Shifter (25 page)

“All right,” he says, nodding toward the door while stepping back into the shadows of the kitchen and to the door that leads to the basement.

I peep through the hole to find a petite young woman standing on my doorstep. She is tiny in every since of the word. From a distance, she would have looked like a child, but even through the distortion of the hole, I can see she is a young woman who has seen the world and it wasn’t pretty. Cautiously, and a bit confused as to why she would be on my doorstep, I open the door a few inches with a, “Can I help you?”

“I’m sorry to bother you, but I was out walking my dog, and he took off. He’s a big dog, and as you can see, I’m not that strong. He spotted a cat, and off he went. Normally I make, Ray—he’s my boyfriend—walk him, but Ray had to work a double shift, and if Buster shits on the floor, Ray blames me.”

The girl is talking fast and shakily. She is making her story up as she goes along and is only pretending to be scared. I’m not sure why I automatically assume this. I normally don’t judge people so quickly, but something in me tells me she is lying. She is off somehow. Wrong.

Dimitri must have sensed it, because before I can stop the young woman’s incessant babbling, he steps into the living room, and she goes stone cold.

“She’s a were,” I say not looking away from the woman.

“I know.”

“Well, aren’t you a wise bitch?” the female were spits at me, her voice losing its rapid-fireness.

“Can weres be crack whores?” I ask Dimitri, pretending I haven’t heard the woman’s comment. I know I probably shouldn’t anger her, but I am pissed that they would dare send someone straight to my door.

“Apparently,” Dimitri replies, and I can hear the smile in his voice. “What do you want?” he asks the growling were.

“Are you Dimitri?” she asks. Relief floods me at the thought that they might have actually sent someone that doesn’t know who he is.

“No, he’s still a cat. I’m one of his brothers. What do you want?” he snaps.

“She has a bounty on her head,” she says, nodding to me. “And I’ve come to claim it. Hand her over.”

“Not likely.”

“Just hand her and the cat over,” she demands her head nodding to Sebastian. Mave hasn’t told this woman anything. Or is the she-wolf freelancing?

Dimitri comes up beside me and pulls me behind him. Sebastian hisses, and the woman jerks her head and growls at him. “If you want her, you’ll have to come and get her. I’m not giving her up,” Dimitri says.

“Why, she’s nothing to you. Give her to me, and I’ll let you keep your brother…for now.”

“Go to hell,” he says and tries to slam the door.

She sticks her leg out and catches the door before it can fully close.

I am in mid-run, heading to my bedroom to call for help when I feel a sharp pain in my left shoulder blade. I hit the floor in a heap, waves of nausea overcoming me. A warm liquid begins to coat my back.

The harsh sounds of a fight come from behind me, and I try to turn over to see if Dimitri is all right. All I manage to do is turn my head in their direction. I can’t see much, mostly the bottom halves of bodies scuffling around my living room. Knick-knacks break. A chair topples over, then everything goes quiet, and the woman’s body hits the floor a foot from me, her head twisted at an angle God never meant for it to go.

It takes everything I have not to pass out. A second after the woman hits the floor, the living room door slams, and Dimitri is standing over me, telling me everything is going to be all right and yelling for his family to come. People pop in everywhere. Frantic voices shout questions, most of which Dimitri ignores as he helps his mother lift me from the floor and place me on the kitchen table.

I go in and out of consciousness after that. The wolf had managed to get off two shots before Dimitri grabbed her. I hadn’t felt the second one because of the first. My brain shuts off all contact to my body. Both shots were in nearly the same spot. Apparently, I ran right into her range of vision when she stopped the door. I took both shots in the shoulder area. The first got me dead center, but luckily, the second barely grazed my underarm.

Dimitri helps his mother cut off my shirt and treat my wounds as he explains to his father what happened. Someone brings Sam in after they take the female’s body away to perform some healing magic on me. Devan is sent after Dr. Smith. Her protections had kept Mave out, but not the weres.

I come to two hours later, listening to Dimitri and Dr. Smith talking.

“How did she know the woman was a were?” Dimitri asks. “I mean she shouldn’t have been able to sense that. She doesn’t have any supernatural blood in her, does she?”

“I didn’t think so. My sense of such things is much stronger than yours, and I can’t sense anything in her blood, but...” Dr. Smith pauses.

“But what?”

“She’s changing. I don’t know how or in what way, but I can sense something different about her. Something has changed in her over the past few months.”

“Do you think Mave has done something to her?”

“No, not Mave.”

“Who then?”

“I think it is you, but I’m not sure how.”

“Me? How?”

“I said, I don’t know. Shifters can’t change humans, can they?” she asks.

“No. Weres have to do it through their saliva. If we could, I would think we would do it the same way. And at no point has my saliva come into to contact with her, in any form.”

“That is what I thought. I’m not sure what is going on here. I’ll need to do some research, but…”

I can hear in her tone of voice that she has a few guesses as to what might be happening to me, but she doesn’t seem to be inclined to tell. The sight of Dimitri is a little blurry, and I can tell that he is thinking about pressing the issue, but the uncertainty of her demeanor stops him. If she has a definitive idea, she would discuss it with him.

“I’ll ask around and see. In the meantime, watch her. If anything else happens, summon me. You can do it the same way you do your family,” she said.

“Will do. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Just remember her shoulder hasn’t completely healed. She’ll need to be careful with it for the next few days. She needs rest and lots of it. Her body will be in shock from the bullet wounds and from the healing. Human bodies aren’t meant to heal that fast.” She says this last part in a contemplative tone.

Fast, what does she mean, my body is healing fast
.

I try to force myself back to sleep, but my brain refuses to make sense of what I’m hearing. They must have given me some good drugs. This medicine-induced fog is playing havoc with my interpretations of things.

