9. Monkey can teach you everything you need to know.

NINE

Monkey can teach you everything you need to know.

Thursday, May 3, 2057

North Lake Education District, Precinct 153

Cauldron City, Nebraska.

While larger than Misfit, my new puppy skirted being a runt of the litter, and she danced in place while waiting for Martino to set her free for the introduction. She was a wolf from the tip of her nose to her tail, although her coat had a silvery gleam compared to the wild animals I’d seen in pictures. “What’s with her coat color?”

“She has a genetic mutation. There’s something odd about her coat, and it reflects light more than normal. I had the DNA test done when I noticed it. In good news, she’s clean of the known genetic disorders.” Martino tossed me the leash, and the puppy bounded my way, yipping her excitement. “I’ll be honest with you, Lovell. This puppy is going to be serving as a fluffy deterrent. I might be able to teach her to bare some teeth and give warning growls, but it’s questionable. She will sniff out all the evidence you could ever want. I would have sent her over to be a support dog, but her breed is barred.”

I sighed at the thought of a good animal being banned from doing a needed job solely due to fear. “She really doesn’t have a name?”

“Oh, I’ve tried naming her, but she refuses to acknowledge any I pick. We aren’t sure if she’s sentient or just borderline sentient. Her understanding of English is phenomenal, especially for her age.”

I crouched down and petted the puppy, as did Miranda. “All right, Pumpkin. We can go through a name book and pick something you like soon. I’ll just call you Pumpkin for now, though.”

Pumpkin was a cutesy name for a sweet animal, and nobody would be confused whom I addressed.

Martino chuckled at my choice of temporary names. “When you get home, introduce her to all the birds on your property. Sure, she might be a washout, but she understands how to be gentle, knows she can’t actually play with the birds, and should be a good protector of your feathered friends.”

I could work for that. Once I spent a few minutes convincing the puppy I would love her forever, I asked for her to heel and took my time walking her across the third floor to our office. Along the way, Pumpkin met every single detective on duty, and they took turns praising the puppy and petting her while Martino coached everyone on the care of police dogs.

A rather bemused Captain Farthan observed, raising a brow at me. “You’re never going to leave if you don’t hurry it up, Lovell. I recommend you carry the puppy while your cadet carries the bags with supplies. Rochello, go with them.”

Between his status as a crabby blue dragon who viewed himself as doomed to be forever single and his seniority, nobody tended to push their luck with the detective. I’d learned long ago he enjoyed when someone pushed their luck.

Courage impressed him.

“I might even let you pet her, Rochello,” I said, grinning at him.

“You drive a hard bargain, Lovell.” Rochello grabbed his keys, his badge, and his wallet, a smart move in my opinion.

Displays of courage often meant pranks targeting the blue dragon, and his keys and wallet were common targets.

Once I had everything, I wrangled the puppy, picked her up, and headed for the elevator. Pumpkin had her police vest on, which meant I could handle her training in the grocery store, although I wondered if she’d gone through sufficient puppy boot camp to handle the task. “How is she in public spaces, Martino?”

“I won’t complain if you work on her in public spaces. She’s pretty good, but she could use more exposure. Why?”

“I need to go grocery shopping.”

“You can take her grocery shopping. Keep her vest on, practice heeling, and reward her with a bone and some meat for good behavior. Keep receipts for everything you buy for her, and we’ll reimburse you. We issue payments on Tuesdays for their food, usually in cash, but we can do direct deposit as well. I’ll email you with how to prepare her supper. While she’ll accept kibble, you’ll be her friend for life if her kibble has some meat tossed in. Just be glad she’s not like Misfit. Misfit refuses kibble, so Jace will forever be feeding his wolf-dog meat. Yours will be happy with kibble as long as you give her treats of meat.”

I snuggled with my new puppy, and once we reached the elevators, I pressed the down button. “Thank you for being a good girl, Pumpkin.”

The wolf-dog washed my face with her tongue and wiggled in her general excitement.

“He might let me have a turn with her one day,” Miranda told the dog trainer.

Martino grinned. “That’s all right. I plan on stealing you for an hour a day starting next week to start training you. Lovell isn’t going to have time to learn all the tricks of the trade, but the captain already approved of my plan for bringing you up to speed. We have an older dog with a few more good years in the force I’ll likely assign to you. Her partners are retiring. She never went home with them in the first place, and she’s used to being sent with other pairs, so the transition process shouldn’t be bad. Monkey can teach you everything you need to know.”

