Silver Fox (Silver Shifters 2)

The teenager rolled her eyes again. “All the time. It’s one of her favorite games.”

“—Yes, young man I do understand urgency, I truly do—why, the most urgent night I remember was the night I was attending an opera at the Shrine Auditorium, and my first child . . . Beg pardon? No, no, I remember your urgency, I was just telling you my story about my urgency, since as you said, you and I are friends. So, the Shrine, which was quite the bee’s knees in those days—pardon? Oh, I am sorry. I understand you have many calls to make, saving others from terrible fraud! . . .What? No, I have my social security card kept in a very safe place . . .oh, drat. He hung up again. Such a shame.”

Joey grinned to himself. He liked her.

Xi Yong caught Joey’s gaze from across the room. The qilin shifter’s voice spoke to Joey on the mythic plane. What next with our mission?

The red dragon won’t fly in this weather, nor will his followers venture onto the roads. As soon as the storm lifts, we must begin a watch over the gate.

I will take the first watch, Xi Yong said. I find tranquility in newly fallen snow, and you know the cold is nothing to me.

Joey agreed, determined to do what he could to ease the conflicted atmosphere he sensed, both for the sakes of the people themselves, and for his mate, whose tension reached him all the way from the kitchen. But he could not interfere unasked. This was her territory.

His fox, quiescent until now, stirred at that, but Joey said, We’ll wait until she’s ready to choose us.

A door banged, and two small children ran in. Joey found himself stared at by two pair of wide brown eyes in round faces.

“Do you play Legos?” asked the older child in a serious voice.

Joey looked down, and discovered a Legos box next to his foot. “I love to play Legos.”

The boy’s expression cleared. “We have to have a grownup when we play.”

“Well, I’m right here. I can be your grownup.” He opened the box, as the smaller one grinned in delight, and smacked her chest with a small dimpled hand. “I Pink!”

“Hi, Pink,” Joey said. “You can call me Uncle Joey, if you like. A lot of my students do. What’s your name?” he asked the older kid.

Pink stuck her arm out toward her brother. “Won!”

“Lon,” Lon said in a mild voice. “I’m Lon.”

“Well, Lon, Pink. What shall we build?”

He expected the smaller one to make a mess but if anything she was more meticulous than Lon as she slowly, frowning in concentration, fitted three pieces together.

“Wed,” she demanded, holding out her hand like a surgeon requesting a scalpel. Lon separated out a few the red ones for his sister before he began building his own structure.

Joey had dealt with enough small children to know that his part was not to take over with his greater skills so much as to comment and encourage their own building. As he searched for more reds, he said, “What are you making?”

Lon looked up with a brief smile. “A spider house.”

“Spider house?”

“Not real spiders,” Lon explained as he worked. “These spiders.” He curled his fingers, then pounced them about on the floor. “In the car, Uncle Isidor plays spiders with us. This one is a pouncer.” His hand sprang up and down, landing on fingertips. “This one is a pointer.” His forefinger poked forward. “This one is a crab.” His fingers bent, knuckles to the floor as his hand skittered sideways, then he flashed a gap-toothed grin. “Crabs are crabby.”

Pink looked up long enough to say, “Pointer is nice. Pinchy is mean.”

Lon went on to explain the personalities of hand critters, as Pink occasionally added a word in. Isidor was clearly either very used to kids or very thoughtful, inventing an elaborate game with fingers that could entertain kids on long drives.

The Lego building ended abruptly when Granny Z emerged from the kitchen. “There you are, little ones! While the bread is baking, it’s time for that story I promised you yesterday.”

Lon jumped up, and his sister did, too. But then Lon looked down. “We got to put the Legos away, or they go in time out.”

“I can help,” Joey said, and his reward was another gap-toothed smile.

With Joey’s help, the Legos were restored to their box in half a minute, after which Granny Z said, “Come into my room. I’ve still got some Hamantaschen. You can finish eating them while I tell you the story of brave Queen Es

ther, as it’s written in the megillah—the scroll—of Esther. Then we’ll play some games!”