Change

by Melissa Stevens

  Chapter 12

  That evening I walked through the courtyard, headed for the stairs that lead to my apartment when I caught the scent of Kindred. I stopped in my tracks and looked around me, trying to figure out where the scent was coming from.

  There was only one other person in sight, he had his back to me and a large box in his arms, but there was something somehow familiar about the tall, broad shouldered man. I continued to watch him, trying to figure out why he seemed so familiar. He set the box down at his feet and turned and looked around, almost as though he had felt someone watching him. The moment I saw his face I recognized him, through the unfamiliar shagginess of his dirty blond hair I could see the angular jaw and distinctive set of his mouth. The once familiar nose had been broken and healed crookedly since the last time I had seen him, but I knew he was someone I hadn't seen in years. I froze for a split second, disbelieving my eyes.

  "Devon Wilson!" I shouted across the length of the complex courtyard.

  He spotted me as I called out his name and it took a moment before I saw the recognition in his face when he realized who I was. He'd been in Payson's class in school, they were few years ahead of me, but they’d hung out in the same circle and her crowd had spent enough time at our house that we were friendly despite the age difference.

  "Daniels? Nickie Daniels! How're you doing?" He answered, a smile spreading across his face. I changed direction and headed toward him, walking across the courtyard to where he had been carrying the box into an apartment there.

  "I'm good, you? I heard you ran away and joined the Army. I haven't seen you in years." I said as soon as I got close enough I wouldn't have to yell to be heard. When I got close enough I caught the smoky scent of his skin under the sweat he’d obviously worked up hauling boxes like the one he’d set down when he’d looked around.

  "I did. I was with them for almost ten years before I broke my leg on a training exercise and they gave me a medical discharge."

  "They discharged you over a broken leg?" I asked, my disbelief evident in my voice.

  "Well, maybe broken's not the right word, shattered would be more accurate. It's been almost a year since the accident and I still have trouble more often than not."

  "Oh, wow. But wait a minute. You're Kindred, how is it possible that you haven't healed in a year?"

  I saw surprise flash across his face for just an instant before he carefully wiped it cleared it. "What do you mean?" He asked, his face carefully blank.

  I panicked for just a second, worried I’d screwed up. I had to be careful here, I didn't want make him suspicious if I was wrong, but I knew I wasn't. I was certain he knew what I was talking about. But this wasn't the place for this discussion, where anyone could walk by and we might be overheard.

  "You look like you've had a full day's work, why don't you come on up to my place, and we can catch up," I invited, "I'll fix us something for dinner, and we can talk, without standing out here all night."

  "Um…okay, I guess. Let me just lock up my place and I'll be right behind you. Which unit are you in?"

  "315, but I didn't know you live here."

  "I haven't been, but I do now. I'm moving in today. I've only been back to the area for a little while, and I've spent the last couple of weeks crashing at my parents until I could find a place of my own."

  "No wonder I haven't seen you around here before," I said, nodding, "I'm going to head on up and fire up the grill, I'll thaw a couple of steaks and we can toss those on. You come on up when you're ready, and then we'll catch up." I said, turning and starting back across the courtyard and up the stairs to my apartment. As soon as I got inside I pulled my PCD out of my purse and dialed Bill.

  “Nickie, what’s up?” Bill answered the call.

  "Devon Wilson. Payson's age. Why does he smell like Kindred, and why did he pretend not to know what I was talking about when I asked him?" I asked quickly, not wasting time once he picked up.

  "Ah, I knew he was back in town but I didn't realize you knew him."

  "He was part of Payson's crowd in school; they spent a lot of time hanging around the house, so we were friendly." I explained, giving basics but keeping it short, I was kind of in a hurry.

  "I didn't realize that… Anyway, Devon is Kindred, yes, but he doesn't shift. I'm sure he smells more strongly of Kindred because he's living with his parents right now, and while he's Kindred, he probably doesn't think of himself as one of us.

  "He probably has no clue that you shift, or that you now know about us. Remember the last he knew of you was when he left town, and then, you had no clue of what you are and neither did anyone else. While you've known about us for a couple of weeks, not many in the pack know you yet." He reminded me, I went to the freezer while I listened and pulled out a couple of steaks.

  "I guess that explains it," I said, "And he's not living with his parents anymore, he's got an apartment in my complex. That's where I ran into him. Thanks for the info, but I've gotta go. He's supposed to come up and have dinner with me and I don't want him to catch me on the phone."

  "All right. Have a good evening,"

  "Thanks again. Bye,"

  "Bye," I hit the end button and laid the device on the table as I popped the steaks into a bowl of hot water to thaw. I stepped out on to my balcony and lit on the grill to let it start heating. I was changing out the now cold water in the bowl thawing the steaks when I heard the knock on my door.

  "Just a second!" I shouted, turning off the water and grabbing a towel of the counter. I carried it with me, drying my hands as I walked through the living room to open the door. Devon was standing patiently on the doorstep. He'd pulled his hair back away from his face into a ponytail low on his neck and I noticed that he’d pierced his ears since the last time I'd seen him ten years earlier, he now wore a single small gold hoop in each ear.

