Extraits

Infuriating man. I slammed the door and turned away, taking deep breaths of the cool night air. What was he thinking, kissing me like that? Where did he get the idea that I would welcome that kind of attention?

I loved this place; it had that old-book smell of paper and dreams, and on a sunny day the honey-coloured wood of he shelves glowed in the light that crept in the front windows and through the panes of glass set into the bright red door.

Chapter One the rain made the rooftop slippery, but it also meant people were even less likely to look up and see me crouched there. Shifters looked up - particularly if their animal form was a bird - but shifters were hunters, and alertness came with the territory. Humans had mostly forgotten they were prey, and had lost the awareness of their environment that had once kept them from becoming some predator's dinner. Fortunately for me. Even the drunkest observer would have found something fishy about a woman dressed head to toe in black, surrounded by a small army of cats.

Rain trickled down my neck, icy fingers on my bare skin. The cats waited patiently, as only hunters can, their life force glowing softly to my inner sight. The connections between us also glowed, strands of light snaking out from me as if some kid had been waving a sparkler through the damp air. Wet fur pressed against me on all sides as I crouched on the rooftop, watching the last stragglers from the pub stagger home in the rain. It was spring in beautiful downtown Berkley's Bay - best holiday destination on the south coast!!, as the sign on the road into town proudly proclaimed - but the cold rain fell regardless, and the staggerers would be only too glad to get out from under their dripping umbrellas and into their warm homes.

From up here I had a bird's-eye view of the small harbour. Like protective arms, the breakwaters encircled the tiny fishing fleet and the handful of tourist boats rocking gently on the dark water. On the shore, the buildings huddled together against the winds that roared in off the sea in winter, their roofs zigging and zagging down the street all the way to the mayor's imposing residence at the end. Ocean frontage. The biggest house in town, apart from Councillor Steele's up on the headland. Nothing but the best for the shapers.