The Shifters. Alexandra Sokoloff

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СКАЧАТЬ in that early morning tumble before the bloodsucker has to crawl back into his coffin, she thought darkly, even though technically Jagger DeFarge neither sucked blood nor slept in a coffin. Still, a Keeper being involved with a member of the race she was charged to protect was just…wrong. Cait knew that all too well.

      “What’s the matter?” Fiona asked her, instantly picking up on her mood.

      “Bad wind,” Caitlin muttered, unable to help herself.

      “What?” Fiona frowned, her clear blue eyes concerned, and Shauna turned from her cash register prep to look at her.

      “Something’s off,” Caitlin hedged. “I had a dream…and I was followed in Jackson Square this morning.”

      Her sisters were instantly alarmed, their voices overlapping.

      “Followed?”

      “Who followed you?”

      “More like what,” Caitlin said darkly. “Something I couldn’t see. Watching me.”

      Her sisters didn’t bother to hide the skeptical look they exchanged, and Caitlin’s defenses went straight up. “And it showed up in the cards just now, too. Death and the Devil and the Tower. And Illusion. Shapeshifters.”

      Caitlin was the best card reader of all of them, but both her sisters knew enough to know that configuration was far from good. And yet, Caitlin caught another one of those exchanged glances. Caitlin knew exactly what the looks meant. Poor Cait. She’s over the top these days. Seeing shadows everywhere.

      Caitlin felt her temper flare and tried to keep a handle on it.

      Fiona made it worse by being gently diplomatic about it. “Tell us what we can do, sweetie.”

      Caitlin now felt frustration as well as anger. “Be careful. Just be careful. When I know more, I’ll tell you.”

      She knew she sounded bitter, but how long would she have to do penance? When was she going to be able to redeem herself, set the whole vampire/shifter disaster to rest?

      She found herself suddenly wishing for a cataclysm, a challenge so profound that she would be able to save herself, save everyone, and finally feel herself a true Keeper.

      Shauna was already looking at the clock on the wall. “Are you going to be okay here today?” she asked. “I’m buying in Lafayette today, and Fee is meeting with Rosalyn to pick up the new Halloween costumes.”

      Caitlin bristled. “Why wouldn’t I be okay? I can hold the fort. I’m saying you be careful. Both of you. Until we know more.”

      “We will, honey. You just call if you need anything.” Fiona stepped forward and kissed her cheek, and Caitlin burned under her sweetness.

      As they left, Shauna’s look of pity obvious to anyone but the dead or blind, Caitlin paced the shop in a fury. She could hear them talking outside, not literally, but sometimes when the wind was blowing, she could just hear. Low, feminine murmurs now.

       Shauna: Ever since the cemetery murders…

       Fiona: But that’s ridiculous, it wasn’t Cait’s fault…

       Shauna: But you know Cait. If there’s anything to obsess about, she’s gonna obsess.

      With effort, Caitlin turned off her inner ear, seething with resentment. I’ll show them. One way or another. I will.

      The morning flew by, with tourists arriving early for Halloween, coming up in just five days. There was a steady trickle of them, enticed down the short alleyway to the shop. The sugar candles were an irresistible draw, and the attraction spell the sisters had placed on the sidewalks outside didn’t hurt. The least likely people drifting down Rue Royal ended up veering into their alleyway, following the burnt-sugar scent—and something less tangible but even more enticing—into the shop.

      In no time it was midafternoon, and Caitlin’s 3:00 p.m. Tarot reading was due any minute.

      The woman who entered the shop had given her name as Amanda Peters, and she was a beauty: in her late forties, with a life force burning like a flame, lithe, auburn-haired, copper freckles on creamy skin, and a buttery Southern accent that Caitlin placed as Charlestonian.

      She strode in wearing Katharine Hepburn trousers and a silky white shirt, looking like an old-style film goddess, but as soon as Caitlin led her through the velvet curtain and into the inner room and seated her in the reading chair, she dissolved into ugly, heart-rending sobs.

      Love trouble, Caitlin thought wearily. Nothing else could so completely unravel someone as strong as this.

      She braced herself for the inevitable question, choked out between more sobs.

      “He left me. What can I do?”

      Caitlin unwrapped the cards.

      She sensed that Amanda was a Wand, driven by will, so Caitlin pulled the Queen of Wands as the significator, the public mask, to represent her, then placed the cards in front of Amanda to hold and then cut. Caitlin laid out a Love Spread and turned over the first four cards.

      She studied them, frowning. “Your life is in transition. The high presence of swords indicates single-minded pursuit, vengeance..”

      Funny, that wasn’t at all the read she had gotten from the woman herself; the cards were contradictory.

      She turned to the first bar of three cards and touched her finger to the one on the far left. The King of Swords—which could indicate a dangerous, treacherous man, but with clients Caitlin always tried to start with the positive aspects of the cards. “The King of Swords is a highly intellectual, well-educated man, with a razor wit and many facets to his character. He is a natural problem-solver, but often moves on too quickly, from ideas, people and places, to provide any permanence. He can be passionate, charismatic, fascinating, challenging. and completely exhausting.”

      As Caitlin spoke, Amanda leaned forward on her elbows, seemingly transfixed by what Caitlin was saying.

      Caitlin could feel that she was reaching the woman on some profound level; she knew that look well. The other woman was hearing things that were true. “The card also represents a private person, a loner who defends his walls and boundaries fiercely. You may never get to know him no matter how long you’re with him. The card also often indicates someone heavily involved in occult study….” As Caitlin continued, she was more and more aware of something wrong.

      She paused and looked down at the spread again.

      And then it hit her, hard. The card she had been speaking about was not the card representing Amanda’s lover but was in the place of the querent: Amanda herself.

      It made no sense.

      She decided to deal an extra card, silently asking for clarification.

      The Knight of Swords, reversed.

      “This card indicates a deceitful man, treacherous and secretive beneath a surface charm…” Caitlin stopped herself. She had СКАЧАТЬ