I’d already cleaned the grill. All I had left to do was give everything a good wipe down, sweep and mop the floors, and clean the toilets in our universal bathroom. I checked it every hour during the day, so I knew it wouldn’t be too bad.

I wished I wasn’t so tired. Since my injuries had been so substantial (Billy Bob’s words), I didn’t have the same energy I’d had pre-kidnapping. The only time I felt any kind of normalcy was after a full moon shift, but my upbringing as an integrator made it difficult for me to give over to my animal side. The advantage to living in a therian community is that I didn’t have to hide my second nature, but I couldn’t bring myself to let my coyote flag fly.

I put in my ear buds and plugged in an audiobook. Listening to stories let me travel to other places while I did my chores. Really, it had become my favorite part of the day. Forty minutes later, or thereabout, I put away the mop, cleaned out the bucket, and turned off the book. I turned the lights off from inside the kitchen where a master switch controlled everything but the refrigerated units. My bed was calling me hard, and I considered waiting until morning to shower.

Since my apartment was over the restaurant, it would take me ten seconds to get home and on my way to bed. But first, I had to take out the garbage to the bin outside. We kept a Dumpster at the back of the restaurant as far from the backdoor as possible. I didn’t bother turning on the lights again since I knew the path by heart. As I carried two large bags of stinky trash to the large bin, I fantasized about my fluffy mattress and my bamboo pillow.

The next thing I knew I was airborne, the garbage bags flying in different directions. I managed to twist, landing on my shoulder and hip.

What the hell?

I rolled to a sitting position and leaned forward, trying to see what I had tripped over. My palms slid around in a wet, sticky puddle. I noticed my shirt was soaked, and now that the shock wore off, I could smell the metallic tinge of blood and something else. Sweet like root beer, only spicier. I scrabbled backward, heart racing. I popped to my feet, returned to the kitchen, and turned on the outside lights.

Less than a foot from the back door laid a human-like body. It had no hair. No skin. No face. Its hollowed sockets stared blindly upward, and its mouth gaped wide, revealing straight, even teeth. My stomach roiled with nausea as I viewed the meaty red corpse.

Blood soaked the ground, offering a terrifying backdrop for a horrific display of what had once been a person.

They found me. The hunters. A warning about—no. No. They were dead. Each and every one of them. Dead, dead.

Your enemies are no more, little sister.

I took immediate comfort from the imaginary voice, and my panic subsided.

I scrambled into the kitchen, shutting and locking the door behind me. I tried to slow down my heaving breaths and calm my pounding pulse.

You are safe.

What a messed up lie
, I thought. I wasn’t safe. I’m not sure I’d ever been. But the voice once again helped me to clear my jumbled thoughts. I dug my cell phone out of the back pocket of my jeans, tapped it open, and dialed the Sheriff’s office.

“Deputy Farraday,” a man said. “How can I help you?”

“Eldin,” I said, my voice shaking. “This is Chavvah. You need to wake up the sheriff.”

“
A
nd you turned off the light and walked out here and tripped over the body?” Sheriff Taylor asked for the millionth time. The dark circles under his eyes made him look as tired as I felt. His appearance had more to do with the fact that his second nature was a raccoon. Mine was actual exhaustion. The sheriff stood over the body, and I leaned against the doorjamb. Deputy Farraday had been taking pictures and making notes. The town coroner and local funeral director, Mark Smart, prepared a body bag.

Why would someone leave a freshly skinned corpse outside a vegetarian restaurant? Was it a statement from some crazy meat eaters?

I didn’t want to think about the question hovering just outside my potential hysteria.
Was this poor soul someone I knew?

“Chavvah?”

“Yes,” I finally responded. “That’s what happened.” I felt sick to my stomach, and now that the adrenaline had completely worn off, I could smell every sickly, rancid bit of the man’s exposed muscle and fat. I averted my gaze from the ghastly sight, but my other shifter senses were on high alert. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to get that particular stench out of my nose.

“You didn’t hear anything?”

