All Hail the Shifter King
Title: Lords of Kensington, Part 12
Word Count: 2534
Note: So I'm finally introducing shapeshifters in my shapeshifter novel. Yay?
"It got dark quick," Katrina observed as they got out of the car, her boots scrunching the frozen crust on top of the undisturbed snow. The long driveway to the school was barricaded by a giant wrought iron gate, forcing them to park on the street and make the long walk across the huge lawn to the dark building. A light now was falling as she closed her door, just enough to leave a thin powder on her dark jacket - she tugged on her gloves and straightened her scarf as they started the walk, then laced her fingers in Ryder's. "Thank you, by the way."
"For what?"
"For being so well-behaved around my parents today."
"It's not hard," he told her. "They're very likeable people."
"You think so?" she asked, trying hard to hide her shock and failing. When he raised an eyebrow at her, she waved her hand, trying to find the words. "Most people usually think they're... kind of weird. And I know you're not much of a people person and -"
"I think I'm the last person to judge someone for weirdness," he quipped, squeezing her hand. With the pale grey of his jacket and his shocking white hair, he looked almost like a ghost in the surrounding darkness. "I'm serious, though. I like them. Except..." He paused, tilted his head to one side, then chuckled. "Your mother is very... huggy." Katrina snorted a laugh at this, the sound awfully loud in the still air.
"God, she is, isn't she?" She released his hand so she could sling her arm, almost ironically, around his waist. "You were awfully gracious about it."
"That's good, I suppose."
"Except for that one moment where you looked about to bite her."
"That obvious?"
"That obvious," she agreed.
"Damn. Guess I need to work on my poker face."
"Possibly," she giggled, and tilted her head to look up at the sky, blinking as the tiny snowflakes landed on her eyelashes. The moon was enormous through the breaks in the clouds, casting them in a soft grey-white light and making the snow glow around them. "They really like you," she said quietly. "Well, Mom does. I'm assuming Daddy does too, since you were gone so long." She glanced over at him. "What were you two doing, anyway?"
"Talking about his cats."
"His... really?"' She clapped her free hand over her face. "God, I'm sorry. He really loves those things."
"The goofy looking one, Victor? It's a puelmi. I've never seen one in captivity before." He stepped around a tree stump that protruded from the snow, capped with a perfect mound of white. "They're native to a very small jungle near Pastor's Point, which is about two days north of Rion Fell. Their name is an old Fel'danai word, meaning 'bread thief'. They used to steal bread from the markets, loaves of it."
"The cats ate bread?"
"No. They used it to lure rats. Even now, you can walk through Pastor's Point and see chunks of bread loaves lying in the alleyways. It's considered bad luck to move them." He chuckled and ran a hand back through his hair. "Your father seemed awfully excited that I knew anything about them."
"Yeah, he would be." She leaned against him, and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "And I guess that's what passes as male bonding, for Daddy. Crazy cat man." She shook her head, laughing softly. "Thank you for humoring him."
"I wasn't humoring him. He's a very interesting man. Extremely educated."
"He is... oh. Speaking of which." She pulled away from him and stopped in her tracks, crossing her arms over her chest. "Thanks for the surprise, Mister Educated."
"What?"
"Since when are you a physicist?" she asked.
"Since a while ago."
"I'm serious, Ryder."
"So am I," he told her. "I finished my doctorate four years ago."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Why didn't you ever ask?" When she just glared at him - as right as he was, she hated when he answered her questions with questions - he shrugged and stuck his hands in his pockets, actually seeming uncomfortable with the questions. "I don't like making a show of it. It's not for bragging rights."
"Then what's it for?"
"Curing boredom, mostly."
"And here I was thinking you were just acting like a smartass," she said, relenting and taking his hand again so they could continue their walk.
"The degree doesn't make a difference there," he joked.
