Osso held up his hands and waved us in before heading up the stairs to the bookstore front door.
Declan breathed slowly for a few moments, getting himself back under control.“If I don’t kill him in the next few months, it’ll be a miracle.”
I undid my seat belt, leaned over, and turned his face back to mine for another kiss.“You know, the weird thing is he knows I’m pregnant.He won’t say anything, because I haven’t said anything, but he knows.He’s been uncharacteristically concerned about my well-being.”
He blew out a breath.“Fine.I won’t kill him.Let’s get this over with so we can go home.”
Orla had remodeled her Victorian home so the first two floors were now a high-ceilinged bookshop with tall, too-full bookcases on the first floor.A narrow staircase on the right led up to her private apartment on what had been the third floor.
Orla, tall and thin, with long light brown hair and large golden-bordering-on-orange eyes, stood behind a table she used as her checkout counter.She took in my appearance and asked, “Were you burgling?”
From anyone else, I’d take that as snark.Orla was different, though.She was, as far as we could tell, the last Eurasian eagle-owl shifter in the world.Her parents had died many years ago and she’d spent much of her life alone, reading her vast collection of books, which she occasionally sold to people wandering into her bookshop in the wee hours of the night.What she knew of the world seemed to come from her books.There was no judgment or snark in the question.Given that I was dressed all in black, she surmised I must have been burgling.She was kind of adorable.
I shook my head.“The gallery was open today, so I was going for emo, misunderstood artist.”
One long, slow blink as she processed that and nodded.“I see your vision.”She glanced around.“Are we all here?”
Nick Garra was a younger cousin of Osso’s.From what I’d gathered, there was a large population of black bear shifters in Monterey County, so there seemed to be no end to cousins.Like the detective, Nick was a tall, broad-shouldered Black man, but unlike Osso, Nick had an open, friendly personality and dimples.I was also pretty sure Nick was sweet on Orla.
Osso nodded.“Yes.We’re it tonight.”
Orla went to the front door, turned the lock, and put up aClosedsign.Waving for us to follow her, she went through the bookstore to the back door.Once we’d assembled on her porch, she pointed to a pile of little rocks and sticks on the top of the railing.
“New gifts from Tyrion?”Nick asked.
Orla nodded.To the rest of us, she explained.“I have a crow friend.He brings me little gifts, and I give him nuts and berries.”
“Okay,” Osso said, clearly confused as to why we were there.
“He brought me a button along with all of this.”She took a small baggie out of her pocket, handing it to Osso.“Smell that.”
Brow furrowed, he opened the baggie, took a sniff, and reared back before trying to hand the baggie to Declan.
“I can smell the rot from here,” Declan said.“You found a dead body?”he asked Orla.
“Maybe,” she replied.“That’s why I wanted you to come.I flew there, but I know the way by foot.”She walked to the end of the porch and stepped off, waiting for us to follow.
Declan glanced at me, then asked, “How far?”
She considered the question.“Perhaps a quarter of a mile.It’s in my woods, but on the side that butts up against a little neighborhood.”
Declan crouched down in front of me.“Climb on.”
“Don’t be silly.I can walk.”The other three were watching us and it was embarrassing.
“Ursula, with the way you stomp through underbrush, you’ll wake her neighbors and have people training their shotguns on us.Take the ride.”
“Rude,” I grumbled as I climbed onto his back.If my arms were a little too tight around his neck, well, so be it.
Declan stood with his arms under my legs, and we all followed Orla into the woods.Let me tell you, shifters are remarkably silent.As much as I hated to admit it, Declan was right.There was no way I’d have been able to keep up with them in the pitch dark without tripping and falling loudly.
Heat radiated from Declan’s back, so I snuggled in, rested my head on his shoulder, and had started to drift when they stopped.
Declan jostled me awake.“We’re here, sleepyhead.Can I put you down?”
Damn.On a sigh, I said, “Yeah.”I slid down his back.Luckily, he kept his hands on me, so I didn’t lose my balance.“Where are we looking?”I asked.
The shifters all pointed to a mound of dirt and leaves.I didn’t have their night vision, but… “Is that an arm?”
