“You’re researching rare diseases?”
She nodded. “I work finding cures for rare shifter diseases, to be precise. Like the one we have on our hands now.”
“What’s that?”
“Guess you don’t follow the news much, huh?”
“News? Dull as dishwater, usually, but I do wish I knew what you’re talking about.”
“Well, they’ve been trying to keep it quiet for the last few months, but the news is spreading slowly. There’s an epidemic underway; quite a few shifters have died already. You really haven’t heard anything about it?”
He shook his head slowly. “Nope.”
“Well, so much for the power of the media—although I guess mainstream news is still pretty light on shifter content. The irony is…” Aubrey trailed off, stopped in her tracks and turned to face him directly. “Look, I’m not supposed to be talking about this due to ethical reasons, but seeing as we sort of know each other, I feel like I should tell you. But no matter what, you can’t tell the rest of the town. This kind of information is sensitive, and it could cause problems.”
“I promise to keep whatever you tell me under wraps for now,” he said with a firm nod.
She sighed. “We suspect the source of this outbreak to be from your water reservoir.”
“You serious?”
“I’m afraid so, although we aren’t certain yet. So when we get there, take it from me—stand back and don’t go near. Don’t touch it and certainly don’t drink out of it.”
Jesse didn’t argue with that. He recalled being completely uninterested when Aubrey had told him that her expedition was ‘scientific’. Now he wished he had pried further from the start.
“Tell me about this disease,” he asked as they got going again. “Is it pretty nasty?”
“Oh, there are much worse ones in terms of the symptoms,” she replied. “But it’s pretty debilitating. Some bright spark thought up the name “The Cripple” for it; basically it robs shifters of the use of their limbs. Gradually, over a fortnight or so, they just curl up and die.”
“Limbs, you say?”
“Yes…oh, don’t worry,” she said, realizing the earlier reference and catching a look of apprehension on his face. “In all the cases we’ve seen so far, it disables shifters by the end of the first forty-eight hours. That’s why I asked how long you’d felt bad for.”
“Oh, good.”
But Aubrey stopped again in her tracks and looked at him with renewed interest. He saw that he was no longer ‘Jesse the hiker’ in her eyes, but a subject of her study, and this thought made him uneasy.
“On the other hand,” she said, stepping near and regarding him closely. “If we are at the source, and it’s as contagious as we think, it would be very strange to find no obvious signs of it manifesting.”
“But the forty-eight hours thing means I’m okay right? And I haven’t heard of anyone else in town being sick, and like I said yesterday, there’s a lot of shifter folks up here.”
“Hm, okay. Do you mind if I…touch you?” Aubrey asked, indicating with her hands that she meant his neck. He shook his head to tell her he didn’t mind, though not knowing quite what to make of it. “Don’t get too excited…I’m a professional scientist, remember,” she added.
Jesse didn’t know what to say to that. Was she hitting on him? Surely not. She’d seemed so shy yet aloof when he first met her. It must have been a joke.
Aubrey was not concerned to linger over whatever she meant, however, but was quickly undergoing some kind of light physical assessment of him.
“If you ask me to cough and drop, I’m leaving you out here in the wild,” Jesse said with a grin, and she rolled her eyes.
First she placed her fingers lightly on his throat; checking his pulse rate, he presumed. After that he had to once again go through the enjoyment of having someone manipulate his face cheeks so as to see how bloodshot his eyes were, just as Claire had done the previous morning. This he did while biting his lip, far more bothered by the knowledge that he was being forced to pull a stupid face than by the idea that he might have a rare disease.
“Can I see one of your arms?” Aubrey asked. Jesse nodded and removed his jacket. Her study of him became far more tender as she ran her fingers over his skin, and if he hadn’t known there was a scientific purpose then he would definitely have interpreted this as sexual.
At least she trusts me, despite me being a shifter hillbilly all alone with her out in the wilderness, he thought.
Jesse didn’t ask but could only imagine she was studying what his blood flow looked like. She was clever for sure, and her next step was to take the lid off her mineral water and press it for about thirty seconds onto one area of his skin before releasing it to study the effect.
“Hmm…” came the verdict.
“That’s it? Hmm?” he asked. “After all that? You gonna put my mind at rest or what?”
“I’m sure you’re fine, Jesse,” she said with a smile. “I’m just thinking.”
“Well, I’ll come back next week, shall I?”
Thankfully she took his joke in good spirits and laughed. It was a remark that related to his frustration at being kept in the dark, rather than because he actually thought she was dim-witted. Clearly she was quite the opposite but enjoyed being teased. Not stuck-up or snooty at all, he reflected.
“You do have some of the signs, Jesse. I won’t lie to you—sorry for not checking sooner—but you’re well past the usual forty-eight hours and the signs are still quite dull, as if you’re a first dayer.”
“So that means I’m okay, right?”
“Well, it could be just a flu, but it’s not that simple. I’d know for certain if I had you in my lab.”
“Who you have in your lab is your own business,” he said with an amused smirk. It was his turn for sleazy jokes now, but she was unperturbed and did not let him interrupt her train of thought.
