Birthday Shift Read online

  As Molly stood stock still, half terrified into stillness, half entranced, Cade padded towards her on four feet, and rubbed up against her legs, his purring audible.

  Slowly, she reached down to stroke him.

  Is it weird? She wondered to herself. I think it’s a little bit weird.

  Well, there was an understatement. It was a lot weird, but…

  She’d seen it, with her own eyes. How could she not believe him now?

  Cade looked up at her with those big, trusting green eyes. She knew almost without hesitation that he was asking if she wanted him to change back.

  “Change back,” she commanded, softly.

  The grey mist, less visible to her this time, once more swathed him for a second, then Cade stood before her, completely, gorgeously naked. Molly thanked God that he had the presence of mind to grab the tea towel to cover himself.

  “Well?” he asked, a half smile tugging at his lips.

  “Okay.” Molly let out a long breath. “I’m still not convinced that I’m not dreaming, but if I am, my dream self believes you.” She rubbed her hands over her eyes, because they still felt as if they might pop out of her head. “What do we do now? I honestly don’t think I can take more explanation about your…. About the Faewild.”

  “Well.” Cade sat down again, and Molly tried, and failed, to ignore his lean, lithely muscled body, and all that gorgeous hair. “Two choices. You may send me back, and Lil will assign me to someone else. Or you may keep me for a while, until you decide that we are compatible as life mates.”

  Her knees went a bit weak then. “Keep you? What do you mean?”

  “If you decide you want me to stay with you, I will. And then after we – how do you say it in your language – after we consummate our relationship, I will be bound to you forever. Realmbound, as the name of Alianore’s portal goes. That’s why she runs it – she is a realmbinder.”

  “A what?” It sounded like something from a kids’ cartoon or fantasy novel. “Now I do need to sit down.” She chose the floor, folding her legs underneath her, keeping him at a distance. “Cade, look, you can’t just say things like that to someone.”

  He looked at her with what seemed like infinite patience. “Perhaps I should explain it to you again.”

  “No. I understand, all right. But you hardly know me. We can’t talk about forever just like that. It’s…. it’s not how things work in the human world.”

  “Oh but I do.” His green eyes darkened, his voice deepened as he spoke to her. “Alianore had me look in on you, follow you on your day, lay beside you in bed at night. I wanted to know you even before you found me in that box on your doorstep. I wanted to be close to you, to feel your touch. To make you happy.”

  Gazing back at him, Molly knew she should feel frightened or at least very creeped out by what he’d told her. Why don’t I?

  But she only felt a strange sort of excitement, building inside her.

  After we make love, I will be bound to you forever.

  Would he always find her beautiful? Always be faithful to her? Love her the way she wanted to be loved?

  Although if Molly was truthful with herself, did she have enough experience to know how she wanted to be loved?

  “How will it work?” she found herself asking, even though her stomach twisted nervously. “I mean… will you be a cat forever or a man forever, or can you shift freely?”

  “I can shift whenever I choose to, and also whenever you command. I will be realmbound to you, Molly.” He stood then, one hand holding the tea towel in place. The cupcake design looked laughable against his firm, tanned flesh. He knelt before her. “It is a big step, my lovely one. Being realmbound to someone is no small matter. Perhaps I could give you a taste of what you would experience with me. The pleasure I could give you.”

  With his free hand, he cupped her face, stroking the pad of his thumb tenderly over her jaw and up her cheek. His touch sent tiny rivers of sensations flowing inside her, rivers that all led to the same sensitive spot between her legs. When his thumb moved to her lips, caressing gently, her mouth seemed to open of its own accord. She heard herself sigh.

  “More?” he whispered.

  Helpless to do anything but nod, a gasp escaped her when his lips replaced his hand, and the sweet flavor of him filled her. He stroked his tongue over hers in a soft, sensual dance, and the rivers of sensations became tidal waves. They continued to flow to the same spot, and she ached for him to touch her there.

