“Penny.” Emery wrapped his arms around me rather than holding my hair back, as befitted the situation. “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay.” I wiped my mouth and pushed him so we could back away. “You?”

His breath dusted my face. “Yeah. Got a couple scrapes and bruises, but yeah.”

Waves of magic pushed at me, and I knew by feel that it was the shifters’ magic I was feeling. The space was no longer occupied by a bunch of downed mages and animals. Now it held mages and naked people.

“Uh-huh.” I dropped my forehead to Emery’s shoulder. At least I wasn’t the only one stuck looking unprofessional after a battle.

Someone grunted, and I couldn’t help but look. Steve, previously the lion, stretched in the moonlight before scratching his chest and dropping his hands to his sides in fatigue. “Two back-to-back changes will really take it out of you. Least you could’ve done was leave a few more for us.”

Emery pulled one of his arms from around me and stepped forward, dragging me with him. He reached out to shake. “Thanks a million. We were getting buried. You turned the tide.”

Steve, completely unconcerned with his lack of cover, thrust his hand into Emery’s. “Not at all, mate. We would’ve been here sooner, but we ran into some sort of magical wall. Lost one of ours trying to get through it.”

“Oh no, I’m so sorry!” I said.

“Nah.” Steve waved my sentiments away. “He was an asshole. A real know-it-all. That’s why I sent him first. Don’t tell Trixie, though. She didn’t like him much, either, but he was good in bed, apparently.”

I was pretty sure my face was frozen in a very strange look. I didn’t know where to go from there.

“Anyway.” Steve glanced around the ground and clucked his tongue as more men and women, all equally as unworried about the state of their undress, slowly made their way in our direction. “Red said they stole Reagan’s car and chased you two to this area.”

“How would Red know all of that?” I asked suspiciously.

Steve gestured toward the dog still off to the side, watching from a distance. “He followed you. He might only be a dog, but it gives him the ability to make more changes than the normal shifter without depleting his energy level.”

“But…we were invisible.” I remembered how the shifters outside the bar had sniffed me out the other night. “Ah. He followed our scent trail. But how’d he let you know?”

“Right? I told him, he needs to carry a little doggy fanny pack for a cell phone. He could be Reagan’s sidekick.” Steve boomed out laughter. Red lowered his head and snarled. “Yeah,” Steve said, “he didn’t think that was funny. But he’s got phones stashed around the city. Following and reporting is his job. He has to have a way to report. So when he saw what was going on here, he called me up.”

“And Reagan?”

“Is busy with the vampire. She’s apparently got a thing going with that elder.” Steve wiped his lip with his thumb and shook his head. “I didn’t expect that, I’m not going to lie. No one tells me anything. I mean, I get the sex appeal, but he’s a vampire. You should never trust vampires.” Emery and I nodded knowingly. “They’re questioning the mages. The vampire took all the live ones before Roger could get back to us.”

“They didn’t think this was more important?”

“We don’t work with vampires, love. They do their thing, we do ours.”

“They didn’t tell Reagan,” Emery said softly, his tone even. I couldn’t tell if he was making a judgment or not.

“Didn’t need to, did we?” Steve smiled. “Don’t get me wrong, if she wasn’t with that elder, we surely would’ve let her in on the fun. But as it was…” He spread his hands. “Roger sends his regards. He was happy to help, and he hopes you keep this situation in mind should we ever need something.”

“Ah. A forced trade.” I rubbed my eyes, not really able to deal with this right now. “And how are the vampires so different from the shifters?”

Emery huffed out a humorless laugh as Steve said, “That’s not very nice. For one, we’re cuddly when we change. Much furrier and nicer to look at.”

“That’s true, though I doubt you smell any better when you get wet,” I said.

Emery choked on his laugh this time, half turning away to wheeze out more guffaws.

A flare of green followed by a wave of shifter magic, weak in power, preceded the dog’s alteration into a thin, lanky Red. He stood and quickly cupped his privates, thankfully worried about propriety. “I told him not telling Reagan was a mistake,” Red said with a know-it-all air. “She’s going to be pissed.”

“Women are always pissed about something.” Steve glanced down, and I followed his gaze before I could stop myself, only to instantly shift it when I got an eyeful. “I better get going. The cold isn’t kind to my bells and tackle.”

“She’s not an ordinary woman,” Red muttered. “I’m not going to take the fall for this. I’m going to tell her it was your call.”

Steve hooked a thumb Red’s way, his smile almost infectious. “He’s awfully jittery, isn’t he?”

A younger guy wearing basketball sweats with buttons down the pant leg for easy removal jogged over and handed Steve a pile of sweats.

“Hey, is anyone driving?” Emery asked, looking around.

“Yeah, you need a lift?” Steve rolled back on his bare heels as he shook out the hoodie. “Of course you need a lift, what am I saying. Sorry about that. I’m always a little slow after fast changes. Come on, we’ll get you wherever you need to go.”

“But what about…” I pointed at the fallout of the battle.

“We’ll get someone on that,” Steve said. “We’ll use a cleanup service and bill the vampires.” Steve laughed again, though I didn’t get the joke.

Fatigue dragged at me after I collected my stones and phone. Emery slipped his hand into mine. Softly, he asked, “Can I stay with you tonight?”

I leaned against his arm. “Yes. Reagan can deal. We need to stick together.”

“I agree. This was only the force they had stationed in this part of New Orleans. We’d be naive to think they aren’t gathering in a temporary headquarters somewhere. They’ll have more. The question is, how many more?”

Red drifted in next to us. “That’s what I would have told Reagan if she hadn’t stood me up. In addition to calling in big numbers, I’ve heard that they are hiring anyone willing to work for them.” He glanced around warily. “If you ask me, they know what they’re up against, and they’re rising to the challenge. You might be more powerful, but they have the numbers.”

39

After one of the shifters dropped us off at Reagan’s house and we took a slow, touchy-feely shower, Emery and I sat at the kitchen table, staring at my phone.

I’d called my mother. She hadn’t answered, but a reckoning was coming.

Up until that point, she’d assumed everything was fine. That I was busy training, we hadn’t seen hide nor hair of the Guild (which had been mostly true up until recently), and life was bumping along. I wasn’t a good liar, but luckily, Veronica, Callie, and Dizzy were excellent. When I accidentally set off alarm bells, they covered for me beautifully.

Well, I was about to ring the alarm gong. We needed help that only my mother could (hopefully) provide.

She was going to be so pissed.

My phone vibrated against the table.

I glanced up at the clock on the oven. Eight-oh-three. Fifteen minutes after I’d called. Fifteen minutes before she had to get her popcorn and TV ready for her favorite show.

Hopefully, she hadn’t figured out how to work the DVR, and the conversation had an expiration date.

Emery nodded slowly, offering support. I could see my wariness mirrored in his eyes. He’d met my mother. He knew the score.

I picked up the phone with chin held high and pursed my lips, ignoring my shaking hand. I opened it, then wiped away the dirt that showered the table top.