Panthera Spelaea Ch. 71-80

Consuela ran out of food shortly before midnight. She vowed not to let that happen at breakfast.

Ch. 77

I woke up at four in the morning. I tried to go back to sleep, unsuccessfully, as my sleep schedule is shit from the naps and travel.

The girls didn't wake as I slid out over Anna to the side of my bed. I grabbed clothes out of my dresser as quietly as I could. By the time I reached my bathroom, Anna had rolled into the warm spot and had an arm over Svetlana's waist.

I took a shower, something we should have done after last night's debauchery. There was something about having wild sex in your parent's house that was deliciously naughty. The girls obliterated any memories I had of other women in my room, and we'd finally fallen asleep about one in the morning in a sticky, sweaty mess. I finished up and got dressed, leaving a note that I was going out for a run.

My father purchased the Quiet Waters Ranch outside of Danbury, Texas, in 1985. The three hundred and twenty-seven-acre property started as a private hunting and fishing property. Located equally south of Houston and west of Galveston, it wasn't far from the office or the field.

By the time I was born, an existing 126-acre lake stocked with Florida-strain largemouth bass regularly gave up ten-pound plus lunkers. Four smaller lakes and ponds got added as I grew up, focusing on forage fish, fishing for kids, or duck hunting. It became an executive retreat for his company, with RV hookups and a small cabin allowing overnight stays. Lewis Cantwell closed many a business deal from the back of his bass boat over the years. Technology and growth eventually let him work from home instead of his downtown Houston office, and he built their dream home on this property when I was eight.

I stretched against the pool house and set off into the expansive property. I no longer jogged because I wouldn't break a sweat. Instead, I ran at full speed for miles and miles. What used to take me an hour to run was over in twenty-six minutes, so I did another circuit. The darkness didn't bother me, as my lion vision could see perfectly in the soft moonlight. I passed the pole barns and RV park, then curved left along the ATV trail at the edge of the property. I had to hold my Lion back from taking off after a wild boar; that could happen later. It probably wouldn't be best to return to the house covered in the blood of a fresh kill, and even Consuela might not appreciate the bacon delivery.

When I got back, I scented Melanie outside. I found her in the hot tub, staring out over the yard towards the ducks in a nearby pond. "How was the run?"

"Short," I said. "You should test yourself over the next few weeks. Your body will become stronger and faster. If you aren't used to it, you might accidentally damage things." I pulled off everything but my nylon shorts and started a quick outdoor shower.

"I will once I'm not so damn sore," she replied as she moved the water jet to another spot on her back. "I get your strength and speed; I mean, it's a huge damn lion. Anna said my bird is four feet top to bottom and forty or so pounds. How will that work for me?"

I slid into the hot water across from her. "Birds have an insane muscle-power-to-weight ratio, and nothing will shock me. Your endurance should be off the charts too. I wish I knew more, but I had little time with Ekatarina before her death." I told her Ekatarina's story and the betrayal that ended her life. "I have to believe she's happy her Eagle found a good host. It sure as hell didn't like being a Todd."

She put her hand over her chest. "I feel funny," she told me.

"Like what?"

"Like something is pushing its way out. PLEASE tell me this isn't some ALIEN-type crap where it tears its way out of my chest."

"I think your Eagle wants to talk. Remember when I taught you to meditate?" She nodded. "Close your eyes and focus on your breathing. Clear your mind, and don't be afraid. The Eagle is part of you now. It's your other half, and it won't hurt you."

I watched as she did her breathing exercises and her body finally relaxed. This push was good news for her; the faster the two melded minds, the better. She didn't do anything for almost fifteen minutes, then her eyes opened. "Wow."

"Did you have a nice talk?"

"Not so much a talk as a sharing of emotions," Melanie said. "I can sense her excitement at being free again."

The sun was about to rise into a sky painted with reds and yellows. Consuela was up, but she would be busy preparing breakfast. "Let her out," I told her. "Climb out and take off your suit; you don't want it tangled."

Her eyes got wide. "I can't go naked out here!"

I laughed. "Wrap your towel around you. It will fall off when you switch." She got out and wrapped herself in a beach towel, tossing her wet suit into the chair. "The first time hurt because you were scared. It's nothing to be afraid of. Welcome her forward, and see the world through her eyes."