"Good point." She stared down at her feet for a few steps, studying the perfect impressions she made in the snow as she walked. "I hated lying to them like that," she finally said, quietly. When Ryder didn't respond, she sighed heavily. "I mean, every kid lies to their parents, now and then, but... but I felt awful putting on a show for them like that today."
"It was necessary, though," he pointed out.
"That doesn't mean I'm okay with it. There was nothing honest I could tell them. Not about the camp, the job, the people, the... everything that happened." She looked over at him. "Not even about you."
"Nothing?"
"Aside from agreeing with my mother that you're pretty, no." When he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, clearly annoyed, she couldn't help but laugh. "Give her a break, she's a geneticist. She appreciates people who won the DNA lottery."
"If that's supposed to make me feel better, it's not."
"Most guys would enjoy being told they're attractive, you know."
"You didn't say I'm attractive. You said I'm pretty."
"I don't think you can really be classified by standards," she teased, and when he still seemed frustrated she laughed and gave him a shove, pushing him a few steps away. "Stop being so mournful," she told him. "There are worse fates than being beautiful." She waited for him to come back to her, but instead he stood where he was, staring into the woods on the opposite end of the lawn. "Hey," she called, and when he didn't face her, she walked up to him and tugged on the sleeve of his jacket. "Hey," she repeated. "Space cadet. Let's..." Her sentenced died in her throat when he lifted a hand to silence her, and she tried following his gaze into the darkness, tried to spot whatever it was he was seeing. They stood that way for several long seconds, their breath fogging the air in front of their faces, the world around them silent save the squeak and crunch of Katrina's boots as she shifted nervously from one foot to the other. She tugged at her gloves, then at the brim of her slouchy hat, then on the collar of her jacket, her unease growing with every passing moment. "Ryder," she whispered, "what do you -"
When the coin magic had flared to life in front of her eyes back at the gas station it had been dazzling in the muted greys of the moody morning clouds - in the deep darkness that surrounded them now it was absolutely blinding, the sheet of golden energy flickering rapidly as it caught the bolts that streaked from the trees toward them, the impacts creating a screeching buzz like an enormous bug zapper and filling the air with static. Katrina staggered back, twisting to shield her eyes, and felt Ryder's hands grasp her shoulders and shove her toward the school.
"Go!" he yelled, the wall of light letting out a loud kzzap as another flurry of bolts struck it, and she didn't wait to be told again - instinct kicked in and she set off at a sprint across the snow, bolting toward the building that seemed so painfully far away. And as the sound of the magic faded she could hear another terrifying sound rise up beneath it - a symphony of terrible roars and howls echoed from the treeline, and when she turned her head briefly in that direction she saw a wave of creatures bursting forth from the woods like a wave of insects, galloping across the snow toward her. They moved fast, faster than she did for certain, and when she realized that they would reach her before she could reach the school a surge of panic seared through her.
Oh God, she thought, her feet skidding on the snow as she tried to pick up the pace, her mind racing with images of feral shiftkin tearing her limb from limb, gnawing on her splintered bones. Oh God, please, please don't let me die like this, please don't -
A creature streaked out of the darkness some ten feet ahead and collided with her, sending her tumbling to the ground with the thing on top of her, snarling and snapping at her. Teeth snagged in the sleeve of her jacket and she stared up into a pair of golden-white eyes, set into the misshapen skull of what could have been a wolf had its pelt not been replaced by a sludgy black mess of dripping filth. The stench that rolled off it was horrific, the putrid aroma of meat gone to rot, and she gagged even as she kicked and squirmed beneath it, trying to get free. Its weight crushed the air from her lungs and she panted, desperate and terrified, shoving her hands into its slimy throat to keep the gnashing teeth from her face, turning her head to the side as it drooled and snapped at her skin. Dragonfly-like wings vibrated in the air above it, the hum so loud it blocked all other sounds from her ears save the rush of blood in her veins and the pitiful whimpers that escaped her.
