The Lying, the Witch, and the Werewolf (Down & Dirty Supernatural Cleaning Services Book 4) by Kate Quinn (uplifting books for women .txt) 📗

“Cassie, why on earth…?” But then I see the name in the square below the empty space she’s pointing to: MAC.

Ahh. Okay then. Clearly, Cassie has decided to go after what she wants.

Adorra hesitates a moment, but then smiles. “If that’s what you’d like, I’ll find someone else to fill your spot for dinner clean-up.” She glances at her watch. “Mac’s in charge of that crew, if you want to find him and—”

“Yes!” Cassie grins and turns to me with a fist in the air. “High fist bump!”

I don’t bother explaining to her that’s not a thing. I just lift up my own fist and tap it against hers. “Go get him.”

As Cassie races out the door, I turn back to the chore board again, thinking I might be able to find my client’s sister more easily than I thought. If I know her chore duty, catching her at work and checking on her well-being should be easy as pie, but the name Vicky isn’t written in any of the squares. “Does everyone do chores?” I ask Adorra, fishing for information.

“Oh, good question,” she says with a tight smile that tells me it was also one she’d hoped to avoid. “Well, as you know, you and Cassie are trial members here. As such, we want to give you the whole experience—warts and all. Uh, not that you’ll get warts of any kind. Everyone here is STD-free, as we discussed earlier—”

I cut her off, realizing she’s trying to change the subject from chores. “Great, I’d rather not take the clap home as a souvenir. And I appreciate getting to experience a true day in the life here at Together We Come...which I assume means chores for everyone?”

“Yes, everyone,” Adorra nods. She gestures to Mac’s name on the board. “Even our founding members are happy to chip in to make our community a beautiful place to live and play. Where comes one—”

“Is that like a vocal tic you can’t control or what?” I ask, unable to hear the motto one more time.

Adorra’s eyes narrow. “Why are you here, Paige?” she asks.

Shit. I’ve pushed it too far with the talking back and made myself suspicious. Time for some damage control. Starting with an apology. “I’m sorry, I…” Pausing, I grasp for an excuse. Deciding that my best lie might come from my worst truth, I say, “I recently lost someone I cared about a lot. Maybe even loved, and it’s left some scars. I’m having a hard time letting new people in right now. That’s why I came here, to get away and to maybe find a new way of living.”

“I see.” The hard look fades from Adorra’s eyes, but she doesn’t quite give me that same warm welcoming smile from before. “Most acolytes come here as believers, not as someone still needing to be convinced that our way of life works.”

“Does that mean you’re kicking me out?” I cringe at the idea of crawling back to Nico and telling him I only lasted a few hours before being made as a spy.

“No, of course not.” Adorra’s hand gives my arm a quick squeeze. “We’ll just have to work harder to convince you that this is a place where you do more than come—you also stay forever.”

Oookay. So that’s a little creepy.

For the first time, a prickle of suspicion runs down my spine. We might all be equal here, but we’re not all accounted for. Which is weird because the more time I spend with Adorra the more this place is starting to feel like Hotel California—where you can check out at any time but never leave.

Although that doesn’t explain Vicky’s absence from the chore chart. ”Is there a reason why someone wouldn’t be listed on the chore chart?” I ask.

Adorra gives me a long, hard look. I must have touched a nerve. “Some acolytes have special chores, so they don’t need to be listed on the chart. They know who they are and what they must do.”

Riiight. There’s something about that faux sweet look on her face that reminds me of someone...but I can’t quite put my finger on it.

Before I can figure it out, Adorra sinks to her knees and presses her forehead to the floor. She does it with such grace that for a moment I just stare down at her, but then someone clears their throat from behind me.

I turn around to find an older woman with frizzy gray hair that springs out from her head in all directions and also has some...I squint, looking closer, but yes, there are actual twigs and leaves in her hair. Not in an artistic, hipster wedding way, either. Maybe she rolled on the ground and they got caught in her hairdo or else there’s a small tree growing out of her head. Both seem equally possible. Judging by those goo-goo eyes, there could definitely be some roots gouging into her gray matter.

“Helloooooooo,” she says, her smile bright but eyes not quite focusing on me. “I’m Kama Sutra. Welcome to the family. You have good birthing hips. We should get you in with the larger monsters.”

I blink. “I’m just here on the trial…” I try to explain. So I will not be getting knocked up with a minotaur baby, or whatever. “Kama...Sutra…?”

“That is the name that our leader feels most comfortable with,” Adorra explains, getting up from her full-body bow.

“This is my house,” Kama gestures. “My land...well, it was. I’ve offered it up to Together We Come. It makes me so happy to see all these people here!”

“I don’t know what we would do without our leader,” Adorra says, but I can’t tell if the affection in her voice is genuine. Okay, so coco bananas lady is loaded and gave up her house and land to a cult, probably out of pure loneliness. Surrounded by all this acreage of woods and rattling around in a Victorian mansion does not sound all that great. A new shiver runs