Dead Ice
Page 58
I blinked my eyes clean of the liquid that I had all over me, but Dev rose above me with his fur dry except where it touched me. His thick mane was a pale yellow-blond, close to his own hair color, though I knew it didn’t have to match anything on the human body of the shapeshifter. He blinked large orange-gold eyes at me from a face that was a graceful mix of human and cat.
He was so tall in this form that his head almost touched the ceiling, which meant he was over seven feet tall. Half-man form for most wereanimals gained them between a few inches and over a foot in extra height when they were wolfmen, or lionmen, or whatever-men.
Like I’d said, Dev was a big guy, and the werelion was fucking massive.
“Holy shit,” Domino said from somewhere behind us.
“This isn’t possible,” Crispin said.
I felt Micah draw himself in, a second before he ran with heat and power. His change was neater, cleaner, faster, but then he was one of the best at shifting from one form to another I’d ever seen. He stood over me, black-furred as usual, but taller than ever, and just as the spots of his leopard were visible when the light hit them just right, so now the stripes showed in the overhead light, and for the first time he gazed down at me with different eyes. Golden eyes with a line of red around the pupil like an echo of his own gold-green. He loomed over me, but nothing to equal the lionman. The two of them together seemed to fill the room, as if there weren’t enough square footage for anyone or anything else. The table had been pushed back, the chairs lay on their sides, and I couldn’t remember when it happened, or if we had done it, or the others had done it to save the furniture.
Dev’s voice came out in a growling deep bass even deeper than his tiger form. “I thought you liked your clothes.”
“I had to try,” Micah growled back.
I started to step back from both of them, but they each grabbed one of my arms.
Micah said, “I don’t know what happens if we stop touching each other.”
I stayed put with their massive hands wrapped completely around my arms. Dev was almost able to wrap his fingers around my bicep twice. My bicep isn’t that small; he was just that big.
Jean-Claude stepped around them, pressed to the wall to move around Dev’s tawny side. “Impressive, ma petite, mon chat, mon tigre. Very impressive.”
Dev shook that thick mane. “I’m not a tiger now.”
“Mon lionne, then.”
“Am I your lion, Jean-Claude?” The question seemed to mean more than it should have.
“All that is here is mine, Mephistopheles.” Hearing him use Dev’s full name was almost startling. I heard it so seldom that I sometimes forgot he had another name.
The big lion nodded, his shoulders pressed against the ceiling, back bowed for lack of space as he held my arm, and held hands with Micah. Their tawny and black fur looked like yin and yang curved around each other.
“You are the king, all that you desire is yours to take,” he said, and again I knew there was more meaning there than I was certain of. I would ask Jean-Claude later.
“Fur is not to my liking, mon lionne.”
“We can fix the fur part; the implications beyond that, we’ll discuss,” Micah said. “Feel what I’m about to do, Dev. You have the power to do the same, most of the clan tigers do.”
“I’m looking.”
“With more than your eyes?”
“Of course,” Dev said, as if you always looked with more than your eyes.
The black fur seemed to shrink, as did his body, and his skin rose through it all like a figure trapped in melting ice that just rose to the surface as the spring thaw freed it. Micah stood there nude and beautiful, with his dark brown curls cascading around his shoulders. His hair tie had gone with the rest of his clothes that were scattered ripped around the room. He blinked his yellow-green eyes at me, and I was relieved; for just a moment I’d worried that he’d keep his tiger eyes.
“God, you make it look easy,” Dev growled, and then I felt his body run with heat. The fur didn’t retreat as effortlessly as it had for Micah, but it was cleaner and faster than any change I’d ever seen from Dev. He swayed on his human feet, because rapid shifting between forms takes energy. Micah and I both steadied the bigger man.
Dev looked at Jean-Claude. “No fur here.”
“I see that,” Jean-Claude said, trying for a neutral voice but not quite succeeding. The fact that he couldn’t control his voice meant something about all of this had hit either an issue or a potential happy spot; whichever it was, it moved him.