Melanie closed her eyes and relaxed. A moment later, the wet towel fell to the patio stone. In her place stood a Golden Eagle, and she was looking at me. "Nice job," I said. "Relax and get used to her body."

I wrapped the towel around my forearm and placed it in front of her; she hopped up, her claws holding on without hurting me. I stood and walked away from the pool to the open grass yard leading down to the ponds. I held my arm high, and she flapped her wings nervously. "You're a bird. Your Eagle has been doing this for more than ten thousand years. Let her do her thing while you enjoy the ride."

Melanie's beak seemed to nod, and her legs pushed off my arm as her wings extended to their nine-foot span. Powerful beats sent her forward, gaining altitude as she passed over the water's edge. She circled me a few times, climbing hundreds of feet in the air.

I heard the patio door open, and Svetlana and Anna came out wearing bright sundresses and sandals. "Consuela said you and Melanie were in the hot tub," Anna said.

"We were. Melanie and her Eagle had a good talk, and now she's up there." They followed my eyes to where the big raptor was soaring above the lake.

"She's handling this so much better than you did," Svetlana said as she wrapped a towel around me. "Are you sure this is a good idea? I'd hate to see her fly off and get lost."

"I think we'll be fine."

"We'll watch her. You should go change for breakfast."

I finished drying off and tossed the wet towel in the hamper. Grabbing my clothes, I headed back and took a quick shower. I changed into shorts, a Hawaiian shirt, and boat shoes. I stopped by Melanie's room and grabbed a dress and underwear for her. By the time I got back out to my mates, Melanie had been gone for twenty minutes. "Where is she?"

Svetlana pointed to the south. "She's been having some fun up there. She's diving, soaring, turning, and I think I even saw a barrel roll a few minutes ago."

I held up the dress towards her, then set it over a chair. Melanie must have gotten the idea across to her Eagle because it let out a scream and went into a dive. She pulled out over the lake and flew towards us only a few feet in the air, flaring out and landing on a poolside table. She looked at us and let out a piercing scream, then switched back to her human form and collapsed.

I heard another scream from inside, followed by a thump as something hit the floor. "Help Melanie," I said before I ran to the patio door. Mom was moaning and rubbing the side of her head when I got to her. "Are you all right?"

"Help me up," she said. I got her to sit up, then helped her to a chair. "What was that?"

"One of our surprises for this morning, but we hadn't planned for you to find out like this. Melanie is a switcher as well. She is the only surviving Aquila Chrysaetos Simurgh, the Ice-Age era Golden Eagle known to us from fossils found in Crete. Beautiful, wasn't she?"

"Amazing," Mom said in a daze. When the door opened, she looked up to see Melanie and the girls. "My baby!"

"I'm fine, Mom," Melanie said as she raced to her side. "I'm better than fine."

"How?" Mom looked from her daughter to her son, both of whom had changed in ways she'd only read in fictional books.

"I think we need to do this after breakfast," I said. "I'm starving."

Ch. 78

Breakfast was a relatively quiet affair; we couldn't speak openly with Consuela and the other maid around, and Mom was still getting over the shock of finding out her daughter turned into an Eagle. Consuela made my favorite breakfast burritos, and I showed the girls how to dip them in fresh Texas salsa. Svetlana took a bite, and her eyes got wide. She swallowed it quickly, then drank half a glass of milk. "That stuff is HOT!"

"No, this is the hot stuff," I said as I pointed out the green salsa. "I figured you could work up to it."

"Where is the mild," Anna asked after tasting a tiny bit.

"Wimp," I told her as I passed a different bowl over.

"John Jacob Cantwell, you quit teasing the girls," Mom said. She used my full name, so she wasn't kidding. The next step was the wooden spoon.

"But Mom! They made me eat all the Russian foods, so it's only fair I introduce them to proper Tex-Mex!"

"Don't take any crap from him," Mom told my mates. "He pranked his sisters all the time. It takes some time to get used to the genuinely hot foods, and he knows it."

"Busted," Melanie said as she reached for another burrito. We went back to eating, and I know Mom and Dad were shocked by the amount of food their children were putting away. "There's nothing like Consuela's cooking," Melanie said when asked about it.

We finished up and followed my father into his study. "I doubt anything will shock me after last night," he said as he sat with Mom.

"Stand by," Mom whispered.