  He nipped her bottom lip playfully, erotically, and then his kisses moved down, dotting over her chin, down to her neck, where the slide of his lips and tongue simultaneously tickled and aroused her. As she giggled, he captured her lips again, the kiss so tender that her heart bumped in her chest.

  As he returned to kissing her neck, his hand lifted to cup her breast, his thumb finding the already firm point of her nipple and teasing it to hardness through the soft fabric of her boat neck t-shirt. She strained towards him, only wanting more, more, more-

  He stopped.

  Molly’s eyes snapped open. “What…”

  “I cannot continue unless you want me to, my lovely one,” Cade told her, green eyes seeming to stare straight into her soul. “When that is, you can come to me. Until then…” He turned away, and in the blink of an eye her black cat sat before her, those same green eyes focused on her face.

  Aching with need, every nerve thrumming, Molly covered her face with her hands, so confused and tired.

  She needed her best friend.

  But don’t forget, Lil isn’t what she seems.

  “It doesn’t matter,” she said to herself out loud. “I need some answers, and I need them now.”

  Before she did something she might really regret.

  ~ * * * ~

  Forty minutes later, Molly sat in a café around the corner from her apartment, a steaming coffee before her on the table, drumming her fingers on the much-used, slightly graffitied surface.

  Whatever delayed Lil, Molly didn’t appreciate it, especially considering the circumstances.

  When Lil arrived a few seconds later, hair flustered, an apology written all over her face, Molly held up a hand to stop any words in their tracks. “Save it.” She pointed at the chair on the other side of the table. “Sit.”

  Lil did, obediently, and shrugged off her coat in a single motion. “You found out, huh,” she said, and it clearly wasn’t a question.

  “Did you think I wouldn’t?”

  Lil had the good grace to look ashamed. “Well-”

  “Why didn’t you tell me that you’re some spooky voodoo goddess or whatever, and all your animals are enslaved to you and can turn into people? Hmm?” Her voice rose at the end of the sentence and other customers in the café looked over worriedly. Molly glared at them, but, being nosy New Yorkers, that didn’t put anyone off.

  “Ignore them,” Lil advised. “They’ve certainly heard crazier.”

  “Is it true?” Molly demanded, ignoring the urge to laugh at her friend’s comment. “Are you some crazy otherworldly realmbinder… person?”

  Lil nodded, playing with the silver ring on the third finger of her left hand. “It kinda is, yeah.”

  Molly felt a long breath leave her body, as if she’d been waiting for the confirmation or denial for years, instead of less than an hour. “But how? And why didn’t you say something? I mean this is huge! This is… this really happens? Think about what could be learned from this? This is just… mind blowing.” She paused for breath, briefly. “And I’m supposed to be your best friend. Why didn’t you tell me? I mean, you tell me all the other details of your life. I even know how often you wash your panties, for God’s sake! Wasn’t this a weeny bit more important?”

  “Two reasons.” The waitress came over with a little pad hooked into her black apron, and Lil ordered a caramel latte. “One, would you have believed me?”

  After a few moments of thought, Molly had to admit that she wouldn’t have. “You know, I’d probably have said that the men in white coats were on their way. Even though I live in New York, and I’ve seen it all, I would’ve thought twice.”

  “Exactly.” Lil fiddled with her ring again, twisting it clockwise on her finger. “And number two, what do you do for a living? You write about stuff. You investigate stuff. See how hyped you were getting just now? I think, once you’d proved I wasn’t lying, you’d have written about me. About the portal.”

  About to open her mouth to disagree, Molly stopped and thought. Is she right?

  She is right. I would. As Lil had spoken, Molly’s mind had already started working overdrive, thinking about the angles she could use to pitch a piece like this. It was just how she thought.

  “I suppose you’re right,” she conceded after a pause. “But all the same… you can’t just dump something like this on me. So what, you thought I should have a man in my life so you send one to me? To be treasure-bonded or something? It’s forever apparently.” Her voice had started to climb in pitch again. “What if I didn’t like him? What if he’s some sort of killer? What if he’s destroying my apartment right now? And what do you get out of it?”

