Chapter 15 #3
“Because I kept coming back to make sure you did.” I held his gaze until Tavian laughed somewhere to my left.
“We should injure him more often. This is entertaining.” Tavian straightened from beside the creek, enjoying himself far too much.
“No.” I turned toward Tavian so quickly that his smile widened.
“I wasn’t volunteering to do it.” Tavian lifted one hand, still laughing.
“Good.” I dropped my arms and decided that was enough discussion about Malek being injured. A different question occurred to me as we started walking again.
“How long do shifters live?” I asked as I stepped around a shallow patch of mud. “Please don’t tell me I’m going to find out you’re all secretly three hundred years old.”
“No.” Luca answered before Tavian could even draw breath, turning toward him at the same time.
Tavian looked betrayed.
“You ruined that immediately.” Tavian accused Luca, brushing a low branch out of his way.
“You were going to lie to her.” Luca moved beneath the branch after him, completely unapologetic.
“I was going to make the answer more interesting.” Tavian corrected him.
“We age pretty close to humans.” Malek answered from behind me, rescuing the conversation before Tavian could invent an ancient backstory. “There are some differences, but nothing remotely close to centuries.”
“Good. I wasn’t ready to add immortality to this week.” I stepped over an exposed root and kept moving.
“Disappointed?” Tavian asked from ahead of me, twisting around just enough to see my face without walking backward.
“Deeply. I had already planned your three-hundredth birthday party.” I gave Tavian my driest look.
“I would expect something impressive.” Tavian placed a hand over his chest, taking the imaginary event seriously.
“You’d get a cupcake.” I informed Tavian.
“I take back everything nice I said about you.” Tavian faced the trail again, shaking his head.
“No, you don’t.” Luca told Tavian from beside me, the certainty in his voice making me smile.
The rest of my questions came more naturally after that, usually because one of them did something that reminded me how little I still knew.
Shifting took energy, which explained why they ate so much afterward.
Their stronger senses didn’t disappear entirely in human form; they were simply less intense.
Instinct affected what they noticed and how quickly they reacted, but it didn’t replace their judgment.
That last part fit what I had already seen.
Cat had been patient and stubborn. Tavian had somehow managed to be Tavian before I even knew his name.
Luca had quietly organized himself around everyone else from the beginning.
Fur had never changed who I was dealing with.
It had only hidden enough details that I hadn’t known what I was looking at.
I was still deciding whether that made some of my earlier conversations more or less embarrassing when Tavian stopped near a quieter bend in the creek.
“Wait.” Tavian raised one hand without turning around, all of his usual restless energy vanishing as his attention fixed on the opposite bank.
I froze.
“What did you see?” I whispered to Tavian, following the direction of his gaze and finding only layers of green at first.
“Left of the fallen tree.” Tavian pointed with two fingers, barely moving his arm.
It took another few seconds before I found the animal.
A small fox stood half-hidden behind vegetation on the opposite bank, its body disappearing into the broken patterns of shadow beneath the trees. I slowly raised the camera.
Tavian stepped backward without being asked. Luca shifted behind me, and Malek became so still that I stopped noticing him entirely.
No one spoke.
I forgot about them anyway.
The fox lifted its head, and I adjusted the shutter speed before taking three quick frames through a narrow opening between leaves.
It moved closer to the creek, paused, and lowered its nose toward the water.
I shifted my footing a few inches and waited until its reflection settled beneath it before pressing the shutter.
By the time the fox disappeared into heavier vegetation, my knees hurt from crouching and sweat had gathered beneath the camera strap at the back of my neck.
“That was good.” I lowered the camera and checked the screen, satisfaction washing away everything else for a moment.
“Show me.” Tavian started toward me before catching himself a few feet away, waiting rather than crowding over my shoulder.
The tiny correction made me pause.
“What?” Tavian tilted his head when he noticed me watching him.
“Nothing. Come here.” I turned the camera so he could see the screen. Tavian crossed the remaining distance immediately and leaned over my shoulder, close enough that warmth gathered along my side. This time, though, all of his attention went straight to the photograph.
I enlarged the frame with the reflection. For once, he didn’t joke.
“You caught that from where we were standing?” Tavian studied the image, then glanced toward the section of creek where the fox had disappeared.
“Not exactly the way you’re seeing it here. The lens changes how the distance reads, and I decide what stays in the frame.” I showed Tavian the full photograph before switching back to the tighter version.
“So you knew it would look like that.” Tavian leaned slightly closer, his interest genuine.
“I hoped it would.” I moved to the next frame. “A lot of wildlife photography is watching what an animal is doing and trying to predict what it might do next. Sometimes I’m right. Sometimes I spend three hours photographing the back of a bird.”
“That sounds terrible.” Tavian laughed softly, keeping his eyes on the screen.
“It can be. Then you get one shot that makes the three hours worth it.” I smiled as I brought up another image.