Chapter

I woke when the world tilted sideways. The whole house was shaking and shuddering – and so was my undead heart.

‘We’re under attack!’ I shouted in panic to my pets. Fluffy gave a low whine, though he didn’t seem to be joining me on Team Freak-the-Fuck-Out. Shadow let out a yowl and disappeared under the bed. The bed! That seemed like a good option, actually.

And that’s when my brain connected the dots…

I suddenly realised that I wasn’t so much under attack, rather I was going through my first earthquake. Alaska is on an active tectonic plate boundary. I’d read about it – but it was a whole different thing to experience it.

‘Doorways!’ I barked to my dog. ‘We’re supposed to stand in doorways!’

You didn’t need to tell Fluffy twice – he is the very best boy. In seconds, the two of us were braced against the wooden beams, waiting for this fresh hell to stop. Shadow stayed under the bed, and who could blame him? The earth was supposed to gently revolve, not shake me like a magic eight-ball that’s providing a dissatisfying answer.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, the tremors stopped. I was being overdramatic – the whole thing didn’t last long – but it was my first freaking earthquake and it seemed like a big deal to me.

I bit my lip. I should probably verify that it was an earthquake and not some pissed-off witches casting spells at my house.

The metal shutters around my home were closed, but my watch told me it was late afternoon so I called Sidnee. She’d be up and she’d know what the heck was going on.

‘Sidnee,’ I said breathlessly when she answered, ‘was that an actual earthquake?’ I sounded a teensy bit excited; now that it had stopped, I could get behind a new experience. It wasn’t something that was going to happen often. Was it?

‘Yup,’ she agreed cheerfully. ‘A good-sized one too. A 5.5.’

‘That’s the Richter scale, right?’

‘That’s the one, although now we say magnitude scale,’ she chirped.

‘I wonder what happened to Richter to make him so interested in categorising earthquakes,’ I mused aloud.

‘Maybe he got dropped on his head as a baby.’ Sidnee’s tone suggested that was the only way someone could possibly find such things interesting.

‘During an earthquake?’ I joked, making her snigger.

A 5.5. I searched my memory for a frame of reference, or so I could add a frame of reference. I recalled that every point on the earthquake scale indicated ten times the increase in power. Shit. A 5.5 had almost given me a heart attack; the shock of a 7 would probably kill me.

Sidnee sobered. ‘Hey, are you okay? Any damage or anything?’

‘No, I don’t think so. There was a lot of shaking but nothing wiggled off my shelves. It’s just that it was my first earthquake. It was scary for a minute,’ I admitted.

‘Of course it was,’ she said softly. ‘But we have them all the time, so you’ll get used to them. Before you know it, they’ll seem ordinary.’

‘Great,’ I muttered grumpily, not encouraged by the thought.

‘Most are so small you barely feel them,’ she added hastily. ‘We’ve had two since you’ve been here and you didn’t even notice!’

‘Do you remember any bigger than a 5.5?’ I couldn’t quite hide my nervousness.

‘Yeah, there was one about six years ago. It was wild. But apart from that one…’ Then she added helpfully, ‘Mind you, Alaska had the second biggest earthquake ever recorded, a 9.2. Of course, that was way before my time,’.

A 9.2? Jesus, I couldn’t even imagine that. I hoped the quakes stayed sub-5; that would be scary but okay. I could cope with that. ‘I didn’t know that and I wish I still didn’t,’ I said drily.

Her tinkling laugh made me smile. ‘They’ll seem ordinary soon. I promise.’

‘They better. Talk to you later. I need to get ready for work. Thanks for reassuring me.’

‘Anytime, Bunny.’

We rang off and almost immediately my phone rang: Connor. I swiped to answer. ‘Hey.’ His tone was casual. ‘Just ringing to see if you’re okay after the shake. That was a big one.’

I realised I was smiling. ‘I’m fine. It took me a moment to work out what was going on, but then I was okay. Your call is well-timed – I just got off the line with Sidnee.’

There was a pause. ‘I rang a couple of times but I couldn’t get through. You guys can sure chat.’

I grinned. ‘How many times did you try?’

He gave a barely audible sigh. ‘I’m trying to play it cool,’ he complained.

‘Five?’ I guessed.

‘Seven,’ he admitted.

My grin was now ear to ear. ‘That’s so cute. Thank you.’

