Jacklyn followed Matt toward the restaurant's exit. She felt a chill trickle down her back and reached for his hand.
"Wait."
Horsey sense picked up several dangerous feels on the other side of the door. Horsey didn't like it at all.
Matt read her hesitation. He pulled her close, cupped her face and kissed her. Soft kiss, hard eyes.
"You want to go out another way?" he whispered.
She nodded.
He kissed her again, making the effort to make it look like he only had eyes for her. She wrapped her arms around his neck, in an instinctive breathless response. He was so good he made her feel it in her bones. She wanted to believe, but while he pulled playfully at her lower lip till she responded with a moan, he scouted for alternative exits with short sharp glances.
"Ready?" he murmured, slipping his black knife into her hand.
Anywhere, anytime.
Jacklyn followed the moment Matt made a run for the kitchen.
In the corner of her eye she saw the burly hairy waiter moving fast to cut off the escape route, his eyes hard and blank, hair bristling like fur. She recognized that something that was brewing under his skin and tasted panic.
They ran through the kitchen. Matt moved like a fish determined to swim upstream, avoiding obstacles and kitchen staff without effort. Jacklyn ran into a chef, pushing her to the ground. Pots hit the tiled floor like bowling pins.
Jacklyn noticed the wave of surprise, the open mouths, the delayed reaction to their action, almost slo-mo like. She looked over her shoulder. Fire exploded on the gas stove, blotting out the pursuing waiter's head in a cloud of orange. He emerged roaring, his ragged brown hair on fire. He shifted shape in a blink, growing in size and speed. A huge brown bear howled in pain and fury, leaping at her.
Jacklyn turned as she fell, Matt's knife in her hand. She pushed her index finger to the blade, feeling the sting of the cut. She plunged the knife into the bear as it pounced her.
The bear's sharp teeth and foul breath brushed her face when some of thirteen hundred pounds of bear fell over her.
Matt called her name or she would have shifted right there and then.
Her head hit the floor with a thud.
Jacklyn didn't know how long she was out. Seconds? Minutes?
She came to, her arm around Matt's neck. Fresh air. Bright daylight. Everything spinning.
"That's right," he said in her ear. "Keep walking. Almost there."
He whistled for a taxi that drove past them. The sharp sound hurt her ears. She mumbled something about bears and their hearing. She blabbered noise, not words.
The taxi stopped.
Matt got in, pulling her inside and tucking her legs away from the door. He pulled the door shut and told the driver to step on it.
YOU ARE READING
Shifting Life
Paranormal[COMPLETE] Magic is all about the rules. You mess up, you fix it. Or pay the price. Not that Jacklyn Morse has a choice. She's a new shape shifter paying the price for saving a notorious thief who is as hot as the supernatural loot he's stolen. To J...
