You will learn, Y’rill said, chuckling. Enjoy it. Unlike your human childhood, this one will be grand, with endless universes to explore and no cages. Ever.
“Half the time?” I shouted the moment I had my bearings again. “I get to be human half of my life, like Persephone? I get my body back?”
I do not know of her but yes. However, if you fail to spend half your time as a Hunter, you will lose the privilege of being one. Most of us choose to remain Hunter. Few ever return.
“Why not?”
Loved ones pass. Planets die. This is home. Everything is here. We are nightwindflyhighfree. There is no place more majestic, no greater freedom to be found than among the stars. You hunger for freedom. I tasted your mind when you stabbed me. You were already one of us, sky-high dreams, no limits. You despise limits. We have none.
I wasn’t hearing much past that I could be human again.
This wasn’t death. This wasn’t permanent.
I was like Ryodan and his beast. I was both woman and dragon—holy hell—this was the best of both worlds, better than anything I could have imagined! I hadn’t lost anything, I’d gained. “Fully human?” I pressed. “As in, not lethal to the touch?”
You will be as you were before you began to change. But it will be some time before you can shift forms; you must bond with your new skin. The more often you shift, the more skilled you become, but that first time is terribly difficult. It may take many years.
“Years?” I exploded, bristling. That was unacceptable.
He is immortal, small one. He’s not going anywhere.
It hit me then. I couldn’t feel Ryodan anymore. I arched my—good grief, long scaly black—neck to peer over my shoulder but I couldn’t see my back. “Do I have a brand on me?” I demanded.
Your skin is new. Nothing of his mark remains. Trinkets do not survive transformation.
I exhaled gustily, startled to see tiny, dark ice crystals puffing from my mouth as I realized Ryodan must have felt our connection sever abruptly and had no idea what happened to me. So much for our plan to love each other in illusion. It wouldn’t have worked anyway. But it didn’t need to. I could be a woman half the time! Exhilaration filled me. This was incredible! I was a woman who could become a dragon. And become a woman again!
But…Ryodan, Shazam, my friends. I had to tell them. “Take me back to Earth, Y’rill. You can teach me to shift there. I’m a fast learner.” I was practically vibrating in the air with excitement. I’d soar back to Earth, tell Ryodan and Shaz what had happened, then hang out with them, learning all about my new form.
Damn. Ryodan’s beast had nothing on me! I could feel my Hunter lips stretching into a smile as I beamed radiantly. I was badass, the most awesome superhero I could possibly be. If I’d known going in this was what was waiting for me, I’d have embraced it sooner.
Give your new world a chance. It will all be waiting for you when you return. Where did that child I felt when you stabbed me go? The one who couldn’t wait for the next adventure? It’s here. Look around. Is it not magnificent?
“Y’rill, Shazam will fall apart without me! He’ll melt down. He’s so emotional and he doesn’t know where I am. He doesn’t have anyone to take care of him. I have to go back! Show me how to get back!”
Y’rill chuffed softly. Shazam is fine, tiny red.
I jerked to a sudden stop and stared at her. “What did you just say?” I gasped.
Y’rill said tenderly, Shazam is fine.
“After that.”
Those ferocious eyes gleamed with amusement. Tiny red.
Y’rill said she’d been watching over me. “But you’re a she,” I said faintly, trying to bend my mind into a shape it simply refused to achieve. “Shazam is a he.”
You’re the one ascribing genders. We have none.
Y’rill smiled then and I suddenly understood what Shazam’s smile had always reminded me of, which I’d never been able to place.
Thin black lips pulling back from sharp teeth.
Same utterly alien expression.
Shazam’s smile had reminded me of a Hunter. Chills suffused my entire body. No way. Not possible.
I said slowly and carefully, “Y’rill, what were you before you became a Hunter?”
Before I was chosen for this by a great dragon soaring among the stars, drawn by my cries of loneliness and longing for a home, I was once the last remaining Hel-Cat in existence. Y’rill’s eyes flickered with violet lightning. My beloved Yi-yi.
