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Everybody laughed as she sang, putting her own personality into the song. That she could still sing songs so full of life after everything that had happened to her amazed Claire.

When Rachel finished, Bitty went inside and came back carrying a tray with a pitcher of lemonade and glasses for everyone.

Rachel stared at the old woman in awe. “You're
standing
. But … but,
how
?”

Bitty Kragan patted the seat where she'd been sitting and guided Rachel into it. “Darling girl, I told you all we needed was a little magic and we'd be fine. We have the new little wolf there to thank.” She winked at Claire slyly. “Yes, I've always known you were a wolf. But the costume made me smile.”

“Claire, you're a
healer
? I didn't know that!”

“No.” She shook her head, thinking fast. She had to explain somehow. “I'm not. But I know one. I asked her to see if she could come temporarily, to help out.”

Bitty patted Rachel's thick black hair. “She's not here right now, left to go find more sick people.”

“Some of the people who are sick don't know they are.” Claude's voice was more of a tenor than his brother's and had less of the thick French accent. “Like you and Danielle there.”

The women looked at each other and back at the old man.

“We're not sick,” Dani said.

“Right now, you're right,” Bitty said. “But you've had a mental illness. It's not your fault, girls. Not at all. Someone bad is making you forget things.” She stared right at Rachel, making it obvious to Claire she knew what had been happening. “Making you
do
things against your will.

“It stops here and now,” the old owl said firmly, her eyes flinty. “I promise you. But to do it, you'll have to trust me. Trust
us.”
She waved her hand to include her brothers.

Dani shook her head. “I don't know what's going on here, but it's making me nervous. I think I should go home.”

Egan Kragan touched her hand. “Girl, your sister is out there with a madman. He got your whole family in his clutches. You know sometin's wrong with your momma and papa, don't ya? We hear talk, and there ain't no talk of your sis. No search parties, no posters. Don't it seem strange to ya?”

She paused, and her whole body seemed to be trembling. “They never called me to tell me. I didn't even know they were missing until I called a friend in town. Last night, when we were feeding Darrell, she called Kristy to dinner. I had to remind her that Kristy was missing. She didn't even
know
. What's wrong with her? What's happening?” She broke down into tears. Claire let her collapse into her arms and cry.

“We can keep your minds clear and free of the sickness. The more people we can keep the sickness from, the less powerful it is.”

Dani shook her head. “You're not making sense.”

Claude spoke up. “The sickness isn't a virus. It's a
person
. A very powerful Sazi is attacking Luna Lake, hurting people mentally and taking the children. The more people we can pull away from him, the less powerful he is. The trouble is, we don't know for sure who's pulling the strings.”

“I do,” Claire heard herself say. “All we have to do is catch him in the act.”

“Afraid you're barking up the wrong tree, little wolf,” Claude said with an annoyed look in his eye. He wasn't upset with her. She could tell from the push of his emotions that he wished she was right. He didn't like having to be … an
alibi
? “While you were chasing that black hole, the person you're thinking of, and I know everything you told our friend, was in a diner filled with people, including me.”

Claire felt cold air on the back of her tongue as her jaw dropped open. It wasn't the police chief? But then …
who
?

“Oh, that man is far from innocent. He's going to hell for what he's done, no question. We have the photos. Egan went and looked around at the station this morning. And if I have any say, he'll get there quicker than he planned. But he's not the Darkness. And I don't know who is.”

“You have the photos? How?”

Egan smiled. “I did a stint as a policeman, early on, and I never did give back the key. Wasn't hard to find where little wolf prints had been left. Don't worry, he'll never know you found them. By the way, you need to work on your covert work, girl. A little sloppy. I had to clean up after you.”

Rachel's eyes lifted and she moved forward in her seat. “Photos? You mean…?”

Bitty bent down slightly and gave a gentle kiss to the top of her head. “Nobody will ever see them. They'll be destroyed just as soon as the Council is done with him.”

