Silver Unicorn (Silver Shifters Book 3) Read online

  “I will do that. And when I tell Cleo, I know she’ll want to help,” Petra said, and hopped up the low brick stairs to the terrace to where Cleo had reappeared with Doris.

  Nikos watched her run to Cleo and start talking earnestly. He caught a few Greek words before a stir in the air and a familiar scent caused his ears to flick toward the pathway leading to the road below: Joey’s fox scent carried on the wind.

  A few seconds later Joey streaked up past the roses, shifting mid-stride, so that he entered the terrace as a man. His first stop was by Doris. They kissed, and a longing jolted Nikos: when would he be able to greet Jen with a kiss whenever they saw one another, so natural and unthinking?

  Soon. Our mate knows us now, his unicorn whispered, rousing long enough for that, then sinking down again.

  Joey turned to Nikos, then ran down to the garden. “Still can’t shift?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “We’ve got the strongest among us on guard, though I don’t think Cang will be back until he can come in force. The problem that disturbs me is that Keraunos has been sighted.”

  Nikos said on the mythic plane, He was sent to target me.

  His gaze arrowed to Jen, and from her to the girls, as they chattered with Jen, who was still looking a little dazed. He needed to get home. Draw Keraunos after him. Face him on his own territory, and keep him well away from vulnerable people here.

  Jen is first.

  It was an instinctive thought, but Joey was listening. We can protect her.

  Every instinct in Nikos wanted to protest that. It was for him to protect and defend his mate, but here he was, frozen in his unicorn. Even his horn, sensitive as it was to qi currents on the mythic plane, seemed shrouded in a mist of depletion. He wasn’t certain he could heal a bee sting right now.

  Joey went to report to Mikhail, leaving Nikos watching longingly as Cleo and Petra took Jen aside to talk. At first the girls were a little shy, but as he watched, Jen’s manner, calm sea-green gaze, and lovely smile set them at ease. “Really,” she exclaimed. “An island of winged shifters? I think that’s the coolest thing in the world!”

  “Not everybody has wings,” Petra said quickly, but Nikos could see from all the way across the garden and the terrace how proud she was.

  “We have plenty of humans,” Cleo added. “Lots of them are my friends! And there are other kinds of shifters.”

  “Tell me more!”

  From there the girls became more natural, Cleo talking as fast as she could, with Petra occasionally putting in a quiet word. Jen turned from one to the other, her obvious interest in them making the girls blossom under her attention.

  Cleo was the first to shift into her hippogriff, her front half a golden eagle, her back half a pony with coat and tail a warm golden brown. Cleo’s wings shaded from dark at the shoulder out to a cream color at the tips. Niko’s heart swelled as Jen reacted not with horror, but with wonder as Cleo pranced in a circle on the terrace. When Cleo let out an eagle’s shriek, Jen clapped her hands.

  Cleo shifted back, and to Nikos’s surprise and delight, shy, wary Petra then shifted to her wind horse, a beautiful coffee-colored mare with a small head on an arched neck. She didn’t open her wings—a leap and she’d be in the air like a rocket, being one of the fastest of all the winged shifters. But though she stayed still, her qi glimmered like captured sunlight above her back, between her wings.

  Jen exclaimed softly. Nikos couldn’t hear what she said, but he saw the admiration shining in her face. Petra shifted back—no surprise, as the terrace was designed for two-legged beings. She was smiling.

  Then Bird came out from the kitchen and called them all in for a meal.

  Nikos stayed where he was. Things might change very soon—no, they would, sooner than later—but at present he could let others keep watch.

  The shadows had lengthened when Jen reappeared, the girls pressed close to either side. Jen’s smile was still bright, even tender as she listened to them. As Petra’s thin, graceful hands gestured, Nikos caught a few stray words that he would have thought impossible until now. Petra never talked about her past—not until she really trusted someone. It had taken well over a year among the hetairoi before she would even admit where she had come from.

  He felt more than saw the frequent looks Jen cast his way, but she kept her attention on the girls, until at last they rushed back into the house, Cleo calling over her shoulder, “We’ll be right back!”

