Blair and the Panther

by Raine Wynd

 

Chapter 1

With the ease of long practice, the intruder broke into the loft, easily bypassing the alarm. Tucking the high-tech version of lock picks into his pocket, the man stepped inside. Shutting the door, he took a careful breath, scenting the area, confirming what he needed to know.

Blair still lived here.

The intruder allowed himself to sigh in relief, once, before picking up one of the shoes near the door and throwing it at the door, triggering the alarm. Grateful the ear-splitting noise took the last of his control, the intruder carefully sat the infant-toddler carrier on the floor in the largest open space possible, curled his body around it, and let go, passing out.

*****

"What the hell…" Not finishing his sentence, Blair hastily shut off the engine of his car and got out. Police cars and an Animal Control van surrounded the area in front of the condo building housing the loft. Blair overheard someone grumbling about the November cold after a week of record highs, and the chatter reminded Blair to zip up his jacket. Holiday décor lined the storefronts of the lower level of the building, but none of it registered in Blair’s mind as he jogged toward the entrance.

He spied Simon a second before Simon saw him. "Don't you answer your phone?" Simon demanded.

"Not if it's broken," Blair explained. "I accidentally dropped it this morning and cracked the case."

"Great," Simon swore. "Listen, someone broke in to your loft. Left you a present. Want to see if you can get near him?"

"Near him? What's going on, Simon?" Blair demanded, but Simon was already maneuvering him upstairs. Blair went willingly, demanding answers Simon wasn't giving.

The door had already been kicked open. Blair stopped cold when he realized a very pissed off panther was growling at the two cops who had their guns trained on him. The panther was guarding a baby.

Off to one side, two EMTs stood ready.

Guide instinct, rusty from two and half years of disuse, abruptly rose to the fore.

"Everyone, back off," Blair ordered as he moved to stand near the panther.

"Do as he says," Simon commanded. "Lower your weapons."

Ignoring them, Blair turned to the panther. "Easy, man, easy, I'm here," he said, stroking the panther. He couldn't quite believe Jim's spirit animal was here in the flesh. "We just want to check out that baby there."

The panther turned at Blair's voice, and Blair was caught by the blue eyes. Shocked to his core by the possibility suddenly shooting through him, Blair's breath caught and he froze.

For a long moment, he was caught by the impossibility. As if sensing his hesitation, the panther leaned into him, chuffing slightly, as if annoyed that Blair wasn’t cluing in who the panther was fast enough.

Don’t panic, Blair told himself. You’ll figure this out. Just…just need a minute. Jim’s been gone for nearly two years; you can handle this. After all, they'd found enough evidence to show that Jim hadn't left willingly; yet there had never been a ransom demand or other clues to find Jim.

Exhaling slowly, Blair regained some of his balance before he spoke. “We need to make sure the baby’s okay,” Blair said. “We’ll bring her back. You just…back down, okay? I’ve got everything under control.”

The panther swished his tail, but moved to sit regally off to one side. The infant was awake but still, as if she knew already how to behave. Not wanting to linger in case the panther didn’t like his actions, Blair picked up the carrier and handed it over to the waiting paramedics.

“Probably a little dehydrated and needs a new diaper,” came the assessment a few minutes later. “Should take her to a pediatrician just to be sure she’s not ill from anything else, but she’s otherwise healthy,” the older of the two paramedics said. “Probably why that thing stepped out onto the balcony in the first place – can’t change a diaper when you have paws. We can call Social Services if you want, but if you’re willing to look after her –”

“I will,” Blair said. He’d watched Simon dig through the carrier while the baby girl was checked out and find the envelope containing her birth certificate, immunization record, and a power of attorney. Simon's eyes had widened in shock as he’d read the documents before handing them over to Blair. The documents named the child to be Justine Shea Ellison, father James Ellison, mother Nicole Glasvryn, with power of attorney over the child’s welfare given to Blair. Justine had been born nearly ten months earlier. The last document in the envelope gave Blair pause – it was a federal wildlife permit for a black panther.

“And the panther?” the guy from Animal Control asked.

“My mom has weird ideas about gifts,” Blair said. “Sorry to bother you.”

He showed the guy the permit, cheering silently when the guy looked at him dubiously before gathering up his equipment and leaving.

Within short order, the loft was cleared of all emergency responders until out of them, only Simon remained.

