Shifting Life

39. Strategies

The abandoned Russian sauna still smelled of cat piss. Matt sat on a bench rummaging through the arsenal they'd found in the back of Veronica's car. He untied a string around a small burlap bag and made a face after smelling the contents. Jacklyn put on the dress Matt had ordered for her in Daly City. It wasn't the best choice of clothing considering the temperature, but there wasn't anything else to choose from. She'd ripped through another set of clothes when she shifted at the Visionary's place. As side effects go, destroying clothes was annoying. Shifting back and being naked in public was a worry. It was like a running joke that had never been funny in the first place.

Jacklyn pulled on the knee-high boots with mixed feelings. She was ridiculously overdressed for a pit stop at the local feral cats' community sauna.

Jacklyn sighed. At least she had clothes. For now, anyway.

"Ready for part two?" Jacklyn asked.

Grinning, Matt tossed the burlap bag over his shoulder. "Thought you'd never ask."

There was a squeak from the burlap bag. The dried contents had fanned out on the floor where the bag landed. It looked like tea, but the way the dry substance trickled back into the burlap sack made the hairs stand up on the back of Jacklyn's head. Horsey sense felt lumps of unease and pain coming from the sack. She wouldn't touch it for the world.

"Did you see that?" Matt said.

Jacklyn glared at him. "You realize any of these things can probably kill us?"

He shrugged and hung his head like a scolded schoolboy.

Jacklyn sighed. Matt was careless. He was human. He was fragile. Strands of worry pulled at her horsey heart.

She ran a hand through his hair. Short blond hair tickled her fingers.

Matt moved fast. He melded his mouth over hers, pulling her close.

"You look great," he whispered in her ear.

Jacklyn kissed his neck. She snuggled close, stealing his warmth, putting the gnawing worry aside. She didn't want to think about the things she'd seen happening to Matt. She didn't want to remember what his heart had felt like in her hand.

"What did Jojo tell you about people like me?" she asked.

Matt shook his head. "He said there are a few scattered notes on your kind of shifters in the eldest scrolls. Probably fragments from ancient lost legends, but that's it."

"What do they say?"

"What you look like basically."

"No prophecy?"

Matt pulled back. He cupped her face in his hands. His blue eyes glittered.

"I hate to tell you, but you're not Neo from the Matrix."

Relief washed over her. No prophecy. No doomed, foretold fate looming over them. For a moment, it was enough.

"I'm not the chosen one?" she pouted. "Damn."

Matt shook his head.

Jacklyn smiled. She looped her arms around his neck, hugging him so hard she could feel his heartbeat.

That made her snap out of it.

The good news didn't change a thing.

Horsey sense knew better. The feels were the only truth she had. Jacklyn could sense the future getting ready, like a storm brewing. Before she'd been injured the premonitions had been like a dark cloud growing on the horizon. Now she could almost taste the thunder in the air. Bad things were coming for Matt. Jacklyn shouldn't have let him steal her stupid horsey heart. Not that she could have stopped it. He was the Venetian after all. Stealing was what he did.