Little Prick (4 page)

“I give you the gift of this home and access to all within it. Life and safety within the pack house and access to all of its lands.” He kissed her forehead, and Keelie applauded with approval.

She had been given the same gift every year since she was born. It didn’t matter that she wanted a pony; she got access to her family instead.

Finally, after the hugging that was traditional, Keelie stood in front of her. “Time for my gift.”

Pansy stood up. “It is not necessary.”

Keelie smirked. “I offer you a transporter, unlimited time at the Crossroads and all the items you need to give yourself a makeover. Do you accept?”

Pansy looked over at her family and nodded. “It is time for me to move on.”

The men looked relieved.

Keelie nodded sharply and looked to Karl. “May I bring the transporter into the pack house?”

He nodded with the short head jerk that Pansy was so familiar with.

Keelie removed a small seedpod from inside a lock of her hair. She crushed it with her thumb, and a moment later, there was a flash of light and a strange woman was standing in the living room.

“Transport Guild Master, this is my goddaughter Pansy. She is ready to leave.”

“Lady Keelie, I am only too happy to serve.” The woman inclined her head.

Pansy inhaled, the woman was human but her body was rippling with magic. “Welcome to our home.”

The woman smiled. “It is an honour to meet you as well, Lady Pansy. I must say, someone with your signature does not come along every day. Do you have the vial?”

Pansy blinked, and Keelie reached into her sleeve to produce a glass tube wrapped in gold wire. “Here you are. All of her genetic lines are represented.”

Pansy’s father jerked his head sharply in a nod.

The transporter looked at the vial and smiled. “There is quite a bit in here, isn’t there?”

“One of her spines, her father’s fur and a tooth from her mother.” Keelie’s voice was emotional when she mentioned Bethanne.

The transporter paid attention to the tension in the room. “Right, well, here are the documents for you to sign. Once they are complete, I will send you through.”

Five minutes at the desk going through release after release and promise to abide by her animal’s choice left her father with one final signature and Keelie with another as the funder of the entire arrangement.

When all the documents were complete, the transporter got to her feet. “All right then. As you are picking up what you need in the Crossroads, prepare to leave.”

Pansy’s eyes welled as she hugged her brothers, one after another, and finally squeezed her father until he grunted.

“Go on, Pansy. You are going to have to search out the next step in your life, despite what I think.” He ruffled her hair and chucked her under the chin.

Pansy smiled. “I will be back, maybe not here but nearby.”

“Don’t make promises your mate might not let you keep.” Karl was serious.

“Dad, if I pick him, we will be living nearby. It is not up for negotiation.” She scowled at him until he laughed.

She turned toward Keelie. “Thank you, Auntie.”

Keelie hugged her close. “Do your best. Enjoy everything you can and pick a good one. The people who run the Crossroads will take care of all the incidentals. Just keep them apprised of what you need.”

“I will. I promise to call the moment I am home.”

Keelie grinned. “Wait until after the honeymoon, sweetheart. Now, go.”

She turned to the transporter, and the woman inclined her head and opened a ball of light until Pansy could walk through it easily. “Here you go. Have fun and may you find what you seek.”

With a final look at her family, she smiled and then turned back to the doorway of light. Pansy took the step forward that would lead her to her future, and the moment that the warm energy wrapped around her, she screamed.

Hands lifted her and voices were speaking to her softly. When Pansy finally opened her eyes, she was looking at a woman with the golden skin of a lioness but hair nearly as dark as Pansy’s. The other woman standing there was a vivid purple-blue with hair that seemed to shift colour the longer that Pansy stared at it.

The lioness sighed in relief. “You are awake. Excellent. How do you feel, Pansy?”

“Sore. What happened?”

The blue woman exhaled with her own relief. “You overcharged the portal. Krisia knew that you were charged with fae magic, but she had no idea that you were full to the gills with wild magic. It was like shoving a lightning bolt into a household socket. Kris is suffering a little, but she wasn’t the one inside the portal when it blew. I am Teebie, by the way. I will be your tutor and help you with your makeover while you are here.”

