Thirty of us are Atlantans and the other twenty are from The Oaks. That number includes our mates who are with us. Jonathon calls matings 'marriage' a...d mates 'spouses.' It works no matter what the words if you care."I looked at old Marie, one of our council members from the town. "Can we provide lodging for all of them?"She laughed and said, "Bring them on. I'll find places for every single one of them and the mated ones, too. While we're on the subject of lodging, do your mate's parents need. Hobo hopped in front, claiming shotgun. He watched Pilar carefully until we turned a corner. I took Wornal north to the Plaza and cut over to Broadway. Bear was outside his eponymous restaurant waiting for me. Bulldog had told me to make the Mayor Lynch problem go away and Bear was the fastest way I could think of. Especially since I couldn’t involve the police, anyone in the authority racket.Hobo lapped Bear’s face enthusiastically; it’s probably a guy thing. Bear sat him on his lap, a. . There I was, at work early in the cold and the frost, and the automatic timer hadn't worked yet again and my office was like a refrigerator. Being a dispatcher for a small transport company in a small country town in the middle of nowhere had lost a lot of it's appeal over the months and I was giving my continued employment in this field considerable, and critical, thought.As usual, it being a Monday, a number of my drivers had reported in that they weren't fit to work and, the fact that I. Priests are usually bad news unless they are of the failed variety. Real priests, and I use the word in the sense of unswerving and genuine commitment to the faith professed by the priest, make me uncomfortable. Exorcism don't work on me nor can they burn me at the stake, but they are the ones who can recognise what I have become. And being splashed with holy water (Christians) or dusted with consecrated ash (Hindus) only serve to ruin whatever clothes I am wearing."Our temple priest, sir," she.