I looked around the snug confines of the sleeper cab. At my feet, a tiny wardrobe held what few clothes Sue and Al owned. Above my head a small fridge was bolted to a shelf, which was in turn welded to the wall of the sleeper. Below us lurked Al's tools, a hot plate, and an empty larder for dry goods. Al and Sue's entire lives were crammed into this tiny space. I thought about my own apartment. So often I'd thought it small. Three small rooms, two closets and a bathroom, all for one person, while Al and Sue crammed themselves into a sleeper cab smaller than my bathroom.

"What are you thinking about?"

Sue's voice eased me from my melancholy and brought a smile to my face. "Not much. How everything's relative."

She ran a finger down my chest, toying with the curly hair she found endlessly fascinating. "Yeah? So this is incest then?"

I snorted my reply, my hand sliding along her back. "You're impossible."

"So you keep telling me. Wait, I'm a Shifter, so that makes this bestiality, right?"

That turned my snort into a chuckle, and she shifted against me. She was heavier than she ought to be, but I'm not quite as doughy as I look. I kept my reply serious, trying to play along. "Well, I never thought about it, but if you ask my ex, I'm not real particular about what I stick it in. We could always draw the curtains and find out."

I felt her go stiff under my questing arms. "Don't ask me to Shift, Zed. I do it. Then I leave. So don't ask."

Her voice was a breath against my skin, forcing me to strain to hear. I felt no fear, but I wanted to reassure her. I stroked her hair as she pressed herself against me. "I won't. Of course, now you've made me curious, but I've had a lot of practice with ignoring my curiosity. Family business and all that."

A little of the tension leaked from her as she responded to my humor. "Really? So now you're going to tell me about your family business?"

"Yeah, I'm going to tell you all about how we keep secrets. We're not just amateurs, we're absolute artists at keeping secrets. My dad is an old school wizard; everything out of his mouth is in some kind of cipher. Mom is a Special Agent of the Supernatural and Paranormal Control Agency. You've seen the crappy movies about them, airheads trained to hunt down rogue Others? Yeah, Mom got the airhead part in spades. The only secrets coming out of her mouth are the latest fashions."

"What about your sisters?"

I looked down at the top of her head. "I keep forgetting you've seen a dossier on me."

"Yeah, it was missing the most important stuff."

"Such as?"

"You smell really, really good."

Her tongue against my chest banished all thoughts of spies and espionage. Even the knowledge that she might well be doing it deliberately didn't matter. For the moment, all she wanted was me, and all I wanted was her. We were an ordinary couple in the first blush of lust. It might not be love, but it was close enough for a while.

"I love you, Zed."

Her words, so close to my own thoughts, made my heart race.

"You hardly know me, Sue." Yeah, I've mentioned the ass thing before. For some reason, though, she wasn't offended.

"I know you better than you think, Zed. So. How did your sisters keep secrets?"

"Melissa acts like she belongs to another Agency. The FBI, or the CIA, or the NSA or something. She's a little scary about it, really, all black suits and sunglasses and no expression you can read. Agnes… well, I'd say you learned from her. If someone tries to get her secrets, she sleeps with them."

Sue squirmed against me, the feel of her liquid silk over steel. I lost track of what I was talking about immediately.

"So, are you going to take me home to meet the family?"

I laughed at her joking tone, "I thought you might be a little shy about that meeting. You're a Shifter. All four of them hunt folks like you professionally."

I saw the glint of her broad smile and knew her melancholy had been banished once more. "Yeah. That meeting might get a little heated now that I think about it. Too bad. I was hoping you liked me enough to take me home."

"Hey now, I didn't say I didn't. Anyway, I'm not so much of a loser that I still live with my parents. How about I take you home and you can meet my cat?"

She rolled off me, twisting as she did to wind up sitting on the edge of the bed. She scrounged for our clothes as she spoke. "You realize I'm going to have to get dressed if I'm going to drive."

"The truck is tall; you can get away with just a shirt. Besides that, one thought sustains me in this, my time of deprivation."