Shaz the mighty fur-beast
Y’RILL WAS SHAZAM.
I just lolled there in space staring at her with my mouth open until she reached over and nudged it gently shut with a talon. You’ll catch space debris. Sorry to bofflescate you.
I was bofflescated speechless; an extreme rarity for me. As I hung there, staring, I replayed my years with Shazam through my mind: his mysteriousness, his constant disappearances, his “other form” I’d known nothing about. His constant, cagey, evasive replies to so many questions, the odd juxtaposition of extreme emotion and wisdom.
We are not permitted to interfere or influence our chosen’s choice in any way. We are never to have contact after the initial invitation. I’ve told them that’s why we have so few young but they don’t listen. Y’rill/Shazam looked abashed. When you got lost in the Silvers, you were so lonely, like I once was, and I was afraid you would die. I came to you in my Hel-Cat form to help you survive.
“All those times you disappeared?”
I had to be Hunter or I would lose the right. I could only spend half my time with you.
“But Shazam is so emotional and you’re well, more…composed.”
As a human, you strike me as quite emotional, too, Y’rill/Shazam said, sounding slightly miffed. You saw my wisdom on occasion. I wasn’t always emotional. Then, When we shift, we are what we once were. Flaws and all. The enormity of Hunter can’t fit in a small skin. Another reason most of us choose to remain Hunter. It is difficult to get used to being tiny, driven by our biological natures again. Y’rill shuddered, sloughing black ice into the air beneath her wings. Being Shazam is humbling, I am a very different creature in that form, needy, tiny, lonely. Then her eyes gleamed and she said, You were a good mother to me. I will be to you as well, in this form.
“OHMYGODSHAZAM!” I exploded, as it finally, fully penetrated. “You’re my Shazzy-bear!”
Y’rill smiled. I am. I couldn’t tell you. They say if we breach that one rule, our child will never be born.
“That’s why my black hand never bothered you. I always wondered why I could touch you!”
Y’rill nodded. Also why I told you to make it go away. Reminding you that becoming one of us was your choice. You said you wouldn’t even if you could. I chose well with you. Your desire for adventure is exceeded only by your desire to care for worlds. We do much of that up here. One day you’ll see.
“See what?”
The threads that connect everything. We tend them. We sow them.
I began flying again, gingerly, then with greater gusto. I was flying in space! With Shazam! Holy hell! I always knew Shaz had another, enormous form and stayed “up in the air” but I’d never once imagined that form was a Hunter! I’d even written that ditty about Shaz the mighty fur-beast who lived up in the air, and us battling dragons together.
I snorted with laughter and it came out as a soft, delicate trilling gong accompanied by twin plumes of fire from my nostrils. Criminy, I just shot fire from my nose!
Hunter half the time, woman the other half; with Ryodan half the time, with Shazam the other half; with incredible adventures to be had both ways. Fierce exhilaration filled me.
I knew you’d think so, Y’rill/Shazam said smugly. Come. I have so much to show you.
As excited as I was to see more of my new home, Ryodan couldn’t f
eel me anymore. “First, take me back to Earth so I can—”
Send him one of your texts, Yi-yi, and let it go. You have all the time in the universe. Others are waiting to meet you. Few are chosen, far fewer born. Most reject it. Only the fearless join us here.
“Ha ha, a text,” I said dryly.
Ah, I forgot, you won’t be able to do that for some time. She sighed. I suppose I’ll break yet another rule for you.
As I watched, Y’rill turned, churning ice beneath her enormous leathery sails, and focused her attention on a nearby star. What do you want it to say?
I tried to nibble my lip, and gouged myself in the cheek with a fang. “Ow!” This was going to take time getting used to. “Tell him I’m okay and I’m coming home soon.”
A thin bolt of pale purple lightning, fine and laser sharp, erupted from a taloned hoof as Y’rill carved a tiny chunk of the star away, etching words on the face of it that shimmered like stardust.
