RockMeTonight (13 page)

Angelo

“Shit! Did you hear that?” I asked Katrina.

“Shots. Someone must be shooting at her!”

“Hurry!”

We quickly threw our clothes back on and ran to where we
heard the shots. Then we slowed down when we approached a man bent over
something.

It was the woman. The shifter.

Katrina punched me in the arm and whispered, “We never
should have waited.”

“You’re right.”

“What are we going to do now? We can’t leave her.”

“I don’t know. We have to do something. Come on.”

The hunter was checking her pulse when we approached.

“Is there a problem?” I asked.

“Oh my God. I’m so glad someone came,” he said with obvious
relief. “I heard a woman scream and I thought she was being attacked. Then I
saw a mountain lion so I shot it. I knew I saw mountain lions in these woods.
But now look.” He pointed down at her. “It’s a woman!”

“Sir, you sound very confused,” I said in a soothing tone.
“Will you let me take a look at her?”

He stepped back and ran his fingers over his eyes as if
trying to clear what he saw.

She was breathing and she had a pulse. I was relieved to
find that despite the amount of blood, the bullet hadn’t gone near any vital
organs. It appeared to have grazed her hip, but I was sure Katrina and I could
bandage it up ourselves and she wouldn’t need to go to a hospital. That was a
good thing for her sake. If she had our healing powers, her wounds would repair
themselves quicker than the average human’s, enough to raise flags.

Why she was unconscious, I didn’t know. I guessed she might
have hit her head when she fell. I felt her head for any lumps or wounds, but
didn’t find any that had formed yet. Or somehow maybe the shock of it made her
faint.

“She’s okay,” I reassured him. “I don’t know what you think
you saw, but she’s clearly a woman.”

“She was a mountain lion. I swear. Or cougar. Whatever you
want to call it. How did she change?” Then he buried his face in his hands. “Oh
Lord, I shot a woman! I’ve been hunting these forests for years. Why would she
be by herself all alone this far in?”

I had to be careful as to what I said next. There was no way
I would confirm that the woman shifted from a mountain lion to a human. It was
far too dangerous for our kind for humans to know about us.

Especially hunters like this man.

“I don’t doubt that you think you saw an animal. The woods
can play on anyone’s mind when you’ve been out here long enough. Hell, I’ve
thought I’ve seen all kinds of crazy things late at night when I was tired.”

I saw doubt forming in his eyes, but then he stopped. “I
could swear it was a mountain lion. Why would I imagine that? In fact, I’d seen
mountain lions out here not too long ago.”

“Yeah, I’ve sworn I’ve seen some things too. It’s only when
I realize how impossible it was to see what I thought I saw. My mind playing
tricks on me. It’s only my imagination.”

“But I was so sure I saw what I saw,” he said. “How could I
imagine seeing mountain lions?”

“Like I’ve said, I’ve been there, man. You think the trees
are moving. You think you see people when there’s no one there.”

“But there were footprints in the snow last month. When I
thought I might be seeing things, I checked to see if it was a deer’s
footprints. They weren’t. They looked like it could be feline…”

Katrina stepped in. “You probably just need some rest. Have
you been getting enough sleep lately?”

He shook his head. “Maybe not. Always stuff to do, you
know?”

“Yes, I know,” she said in a nurturing tone. “I recognize
this woman. She’s a friend of my family’s. I’m going to bring her back to my
house and see who we can contact.”

“What can I do to help?” He looked around. “She doesn’t have
a purse or anything. Heck, she isn’t even wearing any clothes! Why would she be
naked out here?”

“So I’m certain she would feel embarrassed, if not
terrified, when she wakes up nude and sees two men watching her.” Katrina
turned to me. “I need you to go get a blanket and some bandages.” She turned to
him. “And it’s best if you went back home. We’ll take it from here.”

He ran his fingers over his beard. “I have to do something.
I mean, I shot her. I have to apologize. Make amends somehow.”

“It’s really not as bad as it looks. It could have been much
worse, but she’ll be fine,” Katrina said. “How about you leave your contact
information in case we need to get in touch with you?”

