Changing Times (4 page)

“You’re welcome.”

“Doc?” She got as far as the door this time before his voice
stopped her again. “If you want to come by the shop sometime, call me first so
I can set aside some time to meet with you.”

“Thank you, I may do that.”

“Say, Doc?” Again, he stopped her before she got out of the
door. This time she turned with a slightly exasperated smile. “What’s your
name?”

“Carly Chambers. Good night, Mr. Pantera.”

“Tony.”

“Goodnight, Tony.” Carly smiled as she left the room. She
wandered down the hallway toward a flight of stairs. Fortunately, this one
ended in the kitchen. Obviously those were the “servants’ stairs” from when
this house had been built.

Carly got a drink of water and wandered around the spacious
house for a few minutes. There was a low murmur coming from another bedroom and
she recognized the patter as being a local radio station. There was no sign of
the other two men and Carly wondered where they were. She shrugged and found
her way back to the bedroom Micah had shown her to earlier. Carly lay down on
her side and within moments was asleep.

When Carly woke this time, she knew it was late in the
morning. She sat up and stretched. There was a knock on the door and it opened
to admit Nolan who carried an aromatic cup of steaming coffee.

“Hello, Carly. I brought you some coffee and breakfast will
be ready in about fifteen. I can bring you some clean clothes if you’d like?”

“That would be great.” Carly couldn’t help but like this
particular kidnapper. He wasn’t that much taller than she was and seemed to be
a nice guy in spite of his profession and the growling thing. Nolan was true to
his word and reappeared in her room a few minutes later with a pair of jeans
and a clean shirt.

“These might fit you. I’ve brought you a belt because I know
my waist is bigger than yours is. Sorry, I can’t help you with clean underwear.”

“That’s okay, really. I appreciate the change of clothing.”
Carly followed him down the hall to a bathroom and she noticed that the door to
the room that Tony had been in was open and the bed was empty.

She shrugged and stepped into the bathroom. She showered,
then dried off and got dressed in the clothes Nolan had brought her. She simply
wadded her dirty clothes up and put them in her backpack. That was the nice
thing about scrubs, no one seemed to care if they were wrinkled and they
laundered so nicely. Carly quickly combed through her hair and pulled it back
into another French braid.

Carly walked down the stairs to the kitchen and found all
three men sitting at the counter. They all rose in a display of old-fashioned
courtesy that surprised her. Carly waved them back to their seats and joined
them at the counter. Nolan poured her another cup of coffee, then put a plate
full of waffles on the table. A plate of bacon and sausages and a bowl of fresh
fruit quickly joined the waffles.

The four of them ate a very hearty breakfast. Carly was used
to keeping strange hours, but this was the first time in a long time she had
been with people who weren’t medical professionals who kept stranger hours than
she did. Carly studied the three men sitting with her.

Micah with his almost noble bearing, unsmiling face and
strong features, Nolan with his quick wit and obvious charm and Tony with his
languid movements, dark sensual features and strange green-gold eyes. They
seemed so different, but there was an almost indefinable
something
about
all three of them that made them different from other men she’d met.

Well, aside from the fact that they had kidnapped her to
treat a gunshot wound. Remembering that, Carly sat up straight as she stared at
Tony. There was no way he should be sitting up and eating as heartily as he was
doing.

“You.” Carly pinned Tony with a glare. He looked at her in
amazement, then his glance turned to amusement. “You should still be flat on
your back in bed. Okay, come on, I want to see those stitches.”

Carly got to her feet and stomped toward the stairs with a
bemused Tony behind her. The looks on the other two’s faces told her that Tony
didn’t often obey others so easily. When he walked into the bedroom he’d used
the night before, Carly was standing in the middle of the room with her arms
crossed.

She glared at him as he slowly unbuttoned his shirt, then
removed it and threw it across the foot of the bed. He took his time walking
past her before he settled himself on the bed on his back. She locked down the
decidedly naughty thoughts about him sliding out of his pants too.

His movements had been slow, but she had the impression that
they were also very deliberate. It almost seemed as though Tony didn’t move
until he was ready and then he only moved enough to get where he needed to be.
He moved with a liquid grace she had only seen in dancers and other performers.

Tony put his hands behind his head so that his chest and
abdomen were fully exposed to her. His eyes were wary and he seemed to be
watching her closely. Carly shoved all thoughts about the man aside and
concentrated solely on his injury. Still, she couldn’t help but notice how
gorgeous he was.

