Seeing Spots (8 page)

She'd grown used to those spots. This was
something else, something entirely different.

These spots were on her
own skin.

She and Darren had just finished moving her
things into his house, and to commemorate the occasion properly,
they'd made love. She'd been lying next to him in a haze of warm
contentment when something strange caught her eye. Now she sat bolt
upright, staring in horrified shock at her arms.

"Whah's wrong?" Dare mumbled from the depths
of his pillow. After sex, he tended to drift off to sleep, and he
was clearly most of the way there now.

She uttered a high-pitched screech of
terror, and he jolted awake. He jerked to a sitting position,
looking as wide-eyed as she did.

"Katherine? Kathy! What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" she
yowled, holding out her arms to him. "Look at
me! 
Look
 at me!"

He looked, and an odd expression of mingled
incredulity, shock, and lust passed over his face.

"Holy crap," he said. "You're spotted."

She yanked down the sheet and looked at the
rest of her bare body. As far as she could tell, every inch of her
skin had turned a pale golden shade, and leopard spots were plainly
visible against the gold background. She tried to rub them off,
figuring maybe the sheets had gotten sweaty and bled a little dye,
but the spots didn’t go away.

She groped for her glasses on the
nightstand, put them on, and looked at him, and her mouth fell open
as she realized he was spotted, too.

"Dare," she said in a whisper.

He looked down at himself, and his mouth
gaped just like hers.

"Wow," he said. "Everything is spotted."

And by everything, she
thought, he really meant... 
everything
. She goggled for a moment
longer, then threw a pillow at him.

"This is your fault!" she
yelled. "You and your stupid, 
stupid 
spot
obsession. We've been looking at spots for so long that we've
gone and grown spots. If we hadn't been making love on spotted
sheets— eating off spotted china— showering with a spotted shower
curtain—"

He dodged the pillow and grabbed her arms.
"Kathy," he said, very gently. "I don't know exactly what's going
on here, but this isn't from sleeping on sheets, okay? People don't
grow spots just because they have spots in their environment."

"Thank God you don't like floral prints!"
she raged, trying futilely to get away. "Otherwise you'd have big
daisies stamped all over your ass right now!"

"Kathy." He hung onto her,
staring into her eyes. "It's not the sheets, okay? It's not the
sheets or the walls or the shower curtain. It doesn't work that
way. It's... well, this is 
weird
, Kathy. Beyond
weird. It’s bizarre. People don't grow spots. They just
don't."

Slowly, the logic of what he was saying
began to sink into her panic. She stopped struggling and looked him
over. The spots were darker now, ebony against the golden hue of
his skin. Her own spots were just as black, but her skin was a
paler shade of gold. His dark hair was streaked with gold. She
wondered if her own blonde hair was streaked with black.

"What are we going to do?" She considered
herself to be a pretty calm person, almost Zen, but this weirdness
had just come out of nowhere, blindsiding her, throwing her too
badly off balance to maintain her calm. "You can't go to work this
way, Dare. We can't see anyone... we can't even leave the
house!"

"Maybe it'll go away," he said, sounding as
if he didn't really believe it.

She shook her head. "I don’t think so," she
said, holding out her arms. "It looks like it’s becoming darker all
the time. Dare, I think we need to go see a doctor."

"A doctor?" He
blinked at her. "
Hi, Doc, we’ve developed
spots, and we were wondering if there’s a pill for
that..
."

She heaved a sigh. "Maybe you’re right.
Let’s at least check out Google and see if this is a recognized
medical problem."

She hopped out of bed and padded over to his
computer, aware of his gaze following her ass—her spotted ass.
This, she thought crankily as she sat down in the chair, was
probably his idea of a dream come true.

She, on the other hand, wanted these damn
spots gone. Now, if not sooner.

But fifteen minutes of fruitless searching
on the internet convinced her that this was not a normal medical
condition. She sighed, and leaned back in the chair. He was still
lying on the bed, gazing at her. Even his face was spotted, and his
green-gold eyes looked more feline than ever.

