Shifting Dreams (21 page)

He was drawn in, the low sound of her voice hypnotic as she told the story of this strange place. A humming filled his blood, the same electricity he remembered from the sings his uncle did when he was a boy. “They found the fresh spring.”

“Yes,” she said. “All of them drank the water. They hollowed out a basin in the rocks and used it like a well. It tasted great.”

“It still does.”

“Yes, it does.” She paused. “They had been living in the bottom of the canyon for months before anyone noticed anything.”

“Who noticed?”

“Thomas. His journals say he’d been having strange dreams. Then, one day, he woke up and… he wasn’t. That’s what he wrote. He had turned into a raven in his sleep just like in his dream. It always happens first in your sleep, like your mind has to be unconscious to turn the key that first time.”

“You?” he asked. “What do you…?”

Could he ask that? Was it too personal? She hesitated a moment.

“A hawk,” she said. “But I can turn into any bird I want to if I concentrate hard enough. All the Crowes turn into different birds.”

“Jeremy warned me you had talons.” He shook his head and swallowed the lump in his throat. “The boys? Are they…?”

She blinked back tears. “Not yet. Their dad never shifted when he was younger. That’s why Lowell died young. But he was a McCann. He should have been a wolf. Most of the McCanns are. The boys could be either when they shift. Bird or wolf.”

Caleb forced his mind to bend around it. “This isn’t real, Jena.”

He saw her blink away tears. “It’s terribly real, but I’m sorry you got pulled into it.”

Caleb shook his head, the rational part of him still trying to wake up.

“What were you dreaming about?”

He looked up, surprised. “What?”

“Earlier. When you… changed.”

He closed his eyes and let out a rueful laugh. “I was dreaming about beating the shit out of Alex McCann because he wouldn’t give me an alibi the night Alma was killed. It was a pretty satisfying dream until I woke up.”

“You turned into him. You were dreaming about him and you turned into him.”

“I guess so.”

“By the way, Alex couldn’t give you an alibi, but he was with Jeremy and the rest of his pack the night Alma was killed. It was a full moon that night.”

“And you and Alma… you weren’t going to the mud pool, I guess.”
 

She shook her head.

“Flying?” She’d said all her family turned into birds.

Jena nodded.

“That’s why you weren’t wearing clothes. You’d flown out there.”

She whispered, “We didn’t get to fly much together. She usually watched the boys for me.”

All the mismatched puzzle pieces seemed to fall into place. And that, more than anything else, confirmed that Caleb’s reality was no longer what it had been. What was it that Sherlock Holmes said? Rule out every other option and whatever crazy shit was left over had to be right. Or something like that.

“The problem is, Caleb, you’re not like us.” Jena said. “No one is going to know what to do with you. Outsiders never drink from the spring. They usually never find it. But even people that marry in don’t seem to be affected when they drink. Trust me, more than a few have tried. And no one I’ve ever heard of has turned into a people-shifter.”

“Is that a technical term?”

She ignored him and rose. “I’m going to call my dad and Devin.”

“Devin Moon, the sheriff’s deputy? He knows?”

“All the tribes along the river know,” she muttered as she walked in the house. The boys were sitting on the couch, watching television like it was any other afternoon. Caleb supposed that for them, the idea of people shifting into other people wasn’t really all that big a stretch. “And Devin’s dad is an elder.”

“And you trust him? Trust them?”

“The Tribes don’t want outside attention any more than we do, except at the casino. And Devin may play the good ol’ boy, but he’s way smarter than he looks.”

They walked inside, and while Jena went to the kitchen to call, Caleb sat on the couch next to Aaron, who immediately scooted over to his side. Low glanced at him, but the normal glare was gone and the boy was examining him with new eyes. Apparently, being a cop who liked his mom was suspect, but a weird-ass supernatural creature who could transform his face accorded Caleb some respect.

Teenagers.

Devin watched him with a purposefully blank stare while Jena explained to him and her dad what had happened. Tom perched next to the boys on the couch, Jena was pacing, and Caleb and Devin both leaned against opposite walls in the crowded living room. Caleb was watching Jena as she flitted around the room. He was intensely curious what she looked like in hawk form. Was she just a normal hawk? Bigger? Did she hunt? Could she lay an egg if she wanted to? Then he blinked. Somehow, he knew asking that one was a bad idea.

“So,” Devin interrupted. “What you’re saying is he’s like you guys?”

“Um, no! We turn into animals. He’s actually turning into other people, Dev.”

Caleb’s scowled. “Can I ask why you’re acting like what I’m doing is so much weirder than you getting feathers every few weeks?”

“Animal shifting is completely natural.”

Dev muttered, “Not really…”

“Besides, I—” She looked at her dad. “We… Well, it’s just normal for us. But turning into another person—”

“Seems like it would be slightly more complicated,” Tom interjected. “I mean, when we’re animals, we’re still us. We still think like humans, for the most part, though we can’t talk. Did you… I mean, did your mind feel any different? Did you realize you had changed?”

“Only when I saw my reflection. Though, admittedly, Alex and I are roughly the same height and build. If I turned into someone smaller—”

“Turn into Mom!” Aaron said.

“No,” Caleb and Jena said together. It was too weird to even think about. He’d try to cop a feel on… himself. He shuddered.

Caleb saw Devin’s eyes narrow. “Try shifting into me.”

“Are you sure?” he asked.

Devin shrugged. “I’m shorter than you, but not too much. I’m about the same build, but a little thicker in the shoulders. We’re close enough that you’d probably feel it, but not too much.”

He glanced at Jena, but she only gave him a confused shrug.

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll try. I have no idea whether I can do it again.”

