Page 47 of Shadow Scorching

“I should have Sophia do the same—she’s an oracle.” I forked up a heaping bite of the mac ‘n cheese, letting it melt in my mouth. It was so creamy and cheesy that all I could do was close my eyes as the flavor trickled down my throat. “I needed this tonight.”

“I’m glad you like it,” she said. “What do you want to watch?” She held up the remote.

“I’m not sure. Something that doesn’t require me to think. I feel fried. Oh,” I said, leaning forward. “I almost forgot. I met Dante’s father. Kind of.”

Penn set down her fork. “Really? Is this the first time you’ve met him?”

“Yes. By the time Dante found me and took me in, he had been excommunicated from his family. I never met any of them except Tilly.”

“When was Dante born?” Penn asked.

“Close to when you were born. October 31, 1950. In shifter years, he’s still young. Shifters age a lot slower than humans, as you know.”

“Not as slow as the Fae,” Penn said.

“True. I have no idea how long demons live, but we’re all going to live longer than someone who’s human,” I said.

“Like Carson,” Penn said.

That was a sobering thought, but accurate. “True, that. Anyway, I’m young still, compared to you and to Dante.”

Penn grinned. “Your birthday’s coming up, though. January third. You need to tell me what you want for a present. So…Dante’s father.You’ve met my mother. How does he compare to her?”

Eileen, her mother, was human. Penn had never had the chance to meet any of her father’s relatives—they would never accept her.

But Eileen tried. I’d met her once. A quiet woman, she lived in a small beach house in Aberdeen, a run-down city on the Washington coast that overlooked the Pacific. Fran was a recluse who had missed the hippie era but who hearkened back to it. Penn loved her, but Eileen didn’t understand her daughter. They both did their best to bridge the vast gap that Penn’s Fae heritage created, but they never quite met in the middle. But they got together for Thanksgiving, and usually for New Years.

I thought about it for a moment. “Cold. I didn’t like him at all. He reminded me of someone who would walk away from a dying friend if there was money to be made. Dante said hethinks his parents are waiting for Tilly to die, so they can take their places as the leaders of their clan…family unit…whatever you call it within the Pack.”

“Lovely,” Penn said. She picked up her plate again and turned on the television. “Family of choice is always stronger. At least for a lot of us.”

“I agree.” At the next commercial, I asked her to pause the stream. “So, you said you set up everything for tomorrow night?”

“Yep. We’re going to meet there at 7:30. That way Lazenti won’t have any trouble. I also asked Sophia to call your client. He asked if he could be there. I told her absolutely not. He could really mess things up.”

“Good,” I said. “I’ve been worried about the spirits there trying to jump him.”

“You’re right to be concerned,” Penn said. “As it is, I’m going to give Carson a charm to protect him. He’s too vulnerable, even though he doesn’t consider himself so. But I asked him to let me make one for him, and he relented.”

“Good, he’s going to need it.”

“Okay, let’s get back to the movie. We’ve got a full day tomorrow, and I want to lose myself in somebody else’s adventure tonight.”

So we settled back, playing with the cats and eating and letting the day dissolve as night crept in and lulled us to sleep.

Morning came,and with it, temperatures were heading back up for a while. It was thirty-four degrees, and instead of snow, a light drizzle was falling. It would turn the compacted snow into slush, which was almost worse.

I headed to the office. Dante hadn’t texted me since I left him at the hospital and I hoped to hell it was just that he was too tired to remember. But his car was in the parking lot as I drove up. I crossed the parking lot, picking my way around the worst of the slushy puddles that had already formed.

As I entered the office, Sophia waved at me. “Hey, welcome back.”

“I’m sorry we’re in on the weekend, but I want to try to wrap up Michael’s case as soon as possible and get him and his family back in their house,” I said.

“Well, given we took our weekend in the middle of the week, I think we’re all okay,” Sophia said. “Oh, about Michael?—”

“Penn told me he asked if he can be there tonight. Absolutely not. I want no chance for the revenant—or the shadow man—to possess him. Any other calls?”

Sophia glanced at her screen. The software we used turned voice mail into easy-to-read messages and made it easier to keep track of. We could print them out and file them so we’d have a record in their folders, but we could also store them electronically.

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