part0009

She hoped they had fun. She supposed there was a small risk, but nothing too bad. Allison didn’t look anything like the videos thanks to the spells she’d taught her, and Carl wasn’t that prevalent in the repeats online and didn’t really look all that much like Carl anymore. Not only was his face subtly different, but he also looked a couple of years younger. It was probably sexist, but even more than that, the videos online and even the news media seemed to run footage of her, Allison, Meri, and of course Jenna, more than they did the men.

She itched for a good fight, but on balance was glad no more predatory soul eaters or rogue witches or shifters had come into town. She imagined it would only be a matter of time until word of her existence and abilities spread, and they’d start to avoid Chicago altogether. She’d have to convince the team to move on when that happened.

Most cities, the smarter predators could slip in, take a few victims, and move on before the team noticed. It was only in her case where she could feel an evil and sadistic predatory rogue as soon as they entered her range on the life-web. All the other teams would have to wait for at least one human death, and then hunt them down once their witch got a lock on them.

In the past, her and her team had been more mobile. Instead of installing teams in likely hunting grounds, they went out hunting. She didn’t see why they couldn’t get on the road and go from city to city cleaning them all out. That wouldn’t really work for any other teams, who needed a murder or two as a lead, but it would work for her. Not that she disliked the way they did it now, and in a more modern society it made a certain amount of sense.

She’d bring up the idea eventually, probably when Chicago stopped drawing rogues because of her presence.

For all their earlier complaints about technology, it was ironic to her that it also made hunting easier as well. Teams could be shifted quickly to nearby cities in an emergency, while just fifty years ago they’d never have learned about Jenna until it was too late. They were plugged into all those databases they’d been complaining about, and they could find a rogue quickly that way in a city that didn’t have a permanent team presence.

In the past, before the technology, whole towns and communities would’ve been wiped out before word reached a hunter in another town or city. So in that way at least, this new advanced world was a blessing.

The rest of the team had dinner in that night. Carl, before he’d left for his date, had made a leg of lamb, asparagus spears, and mashed potatoes that were sinfully delicious, with cheddar, sour cream, butter, and bacon bits. She was pleasantly stuffed when they were done eating and enjoying an Irish coffee.

She’d caught Jacob looking at her surreptitiously several times throughout the meal, and she suspected he’d been looking for signs of his Lily. She decided they’d need to have that conversation soon, the physical attraction and compatibility between them hadn’t changed at all, but there were obviously some things to work out. Problem was, she wasn’t sure there was anything she could do about it, except give him the time to come to terms with the slight changes. She didn’t feel any different, but in his eyes she obviously was.

More than that, their relationship had just gone through a major change at the same time. People acted differently when they became lovers and started sharing a bed. So yeah, was he detecting changes in her because of the memories, or misinterpreting changes of behavior in how she treated him because she’d joined his bed. She decided she was thinking too hard on that, but that didn’t stop her worrying over it either.

It didn’t help that her body wanted his in that moment either, and it’d only been ten hours or so since they’d heated up the sheets last. She knew sex would be a bad base for their relationship, and it wasn’t that, but the true foundation had a few cracks in it. It was all… complicated.

Meri asked, “Any updates?”

Jacob shook his head, “Not outside of our new IDs and badges. We should have them in three days. We’re already in the system, so that shouldn’t be an issue again.”

Meri nodded, “Any plans for tonight, the Blackhawks are playing the Bluejackets.”

Jacob snorted, “Are you ever serious?”

Meri shook her head, “Not since eighteen fifty-six.”

She asked, “What was in eighteen fifty-six?”

Meri smirked, “It was when I met my mate and we decided we couldn’t possibly be on the same team. We’d wind up killing each other with our overprotectiveness. I was so uptight you wouldn’t have recognized me, and you would’ve asked me about the stick in my ass. You’ll meet him in a couple of weeks by the way, I’m feeling itchy and I miss him.”

Meri said, “Seriously though, I’m feeling penned in. Nothing to hunt, can’t go outside…” she trailed off, shifters weren’t usually whiners either.

She imagined she’d be feeling much the same way without Jacob as an outlet for her… energy, and of course their relationship was shiny and new. She imagined Jace and Cinna were similar of thought that way, they certainly spent enough time together in the bedroom, and Caroline never went anywhere anyway, outside of visiting the Chicago Coven.

