Return to the Darkness - Ripley Proserpina Page 0,10
you so much.”
I should have been hungry, but I wasn’t. I’d eat later. My stomach was feeling funny, tense, despite how wonderful I’d been doing earlier.
I winced. “Is it the kind of thing where I’m going to feel lucky that I don’t have horns and a tail?”
“Maybe.” He shook his head. “No, in all seriousness. Once we know why they want you, then we can figure out how to get you off their radar.”
“Do you think that’s possible?” I sat on his lap. “I’ve always been on their radar.”
He shook his head. “Not true. You made it ten years in Alaska with almost no issue. So clearly you weren’t on the radar there in the same way. Anyway… let’s look. Don’t be scared, Lacey. All we’re seeing is what is true. It always was. Better to know about it than not, right?”
I snorted. “Don’t discount the power of true self-denial.”
He adjusted the computer monitor so it faced me properly, but I glanced at him instead. “I wasn’t exactly off the grid in Alaska, you know. I did all that work for Rick, identifying the paranormal.”
Thorn wagged his finger at me. “I thought of that, too. The extra sense that lets you do the identifying. Anyway, here is what I think.”
He motioned toward the monitor as he settled his free hand on my waist to grip me tighter before he placed a gentle kiss on the back of my neck. Thorn smelled like soap. He must have showered around the same time I had. In a gentler world, I could just lean back on him and rest in the heat of his body right now.
But we had things to do. I had to believe there would be time. Didn’t people get that?
I looked at the screen instead of closing my eyes to sleep. “Um… Thorn, that’s some kind of horse, right? I mean, it looks like a horse. That can’t be my ancestor.” I wanted to puke. “Can it?”
He laughed, and I elbowed him. “No, that form is not your ancestor. They didn’t fall in love with a horse. But it could have been a horse and then shifted into some muscled, kilt-wearing male model that would appeal to your human ancestor.”
I let out a long breath. “I shouldn’t be surprised. There are shapeshifters? Like werewolves? Or werehorses…”
“That kind of thing, yes. But it’s in every culture. Travels through all different nations’ stories. Shapeshifters. We probably all have a little bit of it in us. Yours just may have come more recently, making it more potent. Or… you had more than one pouque in your past. I don’t know. And none of us are genetics experts. I can’t look under a microscope and go ‘a-ha!’ Much as I’d like. So we speculate and do the best we can.”
I hated this so fucking much. “What can the pouque do? When it’s not looking like a horse?”
“They’re seen as bringers of either good or bad luck to rural or marine communities. Funny, you lived in a rural community and then a marine one, sort of. Anchorage is a port city. Interesting.”
I got off his lap. “No, it’s not. I can’t be making decisions based on my pouque blood. And what does that even mean, that I bring good or bad luck? Oh fuck, I am bad luck. I’ve always known it.”
Thorn rose. “Baby, you are good luck.” He drew me to him even though I was stiff as a board and about to explode any second. Thorn never did have any sense of self-preservation. “Good luck. Not bad. You went ahead and rid the world of Erdirg for a while. All of us who know you are better because of it.”
I kissed his cheek. “Thorn, this is a lot. Being back here. Learning about the fact that there is this other creature in me. I mean… am I to believe that I am going to shift?”
“Doubtful. No, it’s a drop of blood. But think about it. What did you use to take out Erdirg? Your blood. No one even told you to do that.”
Good luck and bad luck mixed. On one hand, Erdirg with all his murdery tendencies had been put to sleep. On the other hand, my blood had awoken him in the first place. “Maybe this is why my cousin Christopher was always going with Gran to bingo.”
Thorn canted his head, eyes narrowed in confusion. “Huh?”
“Good luck. She tended to win big at bingo. Pretty sure that was how she paid