Chapter 7

O ver the past half hour, Maisie had been starting to feel… well, not complacent , exactly, but a little jaded. A little world-weary. Like nothing could surprise her anymore.

Hot guys with bullet wounds falling through her window? Been there. Top-secret government agent types whisking said guy away to deal with the green goo oozing from his flesh? Done that. Go up to some random hacker's fetid, cockroach-infested home office? Sure, why the hell not.

But okay, maybe complacent wasn't too far off the mark. Because, she had to admit to herself, she had not been expecting to see an exploding door.

She hadn't even realized that there was another door back there, shrouded as it had been in both shadows and piles of empty old Bundy cans alike.

Maisie knew this last one because a cascade of cans was currently flying past her in the wake of said explosion, making one hell of a racket and, she had to admit, scaring the living crap out of her. On one level of her mind she knew that she should be worried about the explosion itself, which would surely catch up with her within the next fraction of a second, but mostly she was just thinking shit, that's loud .

It took a long moment of huddling down with her hands over her ears before she realized that Rhys was sheltering her with his body, arms wrapped protectively around her shoulders so that his back would bear the brunt of the explosion.

No , she opened her mouth to say – the thought of him putting himself in harm's way for her sake seemed unbearable, for some reason – but no sound came out.

All she could do was bury her face into his chest as the rattling of the cans filled her ears, feeling the comfort of his strong, warm body around hers, his scent somehow making her feel safe.

If she and Rhys died here, then maybe there would be worse ways to go than cradled in the arms of the hottest man she'd ever seen, his stubble gently caressing her cheek, his bulging bicep just within her line of sight…

Still, I would really prefer not to die at all!

She braced for the explosion, which really was being a long time in coming. Maisie knew that a person's perception of time could do all kinds of weird things during times of stress, but this was getting a bit ridiculous.

The sound of the cans rattling along the floor slowed, and then stopped… as did Maisie's breathing. The silence was complete, which was somehow far more ominous than the cacophony of mere moments before, and she found herself holding her breath in anticipation. Because surely something was about to happen, right? Doors didn't just explode themselves and send some cans flying.

And yet…

The silence continued, stretching on interminably. Maisie forced herself to take in a breath, hold it, and slowly exhale, then repeat the process. She felt Rhys's arms loosen ever so slightly from around her body, and she had to bite her lip to keep from saying no, please stay with me .

In the end, curiosity overrode her good sense, and she raised her head just a little to see what was going on…

And immediately wished she hadn't, as she found her gaze meeting with the beady, malevolent, blood-red eyes of a… some kind of enormous, shaggy, black-feathered bird, which looked like it might have stepped right out of the pits of hell – or at least from her worst nightmares.

… A cassowary?!

An honest-to-God cassowary.

I think I would've preferred the explosion.

If she'd thought she was scared before, she was honestly terrified now. A wheezing sound came from her mouth, and she tried to scramble backward, nearly falling off the couch in her panic – only Rhys's strong arms kept her from hitting the floor.

"What is it?" he whispered urgently, staring at her with his – much less horrifyingly blood-colored – golden-brown eyes.

Maisie just shook her head, words beyond her at this point, as she tore her eyes from Rhys's face and looked back at the – the cassowary , here in an apartment in Bondi Junction, stalking slowly toward her over the rubbish-strewn floor, crushing what looked to be a half-eaten halal snack pack under its uncaring foot. Its uncaring, very large, very clawed foot.

Maisie gurgled a little, her eyes widening even further as she clutched at Rhys's shoulders. There was no way in hell she could outrun a pissed-off cassowary at the best of times, and she definitely wasn't capable of it now. What would her friends and family say when they found out that instead of enjoying the sun and sand in the Whitsundays, she'd been off getting eaten alive by a cassowary in suburban Sydney? Or would Rhys's creepy government friends just dispose of her body, leaving her disappearance a mystery for the ages? She almost thought she might prefer that, really.

The cassowary's wattles quivered in the non-existent breeze. Maisie whimpered.

