Page 32 of A Light in the Dark
THIRTY-TWO
I did not want to win this competition.
For four days, Joel and I visited with Coraline and Calden, and when they needed to work, we babysat their bunnies, worked on our crafts, and enjoyed rest. He healed while I worried.
The election happened, and I refused to listen to the results, sticking my fingers in my ears and humming. On the fifth day, Coraline herded us into Calden’s SUV, loaded with my new clothes, my crafting supplies, and a ridiculous amount of silk, and headed for Stonecreek.
We couldn’t fit all the silk, and Calden promised he’d have the rest shipped to us after we were confirmed to be safely home.
“Are you ready to be crushed with disappointment yet?” she asked, raising a brow and glancing my way. As we had no idea if Joel would be reduced to gagging due to motion sickness or not, he ruled over the backseat. That Coraline provided a brand new pack of vomit bags worried me .
“Judging from the commentary, I won. I did not want to win this competition.”
“You were the only ‘competitor’ with the backing of Moonriver. And as Moonriver is notorious about having low corruption since Calden’s father took over, the voters in Stonecreek more wanted access to him than you, although you do have a strong following. You saved lives, and they know it. And you almost paid for that with your life.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Joel, why did you say nice things about me to a reporter?”
“The concussion made me do it,” he replied.
Damned concussion. That concussion would be the end of my sanity, although he’d gone two days without even a hint of a headache, the first real sign he truly healed. “Please tell me the headache is still gone.”
“It’s still gone, and I’m not getting motion sickness anymore.”
“If you’re still not getting motion sickness by the time we actually reach Stonecreek, I’m going to throw a party,” I muttered.
“Me, too. I’m still not sure why I’m the one driving you back.”
“The rental fees for a one way from Moonriver to Stonecreek are lethal.” I’d offered to drive us, but the two thousand dollar rental fee had choked me, resulting in a heated debate over wasting two thousand dollars or forcing Calden, Coraline, or one of the other Hunters to drive us. Coraline’s decision to volunteer, assuming her tyrant of a boss would pay her for the work, had put an end to the war.
Her father-in-law had been willing to send her off if he could have his baby boy for a whole day all to himself .
As such, Coraline would spend the evening and night at my place before heading home the next day.
“It really was. I thought it’d be like five hundred dollars or something. It’s not that far.”
“Once you count pit stops, lunch, and the border crossing, it’s not far. Six to eight hours, depending on how often you stop.”
“We could go to the rose garden,” Joel muttered.
While my garden sported every kind of Earth rose to exist, there was a botanical garden in Moonriver near the border with every species of rose Korsania Minor had to offer. As I’d brought the cage of luna moth containment, if Joel opted to get skunked, we had a way to make certain he didn’t fly off. “I’m okay with a trip to the garden if Coraline is.”
“If you last the two hours to the border without throwing up in the vehicle, we can go to the garden. There’s a really nice restaurant inside, too. Valerie, get on your phone and see if you can get us a reservation. Joel can transform after we eat and investigate the roses while we digest. Joel, so help me, if you overproduce silk this time, and we can’t fit it all in the SUV, I will end you!”
“Please don’t end Joel. I like him, and I wish to keep him as my hostage.” I checked my phone, determined there was a mailing service not far from the garden, and that the restaurant could fit a reservation for three in two and a half hours. I claimed the table before saying, “If he overproduces silk again, there’s a shipping place nearby. We’ll just box up the silk before we leave. It should fit if we just let it overrun the seats until we’re done at the gardens. ”
“Damned luna moths,” the wolf muttered. “Don’t overproduce silk again, Joel.”
“I don’t want to overproduce silk any more than you want me to. I’d like to have a normal shift for a change.”
Poor Joel. “And if you don’t, I’ll take you home, hold you captive in my house, and only let you out when you’re cleared to go back to work. Until then, you’ll have to cope with my tender, loving care.”
Coraline giggled. “It could be worse, Joel.”
“You two enjoy my suffering.”
