Forged by Greed (36 page)

“Pumpkin scones? Awesome. I love pumpkin pastries. I’ll have four
plus three blueberry muffins for my girl. And two large hot chocolates with
whipped cream. Oh, give me a few slices of that cranberry coffee cake. It looks
really good.”

“Should I pack it in one bag?”

“No, it’s all for here.” Erik grinned.

The woman opened her mouth and shot a quick look toward Penelope,
assessing her slim figure.

Erik realized what she was thinking and said in a hurry, “On the
other hand, give me a bag. We won’t eat it all at once. That would be insane,
right?”

Penelope, who was listening to the conversation after ending her
call, turned her head away. “Careful, wolf. We don’t want the human to realize
how much we can eat.” She chuckled, as she talked to him with her mind.

“Screw this,” Erik answered her in the same mind-communicating way.
He said out loud to the woman behind the counter, pointing at the strawberry
jam Danish pastries, “I will also take four of these.”

Penelope grinned, hiding her face behind her hand.

“I like your attitude.” She laughed when Erik joined her at the
table, a huge brown bag resting between them. She peeked inside, whistled, and
took a muffin out.

A few people walked in, rushing to the counter. Some of them made
pleasant comments about the sweet smell of the pastries mixed with the spicy
coffee aroma. The harsh sound of the industrial espresso machine momentarily
drowned out their voices. The door opened again, and a tall young couple
entered, each carrying a small child. The children looked identical, their
light-blond hair curling in tight coils around their heads.

Penelope smiled, motioning to Erik to turn around and look. “Twins.
They’re so adorable. I wonder why Shifter twins are so rare.”

“I don’t know anybody with twins. Most of us don’t even have
siblings,” Erik spoke through a mouthful of pastries. He sampled several of
them, clearly enjoying the mixture of flavors.

“Like me?”

“And me. Georgeta was adopted from Romania.” He took a gulp of hot
chocolate.

“You eat like a pig. Slow down.” Penelope swatted him on the arm.

Their table vibrated, and they both instinctively pushed their
chairs back, staring at each other in alarm.

Everyone in the bakery noticed the tremor.
 
Most people were already on their feet,
looking around in confusion. The young couple with small children had already
headed for the door, the woman shouting, “Out! Get out, it’s another
earthquake.”

Penelope and Erik abandoned their food and followed them outside. A
small crowd has already formed on the sidewalk, people rushing out of the
buildings. Many cars stopped in the middle of the street, and the drivers were getting
out of the vehicles.

The ground under their feet rolled violently as if a giant snake was
pushing through. Penelope steadied herself, grabbing onto Erik’s arm. She
squealed and ducked when a piece of the building behind them fell right by her
feet.

“Quick. Away from the buildings.” Erik pulled her toward the street,
now blocked by several cars.

They maneuvered between the swaying vehicles, trying to keep their
balance. Penelope clutched onto his arm with both hands, her face a mask of
fear. “Oh, Goddess, what’s happening? This is horrible.”

An old man staggered right past them, his white hair stained with
blood above his temple. A plump old woman followed closely behind him, carrying
a small girl on her back. Both woman and the child were crying. More people
sought refuge away from the buildings, but some tried to squeeze into the
doorways, pushing and shouting.

 
“Shift! Now.” Erik yelled, pulling
Penelope away from a sliding car.

“What? Are you crazy? Here, in front of all these
people?” she shouted back over the rumbling noise.

“We have a better chance to escape this in our
animal forms than like this.” He waived his hand between the both of them.

“Erik, I don’t think this is a good—”

“Now!” The urgency in his voice was frightening.
With a snarl he shifted into his huge wolf form and leaped forward.

Penelope looked around, uncertain, her arms
outstretched to the sides for balance. People around them were running amok,
screaming.
They are so scared they might
not even notice. Oh, Goddess. Where are you when I need you?

She looked at the wolf, impatiently waiting for
her a few yards ahead, his canines flashing. He was almost as big as the gray
Ford Taurus sliding toward him. Penelope made up her mind and shifted into her
red leopard shape. She jumped forward and over another car slipping sideways.
Erik turned and ran, stealing quick glances to the sides and back at Penelope.
She caught up with him, her slick fur unruffled by the wind that tossed Erik’s
long, thick mane.

People who saw them shrieked in fear, pointing in
disbelief. But the Shifters paid them no attention, leaping swiftly over the
cracked asphalt, fragments broken off the buildings, and all the other debris
littering the street. Dodging between the cars and people, they turned a
corner, their paws scrambling over the pavement.

“Faster, we need to get out of here. Away from those
old buildings.” Penelope heard Erik’s voice in her mind. “Look!”

Broken glass showered from the windows. Chunks of the walls bounced
off the pavement and the cars parked along the curb, shattering into smaller
pieces. The asphalt on the street split in places into long ribbon-like slashes.
The ground continued to roll like the deck of a ship. The noise of the destruction,
the screams of terrified people, and the car alarms mixed into a concerto of
horror.

In front of them, and on the sides of the street, water
gushed up in broad, powerful sprays from the wide cracks that opened in the
pavement and sidewalks. Smoke rose in multiple spots where the gas pipes had ruptured
and fuel spilled from vehicles. They kept running, evading the rubble and
bodies scattered on the street.

“Erik, we’re gonna die. Goddess. We are gonna
die!” Penelope shrieked.

They raced in blurred motion through the streets
of the chaotic city.

“Erik. Watch out!”

An electric pole crashed across the street a few
yards in front of them. It bounced a couple of times on two abandoned cars.
More poles fell further ahead and behind them, the wires snapping and violently
thrashing in the air. The wolf and the leopard managed to dodge each of the
obstacles. The tall Aurora Bridge in the distance was swaying as in a trance.
 
