Something to Curse About (7 page)

ELEVEN

I woke up the next morning to a confusing welter of scents. The disorientation made me briefly forget what had happened and where I was. Long enough to flail around and fall off the bed with a loud yelp bursting out when I hit the floor. The comforter dropped on top of me.

“Easy, little girl.” Logan scooted off the bed to kneel beside me, and began untangling me from the comforter. “Just a minute.”

Untangled, I stood and shook. After a second, I shook again because it felt good and weird, my skin sliding back and forth over my shoulders and back. With a chuckle, he patted my head and rose. “You meant to do that, right?”

Oh, absolutely, because I love to embarrass the hell out of myself at every opportunity
.

“We’ll have breakfast, and then I’ll take you to the closest vet.”

While that sounded good, there was something else I really needed about then. Logan disappeared into his bathroom. It’d been a relief to discover he slept in sweat pants. I went to the bedroom door, which he hadn’t shut completely, and nosed it open. Terra stood at the kitchen counter, reading the back of a box of pancake mix. She glanced my way, her lips compressing into a thin line.

I whined, padding to the front door. She ignored me.
Come on, Terra. I don’t want Logan taking me for walkies
.

That would be far too embarrassing once I was human again. At my next, louder whine, she put the box down and frowned at me. “What?”

I pawed the bottom of the door, wagging my tail.

The teen sighed. “You need to go outside?”

I bounced up and down before pawing at the door again.

“All right. I guess I can take you out to the yard.”

Oh, thank you
.

Unfortunately, I’d forgotten about the stairs. Terra started down, noticed I wasn’t beside her any longer, and stopped. She looked over her shoulder. “Well, come on.”

Crap
. I half-crawled down a few, placing each paw carefully. She bounced down to the landing, turning to watch my descent. By the time I reached it, I was shaking. Stairs were difficult with four legs and no arms.

The future tiger Queen of Santo Trueno stared down, her brows drawn together while she nibbled her bottom lip. I looked away, toward the next set of stairs, and felt my tail curl until it was between my legs and against my belly.

“You’re scared of stairs.” Her fingertips brushed my ear. “Okay. Don’t bite me.”

Before I could look at her, she’d bent and hefted me, one arm under my rear, the other across my chest. I almost peed when she took the first couple of steps, certain she’d trip and we’d both go tail over tea kettle.

We didn’t. Her faint wobble disappeared, and we thumped down to the next landing, then the following two without any trouble. Once on the first floor, she put me down and grinned. “There, that wasn’t so bad. Right?”

You asking me, or yourself?
I wagged my tail, noticing the acrid smell of her fear was nearly gone. Still grinning, Terra patted my head before leading me down the hallway to a door at the back. It opened onto a small, fenced area full of old and new overgrowth.

I found a hidden spot as quickly as possible, and concentrated on the day ahead. Fortunately, my doggy body didn’t need instructions on how to take care of business. Finished, I stepped forward and kicked dirt like I’d seen real dogs do.

When I rejoined Terra at the door, she patted my head again. “Good girl.”

The smell of fear had completely disappeared. I guess helping her get over her dog phobia could be counted as a plus to the situation. We went back inside, and she coaxed me up the stairs, appearing ready to catch hold if I tripped or fell.

By the time we walked into the apartment, Logan was ready to leave.

“I was going to cook pancakes,” Terra protested.

“That’s okay, I’ll pick something up on the way,” he said before lowering his head to rub his cheek against hers. He followed that with a kiss on her forehead. “We’ll go to the grocery store when I get back, okay?”

“Okay. Um, what if the vet doesn’t know who she belongs to?”

He looked down at me. “I don’t know.”

“You can’t take her to the pound.”

My blood ran cold.
No, don’t take me to the pound!

“If they can’t help me, I’ll run by to see Discord. I guess if she can’t help, I’ll bring her home and we can put an ad in the paper or something.”

Whew
.