  The waitress hovered by the table, looking concerned. Lil sent her an apologetic smile and the young girl set the latte down and hurried away, her shoes clicking on the tiled floor.

  Lil sipped her drink, wincing a bit from the heat, then licked her lips. “God! I’d be a dress size smaller if I could just give up lattes. Okay. This is how it works. In return for passage into our world, and being matched with a mate, or a realmbound partner, if you will, they bring me things from their world. Precious gems. Gold. Something valuable that I’ll keep or sell.”

  “But you can’t possibly make enough money from that to live,” Molly protested.

  Lil shook her head, looking pained. “You’re telling me. No, I actually do run a pet store slash animal rescue place. The realmbinder thing is just a nice lucrative side deal, a favor for a…persuasive friend of mine called Etienne. Sort of one of her otherworldly outlet stores, if that make sense. You’ll have to meet her someday. She’s something. But Cade – oh boy, is he a looker.”

  “Wait!” Molly cut her friend off. “I am not being fobbed off any more. Who is Etienne?”

  Lil set her mug down. “She’s in charge of Spellbound Treasure, which deals in things. Lost things. A long time ago, I lost something dear to me and Etienne saw I got it back. By the time she returned it, we’d gotten well acquainted and she commented on the affinity I seem to have with living creatures. She said she didn’t have enough resources to cover all the opportunities to link our world with the Faery one, and did I want a job?”

  Molly blew out a breath. Her head started to ache. “And you just said yes?”

  “Of course not! Well, not right away,” Lil admitted when Molly sent her a knowing look. “Etienne took me to the world of the Faery. And I was drawn to the Faewild. What do you know about it?”

  “Well.” Molly finally sipped from the coffee she’d been nursing before Lil had arrived, and wished for something stronger. “Cade said that they were separated from the…” She couldn’t say it out loud, not yet. “The other realms.”

  “That’s true.” Lil fiddled with the little ceramic pot in the middle of the table which held sugar and sweeteners. “Years and years ago in the Fae realms, war divided many of the races. The Faery of the Faewild, possessing shifting magic, fared far better in the war and were considered dangerous. So they were segregated to their own lands, on the outer border of the Faery realms. Because the forest is so thick and dark in this part of the realms, it was named the Faewild, although they do have cities and towns, just like we do.”

  Molly’s mind boggled. “How do you…. create a portal?”

  “It’s not easy.” Lil furrowed her brow as she bent a sugar sachet in on itself. “And it doesn’t always work. Once a human month, Etienne helps me set up shop in the Faewild, in a popular city called Bracken Hill. Fae who seek human mates come to me, and I set them up.”

  Molly chose her own sugar sachet to fiddle with, as it seemed to make Lil’s words easier to digest. “Why humans? Cade said something about us looking similar, but it must be more than that.”

  “It is. They want to find a mate in this world, to explore it, to feel human love. The love of the Faewild, the fairy world, well, it doesn’t always last, polygamy is expected… the world isn’t as finite as this one. They don’t really have marriage, they don’t have the sort of emotional love we do.”

  Molly scoffed, shaking her head. “Like marriage is lasting in this world. Do they know what they’re in for?”

  Lil paused with the mug to her lips. “Realmbinding a Fae to a human is different. It’s an unbreakable bond, one that lasts because of the different genetic makeup of Fae and human. Once they crossover, Fae have to be bonded to a human within a month of arriving, or they’re pulled back into their world, and need to wait a hundred years before they can cross over again.”

  “Wow.” Molly had forgotten all about her coffee. Her mind span with what Lil had said. “That’s crazy. It’s a huge risk.”

  “Yes. That’s why I let them observe humans first.”

  “Oh.” Molly didn’t like to admit it, but she didn’t feel so wary of Cade now. It seemed he had taken a lot of time to find her. “How do you pick the women? It can’t just be random.”

