She had to interrupt, which she hated since he’d apparently decided to speak about it and she didn’t want him to change his mind. “We, being wolf-shifters?” He nodded, a piece of his nearly black hair falling into his eyes before he swatted it away. Rex needed a haircut in a major way. It was disturbingly cute.
“Correct.”
“Okay.” She leaned back so she could regard him more clearly. “Please go on.”
“When we’re born, we are just like other humans. We don’t have any particular powers.” He stopped speaking, and she had the feeling he held something back. Still, she didn’t want to push. If she could be patient about the twin situation, she could manage to find a way to handle this too. One way or another, she’d draw the wolf out until she got what she needed.
He continued. “It’s not until later, puberty usually, our wolves show up. It’s like one day they are not there and the next they are sharing our body, in our mind, speaking with us. They are the magic; our human half is around for the ride.” What he said didn’t make one lick of sense. “Where are they before they come to you?”
Rex shrugged. “I have no idea.”
“Can you talk to it?” Elizabeth’s mind whirled at the world he opened up to her. The wolf came to them in puberty. It was like a magic awakening showing up with age. Did the wolf exist before then? Did their bodies create the wolf? Did…
Her musings were cut off by his response. “Yes, of course. He badgers me constantly.”
“You don’t always get along?”
“No. The wolf-human relationship is not always a harmonious one. In general, we don’t discuss it. Ever. It’s a very private thing.” He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “But you have to understand about my dual nature. I’m actually two entities in one body. One of us is always fighting for control.”
“Fighting? Like in a constant war?” Elizabeth had never been so glad to not be a wolf in her life. Well, she’d never wanted to be one but now she really didn’t want to grow fur and walk on all fours. She’d have to be sure to never let Rex bite her. Assuming being bitten turned a person into a wolf. She needed to find out from Rex if the rumors of changing into shifters were, in fact, true.
“It starts out war-like. At least it did for me. I’m not sure what it’s like for everyone else. Like I said, we don’t talk about it.” He sighed. “For me it calmed down after a time.
Mostly.”
The car suddenly jerked to the right. With her hands not free to brace herself, she slammed against the window. Stars passed in front of her eyes. She wasn’t sure what happened. Maybe she lost consciousness. When the world righted itself, she only knew she wanted to vomit.
Moving, but not of her volition, she realized she was being carted in Rex’s arms again. “What happened?” She wanted to close her eyes but she also didn’t want to.
Nausea was too close to the surface. Any second, she might throw up. “Were we in a car accident?”
“Not exactly.” Rex sounded hoarse. He stopped moving and leaned her up against something. She wasn’t sure what it was—everything felt sort of … hazy.
“Where are we?”
“About fifty yards from the van. It rolled over.”
It had? She had no memory of any of it. How hard had she hit her head? She tried to sit up.
“Don’t sit up, little human.” He touched her head, and she flinched. Rex had come back into focus, sort of. Now she could see two of him. Two dark figures who were so staggeringly handsome they might take her breath away were he not a wolf. She blinked.
What the hell was wrong with her? She had no business finding Rex Kane attractive in any way.
“Now I’m a human?” She tried to laugh. “I thought I was a witch.”
“You’re both, as you know. They’re not mutually exclusive and we are not in a position to argue semantics at the moment.”
“What is happening?” Everything felt so fuzzy…
Rex growled. “How many fingers do I have up?”
His hand swayed for a moment before righting itself. “Four.”
“Wrong answer.” He cursed, using a string of words she’d never heard put together before. The foul language seemed wrong coming out of his mouth. He’d been so formal.
Wow, he must really be stressed. “I hate to move you but we don’t have a choice.”
“It might help if I knew what was going on?”
“I might believe you if you weren’t slurring your words together.” He hoisted her forward. Or, at least it felt like he did. He might have gently moved her, but from her vantage point it certainly seemed like Rex moved her abruptly over his shoulder. “I won’t leave you here.”