The Shifter's Gift

by Haley Weir

  “Oh please, there are so many more important things in the world to think about!” She was not talking to anyone in particular, but she looked around to see if anyone witnessed her cynicism. Jennifer wasn’t usually one to entertain fanciful stories. Sure, she knew what dragons were. After all, she had seen Game Of Thrones and other mythological stories that saturated pop culture these days. She just chose not to spend hours studying the lore and “geeking out” about topics that were not based in real life. Jennifer preferred to spend time studying current events and searching for worthwhile causes to support.

  Jennifer sighed and looked down at the gold lettering on the book. It was old. The cloth spine was cracked and had started to fray. She didn’t see many books like it anymore. She wondered how it had ended up in the World Affairs section of the library. It must have been misplaced. She tucked the book under her arm, deciding that she wouldn’t cheat at her own game. She needed an escape from reality, and hopefully this book could do that for her. Dragons were definitely a leap in the world of fantasy if she ignored the impulse in her head to turn the ferocious beasts into a metaphor about today’s political climate. Jennifer found her desk at the back of the stacks. It faced the shelves, and sometimes she just sat and people watched as they came and went, making their selections. She always wondered what interested them, and many people surprised her with what they chose to read. It operated as a constant reminded for Jennifer to never judge a book by its cover.

  Jennifer cracked the spine of the book and bent her face over it, inhaling the scent of ink and paper. She felt like there was an authenticity in these older books, because they smelled earthy, like the planet that humans were working so diligently to destroy. New prints reeked of chemicals, in Jennifer’s opinion. She felt that it was worth it to forgo her usual genre for the evening. As she began reading, she found that she was quite fascinated.

  This book was different from much of the lore she read as a child. It stated that dragons adapted over the centuries and were shape shifters, not huge beasts that ate knights in shining armor and kidnapped damsels in distress. This book discussed a more practical approach to the mythology, claiming that dragons used to live in peace with their female brethren until the females turned on them. It went on to explain that this was why dragons were hunted almost to extinction: they were too busy hunting one another to prepare for human attacks. If Jennifer hadn’t known better, she would believe this book really did belong in World Affairs because of how pragmatic the author was. She could almost get on board with the idea that this really was the history of dragons. People turned on each other and fought civil wars for thousands of years, sometimes eradicating entire cultures. She knew that praying mantises also killed the males in their lives. Why wasn’t it reasonable that dragons had done the same thing to one another? It made sense to Jennifer that multiple species participated in this gender conflict.

  Jennifer shut the book and held it in her lap. It took her all of two seconds to notice and stare at the man in the glasses with the briefcase looking harried and annoyed as he browsed the periodicals. As she brought herself back to the reality of her world, Jennifer was willed her body to get up and put the book back, or at least take it to Joan to re-shelve it in its correct home. Just then, she felt the presence of someone next to her. She had not noticed them approach. She was too wrapped up in her own thoughts and watching Mr. Suits find the right book. Whoever it was had been stealthy. She glanced over and almost jumped out of her seat in surprise. The man next to her was huge. He was so huge that he made Jennifer feel like a child as he towered over her. He sat down right next to her casually, as if this was some sort of meet cute. There were plenty of desks throughout the library, so why was he sitting so close to her? His legs parted slightly as he leaned back and cupped the back of his head with his hands. He looked over at her sitting there, scowling at him.

  “Good evening.”

  “Uh, hi?” she said, barely masking her disdain. Part of her wanted to get up and leave, but something about him kept her in her seat. He had the strangest eyes, and she couldn’t stop staring into their emerald depths. There appeared to be green flames dancing within them.

  “I couldn’t help but notice the book you were reading. Fascinating, aren’t they?” he asked.

  “Huh?”

  “Dragons,” he responded. His lips curled, and Jennifer had the strongest urge to lean over and kiss the smirk off of his face.

  “Right,” she began. “Yeah, they are a nice escape from reality.”

  “Escape? What are you escaping from?” That was an odd question, and a little too personal for a stranger to be asking. Jennifer frowned, but still felt transfixed by his gaze.

  “Life...out there, I guess.” She flung her arm toward the front of the library. She always felt protected somehow, whenever she entered the library. Strangely enough, his man had a similar effect on her. As his gangly body sat next to hers, she felt protected.

  “What is out there that you need to escape from?” he asked, his genuine concern surprising Jennifer. .

  “Oh, not like a person or anything. More like...a group of people. What I mean is, I’m an activist. I organize and head rallies and sometimes...it all gets to be too much. Does that make sense?”

  “Not in the slightest,” he grinned at her and she could feel the heat rise in her cheeks.

  “Um, what do you do?” she asked, changing the subject from herself.

