Page 16 of Raven's Instinct
“I can stay with Amy and you can go home,” Alan offered. “You look dead on your…uh…you lookgreat.”
“Nice save,” Addison chuckled, but she let Alan lift Amy out of her arms and got carefully to her feet. “We’ve gone over the close-up procedures a few times now, and Kendra shouldn’t be long now.”
Amy was perfectly happy to go to Alan, and immediately took his braid in her fist.
Addison got her things together, went over some last pieces of advice, yawned three times, and left with a grateful wave.
The day care was weirdly quiet with her gone. Alan carried Amy around and let her turn off the lights they weren’t using, to her delight. That left only the playroom overhead on, and the dark hallway in back gave the room a spooky undertone. Alan set Amy down in the middle of the room and she immediately bounced up and went to grab at the shelves of toys. Alan snagged one that she seemed interested in, a light-up ball with variouspanels of texture, and tried to lure her away from touching the rest of them so he wouldn’t have to wipe them all down again.
Amy resisted his distraction and went to pull down a tub of other toys. Alan finally picked her up and carried her to the center of the story rug where she objected to a great deal of his play, and tried to hit him with the book he offered to read her, scratching at the pages.
She cried when he diverted her, a thin, tired cry of frustration, and tried to escape at every opportunity.
Alan knew that Kendra was coming a moment before his phone security app alerted, his raven suddenly alert and interested. He let Kendra in through the day care door with the push of a button, scooped up a still-protesting Amy, and went to meet her.
“I am so sorry I’m late!” Kendra called, before Alan could see her. “I did not mean to leave you waiting so long...”
She stood on the other side of the gate and stared over it. Dirt smudged her round face and she smelled like barnyard and blood. Alan had never seen anything so lovely, and he didn’t think that it wasallbecause he was ready to hand Amy back to someone who would appreciate her more.
Amy kept the moment from getting awkward by shrieking in joy and trying to launch herself from Alan’s arms. When he wouldn’t let her fling herself into space, she shifted into a fluffy gray owl, trapped in her own clothing.
10
KENDRA
Kendra had to chuckle, watching Alan play out the same struggle with Amy that she was so familiar with.He’s more graceful than me, she thought, and dangerously fun to watch. He was also rather liberally sprinkled in glitter, and Kendra was not sure that he realized it.
“Careful!” Alan said in alarm and clear embarrassment, trying to keep Amy from hurting one of her wings as she fought her way out of her clothing, while also not dropping her. Down flew everywhere. “You’re losing all your feathers, sweetie!”
“She’s molting,” Kendra explained, trying to decide if she should take off her boots to come over the gate and help him, or risk Cherry’s wrath with dirty soles. “That’s normal.” She stayed on her side of the gate with effort.
“I only lose a feather or two at a time,” Alan said, juggling Amy, Amy’s clothing, and Amy’s uncoordinated wings. “She’s going to be bald by this time tomorrow if she keeps this up!”
“She’s making room for her new flight feathers. It’s an itchy time for her. Was she crabby today?”
There was just enough of a pause before Alan answered that Kendra suspected he was finding a diplomatic answer. “She was a doll.”
“If by doll, you mean Chucky, but cuter.”
Alan snorted in laughter, just as Amy snapped onto the end of his swinging braid with her beak.
Kendra couldn’t resist then, stepping over the gate to save Alan as he winced when Amy yanked as hard as she could. His arms around her remained gentle; he didn’t squeeze or pull at her.
“Let go, Amy!” Kendra scolded, as if Amy was a dog. “Drop it!”
Amy gave a little growl in her throat and released Alan’s hair after a brief, defiant stare. Then she turned back into a naked little girl, fluffy down falling all around. She went willingly to Kendra and wrapped tiny arms around her neck with unexpected strength.
Alan made a show of wiping his brow in relief and Kendra tried not to stare, focusing instead on Amy’s death grip. “I still have to breathe, sweetie!” Instinct was sayingpay attention, but it was hard to know if it wasdangeror justdesperate attraction, and Kendra already knew that she wasn’t good at telling the difference.
“Addison said you had a medical emergency,” Alan said, handing Kendra Amy’s clothing.
Kendra knelt to get Amy dressed and in a diaper again, around the girl’s tired protests. “An injured bull,” she said briefly. “Stepped in a coil of barbed wire.” She wanted to tell him more, and would have, if he had been Addison, but how well did she really know this man?
Well enough to trust her child to him, apparently? But not enough to trust another shifter’s secrets to him. They weren’t hers to trust.
Amy rubbed her eyes. Her struggles were clumsy and sluggish. “I’ll be so happy when you start shifting with your clothes, little owl,” Kendra told her, snapping up the front ofher dress. If Amy fell asleep at the laundromat, which seemed increasingly likely, she probably wouldn’t sleep through the night.
“We had minor success with some of the other kids, today,” Alan said, handing her a sock that Amy had flung away. “Just so you know there’s some hope on the horizon.”
