Home Improvement: Undead Edition (20 page)

Alison rolled her shoulders, cracked her neck, and concentrated on making her features both human and attractive. Her eyes hadn’t recolored, but they tingled as they tended to when their shape started reverting to her natural oblong pupils. It would be easier if she could force her eyes to hold a human shape, but unlike Chastity, Alison could master that trick for only a short time. Alison resorted to contacts, which felt unpleasantly tight as her pupils reshaped.

She slipped her cell from her side pocket as it buzzed. A text from the littles read: “Need kibbles.” It was immediately followed by a second text message: “Rave lies. Caught yellow birds at Chassys feeder. No kibble.”

Alison smiled as she texted back: “Bury evidence. Do NOT eat all Chastity’s finches.”

Not all technology is bad.

The littles had responded well to the terseness of texting. They didn’t yet like to use words if they didn’t need them, but they did so when they needed to communicate with either of their elder sisters—or in cases where they wanted to talk to only one sister, typically when they needed to talk to Alison without Chastity knowing.

The next text read: “Three bird? Chassy sleeps now.”

Alison grimaced at the thought of the littles eating too many of Chastity’s finches and replied, “Only what you caught so far.”

And that’s why we live in this area.
If they lived in the city where the littles had to steal house pets or try to find disease-free rodents, their diets would be a mess.

Resolved, Alison opened the door between the waiting area and the builder’s office. The man at the desk didn’t look up. He was darling for a male human: muscular, sun-darkened skin, a few pleasant scars on his exposed forearms, and old enough to be skilled at sex. Perhaps a relationship for Chastity would be wise, too.

Alison tapped her long, lacquered nails on his desk as she assessed him. He still didn’t lift his gaze, so she murmured, “Mr. Vaduva? Mr. Damek Vaduva?”

“I am Damek.” The man looked around with the gaze of one who was not expecting anyone to be in the room. When his gaze settled on her, he frowned. “Well, your sort don’t usually come to the office.” He pushed his chair back from the desk and folded his hands together. “Darlene is safe?”

“She is.” Alison sank into the cozy chair in front of Damek’s heavily carved desk.

She opened her handbag and pulled out a cloth. She didn’t hesitate, despite the difficulty of coming to terms with what was wrapped inside it. She laid it on the desk. “I have a job for you.”

To his credit, Damek did not unwrap the bundle in front of him. “Tell me.”

Alison weighed her words with the same care she used in selecting the right stones from the earth. “I need my home made stronger. I can provide the materials.”

“Everything I need will be there?”

“Yes,” Alison agreed. “Everything.”

Damek leaned back. “Then I will come next week.”

SEVERAL DAYS PASSED
calmly, and then another form arrived. That night, Chastity tore open the mail with a scream that might’ve caused concern if not for the sound-dampening spell they’d had the foresight to get for the house.

“Good day at work?” Alison called from the kitchen.

“I hate Justine with an unhealthy degree of enthusiasm.” Chastity didn’t bother trying to hide her irritation. Outside, she had to be sweet, normal, all of those pesky mainstreamer things, but in the house, she dropped the façade. “If she had any idea what happened to the last woman who—” Chastity stopped herself as Alison came to the doorway and gave her a bemused smile.

“We could move somewhere remote,” Alison suggested.

“No. Times are changing. The littles must become socialized.” Chastity took three calming breaths and walked into the kitchen.

Alison shrugged. “Now what?”

“Samples. We need to get samples.” Chastity stared at the paper, reread it for the third time, and then tossed it on the table.

“Of?”

“Any and all building material visible to those in the community.” Chastity closed her eyes and began counting very slowly in her mind.
One . . . two . . . three . . . I can do this . . . four . . . five . . . mainstreaming is good for the littles . . . six . . .

Alison snorted. “Damek is to be here in two days. The builder I said was coming? I think you’ll like him.”

“We don’t have the money, and
I
don’t have time to like anyone, Ali.” Chastity pulled open the fridge and got out several cardboard boxes. There were fresh bloodworms, a partially eaten chickadee, and at least half a squirrel left over.

