The curtain fell shut once more.
Unable to see the man, I watched his shadow as his arms moved near his chest and downward, doing some repetitive motion…as he undid the buttons on his button-down white shirt and slipped it off his shoulders, folding it before starting on his pants. His shadow was undressing before he transformed into a fox.
All the things there under his skin, under his clothes, they always existed even when unseen. Bodies were physical, constant. The skin under Temple’s clothes must be even paler, with lean yet undeniable muscles and coarse dark hair.
Obviously a whole human body rested there underneath his clothes. I’d just never thought about what might be under his shirt before. Now the idea demanded all my attention. What would I see if he were more than a shadow?
A feeling stabbed me in the gut, something raw and fierce. Hard to identify, something I hadn’t experienced in a long time, if ever. Wetting my dry throat, I just kept staring at the shadow and imagining…
Then the picture changed and my thoughts were captured by a new fascination. The dark impression of a man began to shrink and become more animal. Mesmerizing in a different way, the long lines of a human narrowed and changed until the shadows showed two points at the top of his head for ears, and the dark mass hanging down, definitely a tail.
The figure moved forward, nosing at the curtain. A snout poked out from the bottom, seemingly asking for permission to enter.
"Come in."
He slipped under the divider easily, fluidly crossing from one side of the room to the other in front of me, allowing me time to see and get used to him. Delicate paws moved on the tiles with a slight clicking sound. A dark fox in a painfully white room. The reddish brown fur looked so different than his human hair.
I stared and stared. He didn’t seem bothered.
A knock at the door. “You guys in here?” someone asked. Chase.
“Yes,” I said. “But—” one of us looked much furrier than usual.
“Yeah, I know. Can I come in?”
Since I’d rather focus on the fox than the bold attention-stealing agent, I almost said no. But the fox stilled, ears perking up, before bounding to the door and doing a little trot and yipping urgently, eager to see our visitor.
I gave him permission to enter, and Chase slipped inside and grinned when he saw the fox. “Scrawny, isn’t he?” Slender and compact sure, but scrawny hadn’t entered my mind.
The fox growled in protest of the comment.
"I could fit your neck and two of your legs in my mouth, dude." A weird mental image…oh, Chase probably meant his wolf.
Temple always acted calm and logical with a quiet wit, less open and animated than the other agent. But this other side of him was livelier and somehow more expressive of his thoughts and feelings even without verbal communication. The fox moved quick, darting around Chase in rapid circles, again and again and again.
“Yeah, yeah.” Chase waved his hands, shooing the fox away. “Whatever.”
"What’s he saying?" I asked.
"Nothing.” Chase stared at me funny. “He’s a fox right now."
Duh. Still, "He’s communicatingsomething."
The fox sat by me, preening, like he was proud of me. Like he was saying,see, he’s right.Go on, tell him.
Chase sighed. “My wolf, a huge and fearsome beast FYI, could eat him for breakfast, but he’s pointing out that his advantage isn’t strength. It’s speed.”
"He’s faster?"
"Barely."
"Ow!"
Temple nipped Chase’s ankle through his pants. When Chase swatted at the fox, he became a reddish blur as he leaped away. Seeing what looked like a wild animal bite someone wasn’t alarming. Instead I laughed as Chase tried to corner the fox while he skittered around the room, occasionally sliding on the tiles. I liked seeing the playful side of Temple and wondered if his human half could relax and have fun too.
While the rational part of my brain understood I could trust Temple, I just wasn’t used to relying on anyone who wasn’t a fellow captive. But as I saw his fox, I realized it went both ways. He wasn’t just asking me to trust him, he was trusting me too.
I was ready to do what came next.
