Page 98 of A Light in the Dark
I was a far lazier beast and let the bed do the work for me. “Good.” I turned my project to show it to him. “Shifter Five truly makes excellent silk, and I feel you should take me to visit Shifter Five’s wares twice a month instead of just once a month.”
“Good progress. I’m going to tell my cousin to put Shifter Five into protective custody, though.”
“I would be very protective as a custodian of Shifter Five,” I informed Joel in a solemn tone, well aware he produced my favorite silk. I pulled out my phone and waved it in his direction. “Also, thank you for replacing this. How much do I owe you?”
“Nothing. The Hunters paid for it. They were overwhelmed with feelings of guilt. They also bought you a third camera. That was Allasandro’s contribution. He got you a green bag for it, and he put some luna moth patches on it for you so it was extra special and catered to your needs.”
“Once you are recovered enough to take photographs, I will invite luna moths over to my home so we can photograph them. We’ll extort them for their silk, get them skunked on roses, and feed them a buffet. They might forgive us for getting into trouble that way.”
“That plan has a high chance of working,” he admitted. “But when do I get to get skunked on your roses?”
“You’re still my hostage, and my hostage gets ongoing rose rights. You’ll also have to provide some adult supervision, as I can’t be trusted with roses.”
Joel laughed at that. “I’ll help you learn how to resist the sleepy charms of roses, so don’t worry about that. At first, you’ll probably only be able to shift once a week. Your magical aptitude will make a big difference in that. I can realistically do four times a week, and that’s higher than normal. Most of our flutter can do twice a week. Wolves have a much easier time. Most of the wolves do equal exchange of mass between forms, so they end up being huge wolves and can change almost at will. It’s a lot more energy required to transform down to something that weighs a few ounces at most.”
“Is that why the silk? The mass has to go somewhere?”
“We think so, although it may be a magic to mass ratio. We haven’t quite figured it out yet. Magic does play a role, however. Shifters with high magical aptitude tend to produce more silk, higher quality silk, and can shift more often.”
I understood; with his aptitude due to his shoring work and general magic usage, he could shift more often than the rest of his flutter. I suspected his magic also played a role in his silk’s quality. “This is good for me, as it means you will produce quality silk for my enjoyment.”
“I think I’ll survive being exploited, but I’m going to need a lot of quality time in your home with your roses.”
I smirked, wondering when Yolana would inform him of the truth. “You’re sacrificing yourself so no other luna moths fall into my trap. You’re so noble.”
“I’m possibly jealous, because if you get your hands on Shifter Five, you’ll have a second hostage, and I don’t want to share. As the sole hostage, I get preferential treatment.”
He also got my undivided attention, and I held hope he enjoyed my company as much as I enjoyed his.
“I will restrict my obsession with Shifter Five to within my home and in Yolana’s store,” I promised. He’d quickly figure out the obsession would result in me working to lure him into my bedroom, where he’d be invited to jointly rule my roost while I stole my boss’s idea of turning Joel’s home into a crafting palace and guest house we maintained to protect the rest of our section of street.
“I suppose I should be grateful that you have limits.”
I grinned at him. “I also owe Elenora a blanket, a matching hat, a scarf, gloves, and anything else crazy ladies with a hobby of baking poison might like. I would not have survived that without previous introductions to strangleberry. Honestly, it made me mad I couldn’t enjoy my berries! I had to play at choking on them. I also didn’t appreciate getting tossed in a river and having to go camping without the benefit of any tools. That said, I liked being out in the woods.”
I blamed the luna moth in me, as it was nice, quiet, and peaceful when my worries hadn’t taken the spotlight.
“Well, I can promise more trips to the wild outdoors without the parts you did not like.” Joel engaged me in a staring contest. “And if you really want strangleberry to be involved, we’ll sneak across the border and steal the edible kind.”
Stealing from the wolf shifters sounded like a good time to me. “Tell me more.”
“I’m thinking you’ll have to agree to be my hostage for a period of at least ten days if you want that.”
“I’ll even struggle for your enjoyment,” I promised. “Can we taunt the wolves that we stole their berries?”
“That seems like a reasonable request.”
“Once we’re both fully recovered from this, I propose that we take a vacation to do just that. You can introduce me to all the best flowers to get skunked on in the wild, too.” I would pretend I knew nothing about being on a mayoral ballot and hope sanity prevailed. “We will visit your cousin and gather everything we need for a wilderness adventure, including a craft project for you.” I held up my project again. “I will be working on this.”
“I think I can handle arranging for a comfortable camping trip with a glamorous tent setup so you can stitch in peace and comfort while in a wooded environment. When you’re tired of stitching, we’ll steal berries from the Hunters and sniff their flowers, all without their permission.”
I giggled at the thought of yanking the Hunters’ chains through doing what luna moths did when shifted and given an opportunity to stop and smell the roses. “Tell me what else we’re going to do to the Hunters.”
“I have a list.”
It tookthree days in the hospital to realize just how badly my kidnappers had injured Joel. While he recovered ahead of schedule, he suffered through bouts of dizziness, infrequent but alarming hallucinations, and a tendency to shapeshift without warning, leaving an explosion of silk in the room. As the doctors and nurses wanted me to start rebuilding mystrength, I was given the job of collecting it all and transporting it, by hand, across the hospital to where Coraline and Calden waited with bags.
They promised to make certain my precious silk would be cared for.