  “I’m a bodyguard,” he said hesitantly, seemingly searching for the words. Jennifer worried for a moment that she had stumbled on a hitman or something. She looked him up and down. He was threatening based on size alone. His black on black ensemble complimented his dark hair and tan skin. He wore jeans, a t-shirt, and large heavy boots, but Jennifer decided he didn’t feel like a threat to her, despite his tough guy appearance. She had no idea what this guy was all about, but she was sure he was a killer. Of what, or who, she had no idea.

  “Whose body do you guard?” she joked, but he looked over at her and he was stone faced.

  “My best friend and his wife.”

  Jennifer nodded, wondering who his friends were. If they needed a personal bodyguard, maybe he was a politician, or a CEO of a major corporation.

  “Oh. That’s interesting. They must be pretty high profile clients to have a bodyguard on the payroll,” she commented. .

  He frowned again. “They don’t pay me money. I do it because it is necessary,” he said.

  Jennifer raised her eyebrows. “Are you a zealot?”

  “I’m not a zealot, I just protect precious things. Like you.” he said, biting his lip.

  Jennifer blinked. “Does that line actually work on women? Come on, seriously?” She gave him a playful shove and noticed how hot his skin was. It almost burned. She jerked her hand back in surprise.

  He grinned, and her breath caught in her throat. He was one of the most handsome men she had ever met, and his smile was so brilliant it lit up the room. A cliché, she knew, but everything about this man was screaming at her to get to know him better…much, much better. “I am always serious about the women I am with. I find they are the most tolerable part of living in this city.”

  “Not from Manhattan, are you?”

  “No,” he groaned. “It’s suffocating here.”

  He spoke so earnestly it made Jennifer suspicious. She wondered again about his job, and why he was willing to put his life on the line for his friend, free of charge. That kind of loyalty was inspiring, and with how things had been going during rallies and meetings lately, she could use a little inspiration. It just made him all the more attractive. She wanted to know everything about this man, and be his shoulder to cry on. She wanted to make him happy.

  “Hey, yaknow, I’m pretty much here every night between 4:30 and closing,” she explained. “You can always come in and see me if you need to chat. I’m a good listener.”

  “I would like that very much.”

  Jennifer smiled at him and s
tood up, collecting her things. He looked confused, and went to reach for her hand, and dropped it back down at his side. She waited to see what he would do. If he got possessive now, she would report him to the security guard up at the front of the library and write her attraction to him off as a weak, horny moment. Creeps can be pretty convincing, especially if the woman had not gotten laid in a white.

  “You’re leaving already?” he asked softly. The gentleness in his voice made her want take him home right then. Her body didn’t care that they had just met. She wanted to wake up to those eyes tomorrow morning. She longed to find out what his lips felt like against hers.

  “Yeah, the library closes in fifteen minutes, and this book wasn’t where it was supposed to be. Mis-shelved, I guess. I’m going to take it to the front desk and say good night,” she answered him rationally, willing herself to calm down. She couldn’t take a complete stranger home, no matter how safe he made her feel.

  “Perhaps the book wasn’t mis-shelved, but it was put there just so we could meet.” His eyes twinkled again, like they were lit from within. Jennifer let out a nervous laugh. She didn’t give the concepts of fate and destiny much thought, preferring to carve out her own path. But the idea was undeniably romantic..

  “Maybe! I hope I’ll see you around sometime,” she said. She could feel his stare on her back as she began walking away. His voice was just as soft as before.

  “You didn’t tell me your name.”

  “Its Jennifer,” she replied. “And yours?”

  He told her it was Crylaine. If his accent and physical appearance weren’t enough of a hint that he was foreign, his name confirmed it. His name seemed to resonate through her whole body, making her radiate with heat. She could not trust herself to be around him any longer. She quickly walked away, dropped the book off with Joan, and headed for the subway. Jennifer promised that she would make sure there was an extra chair across the desk from her so that she wouldn’t have to sit so close to him again. She didn’t trust herself to not fall for his cheesy pick up line, let him take her home, and guard her body all night long.

  Chapter 2

  Crylaine walked in the opposite direction of Jennifer, not wanting to alarm her by following her. He found the access stairs in a corner of the library, tucked away behind a plain gray door with a metal bar across it. There was a sign posted that said “caution, not an exit” but he took his chances and saw that it led up to the roof. In the event of a fire, most people would try and run down the steps, but not Crylaine. He was the fire.

  He could sense Jennifer’s reactions to him when he sat down. Normally his senses were even sharper, but in his human form, his skin felt tight and smushed. Using the human form was supposed to be temporary for his kind, but the longer they stayed in the city the more they had to grow accustomed to the shape. But he didn’t think he ever would. Laine took the stairs two at a time up to the roof. When he burst through the door, he gulped in a few huge breaths of air. He could taste the filth in the air from the pollution the city produced.

  After living in New York for a few months, he found certain areas that were more tolerable than others. At his home in the Hudson Valley, he enjoyed spending time in the library. He loved reading, and found it a blissful reprieve from the war with the Serpentina, the female dragons of their kind who constantly attacked them. Then his brother Lord Drakkain, or Drake as he is known to the human world, met a human woman named Claire. The family moved to the city where Claire completed her History degree, and Drake taught as a professor.

