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  Chapter 3

  Later that evening, alone in my small apartment, I felt lost. The shock from the events of the day was starting to wear off and I wandered through the place on auto pilot, not really thinking about what I was doing. I took a long shower, cleaning off the grime from the trail. Though I couldn't see anything, I felt like I was covered in sweat and dust. The hot water helped to clear my mind.

  It was while I was shaving my legs in the shower that I noticed that the pinkish marks I’d shown Bill just a couple of hours earlier, all that had been left from the snake bite at the time, had disappeared. My skin no longer bore any trace of the event that I knew would change my life forever. I had mixed feelings about it, a part of me thought there should be some kind of physical mark left after such a life-altering event, but another part was just glad not to be reminded of it every time I saw the marks.

  I went to bed early, completely exhausted. I quickly fell asleep, but my sleep was restless. I dreamt of snakes, wolves, and snakes that turned into wolves and spoke to me. I woke several times trying to escape the disturbing dreams among other things. More than once I could have sworn I heard something, things that I knew I couldn't possibly be hearing. Voices, conversations in the apartments surrounding mine, footsteps in the gravel that surrounded my building two floors down from my apartment. Each time something woke me I would hold still and listen closely for a moment, trying to hear the sound again, but heard nothing. It was like the sounds kept disappearing. I told myself I was imagining things and after a while I just ignored whatever noise had woken me and rolled over and went back to sleep.

  Despite having gotten into bed early, I ended up sleeping late the next morning. The restless night left me groggy but not particularly tired. I got up and started moving around late that morning, but I wasn't really thinking about what I was doing. I was planning to meet my friend Isabel for lunch and then together we were going to go shopping. I wanted to look for some new boots to go with the shorts I planned to wear dancing that night. My mind was on my plans for the day and what shops I wanted to check for the boots I had in mind, as they might be difficult to find in the area.

  Absently, I reached into the cabinet and grabbed a glass, I was filling it with water in the sink when it shattered in my hand, splattering water and glass all over the sink and leaving a small shard of glass embedded in the meaty part of my palm at the base of my thumb. All thoughts of shopping gone, I gingerly pulled the tiny piece glass free and dropped it into the sink with the rest of the pieces of the glass. I stuck my hand under faucet and used the still running water to wash the excess blood away from the cut so I could see exactly how bad it was.

  I wondered briefly if this was something that I could deal with myself or if I needed to call someone for help. What I could see of the wound told me that the cut wasn't large, but it did appear to be fairly deep, and it was bleeding quite a bit, though not spurting. I decided to try applying pressure to the wound and see if the bleeding stopped, if it didn’t, I'd call someone. I pulled a clean napkin from the drawer next to the sink and wet it, so I could check the wound without pulling any forming scab away, and covered the cut. I pressed my hands tightly together, using that pressure to try to stop the bleeding. Using my elbow, I slide one of the chairs away from my small dining table and I sat down and waited.

  After two or three minutes I gingerly lifted the corner of the cloth off my palm. Turning my hand until the light hit it, I about fell out of my seat when I realized that not only had the bleeding stopped, but there was no longer any sign of the cut. Unable to believe what I was seeing I went to the sink, washed the quickly drying blood from my hands and checked again. Sure enough, there was no sign at all of where the glass had cut me. I went into my bedroom where I had plugged in my PCD when I unpacked my backpack the night before and I called Bill.

  I heard the line ringing on the other end and hoped he would answer. A wave of relief washed over me when I heard the deep rumbling "Hello?" on the other end. My knees sagged and I sat on the edge of my bed while I spoke.

  "Bill? It's Nickie." I heard a slight tremble in my own voice

  "Hello Nickie. How are you doing this morning?"

  "Honestly, I'm a little freaked out right now..."

  "Oh? What's happened?"

  "I accidentally broke a glass this morning, apparently I just squeezed it too hard."

  "I should have warned you about that, I hope you weren't hurt."

  "Well, that's kinda the thing. I was, but I'm not," I was on the verge of rambling, but I managed to keep from blurting out everything running through my mind.

