Shifting Darkness

by Kate Wendley

  Zach thankfully didn’t linger once they made it to his place, though he made him promise to call if he didn’t feel better later tonight. Vince’s muscles were cramped up and his stomach felt rotten, making him wish for the thousandth time that he was just a normal shifter.

  His mom was gone again, probably hanging out with Ed, so he dropped onto the couch to watch some TV by himself. At least he hadn’t thrown up yet, which meant for some weird reason his body tolerated vampire blood. Not that it mattered since it obviously wasn’t the trick to heal him. Figured.

  **

  Penny was in the library programming the loud, fancy new machine that could do everything from print, make copies, scan files electronically, staple your papers and even collate all the pages when Suzanne appeared by her side and scared the crap out of her.

  She smirked as Penny calmed her racing heart. “Hey.”

  No one was with Suzanne this time, so there must not be another family emergency. “What’s up?”

  “You and Vince still an item?”

  She scowled and focused on the noisy copier again. “Doesn’t look like it.”

  “Why not?”

  She glared at Suzanne. “What difference does it make?”

  “You first. Why aren’t you guys an item?”

  “Why? What’s going on?”

  “Answer the question.”

  She huffed, looked around herself, and more quietly said, “I don’t know. He won’t talk to me. I mean, I yelled at him when his dad was here the first time, and then after those crazies in the woods, well, he won’t return my calls.”

  “You yelled at him because his dad showed up?”

  Her temper rose. “He kept big things from me. He was obviously just stringing me along.”

  Suzanne’s eyebrow rose. “Because that’s the only reason people keep things from each other.”

  She growled at her alpha. “Buzz off.”

  “Hell, Penny. If he told you everything about himself up front, what’s left for you to learn as you go along? And did you ever think maybe he felt ashamed about the stuff he kept from you? Christ. He can’t even shift, and his dad’s rumored to be a baby killer.”

  As if that made her feel any better.

  Suzanne stepped back and crossed her arms, looking Penny up and down as if trying to decide something. “Well, he wouldn’t have gone to the cabin to save you if he didn’t care about you, so… I don’t know if you can help anything or not, but the doctor’s on his way over to Vince’s. We don’t know what’s wrong with him, or why he won’t totally wake up, but maybe if he hears your voice…”

  Her heart raced. “What? What the hell happened to him?”

  Suzanne shook her head. “Don’t know. Are you coming or not?”

  **

  “No. She’s not coming in.”

  Penny cringed at Min-chul’s withering look. Suzanne stuck up for her, though, since she couldn’t seem to do it for herself.

  “They have each other’s marks. He’s claimed her as his and you’re denying her?”

  Min-chul didn’t cave to her rationale. “Leave him his pride, woman. He’s sick and doesn’t need gawkers watching him while he tries to heal.”

  It was rare that she saw Suzanne get irritated, but she was definitely irritated now. She turned to Penny and said, “Did you hear someone talking? I can’t quite make out what was said.”

  “Me neither.”

  Suzanne faked left and confused Min-chul just long enough for Penny to race around his right towards Vince’s room. A strong hand grabbed her by the shoulder before she could get very far, though.

  Suzanne’s voice dripped with venom. “Get your hands off my girl or I will bust your face.”

  Min-chul let her go, but his clenched jaw and red hot glare made Penny’s stomach turn. Well, in for a penny, in for a pound… har har.

  She flung the door open to Vince’s room and tried to be careful as she quickly sat down and put her hand on his too hot cheek.

  Vince surprised her by growling and grabbing her arm. He sniffed her like, well, an animal, then went quiet as he slowly opened his eyes and pulled her closer.

  Charlotte squealed in wonder, “He has cat eyes. And they’re green.”

  Tears threatened to spill down Penny’s cheeks. Vince did have a cat in him, but why wouldn’t it come out?

  “Vince?”

  He answered her by sniffing her neck, then putting his teeth on her. A rumbly purr started and she relaxed against him, the feeling of being his again nearly overwhelming her.

