The Night Shifters (14 page)

He stopped long
enough to pull off his kilt, then lifted me in his arms and climbed
into bed with me. Then his wonderful, long body rested on top of
mine and his invisible mouth did wonderful things, teaching mine to
do the same. For a moment his body arched against the starlight and
I saw the outline of that human attribute I had been hoping for,
one that did justice to a god.

In another moment I
didn’t need to see it because I could feel it, and there was no
pain, though I couldn’t remember ever making love before. But I
liked that, because it was as if I were doing it all for the first
time, making love to a man whose golden voice whispered things in
my ear that made me shiver with delight and whose amber eyes
watched with satisfaction as I had the first climax in the whole
universe.

Then he said,
“Hazel,” and his voice was strained with his own imminent climax.
“In a moment you’re going to learn something.”

“I’ve already
learned plenty.” I did my best to help him along.

“You don’t
understand. My seed – it carries special attributes. It will teach
you things you didn’t know.”

“Teach me.” I
pulled him close. He shuddered, and I felt a glorious warmth that
quickly spread throughout my entire body. It was his climax, but I
felt it right down to my toes.

When he finished he
should have been exhausted, but instead he seemed alert and fresh.
He rested his weight on his elbows and watched me carefully, his
body still locked to mine.

“Now what?” I asked
him.

“Now you know
something,” he whispered. “What do you know?”

“I don’t know what
I know!”

“Yes you do. Think
about it.”

What did I know? I
knew I was probably in love with the Masked Man. But I was too shy
to say so.

“You have forgotten
something important, Hazel. Something about your past.”

“Something Serena
didn’t want me to remember,” I offered, though that was cheating.
Med hinted about that earlier.

“Think, Hazel. It’s
very close to you, something you know so well you hardly know that
you know.”

I saw something
familiar in his eyes then, something commanding. He must be
manipulating me. He had succeeding in doing what Camilla and the
Car King had tried to do: he had given me something of his, which
meant that he now probably had influence over me. He must have had
a secret agenda, why should he be different from anyone else? But
what was that agenda, and why hadn’t my crystal heart saved me?
Perhaps Sir John was no match for a god.

But I remembered
Sir John’s eyes, the way they had looked when he realized I wasn’t
Serena. No, Sir John was a match for anyone. Perhaps my heart
didn’t hurt because the Masked Man didn’t want to hurt me.

“I love you,
Hazel.” He took my breath away. His eyes burned as he said it.

“What?” was all I
could come up with.

“I’ve just realized
I want to make love to you again,” he whispered. “And I can’t do
that.”

My throat
tightened, but I managed to ask, “Why not?”

“Because each time
I make love to you, you’ll learn something new, until finally
you’ll learn the last secret. You’ll learn my name.”

“Is that so
bad?”

He withdrew from my
body. As soon as we were apart, I ached to come together again. But
I lay there and watched him dress. He put the mask back on and sat
at the edge of the bed, looking at me. I felt as unashamed as the
Celestial Lover, and didn’t cover myself.

“No one has ever
known my name,” he said, “and no one has ever made up a name for me
that even comes close. Until you.”

“What do you
mean?”

“The Masked Man.
You named me that, and now everyone knows me by that name. It’s an
appropriate name, and one that guards my secret. I love you for
that, Hazel.”

“Then it’s all
right. You can be the Masked Man.” I reached for him. But he
stepped back.

“The one who knows
my true name knows my nature. The one who knows my nature has power
over me. I am a Night Shifter!” His voice rang out like the voice
of a warrior, and my crystal heart pounded with admiration. “I
don’t want to be controlled any more than you do, Hazel. Can you
understand that?”

“Yes.” I withdrew
my hand. He turned his back, as if he wanted to leave but couldn’t
quite bring himself to do it.

“This will always
be your room. Whenever you want it,” he said. “You never had to beg
for it, and you owe me no debts.”

“But you’ll never
share this bed with me again?”

