by A. E. Grace
“I don’t know. I just felt a pull,” she said. “Looking back, I wasn’t acting like myself. I mean, I stormed down in the rain to the travel agency. In the rain! I don’t want to sound like a pansy, but if it’s pouring down, I usually stay inside.”
“Did you feel like something was guiding you? Like you were… I don’t know,” he said, lifting his shoulders. “Like you were a puppet on strings?”
Terry snapped her fingers. “It was a little bit like that.” She grinned at him, toothy, and he felt a surge in his heart rate. “How did you know?”
“Just a guess,” he said, and he bunched his brow. It was a little disconcerting, he thought. Typically only shapeshifters had that sort of instinct, that guide within them.
“I also considered Thailand, but that almost seems a cliché.”
“Vietnam is a pretty big cliché. There are huge numbers of American tourists who go there.”
“Yeah, but I’m not American. I mean, for them, there was the war, you know?”
“What about it?”
“It’s part of everyday American culture. I mean, you’ve got news all the time about disenfranchised vets, and so many movies were made during and after the war. It’s an integral part of American culture, and so I’m not surprised that many tourists go to Vietnam. It’s a way to touch your cultural past. The Vietnamese are very gracious as well, and very accepting of American tourists.” She slapped the guide book she had rolled up in the side pocket of her backpack. “It’s all in here.”
He nodded, listening to her. She had started talking animatedly, using her hands. She sounded grounded and intelligent, and it endeared her even more to him.
“We don’t have that in Britain. Not really, anyway. I mean, we actively rejected sending troops to Vietnam, and sure, there were the movies, but it’s just… Vietnam just isn’t really on the list of places the average person in Britain thinks of when they say ‘I want to go to Asia’.”
“Where do they think of?”
“Former colonies, like Hong Kong. Thailand is an obvious choice, like I said, the cliché. Cambodia for Ankor Wat. India, as well, as it’s considered part of Asia back home, and of course, the British history there.”
“Makes sense,” Liam said. But he felt tickled by the idea of fate again. He wasn’t sure if he liked the notion that cosmic tides were guiding him, that he was not in control of his own destiny.
“Why does it interest you so much?” she asked, giving him a confused, but slightly amused expression. “Why I chose Vietnam?”
“Oh, it’s just—”
Liam froze, and sniffed the air. He could smell… canis lupus. Wolf!
He whipped his head around, scanned the horizon. The wolf was up-wind, so he would not be able to smell Liam yet.
More importantly, he would not be able to smell Terry!
“Terry,” he said, voice dropping low.
“What is it?”
“You don’t know me, and I don’t know you. But I like you… and…”
“And what?” she asked. She was looking at him like he was insane, and had taken a step backward.
He looked back toward the horizon. He wished he could just shift into his bear, use his animal instincts! But there was no way he could tell if the wolf had seen them yet or not, or just how close his hunter was.
“What is it?” Terry asked, voice wobbling.
Liam struggled with what to do. He had little doubt that the hunter would use this woman if he suspected she in any way meant something to Liam. The wolf had used people he cared about to hurt him before.
But there was no way to know if the wolf had seen them. The way he saw it, he had two choices. He could either tell her to go, go and run away as fast as she could. Or he could stay with her, draw her into this as a way to guarantee her safety, to protect her.
His own personal desires clouded his thoughts. He didn’t want to tell her to go. He felt an undeniable pull to her. He liked her. He was attracted to her. His instincts to protect her were overpowering.
“Jesus, what is it?” Terry asked. “You’re acting really weird. You’re starting to scare me.”
The smell of the wolf grew stronger, but now he could sense something else in the scent. He couldn’t put a paw on it, couldn’t decipher it. If only he could shift!
From around a corner, a man in sunglasses appeared, walking his dog.
It was a husky-wolf hybrid.
Liam’s shoulders relaxed. Relief flooded through him. That was what he had smelled. It all made sense. There was no way that his human would be able to smell a wolf at any great distance, even with his shifter bleed through. If he had been his bear, he would have been able to tell instantly that what he was smelling was merely a house pet. But as his human, the smells were less distinct. They were blurry smudges of scent.
He looked at the dog walker with a mild expression of disgust on his face. The husky-wolf hybrid’s fur coat was thick and luscious, and the subtropical heat was no place for a dog like that. The poor thing must have been suffering.
“Asshole,” Terry muttered beneath her breath.
He looked at her, about to apologize for acting weird, but he saw her eyes were trained on the dog.
“I agree,” he said.
“At the very least shave the damn thing!”
“That dog wasn’t meant to live in a climate like this. It’s cruel.”
She looked at him, smiled. “I agree. So, uh, are you finished acting like a freak?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I… thought… never mind.”
“Do you need the bathroom?”
Liam snapped his eyes to Terry’s, and they shared a moment before he grinned, and she burst out laughing.
“I’m sorry!” she said, covering her mouth. “It’s just, I saw some public loos back there, and, you know, in times of emergency.”
“No, I don’t need the bathroom,” Liam said, still grinning at her. Their shared moment of childish mirth made him feel more connected to her than ever.