  Min-chul snapped, “All right, you’ve seen him. Now let the doctor tend to him.” He grabbed Vince’s hand in an attempt to get him to release her, but Vince held tight and growled furiously in his dad’s direction.

  Min-chul stepped back in surprise while Vince tried to pull Penny on top of him.

  Suzanne said, “He’s acting like he just woke up from a shift and doesn’t have all his human thoughts back yet. Penny, get over to the other side of the bed. I think his cat’s trying to protect you from us.”

  She did as she was told and Vince settled clumsily around her. He spooned into her and purred while he breathed heavily on the back of her neck.

  Suzanne was everyone’s mouthpiece again. “That’s the cutest damn thing I’ve ever seen. Zach, do you purr like that with the ladies?”

  Penny couldn’t see Zach very well from this angle, but could feel his tense silence in her bones before she heard Suzanne say, “Ok then.”

  The doctor let out an unintelligible satisfied sound. “I think we’ve found our cure. Vampire blood. He should have more.”

  That surprised her. “He had vampire blood?”

  Min-chul seemed especially upset at that. “Why was he able to keep vampire blood down but not shifter blood?”

  Penny arched her neck enough to see the doctor sit down in one of the heavy kitchen chairs Charlotte brought in. “It’s only a hypothesis, but vampire blood isn’t like regular blood. Vampires themselves are unlike any other living creature.”

  Min-chul scoffed. “That’s not news, doctor.”

  Dr. Williams pursed his lips. “If you’d let me finish…”

  Min-chul frowned, but jerked a nod.

  “Thank you. As I was saying, vampires are a different race altogether. I’ve rarely had the privilege to be able to study them, and even when I’ve been able to, their blood doesn’t keep long outside their bodies. In fact, it almost immediately dies unless someone ingests it. When someone drinks their blood, though, it’s consistently predictable. The person who swallows it absorbs their magic into themselves and always changes it into something different than the original magic.”

  “Then why hasn’t Vince healed? If he absorbed the magic?”

  “I would argue he is healing.”

  “He’s been unconscious for hours. How is that healing?”

  The doctor sounded unsure of himself when he said, “He’s hibernating, not unconscious.”

  Min-chul scoffed, but Penny was beginning to get a feeling of rightness from the conversation. Min-chul’s temper was rising, though.

  “Jaguars don’t hibernate.”

  “People’s bodily functions have been known to slow down when other systems need to heal. Call it what you will, but I think he’s healing.”

  Min-chul looked angrier than before. “This is ridiculous. He should have my blood again. There’s powerful magic in it and I’m his father.” He made a move towards Vince as he started rolling up his sleeve, but the doctor stood and blocked his path.

  “Mr. Yi. I don’t think you understand. Your blood has living cells in it. Living cells that exist in harmony with the magic Vince’s body is starving for. You can’t separate the magic from it into a useable form, and for some reason Vince’s body has decided to reject everything it can’t use to heal.”

  He snapped, “And you think only vampire blood can heal him.”

  “Yes. It’s magic. Pure magic. Vampire blood doesn’t have th
e kind of sustenance that shifter or human blood has. I believe its primary building blocks exist only to store and replenish the magic that keeps a vampire’s spirit alive while the sustenance they get from shifter blood feeds and keeps their bodies alive. It would seem that Vince’s body is so starved for magic that now that it got a whopping dose of it, he’s finally healing. I’d hate to throw whatever progress we’ve made out the window by giving him something his body will just reject again.”

  This time Ed objected. “He’s not vampire, though. He needs more than blood to survive, especially if vampire blood doesn’t have the stuff that can feed him.”

  The doctor looked unperturbed. “Of course, but he’s not starving for food just yet. His body is in a stage of healing, or rather, creating the proper links for his shifter magic to finally work.”

  Charlotte asked, “Do you have bagged blood in your office?”

  “Not vampire blood. It loses its potency, its magic, after barely any time at all in a bag. It needs to be fresh from the source.”

  Zach said in a low tone, “I’ll talk to Anthony as soon as he wakes.”

