Strange Neighbors (28 page)

   "Oh." Yeah, right, you heard our voices.

   As soon as they'd stepped inside and closed the door, she smiled at them knowingly. "You two just had sex, didn't you?"

   Jason's jaw dropped.

   Merry sucked in a gasp. "How did you know that? Are you really that psychic?"

   Gwyneth laughed. "Not this time. Y'all are just flushed and glowin'."

   They stared at each other wide-eyed, then Merry laughed.

   Jason scratched his head. "You caught us."

   "Have a seat. Morgaine will be right out. Do y'all want some sweet tea? Maybe y'all need somethin' to cool off?" she asked with a wink.

   Merry answered quickly. "May I have one of those beers you offered me before?"

   "Of course. Jason? How about you?"

   "Sure. Sounds good."

   As soon as she left the room, Jason placed a hand on Merry's knee and whispered, "Is this really a good idea?"

   She shrugged. "It's too late now. She'll think we don't trust her if we leave."

   "I'm not sure I do. I'm getting some kind of weird vibe here."

   "She's just teasing us. Probably getting a laugh because we thought they were having sex with each other instead of over the phone."

   No, it's something more than that. He glanced around at the décor, half-expecting to see pentagrams painted on the floor or dripping candelabras in the corners. The place seemed surprisingly "normal." A few crystals in a dish sat on the coffee table, a bookshelf displayed some new age titles, and a set of wind chimes with stars and moons hung silent in front of the closed bay windows.

   Gwyneth returned with two open bottles of beer. Looking over her shoulder, she called out, "Morgaine, are you comin'?"

   "Don't bother her if she's working."

   Merry gave Jason a poke in his ribs. "Ow… What?"

   It took a second, but he figured it out. Maybe he wasn't supposed to know? Heck, as long as Aunt Dottie didn't bother him, they could make their livelihoods as lively as they wanted to.

   "So how did your own tea-leaf readings go?" Merry asked. "I know you were concerned about what you saw in my teacup. Did it affect you in any way?"

   Gwyneth smiled. "No, thank goodness. No danger in our cups, but…" Her countenance grew more somber. "There was an indication of trouble for a loved one. It was probably just confirming what we saw before."

   She raised her eyebrows. "You consider me a loved one?"

   "Well, of course, honey. Who could not love you?"

   Jason smiled at Merry and squeezed her knee.

   At last, an unseen door clicked open and Morgaine emerged. What's that thing on her shoulder? An owl swiveled its head and spotted him.

   Jason leapt to his feet. "Jesus Christ!"

   The owl took off, flying right at him, screeching its head off.

   "Not now!" Jason yelled. He dashed for the door, covering his head.

   The two female hostesses stood immobile and open-mouthed for a moment. Then Morgaine bellowed, "Athena!"

   The owl ignored Morgaine's command, and Jason fumbled with the doorknob. Merry dashed over to him and batted the owl away. He had just opened the door when he shifted. His clothing fell off and prevented the door from closing completely.

   Feathers flew everywhere. Standing between him and a frantic, hungry owl, Merry took a winged beating and cried out. He did his damnedest to shift back, but the fight or flight instinct was too overpowering. Jason flew off into the hallway and prayed that either Morgaine would get her predator under control or Merry would be able to rip his clothes out of the way and shut the door on his assailant in time to prevent a catastrophe.

When Chad heard the crazy commotion outside his apartment door, he squeezed through the wooden door and found a flurry of activity going on.

   A wild owl was dive bombing a falcon in the stairwell. Merry, Morgaine, and Gwyneth were rushing down the stairs shouting at them, and each tried to grab the owl.

   Dottie stepped out of her apartment, screamed, and hurried back in, slamming the door. She glued her huge round eyeball to the peephole, though. By the time they made it to the first floor, Nathan had stepped out of his apartment to see what was going on, froze in horror, and ducked back in, but left the door partly open. Then he reemerged in his raven form.

   Now there were three of them, flapping all over the place.

