“No, no, don’t try to talk, just nod your head. We have no time. I can save you by turning you. If I bite you again, if I let my saliva move into your vein, you will become like me, a shifter. It will save you and let you heal, but you will not be human, like you are now. You will be like the people of my farm. You will be a shifter. Do you understand what will happen? I can turn you, or I can let you die now and join those who have gone ahead, waiting for you.”
Another spasm wracked her and she nearly jerked out of his grasp. “Please nod
yes
, if you want me to change you.” He held his hand against her cheek, praying to every god he had ever heard of. At last, the one eye looked deeply at him. He felt her head go up, then down.
He only had seconds. He was ready to shift, so he had to reach that important vein in her neck when he was in his animal form. He knew he was strong. He could shift faster than anyone, but the seconds it took to change, then find that vein that was now so weak, were so important.
He knew his tribe would keep everyone away because he would make a noise that anyone could hear throughout the building when he took her blood and give her his venom. Still he wasn’t sure if it was too late. She was so weak, her body was so damaged, especially the spine.
He not only needed to turn her, he needed to help her shift in order to give her a chance to heal. It was all a great risk with a small chance of survival—but her only chance.
Noble watched her through his golden eyes, from under the pine tree where he crouched, silently invisible in the shadows. She was in the sun, chasing birds, not really trying to catch them, just testing her healing muscles, leaping in the air, like a kit.
She was a beautiful, mutant cat, almost as large as he was, her fur a mixture of warm brown with golden tips on the ends. Wherever the folds of her skin came together in a winkle of fur, the gold tips gathered. They actually made a flash of bright color that seemed to reflect the sunlight itself.
Even though he couldn’t see them from here, he knew that in this form, her eyes were the strange green of the forest, with her fur the color of the warm brown that would be in her eyes when she was in her human form.
He thought of a different set of eyes that he had seen in the dark of night as he straddled a fat, out of shape Senator who was asleep in his bed in Georgetown, Washington. He could have killed the man without waking him, but he needed to have the man look into his eyes. He needed the man to see death, to understand all the people that had died at the Senator’s mistaken orders.
After his team had taken out the security squad at the mansion, he had shifted. He stalked up onto the bed. With enough light in the room for the man to see, he had put his feet on both sides of the man, then placed a heavy paw on the chest, pressing down until the man woke up, gasping first for breath and then in fear.
It was just as well that he couldn’t talk in his shifted form. A deep growl was all it took to tell the man what was going to happen. The man had screamed like a teenage girl in a scary movie until he stopped the process with one sharp swipe. Done and done.
He watched a very pleasant sight. He let rumble a different type of growl, looking around. He had marked her many times. He had marked this area as soon as they shifted, but he was still on the defensive against any male that might approach her. Beth was his mate and he was the Alpha.
Many would call M. Garnet one of those
Grande Dames
who has led a long and exciting life and must now sit in comfort with a secret smile as those around her are extremely polite and careful with their language and sexual innuendos.
Married 31 years to a Soldier of Fortune (oops we were not suppose to tell anyone what he did, but he is dead now so what the hell), her lovers included a professional Golfer, a highly successful nightclub owner and of course a sports bookie. She traveled to most countries and still plays poker, although now she prefers it from her small office, surrounded by her Mac, her PC and her flat screen Sony with Cayo, her King Charles Spaniel, begging for attention.
Her long and interesting life, from childhood on an old-fashioned farm in Kentucky, through foundries and automobile assembly plants, running an International Engineering Consulting Company, has all given her a wealth of detail to draw from to add to the background of the stories she puts on her ‘puters.
She can be reached at
[email protected]
, or try her web site at
www.mgarnet.com