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werewolf."
    Sunshine replaced the shade. "I'd be happy to see a zombie."
    "Oh, yeah," the older woman concurred. "You know, your dad said he saw one out on the bayou right before we got married."
    "That was probably the peyote, Mom."
    "Oh. Good point."
    Talon's jaw went slack again as he looked back and forth between them. Mother and daughter? They certainly didn't act that way, and Starla didn't look that much older than Sunshine, but there was no denying the similarities of their features. Or the oddity of them both.
    Oh yeah, insanity ran deep in the roots of that family tree.
    Sunshine lowered the shade for the other window.
    Wrapping the blanket around him, Talon carefully stepped through the room and was relieved to find a rather bare, open loft on the other side of the drapes.
    There was another row of windows on his left where Sunshine had sectioned off a small drawing studio. But the rest of the loft was blissfully dark and devoid of sunlight. Keeping the blanket wrapped around his hips, he made his way toward the phone in the kitchen.
    "Well, Sunshine, now that he's awake and I agree he's not threatening—"
    Talon arched a brow at that comment. There had never been a time in his life he hadn't been threatening! He was a Dark-Hunter. That term alone inspired terror in the things that gave evil a bad name.
    "—I'm going to go down to the club and pay some bills, make some orders, and do real work."
    "Okay, Starla, I'll see you later."
    He had to get out of this place. These women not only lacked sense, but they were too weird for words.
    Starla kissed Sunshine's cheek and left.
    After several minutes of looking, Talon found the phone cord in the wall and trailed it to the old-fashioned dial phone, which was hiding in a kitchen drawer that also contained a wide assortment of dry paintbrushes and tubes of acrylics.
    He pulled the phone, painted with wild fluorescent colors, out of the drawer and placed it on the counter next to a pink pig-shaped cookie jar that held small cinnamon-scented rice cakes.
    Picking up the receiver, he dialed Nick Gautier, who had once been the Squire, or human helper, for Kyrian of Thrace. Since Kyrian had married Amanda Devereaux a few months ago and had left behind his official Dark-Hunter status, Nick had become Talon's unofficial, part-time Squire. Not that Talon wanted a Squire. Humans had a nasty way of dying around him, and Nick had a mouth on him that was guaranteed to get the boy killed one day.
    Still, there were times when a Squire came in handy. Now was definitely one of them.
    The phone rang until the message came on that the cellular customer was unavailable.
    Damn. That meant making the one call he'd rather be killed again than make. If the other Dark-Hunters ever found out about this, he'd never hear the end of it. Squires were sworn to an oath of secrecy. They were forbidden to ever reveal anything that was embarrassing about a Dark-Hunter or anything that could endanger them.
    Unfortunately, other non-Squired human helpers didn't make such an oath.
    Oh yeah, Nick Gautier was a dead man when he got his hands on him.
    Preparing himself mentally for what was to come, he called Kyrian of Thrace who answered on the first ring.
    "Talon?" Kyrian said as soon as he recognized his voice. "It's noon, what's wrong?"
    Talon slid a glance to Sunshine, who was singing "Puff the Magic Dragon" as she passed him to enter the kitchen. "I… uh… I need a favor."
    "Anything."
    "I need you to go to my place and get my spare keys, another cell phone and some money."
    "Yeah, okay. Did you have to ditch your bike?"
    "Yeah, she's in the Brewery parking lot so I need you to bring her to me for tonight."
    "Okay, where do I bring her?"
    "Hang on." Talon pulled the phone away from his ear. "Sunshine?"
    She turned to look at him.
    "Where the hell am I?" Even with the phone on his shoulder, he heard Kyrian's mocking laughter.
    "You know the nightclub Runningwolf's that's on
Canal Street
?"
    He