Second Nature (55 page)

"Wait," Leigh said. "Let me get dressed, and I'll come with you."

"No," Griffin said, then added more gently, "No, Leigh. I'd rather you don't get involved, but thank you for offering. I appreciate it."

Leigh nodded reluctantly. "Take care," she said to Griffin. Her glance skimmed Jorie. "You too."

Coming from Leigh, who had grown up hating humans, it meant a lot. Jorie gave Leigh a grateful nod.

"Let's go," Griffin said. Her fingers closed around Jorie's elbow, hurrying her along.

*  *  *

Jorie didn't have much time for sightseeing as they almost jogged up the driveway, but a quick glance showed that the Eldridges' house was easily the biggest house in town. There was no light inside, so it had to be late enough that even the Kasari had gone to bed.

A bare-chested man with dark blond hair opened the door. It was the doctor who had examined her this morning. His nostrils flared and his mouth opened when he stared at Jorie.

He's taking in my scent.
Seeing the catlike behavior of people who appeared completely human was still disconcerting. Automatically, she took a step closer to Griffin.

"Griffin?" the man said. "What are you doing here... with the human?"

"I need to use your office again, Dad," Griffin said. One of her hands was still holding on to Jorie's elbow in an almost protective way.

Dad?
Jorie had thought that the other doctor, the one who gave all the orders, was Griffin's father.
So she really does have two fathers.

Another man with darker hair stepped next to the other. Jorie recognized dad number two. Despite being heavier and a few years older, he resembled the blond man. Jorie guessed them to be brothers.

"I need to use your phone again," Griffin said. The fingers wrapped around Jorie's arm were tense. Jorie could feel how impatient she was to finally get into the house, but it seemed the two men had to give permission to enter their most personal territory first.

"Now?" the dark-haired man rumbled.

"I need to call Mother on a secure line," Griffin said.

Her mother? That's why she's dragging me over here?
The surprise Jorie felt was reflected on the faces of the two men.

The older man turned his head to look at his brother, apparently deferring to him even though Jorie sensed that he was usually the more dominant one.

"Come in," the blond man finally said.

With a sigh of relief, Griffin entered, dragging Jorie with her. "Stay here," she told Jorie. "I'll be right back."

Before Jorie could say anything, Griffin left. She found herself alone with the two imposing men, who were staring at her.
This is what a deer caught between two predators must feel like.
They were Griffin's fathers and apparently willing to risk their careers to hide her from the Saru, but Jorie still didn't feel comfortable alone with them. "Um. Hi," she said as the silence grew.

"What's going on?" the older man asked. His intense green eyes drilled into her, and his expression clearly said that he expected her to bend to his will and answer his question.

Even if Jorie had known what was going on, she wasn't sure whether Griffin wanted her fathers to know, so she just shrugged timidly, playing the scared human.
Not that I'd need to do much pretending.
Finding herself alone with two predators in their den was enough of a reason to be scared.

"Back off, Brian," the blond man said to his brother. "Can't you see that she's scared?"

Brian laughed. "She's a clever one," he said. His catlike eyes were still fixed on Jorie, watching her every move. "She's scared, but not enough that she wouldn't be able to answer. She's just not sure if Griffin would want her to answer."

This is one clever cat. He saw right through my Oscar-worthy performance.
Jorie realized she had to be careful around Brian.

"Then I'd say she really is clever — she chose her allies wisely," the younger brother said and gave Jorie a nod. "Do you want some tea?"

"No, thank you," Jorie answered. She wasn't just being polite. If the friendlier brother wandered off to make tea, she would be all alone with the intense Brian. A parched throat was the lesser evil.

A sly grin curled Brian's lips as if he knew why she had declined. "I'll go and make some," he said and strolled away.

"I'm Gus," the blond man said when they were alone. He pointed to the couch. "Now make yourself comfortable, and tell me what's going on."

Ah. They are a really effective team. The people who can't be intimidated by Brian, Gus charms with his friendliness.
"You are a clever one too," she said, hoping he shared his daughter's sense of humor and could take a little teasing.

