Page 65 of The Vampire and the Case of the Cursed Canine

‘Done, Bunny. See you soon. Everything is going to be okay.’

‘Yeah,’ I grunted. I was grateful that he didn’t ream me out for my mistake, but at the same time I wasn’t ready for reassurance. ‘En route,’ I said briskly and hung up.

‘What’s a yee naaldlooshii?’ I asked Connor, as we jostled down the road to town, hitting pothole after pothole.

Connor raised an eyebrow. ‘A skinwalker.’

‘And one of those is…?’

A smile turned up his lips. ‘I forget sometimes how little you still know.’

‘Yeah, yeah, rub it in.’

‘Sorry, I don’t mean to. I like sharing my world with you. A yee naaldlooshii or skinwalker is a type of shapeshifter, but their change comes from a native form of witchcraft. They can turn into many shapes and forms, not just one.’

‘She said I wouldn’t recognise her next time I saw her.’

Connor tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. ‘Interesting. I’ve heard it said that skinwalkers can change their human appearance but I haven’t ever seen one to know if it’s true. They are … distrusted amongst the paranormal community.’

‘Because they can make themselves look like anyone?’

He looked away. So maybe not just the ability to look like anyone.

‘They deny that ability, but that comment from Laura says otherwise. It may be why she wasn’t worried about dealing with you and Gunnar when the vendor was cursed.’

‘She knew we wouldn’t find her again?’

He nodded. ‘I’d say so.’

We arrived at the office in a skid of wheels. Thomas’s truck was already parked up, thank goodness. Hopefully we could grab the damn warrant and arrest Payne before she did too much damage. If she harmed my mum in the meantime, it didn’t bear thinking about.

Mum may have betrayed me in the worst possible way, but she was still my mother. If Payne harmed a hair on her head, she was going to be very, very sorry.

And then she’d be very, very dead.

Chapter 41

Thomas was talking to Sidnee when we arrived. She was curling her hair around her finger and looking distinctly shy – shy but interested. Thomas was going to need to move slower than a glacier after all she’d been through with Chris.

He gave us both a nod but it seemed his smiles were reserved for Sidnee. Looking a little flustered, she handed him the completed paperwork.

‘Let’s go,’ I said impatiently. We needed the seal from the council chambers for it to be valid. Thomas gave Sidnee an intense look as he turned to leave then the three of us and Fluffy walked briskly to the council chambers at the mayor’s office.

Once there, the men filled out what they needed to, signed and sealed them. Thomas said he’d stay to file it in the records while Connor, Fluffy and I headed back to Josephine’s house. I had the five-mile drive to work out how to get inside her gate. If it was too strong for two vampires to break in, we could go over the top of it or I could try to melt it to slag with my fire magic. I was up for anything at that point. My anxiety was riding high.

We pulled up to the gate and Connor pressed the button.

‘I told you to go away,’ the disembodied voice said.

‘This is Officer Barrington, Ms Payne. I have a warrant for your arrest. I suggest you open the gate and come quietly.’

There was a manic laugh, then it cut off sharply as she turned off the intercom. ‘The hard way it is, then,’ Connor said calmly.

We hopped out of the truck as Fluffy watched through the windshield. Connor examined the gate, determining which way it opened: his gate slid back, but hers looked like it swung up, which seemed fancy and more breakable, but who was I to judge? I lived in council housing.

‘I think if we both lift, we might be able to override the mechanism,’ Connor said. ‘It depends on how tough it is.’

‘I’m willing to try. Our last resort is me torching it and that seems more destructive and time consuming.’

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