Sue stopped, staring at me, trying not to laugh. "What's that?"

"My bed is bigger than the whole cab of your truck."

***

I wasn't sure how Sue would fit her truck into the parking lot of my apartment complex. She proved to me that despite its size, she was more than capable of handling it. Once she had it safely ensconced in a corner of the lot, I wasn't sure how she would get it out, but I was sure she'd figure a way.

She pushed open the driver's door, which screamed its protest. I followed her down, my ears still ringing a little from the sound of tortured metal echoing through the cab. Once she closed it up, she took me by the hand and stared shyly into my eyes.

"Okay, show me to the lair of Zed."

Laughing, I pulled her along the sidewalk. We walked hand in hand through the complex until we came to my building. I almost expected her to start talking, but we'd been silent for most of the ride back. For the first time in my life, I didn’t think that meant there was a problem.

I got close enough to the door for the lock to pick up on the chip in my key fob. The moment it unlocked itself, Sue pulled me around and kissed me. Her momentum pushed me back into the door, and we leaned there necking for a while. By the time she pulled away, I was lightheaded, and my lips tingled.

"What was that all about?"

"Oh, I figured you might get shy with your roommate around."

I laughed when I realized what she'd assumed. "I don't have a roommate, Sue. Automatic locks. I had 'em installed a while back. Actually, my mom had them installed after some folks in the neighborhood had their locks picked. It turned out to be a grad student doing it for kicks, but by the time they figured it out I already had this in place."

"How do automatic locks…" she looked down at the plain metal plate where a keyhole would normally be, and I saw comprehension fill her eyes. "Oh! Cool. You don't have a roommate?"

"Nope. Just my cat, Kittul."

That prompted a laugh. "Kitten? Oh, jeez, Zed. When you have kids, are you naming them 'Boy' and 'Girl'?"

I smiled down at her while I was reaching for the door handle. "You're one to talk."

Her laughter died, but she kept smiling. She stared at the floor as I led her through the door. "You caught that, huh?"

"It was kinda hard to miss the big banner at the club."

She cast her gaze to the ceiling, as if looking for answers from above. "Yeah. What can I say? I was young. Most of my johns didn't know the language well enough to understand. The ones who did… most of them thought it was a real turn on."

I looked her up and down, my gaze drawn like a lodestone to her impressive cleavage. "You pulled off the little girl look with those?"

That brought a little frown, but she smothered it almost immediately with a bright, brittle smile. "You dork. I normally only do this," she nodded, her eyes darting to her breasts, "when I'm going to be on stage. I've tried it both ways. I rake in about three times the tips like this."

"I imagine you would. Sorry about the mess. I think I've got some coffee around here if you want some." Without taking my eyes off her, I pulled her into the living room. It was messy, but the bedroom still had clothes laying around from when I got ready, the kitchen wasn't really fit for human habitation, and the cleanest thing about the bathroom was Kittul's litter box. I figured I could settle her down with some coffee and sneak away long enough to toss the clothes into the hamper.

"Okay, Zed. If you think this is messy, I think we really need to talk about some things." It took me a moment to realize the worry in Sue's voice wasn't faked. At the same instant I caught on to her hesitation, the smell of day-old coffee and yeasty bread hit me. For the first time since we'd arrived, I really looked at my apartment.

For an instant, I was filled with worry that I'd somehow gotten into the wrong place. The carpet was clean. The couch was my old ratty couch, but the stains decorating the cushions were mostly gone. The curtains over my front window, the only window in the apartment, were white instead of dingy gray. The cleaning fairies had been to my apartment, just in time for me to bring my date home. For a second, I wondered how Sasha and Sonja had gotten past my electronic lock. Then, out of the corner of my vision, I noticed the note tacked to the wall.

"Zed, Running errand. Sorry so shy. Allie abused, needs home. Back soon. Thanks, Kittul." Sue's voice was flat as she read the childlike script. Her next words were laced with the faintest traces of confusion and anger. "So, no roommate, huh Zed?"

"It's not what you think. Not really, at least. Kittul is my cat's name."

