“Sarge.” The kid couldn’t take his eyes off the wolf who sat next to Tom. “That can’t be Sarge. I talked to him. He’s a person. Not a wolf.”

“Sarge. That’s the wolf. Didn’t you talk to him at the top of the hill?” I was confused. Corb had said that everyone had to have at least four votes to get them through. Unless he was lying about that too.

I swung around to look at Corb. “Doesn’t take four votes normally, does it?”

“Just in cases where one of us doesn’t think the interviewee is capable.” He stood his ground and I stood mine.

“Enough,” Louis said with a wave of his hand. “You have all been invited here, one by each of us. The master who invited you will be your main trainer. You will, of course, train with all of us over the next twelve weeks as we decide where your skills lie.”

My jaw dropped. “Twelve weeks?” I needed to be making the bucks like . . . yesterday. I had no idea when Gran’s house would go up for sale, and I had to be ready. Though I supposed maybe Blue Eyes here was in the same boat. Hell, maybe we all were. Let’s be honest, stepping into the shadow world was one of those things that took more than a little desperation if you weren’t raised in it.

Louis placed his hands together and steepled his fingers. “Yes, twelve weeks.”

The girl in the group piped up, her voice melodic in a way that reminded me of the songs at the water’s edge. I frowned and tugged on my ear closest to her as she spoke. “Will we get paid for the training?”

Louis nodded. “You will all receive a training stipend of three hundred dollars a week.”

A chorus of gasps slid from the others, but I was not surprised. Negotiations 101 were about to commence. They would lowball us; we would make a counteroffer.

I had, after all, worked for Himself as a law clerk for enough years to understand how these things worked. “No, that’s not nearly high enough. An even grand a week will be just fine, thank you very much.”

Louis’s eyes narrowed. “You have no place to demand—”

“I have every right.” I clasped my hands in front of my body. “That wolf over there? Totally not native to the area. The right authorities would have to be brought in to remove him. They’d likely neuter him at the same time, what with his obvious poor breeding.”

Sarge’s jaw dropped open and his tongue lolled out. I did a slow turn taking in the room, making sure I locked eyes with each of the men running this place.

“That graveyard we just came through? Not on the maps. I would bet my bottom dollar that the tour companies would love to tell their ghost stories here. The sister graveyard to Bonaventure Cemetery, emerged from the shadows,” I made a rainbow shape with one hand, as if seeing the name in lights. “None of us have signed NDAs that I know of. Any of you?”