She sighed and returned to the barstool.
A familiar body took the stool next to her. “Are you having fun?”
She gave him a dark look and sipped at the wine that Spike gave her. “Yes, it’s delightful.”
Harris laughed. “It is your first day. Relax. It will get easier.”
Eileen frowned into the wine. “I don’t think it will.”
To her surprise, he took her hand and raised it to his lips. “It will. I promise.”
The small kiss sent tingles through her that ran from her knuckles, through her chest and all the way down to her toes. Her toes tried to curl in her shoes, but there wasn’t room.
“Uh, thank you?” She bit her lip.
He smiled and retained possession of her hand, though he rested it on the bar.
“Don’t you mind the…effect of my skin?” She wrinkled her nose.
“I am thick skinned, Eileen. I rather enjoy the sensation.”
She blushed hotly. “I haven’t heard that one before.”
“Finish your wine, Eileen. I will walk you back to your residence. I think you have had enough Crossroads culture for the evening.”
Eileen looked around at the new couples plastered to each other on the dance floor. “You are right. I have had enough.”
She finished her wine and got to her feet.
Harris tucked her arm in the curve of his once again, and he led her out into the night where the moon was up and full.
“Did you think it would be easy?” Harris asked her casually.
“I didn’t think about it at all. I was told that my rapid and random shifting was due to my approaching heat and that I needed to take steps. The Crossroads were the steps.”
“So, you don’t have a deep and abiding need for a mate?” Harris chuckled.
She pointed toward the bed and breakfasts and he altered their path. “I don’t think it was ever presented as an option. I thought my particular shifting pattern was a side effect of tampering with my magic as a child, but it seems to be completely natural. What you can feel on my skin is—”
“Fey magic. I recognize it when I feel it. There are a few fey in my territory, so the tingle is not unfamiliar to me.”
“Well, that explains why you can bear to touch me.”
“Can’t you have the enchanter remove the magic?”
She looked at him with surprise. “No. I can’t. It is embedded; though he did try when I was a teenager. He did not enjoy the result.”
It was the first time Eileen had seen lightning indoors.
He smiled, “I also have more than one simple form. There is nothing to be worried about. This is the one place where the unusual can be treated as normal. The playing field here is completely even.”
“You have more than one shape, too?” There was a lonely child in her mind when she asked him.
“I do. If you like, I would like to show you. Shall we have a picnic in the forest tomorrow?” Harris’s tone was casual.
“That sounds nice. Is the weather always this pleasant?”
“It has been for the time I have been here.”
Eileen pulled herself a little closer to him on their walk toward the Open Heart. “I think a picnic would be nice. Teal gave me a general idea of what is where, but I would like to see it for myself.”
“You are staying at the Open Heart?”
Their destination wasn’t in doubt. It was the last building on the path.
“I am.” She clued into the fact that he knew the name of the place. “You as well?”
He chuckled. “Apparently. I am sure that Teebie will set us up with a proper picnic tomorrow. She seems the type.”
“She is very generous. She agreed to look up my…condition for me. With any luck, she has found something.”
“You do have me curious.”
“I am sure you can stay curious until I find out more about what I am. The data that I have so far is woefully incomplete.”
He walked with her up the steps and to the large door with the inset stained glass window. Harris paused. “May I give you a goodnight kiss?”
She blinked. “You are asking?”
He smiled. “As my mother told me, manners matter.”
“Um, yes. Yes, you can.”
He leaned in and brushed his lips across hers so lightly that she felt the spark jump from her skin to his. His lips curved in a smile and he moved closer to her, increasing the pressure on her mouth. She parted her lips and ran a hand up his chest, around his neck and she held his head to hers as the kiss continued to spark a reaction from her mouth down to her toes.
Her breasts brushed against his chest, and he jolted. She let him go immediately and pushed away, running inside and up the stairs, past her startled hostess.
She closed the door to her room behind her and let the tears fall. Despite him saying that he didn’t mind the fey aura, he had still jerked back in response.
Eileen headed to the bathroom to repair the damage to her makeup and took a deep breath. She just had to wait until he entered his room and she would be able to go down and talk to Teebie.
She finished fixing her face and sat on the edge of the bed, fidgeting as she waited. A knock on her door brought her head up. “Yes?”
“Eileen, it’s Teebie. I found that book I was talking about. May I come in?”
Eileen got to her feet and opened the door. “Please. Come on in.”
A quick glance past the blue features of her hostess showed Harris leaning patiently against a wall down the hall.
He inclined his head and she jerked back.
Teebie moved into her room and closed the door behind her. The large book under her arm smelled of ancient hands and herbs.
A small table and two chairs appeared near the fireplace. The fire roared into a cheery blaze.
“Come on. Sit. I have to read this to you as I doubt you can read dragon.”
“You can?”
“Sure. My aunt taught me.” Teebie sat in front of the fire and lit an orb of light above her. She patted the empty chair. “Come on.”
