Chapter 8

EIGHT

INDI

"Jimbo did what with marshmallows?" Nash sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yeah, yeah, I'll go. I'm already out—why? Because I picked Torren and Indi up from the sanctuary . . . Yes, in my car . . . You know why."

I snort-laughed.

Torren's eyes widened. She hissed and swatted playfully at me. "This is not funny, Indi."

"How is this not funny, Torren?" I gestured toward town since the sanctuary was on the far side of the Island where it was quieter. "You've already put Prince Mateo into a coma after you caused a stampede, and you had to go full kraken to prevent people from getting hurt at the parade—and let's not forget you forcing a bunch of sirens to shift. I mean, how are you still self-conscious about this? What could go more wrong than both of those incidents?"

"The point is it could go wrong?—"

"The point is the Island supports The Torren and all of her happy accidents. You don't need to be so afraid." I pointed to her fiancé. "Not to mention your soon-to-be-husband is a prince. Hang on to your unpredictability with a brave face."

Her face flushed pink the second I said the word husband.

Nash looked down at us and smiled softly. "I'm going to drop them at home, then I'll hunt down our problem children," he said to whichever one of his siblings had just called.

"I actually can't wait to see what kind of children you two create." I grinned, but when both of their eyes nearly popped out of their skulls, I had to turn around to hide my chuckle as I headed toward Nash's fancy black sports car.

" Indi, " Torren breathed my name, "you can't say that and walk away."

"You make an excellent point." I spun around and started walking backwards. "I have questions?—"

"Oh boy, this will be good." Nash smirked. He wrapped his arm around my sister's waist and led her toward his car, following close behind me.

I stopped at the backdoor and reached for the handle. "Well, we're jinns, so we can be any animal on a whim . . . if Torren is pregnant and gets spooked and she shifts . . . is the unborn baby also shifting with her? Or would she be a cat with a human-size baby inside of her? More importantly, if she's, let's just say, in cat form and goes into labor, does that baby come out as a kitten or in human form?"

They both just stopped in front of me and stared.

"For that matter, the laws of reproduction don't work the same across all species, so how do we know which one jinns take after? Mother didn't even know she was pregnant with Torren until like a month before, and I've always wondered if it had something to do with her being in animal form so often. I mean, the gestation periods vary so greatly. Cat gestation period is like two months, but an elephant's is eighteen to twenty-two months. It appears the other supernaturals like mages, vampire, and fae follow the human rules of nature, but so much of what jinns are just breaks the rules." I gestured to my sister and frowned. "If she were to get pregnant and shift as uncontrollably as she does, could that affect her gestation period?"

Torren's jaw dropped. Her face looked a little pale. Those teal eyes were wide with horror.

"And on a related note, if she's invisible when she goes into labor, will the baby come out invisible too? If so, how the hell do we find the baby at that point? Or will a human-looking baby just shoot across the sky like a comet from seemingly nowhere?"

Torren opened her mouth, then shut it. She wrapped her arms around her stomach and gagged. " Indi, " she hissed.

Nash shuddered, then ran his hand through his hair. "Thank you, Indi, for all of those horrifying thoughts that will undoubtedly keep me up at night."

"What is wrong with you?" Torren cringed and dove for the passenger door, yanking it open.

I giggled and winked to Nash, then slipped into the backseat. By the time I had my seatbelt buckled, Nash was sliding into the driver's seat and turning the car on.

"They're all valid questions?—"

"Why didn't you ask Mom?—"

"As if Mother knows." I rolled my eyes and leaned between the front seats. "Besides, you're the one marrying a doctor-slash-veterinarian whose parents are like two thousand years old. I figure they'd know the answers."

Nash put the car in drive and pulled out of the sanctuary's parking lot. "I mean, they aren't not good questions." He laughed and shook his head.

"You both do know I am not pregnant, right? If this was some twisted way of asking me?—"

"I know you're not," Nash's voice was soft and gentle as he reached over and took my sister's hand.

"Are you sure?" I asked. "Because until we know the answer, we have to assume you could go into labor at any point." I wagged my eyebrows. "Unless you're saying you haven't shagged the daddy vampire here?—"

" INDI." Torren swatted at me.