I liked Monkey; while she had an aggressive streak a mile wide, she tolerated poorly trained handlers and limited her rebukes to the occasional growl. Her partners, who worked on the drug team, had never progressed to detective and had had zero aspirations to do so. I knew of the two men, but I hadn’t spent much time with them. “Monkey will continue to live at the station?”

“She will. This is her home, and even when she retires, she’ll continue to stay here. The captain has already approved it, and we’ve added a budget for the freeloading dogs we won’t realistically be able to retire or send off to new homes. Monkey is simply too aggressive for regular households, and she doesn’t do well with kids.”

That was an understatement. Kids irritated the dog, and her response to being irritated involved the kid being pinned with a lot of barking, snarling, and generalized terror. “She’s a great work dog, and she’d rather not leave work and deal with people.”

“That about sums it up. She’s happiest when her handler points her at someone she can bite.”

“Essentially, she’s the exact opposite of Pumpkin.”

“Yep.”

I gave Pumpkin a kiss on her nose. “Good girl.”

“Miranda, if it turns out you’re good at handling and training dogs, I’ll keep you an hour of the day while your partner makes use of his brain.” Martino snickered and grinned at me. “He likes having a quiet hour where he can think without anyone interrupting his thinking, so it’ll work well.”

“Is that true?” the cadet asked me, and she raised a brow my way.

“I think best when I’m alone and it’s quiet. Or just quiet. Paul? He’s not quiet. Elephants are never quiet.”

“I resemble that remark!” Paul complained from the cubicle farm.

I laughed. Before I could get myself in trouble with him, the elevator door opened. “Just don’t be late tonight, Paul.”

“I’ll be on time. See you tonight. Try not to let that puppy run you around.”

The puppy would be running me around, of that I was certain. Rather than reply, I got into the elevator, adjusted my hold on the wolf-dog puppy, and wondered how long I’d be able to carry her for. “How much does she weigh?”

After everyone got in, Martino pressed the button to take us to the parking garage. “Right now, she weighs in at fifteen pounds. She’ll grow like a weed on you starting in a week or two. Cognitively, she’s way ahead of the other puppies in the litter. If you’re lucky, she’ll max out at just over a hundred pounds fully grown. When we introduced dogs to the wolf lines, we used medium sized males, hoping we’d get all the benefits of having wolves but a little smaller.”

“Mamma Mia is not smaller,” I noticed.

“Mamma Mia is a menace, but she’s a lovable menace. Jace is going to have his hands full with his pair. And while Misfit is a washout, she has all but one trait for being a good police dog. Pumpkin? She’s a true washout, but she can do one job well.”

“Sniffing is important,” I reminded him.

“For your line of work? She’ll be excellent. I’m going to see if I can bring in a trainer for support dogs. If so, she might be suitable for helping victims.”

If Pumpkin shook out as a generic support wolf-dog, I’d have my hands full, as I’d be expected to help with domestic violence cases, especially the ones involving children. “We’ll figure it out. For now, if she actually washes out, Pumpkin can be like Sir Blackie, following me to work and being helpful. I’m sure we can train her to ferry papers across the station.”

“Pumpkin would excel at that type of work, honestly. And she’s smart enough to be able to select the right floors for the elevator. She’s not tall enough for that yet, but when she is? She’ll be able to go between floors with no difficulties. ”

I raised a brow at that. “That’s impressive.”

“A puppy this sweet and smart doesn’t come around every day. However, I recommend you use magic to keep her out of cabinets and your refrigerator. No mundane method will keep her out should she decide she wants in.”

No kidding. “Any chance you can train her to be the steed of a hummingbird with flight endurance issues?”

“I’ll make a nest for Marrinni, get protections on it, and figure out how to secure it to her work vest. But yes, that is possible, and even if she proves to be an actual washout, that would justify her going with you. Marrinni is a breeding male, and they’re always short burst flyers. We’ve been trying to work on that, but he expends a great deal of energy enticing his females. Having a canine steed for him is not a bad idea.”

“Can you talk to the aviary about enticing some of the females to work with us?”

