"I had a feeling there was trouble."
"There was. And I think I need to step away from things until we sort out what the hell is going on."
"Damn," she muttered. "I gather you're okay? What about the Ducati?"
Obviously, she'd had more than a feeling if she knew I'd been on the Ducati when trouble hit. "I'm okay, but I have no idea if the same can be said about the bike, as we had to abandon her."
"Abandon the Ducati?" Her tone was one of mock horror. "Good god, how will you cope?"
I snorted softly. "I'm not actually sure. Lonny's going to pick it up for me and send me a report once he's checked out the damage."
"You want me to take over your shift tonight?"
"Only if you feel up to it. If not, they'll just have to manage. I'll arrange for a temp to cover the rest of the week."
"I'll head in and cover the busiest hours. And don't worry about a temp—Margie has been asking for more hours, so this will make her happy."
Margie was one of our newer waitresses, but she was doing a business course and seemed to have a really sensible head on her shoulders. Ilianna had already pinned her as a potential manager, so this would be a good chance to see how she handled things.
"How's Tao?"
"Much, much better," she said, relief briefly lifting the tiredness in her voice. "The sunnier room has done wonders to stabilize his internal temperature, and though he's not yet awake, we're getting more gruel into him and he no longer looks so gaunt."
Thank god, I thought, and briefly closed my eyes against the sting of tears. "Any idea when he's likely to wake up?"
"No. His body still appears to be adjusting to the presence of the fire elemental. I doubt he'll wake until the merging is finished."
And until he did, we wouldn't know what the end result of that merging was. It was a very real possibility that Tao might not even know us once he woke up. It just depended which nature was stronger—the werewolf or the elemental.