“What?” Nero exploded.
“The short one who acts like we’re all idiots.”
Josh jolted forward. “You didn’t make a deal with him, did you? You didn’t—”
“All I did was listen and agree to hand you this.” He held up a light green piece of parchment, which he passed over to Josh, who shared it with Nero.
When you’re ready, call me. I will have five shields, hoodies, and a magic bullet available for your use. No charge except for the dragons.
Nero frowned. “What the hell does that mean? We already killed….”
Josh groaned. The sound was thick and deep, and he slapped his palm against his forehead for emphasis. “We’re back in this timeline. Inmytimeline, where I was recruited to find a way around the fire blast.”
Nero nodded. “Yeah, I know.”
Josh held up the parchment. “Don’t you see? In this timeline, the demon is still up there killing Wisconsin.”
“What? No, we….” His voice trailed away as he realized that it was true. This was the timeline where his team died, the demon escaped, and Josh was recruited. The demon was still alive and they still had to kill it. His groan was deeper and louder than Josh’s but no more heartfelt. And even worse was that he was only now seeing Bitterroot’s whole plan. “We risk our lives, and he gets dragons.” He crumpled the paper in his fist. “Did I tell you that he’s the one who told us about the demon in the first place? He’s the one who sent us on this hunt. Unbelievable.”
Josh looked at his brother. “Did you read this?”
Bruce snorted. “Of course I read it. Hewantedme to read it. Otherwise he would have put it in an envelope.”
Nero looked at Josh’s brother. He studied the tense posture of the man, saw the underlying anger but also a need deep inside. Bruce was his father’s son, that was for sure, and something was riding him hard.
“What else?” Nero asked. And when Bruce didn’t answer, he put command in his voice. “Fairies don’t just give up information for free. What else did he offer you?”
Bruce held out his other hand. Nestled in his palm lay a dark red cherry, completely mundane-looking, except that it was a fairy gift, and that meant it was dangerous. Bruce lifted it up to the sunlight, and all three of them were temporarily mesmerized by the beauty of the simple fruit.
“He said if I want what you’ve got, I have to eat this.” Bruce’s gaze lifted until he looked at the two of them. “And I do. I want it.” Then, before either of them could stop him, he popped the thing in his mouth.
“No!” Josh cried out, but it was too late. As they watched, Bruce chewed quickly and swallowed. They waited for a tense minute, everyone prepared for something dramatic to happen.
Nothing.
Bruce’s face shifted into a grimace of disappointment, and Josh released his breath on a relieved sigh, but Nero knew the truth. Fairy fruit was a lot of things. It was powerful and unpredictable, with a whole universe of possibilities in every one. But the one thing that fairy fruit never, ever did wasnothing.
So while Josh held out a hand to his brother, Nero dug the car keys out of his pocket and slapped them into Josh’s open palm. “Go get my phone from the glove compartment and call in. Tell them that we’ve got another recruit.”
“But why?” Josh asked. “Nothing’s happened.”
“Yet.”
And right on cue, Bruce’s eyes changed, his body tensed, and he opened his mouth for a scream.
“Crap,” Nero groaned. “I hope he fits in my car.”
It took the two of them together to drag Bruce’s wolf body to his car. They were both sweating and huffing. It wasn’t that Bruce didn’t want to go with them—he clearly did—but the agony and confusion of a first shift were riding him hard. He couldn’t coordinate his body parts even if he did have the focus. Which meant that Nero put Bruce’s head in a choke hold while Josh sweated and cursed while trying to carry his brother’s back half.
Fortunately no one saw them as they dragged a twisting, growling wolf out of the woods. They were ten feet from their car when the Wulf, Inc. van screeched to a halt in front of them. Nero was doing his best to hold on to Bruce despite the slobber that was making his arms slick when Yordan leaned out the van window to bark a question at him.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Nero shot him an incredulous glare. Wasn’t it obvious? Apparently not, because he had to gasp out, “New recruit.”
With a curse, Yordan gestured to the driver, who got out and quickly trotted around the car. It was Bing, looking movie-star perfect as he crouched down in front of the still-struggling Bruce.
“Be still,” he said, his voice resonant with command.
