The werewolf reached into one of his sacks and pulled out a glowing prismatic stone resembling an opal. He blinked twice,grunting something resembling a word before taking my hand. He pressed the warm stone into my palm and pointed in what I assumed was the direction I’d come from. As I turned, he vanished without a sound, the dim light of the late afternoon rushing back into my vision.
I held my chest and took in a full breath of air for the first time in what seemed like hours, but the encounter had been brief. I shuffled the pretty stone between two fingers. Who were those creatures? Perhaps the half-turn I’d seen earlier or one of the local werewolves would know.
I stuffed the stone into my pocket and made a mad dash toward the now-visible threshold leading to the backyard. The sky lightened even more until dappled sunlight warmed my skin. Every step I took toward the clearing, I felt a strange pull deep in my chest, almost beckoning me to turn away.
“Oh. The nerd’s back,” Adam said, startling me as he sat on one of the logs around the pit. “Why were you out there?”
“I was getting firewood.”
His eyes narrowed. “Is it invisible?”
“I changed my mind,” I said before making my way to the back door. Adam stood and ran over to me.
“You could have at least gotten something to burn.”
“If you want to make a fire, go get the wood yourself.”
Adam paused and then let out a sigh. “Why are we fighting?”
“You tell me. You’re the one that’s been shitty when all I’ve been trying to do is help and keep our heads above water.”
Adam looked away, but I knew what this was about.
“I didn’t take that money from you because I want to hoard ourriches. Until we have income that’s more than a monthly government check, we need to have emergency funds ready. We’ve got two werewolves that eat like horses, and we still have to pay the utilities and whatever other costs creep up.”
“You do realize that werewolves hunt, right?” Adam asked.
I couldn’t help but laugh at that as I entered the house. “I’ve never seen Roscoe hunt for anything other than the remote control.”
“He caught that giant fish with his bare hands.”
I’d forgotten about that.
“We’re not going to starve. Austin and Roscoe can do things we can’t, and if it came down to it, they’d get us food. There were times Austin and I had no money, and he would go out at night and hunt. The next morning, there was meat in the fridge.” Adam’s face twisted in disgust. “I don’t know what kind of meat it was, but I try not to think too much about it. Werewolves seem to have a strong instinct to take care of half-turns. Even if some of them treat us like shit.”
“I didn’t know that. Why the hell are we wasting money on groceries when they could just go out there and get us something fresh?”
“Because we keep buying food. Werewolves get really lazy when they just get stuff without having to do anything for it.”
“Well, the gravy train ends today.”
Adam reached into his pocket and handed me a wad of cash. “You should control the money. You’re more responsible than I am, plus Austin has a way of talking me into giving him extra cash.”
I took the money and shoved it into my pocket with the rest. “How much money have you given him?”
“A lot. I don’t know what he spends it on either.”
“How much you wanna bet he’s been holding out on us?”
“What do you mean?”
“He doesn’t buy anything, right?”
“He apparently bought all those tools without me knowing.”
I slowed my pace as we approached their bedroom.
“What are we doing?” Adam asked.
