Changeling Dawn

by Dani Harper

  In there?

  Sure. It’s just like a—He almost said baby carrier but stopped himself in time. No self-respecting kid wanted to be thought of as a baby. Like a secret compartment.

  What if I fall? Her voice in his head was small and tight with fear.

  You can’t fall unless I do, and I’ll make sure I’m on the bottom. I’ll be like a big fluffy pillow for you, okay?

  Pillows are soft. You’re too bony to be a pillow.

  Better. She still had her sense of humor. A lumpy pillow beats no pillow at all, Kiddo. Let’s go.

  She wriggled in nose first and curled up over his belly, making herself as small as possible. He remembered carrying his own kids like this from time to time, but they’d been a little younger and more compact. Still, it would work. Probably.

  Stanton made his way over the edge and started down, instinctively feeling for handholds and toeholds. He might be an old fart, but his Changeling nature still gave him more strength than a human to make the climb. The toughest job was trying not to squish Anya between the hillside and his body.

  For her part, the cub was doing well. She remained still, curled up tight and quiet. He wondered if she was holding her breath. His T-shirt was holding up too. It was stretched nine ways to Sunday, probably permanently, but functioned well as a sling. Still, he was relieved to make it to the ground. He extricated Anya and they crept along the wall of the embankment as snatches of voices drifted down to them. The dogs were still silent and Stanton hoped that was a good thing. He remained in his human form for the time being, heading south past Kenzie’s camp high above them.

  Suddenly, a deep continuous barking erupted from somewhere overhead. It wasn’t the excited baying of a hound, but the business-like voice of a guardian, one that had discovered a threat and was on its way to neutralize it. The rest joined in. Had the dogs discovered their trail or simply run across the bears that had wrecked the camp earlier? Stanton hoped it was the latter, but as he rounded a bend, that slim hope was dashed.

  A massive sow grizzly stood directly in their path. One by one, three young bears as big as their mother emerged from the brush.

  The ripe moon was high above now and tugged Kenzie awake. She wasn’t subject to the lunar call, but she felt it nonetheless, loved it as all Changelings loved it. Tonight, however, her inner wolf was already sated and it wasn’t the moon that gave her such contentment and bliss.

  She had a mate. Holy Jeez.

  There was no doubt now about what her lupine self had been up to—witnessing and affirming a lifetime bond. The knowledge was exhilarating, outrageous and completely terrifying at the same time. Her inner wolf hadn’t consulted her one bit, and she should have been more suspicious when it lingered so close to the surface. Maybe she had been, especially when it spoke to her as though it were a completely separate entity. But Josh had been there, and she had wanted. Wanted so damn bad that she could no more have walked away than flown.

  Sex, as she had known it in the past, would never have satisfied such a soul-deep yearning. But sex with Josh had taken her to a whole different level, involved her entire being in a way she hadn’t imagined possible. The thrill of discovery had vied with a fierce joy of something almost like homecoming. Josh was still a mystery yet he was familiar in some way she could neither describe nor deny. Was this how Connor had felt when he found Zoey? Or what James experienced when Jillian walked into his life? Kenzie had thought the feeling would be more subtle, perhaps easy to mistake for something else. She hadn’t expected it to pulse in her with every breath like a second heart.

  An odd thought ran through her head. If you’re close enough to hear the thunder, you’re close enough to be struck by lightning.

  She nestled closer to Josh and his arm tightened around her, though he was sound asleep. One leg was thrown over hers. It all felt intimate and familiar and right, but how could it? Wolves didn’t question their attraction to a possible mate. Changelings didn’t question it much either. It is or it isn’t, her mother had once said. Yet Kenzie didn’t see how this relationship could possibly work, human and Changeling together, didn’t even know how strong Josh’s feelings for her were. And—

  He has no way of knowing what just happened to us.

  To me ...

  Omigod. What if it happened only to her and not to him? Her inner wolf was bonded to him now but what truly connected a human? Her anthropology studies were not much help in this area. In fact, Josh had been annoyingly right about one thing. She knew about humans but didn’t really know them.

