Page 8

Chapter 8

RICKY

A s frightening as it was knowing that people were going missing where I’d be spending my day, it was difficult to not be equally excited. I was doing real physics work! Real quantum physics work, with real scientists way more advanced in their knowledge than I was, both in human sciences and with discoveries and equipment completely foreign to me.

It had been nice to just meet them in the woods too instead of having to drive anywhere. They hadn’t gotten there through Jason’s backyard, thankfully, but used one of the paths accessible from the road. We’d spent some time adding signs warning about the “wolf” at all possible entrances, before getting to the real work.

Jason had almost escorted me in to the “danger zone” as he called it but had opted out of meeting the team. Researching him might be more helpful to the overall mystery than any of us knew, but I didn’t want to push him when there had been too much lately to upset him.

Especially after such a good night.

And morning.

I hadn’t gotten the chance to talk with Jason about my experience in the monster realm. After Whitmore left, we’d been more lowkey, spending time with his mom. And then… well, we got pretty distracted once we went downstairs.

I’d tell him today. If I could convince him to join me the next time we went, I knew I could convince him to submit to testing. His curiosity would have to win out, and it was the right call. I knew it was.

“Oof!” Kai flailed, tripping over one of the bags of additional sensors that we needed to stake in the ground.

I was ecstatic to study the naturally forming portal and to continue working with Zinnia and Beck, but today, we also had their nineteen-year-old son with us.

I was thankfully close enough to catch him.

“Careful! The ground’s uneven there, and we’re still organizing the equipment.” I helped Kai right himself, and though he generally seemed shyer than his parents and didn’t make eye contact as readily, he blinked his black eyes at me and smiled.

“Thank you, Ri… cardo?”

“Enrique, actually. But only my abuela , my grandmother, calls me that. Call me Ricky.”

“Ricky.” Kai nodded. His accent was fainter than his parents, but I could still hear the rolling purr to it.

He had the same kappa features as they did, with lovely longer fins like his dad, a teal base color, and a mix of magenta and pale pink stripes. He dressed very modern human looking like any kid at the mall. Not that Elder Ridge had much of a mall. More a sprawling strip with a few dozen stores and a five-theater cinema.

It baffled me though that Kai wore a tank top, a sleeveless vest, and shorts like his parents, without anything else to bundle up with. It was only in the fifties for highs for this cool June weather, and this early in the morning, it was barely mid-forty.

“Aren’t you cold?” I asked, as we gathered the sensors he’d tripped over to start placing them.

Zinnia and Beck were on the other side of the cordoned off space, discussing things with our on-duty guards. They’d doubled the previously ten-by-ten area to give us more space to work. There was no current activity. No buzz in the air, nothing making my hair stand on end, and therefore, not much for readings when we’d arrived and gave a cursory scan.

When that might change, however, was only our best guess.

“This is cold to you?” Kai looked at his hands, his bare arms, and then at me, in my jacket and the scarf Sandy had loaned me before she left for work.

“Not too bad, but cold enough that I wouldn’t want to have bare arms and legs. In this realm, animals that I would have guessed would have similar body chemistry to kappas are usually ectothermic. But you’re not, huh?”

Kai blinked at me.

“Ectothermic?” I repeated. “It means not being able to generate your own body heat.”

“Oh! We can do that.” Kai watched me place the first and second sensor before starting to assist me, I assumed to see how I chose to space them. “A human at the facility asked if I was born from an egg in water. But of course not. The egg was in my mother. I was born live into the water. Is that not what happens with humans?”

“The egg part, yeah,” I said. “And some humans are born in water baths, but we’re usually born in hospitals that are, um, very dry.”

“ Oh . Forgive my ignorance! I am not as well-versed in such things as my parents.”

“You didn’t study science?”

“No. I focused on cultural studies.”

“Really? In what ways?”

Kai considered that. We had continued on to other bags of sensors for a full perimeter within the line of expanded caution tape. “I believe you call them… folktales!”

“That is awesome! About your own species and other monsters back home?”