Terra seemed satisfied with that, and patted my head. “Okay, see you later.”

***

Roughly two hours later, we knew that I wasn’t microchipped. We also knew that I was a seven-month-old Border Collie mix—the last thing I’d already figured out—weighing sixty-five pounds, and that in spite of the fact I’d refused, with a loud growl, bared teeth, and rear firmly planted, the indignity of having my temperature taken, I seemed to be a healthy pup.

I made a note to repay Logan for the cost of the checkup, as well as the purple collar and leash he bought before we left the vet clinic. Back in his truck, I sat quietly while he put the collar on me. He grimaced, checking to make certain it wasn’t too tight. “Sorry, girl. There’s a leash law and we have to follow the rules.”

Not a problem. Come on, let’s go. I need Kate
.

Logan fastened his seat belt, turned the key, and a few seconds later, we were on the move again. Curious, I edged down the bench seat and stuck my nose out the passenger window. A minute later, my whole head was hanging out and my eyes were half-closed as information flooded my nose. I couldn’t make heads or tails of most of it, aside from exhaust fumes, fast food smells, and the overall odor of a lot of people mixing with sunshine, man-made materials, dirt, and growing things.

It was pretty damn cool.

I pulled my head back inside to look at Logan, wondering if he got the same information all the time, or just when he shifted to tiger. He held out the leftover hash brown from our fast food breakfast. “Here, girl.”

I ate it, hesitated then licked the crumbs off the vinyl seat. Dogs can’t blush, and I was still hungry. I eyed his coffee with longing. Logan noticed and lifted a large cup of ice water from the second cup holder. “Thirsty?”

Promising myself a whole pot of coffee two seconds after I became human again, I lapped up some water.

“You made friends with Terra pretty fast. Maybe if we can’t find who you belong to, you can live with us,” he said, replacing the cup. “Though a human family would probably be better.”

You could give me to my dad
. Permanently being a dog would be one way to spend a lot more time with my little brothers without causing Betty freak fits.
Woohoo, a glimmer of light in the worst-case scenario
.

I tucked the idea away, along with sudden worries about a much shorter lifespan and Betty’s conscientiousness as a pet owner. Amadeus, the Cocker Spaniel she’d selected for the boys, was neutered. I loved my little brothers, but being spayed wasn’t on my bucket list.

Logan braked, throwing his arm out to keep me from falling into the floorboard. He frowned at the car in front of us. “Idiot. You okay, girl?”

Pressed against the back of the seat, I nodded. The shifter’s lips quirked as he dropped his arm. From the talk the night before, I knew he hadn’t had much to do with normal animals people kept as pets before or after the Melding. He’d been around my friends’ familiars a few times, and Leglin a little more, but they weren’t normal pets by any stretch of the imagination.

Aside from that, he was a feline shifter, which had to add another layer of difficulty in communicating with him. Unless I figured out a way to talk or did something extremely abnormal, he would keep on thinking that I was simply a lost dog.

I brightened. Nick was a wolf shifter, and he communicated with Leglin. Maybe he’d understand me. Holding that hope close, I looked through the windshield, eager to reach the office.

***

When we arrived, Kate wasn’t sitting at the receptionist’s desk. I followed Logan to my empty office, which he glanced inside of before turning to walk down to Kate’s office. She wasn’t there either. Our next stop was Mr. Whitehaven’s office. He was there, but on the phone and speaking in a foreign language. It sounded harsh like German, but wasn’t.

He smiled, gesturing for us to come in and have a seat, his reddish brown eyes focusing on me. For a second, I thought he recognized me and my rear wagged back and forth with my tail. But no, he continued his conversation without pausing.

Recognition would’ve made him drop the phone, or look surprised, or something. Maybe the boss just liked dogs.

I sat on the floor once Logan sank down onto the couch. He unsnapped the leash, trusting Doggy Me to behave. His trust wasn’t misplaced; no way I’d attempt jumping onto the couch after failing to manage to jump up on the bed. I’d had to climb instead, which proved pretty awkward with four legs and no hands.