The sudden impact against the tar-thing's body knocked what little breath she had left from her lungs, and as it was ripped away from her the talon-like nails of a front foot gouged a deep gash across her cheek, the blast of hot pain so intense she would have shrieked with pain had she not been gasping for breath. Her gloves were covered in the ooze from the thing's body so she peeled them off, clapping her bare, numb hands to her face as she rolled onto her side, her lungs burning. Just a few feet away the wolf-thing was lying on its side in the snow with its flank torn open, its innards steaming in the cold air and blood splattered across the snow in giant red arcs, and standing over it was an all-too-familiar creature with white pebbled flesh and gleaming mismatched eyes, crouched low as it let loose a hissing, rattling growl at the pack of black creatures that surrounded them.
It had been so long since she'd seen Ryder in what Eli called his trueform - and she couldn't for the life of her accept that phrase, not when she was so used to seeing him human - that she'd almost forgotten how menacing he looked, a lean, reptilian predator like the dinosaurs from those blockbuster movies her mother loved so much. The ridge of royal blue spines that ran the length of his body were flattened to his skin, the brutal sickle claws on his hind feet tapping at the frozen ground as he swung his head from side to side, the smaller creatures backing away as he centered his gaze on them. At first she thought he was oblivious to her as she shoved herself to her feet, but once she was standing he slowly backed up until she was standing at his left, partially shielded by his body.
There were perhaps two dozen of the things surrounding them, yipping like a pack of hyenas, some as small as domesticated dogs and others as large as bears, all of them with insectile wings buzzing and flicking above their bodies. She dared to look away for a moment, her eyes falling longingly on the school doors, perhaps fifty feet away. There was no way they could make it, not with so many of the beasts between them and the doors, not -
One of the snarling things - this one a sleek and cat-like thing the size of a mountain lion - pounced at them from Ryder's right and struck him hard enough to send him stumbling into her in turn, knocking her to the ground. She had to jerk her legs back to keep his foot from landing on her as the thing buried its claws in his back and clung to him, hugging itself against his spine and clamping its teeth into the back of his neck. His screech of pain made her ears ring as Ryder staggered and twisted, trying to throw the thing loose, and without thinking Katrina launched herself at the cat, her hands clawing at its face before she dug her fingers into its eyesockets. It didn't take much pressure for her fingernails to pierce it's delicate, bright eyes, and with a horrible yowl the beast loosened one paw to swipe at her, claws raking through jacket and shirt to rend the flesh of her right arm from wrist to elbow, her hand immediately going numb.
The other creatures seemed to sense that Ryder's temporary advantage had evaporated, and the half-ring of beasts began to close in. Ryder managed to shake the wounded cat free but the damage had already been done - he was bleeding badly from great trenches in his skin and had trouble maintaining his footing as he pivoted to keep the beasts at bay. Their yipping had turned to bloodthirsty snarls, and above that came a long, mournful howling, like a beckoning call to bring others to the eventual feast. Katrina swallowed hard, biting back tears, blood leaking into the corner of her mouth from her wounded cheek and her devastated arm held as tightly to her body as possible. She'd feared, from the moment she first came to understand the ways of shiftkin, that this would be how she died - the fact that it would happen here, in Kensington, made the sense of loss and betrayal that much greater.
A flash of movement in front of her made her close her eyes instinctively, her body trembling with the heavy thud of something striking the ground, and when there was no accompanying agony of being torn apart she dared open her eyes a sliver. What she saw amazed her - the filthy tar-beasts were slinking backward, mewling with their tails between their legs and ears flattened, and what stood between her and them was a pack of wolves, great and beautiful creatures with magnificent wings (Like Eli's, she thought) flared away from their bodies, hackles raised and ears flattened as they snarled and slowly advanced in tight formation. It took her a few moments to realize that they were allies, not enemies, and her strength left her, sent her sinking to her knees in the snow. A warm, furry body leaned against her, a soft whine forcing her to glance up into a white-furred face with magnificent emerald eyes, and that was when her body decided that it had suffered enough stress and blood loss, thank you very much, and promptly shut down.
