Gweneth followed, slinking low, trying to follow without detection. The leopard stopped and turned to face her. Detected. Undeterred, she rose from her dropped position and stepped daintily across the forest floor to join him. She rubbed against his flanks, marking him with her scent.
Mine.
Mine.
A sharp pain cut across her awareness, making her freeze in the action of rubbing noses with the leopard.
Gweneth’s eyes flicked open, her vision wavering. Something burst within her chest, pushing, pushing, pushing while the ache and throb of her bones increased until she cried out with the pain of it. She groaned, too fatigued to offer resistance to the force that seemed determined to detonate her weak body.
She closed her eyes against the burst of brightness, the intensity of the colors and textures. Every one of her senses—smell, sight, touch, sound and taste—cataloged impressions, bombarding her brain with information. So much information.
Intense pain burst through her arms, her legs, her torso, and she cried out, but that sharp jolt had done something, eased the pressure. The discomfort faded, and Gweneth took a deep breath. She opened her eyes and squeaked, instantly squeezing them shut again.
The squeak emerged as a throaty growl, and she froze.
Her throat worked in a swallow as she sought the courage to confront the truth.
She’d morphed into a feline.
That was what every clue told her.
Gweneth took a deep breath and opened her eyes. She jumped off the bed. Jumped.
Four legs. Paws. Black fur. A tail.
Cat.
The remnants of her tunic and bra draped around her chest and ribs. Ah, yes. The clothes on the top half of a feline body didn’t survive a shift while any clothing or footwear below the waist somehow melted into the skin. She managed to wriggle free of the shredded clothing, irked because that had been her favorite bra. At least the matching panties would reappear once she morphed back to humanoid.
The feline part of her ordered her to explore, to check her suite for safety. Since she couldn’t fathom an argument, she padded a slow lap of her sleeping chamber, filling her nostrils with familiar scents and the underlying ones her humanoid nose didn’t catch. She caught faint laughter coming from the public square outside the castle walls. Gweneth padded to her reception room window and jumped to place her paws on the window in order to take a look.
The restaurant at the far end glinted under the whitelight. Wow, she must have slept through the blacklight. Several feline males sat around a table, relaxing with tankards of reeb. At another table a Redd couple, their cinnabar skins gleaming beneath the whitelight, sat with a snack. She stood too far away to see what they ate, but suspected their meal consisted of sticks of roasted meats, a specialty of the house.
Satisfied, she wasn’t dreaming and she’d truly turned feline, she pondered what to do next. No one would come to investigate while the focus shined on Camryn and her babies. Gweneth would need to shift back to humanoid on her own if she wanted to leave her suite.
Now, what had Shiloh and Lynx told Jannike? Picture her humanoid form in her mind. Hold it there and concentrate.
With a raspy feline breath, she closed her eyes and pictured herself, plucking the memory of her reflection in the mirror from her mind. For an instant nothing happened and a flash of panic caused hesitation. The image faded and she plonked her butt on the floor.
No.
No, she could do this. Camryn and Jannike managed. So would she.
Gweneth tried again and a prickling sensation tickled across her skin. She focused harder on her humanoid self and a dart of pain speared her ribs. She cried out, the picture popping like an Earth balloon. The pain—no, she thought. Not pain. More discomfort and bearable if she kept her breathing even and didn’t fight or tense her muscles.
With a whoosh, the black fur melted back into her skin, and secs later, she stood on wobbly legs, garbed in her trews, her chest bare.
“Yes!” She fist-pumped into the air.
Her com buzzed and she strode to answer the summons. The rest and the shift had done her good since the weird fatigue she’d labored with had faded.
“Yes.”
“Camryn and Ry have two babies, a boy and a girl,” Mogens said.
“That’s great. Are they all right?”
“Camryn is weak,” Mogens said. “I pray she will survive. The babes are healthy and vigorous.”
“I’ll come now,” Gweneth said.
