Free Silver Kiss by Naomi Clark Page B

and gift them with wolf shape.
    In Egypt, where they’d been more into cats,
it was believed that cat spirits could possess a human and
transform them that way, if the human had taken the right mixture
to open them up to the spirit world. We’d all heard the stories of
the kugarvad—cat shifters—as children, but they were extinct now,
if they’d ever existed at all. Wherever you looked in history,
humans, shapeshifting and hallucinogenics were tightly woven
together.
    Of course, none of that was useful to
Shannon, so I didn’t lecture her on werewolf history throughout the
ages. She’d had to do Lupine Studies in school same as me.

SIX
    I’d planned a run with Vince and Joel
for Friday night, in Larkspur Park. I went there straight from
work, feeling a pang of guilt at leaving Shannon home alone for the
night. She was busy making calls about CCTV, guaranteed no fun at
all. It wasn’t that she didn’t have friends here—she was pretty
cozy with the family next door to us—but there was so much I did
that she couldn’t join in with here. When it had just been the two
of us, me a lone wolf with no Pack to run with, it had always
been our friends, our social life. Now it was mine and hers and I didn’t like the
divide.
    Nor could I do much about it. She couldn’t
run with the three of us. That was just fact, whether I liked it or
not.
    I smothered my guilt as I arrived at Joel’s
place and caught a whiff of steak and chips, Vince’s Friday night
staple. Joel let me in and ushered me into the kitchen where a
bottle of beer was already waiting for me.
    “ We should really do
something as a foursome next Friday,” Joel said, echoing my earlier
thoughts. “Maybe a film or something?”
    “ I’d love that. Shannon
would too,” I said, sniffing my beer. It was faintly redolent of
bananas and I checked the label to see it was indeed banana bread
flavored. Seemed utterly pointless to me, but Vince was a member of
one of these ale clubs that sent you weird varieties every now and
then. I’d been given chocolate beer last weekend. I hadn’t been
able to finish it. Some things just aren’t meant to go together.
Banana bread beer was strangely palatable though.
    “ How’s she doing anyway?”
Vince asked from by the oven. “Any new gossip on the Tina Brady
case?”
    “ It’s not about gossip,” I
told him tartly, “it’s about finding her daughter. Shannon’s
working her fingers to the bone on it.” I picked at the label on my
bottle. “I think she’s enjoying it, actually, as hard as it is.
It’s a complete change of direction for her.”
    Vince dropped a handful of chunky mushrooms
into a frying pan sizzling with oil. “You know, we were talking
about it the other night. Seems like not so long ago that you were
taking off yourself, Ayla. I guess nothing changes.”
    I thought about that, thought too about the
missing werewolf up in Yorkshire. I suppose the first reaction when
a child—human or wolf—went missing, was to assume the worst.
Pedophiles, drugs, rape. But it didn’t have to be that sinister,
did it? Maybe Molly had just run off to spend some quality time
with a new boyfriend, maybe the Yorkshire kid had a blazing row
with his parents and went off to teach them a lesson.
    “ It’s a different world now
though,” Joel said, joining me at the table. “Alpha Humans didn’t
exist ten years ago. There weren’t so many problems with gangs and
knives.”
    Alpha Humans wasn’t an angle Shannon had
pursued yet. I hoped she wouldn’t. Last time we’d encountered one
of their groups, she’d ended up with two broken ribs. My wolf
shuddered at the memory. To distract myself and my wolf, I changed
the subject. “How’s work, Vince? Oscar still giving you
problems?”
    Vince shook his head. “Greg finally lost his
temper and sacked him. He’s probably at home licking his wounded
pride right now. Things have calmed down a bit since that.”
    “ And you?” I asked
Joel.
    He grinned,