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“Might not want to admit to killing anyone in front of strangers,” Chris muttered under his breath, just loud enough for me to hear.
I waved him away. No one here was going to call the cops on me. And if they did, they would regret it.
The waitress dropped her pencil. “I know you.” Her face had gone pale and her eyes couldn’t have been wider.
“From the TV?” Although I
wasn’t sure why that would make her so scared. Maybe it was the flaming sword?
“No. From that night. You and the guy with the long hair. You—” She swallowed. “You saved my life. I was just a kid and they had me tied and…”
I saw her now. The child she’d been. I’d wondered what had happened to her, and now I knew.
After we pulled Chris from the pit that night, Van left to go find the pack. But they were already on their way back, and they’d brought humans with them to torture or beat or eat. I wasn’t sure what their plan was, and I hadn’t asked. I just killed them. All of them. There wasn’t much left for Van to do but clean up by the time he came back.
“I remember.” That wasn’t something I’d ever forget, but I wasn’t sure she’d even seen my face. “Then you know we’re not here to hurt anyone. We actually came to check on the land. We’re thinking of occupying it again, maybe bringing some business to the town.”
The old man nodded. “We’d welcome that.”
“That makes things easy.” I gave him a smile, one that I hoped would convey the message that we were harmless and could be trusted. “Anyway, as you remember, werewolves need a lot of food and we had a couple of crazy days. To start Chris needs four chicken fried steaks, but I’m vegetarian. What do you have for me?”
“Um… Umm…” The waitress blinked a few times, then licked her lips. “I…”
The old man patted her shoulder. “This is Lizzie. She’s just startled, is all.” He patted her again. “Catch your breath, darlin’.”
Lizzie took a breath to calm herself, but her hands were still shaking and her pupils were dilated, probably struggling with the memories I was bringing up.
I waited patiently, and finally, she let out another breath, this one steadier. “We have these great big baked potatoes.” She held her hands a good eight inches apart. “We can load that up with cheese and butter and chives and umm…sour cream. Or cheese sauce and broccoli. Wait. You do eat dairy and stuff, right?”
I nodded. “A life without cheese isn’t a life worth living.”
She started to smile, but it was just a flash and then gone. “We—We also have garden salads. I can leave off the bacon. The green beans have bacon in them, as do our pintos. Umm.” She wiped the sweat breaking out across her brow with the back of her hand. “If you’re sticking around town, I can talk to Mitch about the menu and—”
“Don’t worry.” The poor girl was fighting a massive case of nerves or memories, and I didn’t need her stressing anymore. “Baked potato is perfect. Loaded up with cheese and chives and sour cream. And a salad would be great, too.”
“Dressing?”
“Vinaigrette?”
“We have a balsamic or an Italian.”
“Balsamic sounds lovely.”
“Drinks? Bread?”
“Chris wants water, but I think we’d both also love tea. Bread is a yes, too.”
“We just got sweet for tea.”
“That’s fine.” I hoped that was the last of her questions.
“Okay.” She breathed deep. “I’ll just be over there.” She had a stilted walk at first, almost stumbling before speeding up to rush across the restaurant.
“Folks around here are going to be a little starstruck by you at first. Some might be mean.” The old man stepped back a little. “But they’ll come around. Took a long while to get over what happened with the pack, and some aren’t really over it yet. Others might never be. You really settling down here?”
Chris blinked and his eyes were back to their normal sky blue. My interaction with the waitress was enough to give him time to get his control back. I would’ve helped him if he needed it, but if we stayed here, he’d have to be able to deal with the town himself.
“That’s what I’d like,” Chris said. “Might take me a bit before I can clear the land and get a house built and everything else, but it’s a long-term goal.”
