Jareo and Tony greeted us with somber expressions. I took a deep breath. I hadn't seen many people since I had started to live with Kade, since most of my work was done online, and it was strange to see the whole band together again.
"I have a good feeling about this album, despite everything," said Kade, with a sad smile. "I think we can knock this out of the park."
I wasn't sure why he was so confident, especially considering what Michael had told him earlier. Maybe he was just trying to be positive for the other band members, so they wouldn't get dragged down too much by our misery.
"That's good," said Jareo, with his gentle smile. "I think we can do well."
None of them seemed to want to bring up the predicament we were facing. There was an awkward silence in the air, punctuated by the sounds of tortilla chips crunching and soda pouring. I, for one, was still feeling too anxious to eat anything.
"The news from Michael was a bummer, though," said Joel. "I mean, they're going to dump us just like that? The bastards."
Kade shrugged. "They just want money. If it doesn't work out, we'll figure out what to do."
There was another awkward silence. I felt like I should say something, but it wasn't my conversation to have. I was hoping that they'd get on with the practice so I could distract myself from thoughts of Zoey.
"So, have you heard anything from the police?" asked Joel.
Ugh, I thought. Why did he have to ask that? It would cast a pallor over the entire practice.
"No," said Kade. He looked down. "I wish we could search for her ourselves."
Jareo shook his head. "Lake City is too damn big."
"Exactly," said Kade. "It'd never work. We'll just have to trust the cops. Anyway, I guess we should get this practice started."
"Cool. I'll go set up," said Jareo. He slipped away toward the basement.
"Kade, do you want to help me get some stuff from the living room?" asked Tony. "Xander, you can help, too."
I was surprised. Tony was so taciturn that this was the longest sentence I had ever heard him say. And I didn't think he had ever addressed me before.
We followed him into the living room while Joel put the food away, which seemed like unusual behavior, for him. I scanned the clutter in the living room, but I couldn't see anything that looked like music equipment.
"I need to talk to you," said Tony sternly.
We whirled around to face him. "What? Why?" said Kade.
"I can help you."
I took a good look at Tony for the first time. He was a slight man, with mousy brown hair and shrewd eyes. He had always been the wild card to me, because I had never gotten to know him-I didn't think any of the band members really had.
"How?" asked Kade. "Honestly, we'll take all the help we can get."
"I'm a shifter," said Tony, a crooked smile cracking across his face. "An opossum shifter."
9
Kade
"You've gotta be kidding me," I said, staring at Tony, my mouth hanging open a little. "I knew there was something off about you."
Tony shrugged. "We're more secretive than the wolves."
"So there's lions and opossums," said Xander in wonder. "There must be shifters of all kinds of animals."
"Obviously," said Tony sourly. "Why would there be only wolf shifters? That wouldn't make any sense."
"I guess it wouldn't," I said, shaking my head. "Wow. So Tony, you can help us?"
"I'll have you know that opossums have the best sense of smell of all mammals. Plus, we know the city inside and out. We can talk to the Chief tonight, if you like," he said.
I was amazed. This was the most I had ever heard Tony speak. I couldn't believe that he had kept his secret for so long and hidden it so successfully. "The Chief?" I repeated.
"Our clan leader is called a Chief," said Tony. "He's my granduncle. So yes, we'll go see the Chief tonight."
"Thank you so much, Tony," said Xander. "This means so much to us."
"It's not a problem," said Tony. "I can't imagine not helping in some way when I'm able to."
We agreed to meet Tony again that evening. We would stop outside his house and head over to his granduncle's house with him. There was going to be a clan meeting tonight anyway apparently, so it was perfect timing.
What a stroke of luck, I thought. And how strange, to be learning so much about Tony all of a sudden. I was glad that my suspicions had been correct-he was a shifter, just not a wolf. I also couldn't help but feel a tingle of excitement, knowing that we were going to learn more about the secretive world of the other shifters.
Ever since the arrest of Golden, the city's biggest drug kingpin, who turned out to be a lion shifter, the wolves had been wondering if they were alone or not. Some believed that Golden was a lion, while others refused to. Rumors were bandied about, with some wolves swearing that they had friends who were other shifters. But I had personally never seen any proof.
It had been staring me in the face the whole time.
Things were going to change, fast, for all shifters in the coming years, as more and more other shifters came out to the wolves. It seemed to be an unspoken agreement that we'd all keep it secret from the humans, but now, there would be more opportunities for relationships between wolves and the other animals.
So there were other mammal shifters, I thought. Were there bird shifters? Fish shifters? My mind boggled just thinking about the possibilities. My world had expanded to the size of a galaxy in the space of just five minutes with Tony's revelation.
"I'm glad the practice went well," I said as I walked down Tony's street, holding Xander's hand. We didn't let go at all nowadays, holding on to each other whenever we could.
"Yeah. It seemed like everyone was in the zone. I think the new album will be great." I smiled. I had to be confident. If I let even a single bit of paranoia in, it would all come toppling down. I had to believe in the new album if I wanted it to succeed.
We stopped outside Tony's house. It was a modest row house in a modest neighborhood. It looked like a young family lived here, not a member of a famous band. The area around it was neat and orderly; even the rosebushes in the front yard were trimmed meticulously.
I knocked on the door. After a couple of seconds, Tony stepped out, bundled up. I was still struck by how odd it was that I was only learning about his life now. He nodded at us, then locked up and followed me out to the sidewalk.
"Good to see you, Kade, Xander," he said. "My granduncle lives close to here. We should arrive just in time for you to meet him before the meeting."
I had no idea what to expect from a clan meeting of opossums. I had a bizarre mental image of a bunch of actual opossums all gathered in a room, trying to conduct their business like people. When was the last time I had even seen an opossum, I wondered. I had seen plenty of squirrels in our backyard, but not much else.
"So, er, is there any kind of protocol we have to observe?" I asked.
"Guests are not expected to know the protocol," said Tony. "But there is a lot of it. We are not a hierarchical species, nor are we lax. We have our own system that works for us."
I figured it was best not to press further. He didn't seem like he was too willing to share information, more than he had to anyway.
"This is his house," said Tony. Sure enough, we saw two opossums trundling around to the back, as well as a couple in the huge maple tree in the backyard. They skittered down the trunk.
Tony knocked. An elderly lady with a stern expression opened it, though her face softened when she saw the three of us. "Tony, darling," she said, hugging him. "And this must be Xander and Kade. Come in."
The interior of the house was incredibly cozy; there were knit throws on all the couches as well as many plants. I supposed that all the mammal shifters were similar in this way. We didn't like the glass and steel aesthetic that dominated many human residences nowadays.
I was also struck by the sheer number of opossums crawling around everywhere. I had never seen so many of them in one place in my life, and even though I knew they were all people, it was hard to believe. Some of them were eating snacks from plates placed on the floor, while others were curled up in the throws. This was very different from how wolves conducted their meetings-we were always in human form. Only a few of the shifters here were.
An elderly but strong-looking man, short like Tony but with lean muscles and a leathery face, approached us, thankfully not in opossum form. "Tony told me all about your predicament," he started, not bothering with formalities. "I'm terribly sorry to hear about it."
"Thank you," I said, "and thank you for agreeing to see us, Mr … ?"