In a puff of white mist, Dr. Smith evaporates from my house. Her disappearance is more than enough for my brain to take. I moan and try to get up from my bed. I have to move. Have to wake up. Have to somehow drain my body of the wretched medicine. I have never been one to take strong painkillers, muscle relaxers, or anything that can alter my reality. Mostly because my tolerance for such things is so low that I react badly on them.

Dimitri must have been listening for me because he comes running the moment I move. “Hey, now. What are you doing?”

“Getting a glass of water. My mouth tastes like cotton.”

“I’ll get it. You lay back down.”

“No, no. I have to get up. I...”

“No, you don’t. You’ve been shot. Twice. In the shoulder. You’ll be in bed for a few days. Now lay down. I’ll be right back.”

I’ll be damned. The wolf really had shot me. Damn. I’ve never had a broken bone or major surgery or anything dire in my life. This is actually kind of cool. Except for the pain and this weird out of body feeling I’m having.

“Here, let me sit you up so you can drink this.” He props all of my pillows up behind me and lifts me with such ease I might as well have been one of the pillows instead of the boulder I am.

“Was I really shot?” I ask after nearly downing the entire glass of water.

“Yeah, twice. One actually entered your body. The other grazed you. Mom got the bullet out and sowed you up. Dad has been in touch with Dr. Smith, discussing the charms and the spell. He called her when he got here. She popped in and healed the wounds the best she could. You’re human so you’re not a hundred percent, but you should be fine in a few days.”

I nod and finish off my second glass of water. “What else is wrong with me?”

“What do you mean? Do you hurt somewhere else? I checked you over myself. I didn’t see anything.”

I feel my face flush at his words and the intense look that shadows his eyes as he talks about disrobing me. Fear immediately overrides my embarrassment. He has seen my body. Seen the marks that had popped up as my skin has stretched. Seen all the unwanted curves that I hadn’t yet been able to get rid of. The scars from my past relationship. He surely doesn’t want me now. I wouldn’t be getting that kiss he had nearly given me in the kitchen before the she-wolf attacked. Tears well in my eyes.

Taking the tears as a sign of pain, he grabs my empty glass, leaves the room hurriedly, and returns with a full glass and bottle of meds.

“I’m not hurting,” I say, pushing the bottle away but taking the water.

“You sure?”

“Yeah. Besides I don’t do pain meds. They make me loopy.”

“This is all herbal and magical. They won’t affect you that way.”

“Oh, well, maybe later. And, no, I don’t hurt anywhere but my back. I just over heard you and Dr. Smith talking about me. Something about me changing. Is something wrong with me?”

“No. I don’t know. It’s nothing really. How did you know that woman was a were?”

“Don’t know. I just did. I could feel it or sense it or something. The moment I opened the door I knew something was wrong, then when she started talking, I knew she was lying, and a voice in my head said she was a were. Am I not supposed to be able to tell?”

“No. Most humans with a little of supernatural blood in them can sense when a being is bad or good, but they don’t know why. Full-blooded supernaturals are able to tell when another supernatural is around and in most cases what they are. You are a pure blood. You have no supernatural blood in you. You shouldn’t have been able to sense anything about her.”

“Are you sure I’m pure blooded?”

“I am. Dr. Smith is an Angel. One of the strongest supernatural beings in the world. She would know instantly what you are, if you are anything.”

“But that doesn’t mean anything, does it? I mean, I met that one were, and I knew what he was because when he smiled, I saw his teeth. Maybe there was something in her demeanor that I recognized subconsciously.”

“No...” He looks off as if he is about to say something else but isn’t sure if he should.

“What else.”

“I’m not sure. I can’t be positive, but... It looks as if your body was already trying to heal the bullet wounds before Mom even got a chance to work on them.”

“I was healing myself?”

“Yeah. That is only something a full-blooded supernatural can do. Granted, your body wasn’t doing it as fast as mine would have, but nonetheless, it shouldn’t have done it at all.”

“What’s wrong with me? Did Mave do something to me?” I was panicking now.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so. There’s no way she could have. You’re human. She wouldn’t have dared. It’s one thing to curse another supernatural and a whole other thing to do anything to a human.”

“But if she knows she is in trouble for what she did to you, maybe she doesn’t think it will matter if she does something to me in the process.”

“No, I’m just a severe punishment. You are a death sentence.”

“Then why is she after me?”

“She doesn’t intend to harm you. Just use you as bait to get to me. Kidnapping you will be a charge against her, but as long as she doesn’t harm you in any real way, she will live. Besides she doesn’t expect to be charged with anything.”

“The wolf tried to kill me.”

“Yes, but that was the wolf, not Mave. She may have put the bounty on your head, but I will lay money the bounty says not to harm or kill you. The wolf acted on her own, and I killed her for her actions.”

“If it wasn’t Mave, then who? Did Devan do this? Did you?”

No. No. Devan would never, and neither would I. Besides, shifters can’t change humans. Only weres can. And no, you weren’t bitten by a were. The scratch doesn’t count. We don’t actually know what is happening to you. I think Dr. Smith has an idea, but it’s not one she is confident enough with to share.”

“Is there a way to reverse it?”

“Not that I know of. And right now, we don’t need to with the bounty on your head. You need to be able to sense other beings and heal rapidly. Both may help save your life.”

He has a point, and I’m kind of glad I’m not a normal human being anymore.

“Listen, don’t worry about it right now. You need to get some rest. You’ve been through a lot today.”

I nod, place the cup beside my bed, and scoot down the mattress trying to get comfortable. He lifts himself from my bed and starts to leave. “Dimitri?”

“Yeah.”