Stone Cold Fox

by Evangeline Anderson

  The fox looked up at her and whined softly. Suddenly, he sat up in her lap. Standing up on his tiny hind paws, the little animal lapped at her cheeks which were wet and salty now. His warm little tongue seemed to bring Jo back to herself.

  “I’m sorry, little guy,” she told him, sniffing. “I’m just so tired of going and going and never getting anywhere. I’m sick of being alone and scared all the time and having no place to stay at night. I’m just tired.” She sighed and stroked the soft, flame-colored fur. “I wish I could find someplace to stop for a little while and just catch my breath—you know?”

  The fox yipped again and then jumped off her lap. It trotted down the porch steps and around the side of the house.

  “Hey!” Jo called after it, feeling immediately lonely. “Hey, don’t leave! Where are you going?”

  She stood up and was about to go looking for the fox when the huge man with the curly, reddish-brown hair and brown eyes came suddenly around the corner of the house.

  “Hi,” he said. “It’s me again.”

  Chapter Two

  The big man was barefoot and he was pulling his white T-shirt down over a set of impressive looking abs, as though he’d been getting dressed around the side of the house for some reason.

  Not that Jo was interested in his physique, no matter how nice it was. The relative peace and safety she’d felt melted away at the sight of the big, male body approaching her own and she took a step back and reached for her athame.

  “Hey, it’s okay. It’s all right.” The big man stopped in front of the porch and held up both hands, giving her plenty of distance. “I’m not going to hurt you—I’ll stay right here.”

  “What do you want?” Jo pointed her athame at him for the second time. The silver blade was heavy and reassuring in her hand and she felt a little less frightened even though he looked as huge and muscular as ever. At least this time she was out in the open, not cornered in the shed. She was also well fed—it made her feel stronger and more solid to have some food in her belly—less likely to faint and make herself vulnerable to attack.

  It occurred to her that the food that was making her feel better had been given to her by the man she was now pointing her athame at. Either that or he had left it on the porch while he went off for some reason and now he was going to be pissed off that she’d eaten it.

  “What do you want with me?” she demanded again, still pointing the long silver dagger aggressively at him.

  “What do I want with you? Well . . .” He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck as though trying to think of what to say. At last he shrugged, his broad shoulders rolling under his white t-shirt. “I guess I just want to offer you a place to stay—a place to catch your breath for a little while.”

  Jo frowned—he was repeating her own words back to her. Had he been spying on her? Watching her while she talked to his fox and listening to what she said?

  “Why would I stay with you?” she demanded.

  He shrugged again. “Because you don’t have anyplace else to go. Right?”

  Jo stiffened. “How do you know that? And why would you offer me a place to stay? You don’t even know me.”

  “We can fix that pretty quick.” He gave her an easy smile. “Hi, I’m Reese. Reese Cooper but most everybody here in Cougarville calls me ‘Coop.’ And you are?” He raised his eyebrows inquiringly, waiting for her to fill in the blanks.

  “Jocasta Ferrell,” Jo said unwillingly. Names had power—she didn’t know why she’d let him know hers—it just came out somehow.

  His eyebrows shot higher. “Jocasta? That’s an unusual name.”

  “It’s from a Greek tragedy. My mother was a professor of Ancient Mythology,” Jo said. “I don’t expect you to understand.”

  “Sure, from Oedipus Rex, right?” Reese asked. “Although she could have picked a name with a less tragic story behind it. Why didn’t she name you Dianna or Athena or something like that if she was so hung up on Greek Mythology?”

  It was Jo’s turn to look surprised.

  “You know about that . . . that kind of thing? About Greek mythology?”

  He grinned. “What? You think because I’m a hick from the sticks I don’t know my ancient myths and legends?”

  “I just . . . nobody ever knows. That’s all.” She shook her head. “I go by Jo for short.” Then she bit her lip. She’d done it again. Why had she given him her name? It too, had power—it was how she thought of herself, though no one but her mentor, Miranda, had ever called her that.