Melanie went to sit on Dad's other side, the three of them squeezing into the love seat. It turned out to be a good call; as I went through my tales about Russia, she helped keep Dad calmed down. Even Mom, who had been there with me, was shocked at what I'd been going through without her. "You could have told me!"

"The Russian security services had me under constant surveillance," I said. "I had the girls, and we managed."

"I had no idea how close I was to losing you," Dad said. "I always believed there was no evidence, and they would clear you."

"Eventually, I was, but there was more behind my treatment than a search for justice." That would have to wait as I started to explain how the relationships developed between me, my lion, and my two mates. "It's more than love; it's a deep attachment I share with my Cave Lion with them."

Mom was crying, soon rushing over and hugging Anna. We'd confessed to our triune relationship and dual pregnancies last night, but hearing about her son's love for the girls had her verklempt. She was happy to hear about Svetlana's parents and their acceptance of it. She'd get the marriage ceremony here in Texas since we couldn't go back to Russia and the legal status. Anna was an orphan and would be live as a concubine, not a wife. "It's not fair," she said as she wiped her tears. "You should get a special day as well."

"It's all right," Anna said as she hugged her back. "I have John and Lana, and the rest doesn't matter."

"Still, I want to do something special for you after the wedding." She reached across me to touch Svetlana's hand. "I'd like to speak to your parents. I'm sure your Mom isn't happy about a wedding halfway around the world, and we have a lot of planning to do together. I assume you want to get married in the next month or two?"

I could see the gears going around. Mom knew we'd want to get married quickly before Svetlana's pregnancy became obvious. Svetlana agreed. "We can see if my parents, or at least Mom, can visit us here. Could we do things over the phone for a few weeks so we can get settled?"

"The sooner, the better. Do you have any idea how much work goes into a wedding? Nadezna and I will need to spend a lot of time with the girls getting everything done."

"I don't think it will be THAT bad," Svetlana replied. "I don't want a huge production of a wedding. The press is still after us, plus all the people who still think John is a killer. It wasn't long ago that we were hiding out in the woods from everyone. I'd prefer something small and private, with family and close friends. Perhaps we could do it here? Maybe in the back?"

Mom's head was spinning with ideas. It provided a good distraction while I continued with the story, culminating in the court hearing and the dinner with Sergei and Nadezna in Moscow. "After dinner, we returned to our room to find a woman waiting for us. It was Ekatarina, the Winter Palace Eagle." Mom's eyes bugged out as I gave them the short version of her story. "Ekatarina was the first Switcher we met, but the surveillance on us spotted her. My lawyer, Marina, told us of the danger and got us out of town before the police could get to us."

"I thought the police had nothing on you," Dad said. "The Judge released you!"

"The Lead Investigator was also working for someone else. Mikhail Abrahmov's grandmother was there in the Winter Palace when Ekatarina got her Eagle. He knows about switchers, and he suspected I was one. He was willing to kill me to get it."

"Abrahmov's dead," Dad said. "I read about it a few days ago. His helicopter exploded in midair."

"He was dying of cancer, Dad. When a Switcher comes into you, your body heals. Keep that in mind as I tell you what happened in Europe." I told them about our flight to Sardinia, then our welcome aboard the Elements. "Art Karpen is the Cave Bear switcher, Dad. He's been alive for five and a half centuries and still looks my age."

Melanie giggled about ten seconds later. "Third time we've shut them up," she said.

"Art Karpen? Art Karpen of Karpen Investments? The recluse who never leaves his boat?"

"That's him. The whole 'hiding from the world' thing is a ruse; it's a way to keep the world from noticing he never ages. His senior executives and crew are all trusted family members, either his sons, daughters, or children of previous ones over the years. He's got hundreds of relatives working directly for him or working in key real-world positions and reporting back to him. Judges, politicians, law enforcement, he's got tentacles in it all. Marina is Art's great-granddaughter. Art arranged for Mom to hire her because he suspected I was a Switcher."

I kept the tale going, with the other Switchers arriving and some of the things I learned about our kind from them. I'd talked with the girls about names; we only used Duncan's and Edward's first names since they weren't famous. There were stories about Art in the news, so we didn't hide his identity.

Melanie had to calm her parents down when we told the story of the mercenary attack and again with Todd and his ten-million-dollar betrayal. "Your Gift is worth that much?"

"Entire expeditions launched and died seeking the Fountain of Youth," I said. "The Gift is all that plus immortality. I can't get sick, I heal from injuries quickly, and I never age."

