A pair of his smallest jeans and a shrunken t-shirt was my attire. My bra had survived the previous night's frenzy, and with a pair of socks and my shoes I was ready to go. Orion led me outside and I saw that a light skiff of snow covered the ground.
I kicked at the white stuff as we walked down the path to the road. The slush got its revenge as it soaked into my borrowed socks. "You guys should export this stuff."
Orion smiled. "It exports itself when it melts in the spring. The lower towns always forget to pay the bill, though."
I arched an eyebrow. "Do the lower towns even know you exist?"
He nodded. "Yeah, but they know we keep to ourselves. People ask fewer questions if they don't get a chance to talk to us."
I swept my eyes over the tall houses as we walked down the blocks towards the main street. "That doesn't seem to be making it easier to find out about this Sickness." I turned to him. "You guys consult any doctors about this disease? Or maybe a veterinarian?"
He pursed his lips. "That's just it. The Sickness has been around since ancient times. That's how we know a cure. What's got everybody bothered is we don't know how everybody's catching it. It's usually passed on through an infected person, but nobody new has come in for over a year."
"Until me," I added.
He nodded. "Until you."
I nodded at his nose. "Can't you use that sniffer of yours to find the source? You did tell me you were a hunter by profession."
He smiled. "Even I need a place to start the hunt."
"What about the first person to catch it?" I suggested.
He shook his head. "I tried that. The mayor couldn't tell us where she caught it."
I arched an eyebrow. "The mayor was the first one to catch it?"
"Yep, but here we are."
Our quick footsteps brought us to the main street, and Orion took me to the storefront of Mab's diner. I expected a hole covered by some tarp. What I saw was the front just as I remembered it before the truck crashed into it. I stood with my mouth agape as Orion grabbed the handle of the door.
"Coming?" he asked me.
I pointed at the storefront. "How?"
He smiled. "You should be prepared for the unexpected around these parts. Now let's get some food."
I followed him inside and gawked at the perfectly-intact interior. All the tables and chairs were whole and back in their places. Orion took a stool, and I slid onto another beside him.
Mab came out of the kitchen and walked over to us. She pulled out her pad and pencil, and smiled at me. "You look rather astonished this morning."
"Just a-" I cleared my throat to get the squeak out of it. "Just a little."
She chuckled. "The world is a strange place. We shall say my diner is no less strange than any other, and leave the discussion there." She half-turned to Orion, but paused. Her eyes flickered to me. "Oh, and you needn't be in such a hurry to leave." I started back and my eyes widened. She chuckled and wrote a few notes on the pad. "One waffle, extra sweet, and-" she turned to Orion, "-a stack of pancakes with something special." With that Mab turned around and retreated back into the kitchen.
Orion stood on the lower rung of his stool and cupped a hand over his mouth. "Not that!" There was no reply from the kitchen. He dropped back into his seat and sighed. "She never listens."
I blinked at him. "Mind explaining to me what the heck is going on?"
He shrugged. "The usual. Mab's exploiting our hunger with her most expensive menu items."
I rolled my eyes. "Not that, this." I swept my hand over the diner. I nodded at where Mab had gone. "And her. What kind of 'were' is she? The kind that can read the minds of hungry people and fix hurricane-force damage overnight?"
He smiled. "Not everyone in this town owns a built-in fur coat. Mab happens to be a-" Mab swept from the kitchen with a plate balanced in either hand.
She dropped them in front of us and slid the syrup between us. I glanced down at my plate and felt drool well up in my mouth. My waffle was topped with a couple of cups of strawberries. My stomach grumbled.
Mab stepped back and smiled. "I am glad to hear you brought the best spice."
I picked up my fork and arched an eyebrow. "What's that?"
Her smile widened. "Hunger." She turned and walked back into the kitchen.
"And a whole bunch of syrup," Orion spoke up as he rolled something off the top of his stack of pancakes.
I glanced at the object and noticed it was a lemon slice. The entire top of his pancake stack was covered in the strips of sour fruit. My eyes flickered up to his frowning face. "A fetish?"
His sly grin returned. "If it was, you'd know about it by now." I glared at him and stabbed my stack of pancakes. He held up his hands. "I was just joking."
I nodded at the lemons. "And is that a joke?"
Orion sighed and looked to Mab had vanished. "She knows she's the only one who can get away with this, so she milks it for all it's worth."
I arched an eyebrow. "What exactly is 'this?'"
He stabbed one of the lemons and lifted it to eye level to examine the pierced fruit. "This is what my apple tasted like."
I frowned. "Like a lemon?"
He nodded and dropped the lemon onto the plate. "Yeah. Like I said, the Blessing Tree is like life. It's sweet and sour."
"So why is Mab the only one allowed to torture you with the dreaded lemon?" I wondered.
He tipped another lemon off the stack and smiled. "Because she let's me eat here for free."
My face fell and I narrowed my eyes. "So this is why you took me here? To get a free meal?"
He shrugged. "And exercise. That's important."
I rolled my eyes. "As much as I'm sure you'd like to hear more about yourself-"
He grinned. "I wouldn't mind it."
"-I'd rather hear about this town," I finished.
He sighed and stabbed a piece of pancake with his fork. "Ah, that." He paused and furrowed his brow. "What have I told you so far?"
"That it has a tree a gardener would kill to own and it's full of people who need to shave after every full moon," I told him.
He stuffed his mouth with pancake, and when he spoke the counter was sprayed with spittle. "So what else do you need to know?"
"For one, how has this town managed to keep its secret for so long?" I wondered. I leaned on one elbow and tapped my fork against the plate. "Nobody's tried to leak this to the press?"
He swallowed and shrugged. "This is kind of a self-policing area. Everybody knows the rule is to stick to the area south of the highway so we don't can't anyone's attention."
I snorted. "Then you might want to remind the guy I saw last night on the road."
He whipped his head to me. "What was that?"
"I said I saw one of you guys out on the highway last night," I repeated.
Orion set his fork down and leaned towards me. "What did you see, and where exactly did you see it?"
I frowned. "I saw a werewolf between the road turnoff and where the highway was blocked off. Is there a problem with that?"
He nodded. "Yeah, a big problem. Nobody's allowed to go that far, especially if they're transformed. Could you show me where you saw the werewolf?"
I shrugged. "Sure, but after-" Mab came out of the kitchen with two large to-go boxes and a pair of plastic forks and knives.
"These will keep your pancakes fresh even in the car," she told us.
Orion grinned and took the boxes. "Thanks, Mab, you're a life-saver."
She chuckled. "I aim to please."
CHAPTER 13