Shifting Selves (3 page)

Finally, Will shook his head, breaking our stare. “Are they always like this?” he asked Mac.

Mac shrugged. “You get used to it.”

“Right.” He turned back to the living room and began issuing commands. “Eleanor, you stay here with Celeste in case he returns or anyone phones. Brandon, you’re with us. Let’s take the FBI’s finest to where you last saw James.” The sneer that returned to his voice when he spoke of the FBI made me rather glad we didn’t have business cards or badges. “All right, little water. Let’s see what you can do.”

Fortunately, Will displayed the same fondness for oversized vehicles that his nephew did, and the five of us easily fit in his Explorer. It was an older model, with plenty of scrapes and a few rust spots threatening the green paint, but it was roomy enough for two shifters, a gangly teenager, and their guests. The two older men took the front seats and Brandon hopped in the rear, leaving the middle seats for me and Sera. We were surrounded, and I suspected that was no accident.

We headed northwest through the trees. Spring had come late that year. Snow still covered the mountain peaks, which glimmered under the early May sun, but it had melted from the forest floor, revealing warm brown dirt and the early signs of spring growth.

My spirit couldn’t help but lift at the sight. Sure, my life was kind of a mess right now, with one problem jumping on top of another without politely waiting for the first problem to be solved. I had a father I feared, powers I didn’t understand, a potential future as a madwoman, the constant fear of being found out by other elementals, and a new job for which I was completely unqualified. Even worse, my friends were forcing me to exercise. But, hey, at least it was a beautiful spring day, and I planned to enjoy it.

The car was silent. The three men stared out their windows, lost in thought. They gave no indication they would provide information before it was absolutely necessary. Sera considered each man in turn, a stubborn set to her jaw.

Eventually, she settled on Brandon as the most susceptible and began to stare at him, her gaze determined and unwavering. He managed to ignore her for at least five seconds. To be fair, that was more than I’d ever managed.

“What?” he asked. He was surly and belligerent, the perfect juvenile delinquent.

“Tell us what you know,” she said.

I caught Will’s eyes in the rearview mirror, watching us intently.

“I don’t know anything,” he muttered. She continued to stare. I almost felt sorry for Brandon.

“I don’t think she believes you,” I said. He shifted in his seat, trying to escape her gaze.

A low growl came from the front of the car. I didn’t know whether the warning was intended for us or Brandon, but I was certain Papa Bear wasn’t happy at the moment. Brandon cast a nervous glance toward his father, then blatantly attempted to change the subject.

“Are you really half water?” he asked, sounding skeptical. Most of the stronger elementals—quarter-blooded and above—still lived in the enclaves, so it was likely he’d never met any truly powerful ones.

I nodded, and jerked my head toward Sera. “She’s three-quarters fire.” I figured it couldn’t hurt to remind them that we were bad motherfuckers in our own right. Brandon glanced between us, and I thought he was working hard not to look a little impressed.

That was the wise reaction. We might act like buffoons on occasion, but Sera could set everyone in this car on fire and casually roast marshmallows at the same time, if she were so inclined. Hell, I probably could, too, if I didn’t mind losing a little bit of my mind in the process.

I glanced at Mac. He was still facing forward, but I felt a rush of tenderness for the back of his head. He must have told them a little about me, for them to know how strong a water I was, but that was all Brandon knew. Mac hadn’t told his family about my fire side. He knew the cost of the elementals learning I was a dual magic would be my life. The council would make sure of that.

It was a welcome reminder that, in this case, I’d trusted the right people. Sera, Mac, Simon, and Vivian, they held my life in their hands, and they were keeping it safe.

“Do you know many elementals?” I asked Brandon.

He shook his head. “No, but I was home schooled with kids from other shifter families until recently. We only mainstream for high school, even the human kids. They want to wait till we’re old enough not to blab family secrets.” He muttered the words into his chest, avoiding our eyes.

Having come from a similarly sheltered background, I understood, and I felt a small pang of sympathy for the kid. No one wanted to admit to being socially maladjusted. “So, what can you do?” Brandon asked. “Can you make it rain and stuff?”

I nodded. “I can, if there’s enough water in the air, but I have to be cautious. It ends up on YouTube if someone notices the storm is limited to a small area.”

