The Minotaur's Kiss

by Erin St. Charles

  "Yeah, I told you. Our kind heals faster." Of course, shifters heal faster than humans. That car accident would have most certainly killed an ordinary human.

  "That's good news," Mac said. He looked over his shoulder to where his mother made a show of tidying her desk while obviously trying to eavesdrop on her son's conversation.

  "It sure is. She's awake, and she apparently wants to talk. I'm at the cabin, but I'll be there in about thirty." Like a lot of wolves, Bubba eschewed city living and kept a modest home on a few acres north of the city.

  "Great. I'll meet you there."

  Mac ended the call and turned to his mother. “Mom I have to go. The kidnap victim I told you about? She's awake."

  "That's wonderful," she said, hesitating a moment before going on. "Maybe you should swing by Diana's house and see if she wants a ride to the hospital?"

  "Mama, I need to go now." He sidestepped his mother's suggestion, having already decided that he would go to Diana's house before his mother had even mentioned it. He had no idea whether Diana would go to the hospital with him, but he knew he had to try.

  He gave his mother a peck on the cheek and hurried to the front door. She called after him.

  "Bring her over for Sunday dinner when you guys get it together!"

  Mac waved at his mother over his shoulder without turning around. He would be at Diana's house in less than ten minutes, which would give him time to think of what he'd say to her to get her in his truck.

  The changeling had gone rogue.

  What was worse, she had no idea why. She knew the gods had stopped breeding them, officially, when they proved to be too unstable. But this one had served her well, had faithfully executed on her every command.

  It had let Julie escape. It had somehow tracked Diana and Mac to the fertility rite, then proceeded to make things even worse by attacking them in front of several witnesses. Her contact at the DPD would ensure that the changeling’s appearance was blamed on the drugs consumed at the fertility rite.

  She had to destroy it. That is, if she could find it.

  Chapter 41

  "What did you say to Mom?"

  Diana blinked at the image of her sister on her Omni screen. Vanessa's hair poofed out in all directions, similar to that of a troll doll. She rubbed her hands together, then ran her fingers through the tight curls, then sectioned off a handful of hair and began to braid it. She wore a tank top and a ratty pair of knit shorts, looking as if she were getting ready for bed.

  Diana sighed. "That's between mom and me."

  "She said she met your boyfriend. I'm glad to hear you're at least getting some." Vanessa raised an eyebrow and gave Diana a knowing look.

  Diana rolled her eyes. "He's not my boyfriend." Definitely not her boyfriend. The father of her soon-to-be child, but not her boyfriend.

  Vanessa's lips twisted into a smirk. "So you say. I saw the two of you together. You could have fooled me. Not your boyfriend? Please."

  "I mean...we fooled around, but that's over now."

  Diana continued to scrape at the wallpaper in the guest bathroom as her sister chattered on. Diana gazed wistfully at the claw foot tub, which still rested in the spot where it had gone through the floor that night Mac came over to help with her renovation. He had promised to have someone over to look at the bathroom, since he was the one who caused the tub to go through the subfloor. There was no way she would hold Mac to that, since doing so would mean contacting him again, seeing him again, inviting him into her home. And this, she could not do.

  Her Omni vibrated on her wrist, letting her know that someone on her contacts list was online. She saw Mac's name float across the image of her sister's face, or rather, the Taurus symbol Diana had assigned to him on her contact's list. Her heart stopped for a moment, thinking he would try to contact her again, but the image faded to a small icon on her system tray, where it glowed, letting her know he was active online, which made her grumpy. What was he doing online?

  "Diana? Diana? Why are you all frowned up?"

  Diana blinked in confusion at her sister, who had somehow finished her sleeping braids and was looking at her bug-eyed.

  "I've been talking to you for the past few minutes, and watching you peel wallpaper. Hello? Are you hearing me?" Vanessa had her arms crossed over her breasts, giving Diana a pointed stare.

  "Hm? Yeah, I hear you," she lied.

  The unfortunate truth was that Diana had found herself easily distracted since she'd learned of her pregnancy. Other than needing to pee all the time, this was her only symptom.