Sue looked up at me, her eyebrows drawing down in genuine anger. "So, Shifters aren't really people to you? Or is it just Nekos? I mean, I'm pretty sure you…"

She went silent when my fingertips touched her lips. "Can you give me the benefit of the doubt, and a few minutes patience while I explain?"

Her eyes slid closed, and she sighed, her head shaking as if she didn't believe her own words. "God, Zed. I don't know if I'm being an inconsiderate bitch, you're being a racist asshole, or we're both just so fucked up we can't have a normal conversation."

"Yeah. I try not to be racist. The asshole bit is part of the whole Zed experience, I'm afraid." I tugged on her hand, and she moved with me to the couch. She sat down next to me, and when I put my arm around her, she didn't pull away.

"First of all, until I saw that note, I really couldn't confirm Kittul was a Shifter, Neko or otherwise. She's a cat I found in an alley over in Philly. I mean, she feeds herself, but…" I stopped in midsentence. I didn't realize why until I thought about what I had been about to say. Everything that made my explanation sound like I wasn't an idiot was, technically, classified.

Even if every Shifter on the planet knew it.

"Sue, I can explain, but I need to tell you… stuff. Please," I let very real pleading enter my voice, "convince me you're not working for them anymore."

She delivered her next words in a monotone, but something in her voice told me she was terrified, not angry. Once again, I had no idea why she was afraid of me, but she was. "My name, my real name, is Asoofit. I know what it means. I have it because that's what I was. Baby Jane Doe, dropped off on the steps of the hospital in an incubator. I lived there just long enough to learn that Asoofit meant me, and then I ran away. I lived on the streets, in the gutters and sewers and alleys, from the time I could walk until I started to fill out. I still don't quite know how long that was. Al… Al was my only link back to civilization. When he was fostered, I visited his foster parents. When he started getting offers from girls, I started turning tricks. When the… when Al's dad got beat, the terrorists contacted me. I didn't want to take the job. I did it for one reason; if we turned our back on Al's fosters and never looked back, people would stop hurting them.”

"The day you met Al, I knew I would kill or die to be with you. Three of my control cell felt the blunt edge of that. I'll show you where the bodies are buried if you want. I'll sign a confession. I'll do whatever it takes to make you trust me. To… give me a chance. A real chance."

I slid away from her, and she tensed, but when I lifted her chin to bring her gaze level with mine, she didn’t fight me. I just looked at her. I knew what it cost her to make the admission she'd just made. I'd never killed anyone, human or Other, but both of my parents had. Both of my sisters had. I'd been there for Agnes when the shakes hit, when she fell apart. Part of why Melissa terrified me was that she never did. I watched as Sue, long after the fact, went through the same thing Agnes had.

"It's okay, Sue. You're not a bad person. You did what you had to in order to survive."

"No, I didn't. I could have kept spying on you."

"So, you should feel guilty because you're not a terrorist?"

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Her lips twitched. "I'm not guilty, Zed. Not really. I mean, maybe a little. I gave my word I'd do something and then backed out on it. I know, going through with it would be worse, but I still didn’t keep my word. I feel a little guilty because I know there are things you'd like to know about me, but I'm too ashamed to tell you. But I’m not really guilty."

"Okay, then. Why are you so quiet all of a sudden?"

"I’m afraid, Zed."

That took me aback. Shifters didn’t often admit to fear. The only ones who could do so safely were Ursa, who were too big and mean to care about what other people thought, and Neko, who all lived in a state of perpetual terror. Some part of me suspected Sue was an Ursa, but I couldn't reconcile her gangly, winsome look with the heavy, lumbering aspect of a great bear. Sue still looked at me, waiting for a response.

"What are you afraid of, Sue?"

She responded instantly. "I'm afraid you're going to get scared again. I'm afraid you're going to get tired of living in fear. I'm afraid you're going to come up with some reason I never thought of." She grew steadily quieter, and her next words were as much mouthed as spoken. "I'm afraid you're going to leave me."