  "Come on in, have a seat, the steaks are almost ready to toss on the grill," I motioned him inside, and closed the door. "Can I get you something to drink? I have soda, tea, milk, water, possibly some juice, and I think I even have a couple of beer in the fridge, if that would interest you…"

  "Tea's fine," He said, looking around the living room of my small apartment, still standing.

  "Let me get that real quick, make yourself at home," I invited, heading into the kitchen to fix his drink. I heard him following me so I continued, "I'm sorry about blurting out about Kindred down there, it just surprised me, I didn't know that you're Kitsune, and it surprised me."

  "That's what I thought you said but I wasn't sure. I mean, you're not Kindred so how can you know about them?"

  "Actually, I am Kindred. Though it is a fairly new discovery for me and I'm still learning my way around. I've only met a few of the pack so far, so I'm not surprised you hadn't heard." I said, filling a glass with ice and tea and handing it to him as he took a seat at the dining room table.

  "Really?" He asked "How? I knew you and your family for years. How can you suddenly discover that you are Kindred when none of your family is?"

  "Well, you know that Raine, Pace, 'Low and I are adopted right?" I asked pulling out two baking potatoes from the basket of them I kept in a deep drawer and washing them.

  "Well, yeah. It's kinda hard to miss."

  I laughed, I couldn't help myself, he was right. Looking at all of us you would never guess we were all siblings.

  "Well, apparently, at least one of my birth parents was Kitsune, and so I am. From what I've learned, Bill, the Anikitos, has known I had Kindred blood since I was a baby, but he never said anything." I stabbed the potatoes several times with a fork before sticking them in the microwave and starting them cooking.

  "So one day you just shifted and had no clue what was going on?" He asked.

  "Pretty much. I was out hiking with a friend a couple of weeks ago and I tripped. I didn't see the snake until it was too late and I ended up bit, and I panicked. From what Bill told me, my panic in turn sent my wolf into a panic and I shift
ed. Luckily, the friend I was with is Kindred and he was able to keep me from going totally ape-shit when it happened. We made the hike back to the car and he talked me through shifting again, this time on purpose. Then he took me to see Bill. I've spent the last couple of weeks trying to get use to it all, the enhanced senses, and my new strength. I had a hard time with some of it at first, but it's getting easier with practice. I spent today with Alexis, trying to learn to use one of my Talents."

  "I see..."

  "I'm sorry about the outburst in the courtyard; it just kind of surprised me. I mean I had no clue for all those years you were hanging around the house."

  "I understand. But you need to understand that I'm not a shifter."

  "I know, before you got here I called Bill and asked. I was afraid that I'd blown it big time. No one's told me yet exactly what the punishment is for letting people in on the secret without permission but it's been hinted to be pretty bad, and I didn't want to risk it. He said that you don't shift. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring up what might be a sore subject." I opened the refrigerator and pulling out the makings for a salad.

  "It's not a big deal. I came to terms with who and what I am a long time ago. I mean, yeah, it would be nice to be able to shift and to not be an outsider in my own family, but I've come to accept my life as it is and to be happy with it."

  "I'm just starting to realize how difficult it is to hide something this big thing from my family. To not be able to talk about it with them. We've always talked about everything."

  "How long have you known?"

  "I first shifted two weeks ago today…"

  "Wow, that's about when I got back into town. No wonder you don't know many of the Kindred yet."

  "Yeah, I've only met a few. Let me tell you, it was a bit of a shock to realize that Bill was not only Kindred but the pack leader to boot. I've known him all my life and I had no clue he was anything but human. Of course I never suspected that anything but humans even existed. Spending Fridays at the clinic with Alexis has introduced me to a few more people. But I'm sure it's going to take me a while to get to know everyone." I pulled a few leaves off a head of lettuce and washed them before tearing them into bite sized chunks and dropping them into a salad bowl, mixing it with pre-cut salad mix.

  "I can imagine."

  "So, enough about me and the Kindred. What have you been up to? You left here almost ten years ago and I thought you'd never looked back and you never would."

  "Well, since you're in on the secret now, I'll tell you the whole story."

  "Okay, if you want to." I said, patiently waiting for him to begin his story.

  "I'd just turned nineteen when they decided that I would likely never shift. I'd tried several times with no luck. We had a different Second then and they couldn't call animal forms. But we had Alexis' grandmother and she could. She told us it's not possible to call someone's wolf until they’ve shifted for the first time. Something about not being able to reach the wolf until then, I don't really understand the details of it.” I glanced over at him and found him looking sightlessly at his glass of tea on the table.

  "There are ways to help someone shift for the first time but calling their animal form isn't one of them. We'd tried everything that we knew to do and we finally had to give up. Anyway, the Anikitos told me I was free to do as I wanted, as long as I kept the secret.

