Transformed Chapter SixA Chapter by Tabitha M.Larissa didn't know how long she'd slept but when she awakened, Tyko was just walking in with more food and medicine in his hands. "How are you feeling Mange?" he asked, handing her the bowl of stew and a piece of bread. Her mouth watered immediately. "Fantastic," she said, no sarcasm evident in her voice this time. She dipped her bread in the thick broth. They were silent as Larissa started to eat. "He got away," he said after several long moments of silence. "The doctor. They couldn't catch him. It would have caused too much commotion at the hospital." Larissa gulped, putting her spoon down. Her appetite vanished. "Is he looking for me?" Tyko shook his head. "Nah, he doesn't need you anymore. He got what he wanted." "My DNA?" she asked. He nodded. "What did he need it for anyway?" She pushed the bowl away. Tyko took a deep breath. "It's a really long story, so to shorten it-he's broken." She raised her eyebrow in question. "The doctor is a shifter, like you and me," he said. "Before our time, of course, so the scientists weren't as good as they were with you and me. And something went wrong with his DNA later on. Like the mutation just went away. And he's been trying to fix himself." "And my DNA is going to fix him?" "Who knows?" he said with a shrug. "He hasn't found a cure yet. We don't know what he has planned. Anything could happen." Anything could happen. Those words rang in her head. Nothing could be more true than those three words. "But you're safe now," he said, blinding her with a smile. She returned his smile, though it didn't reach her eyes. "How did you know to find me?" "Remember Deidre? The panther?" Larissa nodded. "Yeah." She chuckled. "She said I was beautiful." "I'm not disagreeing with that," he said with a flirtatious grin. She felt her cheeks grow warm and tried to hide them by shoveling some stew in her mouth. She knew he was lying to make her feel better, but it still made her insides go a flutter. He paused till his laughter faded. "Deidre is our spy. She's on our side." She almost spit her stew out. "Seriously?" Tyko smiled. "Yeah. If she was normal, she'd be a famous actress by now." He thought a moment and chuckled somewhat darkly. "Everything would be so different if we were normal. But I wouldn't trade this for anything." His eyes grew distant as he reminisced on a forgotten memory. "I can't finish this," she said passing the bowl to him and gaining his attention. "It's too much." "You'll be able to eat more once you start eating on a regular basis again," he said setting the bowl on the floor by his feet. "Here's your antibiotic and pain killer." He passed them to her along with a glass of water. She downed them easily. "So where are we exactly?" Larissa asked, wiping a droplet from the corner of her mouth. "The middle of nowhere," he chuckled. "About twenty miles from the hospital. We're on a farm. Sort of." "Explain," she said leaning back lacing her fingers in her lap. "I want to know everything." He took a deep breath. "So, this farm house was built by Keema's family, and she inherited it. Keema doesn't stay here all the time, but she owns all of this land. You'll meet her eventually. And when Luther, an older shifter, found Keema, they got together and decided to use this place to house shifters. To help them train, and give housing, and work, and whatever else they needed. We're kinda like a mini army. Or the Justice League. Or the X-Men. Or something else similar. Luther runs this place, handles the finances, makes the grocery lists. He's basically a house wife." Tyko chuckled at his comparison. "Everything was fine until Doctor Evil came along. Or so I hear anyway, I wasn't around then. And we're trying to find a way to stop him. What he is doing is wrong. But we haven't figured out a way to put an end to it." "Kill him?" Larissa said. "Seems like a good option to me." He laughed. "It's not that easy. Especially with how modern and high tech the world is now. He's a well known, and good doctor. His disappearance wouldn't go unnoticed. So, we can't just up and kill him. Too suspicious. We'd get caught." Her brows knotted as she mulled that over. "But don't worry about that now," he urged. "I want you to meet everybody and feel at home here. We're all pretty close here." "How many is "we"?" she asked, tossing the blanket from her body, readying to stand. He grinned. "I've lost count. They come and go. But there's ten that stay here all the time." He reached his hand out to help her stand. She didn't need it, but she took it anyway and was surprised at how warm he was. Her leg didn't hurt, but the uncomfortable tugging of her stitches kept her pace at a stiff limp. They made small chit chat as he led her down the hall. The hall was kind of long, with five other doors besides her own. They didn't stop at any of them, but once they cleared the hallway they walked into a living room/study area. There was three people, a boy, who was sprawled out on a blue couch reading a book that looked as if it was about to fall apart. A girl sat on the floor, appearing to be doing homework. Her brow was knotted in intense concentration. Another boy was on the computer, dodging back and forth as he played some kind of game. Tyko glanced around, waiting to be noticed. When he wasn't, he cleared his throat loudly, startling all three. "She's awake!" the