The Change (Unbounded)

by Teyla Branton

  Not good.

  He turned from me and grabbed two bo staffs off the wall. “Set the gun over there. We won’t need it today.”

  He stood in the middle of the room waiting for me but didn’t seem to be in a hurry to begin. “About your family,” he said. “Stella’s suggestion to move them may sound simple now, but it’s more complicated than you realize. Eventually, your parents will have to move again and again, so their new neighbors won’t catch on to the fact that you never age. They’ll have to become accustomed to calling you by yet another name, and when your face becomes known among the Emporium Unbounded and the Hunters, they’ll have to worry about the lives of your siblings and their grandchildren. They may feel they have to choose.”

  I hadn’t thought about Chris and Lorrie. Would they be willing to uproot their children? My parents wouldn’t want to leave them. Was constantly moving fair to my family? I glared at Ritter, hating him for being my conscience, for making me see that my parents were better off where they were. Better off without me.

  He tossed me a staff, and this time I went after him with force, not holding anything back. Why should I? It wasn’t as if I’d really be able to hurt him. Yet. For now he was too fast and too good, but the day would come. Until then, he was skilled enough not to hurt me as I made my wild, uncontrolled attacks.

  Or so I hoped. I was really tired of getting hurt.

  After twenty minutes, he put away the bo staffs and tossed me a black stick about two feet long. “This is an escrima stick. We’ll start with one, but eventually use two.”

  We went at it again. Overhead strikes, under strikes, use of the butt to hit your opponent in vital places. Sweat dripped from my body, but I was determined not to stop until he told me to. It was a matter of pride. Pride like the kind that had forced me to leave college. I longed for curequick, but knowing its addictive properties kept my craving manageable. I settled for sips of water from the drinking fountain, and absorbed whatever I could from the air. I was glad I’d had the bacon for breakfast.

  After the sticks, we worked on hand-to-hand combat. My skin was tougher today, and though we worked strenuously, there were no beads of blood. He corrected my technique every few minutes, but he didn’t seem to tire or become angry at my repeated mistakes. “Good,” he said, as I blocked a blow that would have leveled me during our first session. Instead it only shoved me into the wall. “Of course, you’ll need to twist out of there immediately after the block. You can’t afford to be pinned against any solid surface.”

  For demonstration, he faked an uppercut to my abdomen that probably would have meant the end for me in a real fight. We stood inches away. I could taste the hint of mint in his hot breath, see the glistening of the skin of his neck, face and arms. Emotions waved over me. Possessiveness. Desire. I wanted to run my hands over the tautness of his chest. I wanted to taste his lips, his cheeks, the softer-looking skin in the hollow of his neck.

  Where did that all come from?

  I clamped down on the emotions. Had becoming Unbounded messed up all my hormone levels? Or was I simply attracted to Ritter in a way I never had been attracted to any man before?

  Whatever it was, I didn’t like it.

  I steeled myself for what might come next. I didn’t know how I’d react if he touched me. My skin was already on fire. I tried to think about Tom, but all that did was make me feel angry, betrayed. Tom may have taken himself out of the running, but that didn’t mean I would fall into the arms of the nearest available killing machine, no matter how deathly sexy he might be. I didn’t need Ritter or Tom. I would have dozens of lifetimes to find someone else. If I even wanted anyone else.

  Ritter moved closer, his hands reached out. Instead of touching me, they went above my head, removing something from a shelf above my head. A leather holder containing two knives.

  “These,” he said, hoarsely, “are something else you shouldn’t be without. Guns make a lot of noise, especially without a silencer, and they’re harder to hide, but these you can strap around your thigh like this.” He touched me then, settling the leather over my stretch pants. “Works especially well if you’re wearing a skirt.”

  I wasn’t sure if he was teasing or not. Frankly, I was glad for the layer of cloth between us, but only because I was afraid of how I would react to his fingers on my flesh. He didn’t look at me as he fastened the buckles, and I knew he was avoiding my stare.

