Shifting Darkness

by Kate Wendley

  The look on his face said he wasn’t sure if she was screwing with him or not. “Telling me that is gross. I don’t talk about everything cows and pigs and chickens do all day even though you got a burger.”

  “I got an organically raised, free range beef.”

  His curious smirk turned into an all out frown. “Wow.” He looked flatly at her with his tired eyes, then went back to eating.

  “What?”

  He shook his head and kept shoving noodles into his stupid, sexy face.

  She snapped, “You can’t just say wow and then not follow that up with anything. That’s pigheaded.”

  He scoffed, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and finally looked at her. “Are all the shifters that grew up in Brookhaven snobby about what they eat?”

  “I’m not snobby for paying attention to what goes in my mouth.”

  He scoffed. “Must be nice to be able to pick and choose, and even turn down food if it’s not good enough for your delicate senses. For the rest of us, we eat what we can afford to buy, or get from the food bank, hopefully scraping together at least one meal a day from it. Even to get that we have to work two jobs to afford it, so excuse me if I don’t have a lot of time to spend worrying about how my food’s raised. I’m more concerned with things like paying rent and not starving.”

  Vince threw his food back in the plastic bag it came in and opened his door, anger seeping from him stronger than she’d felt from anyone in a long time. He pulled his wallet out and threw five dollars at her. “Thanks for lunch. I’ve got to get back to work.”

  He slammed the door and she stared after him in shock as he stomped away, her eyes eventually trailing to a spot of spilled food he left behind on the seat.

  **

  Vince took the noodles back inside and finished eating them in the little breakroom in back. He probably shouldn’t have gone off on Penny like that, but he wasn’t always nice when he was tired, besides being totally sick of being broke and on the edge of destitute.

  He hadn’t pegged Penny for being a spoiled brat, either, but how could she not be with everyone in Anthony’s family being treated like effin’ princes and princesses? She may be funny and sexy, but he had enough issues in life. He didn’t want to put up with a prima donna on top of that.

  Meeting people in Brookhaven felt like both a blessing and a curse. It was such a different world from what he was used to, but he wasn’t sure he liked all of it. And since he was jaguar it seemed like he was bottom of the food chain as far as supers went, or at least in the shifter world. Though he wondered where the foxes fit in. Whatever. There was obviously some stuff going on with the wolves in the family, and maybe the vampires, too. After all, why would one of them turn his mom away? What was that all about?

  An image of his too skinny mom coming home from her second job and going straight to bed, again only having one meal that day, stuck in his head while he finished eating. She tried so hard in life, and never complained about any of it. She deserved the kind of easy life people in Anthony’s family had. She probably deserved it more than any of the shifters there.

  He pulled his phone out and stared at it. He didn’t especially want to move into the family apartments because he imagined he’d never have any privacy if he did, but life might be a lot easier if he gave in. At least for a while. Maybe long enough for the doctor or Zach to fix him, and then he could get out and live on his own. By then he’d know how safe it was for his mom, too.

  He texted her before he changed his mind. ‘Let’s talk about moving to Brookhaven.’ He didn’t want her to work so hard anymore. This was finally her chance to catch a break in life, and now that they had it, he wanted her to enjoy whatever Anthony’s family was willing to offer… even if Vince wasn’t sure he belonged there with her. It hurt to think that maybe she was better off on her own now, but she’d already made a lifetime of sacrifices. It was her turn to relax for once.

  She didn’t take long to reply. ‘Ok. I love you honey.’

  ‘I love you too, mom.’

  **

  Penny decided to burn off some steam by going to a Krav Maga class at the gym after work. When the end of the world came, she wasn’t going to be anyone’s bitch. So there. She took out her frustrations on the wolves in class since there were never any other animals there, and thankfully they didn’t beat her up too bad. They better not since she was the one who always bent over backwards to help them with their technical questions for how to connect security cameras, computers, generators, and other equipment that would be really helpful if, and when, the apocalypse came. That or a general electrical grid shut down due to any number of worldwide catastrophes.