  As soon as they were gone, Jen ran down the steps into the garden, and came straight to Nikos. “Is it all right?” she asked, holding out her hand to his forehead. “Is it weird if I pet you?”

  I love your touch, he responded, leaning into her hand.

  “Good! Because I’ve been wanting to do this what feels like forever, though I know it’s only been a couple hours or so.” As she spoke, she ran her hands through his mane. “Just as silky as I thought.” She kept stroking his mane.

  Nikos’s unicorn chuckled to himself, as he preened.

  “I know it’s probably weird to talk out loud, but I still can’t get used to that telepathy yet. My thoughts bounce all over the place. I never actually realized how messy my mind is inside, always ramming around between several things at once, including the stuff that would definitely be oversharing, like, I can hold it a little longer, but no more tea until I pee. Uh . . .”

  “Rubber chicken?” he thought tenderly.

  She laughed out loud, a full body laugh that filled him with light.

  “Busted,” she chortled. “I must have sounded like a space case.”

  You sounded, he sent the thought with a memory of his first sight of her, the way I felt inside.

  “Well, I’ll work at the telepathy thing,” she promised. “The girls are so sweet! I asked if they could show me their shifter forms. Just to cement the whole thing in my head. Petra is graceful no matter what form she’s in, and as for Cleo, I never thought that the word ‘hippogriff’ would enter into any conversation I ever had. Especially followed by ‘adorable.’ But Cleo is adorable. And gorgeous, with that warm golden brown, the same color the hills turn around here in early summer.”

  Nikos felt her laughter bubbling through her.

  “Now they want to show me what they bought at the mall. I guess I keep needing to reassure myself you’re real. That you’re you. All that stuff they told me about hetairoi and the rest, it sounds more like a dream than real life—you really live in a castle?—oh, here they are with their things!”

  The girls reappeared with fabric draped over their arms. Jen rejoined them, and looked on admiringly as they showed off their purchases. Unnoticed, the shadows began to meld, as the sun dropped toward the Pacific Ocean in the background.

  When Petra and Cleo went to put the things back in the room they shared, Jen used the opportunity to return again to Nikos’s side, her expression wistful.

  She flung her arms around his neck, this time without hesitation. “It’s beginning to sink in that all this is real,” she murmured into his mane. “Including that assassin. Who’s after you. I’m beginning to realize that it’s me, holding you back.”

  Never think that way, he began.

  Up on the terrace, Bird appeared, and called, “It’s almost time to think about dinner. Who’s staying? I need a head count so we can plan a meal—”

  At that moment, unnoticed, the last of the sun vanished below the western waters—and three things happened.

  Nikos began to shift to his human form. In that instant, Jen’s arms around him blurred into wings as she shimmered into a golden phoenix, her eyes wide with panic.

  And third: they both found themselves in Jen’s living room.

  Crash! Rattle rattle rattle.

  Nikos fell to his knees—at least he was no longer a unicorn. But Jen tried to fling her arms out. They had become wings, which knocked over both the lamps in the small room. Bits of broken vase and light bulb scattered across the table and fell into the carpet.

  Jen turned, one of
her wings catching painfully on a table leg. Her long, graceful neck arched, and she turned toward him, terror widening her eyes.

  “Jen, you’ve shifted,” Nikos said, glad he was human again so he could speak. “You’re in your phoenix now. The shift seems to be tied to the appearance and disappearance of the sun. I’m not surprised, as the sun is your animal’s element. Moonlight is mine. We can figure this out.”

  With profound relief, he watched awareness replace the panic in her sapphire-blue eyes.

  “Here. Let me help disentangle you.” He bent and freed one wing from the lamp cord, then he moved around the couch to where her other wing was cruelly tangled up in the laptop computer’s cord. She looked around, then hopped up onto the table next to her laptop, and—carefully—folded her wings. He could feel her concentrating on learning how to manage her phoenix-self. It was extra difficult inside a house not designed for the comfort of large birds.