Word Count: 2534
Note: So I'm finally introducing shapeshifters in my shapeshifter novel. Yay?
"It got dark quick," Katrina observed as they got out of the car, her boots scrunching the frozen crust on top of the undisturbed snow. The long driveway to the school was barricaded by a giant wrought iron gate, forcing them to park on the street and make the long walk across the huge lawn to the dark building. A light now was falling as she closed her door, just enough to leave a thin powder on her dark jacket - she tugged on her gloves and straightened her scarf as they started the walk, then laced her fingers in Ryder's. "Thank you, by the way."
"For what?"
"For being so well-behaved around my parents today."
"It's not hard," he told her. "They're very likeable people."
"You think so?" she asked, trying hard to hide her shock and failing. When he raised an eyebrow at her, she waved her hand, trying to find the words. "Most people usually think they're... kind of weird. And I know you're not much of a people person and -"
"I think I'm the last person to judge someone for weirdness," he quipped, squeezing her hand. With the pale grey of his jacket and his shocking white hair, he looked almost like a ghost in the surrounding darkness. "I'm serious, though. I like them. Except..." He paused, tilted his head to one side, then chuckled. "Your mother is very... huggy." Katrina snorted a laugh at this, the sound awfully loud in the still air.
"God, she is, isn't she?" She released his hand so she could sling her arm, almost ironically, around his waist. "You were awfully gracious about it."
"That's good, I suppose."
"Except for that one moment where you looked about to bite her."
"That obvious?"
"That obvious," she agreed.
"Damn. Guess I need to work on my poker face."
"Possibly," she giggled, and tilted her head to look up at the sky, blinking as the tiny snowflakes landed on her eyelashes. The moon was enormous through the breaks in the clouds, casting them in a soft grey-white light and making the snow glow around them. "They really like you," she said quietly. "Well, Mom does. I'm assuming Daddy does too, since you were gone so long." She glanced over at him. "What were you two doing, anyway?"
"Talking about his cats."
"His... really?"' She clapped her free hand over her face. "God, I'm sorry. He really loves those things."
"The goofy looking one, Victor? It's a puelmi. I've never seen one in captivity before." He stepped around a tree stump that protruded from the snow, capped with a perfect mound of white. "They're native to a very small jungle near Pastor's Point, which is about two days north of Rion Fell. Their name is an old Fel'danai word, meaning 'bread thief'. They used to steal bread from the markets, loaves of it."
"The cats ate bread?"
"No. They used it to lure rats. Even now, you can walk through Pastor's Point and see chunks of bread loaves lying in the alleyways. It's considered bad luck to move them." He chuckled and ran a hand back through his hair. "Your father seemed awfully excited that I knew anything about them."
"Yeah, he would be." She leaned against him, and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "And I guess that's what passes as male bonding, for Daddy. Crazy cat man." She shook her head, laughing softly. "Thank you for humoring him."
"I wasn't humoring him. He's a very interesting man. Extremely educated."
"He is... oh. Speaking of which." She pulled away from him and stopped in her tracks, crossing her arms over her chest. "Thanks for the surprise, Mister Educated."
"What?"
"Since when are you a physicist?" she asked.
"Since a while ago."
"I'm serious, Ryder."
"So am I," he told her. "I finished my doctorate four years ago."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Why didn't you ever ask?" When she just glared at him - as right as he was, she hated when he answered her questions with questions - he shrugged and stuck his hands in his pockets, actually seeming uncomfortable with the questions. "I don't like making a show of it. It's not for bragging rights."
"Then what's it for?"
"Curing boredom, mostly."
"And here I was thinking you were just acting like a smartass," she said, relenting and taking his hand again so they could continue their walk.
"The degree doesn't make a difference there," he joked.
"Good point." She stared down at her feet for a few steps, studying the perfect impressions she made in the snow as she walked. "I hated lying to them like that," she finally said, quietly. When Ryder didn't respond, she sighed heavily. "I mean, every kid lies to their parents, now and then, but... but I felt awful putting on a show for them like that today."
