Page 123 of Sigils & Spells

“I thoughtK.C. said Zero was practically a ghost town,” Bygul growled, glaring at the stores K.C. had described as boarded up and empty, that instead had gleaming windows and were a hive of activity, with people bustling in and out, carting boxes back and forth. “Are we in the right place?”

“Well, that shop there says Zero Books, so I’m guessing yes,” Tivali said.

“That doesn’t even make sense,” Bygul grumbled. “It’s a book store. Why would you call it Zero Books if the store’s full of books?”

“It’s the name of the town,” Muezza said. “All the stores seem to have Zero in their names.”

“That makes even less sense,” Bygul said. “Who wants to live in a town called Zero?”

“Didn’t K.C. also say the town was mostly full of non-paranormals?” Soraya asked.

“Yes, and I’m pretty certain he said the only exceptions were the witches,” Muezza said.

“That can’t be right,” Tivali said, “because those are most definitely wolf shifters.” She nodded toward a group of adolescents chasing each other around the town square.

“And I’m pretty sure that human over there’s a vampire,” Soraya said.

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous,” Bygul snapped. “Vampires are just a myth.”

“That’s not what Nefertiti says,” Soraya argued. “She says vampires used to be avid nature lovers, but then a witch cast a spell and now all vampires get severe sunburns anytime they’re out in the sun too long. The witch even made it so no medicine or clothing could shield them from the sun’s effects. They mostly stay inside now except at night, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.”

“Well, who am I to contradict a queen of Egypt?” Bygul said dryly.

Muezza snickered. “Please. You contradict them all the time.”

Bygul thought that was a bit of an exaggeration. “Only when they’re wrong.” He didn’t say what else he was thinking, that Nefertiti was cracked in the head if she truly believed vampires existed.

She probably thought they had risen from the dead and had no reflections either.

Talk about ridiculous.

“This is probably good news,” Tivali said. “There’s a much wider pool of mate candidates now. Matches can take so long when we’re having to somehow arrange for a human to relocate to meet his or her match.”

“True,” Bygul said. “I suppose we should get to work. First, we need to match this little guy with his purrfect human companion.” He glanced down at the black and white kitten sleeping at his feet.

“I vote Pippa,” Muezza said. “She needs a familiartoday.”

“Yesterday would have been better,” Soraya said.

“Why? What happened yesterday?” Bygul demanded.

“Well, I’m not positive it was her,” Soraya said, “but apparently several garages spontaneously burst into flames last night.”

“How could you possibly know that?” Muezza demanded. “We just arrived and you’ve been lying down the entire time.”

Soraya gave a lazy stretch and flicked her tail. “I don’t see why I can’t lie down and still be useful. After all, it was while lying down that I was able to read about the garages.” She rolled over, revealing the newspaper she’d been lying on.

Bygul walked over and gave the newspaper a quick scan.

Interesting.

Apparently, spontaneous combustion of property had become quite common in Zero over the last several months.

Thankfully no one had been hurt.

Yet.

“Right then,” Bygul said decisively. “Pippa it is.”

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