* * *

At home, I went through my closet, trying to decide on something appropriate to wear for dinner. I didn’t feel the need for formal dress, but something nicer was in order. I ended up deciding on a long, flowing, black and red print skirt, which brushed the tops of my feet as I moved. I paired it with a clingy, red silk blouse. The effect was quite stunning without being revealing or flashy. Because the bright top made me look a little washed out, I had to reapply my make-up. I pulled the hair around my face up and clipped it on top so it didn’t hide my face. I left the rest tumbling curls down my back. I slipped a pair of black kitten healed strappy sandals onto my feet and decided I was as ready as I would ever get. I wasn’t dressed to show off, but nicely enough to show respect. Grabbing my purse, I made sure my PCD was tucked inside the small bag and headed out the door. 

When I pulled up in front of Bill’s house, Karen’s car was in the driveway. There was a third vehicle parked in the driveway, one I didn’t recognize. It was an older SUV, one that I had to admit looked like was in great shape, despite its age. I wondered if perhaps the Lysandros and Harmonia were already here. At the front door, I pressed the doorbell and heard the bell ringing inside as I waited. When the door opened, I was surprised to see Terry. 

“Good Evening, Nickie. You look nice this evening.” He smiled pleasantly.

“Thank you,” I returned his smile. “I thought I could do a little better than this morning’s jeans.”

“You certainly did,” he said. “Come on in. The Alekto is busy in the kitchen and the Anikitos asked that I bring you into the living room.”

“Thanks. I know the way if you have something else you need to do.” 

“Nothing better than escorting a pretty lady,” he said.

“How kind of you. Are the others here?”

“No, you’re the first to arrive.”

“Is the truck out front yours?” I walked beside him through the house.

“Yep, she may be old but she runs well; if she’s reliable, I see no reason to replace her.”

“True.” We passed under the archway between the dining room and the living room and I saw Bill standing near the fireplace staring absently out the large window at the rear of the room. He appeared distracted, as though trying to work out the solution to a problem.

“Is something wrong? Has something happened?” I stepped closer. 

Hearing my voice so close, Bill seemed to snap out of whatever thought he had been lost in and he turned, smiling. 

“Nickie, don’t you look nice! Are you ready?”

“Is something wrong? You looked worried,” I asked.

“No, no, nothing’s wrong. I was just enjoying the view while thinking a few things over.” He turned back to the window and gestured toward it.

I had to admit, it did provide a stunning view of the mountains south of town. I moved next to him so I could share the view. 

“It’s a great view this time of year, isn’t it?” I couldn’t tear my eyes away for a few minutes. “Especially in the evenings while there’s still light to see while you relax before, or after, dinner.”

“I never tire of it.” Bill turned his attention to me. “Can I get you something to drink?”

“I’m good for now, thanks.”

“Karen will be back in a few minutes, she just went to check on dinner. Have a seat, make yourself at home. Hank and Alexis will be here soon.” 

I chose one of the chairs near the fireplace and sat, Bill took a seat on the sofa beside it as Karen walked into the room.

“Nickie! I’m glad to see you!” she said with enthusiasm. I stood and hugged her before sitting back down. “I love that skirt, it’s just stunning.”

“Thank you, it’s one of my favorites.” I smoothed the skirt down my legs just for an excuse to run my hand over the silky fabric.

“It looks good on you. It’s somehow just perfectly you.” She took a seat next to Bill and leaned against his side. “Have you been practicing finding your center and visualizing your shields?”

“Yes, ma’am. At least twice a day, more if I have the chance.”

“Good, the more you practice, the better your shields will be. Have you had any thoughts leak, or picked up any stray thoughts since we started building your shields?”

“No, but I haven’t been out much. The only time I’ve spent around anyone but Kindred was a quick stop at the grocery store.”

“No rush, keep practicing and pay attention when you’re around people; see how well your shields are working. When you’re comfortable with it, you can try lowering your shields, see what you pick up, just as an example on how well your shields are working.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks for your help, really. I would be lost if you two hadn’t been so kind and understanding.”

