Chapter 17 #2
He laughed. "No, it's fine. I know people who've had their ffff—friends ask them to shift a dozen times before they start to believe it. I can understand you in that form, but I can't talk. Just so you know."
"OkaaA-AA-AY!" The word turned into a yelp as Luke shifted into his rabbit form.
To be fair, it was only slightly less startling the second time.
One moment a great big handsome man was sitting on the couch, and then without any explainable transformation, a truly enormous fluffy bunny was there instead.
The air did some kind of twisty thing, maybe, but it was just…
instant and inexplicable. Sabrina got up cautiously and the bunny—Luke—perked his ears and tipped his head invitingly.
She went to sit next to him, giving him the palm of her hand to sniff, which seemed like a reasonable thing to do with a rabbit and an incredibly bizarre one to do with a human. "Oh, God, I'm being weird."
Luke clearly did understand her even if he was a rabbit, because a ripple went through him, looking exactly like he did when he gave a quick silent huff of laughter.
"Well, it is weird," she muttered. "I wouldn't give you my hand to sniff! I mean, human-you!"
She had never seen a rabbit laugh before.
She had, in fact, hardly ever seen a rabbit, so she'd definitely never seen one laugh before.
Nevertheless, it was very clear Luke was laughing at her.
His brown eyes sparkled and he chittered a little, ears twitching back and forth in obvious bunny humor.
She said, "Hmph," and he chitter-laughed again, then bumped his head under her hand, inviting scritches.
Again, not a thing she would do to human-Luke—well, not precisely the same way, at least—but she rubbed between his ears and then stroked along his back, laughing as he flattened and lengthened in much the same way a cat would.
"You're very soft. And very muscular. I thought rabbits were just fluffy, but I wouldn't want you to kick me, no.
Even as a rabbit! You must weigh at least half as much as I do! "
Luke hopped down off the couch—no other word for it, he literally hopped—and sat up on his back feet, which was adorable when little six pound bunnies did it and borderline alarming when a rabbit this big did it. Sabrina stood up, too, and gaped.
He came up to about the middle of her chest, and then, dog-like, put his front paws out for balance.
Sabrina turned her palms up beneath them to help support him, and Luke stood up as high as he could on his back legs.
His eyes were about level with her chin, that way.
"Good God. If you lie down and stretch out you're probably taller than I am.
You don't weigh as much as I do, do you?
No, you can't," she said dubiously. He was a huge rabbit. He might.
He shifted back to human while standing there, their hands still touching in the way his paws and her hands had been before, but now he was six five, broad-shouldered, and very close to her. "I weigh about fifty pounds as a rabbit."
Sabrina shrieked, laughed, and took one of her hands away from his to press it against her chest. "Jeez, that's startling! And jeez, that's a big rabbit. Wow. How much do normal rabbits weigh? I mean, normal rabbits of…what kind of rabbit are you?"
"Flemish giant. Fifteen, twenty pounds, somewhere in there, generally.
Shifter species aren't usually twice the size of the true breeds, but…
rabbit shifters are. Or all of my family is, anyway.
I don't know any others." Luke curled his fingers against the hand they still had in contact with one another, a light, ticklish touch, and Sabrina closed her hand around his.
"Really? No other rabbit shifters?"
"There aren't many of us," he said with a shrug. "Fortunately we generally breed true, or we'd have died out centuries or millennia ago. But most shifters are predator species."
"That…is probably a survival thing, huh? But wow. Wow. I know I keep saying that, but…wow."
"It is, yes. A survival thing, I mean. Easier to get by if you're near the top of the food chain." Luke was smiling down at her, and Sabrina thought she could probably stay there happily for the rest of her life. "'Wow' seems appropriate. It's certainly better than throwing things at me."
"Who could throw something at such a fluffy bunny?" Sabrina asked indignantly, and Luke laughed.
"I don't know. Mean people. Or ones who are rightfully alarmed by a rabbit fighting at three times its expected weight class."
"I guess." Sabrina smiled up at him, feeling shivery. "Thank you for telling me. Oh! Are you going to have to mind-wipe me before I leave Virtue?"
"No! No, I'm afraid you're stuck with this information for the rest of your life." Luke hesitated. "I hope you don't mind. It's a lot to ask of somebody."
"I don't mind at all. I'm thrilled you think I'm safe enough to explain it all to.
" Sabrina sighed gently and stepped back to sit down again, though she was reluctant to release Luke's hand.
Luckily for her, he seemed happy to keep holding hers, and sat down with her as she said, "I do understand why some people are so stressed about the railroad now.
But it used to go through here, though!"
"Seventy-plus years ago. Everybody wasn't carrying a camera with them at all times back then, or able to tell the entire world what they just saw a few seconds after they saw it."
"Yeah, that's true." Sabrina made a face. "Maybe the train isn't such a good idea after all."
Luke shook his head. "It's riskier, but…
shifters need jobs too. Places to live, places they can be themselves.
A dying sanctuary is no sanctuary at all.
We need to move forward. And the more people who can be trusted with its secret, the better off we are, because those people help shape a town that is safe for us. "
"Right," Sabrina said thoughtfully. "So I need to add a really big gift shop to the train station so people can spend lots of money here without ever actually visiting the town and risking the shifters here."
"No! No, you're missing the point, you're—you're teasing me," Luke said as Sabrina started to laugh. "You're teasing me."
"I'm teasing you," Sabrina agreed, then tilted her head, studying him. "You love it here, don't you?"
"I do, yeah. I know it's probably not cool to think your home town is great, but I do."
"I think your home town is great. I fell in love with it the first time I visited, long before I knew it was full of magic! You've given me a lot to think about, too."
"And that," Luke said softly, "is my cue to leave for the evening, I think."
He stood, and Sabrina startled, looking up at him. "That wasn't what I meant."
"No, I know, but I still think it's a good idea. You really do have a lot to think about." He smiled. "Thanks for not freaking out. I'll see you tomorrow?"
Sabrina also stood, following Luke to the door more than walking him there. "Bright and early. Maybe not as bright and early as you'll be up, but I'll be at the site by nine, so…well. Lunch, maybe?"
"Text me when you're available and I'll meet you at Kate's." Luke hesitated, and Sabrina knew he wouldn't be the bold one, so she bounced up on her toes to steal a very quick kiss.
"I'll see you in the morning."