  "All right…care to elaborate?" His voice was calm but concerned.

  I took a deep breath and let it out, trying to calm myself.

  "What I mean is I had a shard of glass stuck in my hand. I pulled it out and ran water over it to see how bad the cut was, just as I normally would have. The cut didn't look too bad, no more than half an inch long but I could tell it was deep, so I put pressure on it to stop the bleeding, again like I normally would have. This is where it gets weird. I only held the pressure on it for a little bit, maybe, two or three minutes and when I lifted the cloth to check on the bleeding, the cut was gone. Like it had never happened. I might have thought I had imagined it, except there was still blood all over my hand and on the cloth. Am I losing my mind?"

  "Not at all, small wounds heal quickly for most of us, but for it to be gone that quickly, it could mean that you'll be a fast healer, which can be both good and bad."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Well, I mean that it'll take a lot to hurt you seriously, which is good. But it can also put the secret of the Kitsune at risk. If a human sees a wound or injury and then hours or days later it’s gone, the secret could get out. Which, I’m sure you realize, wouldn’t be good."

  "I see...is there someone I should see about this?"

  "No, just continue as usual, but try to remember not to handle breakable things for a few days. Have you noticed anything else?"

  "I would swear I was hearing things last night, it woke me several times, but I thought it was just my imagination..."

  "What kind of things?"

  "People talking inside my neighbor’s apartments, the gravel in the courtyard crunching under someone's foot, but my apartment is on the third floor. There is no way I could actually be hearing those things."

  "Actually, you probably were hearing them. Your hearing is starting to adjust. Eventually, your hearing will be much closer to a wolf's hearing than a human’s.

  “I didn't even think about your living in an apartment. You're now discovering why few of the Kindred live in apartments if they can help it. It's really hard to keep from hearing things you'd really prefer not to hear.

  “You broke the glass because it appears that you're gaining strength already as well. Kindred tend to be much stronger than the average person, and it will take some adjustment to get used to. I’d suggest that you see if you can take some time off work, a week or two would probably do. At least until you get used to your strength and hearing. You don't want to call attention to yourself by breaking things or commenting on conversations you shouldn't be able to hear."

  "I don't really see any other option, so I guess I'll go in first thing Monday morning and ask for some time off. We don't have anything big on the schedule for the next week or two so it shouldn't be a problem."

  "Good, if you get the time, come on over here when you leave the office and we'll talk about how things are going, and if you can’t get the time, just call and let me know."

  "Will do. Thanks for answering all my ditsy newbie questions."

  "Not a problem. I'm really glad you're handling this so well."

  "Well, what are my options? Go crazy? Have a nervous breakdown?" I laughed.

  "Pretty much."

  "No thanks. Not my style. Oh, I was gonna ask. Should the snake bite have healed completely already?"

  "You mean to a scar?"
<
br />   "No, not even a scar, it's totally gone."

  "Hmm, it's a little faster than I had expected, but not unheard of."

  "So nothing's wrong then?"

  "No. Not with the healing, or anything else that I’m aware of. Just be careful handling breakable objects for a while, until you learn to control your growing strength."

  "I will. I guess I'll talk to you later then, Bye."

  "Bye," Bill said, and I hit the end button to disconnect the call before I set down my PCD and went to clean up the mess I’d left in the sink.

  I met Izzy at a local Mexican restaurant for lunch. It was one of those little mom and pop restaurants you can find pretty much anywhere in the southwest. It had a generic decor of walls painted a burnt orange color, and sombreros, ponchos and guitars hanging on the walls, along with a few of the mandatory desert scene paintings scattered around the place. The decor may have been a bit cliche but the food was some of the best of its kind in town. Izzy and I usually take turns picking where we eat, when we have the time to get together, and this was one of her favorite places.

  I'd already been seated at a table and was busy perusing a menu, trying to decide what I wanted to eat when she arrived, a few minutes late, as usual. As Izzy moved around me and sat down in the booth seat across from me I noticed that she carried the scent of warm chocolate with her. I wondered for a moment why she would eat chocolate before lunch, but quickly dismissed the thought.