  That morning, she had cried as if her heart was broken when she couldn't find a clean uniform for work, tearing through the house, wondering how she would take care of a baby when she couldn't even dress herself for work. She then bawled as if meeting a long-lost friend when she found her uniform hanging in her closet, which she had already searched no fewer than five times.

  She'd made her usual morning coffee only to become obsessed with whether pregnant women should even drink coffee. She spent several minutes researching the answer, then realized she'd be late for work, so she skipped the coffee.

  On her way to the Glide, she'd stumbled on a crack in the pavement. Her arms windmilled, and she landed awkwardly on the heels of her hands, trying to avoid face planting right there on the sidewalk and possibly hurting the baby. She then waited on the Glide platform for fifteen minutes, increasingly agitated at her sorry state of affairs and wondering why the damned train was so late before she realized it was Sunday.

  She had returned to a home that was still redolent with the smell of the freshly brewed coffee that now turned her stomach. As she cleaned her palms and applied antiseptic, she looked around at the shabby state of her house. Her renovations were taking too long, she realized, and there were many ways a baby could harm itself in her decrepit house. She would be a total failure as a mother.

  "Hello? Sister?"

  Diana saw Vanessa speaking in an animated fashion, though Diana found it impossible to register what her sister was saying. She watched the other woman's mouth move, her annoyed expressions, but could not force her pregnant brain to comprehend the content.

  "What's with you two?" her sister was saying. Diana paused to consider this. Which two did Vanessa mean? Diana and her mother? Or Diana and Mac?

  "I don't know," Diana said, shrugging her shoulders.

  It was on the tip of her tongue to ask Vanessa if her own pregnancy with the twins had made her stupid as well, but she stopped herself. She had resolved not to tell anyone about her predicament until she figured out what she was going to do.

  "Diana, what is wrong with you?"

  Diana's chin trembled, and her eyes welled with hot tears. She dropped her scraper. She buried her face in her hands and broke into loud, whole-body sobs. And then she spilled her guts.

  She told Vanessa everything. She told her about Julie Wheeler, the concubine, the changeling, and how Bubba Cermak had let Diana's pregnancy slip after fighting off the creature. She ugly cried her way through the entire tale of woe.

  Diana paused to wipe her tears away and find a hanky to blow her nose. When she looked up at the screen again, she found her sister staring with an open mouth and bugged out eyes.

  "So what's the problem?" said Vanessa.

  "What do you mean?" Diana sniffed, her voice husky with her own misery. Nothing but pregnancy hormones could have made her tell her story.

  "I don't understand why you're not with Mac right now."

  "Because he lied to me!" Diana wailed, bursting into another round of tears.

  "But he apologized. And he wants to marry you."

  Diana waved her hand dismissively and blew her nose loudly. "He's just saying that because he thinks it's the right thing to do."

  "Maybe it is the right thing to do."

  "What? A shotgun marriage to a man I barely know?"

  "Who says you have to get married right away? Do you love him?" asked Vanessa, catching Diana off guard
.

  Diana thought of the day of the Pantheon meeting, when she and Mac had returned to her house, made love, and confessed their feelings to each other.

  "Yes. I do."

  "So, let me get this straight," said Vanessa, cocking an eyebrow. "A hot, rich, good-looking guy with a great job and all his teeth wants to marry you and make babies with you? Is that correct?"

  Diana nodded at her sister.

  "Then I'm not sure what the problem is. No one said you had to go out and get married tomorrow, although from what I know of Minotaurs, you may be getting married sooner than you think."

  Diana let this sink in. "But what if he's doing this just because I'm pregnant?"

  "Has he treated you any differently than he did before he knew you were pregnant?"

  Diana had to stop and think about this.

  "Don't give up on him. Go wash your face and pull yourself together."

  Diana let out a shaky breath. "Okay."

  "Okay, I need to go put my rug rats to bed." Vanessa was busily tying a scarf around her head and now seemed eager to get off the Omni. "Girl, you better go find your man."