Nash shuddered again. "Please never call me that again. Ever."

"I'm not that much of a disaster that I wouldn't know I was pregnant." Torren pressed her hands to her stomach. Then she shook herself and narrowed her eyes at me over the backseat. "Although, being pregnant for only two months doesn't sound like an awful arrangement?—"

"TORREN," Nash said with a gasp. "I am not impregnating a cat?—"

" Why would you assume you'd have to conceive while she's a cat? Why is THAT where your brain went?" I asked between laughs, tears already rolling down my cheeks. I waved my hands in front of my face. "The visuals! They're horrible. How dare you make me see that?—"

" You? You made ME see that. And I'd be the main character." Nash gagged. "I will never look at her in cat form the same again."

"Look, I didn't know you were into bestiality . . ." I leaned closer to him and whispered, " Did you know ?— "

"INDIANA. " He groaned and started throwing napkins at me that he'd stashed in his car door.

I cackled so hard I snorted. "I can't wait to ask Constantine these questions on your behalf?—"

"Oh dear God." He rolled to a stop at a stop sign and glanced over his shoulder to glare at me. "If you mention any of this to any of my siblings or out-laws, I will have my vengeance."

I raised both hands in the air. "Fine, fine, fine. Keep your secrets."

"Dammit to hell, woman." He sped off again, his hand pressed to his chest. "Nightmares. This will give me nightmares."

"Well, ‘tis the season and all that jazz?"

Torren shook her head as she looked at me with her eyebrows pinched together. "What has gotten into you tonight? Look what you've done."

"What I've done?" I grinned and leaned back in my seat, then shrugged. "Well, I stopped you from thinking about Mischief Night, didn't I? We're halfway home already."

Nash threw his head back and laughed. "Diabolical."

Torren's jaw dropped. "I am forever scarred by this conversation, Indi."

"It's my job as older sister to prepare you for the struggles of life."

We turned left onto a side street and fireworks shot across the road in front of us from the left. Torren gasped and threw herself back against the red leather seat, gripping it for dear life. Two seconds later, more fireworks shot back from the right side of the road. They looked like bottle rockets or Roman candles that left a trail of glowing, fiery embers as they whistled and screamed through the air. Nash slowed the car down but didn't stop moving. I leaned forward and spotted about a dozen people on either side of the street shooting these fireworks back and forth at each other, and none of them held wands. They actually held the literal firework. They fired their shot, then ducked behind walls and cars and anything else they could find coverage from.

Nash chuckled. "That looks like fun?—"

" NASHVILLE, drive faster! "

"Love, they're not aiming for you. This wasn't a trap or a setup. We turned on this street by happenstance?—"

Six bottle rockets shot across the road at the same time from the right side—from just a few feet in front of Torren. They missed Nash's car by a foot or less. Torren gasped, her whole body went rigid, and then she was a big turtle with her head inside her shell. Nash cursed and slammed on the breaks, which caused one of the fireworks to slam into Torren's car door. Torren screamed and then she was gone.

"Torren!" I leaned forward and my words died on my tongue.

My sister had turned herself into a chameleon and was nearly invisible as she blended in with the red leather of the passenger seat.

Mischief Night was madness on the Island. It was like those Purge movies but non-violent and innocent. It was just about harmless, silly pranks. But my sister hated the event. She spooked easily. Everyone on the Island knew this, so we'd spent the whole night at the animal sanctuary keeping the animals company since the sanctuary was strictly off limits. Torren had been too nervous to fly home as we'd planned, so Nash had come to rescue us.

And in the end, they still got her, even unintentionally.

Nash reached down and scooped her up before the seatbelt smushed her. The moment she was in his hand, her body changed to match his skin tone. "I'm sorry, love. You've never poofed quite like that."

She was shaking. Her chameleon eyes bounced left to right and back again. "Is it over?"

The people on the street must have realized they'd hit a Vauntero's car because they all stopped and held their fireworks up in surrender. They looked downright terrified until Nash rolled his window down and waved. The way they all visibly relaxed was a testament to how loved my sister's fiancé was on this Island.