  Laine and his other brothers, Arrlien and Scryos, patrolled the city to protect the pair from the Serpentina. They who knew the Serpentina were hiding out in Manhattan, but had not found out exactly where yet. The brothers were tasked with finding mates themselves, as mating with their own kind was no longer an option. Laine was not very interested in spending his time chasing after women, except for courting a different one into bed each night. So as for tolerable things in New York City, there was sex, the library, and sitting on the beach at Coney Island, watching the waves crash against the shore. Then, when the city quieted down somewhat at night, he would shift to dragon form and fly high in the sky and perch on skyscrapers, guarding the city and its inhabitants. The library, unfortunately, was a far cry from one of the tallest buildings in Manhattan. But it did offer enough seclusion on the roof to shift and take off quickly so he would not be spotted.

  Laine loved feeling his clothing rip away as scales erupted from his flesh, and talons grew from his fingers. His spine crackled as the wings he contained inside his skin burst out from within. The feeling was similar to that dizzying moment of pleasure when he first woke up in the morning and stretched. He was reborn. In the last week, Laine and his brothers took down three Serpentina. They were attacking at an alarming rate lately because they were frustrated they could not find Drake and his new wife. They had turned too vicious to successfully integrate into society, and instead decided to hunt and kill the partners of dragons who could. They desperately wanted to destroy the lives of the dragon warriors, and it was Laine’s job to lure them out over the bay and take them out one by one without being discovered by humans. Laine was exhausted from the battles, and he came to the library to relax and get away from it all while Arrlien and Scryos were on duty. He saw Jennifer there a few nights in a row, but decided not to approach her until that evening. She was too engrossed in reading and people watching to notice him staring at her. He figured she would be perfect for his nightly routine of sexual distraction.

  When he finally said hello, he found himself immediately engaged and invested in their conversation. Plus, she had not thrown herself at him like the other women. He sensed that she had a strong will and character. He respected that in a woman, especially after seeing it in his brother’s wife, Claire. Whenever he entertained himself with a company of a woman, there always been no strings attached. He never let women into their home in the Hudson Valley, preferring to maintain their privacy. But Jennifer made Crylaine want to bring her back to their brownstone off of Central Park, and introduce her to his whole family. He supposed he couldn’t just swoop down out of the sky and carry her off, regardless of how entertaining that would be. After all, that was what Drake had done with Claire, but typically, modern society frowned upon kidnapping as a romantic device.

  Laine decided he would return the next night and play the game with Jennifer. She seemed worthy of the chase: he found her to be intellectually stimulating, and he liked that she did not immediately succumb to his powerful charms. She seemed almost annoyed by her attraction to him, and he was excited by the challenge of eventually winning her over. He flew high above the cityscape, using his senses to track her progress home. She didn’t live far from his family’s brownstone, in the dormitories on the NYU campus. Once she was safely inside, he circled the dormitories, briefly and considered finding a secluded place to shift and knocking on her door, but he did not want to alarm her.

  Laine flew away and headed out over the bay, figuring he would catch Arrlien and Scryos patrolling, but he found Drake. His voice was a hiss as he greeted his friend. “Good evening, Drake. I’m surprised to see you here.”

  “Crylaine, my brother,” Drake began. “Even I need to let loose once in a while. Arrlien and Scryos are home with Claire. I needed to stretch my wings.”

  “Bad day at the office?” he joked. Drake chuckled, and the sound was like rolling thunder coming from his immense belly.

  “Finals week,” Drake admitted. Claire explained the modern educational system as part of her lessons to help integrate the men into society. Apparently, there were times of the year that were stressful to students and teachers, because they were testing a semester's worth of knowledge. Laine didn’t understand why they took so much time to learn these things. Dragons used a “learn or die” system. Survival was the catalyst to the necessity of their intelligence. Laine found human intelligence to be somewhat stunted. But it wasn’t entirely their fault. He susp
ected technological advances were responsible, because they enabled laziness in humans. He hated cellphones. Their constant buzzing gave him a headache. He wondered how humans didn’t all get run over by their noisy smelly cars because they always had their noses pressed to their screens.

  “How have the skies been tonight?” Drake asked, breaking through Laine’s reverie and melancholy.

  “Quiet. I took a short break earlier, and because the sun is just now setting, I don’t suspect we will see any Serpentina until later tonight.”

  “True, but we must be careful. They have proven that they will not hesitate to strike in the daylight. The Serpentina grow bolder every day,” he explained. Crylaine nodded his head.

  “Where did you take a reprieve?”

  “The library.” He glanced over at Drake, who was grinning. His large, fang-filled mouth looked ominous, like he was going to snap, but Laine knew better. Jennifer’s scent must still be on him.

  “I see it isn’t just the Serpentina who are growing more bold. Are you aware the library is a public forum, Crylaine?”