“My friend tells me he saw you shift last night.”
Hugging herself, Selene’s eyes widened.
“You didn’t think I’d know about the shift? Oh, yes. I’m a werewolf too. We all are wolves here.” Artemis sat down on an upholstered bench near the fireplace. “Are your parents wolves?” she asked softly.
Selene shook her head.
“Did they kick you out of the house?”
How did she know? Selene looked down at her feet.
“It happens more than you might think. Lycanthropy is genetic. On occasion, werewolves breed with humans and the gene is suppressed. It might rear its head two or three generations from the source. This can be terrifying to people unfamiliar with our kind.”
“They’re gone now. They moved,” Selene said, remembering the day she’d come home from high school to find an empty house and no forwarding address. “I haven’t seen them in almost a year.”
“That’s a long time to be living on the street. What are you… fifteen?”
“Sixteen. I’ll be seventeen in January.”
Artemis nodded. “How would you like this to be your new home? You can stay here with us and I’ll take care of you. We’ll become your pack.”
Selene’s eyes darted around the opulent room, from the gilded chandelier to the fireplace with its stone mantle. “Why… would you do that?”
Artemis smiled. “It’s what the goddess wants. She sent you to us, and it is our duty to accept her gift.”
“The goddess?” Selene laughed, shaking her head.
Artemis took her hand. “Come, my child. Let’s find you a room. There will be plenty of time to discuss all of this when you’re rested.”
Selene emerged from the memory with a deep inhale, opening her eyes. She was a werewolf, an acolyte, a gift from the goddess. She was no victim.
“Oh no, Jason.” If anything happened to him, Artemis would be so disappointed in her. He was her responsibility and obviously not in his right mind. She sprinted into his room, looking for anything that might give her a clue to where he might go.
Next to his laptop, a box carved out of ebony sat on top of a pile of paperwork. She’d seen the snake on the lid before. Yes, the ring Jason had worn. She flipped it open. Empty, of course. Still, Jason had been toying with the box. Why?
“Lost Things,” she read off the label on the bottom. It was worth a try.
She reached for her phone. She was going to need transportation.
“Areyou sure you want to be dropped off here, miss?” the Uber driver asked. “This is a bad neighborhood. Real bad. I won’t be able to wait for you while you’re inside.”
Selene heard a high-pitched scream from somewhere down the alley followed by running footsteps that faded with distance. She hesitated. Stacks of books with worn titles waited just inside the front window, only one that she could read from her seat—The Glory of the Dead. An antique doll’s head with a half-burned face leaned against the stack next to what looked like a human skull.
“I hate the sign,” the driver said. “Look at the eyes. Is the little boy lost physically or lost in another way?” The big man shivered.
“I… I don’t know,” Selene said, glancing at the Lost Things logo.
“Well, it gives me the creeps. Either go in now or I’m charging you for the ride back. I’m not staying here another minute.”
She apologized and tipped him a few dollars. Steeling her resolve, she hopped out of the midsize sedan and hurried into the shop. The bell above the door chimed, heralding her entrance.
A man she was sure was a vampire turned from a shelf that held nothing but baskets of bones, sorted by size. He flashed her a little fang before resuming his shopping. The place stank of moldy parchment and bad taxidermy, but Selene shuffled deeper into the store.
“You’re in the wrong place, angel,” a man’s voice said. He seemed to appear out of thin air beside her, dark and menacing. Not dark skinned, just dark. Black hair, black eyes, a complexion with olive undertones, and upturned eyes she couldn’t associate with any specific supernatural species or the human race. But his presence was dark as if the night air had become corporal beside her.
“I’m no angel.”
“But your soul doesn’t belong in this zip code.” His voice was burning cinder blocks.
