“No one could have it,” Chris promised. “We’ve never had an outbreak in our camp.”
“That’s impressive on its own,” I praised. Someone always got a bite or scratch and didn’t tell anyone, or they opened the doors instead of watching someone die and that was always someone infected. “They can’t infect us, but yeah, we believe you, it’s just a stall tactic to get a feel for them.”
“To see if they could handle the truth,” Cerdic explained. “We’ve got the lie detector, a few of them even, and if they’re no good, we send them back with a few different memories someone will handle.” He coughed and nodded to Kristof like it would be him, giving Petre cover. “And I think it should not be who’s willing to fill what jobs, but recommendations only.”
“You mean I’d tell you several of my guys, but to get more, they’d have to vouch for their friends?” Chris checked. “That’s a good way to get one whole bad group that could start trouble.”
“Or weed them out fastest,” he countered. “But first, we start with the elderly and sick.” He held up his finger when several people went to push on that, glancing around to find someone. “Shawn, over here, mate.” He nodded when I gave him a questioning look. “I had some of the probationary coven members help me set up in Albuquerque, but Shawn Boyle and I spoke about him taking over the area.”
I gave a wave to Shawn as I ate, knowing we were short on time. “Does that work for your clan?”
“Yes, the climate is perfect for us, and I’d be more than willing to pair up with another clan knowing it’s more a suburb of the coven,” he said. “Cerdic approached me with a few ideas to maybe help these humans, but not risk all of us. We don’t have a company as a clan or a specialized skill set, so we’d like to be more well-rounded and help facilitate probationary or trial members for Team Inez.”
“Along with work at the gelato factory,” Cerdic added. “One group of the clan owns a bakery. They’re going to make more than fillings for the gelato if we get them better equipment.” He pulled over a map of the city and tapped it. “There’re nine chain hotels that aren’t the fancy, fancy ones, but would work well as makeshift retirement homes. That’s where we start.”
“Okay, and making buses,” I sighed. “We’ve got a lot to do in New Orleans too. I can’t get too run down as I’m going to be run down all weekend.”
“Why? The wedding?” Chris asked, glancing between us like he was seconds from the top of his head popping off.
“The tree in the middle of the coven grows mostly off my blood, and it works best to do it during my period,” I told him, shaking my head when he gave me a look that he was sure I was kidding. “I’m serious.” I moved my hands by my temples and made exploding noises as I flicked my fingers out. “Sounds about right, yeah?”
“Yeah, but I’m willing to accept a lot since you have AC in August,” he chuckled nervously. He winked at Tyson when the lion poked him. “Oh, yeah, you too.” He cleared his throat. “So which area are you at?”
I bit back a smile, realizing they’d had more fun in their reunion than the talking part. “That wasn’t a guest room you were in last night. That’s Tyson’s room. He lives here in the castle. Perks of being my knight.”
“I woves you too,” Tyson chuckled, giving me a wink. “Yeah, I live here, babe. Think you can suffer through that?”
We weren’t all that shocked when Chris threw his head back and burst out laughing. I was starting to really like the guy. Good, Tyson deserved to be happy.
7
We arrived at the port just as a ship was docking, everyone with us excited to see how the plan had turned out. Well, except Chris. Chris looked like he was going to puke up his guts. Clearly, someone who moved slower had to bring the poor human.
New Orleans was one of the last places I wanted to go back to after I was attacked there, but originally, we had headed to Louisiana to meet up with Lorenzo Payne, head of the Payne clan. They were armadillo shifters, but more importantly at the moment, a clan of experienced seafood fishers. Louisiana, to be specific, had lots of nummies from what I was told many times and had read.
At first, we had gotten them someplace much safer and with the Gagnon clan up in Canada. But now that we were expanding the clan wanted to take over New Orleans and the ports. People wanted to claim more areas before we cleared out all the corrupted and settlements got ballsy after we did it all and we lost the chance. And they knew the Mendez clan who wanted the same.
Adam Mendez was even pretty tight with Lorenzo, both their animals being from the same type of area. I liked him because he was not only laid back and always helpful, but he was a crocodile shifter—a predator—who was super cool with the prey shifters. To him, we were all simply not human, and even then, just people. It was my favorite type of attitude to have.
But, they both knew how New Orleans was a sensitive topic for me and how much I really didn’t want to go back there. So, the plan was to show me live and in color it was worth it. I wasn’t sure what that had meant, but with the boats they had running and were offloading, it was clear they meant seafood.
It made sense, given what they did. Some of the Mendez clan were
