Page 26 of Phantom’s Mate

She shook her head, eyes wide and dark. “I don’t know. Please don’t make me think about it right now. I know I have to soon, but today has just been—”

He pulled her into his arms. “I know. You don’t have to.”

“But what if I kill someone?” she whispered.

“You won’t. And if you don’t remember soon, I’ll talk to my crew. They can put a barrier and detour signs across the road. Keep anyone from coming this way.”

She pulled back to look at him. “They would seriously just randomly block a public road?”

“Sure, if I asked them to.”

“They must be good friends. Since that’s illegal.”

He shrugged. It was probably a misdemeanor, at worst. And only if they got caught. “They’re my crew. And Colt and Remy would think it was a huge joke.”

She asked, “So what is this crew? Is it a commune? And wait, how can you ask them to do things? Are they ghosts too?”

“No, they’re alive.”

“Ooh, are they a pot-growing commune? No, not if they can see ghosts. Mediums? Or a religious commune? I know! Satan worshipers!”

He was laughing now. “No, of course not. We’re—” Shit. She didn’t know about shifters.

“Okay,” he said slowly. “This is going to sound really weird.”

“Weirder than being a ghost stuck in an eternal Halloween, lying naked in a bed I created with my mind, after having sex with another ghost?”

“Possibly. We’re shapeshifters.”

That got a blank look.

“We can turn into animals?”

She pulled back and stared at him. “Whoa. Like, you could do it when you were alive?”

“Uh huh.”

“You’re not messing with me, are you?”

For an answer, he moved a couple of feet away from her and turned into a panther.

Her eyes got huge. “That is so cool!” She paused. “Unless you bite me. Please don’t bite me. At least, not in a bad way.”

His panther said, She is very pretty. I like the way she smells.

When he showed no signs of biting her, she whispered, “Can I touch you?” She froze as his panther nosed her gently, and then head-butted her like a house cat asking to be petted.

She tentatively rubbed behind his ears, and he head-butted her again, so she began petting him with both hands. He purred, the little attention slut.

“This is amazing,” she said. “I always wanted a panther. Look!”

She leaned out of bed and pulled a book off the bookshelf, showing it to him. “See? This was one of my favorites as a kid. It’s about a princess who had her own library and a pet panther.”

His panther put his paw over the book and head-butted her again. She laughed and went back to petting him. “You’re just like my cat, Midnight. He looked like a tiny panther, and he would always lie on my books so I would pet him instead of reading.”

She stroked him for another minute and then said softly, “I hope Chaz took care of him.”

She sounded sad, so Nick Changed back. She still had her hand in his hair, and he let the purr continue.