The implication hit Mom. "What about the girls? What good is immortality if you watch them grow old and die?"

Anna took this one. "The true mate of a Switcher gains some of his Gift," she said. "As long as we are with John, we'll stay at peak health and never age. Our children, our friends, and our family will not. They will grow old and die while we don't."

"You'll watch your babies die?"

"It's the way it works," I said. "Duncan fakes their deaths when his children are old enough, leaving them an inheritance. They disappear and start living under new identities somewhere far away, repeating the cycle every twenty-five years or so. Art hides from the world, and only trusted family members know his secret."

"What did Edward and Ekatarina do?"

"They didn't find mates. Edward is still looking for his." I continued the story with my near-death at the hands of Mikhail's son. "The Eagle didn't like Todd and wanted another human."

"Who?"

"We decided as a group to put up candidates and decide who would get Eagle Gift," I replied.

Melanie held her father's hand tightly for this part. "That's why I flew off to Europe. John nominated me, and Art's people told me it was an internship opportunity. I didn't expect I'd be kidnapped shortly after arriving in Split, Croatia."

Dad was pissed, but Mom calmed him down. "She's fine now, dear. Let them tell the story." I told them about our plan to draw Mikhail to the island and how Mikhail taking Melanie flipped that around. It was tense at the part about Melanie held at gunpoint, and I could see the white knuckles when I described the showdown with Mikhail and his son.

"John and the Liger killed Vasili, but he killed me first," Melanie said. "The shotgun blast took out half my throat. I could feel my blood pouring out and the blackness coming for me. I couldn't even say goodbye."

"We had the Eagle carcass, and I shoved her hand into the feathers. Instantly, she switched into the Eagle, and the Gift healed her from the fatal wound. She's a Switcher now. This morning, she had her first flight."

Mom reached her hand over. "And scared the crap out of Mom when she landed and switched back!"

"I did," Melanie said with a laugh. "Being an Eagle, it's indescribable. I felt so free up there!"

"Like I feel when I'm running through the woods," I agreed.

"Or we feel when we're riding on his lion's back," Svetlana said.

I finished up the morning by talking about what happened after Mikhail died. "It turned out that Art and Edward were more devious than we thought. Mikhail knew Melanie was coming from the communications he intercepted. It was Edward, at Art's direction, that went to Mikhail with a deal. For fifty million cash and a billion in stock in his company, Edward promised to deliver the Cave Lion switcher to him."

"HE GAVE YOU UP?" Dad was pissed.

"He did, but the plan was to use the Liger as a diversion and kill Mikhail when he landed. Mikhail was too smart to fall for the trap, and Melanie was leverage to get Svetlana and Anna to the island with the Eagle carcass. He planned to take my Lion, then give the Eagle to his only remaining son."

Svetlana continued. "We used his phone to direct Edward's payoff, then Art's people cleaned it all up by sending Mikhail and Vasili to the bottom of the Adriatic. The Liger went to Moscow to close the loop on John's appearances there."

Dad thought about it for a while. "Who has control of the money now? And what about Mikhail's company?"

"Melanie and I each got twenty-five million; the money is in Swiss numbered accounts. The stocks went into my name; I now own almost ten percent of the company since Art was battering the stock price down before the deal. It's worth six hundred some million now, as the stock declined big-time after Mikhail's death. Art and the others are buying up the depressed stock now, and we should have enough to take control after Mikhail's estate transfers."

Dad thought about it for a moment. "This could have significant tax consequences for you."

"I know, Dad. I need your help in this, plus I'll need a good lawyer."

"Or five," he told me. "You have to protect yourself. A man like Art Karpen doesn't give money away like this for no reason. There will be a lot of scrutiny of that steel company, and he's put you right in the crosshairs of it. AGAIN!"

I hadn't thought of it that way, but he was right. Melanie and I were the only ones exposed from Mikhail's side; Art and the others were attempting a hostile takeover. There was nothing illegal about pouncing on a wounded oligarchy. "Maybe more than five."

"Realizing that Art's interests are not your own is the first step," Dad said. "I know you haven't cared about business, but you need to learn now. Your stake in that company is worth more than my entire company if you manage it well. It also could collapse into bankruptcy, leaving you nothing while Art picks over the carcass. I don't trust Art Karpen as far as I can throw him, John. You have to protect your interests and your family above any relationship with him."