“Yes. And human folktales. That class was, um… an elective! I would like to pursue further human studies, which is why I would like to work at the library in town. They are still considering my resume. I would need a degree in library sciences for certain positions, which I might pursue as well. Do you know why they call that field of study a science? It does not seem like one.”

“You know, I’ve always wondered that myself. I have no idea.” I laughed.

Kai laughed too. His shoulders loosened and his countenance seemed more relaxed by the time we’d finished the remaining sensors.

Doing so brought us around to where Zinnia and Beck were still talking with the guards. The two security officers wore their usual uniforms, with added jackets over their shirts and ties. Security from the facility must have worked on a rotation all around the building and anywhere they needed someone, because one of the guards was the human from our side of the portal room yesterday. The other guard was a monster, but not the kappa from the other portal room. I wasn’t sure what she was. Maybe some type of ogre, given she stood head and shoulders above the rest of us.

She looked at me as I thought that, and I worried I must have been staring.

I smiled at her.

She looked back at Zinnia and Beck.

“You should have told us ahead of time about the inclusion of your… son,” she said, gruff and irritated sounding. “We were told this is a classified project and must be barred from any outside interference, which means from all non-sanctioned civilians.”

“But as you said, he is our son,” Zinnia argued. “We trust—”

“No exceptions,” the ogre barked.

So much for loosening Kai’s shoulders. Since the ogre wasn’t trying to keep her voice down, we could easily hear everything being discussed, and Kai immediately hunched.

“He is already here,” Beck said. “We might as well let him finish with the grunt work. Unless you are volunteering to take his place?”

The ogre snorted—visibly—with a puff of air like mist.

The human guard was doing a very good job of not cracking a smile, because I’d swear his lips kept twitching as if he wanted to.

“I can, um, leave after the initial setup,” Kai offered, almost too quietly to hear.

The ogre must have had great ears, though, because she gave a short nod, and then turned to take position facing the woods on her side of the perimeter.

The human guard gave an apologetic shrug and headed for the other side.

“Sorry,” Kai said, and then slipped into their native tongue, presumably apologizing further to his parents.

“ Mi jhavi , be calm,” Beck said, using a similar but slightly different endearment than he used for Zinnia. “You are without direction. Made to wait. Made to, uh… shuffle your feet!” He looked at me for agreement on the idiom, and I nodded. Beck seemed delighted to have been right. He clapped a hand to Kai’s shoulder. “It will not be forever. We asked for help while you are idle in shuffling, waiting to hear from the library. You are in no trouble. Perhaps later, you can retrieve lunch and afternoon coffee for us. Win that one over,” he whispered with a nod at the ogre.

Her head moved slightly, but she didn’t look at us.

“You two take the exterior workstation. We can take the interior,” Zinnia said and kissed Kai’s forehead before heading to the pile of equipment.

For caution’s sake, we would have a workstation to study the readings from the circle of sensors both inside and outside the perimeter in case things became unsafe. We could only approximate where we thought the portal might open, but I was impressed that they’d thought this far. We would also be setting up a canopy over everything in case of inclement weather.

It was clear as we set up our workstation that Kai had no insider intel on what we were doing. Not enough to share information with anyone other than the existence of a portal, and I trusted just like Zinnia and Beck that he wouldn’t. He was diligent though and assisted with everything I needed, only ever having to be told or shown something once.

“It must be frustrating,” I said as we worked. “My boyfriend is going through the same thing right now.”

“He wishes to work at the library?” Kai asked.

“No!” I laughed. “He wants to work outside, at a park or nature preserve, something like that, but he’s shuffling his feet too, waiting for opportunities to open up, and in the meantime, he’s stuck going to work with his mom.”

“It is the same,” Kai agreed. “You have a boyfriend? You are… gay?”

Most humans didn’t ask it quite that bluntly, but I didn’t mind. “I am. I’ve known since I was really young. Me and my boyfriend being boyfriends is new though. We used to just be friends. He confessed he liked me as more than that after I found out he was a monster.”

Kai’s eyes widened and he leapt onto his knees where he’d been sitting in the grass beside me, putting the stand for the workstation together like making IKEA furniture. “You are dating a monster?”