I don’t think he heard anything beyond my first two words. “Could you do that sometime? Could I watch?” Despite himself, he was curious, and his interest caused the detached teen facade to drop for a moment.

I tried to take advantage. “When did you last see James?” I hoped that the sudden change of topic would catch him off guard.

He didn’t fall for it, choosing instead to stare out the window and ignore me. I felt my earlier sympathy dissipate.

Will answered instead. “Brandon says they met up after dinner and went to the lake, but James wandered off after shifting. That was the last time anyone saw him.”

“You didn’t see anything?” Brandon shook his head, looking more than a little guilty.

“We’ll see what the water tells us,” I murmured, as much to him as to myself.

CHAPTER 3

Despite living in the area for years during college, I’d never been to Independence Lake, but after a few minutes in the area, I was considering buying a local home.

It was smaller than Lake Tahoe, but the water was every bit as clear, and it was surrounded by acres of old growth forest. It didn’t suffer from the throngs of tourists that plagued its better known cousin, and at this time of year only the most dedicated kayakers paddled through its icy water. It was the sort of place that allowed you to picture what the mountains were like hundreds of years ago, when, paradoxically, uncontrolled wilderness offered peace in a way a tamed mountain never could.

If I lived in a place like this, I might never need to worry about my fire half manifesting.

Brandon showed us where they’d been the night before. I spotted several footprints in the area, both human and animal, possibly from where shifters had already searched.

I prowled around the lake edge, examining the area. “Brandon, where did James shift?” He pointed, and I walked to the spot. There were too many footprints to follow a trail, though I still tried. The paths led further into the woods and provided no clues as to James’s whereabouts. When I returned to the others, Will looked amused by my failure. It was no more than he expected.

“Give me the shirt.” I held out my hand, and Will passed me a sweatshirt James had worn the day before. The shifters had used it to learn his scent for tracking. I had my own plans for it.

“You think you’ll have more luck with his smell than we did, little water?” Will looked greatly amused by the thought.

I might be naturally inclined to trust this man, thanks to his resemblance to Mac, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t equally inclined to drench him in a six-foot wave if he kept patronizing me. I reached behind me, getting to know the water. Just in case.

“Were you home schooled too, Will? Don’t know how else to explain you knowing so little about us.” To my surprise, he laughed. He deliberately stepped away from me and leaned against the SUV, giving me the freedom to do what I needed. Though his pose was relaxed, his eyes were sharp, studying my every move.

Before I could begin, Vivian and Simon appeared silently before us. Between his cat nature and her affinity for the earth, no two people could sneak around a forest the way those two could. On the whole, it was a fairly useless skill, but I enjoyed watching the shifters jump when they arrived.

Sera had phoned them on the ride over, asking them to join us. We filled them in quickly, blatantly ignoring any confidentiality guidelines the agents might have expected us to adhere to. I’d already chosen to trust these people with my life. After that, what were a few national secrets between friends?

“Just so you know, I am not getting drawn into another mystery in need of solving as part of some master plan to keep me in Tahoe,” Simon informed us. His objection noted for the record, he promptly shifted and ran up the nearest tree. It was quite a bit taller than the average house cat would be comfortable climbing, but Simon showed no such reservations. A moment later, he was jumping from branch to branch, able to examine the trails in a way no human or bear ever could.

“Brandon, where were you when he vanished?” He pointed to a large boulder, part of an outcropping of rocks that rose from the lake. It had a smooth, flat surface, and I imagined it was a favorite fishing spot for locals.

I perched on the rock and studied the shoreline. The water to the right was wide open, and Brandon would have seen anyone leaving the area that way. To my left, about two hundred feet away, the shoreline curved gently into a promontory that created a sizable blind spot.

I walked to that section of the lake and knelt at the water’s edge. The water immediately rushed to me, wrapping around my Converse-clad feet in greeting. I ran my fingers through it, sharing its joy at finding an old friend. We’d been born from the same source, from the magic that long ago created every landscape on earth, and though millennia had passed, we still felt an unshakeable kinship. I might feel I lived in a state of constant chaos these days, but at least one thing never changed. When I touched the water, I knew peace.

Gently, I moved my hand over James’s sweatshirt, picking up the residue from his sweat the day before. It wasn’t much, and if he hadn’t worn it while exercising, I doubted I’d be able to sense a thing. There was merely the hint of the water that formed his sweat, the tiniest suggestion of the being who’d worn this shirt.

