RockMeTonight

by Lisa Carlisle

  “Oh my God. I’m so glad someone came,” he said with obvious relief. “I heard a woman scream and I thought she was being attacked. Then I saw a mountain lion so I shot it. I knew I saw mountain lions in these woods. But now look.” He pointed down at her. “It’s a woman!”

  “Sir, you sound very confused,” I said in a soothing tone. “Will you let me take a look at her?”

  He stepped back and ran his fingers over his eyes as if trying to clear what he saw.

  She was breathing and she had a pulse. I was relieved to find that despite the amount of blood, the bullet hadn’t gone near any vital organs. It appeared to have grazed her hip, but I was sure Katrina and I could bandage it up ourselves and she wouldn’t need to go to a hospital. That was a good thing for her sake. If she had our healing powers, her wounds would repair themselves quicker than the average human’s, enough to raise flags.

  Why she was unconscious, I didn’t know. I guessed she might have hit her head when she fell. I felt her head for any lumps or wounds, but didn’t find any that had formed yet. Or somehow maybe the shock of it made her faint.

  “She’s okay,” I reassured him. “I don’t know what you think you saw, but she’s clearly a woman.”

  “She was a mountain lion. I swear. Or cougar. Whatever you want to call it. How did she change?” Then he buried his face in his hands. “Oh Lord, I shot a woman! I’ve been hunting these forests for years. Why would she be by herself all alone this far in?”

  I had to be careful as to what I said next. There was no way I would confirm that the woman shifted from a mountain lion to a human. It was far too dangerous for our kind for humans to know about us.

  Especially hunters like this man.

  “I don’t doubt that you think you saw an animal. The woods can play on anyone’s mind when you’ve been out here long enough. Hell, I’ve thought I’ve seen all kinds of crazy things late at night when I was tired.”

  I saw doubt forming in his eyes, but then he stopped. “I could swear it was a mountain lion. Why would I imagine that? In fact, I’d seen mountain lions out here not too long ago.”

  “Yeah, I’ve sworn I’ve seen some things too. It’s only when I realize how impossible it was to see what I thought I saw. My mind playing tricks on me. It’s only my imagination.”

  “But I was so sure I saw what I saw,” he said. “How could I imagine seeing mountain lions?”

  “Like I’ve said, I’ve been there, man. You think the trees are moving. You think you see people when there’s no one there.”

  “But there were footprints in the snow last month. When I thought I might be seeing things, I checked to see if it was a deer’s footprints. They weren’t. They looked like it could be feline…”

  Katrina stepped in. “You probably just need some rest. Have you been getting enough sleep lately?”

  He shook his head. “Maybe not. Always stuff to do, you know?”

  “Yes, I know,” she said in a nurturing tone. “I recognize this woman. She’s a friend of my family’s. I’m going to bring her back to my house and see who we can contact.”

  “What can I do to help?” He looked around. “She doesn’t have a purse or anything. Heck, she isn’t even wearing any clothes! Why would she be naked out here?”

  “So I’m certain she would feel embarrassed, if not terrified, when she wakes up nude and sees two men watching her.” Katrina turned to me. “I need you to go get a blanket and some bandages.” She turned to him. “And it’s best if you went back home. We’ll take it from here.”

  He ran his fingers over his beard. “I have to do something. I mean, I shot her. I have to apologize. Make amends somehow.”

  “It’s really not as bad as it looks. It could have been much worse, but she’ll be fine,” Katrina said. “How about you leave your contact information in case we need to get in touch with you?”

  He looked unsure about leaving. “Okay, if that’s what you think. Do you want me to help you carry her out of here or anything?”

  “No, please. We can’t discuss this all day. You should be going now.”

  He quickly scrawled his name and number on a piece of paper and said, “Tell her I’m so, so sorry. Have her call me if she needs anything. I’ll do what I can to take care of the medical bills, whatever she needs.”

  “Will do.”

