They didn't taste good and they usually had families who would come looking for them.
I dragged my eyes back over to my friends who'd already noticed I'd been staring.
"She's too young for you," Jeremy said thoughtfully.
Shaw grinned at that. "Technically most people here would be too young for our resident immortal werewolf, so I think age just becomes a number after so long."
He was kind of right and kind of wrong. Agewasjust a number, but sullen chick looked like she was maybe on the early side of nineteen. Plus, I didn't like women with a lot of holes in them. She had earrings in her nose, her lip, her eyebrow and only one in her ear.
I never understood why people called them earrings if they were just going to stick them willy nilly wherever their little weird heart desired.
The girl was pretty though, in a worshipper of the night kind of way. Jet black hair which looked natural was tied up in a messy knot on top of her head. Her makeup was minimal except for the slash of thick black liner across both of her eyes. This only served to highlight the sky blue of her eyes. I suspect she'd be rather disappointed to know this because it seemed her goal was to frighten little children rather than be attractive.
Her clothes were even worse. She wore a Beatles t-shirt that had seen better days and either short shorts or a skirt. Hard to tell because of her apron. Right now it looked like she wasn't wearing any pants, but since the people behind her weren't staring, I figured she had clothes on.
The girl finally caught me staring. A smirk appeared on her pretty, full lips and she held up a fist, and with her other hand made a rolling motion like the fist was a fishing pole. Within seconds her middle finger was fully extended in my direction.
"Nice," I called. "Real classy."
She waved her middle finger at me and grinned.
Shaw slapped me on the back. "Way to make friends, dude."
Jeremy shook his head and continued to nurse his coffee.
"Now, if Sterling can look away from his new friend," Shaw said, "we have business to discuss."
I looked away and turned my attention to my friends. "Yes, what's up? You found some people willing to talk about it?"
Jeremy winced a little. "Not willing," he admitted.
I laughed at this. "Are they tied up in your basement or something? How'd you get them to talk with you?"
"We have cameras set up all over the town in order to catch strange phenomenon. We had one at the back of their property and we happened to catch the beginnings of the storm. It was easier to walk onto the property before the couple were married. Now they seem strangely concerned about security." Jeremy said this with all the emotion of an android.
My mouth dropped open. "You trespassed?"
"I'm afraid so," said Jeremy.
"And then you… what? Blackmailed them?"
Shaw's eyes twinkled in amusement. "The tree has a bark side."
I let out a snort of laughter at the pun. "Damn dude." I was trying really hard to not to be impressed. "So you caught something on film that they didn't want you to see and you used it against them?"
Jeremy winced. "Well. It took me awhile to get the film back. It was a lot harder getting back onto the property after that. But I did not come out of this unscathed. The woman..." He paused and rubbed his right eye. "She's a clairvoyant. "
Shaw leaned forward. "You didn't tell me that. What happened?"
He rubbed the back of his neck and looked skyward. "She told me my future."
Something in his voice caused my chest to tighten. "And?"
Shaw's gaze narrowed when Jeremy paused. "And? Jeremy?"
The dryad blew out a breath. "And it appears within the next twelve months, my tree will be destroyed by fire."
My eyebrows flew up to my hairline. Not many people realized how important a dryad's tree was. A selkie couldn’t survive without its skin. A dryad couldn't survive without its tree.
