“Wow. Was it hard to remember to answer to one name at home and another one atschool?”
I shrugged. “At first, but I got used to it. They probably thought I was living in my own world at school, for a while, because people had to call my name, like, three times before I answered.” It was funny to think back on. Funny in a mortifying, bare-your-soul kind of way. Yet it didn’t feel strange to be baring my soul toJustus.
“Sir, here’s your whiskey and soda.” The flight attendant set an unopened can, a plastic cup of ice, and a small bottle of Jack Daniels on his tray. “And your soda,” she added as she set another cup of ice and a can on mine. “May I get you anythingelse?”
“I’m fine, thanks,” I told her as I popped the top on mycan.
“I’m finetoo.”
When she’d moved back to the galley, Justus opened his tiny bottle of whiskey and offered it to me. “She won’t be able to tell which cup we poured it into,” he whispered. “For all the good it’lldo.”
“What do youmean?”
“It’sreallyhard to achieve a buzz as a shifter. Vic says it’s the increase in metabolism. We process alcohol much faster than humans do, so it doesn’t affect us as strongly. Have you never triedit?”
“Nope,” I admitted. “I think that’s one of those things natural-born cats take for granted and just kind of assume everyone else knows.” And I probably wouldn’t have been willing to have my first drink on an airplane, if not for that new bit ofinformation.
“Wait, aren’t you…?” Justus frowned at me, then took a subtle sniff in my direction. “You’re not astray.”
“No, but I—” The flight attendant turned her back, and I dumped his bottle into my cup while she wasn’t looking. Then I poured soda over it. “You haven’t heard about my…circumstances?”
He took the empty bottle and set it on his own tray. “Just that they found you in the woods, and you were…Um…”
“Eating someone?” I picked up my glass and took a long drink, then coughed when the burn seemed to stretch all the way down myesophagus.
People across the aisle leaned forward to look atme.
Justus pounded on my back. “She’s okay. It went down the wrongpipe.”
That made me laugh, which made the coughingworse.
“You should probably sip it, at least until you’re used to it,” he whispered when I could talkagain.
“Sorry. That line about eating people felt like something I should punctuate with a drink of something…real.”
“So, it’strue?”
“Yeah,” I said as he poured soda into his own cup. “I had a really rough patch at thirteen. But to truly understand that, you have to know that my parents were normal. Human. As was my sister. I’m somewhat of a rarecase.”
“A shifter born to human parents?” His eyes narrowed on me as he sipped from his cup. “I’ve never heard ofthat.”
“I told you. Rare. It’s something about recessive genes. You have them. So does Titus. You have to have a shifter in your bloodline somewhere in order to survive being scratched or bitten. People who don’t have that recessive gene don’t live through theinfection.”
“How would I possibly have a shifter in my family and not know it?” heasked.
“Oh, it could be waaay back. At some point, someone in your family hooked up with a shifter—almost certainly a tomcat—and made a baby. The most common theories involve one-night stands, which is what toms are best at, and affairs. Since most toms never get married, over time they’ve evidently gotten really good at getting…tail. Punintended.”
Justus laughed so loud everyone turned to lookagain.
I couldn’t help but smile. “Okay, yeah, it sounds funny when you put it likethat.”
“Youput it like that,” he pointedout.
“My point is that you have to have the recessive gene to survive being infected. AndIam what happens, very rarely, when two people with those recessive genes havekids.”
“Your sister didn’t…getit?”
“Nope. And I have no idea why. We did a little bit of basic genetics in biology, but nowhere near enough for me to understand why when she turned thirteen, she got insta-boobs and her period, butIturned into a big black cat.” I took another long sip from my cup and managed not to choke that time. “Seriously, I drew the shortest straw in the entire history ofpuberty.”