He was silent for
so long, I began to wonder if he had become a statue like the one
downstairs. But then he said, “I don’t know,” and opened the door.
I saw his silhouette in the light of the doorway as he looked back
at me for a moment, then stepped into the hall and slowly closed
the door.

I had no
past, but I knew I was no different from any other hopeful lover as
I lay there and glowed with his final words.
He loves me!
I told myself, though I didn’t know if I believed it
or not. Not that I cared about the truth. The words had been so
wonderful, I just wanted to pretend they were true and enjoy them.
How jealous Serena must be right now! Just as she always had
been.

Always.

That was it!
Serena had been jealous. She had been jealous
before
any of this, before the Night came to stay. I had
known her before! I couldn’t remember when, or even what she looked
like, but it was something. Another little piece of my
past.

“Thank you, Masked
Man.” I pulled the covers over my body. I was sleepy, and for the
first time all Night, I felt safe. The stars shone brilliantly
through my window, but I closed my eyes against the light and
savored the warmth his body had left in my bed.

“You’re just
jealous, Serena,” I giggled, and felt satisfaction in saying
it.

Why should I
feel satisfaction?
Because of those damned letters!
I told myself – but just before I drifted off to
sleep, something else occurred to me.

Could it be
possible that I had been just as jealous of Serena as she had been
of me?

* * * * *

I had a dream as I
lay sleeping. I dreamed I was back in grade school. I walked on the
playground with another girl, but I couldn’t see her face. A storm
raged overhead, but it didn’t frighten us – it thrilled us. It
matched the storm that raged within and between us.

This girl was my
rival, my enemy, yet we were linked, too. I couldn’t avoid her, she
couldn’t avoid me. We walked to and fro, passing boys who whistled
at us and called to us, but we were too wrapped up in our conflict
to pay them any heed. And the storm just kept building; we had to
find a way to break the tie between us.

Music blared. The
two of us danced to the sounds of a radio, drawing a crowd of kids
who egged us on. The competitive air around us sparked and crackled
with electricity. We danced and danced, each drawing cheers from
our admirers, until our dancing reached a fever pitch. We were
young, we had limitless energy. I felt a fierce joy as I relived
what it was like to be eleven, to be able to dance forever.

Just when it seemed
things could not possibly get any better, the sky opened and rain
slanted down. I could hear the drops hitting a concrete surface
over my head. I looked out through a curved opening, and –

– I woke up.

As I drifted back
to wakefulness, I felt a terrible sense of disappointment. The sky
had opened up, something important had happened, and I had missed
it. Missed the bus, as it were. I felt abandoned.

But when I opened
my eyes and found myself still in the Masked Man’s house, those
feelings evaporated, and I couldn’t imagine why they had held any
power over me. Someone had lit a fire in the fireplace, so now I
could see the rest of my room. It possessed enough wardrobes,
closets, and dressers to satisfy any woman, but plenty of
bookshelves too, and my old favorites were present, as if the
Masked Man had visited the arcane shops and cleaned them out.

Unlike Camilla, I
only had one mirror, but that was enough. Open doors let me glimpse
the lovely things that hung within the closets.

If
he doesn’t love me,
I
thought to myself (rather smugly I’m afraid),
he certainly seems to like me very
much.

I slipped out of
bed and went to inspect the goodies.

The Masked Man had
picked a few garments for me that made me blush, but there were
formal things too, and casual things. I found my favorite lilac
sweater folded up in a drawer next to my jeans. On a nearby chair,
a velvet catsuit had been laid out, as a suggestion I presume.
Other than a large oval cut out just above the breasts, it went
from neck, to wrist, to ankle, and zipped up the back. I was about
to put it on when I smelled perfume wafting from the next room.

It turned out to be
a bathroom, and someone had run a hot bubble bath for me. A large
pitcher waited on a stand next to the tub, so I could rinse my
hair. I started toward the bath when I noticed another wonderful
object sitting in the corner.

