[The Shifters Committee 01.0] Time Shifters

by Rebecca Foxx

  Within seconds the man collapsed in the front seat of his dented, disabled car; clutching his chest as his eyes drifted shut and his lips fell open—releasing a single hard breath that sounded like a death rattle.

  “No,” Lance thought, now racing with frenzied paws in the direction of the car.

  Quickly resuming his human form, Lance rose to his feet and wrenched the car door open with frantic hands; catching the frail body of his elderly patient as it fell fast and limp into his arms.

  Laying the man’s body with infinite gentility into the soft dewy grasses beneath them, Lance performed a quick exam that revealed no sprained or broken bones; betraying instead a faint heartbeat that weakened and slowed by the moment.

  Dropping to his side in a single smooth flourish, Lance hovered low above his patient and administered CPR; sighing with relief as the man’s hastening heartbeat and restored breath reflected the success of his procedure.

  Then, reaching into the man’s car to retrieve a cell phone that lay fully charged on the edge of the passenger seat, he made two emergency phone calls: one summoning the ambulance that would transport the man to a nearby hospital, the other summoning the woman who always came to his aid.

  “I always seem to have a need for Aurora,” he reflected, adding through gritted teeth, “And never more so than tonight.”

  Chapter two

  As out and out annoying as he could be at times, Aurora Leigh just had to make a few begrudging admissions about Lance Culver, her employer at Culver Medical Center: 1. The man was hot. How else could a lady rightly describe a tall, muscular gent with jet black hair that fell well past his shoulders, deep dark eyes, and a chiseled, sculpted face that could just as easily belong to a fashion model as a trained physician?

  “He even has a blasted cleft chin. What business does any man outside of Hollywood have boasting a blasted cleft chin? All right then, so the man is hot,” she surmised, adding as she rolled her eyes heavenward, “He also happens to be in possession of a deep and very sexy voice. I’d just prefer that this voice not awaken me at 3 in the a.m., begging me to get up out of my bed, go to our office, pick up his clothes—which he says are thrown haphazard across the carpet of our waiting room, the reason for this I don’t even want to know—and meet him in the forest on the edge of our property.”

  As perplexed as she was by this outrageous request, Aurora nonetheless felt obligated to fulfill it; as the longtime marketing specialist at Culver Medical Center, a top notch health care facility owned and operated by her billionaire boss, she had come to expect the unexpected.

  Yet as she trekked with wary steps into the thick woodland copse that bordered the center’s headquarters, she witnessed a sight that seemed to redefine the term ‘unexpected.’

  “Along with the term, ‘hot daym,’” she mused, coming to a dead halt at the edge of the copse as she witnessed a vision that made her heart race.

  Standing tall and statuesque at the border of the forest, Lance Culver seemed to embrace and embody the concept of ‘getting back to nature.’ He stood buck naked in the light of the moon, his long silky hair falling free down the planes of his firm bronze-skinned back, which tapered down to reveal a pair of long trim legs and a hard, toned derriere.

  “Don’t turn around!” she called out, adding in silence, “Or go ahead and turn around if you so desire. I wouldn’t mind a bit.”

  Turning his head to regard her over his bulging shoulder with a dazzling white-toothed smile, Lance sighed relieved as he held out his hand to her.

  “Aurora, thank God!” he exclaimed, adding as he made a graceful gesture down the length of his hard muscled form, “You’re probably wondering as to why I’m standing here buck naked in the forest.”

  Aurora shook her head, her smooth ebony dreadlocks shifting with the motion.

  “Actually Lance, I was just wondering as to why you even bothered to get dressed in the first place. If I was in that kind of shape, I surely wouldn’t,” she praised him, adding as she bit her cherry red lips, “I just said that out loud, now didn’t I?”

  She cringed as her boss met her words with a downright wolfish grin; along with the flirtatious flash of his wide dark eyes.

  “Why yes you did Miss,” he acknowledged, adding as he flexed every toned muscle of his tall sculpted form, “And I appreciate the compliment.”

  Shaking her head from side to side, Aurora threw Lance’s clothes into his outstretched hand as she came to stand beside him; averting her eyes in an effort to maintain some semblance of propriety and professional composure in this perplexing situation.

  First she focused her gaze on her own curvy, rubenesque form; one clad in a long ivory white kaftan that proved a pleasing contrast to her ebony skin. Then her eyes flew wide once again as she noticed finally that she and Lance were not alone.

  She gasped outright at the sight of an elderly man sitting upright on the ground beside them; shaking his head in a seeming show of confusion as he regarded her with a slight smile.

  “Well I guess if a man has to have a car accident,” he told her, nodding in the direction of a disabled red car that seemed crashed and attached to a nearby oak tree, “It always helps if he has that little occurrence right next to a medical center.” He paused here, adding as he gestured in the direction of a quiet Lance, now fully clothed and regarding the scene with a mysterious hooded expression, “If it hadn’t been for the doc here, I would have been a goner for sure.”

  Aurora arched her eyebrows.