“Think nothing of it, Nickie,” Bill said. “You’re family, we could do no less. Speaking of family, have you thought about when you might want to tell your parents?”

“I’ve thought about it, but I don’t know. I’m not ready to tell them yet. I don’t know when I will be.”

“That’s all right. You don’t have to tell them if you don’t want to. I think you’ll find the longer you wait, the harder it will be, and I think you’re going to want to tell them in the end.”

“I know. I probably should, but I can’t handle it right now. I’m doing okay dealing with things one day at a time. By taking each hurdle and change as it comes at me. I don’t worry about what might be around the corner. This is how I’ve dealt with this so far. But when I start thinking about what to say to Mom and Dad, how to tell them about this, I end up having a panic attack. Let me get used to it before I tell them, at least. The more I know, the better I will be able to answer their questions, and I know they’ll have questions.”

“Fair enough. You’ve done amazingly well handling everything that has been thrown at you in the last week. I don’t want anything to compromise that, so I’ll let you decide when you’re ready. I’d like it if once you’ve decided, you’d let me know. I told you we’d help and I meant it.” 

Our conversation was interrupted by the peal of the doorbell.

Neither Bill nor Karen got up, instead Bill said, “Terry will get that, he’s playing butler for the evening.” A moment later Terry escorted a couple, not much older than me, into the room. They were nothing like I had expected. I was expecting an older couple, closer to Bill and Karen’s age. Neither of them was more than a few years older than myself, and that surprised me. I stood to greet them as Bill introduced me from where he remained seated.

“Nickie, this is our Lysandros, Hank Jeffries, and his wife, our Harmonia, Alexis.” Turning, he addressed them, “Hank, Alexis, this is Dominique Daniels. She goes by Nickie. You know, now that I think about it, I think the only time I’ve ever heard anyone use her full name was when she was in trouble,” he smiled fondly in my direction.

“It’s nice to meet you.” Hank stepped forward to shake my hand. A strange current of energy ran through my body as our hands touched. Not quite an electrical shock, but not much different. I had to look up several inches to look him in the eyes, he was at least six feet tall, if not a little over. Hank was muscular and well defined without being bulky. His dark hair was cut in a short men’s style that had been popular for decades, and his deep brown eyes seemed to look inside you and be able to tell what secrets you were hiding.  

“So glad to meet you, Nickie.” Alexis smiled as she shook my hand. She was a couple of inches shorter than me and slender and beautiful. Something about her size and graceful movements made me feel over-sized and clumsy. Her shining blond, pixie cut hair flattered her angular face, and her large green eyes caught and held your attention. She reminded me of those classic tiny film stars.

“It’s nice meeting you both.” I tried to keep a smile on my face to hide my confusion. 

Bill looked past the group of us to the man standing in the doorway and spoke, “Thank you, Terry. You’re free for the evening, if you’d like.”

“Thank you, sir, but with all four of you in one place, I’d rather stay if you don’t mind. Just in case. I’ll stay in the other room unless I’m needed and leave you to your evening,” Terry waited for a response. 

“Very well,” Bill said, before looking at Hank. “Have a seat you two. Hank, I mentioned over the phone when I invited you over that Nickie shifted suddenly last week.” The couple sat on the love seat positioned on the opposite side of me from the sofa. 

Hank nodded. “I remember.”

“I asked you both to come meet Nickie because, as you know, she wasn’t raised among us and she’s still learning the pack hierarchy. She needs to know who the leaders are, and who to turn to if she has a problem. She’s comfortable with Karen and I, as I’ve been a friend of her father’s since before she was born. I want her to know who she’ll be turning to for help in case we can’t be reached.”

Alexis turned to me. “Is it true you had no clue what you were until you shifted last week?”

“None,” I said. “It’s still pretty new, though I’m starting to get over being stunned. I’m doing my best to get it all figured out.”

“I wanted you to meet Alexis for another reason, Nickie. She’s the only member of our pack who can call animal forms, and after what you told me this morning, we should see what she can teach you. I’d like you to get to know her a little, see if you can work together so she can train you.”