‘Cute?’ He sounded outraged.

I laughed. ‘Sorry, what I meant to say was “that was so manly and tough of you to dial repeatedly until you knew I was okay”. Very tough.’

‘Is this the right time to confess I’m panic-driving to your house because I couldn’t get hold of you?’

‘Well turn yourself back around! I have to get ready for work and I don’t have time for distractions!’

His voice dropped an octave. ‘Do I distract you, Bunny?’

‘More than a fake shipwreck does a goldfish,’ I said, entirely too honestly.

It was his turn to laugh. ‘Good to know. Okay, if you’re sure you’re safe, I’ll head to the council chambers. Speak soon.’

‘You got it!’ I hung up. You got it? Ugh. I was the least sexy thing since assless chaps were invented for cowboys. And now I was thinking of Connor in assless chaps and re-thinking their previous un-sexy status.

Shadow crept out from under the bed, his yellow eyes studying me. ‘Hey, bud,’ I said softly to the frightened lynx. ‘It’s all over. You can come out now.’ He gave a plaintive squeak, darted over and climbed on my lap. I stroked his head for a minute until he nipped my finger to let me know he was done with being affectionate. Then he barrelled off in search of a mouse, or a box to climb into.

The calls and snuggles had made me late so I got ready lightning fast. I’d bought Shadow a little animal pram and a carry cage and, after a few minutes debate with myself, I persuaded him into it. He could come with me and wreak havoc at work; I didn’t want him alone and scared if another earthquake came. Gunnar would be fine with it, I told myself. He was a dog person, which meant he was an animal person. A cat was an animal, so it would be fine. Logic.

When I walked in with the pram, the lynx and the dog, Sidnee was packing up her things. She flashed me an amused look. ‘Is it bring your pet to work day?’

I sighed. ‘I know. I’m ridiculous. But Shadow was really scared after the quake and I worried about leaving him all day. You think Gunnar will mind?’

‘Not at all. Weird things were happening tonight. The cat will be the least of his worries.’ She looked away. ‘Trouble is stirring.’

That was ominous. My scalp prickled. ‘Something else happened besides the earthquake?’ I asked tentatively.

‘Yeah. There’s another protest going on at the barrier, and we’ve had tonnes of calls about people seeing it flashing. Gunnar had to call Liv to get her witches to check on it.’

I tried to inject some humour. ‘You think the barrier needs some attention? What does a mooning barrier look like?’

Sidnee rolled her eyes. ‘Stick to crime. Stand-up is not your forte.’

I held a hand to my heart. ‘You slay me.’

‘Not yet,’ she said drily, ‘but I’ll be tempted to if the dad jokes continue.’

She was teasing but there was a tension in her that had been there ever since her boyfriend Chris had betrayed and abandoned her. She was dealing with it, but slowly and badly; mostly she was shoving it in a box and ignoring it, like I would have done. It might not have been the healthiest coping mechanism but I didn’t have another solution to offer. I was there for her; when she was ready to talk, I’d be there to listen.

‘Gunnar had to call Liv? Does that mean he’s in a bad mood?’ I asked.

‘Yes, he is,’ Gunnar bellowed from his office.

I grimaced. ‘Oops.’

Looking a little less strained, Sidnee grinned. ‘Wanna meet for lunch later?’

We often ate out together for my lunch, which was her supper. I was pleased she’d asked because she’d shot me down the last few times I’d invited her.

‘Absolutely. Garden of Eat’n?’

‘Yeah, the usual.’

‘See you then!’ Sidnee gave Fluffy a quick kiss on his head and strolled out of the building.

I settled my dog on his bed next to my desk and smiled when Shadow curled up beside him, then I checked on what Sidnee had left for me, readying myself for the long list of phone calls the Nomo’s office received. I’d had the bright idea of putting one of our numbers in the local paper as a ‘hotline’ number and now we got dozens of calls about stupid stuff.

The hotline had originally been for sightings of fisheye; a drug that some black-ops government agency had experimented with in our town, but now people used it to complain about keelut sightings or – apparently – flashing barriers. The fisheye tips had pretty much dried up even though the majority of the perpetrators, including Chris, were still at large.

I went to make myself a cup of tea and Gunnar a conciliatory coffee, but the phone rang before the water was even warm. Let the deluge commence.