~ Racing With The Moon ~

by

Jane Toombs

"I’ll come to you here if I can," he told her. "When and if I do, you’ll have to face what I am then. Will you have the courage to open the door and throw the chain over the head of the beast?"

Vella couldn’t find an answer. She didn’t know. How could she know?

Without another word, he closed the door, leaving her shut safely inside.

Feeling as though her knees wouldn’t hold her up, she sank down on the wicker loveseat. How could he refer so coldly and calmly to himself as a beast? And how could she ever bring herself to face that beast? Vella tried to control the tremors shivering through her and failed. It wasn’t so much fear of the awful creature she knew he’d soon become, but more being unable to accept that beast as Guy.

She tried not to so much as glance at the hot tub, only a few steps away. Her rebellious mind, though, flashed back to some hours earlier, when they’d held one another close, making love there. Willing the memory away, she told herself she hadn’t known what he was then. A Shifter. If she had known...

If she had known--what? She wouldn’t have allowed him to touch her? Dropping the clothes and the chain with the medallion onto the loveseat, Vella put her hands over her face and sobbed, the word if instead of when echoing in her mind. What if he never returned?

~ * ~

Guy saw Kelly to the cage, tossed in the sleeping bag he carried and locked her in. "You can reach the lock to let yourself out," he told her, "but don’t. No beast will be able to manage the lock so, whatever happens, you’re safe inside for the night. If nothing happens, stay inside until morning before letting yourself out."

"Luis will come to me, won’t he?"

"I intend to make sure of that."

"You sound so--so desolate."

"Because I am. But Luis will come to you. He may be leery of you as a human at first, but he’ll recognize your scent. Speak softly to him, lure him close with sweet words, close enough so you can reach through the bars and drop the thong with the medallion over his head. After he changes, toss the robe to him. Or over him, because he may not regain consciousness for a bit. On no condition let yourself out while the beast I’ll be is still in the vicinity. Promise."

Kelly nodded, her face strained and pale.

Guy strode into the woods opposite the cage, making his way up the overgrown old logging road for some distance. There he stripped, stood for a moment looking up at the moon, waning but still potent. After a moment he felt the never-to-be forgotten wrench inside that heralded the change. So many years and yet he still remembered. He knew once he became a beast, he’d find Luis easily. No problem there. His only worry was that he wouldn’t retain enough humanness to remember why he’d shifted. A risk he had to take...

The beast, standing under the moon, raised his muzzle and howled. An answering howl sent him loping through the woods toward the sound.

~ * ~

In the sauna, Vella heard the howling and raised her head from her hands, her tears drying on her cheeks. Gooseflesh prickled the fine hair on her arms. Two. Guy, as well as Luis, had become a beast. She fumbled in her pocket for a tissue and wiped her face. They both ran under the moon. Kelly, she knew, was safely locked in the cage. She prayed the DNR officer was nowhere near. Or any other human. A thread of memory slithered snakelike into her mind. The words Guy had used. Death Bringer. Those who were sworn to kill Shifters, like the one who’d stripped the fur from a dying ancestor of his.

What if a Death Bringer were somewhere out there, listening to the howls that could come from no normal animal. What if he killed Guy? She reached for the medallion and slipped its chain over her own head, then held the medallion to her aching heart. No, it couldn’t happen. Mustn’t happen. Without Guy she’d never be truly happy again. And yet, could she ever be happy with someone she knew could shift shape? Become a beast?

~ * ~

For a time the two beasts ran together under the moon, delighting in each other’s company. Night, the moon, and prey ran through the larger one’s head. Blood and feasting. But a nagging in his mind, like the bite of a deer fly, kept bothering him. Luis. His companion was Luis. He needed to bring Luis somewhere. The reason eluded him, but the compulsion remained. Crossroads. He knew how to get there. Bring Luis with him.

When the two beasts burst from the greenery onto the drive, the larger herded the smaller toward the cage on the opposite side. Luis belonged there for some reason. Luis immediately focused on the female human inside the cage, though refusing to go too close. The larger beast decided he’d completed what he had to do. Stealthily, he crept out of sight, peering from cover to see what happened.

He could hear the human murmuring coaxingly to Luis, drawing him nearer and nearer to the cage. He had no idea why and it made him edgy. When white arms reached out and tossed something over Luis’ head, he growled, low in his throat. With a snarl, Luis dropped onto his side. His form began to twist and--change. Fear gripped the larger beast and he bolted into the woods, determined to get as far away as possible.

~ * ~

At the sauna, Vella sat on the floor in the lotus position, still wearing the chain with the medallion around her neck. Though she didn’t do much Yoga, she’d found this position seemed to work when she felt the need to gather energy to face another day of nursing--and healing, for she’d finally come to admit that was what she did. Eyes closed, she let herself relax so the energy could flow into her, energy she needed now for another purpose. Whether it would work or not, she had no idea, but she had to try. Somewhere inside of the beast was Guy, the man, and that’s who she had to reach.

She summoned his face, his body, all of him, into her mind’s eye and, using the energy she’d gathered, repeated over and over in her mind, Come to me, come to Vella, come now. She didn’t allow herself to think her message wasn’t projecting outward, searching for his mind. That mind might be inside a beast, but Guy was there, too.

~ * ~

The beast’s lope faltered. What was calling to him? He heard it inside him, telling him to come, luring him the way Luis had been lured. He had no intention of obeying. But he paused, unable to stop listening. Come to Vella, it urged. Vella. The word conjured up scents, tastes, pleasure. Come now. Pleasure. Another word came to him. Sauna. Part of him seemed to know what that word meant. He raised his head, testing the smells the wind carried. Prey. Food, the taste of blood on his tongue. He smelled no danger on the wind, not to him. Not where he was now. Why should he obey the call repeating over and over inside him? Come. Come where? Was there danger in obeying?

Finally he turned and loped back the way he’d come, skirting the cage and keeping to the woods beside the drive. He paused as he neared the log structure that part of him recognized as sauna. The calling came from there. He sniffed for danger and breathed in the scent that told him Vella lurked inside the structure. She called him. Lured him. Caution told him to flee, but part of him overruled the impulse. Reluctantly, step by lagging step, he approached.