Ten more minutes. If no one took me home or offered me food in the next ten minutes, I was giving up and shifting back to my human form. Of course, if I wanted someone to take pity on me, I probably shouldn't glare at them like I'd claw out their eyes.
I left my dry perch and moved to the center of the sidewalk to circle the legs of the first passing person. He shoved me aside with his boot without pausing.
Jerk.
I called to a gaggle of teenagers with my most pathetic meow, but though one of the girls glanced at me, they didn't stop.
What was wrong with these people? I didn't look mangy, anymore. I had broken down on the subway and washed my fur. I still wasn't sure the bath made me feel any cleaner, but it did make me look more presentable.
I paced. Clumps of snow stuck between my paw pads, and ice clung to my tail. This wasn't working. Time for Plan B—whatever that was, but it definitely included two legs that could walk me into somewhere warm.
I ducked into the alley behind a clothing shop. A large dumpster took up most of the space, but a quick sniff told me everything I needed to know about it—nothing edible there. Weren't there restaurants in this part of town?
Twitching my tail in annoyance, I crouched in the deep shadows and made quick work of shifting back to human form. The snow chilled me to my core in the seconds between my bare flesh forming and my clothes appearing. Stupid city. Maybe I'd been too optimistic before—even polar bears would freeze here. I huddled inside my coat and hurried back to the street.
Now that I was five feet taller and walking on two feet again, the city changed for me. Colors were richer with my human eyes, but the shadows hid more from my sight, making the darkness far more oppressive. I trudged past the teenagers I had begged to take me home earlier. Now, I kept my gaze down, avoiding drawing attention to myself. The teenagers, absorbed in divvying out a street vendor's Styrofoam cups filled with hot chocolate, ignored my presence even more as a human than they had as a cat.
I turned on Magnolia Boulevard and then onto Primrose. Shop after shop displayed brightly dressed mannequins. How many clothing stores did this city have? I could understand if the people here needed more clothing than most to stay warm, but the fashions I was seeing would never have been worn on the street. I stopped to stare at a window featuring a live mannequin decked in an elaborate evening gown. It must have been deliciously warm inside for her to flash that much skin, but with my battered coat and blue jeans there wasn't a chance I could blend in to their clientele.
I trudged on. The happy glow of a bookstore greeted me a few blocks later. That I could handle.
I stomped the snow off my sneakers and watched it puddle on the welcome mat. The aroma of fresh coffee and hot cinnamon buns drew me toward the café in a corner of the bookstore. My stomach rumbled. Shifting was hungry business, and I'd done it twice today without a meal in-between. But I still had exactly no money, so after a quick glance around confirmed the café's lack of free samples, I wove my way through aisles of bookcases, further from the inviting smells.
I hadn't caught hint of a hunter's presence since leaving the subway, so this was about as safe as I could get without leaving town. I shucked my coat and hat, and left them in a vacant chair. Then I went in search of a book.
* * * *
Several hours passed before the soft background music turned off and a crisp voice announced that in fifteen minutes the store would be closing. I shut the book in my lap and added it to the growing stack around me. The overly defined man on the cover stared out hungrily at me. I frowned at him.
Purposeful footsteps headed straight for me, and my head snapped up. Had the hunter ... ? My gaze landed on a teenage girl fidgeting idly with her green-and-yellow name tag. She popped a pink bubble between her teeth before looking at the top book on my stack.
"You know,” she said, plastering an artificial smile on her face. “That's a great book, very sexy and hot. She's one of my favorite authors. Did you know she released a new book two weeks ago? It's hot. Really hot. I think we still have a couple in stock. Let me find you a copy.” She scanned the shelf of books behind her, popping her gum again. “Ah, here it is. You should definitely read it. Speaking of hot, another steamy book is—"
"That's okay. This really isn't my flavor of reading material."
"Oh, that's too bad. Well, are there any other books I can help you find?” The smile never slid off her face. I wondered if her cheeks hurt after a full day of working.
"I'm actually on my way out,” I said, freeing myself from the overstuffed chair.
It took effort to keep from scowling at the sales girl, who was still watching me after I'd donned my coat. Instead, I ignored her and walked away. I must have blipped on her radar as more interesting than the other customers, because she fell in step beside me.
"I like your hair. It's really crazy and alternative. Must take forever to do."