  “Well, Jo, now that we’ve been introduced, do you want to crash at my place?” Reese asked.

  “I don’t have any money,” Jo said. “And I have no intention of paying for lodging in the way you’re hoping I will either.” She glared at him.

  Reese frowned. “Give me a little credit—I wasn’t thinking that. I’m not a bad guy—I won’t bother you.”

  “I don’t believe you.” She lifted her chin. “And I’m not afraid of you, either.”

  “Oh, I think you are, darlin’,” Reese said quietly. “Or you wouldn’t be holding that big, scary-looking knife on me.”

  “It’s an athame,” Jo snapped challengingly. “A ceremonial dagger used when casting spells. I’m a witch.”

  “Okay, well . . .” Reese shrugged apparently unperturbed by her statement. “I’m a mechanic. Nice to meet you.”

  “That’s it?” Jo frowned at him. “You’re not going to freak out or think I’m strange for being . . . what I am?”

  “Nope.” He shrugged. “You’re a witch, I’m a mechanic—so what?”

  His laissez-faire attitude towards her profession confused Jo. She hadn’t declared herself to many people outside her coven, but on the few occasions she had, they either feared her or thought she was crazy. When she went outside of Avalon, she told people she was a yoga instructor and left it at that. The fact that Reese just seemed to accept her as a witch was troubling. But not nearly as troubling as something else she had noticed about him.

  “You’re not just a mechanic,” she said. “There’s something about you—your aura . . .”

  Jo squinted at him, letting her eyes go out of focus for a moment to pick up the colors around him. There was something strange in the soft cloud of pigment radiating out from around his slightly curly reddish-brown hair . . . something she’d never encountered before but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was.

  The trick to seeing an aura was to focus until you saw the thin, white band floating around a person’s head—that was the first layer of their aura—the emanation of personal energy everyone on Earth carried with them. The next step, seeing the other colors each person emitted, was much more difficult and had taken her years to master.

  As she watched Reese, a line of pale red appeared above the white band that surrounded him—that meant strength and courage. The pale red deepened into crimson—loyalty and passion—and then moved into silvery green which meant compassion and nurturing.

  Hmm . . . could it be that Reese really was offering her a place to stay out of the goodness of his heart? Jo couldn’t help thinking of the aura of the man who’d pulled over on the side of the road and tried to get her to get into his car with him. She’d hesitated long enough to read him and had seen the blackish-red color of lust swirling around him, leading into the grayish-green of greed and the dark pink of dishonesty.

  Reese’s aura was pretty much the opposite of her attacker—well, one of them anyway. She hadn’t gotten a chance to read the Skin Walkers in the forest.

  She looked at the big man again, seeking another layer. Above the silvery green was a thin band of blue. Jo frowned—that was interesting . . . blue usually meant intellectual ability. It wasn’t something she’d generally expect to find in the aura of a mechanic.

  Reese had called himself a “hick from the sticks,” but he’d known the true origin of her name. Could he be smarter than he looked? Not that he looked stupid, just young. Jo placed him around twenty-six o
r seven—considerably younger than her own age of forty-one.

  Young but also really big and probably strong as an ox, she reminded herself. You’re not actually considering his offer to stay here, are you?

  Jo didn’t know. There was another band of color at the top of Reese’s aura—one she hadn’t seen in a human before. It was a band of golden yellow that didn’t belong there at all. In fact, it didn’t belong on any person. It belonged on an animal—but that was just crazy, wasn’t it?

  “Um . . . are you okay?” Reese asked and she realized he’d been standing there patiently while she took her time reading his aura in complete silence.

  “I’m fine.” Jo lifted her chin. “Just trying to determine if you are what you claim to be.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Oh? And what did I claim to be?”

  “A good guy,” Jo said dryly. “If there is such a thing—which recent experience has led me to doubt.”

  “That’s right—you said you’d been attacked several times.” He frowned. “I’m sorry about that. Any male that attacks a woman deserves to be shot.”