Then, abruptly, Y’rill vanished and reappeared far beneath me, caught the chunk of star and brought it back, tossing it to me. Holy flour balls, she could sift! That meant I could sift, too! I’d eclipsed Batman a million times over. I caught the chunk of star, cupping it awkwardly in my hoof, marveling. One day I’d be able to carve messages on stars. Etch a twisty D for Dani all over the bloody universe. Criminy. Dancer would be beside himself if he could see me now.
Throw.
“Huh? How, where?”
I’ll correct its course. Just throw it.
I did, launching it into space, then Y’rill spun midair, batted it with her tail and sent it rocketing off at such speed that it vanished from sight as if it had entered a black hole.
It is done. He has received your message.
I understood a bit about travel in space and said, dryly, “When? Five million years in the future?”
I adjusted it so that he would receive it at the proper time.
“You can manipulate time?” I was awed.
She nodded.
“I can do that, too?” I practically shouted.
Thank the stars, NO! You must grow into your Hunter powers. It takes a very, very long time.
“Do I have any Hunter powers right now?” It may have come out sounding a bit peevish, but seriously, I was a dragon. I wanted some juice.
Y’rill chuffed. There’s my Yi-yi. A few. But when you become human again, no.
“You mean except for the lightning.” I liked my lightning bolts. I wondered if I’d be able to use them now without turning black.
Not the lightning. That is part of the birthing process. You will be as you were before you changed.
Sucky, still, “But I’m immortal now, aren’t I?” I said, and if I’d been human, I’d have been bouncing in hyperspeed from foot to foot.
You can be killed in your human form until you’ve spent enough time as a Hunter that you complete the full transition. You must be careful when human, Yi-yi.
“For how long?”
You would consider it a very long time. Now come, let me show you your new home.
My new home. All the worlds were my oyster, half my life. The world I loved was mine for the other half. I turned my head from side to side, drinking it all in; the velvety, exquisite, enormous expanse of space and, one day, the mysteries even of time. Beyond that, if I chose to die, I could become as a planet.
This was, I decided, bemused and stunned, the greatest superhero gig of all.
I was a Hunter.
Like the caterpillar, compelled beyond reason to spin itself into a cocoon, I’d grieved the transformation, believing I was losing my life. Deep down, in a place I never let myself feel, I’d actually been…afraid. I’d mourned. Only to discover wonders I’d never dreamed possible. Become an entirely new thing.
I might fly Ryodan up into a starry night sky. Soar overhead while his beast hunted. A dragon and a beast, roaming the Earth together. God, the things we could do now!
It was a future I couldn’t wait to explore.
“How many months?” I demanded.
For what?
“To shift.”
I said years.
I said smugly, “Right, how many months? Come on, Shazzy-bear, break another rule for me.”
Y’rill sighed. You’re going to be a handful.
I grinned. “As if you weren’t. I get to be the kid now. Teach me how to fly like you do. Teach me how to sift. C’mon, Y’rill, show me everything!”
With pleasure.
When Y’rill turned with a sharp, beautiful dark swoop of her powerful Hunter body, curving the merest tip of a wing, I imitated the motion and, together, we glided off into the starlit sky.
There’s nothing left to do tonight but go crazy on you
FOUR MONTHS LATER
I LOPE UP THE FRONT stairs of Chester’s, marveling at the sensation of having a woman’s body again, and at just how much Ryodan accomplished while I was gone.
Chester’s-above is a stunning, modern six-story building of pale limestone and vast expanses of glass. The wide, curved staircase leads to ornate steel doors, heavily etched with wards, as is everything of that man’s; he likes to protect his property. As I push one open and step inside, I smile.
The domed foyer has sleek black marble floors, simple white and chrome furnishings, windows all around, and faceted skylights casting rainbows on the floor. I can feel the bass from here, rising up from the many subclubs below.