Dani was confused, being the only person who didn't understand what they were talking about. “What photos? What are you…?”

Claire put a hand on her shoulder. “Let's just say that a man was taking advantage of Rachel's Omega status.”

The other woman's eyes widened with realization. She rushed to the porch and dropped to her knees in front of the rocker and pulled Rachel into a hug. “Oh, honey. I had no idea! When? Who?”

Rachel shook her head. “I don't want to talk about it.” Then she looked up at Bitty over Dani's head. “Yes, if you can make it stop, I'll do anything. I don't ever want to go there again. But I have nowhere else to go.”

Bitty held out her hand and Rachel took it. The old woman held out a second hand, offering it to Dani. “We'll need help to get your sister back, along with your brother's mind.”

Dani looked at Claire and then at the two somber men on the porch. “I don't know what's going on, but if Rachel trusts you, I'll give it a shot.” She took Bitty's other hand.

Bitty motioned with her head for Claire to move back. “You're already attached. Don't need anything more on your plate.”

She stepped back a dozen feet and was surprised when Claude and Egan joined her. Claude bent down to whisper in her ear. “She's always been the Alpha of the family, but don't tell no one. The boys down at the VFW would never let us live it down.”

It made Claire smile. “Your secret's safe with me.”

Claire
was
attached, so she knew what was going to happen when Bitty joined the two new owls to her own parliament.

The same light that wasn't a light began to form around the old woman, then spread to surround Dani and Rachel. She watched as the faces of the girls moved from nervous to calm and then took on an expression of awe. They looked up at the old white woman like she was a long-lost grandmother. It wasn't more than a few moments before tears began to trace down their cheeks and they reached arms around each other in sheer joy. It made Claire smile. She remembered that first sense of belonging, the utter acceptance of
familia
.

Claude and Egan began to slip away, but she pulled on Claude's sleeve before he left. He turned and she spoke quietly. “Have you ever heard of ‘the Great Experiment' in Luna Lake?”

The old Cajun nodded, and her whole body began to vibrate with energy. “Sure. That's what we called the town at first. The whole thing was an experiment: could Sazi of different species live in harmony? Nobody had ever tried to put wolves, cats, raptors, and bears in the same tiny territory. The animal parts don't normally share well. But we only have fifty acres here, so the rules had to be harsh. I'm still not quite sure how the city Council pulled it off. But we're all still here, and alive.”

Were they? Maybe there was more to the experiment than most people knew. She followed the brothers while the pack attachment was still forming on the cabin porch. They began to slip off toward the edge of town. “Where are you two going?” she whispered to their backs.

They turned their heads and grinned, nearly in unison. Egan let out a little cackle. “We're going to give the chief a few things to keep him busy on this quiet morning.”

Claude added, “And the town Council, and the mayor too.” Plenty of
busy
to go around. You best stay here, keep out of the line of fire.”

“Hey …
fire
. Another thing to add to the list!” Egan said happily. They slipped into the forest like a pair of schoolboys, chortling and whispering.

Oh, lord. She could only imagine what hell was about to be unleashed on the town.

There was no point in staying here until the pack attachment was complete. It didn't take too long, but a few hours was pretty common. She wasn't halfway back to the house before she heard the first alarm coming from the direction of the city offices. Next an alarm went off at the other end of town. Moments later, she heard a whooshing sound and saw a geyser of water rise over the treetops. She sprinted back to the Williams house. John Williams was packing his truck with firefighting gear. “There's a fire over at the community building. Dinner's going to be late.”

Patrick came racing out of the house, pulling on a second yellow-and-orange bunker jacket. Smoke was beginning to rise above the trees. “C'mon, Dad. The tanker truck's loaded up. We'll meet at the city building.”

A third alarm rose into the once-quiet morning and John pulled a walkie-talkie from a holster on his belt. “Lenny, John here. There's
another
alarm. Might be at Polar Pops from the direction.”