  “Some medical center associate I am,” she mused in silence, adding as she pinned the older gentleman with an empathetic smile, “I was so entranced by the vision of the doctor’s nakedness that I failed to even notice the injured man lying on the ground before us; or, for that matter, the sight of his crashed car, right here in front of me. Leigh, you need help.”

  Her troubled meditation was disrupted moments later, as the blare of sirens and the flash of red lights signaled the arrival of two emergency vehicles: an ebony hued police car and an ivory ambulance screeching to a halt before them, releasing through their doors a small stream of uniformed personnel who immediately set to work.

  After confirming that the accident victim—who identified himself as a Mr. Hector Brown—remained conscious and in good condition, the emergency personnel on site arranged his transport to a local hospital; but not before the policeman on the scene, a grizzled, gray-haired lieutenant in a rumpled blue uniform, quizzed him about the events of the accident.

  “Well as far as I can recall, I was driving home from the movie theater uptown—driving a little faster than I reckon I should have been, owin’ to the fact that I had just seen a horror flick. I think it was called Dawn of the Wolfman,” Hector explained to the man who identified himself as Lt. Bill Friedman, adding as his voice lowered to a stark dramatic tone, “As I was drivin’ past the woods I turned my head to see a real life version of the wolfman; a big hairy creature that looked too big to be a dog, or even a wolf. Well I guess I scare too easy, because the sight of that creature drew my attention away from the road. Before I knew it I lost control of the car and crashed into that dag gum tree.”

  Sneaking a stray glance in the direction of her quiet boss, Aurora arched a curious eyebrow as the usually confident Lance seemed to tense from head to toe; a concerned frown marring his chiseled features as he stepped forward to give his side of the story.

  “I was taking a walk in the woods when I witnessed the crash first hand. I’m Dr. Lance Culver, by the way,” he introduced himself, reaching forward to shake the hand of a stone-faced police lieutenant, “I’m the attending physician at Culver Medical Center, just a few feet away from here. When I reached Hector’s car I found that, while he seemed to survive the accident with all limbs and bones intact, he had suffered a mild cardiac episode as a result of the crash. So I performed CPR immediately.”

  Hector nodded.

  “The doc here saved my life,” he affirmed with a grin, adding with a quiz
zical look in his direction, “Only I must admit that, when I came to, I very nearly suffered another cardiac episode. The doc here was standin’ buck naked over me, carryin’ out his Hippocratic oath completely in the buff!”

  Lance froze, all color draining from his face as he considered these words.

  “Well I can explain…” he mumbled, shuffling his feet beneath him as all eyes turned wide and shocked in his direction.

  “Then please do,” Lt. Friedman suggested, planting his hands firm on his hips as he regarded the physician with a quizzical glance.

  Aurora had heard enough.

  “Lieutenant,” she addressed the suspicious police officer, adding as she stepped forward into the clearing, “Although I didn’t exactly witness the accident, I do believe that I can explain everything.”

  Lance looked at her, eyes flying wide as he considered these words.

  “You can?” he asked her, falling silent as she shot him a look that commanded him to “Hush up and let me handle everything.”

  He knew that look too well to even think about ignoring it; instead listening intently as Aurora wove a tale worthy of a marketing pro.

  “You see Lieutenant, Boss Man here works obscenely long hours; saving his paperwork to do late at night, after he has seen all of his patients for the day,” she explained. “Sometimes he even stays overnight; and when he does, he tends to camp out on his office exam table,” she paused here, adding as she covered her eyes in a seeming show of embarrassment, “And, as I had the pleasure of findin’ out one morning, when I came to work early, the boss tends to sleep in the buff.”

  Shooting a grateful smile in her direction, Lance spread his arms out before him as he turned to face a chuckling lieutenant.

  “Well it seems that, as per usual, my trusty marketing assistant is too smart for her own good. And, as she surmises, I was in my office and fast asleep when I heard the crash.” He paused here, adding more seriously, “I was so concerned about running out to help that I didn’t even stop to dress.”

  The lieutenant nodded.

  “Well it’s probably a good thing for Hector here that you placed your sense of duty well above your sense of modesty,” he acknowledged, adding as he inclined his head sharp in the direction of the older man, “That still doesn’t explain though, as to why he saw a bizarre woodland creature traipsing around in the forest—one too big to be a wolf or a dog.”

  Aurora shook her head.

  “Well that too is easy to explain,” she reasoned, adding as she made a broad gesture that encompassed their wooded surroundings, “As long as Dr. Lance and I have worked in this area, we have seen more than our share of mighty strange creatures roaming these woods. I’ve even seen wolves in this area, some larger and more fierce, some than your usual, garden variety wolf type dog.” She paused here, adding with a shrug, “If Hector here had just seen Dawn of the Wolfman, a movie whose promo posters alone looked so blasted freaky that—on my own recent visit to the cinema—I hightailed it to Theater 2 to see that charming Jane Austen adaption instead, then he may have been frightened into thinking that the garden variety wolf type dog he saw was actually a werewolf. Capiche?”