  But she still felt bad after working up a sweat, and went home to eat a pint of ice cream. Damn Vince. Why did he have to be such a good guy? Really, how could she have known he and his mom were so poor? Is that her fault?

  She grumbled as she cranked up some Dead Kennedys and painted her toenails wine red to match the streaks in her hair. As they were drying, she turned off the music and found the latest episode of The Walking Dead, trying her hardest not to think about why she always had such a hard time being nice to the guys she dated.

  Chapter 15

  Penny waited outside Peach’s, hoping Vince would come out sometime for a break. She had no idea how to go about apologizing to him, and he never answered her text when she asked him if they could talk, so she knew this was going to be bad. If only this was like a computer problem… run system scans, find the bad files, delete them and maybe even reinstall some programs. If you did all the right steps, everything would be fixed and you’d be good to go. Her relationship problems never seemed as black and white as that.

  She looked back at the door to the store, too chicken to actually go in there. How much did he have to work, anyway? It was Saturday for crying out loud. And two days before Christmas! Thoughts of their conversation yesterday haunted her, and she realized she was being snobby again. She growled under her breath and wondered if she were a nice person what she would be thinking right now.

  She pondered that as she stood on the sidewalk with hordes of people walking by in either direction. Wow. She had no idea how he could stand working in the middle of these crowds. And it was lightly drizzling today, too. A little weather wasn’t stopping these shoppers. Or her, for that matter, but she didn’t mind the cold so much. Or the drizzle, so long as she planned her hairstyle for it.

  She dazed out watching a group of people walk by who were way too into whatever they were talking about, then startled when she noticed Vince at the rear. Dread consumed her as she worried about his reaction to her being here, but she called out to him anyway.

  He kept walking like he didn’t even hear her. Maybe he hadn’t. He seemed to be in his own little world as he quickly made his way down the sidewalk.

  She jogged after him, but right before she called his name again, there was a screech and Vince was suddenly holding onto a young, teenage girl who’d tripped and almost fallen in front of an oncoming car. The driver looked like he didn’t know what to do, some young guy who seemed both mad and scared that he almost hit someone.

  The girl burst into frantic sobs, Vince holding her and helping her up onto the sidewalk. She was hopping on one foot, Vince holding her up, probably mostly carrying her by this point as the crowd parted and someone guided them to a bench for her to sit down.

  Penny’s heart wrenched as she watched Vince patiently try to calm the girl down while she held onto his hand for dear life. Tears streaked down her rosy cheeks, and when her parents finally caught up to her and took over, Vince calmly walked away as if he helped frightened kids every day. No big deal.

  “Vince!”

  He stopped and turned this time, looking for the sound of the voice, and frowned when he saw Penny. Her heart dropped. He hated her.

  She caught up to him and blurted out, “I’m sorry I was such a jerk yesterday.”

  His clenched jaw let her know her apology needed t
o be a lot better than that, so she awkwardly said, “That night we watched the bands, and you said you were leaving. I saw you the next morning and thought you lied to me just to give me the brush off. I was mad, so I purposely brought you gross food that day.”

  Vince blinked in surprise, his frown quickly disappearing until he finally laughed out loud. “Oh my God. You’re so mean! I love it.”

  She frowned, then reluctantly smiled. Before she could get a word out, Vince had his arm around her shoulder, still chuckling. “Have lunch with me?”

  “Sure.”

  So that was it? They were ok now?

  “I saw what you did for that girl. That was nice of you.”

  He cocked his head, then shrugged. “I’m just glad she didn’t actually get hit by that guy.”

  “Yeah, but you didn’t have to sit there and comfort her. That was sweet of you.”

  He gave her a squeeze and led her into a Greek fast food joint. She usually only liked to go places where she’d already researched their food, but the place did smell good.

