EPISODE 1
Nathan Grier was exhausted, his body drained entirely of
energy from his days spent recovering from an unfortunate shotgun
blast to the chest. Sleep was a welcome friend as of late—well,
some of the time. A part of Nathan feared the drooping of his eyes
and what might be waiting for him in the darkness. But he needed
rest. Craved it. The comfort and warmth of the bed beneath him.
The quiet of a room that wasn’t in the hospital. The gentle touch of
Sasha’s fingers trailing up his thigh.
Nathan sighed. His thoughts were vague, hazy. He was
definitely in a bed, in a quiet room, but he wasn’t surrounded by the
comfort of covers; he was lying naked on top of them, displayed
for Sasha to see. Nathan knew the hand caressing up his side
belonged to Sasha Kelly—of course it did. He knew the soft skin
of the incubus too well after their night together to imagine it was
anyone else.
It had been a week since their run-in with Gabriel, the sealgaire
who had murdered Nathan’s parents—and who had turned out, in
the end, to be family. Nathan hadn’t told his brother, Jim, about
Gabriel being their uncle, and he hoped he never had to. Gabriel
had set traps for them, using Sasha as bait, bent on ridding the world
of anything not human, especially of changelings like Jim. The
shotgun hadn’t even been the finale, but it had been enough to put
Nathan out of commission. They were all lucky to have gotten out
of that warehouse alive, and Nathan couldn’t help being thankful
that Gabriel hadn’t.
When Nathan first woke up in the hospital, Sasha had clung
to him, overcome with emotion and intent on confiding in Nathan
his darkest secret—that he had killed the first girl he ever fed from,
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something he had never truly gotten over. Sasha had pleaded with
Nathan not to leave him, and the words that followed had shaken
Nathan more than anything that had happened to them.
I love you, Nathan.
“Nathan…” Sasha’s real voice called to him, warm breath on
Nathan’s face. He could feel the heat and presence of Sasha beside
him now, not only his delicately trailing hand. Nathan shivered at
their closeness.
Sasha’s touch, Sasha’s affection—Nathan had grown attached
to those things. But he wasn’t sure if he was ready for Sasha’s love.
Turning toward the incubus, Nathan reached for Sasha with an
outstretched palm, but his hand sank through the air and landed on
a cold mattress. Nathan’s eyes opened immediately, and he found
himself staring at an empty bed. Just like that morning after they had
first made love, when Sasha was taken by Gabriel.
Nathan sat up quickly, instantly awake. He didn’t recognize
the room he was in. It was strangely muted, the colors all dull and
without texture. There was only the bed, the walls, and a mirror in the
corner. There wasn’t even a door.
“Fuck,” Nathan cursed, running a hand through his short black
hair reflexively. He was dreaming again. He was always dreaming. He
tried rubbing his eyes, tried willing himself awake, but those simple
tricks never worked anymore. Not when his mark was so powerful.
A few months earlier, Jim had been kidnapped and taken into
the Veil by dark fae, a passage of time Jim couldn’t remember. Nathan
had tricked a dark fae Messenger into getting his brother back, but
now he was marked for bounty by a yet unknown dark sidhe lord. In
their hopes of getting the bounty called off before it consumed and
killed Nathan, the most they had learned was that the holder of the
bounty was a they, but they didn’t even know what that meant.
Nathan resigned himself to having to play the dream out and
rose from the bed. It was the starkest thing in the room besides him,
since the sheets were black. He was still naked as he inspected the
empty walls and the space around the bed, unable to summon clothing
like he might have in a normal lucid dream, which he assumed had
some deeper meaning, but he didn’t want to think about it. Instead, he
turned for the mirror—his obvious destination.
changeling 3
At first, his reflection looked normal. Just him, clad in only
skin, the image enlarging in the glass as he walked closer. But he
wasn’t completely bare, he realized. His necklace still hung neatly
in place, with his father’s white gold wedding ring and its intricate
Celtic knots like a pendant against his chest. Over his heart was
the physical manifestation of his mark, a scar made up of three
interconnecting lines. Claw marks. He cringed as he recalled the
sting of the Messenger’s claws digging in deep—still a vivid,
horrible memory.
His chest was free of bandages, though Nathan knew his
wounds were still healing in the real world. Here they displayed
as a spattering of new scars, the marks from the shotgun pellets
mixing with the scratches from Sasha’s claws when he’d been
set on a rampage by the powerful influence of Desire, one of the
Muses—a Weird Sister. Nathan could still hardly believe they had
survived that encounter, let alone so many others afterward, but
the scars from Sasha didn’t bother him. Frightening as Sasha’s
true form could be, Nathan found it beautiful.
Slowly, he reached out to touch the mirror, filling the entire
surface now as he stood directly in front of it. He touched the glass
with his left palm, the one carved with a divided circle from when
he’d summoned the Messenger, still clear on his skin as another
scar. The glass was cool, solid. Nathan wondered if he’d rather die
from these nightmares, from his mark, than the other option—if
a dark fae claimed his bounty and turned him over to whoever
owned it. Of course, if that happened, he wouldn’t die, no matter
how much he wanted to. Nathan would be cursed with immortality
as a Shadow Immortal, a servant to his dark sidhe master until the
end of time.
Nathan took a deep breath and turned his eyes away. He
wanted door number three. He wanted to find the bounty holder,
kill whoever it was, and go on living, protecting his brother and
Sasha from whatever might come their way. He didn’t ask for
much from life. He didn’t expect luxury or happily ever after.