It wasn’t enough. I grabbed a bottle of filtered water from my bag and poured several drops onto the sweatshirt, letting it mingle with the dried sweat and revive it, until the water could tell me the story of the young man who’d worn the shirt. I wouldn’t be able to read it as clearly as if the sweat had never dried, but it was better than nothing.

I let his essence fold into the tiny ridges of my fingerprints, become one with my own magic. I let it build slowly. It wouldn’t tell me what James looked like, what he’d been thinking or doing or even feeling at the time. All I could achieve, with a tremendous amount of concentration, was a vague sense of his self, that quality that made him unique despite living in a world of seven billion people.

I waited, simultaneously breathing in the water and the scent, until I felt James’s essence form in my mind, completely separate from my own self.

I dipped my hand in the water, sending my new knowledge through the water along the shore, looking for a match, the spot where he might have entered the lake.

Though much smaller than Tahoe, this was still a large lake, and there was a tremendous amount of water to explore. I kept my eyes closed, refusing to allow for distractions, and I focused wholly on the secrets the water revealed. The magic encountered dozens of people, fishermen who’d dipped their hands in the water or kayakers who’d stepped rapidly through the chilly shallows, but not as many as it would have found in summer. It was still a manageable amount.

At last, I found him, further away than I expected and weak. Still, it was enough. With eyes closed, I pointed to the spot. “There. Check there, Vivian.” I heard her move away toward the spot I indicated. If there were any recent disturbances to the soil, she’d find them.

While she did that, I stretched the magic further through the water, looking for more evidence of James’s presence. There was a clear path from the shore, but only for about five feet. There, it ended abruptly.

“Someone was here,” called Vivian. “Last night. This whole area is disturbed, though.”

“Like there were a bunch of shifters tromping through, looking for a lost cub?” asked Sera, sounding irate. I couldn’t blame her. She was ridiculously powerful, but until we needed something set on fire, she was useless.

My eyes were still closed, avoiding unnecessary distractions while following the trail, but Simon’s voice let me know he’d shifted back to human. “The prints are the same. It was one bear and one human in, I believe, size eleven shoes. Or just one shifter in both forms.”

“James.” Will sounded pained, and I made a mental note to cut him a little slack, at least until he started calling me little water again.

“Only one person went into the water,” I agreed. I opened my eyes at last and looked directly at James’s father. “Will, I think he did this deliberately. He set a false trail along the shore, then waded into the water, where he knew your noses would be useless.”

A weight appeared to lift from Will’s shoulders. While a runaway teen was no cause for celebration, it still beat the other explanations for why his son was missing.

I moved my magic through the water that undulated at the end of James’s trail, seeking an explanation for its abrupt disappearance.

There it was. It was the smallest hint, the quickest dip of human flesh reaching out to help another. “He got into a boat, and he wasn’t alone.”

Will nodded at me once, a short acknowledgement of gratitude, then rounded on his other son. “Brandon, let’s have some words.” He stalked far away from the rest of us, leaving his son to follow dismally behind him.

Above me, I caught a flicker of movement as Simon shifted back into cat form and raced silently along the branches, looking for a good spot downwind to eavesdrop. He might lack any skill with weaponry beyond his own sharp claws, but there was a reason we called him our ninja.

I sat on the shore and waited. Mac, I realized, was watching me, might have been watching me the entire time. “I didn’t know you could do that,” he said quietly.

I should have ignored him. I should have offered a polite answer. I should have done a whole lot of things other than flirt with the man who’d spent the last several weeks avoiding the crazy half-fire chick. I should have accepted that he didn’t want me and my bonfire full of baggage, and it was time to move on.

I’ve never been very good with shoulds.

Instead of letting him go, I smiled and let my eyes fill with vague, silent promises. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

I swore his breath hitched in his chest for just a moment. It was enough. I felt warmth thread through my body, heating my cheeks, dropping through the core where the magic lived and heading even lower.

“Aidan.” Brandon’s voice snapped me back to the present. He walked toward us slowly, his father’s disappointed gaze on him the entire time. Brandon looked dejected and, for a moment, far younger than his years. I imagined that whatever his father had wanted to know, the interrogation hadn’t been pleasant. “There’s no one around. Could you make it rain now?”

