Her feet were misshapen things, her toes as long as her new fingers, and every one of them curled around the tree.
The shock, the panic, the idea that she had deformed herself beyond repair, shot through her and her feet returned to normal and so did her hands. She fell, crying out, twisting in mid-air and then landing in the water.
The scales retracted as soon as she was submerged. When she’d regained her wits, she powered to the surface, already calming. She trod water for a bit, waiting for her heart to stop hammering so hard, then lengthened out and swam for the far side, marvelling at how effortless it all was. A few strokes and she was there. She turned, swam underwater the whole way back. Her fingers brushed silt along the riverbed.
Amber spent another few minutes just swimming. Skinny-dipping. She laughed as she did the backstroke. She’d never been skinny-dipping in her life. She’d never thought she’d ever get the chance. She never thought she’d ever have the confidence. And now here she was, in all her red splendour, in a river somewhere in Georgia. Were they still in Georgia? She wasn’t even sure. That just made her laugh more.
The laugh died when she got the feeling that she was being watched.
She looked around. She could see no one in the woods on either side of the river, but the feeling didn’t go away. She swam back, hesitating before pulling herself out of the water, then moved up on to the grassy bank towards her clothes.
She was halfway up when she saw the face staring at her through the foliage.
AMBER DARTED BEHIND A tree, as much to hide her nakedness as her black horns. Behind cover, she cursed silently, and immediately started looking around for an escape route. There was no way she could get away without being seen. Her only hope was that the person, whoever it was, would be freaked out enough to run away, but not freaked out enough to report the sighting.
She saw the face again in her mind. Shaggy hair – light brown. A boy. No, a young man. Maybe eighteen or nineteen.
“Hello?”
Amber stiffened.
“Hello? Miss?”
She shut her eyes and didn’t reply. Silence, she decided, was her best option at this point.
“I know you’re there,” the boy said. He had an accent. English? Scottish? “I saw you run behind the tree. You know I saw you. I don’t get why you’re pretending you’re not there.”
No. Irish. That was it.
“This is getting a little bit silly,” he continued. “This is like when my little cousins play hide-and-seek and they close their eyes because they think that makes them invisible. You … You’re not closing your eyes, are you?”
Amber hesitated, then opened her eyes, and cursed silently again.
“I didn’t mean to peek,” he said. “My name’s Glen. Glen Morrison. I was just passing, and … Well, no, that’s not strictly true. Sorry, I don’t want to start off on a lie, you know? The truth is, I’ve been sleeping here for the past few nights. In these woods. I’m temporarily between abodes, and my financial situation is not what one might call robust. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea, though. I’m not lazy. I didn’t come over to your country to scam the system or anything like that. I do have prospects. Well, I had prospects. It’s a very long story, and I wouldn’t want to trouble you with—”
“Glen,” Amber said.
There was a pause, and then, “You’re talking!”
“I am,” said Amber. “Glen, I’m naked.”
She could practically hear him nod. “I noticed. I mean, oh God, I mean I couldn’t help but notice that you were … that you had no … that you were, uh … oh man, what’s the word?”
“Naked,” Amber prompted.
“Yes, thank you. Naked. You are naked, yes.”
“And since I’m naked, Glen, I find having a conversation with a complete stranger a little weird. You know?”
“Oh, I do,” Glen said, with an assurance that made it sound like it was a situation he found himself in regularly.
“I’m not sure that you do, Glen.”
“Probably not,” he admitted. “But, if it makes you feel any better, you don’t have anything to feel embarrassed about.”
“You’re not helping, Glen.”
“Sorry. I like your horns, though. Is that rude? Can I say that?”
“Glen … would you please go away?”
“Oh,” he said. “Oh. But … Yeah. I mean … right. Sure. Of course. You’re naked. You want to be alone. I come along, you feel self-conscious. Obviously. That’s natural. That’s perfectly natural. I’m intruding upon your special me time.”
“And when you go away,” Amber said, “could you please not tell anyone about this? About me?”
“Sure,” he said, sounding disappointed. “Okay. Well, I suppose I’ll just … head off, then.”
“Thank you,” Amber called.
She waited to hear his retreating footsteps, then waited a bit longer.
“Glen,” she said, “are you still there?”
“Yeah,” he answered. “Listen, I don’t want you to think any less of me, all right? But … but I may need to check your clothes and steal any money you might have.”
Amber’s eyes snapped wide. “What?”
“I just don’t want this to make things weird between us,” he said, and then came the sound of rustling fabric as her shorts were lifted off the ground.
“Do not rob me,” she called.
“I’m really sorry.”
“Do not frikkin’ rob me, you little creep!”
“I feel really bad about this.”
She pictured him rifling through her pockets, his grubby little hand closing around the roll of cash she’d put in there. She concentrated on growing those scales again, and felt her skin begin to tighten. Then she heard a sharp intake of breath. Glen had found the money.
The scales didn’t cover her entire body but they did enough to protect her modesty. Anger boiling, she lunged out from behind the tree, but her horns got tangled in the branches and her feet flew from under her, and she crashed heavily to the ground. She felt some of the scales retract. Glen stared down at her, open-mouthed.
“Wow,” he whispered.
She snarled, showing him her fangs, and his eyes went wide. He dropped the money and spun, but Amber was right behind him, faster than he could ever hope to be. She grabbed the collar of his jacket and he shrieked as he was launched backwards.
“Do you know what I’ve just done?” she growled as she stalked after him. “I’ve just broken some poor woman’s bones in the gas station. I threw her around like she was nothing and then I went for a goddamn swim. You think I’d hesitate for even one moment before I ripped your throat out for robbing me?”
Glen scrambled back on all fours. “Please, I