I’m a woman again. It’s strange and exhilarating but I have to admit, being a Hunter, flying among the stars for the past few months was beyond my wildest dreams. Y’rill and I played with the abandon we’d shared Silverside, with one difference—no predators, no enemies, just adventures. I’d visited worlds beyond describing, drifted inside nebulae, played hide and seek in meteor fields, watched stars go supernova, slingshot around moons, played in the gaseous rings of planets, my Hunter body impervious to harm. I’d barely scratched the surface of discovering what it was to be a Hunter; Y’rill was downright mysterious about many things and full of annoying, “patience, grasshopper” sayings. According to her, I would learn when it was time and no sooner. Still, I had a fair idea my potential was virtually limitless, one day in the future.
Unlike Shazam, who lived to break rules at every opportunity, Y’rill preferred to adhere to them. It had taken me weeks to convince her to help me transition back into my human form before I’d learned to do it myself, then another four months to get her to actually do it.
She’d then warned me that I had a single week in human form before she came to reclaim me.
I thought it was half and half, I’d protested.
Not at first. You must settle into this skin. If you stay human any longer right now, you might lose your Hunter form.
Oh, hell, no way! I’d cried.
Still, I felt like the luckiest woman in the world. I had a whole week with Ryodan! After believing I’d lost him forever, a week felt like a small eternity to me.
We’d flown to Dublin, landed on top of the building that housed my flat, where she’d shifted me back into human form (painful!) then reverted, herself, into Shazam. We’d hurried (I was naked—now I understood why Ryodan always had extra clothing stashed in convenient places) below to my flat, where Shazam flashed me a mischievous grin and muttered a cryptic, Go to him, he’s been waiting a long time, before curling up for a nap on our bed.
I’d taken my first shower in months—not that I seemed to need one—dressed with care, weaponed up and freeze-framed straight for Ryodan, electrified with excitement.
As I push through the second set of doors, my smile deepens. The street-level bar and restaurant is lovely, with an elegant staircase that descends to the subclubs. I dash down the staircase and stand behind the balustrade surveying the dance floor, looking for him.
<
br /> It’s early evening, the club is hopping as usual and I’m pleased to see not a single Fae. A part of me wants an immediate update on events in Dublin and our world, wants to head to the abbey and get all the details, but I learned a valuable lesson about time from both Dancer and Ryodan.
We don’t always have as long as we think we do. Updates can wait.
It’s necessary to be selfish sometimes, and tonight I have every intention of it.
It was pure pleasure to slip into a black spandex dress, heels, and nothing else but creamy Irish skin. Knowing I’m about to slip out of it and go crazy all over that man’s big, powerful body.
I want Ryodan in my bed, inside me, all around me, and that’s my only goal for a good long while. Before I have to leave again, I’ll catch up on my world. Tonight’s for me. Tonight’s for us. And it’s long overdue.
I descend the final set of stairs, thinking maybe I’ll find him in his office, and push through the crowded dance floor, heading for the glass and chrome staircase to the Nine’s private levels. I’m nearly there when someone blasts into me from behind, seizes me in a steely grip, drags me the rest of the way to the stairs, and shoves me down on the steps. Has to be one of the Nine; no one else can noodle me like that.
I toss my hair from my eyes and scowl up. Then, “Lor!” I exclaim, delighted to see him.
He stares at me in utter disbelief. “Dani?”
“Mega in the flesh,” I flash him a hundred-Megawatt grin to prove it. “I’m back. And you are so never going to believe the things I’ve seen and done.”
Then Fade and Kasteo are there with him, all three of them staring at me, with a mixture of irritation and disbelief.
“What’s with you guys? I told him I’d be back.”
“The boss,” Lor says flatly. “You told him that.”
I nod. “I sent him a message.”
“He sure as fuck doesn’t think you’re coming back,” Fade growls. “And I’m sure as fuck glad you are because he’s been goddamn impossible to live with. Go fuck him and make him sane again.” He turns and stalks away.