by Kim Harrison
Heart pounding, Jill rushed up the first aisle, then took a sharp left and headed for the back of the store, glancing up each aisle she passed. Jill didn’t see John, but she saw a lot of other people. There seemed to be someone in every aisle she passed, which made those aisles useless to her. She could hardly shift in front of witnesses.
Jill was starting to panic when she reached the last aisle and—much to her relief—found it unoccupied. Her relief was short-lived. She hurried up the aisle, wildly scanning the books on display in search of a picture of a person she could turn into. It only took a second for her to realize she would have no luck here. The aisle was filled with Christmas items: cards, calendars, and children’s books all featuring elves, doves, Santa, Rudolph…Almost every last one was drawn or a cartoon image that was useless to her. At least she didn’t think she could turn into a three-dimensional, life-sized cartoon image. And even if she could, John would know at once it was her.
There were only two images that were of actual living creatures. One was a set of cards with a cute little puppy on it. While Jill knew she could probably take on the shape, she somehow didn’t think she’d be able to shrink in size to be the creature. Besides, it was cute and cuddly and pretty much defenseless against someone like John.
Her gaze slid to the second image and she stared at the card featuring a real reindeer wearing a glowing red Rudolph nose. Despite the pressure of the moment, Jill couldn’t help but wonder how on earth the photographer had gotten the reindeer to stand still long enough to put the nose on, let alone wear it long enough for pictures to be taken.
“Watch it, mister,” the woman’s voice made her glance anxiously up the aisle. She had no doubt the woman was speaking to John. He was probably barreling up the store’s center aisle like a bull as he’d done on the street, pushing people out of the way as he went. And he wasn’t far away. He’d be here any moment.
Panic a high-pitched whistle shrieking in her head, Jill turned in a circle. What to do? What to do? John would be here any moment and she was trapped. What to do?
Her gaze slid desperately back to the image of the reindeer. He’d know it was her, of course. He’d hardly imagine a reindeer got loose from the parade and wandered in to pick out Christmas cards. On the other hand, she’d have a lovely pair of antlers to hold him off with, which was more than she had at the moment.
Could she?
“Hey!”
Jill winced and glanced around again. That shout had been much closer than the last. Frighteningly close. Turning determinedly back to the cards, Jill stared at the image of the red-nosed reindeer and closed her eyes. In that moment, she really wanted to be the reindeer. It was big, would be fast, and had large antlers to hold John off.
A gasp brought her eyes open and she peered to the end of the aisle where John stood, a stunned look on his face. The red bulb glowing at the end of her now very elongated nose was her first clue that the shift had worked. Glancing down, she found herself staring at two hoofs sticking out of Nick’s coat sleeves.
“Well, you clever little minx,” John breathed suddenly. “I never would have imagined you could do this.”
He was moving toward her, easing his way as if she was a vicious animal…which she supposed she could be now. By rolling her eyes upward, Jill could just see the tips of the long, pointy antlers now crowning her head. They looked deadly and she briefly fantasized about charging at the man and goring him as payback for all the trouble he’d caused her…but it just wasn’t something she could bring herself to do when she had other options. And she did. Taking advantage of one of those options now, Jill turned to hurry up the aisle away from him. Unfortunately, her brain was trying to run like a human with two legs and she was now on all fours. The new body shape was odd and awkward and left her floundering clumsily for the first few steps. The coat didn’t help matters much either; her clumsy hooves kept catching on it as she tried to move.
A sudden jerk on the back of the coat told her John had grabbed it. Fortunately, in all their rushing about, Jill hadn’t had time to do it up. Now she struggled to free herself, her feet—hooves—coming free and allowing the long coat to slide off her back.
“Get back here!” John yelled, but she was away.
Reaching the end of the aisle, Jill turned sharply to the right, intending to head for the front of the store, but she hadn’t taken her new body into account. Her front hooves turned abruptly on command but her back legs were slower to react and slid out from under her so that her hind end slid along the floor to the side. Jill cursed under her breath as she saw John rushing up the aisle toward her. He’d be on her in a minute. Forcing herself to concentrate on her new body’s movement, she managed to regain her feet and immediately charged for the front of the store.
Jill didn’t consider the problem the door could be until she was nearly to it. She was just starting to realize that she wouldn’t be able to work the door knob when the bells jangled as it was pushed inward by someone entering. It was an older woman who was smiling on first pushing the door open, but who blanched in horror and threw herself to the side, slamming the door against the wall and pinning it there with her body when she saw what appeared to be a huge reindeer charging toward her.
Jill put on a burst of speed and exploded out onto the sidewalk.
Screams and shouts erupted around her and Jill soon rued that she’d changed at all. The antlers were deadly and she wasn’t used to them; she could hurt someone very badly if she weren’t careful. Fortunately, she wasn’t the only one to realize the peril her new shape could cause and everyone was scrambling to get out of her way. Turning in the direction of the parking lot, she broke into a run as the bells on the door behind her chimed. She didn’t have to glance around to know it must be John.
