Page 50 of Signs and Wonders

Travis watched to make sure no patrons were returning while Seth and Tyler dragged the shifter out the back door and threw him in the trunk of Travis’s Crown Vic.

Travis flipped the sign to “Closed” and followed them.

Seth was already on his phone. “Drake—we need a place to stash someone for a little while, out of the way. Somewhere unofficial. Can you help?”

Seth listened and then nodded. “Okay, thanks. Meet you there.” He looked to the others. “He’s got a cabin twenty minutes outside of town. Let’s go.”

Tyler looked spooked. “What are you going to do to the thing pretending to be Cam?”

“Nothing fatal,” Seth assured him. “But we need to find out where Cameron is, confirm who sent the shifter, and keep him sidelined until this is over. There’s no point in letting him run back to Swain and tell tales or have him show up so we fight him again. Just think about it as we’re swapping one kidnapping for another.”

Tyler swallowed hard. “Do you think Cam’s okay?”

Seth didn’t want to imagine how hard this was for Tyler, who had held up well when it came to accepting the supernatural and the idea of the coven.

“Swain wants Cameron alive.” Seth did his best to sound positive without giving false hope. “I think he’s okay for now. We’re going to do everything we can to get him back safe.”

Tyler nodded, stoic although Seth suspected he was barely holding it together. “What is that thing?”

“A shapeshifter, but I don’t know what kind yet,” Travis replied.

“You mean a werewolf?”

Evan shook his head. “No. Werewolves only turn into wolves. A shapeshifter like the one you saw at the lodge can appear to be anything—another person, a dog, a deer. They’re born with the ability, not turned or bitten.”

“How common are they?” Tyler sounded aghast.

“Hard to know because unless you test them with silver, you can’t be certain who is and who isn’t,” Travis said. “Most of them don’t bother anyone, so we don’t bother them. Being a supernatural creature isn’t a crime. Using those abilities to break the law and hurt people is.”

“I just want to save Cam,” Tyler said.

“So do we. And we’re going to do our damnedest,” Seth vowed.

Drake’s cabin nestled in a secluded area down a dirt road. He sat on the bumper of his truck, waiting, when they pulled up.

“Is this out of the way enough?” Drake raised an eyebrow.

“Should be perfect,” Seth replied.

“I’m probably required to remind you that kidnapping is a federal offense.” Drake’s tone made it clear his words were a formality.

“If it’s a creature who isn’t human and therefore doesn’t legally exist, and he’s already kidnapped someone else, I don’t think it counts,” Travis answered.

The doppelganger banged on the trunk lid from the inside, and his muffled curses were clear in intent even if the words didn’t quite carry.

“Shut the fuck up,” Seth said and thumped the trunk with his fist.

“Hey—don’t dent the car!” Travis protested.

“Can you?” Seth asked Travis, who seemed to understand without needing the rest of the sentence.

Travis closed his eyes, and his lips moved silently as he called to nearby ghosts. The temperature fell, and a second later, the shifter in the trunk gave a frightened yelp.

“No funny stuff when we get you out, or we’ll feed you to the ghost—got that?” Seth yelled. Silence amounted to agreement. Seth opened the trunk while Travis looked on with an expression of concentration that told Seth the medium was communicating with ghosts.

“Is that—” Drake asked, startled.

“Not Cameron,” Seth hurried to tell him. “Shifter. We want some answers, and figured we needed somewhere more private. Thanks for helping us.”

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