Ha, his suggestions sucked. None of this was comfortable or easy to talk about. I doubted it ever would be. What information would help the most? The first memories of my time there, the tests they ran, what they ruled out, things I’d overheard when the guards weren’t careful. Any of that would be a sensible place to start and might give us more to work with when digging into my past or undoing the memory loss.
For some stupid reason my mouth wouldn’t open and start talking. I groaned, one hand rising to my hair to tug the strands in annoyance.
“We agreed to do this,” I reminded myself out loud. “I want answers and can’t do this on my own… There’s still a voice in my head telling me not to trust you, not to trustanybody.I wish I could stop freaking out and thinking everyone’s out to get me.”
Temple coughed.
“What, is there a way?”
He grimaced. “You aren’t going to like it.”
I made a face. “Ugh, is the answer therapy?”
“‘Fraid so.”
“You’re trying to help,” I stated. Reminding myself of where I was and the present situation was a tip from Aaron, one of the ones I found least objectionable, so I started there. “You’re doing your job. You aren’t after anything. You don’t want my power.”
“I don’t want your power,” he agreed. “I have power of my own.”
“You do?”
Temple glanced around us, raising one hand to obscure his face from others as he flashed his eyes at me. His irises changed from cool gray to warm dark orange. Whoa. Right, he was a fox shifter.
A throat cleared pointedly from the nurse’s station.
“Sorry, Delores!”
While certainly supernatural friendly, this rehab center was not hidden from the public view and only open to those Aware of the supernatural. Humans with no idea about this part of the world were here too, so people didn’t freely show their abilities in common areas.
But who cared about proper protocol? Not me. Temple’s magic eyes wereso cool.
“Can I see more?” I asked eagerly.
Temple tilted his head as he considered. "Are you ready to be in a room with what looks and sounds like a wild animal?"
"Can’t you do the halfway thing?" Part human, part shifter.
"Eyes are about all. Fox and human don’t mesh seamlessly enough for much of an in between."
"Oh. Is that…strange?"
"It’s only physical.” Temple shrugged. “They both fit inside me just fine. "
"Will you show me?” Was that rude to ask or too personal? Another concern hit me. “Wait, sorry. We’re getting off track.” This isn’t what we set out to accomplish. “It’s not evidence.”
“Anything that helps us collect evidence is valuable.”
Supernatural stuff long ago became commonplace back in the basement. We lived in a world where supernatural legends weren’t always just stories and we ourselves were ‘special.’ Special and doomed. Us Especially Doomed were just left in the dark about the particulars. This was my opportunity to see more of the magical world I belonged to.
Temple led me to a small room on the other side of the nurse’s desk, away from the elevators. He opened the door for me without joining me inside. “I’ll be right back.”
To keep accidental exposure low and keep more areas of the facility clean and sterile, each floor had designated rooms for anything magical. Like this one, windowless and impersonal with only a small seating area and more free space for…anything.
A fox wouldn’t come trotting in yet I still had trouble sitting still and waiting. Temple entered with a patient divider, a metal contraption he set up to section off the free area and pulled the curtain shut, blocking him from my view.
As soon as he shut it, the curtain swung back and his face popped through. “Are you sure about—”
“Positive,” I interrupted. “Shift already!”