  “Come over here,” he said, backing toward the mannequin in front of the cork wall. “I’ll teach you some basic moves. You’ll be keeping these knives. I already talked to Stella about them.”

  So I learned the basics of knife-throwing. I was worse at this than at combat, and even Ritter’s calm was beginning to show a few cracks as yet another knife bounced off the wooden dummy without penetrating. “You’ll have to start working out your arms. You’re simply too weak.”

  That jab hurt more than I wanted to admit. I glanced at the clock someone had so kindly hung on the wall. It was past one. “That’s what I’ve been doing for the past four hours.” I shoved a knife back into the leg sheath, nearly cutting through my pants in the process. “I’m finished here.”

  We glared at each other for several long seconds before he nodded. “I have things to do anyway before tonight. Go ahead and say goodbye to your family, if you must. But don’t go to their house. Take Cort with you wherever you decide to meet. He’ll make sure you’re not followed.”

  “Fine. But I’m agreeing only because I want to take Cort, not because you’re ordering me to.” I knew he didn’t exactly deserve my anger, but my hormones were raging, and I was sick of being taught to kill by a man who was half dead inside.

  He sighed. “You are just like your grandmother.”

  “My fourth great-grandmother. And we are nothing alike.”

  I stomped up the stairs in a rather childish fashion, but I didn’t care what Ritter thought. In the kitchen, I stumbled into Cort. “Finally,” I said, “somebody sane. Take me away from here.”

  He smiled, his eyes roaming with interest over my sweaty body. “I don’t know about sane, but I’m game. Everyone else is busy. No one has need of a scientist right now.”

  “I do. Besides, according to Ritter, you’re my appointed babysitter if I want to see my family.”

  “Couldn’t think of a better way to spend my afternoon than with you. How about lunch first?”

  “Sounds great.” Beautiful. Normal. “Give me ten minutes to shower.”

  “Tell you what, take twenty and dress up. I want to take you someplace nice. Besides, you’ll need time to come up with a disguise in case we run into someone who might recognize you.”

  In my room I had a message on my cell. From Tom. I played it back, a knob of anxiety cranking inside me.

  “Erin, I’m sorry I missed your call. I do need to talk to you. It’s very important. Look, I’ve done some checking and no matter what you do, don’t trust those people. They aren’t who they say they are. Call me.” A hesitation and then, “I’m sorry about what happened at your house. I can explain everything. I—I love you.”

  CORT MIGHT BE A LITTLE nerdy, but he cleaned up well. He wore a tan suit with a brown shirt that matched his hair and set off his blue eyes. I knew he wore a gun strapped to his calf because I’d briefly seen the bulk stretch against the cloth of his pants when he’d climbed into the green Lexus.

  “Nice car,” I said.

  “Thanks.” Cort glanced at me quickly and then back to the road. “You look really beautiful. I mean, you’ve always been attractive, but with this disguise, you look mysterious. Unrecognizable.”

  You’d think that at nearly five hundred years old, he’d be better at compliments. “You can blame Stella for that.” She’d made up my face with far too much makeup, given me sunglasses, and tied a silky red scarf around my head to show off my new blond fuzz. Okay, curls. I barely recognized myself. I also had stylish red glasses with clear lenses to wear in the restaurant. “But I don’t th
ink I should have worn this red dress. I mean, it’s good for these”—I pulled up my dress a few inches above my knee to show the leather knife sheath that I’d decided to wear at the last moment—“but it sort of makes me noticeable.”

  “That’s the best way to hide. Out in the open. But you shouldn’t do that.”

  “Do what?”

  “Show me your leg. I may be old enough to be your tenth great-grandpa, but my hormones say I’m only forty.”

  I laughed, feeling flattered. “Like you haven’t seen it before. Are you married? And how many children do you have anyway?”

  “I had ten children, two Unbounded, one still alive and living in Europe, and a slew of great-grandchildren and other posterity. I’ve been married several times now, each time to mortals.” He shrugged. “Not for a while though. It’s tough in the end.”