“The first night I came here, you put me with Asher while you and Richard took Envy. She’s already dumped him, and you’re not happy with her.”
“She does not share well enough.”
“She’s a beautiful woman.”
“She is.”
“Most men are grateful that anyone that beautiful is with them.”
“Beautiful men can be the same way, mon ami.”
“Envy’s never been with anyone who thought they were the pretty one in the relationship.”
Jean-Claude gave that Gallic shrug that could have meant he agreed, or not.
“It’s the girl rule,” I said. “Never date someone prettier than you are. I broke it so long ago, I don’t worry about it.”
Dev smiled, hands still gripping us as he swayed slightly again.
“Maybe you should sit down,” Micah said.
Dev gave a small shake of his head. “Envy thinks she’s more beautiful than you are, you know that, right?”
I nodded. “She’s tall, leggy, blond, and blue-eyed; of course she does.”
“And that doesn’t bother you?”
“Women have been doing that math on me all my life, I’m used to it.”
“Modern American women seem to believe that being tall and thin is beauty, but I have lived in centuries when that was not so.”
“But when she enters a room, heads turn and follow all that height and blondness,” I said. “I’ve never gotten that same treatment just walking through a crowd.”
Dev grinned. “Only because you’re so short we can’t see you over the crowd.”
I gave him the look the comment deserved, but truth was truth.
“In a crowd we’re invisible,” Micah said.
Dev laughed and then swayed again. Jean-Claude moved a chair up and we helped sit him down. “How do you do this without feeling tired afterward?” Dev asked.
“I do rapid change better than most.”
“You do, but damn, I feel shaky.”
“You need to refuel.”
“You mean eat something.”
Micah nodded.
“But you don’t?”
“I should, but I don’t have to.”
Dev looked back up at Jean-Claude. “You’re in love with Anita, so Envy let that go, but when she realized you see so many of the men as more attractive than she is, that’s when she couldn’t deal with it.”
“Has she looked at the men in our group?” I asked.
Dev smiled. “She’s not used to having to compete with men and women for someone’s attention, Anita, no matter how pretty they are, because you don’t just value the men for their beauty—well, except for Asher maybe. For the rest you prefer men who hit the gym, and the only woman in your life besides Envy hits the gym as hard as the men.”
He was so tall in this form that his head almost touched the ceiling, which meant he was over seven feet tall. Half-man form for most wereanimals gained them between a few inches and over a foot in extra height when they were wolfmen, or lionmen, or whatever-men.
Like I’d said, Dev was a big guy, and the werelion was fucking massive.
“Holy shit,” Domino said from somewhere behind us.
“This isn’t possible,” Crispin said.
I felt Micah draw himself in, a second before he ran with heat and power. His change was neater, cleaner, faster, but then he was one of the best at shifting from one form to another I’d ever seen. He stood over me, black-furred as usual, but taller than ever, and just as the spots of his leopard were visible when the light hit them just right, so now the stripes showed in the overhead light, and for the first time he gazed down at me with different eyes. Golden eyes with a line of red around the pupil like an echo of his own gold-green. He loomed over me, but nothing to equal the lionman. The two of them together seemed to fill the room, as if there weren’t enough square footage for anyone or anything else. The table had been pushed back, the chairs lay on their sides, and I couldn’t remember when it happened, or if we had done it, or the others had done it to save the furniture.
Dev’s voice came out in a growling deep bass even deeper than his tiger form. “I thought you liked your clothes.”
“I had to try,” Micah growled back.
I started to step back from both of them, but they each grabbed one of my arms.
Micah said, “I don’t know what happens if we stop touching each other.”
I stayed put with their massive hands wrapped completely around my arms. Dev was almost able to wrap his fingers around my bicep twice. My bicep isn’t that small; he was just that big.
Jean-Claude stepped around them, pressed to the wall to move around Dev’s tawny side. “Impressive, ma petite, mon chat, mon tigre. Very impressive.”
Dev shook that thick mane. “I’m not a tiger now.”
“Mon lionne, then.”
“Am I your lion, Jean-Claude?” The question seemed to mean more than it should have.
