only vaguely familiar to Helena. She lived in town, but Helena couldn't remember the last time she'd seen her anywhere.
“Key?” Galyna ran to the girl's side and guided her over to a seat at the table next to Selena, like she was someone fragile.
Helena thought she saw Key make a resigned face and roll her eyes, but if she had it was fleeting. Then she was all seriousness. She sat and folded her hands in her lap. Her eyes went all eerie and white and she breathed in several long, deep breaths, as if meditating or something.
Helena wanted to shout that this wasn't the time to Namaste, but she held her tongue. If Key was having a vision anything like what she'd had, there was no controlling it. Patience was not her virtue, but understanding was.
Key blinked a few times and her own eye colored returned. With a shaky hand, She took a cup of tea Selena offered her. “Thank you.”
After a few sips, Helena was holding tight to her last nerve. Pretty soon she was going to smack the pretty china teacup across the room. Heli glanced at Key, then at Helena, grabbed the cup from Key and set it on the opposite side of the table. “I like that tea set. Don't go breaking it.”
How did she know?
Zara nodded at Helena like she knew what was in her head too. “Some kind of psychic abilities like Heli's, mine, Key's, and now yours, are common when a human is marked or mated to a wolf. I swear I'm going to write a Girl's Guide to Supernatural Dating or something that we can hand out when new mates come along.
Hey. That was her idea. Maybe Zara's power was pulling thoughts out of other people's head. Whatever, they'd co-write it and make a million dollars each. Key must be mated to a wolf too. They could all write a chapter. Later.
Key looked up at Helena. “Sorry. I just wanted to make sure of what I saw.”
Finally, let's get on with it. “What did you see?”
“I had one of those visions, you know, like a lion, a witch, and a wardrobe walk into a bar kind of deal. I'm working on trying to remember them better and I can call bits of them up now, but every time I do, I fritz out the nearest electronic device. Today it just happened to be my freaking cell phone. Again. Sorry, I would have just called otherwise.”
Helena folded her arms and made the go-on hand swirl at her. She wasn't going to trust what Key thought she saw if she tried to say Aleksei was dead.
“Aleksei is...well, he's not dead. But he's not not-dead either. I think. I don't totally understand what I'm seeing. There is a woman with him too and she's in the same state. He called her Taryn. Does anyone know who that is?”
Zara and Niko exchanged knowing looks at each other. Niko voiced what they were thinking. “Taryn Crescent. We've been looking for her since I defeated her father in an alpha challenge and we took over the pack. She was the rightful heir.”
“Let's save the pack politics lesson for later and hear what else Key can tell us. Helena is likely to start smashing faces and dishes if we don't get on with it, I'm afraid.” Heli indicated for Key to go on.
That's what best friends were for.
“Well, I ran right over to Sleepy Folk to tell somebody what I'd seen, but they said you all were here. And then I heard the sirens and stuff and, well, you know how I feel about the Sheriff's department.”
“Yeah. That you have a crush on the Sheriff Reagan McHotsalot,” Heli interjected.
Key turned about fourteen shades of pink. “Umm, so I headed over there to see if someone could get you guys on the radio. Apparently there was some kind of house explosion...?”
Helena groaned. “If by explosion you mean WWE werewolf edition, that's my house. Dammit.”
“Ooh. Sorry. I think you're going to need another place to stay for a while.” Key grimaced. “Anyway, I told your guy what I saw, he called whoever, and I gather thanks to the game of telephone whispers all you heard was the Aleksei's dead part.”
“I don't really care that much about the house. I want to know where Aleksei and this Taryn woman are. I've been telling you all for a half an hour, he needs backup, and now we have to go save his ass.