Hounded

is we’re in for one hell of a scrap. But we might be able to bring along someone they’re not expecting. «
    » Who? «
    I turned my head to find the redheaded siren pulling a pint of Guinness for an older gentleman down the bar. » Granuaile! « I called as I pulled out my wallet to pay the bill. » I will accept you as my apprentice if you will have me as your master. Do you still wish to become an initiate? «
    » Very much! « She nodded and grinned at me as she placed the pint in front of the customer.
    » Then tell your manager you quit, effective immediately, « I said. » I will be your employer from now on. We need to leave now, though, so make it quick. «
    Her eyes flicked to the werewolves standing around behind me, crowded into the foyer of the pub.
    » Something has happened, hasn’t it? «
    » Yes, it has, and we need your friend right away, « I said, tapping the side of my head to make it clear I was speaking of Laksha. » This is both her chance and yours, but we have to go now. «
    » Okay, « she said, beaming as she jogged back to the kitchen entrance to slap open the swinging door. » Hey, Liam! I quit! « Then she vaulted herself onto the bar, swung her legs around, and hopped off between a couple of stools.
    » Attagirl, « an elderly gentleman said, raising his pint in salute.
    We left the place en masse before Liam, whoever he was, could properly register that he had just lost a damn fine bartender.
    The lot of us piled into various souped-up werewolf cars parked across from the light rail station, and then we drove south on Mill to University. We took a right, and from there took a left on Roosevelt, winding up in front of the widow’s house.
    I promptly set them all, except Granuaile and Gunnar, to trimming the widow’s grapefruit tree and weeding her flower bed. Since the Tempe police were still staking out my house and I had a pack of werewolves on the verge of going all hairy, it seemed like the best way to keep my promise to the widow and keep the Pack walking around on two legs.
    While the widow was happily occupied admiring impossibly fit men and women grooming her landscape, I retired to the backyard with Gunnar and Granuaile.
    » Please have Laksha remove the cloak on this now, « I said to Granuaile as I placed Fragarach in her hands and dispelled the binding that kept it close to me. » And you, « I said to Gunnar, » make sure she doesn’t take off with my sword. «
    Granuaile’s eyes bugged. » You think Laksha would do that? «
    » No, « I said. » But I’ve been wrong before, and I’m just paranoid, okay? «
    The alpha male scowled at me. » Where are you going? «
    » I’m going to get something out of my house, « I said. » I’ll probably be back in less than ten minutes. If I’m not, send someone to check. «
    Magnusson nodded, and I began stripping off my clothes.
    » What are you doing? « Granuaile asked uncertainly.
    » Same thing you’ll be able to do in about twenty years or so, « I said, pulling my keys out of my pocket and carefully laying them down on top of my jeans.
    » You mean get naked? I can do that now. Wow, « she sniggered, » you need to get some sun. «
    » Shut up. I’m Irish. « I drew power from the earth through my tattoos and enjoyed Granuaile’s gasp of astonishment as I turned into a great horned owl. I snapped up my key ring in my beak before launching myself into the sky on silent wings.
    » Show-off, « Gunnar called after me. He was just jealous. People don’t gasp appreciatively when he changes form in front of them; they scream.
    It was less than a minute’s flight, as the owl flies, to my house from the widow’s. The police sitting in the patrol car outside my house looked supremely bored. I spiraled down into my backyard for a landing and took a nice long look around before changing back into human form. My wards were still in place, and no one was watching, so I grew myself some opposable thumbs and entered through my back door. The slip of paper with Radomila’s blood on it was still locked up in my bookcase, precisely where I had left it. I punched a hole through one corner and threaded it onto my key ring, then returned to my backyard. There I bound myself back to an owl, picked up the keys in my beak, and enjoyed the short flight back to the widow’s house.
    Granuaile was seated in the lotus position inside a circle she had traced in the dirt, Fragarach laying across her lap, cradled at either end by her