Eileen settled in the chair and watched Teebie wrestle the book open and flip through the pages. “The book’s entry on chimera is fairly elaborate. You are one of the ancient magical creatures, but even when they were a little more common, your kind were still exceptional.”
Teebie found the image of the lion-goat-serpent and began to read.
An hour later, Eileen had a much better idea of what she was and an understanding of her immunity to fire.
“So, ancient species born in fire are fairly indestructible. At least there are some recorded chimera in that book.” She chuckled weakly. “I just have to avoid gargling lead.”
“That was just the Bellerophon myth. No one knows if it was an accurate way to kill a chimera.”
“And my blood can be used by shifters to take on another form. That is interesting. Does it say how long the effect lasts?”
“Just a day, but you have to cut your own skin to make the wound. Nothing else can pierce you. If they do manage to wound you, the location will not be correct and the blood will not have the desired effect.”
“Right.” She rubbed her forehead. “Can I get a translation of that?”
“Of course. I will work on it right away. The other books I have aren’t as thorough, but I will record what I can.” Teebie smiled. “My aunt is going to kick herself for not being here to greet you.”
“Why?”
“Because mythological creatures are not common. Despite her marrying a unicorn, she hasn’t seen a lot of your category of shifter in several years.”
“She married a unicorn?”
“Yup, but they are constant. There are always the same amount of unicorns in the world, no matter the different variants. None of your kind have been reported for at least two hundred years.”
Eileen watched Teebie rise to her feet. “Thank you.”<
br />
“It was my pleasure. Now, as for Harris, his reaction may just have been that of an aroused male who didn’t want his erection to upset you. Talk to him and find out.”
Eileen sighed. “I am sure he has gone to bed by now.”
“He hasn’t. He is waiting down the hall. Come out and talk to him.”
“Why do you care?”
Teebie grinned, her teeth white in her blue features. “Because I work at the Crossroads and getting compatible shifters together is my reason for being here. Come on. It won’t hurt anything and you might get some insight into why he is interested.”
“Fine. I will come out and talk to him if he is still there.”
Teebie exited the room and Eileen followed. Sure enough, Harris was waiting with a look of endless patience. Eileen nodded to him and stepped down the stairs with her head high.
She heard him follow and continued from the base of the stairs into the sitting room.
She took a seat on the couch, and he sat next to her, close but not touching. She folded her hands in her lap and waited, but he seemed content to sit in silence.
This was not going to be easy.
Chapter Five
After five minutes, she whispered, “You flinched.”
Harris was calm. “You surprised me. The contact was not unwelcome; it was merely unexpected. I was going to explain but you ran.”
She tangled her fingers together. “I have more experience with rejection than acceptance.”
He nodded. “I understand, but sometimes you need to give it a few heartbeats before you make a run for it.”
She nodded. “I apologize for my sprint.”
“May I ask what community you were raised in?”
Eileen bit her lip. “Community?”
“Of shifters. I need to know what your courtship traditions are.”
“I wasn’t raised with shifters. I was adopted when I was seven.”
Harris nodded in understanding. “You were raised by humans.”
“I wasn’t raised by humans either. My mother is a half-elf and my grandfather is a full-blooded fey pain in the ass.”
Harris took her hand in his and smoothed her fingers along his. “I think you need to go back a little further.”
She sighed and decided just to come clean. “I was born to two omega coyotes. They were so far down the pack order that it was only at my first shift that any of the other pack members noticed that I didn’t smell right. When I transformed into a badger, they knew it. As you know, there are rumours that a fairy was able to change a shifter’s beast with magic, so my parents were ordered to find a way to make me a coyote or not bring me back.”
He winced. “So, your parents found a fairy to do the transformation.”
She lifted her free hand and rocked it from side to side. “We got me into a coyote form but the magic couldn’t bind me there.”
“We?”
“Lord Adros Heller. He is the elf that did the magic work. He and I worked to find the inner coyote, and he tried to bind it to my body. It worked until I shifted back to human and then back to animal. I became a peahen, a wolf and a bear in quick succession. The fey magic just increased the speed of my transformation, and for years, we believed it was the cause of the variety.”
She inhaled and finished this part of the tale. “I wasn’t allowed to return home with my family, so they left me with Lord Heller. He wasn’t sure what to do with me either, but he brought me to his daughter while he was figuring it out, and she and I hit it off. She was old enough to adopt me and worked from home doing artisan tapestries, so she was able to give me the care and attention I needed.”
“What about your parents?”
“I send them cards at Christmas, but I never get anything in exchange. I am fairly sure I am dead to them.” She shrugged. “Mom loves me though, that I am sure of.”
“Your adoptive mother?”
“Yes, Amethyst Heller. Her mother and Adros were marred for eleven decades before she died; he gave her as much youth and life as he could. In the end, Mariella Heller passed away and he took her last name to honour her memory. Even love couldn’t hold back death.”
