The Shifters

She strode in wearing Katharine Hepburn trousers and a silky white shirt, looking like an old-style film goddess, but as soon as Caitlin led her through the velvet curtain and into the inner room and seated her in the reading chair, she dissolved into ugly, heart-rending sobs.

Love trouble, Caitlin thought wearily. Nothing else could so completely unravel someone as strong as this. She braced herself for the inevitable question, choked out between more sobs.

“He left me. What can I do?”

Caitlin unwrapped the cards.

She sensed that Amanda was a Wand, driven by will, so Caitlin pulled the Queen of Wands as the significator, the public mask, to represent her, then placed the cards in front of Amanda to hold and then cut. Caitlin laid out a Love Spread and turned over the first four cards.

She studied them, frowning. “Your life is in transition. The high presence of swords indicates single-minded pursuit, vengeance….”

Funny, that wasn’t at all the read she had got ten from the woman herself; the cards were contradictory.

She turned to the first bar of three cards and touched her finger to the one on the far left. The King of Swords—which could indicate a dangerous, treacherous man, but with clients Caitlin always tried to start with the positive aspects of the cards. “The King of Swords is a highly intellectual, well-educated man, with a razor wit and many facets to his character. He is a natural problem-solver, but of ten moves on too quickly, from ideas, people and places, to provide any permanence. He can be passionate, charismatic, fascinating, challenging…and completely exhausting.”

As Caitlin spoke, Amanda leaned forward on her elbows, seemingly transfixed by what Caitlin was saying. Caitlin could feel that she was reaching the woman on some profound level; she knew that look well. The other woman was hearing things that were true. “The card also represents a private person, a loner who defends his walls and boundaries fiercely. You may never get to know him no matter how long you’re with him. The card also often indicates someone heavily involved in occult study….” As Caitlin continued, she was more and more aware of something wrong.

She paused and looked down at the spread again.

And then it hit her, hard. The card she had been speaking about was not the card representing Amanda’s lover but was in the place of the querent: Amanda herself.

It made no sense.

She decided to deal an extra card, silently asking for clarification.

The Knight of Swords, reversed.

“This card indicates a deceitful man, treacherous and secretive beneath a surface charm…” Caitlin stopped herself. She had asked about Amanda, but again—the card indicated a deceitful man. And this time even more clearly indicated a manipulator, skilled in the occult, in glamours, in projection.

Could it be?

Caitlin bit her lip and then picked up the deck and held it as she asked the cards a quick, silent question: What is going on here?

She turned over a card.

Seven of Cups.

Shapeshifter.

Caitlin’s head was buzzing as if it was going to explode. Across the table from her, Amanda was suddenly alert, as if sensing Caitlin’s thoughts, and she started to push her chair back to stand, but too late. Caitlin lunged over the table, grabbed Amanda’s wrist and held her fast as she spoke a few low, quick words. “By the powers of earth, fire, wind and sea, I command thee: unmask!”

She felt a surge of power in the arm she held, Amanda’s whole body swelling with energy, a struggle. And then the woman’s body shimmered—in fact, all the air in the room shimmered, there was no other word for it—and the woman’s body resolved itself into…

A man.

And an amazingly handsome man, at that. Tall—very tall—broad-shouldered under a leather jack et, much bigger than she was, powerful through the chest and thighs. Longish jet-black hair curled around his ears, and he was wearing jeans worn so soft they looked like buckskin, all of which gave him a roguish, buccaneering look, decidedly unmodern.

“Well done,” he commented, looking infuriatingly pleased with her.

“What are you playing at, Shifter?” Caitlin demanded, while simultaneously scanning the room behind him for a weapon. Being located down a mysterious, romantic alley was a big plus for atmosphere but not such an ideal situation when you found yourself suddenly alone with a rogue shapeshifter. And a human-form shifter, too, the most dangerous and untrustworthy kind.

“I’m not playing, Keeper. I’m not playing at all.” There was a sensual menace to his voice now, which made her heart plunge in dismay.

If he meant her harm, she was in deep trouble al ready. She’d never seen such a complete and unexpected shift. Mentally she raced back through the encounter with the woman, racking her brain for any sign that she’d missed—a ripple, a tic, a shudder. But there had been no psychic leakage, no slipping of the form, nothing that would have signaled the presence of a shifter, much less one in assumed form. It was only the cards that had warned her.

