“It’s changed a lot since I left,” Natasha said, a little ruefully. She paused, clearly thinking, before she apparently made up her mind. “But… sure. Maybe the day after tomorrow? We could meet at the diner on the main street, if you wanted to grab some lunch beforehand.”
Oh, she’s direct! I like it!
Kieran internally thanked his lucky stars that Natasha had done the hard part for him – suggesting they meet for lunch had been his next idea, but he hadn’t been sure how she’d take it, given he hadn’t exactly covered himself in particularly suave glory over the past few minutes.
“I would love that,” he said, a grin spreading helplessly across his face. “Should we say… twelve?”
“Sounds great.” Natasha’s smile was back in place, her dark, beautiful eyes flashing warmly. “I’ll see you then.”
Our mate! Our mate! Our mate!
Kieran’s griffin felt as if it was doing loop-the-loops in his chest, soaring and swirling, excitement making every feather in its enormous wings shiver. He watched Natasha as she made her way down the aisle toward the registers, pretending to poke at the canned carrots and asparagus so he could watch her from the corner of his eye – before decidingwhat the helland throwing a few cans into his basket. His future self would be thanking him if he turned up at his uncle’s place to find the power wasn’t working, for some reason.
As it turned out, he needn’t have worried – the new power generator his parents had had installed during their first flush of enthusiasm for doing up the old place roared to life when he started it up, and each light flashed on with only a minimal amount of flickering as he walked through the house, flipping each switch in turn.
The house reallywasjust as cavernous as he remembered it being when he was a kid – he’d thought maybe it seemed so huge in his memories because he’d been so young at the time, and once he was here he’d find it was more of a regular-sized house. That definitely wasn’t the case. The place had dozens of rooms: some were massive, with high ceilings and intricate ceiling moldings and carved wooden detailing, while others were tiny and pokey, clearly meant only for storage, or perhaps as servants’ quarters back when this place had been a grand mansion.
Either way, the house wasimpressive,though it was clearly run down. It looked, Kieran guessed, a little like a gothic mansion from one of the stories he’d read in English class: a soaring, pointed roof, porthole windows, and long, creaking corridors. Even after spending an hour walking through it while testing the electrics Kieran wasn’t sure he’d seen every room. The house had a weirdly disorienting aspect to it – had he just turned left or right? Had that cabinet been there before? Where was the trap door leading up to the attic? He’d been sure there’d been one when he was a kid, but now, he couldn’t see anything at all.
Well, it’s not like I’ll need to go up into the attic while I’m here… I don’tthink,Kieran told himself, as he made his way back down the main staircase and into the room he’d called the sitting room when he was a kid, but which Great Uncle Henry had always called theparlor.Kieran had to admit he still wasn’t exactly clear on the difference.
The afternoon light was fading fast – it was still only the very beginning of spring, after all, and the days were still pretty short, the nights dark and cold. Kieran knew it’d be even darker and colder up here on the mountain, but thankfully the linen closet was still full of blankets, just as he remembered it, even if they smelled a little old and he had to shake the dust out of them on the porch.
The bedrooms were completely empty of beds, though – he’d be sleeping on the couch for the duration of his stay, it seemed. Which was fine with him: he didn’t consider himself very fancy or in need of creature comforts.
What hedidneed, he realized, as a huge yawn split his mouth wide open, was anap.
The last week or so, when his griffin had suddenly taken to shifting at will without so much as a by-your-leave, had been stressful, to say the least. And it’d been a long journey up here – he’d been driving since before dawn.
I’ll just have a little lie down,Kieran thought, arranging the woolen blankets and couch cushions into a comfy bed. One thing he could say for Great Uncle Henry was that he definitely hadn’t done things by halves – a huge house required huge furniture, and the couch was more than big enough to fit him, even though Kieran knew he was a pretty tall and broad guy.
Just a half-hour nap,he told himself as he lay down, pulling the blankets up over himself.That’s all I need. I’ll be fine after that…
* * *
Hours later, Kieran was awoken by the sound of an almightythud.
Or… well,perhapsthat was what had woken him. Or perhaps in fact it had actually been from him clearly having rolled off the couch in his sleep.
Or perhaps the thudhadbeen him rolling off the couch in his sleep.
Or,he thought, as he lifted his head,maybe it’s because I clearly shifted in my sleep, rolled over, and then made a hugethudas I fell onto the floor.
Because that was most definitely what had happened.
Great,he thought, looking down at the long, furred length of his body, his lion’s paws and tail, his eagle’s wings folded against his side.This again.
Sometimes baby shifters changed forms in their sleep – if they were dreaming of being in their shifter form, it was almost inevitable.
But that wasbabyshifters – as soon as he’d learned how to control his inner animal, Kieran shouldn’t have been doing it anymore. Butnothingabout what had been happening over the past week was normal. His shifter animal shouldneverhave been able to take over his body like this!
What are you evendoing?he asked the griffin, which was now occupying much more than half of his mind.
What was that noise?
The griffin was agitated, ornery. It was clearly on alert, as if lying in wait.
I don’t know. Maybe it was just the house? It’s old, after all,Kieran told the griffin, sighing inwardly. Was hearing a slightly spooky sound in the night what had gotten its hackles up?
