The Shapechanger

For his twelfth birthday she gave him the old leather bound book that he kept in his office to this day. The book tells the mythology surrounding several supernatural beings: werewolves, minotaurs, unicorns, and vampires. A special section is dedicated to a very special form of vampire called the Shapechanger, and that story seemed to hold a special place in his grandmother's heart. She claimed to have seen one when she was a little girl and to have only "barely escaped with her life."

Adding to the mystique of the old tome was that she passed away only two weeks after giving it to him. It was as if she wanted Jacob to have the book so that he could finish the story on his own. There were things that she couldn't share with Jacob when he was so young, things about how the creature relied on seduction to ensnare its victims, or how sex was an important part of the transformation process. These things she had hoped to tell Jacob when he got older, but she was unable to.

Jacob's mother found the book and was horrified. There were more than a few sexually explicit passages. She thought it was a book of erotica and was confused why her mother felt the need to share that with a child. She ultimately chalked it up to the dementia of old age.

When Jacob turned 18, she gave it back to him, as a funny reminder of his eccentric old grandmother. It sat in a box for years untouched moving with him from college dorms to his first apartment, to the first apartment he shared with Sarah, and finally into the condo they bought together when they decided they would start trying for kids. More than once he thought of getting rid of it, but then he would imagine his grandmother looking down on him saying, "At least give it a read first!" And he would put it back on the shelf thinking, someday...

Then Sarah disappeared. The police were less than unhelpful. They said she probably ran away, "happens more often than you'd think," but they didn't know how in love they were or how they were currently in the middle of trying to get pregnant.

When he tried to tell them, one particularly plump officer had the nerve to say, "well, maybe she got pregnant and changed her mind and now she's off getting an abortion. Give it a week, if nobody's heard from her we'll talk then." Jacob had to summon all the power in his body to not sock the bastard where he stood.

This was back before his P.I. days, there was little he could do on his own but he was determined to try. He hired private investigators across the tri-state area, as well as out in California, in New York, and down in Florida. He assembled a team of friends and family to search her favorite parks and hiking spots. Four days later she was found dead, needles in her arm and brutally sexually assaulted (there were even bite marks on her arms and legs) in a motel room outside of Cleveland.

The police launched a brief investigation into Jacob, but cleared him when his DNA didn't match the sexual assault. Jacob hadn't yet put the pieces together, but something definitely didn't add up. Sarah never did drugs, she hated them—she wouldn't even touch marijuana. There was also the state of her body. The autopsy showed she only weighed 95 pounds, down from her normal weight of 120. She had been perfectly healthy on Tuesday morning. And what about the bite marks?

It finally clicked for Jacob when one of his P.I.'s somehow got a hold of the forensics and told Jacob that the guy the DNA from the sexual assault matched a man listed as a missing person in West Virginia.

Shapechanger. The stories came flooding back to Jacob, but at first he dismissed the possibility as uncanny coincidences. Besides, he wasn't the kind of person to believe in stories like that. You're not ten years old anymore.

Two additional pieces of evidence came in. First, he got a call from his P.I. in Indiana who reported a possible sighting of Sarah near Indianapolis. Impossible, she's been dead two days. And second, the man whose DNA was found on Sarah turned up dead not twenty minutes from where her body was found, in an oddly similar condition. The official report stated that Sarah and Ronald Putts were having an affair. The two were shooting heroin in Sarah's motel room when she OD'd. Ronald, then drove away from the scene, but overcome with grief he decided to join her. This was enough for the police to close the case and rid their hands of it. But what about the bite marks?

For Jacob, it was just beginning. It didn't take him long to discover that the coroner's reports had to be fudged because they initially found that Putts had expired several hours before the earliest window for Sarah's time of death. From there Jacob kept digging. He took a leave of absence from his engineering job and when they wouldn't give him anymore time off he quit and got licensed as a P.I. specializing in missing persons cases.

His theory was simple. He just needed to link several disappearances to the Shapechanger and build a web to determine whose body it might be using. He had another hunch too, that the Shapechanger would for at least a little while assume part of the identity of its victims. He realized this when looking over the cases surrounding Sarah's disappearance and found that it would take the wallets and cell phones of its victims and use them for a few days after each abduction.

