You could have shifted anyway,hissed a monster.
I wanted to shift,screeched a monster.You didn’t let me!
Me too! Me too!
[reproachful dull orange]
Carter ignored them. His monsters didn’t get why they needed to hide. They thought it would be totally fine for him to reveal himself as a grotesque monster to his teammates—the Defenders, he corrected himself—his family, Fenella Kim, and the whole wide world.
Never,he vowed.I am going to get us out of this swamp and back to civilization, without the wizard-scientists ever catching up to us. Fenella Kim is never going to learn anything about me that’s not already on the public record. She can go on believing we were kidnapped by movie-obsessed lunatics. Once she’s safely home, we can go back to feuding or make up, but I will never let her find out what I really am.
He had no idea how far they’d managed to travel when the sun lowered and the light turned golden, but whatever progress they’d made, they had to stop before it got dark. They couldn’t build or fish or forage if they couldn’t see, and he had absolutely no desire to paddle along bullfrog-infested waters at night.
They moored the boat on a non-floating island with plenty of trees and shrubs for Fenella to investigate for their culinary properties. They might also provide cover in case the wizard-scientists caught up with them, and Carter was forced to shift to fight them. It was possible. He’d managed to shift in the vicinity of his teammates—of the guys he freelanced with sometimes, he meant—without them ever seeing the monster that lurked beneath his skin.
“I’m taking a bath,” Fenella announced the instant she set foot on land. “That way. Let’s meet back at the boat when we’re done.”
“I’ll go that way.” Carter indicated the opposite direction. “If you see anything, yell. And watch out for alligators.”
“Watch out for bullfrogs.”
He hunted along the edge of the island for an area that wasn’t too far to hear her if she shouted, wasn’t too infested with goggle-eyed horrors, and had water that looked even vaguely clean. He had to settle for not too far away, scaring away the lurking batrachians, and water that, when he cupped it in his hands, did indeed look like strong tea rather than diluted mud.
Carter stripped naked, draped his clothes over a branch, and gingerly stepped into the water. It was tepid. Mud squished between his toes.
“Ugh.”
[happy aqua]
[happy aqua]
“I’m gladsomeone’shappy,” he muttered sarcastically.
[very happy deep aqua]
Mud and brown water aside, it did feel good to wash up. He scrubbed himself from head to toe, crouching to duck his head and wash his hair. When he stood up, he felt much better. Like a snow leopard grooming itself, he’d always liked to keep himself meticulously clean. He was sure Fenella felt the same way—she never had a hair out of place in video or photos.
Fenella was, right now, bathing naked in the same water he was standing in. He wondered what she looked like beneath the tailored business suit. Her bone structure was delicate, but the cut of her modern suits didn’t show off her figure. He couldn’t tell whether her hips were wide or narrow, or whether her belly was flat or softly rounded. Nor did he have any idea of how big her breasts were, or the color of her nipples, or what they might look like bare, with water dripping down them…
A bullfrog gave a loud croak.
Carter hastily got out of the water, wondering where that fantasy about Fenella Kim had come from. He wasn’t the kind of guy who automatically generated sexual fantasies about every woman he laid eyes on. She was attractive, sure. Beautiful, to be honest. And surprisingly sexy even when furious or covered in mud. But it wasn’t as if anything would ever happen between them. There was still the matter of her hostile takeover. And that he could never tell her even the most basic facts about himself.
Not to mention that he was a monster. He could never inflict himself on any woman unless and until he managed to fix that.
He wiped as much water off as he could manage with his hands, put on his boxers (his only clean item of clothing) and surveyed the rest. Reluctantly, he decided that the water was cleaner than the mud, everything was ruined anyway, and he’d rather wear wet clothes than dirty ones. He scrubbed his clothing, then put it back on wrung-out and wet.
A flash of gold glinted in the corner of his eye. He lunged for the mini-welder he’d left on the bank, snatching it up and ducking behind a tree in a single smooth motion. It wasn’t much of a weapon, but it was all he had.
There was no sound but an oddly familiar soft trill. Something small and gold flew down to him. Instinctively, he lowered the tool and raised his other arm.
A tiny golden dragonette landed on his forearm. She was a beautiful creature, lithe and gleaming, with a long tail she coiled around his arm like a rope of gold. Her wings were the translucent gold of a lazy summer afternoon.
Carter knew what she was because he’d seen a dragonette before. Some of the Defenders and all of the bodyguards in the west coast branch of Protection, Inc. had magical pets. Nick and his mate Raluca, and Lucas and his mate Journey both had dragonettes. But Doina was blue and Treasure was glittering diamond. Carter didn’t recognize this little beauty.
She cocked an inquiring head and trilled again.
“Shhh!” Carter whispered. He had no idea what the dragonette was doing in the swamp, but if Fenella got a look at her, it would open up a bullfrog-sized can of worms.