  With that, Vanessa's image disappeared from the screen, leaving Diana to sit there with slumped shoulders, deep in her own thoughts. She cast an eye over to the bathtub. He was going to have to fix that tub before she married him.

  Marry him? Mrs. Ulysses MacKenzie Bodie. Diana Bodie. Diana Miller-Bodie. Mr. And Mrs. Bodie. That might have a ring to it.

  She saw his Taurus symbol on her screen. Her fingers reached out to touch the symbol that meant he was online. She thought about ringing him, but she felt the beginnings of a post-cry headache coming on and thought about her sister's advice to get herself together before seeking him out. She grinned at the screen like a lunatic. She took a mild painkiller, splashed water on her face, and re-engaged her Omni to find Mac offline again. What to do?

  Frowning, she stared at the screen as if doing so would make his icon reappear. She had cold feet. In all her life, she had never called a boy out of the blue. She flashed back to her high school days, when Omni etiquette dictated that seeking someone out when that person had not advertised their availability was an act of desperation.

  She went to lie down in her dark bedroom while the painkillers kicked in, refreshing her Omni screen constantly, willing his symbol to reappear.

  She turned her head into the pillow and inhaled the last vestiges of Mac's scent in her pillow. What if she rang him and he didn't answer? Should she leave a message?

  She disengaged her Omni and lay on one side, staring out into the darkness, and her body relaxed. She started to nod off.

  The warbling of her Omni snapped her out of her dozing, answering the call without bothering to see who was calling.

  "Diana?" A girl's voice spoke to her in the darkness.

  "Amanda?" she said, wondering how the girl would even have her number. Then Diana remembered that she'd given her mother the number months ago. "Are you okay?"

  A pause on the other end of the line. "It's my mom! She's awake!"

  "That's great!" Diana swung her legs over the side of her bed and voice-activated the bedroom lights. "Are you at the hospital?"

  "No, but I'm on my way now."

  "I'll meet you there."

  Diana hung up, digging in her closet for a pair of leggings and a t-shirt. Her Omni warbled again.

  "Diana?" Bubba's face appeared on the screen of her Omni.

  "Bubba?"

  "Julie Wheeler--"

  "She's awake. I know! I'm on my way now." She paused and frowned. "Is Mac with you?"

  "No, isn't he with you?"

  "Uh, no."

  "Stay where you are. I'll come to you."

  "That's okay. I'm half out the door anyway."

  "You sure? I'm not far from you."

  He looked far more serious than she had ever seen him before. He wasn't leering at her, making inappropriate remarks to her, and he wasn't asking about her sister. She could see now why Bubba and Mac were such good friends.

  "Okay, I'll just see you at the hospital."

  Hanging up, she smiled to herself. She thought of calling Mac to see if he could pick her up. But she had no idea where he was. The most sensible thing she could do would be to take the Glide to the hospital and call Mac on the way.

  She smiled to herself, fingering the bulls-head pendant Mac had won for her at the fair. She would see Mac at the hospital. She would get her man.

  Ten minutes later, Diana's long legs ate up the pavement as she strode purposefully toward the Glide. When she arrived at the station, she took the stairs two at a time and emerged to an empty platform. She consulted the train schedule, which revealed the next Glide would arrive in three or four minutes.

  She paced, excited that Julie was going to pull through. For the first time since she'd learned of her pregnancy, she felt optimistic. She cupped her hands over her still-flat belly and rubbed lightly. From the platform, she could see her whole block, including her house. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw Mac's F-150 pull up in front of her house. He got out and walked to her front door.

  She engaged her Omni to call him, grinning so hard her cheeks ached.

  Then she smelled it. The unmistakable scent that had filled the closet of Julie Wheeler's apartment. The foul odor she'd smelled in the alley behind Styx the night of the concubine handover.

  The scent of rotting, burning garbage.

  The scent of the changeling.

  Chapter 42

  Mac sensed that Diana's house was empty even before he stomped up the steps, so it was no surprise she didn't answer the door when he knocked.