“All that is here is mine, Mephistopheles.” Hearing him use Dev’s full name was almost startling. I heard it so seldom that I sometimes forgot he had another name.
The big lion nodded, his shoulders pressed against the ceiling, back bowed for lack of space as he held my arm, and held hands with Micah. Their tawny and black fur looked like yin and yang curved around each other.
“You are the king, all that you desire is yours to take,” he said, and again I knew there was more meaning there than I was certain of. I would ask Jean-Claude later.
“Fur is not to my liking, mon lionne.”
“We can fix the fur part; the implications beyond that, we’ll discuss,” Micah said. “Feel what I’m about to do, Dev. You have the power to do the same, most of the clan tigers do.”
“I’m looking.”
“With more than your eyes?”
“Of course,” Dev said, as if you always looked with more than your eyes.
The black fur seemed to shrink, as did his body, and his skin rose through it all like a figure trapped in melting ice that just rose to the surface as the spring thaw freed it. Micah stood there nude and beautiful, with his dark brown curls cascading around his shoulders. His hair tie had gone with the rest of his clothes that were scattered ripped around the room. He blinked his yellow-green eyes at me, and I was relieved; for just a moment I’d worried that he’d keep his tiger eyes.
“God, you make it look easy,” Dev growled, and then I felt his body run with heat. The fur didn’t retreat as effortlessly as it had for Micah, but it was cleaner and faster than any change I’d ever seen from Dev. He swayed on his human feet, because rapid shifting between forms takes energy. Micah and I both steadied the bigger man.
Dev looked at Jean-Claude. “No fur here.”
“I see that,” Jean-Claude said, trying for a neutral voice but not quite succeeding. The fact that he couldn’t control his voice meant something about all of this had hit either an issue or a potential happy spot; whichever it was, it moved him.
“The first night I came here, you put me with Asher while you and Richard took Envy. She’s already dumped him, and you’re not happy with her.”
“She does not share well enough.”
“She’s a beautiful woman.”
“She is.”
“Most men are grateful that anyone that beautiful is with them.”
“Beautiful men can be the same way, mon ami.”
“Envy’s never been with anyone who thought they were the pretty one in the relationship.”
Jean-Claude gave that Gallic shrug that could have meant he agreed, or not.
“It’s the girl rule,” I said. “Never date someone prettier than you are. I broke it so long ago, I don’t worry about it.”
Dev smiled, hands still gripping us as he swayed slightly again.
“Maybe you should sit down,” Micah said.
Dev gave a small shake of his head. “Envy thinks she’s more beautiful than you are, you know that, right?”
I nodded. “She’s tall, leggy, blond, and blue-eyed; of course she does.”
“And that doesn’t bother you?”
“Women have been doing that math on me all my life, I’m used to it.”
“Modern American women seem to believe that being tall and thin is beauty, but I have lived in centuries when that was not so.”
“But when she enters a room, heads turn and follow all that height and blondness,” I said. “I’ve never gotten that same treatment just walking through a crowd.”
Dev grinned. “Only because you’re so short we can’t see you over the crowd.”
I gave him the look the comment deserved, but truth was truth.
“In a crowd we’re invisible,” Micah said.
Dev laughed and then swayed again. Jean-Claude moved a chair up and we helped sit him down. “How do you do this without feeling tired afterward?” Dev asked.
“I do rapid change better than most.”
“You do, but damn, I feel shaky.”
“You need to refuel.”
“You mean eat something.”
Micah nodded.
“But you don’t?”
“I should, but I don’t have to.”
Dev looked back up at Jean-Claude. “You’re in love with Anita, so Envy let that go, but when she realized you see so many of the men as more attractive than she is, that’s when she couldn’t deal with it.”
“Has she looked at the men in our group?” I asked.
Dev smiled. “She’s not used to having to compete with men and women for someone’s attention, Anita, no matter how pretty they are, because you don’t just value the men for their beauty—well, except for Asher maybe. For the rest you prefer men who hit the gym, and the only woman in your life besides Envy hits the gym as hard as the men.”
