She nodded. “Yeah. Why?”
“Grandmother Coyote sent us,” Camille said.
That was all it took. Lukia’s frown vanished and a slightly desperate look entered her eyes. “Thank gods. She said she’d send help. Come in, please.” She stood back, motioning for us to enter.
“I don’t know if we can help, but we’ll try,” Camille said, stepping over the threshold. She paused, then said, “You have the house warded against vampires?”
“Yeah, I heard there might be a vampire living in the neighborhood and I wanted to get a jump on protection before anything happened,” Lukia said.
I bit my tongue. People were afraid of vampires, and rightly so, but that still didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt when someone judged Menolly before they met her. I wondered what Lukia would say if she knew that it was our sister she was probably talking about.
Camille glanced at me with a warning shake of the head. “Ah, well, that makes sense, I guess. Anyway, Grandmother Coyote gave us your name, but she didn’t say what was wrong. Just that you needed help.”
“How long have you known her?” Lukia said. “She still scares me every time I see her, but I had nowhere else to go.”
I sighed. “We just met her last night, to be honest. We went to ask her about something we sensed on our land, and she said that we should talk to you, because whatever it is, it’s related. At least, that’s the gist that I understood from her riddles.”
Lukia motioned to the sofa, which was covered by a crocheted afghan. The room looked sparse but neat, and everything seemed old and weathered. But it was old in a way that it wasn’t falling apart, but simply worn and mended. A vase of yellow roses sat on the coffee table.
“Those are pretty,” Camille said. “I love flowers.”
“Thank you,” Lukia said. “Please sit. Would you like some coffee?”
“That’s all right, I just finished my morning latte,” Camille said. “So, do you have any idea why Grandmother Coyote might think we could help you?”
Lukia hesitated, then her face tightened. She said, “Yeah. At least I hope so. Someone’s been trying to kill me, and I have no idea what the creature is, or why it’s after me.”
The room fell silent. Camille and I looked at each other.
After a moment, I licked my lips and said, “Maybe you’d better tell us everything that’s happened.” I pulled out a notebook. I was supposed to be some sort of private eye, given my cover for the OIA. It was time to prove that I could take on a case and—hopefully—solve it before the damage was done.
CHAPTER THREE
The coyote-shifter hesitated for a moment, then motioned for us to follow her. “It started about a week ago. I was out in my backyard.”
She led us through the galley kitchen to the door opening into the backyard. We followed her out onto the back porch. It was chilly, but the porch was closed in, covered to protect against the elements. There was a door in the center of the porch, and on either side, long ‘windows’ that were screened in, but not glass. The storm door led to a set of four steps down to the patio.
The patio was wide enough for a small gathering, with a barbecue covered by a tarp, and a patio sofa and chairs covered by heavy, clear plastic. A fire pit, also covered by a clear tarp, sat near the sofa and chairs.
The patio led to the yard, which was narrow and long, sloping toward the fence at the back of the lot. The fence was chain-link, and it surrounded the house on both sides as well. All the bushes were covered with snowdrifts, and it felt very private. Tall trees—maple and fir—stood on both sides of the yard. At the end of the yard, on the other side of the chain link, looked to be a forested area.
“You have a nice yard,” Camille said. “I imagine it’s a good place for outdoor parties during the summer.”
“Yeah, it is,” Lukia said. “When I was married, we had people here every weekend. Since the divorce, I’ve pulled back. But I think, come summer, I’ll start inviting friends over again.”
“How long have you been divorced?” I asked, wondering if her ex had anything to do with her problems.
“About two years. He got his secretary pregnant, then left me. They moved out of town, and I was just so embarrassed that I hadn’t seen it coming, that I didn’t want to face anybody.” She shrugged. “Anyway, I should start reaching out again. I don’t need a husband to throw a party, right?” She blushed.
“Your friends will come to see you, not to ask you about the divorce,” I said. “So, your ex is out of the picture?”
“Right. Whoever is doing this, I don’t think it could be him—he’s all the way over on the east coast now. And even though he pulled such a scummy move, he never tried to tell me I shouldn’t be upset. In fact, he gave me the house. He didn’t even ask for part of it. I think he felt so bad about screwing up that he couldn’t face being any more of an asshole than he was.” Lukia led us toward the storm door. “Anyway, about a week ago I came out to fill the bird feeders.”
As we stepped off the patio into the yard, she headed toward one of the poles holding the feeder. A pair of Steller’s jays were perching on the lip of the large feeder, taking turns.
“They’re such beautiful birds,” Camille said.
“They are. This pair has been in my yard for over ten years. Anyway, I came out here to fill the feeder last week, and they were squawking. And when a Steller’s jay scolds you, you know it. I saw something at the base of the pole, and when I knelt down to look, I found a dead rat.”
