Emma rose to a crouch while Dr. Light unfolded silently beside her. They were sheltered in the shadows of the DVD/entertainment aisle kitty-corner across from the phones, a sales bin providing extra cover. She peeped out from behind the bin.
A dark, lanky form crept toward the display area, hooded head swiveling. Emma’s breath sucked in. She barely stopped herself from punching the air in victory. Yes. The thief was here.
Beside her, Dr. Light practically vibrated with intensity, his whole being on-point to catch the thief—like a wolf scenting prey. He’d be one hell of a hunt-mate.
Her whole body whooshed at the thought. Her wolf lolled its tongue and panted happily. She shushed them both.
The thin boy sidled up to the fake Wrapphone. He put a hand on it…slid it from the stand…drew it out…and suddenly stopped. The lock cable. She watched, breath held, for him to unlock it.
He yanked. The phone stayed tight. He yanked again, more flustered. Quickly growing angry. The phone was still attached. Dr. Light exchanged a quick, puzzled look with her.
If this kid had taken the real Wrapphone, he’d know how to release the cable.
But the kid made a frustrated growl, pulled out a switchblade knife, and tried to saw through the cable. An extended moment of shrieks and swears made Emma, with her sensitive hearing, wince.
The kid raised the knife to his hooded face. Its edge was wrecked.
Just then the air conditioning kicked in.
The kid startled. Emma’s held breath came out in a rush. The kid, either spooked by the air or hearing Emma’s hiss, ran.
“Crunchy damn.” Dr. Light took off after him.
The man was fast, but the boy had a head start. She could see Dr. Light wouldn’t catch him, so she shifted to wolf. Her father had explained once that, as creatures of magic, the shift was really more like exchanging one body for the other, and so the clothes that were on her as a human would still be on her when she shifted back. The stronger the shifter’s magic, the easier and faster the shift, and the more nuanced, like Emma’s ability to change out individual parts of her body.
As wolf, she bounded off down a parallel aisle. Extending her forelegs and pushing with her powerful hindquarters, she sped up until she saw the boy in flashes between gaps in the counters. She was gaining…gaining…just before the far wall, she caught up.
She leaped for him, shifting human midair, and tackled the boy to the ground. Small in both woman and wolf forms, the thief outweighed her by a good fifty pounds. But with her momentum, she took him down.
“Good job, Emma!” Gabriel Light crowed, running up.
The kid was already struggling beneath her. Shoving her off, he scrambled to his feet, about to run again.
Dr. Light grabbed the would-be thief by the shoulder, the man’s strong fingers digging through hoodie and shirt to cinch on muscles underneath, by the boy’s wince.
Dr. Light grimaced. “Sorry if I’m pinching you, but you might shrug the hoodie off and run again. What were you doing?”
“Nothing.” The boy cast a surly glance out of his dark cocoon.
Dr. Light pushed the hood back. The boy was a scrawny seventeen if he was a day, younger even than Brant. “Did you take the original Wrapphone last night?” Dr. Light touched a hand to his waist, and strangely, the boy relaxed.
Even more strangely, he began to talk.
“Last night, I hid until closing. I was gonna take a few small things, to sell. You’re rich, you wouldn’t miss them.”
Dr. Light’s jaw tightened but he didn’t say anything.
“Then I saw a man come in.” It was the only time the boy’s narration got excited. “Through a wormhole or something! Like a tunnel that just appeared midair, and this robed man stepped out.”
Emma breath hitched. That sounds like witch magic. She didn’t know a lot about magic, just the basics, that shifters were magic, witches did magic, and familiars knew magic—but the biggie was that mundanes could never ever find out about magic. The Witches’ Council had jailed shifters over that.
She glanced at Dr. Light, who rolled his eyes reassuringly.
Well, of course. She didn’t know a lot about Gabriel Light, but she did know he had a scientific mind. He’d reject even the idea of magic.
“All right.” Dr. Light’s doubt dripped on every word. “What then?”
The kid grimaced. “He swiped the pricey phone.”
“How’d he open the lock?”
The kid made a vague circling gesture. “He spun his hand at it, and then it shook, harder and harder, until it just sort of popped open.”
Emma didn’t know why, but the idea of magic became more firmly planted in her brain.
“I see.” Dr. Light grimaced. “What’s your name?”
The teen’s jaw kicked up belligerently. “Raider.”
“Your real name.”