I knew why I was so smitten with Sue. The feelings for Al I'd suppressed had made me fall for her, hard and fast. I couldn't figure out why she was so into me. My libido wanted me to go with it, but it was, frankly, too exhausted to put up more than a token complaint when I said the right thing rather than the selfish one.

"Sue, you've barely known me for two days. I'll admit it. I'm falling for you. But I don’t think either of us should make commitments in two days." The memory of those days brought a smile to my face. "No matter how good those days were."

"How long, then, Zed. Two months? Two years? Two decades? Two centuries?"

The sudden longing in her tone pulled the corners of my mouth down. "Centuries? See, there you go again. Humans don't live centuries, Sue." She rolled her eyes, frustrated with my change of subject. I really didn't want to go off on tangents, so I forced my wandering mind to focus. "I don't know. I'm not afraid of commitment, really, I'm not, but I just think you're rushing things. Can't you just… give us some time to get to know one another? Give us some time to be us, to be Sue and Zed, rather than being Al's hot sister and Al's dorky math professor?"

That brought a smile to her mouth, but it was a smile with as much ferocity as humor. "More like his sweet, smoking stud and his slutty stripper sister, don't you think?"

My own frown twisted down at Sue's self-mocking, no matter how silly a face she tried to put on it. I reached out and pulled her to me. When she realized what I was doing, her eyes went wide for a moment, then slid shut, her head tilting, her lips slipping open. I brushed my lips across hers, and when I felt her tongue dart out to taste mine, I forced myself to take things slow. I felt the tension in her neck, and her lips trembled when I pulled away.

"Sue?"

She answered without opening her eyes. "Yeah, Zed?"

"I'm asking you to slow down a little, but I'm not going to run away."

"How do you know that, Zed?"

"Sue, everyone else in my family is a killer. They hide it behind fancy words like 'Agent' and ‘Mage’, and they make themselves feel good about it by telling themselves they're the thin red line between civilization and the monsters that go bump in the night, but at the end of the day I don’t think there's a single monster out there with a higher kill count than Agnes."

I still forgot how fast Sue could be, or how good her memory for detail was. "I thought you were afraid of Melissa?"

"Yeah. I didn't say Agnes had more closed files than Melissa, or more kills." I paused a moment, reflecting. "You know, overall? I think Melissa brings in a higher percentage of her targets alive. Agnes is a little bit of a loose cannon."

Sue's smile was wicked. "To hear you tell it, Agnes is looser than I am."

"You must be a Neko."

"You're wrong. Cute, but wrong. Why do you think so?"

"Well, not only do you see things that aren't there, which is the exclusive right of cats everywhere, you're getting awful catty."

She smiled at me. The fear still lurked behind her eyes, but something else was there now too; something slower, surer, and more enduring than the lust that had carried us through the last two days. "Ok, Zed. You're not afraid of me, so…"

"Hey, I didn't say that. I said I'm not going to run because I'm afraid now and then."

She started to reply, and then stopped with her mouth hanging open. I thought she was thinking about my words, but after a moment I realized she was looking past me, not at me.

"Kittul, I'm guessing?"

I turned, wondering what I would see. Part of me expected nothing more than the little black kitten I'd taken care of so long. I was totally unprepared for the curvy little dishwater blonde peeking around the corner from the hallway. She stood frozen, every tense muscle screaming out the internal war between her terror and her burning curiosity. She wasn't looking at me. She stared at Sue. I wasn't sure she was even aware I existed until she spoke.

"You… you must be Kittul's owner. Zed. Right?"

I felt Sue's gaze on me, but I didn't turn away from the kitten in the hallway. The contents of Kittul's note still fresh in my mind, it didn't take much of a leap to figure out who stood before us. "Allie. You're Allie, right?"

Some of her tension melted away, only to be replaced instantly when a new worry entered her head. "Is it okay? Kittul wasn't sure. Are you two… do you want me to…"

I didn't understand what she was trying to say, even when her hand wandered up and pushed one shoulder of my old ratty tee shirt off her shoulder. Sue figured it out first. She went stiff against me, and Allie flinched from the implied violence in her glare.