"It was necessary, though," he pointed out.
"That doesn't mean I'm okay with it. There was nothing honest I could tell them. Not about the camp, the job, the people, the... everything that happened." She looked over at him. "Not even about you."
"Nothing?"
"Aside from agreeing with my mother that you're pretty, no." When he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, clearly annoyed, she couldn't help but laugh. "Give her a break, she's a geneticist. She appreciates people who won the DNA lottery."
"If that's supposed to make me feel better, it's not."
"Most guys would enjoy being told they're attractive, you know."
"You didn't say I'm attractive. You said I'm pretty."
"I don't think you can really be classified by standards," she teased, and when he still seemed frustrated she laughed and gave him a shove, pushing him a few steps away. "Stop being so mournful," she told him. "There are worse fates than being beautiful." She waited for him to come back to her, but instead he stood where he was, staring into the woods on the opposite end of the lawn. "Hey," she called, and when he didn't face her, she walked up to him and tugged on the sleeve of his jacket. "Hey," she repeated. "Space cadet. Let's..." Her sentenced died in her throat when he lifted a hand to silence her, and she tried following his gaze into the darkness, tried to spot whatever it was he was seeing. They stood that way for several long seconds, their breath fogging the air in front of their faces, the world around them silent save the squeak and crunch of Katrina's boots as she shifted nervously from one foot to the other. She tugged at her gloves, then at the brim of her slouchy hat, then on the collar of her jacket, her unease growing with every passing moment. "Ryder," she whispered, "what do you -"
When the coin magic had flared to life in front of her eyes back at the gas station it had been dazzling in the muted greys of the moody morning clouds - in the deep darkness that surrounded them now it was absolutely blinding, the sheet of golden energy flickering rapidly as it caught the bolts that streaked from the trees toward them, the impacts creating a screeching buzz like an enormous bug zapper and filling the air with static. Katrina staggered back, twisting to shield her eyes, and felt Ryder's hands grasp her shoulders and shove her toward the school.
"Go!" he yelled, the wall of light letting out a loud kzzap as another flurry of bolts struck it, and she didn't wait to be told again - instinct kicked in and she set off at a sprint across the snow, bolting toward the building that seemed so painfully far away. And as the sound of the magic faded she could hear another terrifying sound rise up beneath it - a symphony of terrible roars and howls echoed from the treeline, and when she turned her head briefly in that direction she saw a wave of creatures bursting forth from the woods like a wave of insects, galloping across the snow toward her. They moved fast, faster than she did for certain, and when she realized that they would reach her before she could reach the school a surge of panic seared through her.
Oh God, she thought, her feet skidding on the snow as she tried to pick up the pace, her mind racing with images of feral shiftkin tearing her limb from limb, gnawing on her splintered bones. Oh God, please, please don't let me die like this, please don't -
A creature streaked out of the darkness some ten feet ahead and collided with her, sending her tumbling to the ground with the thing on top of her, snarling and snapping at her. Teeth snagged in the sleeve of her jacket and she stared up into a pair of golden-white eyes, set into the misshapen skull of what could have been a wolf had its pelt not been replaced by a sludgy black mess of dripping filth. The stench that rolled off it was horrific, the putrid aroma of meat gone to rot, and she gagged even as she kicked and squirmed beneath it, trying to get free. Its weight crushed the air from her lungs and she panted, desperate and terrified, shoving her hands into its slimy throat to keep the gnashing teeth from her face, turning her head to the side as it drooled and snapped at her skin. Dragonfly-like wings vibrated in the air above it, the hum so loud it blocked all other sounds from her ears save the rush of blood in her veins and the pitiful whimpers that escaped her.