  Lt. Friedman stared at her with wide eyes; an expression indicating that he was too dazed and confused by her words to ‘capiche’ much of anything.

  “Mission accomplished,” she thought, folding her arms before her as a still confused police lieutenant dismissed them for the evening.

  Walking her back in the direction of her car, a modest silvery compact she’d parked alongside his sleek ruby red convertible in the shadow of the medical center, Aurora took in her breath as a smiling Lance took her hand in his; his bronzed, chiseled face glowing in the moonlight as he stared deep into her eyes.

  “Well as per usual, my dear Aurora, I once again have to thank you for stepping in like a lady knight in shining lipstick,” he praised her, his voice soft and smooth. “This isn’t the first time in the five years that we’ve worked together that you’ve rushed to my aid, royally saving my rear end in the process.”

  Aurora smiled.

  “Well now that I know just what an adorable rear end it is, I realize in full the value of saving it,” she revealed, adding as she rolled her eyes heavenward, “Lordy. I just slipped again and said that out loud, didn’t I?”

  Lance let loose with a deep sonorous chuckle that sent tingles down her spine.

  “Please don’t be embarrassed Aurora,” he urged her, adding as he clutched her fingers between his, “In the years that we’ve worked together, I’ve always known that we were more than just co-workers—and, beyond that, more than mere friends. I think we both know that something deeper lies between us; something I just can’t describe in words.” He paused here, adding as he reached forward to cup her cheek in a strong but tender hand, “Indeed, I’d far rather show you instead.”

  An entranced Aurora did not resist as Lance seized her lips in a passionate kiss; his full soft mouth stroking hers in smooth, massaging strokes.

  Angling his head above hers to intensify the kiss, her ardent seducer flowed his long, wet tongue full into her mouth; entangling it with her own as their bodies grew closer and their hands clenched tight between them.

  Leaning full into his kiss as balmy night breezes flowed free around them, Aurora smacked her lips against his as her own tongue lapped the roof of Lance’s mouth; grazing as it did a set of back teeth that seemed inordinately long and sharp.

  Abruptly and with a frustrated groan she broke their kiss; standing away from her confused lover as his dark eyes flew wide.

  “Have I done something wrong?” he asked her, tone laced with concern.

  Avoiding his gaze, Aurora shook her head as she fumbled in her purse; withdrawing her car keys as she finally turned away.

  “You did nothing wrong, I wanted you to kiss me,” she verified, adding over her shoulder, “We both know, though, that it is not a good idea to mix business with pleasure.” She paused here, adding as she looked him straight in the eyes, “What I don’t know is why a man who usually dates sized two blondes is suddenly pursuing his plus-sized marketing specialist—one who is decidedly NOT blonde, by any stretch of the imagination. Could it be that you’re just trying to thank me for saving you back there?”

  Lance sighed.

  “No, Aurora, that’s not it at all,” he insisted, adding as he raised his hands before him in what seemed a defensive stance, “As you know, darling, I just turned 30 last month. I’m tired of playing the lonely role of the billionaire playboy. I need a woman of quality, Aurora; a woman who understands me. And with each passing day I’m coming to realize that this woman might be you.”

  Aurora froze, her key poised in her lock as she considered these bold words.

  Finally she turned the key, opening the driver’s door of her modest compact and climbing inside.

  “Well just maybe I came to the same realization,” she told him, adding through pursed lips, “About four years ago. And maybe, just maybe, I got sick of waiting for you to come around.”

  And with these words, she was gone.

  Chapter three

  The rays of a brilliant Florida sun greeted Aurora early the next morning, as she unlocked and opened the front door that accessed the Culver Medical Center.

  Stepping with ease into the clean-lined, cream-walled office that distinguished the marketing department of the high end medical center, she stopped stock still as her senses brimmed with a scintillating fragrance; one that immediately drew her gaze to its unexpected source.

  Sitting atop her tidy cherry wood desk was a dew-glistened, scarlet-hued bouquet of lush velvety roses; gathered as they were in a sparkling crystal vase that caught and reflected the light of the sun incoming through the panes of a corner window.

  “Beautiful,” she breathed, leaning forward to take a closer look at her ebullient floral gift.

  “I’m very pleased that you think so, Miss.”

  She froze as her senses
were further bathed by the sound of a deep, melodic voice; one that rang all too familiar to her ears as she turned to face its captivating source.

  Dressed now in the long ivory coat that denoted his status as the center physician, Lance had tied his flowing hair back into a sleek smooth queue; a move that served to accentuate his carved cheekbones, full soft lips, and dark expressive eyes that now regarded her with evident warmth--and, or so she suspected, a deeper emotion that lingered just beneath.

  “I know you love roses,” he told her, adding as he took a step closer, “I couldn’t think of a better way to thank you again for all of your help last night.” He paused here, adding as he inclined his head sharp in her direction, “I’ve been meaning to ask you, by the way. Why did you lie for me last night? Why did you tell the detective that I spend my nights slaving over a hot computer keyboard in my office? You don’t know that to be true, Aurora.”