by Sammie Joyce
“An old soul,” my mother would always say with warmth in her eyes. “You have the spirits of all our ancestors in you, Davie.”
I forced my mother’s voice out of my ears and unceremoniously landed her on her feet. She gawked at me in shock.
“W-what’s wrong?” she stuttered, suddenly looking alarmed. Up until that moment, she had seemed perfectly comfortable in my arms. A part of me wanted to leave her there, to run away from this innocent, vulnerable beauty and forget that I’d ever seen her, but of course… I couldn’t.
“Pretty stupid coming out here by yourself at night,” I snapped furiously. Even as I heard the words, I cringed inwardly. Her face registered disbelief and then hurt but she didn’t answer. Instead, she held my gaze unflinchingly.
“I mean, what did you hope to accomplish?” I continued, my tirade just starting. “You’re unarmed, barely dressed for the night and now look at you!”
I gestured at her with disdain. Humiliation crept into her face but she remained silent. Still, she didn’t look away from my eyes and I found her stare daring yet intriguing. I knew some people could find me intimidating but clearly, this blonde girl did not.
“Come on,” I grumbled, turning my back to her. “Climb on and hold on tight. We’re almost at the top.”
She didn’t argue and did as she was told, her fingers lacing around my neck as we finished the rest of the trek up to the forest above. When we arrived on surer ground, I located a boulder nearby and sat her on it.
With a sigh, I dropped to my knee and looked up at her face again. Once more, my pulse quickened at the sight of her.
“What’s your name anyway?” I asked begrudgingly. I knew I should probably apologize for berating her but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
“Lowell. Carey.”
A bemused smile touched my lips at the way she said her first and last night.
“Hello, Lowell. Carey. I’m Davis. Locklear.”
Instantly, I tensed.
Now why did you go and give her your name? I yelled at myself. You already knew she was looking for you! Now she’ll figure out where to find you!
But I didn’t care somehow.
“Davis,” she murmured, and I felt a slight thrill at the way she said my name.
“Are you even old enough to be out without your parents?” I demanded, catching myself before I let my guard down too far. Lowell grimaced.
“I’ll be eighteen in a few days,” she replied, shortly. “But I’ve been taking care of myself a lot longer than that.”
I felt an eyebrow go up but I didn’t push the issue as I removed her running shoe and sock.
“W-what are you doing?” she asked, a note of surprise tinging her question.
“Checking to see how bad your foot is,” I replied, my eyes honing in on her injury. Her ankle was swollen but I couldn’t detect a break.
“What do you see?” she asked, sounding mildly amused herself, like she couldn’t believe I was seeing anything in that light. Instead of answering her question, I asked one of my own, without looking up from her foot.
“Why were you looking for me, Lowell?” My voice was flat. I wanted her to know that she shouldn’t have been doing that. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her open her mouth to respond.
A loud crack caused me to whirl around before she made a sound and out of the bushes, I watched a full-grown moose snort before charging toward us. Instinctively, I pushed Lowell back and out of harm’s way. She fell behind the rock, leaving me to face off with the angry creature.
Those blasted moose. What was this one even doing up at at hour?
His antlers lowered, I thought I saw streams of humid air escape his nostrils as he decided to charge at me again. I had only one choice if we were going to escape with out lives. Moose were not known for their relenting ways.
Dodging his rush again, I permitted myself to fall out of my mortal body and into the supernatural bear inside me, falling onto my hind paws to roar maniacally at the now-stunned beast.
For a moment, I thought the moose might do the right thing and run, but no, the stupid thing just came at me again. With a grimace, I gnashed my teeth, falling forward as he came at me, one paw raised to slash at his silken brown fur. The animal unleashed a terrible noise which ricocheted through the leaves, stirring the other sleeping creatures nearby.
With a horrible groan, he charged a final time and with great reluctance, I bit into him, my fangs meeting the bone of his huge shoulder.
Wounded and terrified, the moose finally took the hint and bolted off in the opposite direction in which he’d came, whimpering as he trotted away. For a long moment, I stood, the fur of my chest heaving wildly as I steeled my breaths. Then, my eyes slowly turned to take in the face of my captivated audience.
She didn’t scream or cry out. She didn’t even frown as she stared at me.
She wasn’t afraid in the least.
11
Lowell
Before I could move from my spot and rush out to touch him, Davis shifted back into his human form. Just as quickly as he had become a majestic grizzly, he was the strong, strapping and handsome stranger who had just saved my life—twice in under an hour.
Covered by the rock, he scrambled to find the remnants of his tattered clothes, hastily donning them so I wouldn’t see him naked. I wish he’d stayed in his bear form but I realized he probably wasn’t accustomed to others seeing him like that.
“Sorry I had to do that,” he mumbled, sounding embarrassed. “It was the only way to get rid of him.”
“I already knew you could do that,” I replied quickly, flashing him a warm smile as he neared me. My heart was thumping in my ears, overshadowing the quiet sounds of nature around us.
Even the animals who had been roused by the struggle had returned to slumber once more.
Davis perched on the rock and looked down at me with concerned eyes.
