Chapter 12 #2
Despite herself, Poppy felt a pang of envy. Would Max ever look at her that way? Margot and Levi were clearly nuts about each other – anyone could see that. Maybe they hadn’t been together long, or maybe they were just still that in love with each other after years and years together.
Could that be me and Max one day? she thought wistfully. Could love remain that strong no matter how much time passes?
And, well, maybe Margot was a little kooky, talking about magic and whatever a shifter was. But maybe Levi just found it charming.
“Oh! Now that Doctor Wu has departed, we can talk more freely,” said Margot, pulling up a chair next to Poppy as if they were old friends.
“Okay,” said Poppy carefully, not quite sure what was such a big secret that the doctor couldn’t be let in on it, but recognizing that letting Margot talk was probably the best way to find out what on earth she meant when she was talking about magic and shifters.
Poppy was pretty sure that Margot fell into the ‘harmless kook’ category, especially since she’d apparently helped rescue Poppy from an avalanche, but she knew that appearances could be deceiving.
“It’s so exciting to meet another shifter and their mate,” Margot exclaimed, apparently not noticing the way that Poppy’s eyebrows were slowly creeping up her forehead. “Or a half-shifter, anyway. There aren’t too many of those around here! How did you both meet?”
“Uh…” Poppy said, stalling for time by taking a sip of her hot chocolate… and then another one, because she still didn’t know how to respond to that.
In the end, though, perhaps she had to meet Margot where she was at. It was clear that Margot was happy to say whatever she felt like saying, normal conversational etiquette conventions be damned, and so maybe Poppy just had to be equally forthright.
“I’m not a shifter,” she said eventually. “Or a half-shifter. I don’t actually know what that is, but I’m pretty sure I’m not one. And I don’t know what a mate is, either.”
Levi’s expression shifted into something that Poppy instantly recognized as oh shit mode, and she felt a little sympathy – she had the feeling it wasn’t the first time Margot had made an assumption and said something she shouldn’t have.
But before Levi could open his mouth, Margot jumped in.
“I didn’t mean that you were a half-shifter – I meant Max was.”
Levi winced, and then Margot seemed to realize, half a second too late, that it wasn’t so much the question of who the shifter was that was of concern, but the question of what a shifter was.
“Oh,” she said, her eyes wide with dismay.
“I’m sorry. It’s just that you had your eyes open when Levi landed and shifted back into his human form, and you didn’t say anything, so I thought you already knew.
And, I mean, you and Max are so obviously mates, so of course you would know he was a shifter as well. ”
Levi closed his eyes and rubbed at the bridge of his nose for a moment in obvious mild despair, apparently deciding it was best to just let Margot get it all out rather than trying to stop her, given that the cat was already out of the bag.
Poppy tried to ignore the fact that Margot had said that he had not only ‘shifted’, but also ‘landed’. The idea of Levi getting airborne and zooming around was not helping her mental state right now.
“So,” Poppy said, staring at the concussion test poster on the wall and trying to count how many symptoms this particular conversation could conceivably cover, “you’re saying that Max is the half-shifter here?”
Margot’s face relaxed into a relieved smile.
“That’s right!” she exclaimed.
Poppy almost felt bad for what she knew she had to say next. She just seemed like such a – a cheerful person that it felt mean to burst her bubble.
“But I don’t know what a shifter is,” she said. “Could you please explain it to me? And also what a mate is, while you’re there. And why I was attacked by a magical avalanche.”
Margot’s face fell once more, and Levi, mercifully, stepped in.
Or sat in, really, as he pulled up his own chair, which Poppy had to admit she was grateful for – he’d kind of been towering over her, and what with sitting in a hospital bed while not feeling her best, she’d been feeling mildly intimidated, even though it was clear he hadn’t meant it.
Levi took and released a deep breath, before raising his head to look her in the eye.
“Sorry about the confusion,” he started. “Since we’ve already said too much, I’ll just get down to it. There are some people in the world who can turn into other animals and mythical creatures. What you might think of as shapeshifters.”
“Okay…” Poppy said slowly, trying to take it in. The concussion poster on the wall helpfully listed dazed or vacant stare as a possible sign, and she knew that if Doctor Wu showed up right now and saw her expression, she would definitely be getting sent in for some kind of brain scan.
Eventually, she got her mouth working again. “And so you’re saying that Max is… also able to change into an animal? Or half an animal?”
Which half? she thought inanely. Is it a horizontal or vertical split? Or just random bits?
Margot shook her head. “He said that he can’t shift at all.”
“Half-shifters are unpredictable,” Levi added. “They seem rare, but there are probably more of them in the world than anyone realizes, since a lot of them might not have any powers and therefore come across as regular humans.”
“Powers,” mumbled Poppy. Could Levi, like, shoot laser beams from his eyes? That would be cool.
Okay, maybe I am concussed. Or still unconscious, and this is all a dream?
Apparently her addled state was obvious, because Levi’s expression was becoming concerned.
“I think maybe we should go,” he said, moving to stand up. “You need to rest.”
“No, stay,” Poppy said, holding up a hand. “I need explanations. Or… for you to pinch me? I think I must be dreaming. None of this is making any kind of sense!”