  “It isn’t. It’s people I know. Friends, or customers of my rescue center, who are unlucky in love, who’ve given up on human men. Or who just deserve someone really great. I offered Cade four other women after you, but you were the only one he had eyes for. And I thought, hey, why not, I mean, you’ve had some awful luck with some awful men. And Cade was just so different, so special – he was yours even before he picked you.”

  “I know you were.” Heart heavy, Molly reached for Lil’s hand. “That’s why I had to see you. I need some answers.”

  Lil squeezed her hand. “Well, ask away.”

  “First.” Molly discarded the sugar sachet she’d been twisting in her fingers. “How do you open the portal?”

  Lil winked. “Trade secret.”

  “No, really.”

  Now her friend looked uneasy. “Promise you won’t write about it.”

  “And if I did who would believe me? Come on. You’ve meddled in my life in a way that even my mother is beyond, so I at least deserve this.”

  “Okay,” Lil sighed. “Anyway, after I make a match, I need something from the Fae. Blood, a lock of hair, anything like that. Then I need the same from the human.”

  Molly gasped. “Don’t tell me-”

  “No, don’t be silly.” Lil chuckled. “I found a sweater you lent me which had a lock of your hair on it. I haven’t been going around in your dumpster or anything like that. Besides anything else, rooting in trash is hell on my fake nails.”

  Molly had to laugh, it was so absurd. “All right. So you get hair, then what?”

  “Then I read from these books Etienne gave me. There’s a set spell. Then the portal opens… and the clock starts ticking. From then on, my duty is done. It’s up to the Fae, in this case Cade, to convince his human that they want to be realmbound to each other.”

  Molly felt her romantic heart bump. “That’s… strangely sweet.”

  “Yeah. Anything else? You must have more questions. I half expected you to arrive with them bullet pointed in a notebook.”

  “I do have more questions.” Molly wished she had brought a pad along. It made things so much easier. “They’re about Cade.”

  “I figured they would be.”

  The waitress came past again and topped up Molly’s coffee.

  “Well,” Molly began, hesitantly.

  “Spit it out,” Lil encouraged her. “If you go away without asking you’ll only wonder about it. Then we’ll be back here and I’ll have another latte and then have to suffer another session in the gym. I don’t want that.”

  “How long will he live?” The first, most important question, Molly supposed.

  “Once he’s realmbound to you, the normal human lifetime. Eighty years, give or take a few. Depends, of course, on whenever he lives well, what he eats, if he takes risks, etc.”

  “What if he changes his mind?”

  “Honey.” Lil chuckled. “He’s spent all this time choosing you. He won’t change his mind. Fae are stubborn creatures.”

  “And what if I change my mind?”

  “That’ll be unfortunate, and very sad. Then, he gets sent back to the Faewild – the name for the Fae world, behind the portal – for another hundred years. It’s a sort of penalty for not choosing well enough.”

  Molly drew a breath. “Okay. Well… can I ever go there? The Faewild?”

  “Yes. But only for a short time, and only if Cade stays with you all the time. If he doesn’t, and something happens to you and you can’t get back to the portal in time, you’ll be stuck there. Or worse, if one of you makes it back and one doesn’t, you’ll both be stuck in limbo, a sort of halfway house, until the next portal opens. Which would be another century.”

  Swallowing, her throat dry, Molly nodded slowly.

  “Any more questions?”

  “Yes, but they can wait. I seriously need time to digest.”

  “All right, then.” Lil reached across the table and took both of Molly’s hands in hers. “Know this. Once you sleep with him he’s yours forever. Only you can send him away. But he loves you. He’ll be faithful. Fae are amazing lovers. They’re amazingly considerate – and terribly talented in the sack. I’m just saying, considering all the douche bag humans you’ve dated, give the guy a chance.”

  “It’s just…” Molly lowered her voice, as one old woman on the table next to them still seemed to be listening avidly. “It seems crazy. He turned into a cat right in front of my eyes.”

  Lil laughed. “I wish you could see the look on your face right now. Well, you know how you always said you thought there was more to the world? There is. And you’ve got a chance to experience it. And hey. You always said you didn’t think there was a man left in this world you could get along with.”