   A female figure with a camera around her neck held a pad of paper and a pen. She peered through the glass of the outer door and watched the whole thing wide-eyed and open-mouthed.

   The owl finally cornered the falcon and was readying to snatch it with lethal-looking talons. Then Nathan in his raven form did something so brave, Chad never thought he'd see the day. He rammed right into the owl, knocking her into the wall so hard, it temporarily stunned her.

   Both raven and falcon flew into the sanctuary of the first floor apartment and a second later, the door slammed shut and the double locks clicked.

   The woman outside the front door rushed to the right and must have jumped because by the time Chad squeezed through the glass, she was hanging onto the windowsill in order to peer into Nathan's apartment.

   What Chad saw through the window didn't entirely surprise him. A naked landlord and naked Nathan leaned against the door, staring at each other.

   Bummer. Their secret's out.

Jason spotted the woman in the window about to snap his picture and took off running. A bright light flashed before he made it very far.

"Nathan, I need clothes!" he yelled.

   "Borrow whatever you like. Everything's in my bedroom closet."

   He wasn't kidding. His bedroom held very little furniture. A bed and a bookcase to be exact. Throwing open the closet door, Jason revealed a few items on hangers, very neat and orderly. Everything black—apparently Nathan's favorite color, being a raven and all.

   "Nathan," Jason yelled. "I don't see any underwear, and there's no time to look around."

   Nathan appeared in the doorway, wearing only black jeans. "I go commando. It helps me avoid getting caught in my clothes in case I have to shift in a hurry. And take one of my black shirts. Leave the top couple of buttons open."

   Jason grabbed a pair of slacks and hopped into them. "Smart. We should probably talk at some point."

   Nathan shrugged. "Do we need to?"

   "You saved my life, man. I'd like to thank you and talk to you about how you control your shifts so easily. You popped into human form faster than I did, and I really wanted to get out of my tasty falcon body."

   "Oh, in that case, fine."

   "What did you think I wanted to talk about?"

   "Oh, I don't know… eviction?"

   Jason chuckled. "Not hardly. I owe you my life."

   Nathan's lip rose in a half smile. "I guess you do. But don't expect us to become best buddies or anything, no offense. I'm just not into that 'bromance' stuff."

   Jason pulled a shirt off the hanger. "That's good, because neither am I. Still, it's weird to find another shifter in the same neighborhood, never mind the same building."

   Nathan smirked. "You've never heard 'Birds of a feather flock together'?"

   "Well, yeah, but what does that have to do with coincidence?"

   "Paranormals tend to attract other paranormals. Why do you think you were attracted to this building?"

   Jason straightened. "Because of you?"

   Nathan nodded. "Maybe. And maybe I'm not the only one."

   Shocked, Jason braced himself against the closet door. "Are you saying there are other shifters in this building besides the three of us?"

   "Three? Oh, then you know about Konrad."

   Confused, Jason asked, "Wait a minute… Konrad's a shifter too?"

   "Oops. I thought he was the third one you were referring to. Who did you mean?"

   "You, me, and my uncle."

   "Ah, Ralph is your uncle. He's a falcon at times, too? I wondered why you hired the pair of them. He's next to useless, and she's a complete liability."

   "Yeah, well, they're family. But whatever you do, don't tell Dottie. I don't think she knows, and I'm sure she'd freak."

   Nathan laughed. "Damn. That would be so much fun."

   "I'm serious."

   "Yeah, okay. What are you going to tell her just happened?"

   Jason slapped a hand over his eyes and slumped against the door. "I have no idea."

   "Have you tried the 'you must be hallucinating,' routine?"

   He nodded. "Unfortunately. She caught me in the elevator in falcon form, stuck in my sweater. I hate to make her think she's going nuts."

   Nathan snorted. "Stuck in your… Oh, that's priceless."

   "Yeah, well, that's one reason I'd like to talk to you. It seems there are some things I need to learn that you can teach me."

   Chuckling, he said, "I guess so. New to this, are you?"