"Nothing," she admitted. "But we have to see
a doctor, Dare. We can’t go through life like this."

He frowned, then his expression
lightened.

"I think I know just the doctor."

*****

"Hi, son."

Dare hadn’t elaborated on the problem on the
phone, and when his parents walked into his house, he’d expected
them to do a double take. He’d thought Mom, at least, would freak
out. He’d imagined Dad would think it was all a weird joke of some
kind, and laugh.

The last thing he’d expected was for both of
them to wear a resigned, almost amused expression.

"Hi, Dad. Mom. I think you
remember Kathy."

Susan Greene smiled, and held out a hand to
her. His parents had come by for dinner several times since he'd
begun dating Kathy, and they seemed to like her a lot better than
any of the other women he'd dated. Which was fortunate,
because he felt the same way. "Of course. How are you,
dear?"

"Uh… well…" Kathy blinked at her, as if
taken aback by the older woman’s lack of reaction. "I’m
spotted."

"Of course you are, dear. It’s all right.
It’s all part of the transformation."

"The 
what
?" Dare said.

"The transformation," Frank said. "It’s
nothing to worry about."

Kathy’s eyes narrowed, and she
glared at the Greenes in a very uncharacteristic way. "Exactly why
are we transforming, and what are we transforming into?"

"Well, now, that’s
complicated," his father said. "Though I
think the 
what
 is quite
obvious."

Dare held out his arms in a supplicating
gesture. "We’re covered in leopard spots, Dad."

"Exactly." His father smiled, as if it
were perfectly normal. "You’re turning into leopards."

"What?" Katherine squeaked.

"Leopards," Frank repeated, in that same
totally unconcerned voice.

"
Permanently
?" Katherine
asked.

"Of course not permanently," Susan answered
quickly, squeezing Kathy’s hand in reassurance. "Once the
transformation is complete, you’ll be able to shift in and out of
your animal form at will."

"Our…" Kathy’s mouth hung open. "Our
what?"

"Your animal form," Frank answered.

Dare blinked, trying to process all this.
"Are you saying we’re… werewolves?"

"Of course not." His mother sniffed.
"Wolves are such smelly, rambunctious creatures. Turning into a
wolf would be dreadful. But turning into a leopard—"

"Is not
normal!" Kathy sounded as if she’d had all she could take of
this conversation. "What is wrong with you people? We called you
for 
help
!
Why aren’t you rushing us to the hospital? There must be some
medicine—some treatment—"

"I’m sorry, my dear." Dare’s mother squeezed
her hand again. "Nothing can stop the transformation once it’s
started."

"Maybe," Dare said between
his teeth, "you can explain to us exactly 
why
 we’re turning into
leopards."

"Oh. Well, I’m afraid that’s our fault,
dear. You see, your father was born a shapeshifter."

Dare looked at the small, meek, balding man
who was his father, then rolled his eyes. "You’re shitting us,
Mom."

"
Dare
. Your
language."

"Sorry. But I mean, come
on. 
Dad
? Are you telling me that Dad is a savage, vicious,
man-eating beast underneath his mild-mannered exterior? I don’t
believe it."

"Not man-eating," his father objected. "I
don’t even hunt deer. And I’m not savage, either. Just…
furry."

"Yeah, right," Dare scoffed.

His father looked at him, and then at his
wife. They exchanged a shrug.

And then Frank changed.

His body rippled and shrank, almost too
quickly for the eye to follow. His balding head transformed,
elongating into a short snout, his ears lengthening, his eyes
slanting. His skin became covered with spotted, silken fur. His
clothes lay in shreds on the floor, and he stood on four paws
amidst the ripped fabric, staring up at them with deep brown
eyes.

He was undeniably a leopard.

Dare swallowed. Confusion and shock and a
wild panic battled inside him. Of all the secrets he’d ever
imagined his father might be keeping, this definitely wasn’t one of
them.

"Of course, now he can’t change back, or
he’ll be naked," his mother said. "And we wouldn’t want that."