  "So I did what I'd wanted to do for some time. I joined the Army, knowing it would take me out of town. I did well but not extraordinarily so, and I worked my way up in rank some. I wasn't on the bottom of the pile anymore but I didn't have huge responsibilities either. I've been all over the world and I enjoyed what I did enough to re-up when my first commitment was over, I was content.

  "And then last year we were out on a training exercise and I took a bad fall. I fell about thirty feet off a rocky ledge, and landed wrong and the impact shattered my leg. I spent weeks in a hospital. Went through several surgeries and months of physical therapy. I still walk with a limp sometimes, especially when I'm tired or overdo it. When they decided that I could no longer perform my duties the Army let me go, gave me a medical discharge. They didn't just dump me; I get a disability check each month because the injury was in the line of duty. It's enough to scrape by but not enough to really live on. It's a lot cheaper to live here than in a bigger city, so I decided to move back. Plus, my family is here and even if I'm the ghost in the closet, they're still my family."

  "I'm sorry that you're family sees it that way. Bill's given me permission to tell my parents, but I'm afraid of how they might take it, so I haven't yet."

  "He said you can tell your family?" Devon asked, clearly surprised.

  "No, just my parents. I've been expressly forbidden from telling my siblings."

  "That makes a little more sense. Telling anyone is considered a big deal, that he gave you permission to tell your folks at all is huge." He said, "Speaking of your siblings, how's everyone doing?"

  "Pretty good, Brit's married and has two kids. Cam's got a steady girlfriend but he hasn't brought her around the rest of us yet. Probably because he doesn't want to hear the teasing he's sure to get. Pace is living in Tucson, she's got a good job there. Raine's here though, he's been with STPD for about three years now. And 'Low is getting ready to start her last year a NAU. She stayed up there for the summer, taking a summer class and working as a waitress in some restaurant up there."

  "Wow, the last time I saw Shiloh she was about eleven. It's hard to believe she is almost done with college."

  "Yep. You have a brother and a sister too, don't you?"

  "Yeah, Amy and Jason are both older than me. We aren't real close. We haven't been for a long time." I heard the regret in his voice and I suspected that part of their not being close may stem from his not being able to shift.

  I checked the steaks and found them thawed, so I dumped the water out and started getting them ready to go on the grill. I quickly seasoned them and carried them out and put them onto the grill I closed the lid over them, and then headed back into the house to finish the rest of dinner.

  As I walked back into the kitchen I asked Devon "What are your plans now that you have a place of your own?"

  "I'm gonna start looking for a job. I don't really want to go to work for the mine or for any other big company but I will if I have to. I haven't really looked at what's out there yet, I've been concentrating on getting a place of my own."

  "Yeah," I pulled a couple of plates out of the cabinet over the dishwasher, "I can't imagine living with my parents again, and I’ve only been out of their house and living by my own rules for about half as long as you have. I admit, I like being able to do things when and how I want without someone coming along and telling me how I should do it."

  "Oh, do I know exactly what you're talking about!" He laughed, "For the last two weeks I can't step out the door without being grilled 'where are you going? When will you be home? Who will you be with?' It's like I'm fourteen again." We both laughed at his imitation of his parents.

  "Hang on. I'll be right back" I grabbed a pair of tongs and went out to the grill to turn the steaks. I walked back into the kitchen where Devon was patiently waiting and asked, "I forgot to ask, how do you take your steak?"

  "However you make yours will be fine with me." He said.

  "Are you sure? I eat mine pretty rare."

  "All I care is that it's hot all the way through, cold steak just doesn't do much for me."

  "I think I've said exactly that before, bloody is okay, but I just don't do cold." I laughed and started setting things on the table for dinner. I pulled the butter and the salad dressing I keep for guests out of the fridge and set them on the table. I gathered flatware, steak knives, napkins and salt and pepper and set them out. I grabbed a plate and the tongs and I went back out to the grill, pulling the steaks off the heat and putting them onto the plate before shutting off the grill. I carried the plate and tongs back inside with me and put the steaks on separa
te plates to let the meat rest while I took the salads to the table.

  I sat down and told Devon to dig in, he used the dressing I’d set out and I ate my salad dry, the way I prefer it. While we were eating our salads the microwave beeped indicating that our potatoes were done. When we had finished our salads I took our bowls to the sink and filled them with water. I pulled the potatoes out of the microwave and put one on each plate.

  "Do you want sour cream with your potato?" I asked.

  "No, thanks. I’m good."

  "Then here we are." I replied, setting the two plates onto the table and I sat down once again.

  Devon cut his steak and took the first bite "Perfect. Thanks for inviting me up." He said. "I was just starting to think about food and pizza was my most likely option, since they'll deliver."

  "No problem, I was just going to end up eating alone again." We finished dinner and I picked up the kitchen while we visited some more. Once the dishes were loaded and no trace of our dinner left behind Devon and I moved into the living room to visit for a while before he called it an night, he thanked me again for dinner and left. Devon stayed on my mind for the rest of the evening, something about him seemed to draw me. As I was getting ready for bed a couple hours later it occurred to me that he would need to get reacquainted with people in town, and maybe I could arrange for him to catch up with my family.