The attraction she thought she had buried came crashing back
to the front of her mind. It was all she could do not to lean over and run her
hand down his chest. Tony was definitely all male and, what was worse, he knew
it! She saw the way his eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared slightly as she
stepped closer to him.

Carly concentrated on the wound in his abdomen so she could
avoid looking at his eyes. She knew he continued to watch her as she shook her
head at his wound. Carly expelled her breath and looked at him.

“How is this possible? You’re almost completely healed. This
wound should still be tender and there’s no way the skin should be at this
advanced stage of healing. What’s going on?” Carly put her hands on her hips
again and glared at him.

A look stole across his face in answer to her ferocious face
and aggressive stance. She felt her blood pressure rise as a slight smile
curved across his face. She drew in a deep breath, but he only murmured, “Are
you sure you want to know?”

She deflated quickly and stared at him for a long moment
before she nodded. Tony sat up and picked up his shirt slowly. Carly wondered
if he was delaying to give himself a moment. He raised his head to pin her with
another unblinking stare. Sudden wariness filled her features. Suddenly, she
knew she wasn’t going to believe him nor was she going to like what he told
her.

She watched him closely as he put his shirt back on. Tony
patted the bed beside him in invitation and she sat, but angled her body away
from his.

“What I am going to tell you has to go under the heading of
doctor-patient confidentiality. Are you agreeable to that?” At her somewhat
hesitant nod, Tony seemed to debate internally briefly, then continued. “How
much do you know about lycanthropy?”

Carly blinked at him a few times, then spoke hesitantly. “Lycanthropy?
As in people who suffer from hypertrichosis, porphyria, schizophrenia?”

Tony chuckled softly. “Hypertrichosis?”

“It’s a rare genetic condition that causes hair to grow over
the surface of the body. Are you familiar with porphyria?”

At his negative shake of the head, Carly continued in what
her nurses identified as a “lecture” mode. “The major symptom is a severe
photosensitivity which makes venturing out into daylight extremely painful. As
the condition advances, the victim’s appearance changes with discoloration of
the skin and an unusually thick growth of facial or body hair.”

Carly paused for a breath and met Tony’s amused glance. “This
isn’t what you’re talking about at all, is it?”

“No. I’m talking about shapeshifting. Actually changing one’s
body into animal form.”

“Okay, like Boris Karloff or whoever it was in those old
wolfman movies?”

“Something like that, yes.” Tony couldn’t hide his amusement
now.

“I don’t see how that fits under the heading of doctor-patient
confidentiality.” She shook her head, then stared at him. “Oh, oh no, no, no.
You don’t seriously believe you’re a werewolf?”

“Of course not.” Tony drew back slightly as his eyebrows
went up. His tone carried a bit of ice. “I am a lycanthrope, but I am
not
a wolf.”

“Okay.” Carly drew the single word out as she shifted her
weight on the bed. She wondered if she could make the door. She stood slowly,
keeping her eyes on his the entire time. “Okay, so you believe you can change
into a wolf. I can see how you wouldn’t want that to get around. You know, I
think I’d like another cup of coffee, how about you?”

When she made her break, she did so decisively. But Tony was
across the room with his hand on the door before she could even blink or open
the door.

“Carly, I’m not insane. I’m not schizophrenic and I’m not
suffering from any diseases. I am a lycanthrope. Specifically, I’m a were-cat.
My metabolism operates on a completely different plane from yours. I am not
immortal, but I am immune to most physical disease. I can be shot, stabbed,
have broken bones, whatever and they will heal much faster than humans because
of the constant regeneration of my physical tissue.

“If I change immediately after I am wounded, the wound will
heal almost instantaneously. Silver poisons the blood of a shapeshifter, which
makes it nearly impossible for us to change. It won’t kill us unless it remains
in our systems for a long period of time. If you shoot me in the head or heart
or in some other way stop my flow of oxygen, I’ll die just like any human.”

Tony put his hands on her shoulders. She shuddered and he
tightened his hands on her shoulders slightly. “I am calm and completely
serious. Can you accept something that is outside the realm of anything you’ve
heard before? Can you trust that what I am telling you is true?”

Carly met his eyes for a long moment as she gathered her
courage. “I believe you believe everything you’ve told me.”

“Well, that’s a start.” Tony released her. She released the
breath she’d been holding. He reached around her to open the door. “No one here
will intentionally hurt you, Carly. Let’s go get that cup of coffee.”