"No," Dare agreed. "We definitely don’t want
that."

His mother made a sound that might have been
a muffled chuckle. "So I’ll do the talking. You see, Dare, your
father was born a shapeshifter, and when we mated, I became one
too."

Dare tried to ignore the
term 
mated
—there were some things you just did not want to think about
with regards to your parents—and frowned, trying to grasp this. "So
all this time you knew I’d become one too, and you never told
me?"

"We didn’t know," Susan said. "Although
we began to suspect when you began to develop this mania for
spots.  When you served us dinner on leopard-spotted
plates last week, and covered your couch with a spotted slipcover—I
suppose we probably should have told you then.  But the
truth is that not every child of shapeshifter parents becomes a
shapeshifter. Only about half do."

"Um… how about Stephen?"

"Your brother has not mated yet, so we do
not know if he's a shapeshifter yet. In fact…" She looked
uncomfortable.  "Don't be angry, Dare, but to be honest,
we told Stephen of this possibility in advance.  Quite a
few years ago, in fact."

"What?" He heard his voice
rumble, dropping dangerously close to a growl, and tried to force
it back into a more normal register.  "You
told 
him
,
but not me?  Why?"

"Because," his mother answered with a sigh,
"we showed him our animal forms when he turned eighteen, and he
reacted badly.  Very badly. You know how isolated
he's allowed himself to become.  He won't
date.  He won't even attend social
functions.  He hardly leaves his house, and he avoids
women like the plague.  And it's because…"

"Because he knows he
might… 
change
 the woman he falls in love with."

"Exactly.  When we saw how he
reacted, we discussed the matter, and decided to keep the
possibility from you.  Stephen agreed to keep our secret
as well, albeit reluctantly.  I couldn't bear to see you
isolate yourself that way, Dare. There was no way of knowing if
you’d be a shapeshifter, after all. Not till you found your
mate."

"My…" He trailed off, feeling uncomfortable.
This was the twenty-first century, and of course his parents knew
that he and Kathy were sleeping together. It wasn’t like they’d
brought him up to save himself for marriage, anyway. Still,
discussing his sex life with his mom wasn’t his favorite activity,
not by a long shot.

"Um," he said, hesitantly.
"Kathy and I have been, well, you know, 
together
 for quite a while now.
And to be perfectly honest, I’m twenty-eight, and it’s not like she
was my first. So that couldn’t really be the reason why
she…"

"By mating," his mother said primly, "I am
not referring to sex. At least not only to sex."

Dare swallowed. "Okay. But I mean, yeah,
we're, uh, intimate, but we're not, like, married or anything. Not
even engaged."

"Didn’t you tell me on the phone that you’d
just moved in together?"

"Well... yeah. But that's
not like mating for life, exactly. I mean, okay, I love Katherine,
and yeah, I'm really happy with her, but we're
not 
mates
...
I mean, I wasn't thinking, uh, marriage or anything
yet..."

He became aware of Katherine glaring at him,
and stammered to a halt. "Dare," Susan said, a definite
thread of amusement in her voice. "Are you familiar with the rule
of holes?"

"Uh..."

"When you’re in one," his mother said, "stop
digging."

"Um. Yeah. My point was just
that..."

"I get your point, and so does Katherine.
You are as terrified of a lifetime commitment as any male. But
you’re a shapeshifter, and your biology has determined that you and
Katherine Parrish are mates. Stammering denials will not change the
situation. It will only…" Susan smiled a bit. "Piss off your
girlfriend."

"
Mom
."

Kathy spoke up. "Okay, so Dare is a
shapeshifter. I find that kind of hard to believe, but faced with
the available evidence…" She nodded toward Dare’s father, who
twitched his long tail, and shrugged. "But what about
me? Why exactly do I have spots?"

"You’ve been exposed to his genetic material
repeatedly. It has caused the alteration in your biology as
well."

Dare shut his eyes. "You mean if we’d
kept using a condom…"