I really did, especially when his suffering meant he stayed in close proximity. “You’re the one who talked to the reporters. Now I have to go back to Stonecreek and do what ?”
“You have to run the place,” he replied.
“I don’t know how yet, Joel, but you will pay for this. To start with, you’re grounded, and you have to serve as my live-in nightlight until further notice.”
Coraline burst into laughter. “You’re rewarding him, Valerie.”
“How is that a reward? He has to do what I want in the comfort of my home.”
“You have the equivalent of a crack house for luna moths. You’re basically telling him he gets to get skunked on roses as often as he wants, and all he has to do is sleep nearby and glow for you. You’re giving him quite the prize, actually.”
“But it’s on my terms rather than his.”
“The wily shifter men do not care if their women entrap them in such a fashion. This one has his eyes on the prize, and he’ll be more than happy to quietly steal the win while you think you’re ahead of the game. In reality, you’re just handing him the victory.”
“I don’t mind in the slightest. If she wants to set me up for an excellent life, I’m not going to complain. I just want access to my crafting supplies and my cameras.”
“At least he’s an easy enough man to care for. Mine gets surly if he isn’t fed rabbit at the appropriate intervals, he’s a downright beast if he’s separated from his bunnies for longer than eight hours, and he can’t be consoled if he doesn’t get reading time.”
Damn it. Calden had the right idea. “I can’t blame him about the bunnies, I can’t be consoled if I don’t get reading time, and having eaten rabbit at your place, I’m going to be joining him in becoming surly without rabbit on the menu at least once a week.” I twisted around in my seat to stare at Joel. “We’re having rabbit once a week, and I will learn Coraline’s tricks to hunt them if I must.”
“Our area of Stonecreek doesn’t have a lot of rabbits,” he reminded me.
“You can drive us to where the evil meat rabbits live, and we’ll thin the numbers. How do we get rabbit licenses?”
Joel sighed. “I’ll handle the rabbit licenses, but you’re going to have to figure out how we’re hunting the rabbits and what’s involved with cleaning them and preparing them to eat.”
“I have a license for Moonriver and Stonecreek, and my hunting kit is in the glovebox. After we get Joel skunked on roses, I’ll take you out, hunt a rabbit, and teach you how to skin it and clean it. I can catch three in Stonecreek a day, so we can just have rabbit for dinner tonight.”
“Rabbit sounds good. Joel, we’re going hunting. ”
“I prefer hunting with a camera,” he grumbled.
“Maybe we should go buy him a camera so he can photograph the rabbits before we kill them.”
“We’ll hit a hunting store on the way, see about licenses for you both, and get you two starter bows, too. We can make it fit in the back. Joel, no excess silk. We do not have room for a cooler, a bunch of rabbits, and excess silk.”
“There’s just no way I can win this, is there?”
“There really isn’t.”
Joel heaved a sigh. “I’ll try not to explode into silk upon shifting, but I’m not making any promises.”
Coraline decided Joel would endure shifting in the parking lot of the shipping store, as she anticipated so much repressed masculinity would explode forth into beautiful fiber for me to collect and use. As he proved her right, we lost twenty minutes to collecting the silk, packing it up, and shipping it to Yolana. According to the receipt, she had two hundred and twenty pounds of silk to play with, and we’d needed ten large boxes to fit it all.
I included a note that I, as a benevolent dictator and captor, would continue to provide the woman with my luna moth’s precious silk.
To keep Joel from causing us problems, we stashed him in the plastic prison, and I carried him on my lap on the way to the restaurant, where he’d enjoy his meal while shifted, something he assured me was a rare treat he’d enjoy before his transformation .
Most restaurants refused to serve shifters in their secondary form.
While the waiter seemed a little puzzled, once he realized Joel was a shifter, he set up the table to better accommodate the luna moth and his voracious ways. That left me with a chance to talk to Coraline about her favorite hobby, which was skinning rabbits to pay for books.