"What the hell is going on?" Rhys demanded, looking bewildered. He turned his head to look over his shoulder and jumped, nearly losing his grip on Maisie in the process. "Shit!"

He took a deep breath – was he getting ready to run? Maisie tensed. Maybe she could manage to get out of here if she had Rhys helping her out?

"Shaz!" he bellowed. "How many times do I have to tell you not to freak me out like that?! Fucking hell!"

"Shaz…?" Maisie murmured, mystified. Should she be relieved that Rhys was apparently on a first-name basis with this murder machine? This murder machine called Shaz ?! Was it some kind of pet?!

Yeah, all that stuff that happened earlier today was nothing. I was na?ve to believe that I could handle anything else today threw my way.

She watched confoundedly as the cassowary ducked its head, looking ashamed.

No, that was definitely the weirdest thing about today. Shame-faced cassowaries were simply not something that was within Maisie's realm of understanding. Cassowaries knew no shame! They wouldn't blink twice at the thought of chasing you off a cliff! They sucked!

The cassowary ruffled its feathers in a way that, if Maisie hadn't known better, would have almost seemed apologetic… and then, as if in a heat haze, it started to shimmer .

"Wait!" Rhys said desperately, reaching out a futile hand. "Shaz – stop – not now, seriously – civilian – civilian – abort, dammit –"

The cassowary continued to shimmer, and then it started to change .

Perhaps something had snapped in Maisie's brain, because she watched with barely a reaction as the death bird turned into a tall, sturdy, somewhat apologetic but also kind of belligerent-looking woman .

She felt calm. It seemed to make sense that the cassowary would turn into a person. Why wouldn't it?

Is this it? Did I get blown up after all, and now my brain is just providing me with some hallucinations as it shuts down?

I guess there are worse ways to go. I'm not in any pain. I'm not seeing any cassowaries anymore. And Rhys does smell nice.

… I wish I'd had a chance to get to know him better.

"Shaz!!" Rhys hissed. "What did I just say?!"

"Nice to see you too, arsehole," the cassowary woman – Shaz, Maisie supposed – sneered. "Here you are, knocking things over and making a ruckus in my home, and my man is nowhere to be seen. Why wouldn't I come see what's going on?"

"Why would you kick down the damn door?" Rhys yelled. Maisie's head turned as if on autopilot – and, she supposed, the door didn't look so much like it had exploded as it looked like it had been kicked down by an enraged cassowary, sending the piles of rubbish in its general proximity flying every which way.

So, no explosion, then – just a grumpy giant bird kicking down a door because it couldn't find its boyfriend.

Does that mean…?

Maisie's head swiveled over toward the desk… and there was…

Is that… no… it can't be…

Maisie's eyes widened as she stared at the… the tiny, rather chubby kangaroo?... that was currently hopping out from underneath the desk Michael had been sitting at before the door had unexpectedly blown off its hinges.

No – not a kangaroo, Maisie thought in a daze. That's – that's a quokka.

She'd never seen one in real life before, not ever having had the chance to go to Rottnest Island, but she recognized them from the tourism campaigns, the famous people taking selfies next to their adorable little faces, the fact that, for a while, they'd been the inescapable celebrity animal of Australia.

But why is there one here? Under a desk?!

Her questions were answered – sort of – a moment later when, just as the cassowary had before it, the tiny quokka shimmered a little, and then began to grow – until it had become much more human-shaped and sized.

Or… Michael -shaped and sized, Maisie thought, dazed, her head spinning.

Michael dusted himself off – though with the state this place was in, Maisie could hardly imagine that he was clean to begin with – and straightened his glasses.

"That's the third door this year," he said, as if it was a perfectly rational explanation. "No one will insure us anymore, not even Shifters Plus."

Shifters Plus? What the hell is that?!

"Well, I'm sorry," the woman said, clearly deciding to fend off the accusations by getting defensive. "I heard strange voices and I didn't know what was going on."

"Had you ever thought of knocking?" Michael asked, throwing his hands up. "You scared the hell out of me!"

"Well, I didn't mean to!" Shaz retorted. "And how about telling me if you're going to have people over? How am I supposed to be your bodyguard if you won't tell me anything! These people could have been anyone!"

