He was definitely going to have to ask her out. Some other day, when she hadn’t woken up to him staring at her and ended up in a surprise liplock. Because that seemed like too much for one day.

“Thanks, Zed. Jillian asked me to come to her office today to get some League employment materials, plus sign about five more releases saying my estate won’t sue the League if I die.”

Zed slung his leg over the bike and offered her the spare helmet he kept for just such a purpose. “About that, I don’t think I want you going out to the rift by yourself.”

“That’s also probably reasonable, considering I don’t know where it is. And Jillian said something about alligator shifter creepers roaming the swamp?”

“Yeah, you’re gonna want to close your curtains when you change,” he said.

“Says the man who’s left me with an incomplete outdoor shower.”

“Hurtful,” he said before starting the engine and pointing the bike toward town.

4

Dani

Dani had expected Zed to offer her a ride into town. She had expected him to feel solid and warm between her thighs as she tucked herself against his back on the bike. She had not expected him to drive like her dear, deceased Gramma.

Seriously, the man drove like he was balancing a raw egg on his seat.

He took so much time driving into town that she had time to compose an extensive grocery list in her head. She saw quite a bit of Mystic Bayou, though. While there were plenty of houses, the woods were so thick that it was sometimes difficult to see them, or to even know how to get to them. They drove past creeks and marshes covered in thick floating carpets of algae. Most were occupied by alligators, so intent on sun-bathing that they didn’t move as Zed’s loud engine approached. But Dani spotted several large rat-like creatures scampering away from the roadside, chattering angrily.

“What in the hell was that?” Dani yelled over the wind. She leaned closer to Zed, the smell of leather and woods and good clean sweat drifting up from his t-shirt. She may or may not have rubbed her cheek against his shirt to get a little closer to that pleasant smell. And then immediately leaned back because sniffing someone without their permission had to be an etiquette violation of some sort.

“Nutria!” Zed yelled back. “It’s kind of a cross between a possum and a prairie dog. Louisiana’s damn near overrun with them!”

These sights, while different from what Dani was used to, were to be expected in the swamp. And now that Dani thought about it, she remembered seeing a nutria on the “Welcome to Mystic Bayou” sign. It had read, “Home of the Fighting Marsh Dogs” and showed a rat standing on its hind legs in a boxer’s stance, like the Fighting Irish Leprechaun.