She shook her head and glanced quickly at Harris. He was looking a little surprised, but his loose grip on her hand was still there.
“You were raised by a half-elf.” He nodded. “That would explain the impeccable grooming.”
Eileen was startled into laughing. “It would. As Lord Heller’s granddaughter, I had to attend any number of fey events. Mother taught me to turn myself out and suggested that some of the older fey would be comforted by a more retro look. I took up eveningwear styles from the forties and fifties, and it served me well. The hair is a little more complicated, but I am used to it now.”
He smiled. “I like it. How do you wear it normally?”
She shrugged. “Up in a ponytail. I work frequently in hostile territory and keeping my hair back gives me all my peripheral vision.”
He asked, “What do you do?”
“I am a substitute teacher.”
He blinked and chuckled. “That is a very strange coincidence.”
Teebie came in with a tray, winked and set it down before leaving. Coffee and cake were arranged delicately with a sign that said, Decaf on the pot.
“Would you care for some coffee?” Eileen went immediately into hostess mode.
“Please, and some cake if you do not mind.”
She set about pouring the coffee and handing him cake and one of the teeny forks. It looked ridiculous in his fingers, but he wielded it with practice. “Cream or sugar?”
“Cream and two sugars.”
She blinked at them sharing taste in coffee additives. She set both cups up the same and stirred neatly before putting the cup and saucer within easy reach.
“Now, why is it coincidence, and why do you look like you are used to having tea parties?”
He grinned. “I have six nieces who have bullied me into finding a mate of my own because they are getting tired of me being alone.”
“Six?”
“I am the youngest of four children. My oldest niece is twenty-four.”
“Any nephews?”
“Five. My sisters are all content with the families they have. It is their children who were a little on the pushy side. Their mothers might have been in on it.”
“Your siblings are all girls?” Eileen laughed. It explained several things about him.
“They are. I had to practice dancing with all of them, was dragged shopping for not only prom but wedding gowns when the time came. I have been to hundreds of tea parties, birthday parties and pixie parties in the backyards of my nieces over the last few decades.”
Something in the way he said it clued her in to something. “You are a little older than you look, aren’t you?”
He smiled shyly and nibbled at his fork.
She tried not to laugh at the image of his broad-shouldered body and huge hand gracefully clutching the china plate and teeny utensil.
“If I told you how old I was, my sisters would kill me. If I am the youngest, it is not something that my sisters would want me to admit.”
Eileen narrowed her eyes. “What is your beast?”
He focussed on his coffee. “I am an elk, usually.”
“What are you when you are not usually an elk?”
“An Irish elk.”
“Those are extinct.”
“You don’t have to tell me. It is something I am very aware of.” He looked into her eyes and smiled. “Now your turn.”
She hedged, “What?”
“What is your beast?”
She followed his example and sipped at her coffee. “Well, that is a little awkward. Apparently, I am an extinct creature as well, sort of.”
His eyes brightened when she flicked her gaze at him.
He asked, “Sort of?”
“Mythical, actually. So, I had
no idea it was actually a thing until I had to provide my nail clippings to the transporter. She just about had kittens, which is very unusual for transporters.” Eileen stabbed her fork into the cake.
Harris put his hand on her knee. “What are you?”
“Chimera.”
His fingers clenched suddenly. “You are sure?”
“I am sure of nothing, but the transporter guild master was sure, the mage guild master was sure, the guardians here are sure and so I will take it on their expertise. After reading one of the ancient records, it does make a certain amount of sense.”
“So, you are the lion, goat and serpent mixed?”
“I believe that was a general description of what folks saw.” She set the cup down neatly. “Would you care to see? I can’t change more than my face in this dress, but it should give you the general idea.”
He nodded. “Please.”
To her surprise, he took her hands and held them loosely as he faced her squarely.
She looked at his face, the square jaw, blade of a nose and deep brown eyes. The curve of his lips was encouraging.
“Fine, but if I show you this, you will tell me how old you are.”
“It is a deal.”
She took in a deep breath, and as she exhaled, she started to show her half-features.
Snakes, birds, cats, dogs, a unicorn, dragon, all the creatures she had ever read of or seen in a book crossed her face. She could tell that Harris was reacting to some of the faces, his hands clenched on hers. When he saw something he liked, he squeezed, and when he saw something he didn’t, his hands chilled.
She finally resumed her normal features and swayed slightly. “That was enough for today.”
“Do you have more?”
She nodded. “Many, many more.”
“One hundred and fourteen. My family are ancients. Each of us embodies an extinct species and we do not age until a new ancient of our creature is born. Even my parents and grandparents are still alive. We choose to live a little off the beaten path.”
She scowled. “That is unfortunate. I am a teacher. I need to be near a school that can use my services.”
Part of her mind was whirling with his age and the potential of an entire family of old shifters, but her practical sense was focussed on her occupation.
Misenchanted Shifter Page 3