girl on the floor said, a smile lighting her face. "Everybody, this is Mange. Er, Larissa," he corrected. He introduced the boy with the book as Mark, the girl as Trish, and the other boy as Carter. "Trish is a med student," he explained. "She's the one helping with your recovery. And she was there when we rescued you. Gave you the shot and cleaned your wounds." Larissa gave her a shy smile. "Thanks," she said, "a lot. Guess I'd be dead without you." Trish threw her blonde hair over her shoulder, and gave her a big grin. "It was my pleasure." Mark and Carter both greeted her warmly, welcoming her into their home, wishing her the best of luck with her new life. Tyko led her down another hall and up some stairs. They led to a dinning room, but it was empty. He took her through a door towards the back of the room, which took them to the rather large kitchen. Inside was a woman, busy washing dishes while also putting away left overs. Of course, Larissa thought, multitasking is probably easy when you have four pairs of arms. "This is Cressida," Tyko said. "She's kind of like our mom. She's been cooking your food." "Except that damn oatmeal," Cressida said, turning away from her work to look Larissa up and down and give her a smile. Cressida wasn't old, just older than Larissa, maybe in her thirties. Her brown hair, starting to show hints of gray, was pulled into a bun with a few strands having fallen loose. She had a certain air about her that seemed very nurturing. "Tyko made that instant crap. I would have made it myself, but he insisted." "I wanted to make it myself," he said scratching his head awkwardly. Cressida smiled at him and ruffled his hair. "You're a sweet boy." She gave Larissa a wink. "I'd keep him around if I were you." Larissa blushed and gave a nervous laugh. Tyko grabbed her wrist and pulled her along behind him. "We'll be leaving now." Cressida laughed and returned to her work, mumbling something about crazy kids. "Why does she have eight arms?" Larissa asked as Tyko dragged her around the house. "We don't really know," he answered. "She was one of the first shifters. But after she shifted, she couldn't shift back. She never was able too. Guess they hadn't perfected the gene splicing at that point. We think she's part spider, but we're not completely sure. It's just a guess. All she has is the arms." "Maybe she's an octopus," Larissa mused. She managed to get used to the tugging stitches, making it easier to keep up with Tyko. He was awfully speedy. She figured that came with being part cheetah. "Maybe," he mused. He took her back down the stairs, weaved through Trish, Mark, and Carter, down another hallway, and down more stairs. "This place needs elevators," Larissa whined, her weak body starting to tire. "I completely agree," Tyko said as they came to their destination. It was another living room area with three couches and one of the biggest TV's she'd ever seen, which had Animal Planet on. Five people were in the in room, all sitting on the couches. He started from the left and worked his way to the right as he introduced them. "This is Ant," a large guy with bulging muscles. "And Sheena," a very pretty young woman with several different colors in her hair. The next girl looked like a super model, tall, tan, thin, and flat. He introduced her as, "Teamka." The last two were Oliver and Olivia. Twins. Both had sandy hair and green eyes. Actually, the only difference between them seemed to be their genders. "The poor gazelles always get it," Teamka said shaking her head sadly as a cheetah wrestled the gazelle to the ground. "Hey, cheetahs gotta eat too," Tyko said with a teasing smile. Teamka shot him a glare. He shrugged. "What can I say? I'm a carnivore." He put his arm around Larissa's waist and pulled her beside him with a grin. "And so is Larissa. She eats your kind too." Teamka turned her glare to Larissa. Larissa gave her an awkward smile. "Yum?" Teamka huffed and turned her attention back to the TV. Everybody laughed and Teamka turned the channel, steaming quietly. "It's nice to meet you, Larissa," Sheena said giving her a warm smile. "I'm glad you're okay. Are you going to be living here too?" "Um..." The question caught her off guard. She looked up at Tyko, but his eyes held the same question, so he wasn't much help. "I guess," she said finally. "I mean, I don't have anywhere else to go." Sheena seemed pleased with her answer, as did Tyko. They both grinned at her. The room broke out in conversation and laughter. Larissa didn't say much, only speaking when spoken to. Her body was growing weary. She didn't know her way back to her room, and she didn't want to make Tyko leave his friends just for her. She ignored her body's longing for the bed, turning her thoughts toward her new life. She didn't know what to think or expect. Everything was changing so fast. Was she to live the rest of her life in this house? What would she do here? Everyone seemed really close here, like Tyko had said before, and Larissa wasn't very good with companionship...but everything else in her life was changing. Maybe she would change a little too. Time to start a new chapter, she decided. © 2015 Tabitha M. |
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Added on March 22, 2015 Last Updated on March 22, 2015 Tags: fantasy, shapeshifters, romance Author
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