Michael and Shaz continued their bickering – the thought Just like an old married couple drifted into Maisie's mind – as she watched, feeling strangely detached from it all.

Detached was probably for the best, she decided. The other options of ‘screaming and running out of the house' or ‘calling the cops and telling them she'd just been attacked by a door-kicking cassowary' just didn't appeal.

Vaguely, she became aware of Rhys rubbing at the bridge of his nose in apparent frustration… though, she noticed, he still had one hand on her leg. Heat spread through her from the point of contact, and she shivered.

The slight movement seemed to jerk Rhys back to reality, and he quickly moved his hand off of Maisie's leg.

No! Put it back!

Though, she supposed, it probably wasn't a great idea to be getting turned on while a woman who could apparently turn into a cassowary and a sweaty nerd quokka man seemed to have finished their argument and were both staring at her as if she was the one who needed to answer questions here.

And maybe she was. Because everyone here seemed to think that this kind of behavior was perfectly normal. She was the only one here who hadn't decided to turn into an animal. Well, she and Rhys.

Rhys, who was looking… well, the word shifty came to mind. He seemed suddenly unable to meet her gaze, no matter how hard she tried to catch his eye.

Her eyes narrowed.

He obviously knew about all this. There was no way in hell that he could just drag her up here into this absolute pigsty – or cassowary-sty – of an apartment, and not be shocked by seeing not one, but two random, completely location-inappropriate animals turn into humans.

… What the hell. I'm sick of today – I'm doing what I want from now on.

"Hey." She grabbed Rhys's chin and turned his face so that he was forced to look at her, and didn't let go. His eyes widened.

"Do you turn into an animal as well?" She tightened her grip just enough to be noticeable. "Be honest."

Rhys hesitated for a moment, before, finally, he said, "A bit?"

Maisie stared at him. "You can turn into an animal a bit ? What does that mean? What bit of you? You just get goat legs or something? Or your head turns into a goat head? Or you get goat hooves for hands?"

Maisie wasn't sure why she had decided to fixate on goats, but then, she'd had a long day. She wasn't up to thinking of more than one kind of animal right now.

"No!" Rhys said, looking and sounding almost comically offended. "No goats – no part of me turns into any part of a goat!"

She wasn't sure why he should be so indignant about it – a half-man half-goat wouldn't be any more ridiculous and outlandish than anything else that had happened today, would it? Maybe she just needed to take it in stride.

Well, unless she woke up tomorrow and realized that this was all an incredibly messed-up dream.

Okay, she thought, trying to calm her racing thoughts. First things first.

She had a logical mind. It came with being a nurse: the first thing she usually had to do was establish the facts so that she could plot a course of action.

"All right," she said, feeling determined. She'd get the bottom of all this if it killed her. "Let's start at the beginning, then: that green stuff I touched earlier – does it have any hallucinogenic effects?"

Rhys looked confused for a moment, before shaking his head. "No. Just lethal ones."

Maisie nodded. Great.

Lethal was not exactly a word she enjoyed hearing, but on the other hand, she seemed fine, and there wasn't so much as a mark on her finger now.

Perhaps Rhys was able to suck it all off my finger before it could take effect, Maisie thought, as a warm shiver rolled down her spine, even though she knew full well it was a completely inappropriate reaction to have.

So I guess… Rhys saved my life.

She swallowed.

But that, as with everything else, only seemed to bring up more questions than it answered.

"Okay, then," Maisie said. She felt like someone stuck in the lowest floor of a labyrinth, following a long string of thread back to the surface. Or at least to a straight answer. "So I'm not going crazy, and I'm not hallucinating. Now that we've established that, and now that you've said you can turn into an animal as well – even if it's just a bit – do you mind telling me what animal it is?"

The words should have felt insane to say out loud, but, well, she was starting to realize that ‘insane' was her new normal.