A whole new respect for dogs had taken root in my heart.

Mr. Whitehaven finished his call, and gave Logan a cordial greeting, which the shifter returned before explaining why we were there. He ended with, “I hoped Discord might be able to shed some light on who this little girl belongs to.”

Discord can shed all the light. Too bad you can’t understand me
. I watched my boss’s expression, and knew that he had no clue I’d gone missing yet.

“She should be in soon. How is your Queen-to-be settling in?”

I’d been turned into a dog by a crazy man, and they were making chitchat. Maybe Mr. Whitehaven would sense something if I got closer? I stood and crossed the room to walk around his desk and sit beside him. He pushed his chair out, turning it enough to look at me.

When he bent to pet me, I caught a nose full of oddness that included a hint of strange-smelling smoke and metal. I’d never noticed it before. It had to be his personal smell, but I didn’t recognize anything else in it. It wasn’t unpleasant, just…odd.

Odd and sort of wild smelling.

Busy concentrating on it, I heard the faint squeak of the front door opening and closing. Someone had arrived, probably Nick since I didn’t hear Percy, Kate’s parrot familiar, complaining. The boss gently ruffled the back of my neck. “She’s quite friendly.”

“And smart,” Logan said as Nick appeared in the doorway. My first reaction was joy. Surely he’d figure out I was me.

My second, as his scent wafted across the room, wasn’t intentional but something instinctive. I backed away from Mr. Whitehaven, so that I could see Nick clearly, the hairs down my spine bristling, and growled.

Nick stank of something Doggy Me didn’t like at all. My growl climbed and fell when he focused on me. In spite of my deep warning sound, he dismissed me in favor of asking Logan, “Is it yours?”

“Not exactly. She’s lost.” The tiger shifter patted his leg. I ignored him, fighting to stop the growl.

“She’s going to be dead if she jumps me,” Nick said in a flat voice. His eyes flashed gold when he looked at me again, but his next words were for the boss. “Cordi’s missing.”

Everyone forgot me, and their lack of attention allowed me to stifle my growl.

Whitehaven turned his chair to face him. “Are you certain?”

“I stopped by her place. Her car’s gone and Leglin’s there alone. He said she went out last night and didn’t come back. He can’t find her.”

A thrill of warmth swept through me, hearing that my hound buddy had been trying to find me. Nick raked a hand through his hair. “She didn’t call me. Again. And now something’s happened to her.”

Though I felt bad he was worried, my lips drew back in a silent snarl. Since no one was paying attention, I decided to return to Logan by way of the room’s perimeter. Going too close to Nick didn’t seem like a good idea, what with something internal loudly insisting the wolf shifter was “bad” and “wrong” and pushing me to attack him.

Whitehaven’s full wall display case was on that side of the room, and as I neared it, my ears perked at the faint sound of voices. At least, I thought they were voices, but I couldn’t make out any actual words. I stopped and tilted my head, listening to the continuous murmur of sound.

The next thing I knew, Logan had snapped the leash onto my collar. Startled, I looked up, but he’d already straightened. “I’ll take her home and come back to help search. I can bring a couple of others to help.”

Nick blew off his offer of help with a rude snort. “I can have a dozen from the pack here in twenty minutes.”

I felt like biting him until Mr. Whitehaven spoke. “There’s no sense gathering a search party until we know if Damian is able to lock onto her cell phone. If he is, we’ll be grateful for any assistance you can provide.”

Logan nodded, but I felt the tension in him and saw the way his eyes narrowed at Nick. “We’ll be ready.”

I moved when he gave the leash a gentle tug. Nick left the doorway, crossing the room to begin arguing with the boss. Once outside in the parking lot, Logan heaved a quick, hard breath. “Sometimes, I really want to kick the ever-loving shit out of that arrogant puppy.” He stroked my head. “He rubs you the wrong way too, huh?”