He said, “She’s a rabbit,” to the sky, which was still talking to himself, but at least he wasn’tanswering. That would have to do.
Emilia Jones was a rabbit.
Clearly it was a part-time gig. She had definitely not been a rabbit when they’d met—well, apparently she had been, technically. Karl blinked at the sky for a few minutes, working his way through that. He had met her as a rabbit. Rescued her. Off in territory that he would have assumed was not within Virtue's town boundaries, although thinking about the map he'd studied earlier, that was wrong. Virtue covered a lot of square mileage, although most of it was wilderness, not actually occupied by the town.
Virtue's legal boundaries were not important here. Karl was deflecting again.
So. He had met her as a rabbit out in the woods. Then he’d met her as the most fabulously sexy, sweet woman he’d ever spoken with, and for some reason she hadn’t mentioned she was the rabbit he’d rescued earlier.
‘Some reason’ obviously being ‘because he would have thought she was insane.’ And of course, he would have. Until she showed him her rabbit—
Karl said, “Oh,God,” out loud, because that sounded wrong even in the confines of his head. He rubbed his hands over his face, trying to figure out a way around that particular phrasing. Until she had turned into a rabbit for him, to demonstrate she wasn’t insane.
There. That was a little better, anyway.
Oh. That was why she’d said she had a secret, but it would be easier to show him than tell him. And he’d gone down a whole ‘playing doctor’ kind of interpretation of that, when she’d just been trying to tell him the truth. Karl sat up and called, “I’m sorry! You tried to tell me earlier and I got all flustered and dumb! It’s fine! Please come back!”
The balloon dipped and whirled overhead again, glittering and swooping. Realization jolted through Karl. Emmy had said she had an overdeveloped startle reflex. Well, ofcourseshe did, if she was a rabbit. He bet the stupid balloon had scared the heck out of her, and might still be. “Oh, hang on!”
He scrambled to his feet and went on a merry chase across the field, avoiding cow patties and—fortunately—not seeing any cows, either. After several minutes and a surprising amount of effort, he caught the wretched balloon, popped it, and stuffed the foil into his pocket as he went back to the fence. “It’s okay now! I got the balloon! Emmy? Oh, God, you’re not hurt, are you?” He stood on the bottom rail of the fence, frowning at the wilderness that grew up just beyond it.
Rabbits were small. Well, Emmy was enormous for a rabbit, but in the grand scheme of things, even a humungous bunny was pretty small. Emmy could fit through all kinds of spaces Karl probably wouldn’t even see, much less be able to follow her through. She could have bolted all the way back to Virtue by now, or gotten caught in another trap, or—
He’d just about worked himself up to a really good panic when Emmy hopped out of the woods and sat at the edge of the undergrowth, hanging her head sheepishly.
Or rabbitishly, Karl guessed, but that wasn’t really a thing, and he might deserve getting rabbit-kicked in the face again if he said as much. “Emmy? It’s okay. You tried to tell me before, didn’t you? And I was an idiot. Sorry about that. I got the balloon!” He thrust his hand into his pocket and came out with the crumpled foil. “This is what scared you, wasn’t it? I got it.”
Suddenly his heroic efforts to hunt down a balloon seemed ridiculous. Karl faltered a little, looking between the balloon and the bunny. Being a dude who caught a balloon didn’t really register on a scale of awesomeness that included ‘turns into a rabbit.’ “You arewaytoo cool for me, aren’t you,” he said with a sigh. “I guess I knew that. You’re out of my league anyway.”
The bunny made a fairly astonished sound, for a bunny, and then Emmy was standing there on the other side of the fence, her round face rather long with astonishment. “I’mout ofyourleague? Your league doesn’t even play the same game as mine! You hike across continents! I don’t even leave city limits! And I’m abunny!”
“You’re abunny!” Karl spread his hands. “That’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard of! Or seen! And you’re not just a bunny! You’remybunny! I mean! The one I rescued, who rescued me! That’s why you said ‘I know,’ when I said I’d rescued a bunny! You did know!”
“I did. And I’m very very sorry I kicked you in the face,” Emmy said very quickly, with color climbing in her cheeks. “You’re right, it was the balloon that startled me, and my rabbit—oh, this all sounds so much more ridiculous when I have to explain it!”
Karl stepped up to the fence, painfully aware she was still on its far side, but not sure she’d appreciate it if he crossed to her side. “It’s not ridiculous at all. It’s wonderful. It’s amazing. And you’re the cutest bunny I’ve ever seen. You were saying…your rabbit?”
Emmy put her hands over her face before clearly nerving herself up to meet his eyes again. “My rabbit got scared. It’s like a second voice inside my head, a kind of personality of its own. Oh, see, I just sound crazy.”
“I’ve been talking to myself in a normal voice and a smart-ass voice for the last three thousand miles,” Karl said. “I promise you don’t sound particularly crazy. Go on. Please?” His voice lifted hopefully and Emmy’s whole soul seemed to be in her beautiful brown eyes, relieved and a little disbelieving that he was still willing to listen to her.
“All shifters—there are lots of us, especially in Virtue—can communicate with our animals. They’re not separate from us, but they have their own voices and fears and opinions. I do sound crazy.”
“You turn into a rabbit,” Karl said steadily. “If that’s our baseline here, the rabbit having a voice of its own doesn’t sound so crazy. I promise. Okay? I believe you, Emmy. I’m not freaked out. I’m…” He didn’t even try to fight off a grin he knew was absolutely dippy. “I’m in awe. I already knew you were wonderful, but wow, this is socool, too!”
She turned so gorgeously pink that Karl just wanted to sweep her into his arms and promise her everything would be all right. He would have, too, if she hadn’t still been on the other side of the fence. She heaved a sigh and shrugged. “Okay. So the rabbit is very shy and scared of more or less everything and it thought the balloon was death from above and I wascompletelyunprepared for a panic attack right then—”
Karl thought his, “I should hope so!” was justified, given whathe’dbeen anticipating right before Emmy had turned into a rabbit.
To his relief and joy, Emmy laughed out loud, and with the laughter, seemed to shed most of her worry about his response. “Right. I promise, panic was thelastthing on my mind right then. But the rabbit saw the balloon and freaked out and because I was totally unprepared, it seized control and shifted so we could run away to safety. Which is sometimes a great reflex! But, uh, not right then.”
She put her hands over her face again, but this time to try to hide her blush. It didn’t work at all, but she looked adorable. Karl, involuntarily, said, “God, you’re beautiful,” and she met his eyes with her own shining brightly.
“So are you. And I am truly very sorry I kicked you in the face.”
“If you wanted to come back to this side of the fence, maybe I could make it up to you.”
Emmy made a sound of agreement, then blinked at him. “I think you mean I could make it up to you?”
