Impulse: Southern Arcana, Book 5 Read Online Free PDF Page A

about to make his move and you just set him back a couple months,” Julio groused.
    “We can hear you!” Giselle yelled from inside the office.
    “Fucking shapeshifters.” Alec clasped Julio’s hand, then slapped Wesley on the back. “See you guys in a few weeks. Carmen wants a visit.”
    “Travel safe,” Julio advised, “and give her a hug for me.”
    “Will do.”
    When he was gone, Wesley tilted his head. “He’s right. You should keep an eye on Sera. She’s…” For the first time in Julio’s experience, Wesley seemed uncertain. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen anything, but I’ve got a feeling. That girl’s in for a rough road—maybe. Damned if I know.”
    Too many questions—and too many loose ends from her past. “It’s on my to-do list already.”
    “Hell, man. If spending time with a smoking-hot coyote is going to make you that miserable, deputize me. I’ll take good care of her. She looks like she’d make an excellent lucky charm.”
    Julio gave in to the urge to punch the man on the arm. “You stay away from her, or her daddy’ll finish what those angry pit bosses started. Break all your bones.”
    McNeely’s voice rose from the other room. “Are y’all gonna gossip like teenagers or get in here and play some damn poker?”
    Julio punched Wesley again for good measure. “We’re going to play cards.”
     
     
    Sera spread her course catalog on the table at Dixie John’s and nudged Lily’s sweet tea out of the way of the crisp pages. “I’m trying to decide what I should take alongside Food Safety and Sanitation. I still need a humanities class and a science. And I have to take English Comp.”
    Lily leaned closer and peered at the pages. “Is this for summer or fall?”
    “Fall. I think I need my summers off.” Which was mostly true. The break from full-time work and part-time classes would give her time to recharge, but it would also give her time to refill her bank account. College, it turned out, had a way of nickel-and-diming you to near bankruptcy, even part-time community college.
    “I know what you mean.” Lily absently stirred her tea. “Humanities are always good because you can go for a logic class or a movie survey or something.”
    “Movies would be fun.” Sera tugged the cap off her marker and circled one of the courses, amused at how willing she was to take Lily’s advice. A year ago, the idea of having lunch with her father’s girlfriend would have been unthinkable. In the aftermath of the explosion that had nearly killed Franklin, Sera had come home damaged and angry, ready to hate the too-young woman who had taken her mother’s place.
    A tidy bit of hypocrisy, as Kat had pointed out. After all, Sera had run off to marry a man old enough to be her father.
    But Lily was…Lily. Human, but comfortable in the supernatural world. Smart and funny, and willing to give Sera space. She’d never presumed to act like a mother or a replacement for one. She’d just loved Sera’s father with a dedication and intensity that made it impossible to dislike her. For the first time in her life, Sera saw her dad happy.
    It was like having a family again, and it made her feel guilty for ever having such uncharitable thoughts about Lily. Sera sipped her own tea and turned the page. “This would go so much faster if I went full-time.”
    Lily shrugged. “You do what you have to do. Your father would pay your tuition and expenses in a heartbeat, but it’s not necessarily the best thing for you right now. He knows that.”
    “Does he?” Sera asked, uncertain. “Honestly, Lily, sometimes I think he’s going to strain something, trying so hard not to push money at me. I know he cares, and he’s there if I need him…”
    “He’s trying,” Lily amended. “Trust me, honey. If he wasn’t, no amount of argument would keep him from shoving his way into your business with his checkbook at the ready.”
    “I know.” Lily had no doubt been at least partly responsible