Martino laughed at me. “It’s not happening, Lovell. The males would absolutely panic, and sentience in the hummingbirds has translated to the males wanting to provide for the females. As for the females, they are absolutely driven to tend to their nest. Give them a few more generations, and we might start seeing some females able to work in the force with us, but for now, we only get males.”

“Oh, well.” I shrugged. When the elevator opened, I released the beast, keeping a good hold on her leash. The new scents drove the little wolf-dog puppy halfway to madness, and she bounced around, putting her nose into everything she could. I made use of the leash to keep her out of trouble, and I ordered her to heel when a cruiser pulled in. The puppy obeyed, and I waved at the patrolling officers coming back from their shift. “I feel like this is a distraction tactic because Paul isn’t actively my partner right now.”

Martino laughed. “You’re not wrong. Pumpkin will work wonders for Paul, too. When you and Miranda can’t contain him, Pumpkin will be able to. Don’t be surprised if you have to sacrifice a couch to Pumpkin. She’s a huge fan of sleeping on couches.”

I could live with Pumpkin taking over my couch as hers. “That didn’t take long.”

“We have a bed and couches in the training area of the station, and we work at keeping the work dogs off beds meant for people. I wish we had better luck getting them to exclusively use dog beds, but couches are popular, and it keeps the howling at a minimum. Pumpkin’s sole problem with couches is that once she’s on them, she’s a potato. She goes to sleep, and that’s it. She’s done for the day. I’ll make sure the captain knows that; if you want her down and out for the day, just bring her to the training area, and we’ll sacrifice a couch to her wicked ways.”

“I’m not hearing anything bad, Martino.” A couch potato suited me well, as when I was home, I liked to relax and do low key activities, roast coffee, read books, work with my magic, and paint. “Oh, that reminds me. Can you teach her to avoid turpentine and oil paints?”

“Sure. I didn’t take you to be the painting kind.”

“It’s something to do when I need to get out of my own head for a while.”

“Everyone needs a hobby. I’ll go buy samples of the key painting compounds and teach her they’re to be avoided. I’ll teach her to disregard oil painting supplies unless told otherwise, and I’ll teach her how to signal for it. That should solve that problem.”

“I can bring in samples for you.”

“Even better.”

Once we had my cruiser loaded with everything I needed to take care of Pumpkin and had the puppy restrained in the back seat, I got behind the wheel, checking to make certain the puppy had settled. Martino had clipped a special seat belt to her work harness, making sure she wouldn’t be going anywhere even in case of an accident.

Miranda took the passenger seat, and like me, she kept an eye on the puppy in the back. Once Martino and Rochello were headed towards the elevator, she said, “This is surreal.”

It really was. “The captain hates washing puppies out. There are more than a few dog owners in the station because he will not send a washout to a shelter. Washouts become a police dog no matter how it happens, and if it’s just a dog owned by a member of the force, so be it. He tries to make sure our breeding program has as few washouts as possible, and he limits how many breedings we do. Even then, two or three puppies, at a minimum, wash out every year.”

“Think we can teach her to cuddle on the couch with us?”

“For some reason, I doubt any teaching for this will be required.” I laughed at the insanity, started the car, and eased out of my spot, taking care of the parade of patrolling officers coming in from the end of their shift. “I’m not nearly as bad as the captain implied regarding my speed, but I keep it to no more than four over when I’m driving.”

“The speed in which no cop is going to be bothered with pulling you over,” she noted.

“Precisely. ”

“Will your family be okay with the extras coming with us?”

“They’ll love it. My patience will surely be tested, but it’s a small price to pay. Do you mind helping me do my grocery shopping? I’m going to have my hands full working with Pumpkin. If Yuri gets there before we leave for the store, we’ll take Marrinni, too.”

“Sure, I don’t mind. I should help with the shopping, as that’s only fair.”

Right. I had a woman living with me, and I had no idea if I courted disaster like Jace did with Alicia. “Do you cook?”

“I can, but I don’t get to do it often. I like cooking.”

I breathed a relieved sigh. “If you’re invited to Jace’s place, and you see Alicia cooking, brace yourself. It’s bad. He’s trying to teach her how to cook, but it hasn’t been going well.” As the black dragoness had a good sense of humor and could handle the ribbing about the eggs, I told her the story about how the Black Dragon of New York had almost perished at her hands.

Miranda giggled. “If Jace needs help teaching her, I’m game. I am a firm believer in independence.”