Two cycles later
Gweneth waited for Mogens in the reception room of the medical suite. The rest of the Indy crew plus Shiloh and Lynx waited with her. A heavy silence filled the room, no one verbalizing their thoughts.
Things weren’t looking good for Camryn.
After three cycle portions passed, Mogens entered the reception room. His color hovered between charcoal gray and black. Everyone stood, silent, waiting for his announcement.
“Camryn is no worse. She is very weak and has woken just now.”
“Will she be all right?” Kaya demanded, her vibrant face pale.
“I will know more this eve,” Mogens said. “If she struggles through this cycle, I think she will recover, although she is exhausted. I go to rest. Ry will com me if he requires my aid.”
“Mogens, I will walk with you,” Gweneth said.
He offered a quizzical look but no comment, and she fell into step with him as he turned toward the exit. Once they were out of earshot, he glanced at her again. “Do you have a problem?”
“Two eves ago, I shifted to feline.”
Mogens stopped walking. “Your facial tattoo is gone. I thought you’d applied makeup to hide it as you sometimes do.”
“No, it’s vanished.”
“You have mated with Ellard?”
“No. We didn’t mate.”
Mogens frowned. “Another anomaly. The process varies with each feline. The Virosian felines are consistent in their behavior but none of the Indy crew reacts in the same way. Have you a tattoo on your back like Camryn and Jannike?”
“No.” She’d checked in the looking glass and seen nothing but bare skin.
He nodded. “Nothing else is amiss?”
“I feel fine, and I managed to change from feline to human on my own.”
They halted outside Mogens’s suite. “Com me if you feel unwell or anything else seems amiss.”
“I will. Mogens, do you…will Camryn recover?”
“I pray it so. A cloud reading will help, I think.”
Gweneth nodded and pressed an impulsive kiss to his cheek. A white swirl diluted the darkness from his features. “Rest well, Mogens. I will try and persuade Ry to take a rest.”
“Good luck.” His eyes crinkled at the corners. “Good luck with your intentions, child.”
Planet Narenda, Chieftain’s office
“What do you think?” Niran asked.
Ransom pushed away from his desk and stood to join Niran by the window. The vibrant flowers in the gardens glowed like jewels in the foreground, the wild flora of the forest beyond another sea of color. Predominantly green, but tinges of pink and red dotted several of the trees. And beyond that, the terrain shifted to rolling hills, the very start of the mountain range where they found the raw materials to make their jewelry.
As a youngster, he and his brothers and friends had practiced flying in the fields on the other side of the trees and to prove their bravery, they’d flown close to the start of the chain of mountains—just to show they could withstand the resonance. He snorted under his breath. Young fools. A small hit of resonance in the form of stones, didn’t hold much danger. In some dragon shifters, the resonance caused drunken symptoms. An entire mountain range, however, could kill, sending them mad with the ringing in their ears.
Only a few of the much older dragon shifters ventured near the mountain range, and they never managed to stay long.
The dangers Leeam and Sheera had faced meant Niran was reluctant
to allow his people to venture into the area again. Not that Ransom blamed him. Luckily, their stocks of stones were sufficient. For now.
“It is a good idea.” Ransom tore his gaze from the view outside his window and turned to the Incorporeal leader. “I will com the king and request a meeting, ask if they will allow you to shimmer into their territory.”
“Please request Ellard’s and Gweneth’s presence.”
Ransom nodded. “I will do as you ask. It is time.”
“Yes,” Niran said. “As much as I will miss them, it is time for a change.”
Ellard’s suite, House of the Cat castle, Viros
The determined thump on Ellard’s suite door echoed in time with his head. Bang. Bang. Bang!
“What do you want?” The black mood that hovered over Ellard burst free in a feline snarl. “Go away.”
“I order you to open the door.” His younger brother. Determined, judging by his crisp words.
“And I order you to open the door,” Lynx said in a quieter yet implacable tone. “Don’t make me order your soldiers to break down the door.”