  After the hunter walked away, I turned to Katrina. “That was genius! I was just trying to get him to doubt what he saw, but you were great in getting him out of here.”

  She smiled. “Thank you. But you really should go get a blanket and a first-aid kit. She’s going to be freaked out enough when she wakes.”

  “Good thinking. I knew I loved you for a reason.” When she gave me a look, I clarified. “Many reasons.” Then I went back to the house to get the stuff she asked for.

  Nico

  Why wouldn’t this bus go any faster?

  As I tracked our progress north through the highway signs, I couldn’t stop worrying about her. My leg twitched involuntarily until the older woman next to me gave me a look harsh enough to make me stop.

  “Sorry,” I said.

  She went back to her book.

  This regret I felt weighed as heavy as a bulletproof vest on my chest—would this feeling ever abate? She trusted me and I freaked out. Not cool. I had to find her. Tell her how I was so wrong to leave.

  No wonder she wanted to keep things from me. Look how I reacted.

  You nob!

  I pushed her and pushed her to tell me her secret and once she did, I bolted. No, I wasn’t just a nob, but a total and utter wanker. I wouldn’t stop looking for her to make sure she was all right.

  Of course she’s all right. She’s a bloody mountain lion! Like she needs some bloke to save her? Get over yourself. She’d be the one to protect you out in the woods.

  A mountain lion.

  The woman I want is a bloody mountain lion!

  The concept of her changing from her seductive female shape into that of a sleek feline was inconceivable. As I envisioned her naked body changing, I grew hard. And then picturing her as a mountain lion, a predator that could overpower and attack me—well, that hit an erotic chord in me with something so primal I didn’t even want to admit it to myself.

  What the sodding hell is wrong with me?

  I opened a newspaper someone had left on the seat. The last thing I needed was for the old woman to look over at me squirming in my seat to get more comfortable.

  As I pretended to be interested in the front-page news, I tried to figure out this attraction I had for Lily. I’d always been attracted to strong, independent women, especially those who didn’t want me. I loved the challenge of proving myself worthy of their attention. Maybe the guys are right. I always want what I can’t have. In this case, she’s not even fully human! She’s out of my league and I’m out of my mind to think I can have her.

  Telling myself to stop brooding, I forced myself to think about something else. VC’s upcoming schedule captured my attention and my erection disappeared. Then I put the newspaper down and dug a paperback out of my backpack. It was a book of Poe’s short stories and poems. I knew I was torturing myself, but I turned to the story of Ligeia and began reading.

  Lily

  I woke up in an unfamiliar room to the scent of food cooking. It appeared to be a log cabin. Over the fireplace in front of me was a painting of the mountains, moose in one corner. Looking where I lay, I’d been sleeping on a dark-green couch and was covered with a thick, colorful quilt.

  Where on earth am I?

  “Hello. You’re awake,” a female said.

  My eyes turned to see a fair-skinned woman with long blonde hair pulled into a clip at the back of her head. She was in front of a stove cooking something that smelled like stir-fry. Next to her was a man with wavy black hair that reached down to his chin and olive skin.

  A sharp pain on my hip distracted me, but before I investigated, I had to know what was going on.

 
; “Who are you? And where am I?”

  “I’m Katrina and this is Angelo. We’re at our house in the mountains. We found you out there in the woods. You were hurt.”

  “Hurt? What happened to me?”

  They looked at each other. “A hunter,” Angelo said.

  It all came rushing back to me. A hunter startling me and then the sounds of rifle bursts. “Was I shot?” I pulled up the blanket to look for wounds. The sweatpants and T-shirt I was wearing weren’t mine. I peered inside the sweatpants to look at my hip. Sure enough, it was bandaged.

  “Just grazed,” Katrina said. “But you passed out. We brought you here to make sure you were okay.”

  “Thank you,” I said. “But why would a hunter shoot at me? Did he think I was a deer?”