“I’m convinced that wily unicorn has zero intentions of actually teaching her how to cook so he can keep her around. The current agreement is she must continue to live with him until she learns how to cook without risk of poisoning people. So far, she’s refusing lessons, and he’s becoming less inclined to give her lessons. I think his current plan is basic kitchen and food safety and then ‘forgetting’ he needs to teach her the other fine points about cooking. As everyone is happy with this arrangement, I’ve decided I’m just going to enjoy the show. ”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“You will learn this soon enough, but white unicorns and black dragons are the true definition of what it is to be ridiculous.” As I had no doubt the woman would tattle on me, I stuck to going four over the limit when the lights and traffic allowed, which wasn’t often. “Just so you’re aware, the only reason I drive like a sane sentient is because there are few sane sentients at our station. Someone has to be responsible with vehicles. I keep hoping if I follow the rules of the road, my fellow cops will remember they need to whenever they aren’t engaging in a chase. And Paul? Paul loves the chase. It’s like something in his head breaks and he forgets he’s technically a prey species.”

“I don’t blame you, especially if Paul drives on the wild side. But if you aren’t good at driving quickly, you need to learn. You can’t have someone driving for you all the time. How did you graduate from the academy if you can’t drive well?”

“I’m fine on courses, and I passed with an average score. I just avoid having to be the driver in chases whenever possible,” I admitted. “I view it as conserving my energy for the chasing on foot portion of the day.”

“And how do you do at the foot chases?”

“I’m pretty good. I might not drive fast, but I have excellent endurance, and at my size? Most criminals opt against getting into a physical confrontation with me.”

Miranda took her time looking me over. “Now that you mention it, you aren’t terribly bulky, but you’re packing on some muscle and you’re fairly tall.”

“I don’t really like donuts, which helps.”

“You’re shaming cops everywhere. You don’t like donuts ? ”

“You can have my share.”

She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “I’ll pass. I prefer a piece of fruit if I’m going to be having sugar.”

I chuckled at that. “Do yourself a favor. Find a single type of junk food you like and leave it as a decoy on your desk. Eat some now and then, that way, you trick the others into thinking you are a junkie like everybody else. It’ll limit how often you’re ribbed.”

“That was spoken like someone who has been ribbed over his eating habits.”

“I was getting ribbed over bringing my own coffee to work, but then I handed over my coffee to the instigator, which happened to be our station’s youngling of a black dragon. I made him cry. He had to go back to shit station coffee while I enjoyed my proper brew.”

“Maybe we should talk to the captain about hiring you to roast coffee for the station.”

There was a roaster that could handle fifty pounds of beans at a time, and every now and then, I thought about buying it, transforming myself into the local king of coffee. In reality, I would stick to my five pound roaster, as I liked variety and experimenting with small batches of coffee. However, if I got a ten pound roaster for the station, I could do a roast a day and provide good coffee for everyone on the floor. “Employee satisfaction would skyrocket. Or, more accurately, my satisfaction would skyrocket.” At roughly thirty cups per pound of coffee, ten pounds might be able to handle the voracious appetites of everyone on the third floor. If I wanted to handle the entire station, I feared I’d have to roast fifty pounds of beans a day.

Cops drank a lot of coffee .

“The captain asked me to at least try to make one unreasonable request a week, so I will use this as my unreasonable request for this week,” the cadet announced, and she grabbed her new work cell phone and tapped at the screen.

I laughed at the thought of the captain trying to get the woman to irritate him. “I’m not sure the captain would appreciate having to buy a roaster capable of handling fifty pounds of beans or having to buy fifty pound bags of beans daily.”

“Fifty pounds?”

“That’s about how much coffee it’s going to take to contain those gluttons. It wouldn’t surprise me if the station blows through a hundred pounds of coffee a day. Cops need a lot of coffee to function.”

“But it only takes about twenty minutes start to finish to do a roast?”

“Roughly. I do use magic, and the magic I use would have to be billed to the station at book rate.”

Between the extra lifting, caring for the birds, my new police dog, and everything else going on in my life, I’d be able to keep buying excess groceries for my family without worry. If someone actually paid me rent for having Miranda live with me, I’d be able to upgrade my roaster and my cooling station, which would send me straight to orbit for at least a month. I might even be able to get an upgraded espresso machine.