In the background, she noticed that Michael and Shaz – if those were their real names – were watching this whole little scene with what appeared to be great interest, their heads swinging back and forth depending on which of them was talking. Michael was gnawing on a Violet Crumble, clutching it in both hands just like a quokka feasting on a leaf, and spilling honeycomb pieces down the front of his shirt as he did so.

Great. Now me and my little mental break are serving as free entertainment.

Rhys winced, and it was obvious from the way that his face moved through a range of expressions that he was weighing up a whole lot of things in his mind. Which was understandable… but Maisie thought that her need for a full explanation was also pretty damn understandable, too. She waited, her face schooled into the firm, take-no-bullshit expression that she reserved for her most free-spirited patients.

Finally, he spoke. "Would it be easier if I just showed you? My shifter form is… a bit unusual."

Maisie raised an eyebrow. "More unusual than a quokka and a cassowary? Who appear to be… romantically involved, somehow? I don't think so."

"Ooh, she has a point there, Rhys," Michael said, nodding. "That's a definite hit."

"Did anyone ask you for your opinion on the subject?" Rhys snapped, turning to him. "And why are you even still here? Can I have a conversation in privacy?"

"You're in my house," Michael pointed out – and, Maisie had to admit, he kind of had a point there. They were in his disgustingly cluttered den of takeaway boxes and Minties wrappers.

"All right – nah. I reckon that's our cue to leave," said Shaz in a voice that brooked no dissent. "This isn't a spectator sport, you know. Give the man some space to do what he's gotta do."

Michael's protests were lost as Shaz grabbed him by the t-shirt and dragged him into whatever hellish cesspit of a room lay on the other side of the remains of the door, his voice getting fainter with each moment.

Okay, Maisie thought, blinking. Maybe Rhys's animal form was something really embarrassing, and he was ashamed to reveal it in front of other people. In the short duration of their acquaintance, Shaz hadn't exactly struck her as particularly sensitive, but perhaps she was trying to give Rhys a little privacy as he prepared to reveal his ‘unusual' animal form.

"Well," she said, as a ripple of something that could have been either excitement or unease – or both – ran through her. "No more excuses. If you're going to turn into an animal, then do it."

I can't believe I just said that.

It still seemed unreal, even though she'd literally just seen two people turn into a quokka and a cassowary.

Rhys pulled in a deep breath. "All right. May as well."

Maisie waited as he cleared some rubbish aside to make space, her stomach twisting in anticipation. Now that some of the shock of the supposed explosion and the cassowary and the quokka and the – the shifting had worn off, her everyday brain was starting to grind back to life again. The kind of brain that was actually surprised by things like animals turning into people.

Is he really going to turn into an animal? How can that even be possible?! Medically, that's not possible at all!

Space cleared, Rhys looked over at Maisie again, meeting her eyes with an uncertainty that seemed incongruous with what a strong, confident guy he seemed to be.

And, well, maybe he was right to be a bit nervous.

If one of Maisie's friends had come to her and regaled her with stories of a guy getting shot, jumping in through her window, reappearing a couple of hours later without so much as a scratch on him and then taking her to meet his hacker friends who could turn into animals, Maisie would've called the guy a walking red flag and told her friend to run far, far away.

"Don't be scared," Rhys said as he stood in the middle of his small clearing. Maisie thought that seemed a bit over the top – she'd asked to see his animal form, after all! – but she nodded.

"No matter what, I won't harm you," Rhys went on after a moment. "I'll know who you are."

Maisie nodded again, even though she knew that there was no way he could turn into something scarier than a cassowary. Hell, he'd seemed scared of the cassowary. What could he possibly turn into that was worse than that?!

Rhys took a deep breath, before nodding in resolve. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and…

Wow .

Maisie had been prepared for it, but it still took her breath away. Now that things weren't going at a million miles an hour, she could appreciate just how freaking weird and impossible all of this was.

And yet, it was happening.

There was that shimmer again, this time enveloping Rhys's body.

And then –

His body lengthened and became larger, his whole stance changing as he moved to all fours. Golden fur sprouted along his body, and – was that a tail?!

Is he a lion? Is he turning into an actual lion?!? I guess he had good reason to warn me not to be scared… though I'm sure he'd just be a big pussycat, Maisie thought. Though maybe that was the shock talking.