  Jo shook her head. “So . . . what? You just sat there around the side of your house and listened to everything I said to your fox? Where is your fox, anyway?”

  “No, you’ve got it all wrong. The fox . . .” Reese took a deep breath as though nerving himself up to say something important. “The fox is . . . me,” he said at last. Then he shook his head. “Don’t know why I told you that.”

  “What?” Jo stared at him blankly. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying me and the fox—we’re the same person. Well, the same creature, I guess. He’s the other half of me.”

  “So . . . he’s your familiar?” Jo still wasn’t sure what he was trying to say. “Are you trying to tell me you’re also a practitioner of Wicca?”

  “No.” He shook his head. “No, I’m not a Wiccan or a witch or anything like that—I’m a Shifter. I can literally turn into a fox.”

  Jo took a step back, tightening her grip on her athame.

  “Skin Walker,” she breathed. “You skinned that poor innocent creature so you could wear his aspect. Taking a life—even the life of an animal—for your own magical gain is the blackest kind of magic.”

  “What? No!” Reese protested. “I didn’t go out and hunt down a fox and skin it—I was born with it inside me. He is me and I am him—I’m a Shifter. I can Shift from human to fox and back again.”

  Jo took another step back. Was he crazy or lying to her? Of course, she’d seen the other men—the Skin Walkers—turn into animals, but that had been at night under the full moon. Although, if he was telling the truth it might explain the strange band of yellow-gold in his aura . . .

  But no—she pushed the possibility away. She’d been studying Wicca for years and she’d never heard of anyone who could shift between two forms, animal and human, without performing black magic. Reese must be making up a story to keep her here, and the only reason she could think for him to try and keep her was because he wanted what every other man she’d met wanted.

  Inwardly, she sighed. And for a moment he’d seemed so nice and normal and non-rapey. Was she ever going to meet a decent man? Apparently not.

  Reese seemed to correctly interpret the look on her face because he raised a hand and took a step forward.

  “Look, come on,” he said. “I didn’t bat an eye when you told me you were a witch. And now you think I’m crazy for telling you I’m a Shifter?”

  “I think I’d better be going now,” Jo said, reaching behind her to gather her things. “Thank you for the food—if you meant to leave it out for me. If you didn’t, I’m sorry I ate your lunch. Just let me be on my way and we can forget we ever met each other.”

  * * *

  “No!” Reese didn’t understand why he was so desperate to keep her with him, but he couldn’t help it, damn it—he was! There was something about the little witch that drew him like a magnet, and the longer he was around her the stronger the pull became. He had to convince her to stay with him somehow—he just had to.

  Well you’re doing a piss-poor job of convincing her so far, buddy, whispered a little voice in his head. She thinks you’re fucking crazy. Why’d you go and tell her you’re a Shifter anyway? You know you’re not supposed to.

  It was an unwritten rule of Shifter life—Don’t tell outsiders what we are. And every time a Shifter broke it, disaster and heartbreak followed.

  Reese thought of his friend Liam Keller, who had revealed his true nature to his pregnant fiancée back in college. The fiancée had broken up with him and aborted their baby. It had taken Keller years to get over that—in fact, he never really had until he met his new mate, Samantha.

  At the time, Reese had listened sympathetically to his friend’s sad tale, but he hadn’t been able to help wondering what had possessed the other male to break the unwritten rule and tell his woman about his inner beast. The secret world of Shifters ought to be kept exactly that—a secret—or so he’d always thought. And now he had gone and done the same idiotic thing Keller had within the first few minutes of meeting this girl. But he couldn’t seem to help it—something inside him was telling him it was vitally important to convince her to stay.

  “Look,” he said. “I can prove it.”

  “Prove you can turn into a fox?” She lifted one deep auburn eyebrow critically. “Right.”

  “If I prove it, will you stay?” Reese asked. “I mean, at least for one night?”

  She frowned. “For a nice guy who doesn’t want any kind of payment and swears not to bother me, you sure are eager for me to stay. Why is that?”