When he came across Lucy Ogden's case, it seemed to fit the profile perfectly: a pretty young girl goes missing, last seen in a bar with an unknown person whose description (as given by the bartender) vaguely matches another missing persons case from out of state. He knew that the chances of it being a wild goose chase was high, but he also had a good feeling about this one. He reached out to his friend Tom at the police station and was able to convince him to track her cell phone.

And now, everything was falling into place.

* * *

Nadia was driving to her first showing of the day. It was looking like a short day for her which she was perfectly happy with. She had a special night planned for Jacob and wanted to have enough time to get back home and into her costume. Maybe she'd even bake a pumpkin pie. Ha! No, I'll just pick one up from Kroger. She smiled to herself.

She knew that Jacob was still getting over his late wife, but she still secretly wished that he would propose. If not for the circumstances she wasn't against dropping the question herself, but she knew that he probably needed more time. As it was, they spent almost every night together. She felt it was a waste to pay for two apartments but last time she broached that subject he became cool and distant. At least the sex is good.

She was excited about the costume she bought for tonight; it was super sexy and she was planning on driving Jacob wild. She did have to punish him for this morning after all. It would be fun. Afterwards the two of them could fall asleep watching a scary movie. If he was telling the truth about finishing this case up today the two of them could even sleep in tomorrow; her first showing wasn't until 11:15am.

She was in the middle of thinking through her schedule for tomorrow and making plans for the weekend when her cell rang. She picked it up on the second ring, "Nancy Garner Realty, how may I help you on this beautiful day?" Her voice was sunny and shining. She had learned early on that the name Nadia Garnier-Toussaint was too much of a mouthful for the suburbanites of Ohio so she developed a new persona for herself. Wonderbread-middle-American Nancy Garner (with a hard R). Jacob found this ridiculous and hilarious, but she had plans; she was going to retire by 50.

The woman on the other end sounded surprisingly young. Nadia was used to dealing with folks mostly in their forties and fifties, or the even older crowd looking to downsize. This voice sounded almost prepubescent, but she did her best to stay professional; she had learned early on: never make assumptions that might cost you a deal.

"I'd like to see your property on Sheffield avenue, do you have time to show it today?"

The Sheffield Ave property was listed at four-twenty-five, it had been on the market for almost a year. Nadia felt herself getting excited, but did her best not to show it. "Absolutely! I would be more than happy to. I have an opening at 12:30pm, does that work for you?"

The voice was silent for a moment and Nadia resigned herself for the hundredth time that she'd never sell this house. "That's going to be difficult for me, do you have anything later on? Something after three?"

Nadia felt her afternoon slipping away, but she knew she couldn't turn down this opportunity. "I can do 3:00, or 3:30, would that work for you?"

The young woman on the line responded right away. "3:30 would be perfect. Thanks!"

"3:30 it is. See you then." Nadia said with a smile and hung up.

* * *

Jacob arrived in Fremont a little after nine and pulled into a Starbucks to grab a coffee. He took it back to his car and dialed Tom.

"Hi Tom, I'm sitting at a Starbucks in Fremont. Do you have any news for me?"

"Yeah, give me a second." Tom sounded a little annoyed.

Jacob could hear Tom typing something into his computer. He anxiously waited, and for the first time today he wrestled with the thought of actually killing this thing. Would he be able to do it? It's not like killing a real person. He told himself. But it looks and talks exactly like a real person. But then the image of Sarah's body at the police precinct when he went down to identify her popped into his head and he knew that he would be able to do what needed to be done when the time came.

"Ok." Tom was back, "it looks like it's been sitting in the same location for the past hour on the southeast corner of Croghan and North Foster street. The most recent ping came from just a few minutes ago."

"Awesome, thanks! Can you let me know if it moves?" Jacob asked hopefully?

"I'll keep an eye on it for the next hour, but after that, you're on your own, understand?"

"Got it. I owe you one Tom." Jacob was already putting the car in gear.