He just wanted to be—to remain himself, Nathan, and be there
for those who needed him. The alternative was too terrifying
to imagine.
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Nathan looked up, straight into his own reflected eyes, and
froze. They weren’t what he expected. He expected slit. He’d seen
that before. But even when his eyes were slit in his dreams, they
were always still green. This time they were red. Red on black.
Red on black…
Nathan could see flashes of brilliant color and beautiful
scenery that he had heard about of the more lush places in the Veil,
but had never seen. There were flashes of the fae markets, all metal
and exhaust. Caves tunneling to underground cities. Endless trees
dividing light from darkness, leading deeper and deeper into the
black. And, at the heart of it all, a tower, a castle, and a flash of slit
eyes, only they weren’t blue or green, they were red on black.
The other dream rushed forward through Nathan’s mind, like
it was replaying in the glass—maybe it was—and he remembered
where he had first seen those eyes. He knew instantly then that those
eyes, those slit red on black eyes from the center of the darkest part
of the Veil, belonged to his keeper—the holder of the bounty.
Nathan’s reflected lips pulled back into a smirk.
Outside of the mirror, Nathan tried to pull his hand away.
He couldn’t. The once cool glass was growing colder, so cold it
burned, like his skin was frozen in place. Pain seared through his
palm and he screamed.
The reflection laughed with Nathan’s voice, but the sound
seemed far away, contained within the glass. Nathan looked into
those eyes again, trying to keep himself upright through the pain
that was slowly creeping from his palm up his arm.
Two new figures appeared in the reflection behind Nathan’s
double—Sasha and Jim. But it wasn’t Nathan’s sensitive and
urgent brother, or the kind-hearted incubus he had grown so close
to. Jim’s eyes were slit and amber. Amber like the Messenger’s.
Amber like they had been in Nathan’s hospital room.
Nathan hadn’t told any of the others about Jim’s moment
of Awakening in the hospital, his eyes like that, his expression
blank, his movements so intent as he approached Nathan without
answering a single plea. It was only Sasha’s interruption that
had brought Jim back to his senses. What Jim might have done
otherwise…Nathan didn’t want to speculate.
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In the mirror, Sasha was not himself either, but transformed
into a larger, more monstrous version of his incubus form. His
horns seemed longer and more dangerous at their points, more of
his teeth were sharpened rather than just his eyeteeth baring fangs,
his wings were massive, and his claws appeared nearly twice as
long. Both Sasha and Jim were smirking just as Nathan’s reflection
was smirking, like they were ready to devour him.
Nathan risked a glance behind him, if only to see how much
truth the mirror held, but there was no sign of Jim or Sasha in the
room. They existed only in the mirror, as their terrible, dark selves.
Nathan jerked forward, forced to face the mirror again as
something tugged on his hand. His reflection had curled its fingers
over Nathan’s frozen hand on the glass and was pulling him in. The
surface of the glass didn’t ripple or change, Nathan was simply
being pulled through like nothing was there. Nathan planted his
feet and resisted as best he could. Somehow he knew that if he
allowed himself to be pulled inside, he’d never come back. This
nightmare would become a reality, and he’d lose everything he
knew and cared about.
Sasha and Jim were laughing. Nathan’s reflection was
laughing as he pulled with impossible strength until Nathan’s
entire arm was through to the other side.
Then Nathan heard it.
May the road always rise to meet you…
The lullaby. The one Nathan had known so well in his youth,
from his mother’s sweet voice, and that Sasha knew, too. But it
wasn’t one voice or the other that Nathan heard. The song filled the
air around him in both of their voices, his mother’s and Sasha’s,
and it was almost deafening, surrounding him as he was pulled
further and further inside the mirror. Nathan didn’t understand if
the song was a warning or the promise of hope, but he clung to it
and listened, closed his eyes and listened, even as he felt himself
drawn into the bitter cold of the other side.
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Amanda Meuwissen
Nathan jerked awake in the backseat of the car—their newest
‘borrowed’ car—as they traveled away from Minnesota and the
hospital. There was no bedroom, not yet. They had only just left the
hospital that morning.
Deep mouthfuls of air filled Nathan’s lungs as he struggled to
breathe without making any telling movements or sounds. He was
laid out in the backseat, and the last thing he wanted was to alert
Sasha and Jim in the front seats that he had had another nightmare.
They both worried enough as it was.
Nathan stared at the ceiling of the car as he worked to calm
himself and remember that he was okay. The dreams were bad, and
they’d only get worse, but they couldn’t actually hurt him. They
simply meant…that his time was growing shorter by the day.
Not exactly a comfort, Nathan thought.
“Are you all right, Nathan?”
Nathan swallowed down a yelp. When he glanced down his
body, he saw that Walter was sitting in the seat with him, which
resulted in Walter basically sitting through Nathan’s outstretched
legs since he wasn’t capable of touch. Nathan shuddered at the
creepy image and tossed Walter a glare.
“My apologies, but I could tell your nightmare was intense. I
wanted to be able to speak with you.”
The one thing Nathan could appreciate about his Spirit Guide
was that only he could see or hear him, so at least Jim and Sasha
couldn’t eavesdrop. Nathan raised an eyebrow for Walter to go on.
