A Shifter's Yearning

by Evelyn Lederman

  Chapter 5

  Elle paced in front of the clothing store. It appeared they opened earlier than the sign indicated, since she saw a number of people gathered around a tall man toward the back of the shop.

  Although she wouldn’t have the privacy she’d hoped for, Elle entered the store. A mimosa Prue provided with breakfast steeled her resolve. The woman took one look at her and pulled a carton of orange juice and a bottle of champagne from the fridge.

  The mage knew without asking, she needed liquid courage. Prue had a small backyard with grass. She considered shifting to reduce her stress level before she left. By the time she’d finished her drink, she felt more relaxed.

  “Billings, stop fussing,” a woman toward the rear directed. “You need a shirt with jeans, not your damned brown robe. I think at my house warming tonight, we’ll burn the thing. The fire pit could use some additional kindling.”

  Elle imagined only one Billings resided in Magic. Intrigued, she walked toward the small party. Her confrontation with the store’s owner had been temporarily put on hold.

  “Annie, I wish you’d obsess over Marc and leave me alone.” Living with shifters, she wasn’t put off by the growl in his tone.

  Was Marc the female’s husband? An unwelcome sense of jealousy preyed on her already frayed nerves.

  She moved close enough to see a wholesome looking blonde beside Billings. He had his back to her and still wore the offensive robe. No wonder the woman wanted to burn the monstrosity.

  Annie’s vibrant eyes fell on her. Before she could turn in embarrassment, the woman smiled. She felt captivated by the action that lit up her face. The girl had a purity about her. If she’d been a horse shifter, she’d make a perfect mate for her eldest son.

  “Don’t you think the robe is atrocious?” Annie asked.

  It would appear suspicious if she took off running, so Elle walked around the rack that separated them. Billings turned to see who Annie addressed. His face shrouded in shadows, she could only see his large, bulbous nose. She felt taken aback at how different he looked compared to yesterday.

  “Maybe an oversized denim or cotton work shirt would do the trick.” Elle purchased all the clothing for her late husband and her sons, although none of them were Billings’s size. “You’ll want a shirt he doesn’t have to tuck in.”

  She couldn’t imagine Billings neatly attired with his shirt perfectly contained within his jeans and wearing a belt. His bulky stature warranted a more casual look.

  “Jade’s been waiting for this day.” The salesgirl she’d noted earlier, reappeared. “She ordered some shirts she hoped would fit him. I’ll be right back.”

  Hearing Jeffrey’s mistress’s name for the first time rattled her. She needed to concentrate on someone other than Jade Udo.

  Annie tugged on Billings’s robe in an attempt to remove it and appeared to require help. Trying to undress the troll would certainly do the trick. She’d also get her first good look at him and end the nonsense in her mind.

  The robe’s material appeared to be made of coarse fabric, but once she touched it, her fingers brushed against some type of soft cotton blend.

  Billings stopped resisting and stared at her through his soulful eyes.

  Both women held a portion of his robe. Layers of dark brown hair covered his chest and arms. Some shifters were hairy, but never to this extent.

  For an instant, her eyes feasted on a hairless, muscular chest. She blinked several times. When she refocused, his sun-touched skin had been replaced with a gorilla-like coat.

  She shook her head. It wasn’t like her to see things that didn’t exist. Not trusting her eyes, she reached out to touch him.

  Billings watched in disbelief as Elle’s fingers cascaded down his chest. At times, she swirled her fingers through his hair. Rather than being repulsed, she appeared fascinated.

  Annie clasped her lips together. The vampire uncharacteristically kept her thoughts to herself. When they returned home, he knew Annie would appear at his doorstep ready to discuss Elle’s actions.

  “Amazing,” Elle muttered to herself. “For a moment, I thought—”

  “Thought what?” Annie asked before he could utter the words.

  Whatever thoughts that caused her to shake her head earlier must not have returned. There wasn’t a single expression or movement related to this woman he missed.