  She was shivering. He forced himself to move slowly, remembering that one’s animal’s perceptions were different than human perceptions. She was getting a lifetime’s experience all in one go. He said, holding out his open palm, “We can still talk by touch, if you like.”

  Her beautiful head bowed down toward his hand. He stroked his fingers gently over the glorious feathered crest going from between her eyes to the upper part of her long neck. The features were soft as down, a glistening ruddy gold.

  “Do you remember how we got here?” he asked.

  Jen stilled, then laid her head gently on his palm. I think so. I was holding you, then the world turned weird and my hands didn’t work, and all I wanted was to be home. And then I smashed into the lamps. But at least you’re here.

  “That’s right,” he said. “So we’ve learned something about how the Transfer Gate works. The first time, you wanted to be with me—and you were there. This time, you wanted the safety of your house, and because you were touching me at the time, we both came.”

  But it wasn’t as easy, she responded. It felt like something pushed me.

  “I felt the same thing,” Nikos said. “Which is the way I felt the one time I passed through the empress’s Transfer Gate with one of her knights, after she gave me this ring. I learned then that it’s best if one person goes through at a time. Two can go, if they are touching, but no more than that. The Gates can be overused. There’s a smell like hot metal when that happens.”

  She shivered again.

  “I was told that it was less about distance than mass,” he went on, still in a slow, calm instructor’s voice, so that her bird would comprehend. “I stepped through from Northeastern China to my island halfway around the world, in an instant. That was after waiting a while for the Gate to restore its qi, after the last person had gone through. It might be the same for you.”

  On the mental plane Nikos felt a query from Joey, and thought back, Come.

  Out loud, he said, “We can stay here, or go back to Mikhail’s, where there’s more room. You can practice getting used to this form before we shift again, which I expect will happen when the sun comes up.”

  Jen looked around the room distrustfully, then down at the mess.

  “Shall I pick that up?’ Nikos asked.

  Please stay with me, was her immediate response. Everything is a little too weird right now.

  “Sure,” he said. “That’s to be expected. Take it as slow as you need. If it helps, let your phoenix free when you try to move. She’s very new, but animals’ instincts bring them up to speed much faster than we humans. I’m sure you’ve seen how quickly foals go from birth to running about. Your phoenix’s instincts will help you both integrate, even though you’re forced into an arbitrary shift for now, same as I.”

  The sound of a car in the driveway brought Nikos to his feet. “Joey’s here. I’ll have him pull up to the kitchen door, shall I? I don’t think you’re ready to try going invisible.”

  Jen’s trembling increased as she thought, I can go invisible? How?

  “It will come.” Nikos went through to the kitchen door, and beckoned Joey—who was driving Doris’s sensible car, not his tiny sports model—up against the house. Then three car doors opened, and Joey plus the girls exited. They followed Nikos inside.

  When the girls saw Jen, their obvious delight eased the last of Jen’s panic. She was no longer shivering. Cleo cooed over how gorgeous Jen was—a real phoenix! And together they coaxed Jen down from the table. She hopped awkwardly past the couch to the kitchen, her tail feathers dragging. She headed for the kitchen door at the side of the house, as behind them, Nikos quickly straightened up as best he could.

  With an air of Spy vs. Spy, Petra peered ahead to make certain there were no neighbors out and about on the quiet little street, as Cleo led Jen to the open car door. She hopped inside the back seat, the girls settling either side of her, careful of Jen’s long tail feathers.

  Nikos locked the kitchen door before pulling it shut, then climbed into the car for the short drive to Mikhail and Bird’s.

  When they reached the house, they discovered that someone had hung lanterns all over the terrace, casting a cheery golden glow. Nikos watched anxiously as Jen’s head turned in quick, tiny jerks, taking it all in. He rested a hand gently on her back, between her wings. All right?

  Getting there, she responded bravely. He could feel her fear and disorientation fading. I’m going to try moving around.

  He backed away to give her space.

  Jen hopped up onto a low table, walking stiffly back and forth as she looked down at her eagle’s claws. The girls crowded protectively around her, as the adults stayed back.

