* * * *
The negotiations were not going well, but Wormith had a hidden card to play.
“What about those who have come to the Crossroads and have had to leave when their time was up because they were unmatchable? Their match could be a member of the fey community, but they would not even have a chance at meeting them because of the strictures between our factions.”
He sucked in a deep breath. “We are desperate. We are dying. Our race lives a very long time and that does not help us have children. We are losing members of our population with every year and there are none born to replace them.”
Krisia cocked her head. “What about the halflings?”
“They do not bear the same quantity or quality of magic that their parents had. If we are not allowed to pursue a magical race in a heavily organized manner, we will die out and the world will be empty at our passing.”
Mage Guild Master Tobias frowned. “You want human mages as well?”
“If there is a solid match, yes. I have something to give in exchange.”
The table perked up and leaned forward to hear his terms. Wormith’s hands were sweating and his ears tingled. If they didn’t accept this, there would be no other item he could offer.
“In exchange for allowing our people access to the Crossroads in the same manner the shifters can, any person mating with one of the fey would share the life of the fey. The lifespan would be split and shared evenly, as would the magic.”
Shifter Guild Master Norman Exeter narrowed his eyes. “That is a fair blending of the races, now is it even possible?”
Wormith nodded. “Our seers tell us that this is our only chance. A selection of men and women who can take an animal form would be our first attempts. A fair sampling of thirty would be applied over the next year if we can get agreement. We would even provide additional magics to shore up what we have damaged.”
Norman leaned back. “What about all the collectors?”
Wormith flinched. He knew that would be mentioned. “We will take them apart as our regulations allow. New laws are being enacted as we speak.”
“What promises can you give that will demonstrate your conviction to keep our people safe and healthy, as well as free? I know that your kind view us as animals, so how are the volunteers being selected?”
Wormith produced a file with several candidates for the first volunteers to try the project.
Norman looked over it and he tilted his head. “This list counts heavily on the population of the Crossroads being more female than male.”
He pushed the file over to Dira, and she flipped through it, with her eyes narrow. “What about djinn?”
Wormith blinked. “Um, we have not contacted them yet.”
“You don’t have to. If we are opening up the Crossroads for anyone to find love, it will be open to all with magical bloodlines. Even Halfling humans.”
Wormith swallowed. “What?”
“You heard me. This is not a playground for you. We have created the Crossroads out of need and I poured my heart and soul into providing a safe, private environment for folk to meet and let their beasts speak. If we are doing this, admittance criteria will change and we will have to hire a seer to work with the transporter to determine the chances of love being found. We will also need a spell crafted to hold the mated pair together. The binding will need to be administered at the Crossroads. The contract must be drawn to bind them together in both communities.” Dira rapped out her demands.
Norman raised his brows. “You have no objection to a shifter marrying a fey?”
Dira smiled sadly. “My sister married a djinn and had many wonderful children, many of whom are still alive today. Their magic was not diluted, it was stronger.”
Wormith was stunned. That hadn’t been in the briefing about the creator of the Crossroads. He knew she was a dragon, but her family had not been mentioned.
“So it works?”
Dira snorted and fire came out. “Of course it works. We are the same basic species, just different races. If your folk would have shed their superiority earlier, there may have been thousands more of you by now.”
Wormith rubbed his head. “I didn’t know. I never thought about it.”
“Think about it. Now, let’s bring this to a vote. I vote yea to letting the elves into the Crossroads as long as other species are invited as well, and a seer indicates that it is their best chance at love.”
The vote went around the table and Dira smiled. “Good. Now, let’s get the protocols in place. We have a population trapped in there.”
Kris nodded grimly, “And there was nearly a fatality. If not for the quick thinking of the guardians up there, she would have been torn apart by your severing the link.”
Wormith felt uneasy. “Is she alive?”
“She is, but we don’t know if there are any side effects. Our communications have been cut off and we need them back immediately. Get to work on that.”
* * * *
Sable sat drinking her coffee and Warren sat near her.
“I never imagined that I would get stuck here without even having a chance at a mate. I got here yesterday and I was hoping to meet someone this afternoon. Now that I have met them all in this panic, none of them are for me.”
She smiled and watched the newcomers file in. Teebie led the group, and she brought a tray of sandwiches into the living room, flicking a fire into the fireplace with her fingers. It burned without fuel and the guests settled on the furnishings around the room.
Introductions were made, but Sable was concentrating on her body. She felt a shift coming and she wasn’t going to be able to stop it.
“Please excuse me.” She got up and bolted out of the building, using her senses to pinpoint a large, open area.
* * * *
Warren looked at Teebie and the djinn looked worried. “Warren, can you follow her and make sure she is okay?”
He got to his feet. “I will. I will bring her back as soon as I can.”
“Let her burn off some of the magical flare. She was caught in a mess and it had to have had an effect.” Teebie nodded and generated another round of sandwiches.