Low asked, “What were you thinking about earlier? When you started to shift before you puked?”

Thanks for the reminder, kid. “I was just remembering Alex’s face. My face when I saw it in the mirror. Just that.”

“Well,” Tom said, “try that.” He stood and took a protective stance in front of the boys and Jena.

Caleb took a deep breath, stared into Devin’s eyes for a few minutes, then closed his own. He let the picture of Devin’s face float in the front of his mind. “Anything?”

“Nope.”

He kept his eyes closed. What would it feel like to be Devin Moon? Why did he hide his intelligence behind a facade? What did he really think about the people he claimed to be protecting? Why did he do that thing with his thumb and his front tooth? He delved into the mind of the man across from him…

“Whoa… Mom, are you seeing—”

“Shhh.”

Devin was Indian. What tribe? The Colorado River Indian Tribes had four or five tribes, if he remembered right. Navajo? No, Caleb would be able to tell. Hopi? Mohave? Was his family traditional? Did he grow up on the reservation?
 

He’d chosen to be a cop. But not a homicide detective like Caleb. Did working with the dead carry the same cultural taboo for Devin’s people as it did for Caleb’s? Was his family proud of him?

“Mom?”

“Oh my…”

Did his grandmother hate him? Disown him? Turn away from him as if he was dead? The nausea was back.

“Caleb, open your eyes if you can.”

“I can’t,” he rasped. “Not… not yet.” He could feel his body had shifted. His jeans were a little tighter. The t-shirt he’d put on stretched across his shoulders and the muscles in his arms bulged strangely. He knew his body had changed, but the idea of opening his eyes and seeing the evidence in the mirror terrified him.

“Caleb.” Jena was in front of him. But it wasn’t him. “It’s okay. It’s still you.”

“I changed, didn’t I?”

“Uh-huh.” Her voice was low and calm. “You look just like Dev. But you know what?”

“What?” He could barely hear his own voice.
 

“Your voice is still the same. And the face you’re making right now? It’s totally Caleb. You’re still you.”

“Jena!” He held out his hands, grasping for her. She took them, enfolded them in front of her, and pressed them to her chest.
 

“I’m still me when I’m a hawk. And you’re still you. You’re just borrowing a different skin for a little while.”

He let his eyes open and locked onto hers. The angle was wrong. They were closer, but they weren’t looking at him in horror or revulsion.

“Okay?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“Gonna puke?”

Caleb heard Tom’s voice from across the room, but he didn’t look. “The nausea must be the same for him as it is for us. Chief, don’t worry about that. We get the nausea too, the first few times. It gets better as you adjust to the sensation of shifting. Nothing to worry about.”

Jena still had her eyes locked on him. “Think you can look?”

“Do I have to?”

“It’s pretty amazing. I’m not gonna lie. Except for the voice, you’re Dev’s twin.”

Caleb finally let his eyes leave Jena’s. He looked up, avoiding the mirror, and looked for Devin Moon. The other man was plastered against the opposite wall, staring at Caleb with a combination of awe and revulsion.

“Witch
,
” Devin hissed.

Caleb shook his head. “No.”

“
Clizyati
,” Dev added. “You’re not right.”

He felt the sick twist in his stomach at the old words. “You’re not Navajo. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I know enough.”

Jena looked between the two men in confusion. “Dev? What’s going on?”

“How many years did you work with the dead, Caleb?”

Old guilt ate at him. “Shut up.”

“How many taboos did you break? What kind of evil did you let inside?”

His temper spiked and he felt his body shift. He grew taller. Leaner. The familiar clench as his hand curled into a fist.

“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

Jena said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, either! Will someone explain what’s going on? Dev, are you speaking Navajo? I thought you were Mohave.”

“Does your family know? Or are you dead to them, Skinwalker?”

“Skinwalker?” He could feel Jena try to pull away. “I thought—”

Devin continued. “I may be Mohave, but you think I’m gonna live next to a town of shapeshifters and not do my research? I know what you are, Caleb Gilbert. Tom, get the kids out of here.”

Caleb heard both the boys protest before Jena turned to them. “Out! Now!”

He dropped her hands as if they burned. “You think I’d try to hurt your kids?”

Jena’s eyes swam with remorse and confusion. “I don’t know what’s going on. What’s he talking about?”

“You think I’m evil now?” He didn’t know what he looked like on the outside, but inside, his bruised heart ached. He’d thought that it had been kicked beyond all feeling at that point, but what do you know? He was wrong.
 

Tom didn’t say a word, just took the protesting boys out through the back door. Taking them away from Caleb. Away from the taboo-breaker. The unclean one. The killer.

Tears came to Jena’s eyes. “I don’t know what to think!”

Devin spoke again as soon as he heard the back door slam. “I know your legends. There’s only one way for a Navajo to wear the skin of another human, and it’s very, very dark magic. Which member of your family did you kill?”

Chapter Fifteen

Jena’s mouth gaped in horror. Caleb stepped back, looking like he’d been punched in the face.

“It’s… it’s not like that. I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s not that.” He turned to her. “Jena? You don’t believe…?”

Her mind flew in a thousand different directions. He couldn’t. He
didn’t
. He was a good man; she knew that. But she’d heard the stories, too.

Caleb stared at her for a few more minutes, then a cold mask slid over his features. He walked to the door, then stopped and turned a little, staring at the ground.

“Mr. Charles Yazzie Singer was killed by gunfire during a raid coordinated by federal and local police who were executing arrest warrants in a coordinated operation in the greater Albuquerque metro area. Mr. Singer was killed while attempting to fire on officers in the East Side Narcotic Team led by Detective Caleb Yazzie Gilbert. Detective Gilbert was commended for his actions during the raid.”