Page 11 of The Witch & the Grizzly

“I do recall we went to one of the rich student’s houses since the bar wanted to kick us out, and I do remember… climbing stairs with great difficulty. I wish I remembered more about it, but I went to the bathroom and somehow made it back to my residence. How I got there, God knows. Then I woke up, feeling like something was missing, but it wasn’t the same kind of absence as before. It was like… I’d missed an opportunity. It was more than the dull ache I usually got from all the other encounters.”

He threw up his hands dramatically. “That’s my sorry tale. Thank you for sitting through it and still looking mildly interested.” His smile became sardonic.

“It’s amazing to hear, really,” she said. “I admit it’s not something I can relate to that much. I just don’t have that same experience. I don’t have that magic, that pull, I guess, so I don’t really question things as much. But I do understand the whole meaningless connection thing you mentioned. I’ve had one-night stands, and I’ve had the thrill of seeking temporary affection from people. And it just… stopped being great for me.”

“When?” he asked softly, leaning toward her, bending his legs.

“Not so long after our encounter, though my motivation was more about how I felt like an absolute shit human being because my brother was in danger, and instead of being there for him or reading the messages he’d managed to send, I was blackout drunk and in no position to help anyone. He nearly died. If he had died, I’d never forgive myself. So, in the end, I decided enough was enough. I couldn’t do it anymore. I had to stop going with my friends every time they wanted to go out. I had to stop allowing myself to be encouraged to drink more. I had to stop being a ‘yes’ girl and become more accountable for my bullshit, I guess.”

“How’s that working out for you so far?” he asked, genuinely curious, eyes bright and warm. She’d never seen anyone with intense green eyes like that before.

It always seemed to be a shifter thing. While Eva sadly hadn’t been blessed with the ability to turn into a tiger, she still retained the distinctive eye color that all shifters had. What was it with shifters? Sometimes, their eyes didn’t match the eye color of the animal they turned into; sometimes, they did. Perhaps it was simply a marker of the magic within them, bleeding out of the iris.

Eva continued. “I’m doing well. I always worried that I might be tempted. Sometimes, though, I think about that guy, who I was so sure, deep within, made me feel something more than just brief pleasure. But my stupid, soupy, alcohol-soaked mind forgot almost everything.”

He chuckled at that, and on impulse, he reached out his hand to clasp hers. They stared in surprise at the sudden contact. She made no effort to move her hand away, and he visibly relaxed and left it resting there as he said, “Perhaps we’ll have the chance to do things the right way this time. That is, presuming nothing goes horribly wrong and we’re not stabbed in the back by that Unseelie guy in the middle of whatever mission we’ve been sent on.”

“Oh, yeah, that might happen,” she agreed affably. “Maybe I should ask for hazard pay or something. Right now, it feels like I’m being used as free labor.”

“You are,” he said, “but if you raise your concerns, I bet they will pay you. But they won’t bring it up and hope it doesn’t occur to you. You have to advocate for yourself in situations like this. You’ll never get anywhere in life if you let other people treat you like a doormat.”

“True, true.” She nodded importantly. “Now… I seem to recall that a part of this meeting was to focus on explaining our respective powers. I’ll start since you’ve done a lot of talking so far,” she said, smiling to let him know she wasn’t being mean about it. Their hands remained clasped, and warmth flickered between them as they leaned toward each other.

“I’m from a tiger shifter family, but I’m unable to shapeshift,” she told him candidly, finding she didn’t feel quite as ashamed of it as she usually felt. “That lovely gene skipped me. My parents and brother are pretty great about it, but there are some things I’m automatically locked out of because they’re impossible for me to do. But that’s not what I wanted to talk about,” she said, taking a deep breath to steady the unexpected assault of emotions that hit her and made her voice wobble. He reassuringly squeezed her hand.

“While I can’t quite relate – I can imagine how it must feel if everyone in your family can change except you,” he said. “All the bear shifters in my family are ridiculously proud of who they are and what they change into. They even do wrestling competitions and big bear fights and sometimes get some bystander to record them for their amusement. Apparently, there’s big money in watching two meaty bears clash. Anyway, you were saying?”

She grinned. “Yeah. They’re proud of it, for sure. Everyone loves being a part of something, I suppose. So, while I can’t transform, I still have some enhanced senses, I think, at least compared to my human friends. The one thing I was blessed with, however, is this little spark of creation when it comes to potions. I don’t really know how to describe it. I can follow the recipes that already exist, and I seem to get them right within the first few tries, a lot faster than the other people in my classes, though some of them also show a decent talent for potions. It clicks faster for me, I suppose. But… there’s something in the magic I infuse into the tincture that seems to create the potential for new recipes, new potions, and new ideas.

“Professor Valgrur calls it the spark of creation and originality, so that’s the only terminology I have for it at the moment. She encourages me to use as much essence as I want in the potions because there’s a wonderful chance it may enhance the potion further or transform it into something different.”

“It sounds like alchemy of the soul,” he said, and she paused for a moment, delighting in that phrase.

“Oh! I like that. ‘Alchemy of the soul.’ Yes, that makes sense. It makes me feel like one of those inventors, happily throwing themselves into their project and just seeing what comes out the other end. I enjoy it. I’ve come up with some variations on classic potions – and I’ve come up with four new ones. I’m going to use one of them for my master’s thesis unless I can come up with something even better. Professor Valgrur is in the process of helping me get it patented. It’s not a super-quick process, but she’s confident it can be marketable at some point.”

“That’s cool!” he said, eyes wide, his smile clearly showing he admired her prowess. “You’ll have something to sell, imagine that? You could become a really famous potioneer! What was it they want to patent?”

“Animal Sense,” she said. “If a normal human were to drink it, they’d have massively enhanced sensory input. Professor Valgrur warned me it might be popular with people who enjoy sex as well as those in the military, normal people who want to experience life in high definition.” She was proud of herself for not flushing as she spoke, but Nathan’s expression became mischievous.

“Sex, eh? Why is that?”

“Well, since it enhances senses, it enhances touch as well, and this could, ah, create more, uh… powerful sensations.” She coughed politely.

“Have you tried it on yourself?”

Oh damn! He asked!

Her mouth fell open for a second. “I’m not sure if I should answer that question…”

“Try it for science, of course.”

“Ah yes, curiosity. Well, I can say, as the inventor of this little potion, I would be remiss if I didn’t try it out on myself first, just to be sure it actually works. I wouldn’t want to sell a defective product after all.”

“Oh no, of course not. Someone has to take the hit for it, for science and discovery,” he said, his smirk widening, his eyes glinting, almost glowing. “I would very much enjoy buying that potion.”

“I do like to satisfy my customers,” she said, smirking along with him. She still had a bottle of the potion by her bedside. A small, manic desire to rush to her dorm room, snatch it, and bring it back there flitted through her mind as well as… other things, distracting things.

She definitely felt heat stirring between her legs, blooming across her neck and cheeks, and decided she needed to ask about his magic now, just to be sure. “Now, I’ve shown you mine; you show me yours. What is it about your magic that makes you so desirable for this job?”

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