  “Vince! Yassou!” A happy looking older woman behind the counter threw her arms in the air as way of a greeting.

  Vince followed suit and threw his arms in the air, too. “Antheia! Yassou!”

  They both laughed and Penny followed him to the line at the counter. Even this place was packed today.

  He turned and put his arm around her shoulder again, pulling her up beside him, and her whole body relaxed. She snaked an arm around his waist and loved this feeling of comfort. She’d totally screwed up with him and he was taking her back, just like that. When he pulled her into a hug and held her close, she closed her eyes and breathed in his essence. His hand traced slowly up and down her back, the steady sound of his breathing and the slow rise and fall of his chest soothing away all her tension. How had she ever doubted he was a good man?

  They finally made it to the front of the line and had their order taken, but when Vince insisted on paying, she immediately felt bad. And confused. He’d said something about not being able to afford food yesterday, but his gentle, though firm refusal to her offering to pay today told her he didn’t want her pity. Hmm. So he was stubborn.

  They waited for their order to come together, and the last thing to be put on the tray was two large drinks.

  Vince grabbed the tray and said, “Do you mind grabbing the drinks?”

  She teased, “Sure. Too heavy for you?”

  His face shut down and it looked like he was going to take the tray along with the drinks just to spite her, but she quickly grabbed the full glasses before he did.

  And she was glad she did. She tried not to stare, but his hands were trembling again. This was the third time she’d seen that.

  He led her to a table, slid the loaded tray to the very middle, then oh so carefully took everything off. Just like the first time she saw him at Peach’s, she was struck by how uncoordinated he was. Everything looked like it took a lot of effort for him to not make a mess of things.

  His earlier smile was gone and she decided not to ask him about his shakes. Instead she set their drinks down and waited for him to go get rid of the tray.

  When Vince finally sat down across from her, he sighed as if he was mentally giving up on something. He gave her a flat look, his mood obviously still not good.

  She couldn’t bear not saying anything. “What?”

  He shook his head and started eating. After a few bites of his gyro, which was dripping all over his hand, he said, “Tell me more about the kinds of food you eat. And the stuff that’s bad.”

  Her temper flared. “I said I was sorry for saying that stuff.”

  He took a breath and said, “I might’ve overreacted yesterday. I was tired and didn’t feel the best.”

  Her eyebrows climbed her forehead. “You’re apologizing? To me?”

  He shrugged and didn’t meet her eyes when he said, “All this shifter stuff is weirding me out. And staying at Ed’s that night… I couldn’t sleep, and everyone was trying too hard to…” he flicked a look at her, “…be helpful. It made me claustrophobic. I don’t know. Anyway, I was on edge. I actually don’t know about those things you were saying, but tell me more. I’ve never heard of free range meat. You said it’s better to eat that. Why would that matter for us if we can heal so fast?”

  She still wasn’t sure if he was being for real or not, but seeing his still lightly trembling hands, and these honest questions he had, she finally understood why Zach was so eager to have Vince and his mom get to know other shifters. It seemed like they’d been on their own and living a hard life for way too long, and here she was chastising him for not putting in extra effort to make sure he ate the right kinds of foods.

  She relaxed back in her chair and stabbed a French fry into some tzatziki sauce. “It matters for everyone. Just because we can heal fast doesn’t mean it couldn’t be faster and better if we had good stuff in us to start with. Otherwise our bodies are always fighting the bad foods first before they can even get around to making sure the rest of us is healthy.”

  He didn’t say anything as he ate his mystery meat gyro sandwich and stared at her, a slight frown on his face.

  When she was almost paranoid about what would come out of his mouth next, he said, “So you think it might help my stomach aches if I ate better?”

  “You get stomach aches a lot?”

  He nodded and she got a heavy feeling in her gut. He had problems. Real problems.

