All four girls started giggling again.

Shauna grinned. She didn’t want to burst their bubble by getting technical, but the truth of the matter was that the magical elements in crystals and gems didn’t have anything to do with magic at all. The vibration of each stone, united with the energy of focused thought, often times did manifest a person’s goal or desire. But that had nothing to do with magic. It was simply the natural law of attraction. She was trying to figure out how to explain that without getting too technical, when Lurnell stepped up to the girls.

“Okay, if y’all wanna know if them rocks is magic, put ’em right here in my hand,” Lurnell said. “I’m gonn’ feel if they magic, and if they is, I’m gonna tell you they is. If they not, I’m gonna tell you they not.”

Looking a little fearful, each girl dropped her stone into Lurnell’s palm.

“Now, let’s see what we got in here.” Lurnell sandwiched the stones between her hands, closed her eyes, then cocked her head like she was listening to something far away. “Uh-huh, I be hearin’ somethin’… Oh, yeah, I be feelin’ you now.” She frowned, squeezed her eyes shut tighter. “Huh? Whatchu said? Oh…okay.” With that, she opened her eyes, held out the stones and declared, “They big magic for sure.”

“Really?” one of the girls said.

Lurnell plopped a hand on her hip. “What? If I told you they magic, they magic. Now, that’s all I’m sayin’.”

“Wow,” another girl said breathlessly.

“That’s so cool,” a third girl chimed in.

The girl with the amethyst raised a hand as if she were in a classroom.

“Uh-uh, don’t be wavin’ no hand at me,” Lurnell said. “I ain’t got nothin’ more to say.”

“But how do we make the magic stones work?” Amethyst asked.

Lurnell harrumphed. “All I got to say is they big—big magic. The res’ is all you.”

The girls nodded in unison and couldn’t pay for their stones fast enough. Shauna fought with her conscience as she rang them up. She didn’t want the girls to leave the shop thinking they had real magical stones, but she didn’t want to risk saying anything and embarrassing Lurnell. Besides, the girls did look extremely happy.

As the girls left, whispering and giggling en masse, Shauna turned to Lurnell. “Why did you tell them that?” she asked, unable to hide a grin. “Now those kids are going to go home thinking they have real magic stones.”

“And there be somethin’ wrong wit’ that?” Lurnell shook her head. “Girl, don’t you start climbin’ on no high horse, you hear me? You gots to learn how to work you stuff in the shop if you wanna make that green. Them kids is gonna go home all excited, and they’s gonna tell they friends, and them friends gonna tell some more friends, and all them friends gonna come up in here to get some rocks. You call that—takin’ care of bidness.”

Shauna laughed. “You’re a trip, you know that? Hey, talking about business, why aren’t you at Sistah’s?”

Lurnell’s face lit up. “’Cause I had to come show my girl somethin’. Look here.” She held out her right hand, pinky side up. “Go ’head, check it.”

Shauna rolled her eyes. “Don’t you think it’s a little soon to be trying this again?”

“Don’t be talkin’ like that. Just look when I tell you look.”

To appease her, Shauna took Lurnell’s hand and examined it. “What the…?” There, just above the thin, pink scar that had come from Lurnell’s handy work, was the real deal—a marriage line. It was faint, but unquestionably there. Shauna peered up at her. “It’s real,” she said, amazed.

“I knowed it!” Lurnell pulled her hand back and clapped. “I seen it when I was brushin’ my teeth and hair this mornin’, and I says to myself, ‘Lurnell Shantelle Marquetha Franklin, you gonna get married, girl!’ Then I says, ‘You got to go show her—that be you—’cause she ain’t gonna believe it’s for real. I swear to gawd, girl, I be so excited, I had to back myself up to the commode before I peed myself.”

“I’ll bet! I’ve never known one to appear that fast. Not in one day.”

“Yeah, but I know why it come fas’,” Lurnell said. Her eyes danced with a secret she couldn’t wait to share.

“Why?”

“’Cause I met me a man las’ night. His name be Tyree Johnson, and, oh, that man look good. He all the time be sweet talkin’ and even got hisself a real job. And he ain’t got no baby mamas nowheres, so he ain’t gotta pay that child support.”

“Where did you meet him?”

“Down to Zydeco Joe’s, and let me tell you what, child, that man can for sure bus’ a step!”

Lurnell was demonstrating a few zydeco moves, when Fiona appeared with a plate of chocolate cookies.

