“Right. Well, so Beatrice kept stalking her. She found out somehow that Cat was living at Troy’s house, and there were a couple of incidents. But about that time, just by chance, Katerina and Jacinth ran across Beatrice out in public, at a carnival of all places! And they realized she was the Rogue. Until then, they’d never been able to identify just who the Rogue was, and don’t ask,” he said as she opened her mouth, “how Jacinth knew it was her. I don’t know, you’d have to ask her. When Douglas found out, he lost his shit…”
“Language!”
Liam grinned at her. “Well, he did. By all accounts, he stormed into the veterinary clinic and threw Beatrice’s ass out then and there. Then she losthershit and went after Katerina and Troy, who were at home, and tore up his house some to get at them. Jacinth and Kieran…”
“The Djinn prince,” Naomi nodded.
“Right. They arrived just in time and captured Beatrice. Then they took her before the Council, and, well, that was that.”
Naomi leaned back in her chair. “Wow! That is some kinda story! I think I’m dizzy.”
“I know, right? I got this all from Maroulla before they sent me here to do my internship at the clinic. She thought it was best that I was up-to-date on the current and past situation.”
“Yeah, I can see that. I’ll probably need score cards to keep track of everyone.”
“It’s easier to keep track if you think of them as mostly coming in pairs: Katerina and Troy, Kester and Tamera, Douglas and Jacinth, Julian and Alessandra.”
“Oh.” She pondered that for a minute, then nodded. “Yes, okay, that does help. And Katerina and Kester are siblings.”
“Right. Back to Beatrice. Somehow the Council managed to trace her … don’t ask me how, I haven’t a clue… back to Florida. That’s where they found your mother and sisters, and rounded them up.” He hesitated, before continuing. “They were all sent to a shifter-run wildlife Sanctuary in Ohio, where Beatrice was sent. They kept your family all together, there in the Sanctuary. They thought it would be more humane, even though they can no longer Change to human.”
Naomi frowned a little. “They used to pick on Beth, so much. Well, both of us. They’d gang up on us. Although,” she sighed, hating the helpless, hopeless feeling that came over her when she thought of Beth, “maybe now they consider her one of them, so she’ll be okay.”
Liam’s eyes flashed in anger. “So there was actually physical abuse as well?”
“Some.” Naomi turned her head away, flushing.
“Hey.” He moved closer, reaching out to take her hand in a comforting clasp. “You got away.”
She turned her hand in his, their fingers entwining. “I did.”
“Speaking of getting away,” she segued the discussion to a less perilous topic. “I think I’ll go into New York tomorrow and get my car. I’ve been checking train schedules, it only takes an hour to get there, and the first train generally leaves around nine or so. I don’t have anything else I want to do in the city once I get it, so I’d probably be back around noon-ish, depending on how long it takes to get from the train station to the storage unit. There’s no point in putting off going, and I really need my car and my laptop. My clothes.”
“I think it’s a great plan,” Liam approved with a smile.
“Yes, and then I need to start job hunting.”
She stretched, enjoying the feeling of being free of fear, free to just be who she was and no longer having to worry about who she might turn into.
Chapter11
Stepping off the train,the energy of the Big Apple thrummed through Naomi as her feet touched the station platform, filling her whole being with energy and excited anticipation. She’d forgotten this about Manhattan, the electric pulse of the city with its millions of inhabitants. She acknowledged that she loved it… she just didn’t want to live in it. But she’d always be eager to come visit, to feel the thrill and the spirit that was almost euphoric. Holding her purse (one of the items provided to her by Katerina, along with clothing) close to her body, safely tucked beneath her arm, she hurried out to the street. No need to call for an Uber, she realized, as taxis lined up outside the rail station. She slid into one, giving the driver the address of her storage unit.
Naomi watched as the older man, with dark skin and grizzled salt and pepper hair, put the address into his GPS, and they pulled into traffic.
“I bet you love GPS,” she said in complete admiration. “I cannot begin to imagine being a taxi driver in a city like this before GPS.”
“Maps,” he said succinctly. “Nobody thinks anything about it these days, they’d all be lost without GPS. But at the time maps were all we had, and no one blinked an eye.”
Naomi snickered. “I bet they’d look at you pretty strange if you pulled out a street map these days.”
His rich laugh filled the cab. “That they would.”
She peered out the window as they drove along.
“Do you live here?” The driver, whose placard identified him as Max, asked her.
“I did, for about a year. But I moved up along the Hudson, to a rural community. It’s lovely there, but in easy reach of the city.”