“So you keep saying. The littles and I are not enough for you. You do not want a
Bori
mate, so you should select a human for a while. He is striking if you like males.”

Pointedly ignoring her sister, Chastity returned to the fridge. “Did you want to go out for dinner or have leftovers?” She rummaged around and found an opened jar of red sauce. “I could do a casserole.”

“Please, gods, no.” Alison sniffed the air. “I smell you. If you expect to sneak up on both of us, you need to bathe more often, Remus.”

A low growl came from the living room.

“And not react to every barb, sweetie,” Chastity added. “Ali has a much better nose, so I wouldn’t have known she was right if not for the growl.”

The growling boy in question made a noise that sounded like a
chuff
.

The sisters exchanged a look, and while Alison’s head was turned a black blur came at her from the other doorway. Chastity started, “Al—” but before the second syllable, the blur in question had toppled Alison and the chair she was in.

Perched on Alison’s chest was a feral girl with almost solid black eyes and dark snarled hair. The girl tilted her head at an inhuman angle and stared at Chastity. She snapped her mouth in a self-satisfied way.

“Human words, Rave.” Alison reached up to ruffle the girl’s hair—and got a sharp snap on the wrist for it. “Clever thing, aren’t you?”

Raven preened a little.

Chastity shook her head. “He agreed to being the decoy?”

For a moment, Raven pulled her stare from Alison to Chastity. Then she opened and closed her mouth. In a scratchy voice, the child said, “Bigger share of dinner.”

“Clever,” Alison repeated.

WITH A HAPPY
yip, Remus charged into the kitchen. Chastity’s edict against shapeshifting was helping the children learn to appear human, but their behavior was still more animal than human. Alison was grateful that she was the younger sister, though; she wasn’t entirely sure she had the confidence to make some of the family decisions. Chastity’s choices were akin to laws, so it made for a family without conflict. Luckily, their eldest sister was also realistic.

Remus leaned his body against Chastity and butted her hand with his head. His skin was smudged with dirt, but his hair was damp and leaf-free. She suspected Raven had groomed his hair again. Gently, Chastity murmured, “You will bathe in
water
later.”

“Hate water.” Remus looked at her beseechingly. “Used
words
. No water?”

“Maybe,” she said. For all of her attempts at mainstreaming, Chastity still remembered that they weren’t human. She lectured, and she reminded, but she didn’t expect them to change entirely. If Alison were more curious, she might ask her sister if there was a master chart or spreadsheet where the number of admonishments and praise was measured out.

Alison watched her sister and the littles with a sort of peace that they hadn’t always known—the sort of peace they were going to ensure for the family.
Not all nests are created equal.
This particular nest was one she would fight to protect.

“So, about Damek,” Alison started.

The littles were unconcerned. Raven remained perched atop Alison, and Remus sat beside Chastity with his eyes closed contentedly. Chastity herself was suspicious. She leveled her gaze at Alison. “I’ll talk to him, but the fence is the first priority.”

“Sure, but the unfinished rooms downstairs—”

“Ali, we’ve talked about this. The money has to go to the fence first. I
will
get it approved. Getting the fence in, then spelled, and”—Chastity had stopped petting Remus, and he whined plaintively—“the inside is not the priority this year. Maybe next year if money is available.”

“Chas?”

“It’s not like I don’t
want
them to have a better—”

“Chastity!”

“What?” Her sister resumed petting Remus, who had become unsettled by the tension in the sisters.

“I have the money.” Alison held up a hand to forestall any questions. “Damek will be here to assess the site in two days. All you need to concentrate on is the fence. I have this.”

For a strange moment, Alison felt the weight of all three of her nestmates’ stares. Raven and Remus were experts in nonverbal communication, and Alison’s studied lack of expression was obviously fascinating to the littles in a way that words or gestures rarely were. Remus prowled closer and sniffed her; Raven tilted her head from one side to the other. The littles exchanged a look, then studied Chastity. Remus chuffed at his sister, and she released a screech that only Remus could understand. Then, the littles gave both sisters their renditions of assuring affection. Remus licked their hands, and Raven rubbed her forehead against their shoulders. With no signal that Alison and Chastity would recognize, the littles vanished into whatever dens they had elsewhere in the house.