“This detour is ill-advised,” Walter began. “You could have
months, but you could also have as little as days. I understand the
need for you to rest as your wounds heal, Nathan, but is a trip to the
Gatehouse really the best thing? I know Alex informed you that it is
currently free of other boarders, and Gabriel is no longer a concern,
but the last venture there was hardly fortuitous. And I cannot go
inside with you, remember.”
Nathan nodded. He was well aware of the dangers and the
details. But they needed this. A few days to breathe; that’s all he
was asking.
Walter frowned. “Jim is also a concern. His True Awakening
could honestly happen at any moment. I know he is struggling
changeling 7
to remain in control, but your mutually ticking clocks are not a
comfort to me any more than they are to you. If you must stay at
the Gatehouse, keep a closer eye on Jim, for everyone’s sake. I do
not know if there is anything we can do to help him, but while our
priority is your bounty, Jim is a major concern. The very survival of
the Veil is at stake.”
Nathan stared back up at the ceiling. He’d heard it all before.
He knew the risks, he knew his life was a time bomb, and Jim’s
wasn’t any better. He also knew that nothing was set in stone, and
if Sasha really could help save Nathan, then Nathan was going to
save his brother. He couldn’t help feeling relieved that he would be
without Walter for a few days, since the Spirit Guide couldn’t enter
the Gatehouse. Nathan really wanted some peace and quiet, for as
short a time as he could have it.
He closed his eyes, wondering if a few minutes of dreamless
sleep were even possible anymore. Which was about the time the
radio blared.
“Sonuvabitch!” Nathan growled, jolting upright in the backseat
and effectively scattering Walter’s image. He was thankful he wasn’t
any taller since his head did not make hard contact with the ceiling.
He glared up at the front seats. The rude awakening might not
have been all that bad if the radio hadn’t so obviously been turned
up just for that purpose, and if Sasha and Jim weren’t both singing
along to “Life is a Highway” as loudly as possible. Nathan enjoyed
Sasha’s voice, but Jim had no ear for music.
“Seriously, what the hell?” Nathan demanded. “Be nice to the
invalid! I’m supposed to be resting, remember? Freaks…” he added
with a grumble. Adjusting himself in the seat behind Sasha, who was
driving, Nathan pointedly ignored Walter when he rematerialized
beside him.
Sasha continued singing along to the radio, his smile blinding
through the rearview mirror, while Jim turned to Nathan with a grin.
“Time for your meds, Nate. Had to wake you somehow.”
Nathan forced a returned smile, but it was crooked, and not
only because he was annoyed. He couldn’t help suspecting that Jim
was keeping things from him, that maybe his walk on the wild side
with those amber slit eyes meant he was starting to remember his
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time in the Veil. But Nathan didn’t know how to come right out and
ask that, not without sounding accusing. Besides, Nathan couldn’t
help feeling a small sense of calm every time he saw Jim smiling
and acting normal.
He rummaged through the small bag on the floor, filled with
all the things he needed for recovery from his shotgun wound. He
didn’t have to ask which meds he was due for this time. His chest
ached.
“Either of you got something to drink?” Nathan asked.
A plastic bottle was pushed back toward Nathan and he blinked
at it skeptically.
“Green Tea?” Nathan read off of Jim’s drink of choice. “You’re
kidding me, right? Could you be more of a girl?”
Jim frowned and retracted the offered beverage.
Sasha had been driving since Nathan was last fully awake.
He produced a bottle of water and passed it back. Nathan’s gaze
lingered on the dark leather of Sasha’s sleeve, from his new
leather jacket. Sasha had sulked a bit at first from the loss of his
old one, but he’d struck gold at a consignment store in one of the
Minneapolis suburbs and had been able to replace the ruined jacket
before they left. Nathan could admit the incubus definitely looked
good in leather.
“Thanks,” Nathan said, but he reached a little too far forward
as he took the bottle and had to grimace. “Damn it. Definitely time
for more painkillers. I can take two of these things, right?” Nathan
was already planning to take at least two as he unscrewed the cap on
the bottle of pills and started shaking some out into his hand. He also
had a small wound on his leg from the bullet Gabriel had grazed him
with, but at least that was almost healed.
“Two’s fine,” Sasha said, finally breaking off from singing.
“Might give you a stomachache though, and you’ve been complaining
enough as it is,” he added teasingly.
“I could still kick your ass if you wanna pull over, smart guy.”
Nathan popped the pills in his mouth and took a long swig of Sasha’s
water. “Where we at?”
Sasha smiled. “Almost there. Ten more minutes and we’ll be
pulling into the Gatehouse.”
changeling 9
Nathan nodded and turned a quick glance on Walter beside
him. His Spirit Guide was still frowning, but Nathan didn’t honor
the expression with a comment. Instead, he locked gazes with Sasha
in the rearview mirror. “Can’t wait.”
EPISODE 2
Nathan stared at the jukebox in the corner of the Gatehouse
bar distrustfully. He hadn’t really given it much thought when they
were there before, because they hadn’t spent much time downstairs.
But, with the Gatehouse empty while Alex worked on some much
needed repairs to the old building, they were free to roam about the
place without worry of running into seals.
The jukebox was…digital.
“It doesn’t bite,” Alex said, smiling as she walked up to the
jukebox and started fiddling with the touch screen. “It works more
like a playlist on a laptop or phone. You program in the songs, and
people can just come over and look up the artists or titles they want
by typing them in. Much more for variety.”