  Cleo looked puzzled, but Petra seemed to intuit the problem. Nikos waited while Petra said softly to Jen, “Don’t try to tell your body what to do the way a human would. We all had to learn to let our animal walk the way they do. And nobody flies right away. But your wings are grown up. I think you will learn fast.”

  Cleo said, “That’s right! You just need plenty of space. I had to learn by going from rooftop to rooftop. Oh, the vases and clothes lines I knocked over, before I figured things out!”

  At that, Jen stretched out her wings experimentally.

  Doris exclaimed, “Wow, Jen. If you’re going to turn into a creature, you’ve picked one of the cooler ones.”

  Jen’s head cocked, one eye then the other turning toward her. She opened her beak and let out a shrill fall of notes like silver tapping on crystal. She was laughing.

  Bird clasped her hands. “What do phoenixes eat? Is she hungry?”

  Jen turned her head toward Nikos, who came to her, then reported her thought, “She says she’s still full from that great lunch. And thanks.” He didn’t mention the thought that she hadn’t been able to suppress, that she didn’t want to find herself going after bugs and slugs.

  He sent the comforting reminder that at dawn she could tuck into a good, human breakfast. She gave another crystalline laugh and lifted her wings, and he stepped back again.

  Her wings tried an experimental flap.

  She lifted into the air. Her sapphire eyes widened with momentary panic, and she dropped down abruptly, wings splayed out. But immediately she lifted them again, and this time Nikos felt her consciously letting her phoenix ascend. Her splendid wings beat the air and she rose upward, flapping frantically as she headed out into the grassy space of the garden, away from the house and the terrace furniture.

  And then—he felt it viscerally, an uplift in body and spirit—she figured out how to glide.

  She soared over the treetops, widespread wings graceful and easy. One dropped and she banked, circling slowly around. She sailed in toward the terrace . . .

  Aaaaand then she discovered what all winged shifters had to: that human furniture was not optimal for shaky landings. She landed, wings flapping—which kept her velocity—as bamboo chairs and small tables went tumbling and rolling. She let out a squawk, then came to rest. The crystal notes trilled. She was laughing again.

  The gi
rls had been trying to smother giggles, but hearing Jen’s phoenix laughing, they too let loose. Then Jen turned to Bird and trilled a few notes. Clearly an apology.

  Cleo and Petra sprang to right the unhurt furniture as Jen hopped up to the table, then to the low wall around the terrace. And she took off, this time with more assurance. When she came back, she landed on the grassy area below the terrace, where Nikos had spent his day in unicorn form.

  Again and again she took off and landed, calling to mind the disciplined martial artist: she didn’t stop until she was able to glide in and come to rest with her claws gripping the back of a lounge chair, which was heavy enough to support the weight of a large bird. She folded her wings and looked complacently at them with one eye, then the other. Pride swelled inside Nikos. His mate was brilliant.

  Finally, as the moon dipped down toward the horizon, Cleo said, “Let’s fly with her. See if we can show her how to blink.”

  Jen’s nearer eye turned toward Nikos in question, and he heard her say, Blink?

  He said, “Turn invisible. As a mythic shifter, you can do this so that humans cannot see you. But other mythic shifters can, so please stay within the boundaries of this garden. We’re lucky that it’s as extensive as it is. You’ve got plenty of room for experimenting.”

  The girls nodded soberly. It was clear they’d forgotten about the fight that they had not seen. “We will,” Petra promised.

  And they did. Nikos watched the three of them take off, skimming the treetops then circling back. One, then the other of the girls blurred, but Jen was not able to make herself invisible to the human eye.

  At length the three returned to the terrace, three perfect landings. Cleo’s eagle talons and hooves hit the ground, and she shifted in the middle of a yawn. “Oops! Sorry,” she apologized. “We didn’t sleep very much last night.”

  “It’s getting late,” Bird said, looking around at everyone. “I suggest everybody get some rest. Planning can wait for morning, when you’re fresh. Jen, where would you like to be? Do you want to come into the house?”