Real Vampires Don't Wear Size Six(9)

He pulled out a cell phone and made a call. "Come on, Penny, Glory and I'll show you how beautiful this time of night can be."
Penny looked at him, her face wet. "Beautiful? Nothing looks beautiful to me. Don't you get it? I've lost everything I ever cared about. My family, my career, you name it, I can't do it anymore." She pulled away from me. "You can't distract me with some freaky trick."
"Freaky trick?" Rafe glanced at me. "Let me clue you in, little girl. Those freaky tricks can save your immortal life. Am I right, Glory?"
"Yes. Took me long enough, but I learned that lesson." I shook my head. "I know you're angry and frustrated, Penny. But you haven't lost your career or your family. Not yet, anyway. We'll figure out a way for you to stay in touch with them."
"Sure you will. Until it's obvious that I'm not aging and they are. Then what am I supposed to do? Just disappear? How would that make them feel?" Penny looked around, wild-eyed, like she wanted to scream or maybe hit somebody.
"We need to move out. Here comes our ride." Rafe nodded as a black SUV pulled up. A shifter got out, left the motor running, then walked away with a nod. "Let's go."
"Where are you taking me?" Penny dug in her heels when I pulled her toward the car.
"What difference does it make?" I wasn't about to let her get away from me again. "Get in the freakin' car, Penny." A light had come on in an upstairs room in the house. "Now." I shoved her into the backseat, hopped in the front passenger side, and Rafe hit the gas pedal. We were out of there just as the back porch light came on.
Penny looked back. "Guess they heard the noise. Damn it, I can't do anything right."
"Spare us the pity party." Rafe drove and I didn't bother to ask where we were going. "Glory, I hope the council is paying you for this mentoring responsibility."
"They should. I'll check with Damian." I smiled back at Penny. "Come on, vamp girl, lighten up. You're going to have to learn to deal with your new reality and there are some cool perks. Trust me on that."
"Yeah, right. Trust you. Like vampires are so trustworthy. I'm the undead proof of that." Penny kept staring back toward the sorority house.
I decided to let that one go. She needed time. I got that.
Penny finally turned around to frown at me. "So far this ‘new reality' sucks and I don't understand half of it. I was offered a teaching assistant's job for the fall. Forget that now. Not unless they gave me all night classes." She slumped in her seat.
"Sounds like a drag. Grading papers, trying to make bored college kids pay attention to someone younger than they are." I reached back to pat her hand. "You dodged a bullet."
"I wasn't seriously considering it." She shrugged. "I prefer research. And grant work can be done anytime, anywhere. I have a few irons in the fire." Her mouth trembled. "But that doesn't mean I didn't want to have the choice."
"Quit whining." Rafe was obviously all for tough love as he pulled into a deserted area on top of a hill.
I recognized the place. He'd gone ballistic here once when I'd let him know our relationship was going back to being friends without benefits. There was still a charred stump as evidence. Hmm. I gave him an inquiring look but all I got back was a bland smile.
"So what are we doing here?" Penny finally sat up straight and looked out the window.
"I'm going to teach you to shape-shift." Rafe opened his car door. "I had to work with Glory to get her comfortable with it, so I figured I'd help with this part of your education. What do you say, Glory?"
"Sure, go for it. You need to learn this, Penny." I got out of the car and waited while Penny climbed out.
"You're serious. You're really going to make me turn into something else. What? A bat?" She looked down at her green blouse. "Will we have to strip off? No way, no how. I'm not comfortable with that."
I laughed. "Luckily, we can do it wearing what we have on, even down to our shoes. Believe me, if I had to go skinny shifting, I'd never have made it a habit."
Rafe winked at me. "Not saying it isn't more comfortable that way, though. And fun if you're doing it with the right person."
"Okay, Rafe, let's just get on with it." I turned to Penny. "Shifting is good for defense. It can help you escape when you're in a tight spot."
Penny frowned. "What am I going to be defending myself from? I can take down a frat boy now with my handy-dandy new fangs." She gave us a demo with a snarl. "And I seem stronger too. I'm not one to go to a gym, but my punch had some power behind it tonight."
"You hit someone?" Rafe looked from Penny to me. "What's been going on?"