Nathan huffed as some familiar Guns N’ Roses began to play.
Other than the touch screen, the jukebox looked like any old model,
but Nathan still eyed it with natural contempt. He had never been
one for technology, probably because they were on the road most of
the time and were usually broke.
“It’s nice to have the place to ourselves,” Jim said, perched
beside Sasha on a stool at the bar. “Since we mostly came for
Nathan to recover, we’re happy to help if you need anything done
around the place.”
Nathan turned away from the nefarious machine and smirked
at Jim’s casual attempt at conversation. Jim was trying. And with
Alex, which gave Nathan hope, regardless of whatever might be
stirring up within Jim to bring out those amber slit eyes.
“I appreciate it. There’s just some painting and a little hauling
down here, and minor construction on a couple of the rooms upstairs
that I could use some help with,” Alex explained, situating herself
changeling 11
back behind the bar. “Nothing you boys won’t be able to handle.
You’re welcome to stay as long as you need. I have the place locked
up for a good week before any new lodgers are scheduled to come
through. Word spreads pretty fast when I’m not open for business.”
Nathan snorted. “I’ll bet. As for me—”
“And the recently shot and injured will be on hunting duty,”
she cut in.
“Uhh...what?” Nathan blinked at her as he approached the bar.
“Hunting duty? Wanna clarify that?”
“It’s a raccoon,” Alex said, half smirking. “At least I think
so. Something keeps swiping bits of food, stealing small things,
moving things about. I wouldn’t pay it much mind if it wasn’t so
constant, and if it wasn’t for a few of the more trigger happy and
twitchy older seals. Sounds too much like brownies when you give
details like that. But I saw it. No bigger than a cat, definitely had
fur, and more afraid of me than the other way around, believe me.
It’s a raccoon.”
For some reason, the more Alex said it was a raccoon, the less
Nathan believed that was true. “So I’m playing Animal Control.
Great,” he said, quickly smiling when Alex tossed a raised eyebrow
his direction. “Couldn’t be happier to help,” he added, even though
he had been hoping to spend most of his time on a couch or bed
somewhere watching TV, while his tender chest wounds healed.
“So, rooms?” Alex asked. Their things were still piled by the
door. “Being you’re the only ones here, you’re welcome to each
take your own. Three?” she asked, already digging around for keys
behind the bar counter.
“Nah, two’s fine,” Nathan said without thinking. His heart
stopped in his chest at the same second he spoke, realization hitting
him as Alex’s eyes narrowed.
“Two?” she questioned. “Don’t you and Jim get sick of each
other? Or do I not want an answer to that question.”
“That’s not what he means,” Sasha broke in, the smile clear in
his voice as he slid off his stool to stand next to Nathan.
Nathan hoped Sasha was coming to the rescue, to help dismiss
the whole ‘two rooms’ idea so they wouldn’t have to explain the
finer details of their relationship to Alex.
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“He means one for Jim…and one for us.”
So much for that idea.
Nathan swallowed, smiling sheepishly at Alex as she blinked
back at them. Enough people knew about him and Sasha now that it
shouldn’t really matter, and Nathan did want to share a room—and
a bed—with Sasha again, but he was still getting used to the idea
in public.
“Come again?” Alex asked, her face entirely stoic and
unreadable.
Nathan glanced at Sasha’s face just above his shoulder, and the
incubus looked down at him, those intense blue eyes questioning in
a way that made Nathan feel like a jackass for having hoped Sasha
would lie. “Yeah,” Nathan said, still looking at Sasha, “just…two
rooms.”
“Two it is,” Alex acknowledged, setting two keys on top of the
bar’s counter with a clink. If she was still skeptical or at all freaked
out by this development, she didn’t let on—at least not yet.
The incubus smiled sweetly at Nathan and grabbed the keys
from the countertop. He tossed one back to Jim, who was very
unsuccessfully trying to hide a smirk. They started for the door to
pick up their things and haul everything upstairs.
Nathan felt a little trapped being left alone in the bar with
Alex, who he could feel staring at the side of his face as he stared
after Sasha and Jim’s retreating forms.
“Sasha?” Alex started in as soon as the others were out of
earshot. “You and Sasha? You and the male seal and incubus, Sasha
Kelly? I’m just clarifying here in case I’ve, I don’t know, lost my
mind. If I didn’t think him being a guy and a seal wasn’t enough,
an incubus—”
“Okay, you can shut up now,” Nathan cut in, shifting
uncomfortably as he plopped himself down on a stool. “It’s hard
to explain, okay? And…we kind of were already at the making out
stage the last time we were here.”
Alex smiled knowingly at him and leaned over the counter.
“So let me get this straight...or maybe ‘straight’ isn’t the right
word…” She smirked.
“Hey, I’m not…I mean, I’m…well…”
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“You’re not what?” Alex prompted, knowing Nathan well
enough to understand exactly what juvenile thoughts were racing
through his head. “No offence, Nate, but unless you’re full of it or
this is some really bad joke, what would you call sharing a bed with
a hot guy? Male bonding? Maybe in the literal sense…” She was
clearly enjoying herself.
Nathan decided to settle on a scowl and avoid giving her any
additional ammunition. “So speaking of him being an incubus…he
knows you know, right?”
“Of course.”
“And you found out…how, exactly?”