  "Hey, Girl, how've you been?" I asked, laying my menu against the table between us.

  "Good, busy as ever. You?" She smiled.

  "You know me. Work, play, family, it never ends." I wanted badly to share the most recent events but knew I couldn’t.

  "Speaking of family, how's that sexy brother of yours? Still single?" She wiggled her brows at me.

  "You must be thinking of some other friend. I don't have any sexy brothers, just annoying ones," I pretended ignorance but knowing what she was doing. Raine is just a year older than we are and Izzy has been drooling over him since we were teenagers.

  "You know exactly who I mean, Missy." She gave me a mock scowl.

  "Raine's good. As far as I know he's not dating anyone but that could just mean he's not serious, or that he doesn't want to be teased about it." I knew he wasn’t interested in Izzy, but I didn’t know how to tell her it was a lost cause.

  "I don't know how the six of you manage to tease and torment each other the way you do and keep from being angry at each other all the time."

  "We know it's all in fun. The teasing and laughter is how we bonded as kids, making the new kid laugh by picking at the others was a game with us. I'm sure it drove Mom crazy some days but it's part of who we are."

  "You're family still amazes me. Not just the six kids, but four of you adopted, and to have a group like that as tight as you are. It's really amazing." The scent of chilies caught my attention as Izzy spoke, but I ignored it while I paid attention to our conversation.

  "We've all been really lucky. But how's your family? Your mom, how's she doing?"

  The young, blond waitress came to take our orders. I caught a hint of caramel in the air as I ordered an enchilada plate. After Izzy chose the chimichanga, enchilada style the waitress left us alone again.

  "She's had a hard time since Dad passed away. I mean, we knew it was coming, but now she's alone in the house and it's really hard for her. I'm trying to convince her to take a trip, maybe go visit Aunt Inez in Texas. If I can get her to leave, then my sister and I can get in there and box up Dad's stuff, and I think that might help her. His clothes still hang in the closet next to hers because she just can't handle boxing them up."

  As Izzy spoke of her father's passing away and how her mother was handling it I caught an unfamiliar scent, one that I couldn't place. Something about the strange scent caused an echo of her sadness to run through me.

  "That has to be hard. I can't imagine having to go through that."

  "It definitely hasn't been easy, but I think if we can get some of his stuff out of the house she might be able to move on."

  "Won't she get more upset when she comes back and finds it all gone?"

  "She might be a little, but she's been saying that she needs to clean out the closet, she just can't bear to do it. I can't imagine how hard it must be for her to see his clothes every day and to have that reminder that he's not coming back. His recliner in the living room next hers, now forever empty. And we're not going to get rid of anything right away, just box it up and put it in storage."

  "I think that's a good idea. Give her some time to heal with it out of sight, then she can decide what she wants to do with it all."

  "Yeah, well, we have to convince her to take the trip first, and that's proving not to be as easy as I had hoped."

  "Have you considered calling your aunt and having her call your mom and asking her to come out and help with something?"

  "That hadn't occurred to me. I'll have to call Aunt Inez and see if we can come up with something."

  The waitress appeared beside the table carrying our plates, she set them down in front of us and my nose was assaulted with the odors of the beef and beans, the spices in the rice and the chilies in the sauce. I couldn't speak for a moment because of the sensory overload. I picked up my plastic cup of iced tea and took a long drink to cover my distress.

  "Is there anything else I can get for you?" The waitress asked. I just shook my head, still unable to speak, while Izzy answered.

  "I think we're good for now. Thanks,"

  We spoke little while we ate and as we left the restaurant we both got into my car, leaving Izzy's car parked at the restaurant for the time being. We went to several chain stores first with no luck, before we decided we’d have to switch to boutique shops if we had any hope of finding anything like the boots I had pictured in mind. I wanted something at least knee high but possibly as tall as mid-thigh, and with at least three-inch heels, in good, black leather if I could get it. They would be spendy but a good quality pair of boots would last years, and that would make them worth the money.