Warren wondered what kind of an effect that could be, and he followed the scent of the newcomer out the door and down to the shifter’s field. A gold and spotted streak was sprinting away from a pile of clothing, and Warren huffed in surprise. He never would have guessed that she was a cat.
Chapter Three
Sable ran for two hours before she finally got rid of the weird energy running through her. When she trotted back to her clothing, Warren was kneeling next to it.
She sat in front of him and tried to shift. Nothing happened.
Sable shook her head and stood up again, going up on her hind legs and trying to shift. She tried to call her human form, but it was difficult. She felt her skin stretch and pull in a way she hadn’t felt since her first shift thirteen years ago.
Sable wanted to scream, and she fell to her side as her human body took shape. She panted and lay on the ground, trying to stop the shaking in her body.
“I will take you back to the Open Heart. Your clothing will be fine here, or someone will bring it along.”
He scooped her up and carried her back to the bed and breakfast. Teebie was next to them the moment that they came through the door, and she escorted them up to Sable’s room.
Being naked in front of other shifters was par for the course but being helpless wasn’t. Sable was frustrated and nothing was coming out of her mouth except mewls and yowls.
Teebie sat at her side and ran her hands over Sable’s throat. “Oh dear. Your vocal chords are stuck. I am sure that it will be fixable as soon as you can see a healer, but in the meantime, I will get you a note pad.”
Sable made a face. Making cute kitty noises was not normally in her repertoire.
“It might reset on its own. Just don’t stress it out.” Teebie smiled. “I w
ill send Spike in to check you. She is far more versed in shifter ailments than I am.”
Warren smiled at her, his handsome face a bit of a torture after her embarrassing moment of shifting and getting stuck. She mouthed a polite, Thank you, and inclined her head.
To her surprise, he took a seat in her room.
“Teebie, you can go for Spike; I will keep an eye on Sable for you.”
Teebie smiled in appreciation. “Thank you. I will go and get the prickly one.”
A moment later, Sable was alone with Warren and he was smiling at her.
From the instant she had seen him, her inner beast had been yowling in desperation, but her body had been too tired to do anything. Now, he was sitting alone with her and her cat wanted to sing the song of her people. If she opened her mouth, she was going to be humiliated.
Warren chuckled. “Well, since you are stuck, I will tell you my story. I came to the Crossroads because my family pushed me into it. I was sceptical about the whole thing until I saw my first couple here and I thought, I want that. After that, I started looking in earnest, but with the link unstable, not a lot of folk were getting through. My beast got grumpy and I turned my senses off.”
She sighed and put another pillow behind her back, tugging the bedding up under her arms.
“I know. Turning off my senses in this situation was stupid, but as I said, I am conflicted.”
She rolled her eyes.
“It wasn’t until I held your clothing and really took in your scent that I realised what I had been missing. Or rather, what I nearly missed.”
She scowled and cocked her head.
“I would like permission to court you if I may. My beast is positively enthusiastic about it, and I would like to find out if this runs both ways.”
She covered her eyes with her hands, peeping through her fingers. Yup, he was still there. He was waiting like all good predators could.
She bit her lip and lowered her hands. She tried to sigh, but it came out a yowl. With a jerk, she nodded her head.
He smiled in slow satisfaction and she ducked under her covers, waiting for the medic.
Five minutes later, a hand touched her shoulder. “Sable, my name is Spike and I have brought some of our diagnostic toys here to sweep over you. Teebie mentioned that you got stuck in a shift?”
Sable peeked out of the bedding and nodded at the woman from the bar. She was the one who had smacked the other woman for being a jackass.
Spike looked relieved. “Is it only your voice?”
Sable shrugged. She really didn’t want to look down for a nipple count.
Spike handed her a notepad and mechanical pencil.
She wrote. My beast has control of my voice.
Spike winced. “That sucks. Let’s see if I have anything in my bag of tricks for that.”
The woman sat and hummed cheerfully while she rifled through her medic kit. She held up a vial and smiled in triumph. “Got it. You are not the only one ever to get stuck at the Crossroads. A few have even been kinda gory. We got them all into fighting shape. Two even lived to seduce their mates ten minutes after healing.”
The vial glowed with a pink liquid, and Spike shook it up. “This might get you high. I am just saying that it is an option.”
Sable really wanted to laugh. Why is it glowing?
“Fey magic. It clashes with the shifter magic and will reset you to original physical condition, as a human. It will be about forty-eight hours before you can shift again. Remember that or you will be in the same boat and I have no way of getting replacement doses.”
Sable nodded and put one hand over her heart as a promise.
“It is going to burn going down. Swallow every drop of it. Your body is going to fight it and I will have to hold you down.”
Warren offered. “I can help.”
Sable scowled, but when she opened her mouth, a mewl came out.
Spike nodded. “Right, let’s get this done.”
