AllFreeNovel
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“And you can’t go around talking to norms without a charm. You’re going to get picked up.”
Fin rolled his eyes so hard he almost fell over. “Yeah, sure. That’s what’s gonna get me picked up.”
“Look, just take that back where you got it from! If Blue and his lady friend want a ride, we’ll fit ’em in the car somehow.”
Thank God it was a convertible.
“And what about the others?”
I felt my stomach drop. “What others?”
Small hands found small hips. “Well, who do you think, Dory?”
Five minutes later, we were down by the water again, having towed the mini-haul over by the car simply to get it out of the way. And I was staring at—damn, I didn’t even know. Eight, nine, maybe ten selkies, all crowded up against the colorful rocks, in the shallows.
And not looking good.
I guess because they’d had to swim after the boat, although I didn’t see why they’d bothered. They were in the ocean! That was their thing, right? Why not swim away?
Only they weren’t looking like they felt like swimming right now. Some were gasping for breath; others were using their flippers to weakly stroke their companions, some of whom had their eyes closed and, honestly, looked like they might never open them again. Well, damn.
“We need to get them to a healer.”
“That’s what I said,” Fin told me, pawing through the bags of assorted stuff I’d bought. “But they’re afraid whoever it is will rat them out. They say they’ll be okay with some rest and food.” He looked up. “Are you sure there’s no salmon or anything?”
“It’s a convenience store!”
“Well, it seems like a poorly stocked one.” He opened some jerky and waved it around, but nobody seemed interested.
“They’d probably eat it in their human form,” he said. “But transformed, it’s like the animal mind gets a veto, you know?”
No, not really. But that didn’t matter right now. “I could go get something,” I offered, handing over the medical supplies. And some cigs, because the witch, or whatever she was, had looked like she was running low.
“Hey, thanks!” She hiked up her skirts and tucked the packet in the top of her stocking.
“No way,” Fin told me. “You’re gonna stay here till you don’t zigzag when you walk.”
“I don’t do that.”
“You just did that all the way down the hill!”
“You’re imagining things.”
“Yeah. Not imagining shit.” He held out a hand.
“What?”
“The keys.”
It took me a moment. “You’re not driving my car!”
“I’m not. I can’t reach the pedals. She is.” He pointed at Granny.
“I’m pretty sober,” she assured me. “It probably won’t end up like last time.”
I blinked. “Last time?”
“The truck. Man, that was something, wasn’t it?”