They walked for a moment, smiles still pulling at their lips. Her face was slightly reddened. The fencing and guard towers of the border crossing came into view, and he turned to her.
“Listen, Terry.”
“What’s up?”
“We need to split up when we line up to exit China.”
Terry blinked at him, and her face scrunched up. “What are you, some kind of criminal?”
“No,” he said, playing it up with a sly smirk. “But I don’t have a passport. I’m sure I can talk my way past the guards; they don’t care so much out here when you’re leaving the country.”
He hated not being able to be completely honest, but she had no notion of what he was, that passports meant precious little to someone who could cross borders without arousing suspicion, if only in another form.
“That’s so stupid,” she told him, straight-up. “They’ll never let you through.”
“Well, I’ll be happy to prove you wrong. But we need to split up, so you don’t get roped into it with me in case I don’t manage.”
“You think you can talk your way out of not having a passport?” she asked in disbelief. “What kind of… ugh, I don’t know.” She shook her head. “That’s crazy. You’re going to bribe the guards, aren’t you?”
Liam narrowed his eyes, and was thankful she had given him this ‘out’. “Yes,” he said. “That’s why you can’t be involved.”
“Fine, get up to your shady stuff, and if you get through, I’ll meet you on the other side.”
“Sounds good,” he told her.
All he would have to do now was find a place to shift, get the strap of the duffel bag around his bear’s neck (which was always difficult and clumsy), and then find a weak spot in the border fencing.
*
“What’s going on?” She looked around, saw that all the border-crossing guards had been whipped up into a frenzy. “And where were you? I didn’t even see you come into the building.”
&
nbsp; “I made sure to wait for you to clear first,” he said. “There’s no telling who saw us together before hand.”
“So you got through? Did you have to bribe them?” Terry didn’t know how she felt about that. “Weren’t you worried you’d get caught?”
“These guards earn nothing, work long hours, and have to deal with obnoxious tourists all day long. Trust me, they were more than happy to take it. It means less paperwork, too.”
“So why are they all running around like headless chickens now?”
“I don’t know,” Liam said.
Terry followed his eyes, and saw he was looking at a small group of guards clustered around a portion of fencing behind the customs building. She squinted.
“Holy shit,” she murmured. “There’s a hole in the fence.”
“Hmm, so there is.”
She narrowed her eyes at Liam. “Was that you?”
He looked at her, eyes dark for a moment, before he shook his head. “You think I cut through that fence without anybody noticing?”
Terry shrugged. “It’s possible.”
“When you cut through metal fencing like that, each cut makes a large sound, vibrates the whole thing.”
“Okay, okay. Well, someone made that hole.”
“Or something,” Liam said. “It’s pretty big. Bigger then it would need to be for a man.”
“I doubt any of the local wildlife could do that.”
“A water buffalo could. Those things are strong as hell.”
Terry considered it for a moment. “I don’t buy it. Come on, let’s go.”
They began their walk across the stretch of no-man’s-land that connected the border of China and Vietnam. It wasn’t a long walk – twenty minutes according to her guidebook – but the sun was hot, and the air close and humid, so it would be a tiring walk. Her feet already hurt a little, and she couldn’t wait until she got to her guest house and had a chance to soak them in warm water, and just relax with a glass of wine.
“You got a place to stay in Hanoi?”
Terry turned to Liam, squinting, and shook her head. “No, I was going to walk around the guest houses, see if I could find something I liked.”
“Well,” he said, and he licked his lips. “I know the owner at the one I’m staying at. I can get you a discount, and it’s one of the better guest houses. It’s clean.”
“Clean?”
“They don’t allow people to take back prostitutes,” he told her. “That keeps away a lot of the riff-raff, especially from the sex tourists.”
“Oh,” Terry said. She frowned. She’d never even considered that. “Okay. I mean, will the owner mind you trying to get another room out of him at a discount?”
“She won’t mind,” he said.
Terry pushed her lips together and smiled. “Thanks.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. He looked at her when she squeezed her thumbs beneath the straps of her backpack and hucked it up higher on her back. “What the hell have you got in there?” he asked.
“Everything I need,” she said. “What the hell do you have in there?” She nodded at his duffel back which was smaller than her backpack.
“Everything I need.”
“You must not need much.”
“You must need too much.”
Terry smirked at him. “I’m waiting for it.”
“Waiting for what?”
“Some joke about women packing too much.”
But he just shrugged. “Everybody does it. But seriously, I can hear metal clinking. What have you got in there?”
“I brought a frying pan and a pot.”
He blanched. “You what?”
“Hey, if I’m staying in hostels maybe, I’ll need to cook in the shared kitchen.”
He laughed then, shaking his head, and she felt put on the spot. “A frying pan.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Bet you brought your own bed sheets, too.”
“I did!” she said, indignant now. “My skin is sensitive. I get rashes easily.” Still he just smirked at her. “What?” she demanded.
“This is definitely your first time backpacking.”
“So what if it is?” Terry said, growing defensive. “They don’t take up much space.”