They rejoined the others in the kitchen. Carly wondered if
they knew how ill Tony was, but before she could ask, Micah told her he would
take her back to the hospital.

“I’ll get your stuff, Doc. You go on with Micah.” Nolan
shooed her out of the kitchen.

Once she and her backpack were together, Micah drove her
back to the hospital parking lot. She thought of things to say, but never said
them.

Micah turned to look at her before she got out of the car
and Carly met his eyes. “Thank you for your help, Dr. Chambers.”

She had to say something. “Micah, you’ll see that Tony gets
help, won’t you?”

“For what?” Micah’s reply was calm.

Carly sighed. “Not for the wound. That’s fine. For his
delusions.”

“Delusions?”

“Yes, delusions. He thinks he’s some kind of shapeshifter.”

“Are you so sure it is a delusion, Dr. Chambers? What if he
was telling you the truth? ‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
than are dreamt of in your philosophy.’”

“I…” Carly paused to stare at him for a long moment. “I don’t
know.”

She got out of the truck and closed the door behind her. She
absently noticed that the truck bore Wisconsin license plates and filed it away
for future reference. Carly walked slowly to where her own car was parked. A
kidnapper who quoted Shakespeare, another who was a phenomenal cook and a third
man who thought he was a werewolf—lycanthrope, she corrected herself
automatically—then shuddered.

“I need a cheeseburger and a nap.” Carly muttered as she got
into her car for the short drive to her townhouse just outside New Orleans.

A week later Carly was still mulling over the information
Tony had imparted to her. She didn’t believe there was such a thing as
lycanthropy, werewolves, shapeshifters, whatever they thought they were.
However, her internet research pointed out a large community that did accept
shapeshifting as a very real thing. She hoped his friends could help him with
this delusion before it was too late.

Carly sighed as she leaned against the wall in her shower.
The massaging showerhead was one of the best purchases she’d made in the past
year. She leaned over and picked up the bottle of shampoo her sister had sent
to her and a word on the bottle caught her eye.

“Almonds…I smelled like almonds?” Carly laughed as she read
the label on the shampoo bottle in her hand. “Honey and almond shampoo. I’ll be
damned! He said I smelled like almonds.”

She tentatively sniffed at the shampoo, not sure what she
expected to smell, then shrugged and proceeded to wash her hair. Carly was
getting ready to enjoy her first three-day weekend in months and she planned to
start it off with a cup of cocoa on her balcony as she watched the sun come up.
Since she worked the night shift, she wouldn’t stay up all day, but would go
back to bed for some well-deserved catch-up sleep.

Stepping out of the shower, she wrapped her favorite robe
around her still slightly damp body. Carly stopped in the tiny kitchen and
poured a huge mug of cocoa, before going up to the second floor of her
townhouse. Opening the French doors in her bedroom, she stepped out onto the
balcony.

Taking a deep breath, she hooked one of the high-backed
rattan chairs with her foot, pulling it closer to take a seat. Carly propped
her feet up on the bottom rung of the railing around her balcony. This was her
favorite time of the day. The whole world was waking up with her there to
watch. She listened as a cardinal began to sound off. Then he suddenly flew
away.

There was a rustling of the bushes below her. She fully
expected to see the neighbor’s cat, so she was a bit surprised when a large dog
wandered out of the bush. He stopped just within her line of sight and shook
himself vigorously, then raised his head and sniffed. The dog’s head swiveled
around toward her and Carly got her first good shock of the day.

This was no dog. This was a wolf. His eyes were almost
yellow in the pale light streaming through the doors behind her. His coat was varying
shades of gray and black.

Carly was immobile for the space of a few heartbeats, then
shot to her feet. The wolf shied away, then looked at her again with what she
could only call a chagrined expression before he loped away. Carly knew she was
still standing there with her mouth open, so she forced herself to shut her
mouth. Carly muttered to herself about delusions, long shifts and overactive
imaginations, then went back inside.

For the first time since she’d lived in her condo, Carly
triple-checked all of the locks on the doors and windows before climbing into
her antique four-poster canopied bed. She shuddered slightly, though the
temperature outside had probably been in the upper seventies and the
air-conditioned temperature in her home was not nearly cool enough to cause her
to shiver. It took much longer than usual for her to fall asleep. Even as she
slept, her dreams were crowded with wolves and men with strange gold eyes and
black hair.