“Tanner,” he grumbled. “But everyone uses my street name.”
“We’re not on the street right now. Follow me, Tanner. If you try to run, I’ll make it worse for you.” He released the teen and, waving Emma into step with him, led the way to the break room.
Again, strangely, the boy simply did as he was told.
On the way, Dr. Light leaned toward Emma. “Do you believe him?”
Emma could smell lies pouring off humans. This boy had only smelled of boy, and cheap cologne. “Yes. Or at least, I believe he believes it.”
“All right. Tanner, sit there.” He pointed at a table and began to feed coins into the vending machine. Gathering an armful of bags, he dumped them in front of the boy. “Eat. You can sleep tonight in my office. Tomorrow, you work here to make up for the trouble you caused.”
At that, some of the boy’s belligerence came back. “You gonna pay me?”
“Pay you?” A light entered Dr. Light’s eyes. “If you work hard—yes.”
The teen blinked in surprise…and strangely, a bit of hope bled through into his gaze.
“Now. Tell me the most important thing.” Dr. Light settled a soft drink can in front of the boy, who was ripping into the bags and stuffing food in his mouth like he was starving.
And maybe he was. The boy glared sullenly as he filled his mouth, barely chewing to say, “What?”
“Why did you do it?”
And then Gabriel Light waited. Patiently, calmly.
Emma gazed at his strong profile with admiration. Most wolves would simply rip answers from their suspect.
Dr. Light…didn’t.
Quietly, she lowered herself into a chair and waited too, fascinated to see how this played out.
“Why?” The boy snorted as he finally slowed down. “Because that’s the only way. You wouldn’t understand.”
One dark eyebrow raised in challenge.
“You wouldn’t,” the boy repeated. After another couple seconds of that eyebrow, the teen spat, “It’s my gang. Or not my gang.” He grimaced, as if he’d revealed too much.
Not his gang? The gang he wanted in on, then, but was only peering in from the outside?
Like she was with her family. Poor boy. He’d need to prove himself. Aching for him, for herself, she said, “You thought stealing would prove to them you belong.”
The teen’s sullen gaze switched to her and lit with surprise. “Yeah.”
“Why do you need a gang?” Dr. Light asked gently. “Don’t you have a family? Friends?”
“Family?” The boy laughed bitterly. “It’s because of my family I need the gang. I need the steady income, you know? To buy my mom’s meds…shit. I want a lawyer.”
He shut down, but Emma’s heart went out to him. We’re only trying to please people…because nobody really wants us. She’d alienated her mother and brother; she’d been trying to make up for that incident ever since. Trying to win her way back into her family’s hearts.
This boy was trying to make room for himself, too.
“Lawyers are for police interrogation. You’ve already told me everything I need to know. Done eating? Take your soda pop and come with me. I’ll show you where you can bed down. Emma…” His blue-green eyes came to her, and his expression was torn.
“It’s okay. I’ll let myself out.”
Behind his glasses, his gaze intensified. “I’d rather walk you to the bus stop and wait with you.”
“But you can’t.” She knew he couldn’t leave the boy on his own. “I’ll be fine. See you tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow.” He smiled gratefully. “We’ll talk then.”
* * *
When she came out, the bus stop was empty of life. She sat down on the bench and breathed a deep sigh.
The smell of spoiled meat floated on the air from the nearby sandwich store. They must’ve just thrown the stuff into their dumpster.
She sighed again.
Suddenly the prissy little insurance adjuster, Omniss, appeared.
“Ah-hah! I’ve caught you now.”
Emma, deep in her own head, blinked up at the insurance adjuster in confusion. “What are you doing here?”
“That idiot detective suspected the assistant manager. Sure, she was the only one to demonstrate the phone, and she was the last one in the building the night it disappeared. But I knew better. And sure enough, when the new Wrapphone came in, it was too good to pass up. I knew I’d catch you.”
Emma was tired from stress and long days and she’d just had the most amazing time of her life with the most amazing man she’d ever met, only to have it cut short. She was not in the mood for Omniss. “Whoopee. You caught me catching the bus.”
“No, I’ve caught you coming out of the Choice Buy after the alarm was set. No doubt for more nefarious deeds.”
“I didn’t take anything.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“What do you mean by that?” She nearly snarled it.
He took one surreptitious step back. “I think a body search will prove quite interesting.”
Just as a patrol car prowled into the strip mall parking lot.