“And maybe you could come out to Dallas for a weekend? I really would like for you to meet Morgan and Timothy. You could bring Heda if you like and if she's available, or any of your friends."

Heda squeezed her girlfriend's hand under the table.

"I don't have any games the weekend after next. I'm sure with Reichert's help, we can get you time away from the station.”

"I don't mind covering for you," Billy said.

“But you play the most awful lounge music!" Madison whined.

"Music snob."

"Duh!"

Mr. Hannity smiled a little more broadly.

"I play blues guitar."

"Shut up! Seriously?" Madison said, spinning to face him.

Once the conversation turned to music, the mood elevated substantially. Billy and Heda contributed some, but mostly just jumped in whenever Madison realized that she was having fun and began to panic. She was an odd creature that way. But by the time Holy Grounds closed, the bat-shifter had agreed to show Mr. Hannity her music collection, including her signed Fats Domino "My Blue Heaven" album, which her father-in-waiting was anxious to see.

They went back to the house and Madison showed off her room, though she was suddenly nervous about the "coolness" factor of everything she owned. After a while, it was more like she was entertaining a teacher than the father of her arch enemy. It got late enough that Mr. Hannity had to leave, though he made sure they had a dinner session the next day. He insisted that Joanna be asked along so that he could thank her for her attempts to ward off Alvin.

Madison had no idea what to think anymore, but she honestly felt lighter than she had in ages. When she and Heda curled up in Heda's bed for the night after some making-up making-out, she slept as deeply as she had in her Life.

Five steps further, then a pause. It was an oxymoron . . . the Cold was filled with white-hot rage. It was a coal-burning anger, intense heat that simmered under the surface, not seen but definitely felt if you were unfortunate enough to come too close. The Message had become a footnote, important to the Enemy but lost from the title. So it was time to start the next chapter, and the protagonist was on the move.

There was a world underneath Theirs that was, quite Literally, beneath them. The Cold crept through the tunnel, up the stairs and through an access door. It had stolen the keys some time ago in preparation for a moment like this.

Up one more flight of stairs, then It peeked through the wire- enforced glass at an inauspicious dorm-room number numbered "203."

The next Message was in there, or would be soon. Then the Cold would have something to say.

Heda was sitting on the couch next to Joanna, typing rapidly on her creative writing homework. Joanna was reading some text on business financing, a class that she was taking with Carla. The horse-shifter was in the kitchen, using some of the plethora of new gadgets that Heda's mom had bought before leaving, acting for all the world Like a kid in a candy store. Peter and Kevin were out, Sasha and Anthony were on a grocery run, and Billy and Madison were doing their show.

And when Madison was on the radio, the radio was on in the house.

Madison came back on really quickly after a block, and Heda could hear something in her voice.

"Hey all of you night owls out there," she started, her voice lacking some of that spice that made Heda's heart race.

"There's something in the air tonight . . . something I can't explain. It's like the big dogs are ready to howl, and the rest of us should come inside, lock the doors, and listen to a little CCR. Here's ‘Bad Moon Rising' for you all, and this is your hostess Madison Sloan."

Peter and Heda exchanged a look, then got up and headed to the car.

The combination of "big dogs" and that song meant that it was time for an emergency meeting of the primary participants in the shifter neighborhood watch.