Page 42 of Cold Sacrifice

I sighed. I was going to have to remove the ossling, before Annabelle ended up causing stress to a mother ossling and her baby. It was unlikely she’d ever see it, or that whoever she hired to remove it would ever see it, but just in case…

“I’ll take care of it,” I told her. “I’ll relocate it today. Do you have a small pet carrier I can borrow?”

“Thank you,” she said. “Yes, I do actually. Before I went to the shelter and got Hershey, I had a cat. He passed.” She dabbed at her eyes. “I’ll go get it. Do you need some cheese or something to tempt it in there?”

“I could use a towel to line the carrier.”

When she went inside, I asked Zach to go to the car to fetch the bag of teeth. “They’ll make her more comfortable,” I told him. “Supposedly they’re intelligent and she’ll understand what’s happening.”

Annabelle didn’t argue when I asked her to take Hershey and go back inside, because the “squirrel” might be too scared to come out with the dog running around.

“What do you need me to do?” Zach asked.

“Nothing,” I told him. “Stand against the house where she won’t feel threatened by you, and I’ll see if I can convince her to let me take her somewhere else.”

“Where will you take her?” he asked. “The cemetery where she’s stealing the teeth?”

“Nope.” I smiled. “I’m taking her to Silverwood.”

I set the carrier on the ground and made her a little nest from the towel and some of the teeth. Then I went to the tree, stood at the base, and gazed up into the leaves as I tried to convince a tiny supernatural creature to leave her nest and come live with me.

My wolf sensed and smelled her before I saw her. The leaves shook, and suddenly, a furry and somewhat dirty little face peered down at me, the black button eyes shiny and quizzical.

“You can’t stay here,” I told her. “But I have woods on my land, and nearby graveyards. You’ll have all you want to eat, and in the winter, if you get too cold or have trouble keeping your baby warm, I can help you with that. I can feed you, too.”

She didn’t come to me, but she didn’t move away, either. “You love nuts and seeds and cat kibble, right? I can keep you supplied. Let’s get you out of here.”

She might not have come to me at all if not for Zach. He walked over, held up his hand, and told her quietly, “Come on, little one.”

She came.

She rushed down the tree and jumped to his palm, then scurried up his arm to his shoulder. He shuddered just a little, but I pretended not to notice.

“That’s amazing,” I said. “She likes you.”

He moved with exaggerated slowness to the carrier, and when he crouched in front of it, the little ossling jumped from his shoulder to the ground, and directly into the carrier. She looked at me as I shut the door, and there wasn’t so much as a hint of fear in her eyes.

But she was definitely pregnant. Her little belly was distended.

Zach carried her to the car. Finally, we left Annabelle Applegate and her disappointed dog behind, and we headed to Silverwood.

Chapter Fifteen

Soon, it would be dark.

The ossling was happily ensconced in a new favorite tree, and Zach had offered to build her a tiny tree house so she could be safe and warm. “She shouldn’t be out in the open like that,” he said.

Zach was in love with the furry little supernatural.

“She’ll need a name,” I told him.

He nodded. “I’ll think on it.”

I’d called Judy Race on the way to Huntersburg and explained that something urgent had come up. “I’ll call you as soon as I can come see you.”

“When you can,” she said. “It’s nothing that can’t wait a while longer.”

Lucy had dinner ready, and Zach, Sam, Remy, and I fell upon it like we hadn’t seen food for days. “Lucy,” I said, “we’d all be a lot less happy if you weren’t here.”