Simon looked at the panther, at Justine, then at Blair. “As of now, you’re on emergency family leave,” Simon said. “You’re going to need diapers and formula; I’ll get you stocked.” He turned to the panther, eyes narrowing. “Jim, if that’s you – next time I see you, I want to be able to talk to you.”

The panther nodded once in acknowledgment, shocking both men. For a heartbeat, neither said anything, but Simon – too long a captain, too long used to the concept that the impossible was possible when it came to Jim Ellison – recovered faster. Simon looked at the panther, then at Blair. “You have a week to fix this,” he told Blair. “If he’s stuck this way….”

Panther-Jim growled, sounding annoyed.

Blair studied Panther-Jim. “Not stuck,” Blair guessed. “Too tired to change back, maybe?” He got a slow nod in return.

Simon narrowed his eyes. “Three days then.”

Jim made a noise that sounded like acknowledgment.

“I’ll be back with what you need for the baby,” Simon declared, and exited before Blair could protest.

Left alone, Blair took a deep breath. “You want something to eat, or do you want to sleep?” he asked Panther-Jim.

Panther-Jim nudged him towards the kitchen. Chuckling, Blair took the hint. He’d wait to ask questions later, when Jim was back to normal, though he had an educated guess as to what happened. The only real question was if and when whoever masterminded the operation would be back to reclaim their experiment. Hopefully, they wouldn't be.

Shutting that depressing line of thought off, Blair returned his attention to the hungry panther in his kitchen, and tried to be grateful that Jim was back, and relatively unscathed.

Chapter 2

To Blair's surprise, the next several hours passed quickly. Having to pay attention to Justine helped distract Blair from focusing too deeply on questions Jim couldn't answer, though it didn't stop Blair from talking aloud. Blair found that if he acted as if Jim was still in the room – albeit in a different form – he could deal with this change better.

After dinner, Panther-Jim curled back around the carrier, and fell asleep. Since the carrier was the only available crib-like surface, Blair decided to put Justine back into it. Tomorrow, he would go buy baby furniture. The rest of the night passed fairly quietly. Despite having to get up every few hours to tend to Justine, Blair felt far more rested knowing that Jim was back.

At six-thirty, Blair’s alarm woke him, and he rose to check on Justine, who eyed him with a bit of annoyance at being wakened by the alarm. Just before she could scream, her father’s tail poked her, and she swallowed the cry at the sudden poke.

With what sounded suspiciously like the feline version of a laugh, Panther-Jim stretched. Then, taking a deep breath, the panther rose up on all fours, then shook himself. As Blair watched, the air seemed to shimmer around the animal, then rippled in waves as Jim transformed back to human, head first.

Naked, Jim paused a moment, as if he needed to reorient his sense of balance before he stood.

“Morning, Chief,” he greeted Blair. “Do I still have clothes here?”

Shock froze Blair temporarily, but he found his voice. “Yeah, upstairs. I couldn’t bring myself to get rid anything – I knew you’d be back.” Swallowing, Blair added, “Your robe’s still hanging on the back of the bathroom door.”

Jim nodded. “Thanks.” He smiled briefly, then headed to the bathroom.

Twenty-five minutes later, Jim was showered and dressed in jeans and a gray T-shirt. The clothes he’d stashed under the coffee table had been retrieved and put in the laundry hamper. Blair was in the kitchen, trying to get Justine to accept the formula he’d mixed up, but Justine wasn’t having any of it.

“What’s wrong?” Blair asked, hearing Jim’s footsteps. “She liked this just fine last night.”

“She’s picky,” Jim offered. “Here, hand her over.”

Transferring Justine to her father, Blair waited until Jim had her settled before handing the bottle over. Instantly, Justine started drinking.

“I see how I rate this equation,” Blair joked dryly. “Coffee?”

Jim shook his head. “Not yet. After she’s settled.” Easily, he maneuvered himself so that he could sit comfortably at the breakfast bar while still holding his daughter.

“You want anything to eat?” Blair asked, fumbling for something to do.

“I don’t eat like I used to,” Jim admitted. “Give me an hour or two, and my stomach will catch up to the fact I’m human again.”

“What the hell happened?”

Jim sighed. “Remember how you kept telling me you felt weirded out by something, but you couldn’t figure out what it was?”

Blair stared at him. “Yeah? What, there was another Guide in town?”