  As soon as I walked in the door of the first boot and shoe shop the harsh scent of chemicals in the air almost overwhelmed me. I hesitated at the door a moment before stepping inside, I’d been in this shop too many times to count and I’d never smelled anything like this before, it confused me. It made me want to snort or sneeze to try to clear the scent from my nose. It was all I could do to keep my distaste of the strong odor off my face while we browsed through the store's selection. I spotted a pair of boots that were kind of close to but not quite what I wanted, and asked the clerk to bring out a pair in my size so that I could try them on, even though I was afraid they weren't nearly as tall as I wanted. The slender blond girl was smiling pleasantly when she brought me the box. I sat down and rested the box on my lap to open it.

  I lifted the lid and a burst of scent rushed into my face, that first blast of scent hits your nose when you break the seal on a package of coffee. It was the same chemical smell that had hit me when we walked into the store. Suddenly I knew, it wasn't the store itself that suddenly had a new smell, but rather it was my nose picking up scents that I’d never even noticed before. It was a struggle, but I did my best to ignore it.

  I slid my feet into the boots and zipped closed the zipper that ran up the back of my calves to where the boots stopped before standing and walking around to see how they felt on my feet. I rocked back and forth, flexing the muscles in my feet, trying to get a feel for how they would wear over time and trying to determine if they felt good enough to overlook the fact that they weren't anywhere near as tall as I wanted as they only came up to mid-calf on me.

  When I turned back toward Isabel to ask her opinion, I heard it, a quiet voice I couldn't place, "Come on, just get 'em, it's time for my lunch and I want out of here!" I glanced around, unsure if someone had slipped up behind me and was playing a joke but the only other person, besides Izzy and I, in the shop was the cle
rk who had gotten the boots for me, and she was standing back at the counter where she had been when we walked in. She appeared busy with something on the counter but I could tell she was watching us out of the corner of her eye. I wondered briefly if she’d made the comment before I decided to ignore her and turned back to Isabel, pretending I hadn't heard anything. "What do you think?"

  She made a considering face for a moment before she answered.

  "Well, they're not really what you wanted, but they look good. If you want those, get them. Or we can always keep looking, and come back if we don't find anything better." I walked over to the full-length mirror again and looked them over from several angles while I considered them. I liked them but they just weren't what I wanted. They wouldn't complete the outfit I had in mind, they would merely go with it. Deciding not to get them, I took the boots off and carefully put them back in the box the way I had found them. I thanked the clerk and told her they weren't quite what I had in mind but that I’d be back if I changed my mind and we left the shop without my hearing any other strange comments.

  Our next stop was another boutique shop. This time I was prepared for the harsh chemical smell and it didn't bother me quite so badly. I got lucky and in this shop I found a great pair of boots. They were almost exactly what I had in mind, only even better. These were black leather, had three and a half inch heels, they came up to mid-thigh and they fit me perfectly. Better than anything I’d imagined. When I tried them on, I noticed that the leather was a little stiff but I knew it would soften with a little wear and I knew it meant it was a good quality leather that would last well and be worth the price. I was so glad to have found them, because it meant no more shops with the harsh chemical smell and that, best yet, I wouldn't need to go back to the first shop where I probably would have seen the girl who seemed to be muttering rude things behind me.

  Having found my boots didn’t have any more shopping to do, Izzy and I decided to split up until later and we went back to our own places, agreeing to meet at nine at the nightclub we’d picked out for our evening's fun. I dropped her off at her car before I drove home.

  Once I reached my third floor apartment, I thumbed the lock on the door and stepped inside. As soon as I closed the door behind me I dropped my shopping bag just inside and started immediately stripping. I suddenly felt the need to shower right away. I had to wash off all the random scents I could still smell clinging to my skin from the things and people I had encountered today, plus it would give my hair a chance to dry before I had to style it.

  I was in the shower when I opened the bottle of shampoo I’d been using for the last couple of weeks, I was overwhelmed by the strong scent coming from what I had previously thought was only lightly scented product. I struggled for a minute with the window above the tub surround. I finally managed to break the seal that had formed when the sill had been painted over before I moved in, and let some fresh air in to the room, or rather, letting some of the heavily perfumed air in the bathroom out the window. Even then, I rushed the rest of my shower in order to escape the room before the perfumes could give me a headache.