  They looked at each other again. Then I remembered how I had changed before I heard the shots. When I’d screamed as a woman and changed into a mountain lion.

  “He saw you as a mountain lion.”

  Closing my eyes, I hoped that by shutting them out, I could pretend I didn’t hear that. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I better go.” I pulled the blanket up and stood up, ignoring the pain of what were surely many bruises and looking around to see if I had any belongings.

  “It’s okay,” Katrina said softly. “We know what you are. We’re like you.”

  What did she just say?

  “We’re shifters,” Angelo said.

  For a moment, I froze. What I had been trying to run away from my whole life stood before me. Shifting was a curse I tolerated monthly; it was not something I wanted to face—especially in others.

  I remembered when I had seen mountain lions last month. Could it have been these two? Were they really shifters, like me?

  “I have to go.” I almost sprinted to the door.

  “Wait,” Katrina said. “Haven’t you ever wondered?”

  Her words tapped into a secret part of my psyche that I tried to hide, even to myself. I paused at the door.

  “Thank you for your hospitality.” Then I opened it.

  “You don’t even know where you are. Let us at least give you some directions.”

  “I’ll be fine.” The walls felt like they were closing in around me, suffocating me with the knowledge that everything I’d been hiding from existed in this room.

  “Your wounds heal quicker than most humans,” Angelo said. “By tomorrow, where you were shot should barely be visible.”

  “Come back if you ever have—questions,” Katrina said.

  I closed the door behind me and bent over, breathing heavily. Shit. Where the hell am I? Definitely in the mountains and it looks like no other houses nearby. Nice move, Lily.

  Who cares? You’ll find a way out. You had to get out of there.

  I looked up at the sun to try to get some sort of idea what time it was or what direction I should walk in. With all the thoughts swirling in my mind, I couldn’t even figure out what I was supposed to look for. I kept walking, hoping the answers would come to me.

  Come back if you ever have questions, Katrina had said.

  Where to begin? I had so many questions and few answers. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so hasty to run away.

  Why are you always running away? You run from relationships. Now you’re going to run from the truth? Don’t you want to know who you are?

  Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to ask a few questions.

  I turned and walked back toward their house. I inhaled deeply before I knocked on their door. “I apologize for being so rude.”

  “That’s okay,” Angelo said. “You woke up in a strange place, with clothes you didn’t recognize and people you didn’t know—right after being shot at. We kind of expected you might not be too receptive.”

  “Can I come in?”

  “Of course.”

  Katrina sat down with me in the living room area. Angelo brought us all plates of stir-fry. I wanted to shove the food in my mouth since I was so hungry from the change, but forced myself to act civilized.

  After a few bites, I asked, “What are we?”

  Katrina said, “First, why don’t you tell us your name?”

  “Sorry. It’s Lily.”

  “Hi, Lily,” Angelo said. “To answer your question, we’re shifters.”

  “But what does that mean?”

  “We’re not human and we’re not mountain lions. We’re something far more extraordinary.”

  Extraordinary? More like freaks.

  “Where did we come from?”

  Katrina shrugged. “That’s as much of a mystery as asking where humans came from. You’ll hear different answers—from evolution to spiritual.”

  “In other words, we don’t know where we came from,” Angelo finished. “We just know what we are.”

  Hmm, that made sense, but it didn’t help much. “Are there other types of shifters?”

  “Oh yes,” Katrina said quickly. “Most humans are blind to anything out of the realm of what they expect to see. But there are shifters everywhere.”

  “And they change with the full moon? Like I do?”

  “Shifters or weres are as different from each other as are other species on the Earth,” Angelo said. “Meaning there’s a wide range of characteristics.” He turned the questions on me. “What do you know about shifters?” Angelo asked.

  I shrugged. “Not much. I used to read books about mountain lions. They helped me understand some of the reasons why I behave in certain ways sometimes. Then once I was old enough to use the internet, I started searching for more info. What you find online though is a lot of fiction.”