  “Never mind.” Elle shifted her weight from foot to foot, clearly uncomfortable. “Where is that salesgirl with the shirts?”

  He stood bare chested between two women and neither said or acted differently. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. Elle had run her hand down his torso. His body still tingled at her touch.

  Elle looked up from his chest and stared into his eyes. Her gaze never left them, but she must have seen the rest of his face.

  His cheekbones stood out predominately under his eyes sockets. Ridged cheeks covered with calloused skin dominated his face. Yet, she didn’t shrink back in horror.

  There could only be one explanation for Elle’s lack of a response. The protection spell allowed her to see him as a human. Perhaps Eclipse’s shifters had assimilated to a degree, they were more human than shifter.

  Curiosity got the best of him. “What do you see?” He prepared himself for the lies Magic’s protection spell would produce.

  Elle bit her lower lip and Annie grabbed his arm to provide moral support. He hadn’t noted his friend’s initial expression when she saw him without the camouflage of his robe. The only opinion he cared about belonged to the horse shifter his vision foresaw arriving.

  Before she got a chance to reply, they were interrupted by three human females who had entered the store. Their chatter offered Elle a reprieve from answering his question.

  The women giggled as they noticed him half naked. They whispered among themselves.

  “Whichever one he belongs to, she’s a lucky woman,” he overheard one of the women say.

  He’d been cursed with supernatural hearing. For the first time, comments about him hadn’t sent him running for cover. He fought the urge to push out his chest like a vane peacock. The protection spell tainted the women’s perception of what they saw.

  “Carol, if you had legs like that brunette, men would be standing in line to have you wrap your limbs around them.”

  His eyes roamed down Elle’s colt-like legs. They were characteristic of a horse shifter. Toned and powerful. The shorts she wore showed them off to her advantage.

  Billings’s cock hardened as the woman’s words about Elle’s long legs doing exactly what she’d noted affected him. He shuffled his feet, uncomfortable in the foreign-feeling jeans Annie had bullied him into trying on.

  He’d barely slept last night, thinking and dreaming of her. His infatuation with her would only increase with time until he became a fawning, witless dolt and ultimately, dangerous.

  Her lovely face distorted as she continued to struggle for an answer. His initial belief she’d been impacted by the protection spell had been wrong. She saw his ugly troll face.

  “Your face has character,” she answered. Her cheeks blushed as she delivered her guarded response.

  The salesgirl reappeared with three shirts. Elle seemed as relieved as he was at the timely interruption. He grabbed the article on the top of the pile and quickly put on the shirt.

  Jade had managed to find three shirts that hung, fitting comfortably. He’d feared they’d be too tight to button, making him feel like a boa constrictor wrapped itself around his torso.

  “I’ll be right back,” Annie shouted as she ran to the front of the store.

  Elle walked around him, adjusting the shirt he tried on. He liked how she focused on him. It took all his self-control not to take her into his arms. He’d lose the ability to be near her if he acted on his physical attraction to her.

  Annie returned with a wide-brim leather hat. A rare smile crossed his face at his friend’s generous thought.

  “Here, you’ll be more comforta
ble wearing this,” Annie said. “Country singers even wear their hats indoors. You should wear the shirt and hat home and at tonight’s party. Elle, you should come as well.”

  He didn’t recall introducing Elle. Magic’s rumor mill would have communicated the incident of the horse shifter slapping him, even without his involvement.

  The invitation to the party gave him another opportunity to be with her. By tonight, it would be pure torture to be near her.

  Chapter 6

  Countless residents of Magic complimented him on his new look. Others congratulated Annie on the mammoth feat of getting him out of his robe. As he conversed with each being, his eyes searched his surroundings for Elle.

  He knew Prue had been invited to Marc and Annie’s home renovation party. Prue had been instrumental in protecting Annie from a vicious vampire when she first arrived in Magic. His neighbors regularly socialized with Prue and her alien husband.