They have to be just messing with me. But… didn’t Levi say Max had told them he can’t shift?! Why would he tell them, and not me? I mean, if he did say it. Because this has to be a joke. Not nice to mess with a lady with a possible head injury!
Levi lowered himself back down slowly, and Poppy thought hard for a moment. Either the two of them were really good actors, or they were telling the truth – or thought they were.
I really have to find Max and ask him what actually happened.
Her memories of being pulled out of the snow were too fuzzy for her to make sense of right now. She’d just assumed Max must have carried her back to the road and had been able to flag down a passing car, being driven by Margot and Levi.
But now that I think about it…
She had no memory of being in a car. Perhaps it was just because she’d been pretty out of it, but it wasn’t like she’d been completely unconscious. Frowning, Poppy did her best to remember.
I was buried by coldness. Dark, crushing coldness. But then Max pulled me out and lifted me up. And then…
And then, she had only the impression of distant voices, before… before…
Cold, clear air rushing past my face. Being pressed against Max’s chest. And when I managed to open my eyes…
There had only been the clear blue sky of the post-snow morning, a feeling of swaying, and…
“Okay, sorry,” she said, holding up her hands. “But how exactly did I get here again?”
Margot and Levi exchanged a glance.
“I flew you,” Levi said after a moment. “I’m a chimera shifter. It’s kind of like a winged lion. Ordinarily I wouldn’t shift during the day where someone might see, but we thought it was urgent enough to get you to the clinic that I decided to risk it.”
Haha. Okay, Poppy thought, staring at him.
Well, maybe she should just humor them for now until she could get out of here.
She wanted to leave, but her legs felt a little shaky – and the last thing she wanted was to have them go out from underneath her in the corridor, and then have to spend even more time getting checked out.
I want to get back to Max, and ask him why he left me here with these two…
“Okay,” she said, deciding to settle in for the role of a lifetime. “What about mates – what are those? And don’t try to weasel your way out of telling me. I want to know.”
Margot looked sheepish. “Every shifter has a mate – a person who they’re meant to be with.”
“We can live just fine without them and love other people,” Levi added, “but if a shifter does find their mate, it’s – well, it’s life-changing.”
“And you know it as soon as you meet,” Margot broke in, obviously warming to her topic.
“Even if you don’t know it’s a mate bond, you do know it’s an instant connection – you just feel…
safe with them. Like you’ve known them all your life, even if you only just met.
You just know you were meant to spend the rest of your life with them. ”
There was a twinge in Poppy’s chest.
Well… that is how I felt about Max…
It was uncharacteristic of her to feel so strongly about someone so quickly.
She’d been so busy working to build a life and a career for herself that she really hadn’t thought much about dating anyway, but even then, it had always taken her a long time to get to know people. She liked to take her time.
But with Max, the connection had been instant.
But that doesn’t mean anything, aside from the fact that Max is just an extra special guy! she told herself fiercely. Being attracted to a hot, smart, sexy man does not mean I have to start believing in shapeshifters!
Even as she thought it, she knew her feelings for Max went way past simply being attracted to him.
But still, that’s not the point!
“So… you’re a shifter, too?” she asked Margot. She was feeling better by the minute – or at least, her urgency to see Max was increasing. If she could just play along for a little longer, she could get up and head out, and go back to the B&B and subject him to Twenty Questions.
“What? Me?” Margot’s green eyes widened, before she laughed. “Don’t be silly! I’m a witch!”
Poppy tucked that particular piece of information away for later. Right now, she had room in her head for one insane concept at a time.
She rubbed at her eyes. It couldn’t be true, of course, but Margot seemed completely unaffected as she said it. “So you’re a – a witch, and Levi is a shifter, but you’re both mates? Even though you’re not a shifter?”
Levi nodded. “It’s unusual for a shifter’s mate to be human, but not impossible.”
“There’s a whole lot of us just in Girdwood Springs,” Margot added cheerily. “The odds of it happening are almost inconceivably small, but, well, here we are!”
Unusual… but not impossible.
Poppy’s heart raced.
Could I be Max’s mate?
The thought was ludicrous, but yet it all seemed to make sense. And she didn’t think it was just the potential concussion talking… though, she supposed, a concussion would make her think that all of this was rational.
Poppy took deep breaths against the butterflies in her stomach.
There was no need to let her imagination run away with her. Sure, the way Margot described the… The mate bond? Is that how she put it?... sounded appealing. But it didn’t exist.
And yet…
She’d never felt like this with anyone else. From the moment they had touched – when he’d caught her – she’d felt alive.
“So… if you were a shifter and someone was your mate, how would you know?” she asked. Purely to keep them talking, of course.
“You know when they touch you,” Levi said, and Poppy’s heart skipped a beat. “There’s a feeling that shoots right through you.”
“Like an electric shock,” Margot added. “But a good one, not a bad one.”
Poppy stilled.
“What was that last part?” she asked, her voice shockingly steady.
“You get these nice little zaps when you touch,” Margot said. “You know the ones.”
The room grew very, very quiet.
“No,” she said eventually. “No, I don’t.”