The toilet. A big,
beautiful, modern model. I hadn’t had the urge to use one all
Night, but suddenly I did. I hoped the urge would continue to be
rare, because I had a feeling working toilets might be few and far
between.

When that was taken
care of, I returned to the tub and slid gratefully into the scented
water, hoping the Night wouldn’t shift on me while I was there and
put me down in the middle of someone’s garden party.

My fingers
and toes wrinkled as I soaked in the tub, wondering idly where I
had gone when I was asleep. If people came
here
when they dreamed, did my dreaming self go somewhere else? Or
were there two of me here while I dreamed? Did I stay inside my own
head, searching for lost memories? Or were there lots of places
people went, and this just one of them? I rather liked that last
possibility.

My bathwater
finally cooled, forcing me out of the tub and in front of the fire,
where I toweled myself off and eyed the catsuit speculatively. If
the Masked Man wanted to see me that way, what harm would it
do?

As if I really
needed an excuse to put it on and prance around in it. I felt like
that cocky eleven-year-old kid from my dream. My wet hair stuck out
in all directions, but the effect looked deliberate, downright
fashionable. My silver earrings sparkled in the light as I stood in
front of a full-length mirror with sphinxes curled lazily around
its edges. I wondered how I compared to Camilla now. And Serena?
Was I a proper Lady of the Night? I decided I was.

While I examined my
reflection, breakfast appeared on a little table in front of the
fire. In two seconds I smelled it and pounced on it, without the
slightest worry from my crystal heart. It was funny that in a world
of so many possibilities I had so much trouble feeding myself – so
I figured I’d better take advantage of the grub while I could. I
ate until I couldn’t stuff another morsel down.

After that I spent
a little more time exploring my new belongings, but I began to get
bored pretty fast. I wanted the Masked Man to come back, even if he
didn’t make love to me. I wanted him to talk to me, take me for a
ride on his crazy motorcycle. Or if the Masked Man wouldn’t talk to
me, maybe I could find Sir John and have a chat with him. I missed
him.

I went to my door
and cracked it open. Suddenly I felt shy about peeking into the
hall, and relieved when no one was there. I almost stepped out into
the corridor when I remembered the shoes I had been gifted with. I
had left them at the foot of my bed.

When I bent over to
pick them up, I saw the Big Dipper.

Someone had put it
right in the middle of the sky, where it would be framed by my
window. I could hardly believe that Nostradamus or Camilla would do
such a thing. Unless – Camilla did seem to have a crush on me. Or
maybe Nostradamus was trying to snow me. Or maybe...

The Big Dipper
tilted at a provocative angle, with the handle pointing up almost
forty-five degrees, and the cup at its base. It looked rather like
something else. I blushed when I realized who had put the Dipper
there.

“Thank you, Masked
Man.” I blew the Dipper a kiss.

•

Another lion’s head
graced the knob on my side of the door, but this one snarled, while
the outside one had looked calm and noble. Maybe I should have
taken it as a warning, but I couldn’t sit around any longer. I
opened my door and peered into the hallway.

My room no longer
occupied the space at the end, now it sat in the middle. The hall
stretched so far in either direction, its ends looked tiny, like
infinite reflections in a mirror. Each knob on the doors I could
see featured a different animal. Could there be as many knobs in
this house as there were animals in the world? Would it stick to
vertebrates, or would I find mollusks and bacterium at the far
end?

Now my curiosity
had really sparked, I couldn’t retreat. I stepped into the hall and
stared first in one direction, then the other. Nothing moved.

“Hello!” My voice
echoed. The place didn’t just feel empty, it sounded empty too. The
carpeting muffled my footsteps as I walked to the first door on my
left. It was arched and double-sided, and had dragon heads for
knobs. I tried them, but the door was locked.

“Okay.” I walked to
the door on the opposite side of the hall. This one was square, and
had a fish for a knob. It was locked too.

The Masked Man’s
house seemed determined to be as much a mystery as he. Yet I didn’t
feel discouraged. I looked for the next door.