  Billings declined invitations to join the couples. His usual anti-social behavior didn’t cause Annie or Marc to question his motives in not participating in activities where Prue attended.

  Where his neighbors had been ignorant, Prue wasn’t. He never missed her probing glances when one of the town elders requested his presence at a community party. She sensed something about him, but not the specifics.

  His heart stilled when Elle walked through the door. It quickly accelerated when Prue made a path through the crowded room in his direction. Dreyden stayed behind, guarding Elle.

  Prue grabbed his upper arm. “We need to talk.”

  Not wanting to create a scene, he followed her to the basement. Marc had dwelled in this section of the house when the sun would have destroyed him. After he exchanged blood with Annie, they moved to the first floor of the home. The party was a pseudo-housewarming of the remodeled dwelling.

  When they reached the lower level, Prue secured the door. His bushy eyebrow rose, questioning her actions.

  The mage shrugged. “I don’t want to be interrupted. The party is all about the renovation. No one should be down here anyway.”

  He found a spot on the comfortable sectional. Billings on occasion had spent the daylight hours sequestered with Marc in his self-imposed prison. Marc had been his only true friend and he liked spending time with him. Where he normally felt comfortable on the sofa, Billings squirmed, ill at ease.

  “What are you?” Prue asked, not bothering to break the ice with meaningless chitchat. “You aren’t a troll. You reek of an enchantment.”

  His anxiety rose to a level where he got up and paced. He sensed Prue wouldn’t allow him to leave without some type of explanation.

  “I’m cursed,” Billings admitted. “But if there is any interference with the spell, I will be transformed into something worse. Originally, the magic gave me an advanced stage of leprosy.”

  “You were human?”

  Billings nodded. “I’m cursed to fall desperately in love with unattainable women. The effects become worse as time elapses. If I attempt to leave, I become deathly ill. The last time I attempted to counteract the spell, I became a troll.”

  He saw compassion in Prue’s eyes for the first time. Her look didn’t reflect pity, but determination. The woman couldn’t let another soul suffer.

  A glimmer of hope nestled in his heart. He tried to ignore it, knowing it would only bring him agony. The witch who had cast the spell had been the most powerful being he’d ever encountered. It wasn’t until he met Prue that he felt its equal.

  Over the years, he’d hypothesized various means the enchantment could be broken. Whatever occurred would have to happen naturally, not forced. He believed true love would break the spell.

  “What did you do?” Prue asked.

  The thought of telling the truth sickened him, but he had no other choice.

  “I toyed with the wrong girl’s emotions. She’d only been fourteen, but looked older.” In his day, girls were mothers by the time they were fourteen. Shakespeare’s Juliet had been that age. “She had a body of a woman and a mind of a child. My actions were—”

  “Deplorable” Prue finished his sentence. He couldn’t find fault. She used an appropriate word. “How long ago?”

  “The fifth century in what is now Wales,” he replied.

  The witch didn’t cause him to suffer for the rest of his mortal life, but for eons. Over the years, he’d championed women as a means to atone for his earlier sins. He went after child abusers and rapists. Billings tried to do anything be believed would trigger the end of the spell without using magic.

  Her eyes probed his face. It felt as if she touched his soul. “I assume Elle is the latest woman you’ve fallen for. Can I try to break the spell? Elemental magic may be our back door in.”

  If only that were true. “Like you, I’m a mage,” Billings replied. “I come from a time when wizards advised kings and powerful men. The legend of Arthur and Merlin originated from South Wales.”

  Prue smiled. “Did you vanquish any dragons?”

  Billings laughed, the last thing he imagined he’d ever do in Prue’s company. “Hardly. Those who practiced magic could have shape shifted into such a being. I didn’t know dragon shifters existed until I met Sheriff Theo.”

  A cloud fell over Prue’s face. “And what about Elle? She’s my guest, hence my responsibility. You’re going to suffer regardless of what I do to protect her. What happens if I keep her away from you?”

