Madison
Shivers ran down her spine.
Maddy could feel his eyes on her still. It wasn’t until she rounded the corner that the feeling stopped. She paused there, back against the wall, feeling the rough concrete through her vest and shirt. It was cool to the touch, despite the warmth in the air. The sun set on the far side of the building, so this wall wouldn’t have received its touch for a number of hours now.
People continued to stream by her. Most of them were young, her age or within a few years of her. The area was popular, and though Maddy didn’t participate in much of the activities others her age did, she liked the busyness of it all. She could window shop all she wanted and not feel guilty for not buying anything, because plenty of others were doing so.
No, it was only her own lack of ability to buy... well, anything... that bothered her.
“Oh that’s pretty,” she said to herself as she turned around, admiring a nice shawl draped over the mannequin in the window.
Her heart stopped at the price tag. She would never be able to afford eighty dollars. Upscale boutique or not, Maddy couldn’t afford her own cell phone bill, let alone new clothing. She angrily shoved that thought from her mind, as well as purging any lingering feeling of disgust over being stared at.
The man had been so brazen about it, just looking at her through the crowd as if he had a claim on her. Men didn’t stare at her like that. Not while she was looking back at them, at least. She could see his eyes even now, the blue orbs laser-focused on her. Goose bumps broke out across her skin in response to just her memories of him.
Why had he been staring at her like that? Did she know him? Maddy didn’t think so. Someone of that size and stature was rather hard to forget. The man had been a giant, well over six feet tall, with muscles to make a Greek god jealous. If it hadn’t been for the intensity of the way he looked at her, he might have even been attractive. She wasn’t normally attracted to that type—
You don’t even have a type.
That was true. Mostly. She liked men, and had several crushes as well. But ever since she got her growth spurt, boys and men had mostly found her intimidating. She was tall, almost six feet in height, and she wasn’t a stick figure model either. She was strong, having played rugby in college for several years, though she didn’t work out much lately. The gym cost money, and school had taken all of her money in and spit it out in the form of an extremely expensive piece of paper that was now tucked away in a box somewhere in her bedroom. Her childhood bedroom.
Maddy still lived at home, and she loathed herself for it.
Blinking, she realized she was still staring at the same deep violet shawl in the window. With one last wistful stare she pulled herself away from the window, trying to lose herself in the constant stream of foot traffic up and down the sidewalk at this time of day. The longer she could delay her arrival back home, the better.
It wouldn’t stop the questions, but she was used to that by now. Her dad would ask how her day had gone, and if she had gotten a job, or even an interview yet. She snickered at his outdated thinking and the advice he had given her when she came home from college with her tail between her legs, no jobs or even prospects on the horizon, and out of money.
“Madison, my dear, you need to get out there, to pound the pavement. Just walk in there, ask to speak to the manager, and shake his hand firmly. Trust me, managers notice that kind of thing. Then you tell them you’re ready to work, and you hand them your resume.”
Her dad worked for the city. It had been decades since he had needed to look for a job. Maddy tried telling him that things just didn’t work that way anymore, but he hadn’t listened to her.
So Maddy ignored him, and pretended she was out walking around every day handing out resumes, instead of sitting in front of a computer at the local library and filling out endless personality quiz surveys.
Now there was a useless and extremely annoying aspect of job hunting. That and the part where a company’s online application form made someone upload their resume, and then fill out forms stating the same information!
She snorted to herself, ignoring the looks several passersby shot her.
Maybe she was just a bit jaded with the way things were going for her recently. Between crushing student debt and a useless degree, Maddy’s prospects in life weren’t exactly helping with that feeling.
The time came to head home. Her footsteps carried her through the streets.
“Hello Charles,” she said cheerfully to the doorman.
“Evening Miss Madison,” the portly old man replied, holding the door for her with a smile. “Have a good day?”
“Of course!” she said, half turning as she walked toward the elevator. “And yourself? What kind of craziness did you get up to today?”
