“Fen…” Carter’s smile had widened into a grin. Despite his team’s sarcastic remarks, he seemed quite pleased. “Much as I love your defense of me and my wardrobe, they really do mean well. Even Pete. Probably.” Turning to the team, he said, “Can we stop bickering and get out of this swamp?”
Roland beckoned to him and Fen. “Pile in.”
They clambered into the boat. Ransom, who was steering, turned it around and started it up. As the boat motored along the swamp, Fen sank down, relieved to no longer have to paddle.
“So you got a magical pet,” said Merlin, trying to coax Precious on to his hand. “Now you’ll be much more understanding when Blue eats your chocolate, or steps on your shoes, or shreds your reports, or sits on your laptop, or—”
“I will not,” Carter interrupted. “Precious is very well-behaved. And she doesn’t shed.”
“Hi,” said the rainbow-haired woman, offering Fen a slim hand. “I’m Natalie Nash, the team’s newest bodyguard. I used to be a target girl and acrobat at a circus, and…” She glanced at Precious. “I assume Carter told you about magical animals.”
“I did.” He gave Natalie a strangely intense stare. “I also told her about the existence of shifters, and that I used to be a snow leopard, and that you’re all shifters. But that’s it. I didn’t tell her what animals you shift into. For instance.”
“Ah. Gotcha.” Turning back to Fen, Natalie said in tones of pride and brimming happiness, “I turn into a Gabriel Hound.”
If that was supposed to be meaningful to Fen, it missed the mark. “A what?”
“A Gabriel Hound. It’s a big white dog with wings. Ransom’s my…” She glanced at Carter, who was giving her a ferocious glare. “My boyfriend.” Natalie turned her thousand-watt smile first on Carter, then on Fen. Carter’s glare subsided.
Fen, baffled, decided that this team certainly had someinterestingworkplace dynamics. She made a mental note to ask Carter about that little exchange later, then instantly forgot it when Natalie added, “He turns into a hellhound.”
“A… Sorry, he turns into awhat?”
“A big black dog,” said Ransom. After a moment, he added, “Without wings.”
Under normal circumstances, Fen would have thought she was being made the target of an elaborate practical joke. Carter had said the team were all shifters, but she couldn’t help glancing at him for confirmation.
“It’s true,” he said. “They’re all unusual types of shifters. It’s because they were created in a lab. Pete’s a cave bear.”
Fen glanced at Pete, impressed. “I saw a reproduction of a cave bear in a museum once. It was enormous. Bigger than a grizzly!”
Pete only nodded, but she imagined that she could see a hint of the bear in his broad shoulders, brown hair, and air of steady strength.
“And I’m a raptor,” put in Merlin.
“What kind of raptor?” Fen couldn’t remember if all birds of prey were considered raptors, or just some of them.
“Well, that depends,” said Merlin. “I could show—”
Carter glared at him. “DON’T.”
Sugar poked his head out of Fen’s cleavage and peered at the new people with wide black eyes. Merlin was immediately distracted.
“Hiya, cutie,” he said, offering his hand. “What’s your name?”
“Sugar,” said Fen. “He’s a sugar glider.”
Merlin nodded, clearly already having identified him. “And what’s his power?”
“Power?” Fen echoed, puzzled. “He can glide.”
“I don’t think he’s a magical animal like Precious here,” Carter put in. Hearing her name, Precious stretched her wings and chirruped. “He seems to be an ordinary sugar glider who took a fancy to Fen.”
Ransom glanced over his shoulder and briefly said, “No.”
Fen waited for him to elaborate. When he returned to steering, she said, “No, what?”
The tall man’s cool grey eyes moved from Sugar to Fen as if he could see right through them both. “No, he’s not an ordinary sugar glider.”