  Still, she had seen something in his eyes, felt something in his touch that was far more than physical. Because of it, for the first time in her long life, she was daring to trust, daring to be vulnerable. It was flat-out terrifying, and she would have run as far and fast as she could, except for something else that she was experiencing for the first time.

  Hope.

  Chuffing, the grizzly sow flattened her ears and shook her head from side to side, popping her jaws at Stanton with gunshot-like noises. He knew it meant that she felt threatened, but it was nothing compared to what he was feeling at the moment. She might decide to charge, and there was no way of knowing if it would be a bluff charge and she would stop at the last minute, or an all-out attack. Never taking his eyes off the bear, he backed up one step at a time, using his leg to push along poor Anya, who was half-paralyzed with fright. If he could get a little room, he could call up his inner wolf and any threat by the grizzly could be dealt with. But Anya was too close. It took a lot of energy to make the transition, and Changelings were efficient at drawing it from their surroundings—so much so that the immense buildup of static became dangerous to anyone standing too close. The little wolf would be injured for sure. For now, all he could do was hope that backing off would be enough to mollify the mother grizzly.

  “Come on, old girl, you don’t want to mess with us,” he said in the soothing tones he usually reserved for nervous patients at his clinic. “We’re not going to hurt you or those fine big cubs of yours. Just move along and let us by, why don’t you?”

  For a moment he thought she was going to do just that. Then the dogs barking on the bluff above became louder and more ferocious. Stanton realized they’d found the spot where he and Anya had climbed down, and were racing back and forth along the edge searching for a way to follow. Christ, it was only a matter of time before he and Anya were trapped between the dogs and the bears. As it was, the roar of the dogs was agitating the big female further. She was slapping the ground now and her mouth was foaming with saliva, sure signs of an impending charge.

  “Anya,” he said aloud, and pushed home the message telepathically as well. Most Changelings had to be in wolfen form to do that—but then, most weren’t as old as he was. “Listen to me. I need some room, I need you to run back away from me about ten feet. Can you do that, honey?”

  The little wolf didn’t move immediately, and he was afraid she wasn’t going to. Then, hunching low to the ground, she slowly crept back along the way they’d come. He never got a chance to make sure she was far enough away. The bear launched herself with terrifying speed and Stanton called the Change.

  Anya hid under a stand of willow and watched in horror as the grizzly reached the old man within a heartbeat. But a flash of light and a rain of blue sparks erupted and the angry sow was tossed back abruptly onto her rump. The younger bears jumped backward, making whining sounds of distress despite their size as they found themselves suddenly facing a very large silver wolf, its broad head lowered and fangs bared. Anya was surprised too—her mother had told her never to Change too close to anyone. She’d never gotten to see what would happen before. The mother bear looked dazed, and it held a paw to its head as if it had a headache.

  The big wolf held his ground as the grizzly recovered and flattened her ears at him. Two of her cubs were making short dashes forward. Suddenly Anya heard Stanton’s gravelly voice in her head again.

  Anya! Get out of here! Run
as fast as you can! I’ll catch up with you!

  She dashed out from under the willows and sprinted away, ducking under bushes and leaping through reeds and standing water. She could hear an awful ruckus behind her, growls and grunts and breaking twigs. Her mother had told her that full-grown Changelings were too strong to be eaten by bears, but Anya wasn’t so sure about old Changelings like Stanton. And he’d sent her away just like her mother had done. What if he disappeared too?

  You’d better not go away!

  She was so busy thinking about Stanton and the bears that she nearly ran full-tilt into something else.

  Several somethings that towered over her and showed very big teeth.

  The dogs had found her.

  Stanton figured he might have fought one bear—might, since it had been quite a while since he’d flexed much wolfen muscle—but fighting four of the damn things was asking a little too much of an old fart. The young grizzlies were following their mother’s lead now. He ducked one swipe only to be caught by another that tumbled him over and over as if he weighed nothing. Lucky for him that the cubs were inexperienced. With strength like that, if they pursued their advantage, he’d end up looking like Kenzie’s tent in no time.

