by W. J. May
I DID IT! I MADE IT THROUGH! I DON’T NEED THUMBS—
A soft gasp cut short her reverie.
Gabriel, as it turned out, was not in Kent after all. He was standing in the middle of his apartment. Hands frozen over a suitcase. Staring at the giant wolf that had just crashed inside.
Ooooooh crap.
“What the hell…”
A lot of people would have melted down to see a giant forest predator come bursting into their living room. A lot of people would have screamed. Some people might have even passed out.
Gabriel simply stood there, staring back in complete surprise.
“…uh, hello?”
GABRIEL! IT’S ME! She tried to speak. Tried to tell him not to fear—that it was just her. Rae. Obviously.
But all that came out was a series of increasingly menacing barks.
His face whitened as he lifted his hands, careful to make no sudden moves.
“Whoa there…it’s okay…you’re okay, buddy…”
Another menacing bark. Followed by an equally vicious snarl as Rae was seized with the sudden suspicion that he might not think she was a girl.
His body tensed at the ready, eyes widening as they swept over the massive creature. “Just take it easy… You’re okay… I’m not going to hurt you…”
Another example of post-traumatic stress from the cave. A giant wolf lands in the middle of his flat, snarling and growling away, and the first thing he does is promise not to hurt it. Was the guy really that incapable of fear?
As slowly as possible he started inching around the living room table, trying to get to the bedroom where he assumedly kept his wolf-repelling equipment.
“You don’t hurt me either, okay?”
His voice gentled and soothed, hiding the alert caution Rae saw tightening his handsome face. He wasn’t going for his room, she realized, but for his phone perched atop the kitchen table.
“Are you hungry?” he asked, edging along the wall. “You been living here while I’ve been gone? Honestly, you join the homeowner’s association and you hope to avoid these sorts of things.”
Throw a growling wolf into his apartment, and the guy still makes jokes.
Rae rolled her eyes and tried to follow him. But the second she started to move, everything went very wrong. Her entire body locked into place, every fiber burning with excruciating pain as she sank to her knees. A heartbreaking whine escaped her lips, and she lifted her head enough to see Gabriel watching warily, two fingers raised. Another whine, and his face softened.
“Don’t cry, honey, you’re going to be okay.” He had apparently decided she was a girl. “I don’t want to do this. You just stay back there, okay? Will you stay back there?”
He tentatively lifted his hand, and a rush of feeling coursed back through Rae’s body. She got slowly to her feet and took a deliberate step back, realizing, for the first time, just a shocking fraction of what her friend was apparently capable of.
It was an experience she’d never forget.
“Good girl.” He’d reached his phone now and picked it up slowly, keeping his eyes locked on her all the while. “Now, I know you’re not Andy, and that’s the only shifter I know. So I’m going to assume you’re some kind of sick prank of my sister’s.”
Rae whined again, and he shook his head sympathetically.
“I know. I didn’t ask for her either. And yet, here we are all the same.” His finger pressed a number on speed dial, and the next second Angel answered the phone. “Hey,” he sounded remarkably casual considering the circumstances, “you didn’t happen to release a live wolf in my apartment, did you?” There was a pause. “You sure?” Another pause. “Why the hell wouldn’t I think it was you, after that incident with the badger?”
This time, the pause was much longer.
“For the last time, Angel, that was not a suitable house-warming present.”
The voice on the other end got defensively shrill and he held the phone away from his ear, rolling his eyes at Rae like she would have any idea the exasperation he was feeling.
“I do know that’s what it was, because that’s what the ER doctor said had bitten me when I went in for a tetanus shot at four in the morning.” Another pause, filled with what sounded like demonic laughter. He shook his head with a sigh. “Alright then, I’ll be back in a bit.” He glanced at Rae out of the corner of his eye and amended, “Maybe a bit longer, actually…”
The phone went dead, and for a moment the two of them simply gazed at each other from across the apartment. Man and beast. Standing in the sad remains of a once-pristine living room.
Like a cover of Better Homes and Gardens gone desperately awry.
