Read Change of Heart for Free Online

was definitely management material. I got more brownie points with the servers for coming to Owen's rescue so quickly, and the man himself thanked me a good hundred times for saving him. He had been really scared, especially when the psycho snarled at him. I agreed that it had been creepy.
    [Back to Table of Contents]
    42
    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes

Chapter Four
    I was walking to the apartment with Crane, both of us having left work early, and he was giving me every reason he could think of to keep us there instead of leaving on the next available flight out of Reno.
    "Why are you freaking out about this?" he asked, keeping pace with me. "So the sheseru of Logan Church's tribe met you, so what?"
    "Shit."
    "So you might hafta go see the guy, so what? You'll look at him, you'll see he ain't your mate, and that's the end of it. I never get why you don't just tell every semel we come in contact with about what you are and just get it over with."
    "I'm not a normal reah. What if they try and hurt me?"
    "What if they don't?"
    "I'm just supposed to take that chance?"
    "You're supposed to have some balls."
    "Fuck you," I snapped at him. "You didn't have to live through it."
    "Didn't I?"
    The way he was looking at me, furious and pained at the same time, I felt terrible.
    "I know I didn't take the beating, but watching it was no picnic either."
    I winced, the memory a brutal one because of the aftermath of my announcement that I was not only a reah but gay as well. Beaten, stripped naked, and left on the side of 43
    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes
    the road, only Crane coming in secret to hide me had saved me from death. My semel had allowed my public torture for being gay, my own father applauding and participating in the act. I was exiled when they learned I had lived. I had not spoken to any of them again, not my parents nor my brother nor even one member of my tribe except Crane. My best friend had chosen to be an outcast with me. And when there had been no one else who cared at all, there had always been Crane. I owed him so much, because after he saved my life, he had needed to keep me sane and not wallowing in grief. If I had killed myself, that would have made them victorious over me, he said, and we couldn't have that.
    "Crane," I said softly, the lump in my throat making it hard to breathe.
    "Forget it," he grunted. "What I don't get is why in the hell you showed that guy your fangs in the first place."
    "I didn't mean to," I exhaled sharply, calming, regaining my normal composure. "I screwed up because I'm tired, and I'm tired because I'm working too hard, and I'm working too hard for what? I'm just gonna end up leaving here anyway...
    shit!"
    "You're an idiot," he passed judgment on me.
    "Yeah, I know."
    "What the hell were you thinking?"
    I was so angry I could barely think straight. How in the world had I made such a stupid, idiotic mistake like showing my teeth to Yuri Kosa? He had done it first, and I had even thought it was brainless. Then I had gone and done the exact same thing!
    44
    Change of Heart
    by Mary Calmes
    "Lemme see."
    I squinted at him. "What?"
    "Your fangs, lemme see... your hands too."
    "Why?"
    "Because it's been a long time since...just lemme see."
    I was going to do whatever I could to restore things between us to normal. He was my touchstone, and I need him, so I parted my lips and showed him my fangs, upper and lower, before lifting my hand so he could see the claws where my fingers should have been. I had a middle form, the part-man, part-animal werepanther form that he did not. We said
    "werepanther" or "shape shifter" to describe ourselves and the change, but only a semel or a reah had the horror-movie form that was both in one. There could never be a mistake about what I was.
    "Shit."
    "What?" I asked, returning instantly to my fully human form.
    "That's amazing, you know. Just seeing you do it is really something."
    We were silent for several minutes.
    "Do you regret leaving with