Once my coffee needs were met, I’d go on a rampage for painting supplies.

If the money worked out better than I anticipated, I would do some upgrades on my house, which would include a jetted tub in the master bathroom, better showers, and new beds in all the bedrooms.

At the rate I kept telling myself one day, I might be ready for retirement before I actually got any of it done.

“Captain Farthan says you should swing by the bank to deposit your check so accounting doesn’t pitch a fit. Go in person. The branch near your house is open late. If you go in person, they won’t put a hold on it.”

I rolled my eyes at the hovering nature of the opal dragon. “All right. We’ll swing by the bank on the way home.”

“I’ll tell him.”

While I drove, sticking to my plan to set a good example for everyone else, Miranda tapped away at her screen. Judging from the length of the conversation, our captain was either bored, she had a damned good pitch to get good coffee at the station, or there was something going on.

It could go either way.

Twenty minutes later, thanks to several traffic snarls, we reached the bank. As I refused to leave puppy or woman in the vehicle, I herded everyone out and began the process of acclimating Pumpkin to life outside of the station’s training center.

Everything fascinated her, and I took care to balance satisfying her curiosity and making it into the bank before it closed.

Once inside, I conferred with the security guard, who chuckled at the pint-sized police canine. Pumpkin did her best to love the man to death, rubbing her head against his legs as though she were a cat rather than a wolf-dog.

Once we got in line, Pumpkin sat beside me and watched everyone with interest .

“Does it make me a bad person that I’m seriously putting thought in how to permanently claim a room in your house just so I can maintain visitation with Pumpkin?” Miranda crouched, praised the wolf-dog for being good, and scratched under her chin. “I love dogs.”

I could tell. “It doesn’t make you a bad person. In your shoes, I’d be thinking similar things.”

As she made a nice house guest, I would encourage such things, and I’d do my best to ignore the hints from everyone in my life suggesting I should indulge in fraternization.

If she wanted to fraternize, I’d count it as a pleasant surprise. That she took a more meticulous approach than Jace had with Alicia appealed to me.

I liked the idea of testing how we got along as partners at work before adding anything else to the mix. If we worked out as partners during the day and could tolerate each other at night, I would hold hope of good things to come.

My desire to take my time through relationships held the most responsibility for my status as chronically single. Most women I’d met wanted to jump in bed when I wanted to pursue wine and roses and outings to get to know her better.

I figured my pacing was several months behind theirs.

Forever lasted a long time, and patience appealed to me. There was a place for impulsiveness, but not when it came to my romantic relationships.

I regarded the envelope Captain Farthan had given me through narrowed eyes. When there was only one person in front of us, I opened it and peeked inside.

There were six different checks and a receipt for each one to detail what they were for. Puzzled, I picked them out, determining two of the checks were the salaries for Marrinni and Pumpkin.

One was my caretaker fee for Marrinni and his ladies, which was for a little over two thousand dollars. My caretaker fee for Pumpkin was just under three thousand dollars with a note to test her for sentience once a week and report if she found her words or otherwise demonstrated enhanced intelligence.

A sheet guided me on how to do the tests, what to do if I got a positive sentience result, and a reminder that caring for a wolf-dog did, in actuality, take time, effort, and money.

The check for Miranda’s rent came in at sixteen hundred dollars, and it would be paid on the first. Unlike the other checks, Cauldron City had issued her rent payment, indicating Captain Farthan had been busy while I’d been hunting for information on Mercy and its vile operator.

Unlike with humanoid employees, payments owed to animals were issued to their caretakers once a month. A note attached to Pumpkin’s check indicated I’d be paid on the first of every month, and that the payments covered the entirety of May for both animals. I did the math and determined that the station was paying each of them twenty an hour, well over minimum wage.

As Captain Farthan knew me well, he included a list of things caretakers tended to spend the money on, which included treats, replacement furniture, home upgrades to benefit the animals, toys, and enrichment trips.

Food and vetting was covered by the station and was not to come out of their wages.

“I don’t think I can spend all this money on them sanely,” I informed Miranda, handing over their wage receipts and guidelines for their care. “I guess I’ll save most of it for enrichment trips?”

Miranda reviewed the papers, and she grinned at the entries. “I love that they’re paid so well.”

“And I get paid to manage their money.”

“Well, it is going to be mixed into your main account.”

