Midnight Hour (Shadow Falls: After Dark #4)(95)

“So is Ms. Wales. Now she’s wondering if the tattoo isn’t somehow connected with the dyslexia. Her grandmother never learned to read, which

means she could have been dyslexic. Ms. Wales’s mother wasn’t dyslexic and she didn’t have the tattoo. And while her mom was mystic, Ms.

Wales says her mom claimed she didn’t have near the powers of her mom.”

“But if I’m a mystic then it means Tabitha should be.”

“Not really,” Holiday said. “Remember Ms. Wales saying that it wasn’t known to be hereditary? And your sister isn’t dyslexic.”

*

At three p.m., Perry stood outside the same diner to meet his parents.

Before walking in, he gave himself a second to remember how great it had been to hold Miranda all night, hoping that joy would help ward off

the feeling that swallowed him up when he was close to his mom.

He walked in and finally spotted his dad’s blond hair at a back booth.

Walking over, he noted only one plate on the table. She hadn’t come. Perry smiled without meaning to.

“Hey.” Perry dropped into the other side of the booth.

His father looked up as if happy to see him. “Did you have a good time with your girl?”

Perry nodded. “Yeah.”

A waitress dropped off a glass of water. “Need a menu?”

“No, thank you,” Perry said.

His dad moved his fork around his empty plate. “Are you ever gonna introduce us?”

Only when hell freezes over and Satan starts selling snow cones. “Maybe. Where’s Mom?” He hated calling her that, but his dad had insisted.

His father dropped his fork. “She’s not coming. I actually got to eat all my lunch for a change.” He laughed as if it was funny.

Perry didn’t laugh. He sipped his water.

His dad made a funny face. “She’s embarrassed. She woke up this morning with pimples. Lots of them. Big ones, too.”

Perry nearly choked on his water. The laugh slipped out before he could stop it. Had Miranda even known she’d done it? Oh, man, he was going

to kiss her for this.

“It’s not funny,” his dad said, but he almost smiled.

His father dropped some bills on the table. “We should probably head out.”

“I thought he lived around the corner.” Perry hoped he sounded casual as he slid out of the booth.

“He sold that place.”

“In one day?” Perry walked with his father.

“He normally doesn’t trust anyone. But he’s worse now. I don’t know if it’s Caleb that he’s worried about or the FRU looking into that

waitress’s murder. But he’s evaded trouble with the FRU for years so far, so he might be onto something.”

“Do you think Caleb would go after him?” Perry asked.

“Hell, yeah. Caleb has a mean streak in him. I’m watching my back, and so should you. He liked you less than he did me. Before Jax kicked

Caleb’s ass out, he was chatting with your mom about you being dirty. He was trying to dig something up on you. It’s the way he makes himself

look good. By making others look bad. The day you left Dallas and I told him it was because you wanted to see your girlfriend, he shot out of

there like a bat out of hell to find you. He obviously didn’t, because he came back pretty quickly. But now he’s even more pissed.”

“Thanks for the warning.” And Perry took that seriously, too.

“Your mom’s right, though. Chances are Jax is gonna take care of him. Whatever you do, don’t get on Jax’s bad side.”

That was gonna be hard not to do.

Ten minutes later, they were falcons flying across downtown. Perry tilted his head to the side. He realized right away that they were being

followed by one, maybe two shifters. The bird in the distance didn’t appear to be the same red-chested duck as before, but good shifters could

morph while flying. He could do it himself.

He looked right and the same falcon trailed at about a hundred feet behind. A thought hit. Had Burnett gone against his word and sent backup?

“It’s Jax’s man.” His father’s words were snatched by the wind. “Jax’s paranoid.”

Perry continued to fly. Was he right that the other bird was a shifter? If so, were both Jax’s men?

Later in the flight, he checked the bird on his left. Now the bird following was an eagle, but it hung about the same distance away. Definitely

a shifter. A powerful one.

When his father descended, the falcon on his right did the same. The now pelican on his left kept flying, but Perry saw his speed slow down and

then the bird lapped back. He didn’t think the FRU had shape-shifter agents good enough to shift while flying. Perry recalled his dad saying

that Caleb had bragged he could do it.

They landed in a fenced-in property out by the gulf. Galveston, he thought. Not on the beach, but close enough to taste the salty breeze.

Perry took care not to morph too quickly. No need showing Jax’s guard what he could do. Right before he started his shift, he spotted a crow

flying toward the back of the large white house that looked older than the palm trees surrounding it. Was it Caleb? It had to be, didn’t it?