"He's mine, little girl. I'm not sharing, and I don't need any help." Sue pulled away from me, her glare swiveling to me. "Oh, hell. Was I… Was Al right? Are you some weird kind of furry player?"

I'd taken about as many accusations as I could stand, and I wasn't about to deal with another one while a battered little girl needed my help. I spoke without looking away from Allie. "Look, Sue, it would help if you could figure out whether you think I'm a nice guy or a complete bastard. I've never seen her before in my life, but she's obviously been abused. Even if I were into threesomes, I wouldn't do anything with her."

Sue sagged against me; her face hot where it pressed against my shoulder. "Oh, shit. I'm sorry. I… I've taken enough abuse to… shit. Okay, I'll keep it together, but I'm going to shut up now. The only therapeutic tricks I know how to turn are ones that she's not going to respond well to."

I understood immediately. "Yeah, I think sex is the last thing she needs right now."

For some reason, that made Allie shrink back even more. I worried that she was going to bolt for the door. If she was a Shifter like Kittul, she might think she could go through it. I didn't want her to hurt herself trying. There was a reason my apartment only had one window. Mom hadn't just replaced the locks. The one window remaining had steel shutters that would deploy if I shouted a panic phrase. There were some advantages to being a government asset, even an out of favor one.

"What's wrong, Allie?"

"Nothing. Nothing's wrong. I'm sorry I interrupted. I'll just… I'll just go now. Yeah, I'll be going." She crept backward as she spoke.

I interrupted her, holding my hands still in my lap. "It's okay, Allie. You don't have to go anywhere. We were just talking. We don't mind you being here at all."

Sue's sotto voce whisper interrupted my soothing flow of words, "I mind, but as long as you're not trying to be little miss lose-my-pants, I'm not going to hurt you."

I shot an annoyed glance at her, but she was unrepentant. "What? She can smell a lie. I'm telling the truth, Allie. I'm not a monster."

"Yes. Yes, you are." Allie's comment was almost too quiet to hear.

Sue's reply wasn't quiet. It was filled with frustration, but it was a mild, human frustration, not the chained rage of a Shifter about to go feral. "Ok, I am. So are you. But I'm not going to hurt you. Understand?"

"Yes."

"So why are you still trembling?"

"If you're not going to hurt me, and you're not going to… use me, then you're going to…" she stopped, her eyes squeezed shut, her whole body trembled with fear. I watched as she forced herself to stillness. Her eyes drifted open, and her voice came out as a dreamy singsong that terrified me when I thought about how quickly even a Neko could tear my throat out.

"If you're not going to hurt me or use me, you're going to kill me and eat me."

Sue's explosive snort shattered the tableau, and I watched as real awareness fought with the dreamy languor in Allie's eyes. Sue's angry voice hammered at the girl, winching her back to reality. "Damn, girl, who the hell screwed you up like that? Tell me, because I may not be a fighter, but a few of the bouncers owe me favors, and whoever screwed you up that way needs to experience a serious world of pain."

Something like a real smile teased at Allie's lips, "You can't get him. Kittul killed him. She ripped him up, and he was too hungry to heal. He's dead." Awareness came back to Allie in a rush. A moment later, she dropped to her knees, sobbing, the words 'he's dead' pouring from her over and over again like a mantra. I moved toward her, careful to keep myself low, unthreatening. Just before I could reach out to her, Sue's hand on my shoulder stopped me. She slipped past me, moving with the grace I'd seen on stage an eternity before. The moment her hand brushed over Allie's hair the girl lunged for her.

Despite the bone-cracking impact, the suffocating ferocity of Allie's embrace, it wasn't an attack. She clung to Sue like the drowning, lost kitten she was, and I understood why Sue stopped me. Allie was too far gone in her misery to control herself, and she would have killed me before she realized she was hurting me. Sue looked at me, near panicked. I realized with growing amusement that she didn't care about how rough Allie was being, but she had no idea how to comfort a crying girl.