The lioness snorted. “She runs the Open Heart Bed and Breakfast and is the only non-shifter here. Your friend got in touch with her, and she pulled strings from her end of things for the full makeover.”

Teebie laughed, “This is Lee, by the way. She is our medic, and her husband owns the Crossed Star Bar where you will be spending as much time as it takes to find a man that speaks to you and your beast.”

Pansy sat up and looked down. Her body was naked and covered in scorch marks.

Teebie disappeared for a moment and reappeared with a short, light cotton robe. “You can wear this until we cross the street and get your clothing. By the way, we are not the usual welcoming committee, but Teal and Tony are repairing the damage you’re your arrival caused.”

Pansy winced as the robe slid on over scorched skin. “Can I shift first so I can heal a little more?”

Lee nodded. “Of course.”

Pansy handed the robe to Teebie and shifted into her porcupine form, making a few laps in the medical office before she resumed her human shape.

Teebie’s face was bemused. “I haven’t seen a porcupine before.”

Lee blinked. “Come to think of it, I have only seen the pointy animals, never the shifters.”

Pansy slipped on the robe. “We are not common shifters and are randoms whenever we occur. Usually, a porcupine shifter will occur in a beaver family when we do show up. It caused some consternation in my family, I can tell you.”

Lee asked, “Your family aren’t beavers, I am guessing.”

“Wolves.”

Teebie reacted to Lee’s expression of shock. “I am going to go out on a limb and say that wolves aren’t very accepting of the different.”

Pansy wrinkled her nose. “Not so much, but my father and brothers did what they could to make me as close to part of the pack as they could. It took some creativity, but they managed pretty well. We were still a family.”

“What about your mother?” Lee asked.

“She died of breast cancer when I was a baby.”

Teebie cleared her throat. “Enough for today. We need to get some clothing on her before you continue to grill her.”

“Right. I apologize. You are not here to fill me in on your life story, but if you want to meet at the Crossed Star tomorrow after lunch, we could have a nice chat.” Lee’s tone was hopeful.

Teebie snorted, “Or you can just come for breakfast, Lee. You know that I am closed to all guests except for Pansy. If she extends the invitation to you, I will play host.”

Pansy smiled at Lee. “Would you please join us for breakfast tomorrow?”

“I would be only too happy to. I will also need to confirm your recovery, so two birds with one stone.” Lee started to tidy up her office, and the dismissal was unmistakable.

Wobbling a little, Pansy took Teebie’s arm and walked out into the sun of the Crossroads for the first time.

She had heard of shopping as an endurance event but had never tested it herself. Teebie and the young male who ran the shop were on her side, but it felt more like a battle than anything Pansy had ever done in her life.

The effort it took to try on outfit after outfit, to fit test bras and underwear, not to mention the balance of high heels, it all exhausted her.

“Being a woman in modern times is tiring, or so my sisters say.”

Andy grinned and took away the items that Teebie rejected based on the way they fit, leaving Pansy surrounded by the piles that had been authorized as suitable.

Working in the garage and living with her family, she really had no clue as to what the modern woman looked like outside of the fashion magazines. Most of the women that Pansy came into contact with tended to wear uniforms. Medical personnel, waitresses and construction crews were the majority of her exposure to other women.

The clothing that she had tried on so far was light, airy and wouldn’t stand up to a round in the tumble dryer. It did feel like puffs of air on her skin though, so that wasn’t all bad.

She was in jeans, low heels and a silky top that was a gorgeous lavender studded with tiny glittering gems. Her underwear matched for the first time in her life and was neutral enough to disappear when the lavender fabric of her shirt threatened to turn transparent when certain angles of light struck it.

“Good clothing should make you feel confident and put together, not that you are hiding. You should also never advertise anything that you do not intend to deliver, so make sure that you can look yourself in the eye when you check out your own reflection. It is an old-fashioned means of thinking, but when you are dealing with shifters and instincts, stay with the basics. Show what you are comfortable with and defend your body when someone gets too close.”

Teebie was precise when she spoke; her voice rang with authority.

“Okay. What is the next lesson?”

She watched as Andy collected all of the clothing that was being purchased, and he headed for the counter.

