Endlessly (10 page)

“Really?” She glanced at both of us.
“Oh, I get it. You guys are just messing with me.”

I saw that Jason was pissed at me. That
wasn’t a problem. Anger helped a werewolf change faster.

“No,” I said. “No joke.
Watch.”

Jason and I locked eyes. I nodded. He
pursed his lips, gave me a look, then unzipped his coat and let it
fall. He slowly peeled off his shirt. He glanced at me, hoping I
would change my mind. I didn’t.

“All right then.” He rolled his eyes,
kicked off his shoes, and unzipped his pants. He held them below
his hips so they would not fall.

Ash averted her eyes. Her cheeks burned
red.

“Don’t look away,” I said. I touched
her chin. Her skin was ice cold. I coaxed her head up. “You’re not
going to want to miss this.”

She looked straight at him. As his eyes
glowed yellow, he threw himself into the shift. It happened in an
instant. One moment he was a man, then he was something else. His
skin turned a dark rust color. He raised his wolf-like face to
hers. She stumbled backward.

His pants were too tight, and if he
moved much they would rip. He lowered his arms to the ground. His
hands and feet still looked human except for his razor sharp claws.
Her eyes widened. Down on all fours he was shorter than her. He
cocked his head. His chest had expanded in size. Always muscular,
Jason now seemed massive.

Ash touched his shoulder. He bared his
teeth and growled softly. Though she was terrified, she withdrew
her fingers with reluctance.

Then it was done. Jason shifted back to
his human form and stood upright.

“Don’t pet me!” he snapped at her. “I’m
not a dog!” He pulled up his pants and buckled them, then finished
dressing. “I left my smokes in the car,” he said, and headed for
the stairs.

Despite the sunglasses, I could see she
was on the verge of tears. “I just wanted to make sure he was
real,” she breathed, fighting tears. She looked at me. “This is
real, right?”

I nodded, realizing for the first time
that Ash was emotionally fragile. Was this the right thing for her?
Maybe she wasn’t cut out for it. I wondered if I should have
Jessica resend her soul. The world we lived in wasn’t designed for
delicate beings like her.

I put my hand on her shoulder. “Come
here,” I whispered, drawing her close. As I inhaled her scent I
knew I could not let her go. I’d lived on my Spartan diet of
occasional meals for too long. I needed her; I couldn’t let anyone
or anything take her away. If I could have her near I would never
need anything. My connection with her was unbreakable. I would
protect her with my life.

“It’s okay,” I whispered. “Jason is
just a jerk.” I looked around. “Where is your dog?” I
asked.

Before she could answer Jason
reappeared at the top of the stairs. He stared at us embracing, his
cigarette nearly falling from his lips. He knew I was furious at
him for speaking to her the way he had. As he neared us he watched
me closely.

Ash wiped tears from under her
sunglasses, and concentrated on my question about her dog. “A
friend of mine loves Pogo to death. I told him that I was really
busy this weekend and he volunteered to dog-sit.”

Jason puffed on his cigarette. “Now
that we got that out of the way, lets get this party started,” he
said. He blew smoke in my face.

“So where will you be most
comfortable?” I asked. “This might take awhile.”

“I thought I might sit by the fire,”
she said, shrugging.

Jason threw a few handfuls of dead
leaves on the fire to keep it going, then started gathering sticks
and adding them on. He pretended not to hear us. That didn’t
matter. He knew how this went.

Ash sat, legs crossed, and eyes shut,
facing the fire, as I read from Jessica’s book. She listened to
every word I said, right to the end.

Jason finally sat down on a fallen tree
trunk closer to the river. He said nothing. He knew Ash would need
to concentrate if she were to have any chance at all. She was over
two decades old, and that meant the process might not work. As I
read to her I thought: What if I had never found out? What if I’d
had to live with this insanity without ever knowing? I kept looking
up from the book, knowing I would never meet another like her. No
one else could have that aura. Yet I knew we might fail. If that
happened I was supposed to call Jessica. Ash knew too much. Telling
her these things made her a huge risk. Yet I had made up my mind, I
would not call Jessica. There was nothing Jason could do to stop
me.