  Always it came down to loss. I was beginning to understand what the Unbounded faced, and that there would eventually come a time when they would be afraid to take another risk. Too many hurts piled up. Too many losses. Yet being alone was a terrible way to live, even if it took a thousand years before you could resign yourself to saying goodbye without that bitter regret.

  So how could regular humans, whose lives were comparably short, be satisfied with such a brief time with their loved ones? Merely a week ago, I’d been resigned to exactly that. Perhaps because I hadn’t realized others had far more.

  “Now I’m thinking of saving myself for just the right Unbounded,” Cort said with a laugh that sounded only a little forced. His stray glances had become a little pointed, and I wished he’d pay more attention to the road. I hadn’t banked on being the hot new commodity on the Unbounded single scene. It was sort of like being sought after because I had money, only this time my wealth was measured in potential years of life.

  I shook off these thoughts. Right now my body was sending me strong signals I couldn’t ignore. Not hunger, but something else. “We have to stop by a grocery store. I need gum or mint, or something. Maybe chocolate.”

  “Protein. It’s always that way after you’ve been hurt.”

  “I could just absorb it, couldn’t I?”

  He smiled. “I’ve forgotten how it felt in the beginning. It’s as natural as breathing now. I never feel in need of anything.”

  “Well, I’m aware of absorbing every second, at least when I’m awake. It’s like I’m reaching out to bring it inside me. Very physical. Calculated.” I hesitated, debating on whether I should confess the rest of my thoughts. I decided to go ahead. “I’ve been wondering—do we take sustenance from other living beings? I mean, I know we absorb from the air and plants and everything, but I’d hate to think we were absorbing people, too.”

  His chuckle was deep and warm and inoffensive. “No wonder you’re so aware of it, if that’s what you’ve been thinking. Don’t worry. Absorbing from another live human or an animal would be a last case scenario. There’s too much else that’s easily accessible to us in the air from decaying matter, even through glass or ordinary walls. Our systems go for easy first.”

  “What if we were in a sealed room with someone, and no other food source was available?”

  “We do have some innate control over our absorption, so you would instinctively avoid absorbing from them unless you were unconscious.”

  “And then?”

  “Then your body would do whatever it took to keep you alive. That’s part of the Unbounded gene. But by the time you started absorbing the other person, they’d be dead from starvation or suffocation, and you’d be doing it unconsciously as their body decomposed and became part of the air.” He made a face. “Hey, I thought this was supposed to be a nice outing, not a morbid one.”

  “Sorry. Are we almost there? I’m not hungry, exactly. I just want to eat.”

  “We’re almost there.”

  He drove to Café des Amis, a French restaurant on the Missouri side of Kansas City that I’d never eaten at before, though I’d seen the outside, which sported wooden decks lined by trees where diners could supposedly experience the atmosphere of a real French restaurant. As Cort parked, I made a decision. “Maybe my family could meet us here—I mean, after our meal. Join us for a drink or dessert. It would probably be one of the last places anyone would look for us.”

  “The attack scared you, didn’t it?” Cort’s blue eyes were intent again, piercing as I remembered them from that first day.

  I nodded slowly.

  “Go ahead, call your family. I’m sure we haven’t been followed.”

  I considered a moment before dialing Jace’s number. I was closest to him, and I knew he wouldn’t pester me with more than a few questions about my welfare.

  “Hello?” he answered, a bit of impatience in his voice.

  “It’s me, Blondie.” I used the nickname I’d had as a teenager. We’d both enjoyed the comic strip, and because I was blond, the name stuck, though we hadn’t used it much since leaving high school. I hoped he’d remember.

  “Blondie, hello. Been wondering when I’d hear from you. How is everything?”

  “Good. Thanks. Look, I called because, well, what are you up to right now?”

  “Packing. I’m heading back to Texas tomorrow. The army only let me have a week off for my, uh, sister’s funeral.”

  “I was sorry to hear about her death.” More sorry to have experienced it, but I couldn’t very well say that with the Emporium possibly listening in. “Look, I’d really like to see you and your parents. I was hoping you could meet me. Right now, if you can.”

