plan. Dad will distract her, and we’re taking turns proving to her we’re capable of living on our own. Tomorrow, Uncle Henry will be doing the cooking. The kittens have asked for fried fish, and Uncle Henry claimed dinner duty, much to Dad’s relief.”
The house would be a war zone for at least another month. “I’m going to ask my boss if I can take an extra unpaid week to delay having to come back to this mess. You bastards paid me enough I can afford it.”
If I could score three weeks of bounty hunting, I might return home with a fixed face and debt to go with it, but it would be worth it. If I was the lucky bounty hunter promoted to having a handler, three weeks might be enough to pay for the whole damned thing if I landed some good jobs.
“You should. You haven’t had a vacation in years. I bet your boss would approve it, since there’s always people trying to get extra hours where you work. You complain about how hard it is to get extra hours all the time.” My brother lifted the strap of my new purse off my shoulder and gave it a shake. “Get yourself a new phone, too. Yours is an antique. If you get low on cash, tell Uncle Henry you need a phone. He’ll bite.”
“He’s not a charity.”
Uncle Henry marched out of the kitchen, put his hands on my shoulders, and shoved me towards the front door. “I bite, and I’m not a charity. I’m your uncle. Stop whining, or I’m showing up at your home with your daddy’s copy of your keys, and I’ll be leaving presents you can’t return all over your place. I’m a bored, single lycanthrope, and you’re our family’s only little girl. Don’t challenge me. You will lose.”
I checked the time, narrowed my eyes, and considered my few options. “You can leave a decent but not too expensive phone on my coffee table, but I swear if anything has been touched beyond that in my place, I will hunt you, skin you alive, and sell your fur. Then I’ll wait for you to heal and do it all over again.”
“How about I keep your new phone here, and you can pick it up when you’re back from vacation? I value my fur.”
“Vain cat.”
“That I am.” Uncle Henry pushed me out of the house. “Leave.”
Laughing over my eviction, I headed for my father’s truck, opened the passenger door, and dumped my purse next to my excessive collection of creatively spiced fried chicken. The cab contained all of my luggage, including the backpack with my cheap laptop. As my family would find ways to keep me from getting on the road, I hurried to get behind the wheel, locked the doors, started the engine, and eased the big truck out of the maze of vehicles. While tempted to test my luck and drive right over my junker, I restrained myself.
To make certain none of my nosy family followed, I drove for twenty minutes before pulling over and indulging in chicken. Despite my mother having gotten creative in the kitchen, the chicken classified as unique but edible. As I often failed to eat enough, I rampaged through the entire basket of chicken and licked the bones clean.
Saffron, cayenne, cinnamon, and whatever the hell spices my mother used didn’t really belong together, but the lycanthropy virus liked meat, approved of my feeding frenzy, and took herself to a corner to pass out for a while.
I needed to remind myself excessive eating could tame my virus and keep her from suggesting I should waste less time worrying about my face and spend more time thinking about luring some male cat to bed. My virus would be disappointed. Most male lycanthropes fell into the canine category, and I was related to the majority of male feline lycanthropes in my state.
Most feline lycanthropes started their hunt for a mate early, with my family being an oddity with a high number of single young men. I played a part in their unwillingness to pick a mate, settle down, and join my parents in adding to the state’s birth rate. Until they determined I could take care of myself or I roped a male, they’d hover. Brothers who hovered over their sister didn’t date, which left them single and available to drive me crazy.
Maybe I’d check out Cincinnati’s population of single feline lycanthropes. I couldn’t strike out forever even with my