  “I don’t know,” Reese said honestly. “I just get the feeling I shouldn’t let you go. That you need to be here. I can’t explain it—I’ve never felt like this before. I know . . .” He cleared his throat. “I know it sounds crazy but I swear I don’t mean you any harm. I just . . . want to get to know you.”

  “Fine.” She crossed her arms over her chest though the silver dagger still gripped in her right hand belied the casual pose. “Prove you can change into a fox and I’ll consider staying. But I warn you, if you turn out to be a Skin Walker I’m leaving. I’ve already encountered a group of those on the way here—I don’t want anything to do with another one.”

  “Skin Walker—that’s a Native American legend, right?” Reese asked. “If I was one of those, I’d have to put on a fox pelt to change. But look . . .” He held out his hands. “No pelt.”

  “I’m watching.” She raised both eyebrows this time. “Not getting any younger here.”

  Reese thought of pointing out she couldn’t be more than nineteen or twenty anyway, but then he decided just to let it go. For the second time that day, he prepared to Shift.

  Even for a strong Alpha, it was exhausting to do two Shifts so close together when Lady Moon wasn’t out yet. But Reese knew this was the only way to keep the little witch with him. And more and more, he desperately wanted her to stay.

  Concentrating hard, he willed himself to change, calling his other self forward and ceding control to his Fox.

  The change happened rapidly but this time he hadn’t thought to undress before his Shift. The consequence was that once he was down to his little form he was stuck inside the white cotton folds of his T-shirt. He yipped sharply, scrabbling to try and find his way out of the fabric enclosure. The human part of him was thinking what a fool he must look, but the Fox part just wanted to get out in the open, and didn’t care if he looked silly or not. That was the thing about animals—they didn’t embarrass easily.

  Which was why when Jo pulled open the hem of the shirt so he could get out, Reese jumped up at licked her cheek in gratitude rather than slinking off with his tail between his legs.

  “Wow . . .” Her amber eyes were huge as she considered him in his Fox form. “You were telling the truth—you really can turn into a fox.”

  Reese yipped and licked her cheek again. He liked her even more in
his Fox form. She felt right to him—felt like she belonged. It was as though his animal side could sense something his human form wasn’t quite getting yet.

  “All right . . . all right.” Jo was smiling and the expression lit up her lovely face like a sunbeam breaking through clouds. Reese had the sudden wish to see that happy expression on her face and know that he’d caused it in his human form.

  He leaped recklessly into her arms and she caught him with a little gasp of surprise. Reese wiggled around in her arms until he could press his pointed muzzle to her neck and inhale her fragrance. Yes, there was definitely something there but the gray stuff she’d smeared on her skin covered it so completely he could only catch a vague whiff of it. Still, what he was able to get was intriguing.

  “Hey, that tickles!” Jo was laughing as he nuzzled against her neck. She had a gorgeous, soft laugh that he loved. It sent quivers of happiness through his entire body, knowing he was the cause of her joy. In fact, his Fox self liked it so much he was tempted to curl up in her lap and never leave.

  Inside, the human Reese frowned. His Fox had never fallen so hard and completely for anyone. In fact, when he was in his Shifted form he usually preferred to keep to himself.

  It made sense, since there were no other Fox Shifters around. Foxes tended to stay with a family unit or become loners. Since all of Reese’s sisters had moved away and his dad and mom were dead, he had no family to Shift with. It made him sad sometimes but he mostly just accepted it with Rejuvenated females—Juvies as the Shifters called them—and as scarce as they were, he had no illusions about ever finding a mate. At least, not one with the Shifter Gene to carry on his line. So his Fox kept a lonely vigil on full moon nights, occasionally voicing his high, yipping howl to Lady Moon and staying away from other Shifters.

  Now he had somehow stumbled across a girl his other self was crazy about. The intensity of the Fox’s emotion scared Reese a little bit. He was an easy-going guy—not used to drama or strong feelings. Maybe it was time to take a step back.