Then, when it could go on no longer, Rae took a tentative step forward. Gabriel lifted his hand in a warning, and she lowered her head submissively before taking another step. He allowed her to do it. Then another step. Then another. Before long, they were standing just a few feet away.
She’d never realized how incredibly tall he was before. Even as a supernatural beast of the wild, she only came up to his chest. His familiar citrus body wash tickled her nose, and she sucked in a quick breath, keeping a watchful eye on his fingers all the while.
This had better work.
Her tail swished back and forth as she lifted her nose hopefully in the air. Once again, he did nothing to stop her. A second later, she nudged it into his hand.
His eyes widened for a moment, feeling the heat of her breath on his palm. Then he knelt in front of her, so they were at the same height.
“Give me some sort of signal here,” he murmured, hands reaching automatically to stroke her fur. The sensation sent waves of pleasure rocketing down her spine, and she nuzzled her head against him with an unmistakable smile. It was the smile that got his attention.
“Rae?” He took her face between his hands, staring deeply into her eyes.
She had no idea how the hell that would help, but whatever he saw there probably saved her life.
There was a burst of laughter as he pulled back with his signature twinkling smile.
“The things you do to get my attention…”
She bit his hand.
Chapter 9
For the next few minutes, Gabriel tended to the puncture wounds on his hand as Rae greedily wolfed down everything in his refrigerator—no pun intended. There wasn’t much to work with. An old carton of Chinese take-out, a tin of biscuits that had seen better days, an inexplicably expensive jar of boysenberry jam, and a bottle of orange juice.
Rae was just attempting the orange juice when he walked back into the room. He took one look at her and grinned, kneeling to unscrew the cap.
“How are we going to do this?” He sloshed it back and forth. “Am I supposed to pour it into a bowl?”
The hair on the back of Rae’s neck stood up, and she walked stiffly to the couch. Some instinct deep inside warned her against sitting on the cushions but she leapt up anyway, cocking her head to the side with a defiant glare.
He chuckled softly and followed her there, settling down beside her. Again, he reached out without thinking and stroked the back of her head, scratching lightly behind her ears. “Rae Kerrigan…whatever am I going to do with you?”
She lay her head in his lap with a pitiful whine, enjoying the back rub but feeling intensely sorry for herself all the while. The pads of her feet were throbbing from overdoing it on her run, and she was claustrophobically aware that there were two extra feet for her to worry about.
“I’m guessing things didn’t go well today when you went to visit your father?” She looked up sharply, but he dismissed her fears with a patient shrug. “Devon got a call.”
A soft sigh escaped her lips as she lowered her head once more.
“Now you can’t shift back?”
She covered her eyes with her paws.
His chest shook gently as he tried to hold in his laughter. “…I’m guessing you tried?”
A low growl rumbled in her throat as
she eyed his uninjured hand threateningly.
“Okay, Balto, calm down.” He chuckled some more, twisting his fingers comfortingly in her long, dark fur. “From what I’ve heard, this happens from time to time. It’s no big deal.”
She raised an eyebrow and he flashed a grin, pushing them both to their feet.
“Okay…it’s not that big a deal. I’m still hoping it’s going to be like that time I walked into the kitchen to see you molting feathers.”
* * *
For the next few minutes after that Gabriel tended to the puncture wounds on his other hand, while Rae gleefully destroyed all that remained of his feathered duvet. When they were finished, they both met back in the living room. Gabriel was carrying something in his hand.
Rae’s nose perked up as he knelt beside her, sniffing the air with confusion as the stench of unfamiliar chemicals washed over them. The next second, he opened his palm to reveal a colored syringe.
On instinct Rae backed away, shaking her head back and forth as she simultaneously considered a place to hide. He caught her and dragged her back. Twice.
“Come here, you big baby; it’s not that bad,” he panted, straining with the effort of trying to hold her in place. “It’s just a mild sedative. Nothing more.”
She shook her head, claws scrambling backwards against the hardwood floors.
“Hey, hey! It’s fine—I swear. See?”