"Sorry, Doc Nash!" some guy yelled but I couldn't see him. "We got a little caught up in the moment and didn't see you."

Nash chuckled. "No worries. No harm done. Just pause for a second and let me go by?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course." The guy moved to where I could just make out his arms waving around as he yelled, "Game off!"

"Thanks, Wayne!" Nash waved with one hand and moved Torren up to sit on his shoulder with his other hand. "Sit here, love. You're all right."

As each little paw hit the black cashmere of his sweater. Her whole body went from tan to midnight-black, except for the little line of teal running up between her eyes to the back of her head. It was actually kind of creepy to see a chameleon turn black, yet it was also perfect for the Halloween season.

I sighed and rested my forehead on the back of the passenger seat. "A chameleon, Torren?"

She blinked those big bug eyes at me. "I blend now!"

"You blend ?" I chuckled. "You'd blend even better if you went invisible. Why didn't you try that?"

"No, no, no. As an animal they won't prank me because it's against the rules to go near an animal on Mischief Monday." She gestured to herself with one little hand.

"But then wouldn't they need to be able to see you as an animal?" I raised my eyebrows and tried not to laugh. "You're blending into his sweater and hair. They won't even know you're there."

"They won't prank him ."

Nash chuckled, then stuck his head out his window again. "Game on!"

As we made a right turn and drove past some shops I watched as people walking by the stores were getting blasted with green slime. Everyone was giggling. As we rolled to a stop to turn onto Main Street, a group of middle-aged women holding wands all scowled at me . . . and Nash.

"Well, shit, now it looks weird for me to be driven around by my sister's fiancé." I gestured around me. "And in the backseat? Even worse. This has scandal written all over it."

Nash met my stare in the rearview mirror. "Wouldn't it be weirder if you were in the passenger seat?"

I pursed my lips. "Perhaps. Pull over. I'll get in the trunk."

Nash laughed.

"C'mon, you know you wanna do it just to test how fast the rumor spreads."

He scoffed. "It'll spread faster than crabs."

"You hear that, Torren? Your fiancé is spreading crabs."

She narrowed her big eyes, then shifted into a large crab. "There. Fixed it."

"You've always been the problem solver." I glanced around the back seat to see what space I had available when an idea came to me. "I know. This won't raise any eyebrows."

I willed myself to shift into a wolf. A small, white wolf. I looked up in the rearview mirror and saw pink tips on my wolf ears. I nodded. Perfect. This will do.

"Brilliant." Torren chomped her crab claws at me. "Now you just look like one of Holden's pack. Everyone will think you were just injured and he's helping."

I didn't have her necklace to allow me to talk while in animal form, so I just gave a little howl and nodded my head.

"Great. I've got a crab and a wolf in my car." He shook his head. "I'm alarmed by how much I'm not even alarmed by this turn of events."

Torren raised her crab claws. "What's the gestation period for crabs?"

"Torren, crabs lay eggs?—"

"WAIT, CAN I LAY EGGS?"

Nash rolled to a stop at a stop sign and dramatically rested his forehead on the steering wheel. "Dammit, Indi."

I howled with laughter.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!"

I froze at the sound of Sal's voice, but there wasn't time to react before three dozen rolls of toilet paper crashed into Nash's car from every angle. Torren squealed and leapt off Nash's shoulder, landing back in the passenger seat in the form of a rattlesnake shaking its rattle tail. In seconds, the car was completely covered in toilet paper.

"Gotta give it to ‘em for their old school tricks," Nash grumbled. "Stay here. This will just take a second."

He jumped out of the car and started yanking the streams of toilet paper off. But it was like a hydra: for every one roll he removed, two more covered the car. There was a pop sound almost like a gunshot, except I wasn't in First Realm, there wouldn't be any gunfire on Megelle Island.

Nash cursed. "Was that a damned marshmallow? JIMBO!"

"Gonna have to be faster than that, Doc!" Jimbo cackled from just out of sight. "DANCE, VAMPIRE BABY!"

Torren hissed and that rattle on the end of her tail shook even faster. She curled herself into a tight little ball. There were more gunshots from the left side—I looked over but only caught glimpses of Nash dodging the giant marshmallows. Nash was fast. He had that vampire speed, that royal vampire speed that allowed him to be faster than civilian vampires.

