“Here you go.” Roland handed Fen’s her driver’s license.
As she replaced it in her wallet, Sugar jumped out of her purse. He scuttled up her arm and clung to her shoulder, chittering softly.
“Sugar?” Fen asked. “Did you do that?”
Sugar gave a self-satisfied squeak and bumped her earring with his nose. It vanished, and in the same instant Carter felt a small, cool weight in his hand. He gave Fen her earring.
She put it back on and stroked Sugar. “Clever, clever boy. Sothat’swhat you do.”
Precious gave an indignant trill. Carter hastily petted her. “You’re clever too. Funny how that turned out. Precious can fetch things, and Sugar can send them away. They’re a perfect match.”
“Like us.” Fen pulled him down for a kiss.
He wanted it to go on forever, and it more-or-less did. It was a very long moment of sheer heaven. Carter was barely aware of anything but Fen, the sweetness of his mouth, the softness of her skin, and the love that bound them. He only vaguely registered the Defenders and Norris fidgeting, glancing at their cell phones, and finally giving them a wave or a wink as they left.
Eventually, Fen glanced around. “Where’d everybody go?”
“Home, I assume. I think they felt like third wheels.” Glancing around, he saw that someone had left a cheap burner phone under a tree. “Oh, that’s considerate. I guess they left it in case we needed to call for a ride. But there’s no need for that.”
“No?” Fen arched an eyebrow. “Our car’s a big rock.”
“We don’t need a car. I can fly.”
“Oh, right! Carter, I’m so, so happy for you. How did you do it?”
“I did it because of you,” he said simply. “Because everything you said to me finally got through my thick skull. My beasts always loved you, and that made me love them. All they ever needed to become the chimera was for me to accept them.”
Not quite,said his chimera.
“Oh?” Carter said, adding to Fen, “He says, ‘not quite.’”
We needed acceptance,said his chimera.We needed love. And we needed our mate.
“I knew it!” Carter exclaimed.
“Knew what?”
“That you’re my mate.”
She kissed him. “Of course I am. We don’t need your chimera to tell us so.”
“No, but it’s nice. I kept wanting my snow leopard to tell me you were my mate. Not having that happen was a constant reminder that he was gone.”
“Is he still? Or is he back now?”
“It’s complicated,” he replied, thinking it through as he spoke. “My chimera is what my snow leopard became—what all my beasts became.”
“Like the way you’re not who you were as a teenager, but you’re still Carter?”
“A lot like that, actually. He’s not gone. He’s just different.” He couldn’t wait to see Fen’s face when he told her the next part. “There’s something else that’s different, too. Remember when I said the rest of the Defenders have two powers—well, except for Roland?"
“Yeah, I do. What about him?”
“He only has one: his phoenix fire. No idea why. I used to think I didn’t have any, but of course all those exploding microwaves and burnt-out robots and so forth were actually a misfiring power. So…”
“Oh!” Fen’s face lit up. “Do you think you might have a second power, too?”
He smiled. “I know I do. I haven’t tried it yet, but my chimera says I can do it. You’re going to be the first person to see it. And I think you’re going to like it.”