  **

  When everyone finally cleared the room, Penny had Vince all to herself. She missed him holding her like this… like he never wanted to let her go.

  She whispered, “Vince? Are you awake?”

  His arm twitched and he squeezed her tight again, purring for a few seconds before his body calmed once more. She smiled and curled into him as close as she could, loving this feeling of being cherished more than she ever realized she would.

  She tried to lay still and not disturb him, but she wasn’t all that tired, and she wanted to see him. She missed him.

  As gently as she could, she lifted his arm to give herself some room to maneuver, but he instantly tightened his grip around her. She pet him and whispered, “Hey kit cat, I’m not going anywhere. I just want to roll over.”

  He didn’t open his eyes but he was purring again, and when she lifted his arm this time, he reluctantly let her.

  She shifted so she could face him, and his arm was like dead weight on top of her as he clumsily kneaded the flesh on her side. That always tickled when he did that, but she forced herself to lay still because she knew he’d stop soon, which he did.

  He was really out of it, and it hit home again how unhealthy he was. What if vampire blood didn’t cure him right away? What if all it did was make him sick in a different way? Could she deal with a relationship where he’d be unhealthy for the rest of his life?

  One look at his sleeping face, that strong jawline, those sharp cheekbones and those kissable lips reminded her of all the things she loved about him. It reminded her of times spent just talking, her teaching him about the supernatural world he’d been kept in the dark about, and him teaching her about his life in the human world. It’d been a shock to find out how different they lived, but their love of quirky things was something they shared and endeared them to each other.

  He wasn’t healthy, but he was strong willed, smart, and a family man. She could see that by his love for his mom.

  And he wanted his own family. She knew he did. He’d pushed her away after telling her that, though. But why? Because he was sick?

  A sobering wave of shame overcame her. Of course that was why. She knew he hated it when he thought people pitied him, and he hated anyone trying to help him with anything. So how would he deal with the hard stuff of taking care of babies and a home of their own? He must not think he could do it, and he was too proud to ask for help. Tears stung at her eyes because she knew deep down that was the answer.

  She ran her hand over him, his purrs having quieted already. “Vince baby, I don’t know if you can hear me right now, but I don’t want to fight anymore. I was mad that you weren’t telling me things because I thought we cared about each other. It made me feel like I didn’t matter to you, and I… I might have overreacted. I was just so… well, after you asked me if I ever wanted kids, I started thinking about that. About what it’d be like if you and I had kids.”

  Pouring out her heart made her face feel hot with emotion, and she looked up at him in hopes of seeing some kind of reaction. He was still deep asleep, though, which made being honest with him not quite as hard.

  She pet his bare arm as she said, “I think our kids would be freaking awesome. They’d be tall like you, but maybe have my eyes or nose. I can’t decide which, so maybe we’ll have more than one so they can get all our features between them. Except for my butt. Neither of them should have that. And we’ll get a little house for everyone to be crowded into. It can’t be too big because then everyone would stay up in their rooms by themselves all the time like I used to do. I don’t want that. Do you? They should hang out with us as a family.”

  She ran her hand over his wide shoulder, then stopped because she didn’t want to wake him up. Instead she let her eyes trail over him, comforted by his closeness even if she felt sick to her stomach that he wasn’t well.

  Feeling brave, she looked straight at him even though his eyes were closed and quietly said, “I love you, Vince. Just like you are. You don’t have to hide things from me. I mean it. And once you’re feeling better, or even if you’re not, I don’t care. Do you hear me? I don’t care. You’re my man and I’m your woman and that’s all that matters.”

  She froze when his eyes slowly opened, but they weren’t his human eyes. Dark green irises were split by a narrow slit under his hooded lids, giving him an otherworldly look.

  “Vince, can you hear me? Are you ok?” More importantly, did he understand what she’d just told him? She’d just spilled her guts to him and he either didn’t understand, or didn’t care about any of it. Either scenario was a little maddening to think about.

  He seemed lethargic as he lazily blinked and otherwise didn’t move. After waiting a long time for him to do something, she finally rolled him onto his back and laid her head down on his chest, hoping and praying he’d get through whatever was going on with him right now.