“Not just him. Evan Winters brought his Sentinel along, a bitch named Christie Hall. They’d figured out some of the writing in one of the pyramids meant something completely different than what everyone else thought it was, and if you find the right chains, the right combinations of potions and drugs, you too can force your Sentinel to shapeshift. They were going through cities, kidnapping Sentinels and Guides, and experimenting on them.”

Blair’s eyes widened. “How many did they take?”

“There were twelve pairs, and then there was Nicole and me. They believed me when I said my Guide was dead; for some reason, they didn’t know about you, and I didn’t feel like disabusing them of the notion. Nicole had the misfortune of being kidnapped just because they didn’t want to leave a witness behind. Then they figured out she was a Sentinel.”

“Oh, God. Where were you held?”

“Somewhere in Utah,” Jim said. “There’s not even a town name associated with it anymore. The agents who busted the operations said it was the kind of place you’d only know about if you grew up around there. I was transported to a small airport with service to Salt Lake City, and then given tickets to fly Justine and me home.”

“Is everyone OK?”

Jim didn’t reply while he took care of Justine, who’d finished her bottle. Once he had Justine burped, he handed the bottle to Blair, then made sure Justine was more comfortable. “Justine and I are the only survivors. Nicole died giving birth.” Jim glanced at Blair. “Not to Justine – Evan and Christi raped her, trying to force Nicole to shift, and women just aren’t designed to birth jackal cubs.”

Blair studied his friend. Grief was overshadowed by a kind of satisfaction, and Blair knew without asking that Evan and Christi were dead, likely by Jim’s hand. “How’d the feds get involved?”

“Nicole’s best friend, Mike, was a high-level profiler who consulted for the FBI, among others. When Mike and Nicole were kidnapped, it triggered an alert, and someone started figuring out what happened. The people behind it are dead – they refused to surrender to the police.” Jim let out a breath. “In a lot of ways, I’m glad no one else survived.”

Taken aback, Blair asked, “Why?”

“Because I still have a Guide,” Jim said. He offered Blair a tired smile. “If there’s one thing I learned, it’s a Sentinel won’t live long without a Guide.”

Never slow on the draw, Blair’s mind raced with the implications. “And a shapeshifting one could get trapped without someone to remind him to be human – oh, man. How often do you shift?”

“Without a Guide, I can stay human for seventy-two hours.”

“And with one? No, wait,  you said Nicole was a Sentinel, so...not really a Guide, more like someone who understood what was happening?”

Jim smiled crookedly. “Longest I could stay was eight days. Nicole was…” He exhaled. “She cared about me; that got us by a lot.” Jim looked at his Guide sharply. “Don’t regret not being there – ever. Those dreams you’ve been having, where you’ve seen the worst happening –”

Blair paled, remembering the last one. “Incacha said it was over, that I should be patient. That was a week ago, but I kept dreaming about how they tortured –” Blair steadied himself deliberately. “Are you going to see a counselor about what happened?”

Jim nodded. “Just like seeing the PD shrink after a shooting,” he tried to joke, but both men knew he wasn’t treating it lightly.

“Jim –” Blair started to say, but Jim shook his head.

“Life is too short for those kinds of wishes,” Jim said softly. “I know what I want to do, and what I want.”

“And what is that?”

“Raise my daughter,” Jim said firmly. “Live here with you. Be a cop again. Figure out what being a guy who can turn into a panther means. See what you’ve learned about being a shaman – I can tell you’ve been studying. You feel more connected to the earth than you used to be.”

Blair studied him, surprised at how calm Jim was. He reached out to brush Justine’s head, and was shocked at the surge of emotion he felt. “I was getting pretty desperate, running out of ideas to find you. Then Dan Wolf’s uncle came to the station, saying he had to talk to me, and…” Blair shrugged sheepishly. “You know how I can’t resist learning. How can you tell? No, wait – let me guess, when you’re the panther, you read energy differently.”

Jim nodded.

Blair let out a breath. “So now what?”

“Now we get what Justine needs,” Jim pointed out practically. “Unless you have a better plan?”

Blair shook his head. “Want me to see who’s available to help move furniture?”

Jim smiled, nodding his head again.

Blair studied him a moment. They were going to be all right, he decided. It would take some time and effort, but everything would be work out. Jim was home. Everything else was just details.

The End