“Jill! Get back here!” he roared and she grimaced at the fury in his voice. Did he really expect she’d just docilely allow him to lock her away for his experiments? The man was mad, she thought as he called her name again. “Jill!”
“That’s Rudolph!” a child’s voice corrected him scornfully, then added, “Run, run, Rudolph! The bad man’s coming.”
Jill was already running, but put on a burst of speed at the cry. The more accustomed she became to this new shape, the more swiftly she was able to move and everyone was very accommodating in making way for her. They were spreading before her and then closing quickly behind her to stare after her with amazement, which had the added benefit of slowing John down. She quickly left him behind.
Unfortunately, all this attention had its disadvantages and when she heard someone shouting out to call the police or animal control, she knew she had to get herself somewhere out of sight and change again quickly. The problem would be what to change into. If she changed back to herself, she’d be left naked and that was hardly helpful.
A rush of relief ran through her as she broke out of the last of the crowds and found herself on the edge of the parking lot. It was full of people milling about still in their costumes. The parade was over and its members were now laughing and chatting in groups with the relief and excitement that follows a successful venture. Fortunately, they were mostly congregated around the tents and no one seemed to notice her appearance at the edge of the lot.
“Don’t let it get away.”
“Does anyone have a rope? We can lasso it and hold it until the police get here.”
Jill glanced around at that comment, startled to see that some of the people from the crowds had decided to give chase. She should have realized that would be the case, that some civic-minded men would decide to catch the wild reindeer running loose in the streets before it harmed someone, but the possibility hadn’t occurred to her.
Cursing, she turned sharply and charged for the end of the parking lot where the parade members had parked. When they reached the cars, she began to weave through them, aware that the men had begun to spread out, trying to surround her.
Pausing between two vans, Jill tried to decide which way to go, but glanced t
o the side when a muffled bark caught her ear. She blinked in surprise as she found herself face-to-face with a beautiful husky. The dog had climbed right up onto a box on the seat of the van he was in. He stood framed in the window, peering at her with what seemed more to be curiosity than anything else.
“Do you see it?”
Jill glanced behind her, but while the voice sounded close, there was no one there.
“I think it went around that van,” someone answered as Jill turned back to peer at the dog again. Knowing she didn’t have much time, she concentrated on the animal, wanting desperately to look like it. No one would bother her as a husky. They’d hardly notice her with their attention on finding the reindeer.
“Hey, boy.” A hand landed on her rump, rubbing there and bringing her eyes open as two men moved up on either side of her between the vans.
“The reindeer couldn’t have come this way, the dog would have stopped it,” the second man said as the first man ran his hands over the white fur now cresting Jill’s body. She’d shifted successfully and was now a husky.
“Yeah. He must be back further,” the first man agreed, straightening and turning back the way they’d come. “Let’s backtrack.”
Jill released a breath as the two men disappeared around the van, as relieved that the one man wasn’t touching her anymore as she was that they’d been fooled by her shape-shifting. The fellow may have thought it was a dog’s furry back he’d been running his hand over, but it had felt to Jill like his hand was coursing over her naked skin.
A scratching sound drew her attention back up to the van window and she smiled at the husky as he rubbed his paws over the glass of the window as if to say she should let him out to play with her.
Another time, she thought and hurried toward the opposite end of the parked vehicles, searching for the red SUV where Nick was supposed to be waiting for her. She was relieved when she spotted it and even more so when she saw that Nick was there waiting for her as promised. Some of that relief faded, however, when she saw that he wasn’t alone. Bev was there, and judging by her stance and the high angry pitch to her voice, she was in the midst of giving him hell for something.
“I’m sorry, Bev,” Nick said apologetically as Jill reached the back end of the SUV. “But it was an emergency and we were on the last leg of the parade. There were only a couple of stores left to pass before the parking lot when we had to leave.”
“That’s another thing,” Bev said. “First Jill’s here, then she has to go and that Noelle woman took her place, then suddenly Jill was there on the float, and someone said she was stark naked under the red cape. What the heck is going on?”
“I can’t really explain just now, Bev. I wish I could, but…” Nick let the word trail away as he glanced worriedly across the parking lot, obviously searching for her, or anyone rushing his way, Jill supposed, since he had no idea what she was going to look like. His action and her own thoughts reminded her that while she may have escaped the concerned citizens hunting the runaway Rudolph, John was probably heading their way and might know it was her when he saw her with Nick.
“Hey, Bev! Where do you want us to put the costumes?”
Bev turned toward the elf who had come around the SUV. “I’ll finish with you later,” she said over her shoulder to Nick as she started away. “And when you see Jill, you tell her I have a few choice words for her too.”
Jill waited until the pair was gone, then hurried to Nick’s side, leaning against his leg to get his attention.
“Oh, hello, fellow,” he murmured, bending to give her a pat. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen a beautiful redhead that may or may not be herself, have you?”
Jill smiled at the words “beautiful redhead,” and then said, “It’s me.”
She frowned as her words came out very badly slurred. Her jaws were now long and narrow and her tongue felt huge and unwieldly. She supposed she was lucky to be able to speak at all. Dogs didn’t.