The doorman chuckled. “Twenty-four years now, Miss Madison. You should know that I’m not much for craziness.”
She smiled.
“Same old, same old,” they chorused together.
Maddy looked at him for a moment, then they burst into laughter.
“I’ll see you tomorrow Charles,” she said brightly as the elevator dinged its arrival, the dual doors splitting down the middle to admit her into the steel enclosure.
“I look forward to it,” he replied, giving her a wave.
The elevator chimed past each floor as they ascended, and each time the musical noise went off, Maddy felt her mood go one floor in the opposite direction. She seemed to leave all of her happiness there on the ground floor. By the time she reached her destination, only four floors above, she was on edge, gritting her teeth against the coming conversation with her father.
The silver key in her hand paused mere inches away from the gold of the lock as she hesitated. Perhaps she should could back out and wander around for a few more hours? He might go to bed in that time frame.
He might also magically forget, but don’t count on it.
Maddy sighed and jammed the key in, opening the door.
“Madison!” her father said happily, rising swiftly from his desk in the common room, where he had been doing something on his laptop.
She smiled and let herself be wrapped up in a hug. Her dad, despite his never-ending prying into her life, loved her fiercely, of that she would never be in doubt. Despite it all, she felt herself hugging him back.
“Hi Daddy,” she said.
Her father was a tall man, though not as big as the man who had looked at her so eerily on the street earlier. She idly wondered if the other man was perhaps a shifter as well. He certainly had the same muscular build that her father did. She wondered how he managed to maintain that figure.
Must be the genes. She knew her dad didn’t work out. He worked for the city management, and spent his days behind a desk as far as she knew.
“Okay, time to let me in,” she said, breaking free of the hug and sliding off her backpack, using that motion to grab the door behind her and let it close.
“Right,” he said, stepping back.
Their apartment was a small rectangle, with the door halfway through one of the long sides. It opened up right into the middle of their common area, which contained the work desk to the right, a TV on the left, and a couch and several chairs down the middle. Hallways to her right and left led to the bedrooms and kitchen respectively. It wasn’t much, but it was, and had always been, home.
“So, what’s for dinner?” she asked, trying to identify the aroma she had been smelling since she walked in.
“I actually already ate,” he admitted sheepishly. “You’re out later than expected today.”
Maddy nodded, images of the man who had spooked her off from coming straight home flashing through her mind. Why her? Couldn’t he have found someone a little more conventionally beautiful to stare at?
“But,” her father was still speaking, “I did keep it warming for you. How does baked chicken with stuffed peppers sound?”
Her mouth instantly watered.
“That sounds absolutely delicious,” she said, making a beeline for the kitchen to serve some.
“No no,” her dad said with a wave, stepping in the way. “Go take a seat, I’ll serve you.”
“Dad, I’m not six anymore,” she complained, though not very hard. “I can serve myself you know!
“Yes I’m well aware of how grown up you’re becoming,” he teased. “But let a father do it while he still can, okay?”
She smiled. “Okay,” she relented, taking a seat at the dining table tucked away into the back right corner of the apartment.
“Besides, while I’m doing this, you can tell me all about your day. Why were you out so late? Did you have an interview perhaps? Or did you run into someone? A boy maybe?”
Once again the strange, tall man appeared in her head, his blue eyes so captivating she lost herself in them.
“Well?” her father asked, returning to the table with a portion for her, and a bit of seconds for himself.
“Sorry,” she apologized with a shake of her head. “No, nothing today, Daddy. Maybe tomorrow though.”
It was the same line she used every night, and would continue to use. Maddy didn’t think there was much life for her left in King City. Not with her degree. Maybe she would have to work in retail. That idea scared her. She didn’t want to work with people, striking up conversations with strangers every day. That wasn’t her. She hadn’t applied to those types of jobs. Not yet.