“Every disease has people who, for whatever reason, are immune or highly resistant to its effects. There could be something different about you that either makes its progress slower, or fights it off completely. Or it could just be a flu, like I said. But there’s no way for me to know which.”
“Go with your gut,” he said, growing more concerned even though she was clearly trying to make him worry less. “Do your instincts tell you I have it?”
“Um…I think…yes, maybe. I don’t mean to alarm you, but it actually makes perfect sense.”
“How do you mean?” he asked with a frown.
“Well, if we’re right about the source being close to here, then it’s similar to… how can I explain it? Like in the Amazon…”
“What is it with you and the Amazon?” he said, giving her a light, teasing jostle despite the seriousness of their conversation.
“Never mind that. But think about it this way—if you and I were to go to the Amazon right now, there would be lots of toxic things that could kill us easily. Even the plants and the food, right?”
“Right.”
“But if we were to grow up there and be steadily exposed to the environment, we’d develop a certain level of resistance. That could be what you have, considering we’re at the source and quite possibly the place this thing is most toxic in. Might explain why no other shifters in town have taken ill yet either.”
“But it could still get us in the end…is that what you’re saying?”
She shook her head. “There’s just no way of being certain, Jesse. Sorry to be vague, but listen, this is what we’re here for, to find the source and therefore the cure for this thing. Let’s make sure it doesn’t matter either way.”
“Got it.”
With renewed determination their trek got going once again. Jesse felt more engaged with the outing now; even if his symptoms were not what Aubrey suspected, then there were still shifters getting sick and possibly going to die because of this ‘Cripple’ disease.
Soon the trail they were following took them under the cover
of woodland and the country that Jesse loved best. He felt perfectly at home under the trees by day and night and was delighted to see that Aubrey was not wary but thrilled by the glades he prowled through as both a two-legged and four-legged being. Though they did not let their pace drop, Aubrey asked him many questions on the wildlife he had seen in those woods and what it was like in different seasons. Perhaps she felt safe with him by her side, though he was beginning to think that there was far more of the adventurous spirit within her that even the stories of treks with her father indicated.
Pleased to humor her interests, Jesse told her that no one could ever truly know all the secrets of a woodland, and that was why he loved it. A woodland was an ever changing maze where if you ever presumed to know something, it would soon prove you wrong. That was why the beasts that dwelled there had learned to be ever alert and versatile, belonging to a place where wildness exists in its purest form and savagery is a quality to treasure. Jesse felt lucky to be a shifter, which enabled him to enjoy the best of both worlds, while he also admitted that he did not understand the desire of some shifters to repress their non-human side for fear of offending people. He was comfortable in his own skin and didn’t want to be anyone or anything else.
Despite offering this vision of personal comfort, their trek would turn out to be the first day on which he had ever felt slightly out of place in those woods. This was a development that occurred when Aubrey suggested it was time they stop for a bite to eat. Jesse was hungry for sure, but he then realized that he was completely unprepared.
As amateurish as it sounded for someone so accustomed to treks up the mountains, the truth was that Jesse had never really had to prepare for outings—aside from his tourist visits—and so the thought hadn’t even occurred to him. Usually, if he became hungry out on the trail, then he would just transform into his tiger form and hunt down a meal. He should have thought about his condition beforehand, because he’d thought only yesterday that he really wasn’t in the mood for zapping his failing energy by shifting. Then again, there was also Aubrey to consider. Even if he decided to throw caution to the wind and shift, he was growing very fond of her, and he didn’t want to take two steps backward by offending her vegetarian sensibilities again. If barbecued ribs on a plate were off-putting to her, then a fresh kill would probably be unbearable.
“Are you not having anything?” Aubrey asked, surprised.
She had taken advantage of a standing stone to use as a seat while she took the first bite of her salad sandwich. He was glad to see she’d already abandoned her plan of avoiding carbs, and he wondered if it was because she’d listened to him yesterday when he’d told her she didn’t need to watch her weight.
“No, I’ve been a bit of an idiot, to be honest,” he replied. “But it’s all right, I’ll get something later.”
“You forgot your supplies?”
“That’s the thing, I usually shift and go find prey. I wouldn’t want to offend you by doing that. Also, the truth is that shifting takes a lot of energy, and if I have a form of this rare bug you’re chasing, then that would be a bit silly.”
“But you can’t go hungry,” she replied.
“It’s no big deal. Just means whatever meal I have later on will taste twice as good.”
Her cheeks turned pink. “No, that won’t do. Surely someone with a body like yours needs plenty of sustenance.”
“I can go without for a few hours, but thanks for the compliment,” he said, grinning. “Don’t worry about it.”
But Aubrey wasn’t giving in.
“Listen,” she went on. “I know this isn’t your kind of food, but this is a double sandwich I ended up buying because the portions in your town are so damn huge.”
“Good, you can save some for later.”
“Or…you could just have some and put my mind at rest?”
“I’m okay, thanks,” he said, although his stomach was rumbling slightly.
“You do know I’m practically your doctor now, right?” she said, raising her brows.
“And…?”
“Well, doctors have a way of getting people to do what they want.”
“Seriously, I’m fine,” he said, wanting to continue up the trail.