But no, a lion wasn't right. Because there were wings sprouting from his back, and his head wasn't that of a lion, but of a bird –

… A griffin? He turns into a freaking griffin ?!

Maisie could feel her mouth hanging open, in a way her mother would have told her was just asking for a fly to zoom right inside.

But she couldn't help it – not only had Rhys just changed forms, he'd changed forms into a mythical creature that didn't even actually exist?

But Maisie wasn't in the habit of denying things that were happening right in front of her face. She might be dreaming – in which case, she'd eventually wake up, problem solved. But if she wasn't, then she really only had two choices: accept that the world was a lot more different and strange than she had ever suspected, and was in fact a place where men could turn into enormous winged lions, or go insane.

Well, going insane will really not fit into my short-term schedule or my long-term life plans, she thought, feeling vaguely dizzy. So I guess acceptance is what it's going to have to be.

Gathering her courage, she stood up from the couch on shaky legs and made her way over to him. He looked weirdly tentative – well, as tentative as a giant, regal mythological creature could look – and she thought maybe he was worried that she might reject him, or run screaming from the room.

But Maisie wasn't going to do either, she decided, gritting her teeth. How could she, when she still had so many questions she wanted answers to?

How did you get like this? Is your whole family this way? Did you get bitten by a were-griffin on a full moon? She frowned. Does that imply the existence of were-quokkas and were-cassowaries?!

The part of her brain that never really stopped being a nurse wanted to know all kinds of things too – such as how any of this was physically possible, and if there were specific shifter hospitals they needed to go to if they got injured.

Maybe that was why he was so insistent I didn't take him to the hospital today, Maisie thought. That seemed like a reasonable explanation. The doctors at her hospital were good, but they weren't treating griffins good.

And… she kind of wanted to touch him. Maybe it was just to confirm that this was real . But maybe, she also just wanted to.

With a shaking hand, Maisie forced herself to reach up and gently stroke the feathers on his neck.

They were amazingly soft – It's like touching a cloud , she thought dazedly – and the griffin leaned into her touch.

Definitely less threatening than a cassowary.

She stood there for a moment, just stroking his head, the physical sensation grounding her after what had been a very confusing day. Her brain started to tick over in the background, sorting through the day's events, when suddenly something jumped out at her.

Wyvern venom .

That was what Rhys had called the green goo. She'd thought it was a street name for some new drug or something, but could he actually have been just stating the truth? Did wyverns really exist?

At this point, she was willing to believe it.

But more important even than that was what had happened with Rhys earlier today. Clearly, there was still something more going on here.

Maisie knew, on some level, that this was way more complicated than anything she ever wanted to get involved in. But she also , as she well knew, had more than a little bit of a weakness for complicated men.

She looked up into the griffin's golden eyes. It looked a little worried, and she found a small laugh burbling up inside her – was he scared of her?

"As nice as this is," she murmured to the griffin – the griffin! – "you should probably go back to your human form, so you can tell me what the hell's going on. I want to help you out however I can, but I need to know what I'm dealing with here."

The griffin nodded, a little crooning sound emerging from its enormous, hooked beak. Obviously he hadn't been lying when he'd said he'd know her, even in this form, and clearly he understood every word she'd said to him as well.

Maisie took a step backward, giving him a little space. Another shimmer, and Rhys was standing in front of her once more, a range of emotions parading across his face. He looked worried, overwhelmed… and tentatively hopeful.

Maisie found herself smiling. Rhys smiled back – and Maisie suddenly realized that in the hours she'd known him, she hadn't really seen him smile properly. His whole body seemed to relax a little, relief removing some of the tension from his shoulders and jaw… and if Maisie had thought he was hot before, now she was blown away by just how damn attractive he was.

Wow. He's really… wow. And he turns into a griffin!

Clearly, this was the complicated man to end all complicated men.

It was a long time before she was able to stop staring – well, okay, I'm still staring a bit – and get down to business. She cleared her throat.

"So. How about we sit down, and you tell me what's really going on?"