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I smelled gardenias before I saw the house. The front window was cracked open, and that familiar scent wafted toward us in a thick haze. It was intoxicating, and I found myself walking past the house and almost to the end of the block before I realized what was happening.
“He put something in the smell, didn’t he?” Thomas said as we backtracked to the house.
“Sure seems like it. Reminds me of magic, but Pac has no magic.”
This time I made myself stare at the house while willing myself to not move on, but before we knew it, Thomas and I were back at the end of the block, the house behind us. I noticed others walked right by it without giving it a glance. Pac was using strong magic.
“I only know of one person that could help us with this,” I announced.And she could get here before Dredge and Luc if she wanted to.
“Who would that be?”
“My grandmother, Miti.”
“Your grandmother is a witch?”
“Yeah, a good one too.”
“And she had shifter babies?”
“Yup. If you have any more questions, you should save them for her, as she won’t tell us anything more.”
“Gotcha.”
I was busy dialing Miti’s number on Thomas’s phone when it rang. Looking down at the unknown number, I smiled. Miti always knew. “Hi, Grandma.”
“You need me now, don’t you?”
“You know I do.”
“I will be there shortly. Do what your dad asked.”
“But—”
“Find a way, Brandon. There’s always a way.” She hung up.
“What did she mean?” Thomas asked.
“We’ll have to find a way to scout the house, even though we can’t get near it.”
“Uh . . .”
“Come on, let’s walk around the block.”
It was good Thomas didn’t ask any more questions, because I didn’t think I could take them. My nerves were almost shot at the thought Becca could be inside that house and I couldn’t get to her. We walked around the entire block twice before I noticed it—a little alley in between two store fronts. It was big enough for some trash cans and debris but barely wide enough for people to walk down.
Before heading down the alley, I tore off a length of my shirt and tied it around my face, motioning at Thomas to follow suit. It wasn’t a great deterrent for blocking the gardenia smell, but it was better than nothing. After securing the face covering, I realized my nose couldn’t filter out the various scents associated with the garbage and whatever else was growing in the dark, damp corners to work out Becca’s weak scent. Cursing the fact my ability to smell was so weak, I told Thomas that he would have to be the one to smell out Becca. A memory of Pac sneering at me flashed through my mind, but I pushed it aside. Becca needed me. I wasn’t going to fail her.
Thomas didn’t question why I couldn’t do it myself; he simply agreed, which I was again thankful for.
We headed down the alley. Hitting a fence at the end, we both climbed over. My chest was tight, and it was hard to breathe. I was getting anxious. My heart had not beaten this fast before, and it took all my willpower to not run straight through the fences and on to Becca. We’d passed five houses before I realized we’d gone too far. We backtracked and were almost to the alley when Thomas smelled something familiar—the scent of her shampoo. The smell of Becca’s shampoo was so faint that we needed to venture closer to the house to make sure of it. Thank goodness there were no gardenias in the backyard.
I attempted to shift to get the most out of my senses and felt a satisfied shudder pass through me when it was successful. Lifting my nose up into the air, I caught a clear whiff of Becca’s shampoo, then changed into a human again.
“You’re going to have to show me that trick of shifting without ruining your clothes,” Thomas said.
I gave him a look, flabbergasted he’d mention that at a time like this.
Thomas must have read my thoughts because he added, “Sorry, I just watched you change back and forth, and it’s fascinating that you don’t lose your clothes. I’ve never seen another shifter do that before.”