Shifters weren’t exactly sedentary people. She’d seen the problem before, and things would get tense in the house if it wasn’t nipped in the bud. The team got along and cared about each other, but they could easily start sniping and go stir crazy. Normally not so quickly, but the enforced solitude because of the news was making it worse.

“What’d you have in mind?”

Meri smirked, “Don’t know.”

Jacob tilted his head, “We could get out of the city, go for a run in one of the nearby state parks.”

Jace perked up at hearing that, and Cinna giggled.

She replied, “That could be fun. Or we could prowl the city as cats.”

Shifters didn’t really need to shift to animals to run or hunt like in the fictional books, but it was a great way to release some frustration and burn off energy. So was the bedroom, but that couldn’t be her answer for everything, and it wouldn’t have helped Meri. Her body didn’t seem convinced, but she ignored it. One thing she didn’t have was any sexual hang ups, she was the first woman and it was a very natural thing, no upbringing to shame that very natural inclination. She was loyal to her current lover, but otherwise had a very healthy appetite that way. Even after years of being with a mate she was that way, but if anything, it was even more appealing just then, in the beginning of a relationship.

God made her that way, so she was almost positive he didn’t mind.

That said, she wasn’t a slave to her appetites either, and the team always came first. There was no resentment at the idea at all, she was looking forward to it.

Besides, there was always later that night, when they got back.

Meri said, “The forest sounds better to me.”

She shrugged, both sounded good to her. She enjoyed the city prowling too, it was a great way to get the pulse of an area, without being seen or suspected. She wasn’t sure how healthy that was, but she’d gained a few voyeuristic tendencies after being locked below the Earth for thirty-five thousand years. Not sexually, she was just nosier now than before the time she was buried. She loved to people watch. She could live her own life again, but that didn’t change the fact she’d lived vicariously through animals and had watched the humans in the area for thousands of years. Perhaps it was conceit, but in her own way she’d watched over them as well.

It probably wasn’t all that healthy, but then it was a miracle she wasn’t nuts. It’d be a surprise if she didn’t have a few odd quirks given her life.

Cinna said, “I’ll stay and hang with Caroline, you four have fun chasing rabbits.”

Caroline replied, “We can catch up on our Netflix.”

Jacob said, “Sounds like a plan. Cougars or black bears are common in this area, in the state park about an hour south from here I mean. Wolves are not.”

She felt the excitement in the room at the idea of just letting loose for a while and having fun. Changing would also dull their human instincts, and the open air and woods would give them a sense of freedom. She just hoped it wouldn’t remind her of her time trapped under the ground, she’d done a lot of roaming that way to escape it.

Of course, taking over a cougar or bear as a witch over the life-web was subtly different than actually being one as a shifter.

“Let’s clear the table first.”

Usually it was whoever was on food week was responsible for that as well, but with Carl out on a date he’d kill them if they let the leftovers go bad.

She finished off her coffee, and she felt pleasantly warm. She wasn’t even buzzed, just slightly relaxed. Another silly legend about the shifters in popular fiction, that they couldn’t get drunk. They could shift their metabolism, which meant she could sober up extremely fast, but it also meant they could slow it down.

Cinna grinned, “Don’t scare the campers.”

Jace sighed long-sufferingly, “That’s the best part.”

She was fairly sure he was teasing.

They cleared the table, put up the food, and then the four of them headed out to the car.

They all had a blast that night, and they played as the great cat’s smaller cousins. Jacob and Jace as bobcats, Meri as a cougar, and she chose a black lynx. They climbed trees, jumped from tree to tree in the branches, raced around, mock fought, which was pretty much just a normal fight with claws retracted, and even got a little silly.

The one thing they didn’t do was terrorize the campers, or to try to steal their food. They gave the humans and the camping sites wide berth, which was easy to do in thousands of square miles of wilderness.

It was also a reminder to her, the teams weren’t just hunters of evil, her and the rest of them needed to take a step back every once in a while, and simply enjoy life. Who needed the nightlife of a city, when they had the world to play in?

It would also be an easy escape, if the humans found out about them and things went badly. Shifters could disappear easily that way. It’d be harder for witches and soul eaters, but as a rule in this new world only the evil rogues hunted. Allison was the exception, when she’d heard about the past she’d joined them in the active fight, and most witches and soul eaters could easily just pass as human.

So could shifters come to that, except those would be the most likely to be in the spotlight, when they took down the evil predators of their world.