"Yep." Tom said and hung up.

Jacob let the phone fall from his shoulder into his lap as he backed out of the parking space and headed towards his destination. It was only a few blocks away.

At a stop light he reached into his tote bag and fished out the files he brought from the office. The top one was labeled, LUCY OGDEN. Clipped inside was a photo of her which Jacob took out and held against the steering wheel as he drove, studying it carefully. She was pretty, very pretty actually. She had shoulder length blonde hair, cute hazel eyes and a big smile with dimples. The photo he had listed her as 5'3" and he couldn't help but wonder what the rest of her looked like.

As he approached the corner of Front and Croghan he checked his phone to see if Tom had any updates before pulling into a parking space. She was clearly sitting somewhere inside the cafe, it was called Sunnyside UP! it sported a big sign with a winking egg yolk. He took another look at Lucy's photo before beginning to devise his plan.

He didn't have to think for long, moments later he gasped in disbelief as he saw what appeared to be the ghost of Lucy herself exiting the cafe. She was even prettier than in the photo and he quickly had to remind himself that Shapechangers were known for manifesting themselves as the most attractive version of their host. Even knowing what she was, he still found himself checking out her ass as she walked by, something he would later feel guilty for. She walked past his car and got into a beat-up red pick-up truck parked three spaces over. I wonder who it killed for that truck.

Jacob craned his neck to watch it pull out and drive down the street before he discreetly followed. He decided to play it safe for now; if needed he still had fifty minutes or so that he could rely on Tom for. As if on cue his phone buzzed with a text from Tom, "headed N on foster."

He had to entertain the possibility that Lucy really did run away and that the girl he was following was just a normal rebellious twenty-three year old and not some ancient monster, but he assumed that if his theory was correct that it would eventually lead him to the real Lucy Ogden, and when it did, he would be ready to strike. For now, he followed it east on I-90 from a distance.

He thought back to Nadia's question this morning "Think she's still alive?" For the first time he had hope. Maybe she was. Just maybe he would be able to save at least one person from this terrible fate. He thought again of Sarah, and then of his grandmother.

* * *

Nadia treated herself to a lavish lunch between her noon showing and her 3:30 appointment at the Sheffield Ave house. When the waitress asked for her drink order she thought what the fuck and ordered a martini. By the time she finished her second it was still before two and she figured she could sneak in a third and still be sober enough to sell the fuck out of the Sheffield Ave house. She had convinced herself at this point that she could get four-fifty for it and a big fat fucking commission for herself.

She arrived at the property just after three and took a walk around, making sure that everything looked in tip top shape. She was glad she did; the property hadn't been shown in over a month and a few of the surfaces needed a dusting. She went back outside to wait and at 3:30 on the dot a red SUV pulled into the driveway beside her green VW bug.

Nadia's suspicions were confirmed when a very young looking woman stepped out of the car. She again reminded herself to not make any assumptions and stepped forward with a smile.

She took her hand and introduced herself the way she had four times already today, "Nancy Garner, pleased to meet you! Let's get you into a new home, shall we?"

The woman introduced herself as Andrea and seemed a little shy. Nadia was taken aback by how pretty the girl was, she had the cutest smile and something about her reminded her of a girl she used to hook up with in college when she went through her "experimental phase." She had the same blonde hair and a similar figure, small round tits and a tight ass. Maybe that third martini was a bad idea.

Throughout the tour Andrea started to open up more. She was funny and the two really seemed to connect on a level Nadia never had with clients before. She even told her to call her Nadia. She never did that with clients. By the end, it became apparent that this wasn't the right house for Andrea and her husband, but Nadia felt confident that she built a good relationship and would be able to sell a different property to Andrea.

As they were about to leave Andrea said, "Hey I know we just met, but you seem like a lot of fun and I've just had a hell of a week. Would you want to grab a drink?"

This caught Nadia off guard, and although her instinct was to say no, she surprised herself and agreed. "You know, I keep something special hidden away in most of my houses for weeks like that." Nadia disappeared into the kitchen and returned with a bottle of vodka, frosted from the freezer, she also carried two mismatched plastic cups. She gestured with them and shrugged, "best I could do."