Once they were gone, Chastity sighed. “They’re still sleeping in the rafters in the attic.”

“They’ll be fine.” Alison reached up and laced her fingers with her sister’s. “We weren’t that verbal so young.”

“I know.” Chastity looked at her. “Do you miss the not-words?”

“Sometimes, but what I really miss are the tufts of fur you’d drag home from whatever you’d killed. We had a fabulous nest.” Alison thought longingly of the way they’d lived before Chastity decided they had to mainstream. The nest was a true nest then. They’d had a cave with shiny bits of stones that she’d found, and the warm-soft pelts that Chastity brought.

It was so much easier.

Quietly, Alison said, “But we made the right choice.”

“We?”

Alison laughed. “Yes,
we
. If you think I didn’t choose it, too, you’re spending too much time around humans. I’m here. That means I chose it.”

“Thank you.” Chastity squeezed her hand. “Do I need to ask where the money came from for the repairs?”

Alison shrugged. “I brought a few of those shiny rocks from the old nest. Humans make them into body ornaments. I gave them to Mr. Vaduva.”

“You used some of your
gems
for payment?” Chastity’s mouth hung open oddly on the last word. When she realized it, she closed her mouth with an audible smack.

“Go find your samples. The ARB meeting is in two days.” Alison paused and rubbed her forehead on her sister’s shoulder as she had when they hadn’t learned words yet.

ON THE DAY
of the meeting—the same day that Damek Vaduva would arrive at their nest—Chastity stood examining a white brick, a small bucket of some sort of masonry compound, and a three-inch sample of the metal rods that would reinforce the brick. She thought they had pretty good odds—and then the doorbell rang.

She looked through the peephole in the door to the thin, perfectly made-up woman, and she knew without a doubt that this had to be the ARB chair. The artifice that was conveyed in every detail of the woman’s outfit was proof enough that no matter what form they filled out, no matter how innocuous—or logical—the request, it wouldn’t matter. This was a woman who cared for appearance. Her clothes were the sort of poorly chosen frocks that admitted that the wearer didn’t dress for her personal style, but for the society-approved idea of fashion. If Chastity knew anything about designers, she would be able to be falsely impressed, but the idea of being concerned with brand over style made no sense to Chastity.

“You have got to be joking.” She sighed, affixed a smile, and opened the door.

“Miss Faolchu?”

“Yes. I’m Chastity Faolchu.” She stepped aside. “Please come in.”

Behind her, Chastity heard the littles. She glanced over her shoulder as Raven and Remus crept down the stairs. They perched on the edge of the landing midway down the staircase. Neither spoke. They stared at Justine.

Justine had stepped into the house. The expression on her face was polite, but the tone of her voice was chilly. “I didn’t know you had children. Do they go to a private school?”

“No.”

At that, Justine’s polite demeanor slipped a little. “Oh, I haven’t noticed the bus stopping here.”

“It doesn’t.”

The ARB chairperson pursed her lips and blinked, as if forcing clarity to come to her. “Do you drive them? They don’t look old enough to drive themselves yet.”

“No.” Chastity moved to the side so she could see the littles.

“So . . .” Justine prompted.

“We homeschool.” Chastity gave her a tight smile.

The temptation to ask for more information vied with the natural discomfort most people experienced when they were confronted by the littles. Justine’s gaze darted to them, and then back to Chastity. “Why did you say you moved here again?”

Chastity’s dislike for Justine boiled inside her, but she wasn’t ready to completely give in to it. She kept that anger out of her voice and said, “Children need yards.
Fenced
yards. In the city, we didn’t have enough space for their growth.”

“They seem a bit old for you to worry about fences,” Justine said.

Charity briefly imagined telling Justine exactly how much trouble a pair of young
Bori
would inflict on their area.
Her tiny sweater-clad dog is lucky to be alive still. Bird feeders all look like buffets.
She forced her tone to remain level. “Nonetheless, we need a fence.”

“I see.”