  I dressed in a light weight soft green tank top and darker green shorts in a slightly heavier fabric to wear around the house, just in case someone should knock on the door or I should need to step outside for some reason before I got dressed to go out. I had a couple of hours until then and I still had to eat, I didn't want to risk getting anything on my dancing clothes.

  It was as I was standing in front of the mirror brushing the tangles out of my shoulder length hair so that it could dry, that I noticed the small scar near the my hairline. It was a left over from when I'd run into a low hanging limb while chasing Cameron when I was about six. I'd had to have six stitches to close the wound and I still smiled at the memory of milking it for all the sympathy I could get from my older brother, who’d felt guilty for having been teasing me to begin with. It wasn't really something I paid much attention to anymore but it seemed smaller than it had been. I would have sworn it was at least an inch long, and now it seemed to be only slightly over half an inch. I'd have to remember to ask someone about that.

  I met Izzy outside the front door of The Spark the dance club was the current hottest spot in town. It was located a bit out of the way, about twenty minutes east of town, but it was worth the drive. You could count on the music to be the latest and hottest dance mixes and the crowd was always ready for some fun.

  I'd dressed carefully for the evening, in short, black leather hot pants that left several inches of bare thigh between the bottom of the shorts that appeared to be painted on and the tops of my new boots, I’d paired them with a leather halter top the color of fresh blood. Normally I couldn't have gotten away with a halter top, I'm just too top heavy go without wearing a bra, and even a halter bra's straps always manage show, I find that tacky and I refuse to go out in public wearing my underwear on display. But I'd recently found that with leather tops the leather's stiff enough that it contains and shapes my bust quite effectively. Izzy was dressed in pastels of silk and lace, a cute little pale pink summer dress with spaghetti straps and lots of ruffles and flounces. If it weren't for the low cut of her neckline and the short length of her skirt, the dress could have been made for a little girl. I couldn't have worn it, but she had that petite body that not only pulled it off, but made it look good. Standing together, we looked like contestants in a naughty and nice outfit contest.

  We paid the cover charge and stopped at the bar to get a couple drinks on our way to the dance floor. I asked for a fruity blended drink. It was something that didn't have a high alcohol content but would give me something cool to drink for a little while as we would be finding a table so that we could sit and scope out who all had showed up for a bit before moving out on to the dance floor. I wanted to get a feel for the attitude of the place before I got involved in it.

  It was about nine thirty when they cranked up the music to get everyone dancing. Don't get me wrong, it was already loud just not nightclub loud. When they turned it up I began to feel as though I had been jammed inside one of the speakers. I could feel the music vibrate through me and at times I felt deafened by the beat of the drums, but I was determined to ignore it and enjoy the night with Izzy. The music hadn't been turned loud for more than a song or two when I finished my drink. I set the empty glass on the table for the waitress to pick up on her next round and I moved out onto the dance floor.

  The floor was already crowded, most people were dancing without partners or just as often in pairs or groups of friends, but there were only a few couples, at least so far, but it was still early. As I danced my way toward the middle of the dance floor I watched the people around me while I moved to the beat of the music that made me feel like my entire body was moving on its own. I could smell the strong odor of alcohol, the scent of sweaty bodies as they moved in the tight space, and the even stronger aromas of the colognes and perfumes that people surrounding me were wearing. I blocked it out and focused on the music and moving my body to the rhythm.

  I was almost completely absorbed in the song and my dancing when it started. I heard *Geez, I can't stand him, I can't wait till I can escape this night from hell and go home!* As if someone had whispered it into my ear. I turned, looking to see if someone had snuck up behind me and whispered in my ear, and that's when I realized, it couldn't be someone speaking to me, it had been whispered, not yelled, and there was no way a whisper would be heard in here, not with the music this loud. Even speaking normally was impossible to hear in here. It had to have been inside my head, but that wasn't possible.

