"Don't worry, Glory. He can do it. I'm sure I can do it. We may look like ordinary hounds, but we're not, remember?
Our superpowers are still with us." Valdez had ventured closer again. " I could give you a ride. You wouldn't even have to shift."
"No, I'm too heavy for either one of you if I stay in human form, especially in that current." I sighed. "There's no help for it. I'm going to have to shift and I know just what I'll be. Something that can cling to you, Jerry, and not let go."
"Let's do it then before that Aggie person hits you with another pain. Brace yourself, I'm opening the door." Jerry hit the locks and opened the door. "Valdez, you go across first. I want to see how the current's running before I take Glory across. Glory, I'm shifting now. As soon as you get out of the car, you'd better start to do the same." Oh, God, did I hate this. I opened the passenger door on my side and eased over so Valdez could leap out.
"Be careful, pup."
He didn't even look back, just jumped into the water, which promptly pulled him under, then swept him downstream and out of sight.
"Valdez!"
"He'll be all right."
I looked over and Jerry had changed into one of the biggest dogs I'd ever seen. He was powerful with broad shoulders and a square jaw, and the rain pounded on him while he waited for me to get out of the car. I slammed the passenger door shut, already wet from the rain that had poured in, then crawled over to the driver's side. Jerry must have put the keys in his pocket before he'd shifted. Fine. My turn. I jumped out into the rain, closed the door and heard the locks engage. The wind and rain buffeted me as I screwed up my courage and pictured the animal I intended to become in my mind.
"Are you sure this is going to work? Valdez"
"Look. There he is on the other side."
Sure enough, when I peered through the driving rain, I could see that my dog had made it to the other side. He was a wet and muddy sight, panting from exertion, but he had clearly survived.
"Okay, then. Here goes." I closed my eyes and felt the change shudder through my body. When I opened them again, I was looking up at Jerry. "I'm going to hold on to your back."
"Hop on. Whatever you do, don't let go." Jerry didn't talk inside my head like Valdez did, just used his lips. Very strange coming out of a huge dog.
I leaped up on his back and clung to him like the monkey I was. Yep, I'd decided to be one of those cute little squirrel monkeys. They're the ones with the big brains and agile bodies. Right now I needed all the brains and agility I could get. I dug my fingers into his fur. Not satisfactory. Ears. Yep, those floppy ears made good handles and my feet and toes had good gripping powers too as Jerry leaped into the icy water.
The water moved fast, pushing us away from Valdez who ran along the other side, shouting encouragement. A tree branch came out of nowhere and tried to knock me off. I let it hit me in the back and smelled blood. Damn, that hurt. I wrapped my tail around Jerry's furry back and shivered as I felt the ripple of his strong muscles fighting to keep us from going under. Water splashed into my face and I coughed and decided to bury my face in his fur and quit breathing for the duration. I did that just in time because water rushed over my head and another stick prodded me, trying to break my hold. I gripped Jerry's ears until I smelled his blood. My bad, but I wasn't about to let go. I'd kiss it and make it better if we got out of this before dawn. Crap. I would have to think about that possibility.
Finally, finally, I realized the rain was beating on my furry back again and that Jerry was straining up a slope. He staggered to a spot under a carport and lay panting on the concrete. Valdez sat next to him.
"Get off of him, Glory, so he can shift back." Valdez nudged me with his nose. "And, for God's sake, let go of his ears, you've about ripped them off "
I looked up and realized my dog was right. I loosened my grip and saw blood on my fingers. Jerry's blood. Tears came to my eyes and dripped onto his fur. I finally allowed myself to breathe and crawled off to land on the concrete beside him. He looked at me, one moment a dog with bloody ears and wet fur, the next a man who had wet and muddy clothes and bloody ears. He still needed healing.
"You make a cute monkey, Gloriana, but I think you need to shift now, sweetheart." He leaned back against a steel beam and smiled. "Use those vamp powers you were bragging about a few minutes ago."
"A few minutes? Seemed like an hour. Sorry I hurt you, Jerry. I guess I got a little tense out there." Tense and terrified. I checked out my tiny hands, my ugly, tiny clawlike hands. I felt the familiar anxiety building. Could I shift back? Would I ever be the old Glory again? Or stuck in monkey body? I looked around me, shivering.
"Quit stalling, Blondie. Shift back. Aggie's waiting." Valdez bumped against me, knocking me on my furry butt. "Monkeys don't do it for me. I'd like to see you as a cute little poodle though. Think Ray or Blade would go for you then? Naw, you'd be all mine."
