Etienne (The Shifters of Shotgun Row Book 1)(7)

“You see me?” Her little smile was bright as the sun. How long had she gone unseen, and why was she stuck at a pet store of all places?

“Yeah, but we should be quiet ’cause people aren’t supposed to know.” Or, more accurately, once people found out, they’d wind up running me outta this town, and if I was goin’ to make a new life for myself and help Meemaw, I needed to keep my abilities to myself.

“Miss Marie used to tell me the same thing.” Yeah, Meemaw and I were going to have more words than the dictionary. She knew of my struggles seeing the dead, and yet not once did she share with me her ability to do the same. Arggggg. “Said it made people scared. I’m not scary.”

No. No, she wasn’t. She was adorable and had somehow not lost her happy in all the years she’d been trapped here. Maybe Meemaw could help me figure out what the poor girl needed to move on. That was not my gift. In fact, I stunkified the room with how un-gifted I was in that arena.

“No, sweet girl, you are not.” I looked around quickly before bending down to her eye level. “What’s your name?”

“Star’s coming. Shhh.”

I jumped up, brushing off my legs as if I was just being vain and not talking to the undead.

“She hears really well, and Miss Marie said it wasn’t time for her to know yet.”

I gave her a nod before going back to peruse the fish because I needed some excuse to be here other than my dead grandmother told me to.

“Need anything?” The owner was back, a small parrot on her shoulder. She was wearing a long, flowy skirt adorned with beads and a tank top with the Earth crying on it, as in tears and eyeballs. I tried not to stare at it while I figured out the meaning of it because the eyes of the planet were placed directly in front of her boobies. Whoever designed that was a fool or a genius, as far as sale-ability went. I was undecided as to which.

“No. Just looking.” I shrugged and was met with an awkward glare. “My meemaw said I would like it here, and I’m just getting around to stopping by,” I added trying to look less like a weirdo, which, in all honesty, I totally was.

“Miss Marie, right?” Her smile softened as I nodded. That could’ve gone either way since from the lack of actual pets in her life, her trips would have seemed peculiar to say the least.

“Yeah.” I held out my hand, reeling it back in as the parrot opened his beak, leaning toward it. What was it with animals here trying to eat me? “I’m Tansy.”

“Star. So what kind of critter do you have?”

“None,” I confessed. “I’m not really an animal lover.” My reply was met with her belting out in laughter, not at all the response I’d been expecting. “What?”

“Nothing.” She schooled her face, unable to completely remove her amusement at my lack of love of the furries. “Just thinking about something from earlier. Miss Marie used to come and watch the fish.”

And talk to a dead little girl.

“Not for nothing, but she was an odd duck. Loved her and her king-nuts, but she was odd.” Star wasn’t wrong. She was amazing and kind and funny and very very odd.

“People say that about me, too,” I confessed, not meeting her eyes, my voice cracking slightly. Something about Star had me sharing that insecurity with her, something I never admitted to anyone. She had this aura of safety surrounding her. Yeah, she was odd, too, but in a good way. Or, at least, I thought in a good way. Time would tell.

“Then we shall get along famously.” She held her hand out, the parrot jumping on it before stepping off onto the stand beside them. “Trust my animal expertise?”

“I have no reason not to?” It came out as more of a question than it should’ve. I spent the next hour there chatting with Star, the young ghost following along happily.

I was going to be good and leave with nothing. I wasn’t lying about my lack of love for furries. I was pretty all set with birds, too, but when she showed me the reptiles, I found myself mesmerized. The ghost kept pointing to one aquarium in particular, and I eventually caved, becoming the proud owner of an alligator lizard. At least now I had an excuse to come back to the store, being a bona fide lizard mama.





Etienne

There wasn’t a lot of crime in Juneau. Once in a while a rebellious teenager would steal something from the hardware store, or maybe a pack of gum from the Texaco, but, other than the random call, my job was pretty boring.

We had a crew meeting at night, and I wasn’t looking forward to it. I didn’t even understand the point, but Callum thought it necessary to keep the order in our little group. It was tough without an alpha. Shifters like us needed an Alpha. They need a hierarchy where everyone keeps the others accountable and keeps their asses out of trouble.

Order, as in making sure humans didn’t get too close to our nests.

And making sure no one was screwing around with human females.

We didn’t have anything against human females, it was just usually they weren’t really down with their men turning into animals.

And we weren’t really down with squealers.

We had to take precautions.

From the front door of my house, I could see something taped to the back door. That’s why we shifters liked the shotgun houses. One glance out of any room and I had full visionary access to both entrances.