Alexis turned to me with a surprised look. “What makes you think you have the ability to call or restrict animal forms?” 

“Well,” I started, “yesterday Brandon and I…”

“Brandon?”

“Brandon Stone. He’s been my best friend for years.”

“Ah, I see, continue.”

“Anyway, we were out on a run. He told me that is what it’s called when you go out and run around in wolf form.”

“It is,” Alexis nodded for me to continue.

I recounted the day before from the beginning of the run down to when he’d come around the car and demanded to know why I’d kept him from shifting. 

She nodded. “I see. It appears you might have the gift to restrict animal forms at least. I’m willing to work with you to develop it. We’ll see if you can call forms too, if you want. However, you’re going to need to get past the squeamishness of seeing people naked. Most of us don’t care to keep losing clothes from shifting in them, and it isn’t often convenient to find a changing room.”

“I understand why nudity is casual among the Kindred, it’s going to take some getting used to though. It’s not anything I’ve ever been exposed to.”

“On top of all the everyday reasons for it, most of the calling and restricting of animal forms that I do is medical related. That means, if I’m going to teach you to control this talent, you’ll need to be able to handle blood and sometimes extreme and very emotional situations.”

“Blood doesn’t bother me. I have two brothers and three sisters, someone always had one kind of wound or another and we all learned to deal with the injuries we gave ourselves and each other.”

“Very well, I’ll give you a try. Where do you work?”

“I’m the Dean’s secretary at the college.”

“You work Monday through Friday?”

“Generally, but not right now. For the summer, we’re on a  four days a week, ten hour days schedule.”

“Oh, that will make it easier. Mondays or Fridays off?”

“Fridays.”

“Is there any reason why you can’t spend at least part of your Fridays helping me out in our clinic?”

“You have a Kitsune clinic?” I was surprised. “How do you keep humans from coming in and finding out about us?”

“It’s not officially a clinic, or any kind of business. I run it out of the guest house at my place. We’ve converted it to be used as a doctor’s office and we do what we can. There isn’t a huge call for a Kindred clinic but we get a few walk-ins a day. Broken bones, torn muscles, random injuries. It would look strange for our people to turn up in a doctor’s office with an injury that would normally take weeks to heal and then hours or days later be fine.”

“That would be a problem,” I said.

“So I run the clinic. It’s mostly for non-emergent cases, but we have a couple of doctors who we can call if we need and an EMT too. The clinic’s not entirely my responsibility but since it’s set up at my place, it’s easiest for me to staff it a lot of the time. What do you think, can you spend your Fridays with me for a while?”

“I don’t see why not. It would probably be a good opportunity for me to meet more of the pack too.” 

I liked Alexis right away, she was friendly and she didn’t treat me like a child, like some do to people my age. She was kind without being patronizing. I wasn’t so sure about Hank, it wasn’t that he was patronizing or spoke down to me, he was just quiet, making it harder to know him. He had spent the time that Alexis and I made plans watching me, as though he was trying to figure something out. I did my best to ignore it while occasionally stealing glances at him, trying to figure out what he was up to. He seemed reserved, as if he hadn’t yet made up his mind about me either. And I admit, that the strange sensation when I touched his hand was still on my mind, but I didn’t know what it might mean. Hank seemed like the opposite of Alexis, she was outgoing and engaging to his quiet and reserved.  

“Have you had any other talents emerge yet?” Hank asked.

“We’ve learned that I’m telepathic, in both directions, but that’s all so far,” I said. 

“I’m working with her myself on that,” Bill put in. “Karen’s been working with her on shielding, since she’s one of the best in the pack and Nickie knows us both already.” 

Hank nodded and continued to listen to us talk. His silence was a bit intimidating. I tried to ignore it and continued the conversation as if he wasn’t watching me. 

After we had been talking a while, Karen excused herself to check on dinner. She was gone for a few minutes before she reappeared to call us to the table. We all moved into the dining room and started to take our seats. Terry reappeared and Karen followed him into the room. It was a nice evening and after dinner we visited a while longer. I got the Jeffries’ address from Alexis before I left for the evening so I knew where to be Friday morning.