Aubrey didn’t budge. “What if I was to tell you that I won’t move off this spot until you have some of this sandwich?”
“Then you’d be more of an idiot than me, what with all the important research you have to complete.”
“My research, yes, but I’m also stubborn and you wouldn’t want to jeopardize that by failing to humor me would you? Look, Jesse,” she went on, changing her tone from bossy to being more persuasive. “I know you’re not the biggest fan of salad vegetables, but at least take a bite and see if it’s something you can eat. You don’t want me worrying about you for the rest of the day.”
“You’re worried about me, huh?” he said in a teasing tone, moving closer to her.
“Maybe. Plus, I’ve got another card up my sleeve.”
“And a revolver in your garter? Seriously, you’re going to need to point one at me to get me to eat that rabbit-food sandwich.”
“I’m paying you, remember. What kind of a guide are you if you fail to give me peace of mind?”
Jesse opened his mouth to protest again but as he looked at her, he found that not only did he not have any more arguments, he really did not want to turn those big brown Bambi eyes down. On top of that, they’d been arguing about this damned sandwich for what seemed like forever now.
“Okay, Aubrey,” he relented. “But I can’t promise I’m into this.”
Not in the same way I’m into you, anyway, he thought, and it surprised him. He wasn’t supposed to be thinking of her in this way; not when he was still keen on meeting this woman from Roar4More. The old Jesse wouldn’t have minded playing the field and seeing two women at once, but he’d resolved to change his ways in order to settle down.
Sitting down beside her, he allowed her to hand him one of the sandwich halves, and then he took a bite. For some reason he felt the need to chew the food gently, as if he didn’t want to hurt it, but he managed to swallow his first bite without pulling any squeamish faces. After he had done so, however, he sensed that Aubrey’s eyes had been studying him, and he turned to see a big grin plastered over her sweet face.
“Aubrey Vierra, are you mocking me?” he asked.
“It’s just nice to see you putting your faith in my hands as well,” she replied. “How’s the sandwich? You don’t have to lie if you don’t like it.”
“To be honest, I was just thinking it’s not that bad for a non-meat food,” he replied, taking another bite. The truth was that he liked her smiling at him very much. After being so wary that she would not be cut out for hiking, it warmed his soul to think that not only had he been so wrong, but that she was also enjoying the day partly because of his company.
She arched her eyebrows, and he continued, throwing one hand up in mock defeat. “Okay, okay, I guess you’re right,” he said. “It’s good, and I needed the sustenance. Let’s finish eating and head off again. I’d estimate that we’ll be at your reservoir in about an hour. I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
“Me too.”
“For the record,” he continued, almost surprising himself with a serious tone. “I’m real glad you walked into Claire’s store yesterday. If I do have something wrong with me then it almost feels like fate that you arrived when you did.”
According to his inner tiger, it seemed more like fate that she’d arrived in town at all, judging by her almost intoxicating scent, but he kept this thought to himself.
“Jesse, you’re going to make me blush,” she teased.
“Ha! I doubt it, you scientists aren’t embarrassed easy, or so I’ve heard. Also for the record, I think it’s wonderful what you’ve chosen to do with your life. Choosing to help people, I mean—shifters in fact. For me, life’s mostly just been about having fun, and this sort of stuff really puts things
in perspective.”
“Well that’s what life should be about,’ Aubrey replied. “If it weren’t for sickness, war and prejudice, then that’s what we’d all be doing. Having fun.”
Her words made him smile. Jesse was becoming more impressed with her by the minute, and he made a mental note not to judge folk who came from cities so quickly next time. He could tell Aubrey wasn’t like the rest, though, no matter how nice they were.
She was really something…
Chapter 5
Soon the green surroundings gave way to rockier ground where the larger trees could not grow. Aubrey and Jesse left the shade of the woodland to find the day had grown warmer than they remembered even though they were on higher ground and climbing all the time.
The reservoir was not far, though the track Jesse took her on zigzagged and caused Aubrey to feel that, for the first time, they weren’t making great distance. In front of her the other mountains loomed ever closer, and she now had to tilt her head back in order to look up at Mount Brown’s summit. If they’d been heading to the top an ascent would now have been imminent and she considered how far more imposing it all seemed now they were almost in its shadow. No wonder he doesn’t bring tourists up here, she thought. The thought of going up to the peak both terrified and excited her at the same time, but that would be an adventure for another day. For now their mission was for the reservoir, and Aubrey couldn’t help but worry that after having come all this way, there was a chance that no revelations might emerge.
If she thought coming this far would put distance between her and her work she would be wrong, however. Meeting Jesse had brought home the importance of her role. She had tried to downplay it to him in order to make him worry less, but she strongly suspected he had a mild form of the disease. However, she really had no idea how to judge its differing behavior in him, and she couldn’t be confident that he was not due to be struck down one day soon. Such thinking was unbearable, though she hid her anxiety. Enhanced by having seen a sweeter side of him all day compared to the annoying braggart she’d first taken him for, it was no longer irritating that she found him attractive.
Roar For More (Online Shifter Dating Agency Romance) Page 4
