“Matters of the heart?” Mr. Minegold looks around the room. “Sera is looking lovely tonight, don’t you think?”
I look at Sera, with her raven hair and her delicate white skin, her ethereal aura...
“She’s something else, Jakob, but notmysomething else. I need... I don’t know what I need. A pack of my own to protect. A mate to mark. All that jazz. It’s not happening with the three-piece suit and headset life. Maybe I ought to trade it in for a bike and tattoos. Seems to work. All the girls want a bad boy, right?” I swipe another shrimp puff from a tray as it goes past. “I guess I need to start growling, cursing, and eating... I don’t know. Wings and pork rinds?”
Jakob shakes his head. “I was a violinist and a teacher. I know as much about ‘bad boys’ as I do about running a sunny holiday resort in the tropics.”
“Yeah, that’d be tricky for someone sunlight-challenged.”
“I know that most women don’t like men to be bad tothem. I’ve seen a few women who like to know that their men possess the strength to do a dark deed if called upon.” His eyes drift far away. “I am happy Magda doesn’t know what I did to save her, but I know that any blood I’ve spilled protected innocents. Violent deeds, necessary deeds, for good purposes. There has never been a day when I thought I would have won her heart by being evil. You don’t think that, either. But...” Minegold smirks. “If you do get a motorcycle, may I have a go?”
“Any time, Jakob. Hey, who is taking the Night Watch?”
“Liam Icarus and Ian Fenclan have the first shift, and Sera and I have the second. Liam is covering Jax Alley and the campus. Ian is handling the town.”
Ian Fenclan, a mountain of an Orc, waltzes past with his petite little wife.
Their love has lasted decades. They have kids in their thirties. They deserve a night together, another night of many. “Tell Ian I’m covering for him. It’ll give me something to do besides mope and howl at the moon,” I kid.
But I’m not kidding.
Minegold gives me a sympathetic nod. “He’ll appreciate that. Keep an eye out for straggling trick-or-treaters. Sometimes we get out-of-towners passing through.” He looks around uneasily, a patient shepherd mentally counting his “flock” of normal townies and members of the supernatural community. Not everyone is here, of course. While our town is small compared to many in New York state, it still has a few thousand people—especially when the campus at NYU Pine Ridge is full.
“I’ll keep an eye out. Even if someone did wander into town, there’s nothing—”
Jakob coughs violently. “Do not speak it into being,” he mutters.
I nod. Our town is on three intersecting Ley Lines, meaning it’s an energy buffet that pulls supernatural beings here like flies to ripe fruit. Good ones. And bad ones. The good ones stay and settle, relieved to have a happy, safe home where they can live without worrying too much about being “seen” or exposing their families to the more corrupted supernatural beings. The evil ones... Well, that’s what the Night Watch is for. We don’t let them stay and feed on our people.
Maybe I’m just looking to punch something tonight...
I grab my coat and pull it on over my suit. I’m not in costume tonight—I get to put on an outfit I can’t shake for three nights ofthe month as it is. Outside, the air has a bite, and my teeth, just slightly more pointed at the canines than other humans’, itch. A little part of me wishes it were the full moon. I can feel the beast riding in my blood, running under my skin, aching for a chase, a hunt... But never a kill.
I let the stiff breeze blow out the carefully brushed hair, that perfect Clark Kent do. Mild-mannered reporter wants to bite—the soft neck of his mate, pumping her full of me, my claw-tipped fingers meshed with hers.
My heavy sigh sounds like a deep growl. Unlike shifters, I can’t pull the wolf that inhabits me to the front at any moment, but I can always feel him in my soul, sometimes resting, sometimes impatiently waiting, wild and hungry. Right now, the full moon is only five days away, and the wakefulness increases. I can feel the tug. I can feel little shifts, like a fast heartbeat, a greater urge to run and roam. I can see the changes sometimes, subtle little things that won’t give my true nature away, like an extra gold tint in my irises, more hair on my chest...more libido than I want, and a slight, bulbous swelling where I really don’t need it. No one needs to be reminded of a knot they have no purpose for...
I take my car and park it on Pine Crest Avenue, near the center of town. I figure that the most likely place for people to congregate will be the Night Market, a collection of stands and stalls set up in the large lot that runs behind The Pine Loft Coffee Shop and Cakes by Claire.
Even the Night Market is barren tonight. A few sellers remain, and their clients are shadowy and dark, things that move without sound, beings that seldom leave the woods or waters to come to town. A few college kids are milling around, too, and I can tell that they can’t even see the forms moving around them.
Great. Oblivious people. Most of the world can’t see supernatural creatures. The human mind doesn’t want to break the rules it knows, like monsters aren’t real, but these three seem particularly...
Unenlightened.
I wince as one of them nearly walks into a bog cat, and I hope the feral little fiend doesn't decide to alter his fate.
“Okay. Okay, sweetie, okay...”
My attention is drawn away from Larry, Moe, and Curly by soft, motherly tones and a fretful cry.
Little Red Riding Hood is getting out of her car, directly behind mine.
I blink and pull out an arm hair (it hurts more than pinching).
No, I’m not dreaming.
This not-so-bad wolf is seeing a gorgeous blonde in a tiny red dress and tinier cape rush to the backseat and pull out—a basket of goodies?
