Everyone stilled. Geez, I was only kidding. “The vamps are right,” I said. “You guys have like, no sense of humor.”

“Taran,” Aric muttered through clenched teeth. “Put her to sleep.”

She nodded, but not before releasing a bunch of swears. It took some doing on her part before her irises could bleach to white and her power could spark. Soft tendrils of blue and white mist emanated from her core and slithered like snakes in the air toward me.

“Ah, ah, ah,” I said, just before spinning like a freaking pinwheel.

And just like that it was naptime for my sisters and wolves.

I watched them sleeping contentedly for a while, but then my fingertips began to itch. I felt the need to climb a tree like my tigress would in the jungles of India, to feel wood scratch beneath my claws. Lucky for me, Tahoe had the perfect forest-like atmosphere my inner kitty needed.

While I didn’t know how to control the bit of power that Emme’s blood gave me, I did give it my best try. Since I continued to hover over the bed, I thought it would be the perfect place to land. I cleared my mind and concentrated on releasing the energy keeping me up. Everything would have been fine had I just tucked in my arm. I landed hard and dislocated it when it banged against the foot of our sleigh bed.

No sooner did I sit up than my arm popped back into place. While it did hurt, there was a warm, invigorating sensation at the site that gave me an added boost. Had I been fighting, the extra energy would have empowered me to keep going.

So I kept going, all the way out the window.

My swift punch knocked out the screen so I could climb out. It was a chilly late October afternoon, but the strong breeze enlivened my beast. My claws protruded from my fingertips and toes, helping me climb the side of our house and onto the roof. I stretched at the top. The shingles felt cold against my bare feet. I jogged in place, enjoying the bouncing sensation against my soles. While it felt fantastic to move, I had a lot of pent-up energy that willed me to act, to seek out evil, to go after anything that sought to taint this magnificent world.

“Celia Wird! What are you doing up there?”

I got my wish.

Mrs. Mancuso, my elderly neighbor from the Planet Yardstick Up Your Ass, was outside planting mums along her front walkway. She threw down her garden tools and stood, scowling. When we first moved in, I actually felt sorry for her. She lived alone and had neck skin dangling to her knees. It soon became apparent that she was alone because she was simply too miserable to be around.

Mrs. Mancuso narrowed her beady rat eyes. “I always knew you were smoking crack. I’m calling the police. You’re going to jail, Celia Wird. You and your drug-dealing sisters!”

I didn’t kill her, though my tigress tried to convince me it would be one less evil entity besmirching the world. Instead I did what any decent being with werewolf blood coursing in her veins would have done. I dropped my shorts and mooned her. “Smoke this,” I said, slapping my ass.

Full-out cackling from the front lawn had me pulling up my shorts and peering over the roof’s edge. Taran was rolling on the damp grass in hysterics. Her arms were clutching her sides and she was kicking her stiletto-clad feet in the air. Danny and Emme simply stared, their expressions frozen in shock.

Emme dropped the keys she was holding on the grass. “Oh my goodness,” she whispered.

The front door was thrown open. Koda and Shayna ran out. “Shit!” Koda yelled. “Aric, she’s on the roof!”

“What?” Aric said from inside the house. He sprinted outside with his cellphone clutched in his hand, eyes wide. “Never mind, Heidi,” he said into the phone. “We found her.”

Bren rushed out, dragging a set of thick shackles. He tucked the chains behind his back and grinned. “Hey, Ceel. Come on down, I want to talk to you.” To Koda he muttered, “Get the cage.”

“Celia, don’t panic,” Aric said. “I’m coming up.”

“I’m not panicking,” I answered, unsure as to why everyone was acting funny. The restlessness I felt was quickly increasing. I had so much energy that my body couldn’t keep still. I jogged in place at full speed while pumping my arms erratically. Aric paused briefly to watch me before soaring onto the porch roof and scaling the side of the house. Next door, Shayna was rather unsuccessfully attempting to calm Mrs. Mancuso.

“Get away from me, you whore,” Mrs. Mancuso snapped when Shayna approached her with her palms out. For someone over eighty, Mrs. Mancuso was extremely agile. The old hag leapt through her yard like a newborn fawn and reached for her garden hose. Like Vin Diesel, albeit with way looser skin, she pointed her weapon and fired, spraying the crap out of Shayna.

It was then Taran stopped laughing.

“Son of a bitch, woman. What the hell’s wrong with you—?”

Mrs. Mancuso was a woman possessed. She must have been waiting and plotting for years to use her gardening tools and supplies against us. She doused Taran with water while simultaneously pelting her with flower bulbs. Danny and Koda stepped in. Danny was taken out almost immediately by a handful of potting soil to the eyes. Koda went after her next. I didn’t see what happened because Aric grabbed me in a tight bear hug and pulled me away from the ledge.

“Bren, open the cage!” he yelled.

“Baby, what are you doing?” I asked. Before he could answer, my body began to convulse.

Shah, a voice demanded.

Shah, it said louder.

Shah! it screamed.

Aric tightened his hold. Instead of comforting me, it made me loopy and I shook more forcibly. My vision whirled in a blur and my breathing rate went into overdrive. I was trapped, like a cornered beast. And my inner tigress didn’t like it one bit.

I grunted and growled, the energy inside me boiling over. “Let me go, Aric,” I pleaded. “I need to run, I need to run.”

“Celia—”

“I need to run!” I screamed.

Aric released me and I immediately jumped off the roof. I briefly saw Mrs. Mancuso wave two angry middle fingers at me before I tore down toward the lake. Aric sprinted after me, with Danny hauling ass behind him.

“Celia, stop. Let Dan touch your skin!” Aric yelled from behind me. “We need to figure out what’s wrong.”

I couldn’t stop. Every cell in my body was imploring me to go faster, but I did manage to slow down enough for Danny to catch up to me. He grabbed my wrist as we continued to run. Other than a slight popping noise in my ear, I didn’t feel a thing. “Celia’s okay,” Dan said, gasping. “She just received too much of Shayna’s blood.”