Ellard stomped to the door and wrenched it open. His empty tunic sleeve flapped at his other side in silent mockery. “Say your piece and go.”
“Niran, the Incorporeal leader, has requested a meeting. He asks that you be present. The meeting takes place at one portion cycle.” Lynx looked him up and down. “Enough time for you to apply stop-beard and sanitize.”
Shiloh’s nose wrinkled in a fastidious manner. “You reek.”
Ellard opened his mouth to tell them to phrull off, but Lynx held up an imperious hand. His brother’s friend hadn’t taken long to get a king attitude. He snapped his mouth shut.
“You will attend. This is a chance to advance trade and public relations. We need to establish good relations with our neighbors.”
“Fine,” Ellard bit out. “Where is the meeting?”
“The morning room,” Shiloh said. “One portion cycle. Don’t be late.”
His brother and the king left, closing the door behind them. Ellard took a sec to mentally curse then headed for his sanitizer.
Two mins past the portion cycle mark, Ellard presented himself at the door of morning room. He knocked, and Lynx answered, ushering him inside. Jannike and her friends had changed the furnishings and the room no longer appeared cluttered. Instead, the sparseness of it, the new warmth and richness of the red-jewel tones, the comfortable gel-seating made it a suitable, if informal, place to host a meeting. Ellard took two steps and came to an abrupt halt, his nostrils flaring. His head snapped up, his gaze sweeping the rest of the light-filled room.
“Gweneth,” he said and was proud of his even tone. “I didn’t realize you would be here.”
“Niran requested her presence too,” Lynx said.
Ellard gave a curt nod and walked over to the window, an excuse to rip his gaze off her enticing figure. The city spread out below and beyond the vivid greens of the forest, but nothing about the view diverted him from Gweneth. She looked good. Beautiful. His pulse jumped into a racy beat, and his feline stirred beneath his skin—a ripple of protest at the distance between them. His cat didn’t understand. His handicap would drag Gweneth down, and she deserved so much more.
Unable to resist, he turned and caught the arrival of Niran as he shimmered into view. He wore his long white hair loose apart from two thin braids either side of his face. Dressed in a frilly white shirt and tight black trews with boots, his white eyes scanned the room in a trice. An instant later, Leeam and Sheera appeared, their hands clasped. The couple wore color, so much color that Ellard blinked. However, their smiles eclipsed the bright reds, pinks and blues of their garments.
“Greetings.” Lynx flashed a grin of greeting. “Welcome to Viros.”
“Thank you,” Niran said. “It is good to meet you in person. This is my nephew Leeam and his mate Sheera.”
“I am pleased to meet you. We have made a point of meeting our neighbors,” Lynx said. “Closer relations benefit us all. Please, have a seat.”
“Thank you.”
While Lynx and Niran completed the polite courtesies, Ellard watched Gweneth. She didn’t watch him back. Instead, she said something to Leeam and Sheera and the three were soon in animated discussion.
“Ellard,” Shiloh said in a sharp tone.
Ellard blinked and realized Lynx wanted him to join the discussion. He stalked over to the three men and sat.
“Ransom and I were both impressed by the way Ellard and Gweneth protected Leeam and Sheera. You joined the search and ultimately found them, facing danger in order to keep them safe.”
“I’m a soldier,” Ellard said.
“No,” Niran said. “Not everyone would do what you and Gweneth did. My family and friends have prospered on Narenda with Ransom and his people. We have multiplied to such an extent it is now necessary to splinter and find a new home. Now that Leeam and Sheera have officially mated, I seek your permission to allow them to live on Viros. I requested Ellard’s and Gweneth’s presence because I would like them to be our liaison.”
Ellard glanced at Lynx and Shiloh and saw they didn’t fully understand what Niran was asking. He swallowed and led with the truth. “Gweneth and I aren’t together. We can’t—couldn’t provide sustenance for Leeam and Sheera.”
“I see,” Niran said, his pinprick glacier-blue pupils increasing in size as he scrutinized Ellard. “The Incorporeal race require sexual energy in order to survive,” he said to Lynx and Shiloh.