"I'll tell you later." I smiled at him. "Now, Penny, let's pretend you're surrounded and outnumbered by people brandishing stakes. We can be killed with a wooden stake to the heart. That part of the vamp mythology is true."
"Gross." Penny looked around, searching the shadows. "You mean there are people out there who know vampires exist and hunt them?"
"A few. Luckily most of society doesn't believe them. Writes vamp hunters off as crazy." Rafe smiled. "Or considers the stories about you guys pure fiction."
"Obviously it's not." Penny sighed. "This is almost too much to take in."
"You can handle it." I patted her shoulder. "You have to. Now back to defense." I stepped back and looked around, pretending I was surrounded. "Vamp hunters everywhere, but they're mere mortals. Too many to fight, but you can escape. What do you do?"
"Shape-shift?" Penny looked interested. "But forget flying. Not my thing."
"Why not? You need to move in a hurry. Flying is a good way to escape and I prefer doing it as a bird. Though you can become a bat if you don't mind being a cliché." I studied the sky. It was a clear night with a sliver of a moon. "This is a perfect night to practice. No wind."
"I told you. Forget flying. Can't I shift into other animals and just scare the hell out of them? How about a panther?" Penny also glanced at the sky, but not appreciatively.
"You can shift into whatever you want, but what's wrong with flying?" I got close to her. "You afraid of heights?"
"I'm acrophobic, okay? Deal with it." Penny's chin lifted. "I don't do airplanes or roofs and I'm sure not going to do, uh, birds or bats. Trust me, if I hadn't been scared, I'd have jumped out of my bedroom window earlier tonight and gone to see Jenny then. I actually opened it and tried to take the leap, then chickened out."
"Give me a break." It had never occurred to me that she might have gone out her window.
"You give me one. No flying." Penny had a mulish look and I figured arguing was futile.
"Now that's a problem." I glanced at Rafe. "Got to be honest with you. Once I got past my own reluctance, flying out of trouble saved my butt a time or two."
"She's right, Penny." Rafe and I exchanged looks full of memories. "Something like a panther might scare away a predator, but it's also a pretty big target. You could try sneaking away. Become something tiny. Like an ant or cockroach." He frowned. "Of course you can get stomped or kicked. Right, Glory?"
I shuddered; Penny too. "Ancient history, Rafe." I'd done the roach thing and had an unhappy ending. Literally.
"I'd much rather work the fear factor." Penny had obviously been thinking this over. "Panther, lion, cheetah. Obviously I'm partial to cats."
"That could work. But a hunter will just pull out a conventional weapon and shoot you. You could be wounded, which would slow you down." Rafe was solemn, all business. "Honestly, you need to try to get over this height thing. Now that you're a vampire, your perspective might have changed. Go for the bird, Penny. At least once. Are you game?"
Penny sighed, her shoulders tense. "Okay, I'll try. But no guarantees."
"That's a given." I smiled encouragingly. "Now pick a kind of bird and get it in mind."
"Fine. I've always liked bluebirds. Like that bluebird of happiness that dumped on my head a few nights ago." Her smile was wry. "Now what?"
"Now you visualize that bluebird. I mean, really see it in your mind and imagine becoming the bird from the claws up to the beak. Then flap your wings and fly up to a branch in that tree over there. Rafe and I will meet you. We'll still be able to talk to each other in our minds." I watched Penny. She closed her eyes, her forehead wrinkling as she concentrated, her fists clenched. Nothing happened. Finally she opened her eyes.
"What's wrong? Why am I still a person?" She looked down and stomped her foot.
"I think you're trying too hard and worrying too much about the flying." I smiled, totally sympathizing with her. I'd freaked out when I'd first tried to shift, sure I'd be stuck forever as a bird or a bat. Not that I was sharing that concern with her. "Take a few breaths, relax and picture yourself that beautiful blue. Feel your feathers, the air under your wings. Now close your eyes and let yourself transform."
Rafe gave me an elbow. "Can't believe you're actually pretty good at this. I thought I was going to be the one giving the lessons."
"I'm just telling her what you told me to help get me over my own phobia." I grinned when I saw Penny suddenly change. She looked down at her feet, now claws, then up again.