The shifting ball of lightning grew until it resembled a large bubble. If that wasn’t freaky enough, inside the bubble a storm began churning. Tiny lightening flashed and rain pelted against the walls of the strange sphere. Everything shifted, turning into snow and ice. Marisol wiggled her hand, shaking the orb, sending the snow careening inside. Bastian now understood why Trip called it a snow globe.
Bastian was nearly startled out of his seat, when a blast of electricity shot out from nowhere. The white-hot bolt pierced the sphere, sending the handful of snow cascading onto the counter.
“Hey,” Marisol declared as she glanced past the group.
Bastian followed Marisol’s gaze, to see Abuela giving her granddaughter a cheeky smile. It wasn’t just Marisol who possessed the frightening gift.
“I’ve seen just about all I can for a good long while,” Bastian insisted when he found his voice.
“What, you guys can go all feral, but we Outsiders can’t have our little quirks?” Iris looked from Char to Bastian, then to Coso’s stunned face.
Bastian was glad he wasn’t the only one with his hair standing on end.
“Amazing.” Coso stood and approached Marisol in awe. “It makes sense that others would have the same pua that also lives in the Shifter breeds.” Coso nodded.
Bastian agreed. If Shifter existed, then there had to be others with similar quirks in the world. But the fact that Coso was unaware of gifted individuals like Marisol and Abuela was disconcerting. Coso was the go-to authority on all things unusual. It was no secret that the Paiute held the knowledge of Shifter origins.
“Of course,” Abuela replied with a matronly pat on Coso’s back. The way the old woman made the comment, it was as if this should be common knowledge.
Bastian chuckled at the flummoxed sheepish expression Coso cast the old woman.
“I can’t believe Wolf knew about this and didn’t say anything. What’s your quirk?” Char asked Iris.
“She makes Cain’s shitty moods disappear,” Trip laughed.
Bastian chuckled.
“Nice. Thanks,” Cain replied.
“My gift is a bit more difficult to see.” Iris wiggled her piggy toes at Cain and he started massaging them. “Will you hand me that pen and paper, please?”
“Sure.” Bastian passed her the items.
“Thanks.” Iris quickly sketched something. “Does this mean anything to you?” Iris showed the picture to Bastian.
“That’s the playing card.”
Bastian gawked at the drawing, like he was staring at a ghost. It wasn’t a perfect sketch, but oddly it contained all the details that stood out in Bastian’s mind. The way Iris scrawled the word help, in the same diagonal direction, was uncanny. She even got the large capital H right.
“Disturbing, isn’t it?” Cain interrupted his thoughts.
“Hey!” Iris kicked Cain with her tiny barefoot. Cain grinned as he caught it, then kissed Iris’ instep. “Stop,” she giggled. “I see things. It would take too long to explain more than that.”
“You don’t want her to step foot in your casino, ever,” Trip interjected.
“Behave,” Marisol admonished her man, though she wore a smile.
“Yes mam,” Trip quickly replied. He then leaned toward Bastian. “I pissed Marisol off once, and she lit my ass up. The electricity arced through all my piercings. And let me say, the one below the belt stung like a son of a bitch,” Trip whispered loud enough everyone could hear.
As unpleasant as that sounded, Trip didn’t look the least bit worried as Marisol touched him.
“TMI man.” Cain shoved his friend.
The group got along well for being so unusual. Bastian now understood why Cain and Trip latched onto these women. Drake latched onto Ella for the same reason. But Bastian doubted the woman felt more than loathing for the jackal.
“You said you saw the picture Iris drew.” Coso brought them back on track.
“Yeah, at last night’s card game. Ella tried to reach out to me for help. Somehow, she wrote help on one of the cards in my hand. I didn’t know what was going on, so I followed Drake when he left,” Bastian explained. He took a big swig of his beer before continuing. “Drake took Ella out in the desert to meet a van with four jackals and Wolf. When Wolf was shot, it was like Ella exploded.”
Bastian shook his head in confusion and disbelief. He would’ve felt completely absurd explaining this, if he hadn’t witnessed the other women’s bizarre skills.
“What do you mean explode?” Char demanded.
“Explode. Shockwave. She tossed Drake’s sports car and tipped a van. But Ella was unhurt.”