is here,” I told the dog. “Musta come straight from work.”
Cherry didn’t seem impressed.
I thought about running inside and putting on makeup, pulling on a dress, but I had brushed my teeth and combed my ridiculously curly hair. I had groomed my leaves. I wasn’t a girly-type girl. I was a plant-woman. This would do. Coffee and a pot of tea waited. And eggs if Occam was hungry.
But that warmth grew, and when he turned into the short drive, I felt as if I was glowing with it. My cat-man was here.
He stood from his fancy car and walked around it, his long legs steady, his blond hair bright in the foggy day. Cherry dropped to the porch and met him at the top of the stairs, where he paused, one foot on the top step, one on the porch, leg bent, stroking her head the way she liked. He was wearing jeans and a denim jacket, and his eyes were glowing gold. “Morning, Nell, sugar.”
The warmth inside me unfolded and spun and whirled and gamboled across my land. And I was ready.
“Morning, cat-man. I like the fog.”
“I like it too.”
“And I like tea in the mornings, sitting on the porch.”
“I like that too.”
“I’m getting chickens.”
“I’m right fond of eggs, chickens, and eating both.”
“I’m gonna have Mud living here. She’s a handful. You okay with that?”
He chuckled and my skin rose in goose bumps. “Yeah. She is. And she belongs here. So does Esther, God help us, her and her baby, when it comes.”
I remembered my vision of a spotted leopard curled around a plant-baby. “Occam? Will you marry me?”
His hand stilled on Cherry’s head. His smile went from amused and happy to blazing. Softly, as if he was scared I might run away or change my mind, he said, “Yes. Right now? Tomorrow? I’m free the day after too.”
I laughed. “Let’s get through the full moon and then we can pick a date. Jist a warning, though. Even though I’m a widder-woman, Mama will want a full God’s Cloud of Glory Church wedding. They’re kinda overwhelming.”
“I’d fly to the full moon and back if that’s what it took to marry you, Nell, sugar. Besides. I’m marrying your family too. I’m smart enough to know that.”
I held out a hand. He took the last step to the porch and sat beside me on the swing, sliding an arm along the back of the swing to cradle me. He pushed off with a toe and I rested my head on his shoulder. We rocked. The day brightened as the sun rose.
* * *
* * *
The sun was falling toward the west, scarlet clouds limned with gold. The moon was up, though clouded over. The air was cold.
My two sisters and I were sitting, carefully positioned on my mended faded pink blanket, not in any kind of circle that Esther might construe as witchy. She was propped by pillows I had carried from the house, grumpy as usual, difficult to maneuver in her huge state, but not impossible to be around.
At the edge of the blanket was a small packet of blood-drawing supplies: sterile lancets, gauze, alcohol wipes in foil packets, Band-Aids. There was a bag of Soulwood soil too, because though I could see my house if I looked over my shoulder, this wasn’t my land and I might need it.
We were sitting near the road, my house behind us, in a small copse of trees. Or tree. Vampire tree. Thankfully there were no dead animals being devoured on the thorns. Dark green leaves rustled overhead and vines seemed to wave. I hoped I was the only one to realize that there was no breeze. The tree seemed almost curious, attentive, if not helpful. I hoped this would be easier than last time I had tried to talk to the tree, when I had threated to kill it.
“I still don’t understand how I’m’a claim some trees,” Esther complained.
“We’re plant-people,” Mud said. “All you gonna do is tell it which plant is boss.”
Esther shook her head at the absurdity, but we had gone over this several times. I knew Soulwood through the wood of my house. Esther needed to know her land through the wood of her house too, so that she would know when danger was approaching, so she could call on the plants and trees around her for protection. To make sure she was safe, we were going to claim the tree, then the land where her house would