The briefest flicker of what Nathan took for embarrassment
and maybe a little panic crossed Alex’s face before she turned away
and promptly picked up a box from behind the counter. “Oops,
better get this into the storage room before I trip over it.” Then she
was out from behind the bar and heading for the side hallway before
Nathan could protest.
He tried anyway. “Alex…”
“Story for another time, Nate!” she called back as she
disappeared.
Nathan’s scowl deepened. He was going to hold her to that.
Nathan had hoped he could postpone any raccoon hunting
until tomorrow, but Alex pushed an honest to god raccoon trap into
his hands after dinner before he could try and slip off to his room.
He wasn’t all that tired, even with a few more doses of his
various medications in his system, because he had spent the majority
of the afternoon sleeping and, to be honest, he was kind of restless.
That didn’t mean he wanted to go foraging about in the attic for
some damn raccoon though.
The attic was definitely the last place Alex had thought to
renovate. It was dusty, filled with boxes and other storage, and had
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only one overhead light which was a bare bulb activated by a string.
For a brief moment, Nathan wished Walter was with him so he could
have his Spirit Guide scout ahead.
The smart thing to do would be to investigate around a little,
see if he could find where the raccoon nested—since the thing would
more than likely be hiding—and then set up the trap near there.
Nathan had some scraps of meat in a baggie to use as bait. Part of
him just wanted to set up the trap and get the hell back downstairs.
His biggest phobia was heights but he wasn’t too keen on tight spaces
either, and the attic’s ceiling was so low, Nathan had to crouch.
“Here, kitty, kitty,” Nathan whispered under his breath.
Hunkered down low as he moved along the floorboards, which
creaked in ways that made Nathan’s stomach flip for fear of falling
right through the ceiling, he squinted at the meager light given off
by the single bulb. There was definitely a lot more clutter off to
Nathan’s left, so he headed there. It looked like some of the boxes
had been arranged into a makeshift fort.
Are raccoons always this ingenious?
Nathan was almost afraid the raccoon would still be in the
nest when he peered over the boxes, and he really didn’t feel like
getting his face scratched off right now. First inspection showed no
creature, thankfully, but Nathan was surprised by how otherwise
organized the little nest was. There was a blanket, bits of leftover
food and wrappers from candy bars, and a tiny treasure trove of
things Nathan could definitely imagine were stolen from seals.
What unsettled him the most was the bowie knife he would have
been glad to take as his own. There was also a lighter, a watch,
a few necklaces Nathan assumed were Alex’s, and various other
sparkly metal things.
Nathan set to work getting the trap situated inside the nest.
His movement unsettled some of the boxes around him, however,
and he gave a great sneeze when too much dust wafted up around
him. It was then that Nathan heard scuffling. He jerked his head to
the right and he could have sworn he saw something furry scuttle
across the floorboards back behind a few of the more distant boxes.
At least it was only about the size of a cat, like Alex had said, but
Nathan was positive it didn’t have a tail.
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“Here…kitty, kitty…” Nathan whispered again, a lump in his
throat now. He was at a big disadvantage and, again, he really didn’t
want to have his face scratched off any time soon by some rabid
fuzz ball. “Don’t run, little fella…I’m your friend. I just wanna
play, huh?” Nathan carefully finished setting the trap up and left the
bag of meat open. If he could just lure the…whatever it was back to
the nest, he still had a chance at capturing it.
Nathan wasn’t sure if it was better to crawl or crouch, but he
figured he would be able to see over most of the boxes better if he
stayed on his feet. It made his chest ache a little to be scrunched like
that, but nothing he couldn’t handle.
“Come on, little guy, Alex may not care what I do with ya,
but I promise we’ll just go for a little ride out to some nice patch of
woods somewhere. You’ll love it.”
Nathan jerked his head to the left this time as he heard scuffling
over in another corner.
“I’m not here to take your stuff or anything,” he went on,
inching in that new direction. “Go ahead and check. All there.”
He felt a little silly for talking like the creature could understand
him, but he had always had a way of attributing anthropomorphic
characteristics to things.
Suddenly, Nathan heard scuffling from behind him, back
where the nest was, and there was a large snapping of the cage
door. Maybe the thing could understand Nathan; it certainly seemed
to have taken the bait.
Slowly, Nathan snuck his way back over to the boxes that
enclosed the nest and peered over. The trap had been triggered, all
right, but there was no sign of anything furry and cute inside of it.
“Damn it,” Nathan cursed. This thing was good.
Too good, it turned out, because Nathan barely had time to
turn around when he heard scuffling again just behind him, and then
the thing was already latched onto his leg, taking a painful bite.
The Gatehouse wards went off, but only slightly, admitting
a faint BOOM and disrupting Nathan’s footing. He cried out from
the shock of power and the pain caused by the creature’s teeth,
stumbling forward before falling flat to the wooden floor with an
eruption of dust as he landed. Nathan coughed and gasped heavily,
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but more from the explosion of pain throughout his chest. Every
one of his wounds had been impacted in the fall; he’d be lucky if
he hadn’t ripped any stitches, and he definitely wouldn’t be moving
easily for a while. It hurt so much that Nathan could barely shove
himself over onto his back.
He took painful gasps, his hand ghosting over his shirt.
Suddenly, Nathan realized that, although the creature was no longer
biting him, the Gatehouse wards had not dislodged it from his leg.