“You know you can’t tell anyone about this, Lowell,” he said seriously. I thought of Madison, Alex, Hailey and Parker.
What did they really see? Surely not any more than I had that day and I had spent a week trying to convince myself that it was real. Then there was always Kea…
I didn’t want to think about those people right now, not when there was a much more intriguing being in front of me.
“Are there more of you?” I whispered, the urge to reach out and touch him overwhelming me but I didn’t dare. I could tell he was trying to process the fact that I was onto him and I didn’t want to push him. To my surprise, he cocked his head to the side and grinned.
“Oh yeah!” he replied, grinning. “That moose? He was my cousin. We had a little falling out, you see and—”
I groaned at his jesting and shook my head.
“All right,” I sighed. “If you don’t want to talk about it, I get it.”
I looked at him hopefully, wishing that he’d take my slight guilt trip to open up but Davis only beamed wider.
“Why don’t we worry about that foot? You need a doctor. I don’t think it’s broken but it’s probably a bad sprain.”
My mind whirled and I shook my head wildly.
“No! No doctor!” I choked, thinking about the trouble I was going to face if my dad found out about all this. He still hadn’t even heard I’d ditched the first half of school today to meet with Kea.
“You can’t walk around like that without having someone look at it,” Davis insisted and I was touched by his concern.
“I-I’m already in deep with my dad,” I explained. “If I go to the hospital, he’ll get a call from them for sure. I really can’t.”
Davis paused and stared at me for a long moment. I could almost see the wheels turning in his brain.
“What?” I finally asked, getting uncomfortable under the scrutiny of his dark eyes.
“There’s a healer,” he said and I could hear the reluctance in his voice. “She’s only a few miles from here and we—I use her. She’ll fix you up.”
<
br /> I eyed him uncertainly but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that the notion of meeting yet another part of this community didn’t interest me.
“A few miles sounds like a long way,” I muttered, remembering that I wasn’t fit to walk. Davis smirked.
“Not the way we’re traveling,” he assured me, falling back into his bear form. Whatever was left of his clothing became scraps of cloth, flying into the air and again, my breath was stolen as I stared at him. He nodded to his back with his glistening snout and I was dizzy with excitement.
He’s going to let me ride him there? I thought in disbelief but I didn’t give it a second thought. I’d ridden an elephant in India once and a camel in Afghanistan but this…well, this wasn’t that. Davis wasn’t a domesticated transportation animal. He wasn’t an animal at all…was he?
I slid onto his back as he lowered himself onto his belly. Climbing atop his thick fur was everything I could have imagined and so much more. Through the dense skin and hair, I could feel the thump of his powerful heart and the rhythm lulled me into a sense of security, even as he whipped off between the trees into the unknown darkness.
12
Davis
Honestly, I didn’t know how Larissa would feel about being roused from sleep at that hour. She was a healer, after all. It was her job to heal.
Her job is to heal us, not outsiders, I reminded myself. It was too late to change my mind now. We were already standing at her stoop, my body dressed for a third time that night as we waited for Larissa to answer the door.
“Davis!” she cried when she saw me. “What’s wrong?”
I bit on my lower lip and darted my eyes toward Lowell.
“Uh…this is Lowell,” I mumbled, wishing I’d thought this through a little bit better. “She hurt herself falling down a ravine.”
Larissa’s eyes narrowed and she glanced up at the sky as if to gauge the time.
“How long were you down there?” she asked Lowell.
“Not long,” Lowell assured her. “Davis found me quickly.”
I cringed, knowing that was the wrong answer. Larissa would undoubtedly have questions as to what Lowell was doing out there at that time. Who was I kidding? Larissa would have questions anyway.
Instantly, Larissa opened the door wider to let us in and with my help, Lowell hobbled inside where I gently placed her on a winged chair.
“Let me get the fire going,” Larissa said. “It got chilly.”
I watched as the healer skillfully started the hearth, casting Lowell a sidelong look of warning. I wasn’t sure how much I should tell Larissa but in the end, I decided it didn’t matter. Like a doctor, Larissa was sworn to secrecy with us. She wouldn’t betray my confidence.
No matter who asks her about it.
“Oh my,” Larissa sighed, as she looked at Lowell’s foot. “That’s a nasty sprain. Don’t worry, I’ve got just the thing for this.”
She fluttered around the tiny cottage, collecting a concoction of herbs, most of which I didn’t even know and got to work, making a salve for Lowell’s foot. When she was finished, she administered the ointment and wrapped it with a bandage without two words to either of us.
“That will help with the swelling,” she explained, sitting back to cinch her robe around her waist. “Keep that casing on it for a week at least.”
Lowell gave her a grateful look.
“Thank you, Dr. Pine,” she said. Larissa and I snickered at the formal title.
“I’m no doctor,” she replied lightly. “Call me Larissa.”
“Thank you, Larissa.”
Larissa nodded, giving me a meaningful look I wasn’t sure I understood, and poured some water into a cast iron kettle. She dropped two teabags inside and placed the pot directly on the open fire.
“So, are you going to tell me what’s going on here,” she asked. “Or am I going to guess?”
