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“You sound disappointed about that,” Aristide said.
“I might be,” Charon said. “Good morning, sir. I’d get out to open the door for you and Chloe, but Aristide’s cane is blocking my way.”
“It’s fine, Charon. Chloe, do you want to ride up front with me as a cat?” Noctus asked.
“No way, sit in the back!” Ker scooted into the tiny middle spot on the bench seat, smashing Aristide into the side of the car in the process. She smiled welcomingly and patted her vacated seat. “Then we can alltalk!”
I grinned as I hopped in next to her, buckling myself into my seat before Noctus closed my door for me, then opened the front passenger door.
“I feel like this would be the perfect opportunity to make a joke about wolves loving car rides, but I will refrain,” Aristide said.
“Good.” Noctus slid into the passenger seat and closed the door with a thump. “Because otherwise you’d find a nostalgia vamp joke in the sponsored by section of your favorite crime podcast.”
“You wouldn’t purchase a sponsorship just for a joke,” Aristide scoffed. “That would take too much of your precious time away from ruling.”
“You’re right,” Noctus said. “I wouldn’t, but Charon would.”
Ker belly laughed as Charon turned the car on and pulled onto the street.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Why do you assume we aren’t going straight home?” Aristide asked.
“That seems like a pretty unexciting thing for you and Ker to tag along for,” I said.
Aristide made a noise in the back of his throat. “A valid point.”
“We’re going to stop at the animal grooming salon your brother mentioned—Paw & Order. They open at seven,” Noctus said. “Since we’re more familiar with the fae we believe is behind this, we might pick up something the Curia Cloisters missed.”
“The Cloisters didn’t even know to look for him in the first place,” Ker pointed out, swaying into me as Charon executed a right turn.
“We’ll also be going in with a cover story,” Noctus said. “Provided, Chloe, you are willing to play a role in it.”
“Sure,” I agreed, then paused when I realized we were going to a pet grooming salon, and Ker wasn’t in her wolf form. “Do you mean—?”
Aristide’s grin was positively gleeful. “Oh yes. We do.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chloe
“Welcome to Paw & Order! Who do you have a grooming session scheduled with?” A friendly looking human guy with a bright smile, a bushy beard, and a bright red shirt that read “Proud Paw Dad” greeted us when Noctus walked through the door.
The place smelled like wet dog and pet shampoo, but it was cute with the walls lined with framed photographs of cats and dogs in their before and after shots, posed so they looked like mugshots.
I clung to Noctus’s fancy suit, my claws threaded through his button up shirt as I held on in my familiar cat hug stance, with Noctus’s left arm supporting my rear.
I had to be leaving holes in his expensive suit, but I was too anxious to care. I wasn’t sold on the idea that this plan was actually going to work.
“Good morning,” Noctus greeted the man. “I don’t have an appointment. Ama doesn’t need to be groomed today, rather, I wanted to see if you’ll suit her needs.”
“Oh, in that case, welcome!” The man leaned against the half wall that divided the small lobby from the grooming area behind him.
There were five tables, and although they’d only opened a few minutes ago, two of them were already occupied, one by a Scottish terrier, and another by a smiling mix who was wagging his tail so hard he whacked a brush out of his groomer’s hand.
An empty doorframe let me peer back at the washing area—which was filled with stainless steel washing stalls and a full shower for large dogs. A sheet of opaque plastic hung from the side of the doorframe. The door most likely had been glass and was destroyed from that terrible noise spell.
The front door and nearly all the windows that showed a view of main street were whole, but they’d already been replaced if the picture window that was stapled with the same plastic sheeting as the door was any indicator.
