Rose, Charlotte - Bayou Famine [Shifters of Alligator Bend 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (5 page)

Narcisse’s smile got a little better. “Thanks.”

Nelson squeezed her hand a little tighter. “Don’t worry. We’ll all figure it out, no matter what we decide.”

“Right now, figuring out the fish problem seems easier than this whole mating thing,” Armand said with a slight chuckle

Nelson couldn’t help but laugh as well. “I know, right? Suddenly, figuring out where all the fish have gone seems mighty simple.”

“Fish problem?” Narcisse asked. “What fish problem?”

“There’s a major fish shortage right now,” Armand said. “And we can’t figure out why.”

“But we’re fishermen,” Nelson added. “The congregation has been runnin’ a fishin’ business for decades. We gotta figure out what’s goin on, or we’re in trouble.”

“And yet neither of us has come up with an answer. Though it ain’t like anyone else can, either.”

“That’s the way it goes sometimes,” Nelson said with a shrug. “Life gets full of questions and don’t seem to have many answers.”

“Maybe there’s a predator,” Armand mused. “An influx of non-shiftin’ gators, maybe.”

“It’s possible, I guess. Though if that was the case, I feel like we would have noticed an increase in the actual population. Haven’t noticed any new species, either.”

“How much longer do you think we have before it starts causin’ real problems for the business?”

“You mean worse than it already has? That’s why only half of us are going out on fishin’ trips lately. Have to limit what we catch so we don’t take ’em all. Gotta keep some to replenish the population, and to feed the rest of the animals that prey on ’em. We take everything, won’t be long before we’re left with nothing.”

“But how long before we’re in real trouble?” Armand asked.

“A month if we’re lucky, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t start feelin’ the pinch in about two weeks.”

“What happens then?” Narcisse asked.

“Well,” Nelson said, “our prices go up even higher, and we risk losing business because nobody wants to buy.”

“If the fish population is down, wouldn’t other companies be struggling, too? I mean, wouldn’t you all have to raise your prices?”

Armand shrugged. “Don’t know. We haven’t heard about widespread problems with the fish population in the Gulf area. It could just be in our part of the bayou. ’Course, we also don’t talk too much with other companies, so they might be havin’ problems but haven’t made them public.”

“So why don’t you ask?” Narcisse asked.

Nelson cleared his throat. “In case you haven’t noticed, we ain’t exactly human. Our ancestors made it a practice of tryin’ to avoid people as a whole. Some of the younger generations like getting out into the city as often as possible, but we’re safest when we’re out in the bayou, keepin’ our heads low. We don’t talk to people too much.”

Narcisse nodded. “I guess if I decide to stick around for the long haul I’m going to have to get used to that, aren’t I?”

Nelson immediately wanted to turn around and scoop her up into a hug, but she held her body rigid, and the nervous expression had returned. He figured she didn’t want to be touched.

“I’m sorry about this, Narcisse,” he said. “We didn’t mean to make things so confusin’ for you. It’s not supposed to be this way.”

Armand jumped in. “Even though we’re destined for each other, the decision to mate is a big one. You were supposed to have time to make that decision on your own. If we’d known how easy it was to mate and change you forever, we wouldn’t have let things get carried away on the dock.”

Narcisse sighed. “It’s nobody’s fault, really. I can’t imagine you guys are exactly thrilled by being mated for life to someone you barely know.”

“Yeah, but at least we get to keep our home,” Armand said. He immediately clapped his hand over his mouth, as though trying to contain the words, but Nelson saw Narcisse wince.

“Yeah. Yeah you do.” She began to curl up in a ball.

Nelson hurried to change the subject. “Narcisse, what do you do for a living?”

She sighed again. “Well, like I said, I’m actually pretty unhappy with my job, so I’m actually looking forward to extending my vacation for a little while. I have a biology degree, but I didn’t get into any of the graduate programs I applied to. My standardized test scores weren’t that high. I know that’s not the only thing they look at, but apparently, it brought down the rest of my application enough that nobody was interested in taking me.”

“So what have you been doing since then?”

“I’ve spent the past year and a half lending my scientific knowledge to a patent law firm. I absolutely hate it.”

“What would you rather be doing?”

“Go back to grad school so I can get more research experience, and then work for environmental conservation. Heck, if I could stand lawyers, I wouldn’t mind getting a JD and going into conservation law. But I was feeling pretty stuck. Patent law doesn’t pay well for the underlings who don’t have law degrees, so I’ve been struggling to save money to go back to school. I felt like my life has completely stalled out. This trip was supposed to be a nice break, but even that didn’t go the way I planned. I’ve been spending too much money, and my so-called friends have been driving me crazy. I’m completely miserable.”

“So you studied ecology?” Armand asked.

Narcisse’s face finally brightened. “It was my specialty.”

Nelson chuckled. “Maybe you can help us figure out why our fish population is disappearing. Xavier and Oscar’s mate is also a biologist. Maybe the two of you could put your heads together and figure it out.”

“That would be nice,” Narcisse said, and her lips formed a genuine smile. But her expression vanished as they pulled up and docked in New Orleans.

