Page 58 of Kin of the Wolf

“No. I’m on salary.”

“Two months,” Rue said firmly. “I am certain a large apartment complex regularly offers discounts to secure new tenants. Especially in the winter.”

She wasn’t wrong, but I squinted suspiciously at the phone. “How often have you moved apartments, Rue?”

How often had she beenforcedto move apartments by neighbors and landlords suspicious of her witchy—alchemy—ways?

“I frequently enjoy a change of scenery.”

“Uh-huh. Okay, the discounts I mentioned earlier, and two months’ free rent with a two-year lease. Butyou’ll need to pony up a damage deposit. I’ve been in your apartment. It reeks of incense, burned cauldron mixings, and chicken feet.”

I took another long swig of my coffee while waiting for her to argue further.

“That is fair,” was all she said. “I will prepare the potions before I finish packing. I believe… Yes, I have not yet boxed up the ingredients I will need.”

“Thank you. Uhm, Rue? Just so I know, would the poison have killed someone who consumed it?”

“Oh yes. It’s very deadly. Even though it doesn’t act quickly, it’s magical in nature and proliferates in the bloodstream. It’s designed to kill even hearty paranormal individuals with greater immune systems than mundane human beings.”

“I was afraid of that.”

“The antidote, delivered in time, destroys the poison before the proliferation can turn exponential.”

I shuddered. “That antidote sounds like something everyone should have in the cabinet.”

“Everyone with enemies who have access to poison makers, yes.”

How sad that I’d become such a person of late. Even though I’d enjoyed answering the call of the wolf again, and hunting under the silver moonlight, a part of me missed the days when my greatest enemies had been the parents from my sons’ rival soccer teams. In a hissy fit of frustration and despair over a loss, one mom had thrown a rice-crispy treat at our coach that had bounced off his shoulder and hit me in the head. I’d recovered fully from the ordeal.

While I dressed, I finished my Americano and brewed two more drinks, putting them in my insulated to-go cups. With the beverages in hand, I headed out to Duncan’s van to warn him to throw away the desserts, if he hadn’t already. Given the way he’d drooled over them the night before, he might have been waiting with hope for a negative result.

His sliding door opened before I knocked on the van. Shirtless,with his hair mussed, he smiled brightly at me—or possibly the coffee cups.

“Is one of those for me?”

“Yup.”

His eyelids drooped. “I adore you.”

“I’d be delighted, but I think you would have said that to Bolin, too, if he’d brought you caffeine.”

“Possibly, but I wouldn’t have lowered my eyelids sexily at him.” Duncan accepted my offered cup and took a deep drink. He’d had a rough couple of days too.

“That’s good. From what I’ve seen of his tastes, sexily lowered eyelids of the male variety might alarm him.”

“I didn’t think the kid ever shared his coffee anyway.” Duncan hopped out to join me in the parking lot. Maybe because his bed was a mess—yes, hemusthave had a rough night—he didn’t feel proper offering it as a seat. “When he wanders in from the parking lot, he’s always clutching his cups like they’re ancient Incan treasures.”

“He needs a lot of fortification to start the workday at eight. But if you’re a cute girl, he might share.”

Of the variouscute girlsI’d seen him moon-eye, he’d actually only offered coffee to Jasmine. He’d given me one the morning I’d come in with twigs and leaves and moss in my hair, but it hadn’t been the fancy whipped-cream-topped mocha.

“Or if you slept in the woods,” I added.

“That applies to me often.”

“I suppose the van is quite the improvement over waking up in a bed of ferns.”

His eyelids drooped again. “It depends who I wake upwithin the ferns.” A fond smile crept across his face as he considered me.

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