For a moment, Gus's amused smile reminded Jorie of her father. "So the good Kasari, bad Kasari trick doesn't work on you, huh?"

"No. I've seen it all before. Maybe I'm watching too many crime shows," Jorie said with a smile. Her nervous tension eased.

"Then you know how the coffee in squad rooms usually tastes," Gus said, grinning.

Sitting here, talking about coffee and crime shows in the middle of the night with a shape-shifter was beginning to feel very surreal. "Um... bad?"

Gus nodded. "Exactly like Brian's tea."

*  *  *

Griffin closed the door to the study behind her and strode over to the phone without wasting any time. Jorie was clearly nervous and confused, so she didn't want to leave her alone with her fathers for longer than strictly necessary.

She dialed her mother's cell phone number.

"Yes?" came her mother's familiar voice just a few seconds later. "Did you hear anything new?" Obviously, her mother had been expecting someone else and hadn't even looked at her caller ID.

"Hello, Mother," Griffin said.

"Griffin? Griffin, is that you?" Nella's usually calm voice was agitated now.

So she has heard that I'm in trouble. And now I'm calling for help.
Her pride and independence were taking quite a beating these days. "Yes," she said. "Listen, I need your help." There was no time for explanations or pleasantries.

"Oh, yes, I can imagine. Ky called me. You got yourself into a wonderful mess," Nella said.

Since she had been ostracized for breaking the unwritten law by having an affair with a Kasari, Nella had taught her children that it was better to stick to the rules, no matter what. Griffin no longer agreed. Not when following the rules meant killing innocent people. "I don't need a lecture, Mother," Griffin said. "I need help."

A few seconds of silence showed Nella's surprise at these open words. "I'm in Michigan and on my way to your fathers'," she finally said. "You are still at your fathers', right?"

She's coming here?
Griffin heard the screeching of brakes and tires in the background.
She got on the next plane and flew to Michigan to help me?
That was the last thing Griffin had expected from her mother. "Where are you?" she asked, not answering Nella's question.

"I'm just entering a little town called... Osgrove," Nella said.

"Stay there," Griffin said. Having her mother come here, right into the center of Kasari territory, was a bad idea. She didn't need any further complications. "There's a bed-and-breakfast at the edge of town. The owner is Puwar. I'll meet you there. Please," she said urgently.

"All right," her mother said after a long moment of silence. "I'll wait. And Griffin... be careful."

Who would have thought... motherly concern from Nella Westmore.
It seemed Jorie hadn't been the only one who had misjudged her mother.
Let's hope she'll still be on my side when she sees who's coming with me.

*  *  *

"I'm sorry I had to leave you alone with my dads," Griffin said when she started the car. It didn't take the imagination of a writer to guess what kind of interrogation Brian and Gus had put Jorie through.

"It's all right. I like them," Jorie said.

Griffin's head jerked around. She almost drove the car into the nearest tree. "You like them?" No one had ever said that after meeting her fathers. Maybe that they were impressed, but no one had ever said they liked the two imposing men.

"Gus in particular," Jorie said. "Is he your biological father? You only have one of those, right?"

"They're both my fathers, but no, Gus didn't father me," Griffin said, a little distracted. She didn't want to talk about her family. Finding out more about Jorie and her dreams was more important now.

"No?" Surprise echoed through Jorie's voice. "I could have sworn that he's your father. You are much more alike than you and Brian, and Gus is so protective of you."

The thought was new, but not unpleasant. "He is?"

"Of course," Jorie said. "Didn't you realize?"

Griffin hadn't, but now was not the time to think about herself and her family. "Tell me more about those dreams you were having," she said instead. "You said they stopped when you got older?"

"No. They never completely stopped, but when I got older, I didn't dream about them every night anymore. Or maybe I did and I just learned not to talk about it or even think about it."

The pain and regret in her voice made Griffin want to reach out and touch her. She couldn't imagine not wanting to talk or think about dreams. Dreams had a special, almost sacred place in Wrasa culture, so why would anyone want to suppress them? "Why? What happened?"

