Othermoon by Nina Berry Read Free Book Online

stuck close to the wall as November crept forward and peered
     around the blank cement wall to see what was going on up there.
    “Lots of cars between us and Amaris,” she said. “We can probably sneak up to her without
     the SUV guy seeing us.” She turned and gave us all a glare. “If you enormous people
     will be careful.”
    “Now I’m enormous.” London pressed herself in close to me, as if to shield herself
     from November’s words. “Big, clunky, and enormous.”
    “Well”—November gave her a toothy grin—“just in comparison to me. Speaking of which,
     I’m going to get small and pay the SUV guy a visit. He’s got his window rolled down.”
    I couldn’t help grinning back at her. “When she reaches him, the rest of us move in.”
    Everyone nodded, exchanging glances. November said, “Somebody better bring my clothes
     and backpack.”
    “Got it,” said Siku.
    The air around November seemed to bend, and then her human form was gone. A large,
     glossy brown rat stared up at us from the pile of her clothes, beady eyes shining.
     She chittered, waving tiny pink paws with sharp nails at us chidingly; then she scuttled
     around the corner and up the ramp underneath the parked cars.
    “Stay low,” I said to the others, stooping down, and followed November. I stuck close
     to the left-hand wall, knowing that Amaris and the SUV man were against the right-hand
     wall, with rows of parked cars between me and them. The others scurried behind me,
     bent double, trying to keep within sight of November’s pink, snakelike tail as it
     vanished under first one car and then another.
    We quickly came parallel to Amaris in the white van, the same one we’d stolen from
     the Tribunal over a month ago. Her back was to us, and I could see the top of her
     blond head above the van’s driver’s seat headrest. Four cars up from her sat a white
     SUV. I got on my hands and knees to scan under the cars. A foot-long whiskered form
     leaped silently onto the SUV’s rear bumper.
    “Get ready,” I whispered. Still crouched, I made my way between parked cars, getting
     closer to the SUV. Caleb followed right behind me, while Siku and London split up
     to approach from the other side.
    I stilled, listening, and heard the faint skritch of those tiny nails on the car’s roof. Risking a glance over the top of a convertible,
     I was just in time to see November jump down from the white roof of the SUV onto the
     ledge of the open driver’s-side window.
    The man sitting there, beefy and balding with biceps that strained against the thick
     white fabric of his turtleneck sweater, emitted a train-whistle scream and batted
     at her instinctively with both hands. Too late. November had launched herself to land
     on top of his headrest, her naked tail slapping against his bare skull.
    I ran toward the passenger side of the SUV, Caleb right behind me. Siku and London
     ran in from the driver’s side, as the man in white pushed the door open, trying to
     get out and grab the walkie-talkie from his belt at the same time.
    That’s when November jumped onto his neck and slithered down the front of his sweater.
    “Gah!” he yelled, scrambling out of the car completely and swatting at the front of
     his own body as a rat-sized lump wiggled its way toward his belt. “Get off me!” He
     struggled for composure, his voice deepening. “I call on you, come forth from shadow
     . . .”
    He had great presence of mind, trying to force November out of her rat form even as
     her little rat hands unbuttoned his fly, her tail poking up out of the neck of his
     sweater, tickling his ear. It would be interesting to see what happened if she shifted
     back to human right there and then.
    “Reject your dark form, come forth—Ack!” The power of the objurer’s call was cut off
     as Siku charged up and wrapped one arm around his neck in a headlock. The man choked,
     clawing at Siku’s clenched forearm.
    November leaped off the man and ran up