“Ten-four,” came the harried voice of the police chief. “I'll add it to the list. Nearly every alarm in town is going off. I'm not sure which ones are fires, which are burglaries, and which are pranks.”

Alek touched his dad's shoulder. “Let me and Claire check that one out. It's close.” He motioned to Patrick, who tossed a radio to him. “If there's a fire and it's too much for an extinguisher, I'll call you right away.”

John clapped a firm hand on Alek's shoulder. “Thanks, son. Be careful.”

As soon as they drove away, Alek moved up beside her and leaned down to whisper. “Kragans?”

She nodded. “Kragans. They are little spitfires. Whatever Amber did, they're back in the game. Dani and Rachel are part of their pack now. Once the connection is firmed up, they can be trusted. We should probably get Scott and maybe Tammy over there too. I've got a lot to tell you about what's happened in the past few minutes.”

He put an arm around her as another alarm bell, just slightly off counterpoint, added to the din. “You can tell me on the way. I really would prefer not to put out a
real
three-alarm fire.”

They took off at an easy jog toward the ice cream store.

Alek turned off the alarm by entering a code.

“How do you know the code?”

“Used to work here. It's never been changed.”

A new voice, high-pitched and female, made her spin around. “Three three two seven. Three three two seven. Cubed is cubed.”

Alek turned and looked around, and Claire saw his eyebrows raise. “Skew?!”

A woman was standing behind the counter, moving her head around like a parakeet. “Skew? Skew! Who's Skew? Youse Skew.” She burst out laughing.

Alek approached her carefully, like he expected her to bolt. “Skew, you know me right?” The bright bird eyes blinked and then she nodded.

“Know? Alek. Sure. Hi!”

“Where have you been, Skew? We've been worried about you.”

She looked at the counter again, then across the room and finally back at Alek, but Claire thought only because he was waving his hand, trying to catch her attention.

“Where have I been? Where am I normally?” While she sounded nuts, there was a logic behind what she said. Three times three was nine. Nine times three was twenty-seven. So three cubed was twenty-seven. Cubed is cubed. Cute.

“Here,” Alek said. “You're normally here. But you weren't yesterday. Where were you yesterday?”

There was no response. She just blinked and looked around. “It smells clean in here,” Claire said.

“I know. It's confusing.” Alek nodded. “It looks like the dishes have been washed and put away, the cash register is turned off, and everything smells strongly of bleach and cleansers.”

“Could she just have been out of town?”

Alek frowned. “I don't think so. It doesn't smell like her in here. It doesn't smell like anything except cleanser.”

“Skew?” The constantly tipping face turned her way. “I'm Claire. Tell me about the Great Experiment.”

The effect was startling. Alek stared open-mouthed as the parakeet became a falcon—intelligent, logical, and calm. Even her voice changed, dropped nearly an octave and took on a professional quality. “After clinical trials, the experiment appears to have significant flaws. I would recommend to the Council that it be terminated.”

The Council? What the hell! She was talking like a scientist, which made Alek lean over and whisper, “What did you do to her?”

Waving off the question because she needed to concentrate, she asked the newly clearheaded shop owner, “Did the ages of the test subjects differ intentionally?”

Skew shook her head. “The subjects were chosen randomly. Results can't be verified without randomness.”

It was finally occurring to Alek that Skew was answering questions about the students in the green files. He whispered to Claire, “What does the Council have to do with it?”

“I don't know,” she admitted. But maybe it was why her presence here was a secret from all but the highest members of Sazi hierarchy.

Alek got tired of waiting for her to think of the next question. “Where are they, Skew? Where are the kids?” He rushed forward and grabbed her shoulders. Claire couldn't stop him in time, just catching the edge of his shirt as he blazed past.

It was too late. Her eyes glazed over again and she tipped her head, her clarity leaking out like it dripped out her ear. “Kids will be here soon, Alek. Clean up and get ready. Ice cream for the kids. Chocolate, vanilla, extra nuts.”