The ever dwindling—and already tiny—amount in her bank account meant it wouldn’t be long before she had to do that, but she wasn’t there yet.
“No boy either?” he asked, eyes twinkling.
“Not unless you count creepy men staring at me like I’m some sort of freak,” she muttered. “I don’t think you’d approve of that type.”
He chuckled. “No, I suppose I wouldn’t. Not to worry; you know I’m just teasing you over that.”
She nodded, not wanting to speak as she finished her meal. The other thing her dad did was cook. He was very good at it. Looking up to thank him for it, Maddy’s eyes narrowed as she saw the suddenly sober expression on his face.
“What?” she asked through her food, not caring about the impoliteness. Her father was rarely a serious man.
“Maddy, there’s something we need to talk about.”
Maddy shot upright. Her father never called her Maddy. Never. Ever. No matter how many times she asked, he refused. For him to use it now, whatever he was about to say must be extremely important to him.
“What is it?” she asked nervously. Had he been fired? Did they have to move? Was he sick with some sort of shifter sickness that she didn’t know about?
Maddy knew a lot about shifters, though like most women born with a shifter parent, she didn’t carry the gene herself. No one was quite sure why that was, but it was a long accepted fact that female shifters were few and far between.
Still, she was blessed with a few traits, such as being far more resistant to most illnesses, and generally having slightly keener senses than her human friends. She still got sick, albeit rarely, and she wasn’t superhuman by any stretch, but it was enough for her. But her father was Mr. Invincible to her. What could have him so worried?
“One moment,” he said solemnly, rising from the table and quickly going over to his workbench. He returned, envelope in hand.
“You should read this,” he said quietly.
“Dad, you’re scaring me,” she said, not reaching for the slightly yellowed envelope.
“Madison, this is no time to act like a child,” he said sternly, in the first reprimand she had heard in years. “Read it.”
She was shocked. This wasn’t her father at all. He was on edge and cautious; she could see it now. Definitely not his usual laid-back self.
Swallowing nervously, Maddy reached for the envelope and pulled it across the table toward her. With trembling fingers she made to open it.
“What does it—”
BANG! BANG! BANG!
She jumped in her seat as something thumped ominously on the door.
The growl that came from her father audibly filled the room, and she slid from her chair as his entire attitude changed. The jovial city shifter was gone, and in his place was something else. Something far more…feral. He stalked toward the door, even as a fist, or whatever it was, thumped insistently again. When he got close he killed the lights, plunging the room into shadow.
This was a side of him she had never seen before. The protective bear was out, and she wanted to know everything. The letter was clutched to her chest, forgotten for the moment. Her dad peeked through the door, then backed to the side.
“Thunder,” he called, before moving with a swift stealthiness she hadn’t known he possessed to stand on the other side of the door.
His voice has whoever it is thinking he’s on the other side. But why would he do that?
In case he needed to attack, that’s why.
“Lightning!” came the reply.
Her dad seemed to breathe a little easier as he reached over and unlocked the door. Whoever was on the outside immediately pushed the door open wider and stepped inside. The door obscured her dad from the newcomer, but the instant it swung shut her dad attacked, leaping at the man, his hands going for his neck.
Maddy screamed, thinking her dad was going to kill him. But then the newcomer, also a shifter if his size was any judge, did something and suddenly her father was sliding across the floor toward her.
“I said Lightning!” the man said, stepping into the room, stopping just shy of entering the ring of light near Maddy. “That means don’t attack! You obviously read the letter.”
“You could be someone else,” her dad said, moving to interpose himself between the newcomer and her.
“I could, but I’m not.”
“Show yourself then,” she said, speaking at last.
The man jerked as if stung when he saw her huddled in the corner. The confidence that had seemed to exude dissipated swiftly as he looked at her.
Maddy stared back, trying to understand what was going on. He stepped forward, and she gasped.
Those eyes! She knew those eyes anywhere. Her voice was angry as she stood up straight.
“You!”