"In your dreams." Valdez's teasing had relaxed me a little. I closed my eyes and "saw" myself back in human form. The icky wet feeling of shrinking corduroy jeans clued me in that I'd actually managed it nicely. I sagged down beside Jerry and touched his ear, then kissed him on the lips. "That's a huge relief. I may be getting better at this." A stabbing pain in my head cut the celebration short.
"You just need practice." Jerry touched my forehead. "She's hurting you again, I can see it in your face. Don't worry about my ears now. We can deal with them later. How far is Caine's house?"
I could barely make out the address on the curb. "It's just a few blocks away. We're already wet, let's go." I darted out into the rain, Jerry and Valdez right behind me. Fortunately, Ray's house was uphill after thishard on the legs, but it meant there was no chance of any more flood waters to cross. We arrived in less than five minutes. I punched in the code at the security gate even though Valdez was all for leaping over it.
"Enough stunts. You and Jerry used a lot of effort swimming. Save your strength. Now I've got to face Aggie. Jerry, no arguing. You're waiting in the house. If she gets a whiff of you, you'll end up in Aggie's jail, slated for deportation to Circe hell." Jerry started to argue but I just held up my hand. "I mean it." My voice quivered and a tear slipped down my cheek. "I really can't handle the stress of worrying about you right now. Okay?"
"God, I hate this. Valdez? You'll be with her?" Jerry followed me into the house.
"Every step."
Nathan greeted us inside. "What are you guys doing here? How'd you get in? And where's your ride? Sienna left something here, then when we tried to leave, the road was flooded so we're trapped. She's asleep in one of the guest rooms."
"Don't worry about how we got here. Nate, has Ray clued you in about Aggie?" I'd had no problem with Nathan knowing about his best friend's vampire world. And he knew Jerry, Valdez and lots of other paranormals. But I was afraid that even a brilliant Harvard educated man like Nate was eventually going to overdose on all this weird stuff.
"Who?" Nate looked confused.
"Aggie's a problem Ray and I have to solve. I'm sure Ray will tell you all about it tomorrow night. Why don't you go to bed?
Jerry's going to need some dry clothes, can you fix him up with some first?"
"Sure. Come on." Nate gestured toward the stairs.
"Be careful, Gloriana." Jerry gave me a kiss that would've moved mountains if you had a mountain that needed moving. Me? I was too busy fighting off an Aggie pain to notice. Not much anyway.
"Stay inside," I said as I shoved back and ran toward the back door, Valdez on my heels. We both left muddy prints on the floor, but I couldn't work up much concern about that. In the elevator down to the boat dock we could feel the storm still raging. The miracle was that the power hadn't gone out. Why, oh, why had I even thought about that? I prayed I didn't get stuck in the elevator with Valdez while my brain blew apart. We both breathed a sigh of relief when the door opened at the lower level. The lake was rough, whipped to a froth by the strong winds. Ray's boat bounced up and down at its mooring. Fortunately, Aggie and Ray were settled at a table under the wooden decking that stuck out from the house above. They were still getting hit by spray, but were out of the rain for the most part. Valdez ran to the shelter, then stood there dripping. Finally, my head quit hurting. Ray was as wet as I was so I figured he'd been summoned like I had. He jumped up and helped me to a seat on a bench as far from Aggie as I could get.
"Took you long enough." Aggie stared at Valdez. "I didn't invite the fur face."
"Too bad. I go where Glory goes."
"I don't have time to enjoy a pissing contest with you." Aggie turned her back on him.
"Have you seen this weather? That's why we were late. I had to shape-shift and swim across a river to get here." I put my head down on the table in front of me. "And all with a migraine you gave me."
Ray put his hand on my back. "Shit! You're bleeding! Damn it to hell, Aggie, was all this necessary?"
"Yep. Calm down, lover boy. She'll heal. We've got problems. That's why I called you here." Aggie frowned when there was a triple clap of thunder.
"Relax. We've got you Casanova and two more vampires lined up for Wednesday night. Ahead of your deadline. Give it a rest." He pulled up my sweater. "You shifted? Wow, Glory, you must be exhausted. And I need to heal this."
"Watch it, Caine." Valdez moved up next to me and looked at my back. "Flesh wound. No big deal, so hands off."
"Quit fighting, you two. So glad the fact that my back's torn open and I'm about to drop is no big deal." I sat up and shoved
Valdez out of the way so I could stare at my puke green nemesis. "Hell, Aggie, I'm wet again. Couldn't you have waited until the rain let up for this confab?"