* * * * *

Tony unlocked the back door of his antiques shop. He
chuckled as he disconnected from the mobile call with Nolan. Though he’d been
embarrassed to be seen by Dr. Chambers, he’d been quick to report that there
hadn’t been any untoward activity around her townhouse. Tony felt nothing but
relief that they’d managed to protect Carly.

Her spirit and boldness had captured his interest, but he
wouldn’t allow anything more to come of it. Associations with humans had to be
kept brief and monitored. They were not able to protect themselves in the same
way shifters were and he would not be responsible for the death of another
human. Shaking away his memories, Tony closed the door and moved farther into
the room.

The smell of varnish and stripping fluids always took his
breath away when he first entered his workroom. He carefully allowed the odors
to settle into his senses. The pieces in the storeroom were in various states
of repair or restoration. Tony made his way into the kitchenette off the
storeroom to start the first of several pots of coffee for the day. Though he
didn’t indulge in more than two or three cups, his staff was notorious for
consuming mass quantities of the thick chicory brew.

Tony poured himself a cup of the fragrant coffee when it was
finished, then carried it up to the second floor where his office was located.
He turned his computer on to pull up his inventory sheets. There was a new
group of chairs being delivered this morning that he was very interested in.
The seller had claimed that they were from the home of Earl Long. He clicked
over to his email where he found a request from a client for a snuffbox.

A noise from outside caught his attention. Like the cat that
he was, his senses were on alert as he lifted his head to see if he could catch
a scent. All he smelled was gasoline and street smells. He padded gracefully to
the window. There was a man sitting astride a large motorcycle parked across
the street. Normally he wouldn’t have paid any attention to such a sight, but
it was very early in the morning and something triggered his internal warning
system.

None of the shops on the street, including his own, would
open for at least an hour. His feeling of unease increased as the man put the
foot stand down and stepped off the motorcycle. He removed a black helmet and
shook his hair out so that it flowed over his shoulders. Bending forward
slightly, he put the helmet on the bike, then slowly unzipped his black leather
jacket and removed a pair of black leather gloves.

The man was almost as tall as Micah, though probably not as
broad through the shoulders or chest. His hair was brown and nearly as long as
Tony’s, falling midway down his back. Several strands were over his shoulder,
allowing Tony to accurately judge the length. His mustache, goatee and long
sideburns were just a shade darker than his hair.

The man simply stood on the sidewalk looking directly at
Tony’s office window, then slowly raised his left hand, holding it palm out
toward Tony. The livid red mark on his palm stood out in stark relief against
his tan skin. The mark wasn’t familiar to Tony, but he knew he’d remember it
long enough to sketch it for future research. Tony wondered if he was
affiliated with the Turn Skins.

The Turn Skins were a somewhat radical group of shifters.
They were mostly canine, though a few other species had aligned themselves with
the pack as well. Micah had been one of their number for several years, but had
abruptly left the pack without explanation to anyone. Curtis Melancon had been
the Alpha for so long that no one could really remember a time he hadn’t been
around. Curtis had died just a year ago. Tony took a deep breath as he realized
he was looking at the new Alpha of the Turn Skins.

That the man had chosen to show himself so brazenly meant he
considered Tony a threat and was seeking to establish where Tony stood. With
the keen eyesight of his “other”, Tony could now clearly see the marks of
battle on the stranger. He could see a few healing gashes on his neck and jaw
and one particularly dark shadow that was probably a bruise along his left
temple. The Turn Skins had been in turmoil for months. It was interesting that
a new leader had finally emerged. It was even more intriguing that the shifter
had already come to Changing Times.

Tony wouldn’t allow him the satisfaction of an early morning
encounter. He dropped the curtain back into place and resumed his seat at his
desk. Within moments he heard the purr of a powerful engine as the motorcycle
drove away. It took a few minutes for his mind to clear before he picked up the
phone to call Micah. He wasn’t a bit surprised to find that the strange man had
paid a similar visit to Micah at the apartment he kept in town, nor was he
surprised to find that Micah knew who he was.

“Slade, that’s what he calls himself. Whether that is his
real name or not is somewhat irrelevant. He was one of Curtis’ Beta males after
I left the pack. Slade is powerful, ruthless, driven. Exactly what the Turn
Skins were looking for in their next leader. He is not above using blackmail or
intimidation. He showed up at your place this morning?”

“Yes. He simply stood across the street and showed me his
hand. Since when did the Turn Skins resort to branding?”

