He wasn’t wrong. Our former neighbor was a pensioner who apparently didn’t think anything of fighting a dark witch.
“Ellie better watch herself,” my dog added with a somewhat morbid gleam in his eyes. “She might get turned into a toad if she steps out of line.”
I pursed my lips. Ellie could step out of line by just smiling.
Gavin appeared at my desk, his horns retracted but his tail twitching.
“So,” the dragon newt said, fidgeting. “While we’re all still alive and not facing imminentmagical death.”
I stared. “Yes?”
“Nigel finally set a date for his dinner with Mindy.”
Janet’s ears pricked by the water cooler. Barney’s fingers froze on his vintage typewriter.
I blinked. Of all the things I’d expected the dragon newt to say, that was not one of them. “He did?”
“Yeah. Thursday.” Gavin’s tail swished happily.
“Where did he pick?” I asked carefully.
I didn't need wolf senses to know Janet and Barney were hanging on to our every word.
“That new supernatural tapas place on Ninth. The one with the enchanted menus. It can accommodate a boogeyman and a ghost and it doesn’t have a dress code that excludes tentacles.”
“Good choice,” Bo observed like a connoisseur.
Gavin shuffled closer, his voice dropping to a whisper. “Also, Nigel wanted me to ask you something.” The dragon newt went pink. “He wants to know if you have any tips. For the date. Because you and Samuel are the only successful office romance he knows of.” He rushed through the last part so fast the words nearly caught fire.
I saw Janet and Barney grimace out the corner of my eye.
I was about to advise that Nigel should just be himself when I realized we were talking about a boogeyman who sprouted extra appendages and eyes, and who lit up like a Christmas tree when startled. I hesitated.
“Tell him to keep the tentacles to a minimum until at least the third date.”
27
INTO THE WOODS
Fitting two werewolves,a vampire, a witch, a dragon newt, an elderly witch,anda Husky into a surveillance van proved to be an exercise in patience.
“If anyone touches my herbs, I will make them regret it,” Mrs. Chen announced sourly as she settled into the folding chair Gavin had placed next to his stack of fire extinguishers.
“How many fire extinguishers does one dragon newt need?” Barney muttered from where he was wedged between Bo and Didi.
“All of them,” Gavin said defensively. His tail was curled around the nearest one like a security blanket.
The van was parked on a logging track a quarter mile from the Thornwick property and was hidden beneath a canopy of oaks and pines dense enough to block the fading daylight. My wolf had been restless ever since we’d turned onto the trail.
It wasn’t fear that was making her unsettled.
It was something deeper. An awareness thathummed through my bones like a tuning fork struck against stone.
The ley lines were close.
I could feel them beneath the forest floor, three currents of ancient power running toward each other like rivers converging on a falls. The pull was faint but undeniable, a low vibration that made my teeth ache and my wolf pace beneath my skin.
Since everyone suspected Esmeralda has been spying on Hawthorne & Associates and knew what our surveillance van looked like, Samuel had borrowed the vehicle from the Alliance’s motor pool.