  He rolled to his feet and crouched, waiting until they were about to rush him again, then spun and ran east across the river flats. The bears were agitated enough to pursue him, and although grizzlies were capable of outrunning a horse for short distances, he was still a little faster—for the moment at least. His plan was to lead them off, circle around, and get back to Anya.

  He should have known. The Copper River and all its tributaries were filled with spawning salmon, and every bear in Alaska was on a riverbank right now. With four bears hard on his ass already, Stanton’s nose told him his luck wasn’t about to improve. He was coming up fast on yet another grizzly—a boar, and therefore likely to be twice as big as the sow he was trying to leave behind. Goddammit. With his pursuers so close behind him, veering off to one side or the other wasn’t an option. It was straight ahead or nothing.

  Stanton put everything he had into running flat out for the huge dark shape he could now see ahead. Fortunately the business end of the new grizzly was facing away from him. With an enormous leap, he landed on the bear’s broad back and was up and over before the surprised creature had time to react. And when it did, it no doubt found four other bears frantically trying to put on the brakes before they ran into it.

  A wolf ’s body was designed for running and built for speed. Until it got too damn old and the joints got a little arthritic. Stanton wanted nothing more than to flop down somewhere and pant openmouthed until his heart rate returned to normal. Instead, he kept going. He gritted his sharp teeth as adrenaline wore off and aches and pains dragged at him. And something else—a hot line of pain now ran from his shoulder to his hip, and he could smell his own blood. Dammit, one or more of those four-inch claws must have connected while they were cuffing him around. He could barely manage a soft lope, but still he pushed himself, determined to find Anya. He called for her in his mind but heard nothing.

  Back at the base of the bluff, he nosed the ground, casting back and forth until he found her most recent trail—and where it ended. There, another scent filled his veins with ice water.

  Uncle Stanton! Her voice was faint in his mind, but there. She was okay, at least for the moment. He reassured her as best as he could as he ran along the bluff, searching for a place to climb the bank. For the place where the damn dogs must have found their way down....

  Chapter Fifteen

  Josh pulled his jeans on rather reluctantly. They had made love twice last night and again upon waking. They’d showered together, giggling as elbows were banged and the curtain fell down. He’d be willing to attempt another round of sex, maybe something slow and tender this time, except Kenzie wanted to get back to Anya.

  Fair enough. He did too, if the truth be known. Sure, Stanton was an experienced parent but it had to take a lot of energy to keep tabs on a little girl. Even if she was a wolf. In addition to relieving his friend, however, Josh was anxious to continue building a relationship with Anya, hoping to establish trust. All of Stanton’s contacts had come up empty. No one knew who she was or where she’d come from. And so all of the answers would have to come from Anya herself. He didn’t know how long it would be before she felt comfortable enough to resume her human form, but for now, he’d be happy if she’d just be willing to communicate.

  And he’d be really happy if the flashbacks quit. Somewhere around dawn he’d opened his eyes to see a little dark-haired girl in a green and red tunic standing by the window. She vanished as he came fully awake, but something about her—well, something besides the fact he was having yet another damn hot memory—was different. He lay awake puzzling over it until a naked Kenzie had rolled over and blinked up at him... .

  Anyway, the dream/vision/hallucination still bothered him, a niggling sense that there was something he should know, something he should see. He chewed it over as he went to check out, only to find that Kenzie had been there ahead of him and paid the bill for both rooms. Damned efficient woman. He resolved to fuel up the truck and pay for breakfast as he returned to Kenzie’s room.

  “Can you talk to them anytime?” he asked her.

  Kenzie was rubbing her hair with a towel and looked up, baffled. “What?”

  “Can you talk to Anya and Stanton anytime?”

  “Like now?”

  “Yeah, like right now.”