  She supposed she should let him sleep, but it’d been too long since they’d last been together and she ached to touch him. He didn’t seem to mind her slowly running her hands over him, and in fact when she stopped, he took a big breath and arched his back. She looked up to see if he was trying to tell her something, and he jutted his chin out in the universal gesture that said keep going.

  She smiled. “Is this what you want my big kitty cat?” She ran her hands over him again and the lazy, satisfied look in his eyes made her heart feel warm. He might not be talking, hell he might not be able to talk if he was stuck in this mostly human, part animal state, but he knew who and what she was to him.

  Feeling frisky, she ran her hand under his t-shirt while she held his gaze. Vince sucked in a breath and jutted his chin out again, urging her on, so with renewed purpose, she slid his shirt up his belly. She even tried to nudge him to sit up for her so she could take it off, but he didn’t move. It was then that she realized he might not have the energy. It’d been hard enough to just get him to roll onto his back. Damn. He was shifter. He shouldn’t be sick like this.

  His gaze turned fierce, almost challenging her to give up because it was too much work to deal with him, but she refused to do that. She wasn’t some silly girl with no idea what she was doing, she was a woman with an awesome man in her life and she was going to take care of him any way he’d let her.

  She shredded his faded, purple Iggy Pop and the Stooges t-shirt, hoping it wasn’t one of his favorites. If it was, well, she’d find a way to make it up to him. He silently watched her as she threw aside the scraps of fabric, his slowly healing bullet wounds another reminder of what a good man he was. He’d put his own life in danger without a second thought to keep her safe, and it made her heart well with love.

  The wound she could see was healing, but the skin around it was still deep red and she hoped she wasn’t making things worse for him this morning by moving him around so much. The fact that he was just lying here
, acting like it took a herculean effort to even move told her he was either still in seriously bad shape, or toying with her, which he liked to do sometimes.

  She narrowed her eyes and teasingly said, “Are you playing with me?”

  Some of the intensity went out of his gaze and he looked away. Ok, not playing. And she didn’t want him to feel bad for being how he was right now… sick?… tired?… in between a shift? She wasn’t quite sure, but she wanted to make him feel good so she climbed on top of him and straddled his normally strong, firm hips while she spread her hands out across his abs, then realized maybe it wasn’t a good idea to sit on him. She started to scoot off, but his hands landed clumsily on her knees and pressed down.

  “You want me to stay here?”

  He grunted and jutted his chin out again, so she stayed put. And when his eyes flickered brighter as he slowly looked her over, she tried for sexy as she slid her shirt off. Sure enough, his gaze strayed to her chest and stayed there, so she just as friskily reached behind her back and unhooked her bra, then made it a little game as she slowly revealed her bare breasts for him. His eyes shone even brighter, though he didn’t move and still looked far too tired.

  “Should I let you sleep some more?”

  He stared straight into her eyes and growled.

  “Ok then.” A happy chuckle bubbled up from deep inside her, making her feel like all the weird stuff in their lives was just normal, run of the mill fun for them. She arched her back and leaned forward, spreading her hands out as she slowly slid them up his torso until her breasts were pressed against his warm flesh. “You like that kit cat?”

  He quietly groaned, his fingers clumsily crawling up her thighs until she realized he was trying to tug at her pants. “Pants off. Got it.” She pulled back from him so she could finish undressing, and his blazing green eyes roamed her body while she did.

  Before she climbed back onto him, she eyed his shorts. “Off?”

  He blinked tiredly at her, then grunted, so she got to work. She was actually able to slide them off without shredding them, thankful for her shifter strength because he had some damn heavy legs. All clothes now off, she paused in confusion. He seemed to want them both naked, but his non erection told a different story. Hmm. Maybe he just wanted a warm body next to him. When shifters were their animals, they relied on touch for a sense of pack and their place within it. And when someone got hurt, they needed to feel others even more. Maybe Vince’s animal was reaching out for that healing vibe. Maybe it wasn’t her that he needed, maybe he was just looking for a warm body.