  I'd almost decided that I must have imagined it when another voice echoed through my head *I'm going to find the hottest guy here and take him home, I'll make that sorry ass pay for sleeping with that skanky whore!* I knew this couldn’t be something as easy to explain as my hearing improving. It was almost as though I was hearing people's thoughts, but I wondered how that could be possible. Unable to come to a defi
nitive conclusion that made sense to me, I did my best to ignore the phenomenon and went on with my dancing.

  A few minutes later I jumped several inches when Izzy came up behind me and tapped my shoulder to get my attention. I turned and smiled at her realizing she was just letting me know she was joining me on the floor and she started dancing to the blasting music beside me. We danced together for a few songs and then we sat down at another empty table to catch our breath for a few minutes. We caught the attention of a passing waitress and ordered ourselves new drinks. We shouted back and forth for a few minutes but soon gave up and made only occasional comments to each other about the people around us and how some of them were dressed or acting.

  I left the money for my drink and tip with Izzy and made a quick trip to the ladies room. While I was washing my hands and checking my make up in the mirror it happened again. I heard a quiet voice in my head just as I had several times today, *What on earth is he thinking? I can't believe he just said that to me!* I was no longer surprised by the occasional bits that ran through my head, and I didn't even bother to look around me. Besides, it could have been any one of several women checking their reflections in the bathroom mirrors, I didn’t want to try to figure it out, I just quickly dried my hands and went back out to join Izzy.

  When I got back to our table I found that our drinks had arrived, I picked mine up off the table and took a sip as I sat down beside her, "Did I miss anything good?" I shouted to her as I leaned back in the padded bench seat and rested the hand holding my glass on my thigh.

  "Nah, nothing worth mentioning," She replied, her eyes still on the crowd in front of us. Half the reason we go out is the fun of people watching. It gives us something to talk about for weeks, with what some people will do while drinking and dancing. As I watched the crowd become more flamboyant as they became more intoxicated, I noticed that I wasn't feeling any of the usual effects from the alcohol. Generally by now I would be at least a little fuzzy, not drunk, but not sober either. But I wasn't feeling any of it. It was as if I were drinking water.

  It took me a little bit longer than Izzy to finish this round, and she motioned to me that she was going to head out on to the dance floor when she set her empty drink down. I nodded my understanding as she moved into the crowd of bodies in the middle of the room. The crowd was much larger now than it had been when we arrived and the group on the dance floor was now about half couples and half singles or groups of dancers.

  I finished my second drink and set my glass down on the table, moving to join Izzy on the dance floor. I was walking out on the dance floor when one of the women already on the floor bumped into me, as she hit me I heard another voice in my head, *Shake it, Baby! Maybe I can talk this hottie into going home with me tonight!* I didn't know if it was the woman who bumped into me and I didn't care anymore, between the voices in my head and the music beating through my body I wasn't sure how much longer I could take it.

  I danced a few more songs with Izzy and motioned her to a somewhat quiet section of the bar.

  "Iz, I just can't take anymore. I'm sorry to do this to you but I've got a massive headache and the music's only making it worse. I've got to get out of here."

  "Do you want to go somewhere else?"

  "No, you stay, enjoy yourself. Tell me what I miss. I just want to get home and go to bed. Hopefully this will fade before morning."

  "I'm sorry you're not feeling good, but I understand. Go, get some rest. Call me when you can and we'll get together."

  "I'll call soon, I promise," I said, giving her a hug.

  I wound my way out of the club and out to the parking lot to find my car. I always park directly under a light, so that it's harder for someone to sneak up on me but tonight I found that as I walked out into the dark night that I could see almost as clearly as if it were daylight. I sat behind the wheel for a moment, dropping my head backward until it hit the headrest of the seat as I reveled in the near silence. I could still hear the music from the club, but it was faint and muffled instead of beating its way through my body.

  I realized later that it was a good thing that my headlights are automatic, because I might have forgotten to turn them on for the drive home, the night just didn't seem as dark to me as it normally did.

  Once I was back at my apartment I took an over-the-counter pain killer, showered again because I couldn't stand the feeling of my makeup and hair products while I slept, and crawled into bed to try to relax enough to get the pounding headache to go away.