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Ollie:The safe word is SILVER BULLET.

He’d found someone already? He worked fast. When whoever was outside the door knocked again, I stood and walked over hesitantly. I looked out the peephole and nearly burst out laughing. An older couple, maybe in their late sixties, and what looked like a college boy a few years younger than me stood outside.

“Who’s there?” I called through the door.

Eyeing the peephole, I watched the woman smile and lean close to speak in a loud and surprisingly deep voice.

“Silver bullet,” she said. “It’s all right, dear. Ollie sent us.”

My entire body, taut as a high-tension cable a moment before, relaxed, and I slumped against the door. With trembling fingers, I spun the deadbolt and opened the door.

“Good evening,” the woman said. She had the look of a grandmother who’d been into punk music in her youth. Her hair was short and spiky, and she had multiple rings in her left ear from the lobe to the top. The look was topped off with bright pink lipstick and a nose ring. She looked like she’d be more at home at a rock concert than a bingo game.

She stepped into the room, followed by the man, who looked as boring as the woman was exotic with his flannel button-down, slacks about two sizes too big, and white dad sneakers. Hegrinned at me and ran a hand through the thick white hair on top of his head.

The kid entered last. He had shaggy red hair and freckles across the bridge of his nose, but he was handsome in a boyish way. He wore a T-shirt of a band I didn’t know, with some masked and hooded figure baring his teeth from under black makeup. Above the image, red letters spelled the words “Sleep Token.”

“Hello,” I said. “Uh, nice to meet you.”

“Same,” the woman said. “My name is Carly. This is my husband, Leonard, and my granddaughter, Annie.”

My eyes flicked to the college kid again, and now that the woman said it, Ididnotice the kid was a girl. From the way she dressed and wore her hair, I wouldn’t have guessed.

“Hey,” Annie said to me, flipping her hair from her eyes.

I inhaled and noticed that subtle muskiness all shifters seemed to possess. These were my people.

“You guys are shifters?” I asked hesitantly.

“Indeed we are,” Leonard said.

Carly put a hand on my arm. “I’m an old colleague of Ollie’s. I used to work in forensics with the Toronto PD before I retired and moved down here. He gave us the basics of your situation.” She gave me a sad smile. “I’m sorry this has happened to you. He asked us to come keep you company. We’re happy to stay here, but if you want to stretch your legs, we can go to the library?”

Frowning, I looked at my watch, then back at Carly. “Library? It’s midnight. No library is open this late.”

Annie giggled and shook her head. “Not a human library. Duh.”

“There are shifter-only libraries?” I asked, a bit uncomfortable with the weird segregation that entailed.

“Sort of,” Carly said, and threw an irritated glance at her granddaughter. “I’m a librarian at the county library. Ipetitioned to turn it into a twenty-four-hour location. I’ve spent the last several years getting the word out to other shifters about it. It’s become sort of a hub for shifters. A place for our kind to mingle late at night. We usually go for runs afterward. It’s nice to have a nightly location that isn’t thumping music and freely pouring alcohol.”

“Speak for yourself,” Annie grumbled.

“Anyway,” Carly said, gritting her teeth slightly and glaring at the girl. “We’d love to have you.”

The offer was tempting. The hotel room had become stifling and felt incredibly small. I still had work to do, but it would be nice to do it in a library. Less cramped, but still safe. If Ollie trusted these people, then I did as well.

“You know what?” I said. “Let’s go.”

44

Cameron

Carly beamed at me. “Fantastic.” The woman swung a small leather backpack with metal studs off her shoulders.

I cast a wary glance at Leonard. How had these two gotten together? They looked worlds apart.

“Here,” Carly said, pulling what looked like a dead animal from the backpack and handing it to me.