   "No, but I'm only half-shifter. It's harder to control sometimes when new circumstances add stress. It's happened a few times recently. I've been able to keep stress to a manageable minimum before this, but now…"

   Nathan nodded. "It's been harder since you acquired a girlfriend, right?"

   "How did you know?"

   He rolled his eyes. "Women. They can complicate the shit out of everything."

   Just then, another camera flash through the bedroom window temporarily blinded them.

   Jason glanced at what Nathan was wearing—jeans only—then at himself—pants and an open shirt. That, plus where they were standing—beside a queen-size bed—added up to bad news.

   "Shit!"

MERRY DIDN'T QUITE KNOW WHAT TO DO. SHE LOITERED in the hallway outside her front door, knowing Jason was inside her neighbor's apartment, but should she knock? What if he was hurt? Did Nathan know more about helping a shifter than she did?

   She had already told Morgaine and Gwyneth that a reading was probably out of the question in the foreseeable future and to keep their pet in the apartment at all times—hidden—and on a tether.

   Maybe the future wasn't meant to be foreseen. Perhaps hers would never be easy to predict now that she had landed in the capital of the state of weirdness.

   Mentally counting on her fingers, she ticked off each resident's "special gift." Morgaine and Gwyneth were witches. A ghost lived across the hall from them. She lived next door to a raven and her boyfriend and his uncle were falcons. Oh! And she mustn't forget about her vampire dad in the basement.

   She remembered Konrad's seemingly superhuman strength and wondered what his story was. He was friends with Sly, so he must be something-or-other. Another vampire? Maybe one who shifts into a bat? Sly had laughed at her when she asked if he could do that.

   So how did she end up here, anyway? Oh yeah. The ad in her weekly small town newspaper. Boston sounded so exciting, and the ad had been placed there for three weeks in a row—until she answered it. Sly had asked Morgaine to use some kind of spell to be sure she saw it and no one else did, but that was impossible, wasn't it?

   What the hell… In this weird place, anything seemed possible.

   As she waited patiently, contemplating her life turned upside down, Jason flew out of Nathan's apartment, only this time in human form and half dressed.

   "Stay here," he shouted when he caught sight of her. Then he yanked open the front door and vaulted over the railing.

   "What the…?"

   Nathan appeared in his open doorway and leaned against it, appearing entirely too casual under the circumstances. "Nice night, isn't it?"

   "What was that about?" she asked, pointing toward the front door.

   "You mean Jason?"

   "Yeah, he just ran out of here like he was being chased by a grizzly bear."

   Nathan laughed.

   "What's so funny?"

   He shrugged. "He wasn't being chased. He's doing the chasing, and if a mere five-foot-five woman thinks she can outrun a peregrine falcon, she's sorely mistaken."

   "Five-foot-five woman…?" Suddenly Merry remembered the flash she thought she had seen through the front door, and a horrible foreboding invaded her gut. "Oh, no!" Her eyes narrowed and she balled her hands into fists.

   "You know her?" Nathan asked.

"I hope to God it's not who I think it is."

"Why? Who is she?"

   "Lila Crum." She practically spat the name. "Did you happen to see the newspaper a few weeks ago?"

   "No, why?"

   "This paparazzi reporter made up a rotten story about Jason and tried to ruin his career and our relationship."

   "That blows. I don't read the newspaper. Too depressing."

   She stared at him a moment. "But you work in a morgue."

   He laughed. "Death isn't depressing. Most of the folks we get were old or sick and death was a release from a painful prison."

   "I guess… So what do you think Jason's going to do when he catches up to… whomever?"

   Nathan shrugged. "You know him better than I do."

   "What would you do?"

   "Oh, I'd peck out her eyeballs. Then I'd probably take her camera and drop it in the river. Or the ocean. Yeah, the ocean would probably be… Are you all right?"

   Merry hadn't realized it, but her face had probably lost its color and the room was beginning to swirl. Nathan reached her before she passed out and lowered her gently to the floor.