Moving with deliberate slowness he pulled out a little bottle of the same color, unscrewed the top, and threw back a mouthful. He made a disgusted face as he swallowed, but other than that it seemed alright. Already, Rae could see the slight relaxation of his muscles. The slight dilation of his bright green eyes as he held out the syringe.
“The essence of shifting is based upon an intense relationship between the mind and the body,” he murmured, draping an arm across the back of her neck as they sat side by side on the floor. “When one is too troubled… say, getting ambushed by the press when you go to visit your fugitive father, the other locks down as well. You need to calm down. Center your mind so that your body has the chance to shift back.” He flashed her a sleepy smile. “Existentialism at its best, I know. At any rate, it would be hard enough for most experienced shifters to make the change after going through what you went through today.” He held out the syringe once more. “I figured you might need a little chemical help.”
She eyed the needle warily, considering all her options, only to realize that there weren’t all that many. In the end, she nodded her head once. Then froze perfectly still as he pulled off the cap.
“Don’t like shots, huh?” He smiled as he ran a hand up and down her fur, searching for a good injection spot with the calm assuredness of a vet. “I could see that about you. After all, up until recently you couldn’t get a papercut without the damn thing closing in two seconds. Probably don’t have much experience with needles.”
Don’t have a lot of experience? Does he forget I recently was stabbed?
She cocked her head sarcastically to the side and he grinned, reading her mind.
“I didn’t forget. That wasn’t so bad,” he teased lightly.
She laughed quietly—at least, a canine approximation—then held very still as he inserted the needle with expert precision, pressing a finger over the back of her neck as he pulled it out.
The entire thing was very Gabriel.
He didn’t distract her or count down, the way a lot of people would have done. He had never been one to sugarcoat things or squirm away from the truth. Instead, he leveled with her beforehand, then worked quickly and efficiently, his hands appearing oddly practiced.
It reminded Rae of the time he reset Devon’s dislocated shoulder in the car. The day they’d all become Privy Council fugitives. He’d seemed practiced then, too. Popping it back into place before even her lightning-fast boyfriend could rethink it and jump from the car.
More trauma from the cave…
The empty syringe clattered to the floor and Gabriel leaned back against the couch with a smile, his arm still draped across Rae’s shoulders. “Now, we wait.”
As it turned out, they didn’t have to wait long. Already, Rae could feel the telltale signs of the sedative working its way quickly through her body. Her muscles relaxed, her heartbeat slowed, and for the first time since she sprinted away from the safe house on all fours her mind cleared enough that she was able to think.
After taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and chanted the simple words in her head.
Become human. Become human. Become human.
Against all odds… it worked.
The fur vanished. The tail disappeared. Her muscles elongated beneath smooth skin, and less than a second later she was leaning against the couch as well. Knees pulled up to her chest. Naked as the day she was born. Gabriel’s arm still draped over her shoulder.
A flutter of embarrassment butterflied in her chest, but she needn’t have worried. His eyes never lowered once. They just stared back into hers with a soft smile.
“You see? Good as new.”
He pushed to his feet the next instant, swaying slightly as he stood.
“I’ll get you some clothes.”
* * *
A few minutes after that the two of them were back in the living room, sitting on the floor with their backs up against the couch. Rae was dressed in an oversized sweatshirt of his and a pair of leggings she’d conjured on her own. She probably could have tried conjuring the sweatshirt as well, but the sedative had warped her powers a bit. The leggings weren’t meant to be green.
Things were a bit slow at the moment, and besides, there was something oddly comforting about the oversized, citrus-scented hoodie. After the day she’d had, it was a bit like coming home.
“Did you really join the home-owner’s association?” she asked, remembering his startling confession back when he still thought she was just a dog.
He leaned his head back against the cushion, on the verge of both waking and sleep. “I actually did. Figured I was buying my first bit of property—well, my first legal bit of property. I wanted to do it right.”
Rae giggled, swiveling around so she could see him better. “And what have you gotten for your troubles?”