The look on my face knocked the plastic smile off hers. No one actually liked my hair. It was a random mismatch of black, orange-red and white streaks—not silver like aging people, but true white. It looked like the highlighting job from Hell. Unfortunately, it was natural. I tried to imagine the sales girl willingly doing something similar, but couldn't. The soft-looking girl in front of me had a heart-shaped face people probably considered cute. A word no one ever applied to me, at least not while I stood on two feet. Though the same height, which meant the sales girl was on the short side, we were polar opposites in every other way. With my sharp features and unusual coloring, people tended to call me striking, but never cute. If I could have traded my calico mess of hair for her finely permed blond, I would have. But I couldn't. My hair was a side effect of what I was.
"Here, take this.” She reached into the front pocket of her apron and pulled out a red slip of paper the size of a postcard. “A friend of mine is spinning tonight. To get another gig he needs the place to be jumping, so I'm spreading the word to anyone likely to go, and with your hair ... I thought you might be interested. There's a map on the back."
"Thanks.” I shoved the flyer in my coat pocket without looking at it. We reached the door and I jerked it open. Brisk winter air rushed in, bringing with it city smells and something the sales girl couldn't detect. The hunter.
Damn. I let the door swing shut and searched for another exit. There was one on the far side of the building, but it had an Emergency Only sign posted above it. Well, this counted as an emergency, didn't it? Something waited for me outside the main door. However, walking out the emergency exit would set off an alarm, and I didn't need that kind of attention.
"Do you have a bathroom?” I asked, groping for a plan. If I could stay in the bookstore overnight or leave the way I had the subway station...
"Nope, sorry. Bathrooms are closed for cleaning. Didn't you hear the announcement? The whole store is closed."
I stared at her, trying not to let panic show on my face. I glanced around. The only other customer, a middle-aged woman with a young child, waited at the cash-wrap. Everyone else wandered around straightening books.
The sales girl tugged at the pockets of her apron. The popping of her gum escalated, sounding like a small machine gun firing from her mouth. “Um ... the store is closed. If there's nothing else I can help you find..."
The customer from the cash-wrap walked to the door, child on one hand, bag in the other. As she bustled by, I followed her out. A sharp click cut through the night as the clerk bolted the door behind us. At the sound, an extra stab of tension locked onto my spine and stuck there. I could feel eyes boring into me. He was out there, but I couldn't pin down where.
I kept my head down and fell in step a couple yards behind the mother and child. Earlier people had been walking much closer together on the street, but now it was only them and me. The woman glanced over her shoulder and pulled the child nearer to her.
The final car left at the metered parking flashed its lights as she approached, the locks disengaging. The woman herded the child into the passenger seat and then slid behind the wheel. She didn't worry about seatbelts. I hadn't fully crossed the street when the engine roared to life. The car door slammed, and I was left not quite alone on the empty sidewalk
I watched the car speed away. The air swirling around me was tainted with the inhuman scent of another shapeshifter.
The hunter had found me.
I breathed deeply, the frigid air burning my nose. No, not hunter. Hunters. There was more than one scent. Cursing, I tried to pick up a trail or some indication of where my hunters waited, but the scent was dispersed. They were circling. Like vultures. Or canids outmaneuvering prey.
I shivered. I'd never heard of hunters traveling in packs. The mingled scents were too jumbled for me to guess how many hunters were out there, or from which families. Wolf clans were the most numerous, so if I had to put money on it, I'd guess they were the ones hunting me.
I looked around. Nothing in the darkness moved. I needed to find a new place to hide. I didn't know the area, so I left the decision of which direction to go to the wind. A bone-chilling breeze swept up the street. If I walked against it, I would be able to scent what was ahead of me, but anyone following my scent would have an easy time. If I went with the wind, I would know what was behind me, but any hunters ahead of me would know I was coming. I'd rather deal with hunters coming at me from the front than sneaking up behind me. I went with the wind.
All the shops on the street were dark and still. With buildings looming on either side, the only thing I could look forward to was the spill of the next street light to chase away the creeping dark of the alleyways. Someone digging through a trash can crouched as I passed. I couldn't tell if it was a man or woman bundled under the mismatched clothing, but whoever it was eyed me as warily as I watched him or her. I hurried on. A solitary car threw strange shadows as it rolled down the street.
I passed another block of dark buildings. If the hunters were still out there, I should have caught hint of them following me by now. Maybe they had missed my scent and it was a coincidence more than one had passed the bookstore. But I couldn't convince myself of that.