“Like I said, I had my ear buds in, listening to a book.” I put my hand on my belly to stop a wave of queasiness. “I can’t believe…” My breath quickened, and I swallowed the rising bile. “…this happened.”

Sheriff Taylor joined me near the back door and squeezed my shoulder. “I’m real sorry, Chav.”

I saw movement around the corner, and my heart jumped into my throat. I grabbed the sheriff’s shoulder, but then I recognized the silver glint of Billy Bob’s hair.
Shit.
The doc was the last person I wanted seeing me covered in blood and looking, once again, like a victim.

The werewolf strode directly to us, barely glancing at the body. His stare was intense as his gaze pinned mine. “Are you okay?” The low, throaty growl that followed the question sent shivers down my skin.

I nodded, worried that if I opened my mouth, I’d start crying.

Billy Bob turned to the sheriff. “Do you know who it is?”

“No. Mark’s pretty certain it’s a man, even with his skin and genitals removed.” He winced as he spoke. “We can’t figure out if it’s one of ours or one of the people who came in for the Jubilee.” I could hear a sad weariness in his tone. Our town had already been through so much, and this murder compounded the misery with interest. “Doc, you’ll have to help us ID the victim.”

As the only medical doctor for miles around, and really, the only one qualified to examine a therian body, Billy Bob would do the autopsy. Call me a chicken, but I couldn’t stay there within three feet of a skinned corpse and talk about it—him. “I … I think I’ll go shower now.”

“I know you want to clean up, Chav,” the sheriff said. “But you did the right thing in waiting until we arrived.” He snapped his fingers at Farraday, who trotted over with a paper bag. “I need you to put all your clothes in this bag after you change. Also, I don’t think you should stay here tonight. Why don’t you stay with Sunny and Babe for a few days?”

Sunny and Babel were having enough issues with Baby Jude not sleeping through the night. They were both exhausted, and I didn’t want to upset Sunny. Not tonight. Besides, I couldn’t deal with my friend’s reaction to blood. Sunny was notoriously squeamish and tended to faint.

“Chavvah can stay with me,” said Billy Bob.

“Uh, no.” I racked my brain for alternatives. I didn’t want to go to Billy Bob’s place. One, it was attached to his clinic, and I still had a lot of painful memories of my recovery, and two, I couldn’t stand the idea of sleeping just feet away from Billy Bob, knowing he’d never see me as anything more than a patient. “I’ll go to Ruth’s.”

“It’s after ten, Chavvah.” He used his doctor tone—the one that suffered no arguments. “There’s no sense in waking her and Ed this late at night.”

“Besides, they took in two of the Jubilee attendees,” added the sheriff. “They’ve already got tight quarters.”

Desperate, I seized on a ridiculous thought. “I’ll sleep at the motel.”

The Halliver’s Hilltop Motel was a thirty-bed unit just outside of town on the same rural road that led to Sunny and Babel’s cabin. Homer and Audrey Halliver, a nice young were-raccoon couple, managed the motel.

Billy Bob lifted an eyebrow. “The rooms are booked. But maybe Bethany could let you share her room at the Halliver’s.”

The knowing look in his eyes made me want to punch him in his perfectly flawless kissable kisser. Billy Bob or Bitch?

I took the lesser of two evils.

“Fine,” I said, making sure he heard the irritation in my acquiescence. I snatched up the paper bag for my bloody clothes. “I’ll be right back.”

* * * *

Blood colored the shower stall.

As the hot water poured over me, the memory of getting clean after sitting in my own filth and blood for three weeks rolled back on me like a dust devil on a hot highway. My imaginary friend began to chant. I couldn’t understand the words bouncing in my mind, but I understood the soothing tone. Calmness stole my panic, and I released a pent-up breath.

It took all of about fifteen minutes to shower, change my clothes and pack an overnight case. I didn’t want to stay longer than a day or two. When I got back downstairs, I found Billy Bob and the sheriff in the kitchen. The back door was still open. One glance out the back door confirmed that the body had been removed. But the blood-soaked dirt remained. A terrible reminder of the carnage.