“Uh, yeah. Only—”

“Did you meet on the Monster Match app? Oh, no. Not if you didn’t know he was a monster when you were friends. But have you used the app at all?”

“I… a little, yeah.” Why Kai was so excited suddenly clicked. “ You’ve been using it, haven’t you?”

If a teal-colored kappa could blush, Kai did, turning a darker shade of indigo beneath the magenta stripes down his cheekbones. “I have been lonely since moving here. I miss my friends, but I also hope for a romantic connection. I have had boyfriends of my species, and girlfriends, and… partners? Some of our species are both.”

“Intersex?” I asked.

“If that is your word for it, yes. I have never made a truly deep connection with any of my kind but humans… enamor me. I believe I am most partial to boyfriends, so I listed myself as gay and that I am looking for love. If I seem distracted today, forgive me, it is because I made a connection last night.”

“That’s awesome! Someone in town?”

“Yes. He is very handsome. But he has not yet responded to our match or the message I sent him.” Kai’s frilled ears drooped like a puppy’s and his excitement sank.

“That doesn’t mean he’s not interested! Maybe he’s busy. Or, if it was late last night, maybe he hasn’t checked his app notifications. It’s still new having monsters and the app available in this town. I can tell you’re wonderful, Kai, and we’ve only known each other for half an hour. Anyone would be lucky to match with you.”

Kai’s ears perked up again. “You think so?”

“Definitely.”

“Thank you.” He settled back into the grass, and we returned to work.

“What else did you put on your profile?” I asked.

“Well—”

“Quiet!” the ogre hissed in our direction.

We looked. She had pulled out her, well, not gun, more like a taser, and aimed it at the trees. We all went quiet, and there was indeed the sound of rustling and movement, lower to the ground than a person.

Then something bounded up into the air out of the brush, landing inside the danger zone.

A gray and white housecat.

The cat froze as it noticed us and the strange equipment littering the clearing. Kudos to Ms. Ogre for not firing on instinct, but as she huffed in frustration, snorting more mist from her snout, she stomped toward the perimeter, shouting, “Get!”

“Wait!” I leapt up as the cat made to dart forward, but since Zinnia and Beck were in the way, it turned tail and ran nearer to where it had come from, straight down the path toward Jason’s house. “We have to catch it! It’s too dangerous out here if there’s some creature in the woods or if the portal activates!”

“That is classified—” the ogre snarled.

“I’m going after the cat!” I was closest to the path and broke into a run, shouting behind me, “If Jason’s still home, he can take it to the shelter!”

I was so focused on watching the cat, I didn’t hear Kai repeat, “Jason?”

The cat sprinted ahead but generally stayed within sight. It had tabby stripes and a white underbelly. I hadn’t noticed a collar, but it looked small, like not fully grown or deeply malnourished. It might have come from anywhere, but I couldn’t stomach the thought of it winding up in the monster realm by accident.

We were nearing the house, close enough that I could see a peek of it through the small opening into the backyard. I could also see Jason, sitting on the back porch with his computer in his lap. Since I hadn’t needed the truck today, Sandy told him to take an hour for job applications before joining her at the school.

“Jason!” I cried.

The cat was exiting the path with me a ways behind, but Jason heard me, eyes darting immediately to the furball barreling toward the house. He nearly dropped his laptop in his haste to leap off the porch like an actual springing wolf—right in front of the cat.

It yowled, all of its fur on end with its back arched, and when Jason tried to snatch it from the ground, it bit him and darted under the porch.

“Shit!” I panted, finally reaching the backyard too. I gave myself a minute to catch my breath, and then jogged over to where the cat had disappeared. I wasn’t sure how many ways in and out there might be under there, but at least the cat was out of the woods. “There you are.” I could see its glowing eyes in the semi-dark. “We’ll get you. Jason—”

“Ah!”

Just as I turned to him, he yowled almost as panicked as the cat had and fell to his knees, clutching his forearm where the cat had bitten him.

“Ahhhhh!”

