Page 63 of The Werewolf's Deputy
Jonah:Heard any good jokes lately?
He felt stupid the minute he sent it, but he couldn’t think of what else to say. He didn’t want to talk about what happened, he wasn’t ready to face that particular reality just yet, and the text conversations he’d been looking at before were the first thing that popped into his head.
The dots danced across the screen for a moment, then stopped. Jonah chewed on his lip, worried that maybe Emmett was getting tired of him dodging conversations, but before he could type out an apology, Emmett’s message came through.
Emmett:Why was the necromancer so buff?
Jonah:I don’t know. Why?
Emmett:Because he did so much deadlifting.
Jonah snickered, then had to ask.
Jonah:Are necromancers real?
Emmett:… no…
Jonah’s mouth fell open.
Jonah:You’re lying! They’re real?
Emmett:Okay, yes, they’re real, but they’re super rare. Like, one in a million. Pretty sure none of them live in the city either. They’re about as well received as telepaths.
Suddenly sleeping in his truck felt a little more dangerous than he’d first assumed. He curled a little tighter around his phone so no one would notice the light inside and peek in.
Emmett:My turn. I have human questions.
Jonah snorted. This should be good.
Emmett:I heard about this thing where human kids go house to house begging for candy. What’s that all about? Can their parents not afford to give them candy?
It took Jonah a minute to figure out what the heck he was talking about, and once he finally clued in, he snickered to himself.
Jonah:That’s a holiday called Halloween. Kids dress up in costumes and go house to house collecting candy. It’s fun.
Emmett:What kind of costumes?
Jonah:Usually characters from books or TV shows. Sometimes animals.
A thought came to him and he nearly laughed out loud when he remembered.
Jonah:One year I dressed up as a wolf.
Emmett:Wait, really? That’s awesome!
Emmett:Can we recreate that? I want pictures.
Jonah:Absolutely not.
Sleeping in his truck wasn’t comfortable in the slightest. He was freezing, he got a crick in his neck, and his legs were cramped when he woke up. He gave up before the sun had fully risen and headed for Spellbound, where they had a full gym including showers on the seventh floor. Since he wasn’t the only one who arrived early to use the gym, the security guard, a bored looking orc, barely checked his badge before waving him through.
His clothes were a little wrinkled from being used as a pillow and he had dark circles under his eyes, but he figured it was better than nothing, and Roz didn’t seem to notice or care when he showed up. She pointed at the desk he’d studied at the day before, where the book she’d had him study was still laid out, and told him to get to work. He tried not to read too far into it, but when she disappeared for a little while, telling him to watch the system, and came back with a few potential hires on a tour,Jonah felt his heart sink a little. It was starting to feel like she was giving him filler tasks to run out his last week before he got sent back to Charmed Away. He’d gotten the message from Kian the day before, his month-long stint was coming to a close, and he was headed back to Charmed Away once Roz was done with him.
When Roz came back and took over monitoring the system, Jonah excused himself. He needed some air and the walls of the Cyber Security floor were starting to feel like they were closing in on him. Roz gave him a curious look, but didn’t ask, waving him off and giving her attention back to the screen. Jonah took the opening and headed out, taking the stairs instead of trying to stuff himself into overly full elevators just to get outside. That would only make things worse.
He’d only gone a few flights down when a door opened and Taron stepped out. He was talking over his shoulder to someone, a smile on his face, and when he turned and noticed Jonah, he beamed.
“Jonah!”
