"There is a woman at the clinic, another vet," I began. "I could swear that she's a shape shifter, something in the feline family. Is there such a thing as a Were-cat?”
Before Marcie could answer, an employee appeared in the doorway bearing a tray. She was followed by a second girl with another tray filled with goodies.
I hadn't eaten breakfast this morning because I'd been a little nervous about my confrontation with Alice. Now I was ravenously hungry for a few of the sandwiches. Maybe I’d also have a piece of chocolate cake or maybe a few oatmeal raisin cookies or what looked to be like rainbow sherbet. I hadn’t had sherbet in ages.
Marcie thanked the girls, adding a comment to the second one.
“How are you fitting in, Gloria?”
"Oh, I love it here, ma'am. Everybody’s so friendly and the castle is the most beautiful place on earth.”
Disneyland it wasn't, but you couldn't tell Gloria that.
"Let me know if there's anything I can do," Marcie said.
The girl nodded and nearly backed out of the room. I couldn't help but wonder if she had tried to curtsy or genuflect in front of Marcie.
Marcie was treated like a queen at the castle, but she didn't act regal or self-important or the wife of a phenomenally wealthy man. She was like my next-door neighbor or a friend from college, someone I could talk to and confide in. Yet all this time — until two weeks ago — I’d never appreciated the degree of her concern, worry, or even fear. Maddock threatened her, but he also threatened her children and that had to terrify her.
She wasn't a whiner and she didn't list her complaints. Instead, she seemed to look at life with a very calm acceptance and optimism.
I wanted to be just like her when I grew up.
She took to the sandwiches just like I did, picking up a few of the delicate little triangles of bread with the crust trimmed off. I ate one chicken salad and then two more pimento cheese sandwiches.
"Yes," Marcie said after she finished her two triangles. ”There are shape shifters of every kind of species. You need to take advantage of the library," she added.
I thought about that for a minute. I wasn't entirely certain I wanted my education expanded. Did I really want to know that there were gnomes? Or that what I thought was a cockroach was actually a tiny little version of something paranormal? I had lived, so I had always thought, knowing more than every civilian I'd ever met. They might have been aware of vampires, but I knew about Weres. Wouldn't it be funny if the joke was on me and there were hundreds, if not thousands, of paranormal beings out there?
"I'm not certain I want to know," I said, giving her the truth.
She nodded as if she expected that response. "Wisdom comes with its own responsibility," she said. "Once you learn something you can't unlearn it.”
"So how do you cope knowing so much about so much?”
She smiled and this time there was no sadness in her expression.
“You only look at it a little bit at a time. It's like turning the pages of the book. You start at the corner and very slowly reveal a few words, before you find the courage to turn the page.”
"Have you always known about werewolves?" I asked her.
“No. I found out about them early on, but everything about them surprised me." She took a sip of her tea, her eyes twinkling over the cup. "You're the first female Were I’ve ever met, however.”
"Well, I hope I haven't disappointed.”
She shook her head. "Not one little bit.”
"Are there such things as dragons?" I asked.
Part of my curiosity was professionally based. We had sat around at school contemplating what kind of fictional animal we would like to treat. A dragon always came up. Of course, at the time, I hadn't thought that there would be anything like a dragon in reality. I had gotten a nasty chill when one of my fellow students said that he wished werewolves were real.
“I’d do a necropsy from stem to stern," he said to the laughter of the others. Everybody but me, who was envisioning myself spread out on a metal table.
There had been times in my life when I was so tempted to just announce myself to the world, to stand up and say, “Hey, I’m here. I’m Were.”
That was not one of those times.
"You really need to go through our library," she said again.
Oh boy. That meant that there were dragons. Maybe there were dragon people. Maybe there were shapeshifter dragons.
Did they have a physical imperative? Were they linked to the full moon like Weres? It didn’t seem quite fair that we were the only species that had to change at a specific time of the month.
"Can you recognize them? All those paranormal beings? Can you see them somehow?”
"Once you know the signs, you know what to look for.”
"Will I? Is it a Pranic thing?”
"It's an education thing," she said. "Being Pranic doesn't give you any more insight, unfortunately.”
"So how do I figure out exactly what she is?" I asked, segueing back to Alice. "Are there some magical glasses I can wear, or something I could trick her into doing?”
"What makes you think she's a Were-cat?”
"The way she looked," I said, thinking as I explained. “Something about the way she turned her head or looked at me at that moment. It was in her eyes.”
Marcie nodded. "It's entirely possible that you saw her true nature at that moment. Something physical that she didn't mean for you to see.”
“It would’ve been easier if her tail had simply appeared,” I said.
“‘If all the mysteries that were would reveal themselves to me I would know everything.’”
I glanced over at her.
"An obscure poet, the author of one of the volumes in our library. He was quite good at ferreting out gnomes.”