“Jill?” Nick asked with amazement and knelt to catch her jaw in his hand. He looked her over with disbelief. “How?…Why?…”
“It’s a long story,” she said, trying very hard to speak clearly. “We have to get out of here. John—” She paused as Nick suddenly straightened and peered over the roof of the SUV. The curse that slipped from his lips told her all she needed to know. John had caught up.
Chapter 4
“Come on.” Nick moved to the driver’s door, opened it, and waved her in. Jill immediately bounded into the vehicle, scampering over the driver’s seat to the passenger side, where she peered anxiously out the window. She wasn’t made any less anxious to see that John Heathcliffe was no more than twenty feet away and moving fast.
She glanced back to Nick as he settled in the driver’s seat and slammed his door closed, watched him start the engine, then turned back to the window again. John was running now and had cut the distance in half.
“Are the doors locked?” she asked nervously.
A click sounded as he shifted into gear and the doors automatically locked, then the SUV jerked forward. Jill scrabbled to keep her balance on the passenger seat as Nick accelerated, watching anxiously as John burst forward, shouting as he slammed his fists into the side of the vehicle. It was all he managed, though, before they were tearing out of the parking lot, leaving him behind.
“Do up your seat belt,” Nick ordered as he steered them up the road.
Jill turned to him with disbelief to see his gaze shooting between the road ahead and the rearview mirror, which showed the parking lot behind them.
“How exactly do you suggest I do that?” she asked dryly.
Nick glanced at her and frowned. “Can’t you change back to yourself?”
“Certainly. If you’d like to drive through town with a naked woman in the front seat.”
The smile that slowly curved his lips suggested it wasn’t something he’d mind. Sighing, Jill dropped to her haunches on the passenger seat and raised one paw to the door to help balance herself.
Nick was silent for a moment, but now that they were safely away from John, his gaze was moving between the road and where she sat.
Moving uncomfortably under his inspection, she peered into the side mirror on her side of the vehicle, noting that the road behind them was empty. John wasn’t following. Yet.
“I don’t see him,” she murmured.
“No.” Nick glanced in the rearview mirror again. “Hopefully by the time he gets his own vehicle and tries to give chase, we’ll be far enough away he can’t find us.”
Jill kept her gaze fixed on the side mirror until they turned a corner without seeing John’s black van appear. She relaxed a little bit then and tried to think what she should do now. After a moment’s thought, she glanced to Nick. “I need to call my brother.”
“Of course. My cell phone is in the glove compartment.”
When Jill peered at the glove compartment, but made no move to try to open it, Nick gave a short laugh.
“Sorry, I wasn’t thinking. I’ll get it for you,” he murmured. Pulling to a stop at a red light, he leaned sideways, reaching past her to open the glove compartment and retrieve the phone in question. He started to hand it to her, then paused and shook his head. “I guess I’d better dial for you.”
Jill smiled faintly, but forced herself to stop when she realized her tongue hung out of her mouth when she did. Probably not the image she wanted to convey.
“What’s his number?” Nick asked as the light turned green.
Jill rattled off the number and watched as he eased the car forward through the light, his concentration split between the phone and the road ahead. Once finished, he didn’t hand the phone to her, but placed it to his own ear and listened to it ring.
“The answering machine has picked up,” he said after a moment, a frown curving his lips. “What do I say?”
Jill heaved a sigh. “Just hang up. They must still be out.”
Nick flipped the phone closed and set it on the
seat beside her. Jill stared at the phone with frustration for a moment and then said, “They probably won’t be out much longer. If you dropped me off there I could wait for him to get back and—”
“No way,” Nick said firmly. “Your brother’s house is probably the first place this John guy will look.”
Jill grimaced but didn’t argue. Now that he’d said it, she realized it was true and she’d rather avoid running into John Heathcliffe again.
“And your place would probably be his next stop,” Nick added before she could suggest it as an alternative.
Jill frowned and peered out the window, startled when she saw the husky’s face reflected. Turning away from the image, she said, “Well, I have to wait somewhere. You can’t just drive me around until my brother and his wife return home. If Claire and Beth have gone too, they could be doing last-minute Christmas shopping. They could stop for lunch or even a matinee movie and be gone for hours.”
“Then we’ll have to wait hours,” he said firmly. “I’m not leaving you alone to be caught by that John guy.”
“But you’re supposed to be meeting the rest of the parade crew at your sister’s place,” she reminded him.
“Yes,” he said and smiled suddenly. “So that’s where we’ll go. We’ll go to my sister’s party. You can keep calling from there.”
“I’m not exactly dressed for a party,” Jill pointed out dryly.
Nick glanced at her, his smile deepening before he said conversationally, “You know, I would have killed to have a talking dog as a kid.”
Jill grunted, not amused.
“Although I probably would have picked a terrier. I always liked terriers best.”
“Terriers are small,” she pointed out.
When he glanced at her with confusion, she pointed out, “I can shift my shape, but I don’t think I can shrink it down to the size of a terrier.”
“Oh.” He peered at her curiously, and then said, “So I suppose shifting into a mouse so I can slip you into my pocket to enter my sister’s house is out, huh?”