“Jason!” I leapt back to my feet to go to him, but as he fell forward onto his hands and knees, he held one hand up to keep me back. A clawed hand, and when he lifted his head, his eyes were glowing green with slitted pupils.

He was changing, just like I’d seen whenever he lost focus, but this seemed painful, the way he’d described the first time he’d ever turned into the wolf. But the wolf’s eyes were yellow. Everything about this change, the more Jason grew and started growing fur and claws and longer ears, was just slightly off from what I’d seen before.

Jason’s growth in size caused his T-shirt to rip. The button of his jeans popped, the rest of the denim growing strained around his bulging legs. His fur was gray but also tabby striped with much more prominent white down his neck and chest and lower into his jeans. His teeth were different too. His ears wider. The fur longer at his cheeks. And he definitely had never had whiskers before.

He shivered all over when it was finished, slowly pushing up onto his knees, and then getting to his clawed, paw-like feet, which were also white, like the socks and mittens on the cat.

“The fuck ?” Jason rumbled my same thought. “Was that another monster?”

“It’s… just a cat!” I said. “I swear! I was chasing it away from our research area.”

Jason stared at his hands, and then touched his fluffier cheeks and felt his whiskers. His face was still humanoid like when he was a wolf but definitely more feline. “Do I just turn into anything that bites me now?”

He really was super cool that way, torn clothes and all, but what type of monster turned a person into anything that bit it?

“Mrreow?” The cat’s chirp brought our attention to the porch, where it was climbing back out and approaching Jason with cautious prowling. Once it reached him, despite Jason backing up a step, it went right after him and rubbed against his legs.

“Oh, now you like the guy you just bit. Why, ’cause I can turn into something like you?” He bent to scoop the cat into his arms. It was much more docile now, as if it had found a new mommy. Jason’s next rumble sounded like a purr, or maybe that was the cat, content in his arms. “Specist,” he said.

I laughed. I couldn’t help it! “This is crazy. Incredible.” I moved toward him, wanting so badly to pet his new fur.

“Crazy is the accurate one,” he spat. “You wanna bite me next and see if I turn human?”

“Jason, you have to come back with me to talk to the scientists.”

“ What ?” He held the cat closer to his chest and backed up another step. “No way! I am not being tested.” With much concentration, he managed to shift human. The cat didn’t seem fazed, still utterly entranced by him.

It must be his smell, some lingering pheromones. Of course a cat would run from a wolf, but what did this mean? There were so many questions to answer. Was he only this now, or could he turn into both cat and wolf?

“Not happening,” Jason reiterated and stomped past me.

“Jason! You are too connected to this. You know you are. And now a whole new species? A whole new form? We will never figure out what it means, what you are, if you don’t let them test you.”

“You’re on their side now?” He whirled on me, already up the single step onto the porch, which made him tall enough to cast me in shadow. “Not mine?”

“I am always on your side, but you have—”

“You’ve been thinking I’d make a better pincushion this whole time, haven’t you?”

I had, but he needed to listen. “Can you try to be reasonable—”

“Reasonable?” Jason snarled, eyes flashing… green again? Yellow? It happened too fast for me to be sure. “And when they dissect me into little pieces and make you hold the scalpel, will you still think I’m not being reasonable?”

“That would never happen—”

“Ricky!” I heard Zinnia call for me from the woods.

“Now you’ve led them to my house?”

I couldn’t see Zinnia or the others yet, but I turned back to Jason. “I just wanted to protect the cat. They already knew where you lived—”

“Whatever.” Jason practically dumped the cat into my arms, and though I tensed, and the cat tensed too, it didn’t seem too upset by the exchange, now that it was calmed. “Mom still has Minnie’s old stuff in the mudroom. Just leave the cat in the house for now. I have to change and get to work.”

“Jason—”

But he was already storming inside, barely remembering his laptop, but he grabbed it as he passed, and slammed his bedroom door once he’d ducked through it.

I had gotten too caught up in it all, too excited and scientist-brained to ease him into the idea at the pace he needed. By the time Zinnia, Beck, and Kai breached the trees to join me, I heard the sound of Jason’s truck leaving the garage.