Page 24 of Midlife Shifter Unexpected

“How do you do that? How do you handle people so well?” I asked in awe of her finesse.

“Oh my goodness,” she said. “If you don’t handle him, I will. He is divine with a capital D. I am not going to stay very long, based on what you’ve got prowling around. In fact, if you need me to check into the Crown Hotel, I will go right now. I understand why you were thinking that would be the right place for me. You need this little two-bedroom place all to yourself and your love honey.”

“You did not just call him my love honey, did you?” I asked.

It was so refreshing talking to Jane. It was like having a breath of spring air and remembering what it was like to be normal again. It was like having me without all the supernatural crazy. I mean, the truth was, I kind of didn’t mind all the supernatural crazy. It was kind of fun in a way, but there was also a part of it that I didn’t know if I was quite ready for it. Although apparently the universe thought I was, or else it wouldn’t be happening. It was as if I had known about the wolf within me my whole life, but only now I was able to connect with her? I felt a burst of youthful excitement again.

“He is going to be your love honey,” Jane purred. “I can smell it on him.”

Smell.

The smell of rotting corpse suddenly came to my nose. I cringed, but it wasn’t actually happening; it was a sense memory, yet every muscle in my body was repulsed by the sickeningly sweet fetid smell of rotten corpses that was nestled in my nasal cavity.

A flash of a symbol came to mind.

I didn’t remember seeing it at the time, but the symbols on the grave were there in the memory. There was something about them. I needed to smell around a little bit more and find out what it was. I might be able to track the actual smell and find the corpses.

There was a lot of work to be done.

But then it struck me, and I remembered.

“You said I’m going to die,” I said. “And you said it so convincingly last night that you actually got on a plane and flew all the way across the country. And then you wouldn’t tell me any more about it.”

“Everything I had to tell you, I told you last night,” Jane said. “It was just a sensation, like there was you and it was dark and there was death. That’s all I can tell you. It was just the smell of dead bodies, a sense of darkness, of fear, of your body decomposing and changing.”

“My body changing?” I asked. Maybe she meant when I turned into a werewolf. There was a small death of my human form then. Maybe that was what she was talking about. I didn’t know how to broach the subject without making it sound like I was crazy, but I was going to try. “What if it was something such as the death of a former self in metaphorical way? It’s like the death tarot card we all used to do with the sorority. It just really means change, right? So, maybe-”

She cut me off fast. “This was not metaphorical. Do you think I would’ve flown across the country just to tell you that you were going to have a life-changing experience? Girlfriend, that is not what I did. We’re all going through menopause. We’re all having a life-changing experience and no one is talking about it, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about. No, you were like literally dead. D.E.A.D. Dead.”

“Did Matheus have anything to do with it?” I asked, hoping against hope this wasn’t the case and that he was cleared of all suspicion based on Jane’s intuition.

“Oh no, he’s fine, honey. Don’t let anything stand between you and that hunk of toasted spice.” She let out a low hum of appreciation.

“Look, based on everything you said, we’ve got to go.” I insisted. She was going to have to meet Mae and the sooner the better. “I have to take you somewhere and introduce you to some people and you’ve got to tell them stuff. You can’t just sit on all this information yourself.”

“You’re still in your pajamas,” Jane pointed out. “I’m still in my sweaty workout gear, so when I shower, and you change and then we’ll go and meet these new friends of yours. I can tell them about it, because ma cherie, you need friends right now. I’m sure of that.”

Chapter 18

It was hard trying to fill Jane in on everything that had happened up at The Estate over the last two-hundred years. What made it easier was all the stuff I couldn’t tell her. I kept it down to a bare minimum that the Hayes family had been around since the beginning of time, as far as Cougar Creek was concerned, and they had a lot of power in the area. The descendent we were meeting was now in charge and we were going to go see her and maybe her premonition of death had something to do with it. At the end of the day, I’d rather have them speak to each other rather than me being the go between.

Jane seems to take it all on her stride. As though going to somebody’s house for a tonic was a normal thing to do. I guess it helped that I didn’t tell her that I turned into a werewolf. That would create feedback of the not too positive kind, I was sure.

Mae, Trina, and Hilda were all in the kitchen when I arrived. The kids, Anita and Drake, were minding the bakery. Jane was immediately impressed with the way Trina was setting up all the potions on the table.

“My grandmother used to do this,” she said. “She was a Creole lady who brought a whole bunch of voodoo magic from her grandmere. I remember as a child she always made me drink lots of tonics.”

“Are you sure your family’s Creole?” Hilda asked.

“Yes, absolutely positive, we are as mixed as blood can be.” Jane grinned, clearly proud of her heritage.

“This is the woman I texted you about today,” I explained. “Jane’s a sorority sister of mine. She sometimes has the gift and she’s been seeing me in precarious situations and…and…”

I couldn’t even bring the words out.

“I saw her dying.” Jane didn’t seem to have the same sensitivity.

“That’s pretty dire.” Hilda’s gaze bored into me.

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