He looked unsure about leaving. “Okay, if that’s what you
think. Do you want me to help you carry her out of here or anything?”

“No, please. We can’t discuss this all day. You should be
going now.”

He quickly scrawled his name and number on a piece of paper
and said, “Tell her I’m so, so sorry. Have her call me if she needs anything.
I’ll do what I can to take care of the medical bills, whatever she needs.”

“Will do.”

After the hunter walked away, I turned to Katrina. “That was
genius! I was just trying to get him to doubt what he saw, but you were great
in getting him out of here.”

She smiled. “Thank you. But you really should go get a
blanket and a first-aid kit. She’s going to be freaked out enough when she
wakes.”

“Good thinking. I knew I loved you for a reason.” When she
gave me a look, I clarified. “Many reasons.” Then I went back to the house to
get the stuff she asked for.

Nico

Why wouldn’t this bus go any faster?

As I tracked our progress north through the highway signs, I
couldn’t stop worrying about her. My leg twitched involuntarily until the older
woman next to me gave me a look harsh enough to make me stop.

“Sorry,” I said.

She went back to her book.

This regret I felt weighed as heavy as a bulletproof vest on
my chest—would this feeling ever abate? She trusted me and I freaked out. Not
cool. I had to find her. Tell her how I was so wrong to leave.

No wonder she wanted to keep things from me. Look how I
reacted.

You nob!

I pushed her and pushed her to tell me her secret and once
she did, I bolted. No, I wasn’t just a nob, but a total and utter wanker. I
wouldn’t stop looking for her to make sure she was all right.

Of course she’s all right. She’s a bloody mountain lion!
Like she needs some bloke to save her? Get over yourself. She’d be the one to
protect you out in the woods.

A mountain lion.

The woman I want is a bloody mountain lion!

The concept of her changing from her seductive female shape
into that of a sleek feline was inconceivable. As I envisioned her naked body
changing, I grew hard. And then picturing her as a mountain lion, a predator
that could overpower and attack me—well, that hit an erotic chord in me with
something so primal I didn’t even want to admit it to myself.

What the sodding hell is wrong with me?

I opened a newspaper someone had left on the seat. The last thing
I needed was for the old woman to look over at me squirming in my seat to get
more comfortable.

As I pretended to be interested in the front-page news, I
tried to figure out this attraction I had for Lily. I’d always been attracted
to strong, independent women, especially those who didn’t want me. I loved the
challenge of proving myself worthy of their attention.
Maybe the guys are
right. I always want what I can’t have. In this case, she’s not even fully
human! She’s out of my league and I’m out of my mind to think I can have her.

Telling myself to stop brooding, I forced myself to think
about something else. VC’s upcoming schedule captured my attention and my
erection disappeared. Then I put the newspaper down and dug a paperback out of
my backpack. It was a book of Poe’s short stories and poems. I knew I was
torturing myself, but I turned to the story of
Ligeia
and began reading.

Lily

I woke up in an unfamiliar room to the scent of food
cooking. It appeared to be a log cabin. Over the fireplace in front of me was a
painting of the mountains, moose in one corner. Looking where I lay, I’d been
sleeping on a dark-green couch and was covered with a thick, colorful quilt.

Where on earth am I?

“Hello. You’re awake,” a female said.

My eyes turned to see a fair-skinned woman with long blonde
hair pulled into a clip at the back of her head. She was in front of a stove
cooking something that smelled like stir-fry. Next to her was a man with wavy
black hair that reached down to his chin and olive skin.

A sharp pain on my hip distracted me, but before I
investigated, I had to know what was going on.

“Who are you? And where am I?”

“I’m Katrina and this is Angelo. We’re at our house in the
mountains. We found you out there in the woods. You were hurt.”

“Hurt? What happened to me?”

They looked at each other. “A hunter,” Angelo said.

It all came rushing back to me. A hunter startling me and
then the sounds of rifle bursts. “Was I shot?” I pulled up the blanket to look
for wounds. The sweatpants and T-shirt I was wearing weren’t mine. I peered
inside the sweatpants to look at my hip. Sure enough, it was bandaged.