Teebie grimaced. “Makeup. Your friend sent your colouration ahead. I thought I was going to be working on Snow White for a while, but now I see what she meant. Does all of your family have porcelain skin?”

“No. I am the lucky one. My father used to joke that I had my aunt’s colouring.”

Andy prepped one bag and handed it to Teebie. “That is the makeup, here is the overnight bag.”

Her blue friend took the bags, and together, they headed out onto the street, past the café and into the mild foot traffic. “I have to say, this is very exciting. Very few fae interact with shifters. I am glad to know that it isn’t an isolated incident.”

“Someone you know?”

Teebie laughed. “My grandmother a few centuries ago. Her children couldn’t shift, but their daughters were very powerful.”

“So, it rippled up the chain, so to speak?”

“Yes. Each generation gets stronger. Well, some of us do.” Teebie grinned. “Of course, I ended up looking precisely like my grandfather. How my grandmother could mate with something so different way back then was an amazing thing to me. She must have been a gryphon with nerves of steel.”

Pansy froze in place. “Your grandparents were a shifter and a djinn?”

“Yup. That is what I have been saying. My aunt is a dragon, and she raised her sister’s children before returning them to their father’s people. She wanted them to know a life, a true life, before being wrapped in djinn tradition.”

“Wow. Dragons and gryphons, it is just like my aunt said.”

They resumed their walk and passed several bed and breakfasts before approaching one with a charming sign that proclaimed it the
Open Heart Bed and Breakfast.

Once inside, Teebie led her up the stairs to the room with a starburst on the door.

“Since you are my only guest this week, you can come and go as you like, breakfast will be served after you are moving.”

“Can I go and get myself something to eat at the café?”

“Of course. Where is it?” She wandered into the room and lifted a small icon. “Ah, here it is. Since you were scorched, we decided to wait until you were up and around before we gave you this.”

Pansy saw the same starburst on it as the door icon. “Does this mean something?”

“Well, anyone who sees it will know who you are.”

She slipped it on her wrist and asked, “Wait, how long was I out?”

“Three days. We have a lot of work to do.”

“Then, give me a moment to refresh myself, join me for dinner and we will get underway.” Her mind tried to adjust to the change in dates, but it was difficult.

Teebie laughed. “I will have a selection brought here. We don’t need to waste any time. You need makeup training right away, and I am not the woman to give you instruction.”

Pansy looked at her blue companion and laughed. “Right. Of course. Give me five minutes, and I will meet you downstairs.”

The smells of food drew Pansy downstairs after she finished clearing the last of the smudges from her features. No sense putting makeup on soot.

An elegant woman with snow-white hair was sitting with her host. Teebie grinned, “Pansy, this is Teal. She is one of the guardians of the Crossroads.”

“I am glad to see you are up and around. I am sending your aunt a bill for the damage to the Meditation Centre. I have never seen anyone blow the roof off before. Good thing we have that collection of beavers or I might not be so cheerful right now. As it was, we are having to explain the damage to all the new comers, there was even one from your area almost immediately after you arrived. He helped put the fire out.”

Pansy turned bright red but reached for the food.

Teebie snickered. “You have boarding-house manners, but you are precise in your placement.”

“I have six brothers. I usually throw a quill at the food I can’t reach to mark it as mine. Today, I am merely using my hands.”

Pansy grinned and Teal snickered.

She ate with her napkin in her lap, and she speared the food precisely before she put it between her lips. The two women, who were watching, nodded with approval.

Teebie grinned. “Excellent. Food etiquette is usually the hardest thing to teach.”

Dinner was placid and unremarkable, but immediately after, Teebie brought out a folding mirror and enough makeup to paint Pansy from head to toe. This was not going to be an easy lesson; she could feel it in her bones.

“Who knew that stabbing yourself in the eye twelve times wouldn’t blind you? Consider me convinced of your teaching skills, Teal.” Pansy blinked and admired the fact that her eyes seemed to be recovering nicely. They also appeared deep and mysterious, the purple in the shadow made the green flecks in her eyes quite a bit stronger.