I put my arms around both of them and muttered soothing nonsense, rocking us all back and forth gently, just out of time with Allie's sobs. She drifted slowly back from her personal abyss, her body growing still, her grief quieting for the moment. When she spoke, it took me a moment to figure out what she was talking about.

"I'm sorry I ate all of your tuna."

I wasn't about to let her spiral into guilt again. "That's okay, Allie. That's why I bought it, to feed to little lost Nekos. I can buy more. Are you okay? Are you still hungry?"

"No. No, I'm fine. I think I ate too much; my tummy was sore for a while. I got better though."

Sue was staring at me over Allie's head, disbelief clear in her eyes. I reminded myself of how many times we'd misread one another over the past few days, reminded myself how much she'd done to be with me, and kept most of the annoyance out of my voice.

"What?"

"You really do it, don't you?"

I couldn't help it, some of the annoyance crept into my reply, "Do what?"

She laughed, and the pure joy in her laughter took the sting out of her words, "You live in this rat hole, scrape by on bachelor food, drive an econobox, and generally scrimp every bit of cash you can, just so you can buy tuna by the pallet to feed to… to kids like her."

I couldn't help getting a little defensive. Agnes always teased me about how I was going to turn into the elusive male crazy cat lady. "Yeah, what about it?"

The sudden heat in Sue's eyes was shocking, but the warmth in her voice kept Allie from realizing Sue's renewed intentions toward me. "I thought you just smelled nice. You're actually a decent guy. Allie, can you do me a little favor?"

Allie's quiet whisper snuck up from beneath us, her tone turning her answer into a question, "sure?"

"If you see anyone sniffing around Zed while I'm not around, let them know he's mine, okay?"

"Okay, Miss Sue. He does smell really good, doesn't he?"

The warning note in Sue's voice was playful, but very real for all that. "Mine, Allie. Got it?"

Allie tried to shrink out of our embrace, but I didn't think she was really trying. If Sue was right and she was a Shifter, a cat would have escaped easier than a teenage girl. "Are you mad at me? Do you want me to go?"

"Are you going to make moves on Zed again?"

Allie's voice was pitiful, and I forced myself to not respond. "I don't mean to. I won't do it on purpose. I won't really do it unless he wants me to."

"You don't want to, do you Zed?" I glared at her, and she rolled her eyes at me. "She needs to hear it, not me, lover boy."

I felt like a complete ass. Back in my comfort zone, I tried to help the little girl we were sheltering. "No, Allie. You're a very pretty little girl, but you're just that, a little girl. I'm not into little girls. If I hold you when you come on to me, it's because I know you're feeling vulnerable, and I'm trying to make you feel safe, Okay?"

"Really?"

"Really."

"Ok, Mr. Zed. Mr. Zed?"

"Yes, Allie?"

"What is Miss Sue?"

I couldn't help it. I could try to keep secrets when the cost was screwing up my own relationship, but I couldn't keep them from a fragile little girl. "She's a Shifter. You're a Shifter too, aren't you Allie?"

"Yeah," Allie's voice changed, became less of a whisper as her curiosity finally won out over her terror. "But I'm not like her. I've never smelled anyone like her before."

"Well, there are lots of kinds of Shifters, Allie."

"Zed…" The warning in Sue's voice was clear. I wasn't sure what she was warning me of, but at this point it didn't matter. I wasn't intending to pry about her, and if her privacy was more important than a little girl's soul, she wasn't the woman I wanted to be with.

"Not about you, Sue. Allie, there are all kinds of Shifters. You're a Neko, right?"

"What's a Neko?"

"You turn into a kitty cat?"

She looked away, but her voice stayed strong, "Oh. Yeah. Ever since Big Tom scratched me."

"That means you're a Neko. There are big Ursa, who turn into bears. There are packs of Lupo, who turn into wolves, and prides of Leo, who turn into lions. There are even Draco, who turn into big flying lizards."