Caitlin’s mind plunged through her options. Her cell phone was in the outer shop, under the counter. The shifter was blocking the doorway to the outer shop, to the phone, to everything. There was just so much of him. And as a shapeshifter, he would be immune to any weakening spell she could have used on a human intruder; there was no point in such a spell with an Other.

“Why not just walk in and introduce yourself?” she asked, trying to keep her voice steady.

“I heard there were Keepers in town. I wanted to see how good you are.” His voice made the words a lazy double entendre.

“I’m very good,” she said sharply, her temper rising even in the circumstances.

“Nice to know,” he said, and the laziness was gone. “You better be. There’s a bad wind coming.”

Now Caitlin felt a chill that had nothing to do with the man in front of her. Bad wind. My dream. This morning. Her own feeling, her own words.

“That’s a little vague, isn’t it?” she retorted. “If you’ve got something to say, say it.”

He suddenly smiled at her, which made her even more suspicious. “I’ll be glad to. I’m Ryder Mallory.” He leaned forward and extended a huge hand across the table.

She looked at him frostily. Oh, you are, are you? As if I’m going to believe anything a shifter says. Shapeshifters changed names as often as they changed forms.

“And?” she demanded, keeping her hands to herself.

He left his hand extended, now daring her. She felt a reluctance to take it, but what better way to sense someone out, after all? She reached across the table and touched his palm, felt her hand engulfed in his, and an electric charge…which he was no doubt aware of, because he smiled slowly and tightened his grip on her hand, not hurting her, but not letting go, either, just letting her feel the strength and heat of him.

Flustered, she pulled back, trying to extricate herself…and after another moment he let her go, but not until she was completely aware that it was only by his choice that she was free.

“Now, what do you want?” she snapped, not realizing until after she spoke that it wasn’t exactly the question she’d wanted to ask.

He smiled knowingly at her. “We’ll get to that. But at the moment, we have bigger fish to fry.” His expression changed. “I’m a bounty hunter. I’m tracking.”

“Tracking what?”

His eyes turned serious, and Caitlin felt a chill in the candlelit darkness. “There’s a band of…entities on their way here. Extremely rogue. Extremely dangerous. I’ve been tracking them from Africa. I lost them in Antibes, but I’m guessing they’re coming here next. They ride the wind.” The wind. Her bad feeling intensified, but she kept her tone skeptical. “What makes them so dangerous?”

“They weren’t born into bodies of their own, so they feel no obligation to anyone human.”

“No obligation to anyone? Sounds like shifters to me.”

Ryder Mallory assumed a mock-injured look. “That’s harsh. There are all kinds of us, you know.”

“And yet, there’s that one key element that distinguishes you all.”

“And that would be…?”

“Your inconstancy.”

He looked at her piercingly, and Caitlin suddenly felt naked, wanting to run. “Ah,” he said. “You’ve been hurt.”

“Isn’t that your nature?” she whipped back at him.

“Tell me who it is and I’ll take care of him,” he said, and he sounded completely serious.

“Why assume it’s a him?” Her temper flared.

He fixed her with a look that set her insides on fire. “Some things are obvious without the cards, Keeper.”

“Who hired you?” she demanded, trying to get back on track.

His face suddenly closed off. “That’s confidential.”

“And why should I believe anything a shifter says?”

“That’s your job, isn’t it? To determine these things? You said you were good.” He held her gaze, and it was intimate in the small room, more intimate than she wanted it to be, enough to make her breath short.

She forced herself to focus, to keep her voice steady. “Thanks for the warning. I’ll be sure to look out for…entities. Do you have a number where I can reach you?”

“I’m at the Marie Claire.” It was a small, older hotel, just a few blocks away.

“And you know where to find me, obviously,” she said.

“I do.” There was a sensual promise in his voice that she didn’t want to acknowledge, so she just stared coldly.

“Then I think we’re done, here,” she said, and hoped it would be enough of a hint to get him out.

“It’s been a pleasure.” He rose to leave, and was about to exit through the velvet curtain, when he turned. “Good reading, by the way—in case I didn’t say.” He paused, with a slight smile. “Did I tell you I read cards, too?”

He reached for the deck still facedown on the table, fanned out the cards, and his hand hovered briefly before he reached casually and turned one over.