  Angelo chuckled. “Humans writing stories about what they think shifters are like.”

  “Humans,” Katrina repeated. “Can’t live with them…”

  “Can’t live with them,” Angelo finished.

  “Oh, come on,” I said. “That can’t be true. We’re still human, right? But also…” My voice trailed off since I wasn’t sure how to finish that sentence. “My mom is human as are all the relatives I know.”

  “And your dad?” Katrina asked.

  “I don’t know much about him. He died before I was born. But that’s from whom my mom and I guessed I inherited this ability.”

  “Hmm,” Angelo said. “So you really don’t know anything about us, do you?”

  I shifted uncomfortably. Okay, maybe that is the wrong choice of words. How about I shuffled uncomfortably?

  “Not really. What can you tell me?”

  Angelo paced the room as if trying to figure out where to start. “We’re called by different names depending on where we live. The same way with people calling the animal cougar, puma, mountain lion and so on. So some call us weres. Some shapeshifters. We prefer shifters. Easy, to the point. No need to associate ourselves with other were creatures, like werewolves.”

  “Werewolves?” I raised my eyebrows.

  He ignored me. “Like the animal, many prefer to live on our own. But like humans, many prefer to live as couples, such as Katrina and me, or in dens. Basically we possess many of the characteristics of the animal with many of the personality quirks of humans.”

  “What he means,” Katrina said, “is that we can only tell you so much. It would be like telling you what humans are like. Humans vary greatly from person to person and place to place. You discover how people are by interacting with them.”

  In only a few minutes, my brain was ready to explode with all this information. The more questions they answered, the more came up.

  “Have you always lived here?” I asked. “I’ve never seen you before and I’ve been coming here for years. But last month I saw two mountain lions. Were they you?”

  “Yes,” Katrina answered. “We’re from California originally. Far more mountain lions and shifters live there. We wanted more privacy and to make a fresh start. So we moved to New Hampshire a few years back.”

  “We noticed you in recent months,” Angelo continued, “and guessed that you were up here hiding so
we stayed away.”

  Katrina said, “We debated whether to approach you.”

  “And once we heard the shot and the scream, it was time,” Angelo finished.

  That was a lot to take in. I’d definitely have to take a walk later and try to process everything I’d been hearing. I realized I had stopped eating despite my ravenous hunger, so I took another bite.

  “What about you?” Katrina asked. “Can you tell us about yourself?”

  Where to begin? How do you reveal a secret you’ve kept hidden your whole life except from your family?

  And Nico.

  No, don’t think of him.

  Now my hunger competed with a sudden need to explain my story to people who would actually get it, not think I was crazy or run away in revulsion. “I’ve changed during the full moon ever since puberty. Talk about a rough time. Not only was my body changing, but also my body was changing. It’s always been a painful experience. I hated it. I fought it. But something strange happened this time, right before the shots. I was out here in the middle of the day and I admit I was feeling pretty emotional. And I changed. No full moon. No pain. Almost like that.” I snapped my fingers.

  “With time, you’ll learn to control the change so you can shift effortlessly,” Angelo said.

  “Why would I want to do that? I’ve been fighting against this my whole life. I just wanted to be like everyone else.”

  “But you’re not like everyone else. You’re special. You can do things that humans could never dream of doing,” Angelo replied.

  “Don’t fight it, Lily,” Katrina said. “Don’t be ashamed of who you are. You don’t get to live in just one world, but two. Think of all the experiences you can have, living in between them as you please.”

  Living alone, I thought. Because who would want to live in two worlds with someone like me? Look how Nico had reacted when he found out who I was. I looked at Angelo and Katrina and envied what they had. They clearly cared about each other. Clearly in love.

  “What are you thinking about?” Katrina asked as if having some sixth sense that it was about her and Angelo.

  “I was just thinking how in tune you both seem. So connected. I envy having that type of connection with someone.”