The entire process fascinated me, especially as she promised she’d teach me how to do everything so I, too, could buy books and fiber with my earnings. When I told her about Joel’s allergy to rabbit fur, she dissolved into helpless laughter while the luna moth glared at us both.
To settle the issue of the bill, we waged a thumb war. I suspected her wolf ways gave her an edge, but I held my own for several minutes before suffering through defeat. I waved my fist at her while she huffed her pleasure over the victory.
Joel, who’d eaten enough for three people, dosed over the ruins of his dessert, which had consisted of fruit, ice cream, and caramel sauce. I marveled how a luna moth could eat that much, but rather than worry about it, I wiggled my hand underneath him, transferred him to my shoulder, and made certain he wouldn’t fall before gathering my purse.
“That’s definitely a selling point for being a luna moth. If Calden passes out after a bender, I can barely move him. We don’t change our mass when we shift, and he’s packing a ridiculous amount of muscle on him, so he weighs a ton.”
“Two hundred?” I guessed.
“Roughly, yeah. Are you going to be able to wake him up to sniff the roses?”
“We’ll find out, and if not, we have the luna moth prison.” I giggled at the thought of locking Joel up again, took care with walking so I wouldn’t knock him off, and followed Coraline out of the restaurant. She led me to the ticket counter, explained to the woman who Joel was, and that we wanted three tickets. The woman laughed over issuing a ticket to a moth but had me carry his wrist bracelet in case he shifted back to human. She confirmed he could even sniff them however much he wanted, and that the roses and flowers being bred were handled in a special greenhouse or covered with bags meant to prevent cross pollination.
With that settled, we explored the gardens, and when we came across the main rose garden, I picked up Joel, bounced him until he woke up, and stuck his head into the nearest bloom. With the luna moth thus amused, I put my cell phone to work, taking pictures and sending them to my boss whenever I got a good one.
After the third such picture, my phone rang.
“Hey,” I answered, keeping an eye on my neighbor so he wouldn’t get any ideas.
“Where are you?”
“At a garden in Moonriver. We stopped for lunch, and I shipped a bunch of silk to Yolana. We’re now getting Joel skunked on roses before we force him to shift again for the border crossing. It’s playtime right now.”
He laughed. “I see. Are you coming back tonight still?”
“We’re going hunting for rabbit first, but yes. We’re going to get licenses in Stonecreek, and Coraline is going to teach us. Joel is going to be mad and watch us hunt rabbit due to his allergy to their fur, though. We’re having rabbit for dinner tonight. It’s a good thing he’s not allergic to their meat. That would be a serious problem. ”
“You could have just sent me a text to buy you some rabbit at the store.”
I sniffed. “It’s more fun this way.”
“Ah, I see. You’re enjoying the high life as a free woman before you return to Stonecreek.”
“That’s right. I’m protesting the election result through having dedicated playtime on the way back.”
“I suppose that’s better than generally protesting the election result.”
“I’m only going along with this because Allasandro will suffer as well.”
“Helping you isn’t a cause of suffering, Valerie.”
I rolled my eyes before monitoring Joel and his blatant enjoyment of the roses. “And anyway, Joel is enjoying the roses. He’s had a rough time lately, and he definitely needed some time to stop and enjoy the roses. But if he gets uppity, he’s going back into luna moth prison.”
“You didn’t bring that cage back with you, did you?”
“I absolutely have the cage in my possession, and the luna moth is going into it if he starts putting up a fuss. If he’s good, I’ll get him a rose plant on the way out. They sell baby roses here, and I’m sure my garden could use another one or two for his enjoyment.”
“His favorite variety are Highland Pink Hearts, and they should sell them there.”
Interesting. “Joel, if you go into the cage when it’s time for us to shop in the garden store, for you will absolutely lose all control around all those young plants, I will buy two Highland Pink Hearts for my garden.”
Joel fluttered his way to my shoulder, and to my amusement, he settled in for a nap .
“And how did he take that offer?”
