Something to Curse About by Gayla Drummond Page B

his nose. “Sal?”
    “Sal,” I confirmed. “Looks like a little old Indian man.”
    “Let’s go with spirit guide.”
    “Okay. Anyway, he told me to pay better attention to the colors. I hadn’t really thought about it since, but I guess he means the colors of my tracking threads.”
    Turning into the parking lot, Dad nodded. “Makes sense.” He saw my car and his mouth fell open. “Wow. That Logan does some amazing work. It looks new.”
    “He does. Come look at the inside.” I hopped out as he parked and led the way over to my returned baby. Dad ooh ed and ahh ed as much as I had, but he skipped the squeaking.
    After several minutes, he sighed. “I’d better get home. Betty’s probably worried half to death.”
    “Okay.” We hugged and I waved him off before locking my car and heading inside.
    Leglin sat in the middle of the living room, his long, black and tan face somehow expressing stern disapproval.
    “I’m sorry. There was a problem. Do you need to go outside?” He lowered his muzzle, brown eyes rolling up while his ears swept back. “I wish I could figure out what you’re saying as easy as Nick does. Hungry?”
    Leglin barked, his ears perking. “I’m too tired to cook. We’re ordering pizza, okay?”
    From the way he leaped to his feet, tail wagging, I guessed it was okay. “I’ll tell you the toppings, and you bark for the things you want on yours.”
    My four-legged roommate’s tail wagged faster.
     

NINE
     
    I sat on the living room floor next to the coffee table, holding a piece of pizza for Leglin while writing down the colors of tracking threads and the cases I felt pretty certain they were related to. Since I usually had more than one case at a time, “pretty certain” was as close as it got.
    “Silver has to mean vampires. Red is for demons—and let’s hope we don’t see any more threads that color.”
    Thump, thump . Leglin nibbled another bite off his super meat and cheese pizza.
    “It’s my turn to eat a slice next. Okay, brown…um, I think that’s animals and like, natural stuff. Because I had to find a carving once, and a brown tracking thread finally led me to it. But a brown thread helped me find clues to find that missing racehorse too.”
    I stopped to wipe the hound’s lips, which had some strings of cheese dangling from them, with a paper towel. “Okay, green must be magical stuff. Or maybe ‘not evil’ magical stuff, because if it was for all magical stuff, then there would’ve been some green threads going on while we were looking for Thorandryll’s book, right?”
    Leglin sneezed.
    “Eww. Eat the rest of it. I have to wash my hand.” I shoved the last third of the slice in his mouth when he opened it. The hound’s shoulders quivered as he chewed. “Are you laughing?”
    He gave me wide, innocent eyes. “You are. Gah.”
    I went to wash my hands. Returning, I grabbed a slice of my pizza—mine had veggies—and went back to work. “I don’t remember any other colors, except for today, when the gold one popped up. So is gold for curses, or something else?”
    No response from the hound, who eyed the slice of pizza I held. “It’s mine.”
    I took a bite, thinking while chewing. “I guess it must be for cursed stuff, considering what happened.” Leglin bumped my elbow with his nose. “What?”
    He jerked his chin at my pizza. “I told you, it’s mi…oh, you want me to hurry up and eat it?”
    Thump, thump.
    “This is a working dinner, dude. I talk during those.” I took another bite anyway, and remade a shorter list with just the colors and what they must be related to next to each. “There. I wonder how many other colors might show up?”
    Leglin grunted, poking me in the arm again. “Okay, okay.”
    We finished our dinner, and I let him out the front door before I cleared away the pizza boxes. Once he returned, I took a shower and put on one of my new PJ sets. Sleeping nude had become a thing of the past, because the hound slept