Jason cooperated, remaining silent.
This guided meditation was a type of hypnosis taking Ash back
before birth. She needed to envision a safe area. If I could get
her there, then we could explore the possibilities and learn what
kind of an incarnate she was.

When we reached the safe area I said:
“Okay, Ash, you’re in your safe place. Envision it filling with
fog. There is nothing threatening about this fog. Imagine it
getting denser.” From the corner of my eye I saw Jason sit up
straight. He knew it was coming.

“The fog is getting thicker and
thicker,” I went on. “You put your hand out in front of you, but
the fog is so thick, you cannot see your hand.” I waited for her to
visualize it. “Now it’s so thick you can see nothing but the fog.”
I waited a few moments. My heart pounded. I stifled my
terror.

“While you are enveloped in this fog
you hear something in the distance. You are not afraid. This is the
sound of your incarnate approaching. How does it sound?” I paused.
Her face tightened. She concentrated on something distant. The
flames in the pit grew taller. I felt the tug of her.

“It is drawing closer. You hear it more
clearly. It’s coming closer and closer, and you are completely
safe. It’s so close you can reach through the fog and touch it.”
She raised her hands, and stretched close to the fire. Jason was
literally on the edge of his seat.

“You run your hand across it. It makes
a noise. Do you feel fur, feathers, scales? What do you
feel?”

With her eyes still closed she moved
her hands. The flames throbbed like glowing pulse beats. Ash
reached high, as if she were touching something large.

I consulted Jessica’s book, and said:
“This is you. This is what you are. Now the fog will clear,
revealing what you have been feeling and hearing.” My heart roared
in my ears. It was as if her transformation was for me and me only.
My chest tightened. I sensed something from Jason—a threat? “The
fog is falling away faster and faster now. What do you
see?”

Her face was upturned and her eyes were
still shut. Her mouth fell open.

I turned and saw Jason standing,
staring at her. He saw me, but his attention was on her. He was as
riveted as I was. I felt paralyzed. I tried to relax. After what
seemed like an eternity I stepped toward her silently. She was
still frozen. It hadn’t worked.

Disappointment flooded the void within
me. What would I do? Call Jessica? The idea made me choke. I
touched her shoulder and whispered: “Ash?”

Suddenly I saw sky. My ears rang, and I
heard Jason screaming. I sat up and felt a sudden sharp pain in my
head. As I touched the spot I felt a horrible pressure building in
my skull.

Then I saw it: a massive foot with
large talons protruding from where her fingers had been. Its scaly
blackness reminded me of a snake. I blinked my eyes. It was bright,
and I had lost my sunglasses. It had four feet. I wasn’t completely
sure if I was seeing double or not. Between pressure and sunlight I
could barely open my eyes. I followed the feet up to muscular legs
and a huge, cat-like body covered in black scales. They had an
unusual sheen.

I got to my feet, and saw that its back
was as high as my head and humped. My pain ebbed. I was recovering.
Something big was swinging—a tail. The neck was five feet long, and
the reptilian head had fin-like spines running over it. Two horns
spiraled from its forehead. Its eyes were solid red.

As soon as I made eye contact with it I
fell backward. Flashing images threw me into convulsions. I heard a
scream, and saw Ash morphing into the child, Sara. Finally
everything stopped. I lay on the ground panting, my back arching. I
sobbed, but there were no tears. Vampires can’t cry.

A sound like a cat’s purring brought me
back to my senses. I rolled onto my side, trying to catch my
breath. Jason was screaming, but I couldn’t hear the words. I
squinted, shielding my eyes from the sun. That’s when I heard what
Jason was shouting: “A fucking dinosaur! She’s a dinosaur! Run! Run
before she fucking eats you!” He aimed his gun at her.