The bridge was collapsing, and sections were
breaking off. Dozens of cars were flying down and hitting the ground.

The roar of the destruction was as frightening as
the scenery around them. Erik leaped over an upturned tree. Penelope followed
close behind. The ground kept rocking, and the two Shifters had a hard time
keeping their balance. Unsteady on her paws, Penelope rammed into Erik, making
him slide sideways. He fell with a thud, the leopard tumbling on top of him.
They scrambled up quickly, growling and yelping by turns.

A chunk of building fell down onto the pavement a
few feet from them and smashed into smaller pieces. Erik dodged to the left,
and Penelope swerved to the right of the obstacle. She realized she was too
close to the crumbling building. She turned fast to run away from it, her
muscles burning. Another fragment of the structure came down. It hit her on the
head.

The leopard yapped and collapsed, pain surging
through her. Still running, Erik turned his head to see if she was behind him.
He stopped, his claws scraping the pavement.

“Pen!” he yelled with his mind, racing toward her.

The wolf jumped over an overturned shopping cart,
old rags and filthy boxes spilled from it. A bloodied body of a man in a tattered,
grimy coat lay next to the cart. His wispy hair was matted with blood and mud.
His lifeless eyes were open in a frozen expression of horror. Several other
victims of the earthquake lay sprawled around, unmoving. Erik didn’t slow down
to check on anyone. His only thought was to get to Penelope.

She tried to get up, but she collapsed on the
ground again. “Erik, get me out of here!” she screamed with her mind.

He came to a halt in front of her and planted his
massive paws on the swaying ground, determined to stay upright. “Where are you
hurt?”

“My head.” She felt s
harp
stubbing jolts by her left ear.

“I need to pull you away from this wall. The whole
building might collapse at any moment.”

Dust showered down on them from the damaged
structure. Erik shifted into his human form and knelt next to Penelope. He
touched her head, trying to assess the wound. She had a small cut by her ear.
It left a smear of blood on Erik’s palm.

“It’s not too bad. I will live.” Penelope growled.

The ground ceased shaking as soon as Erik slid his
hands under her. He lifted her up without an effort. He took a few vigilant steps
away from the wall, carrying the huge Shifter in his arms. Penelope’s head
sagged down off his left arm, her tail swishing in short snaps.

“It stopped. The earthquake stopped,” Erik
murmured, looking around. “Can you shift?”

Erik put Penelope on the ground. The air around
her quivered, and she changed into her human form. The top of her head was
stained with blood.
 

“Oh, I’m dizzy,” she moaned and closed her eyes. “I
can’t believe it. We just had an earthquake a few days ago.”

“You might have a concussion.” Erik sat down and
put his arm around her. “We need to get you to the hospital.”

“My cell phone is vibrating. Can you pull it out
from my pocket?” Penelope pointed to her left hip. A small rectangular shape
bulged out in her jeans pocket. “I wouldn’t think the cell towers are still
operational after this crazy shake. It’s been like, what, five minutes?”

Erik retrieved the phone and looked at the screen.
“It’s your mom.”

“Good.”
 
She
nodded. “Ouch. That hurts too.” She put her hand on top of her head. “Answer
and put the phone to my ear. Please.”

Erik did as she asked, his eyes filled with
concern.

Before Penelope could say anything, they both
heard a frantic voice coming loudly from the cell phone, “Penelope. Are you
okay? Penelope. It’s Mom.”

“Mom, I’m fine,” she croaked. “Where are you?
Where is Dad?”

“We are home. I mean, outside, on the street with
the neighbors. Dad’s fine. I’m fine. My friend, Estelle, you know, Mrs.
Navarro, she’s badly hurt. So is Mrs.
Robinson, Savannah’s mother. Where are you?”

“We are… I’m with a friend. I’ll try to get back
home. Mom, don’t worry,
erm
… Mom, listen. There might be aftershocks. Stay
away from anything that can fall on you guys.”

“Oh, Penny. If anything happened to you… where are
you?”
Kaliope
sounded hysterical, her
voice high-pitched and frantic.

“Mom. I’m fine. Stay put and… Mom? Mom? Are you
there? Hello?”

“Did the call drop?” He took the cell phone away
from Penelope’s ear, pressed one of the buttons on the screen, and returned the
phone to her.

“Nothing,” she said weakly.

Erik redialed once more, but there was no
connection. He sighed. “Pen, I need to get you to a hospital.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m a Shifter. I’m fine,”
she said stubbornly.
 

“No, if you have a concussion even your healing
abilities might not be enough,” he said and lifted her up again.

CHAPTER 41

Human World, November 18, early
afternoon.

Jasmira took a gulp of air and disappeared under the water. Jousenne
followed her close behind. They swam the last few yards of the sloping-down, dark
passage toward the wall, where the square block of stone jutted out, indistinct
in the deep water. Jasmira got to it first and pressed the stone with both
hands. The door, which appeared in the wall as before, slowly swung open and revealed
the swimming pool behind.

They rushed through the opening. Jousenne closed it with a push on
the pool wall tile. They hurried to the surface, gasping for air, and then swam
toward the opposite edge of the pool. In the middle Jasmira stopped and, treading
water, she turned her head to look at her grandmother.

“Grannie, I’m scared. I had no idea our lives were so complicated.”

“I’ve been sheltering you from it for a long time. But now you need
to know it all, dear child. Don’t worry, you are not the first one to learn
about our Race’s ways.” Jousenne smiled.

The water around them swayed back and forth, splashing violently out
of the pool. They looked at each other in alarm. The elegant pool furniture
slid around on the tiled floor, some pieces tumbling into the water.