“So Ellard and Gweneth kept Leeam and Sheera alive,” Lynx said with interest, finally understanding.
“Fascinating,” Shiloh murmured.
“If Leeam and Sheera came to live here, what would be involved?” Lynx asked. “Would they need to live in the castle?”
“That would be best, but they need to live near sexually active couples.”
Shiloh grinned. “I guess a triad would work.”
“Even better,” Niran said.
Lynx frowned. “How does this work? Do they need to be in the same room?”
“No. We are not peepers or voyeurs, but we are aware when lovers are active. We can absorb the energy from the room next door or a corridor. The lovers who feed us never know of our presence. We do not require feeding every cycle and can stockpile the energy. We can also share the energy, which is how we feed our youngsters until they’re mature enough to collect their own sustenance.”
“Shiloh and I are mated to Jannike. We have another mated couple who live in the castle plus several other friends who sometimes bring partners back to their suites—as long as the partners are able to pass security checks. My brother and his mate also reside here at times. If that is acceptable, we can offer Leeam and Sheera a suite of rooms within the castle for their accommodation.”
“You would do that?” Niran asked.
Lynx nodded. “The castle was a lonely place during my childhood. I like having more inhabitants. If you are unsure, you are welcome to stay on a trial basis.”
“Your charges?” Niran asked.
“All we ask of our friends is that they help with anything that requires aid. For example, Gweneth had the idea of holding a festival. We have split the tasks and are all helping to make it a success.”
“Ellard, you haven’t told your king of our powers,” Niran said.
“No, I thought it best to keep it quiet. Not that they would spread the news or take advantage, but—” Ellard shrugged. “I didn’t want to place you in danger by telling your secrets.”
Niran beamed. “I knew Viros would be a good place.” He turned to Lynx. “The Incorporeal people feed on the sexual energy, but we are also able to conjure physical things from the same source.” He waved his hand and a drink appeared. He handed it to Lynx and conjured three more plus a float table to place them on. He lifted one in a toast. “To your good health.”
Lynx and Shiloh eyed the drinks with suspicion, but Ellard sipped his without hesitation.
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br /> “We can conjure anything even spaceships. The items we conjure last for as long as the recipient requires them. Once they are no longer required, they will vanish. For example, if someone stole your clothes, leaving you naked, I could conjure you a suit of clothes. The clothes would remain until you reached your accommodation and took them off to replace them with another set of your own clothing. A spaceship will remain until the destination is reached. The food and drink we conjure nourishes.”
“What happens if the Incorporeal dies or is killed suddenly?” Shiloh asked.
“The item remains until it is no longer needed. We offer useful gifts in exchange for sexual energy, but we are not bottomless pits of riches,” Niran said, his tone becoming somber. “We reserve the right to conjure items as we see fit. No one may demand or order. It does not work that way.”
Lynx took a sip of his drink, then another, his shoulders relaxing. “Leeam and Sheera are welcome to stay at the castle. I suggest for a short stay—maybe seven or ten cycles—first to see if they enjoy it here. We do not require anything in return. If Leeam and Sheera would like to help us organize the festival, they may do that.”
Niran stood. “Leeam. Sheera.”
The couple turned with broad smiles and approached.
“King Lynx has invited you to visit,” Niran said.
“With a view to see if you would like to live at the castle full-time,” Lynx said.
Sheera clapped her hands together. “We would like that very much. We have missed Ellard and Gweneth.”
“Ellard and Gweneth will give you a tour of the city,” Lynx said. “Is there any reason the stay cannot start immediately?”
“Leeam?” Niran asked.
“We would like that,” Leeam said.
“Very well,” Niran said. “May I return in ten cycles?”
“Come at the same time to this room,” Lynx said. “We will await your arrival.”
Niran inclined his head. “Thank you. In ten cycles.”
“Can we do the tour now?” Leeam asked, beaming with excitement.
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