There was barely enough light to see by but Nathan risked a glance
down his body.
Dimly, he could make out large bat-like ears, sharp little teeth
formed into a growl, and round beady black eyes. It was almost
entirely covered in fur, more the size of a large teddy bear than a cat,
in reality, and though Nathan couldn’t be sure, the paws gripping
his leg made him almost think the thing had opposable thumbs.
“What the fuck?!” Nathan cried, shaking his leg furiously.
The creature skittered off of him back into the maze of dust
and boxes, and Nathan immediately scrambled to his feet and
painfully made for the pull-down door and ladder. Maybe it was
more scared of Nathan than the other way around, but it was pissed
about him trying to capture it. And another thing—that was sure as
hell no freaking raccoon.
Great, Nathan thought, grimacing as he landed back down on
the floor below. So much for a vacation.
EPISODE 3
“Ow! Shit! Would you watch what you’re doing?! Geez.”
Nathan grit his teeth as Jim finished replacing the last few
stitches that had ripped when he fell. Jim was good at this stuff
usually, but that didn’t mean it didn’t sting.
“Stop complaining. You move too much,” Jim replied roughly,
face close to Nathan’s bare chest as he sewed. “And you’re the one
who had to go and pull these things. I’m almost done.”
Nathan grimaced all the way through to the last stitch. He
hated that Jim made it sound like he had done this on purpose.
“Yeah, coz I asked the evil teddy bear with fangs to attack me. Did
you see the bite in my leg?” He gestured down to where Sasha had
finished disinfecting and cleaning the bite and was now wrapping
Nathan’s ankle in gauze. In actuality, there weren’t any teeth
marks, but the creature had torn open Nathan’s recently healed
bullet wound, and he was still pretty sure teeth had been involved
at some point.
There was a snicker from the doorway and Nathan turned his
head to glare at Alex. They were in what was often used as the first
aid room for when seals came in injured. Alex had gladly offered
up supplies and use of the room when Nathan came limping down
the stairs, blood soaked through his pant leg and a few places on
his T-shirt.
Currently, Nathan was kicked back on what had obviously
been a dentist chair before it found its new home in the Gatehouse.
It worked well enough to elevate his leg for Sasha, gave Jim easy
access to the stitches, and had an accompanying table to set gauze
and supplies, where Nathan’s necklace was currently resting while
his wounds were treated.
18
Amanda Meuwissen
Blessedly, Sasha had finished with Nathan’s leg and came up
by his head with a fresh dose of pain meds and a glass of water.
Nathan took the lot gratefully.
“Vacation, right?” Nathan winked at Sasha as he downed the
drugs.
“Be honest,” Sasha smirked back, “did you really expect
anything else?”
Nathan huffed. “I’m sore and anxious and really sick of adding
insult to injury—literally. So yeah…I was hoping for peace and quiet
for a change.” He closed his eyes and sighed, enjoying Jim’s gentler
touch now as his brother placed clean bandages over his wounds.
“Don’t we deserve a break from the nasty, bitey things in life? I’d give
another few stitches for that thing to have actually been a raccoon.”
“What did you say it looked like?” Alex asked, walking a little
farther into the room.
“Like Gizmo on steroids,” Nathan grumbled. He didn’t want to
open his eyes again just yet. The dentist chair came complete with
that annoyingly bright light, and Jim had been using it to better see
by.
“Gizmo?” Alex questioned. “Like from Gremlins? Cute, furry,
Chinese creature that sings?”
“More like a gremlin and an Ewok had a love child and it
isn’t happy about it,” Nathan said. He put a hand over his face and
peeked through fingers at Sasha when the incubus laughed. “I’m
serious. Doesn’t make it any less scary or vicious. Did I mention the
opposable thumbs?”
“Several times,” Jim said.
“We thought you’d never shut up about it,” chimed in Sasha.
Nathan grimaced even though the brunt of the pain had finally
started to subside. “Okay, you two need to stop tag-teaming me or
we’re going to have a problem.”
“Tag-teaming you, huh?” echoed Alex. “There’s an interesting
mental picture.”
Bright light be damned, Nathan’s eyes went wide with the
horror of imagining that mental picture, and the next thing he knew
Jim and Sasha were holding him down as he struggled to get out of
the chair.
changeling 19
“It was just a joke,” Alex defended, though she was still
smirking.
“Can I at least throw something at her?” Nathan grumbled at
whichever of the men holding him down would listen, even though
he was already calming down and letting them still him. “Whatever.
Forget it. Can we concentrate on the baby hellbeast upstairs?”
“Sorry for the trouble. Honestly,” Alex said. “I say we leave the
thing be until morning. It hasn’t attacked before, just now, after being
disturbed. So I’d be willing to bet it’ll stay hidden tonight. I’d rather
we had a fresher start on catching it.”
Nathan wasn’t too sure he liked that idea. He doubted he
could sleep comfortably knowing that thing was scurrying about
somewhere above his head.
Now that he was patched up, though, he gladly accepted the
clean shirt Sasha handed him, and painstakingly pulled it over his
head. It was like starting from square one with his wounds, all tender
and recently stitched. Nathan really hated Evil Gizmo right now.
“Jim and I can finish the room we were painting,” Sasha said to
Alex as he and Jim helped Nathan out of the dentist chair. “Might as
well, so we’re finished with it. It’s not too late yet.”
