Power Shift (Book 1)

Chapter 10: Common Scents

Winning Choice: Track down the “Mormons” who left the pamphlet.

My blood rushes in my ears. They’re threatening Nicole if I don’t do what they want, but then they don’t tell me what they want. The rest of this is bad enough, but to threaten the best thing that has ever happened to me in my life is beyond what I can handle.

"It's nothing," I tell her, folding the pamphlet and sticking it into my jean pocket.

Nicole slides her arms around my waist and gives me a peck on the cheek. "Didn't sound like nothing," she says.

I kiss her back, squarely and soundly on the lips.

"Well, good morning!" she coos, grinning. I pull her arms off my waist and her grin turns into an exaggerated pout. "Awww..."

"I need to go for a run, burn off some of this energy." 

"I can think of a better way to do that," she says, and my heart melts just for a moment before it hardens back up with even more anger than before. I smile at her.

"Baby, later, I promise. I'm just still feeling a little off. A nice run should clear it up."

"Okay," she says, and gives me another peck on the cheek. "I'll be here when you get back. Have a good run." She heads into the kitchen, and I grab my hoodie and slip it on as I head out the front door.

Standing on the front porch I have no idea what to do next. There's a Mormon Church a few miles away, but I can’t believe those were real missionaries. The morning is nice and cool, and I take a deep breath of the fresh air… and there’s my answer.

Smells. Tons of them. And not just more smells, but I can tell where they’re all coming from, and they are richer than anything I’ve ever experienced before. Every single thing around me has an extra dimension to it I wasn’t aware of before, and it’s dazzling.

It seems to be when I stress myself that my powers really kick in. I don’t move at super-speed all the time, but just when I run. I don’t hear everything going on around me unless I focus and listen. And when I took a deep whiff was when I could smell like a bloodhound.

It’s overwhelming at first, like walking outside into glaring sunshine being momentarily blinded. I keep breathing deeply but slow it down and try to focus. Here on the patio are a half dozen different scents. I can pick out Nicole, soft and sweet, and there’s my own scent mixed in with the rest. Mine isn’t quite as sweet, I’ll just leave it at that. Another smell belongs to a cat, and I realize I can tell a lot more from a scent than I ever could before. There’s information in there. 

Right in the center of the porch are several other scents, slightly musky, and they’re all male. The trick is to figure out which of them are the ones I want.

The pamphlet! I pull it out and hold it up to my nose. The scents aren’t as strong on the paper, but here again are my smell and Nicole’s from when we picked it up. And all over it are two other smells. Two men. And they match two of the smells on the patio.

Gotcha.

Hunkering down I try to focus on the Mormon’s scents and as I concentrate things become clearer. I can detect their trail leading down our sidewalk towards the street. The more I study it the more distinct it becomes. I can almost visualize a picture of the two men in my mind, and I imagine this is what it’s like when a dog “gets a scent”.

I pull my hood up to try and conceal my face, and trot down the sidewalk while keeping my nose low enough that I don’t lose the trail. My new abilities may have given me many things, but I’m still man-shaped and there is just no graceful way to move quickly while hunched over. I look like an idiot.