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We pulled up to a gated community with the sign proclaiming it to be Magnolia Hills. It looked like a fairly new development, with pretty little ranch houses spaced evenly along the lanes behind a large wrought-iron gate that was probably meant to be mostly decorative before Death Day.
A young man stepped out of the small house with a rifle in his hand.
Kicks looked at the young guy, eyed the rifle, and raised a brow, as if to say,You better come at me with something bigger and better than that.
“What’s your business here?” the guard asked, a slight shake in his voice.
“Piper is here, per request, to see Lola,” Kicks said, voice as smooth as velvet.
One day I wanted to be as cool as Kicks. Although I hadn’t done so bad last night with Groza.
The young guard nodded, as if he’d been expecting us. He made a lifting motion to another guy on the inside. The second guard began pulling a rope that raised a steel bar running across the gate and then waved us in.
The first guard pointed to what looked like it used to be a community house in the center. “She’ll meet you there.”
They closed the gate again as soon as we rolled through, and my nerves started to jangle.
The second he cut the engine, I leaned forward instead of getting off. “We sure this isn’t a trap?”
“I don’t think so,” he said. “They’ve already taken stock of our numbers. They might be a problem at some point, but this is just poking around.”
I climbed off the bike, reminding myself that I wasn’t exactly powerless. I could’ve used a little ghostly input, but I was beginning to think Widow Herbert was busy being happy and Jaysa was busy being annoyed at me after our last conversation. It hadn’t gone that well, but who would imagine a ghost would hold a grudge? Although of all ghosts, she would be the one.
The woman with white-blond hair who had accompanied Lola that night at the pack’s compound stepped out of the building.
“Lola will be right out to speak to you,” she said politely, almost speaking like a hostess telling me my table would be ready in one moment.
I stood in silence with Kicks, scrutinizing the area around us and the building we stood in front of. There weren’t too many people out and about except a few stragglers in the distance, but there was a feeling of a lot of eyes on us. It was cold, and these people weren’t shifters. They’d probably try to stay indoors.
We didn’t have to wait too long for Lola. She strode out the door, her long, dark hair flowing around her, looking a bit ethereal. I didn’t remember her having quite this much presence when she’d shown up at the pack.
“I’m very happy to see you.”
“Groza said you wanted to speak to me? That you would only givemethe mushrooms?” I still wasn’t completely sold on Groza’s story. Why would this woman want to speak to me? I had nothing to offer her.
“Yes. That’s true.” She glanced at Kicks, who typically was the type to take center stage, before focusing solely on me again. “Can we speak alone? We’ll just take a walk over by the lake,” she said, pointing to the path around it.
Kicks looked at me, and I nodded.“I’ll wait over there.” He walked back and took a seat on his bike, which was in view of the entire path.
There wassomethingoff about this woman, not that I could pinpoint it. Nothing was coming across as threatening, though, either.
Lola took a step toward the lake, waiting to see if I’d come.
“What did you want to speak to me about?” I said, joining her.
I’d let her get whatever it was out of her system, appease my curiosity, and collect the mushrooms. I wasn’t handing them all over to Groza, though. It wasn’t like she’d give any back if Charlie or my new pack needed them.
“How did you come to be with them? You’re human,” she said.
My brain jolted, but I managed to keep my steps even.
“Of course I’m human. What else would I be?” I said, not answering her true question as I played dumb. I didn’t think it would work, but I wasn’t answering anything like that.
“Don’t you realize they hate humans?” she said.
She talked and looked at me as if there was no sense in denying it. I wasn’t sure what she knew, but I wasn’t saying a word. Charlie was one of those shifters she was talking about, although she hadn’t gone as far as labeling them.
“I really have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said, lying almost with ease. How far I’d come in the last few months.
