Gwen's back home for the worst birthday of her life. Yes, it's nice to see her family, great to get presents, and exciting to find that her uncomplicated, unlabeled friend with benefits just so happens to be in the area. But her mother loves feeding her vegetables, Gwen can't go two minutes without fighting with her father, and her bed buddy is also a mercenary in town on some dangerous business.

Mel’s a man in need, a down on his luck werewolf who can’t seem to catch a break. Even holed up in his brother’s home, a house full of love, he feels empty inside, lost and abandoned. He needs distraction, a purpose. He needs the case offered up out of the blue by his high school crush, Roxanne. She’s got problems and only this busted gumshoe can solve them.Mel Somerset's had a bad week. The kind of week where everything goes wrong. The kind of week where you can't properly grow eyebrows and a woman gets shot to death in your living room. The kind of week where nothing feels real except the sting of loneliness and the fading smell of blood. The kind of week where you can’t go home, and you can barely remember where you left your wallet.The kind of week where you’re in no shape to seek comfort in the arms of another.Mel’s a man in need, a down on his luck werewolf who can’t seem to catch a break. Even holed up in his brother’s home, a house full of love, he feels empty inside, lost and abandoned. He needs distraction, a purpose. He needs the case offered up out of the blue by his high school crush, Roxanne. She’s got problems and only this busted gumshoe can solve them.***Flesh and Blood is the second Free Read in the Empathy in the PPNW series. Catch up with Mel after his harrowing adventures in Business With Pleasure, and be sure to check out the rest of the series at OliviaRBurton.com

Finn's a failure—at necromancy and life in general. "It's not my fault," he'd insist, looking deep into your eyes as he lifts your wallet. You'd catch him, of course. Because he's a failure. Veruca, on the other hand, is competence personified. She has to be, working as a Reaper directly under the Prince of Hell. When Finn shows up in a stolen sport coat and uses Veruca as cover from his murderous mistress' glowering goons, she finds the one thing she may not be so good at: resisting Finn's handsome face.

“I’m a wizard,” says the girl with the rainbow hair. Not ten seconds ago, Gwen thought eating lettuce was going to be the worst part of her day. Now there's a stranger in her office eating her chocolate and trying to pay her five hundred bucks to help steal something. Might as well give it a shot, Gwen figures. At least it’ll get the girl’s charred fingertips out of the candy dish.

There’s nothing Finn wouldn’t do for his true love, even if she does have to spend February 14th in stuffy meetings analyzing charts and graphs. While she tends to her empire, antics abound at home, where Finn’s cutting out paper hearts, setting the table for a fancy dinner, and risking his fingers lighting candles.