  “My parents are out. Some school play for my brother’s kids. But I can come.”

  Maybe it was better this way, since neither of my parents would be happy I was leaving the state. “Okay, meet me at Café de Amis. Know where that is?”

  “Do you know what that place costs? I’m on a serviceman’s salary, you know.” There was a note of teasing in his voice that calmed me.

  “Cheapo. Never mind—it’s on me. Besides, by the time you get here, we’ll be finished eating. You can have dessert with us.”

  “Us?”

  “A friend. Someone I want you to meet.”

  “Okay. I’ll be there soon. Later, Blondie.”

  Cort arched a brow as I shut the phone. “Well?”

  “Just my brother’s coming. It’ll be better this way. But I wish I didn’t feel so unsettled.”

  “In what way?”

  “I don’t know. I feel strange, like I’m not myself. I’m sure it’s all these changes.” My quick healing proved I was Changed, but it was still hard to wrap my thoughts around living for two thousand years.

  He reached out a hand and placed it on my leg. “Let me know if you think of anything I can do to help.” His touch felt good, too good, and that confused me further.

  “Thanks, Cort. I appreciate it.”

  He nodded and opened his door, moving swiftly around the Lexus to help me out of my seat.

  “I have a chateau in the south of France,” Cort said minutes later as a waiter led us outside onto one of the decks at the restaurant. “I lived there for more than eighty years, and I still go back as often as possible. Lovely place. When you go to France, you’ll have to visit.” I noticed he said “when” not “if,” as though it went without saying that I’d eventually go there in my extended lifetime.

  As Cort pushed in my chair, I lifted my gaze, scanning the people around us. The restaurant was comfortably full, but no one was paying us extra attention. I set my small red purse gently on my lap, all too aware of the gun inside. But instead of feeling nervous, I was surprised to find both the gun and the knives gave me a sense of power.

  Totally not like the old me. If I’d had any doubt about having undergone a complete physical and emotional change, this proved it beyond doubt. But it was still all kinds of weird.

  We began our meal with an assortment of French cheeses, fruit, and wine, to be followed by a salad and a dish of wild boar, which I’d always wanted to try. Cor
t watched me, a smile on his face. “I’ve been wanting to tell you that I’m sorry about your, uh, boyfriend.”

  I shrugged, unwilling to talk about Tom. On the phone, he’d hesitated before his declaration of love. I’d felt a lie in the words, as I had in the hospital when he’d assured me I would live. Whether because of the lie or his desertion, I hadn’t called him back. It didn’t make sense that he could have discovered anything about the Unbounded when for all our lives we’d never heard of their existence. Could there possibly be something about them on the Internet? Had he been contacted by Hunters? Whatever the case, I was finding it hard to trust him. That didn’t mean I wasn’t going to call. I would, but not yet. I had plenty of time before the exchange in New York.

  “I’m more worried right now about surviving this week than I am about Tom.” I nibbled a piece of cheese. “Ritter’s determined to kill me with all this training. I don’t seem to have any talent at it, though they say I should.”

  “Well, let me know if it kicks in.” Cort set down his wine. “In fact, I’m interested in recording everything that happens to you—for science’s sake, of course. If you notice anything happening, in your physical makeup, your abilities, your senses, please let me know. It could really help new Unbounded adjust more easily in the future.”

  Except that I wasn’t feeling comfortable enough to talk about my strange hormone shifts with anyone, much less with a man who’d as much as admitted he was attracted to me. “Someone should write an Unbounded manual, that’s for sure.” I’d finished most of the cheese and was looking around for something else to eat. Fortunately, the waiter was coming our way with our salads and steaming entrees.

  I’d made good headway on my food by the time Jace arrived. My little brother greeted me with a hug and kiss on the cheek that he had to lean down to give me, even though I’d come to my feet. I grabbed his hand as we sat down, knowing we looked more like lovers than siblings, but I couldn’t help myself. He was the only thing I had to cling to from my past life. My normal life.

  “What’s with the paint and the glasses?” he asked. “Almost didn’t recognize you.”