Jim nodded. “Sure. But you,” he said pointedly to Nathan, “are
going to sit, rest, and do nothing. At least for the rest of tonight.”
Nathan didn’t argue; that’s what he’d wanted to do in the first
place.
As Sasha and Jim disappeared once again to the downstairs
room they had been painting, Nathan placed his necklace back
where it belonged around his neck and followed Alex into one of the
lounges.
“For the record, I really did think it looked like a raccoon
when I saw it,” she said, helping Nathan situate himself in a cushier
recliner, something he only allowed because he really was that sore.
“Can you hand me the remote?”
Alex grabbed the TV remote from the coffee table and plopped
it into Nathan’s hand. “Don’t get used to this now. Basic cable. With
a few extras. Might have ESPN.”
Nathan flicked the TV on and started surfing. “Not much of a
sport’s guy,” he admitted.
20
Amanda Meuwissen
“I think we get SyFy,” Alex snarked.
But Nathan had struck gold already. “I’m good,” he said,
basking in the genius of Airplane as the stewardess with a guitar
knocked the sick kid’s IV out. Again. Alex left with a chuckle, and
Nathan allowed himself to get comfortable.
The next thing he knew, Lloyd Bridges’ character was upside
down sniffing glue, and Nathan was jolting awake. The movie was
almost over.
Nathan’s chest didn’t hurt anymore save its usual dull ache,
and when he put weight on his leg as he got out of the chair, the
expected sting didn’t come. Praise pain meds, he thought, even if
they did make him a little queasy sometimes.
When he came out of the downstairs bathroom a few minutes
later and wandered into the bar area, he saw Alex hovering by
the jukebox pretending to dust or something equally implausible
while actually peering into the nearby doorway. Nathan looked
around her as he approached and saw that the adjoining room
was the one Jim and Sasha were painting. Both of them had at
some point removed their shirts and were speckled in white and
blue paint.
Nathan had to smirk. “You are so busted,” he whispered
beside Alex’s head, pleased that even in a weakened state he had
been able to sneak up on her.
To her credit, Alex didn’t even flinch. “I can’t admire a job
well done?” she said without turning. It was more than obvious
she wasn’t talking about the act of painting.
Nathan snorted, but any comeback he might have been
preparing fell from his lips as he got pulled into the scene alongside
her. Jim was only too happily forgotten as Nathan focused on
Sasha and hummed. Bare chest, flecks of paint, the usual lowriding jeans that were snug in all the right places, and the peek of
tattoo curling up from below Sasha’s waistline. Nathan could see
the tribal wings too, flexing over Sasha’s shoulder blades.
Distantly, Alex’s voice filtered into Nathan’s hearing, filled
with humor. “Is it the tats or just that he wears his jeans that low?”
“Both,” Nathan said in a low voice. Alex’s snickering brought
him back to reality and he raised an eyebrow at her. “You asked.”
changeling 21
“Yeah, but the crazy thing is…you had an answer. So tell
me,” she said, grinning dangerously now and backing up a few
steps to lean casually against the jukebox, “have you slept with
him yet?”
Okay, maybe Nathan wasn’t quite as comfortable with being
open about all of this as he had thought, especially considering
his uncomfortable laugh poured out of him. “Uhh…what?” he
managed, blaming the drugs for how much his voice shook.
“So that’s a yes,” Alex nodded to herself. “Guess I have to
hand it to him; Sasha has to be good at what he does to get into the
pants of a guy like you this quickly.”
Nathan’s defensive shields instantly rose. “Okay, first,” he
said, still keeping his voice low to avoid alerting the pair in the
other room, “if you think months is quick then you don’t know
me. And if you think the only thing Sasha’s after is a good meal,
tasty as I’m sure I am, then you can just…” He trailed. Alex was
smiling all self-satisfactorily again. Damn it. “You’re bullshitting
me, aren’t you?”
“You make it so easy,” she smiled. “Besides, I have to mess
with you a little. If you didn’t get all defensive, I’d worry you
didn’t really care about him. Guess you do.” Her humor-filled
expression turned sincere, and Nathan softened as he realized her
true intentions.
“So what about you?” he asked. “Any…unresolved issues I
need to know about between you two?”
Alex laughed a little uncomfortably. At least Nathan thought
it was uncomfortable. Maybe he was just imagining things, since
he was so used to his own uncomfortable laugh. “I hesitate to even
call us friends sometimes,” she said. “Despite the sociable guy
act, he keeps to himself most of the time and is so private I hardly
feel I know him at all.”
“You know enough to know he’s an incubus. And that didn’t
really answer my question.”
The smile on Alex’s face turned to pure guarded confidence.
“I foresee no love shapes in your future, Nathan. Sasha and I have
nothing…unresolved.” She said that last word slowly, lingering
on it like a tease.
22
Amanda Meuwissen
“Wait,” Nathan said, realizing he still wasn’t getting a straight
answer, “does that mean you had things resolved once? Coz I—”
“Hey, guys!” Alex called into the other room, successfully
cutting off any further prodding from Nathan. “How about I grab
the lowly slaves some drinks? Requests?”
Nathan gave Alex’s smug smile a glare.
“Any kind of soda is fine,” Jim called back. “Thanks.”
“Water for me,” said Sasha. “Thanks, Alex.”
