Buffy meowed again. Zach sighed and dug through his cupboards. He opened a can of tuna for the cat, and dumped it onto a plate, juice and all.
“This is payment in advance,” Zach told her.
Spike drooled. Zach dumped another can for the dog and opened one for himself. He wolfed it down. He was so exhausted he shook, but he had things to do before he crashed.
Still picking tuna bits from between his teeth with his tongue, he went back outside and extracted a bale from the hay shed. There was no sign of Kade. Spike’s tail was at half-mast as he trotted along with Zach, and he kept glancing off into the darkness.
When Zach had left, Spike had been locked in a stall in the barn. He dropped the bale and peeked in there. The big dog had dug his way under the door to get out.
Couldn’t blame him. Zach would’ve done the same.
Everything in the barn had a messed-with look to it, and fingerprint dust was everywhere. All over the stalls, the workbench, his tools. Even the lawn tractor.
Was it crazy to feel violated by such clear indications of law and order? Shaking his head, he hauled the bale across the yard. The area beside the barn was still taped off, a boundary Spike avoided as though it were an electric fence, but Zach didn’t think it was the tape he was afraid of.
Jessie’s fancy car was gone. Towed, based on the dual heavy tire treads pressed into the wet earth.
Tucker nickered hopefully at the sight of the bale. The remnants of the one Zach had thrown them before leaving this morning was strewn across the paddock. All the tastiest bits had been eaten.
Zach threw hay to Willow who ambled over to sniff and nibble. There was loads of grass for the donkey, but if he didn’t make at least a token offering of hay, she’d stand at the fence and bray. Cute she might be, but her voice could raise the dead.
Zombies. Were they real? He needed a course on Cryptids 101.
His rubber boot had vanished without a trace. Where was Willow’s stash? It would be full of boots. Gloves too. And was there a halter missing?
Tucker minced over, still glancing around for the big bad wolf. Storm watched him for a moment, ears pricked, before she ambled toward Zach.
Zach bent to cut the strings and threw a pile to Tucker. Storm came to within a few feet of him and stopped, then extended her nose. Zach reached out a hand, and she sniffed it. Then she took another step, lowered her head to the hay at his feet, and took a mouthful.
A week ago, her acceptance of his presence would have been the most important breakthrough in his life. After everything that had happened, Zach could only stand and watch her eat. He felt nothing. It was as if he’d been hollowed out.
Tired. He was too tired. Cara’s warning echoed through him. He’d never considered that his ability might harm him. It wasn’t a welcome discovery.
Both horses stiffened at once, their heads shooting up and nostrils flaring. Tucker bolted to the back of the corral. But Storm walked through the hay to stand between Zach and the fence, staring at the truck.
Zach turned in time to see Kade yank his tee shirt over a chest that registered as a flash of muscles. What he’d glimpsed would have done a Greek hero proud. He was relieved when they vanished beneath the cloth.
He couldn’t blame Jessie for ogling that. Could he?
Zach tried to walk to the gate, but the mare put herself firmly between him and it. Her gaze never left the Were standing by the truck. Her lips pulled back from her teeth, and her ears pinned right flat.
A glance toward Kade showed a similar, although more impressive, show of teeth.
“No messing with my animals,” Zach ground out.
Kade stiffened but folded his lips back over his fangs.
Zach slowly reached out to Storm. She rolled her blue eye to watch him. Blue—could Cara read through the mare? Only one eye was blue. It seemed to penetrate his very soul as his fingers touched her mane. And then, to his amazement, her neck.
She flinched slightly when he made contact, her ears flicking forward and back, but she let him do a little fingertip scratch before stepping away.
Zach concentrated and sent her a pulse of reassurance.It’s okay. The big bad wolf won’t eat me. And I won’t let him eat you.
She wouldn’t receive the words, of course, but the emotions he attached to them made her blow softly through her nose and shake her head. When he stepped around her to go to the gate, she let him go. But she continued to watch Kade with laser focus.
When Zach closed the gate and approached the Were, Kade was matching stares with the mare.
“She’s brave,” Kade commented.