  Elle couldn’t have a stronger, more loyal advocate than Prue. He fought his desire to stymie her. Someone who truly loved Elle would thank her. It wouldn’t be long before he called upon his own elemental gifts to be near the woman he loved.

  “As my obsession grows, so will my desire to be with her.” He needed to warn Prue. “Eventually, I will do everything in my power to stop you. I know you sense the power I can call forward.”

  Prue paled slightly. He believed he’d prevail in any battle between the two of them, but he couldn’t chance harming his fellow mage.

  “In fairness, I wouldn’t battle alone,” she admitted.

  Although Elle had just arrived, every witch and alien would fight beside Prue. Considering Elle had been introduced to Danyal, the shifters would also rally against him. Marc and Annie would ultimately join the others. He didn’t have a single ally in town. Why would he? Billings had gone out of his way not to develop friendships.

  He knew the question he dreaded the most would be asked next. The reason for his greatest agony. It didn’t take long for disbelief to show on Prue’s face as she took his relationships to their ultimate conclusions.

  “What eventually happens to the objects of your affection?” He noticed Prue had difficulty swallowing after she asked the question.

  Billings didn’t want to admit the truth. It was hard enough living with what he’d done with no one else knowing of his sins. He stopped pacing and returned to the sofa. How to answer her question played in his mind, but he couldn’t utter a word.

  “I’m owed an answer,” Prue said. “For whatever reason, Elle is fond of you. I don’t know why she came to Magic, but I know she’s suffered enough. What happens to women you become fixated on?”

  He cast his eyes down, no longer able to meet her gaze. Shame caused his breathing to become labored. If trolls could experience an anxiety attack, he suffered from one.

  Prue pounded her fist on the side table. “What happens?” Her voice echoed throughout the small room.

  There would be no more dodging the question he needed to answer. This had to stop. He needed to be stopped.

  “One of two things.” He hesitated, measuring which abhorrent fate he’d start with. “Many of the women, I drive to insanity. They take their own lives.”

  A silence fell between them. “And the others?” What color Prue had when they entered the room had been washed from her face.

  “I grow violent with frustration and end up strangling them. Loving them, as I watch life drain from their bodies.”

  He co
uld have blamed the curse for each death, but he didn’t know if his original nature had been partially responsible. Maybe he’d come to Magic to have the powerful beings put an end to the madness.

  Chapter 7

  Elle stared at the door Billings and Prue disappeared behind. It felt as if it had been hours since they left. But realistically, it had been closer to ten minutes. Her mind waffled between meeting additional people Annie seemed determined to introduce her to or follow the two downstairs. In all likelihood, they were discussing her.

  Annie’s warm hand touched her forearm. She still couldn’t believe Annie and Marc were vampires. Prue guaranteed her that she had nothing to fear from the other vampires who resided in Magic. A number were present this evening.

  “Elle, I’d like you to meet Jade Udo,” Annie said. “She owns the clothing store we purchased Billings’s shirts from. Jade, this is Elle Thomas. She’s visiting us from California.”

  The woman had platinum hair and wore too much makeup. Although the clothing she’d noticed in the store had been on the conservative side, the woman dressed provocatively. Her breasts spilled out of her low cut blouse.

  She stared at Jade’s extended arm. Like the other times she’d been introduced, Annie used her last name. Jeffrey’s mistress didn’t bat an eye. Had he used a fictitious name?

  Maybe he’d paid for everything in cash, leaving no paper trail of credit card statements she’d stumble across. If he didn’t use plastic, there would be no awkward questions if Jade saw a different name on the card or a merchant thanked him.

  Against her better judgment she shook the woman’s hand. She didn’t have the scent of a shifter, but that could always be hidden. Jeffrey had always been a snob about others dating outside their shifter species. He would have railed against Samantha dating Nancy’s wolf shifter son. At least her friend hadn’t had to endure that since their affair occurred after Jeffrey’s death.