She was talking to me and I again smothered a groan.
“Do I have to?” I half-joked.
“I-I was hiking in the woods and I fell,” Lowell offered, her desire to protect me warming my chest.
“You were hiking in the middle of the night?” Larissa asked pointedly.
“Well…yes…it’s…peaceful,” Lowell faltered.
“She was looking for me,” I sighed, knowing that there was no point in lying to Larissa. She was wiser than most and she meant us no harm.
“Ah,” Larissa chuckled. “I was young and stupid once. I can understand puppy love.”
I bristled at the term and for some reason, I felt the need to set her straight.
“She saw me shift last week, out by the river,” I explained. “She came to find me because of that.”
Larissa’s eyes widened and a look of understanding crossed over her even features.
“Right. You’re the bear-man everyone’s been going on about,” she muttered. “I should have known.”
My back was so tense, I thought it might snap. I didn’t need a lecture from her too.
“Yep,” I said shortly. “That’s me.”
“Does your father know about this, Davis?”
There it was—the dreaded question.
“No,” I replied shortly. “And he doesn’t need to know either.”
“Oh, but I think he does,” Larissa contradicted me.
“I-I’m not going to say anything to anyone,” Lowell interjected. “There’s no reason for anyone else to know about this!”
“And yet everyone does,” Larissa sighed.
“That wasn’t because of me,” Lowell insisted. “The others told everyone!”
A heavy silence fell over the room.
“The others?” Larissa echoed.
I knew my goose was cooked.
“No one really saw anything but Lowell,” I offered quickly, trying lamely to fix things. “There were some kids at the overlook and I was down below…”
I trailed off, hearing how lame my excuse sounded even to my own ears.
“Oh Davis,” Larissa grumbled. “You know your father needs to hear about this.”
My jaw tightened and I ambled over to the window, looking out into the black sky beyond. The light of day would be struggling to break free and with it would come the harsh reality of life.
He doesn’t need to know about this, I tried to justify. Lowell won’t say anything, I’m sure and that story has already died down to nothing more than a conspiracy theory.
“Davis…” Larissa tried again but my attention had already shifted to a flutter of movement off the side of the property line. I felt my stomach drop as a bald eagle appeared, his wings spanning outward to perch on the birdbath directly in front of my line of sight. My mouth puckered into a scowl as our eyes clashed.
I guess I didn’t need to tell Dad anything. He seemed to already know.
* * *
We didn’t stay for tea in the end. Suddenly, that antsy anticipation I’d been feeling overwhelmed me again and I was consumed by the urge to move.
“She needs to get home,” I told Larissa flatly, scooping Lowell up into my arms before she could even register what was happening.
“Stay and have a cup,” Larissa instructed, seeming unperturbed by my new anxiety. “It will calm your nerves.”
“Another time,” I replied, already at the door as Lowell’s hands twined around my neck.
“Thank you for everything, Larissa!” Lowell called breathlessly as I stole her out of the cabin and away from the healer’s knowing gaze. By the time I got outside, Dad had already flown away, but his presence spoke volumes. I knew what I had to do.
Without shifting, I carried Lowell in my arms, careful not to meet her eyes. The scent of her was overwhelming me, but somehow, I managed to block it out.
“How did you get here?” I asked gruffly. She paused for a moment, surprised by my tone and then answered.
“My dad’s truck. I left it at the base of the mountain. It was a dead end.”
I knew exactly where she meant and
in a relatively short time, I found my way there. I didn’t slow down for anything. She could sense the change in me and when she dug her keys out of her pockets, I dropped her gently onto the ground so she could unlock the doors.
“Thank you for saving my life,” she offered, breaking the long silence between us. “Twice.”
She flashed me a beaming smile but I didn’t return it.
“You’re welcome.”
She climbed into the driver’s seat, the door still open and I turned to leave her there, wanting to say so much more.
What could you say? None of it matters.
“Wait!” She cried. Reluctantly, I turned, knowing she wasn’t going to just let me walk away. Whatever I felt between us, I knew she did too.
Not that it’s relevant.
“I-can I get your number?” she asked, sounding humiliated that she was the one asking it. “I promise not to call, only text.”
She was trying to be cute, and it twisted my gut to maintain the stoic expression on my face.
“No,” I said flatly, trying my best to keep any emotion out. Her face shadowed, smile fading.
“No? Why not?” she insisted. “I-I want to see you again.”
With more force than I intended, I hissed at her.
“You can’t!” I growled, advancing back toward her but to her credit, she didn’t flinch. “You need to leave her and never, ever come back. Forget about me, forget about Larissa—”
Without warning, she lunged forward to plant her lips on me, but she didn’t account for my stellar reflexes. I pushed her back into the driver’s seat, closing the door before she even realized what had happened.
Then, without a backward glance, I disappeared from her life forever.
13
Davis
When I was sure I was fully out of Lowell’s view, I shifted again, lumbering through the woods, quickly at first and then slowing down immediately after. I was in no rush to take what was coming to me once I made my way back to our community, but I also knew that I couldn’t avoid it forever.