  “Well, uh… I’m not a doctor, but from everything I’ve read and watched about healthy eating, I’d say it can’t hurt. You should probably talk to Dr. Williams, though.”

  “I did. He wants me to eat more. He didn’t say anything about what to eat, except for more protein. Ed made me a shake yesterday, but I have no idea how he made it, or what to even buy.”

  She felt like things were taking a really serious turn for them right now, and she was confused how she felt about that. Even so, her inner nice girl, which was buried really far down in her guts, came out and said, “I could go shopping with you. If you want.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  He finally smiled and she was glad to see it, but now she wondered what she was getting herself into with him because somewhere in the back of her mind she got the feeling stomach aches weren’t his only problem. Especially not since she’d seen him oddly trembling more than once now. Come to think of it, he’d been in an awful hurry to get out of the club the night they hung out together.

  She tried to be casual when she said, “Were you feeling sick after the show the other night?”

  He watched her as he took a drink of his soda. “Kind of. Yeah.”

  She casually nodded as if that was normal, which it definitely wasn’t. Shifters didn’t get sick. At least not young shifters like they were.

  She stabbed her fork into whatever this meat concoction dish on her plate was and said, “How old are you?” She took a bite as she watched him.

  “Twenty seven. You?”

  She swallowed the yummy food down and said, “Twenty five.”

  He gave her a small smile.

  “You don’t have to answer this, but Zach said you and your mom haven’t been around other shifters much. Why not?”

  He shrugged. “My mom’s not from here. Her old pack was bad, and she didn’t know anyone here and didn’t want us to end up in that kind of situation. So it’s always been just us.”

  “I’ve heard rumors of things like that. Bad packs, like the Savannah jaguar pack. Not sure about the coyotes there, or if there even are any there.”

  “What have you heard about the Savannah jaguars?”

  “It’s just rumors, and,” she looked around herself to make sure there were no shifters in here. “Don’t you dare tell Zach I told you this, though it’s not really our family’s secrets, but the rumors are that some women, pregnant women, were murdered there. Rumor is it’s mistresses of the men of the Yi family. The alpha is
strict about who can and can’t be in the family, only wanting pure Koreans, and even then, only those deemed worthy to be part of his house. So the rumors are that one of the four sons is the family’s hitman. He takes care of making sure the mistresses and their unborn children can’t put shame on the family and disgrace their name by having illegitimate kids.”

  “Who’s the supposed hit man?”

  She took a sip of her tea and said, “The youngest son. Min-chul. But those are just rumors. Who knows what’s really true. It could just be scare tactics to spread fear around and keep everyone obeying the alpha.”

  **

  Penny left once Vince had to get back to work, and he could see in her eyes and tell by her body language that she’d figured out something wasn’t right about him. She didn’t exactly run away as they left the restaurant, but her mood wasn’t the same. She was more reserved and watchful, which just proved him right that shifters would treat him differently if they knew he was handicapped.

  Her eyes had trailed more than once to his trembling hands, not to mention how hard she watched him situate their food on the table, then pick everything up when they were done so he could throw it away. And true to form, he dropped some of the garbage on the way to the bins. The look on Penny’s face and the shift in her mood as she stepped back from him when he would’ve given her a hug, and maybe even a kiss goodbye, made his status in her world pretty clear.

  It didn’t help that he got sick to his stomach when she told him his father was a hitman that went after pregnant women. That stuck with him the rest of the day. What kind of man could do that? And how lucky had his mom been to get away from him?

  Worse, did Vince inherit any of the evil personality traits it would take to be able to do that to someone? Maybe it was ok that he couldn’t shift into his cat because who knew what other character flaws might show up once he was ‘healed’?

  Penny was a whole other pile of confusion for him. Whether or not she was still into him, he was definitely into her. But it was weird being the less powerful one in a relationship. He was used to having to be careful with women, but she didn’t need that. He was the weak one this time, making him feel like less of a man. And what would she think when she found out he couldn’t shift?