I slipped into my lecturing voice, and Allie slowly turned to face me. By the time I spoke of the were-lizards, she focused entirely on my words, and her eyes went wide at the thought of a real live dragon. I didn't have the heart to tell her they weren't as majestic as the stories made them sound. Sure, they were scaly and had wings, and some of them could even ignite the methane they exhaled. Unfortunately, where Lupo and Ursa were different flavors of barbaric, and Leo were feudal, Draco were rarely able to speak coherently until well into their second century. There were tales of wise and powerful Chinese Draco who were as old as the race of Han, but… as far as the Agency knew, they were just stories.

"But… she smells different. She doesn't smell," she glanced quickly up at Sue, then back down at the floor, "she doesn't smell like death."

I stopped, thinking about that for a moment. Allie seemed content to kneel between us, sheltered by our bodies. After a bit I thought of something to ask her.

"Does Kittul smell like death?"

Her answer wasn't immediate, but it was quick and certain. "Yeah. It's mostly a fishy kind of death, but yeah. Oh, and she smells like candy. Kittul, not Miss Sue."

Sue shot a lopsided smile my way, "Satisfied that I'm vegetarian now?"

"I was actually wondering if it had something to do with lifestyle."

"I'm pretty sure I've lived through a lot more violence than your housecat. Where is your housecat, anyhow?"

I nodded to where the note lay on the couch where I'd left it. Before I could speak, Allie answered, "She had to go run an errand. She seemed really intense about it. She's really smart, too. But…"

The girl looked at us, suddenly aware that we were staring at her, listening to her. She cringed; her voice silenced in an instant. I reached in gently and lifted her chin until she looked in our general direction. "But what, Allie?"

"But I saw her note. How can she be so smart and not know how to write?"

I wondered how to explain illiteracy to a girl who was probably functionally illiterate herself. "Some Shifters never went to school. Unless someone taught them how, they can't read or write."

Now she looked up at me, and it was clear on her face that she wondered how an adult could be so stupid. "No. She read your computer screen. I heard her try to write a lot of notes. She thought I was sleeping. She sounded mad, so I stayed quiet. She balled most of the notes up and threw them in the trash. She can read, and she can spell, but she can't write."

I stared at her, nonplussed. Part of me was sure that Allie's assessment was simple hero worship of the girl who had saved her, but a small nagging voice in my head reminded me that so far, Allie had been anything but fanciful or worshipful. She was almost pathologically realistic for someone so young.

My musing cut off abruptly when my phone started ringing. It took me until the sixth ring to find it. Instead of hiding in any of the places I usually stashed it, the wireless handset nestled in the charging cradle. I checked the caller ID, but it was blocked. That meant a telemarketer or my family. Since mom didn't take kindly to me avoiding her, I answered.

"Hello?"

Agnes was so angry I was surprised the phone wasn't heating up. She was a good enough mage to pull something like that off, given the conductivity of the phone cables and the specificity of the routing system. "Zed. What the hell do you think you're doing?"

I pulled the handset away from my ear and stared at it for a few moments. I knew the Agency occasionally checked up on me, but having one of their top Special Agents monitoring me seemed a bit extreme. I was a good cryptographer, and I had a fair amount of trivia about the Others tucked away in my head, but I was by no means unique.

"My girlfriend and I are trying to help an abused street kid regain a sense of self-worth and dignity. Does the Agency have a problem with that now?"

My reply must have carried my annoyance back to her, and Agnes was never one to take criticism well. The phone crackled in my ear when she spoke again. "No, asshat. I'm not talking about your Israeli fuck-toy or whatever street kid the two of you are fucking around with. I'm talking about your damn cat."

Now I was completely confused, not to mention a little worried. Not only was Agnes a bad person to have mad at me, my cat was missing, and my sister seemed mad about it for some reason. "I haven't seen Kittul for a few days. I got her one of those RFID implants and had a cat door put in so she could come and go as she pleased. I assume she'll be back when she wants more tuna."

"I know about the RFID, big brother. That's why I'm calling you. Your goddamned cat broke into the Agency and damn near escaped with every scrap of data we have on Other genetics."