Author: Carrie Vaughn
Category: Fantasy
Go to read content：https://readnovelfree.com/p/35027_15
Cormac pulled himself from the counter. “You have a bathroom in this place?”
“In the bedroom.”
He stalked off to find it. A minute later, the shower started up. At least he’d be clean.
I found my cell phone, dialed the number I wanted, and went outside. The air was cool, energizing. The inside of the house had become stifling. I sat on the porch and put my back against the wall.
A woman answered, “Hello?”
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“Hi, Mom.”
“Kitty! What a nice surprise. Is everything all right?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
“Because you never call unless something’s happened.”
I sighed. She had a point. “I’ve had kind of a rough couple of days.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. What’s wrong?”
Between the extracurricular shape-shifting, animal sacrifices on my front porch, my lawyer getting attacked by a werewolf, and a werewolf hunter camping out in my living room, I didn’t know where to start. I didn’t think I should start.
“A lot of stuff. It’s complicated.”
“I worry about you being out there all by yourself. Are you sure you don’t want to come home for a little while? You’ve had such a busy year, I think it would be good for you to not have to worry about things like rent.”
Strangely enough, rent was one of the few things I wasn’t worried about. As much as going back to my parents’ and having Mom take care of me for a little while sounded like a good idea, it wasn’t an option. Not that Mom would have understood that.
“I’m actually not by myself at the moment,” I said, trying to sound positive. “I have a couple of friends staying over.”
“That should be fun.”
If I would just break down and tell Mom the truth, be straight with her, these conversations would be much less surreal. I’d called her because I needed to hear a friendly voice; I didn’t want to tell her all the gory details.
“Yeah, sure. So how are you? How are Dad and Cheryl?”
She relayed the doings of the family since her last call—more of the same, but at least somebody’s world was normal—and finished by turning the questions back on me, “How is the writing going?”
“It’s fine,” I said brightly. If I sounded like everything was okay, maybe it would be, eventually. “I think I’ve gotten over the writer’s block.”
“Will you be starting your show again soon? People ask me about it all the time.”
I winced. “Maybe. I haven’t really thought about it.”
“We’re so proud of you, Kitty. So many people only ever dream of doing what you’ve done. It’s been so much fun watching your success.”
She couldn’t have twisted the knife any harder if she’d tried. I was such a success, and here I was flushing it down the toilet. But she really did sound proud, and happy. To think at one point I’d been worried that she’d be scandalized by what I was doing.
I took a deep breath and kept my voice steady. Wouldn’t do any good to break down now. “Thanks, Mom. That means a lot.”
“When are you finally coming to visit?”
“I’m not sure… you know, Mom, it’s been great talking to you, but I really need to get going.”
“Oh, but you only just called—”
“I know, I’m really sorry. But I told you I have friends staying, right?”