“I’ll open a connected savings account for them while I’m here.” I bent over, petted Pumpkin, and praised her for behaving.

When our turn came, I handled opening three new savings accounts. One would go to Pumpkin, one would go to Marrinni and his ladies, and the last would be for Miranda’s rent. The teller, upon realizing I had a bunch of checks to go into the new accounts, summoned a banker, who took us into his office to handle everything.

The process took almost an hour, but I survived. Unlike the other checks, the one with my bonus pay was substantially higher than expected. Worse, Captain Farthan had neglected to include a proper receipt, instead informing me to deal with the amount quietly.

Six thousand dollars would go a long way towards making life good for a while, especially on the groceries front. While I had no idea why the check was for so much, I had the banker assign all the money to my main checking account.

No holds were applied to any of them.

Back in the cruiser, I pocketed the statements from my accounts, started the engine, and headed for home. “I’m really not sure what Captain Farthan is worried about. Lance and Rubella sent him the bill for the warding work, I’m not the one paying the medical bills, and the birds aren’t a burden, nor is Pumpkin.”

“He knows about your family situation, and the last thing he needs right now is his overly responsible detective melting down because of financial issues. He told me about your arrangement regarding Paul and his property damage issues. Paul suggested that I be informed.”

Damn it. The opal dragon would drive me insane. “I mean, I was a little worried about the finances without babysitting Paul, but I would have managed.”

“Paul is still your partner. He’s just working other cases until the dead weight situation is dealt with. Then I’ll be added to your group, and I’ll be issued the same payment you get for containing the elephant. Captain Farthan has wanted to add a second person to Paul’s containment team for a while, apparently. The diamond fetched enough he’s started investment accounts that will be paying for all the extras he’s wanted. He’s shamelessly using the funds for the roaster, and he wants you to send him specs for the roaster and anything else you need, including what sort of coffee makers we should have in the station. Our floor is to get the best makers, but he wants good machines on the other floors as well. Also, he wanted me to tell you that the station goes through a hundred and fifty pounds of coffee a day.”

I crossed my eyes at the thought of having to contain so many coffee addicts. “Which explains why he was getting Robusta. That many pounds of Arabica costs a small fortune.”

“He’s going to buy in bulk and steal space in the storage closet. Apparently, Annalee started to cry when he notified her of the change to the coffee. ”

“Did she cry from joy or terror?”

“Joy. That other coffee is really that bad, Valor.”

It truly was. Once I got home, I’d send the captain a link to the roaster I wanted, forgiveness for him needing to find a place to put it, a recommendation that we make use of the storage shed in the back and install electricity to it, and a suggestion that I come in one Saturday to roast beans for the entire month, using magic to preserve the quality. “You better tell him the coffee consumption rate is going to increase with decent coffee, and that he better budget for two hundred pounds a day.”

“I’m trying to figure out how it’s even humanly possible to consume two hundred pounds a day of coffee.”

“If we were even mostly human, it wouldn’t be possible, but there are a lot of dragons in our station, and they all need copious amounts of coffee. I’ve seen one of the reds knock back thirty cups of coffee in a day on her own. She can go through a pound of coffee a day by herself. Generally, Cauldron City maintains a police force of fifty officers per ten thousand civilians. Precinct 153 has more than the average due to the higher number of incidents involving magic. We have, on average, fifteen support staffers per fifty officers. Our station has a slightly higher than normal number of support staffers.” I sighed at the reality of the situation.

Precinct 153 attracted trouble, and we could have used closer to a hundred officers per ten thousand civilians to keep ahead of all incidents.

“How many employees are at the station?”

“I’d guess around five hundred.” I turned onto my street and sighed when I spotted my mother’s car in my spot. She had made it to my porch, where Marrinni darted to and fro to protect his nests.

“All right. Before you panic, that woman is my mother.” I pulled up, parked in front of my house, and considered turning on my lights. I decided against it, killed the engine, and got out. “It’s okay, Marrinni.”

The hummingbird zipped my way, landed on my shoulder, and pressed against my shoulder, shivering. I reassured the little bird, stroking him and praising him for being a good protector of his nests. “She is very determined to see you.”

“Well, she’s my mother, and Captain Farthan warned her Paul would be coming. We have an invitation to go.”

“We?”

“You’re invited, and Yuri will be coming to visit and watch over your females, so you will be okay. Look in the back.”

