Flipping the Bird (Shift Creek #1) - Carrie Pulkinen Page 0,43

“I told you, I don’t trust her. You shouldn’t either.”

“I promise to be careful. That will have to do.” Though how careful he could be when the woman already held his heart in her beak, he had no clue.

“Fine.” Marty hopped to the floor, letting one rip on his way down. “Let’s get a pizza. I’m starving.”

The scent of day-old bacon fat mixed with garbage wafted to Donovan’s senses. “Perhaps something with a little less grease. I’m not sure I can endure the night if you have a stomachache.”

Alice scrambled out of the dumpster, dragging a dented pie plate behind her. Raccoon paws were super handy when it came to collecting pieces for their art. No wonder Megan always had a better haul when they did this.

A caw echoed through the alley, and she looked up to see Megan as her crow swooping down and dropping a bedazzled hair clip before landing gracefully beside her. Alice picked it up and examined the piece. The clasping mechanism didn’t work, which was probably why the owner had tossed it, but the green and blue stones encrusting it would make a great addition to her ocean mural. She nodded her approval before dropping it in the pile they’d made.

Megan hopped to the end of the alley and glanced both ways down the cross street. She nodded and flapped Alice’s wings twice, the all-clear signal, before flying back toward her. It was so weird seeing someone else in her crow form, but the animal part of her didn’t seem to mind. Her human side, however, got antsy when they were separated, so the power swap never lasted long.

Alice shifted to human form and took back her crow, returning Megan’s borrowed raccoon. “You’re getting good at those landings.”

“Thanks. Ooh, nice haul. You’re getting good with my paws.” She scooped half the items into her arms. “Let’s get these back to the shop and clean them up.”

Alice picked up the rest of the soon-to-be art pieces and followed her into the town square.

They’d swapped animals several times over the past few weeks. A fresh set of eyes in their usual hotspots had yielded quite the finds. Alice was used to searching from the sky, so she could overlook things that Megan caught as her crow, and the same was true when she went dumpster diving as a raccoon.

“I thought you were supposed to spend the night with Donovan.” Megan unlocked the shop door and held it open for Alice. “Did you hit a pothole on Lover’s Lane?”

“More like a speedbump…in the form of a talking mongoose.” She stepped inside, and Megan followed.

“Farty Marty still doesn’t like you?”

“He’s got jealousy issues. Donovan thought some bonding time between the two of them might help.” Alice paced to the backroom and set her treasures on the table. “I imagine the little guy feels like a child when his single dad brings home a potential new mommy.”

“You’ll win him over. Everyone likes you.”

“Everyone but Farty Marty.”

Megan soaked a chipped candle holder with disinfectant and scrubbed the surface with a sponge. “Seriously, though, everyone in this town likes you. Have you ever considered running for city council? Or, hell, you’d make a great mayor!”

“The thought has crossed my mind. We could use another supe at city hall.” She sighed. “The mundies found a company to dredge the creek, and since there are more of them in office, they voted to approve it.”

“Oh, no.” Megan dropped the sponge. “They can’t mess with elemental magic. They’ll destroy it.”

“The supes on council convinced them to give it one more full moon, but even with Donovan’s help, we haven’t been able to contact the Rainecourts. Christine is flying out to New York this week to try and force her way into Matthias’s office. Griffin is still MIA.”

Megan toyed with the candle holder, turning it over in her hands as her mouth screwed up to the side—her thinking face. “What if we faked it? Just for now to give us some more time.”

Alice polished a tarnished soup ladle and set it on the table. “What do you mean?”

“Maybe Donovan can cast a spell on the full moon to fake the shift in flow. The mundies will think all is well, and we’ll have another month to get a Rainecourt out here to fix it for real. Preferably Griffin.” She winked.

“That would take some major magic.” She shook her head. “I don’t know if he could do it. Aside from the healing spell he tried to cast