“Here you go, just like I promised,” Fiona said, and handed the plate to Lurnell. “Enjoy.” She gave Lurnell a little four-finger wave, then headed for a group of customers standing near the amulet and totem display.

“Oh, yeah!” Lurnell held the plate close as though someone might steal it at any moment. “I’m gonna have a few of these here, then I got to get back to the store.

Bidness be good and all, but they got all kinda people walk-in’ up in my stuff wit’ they dirty shoes. I gots to go pass the vacuum, so the place look good. Tyree comin’ later. He gonna be—”

A blast of rap music suddenly erupted, and it sounded like it was coming from Lurnell’s rear end.

“Hol’ up,” she said, and dipped a hand behind her back. It returned clutching a cell phone. She checked the caller I.D. and broke into a wide grin. “That be Tyree.” She handed Shauna the plate of cookies. “Now don’t be goin’ nowheres wit’ that. I’ll be right back.”

Lurnell flipped the phone open and put it to her ear. “Hey, Tyree, baby, where y’at?” As she listened to his response, she winked at Shauna, then stepped away from the counter, evidently wanting some privacy.

Watching Lurnell coo into the phone, reminded Shauna of Nicole and Ian. How each time they had come into the shop for tea and scones, Nicole had had that same over-the-top happy look on her face. Just like Lurnell did now. Thinking about Nicole made Shauna wonder about the keening sound she had heard in the shop the day before. Had it been Nicole crying out before she died or Ian in mourning? Not that it really mattered. Dead was dead, and heart-pain was heart-pain. Both carried pitiful sounds.

Thoughts of the two weres brought Danyon to mind, and Shauna suddenly realized she had yet to hear from him today. She figured he had been too busy, alerting the other alphas, as August had requested, and busy she certainly understood. Still, it would have been nice if he had taken the time to call her at the shop, for no other reason but to hear her voice.

She would give anything to hear his right now. To feel his touch. Last night had been one of the most amazing nights of her life. Shauna still couldn’t get over how quickly she had reacted to his touch. She had never felt anything so—right before. To call it electricity or a connection, didn’t even come close to describing what had flowed between them. It had felt as though each had reached into the other and took hold of their soul, absorbing not only all they were now, but all they were ever meant to be.

“Excuse me. Can you help me with this?” a woman asked, and thrust a matrix box at Shauna. “How does it open?”

Shaken out of her reverie, Shauna took the box and began to work it open. She felt a bit guilty. In the short respite she’d had between customers, she had let her mind float away on thoughts of Danyon instead of focusing on Nicole and Simon, and how they might go about finding the murderer. It wasn’t going to be an easy task. They had found no blaring evidence that pointed them in any specific direction. So far, all they had was speculation—a human couldn’t have done it—a shifter, possible, but not likely—a group of glamouring vampires held some possibilities, but weak ones. For all they knew, those assumptions could be wrong. Maybe a vampire or a shifter or even a were was exactly what they should be looking for. She just wished they had more to work with. Anything that might tighten their aim. In some respects she understood why Danyon wanted to hold things close to the vest for now, and why he didn’t want to inform the leaders of the other subcultures yet. On the other hand, she saw the benefits that could come from joining forces just as clearly.

“If someone doesn’t do something about that kid, I’m going to hog-tie him and toss him out of the store myself,” Caitlin said storming up to the register.

“Who?” Shauna asked

The answer came running down the center aisle of the store, arms flapping wildly, like a hummingbird on speed.

It was Banjo Marks.

Some customers yelped and jumped out of his way. Others hurried out of the store, as if the building had suddenly caught fire.

“I smell ’em, smell ’em!” Banjo shouted, then slid toward the counter. His knees smacked into the counter wall—hard. He didn’t even flinch. “Lemme have some, girly girl. Now, okay? Where’s at? I smell ’em, smell ’em!”

He was chattering at a hundred miles an hour, and the customers still in the store backed away, giving him a wide berth.

“Look at that,” Caitlin fumed. “He’s scaring our customers off!”

Shauna scanned the store for her muscle, but Lurnell was nowhere to be seen. She’d evidently stepped out to have a private conversation with her new man. He must have truly been a gem for Lurnell to leave an entire plate of cookies behind. The plate still sat near the end of the counter, where Shauna had placed it a few minutes ago—and where Banjo was headed now.

“I knew it—smelt it—knew it! Smelt ’em all the way across the street,” Banjo declared, then let out a loud, twittering laugh that made Shauna want to slap her hands over her ears.