“You don’t need pots or pans. They weigh you down, will get you in trouble at any checkpoints you have to pass through. If you need to cook, you buy or borrow a utensil, and then leave it for the next traveler. Everything’s cheap here!”
Terry frowned. She had had to remove the frying pan and pot at the border crossing.
“As for the bedsheets, forget it! How long will you go between stints before you can properly wash it? No, get yourself loose, long-sleeve pajamas if you’re worried about your skin. Also, you’ve got a sleeping bag! What do you need sheets for? Sleep on the sleeping bag, or in it.”
“Hey, I just wanted to make sure I had everything,” she told him. “I’m doing this my way.”
“Give me the frying pan,” he said. “And the pot.”
Terry, huffing now, and a little embarrassed, shook her head forcefully. “No, I don’t need your help. I can carry it myself.”
“Come on,” he said. “Your backpack looks like it weighs a ton.”
She stopped, and considered him. “Fine,” she said, unclipping the pack and setting it down. She pulled out the frying pan and pot, and Liam just started laughing again.
“This is like twenty-three inches!”
“So? What if I wanted to cook more than one thing at a time?”
He nodded at her, and took the pan and pot from her hands, and then looked up the road. There was a young boy there, topless, selling snacks to tourists for a single US dollar apiece. But in Vietnam, a single dollar could buy you a meal.
Liam whistled at the boy, getting his attention, and the boy jogged over, cute broad smile revealing bucked teeth.
“You buy, yes?” the boy said, holding up his basket of snacks. They looked to be a kind of candy.
“Here,” Liam said, giving the boy the frying pan and pot. “For you.”
“Hey!” Terry shouted, reaching out to take them back, but the boy laughed, snatched them away, and ran down the path, calling out a thank you over his head. Terry folded her arms and looked crossly at Liam. “Those were mine!”
“His family will need them more than you will,” Liam said.
“You’re a real prick, you know.”
“Trust me, Terry. You’ll thank me later.”
“Don’t offer to help me carry anything else!” she said, pointing a finger at him. “Fool me once…”
She hoisted on her backpack, begrudgingly admitting that it was much lighter.
*
“You owe me a frying pan!”
“Okay, I’ll buy you one when we’re in town. I promise. But it’ll be a small one.”
“Fine.”
They had crossed into Vietnam relatively painlessly – no removing the pots from her backpack this time – and had taken a taxi into Hanoi, a short drive away.
Immediately Terry had noticed the varied architecture, and how so many of the buildings had a European accent to their styling. She knew it was because of the French occupation of Vietnam before Vietnam’s independence, which was also the reason why every morning in the city, local women would sell freshly-baked baguettes on the street, which was definitely an unusual sight in Asia.
“Where are we?” she asked, opening the boot of the taxi. Liam came around and lifted her backpack up for her with just one arm. She noticed that it didn’t even tremble, but his veins did bulge out.
She frowned. Her bag was pretty heavy. Even a big guy like him shouldn’t be able to lift it so easily.
“Turn around,” he said.
“Why?”
“Terry, just turn around.”
She grunted, and turned, and Liam held out the straps for her to slip her arms into. “Thanks,” she grumbled.
He picked up his own
duffel bag, tipped the driver, and then set off walking, leaving her in his wake.
“Hey!” she called, walking after him, falling into step. “Where are we?”
“Pretty much the center of Hanoi.”
She pulled out her guide book, and then looked around for landmarks. A little ways off, she spotted a big lake, and then found it on her map. He was telling the truth.
“Where’s your guest house?”
“Short walk away. We just need to cross that road.”
Terry looked ahead, and saw a road surging with mopeds. They were driving front-tire-to-back, practically touching shoulders, and all moving frighteningly fast. She couldn’t find any semblance of road rules. The mopeds looked like a school of fish, and occasionally a car would trundle through them, like a bigger fish breaking through the chain.
“How are we going to cross that?” Terry asked. They were at the edge of the road now, and there wasn’t a proper crossing in sight.
“Like this,” he said. He grabbed her hand, and yanked her out into street with him.
“Shit!” Terry hissed, speeding up, putting up an arm instinctually against the oncoming traffic. They half-jogged to the other side, and when she got there, she tore her hand from his. It tingled.
“That’s how you cross in Vietnam.”
“You could have told me before hand,” she said, breaths quick. She felt a buzz of adrenaline, and it… it actually felt pretty good.
“This way,” he said, looking at her. He wasn’t smiling – his face was oddly expressionless, hard – but there was a warmth in his eyes. “We’re almost there.”
“You really have a way with people, don’t you?” she shot while walking past him.
*
Liam looked sidelong at Terry, taking in the sight of her generous breasts. His eyes wandered to her arms, and he had the sudden urge to pin them above her head and crush his lips against hers.
He blinked. He couldn’t let himself go down this path. He had to halt this now. Not while he had a hunter on his scent.
Terry fixed loosed hair behind her ear for the umpteenth time, and he wished she’d put her hair up, so he could see the back of her neck.
“What did you do? I mean, before you quit your job,” he asked.