"WET WILLY TIME, BOYS!" Sal shouted from the right side.

I peeked between two streams of toilet paper covering the back passenger window to watch Sal and company shooting wet, soggy wads of toilet paper at Jimbo's team, who were still firing marshmallows as bullets. Torren whimpered as marshmallows and wet wads of toilet paper flew back and forth over the street, stray shots hitting Nash's car. Yet Nash only got struck that first shot. He was dodging all the impacts as he yanked every strand of toilet paper off his car. Once he had the last piece off, he raced around and opened the driver's door.

A soggy wad of toilet paper the size of a basketball slammed into the passenger door right next to Torren. She screamed bloody murder and morphed into an elephant. I barely missed being whacked in the face by Torren's gray elephant trunk. Her back slammed into the ceiling, shattering both the sunroof and the front windshield into glass pebbles. The front seats were shoved back into me. I cursed and changed myself into a rat because rats could fit anywhere. And then it was chaos all around me. Nash's car screeched and started bursting at the seams. The metal frame of the car screamed as it snapped and broke. The radio turned on but kept changing stations.

Torren just kept panicking with every second. She was spiraling. She kept thrashing around because her big body was stuck in the crevices of the crumpling car. Long elephant legs punched through windows and door frames. She threw her trunk in the air and trumpeted.

"Torren! Indi!" Nash shouted from outside the car as he yanked toilet paper off what was left of the car. "Are you okay? Talk to me!"

I was in rat form, so I couldn't speak. I just had to get to Torren to calm her down before she brought this whole car down on top of us and got us killed. I leapt onto her leg and crawled up onto her trunk, yet she didn't notice me. She was too busy kicking her legs and screaming. She threw her head back and it sent my little rat body slamming into the ceiling that was only a few inches from the top of her head. The car rocked back and forth. More windows burst into little shards of glass. The leather seats ripped. I cursed and shifted into a black cat, because that was Torren's most comfortable animal form, then leapt back onto her trunk. This time I got right up in her big elephant eyes and hissed.

She froze.

I meowed , because I couldn't talk in this form.

She blinked rapidly.

I held one paw up and nodded slowly. Her shaking slowed down and the car stopped rocking. I sighed and just held her stare while patting her trunk. If this car hadn't been so small, I would've changed into an elephant so I could talk to her, but there was no way I could do that.

"Torren? Indi?" Nash's face came into view from the opening that was the front windshield. He appeared to be crouched on the hood. His eyes finally met mine. He sighed. "Blink once if you're injured and twice if you're okay."

I blinked twice, then looked to my sister. She blinked twice, but Nash couldn't see that, so I turned back to him and tapped my paw on my face, then blinked twice.

"Okay. Good. Just breathe. Let me get you out?—"

" WHAT? They're in the car?" Jimbo yelled from somewhere on my right. He cursed. "Sorry, sorry. We didn't see them in there. SAL! TIME OUT!"

"Well, shit, kid. Where the hell were they?" Sal cursed from my left.

Nash groaned. "Torren was nervous, so she was kind of . . . well . . . she was a crab?—"

"Well, there's your problem, son. You can't have crabs loose in the car." Sal chuckled. "Although a friend of mine once got crabs while in a car?—"

"C'mon, Sal, let's help Nash get the girls out."

Together with their vampire strength, Jimbo, Sal, and Nash slowly peeled the pieces of Nash's car apart until we sat in the rubble of metal scraps. Jimbo and Sal looked horrified. Nash kept his cool, which was probably in large part due to being a doctor but also because he'd been with my sister long enough to know that while she spooked easily, she was rather resilient and durable.

I jumped off Torren's elephant trunk and landed on the street beside Nash, then shifted back into my human form. I cleared my throat and looked down at my still elephant, still trembling sister. "Thanks. Maybe Jimbo and Sal could take their games elsewhere?"

Jimbo grimaced, then leaned closer and whispered, " It's my grandson's surprise party tonight. My job was to act normal so he wouldn't suspect a thing. It's why we attacked my family's house first. "

Sal scratched his head. "The surprise was revealed like two hours ago, Jimbo. I saw Bash go in myself. You ain't gotta whisper."