"I don't know what Wrasa kids are like, but human children can be very cruel," Jorie said. The bitter scent of her emotions told Griffin that she carried the scars of that cruelty.

Griffin frowned. "Other children hurt you?" Her hackles rose even though the little girl that Jorie had once been was long gone and all grown up now.

"Not physically. Well, they did shove me into an enclosure with a gaggle of geese once. Did you know that geese can be very mean animals?" Jorie rubbed her arm, where very likely a goose had bitten her, and smiled self-deprecatingly.

"Why would they do that?" Griffin didn't understand. What did Jorie's dreams have to do with the cruel pranks of human kids?

"They were teasing me because I had told them about my imaginary friends. One day, it seems just calling me 'odd' and 'crazy' wasn't enough, so they shoved me into the goose enclosure and told me to 'play with my friends.'" Jorie's lips formed a smile that lacked all humor. "Let me tell you, geese aren't very playful animals."

Jorie's mother had told Griffin about the imaginary friends Jorie had when she was growing up. She had dismissed it as the overactive imagination of a child who would grow up to be a writer, but now she wasn't so sure. Was there more to Jorie's dreams? "Tell me about these imaginary friends."

Jorie shook her head. "It was just the typical kid stuff. Nothing to tell."

She has been teased and hurt because of it so much that she refuses to talk about it, even as an adult.
Griffin's body wanted to get rid of some of her agitation by shifting or at least by getting out of the confines of the car, but she forced herself to keep driving. "Jorie, this could be important." She reached over, took Jorie's hand, and squeezed it gently. "Tell me, please."

"How can it be important? Do you really think it has something to do with our situation? It was just childish play," Jorie said.

"Maybe," Griffin said, "and maybe it's more than that. Just tell me and let me judge for myself."

A sigh ruffled the shaggy hair on Jorie's forehead. "All right. As a child, I imagined that I had friends that were magical animals. They talked to me, played with me, and protected me. They were very real to me, and I even dreamed about them every night." A slight smile played around the edges of Jorie's mouth as she remembered her imaginary childhood companions.

"And you based the shape-shifters in your novel on these imaginary friends, the creatures from your dreams?" Griffin asked, just to make sure.

Jorie nodded. "Maybe a part of me thought that if I got it out of my system and finally wrote it down, the dreams would stop. But now it seems the dreams turned into reality, huh? My imaginary friends weren't so imaginary after all." Her nervous laughter echoed through the car.

"No," Griffin said, not laughing, "they weren't."

Dark eyebrows drew together like storm clouds. Jorie turned in the passenger seat, now directly facing Griffin. "What's going on?"

"I'm not sure," Griffin said. "I don't understand it, but... let me tell you what dreams mean to us Wrasa. We believe that in the beginning, the earth existed only of water — until the Great Hunter dreamed about creatures that inhabit the world. In his dream, he saw some creatures that moved on four legs, some that walked on two legs, some that flew with wings, and some that swam with fins. And when he woke, he looked down at the watery world and decided to create what he had seen in the dream. So he created the earth and formed mountains, trees, rivers, valleys, and caves. He created animals and humans." Growing up, Griffin had heard that story quite often, especially when her grandfather had still been alive, but she had never told it to anyone. It was just a legend, as fictional as Jorie's novel was, but sharing it with Jorie still held a lot of meaning. "Then he had another dream, in which his creations changed from human to animal and back, sharing the beauty of both creations. So he created the Wrasa."

Jorie was quiet for a few more seconds. She reached out and squeezed Griffin's hand. "That's beautiful," she said softly.

It was. But Griffin hadn't told her the Wrasa's creation story to impress her with the once rich Wrasa culture and legends. "Dreams are special to us," she said. "We see them as glimpses into what is or what might be. They can be sources of insight and guidance. Wrasa children don't get teased or shoved into goose enclosures for telling others about their dreams — especially not if they are Puwar."

"Puwar?" Jorie asked.

"That's what you'd call my tiger half," Griffin said.

"What's so special about Puwar dreams?" Jorie was desperately trying to make some sense of it all, but Griffin couldn't really help her, because she didn't fully understand it herself.