Warren came around and sat on the other side of her bed. “Ready when you are.”
Sable took the vial and opened the lid, holding her nose and dumping the contents down her throat.
Spike quickly took the empty container.
Sable swallowed and then did it again. The taste in her mouth was rapidly going bitter and her throat tingled. She started to tell Spike that she felt fine when an invisible hand gripped her throat and squeezed.
Sable thrashed around and clawed at her neck. Warren grabbed her wrists and held her down with his torso across hers. She bucked and twisted against him for what felt like hours.
She was coated with sweat and gasping when the crushing of her larynx stopped.
Sable licked her lips and said, “You can get off now, Warren.”
He smiled and winked. “I think I did.”
He moved away from her and tucked the sheet back over her exposed breasts.
Spike snorted and said, “Well, if you need anything else, have Teebie come and get me.”
Sable smiled. “Thank you. It is nice to be able to use my own voice. I was a little frightened for a while.”
Spike pulled her bag back together and she nodded. “Just relax for an hour or so, and no shifting for two days.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Spike sighed and nodded at Warren. “If you see her doing anything stupid, let Teebie know and she will put a stop to it.”
Sable tucked herself in and stared at Warren the moment that Spike left. “If you will give me some privacy, I want to get dressed.”
“She said you were to relax for an hour or so.” Warren gave her a narrow-eyed look.
“I can relax while wearing clothes. Shoo.” She flapped a hand at him.
He sat back at the table and smiled. “So, what brings you to the Crossroads?”
She gave him what she hoped was an evil glare before she squirmed under her covers toward the foot of the bed where her bag was sitting. She hauled it under the blankets with her and back to the head of the bed.
“I am here because there is no one in my community who will consider me as a mate. Do you want to know the whole story?” She opened the bag and grabbed the first bra she found. She breathed a little easier when she grabbed a pair of panties and pulled them on.
Nudity was fine when everyone was about to or just had worn fur. By herself and trapped in human form meant she was going to be a prim and proper human lady.
“Please. I promise to tell you whatever you want to know about me.”
“Fine. When I was a teenager, I was in love with another cheetah named Brendan. We laughed, we fooled around and we enjoyed each other’s company. When I was sixteen and he was seventeen, he got drunk and wrapped his car around a pole with no seat belt. He died instantly.”
“I am sorry for your loss.”
She looked over at him and smiled. “It was a decade ago but thank you. Anyway, in our community, our relationship had made us mates though nothing was formalized. That meant that all of his relations were now mine and he had a very big family. Cheetahs don’t breed within family boundaries, and so, I had no chance to find a mate with my own people. Since I had to travel outside our confines to find someone, I finally came to the realisation that the Crossroads was my best bet.”
Warren smiled. “If only you had known.”
Sable shrugged into a long dress. “I might have hesitated.”
He chuckled as she wormed her way to the edge of the bed and pulled her dress over her legs. “That is well done.”
“I spent some time at camp when I was younger, before my first shift.”
“You learned to change under the covers?”
“It was better than having strange girls gawking at me because I developed early.”
The dress was a soft blue and gave her the air of innocence that she tried to pretend she didn’t have. She always looked like she had just stepped out of a convent on her first day in the sordid world
. Her mom generally picked clothing for her that had that sensibility. Since Sable wasn’t that interested in seeking out the opposite sex, it hadn’t been an issue before. Now that she was here, she wanted something a little more alluring.
She turned her head and got some leather slippers from her bag, putting them on her feet and then she stood. “I would like a cup of coffee or tea and I think Teebie might be able to manage it.”
“Let me at least help you down the stairs. You still look wiped out.”
She snorted. “It figures. My human form is exhausted and my beast is wired up and I can’t use her for two days. Nothing is going my way. Sure. Please, help me.”
Warren was at her side, and she took in his height, his strength and the warm and comforting scent that he exuded. Her skin tingled, and she wasn’t sure if it was the residue from the fairy dose or hormones coming online.
She held onto his arm while they walked down the stairs, and he came in handy. She stumbled twice.
Teebie smiled when she came down and waved her into the dining room. A tray of small sandwiches, pots of tea and another of coffee.
Sable looked at her with a grateful smile. “Is this heaven?”
Chapter Four
Sable sat for hours, sipping tea with lemon and honey, coffee and eating small sandwiches that looked like they were designed for dolls.
Warren asked her small questions about her family and why she hadn’t made a move earlier.
“It came down to being that last woman standing. My brothers have all started their families and my father was planning on me being at home during his retirement. It was getting ugly fast. My nephew even provided me with a list of what I needed to find in a man, or at least what he wanted in an uncle. So, all members of my family drove me to it, one way or another.”
He chuckled. “Wow.”
“What made you make the final decision, Warren?”
She smiled as Teebie brought in a tray of profiteroles and set them down in front of her.
Seeing Spots Page 2