“This is going to get interesting,” she whispered.

* * * *

Narcisse was nervous as she led Armand and Nelson down the hall to her hotel room. She half-hoped that her friends wouldn’t be around, that they had gone out to spend some time in the Quarter after she’d parted ways with them that afternoon. Although Narcisse didn’t want her friends to worry about the fact that she’d disappeared, she was still smarting from the argument they’d had earlier that day. Plus, she had no idea how she was going to explain her current situation. If nobody was around, she could leave a note explaining things as best as she could, and not have to worry about the awkward confrontation.

Narcisse pulled the keycard out of her still-damp pockets, and then stopped.

“My eyes are really gold?”

Armand and Nelson nodded.

“How am I supposed to explain that?”

The men glanced at each other, and then Nelson’s face lit up.

“C’mon, let’s run back to the lobby.” He turned and hurried along. Armand grabbed Narcisse’s hand and followed.

They caught up with Nelson in the gift shop, where he was pulling a pair of aviator sunglasses off of a rack.

“These should help,” he said with a grin, and went to pay for them.

“Thank you,” Narcisse said when he handed them to her. “Really, you didn’t—”

Nelson placed a finger against her lips. “I know I didn’t. But I was happy to. I just wanna make this easier for you.”

Narcisse gave him a small smile as she put on the sunglasses. Armed with more confidence, she returned to her room, took out the key, and slid it in the lock. To her surprise, all three of her friends were in the room.

Janelle jumped off of the bed. “Oh, my God! Where have you been? We’ve been worried sick!”

“Yeah,” Sarah said. “Would it have killed you to call us and let us know you were okay? Or at least pick up your phone one of the thousand times we called you? And what’s with those sunglasses? I don’t remember those.”

Narcisse sighed. “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t call.” She fished her dead cell phone out of her pocket. “My phone got wet. I’m pretty sure I’m going to need a new one.” She hoped that if she let the question about the sunglasses go, they would be forgotten in light of everything else she was about to say.

“Shit, that sucks,” Alyssa said. “Still, don’t payphones still exist? And who are these guys?”

“I wasn’t near a payphone. It’s–it’s a pretty funny story, actually. After we—after we got in that argument, I moped around the Quarter for a little bit, and then I went on a swamp tour, figuring it would help me take my mind off of things. And that’s—that’s when things got a little crazy.”

Sarah raised an eyebrow. “Crazy how?”

Narcisse looked back at Armand and Nelson, hoping they might have come up with some semiplausible excuse. But they just shrugged at her with completely blank expressions.

She rolled her eyes on them and turned back to her friends. She briefly considered shifting, because they’d believe it if they saw it, but then she realized it would be a bad idea if she didn’t have control over her power yet. Instead, she decided to go for something that at least resembled the truth.

“Well, the thing is, I sort of got left behind in the swamp. I know, I can’t believe it happened, either. But I survived! And then I met Armand and Nelson here. As it turns out, there’s quite the connection between us. In light of that, I’ve decided to just, uh, stay in the bayou with them.”

Alyssa raised her eyebrows. “What? You’ve known these guys for what, three hours, and all of a sudden you’re just going to abandon us? What, are you going to just give up on our plans to hang out with them?”

“And what do you mean, stay in the bayou?” Sarah asked.

“They have a houseboat, uh, somewhere.”

“So you’re just going to leave us for the rest of the trip and show up when it’s time to go home?”

“Well, I was thinking I might even stay here a little longer,” Narcisse said, scrambling to come up with something that didn’t sound too ridiculous. “I’m sure if I could get ahold of Dave he’d extend my vacation a bit. I still have plenty of time left.”

“You’re going to ditch this trip in order to go fool around on some houseboat in a swamp with two guys you barely know?” Janelle’s voice got higher with each word. “What on earth has gotten into you?”

Narcisse felt her knees start to tremble slightly, but she took a deep breath, determined to keep her composure. “Well, uh, I mean, it’s not like we’re getting along so great anyway, right? So maybe it’s for the best if I save everyone some grief and just do my own thing. I’ll just get my stuff and be off with them. I hope you guys have a great trip. And I’ll see you all back in Houston once I’ve had my fill of New Orleans.”

“You’ve lost your mind,” Alyssa said, her voice suddenly quiet. “You’ve completely lost your mind. How do you know they’re not serial killers or something?”

“And what about us?” Sarah suddenly said. “You can’t just abandon us for two guys you barely know. We’re your friends!”

Narcisse sighed. “Things between the four of us have been tense ever since we arrived in New Orleans. And I know that Alyssa agreed it would be best if I went on my own for a while. I don’t doubt that some of you felt the same way.”

Alyssa blanched. “I didn’t mean you should abandon us for the rest of the trip!”

“I didn’t intend to. This is just sort of the way things turned out.”

“Well, you still owe us for your portion of the hotel and gas,” Janelle retorted. “You can’t just leave us in the lurch for what you owe.”

Armand reached into his pocket and pulled out his soaked wallet.

“Would two hundred bucks cover it?” he asked.