to be a talker and his roommate stayed mostly quiet.
“Justin here is a werebear and I’m a technetic,” T.J. said.
“What’s a technetic?” Ashley asked.
T.J. looked her way then looked again, as if he just now realized how pretty she was.
“Ah, it’s what Oracle calls me, or people like me, who have an unnatural aptitude for technology,” he explained.
“That’s not a power,” Jetta stated. “So you’re good with tools and stuff, big deal.”
“Well when you rewire your mom’s garage door opener to open any garage door opener and you happen to be all of four years old, then it might in fact be a bit different than a rerun of MacGyver,” he said.
“How does a four year old wire anything?” I asked.
“That’s just it. Nobody knows. But I did and I still do. I can fix anything or improve any design. It just comes to me. Oracle says it’s basically a form of psychic ability, to understand electronics and stuff at an almost cellular level.”
“Actually, I can relate. I’m pretty good with computers, myself,” I said.
“Building them? That’s what I do. Programming is another story. Not my best skill.”
“Programming is the part I’m good at. You build them and I’ll write the code,” I said. He nodded around a mouthful of food.
“What about you, Justin? What’s your story?” Ashley asked.
He froze, his fork full of potatoes au gratin almost to his open mouth. Eyes glancing rapidly around the table, he finally lowered his hand, closed his mouth, and shrugged.
“Not much ta tell ya all, not really,” he said in a slow drawl. His Southern accent was much deeper than Jetta or Mack’s, and his voice was really deep. He was still eyeing his fork full of potatoes, obviously preferring eating to talking.
“Ozarks?” Mack questioned.
“Ah ye-ah,” he said with a slow nod.
“My sister and I are from the Tennessee side of the mountains,” Mack said.
“Oh. Too many of the wolfen up thata way,” he said, finally shoving the potatoes into his mouth.
“A big pack in North Carolina, too,” Jetta said, “Near Ashville.”
He nodded agreement, still chewing and after swallowing, he spoke. “Ye-ah. But they left us alone and we left them all alone. Them up north weren’t that way. Mean,” he said.
“They were mean. Now they’re gone,” Jetta said, her voice taking on a cold tone.
He paused his fork again, staring straight at the table for a second before slowly looking her way. “Heard sum’thin about that,” he said. “Hunters.”
His voiced dropped to a whisper at the last word, his fear of hunters seemingly greater than that of werewolves.
“Do you live in a pack? Like the wolves?” Ashley asked, clearly trying to change the topic.
He didn’t make direct eye contact but shook his head. “Jest my family. My ma and pa and Leonard, my little brother.”
“Grizzlies?” I asked.
He smiled for the first time, an ironic little twist of his lips. “Black bears,” he said, eyes darting around to see our responses.
“Makes sense. Locals would know the difference. Even grizzly tracks are different. A family of were black bears would blend right in,” Caeco commented, oblivious to the irony or any awkward overtones.
“True, Awasos’s tracks are majorly different from the bears we have here in Vermont,” I said.
“You’ve seen his tracks?” Justin asked, eyes wide and food forgotten.
“Tracks? Had the whole damned bear right in my face. Almost shat myself too,” I said.
“What’s he like?” Justin asked, awestruck.
“Immense would be the best word, at least in bear form. Don’t get me wrong—he’s still big in wolf form, but it’s the difference between a chair and small car.”
Justin put his fork down and locked his whole attention on me. “Truth?”
I glanced at Caeco, then back his way. “Ah, yeah. Actually he was here Saturday night—with Chris, but I think they left.”
“Here?” he said, looking around, awestruck.
“Justin is a major fan, in case you couldn’t tell,” T.J. said. “Got a poster of him and lots of Youtube videos on his iPad.”
Justin was starting to look embarrassed, his gaze now on his plate.
“Well, he’ll be back. Want to meet him?” I asked.
He looked up and locked eyes with me. “Yeah I would,” he drawled, watching me to see if I was sincere.
“Chris will be back and I think ‘Sos will likely be with him, if only to check on Toni, Gina’s daughter. He’s what you might call protective of her.”
Caeco laughed outright at that. “Sorry, but Declan is understating it by a really large margin. She rides him around like a horse.”
“Seriously?” Ariel asked. I nodded