Andrea laughed. The two of them sat down in the living room and poured themselves vodka and continued getting to know each other.

Something about Andrea was incredibly friendly and disarming to Nadia. Nadia had few girlfriends to gossip with so after a drink or two she was surprised to find herself sharing details about her sex life and laughing together about Andrea's (she had saved herself for marriage and found herself experiencing a major learning curve with her husband Vince). Nadia began talking about Jacob, but somehow the conversation turned to college and it wasn't long before she was talking about her encounters with women.

"So you guys like—what?" Andrea asked playfully.

"What do you mean what? We had sex!" Nadia said.

"But like, with two girls..."

Nadia couldn't tell whether or not she was just being coy. "Do you need me to spell it out for you?"

"No I need you to show me." She said sarcastically.

"I licked her pussy." Nadia said matter-of-factly as she poured herself some more vodka.

Andrea gasped and covered her mouth. "What was that like?"

Nadia swirled the vodka in her plastic cup as she pondered the question. "I mean—it was fucking hot. I think it can be a lot of fun, but I ultimately decided that I like cock more."

"Huh," was all Andrea said, staring into her cup.

Nadia scooted closer to her, "You're curious aren't you." She teased.

"What? No way!" Andrea sounded defensive, Nadia could see right through her.

"You should talk to Vince, a lot of guys are open to it—Threesomes I mean." Nadia felt proud helping a young woman sort through her sexuality.

"I don't think he'd ever go for that..." She thought to herself again for a moment and then looked up at Nadia, "You wouldn't want to..."

"Want to what?.. Fool around?" Nadia balked at the idea. "I told you I'm with Jacob now, and about how much I love cock, remember?"

Andrea scooted a little closer, almost so that she was right against her. "Yeah I know, but you also said that 'eating pussy is fucking hot' and, you told me I look a lot like your ex-girlfriend Helen."

She was looking right into Nadia's eyes and smiling. God she's fucking cute. Nadia's eyes then dropped to her cleavage below and felt something stir in her she hadn't felt in years.

"You're thinking about it aren't you!" She said teasing Nadia back. "Listen, how about you just let me eat your pussy—you don't even have to touch me. That's not cheating right?" Andrea's voice sounded hopeful, but Nadia knew she had already won.

She looked away, checking her phone to delay. 4:57pm. Plenty of time for some quick pussy and then to get home by 7.

"Well one things for certain, I can't have any more vodka." Nadia said, sighing. "I guess we'll have to find something other than drinking to do right?"

Andrea grinned at her and then lunged forward and kissed Nadia with a ferver. Nadia kissed her back and her hands found their way to her breasts. She hadn't felt a woman up in nearly ten years and it was wonderful. Andrea seemed to respond fondly to her, Nadia felt herself sending tingles through Andrea's body from her fingers on her tits. She wondered about Vince's capability in the bedroom; Andrea seemed like a woman who hadn't been touched before.

As Andrea caressed Nadia's body and explored her feminine curves, Nadia turned things up a notch by sliding her hand underneath and behind Andrea's shirt and unclasping her bra. She wanted to better hold Andrea's tits, but she also felt the need to test the water and see how far she was actually comfortable going. To her surprise, Andrea purred with affection and leaned back to pull her top all the way off.

Nadia eagerly reached forward to cup Andrea's tits in her hands. They were so lovely! She had the tiniest pointy nipples on two firm breasts that by the looks of them needed no support from a bra. She was thwarted when Andrea caught her hands and blocked them. Nadia felt betrayed and thought back to this morning when she deprived Jacob in the same way, privately enjoying the irony.

"This feels a little one sided don't you think?" Andrea gestured towards Nadia's top which was still on. "I think you need to get down to my level."

Nadia couldn't agree more. She also couldn't believe that this shy girl she had met just a couple hours ago had so much spunk and personality. She wasn't lying about preferring cock, but she was getting more and more aroused at the thought of tasting Andrea's tight innocent cunt.