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“And I just spewed on you,” Zoe squeaks. Marcus looks down at the front of his shirt and shrugs.
“At least I can help you shower?” Marcus chuckles. Zoe nods, looking at him like a deer stuck in headlights.
“You can't shower with her. You’ll see her privates,” Casey says, causing Marcus to jump, having completely forgotten she was there. Great observations; Casey deserves a pat on the back, I think sarcastically.
“Oh, right, we’ll shower with our clothes on—can't have that,” Marcus agrees with her. Casey nods her head, evidently accepting that answer.
“Want to see where we live? I have all the ‘Trolls’ movies, and they have a TV show, Valarian doesn't like to watch with me, but you can,” Casey says, tugging on his arm and leading him out. I follow them. My head is still throbbing, and once inside, I flop on the couch and call Casey over to me while Marcus goes to help clean Zoe up.
Casey rummages through her movies, putting ‘Trolls’ on, and I rest my head back on the couch, rubbing my temples.
“Auntie Everly, is my dad going to jail?”
“I'm not sure, sweetie. Are you upset?”
“No, I don't want to go with that lady. They tried to take me from school. Mom drove really fast on the way home, and that crazy woman drove into the side of mom’s car in the parking lot.”
“Shewhat?”
Casey nods, pressing play. “Yep, the school went into lockdown. She said she was my mom, but I already have a mom. The school locked me in a cleaning closet until mom got there, and security dragged them away, but then they chased us.”
“No one is taking you from your mother, I promise,” I tell her, holding up my finger. I’ll sell the damned hotel to pay for the legal bills if need be, but I doubt it will come to that now. Casey nods and grips my pinky.
“Why wasn't Valarian at school?”
“We slept in,” I tell her just as the door bursts open and Macey rushes in.
“Oh, thank the Goddess,” Macey says, running in and scooping up Casey. She hugs her tight.
“Where is Zoe? Woah, what happened to you?” Macey says, looking at me.
“Huh?”
“You have a huge egg on your head!” Macey shrieks, and I feel my head. Touching the back, I wince. When I pull my hand back, I see blood has stained my fingertips. Great, that's all I need.
ChapterFifty-Five
Everly
My head throbs even more as Macey watches me with worry. She even prods the bump on my head with her finger, which only makes it hurt more with her attempt to examine it.
“It's only bleeding a little; I bet it hurts, though,” she says, poking it again.
I laugh, which causes me to clutch my head in pain. “Uh, yeah, because you keep poking it,” I respond.
“Shit! Sorry,” she chuckles and stops.
“Maybe you should shift; it may help heal it a little quicker?” Macey offers.
That’s the last thing I want to do. It always seems like too much effort to shift these days, and I hate my wolf form. I tire quickly and don't want to spend the rest of the day like a zombie because I shifted for a meager bump to the head.
“Maybe later; we still have loads of work today. Oh! The morgue? Was it Emily?” I ask her. With everything going on, I forgot to ask her.
“No, it was some homeless woman. She must have stolen some of Emily's clothes. I recognized the tie-dyed shirt, but it wasn't her,” Macey tells me, and I let out a breath of relief. Thank heavens. However, it still leaves me wondering what happened to her and what’s happening in this city. So many people are missing, and I’m beginning to worry something bigger is going on that we just don’t understand yet.
Murders are rare, disappearances rarer in this city, yet multiple have happened in the last few weeks. More problematic is the amount of forsaken trying to get into the city. What are they running from? They mostly stay away. Lately, there have been repeated attempts to breach the city borders. Also, even the forsaken that had been tagged and tracked have gone missing without a trace.
“What are you thinking?” Macey asked, sitting beside me. I shake my head; I have no idea what to think. These days, it seems it’s just one thing after another. I look at her, about to answer, when both she and I tense. Both of us look to the hallway, then Macey's head turns to me before she instinctively covers Casey's ears in alarm.