They were painting what was probably the largest room
downstairs other than the bar itself. Sasha was finishing the last of
the walls with dusty blue paint while Jim was on a ladder finishing
the ceiling in white. Nathan couldn’t help how his eyes strayed to
Sasha’s low-riding jeans again and the winding of his tattoos that
dipped down beneath the waistline.
Then something caught Nathan’s eye. Sasha lifted a hand to
wipe at his brow and swayed, like he was dizzy or weakened.
Nathan frowned.
“Nathan,” Alex said, a little impatiently, “I asked if you wanted
anything.”
“I’m fine,” Nathan said, too focused on Sasha to care about
beverages.
“Okay,” came Alex’s humored reply, assuming Nathan’s
distractedness was still due to revealed skin. Then she was gone,
and Nathan immediately moved into the room, rustling the plastic
tarp as he walked over it.
“It’s all still a little wet, Nathan,” Jim called down from his
ladder. “Be careful.”
Nathan barely acknowledged Jim as he passed him, making
a beeline for Sasha. The incubus turned as he approached, smiling
warmly at him, but Nathan couldn’t help noticing how dazed Sasha
looked, and not in an entirely normal, human way, either.
“Jim!” Nathan called over his shoulder. “I’m borrowing this
guy for a while, okay?” He grabbed Sasha by the arm, took the
incubus’ paintbrush and tossed it down into the tarp, and hauled
Sasha out the nearest doorway into an empty hall.
Jim’s amused reply of, “Didn’t need to know that!” followed
after them, but Nathan ignored the tease. He wasted no time before
changeling 23
pushing Sasha back against the hallway wall. Sasha’s initially
pleased expression turned wary as Nathan glared at him.
“Gabriel’s stunt caused more damage than you want to admit,
didn’t it?” Nathan said plainly. “It drained you, even with all the
antidote we used to make you better. Have you been putting off
feeding again because I’m hurt?”
A brief wave of panic flashed through Sasha’s eyes before he
pulled on a smile. “It’s not that serious, Nate. I’m fine.”
“Really?” Nathan stepped closer into Sasha’s personal space,
a hair’s breadth left between their bodies, and grazed the fingers of
his right hand along the skin at the waistline of Sasha’s jeans, all
the way around to touch the dip in Sasha’s lower back.
The incubus growled low in his throat, staring hungrily back
at Nathan as his eyes flickered red and then back to blue.
“Yeah,” Nathan said, pulling his hand away and taking a step
back. “You’re fine.”
The lustful haze faded from Sasha’s face, replaced by guilt,
anguish, and fumbling lips that couldn’t seem to form words.
“I’m hurt, but I’m not broken,” Nathan said. “Or did you
fail to notice the full range of motion? Still fully functional over
here.”
“Nate,” Sasha sighed, “I know you’re not half as comfortable
with all of this as you’ve been pretending. We’ve only been together
once. I don’t want to push you. It’s not just your wounds; I can feel
your emotions, remember? There’s still uncertainty there.”
Nathan couldn’t deny that, but he wouldn’t just come out and
admit it either. “I told Alex the truth, didn’t I? I’m trying. And
because I want to. Because I like this. All of this. So will you stop
being stupid and give me a break from the Lifetime movie of the
week here? I want to be with you.”
The hodgepodge of emotions on Sasha’s face melted into
amusement, with maybe a little of that lust returning too. “I know.
Sorry…you’re right. I should have told you I’d need to feed sooner
than usual after what happened, I just…I didn’t want our next time
together to be out of obligation. I know it wouldn’t be,” Sasha said
before Nathan could interrupt, which he had been poised to do,
“but I’m not used to having someone…all for me.”
24
Amanda Meuwissen
A flush of warmth filled Nathan’s chest and he wasn’t sure
how to respond.
Sasha, ever-attuned to Nathan’s emotions, gave a short laugh.
“Sorry, no more Lifetime movie of the week. I can do that. So…
are you saying you want to shoot for something in the higher up
channels tonight?”
Nathan shivered at the thought. But since he was pleased to have
the conversation moved to something other than sentimentality, he
offered Sasha a sideways smirk. “Cable access only? You’re gonna
have to be gentle with me, though. I’m all weak and defenseless.”
He waggled an eyebrow.
Sasha grinned. “We can call it a night after I’m done painting,”
he suggested. “Half an hour and I’m all yours.”
“I like that plan,” Nathan said. And he did. He really did.
He let his eyes drift over Sasha’s body, so perfectly speckled
in blue and white across his pale chest, with even a little paint on
his face and in his hair. He reached out his fingertips to press low
against Sasha’s stomach.
Sasha sucked in a breath and pushed just slightly from the
wall, dipping his head with a wide grin before he leaned enough
forward to brush their lips together, so feathery light that it made
Nathan shiver again. He tried to lean into the kiss to deepen it, his
tongue pleading for entrance with light flicks along Sasha’s lips,
when there was a sudden clicking noise and a contained giggle from
down the hall.
Slowly, simultaneously, Nathan and Sasha pulled their heads
apart and turned towards those incriminating noises.
Not attempting to hide her treachery in the least, Alex stood
a few yards away with her camera phone pointed in their direction.
“You know,” she said, “I could post this anywhere online and I’d
probably get more hits than Wikipedia.”
“Gimme that phone!” Nathan called, uncaring to his wounds
or fatigue as he broke into a run. With Sasha’s laughter following
after him, he chased a laughing Alex back into the bar area.
She was so dead.