  What was a surprise was the instinct--the strange feeling that had him descending the front steps and looking up and down the street, his hackles raised. The sidewalk was empty in both directions, which might be expected late on a Sunday evening. But a movement out of the corner of his eye stopped him.

  At the far end of the block, on the Glide platform, was Diana, staring down the street at him with her head cocked to one side, her Omni floating in the space before her, her hand hovering over the screen. He caught her excitement as their eyes connected. His chest rose and fell with the relief he felt at seeing her.

  She had left her dark red hair free, where it floated around her head in a fiery halo. She wore leggings and a t-shirt and from her position on the platform, she, too, was on her way to the hospital.

  He answered her smile with one of his own. She must have known he'd be at the hospital. She must have known she would see him there. She was coming back to him.

  Two long strides closed the distance between Mac and his truck. But before he reached it, Bubba appeared on the platform beside Diana as if out of thin air.

  Bubba? What was he doing there?

  But Diana's face crumpled with an expression of disgust. Her nose wrinkled, her brow creased, and she began to slowly turn to face Bubba on the platform.

  And at that moment, Mac's concentration was broken by the warbling of his Omni. Absently, he answered and heard Bubba's voice piercing his mental fog.

  Bubba...on the Glide platform. Bubba...on Mac's Omni.

  On the platform, Diana backed away from Bubba, her mouth curled in disgust. Platform Bubba advanced on Diana slowly. Omni Bubba's mouth moved, but the words did not register.

  Mac's next actions were driven purely by instinct. He raced down the sidewalk toward the platform, shifting as he ran. He took the steps to the platform two at a time as the Glide car pulled into the station. The doors opened with a hiss just as he made the platform. His heart pounded furiously at the sight of Diana struggling with the changeling, thrashing, bucking against the creature which had a forearm around her throat and was dragging her into the empty car. It looked exactly like Bubba, although it didn't have Bubba's temple-to-chin scar. Diana's face flattened with pain and frustration as she struggled.

  The doors closed with a hiss, while the creature subdued Diana on the other sid
e of the glass. A metal-on-metal shriek sounded from beneath the train as it hitched and started up again. Mac rammed his heavy body against the Glide car, hoping to somehow stop it before it could pull away again. The glass cracked into a spider web formation and caved a bit, but the train car merely rocked a bit on the tracks before righting itself. Inside, Diana peered at him with glazed eyes, while the creature held her neck to one side and injected her. Its mimicry of Bubba slipped slightly, producing a wet ripple underneath the skin of its cheeks. It fixed Mac with a glare from eyes suddenly gone hollow; swirling green and gold eyeshine emitted from the dark sockets. Then it smiled, lips peeling back from rows of jagged teeth poking out of green gums, looking like so many tombstones.

  Mac stopped in his tracks as if he were gazing upon the severed head of Medusa. The train pulled away from the station, and all Mac could do was run after it until he reached the end of the platform. He watched in despair as the train disappeared around a bend. His stomach dropped with the knowledge that the changeling had taken her. She was gone.

  Bubba's disembodied voice snapped Mac out of his gloom. Mac's Omni was still engaged, and his friend was calling out to him.

  Chapter 43

  Diana awoke to the sensation of jostling movement. Darkness closed around her, and she struggled to remember what had happened. She shook her head to clear it, then stopped when a wave of nausea overcame her. She had been drugged.

  She remembered then how the changeling, disguised as Bubba, had grabbed her from the Glide platform, then injected her in the neck, all while Mac watched. She started to sit up, then realized she didn't have the room to do so.

  She flexed her fingers, then was taken aback when she noticed her wrists were bound together. Her face felt numb. Whatever was in the drug he had given her hadn't worn off yet. She put her arms out around herself trying to gauge the size of the space confining her.

  Her fingers touched something rough and dry, and her mind instantly recognized it to be a very thin carpet. She strained to hear and realized the motions she'd earlier felt were bumps in the road and the start and stop of the traffic. A red light appeared in the darkness as the vehicle came to a stop. Tail lights.