Jimbo's eyes widened. "GAME ON." He lifted his wand and shot a giant marshmallow right into Sal's forehead, then sprinted away.

" Away, gentlemen ?— "

I turned to watch the two troublemakers and their crews run off down a side street when fireworks lit up the sky. But like actual fireworks with the big bursts of light. Torren jumped out of her skin and dove for Nash, except she was so massive that she became the big spoon wrapped around him. He cringed and reached up to run his hand over her trunk.

We needed to calm her down. Way down.

"Nash . . ." I narrowed my eyes at my sister's fiancé.

"I don't like that tone," he grumbled nervously.

I gave him a small smile. "At the sanctuary you used a spray on some of the animals to help ease their anxieties?—"

"Yeah, it's a potion I created with Duey. We want to sell it in First Realm for the humans' pets, but we needed to try it here first— oh. " His eyes widened as he suddenly caught what I was suggesting. He dove for the rubble that was his car until he found the glove box, which was somehow still intact. With quick movements, he opened it and pulled out a spray bottle. His sapphire gaze moved to my sister and his whole face softened. "Love, may I try this on you?"

She blinked down at him. "You tried that on Bruiser?—"

"Yes, I did." Nash was unwaveringly patient with my sister, and it made me love him as a person with each interaction. He really was perfect for her. "Worth a try?"

She nodded her elephant head.

Nash sprayed her face and body a few times and instantly her shaking stopped. She shifted back into that chameleon, then crawled up his body to sit on his shoulder, shifted black to match his sweater, took a deep breath, and nestled in.

"I was hoping we'd get the form of you that's more in line with my own," Nash said with a crooked smile as he looked down at her sitting on his shoulder. "People are less likely to pull anything on you when they know it's you."

I snorted. "Right, because you're a Rapunzel-type who usually has a Pascale sitting on his shoulder."

" I don't want to walk back ," Torren whispered, and it looked weird coming from her little body. "I just want to hide out of sight?—"

"I have an idea . . ." Nash gestured for me to follow him to the nearest corner where a restaurant was lit up with golden candlelight. "Go into Bowlicious and get yourself a comfort snack. I have to go track down Jimbo and Sal for a second, then I'll run by the house and grab a car to come back and get you. Okay?"

"That's a great idea." I held my hand up to his shoulder. "Come with me, Torrey. We'll hide inside until our new getaway car arrives. He's also gonna need to grab a mage to help him clean up the mess that was his car. Let's go eat something yummy and hide out."

She sighed really loud, then jumped onto my arm and ran up to my shoulder. My sweater was cream-colored, but I had to be impressed that her chameleon body partially reflected my hair at the same time.

"I've got her, Nash. Promise." I shooed him away. "Go do what you need to do."

Nash nodded, "I'll be back soon. Just stay inside." He turned and sprinted out of sight with that wild royal vampire speed.

"C'mon, let's go inside this restaurant." I looked up at the sign on the door and read the name Bowlicious. I frowned. "Bowlicious? What kind of food is this place? Pasta?"

"Pasta?" Torren echoed from my shoulder. "Why do you think that?"

I pushed the door open and walked inside. The place was crowded but not overly so. I loved the dim candlelit vibes and lack of loud music. Whoever owned this place valued conversation. "Bowl-icious?—"

" Oh. No. It's Bow-licious, emphasis on Bow. Because this is Connor and Caleb Bow's restaurant."

My heart stopped. Connor and Caleb Bow.

Will's younger brothers.

This is a Bow establishment. My pulse quickened. I hadn't seen Will yet. I'd assumed he wasn't on the Island, though I wasn't sure why I assumed that. It'd been over a decade since we broke up and he'd been a young nineteen-year-old then who hadn't even found his own job yet. He'd been assistant fashion photographer for his older brother Archer. I knew Archer traveled a lot. I saw his work in magazines and online. He still traveled all over the world. I had no idea if Will even worked with him still or if he'd found his own path.

Wait. Archer is on the Island. I saw him last night.

Is Will here?