“Branding?” Micah’s voice deepened.

“He had a rather distinct brand on his left hand. It looked
fairly fresh, I was wondering if it was the new thing among your kind for the
Alpha.”

“They are not my kind.” Micah’s words were soft, but Tony
heard the steel behind them and knew he had insulted his friend.

“My apologies, Micah. I simply meant the canines, not you in
particular.”

Micah sighed and Tony heard the tension leave his voice. “I
know. I am disturbed by the fact that Slade is the new Alpha. He’s dangerous,
Tony. He can cause us some real problems.”

“Then we’ll have to become even more vigilant, won’t we?”
They agreed to meet in a week at Nolan’s club. They both referred to Animalia
as Nolan’s, though they were both silent partners in the business. Nolan ran
the club and took care of all of the bookwork. Tony and Micah had simply
provided him with the capital to buy the building and reopen the business after
Hurricane Katrina and, in his typical generous fashion, Nolan had put their
names down on all the paperwork as his partners.

Tony turned his attention back to his own business as he
wondered what Slade had been trying to prove. Tony had very little dealing with
the Turn Skins, preferring to socialize with a variety of shifters as well as
humans. Very few of his human acquaintances knew what he was and that’s the way
he liked things. Tony thought that he would attract the wrong type of client if
he let it be known that he was capable of shapeshifting. New Orleans was a very
accepting town but even so, there were some limits. He had the feeling that “outing”
himself as a very large panther might just breach that limit for many people.

When he heard his assistants enter the building, Tony made
his way downstairs. He greeted Yvonne and Louis, the young human pair who
worked for him, joined them for a cup of coffee, then plucked the newspaper out
of Louis’ hand before heading back up to his office. Tony had just opened the
paper to scan the headlines when his private phone line rang. He answered
absently, then immediately went on alert as he saw the headline of the Metro
section.

“Tony? It’s Julia. Have you seen the paper?”

“I’m looking at it now. How did this happen?”

“Apparently she has been enduring systematic verbal abuse
and some mildly veiled sexual harassment. She took it as long as she could,
then she snapped.” Tony heard the sigh come over the phone and knew that Julia
was rubbing her hand across her forehead as she spoke.

“What can I do,
cheré
?”

“She’ll need someone to talk to. I’m going to the police
department now to see her. Can you meet me there?”

“I’ll be there in half an hour. Take heart,
cheré
, we’ll
get through this.”

“Yes, we will, but will Susan?” Julia hung up with another
soft sigh and Tony finished reading the lurid headline.

A local CPA had been murdered and his administrative
assistant arrested in connection with his murder. The newspaper story went on
to relate how the man’s body had been found in his office with his throat
nearly torn out. There were various marks on the man’s body, which the reporter
intimated might have been made by an animal of some sort.

Tony thought about Susan and those like her who were
reluctant to accept what they were. Over the years he had become a magnet for
misfits, those who were hesitant to reveal who and what they were to the
outside world. His was a pack of the packless—those shifters who gave no
allegiance to a single leader or had no others to run with. Julia knew this and
knew that Tony would never turn down another shifter in need.

Susan was a timid individual, newly come into the
realization of just how powerful she was. Such a small, delicate woman and he
had to smile as he thought about her. She was quiet, but she was extremely
intelligent. Susan had gone to work for this particular CPA only eight months
ago and though she had voiced mild concern about her ability to do the work,
she had been brave enough to try.

If what Julia said was true, then Susan would need all of
the help they could get for her, starting with bail money. Tony mentally
reviewed the state of his own finances and wondered how much they would need
for bail. He sighed as he picked up the phone to make another call before
heading for the police station.

A few hours later, he and Julia, a very competent lawyer as
well as a fellow were-cat, left the police station. Julia had spoken to Susan
and had promised to be with her during the bail hearing in the morning.
Unfortunately, Susan couldn’t be released until the hearing. Tony had promised
to inform her family and to assure them that everything that could be done was
being done. Julia planned to talk to several others in their community to get a
source of support for the family.

Tony pulled his mobile phone out of his pocket as he got to
his car. He smiled at the irony of his vehicle. The sleek black sports car with
the silver cat hood ornament looked out of place parked in front of the police
station. He slid behind the wheel as he dialed the number for Charity Hospital.
When the receptionist answered, he asked for Carly Chambers’ voicemail. Tony
was informed that Dr. Chambers wasn’t on duty and he sighed as he repeated his
request for her voicemail.