“My shoulder has a luna moth on it, and he’s about to enjoy another nap. He ate three meals and a huge dessert, and he polished off his plates. I hope he doesn’t decide to vomit silk all over me, because I don’t have a basket to collect it right now.”
“He probably won’t produce much silk that way while recovering. His volume is usually when he’s shifting to his moth form. How much did he produce when he transformed?”
“Two hundred and twenty pounds.”
“That’s a good weight all things considered.”
“And I sent it over to Yolana so I can have thread for my stitching adventures,” I confessed.
My boss laughed. “At least he won’t have to worry about meeting his quota for her. Do you know what time you’ll be in? I want to make sure the reporters know to clear out so you can have a chance to get settled at home. Right now, they’re having a field day talking to your neighbors. It’s chaos.”
“Is Elenora telling them about how Joel should be servicing my every need? Because that’s what’s going to happen if there are reporters on our street.”
Joel didn’t stir, so I assumed he’d dropped back to sleep after indulging in a hit of roses. Coraline giggled, and she used her phone to photograph the sleeping moth before amusing herself with the flowers.
“Elenora has outed herself as the reason you survived the attack and poisoning, and she has even gone so far as to spread the recipe and show them the baking dishes she got for you as a celebratory present for dealing with her training with such grace. And then every single poisoner in Stonecreek came out to have similar talks with the reporters because of the fears of another Red Death—the planned purge of all outsiders. That revived the utter city-wide loathing of the former mayor.”
I admired Elenora’s ruthlessness. “I hope they said nice things about my new baking dishes.”
“Your baking dishes are being praised; someone identified them as Earth antiques.”
“If anyone steals my baking dishes, I will become a legend in the viciousness of my revenge, Humphrey.”
He laughed at me. “I’m sure your baking dishes will be safe, but I’m going to get your permission to install an alarm system and start making those arrangements.”
I sighed at the thought of having an alarm system but understood the wisdom in it. “I’ll pay you back for the work if you need to put down a deposit, but yes. Get the best you can get in it, just keep my monthly payments to something reasonable.”
“A hundred a month will get you some decent security.”
I could work with that. “I can afford more than that if you think it’ll be a wise idea.”
“Two hundred would make me comfortable.”
“Then go two hundred a month on it. I’m sure I can handle the expense with my raise. Hey, since Joel isn’t conscious to protest, how does one get in on the silk selling with Yolana?”
“You talk to her, sign her contract, figure out how much silk you produce, and give her a share of your production. She won’t contract with you for at least two years; that’s how long it takes for our production to start stabilizing, and she doesn’t want any shifters stressing if they stop producing as much. She’ll buy by the pound for the first two years with contracts for each sale. She prefers batches of five hundred pounds to make it worth the fuss. We usually rent a box trailer and haul all our silk over at one time to make our lives easier. We pack the boxes with our name and mass unload. Otherwise, the shipping fees would get insane—or we’d have to make runs to her shop every few weeks. Anyway, we can discuss it once you’re back. I just want to make sure the reporters clear out before you get home so you can settle in once you’re home. The government will remain shut down until next Monday, as you’ll need a chance to go over all the documentation. This is fine because everyone is still up in arms over the former mayor’s behavior. You’ll have to evaluate the refugee situation, hire aides, and so on, but you’ll be fine.”
It made me wonder just how little the previous mayor had been doing if Stonecreek could just shut down the government for several weeks without issue. “I guess we can’t just catapult that bastard into space, can we? Without the benefit of a suit.”
“We can’t just catapult that bastard into space,” my boss confirmed. “But honestly? I have my doubts about how long he’s going to last in prison. They get the news, and he wasn’t just targeting adults. His purge included children, and the Hunters of Moonriver have proof.”
“He killed kids?” I asked, unable to force my voice above a whisper .
“He wanted to purge anyone who hadn’t been born in Stonecreek, Valerie. I’m honestly worried about how deep this hole goes and how many bodies we’re going to find at the bottom of it.”