  “No. It doesn’t work like that. Most Changelings can communicate telepathically only as wolves, you know. Connor and I can both manage it in human form, but he’s way better at it. I’d have to be a lot closer—at least within a few miles. Right now we’re too far away from camp, even if I was on four feet.”

  “That’s too bad. Cool that you have the ability, of course, but too bad we have to wait.”

  “Is something wrong?”

  “No, just wondered how things were going, that’s all.” The way he figured it, the sooner he helped Anya get back where she belonged, the sooner he’d stop having the damn flashbacks. At least he hoped she was the trigger of all this—after all, he’d had the first major flashback at Kenzie’s camp. But what about during the flyby of the IBC compound? Or the museum incident—God, that one had been a bitch. And now the dream. They just didn’t fit a pattern. Not that he could see, at least. His Gramma Kishegwet said there were patterns to everything but this one made no sense to him.

  He watched Kenzie run her fingers through her damp wavy hair and smiled at her. That was all the grooming she was likely to do, and she still looked hot enough to melt a glacier.

  “Why didn’t you run screaming down the street?” he asked.

  “Somebody had hold of me in the shower.”

  He flashed a grin. He’d like to have hold of her again too.... “No, I mean yesterday. When I had the flashback. You didn’t freak out.”

  Kenzie shrugged as she shoved things into a bag. “Maybe because I’ve seen it before. One of the best archaeologists I’ve ever worked with, Magdi Ahmed, was at the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. In 1997.”

  Ninety-seven ... “Luxor?” Josh guessed.

  She nodded. “Six terrorists opened fire on unarmed tourists. They gutted some and beheaded others. Over sixty people were killed and I don’t know how many were wounded. Magdi was struck by three bullets, but worse than that, she saw it all.”

  He understood perfectly. The inner wounds could be far worse.

  “Magdi left Egypt after that. Never went back. I worked with her on a project in Monte Verde, Chile, for three years, and she still suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after all this time. She’d have nightmares. Bad ones where she’d start screaming and it took forever to wake her up, bring her out of it. Twice while we were on a dig, she just zoned out on me. Couldn’t see me, couldn’t hear me. She was terrified. Started yelling things in Egyptian and ran away.”
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  “Flashbacks. Like mine.” And damn depressing to think the poor woman was still having them after so much time had passed.

  “Magdi had warned me ahead of time that she sometimes got them so I was able to just wait it out and make sure she was safe. She’d get so depressed afterward though.”

  “Of course she did. You think you’re done with that shit, and then kabam, it happens again. I hadn’t had an incident in years until I met up with Anya.”

  “Magdi said they didn’t happen to her very often anymore. Not unless there was a trigger, something that reminded her. Monte Verde isn’t much to look at, just some sandy banks along a creek surrounded by hills and trees, but it’s completely different from Luxor. It didn’t look the same or even smell the same—I mean, the artifacts are in a peat bog, not a desert. We finally figured out what the trigger was. The sound that one of the workers was making with his hammer was just like the ping of bullets hitting stone at Luxor. We got the man to use a different tool, which changed the tone and that was it. The trigger was gone and Magdi didn’t have another episode. So maybe your flashbacks will go away again once we figure out where Anya belongs.”

  “I sure as hell hope so. Hate to think you might have to chase me through museums on a regular basis.”

  “Hey.” She wandered up to him with swaying hips and seized his shirt collar with both hands. Pulled his head down and kissed him long and slow. “Maybe I’d like to chase you on a regular basis.”

  “Only if I get to chase you sometimes too.”

  “Deal.”

  They stood for a few moments, just holding each other. Finally Josh said, “Okay, you have to choose, sex or breakfast.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Either we go for breakfast right now or we stop and have sex again. You feel just too damn good to me.”

  She backed out of his arms hastily. “Breakfast. Definitely breakfast because I’m starving.” Kenzie made her way to the door and paused on the threshold. “But once I’m refueled, I’ll just bet there’s dozens of spots on the way back to camp where we could pull off and have a little fun.” She waggled her brows.