“Puppy!” While Marrinni stayed on my shoulder, he eased away from my neck to get a better look at Pumpkin.

It amused me that hummingbirds addressed all dogs, no matter the age, shape, or size, as puppies. “Yes. Her name is Pumpkin, and she’ll be living with us. She’s not suited for being a police dog, but we’re going to try her as a detective’s dog to see if she can handle the work.”

With Marrinni reassured and somewhat contained, I released the beast, taking hold of her leash so she wouldn’t do something I regretted. She heeled without me giving an order, and I praised her for good behavior. The hummingbird zipped off my shoulder to introduce himself, careful to keep out of Pumpkin’s lunging range. Everything went well, and both were praised for good behavior.

Marrinni landed on my shoulder, and I headed for my front porch, transferring him to one of the feeders so he could recover. He drank enough I worried over how stressed he’d been protecting his eggs.

“Were you transferred to the K-9 division?” my mother asked, giving me a kiss on my cheek the instant I got close.

“No. I’m calling her Pumpkin for the moment, as she’s a little sweetheart, but she’s generally unsuitable for the K-9 division. Captain Farthan wants to try her as a sniffing dog, and I won the lottery to get her.” I crouched, giving the puppy her owed attention. A quick check indicated that all the females were on their nests, and as far as I could tell, none of them had been perturbed by my mother’s arrival. “The little boy on the feeder is Marrinni, and he’s one of my new partners. His ladies, all of whom are nesting, are in my care now. Miranda, who is a new cadet, is my other new partner. Paul is going to be teamed up with us, although we’re currently split up working on several cases.”

Under no circumstances could I tell my mother I was leading the dead weight case, taking over from Jace. She already worried about the white unicorn becoming a target for his involvement. Should she find out, she’d go straight to the opal dragon and attempt to peel his scales off.

On second thought, when I needed to distract the captain, I’d notify her of the change in leadership for the case. In the meantime, I’d keep that card tucked up my sleeve.

“I see you have been busy. Your lawn had clover last week.”

“I told a pair of dragons I’m the caretaker of a bunch of hummingbirds, and they took over my lawn. Honestly, I like it.” I pointed at my new patio chairs and table, which would see a lot of use in the future. “I’ll be able to watch the birds, bees, and bunnies from there.”

“It’s nice. The little hummingbird had a lot of questions.”

I chuckled at the thought of Marrinni interrogating my mother. “We need to get changed. Do you want to come in? After we get changed, we’re going grocery shopping.”

“She’s getting changed here?”

Aware my mother would lose it, I grinned and said, “She’s staying here for a while.”

“My previous apartment is a little hellhole, and he offered when he found out about my previous place. Since we’re partnering up, it simplified things. He’s going to need help taking care of everybody living here.” Miranda went to Marrinni, and when he finished drinking, she offered her finger. The little bird indulged her, hopped over, and clicked at her. She gave him the petting he was owed before carrying him over to his nest and settling him in and petting the rest of the hummingbirds. “Once Yuri gets here, you can come grocery shopping with us.”

Marrinni settled into his nest. “This sounds interesting.”

“It will be. Captain Farthan said we need to get you and Pumpkin used to public places, and we’re starting with the grocery store.” Once Miranda checked on everyone, she waited for me to deactivate the alarm and unlock the front door.

Inside, I grabbed one of the spare fobs and keys and tossed them to her. “I should have given that to you already, but I forgot.”

“We’ve been together the whole time, so there wasn’t a need. But thank you.”

I took the time to show her how to enable and disable the alarm and which keys went to which doors before herding my mother inside. “You’re welcome. I’ll make you some coffee as soon as I get changed and get my firearm put away in the safe.”

My mother kissed my cheek again and headed into the kitchen. “I can make my own coffee as long as you have some beans already roasted.”

“I did an entire flight, so you can have your choice. It’s all labeled. Just don’t hurt my feelings and mix and match your beans again.”

“You’re no fun,” my mother complained. “Mixing and matching beans gets such interesting flavors.” She turned her attention to Miranda. “What do you take in yours, sweetheart?”

“I’ll try it black, thank you,” Miranda replied with a smile.

I fled to get changed, hoping the cadet wouldn’t join forces with my mother. Some battles I couldn’t win, and I had no doubt that would be one of them.