I was unable to resist his pathetic expression, the face of a kid who just wanted something pleasant to wash away his doubt and pain. I quickly wrapped my magic around the water hovering in the air and, for good measure, pulled some from the lake as well. I let it circle above us before dropping slowly, drenching the three of us in a cold shower I knew at least one of us desperately needed.

It was a cozy ride back. Neither Vivian nor Simon had their own car, so they’d been dropped at the lake by a friend of Vivian’s. Being the shortest, Sera squeezed into the back and immediately resumed her silent interrogation of Brandon. Eventually, the poor kid was going to confess to kidnapping the Lindbergh baby if it meant Sera would stop staring at him. Will hadn’t shared with us the details of his conversation with his son, but I wasn’t too bothered. Simon would fill us in later.

Vivian was squished between me and Simon in the middle. She was quiet, as she usually was, but it wasn’t her normal silence, that of an introvert more interested in studying the world than talking about it. This time, her silence was heavy and draped in sadness.

“What’s wrong?” I kept my voice low. I don’t know why I hoped for privacy while surrounded by shifters, but I couldn’t stay quiet and ignore her misery. Vivian had spent hours listening to my various woes. It was her turn.

“It’s nothing,” she muttered. A moment later, she changed her mind, whatever she’d been holding inside all day breaking free in a rush. “Olivia says we might be able to be friends. That’s it. I’ve been trying, and I thought, now that the killings were over, we could, you know. She says she doesn’t give second chances. And I can’t even tell her I left to protect her.” She ended her disjointed rant with a small grunt of frustration.

Simon lightly stroked her arm, an easy, comforting gesture. He already knew, I realized. So did Sera.

That far-too-familiar sense of being an outsider crept over me, and I forced it down. I knew where that led. Frustration, anger, fire. Madness. I needed to be zen if it fucking killed me. It wasn’t their fault they were more observant than I was.

I’d been a hermit for ten years. I’d lost a few people skills during that decade, and if I was honest I’d never had too many to begin with. If I’d taken even a moment to think about what Vivian was going through, I’d have seen it coming.

When we thought the murderer was killing human partners of elementals, Vivian split with her girlfriend. Now that her ex wasn’t in danger, of course she’d try to repair the relationship—but she needed to do so without admitting they broke up to save Olivia from a homicidal magic man who didn’t exist in her version of reality.

Relationships between humans and elementals were always fraught. It was hard to keep the secret when we lived so much longer than they did and needed regular access to our element. Telling the secret carried its own risks.

Vivian lifted her shoulders, a single, helpless shrug. “She says she doesn’t trust me.”

“Give it time.” Mac was quiet, but he’d obviously heard every word. “It takes a while to build that sort of thing again.”

Vivian nodded. “So, you’re saying I shouldn’t hack her Facebook account just yet?” I worried she wasn’t joking.

Sera shook her head. “It would probably be easier just to date someone new, Viv. You’re hot. Move on.”

I noticed Brandon had snapped out of his sullen teenage reverie and was looking at Vivian with renewed interest. “You have a girlfriend?” he asked a little too eagerly.

Six pairs of eyes rolled simultaneously, and the rest of the drive to Will’s house was silent.

Though Will had become progressively more civil over the course of the afternoon, we were still summarily dismissed at his front door. Mac cast an apologetic glance our way, but he still followed his uncle inside. In the past I’d heard him speak of his family in less than flattering terms, but I saw none of that animosity here. Though I planned to corner him at the cabin for more information, I couldn’t be sure where his loyalties truly lay.

Fortunately, we had a spy. Unfortunately, it was Simon, who often prolonged his grand reveals until he felt the response would be sufficiently dramatic. And so we were all surprised when he starting speaking the moment the doors closed on Sera’s Mustang.

“Vivian, tablet.” She pulled the ever present device from her bag. So far as I could tell, it was her security blanket. “We need to find a girl named Pamela. No last name, I fear. She attends the local high school and is most likely around James’s age, so probably a junior or senior.” While he spoke, Vivian swiped her hand across the screen, her movements rapid and confident. If the information existed anywhere online, she would find it. “I suspect we do not have much time. The large man was quite insistent. If not for our presence, he would have demanded more details from his son. That is almost certainly what he is doing now.”