“Just grazed,” Katrina said. “But you passed out. We brought
you here to make sure you were okay.”

“Thank you,” I said. “But why would a hunter shoot at me?
Did he think I was a deer?”

They looked at each other again. Then I remembered how I had
changed before I heard the shots. When I’d screamed as a woman and changed into
a mountain lion.

“He saw you as a mountain lion.”

Closing my eyes, I hoped that by shutting them out, I could
pretend I didn’t hear that. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I better
go.” I pulled the blanket up and stood up, ignoring the pain of what were
surely many bruises and looking around to see if I had any belongings.

“It’s okay,” Katrina said softly. “We know what you are.
We’re like you.”

What did she just say?

“We’re shifters,” Angelo said.

For a moment, I froze. What I had been trying to run away
from my whole life stood before me. Shifting was a curse I tolerated monthly;
it was not something I wanted to face—especially in others.

I remembered when I had seen mountain lions last month.
Could it have been these two? Were they really shifters, like me?

“I have to go.” I almost sprinted to the door.

“Wait,” Katrina said. “Haven’t you ever wondered?”

Her words tapped into a secret part of my psyche that I
tried to hide, even to myself. I paused at the door.

“Thank you for your hospitality.” Then I opened it.

“You don’t even know where you are. Let us at least give you
some directions.”

“I’ll be fine.” The walls felt like they were closing in
around me, suffocating me with the knowledge that everything I’d been hiding
from existed in this room.

“Your wounds heal quicker than most humans,” Angelo said.
“By tomorrow, where you were shot should barely be visible.”

“Come back if you ever have—questions,” Katrina said.

I closed the door behind me and bent over, breathing
heavily.
Shit. Where the hell am I? Definitely in the mountains and it looks
like no other houses nearby. Nice move, Lily.

Who cares? You’ll find a way out. You had to get out of
there.

I looked up at the sun to try to get some sort of idea what
time it was or what direction I should walk in. With all the thoughts swirling
in my mind, I couldn’t even figure out what I was supposed to look for. I kept
walking, hoping the answers would come to me.

Come back if you ever have questions
, Katrina had
said.

Where to begin? I had so many questions and few answers.
Maybe I shouldn’t have been so hasty to run away.

Why are you always running away? You run from
relationships. Now you’re going to run from the truth? Don’t you want to know
who you are?

Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to ask a few questions.

I turned and walked back toward their house. I inhaled
deeply before I knocked on their door. “I apologize for being so rude.”

“That’s okay,” Angelo said. “You woke up in a strange place,
with clothes you didn’t recognize and people you didn’t know—right after being
shot at. We kind of expected you might not be too receptive.”

“Can I come in?”

“Of course.”

Katrina sat down with me in the living room area. Angelo
brought us all plates of stir-fry. I wanted to shove the food in my mouth since
I was so hungry from the change, but forced myself to act civilized.

After a few bites, I asked, “What are we?”

Katrina said, “First, why don’t you tell us your name?”

“Sorry. It’s Lily.”

“Hi, Lily,” Angelo said. “To answer your question, we’re
shifters.”

“But what does that mean?”

“We’re not human and we’re not mountain lions. We’re
something far more extraordinary.”

Extraordinary? More like freaks.

“Where did we come from?”

Katrina shrugged. “That’s as much of a mystery as asking
where humans came from. You’ll hear different answers—from evolution to
spiritual.”

“In other words, we don’t know where we came from,” Angelo
finished. “We just know what we are.”

Hmm, that made sense, but it didn’t help much. “Are there
other types of shifters?”

“Oh yes,” Katrina said quickly. “Most humans are blind to
anything out of the realm of what they expect to see. But there are shifters
everywhere.”

“And they change with the full moon? Like I do?”

“Shifters or weres are as different from each other as are
other species on the Earth,” Angelo said. “Meaning there’s a wide range of
characteristics.” He turned the questions on me. “What do you know about
shifters?” Angelo asked.