The sudden impact against the tar-thing's body knocked what little breath she had left from her lungs, and as it was ripped away from her the talon-like nails of a front foot gouged a deep gash across her cheek, the blast of hot pain so intense she would have shrieked with pain had she not been gasping for breath. Her gloves were covered in the ooze from the thing's body so she peeled them off, clapping her bare, numb hands to her face as she rolled onto her side, her lungs burning. Just a few feet away the wolf-thing was lying on its side in the snow with its flank torn open, its innards steaming in the cold air and blood splattered across the snow in giant red arcs, and standing over it was an all-too-familiar creature with white pebbled flesh and gleaming mismatched eyes, crouched low as it let loose a hissing, rattling growl at the pack of black creatures that surrounded them.
It had been so long since she'd seen Ryder in what Eli called his trueform - and she couldn't for the life of her accept that phrase, not when she was so used to seeing him human - that she'd almost forgotten how menacing he looked, a lean, reptilian predator like the dinosaurs from those blockbuster movies her mother loved so much. The ridge of royal blue spines that ran the length of his body were flattened to his skin, the brutal sickle claws on his hind feet tapping at the frozen ground as he swung his head from side to side, the smaller creatures backing away as he centered his gaze on them. At first she thought he was oblivious to her as she shoved herself to her feet, but once she was standing he slowly backed up until she was standing at his left, partially shielded by his body.
There were perhaps two dozen of the things surrounding them, yipping like a pack of hyenas, some as small as domesticated dogs and others as large as bears, all of them with insectile wings buzzing and flicking above their bodies. She dared to look away for a moment, her eyes falling longingly on the school doors, perhaps fifty feet away. There was no way they could make it, not with so many of the beasts between them and the doors, not -
One of the snarling things - this one a sleek and cat-like thing the size of a mountain lion - pounced at them from Ryder's right and struck him hard enough to send him stumbling into her in turn, knocking her to the ground. She had to jerk her legs back to keep his foot from landing on her as the thing buried its claws in his back and clung to him, hugging itself against his spine and clamping its teeth into the back of his neck. His screech of pain made her ears ring as Ryder staggered and twisted, trying to throw the thing loose, and without thinking Katrina launched herself at the cat, her hands clawing at its face before she dug her fingers into its eyesockets. It didn't take much pressure for her fingernails to pierce it's delicate, bright eyes, and with a horrible yowl the beast loosened one paw to swipe at her, claws raking through jacket and shirt to rend the flesh of her right arm from wrist to elbow, her hand immediately going numb.
The other creatures seemed to sense that Ryder's temporary advantage had evaporated, and the half-ring of beasts began to close in. Ryder managed to shake the wounded cat free but the damage had already been done - he was bleeding badly from great trenches in his skin and had trouble maintaining his footing as he pivoted to keep the beasts at bay. Their yipping had turned to bloodthirsty snarls, and above that came a long, mournful howling, like a beckoning call to bring others to the eventual feast. Katrina swallowed hard, biting back tears, blood leaking into the corner of her mouth from her wounded cheek and her devastated arm held as tightly to her body as possible. She'd feared, from the moment she first came to understand the ways of shiftkin, that this would be how she died - the fact that it would happen here, in Kensington, made the sense of loss and betrayal that much greater.
A flash of movement in front of her made her close her eyes instinctively, her body trembling with the heavy thud of something striking the ground, and when there was no accompanying agony of being torn apart she dared open her eyes a sliver. What she saw amazed her - the filthy tar-beasts were slinking backward, mewling with their tails between their legs and ears flattened, and what stood between her and them was a pack of wolves, great and beautiful creatures with magnificent wings (Like Eli's, she thought) flared away from their bodies, hackles raised and ears flattened as they snarled and slowly advanced in tight formation. It took her a few moments to realize that they were allies, not enemies, and her strength left her, sent her sinking to her knees in the snow. A warm, furry body leaned against her, a soft whine forcing her to glance up into a white-furred face with magnificent emerald eyes, and that was when her body decided that it had suffered enough stress and blood loss, thank you very much, and promptly shut down.