I really didn't want to know anything about gnomes right now. I wanted to do that page at a time thing and gnomes weren't high on my list.
I had been studying Marcie for the last few minutes. Despite what she said, I suspect she wasn't quite herself. The closest thing I could come to describing it was that she was subdued. As if her mind was somewhere else. Or her spirit.
I wanted to help her, but I didn't know what to do. I didn't even know what to say. I knew that if I asked her again, she would respond with a smile and say something like, “Oh no, I truly am fine.”
We both knew that was a lie.
Other than my acute hearing, I hadn't suffered any side effects of being transfused twice. I was afraid, however, that the transfusion had affected Marcie, and not in a good way.
"Has Maddock bothered you again?”
She looked startled at the question. Placing her cup on the table between us, she said, “No. But he knows that we have a great many weapons at our disposal, things that would make it very uncomfortable, if not painful, for him to approach the castle.”
Maybe I should invest in some of those things for Graystone, just to be on the safe side. I made a mental note to talk to Dan about protecting my home.
I had stuck my cell phone in my pocket and it vibrated now. I excused myself and took a peek at the screen thinking — or maybe hoping — that it was Mark. Instead, it was Derek.
Was he calling to apologize? All is forgiven, Torrance, come home.
"Go ahead and take it," Marcie said, standing. “I’ll be right back.”
I answered. “Hello, Derek.”
“I just wanted to let you know that I got the paperwork done ahead of schedule. You can come by the clinic this afternoon. I'll leave the Partnership Dissolution Agreement with Marianne and she can witness your signature. Please don't use the employee entrance anymore. Have you surrendered your employee badge?”
“No.”
That one word was damn hard to say. Not only was I being cashiered out of the practice, but he was stripping me of my epaulets and cutting off my uniform buttons. At least I could avoid Derek and surrender my sword — or employee badge — to Marianne.
“Thank you,” I said. “I’ll be there this afternoon.”
The quicker the whole thing was over, the better.
I hung up the phone and sat waiting for Marcie to return. When she did, she was looking pale, almost wan. She made it to the chair, reaching for her tea cup.
I reached over and poured her some more tea from the insulated teapot, sat back, and watched her.
My walking lie detector ability was kicking in.
"You're pregnant," I said.
Now that was a shock. Not because I had any say over Marcie's family planning, but because she had given me a transfusion two weeks ago.
"Marcie, are you certain you're okay?”
She understood what I was asking. Had the transfusion hurt the baby in any way? Why the hell had she come to my rescue?
No wonder Dan had been so furious.
"He doesn't know," she said. "Not yet. I wanted to put a little time between me and the transfusion before I told him.”
I occasionally forgot that Marcie could hear my thoughts.
"Well, I don't want to be anywhere in his vicinity when you do tell him.”
She smiled faintly. “It’s not your fault, Torrance. It was my decision.”
I loved her for it. I wouldn't be sitting here right now if it hadn't been for her. She and Antonia had saved me. How could I ever hope to repay her?
She leaned her head back against the wing chair and closed her eyes.
"You can be my friend," she said. "I have so few of those that I can count them on the fingers of one hand.”
Before I could answer that I’d always be her friend she said, “Tell me what's bothering you.”
I took a deep breath, released at, and wondered where to start. What came out of my mouth first surprised me, but then it shouldn't have. My emotions were involved, more than at any other time in my life.
"Mark’s left again. Not left, left, but he's off doing things he can't tell me about. He's been gone three days now and I miss him.”
She opened her eyes, turned her head and studied me.
"Do you feel what you do for him because he's like you? Or is it something different?”
What a question.
“I lusted after him before I even knew what he was," I said, giving her the truth. "Then I began to like him, again before I knew that he was a Were and Pranic. So, I guess the answer is maybe a combination of both.” I waved my hand in the air. "I don't want you to think that he hasn't called, because he has. But I need more than a phone call. I need his physical presence. I want his physical presence. Besides, I sleep better when he’s in the bed beside me.”
"The males of our species hold us in such thrall," she said with a smile. “It’s the simple things, like sleeping together that are so important. Sometimes, I like just sitting in a room with Dan, knowing he's close, being able to look up and see him there.”
"I think I'm in love," I said. I hadn't planned to say that, but I felt better once I did, almost as if it were a boil I needed to lance.
"Then congratulations and may I express my condolences?”
We shared an amused glance.
It hurt to be in love. It was a bone deep ache, one that I hadn't anticipated. Yet at the same time my emotions felt like they had wings and could soar to the heavens.
In other words, I was a wreck.
"What else, Torrance?”
I pulled out the orange earplugs. "Is there anything you can do about my super duper hearing? It’s getting worse every day.”
She nodded slowly. "I can teach you a spell to use," she said.
“A spell?” I didn't have any witchy abilities.
Marcie smiled. "You forget, you’re part witch.”
Hell, I had forgotten. Witch, Vampire, Were.
Lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my.