“It’s the weirdest thing.” His face screwed up in confusion. “They keep sending me jam.”
Rae burst out laughing, pressing her forehead into her knees as the rest of her body shook uncontrollably. Gabriel, however, was completely bewildered.
“Is that, like…a thing?” he continued. “To send people jam? Who the hell does that?”
Rae resurfaced, trying to force her face calm. “The home-owner’s association, clearly.”
He grinned, shaking his head. “Laugh it up, Kerrigan. But it will be your turn before long. And if I know anything about Devon, you’re going to end up with much more of a white-picket fence than me.”
Rae leaned back against the couch, still grinning as she tried to imagine it. Devon and her coming home after a long day at the office, running a covert organization of magical spies. Picking up a list of groceries on the way back. Watering the tulip beds.
“Do tulips grow in London?” she asked with a sudden frown.
Gabriel ignored the question, stretching his legs as he fought back the waves of sleep. “You’ll get a dog. A babysitter. Wardell will join the neighborhood watch. Poor town won’t know what it’s in for.” His eyes twinkled softly. “Remind me to send you a whole carton of jam.”
It was still utterly surreal. The fact that the two of them were suddenly able to talk about such things. If Rae had known all it would take was one little fight in which they both almost killed each other, she would have coaxed them into battle a long time ago.
It wasn’t quite like hanging out with Julian. They definitely hadn’t taken on that brother-sister vibe. But there was something trusting about it all the same. That serene kind of ease that came from spending time with a good friend.
Of course, her friend wa
s having a hard time of it at the moment. The ‘mild sedative’ he’d prescribed clearly wasn’t hitting them the same way. It had entered her system as a wolf, giving her a bit more of a resistance. It had entered his system as a human, giving him next to none.
“Hey! You still with me?” She waved her hand in front of his face, and his eyes fluttered open once more.
“Still with you.”
“I’d bring out your blanket, but I’m afraid wolf-me might have shredded it as revenge.”
He pushed his golden hair up out of his eyes as another sleepy grin flickered across his face. “You know… I kind of liked wolf-you. Much quieter than the real you. If you hadn’t decided to make chew toys of my hands, I might have considered leaving you like that. I’ve never had a pet.”
She shoved him with a playful giggle, then grew abruptly quiet as she remembered what he’d done to get her out of it in the first place. Why, exactly, did he happen to have that syringe? And why was it his very first thought to use it? “Gabriel…” She fiddled with the edge of a throw rug, twisting the little tassels between her fingers. “How did you know how to… fix me?” She wanted ask why he had the syringe in the first place but held back. One painful memory at a time.
He leaned back again with a quiet sigh.
“When I was little—really little—there was this guy who would come by St. Stephen’s. He never stayed long, I don’t think he liked being down there. But he always seemed to show up when he was needed. This one time, he actually stepped in between when Cromfield…” He broke off with a shudder. “Anyway, I always liked him.”
Rae twisted around to stare at him straight-on. Talk of his and Angel’s time spent below ground had always been scarce, and she found herself hanging on every word.
Gabriel rested the back of his head against the cushion of the couch. He shrugged. “There was one night, not long before Angie got there, that Cromfield took in an especially dangerous hybrid. This one had the ability to amplify sound to an extraordinary degree. The sound of your own breath would be enough to shatter your ears. For whatever reason, he was harder to restrain than the others, and it wasn’t long before the tunnels were echoing with noise.” His green eyes were far away as he remembered. “It was the loudest thing I’d ever heard. Louder than loud. I couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. I remember my hands were wet. It took me a second to realize my ears had started to bleed.” He pulled in a deep breath, continuing in a soft monotone. “Anyway, this guy—Jason, that was his name—he was there that night. I think Cromfield called him in to help subdue the hybrid. Jason was an unparalleled fighter, or so I was always told. He was often called in for such things. I remember seeing him come rushing down into the caves, sprinting through the tunnels to the holding area where Cromfield fazed in the new hybrids. He saw me standing there as he ran past, and a second later he paused and came back.”