Then it happened. Two lumps on the
creature’s back opened, giving way to two bat-like wings. Thin
black membranes stretched between the spines.

Now I knew the truth.

Jason’s hands shook so hard he could
barely keep hold of his gun.

“Put the fucking gun away, Jason!” I
shouted. “She’s no dinosaur. She’s a dragon.”

“Holy Shit!” Jason breathed. He lowered
his gun, and stared wide-eyed. “Is she gonna eat us?”

No! I’m not going to eat
you! Verloren are you okay?

Jason and I both froze. His eyes looked
like they might pop from his head.

“You heard that, right?” I asked. He
nodded.

We’d heard Ash’s voice, but the
creature’s mouth hadn’t moved.

“Ash?” I asked.

Yes.

“There’s some kind of reverse mind
reading going on,” I said. “We can hear what you’re
thinking.”

Yes. I can read your minds
too. So…how the hell do I change back?

Chapter 10

WEREWOLF PROPOSITION

“Like you’re sucking in your stomach
muscles, but do it with your whole body.” Jason stood half naked in
the clearing. He shifted to his werewolf persona. Tensing his body,
he pulled his arms in and his chest rose. He quickly fell back into
human form, grabbing his jeans before they fell.

Okay, I see. I can see it
in your head.

Jason and I both heard her thoughts
perfectly.

Through the afternoon Jason worked with
Ash showing her how to shift back and forth between her human and
dragon forms. It was the main reason I’d brought him, though
neither of us had dreamed what shape she’d be taking. This was one
area where I wasn’t much help. A vampire doesn’t change. With a
little practice Ash learned how. She became a dragon, then morphed
back to her human form. That ended with her standing naked by the
fire.

Embarrassed and vulnerable, she spun
away from me, but not before I noticed how voluptuous she was. Her
light brown hair spilled over her shoulders and almost covered her
breasts. Under all that clothing she wore she was curvy: full
breasts, small waist, and full hips. I noticed also a glint of
silver from piercings that adorned her nipples.

When she turned away it was like a slap
in the face. The black mark I’d seen on her wrist was part of a
larger tattoo: the tip of a tail that snaked up her arm, then
centered on her back. One hand was outstretched to one side of her
buttocks, and the head was centered in the small of her back. Its
wings opened onto her sides, and its tail started up on her
shoulder, then wrapped around her arm ending at her wrist. A
dragon.

Jason ogled her, pissing me off. I took
off my black trench coat, walked up behind her, and draped it over
her shoulders.

“Thank you,” she said, her cheeks
burning scarlet red. As she buttoned the coat she said clearly:
“Just so you know Jason, that mind reading thing isn’t turned off.”
She turned and stared at him. “I know exactly what is going on in
your head.”

Losing his smug smile, he turned his
back on us. He got out a cigarette and lit it.

She looked at me.
He is thinking about doing…er…stuff to
me.

Jason cleared his throat before he
spoke. “Well I guess that goes both ways. I heard that, loud and
clear.” He glared at me. “I don’t want some chick rummaging through
my thoughts. If I wanted that I would have Jessica read
me.”

“It’s true,” Ash said. “It’s like you
guys’ heads are an open field. I can pick out any of your thoughts,
and plant thoughts of my own. I can’t explain it.”

This wasn’t that much of a problem for
me. When I felt an intrusion into my brain, I could put up a wall.
Any vampire could. Whenever I fed I could read and control my
victim’s thoughts. They had no control over mine, but once I bit
into them they could read my mind. My bite created the link.
Normally it went both ways, but I had learned how to put up a wall
to keep my thoughts private. I could allow others to see only those
thoughts I wanted them to see. I did that now with Ash.

Her head jerked back as she felt the
barrier. She looked at Jason. With the wall in place I couldn’t
hear what she was saying to him.

He threw his hands in the air, almost
tossing his cigarette. “God! Would you leave me alone! I can feel
you in there picking through shit!”