Davis frowned, tugging his gray beard. “And then?”
Guido’s eyes expressed guilt. “Look, I just wanted her to get the heck outta my shack. One minute she was smiling all nice and polite, and the next she was ranting like she was possessed, knocking things over, hissing like a wild animal. All Carrie-like. See where I’m going?”
Mara couldn’t pull her gaze away from Guido. Yet deep down inside, she knew it was because she didn’t want to address what he would say next. Hear what she was almost certain he’d say. Her breathing had almost completely stopped even as Harry kept his hand firmly on her shoulder, holding her in her seat.
“I think we see where you’re going. Please continue.”
Guido scrunched his nose up as if something distasteful had passed under it. “Like I said, she wanted a love potion. Something that would make this guy fall over the moon in love with her. She had this big plan. She kept calling it her life plan. I called it a batshit plan—in my head, of course. I’d never say it out loud. You couldn’t even say boo to her without setting her crazy off. But she said she was going to turn this guy into a werewolf, slip him the love potion, and then they were gonna ride off into the sunset in his Volkswagen. She said it wouldn’t work if he wasn’t a werewolf like her because only the purest of pure could be her mate.”
Mara’s stomach dove to the floor as she began to gag, clamping her hand over her mouth to muffle it. No. No. Please, God, no.
“So what did you do next, Guido?”
“Are you kidding me?” he squealed as though everyone should know the answer to that. “What would you do? I gave the nutball a grape soda with a bunch of herbs and dead seeds from my garden out back mixed into it, told her it was my strongest love potion ever, took her money so I could grab a burger, and got her the heck outta my shack! I don’t have a lot, but the way she was carrying on, knocking things over, I wouldn’t have had anything left if she kept it up. So yeah, I lied.”
Davis lifted his chin from high atop his council perch. “And what does this have to do with the pack’s case against Mara Flaherty?”
His next breath shuddered, wracking his slight body. “Well, like all nutballs do, she came back, and holy man alive, was she on fire! She woulda spit flames if she could’ve. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody as hot as she was.”
“Because I’m assuming this love potion of yours didn’t work?” Griffin asked, his eyes sharp and assessing Guido.
Guido scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Of course it didn’t work. I’m a hack. Total hack. So she comes back, right? Madder than ever, if that’s possible with lunatics like her. She was screaming and throwing things, said that she’d done exactly what I told her to do after she turned him into a werewolf. Got up the next day to the tune of rainbows and mystical sunsets, totally expecting the love of her life to come to her house with candy and flowers and fall down on one knee or some kookiness, but that didn’t happen. Instead, he fell in love with her friend, the one who liked this guy, too. The friend nutso was sick of hearing talk about the man she knew was really meant for her.”
No one moved in the courtroom, the air thick and stifling. Mara’s pulse raced, she sat frozen in place, hearing Guido’s story. Her icy fingers, clamped together, wouldn’t move.
“So this woman claimed she’d turned someone into a werewolf. Did she reveal how she’d gone about doing that?” Davis asked.
Guido’s head bobbed up and down with a furious nod. “Oh, you bet, she did. Don’t all nuts like to brag about how smart they are?”
Griffin pursed his lips, tapping his mic. “If we could refrain from coloring the description of aforementioned with the word nut, and stick to facts, this council would be most pleased.”
Guido’d gained some steam now, his confidence still tentative, but certainly not as fragile as it had been when Darnell had all but dragged him into the courtroom. He rolled his neck. “You can color her anything you want, my friend. Nuts is nuts, and that’s how I’m callin’ it.” He gave the council members a no-apology look before continuing. “So, yes. She definitely bragged about how she’d scratched this poor dude in the cafeteria where she worked with her fingernail. Said she’d created a distraction by tripping someone so they’d fall into this poor sucker, then, in the chaos of scattered lunch trays and spilled hot coffee, she said she reached right down and nicked him with her fingernail. According to her, that’s all it takes.”
Mara’s mouth fell open—it was all she could do not to gasp out loud. She hadn’t turned Harry into anything. By the time he’d gotten to the vitaminwater, he was already a werewolf. She was almost too afraid to believe it was true.