Bethany jolted awake in a strange, bloodstained bedroom. Not her own. The foul, rancid smell that permeated the stained carpet hit her full in the face, and she gagged, her stomach pitching and rolling. She shoved her palms into her closed eyes and tried to order her chaotic thoughts.
Her mind leaped back in time to her date with Nick. She didn't know if their date had been last night or a dozen nights ago. She remembered the terrifying feeling of being followed. Her heart stuttered as she remembered the attacking lions. Lions in East Austin? Ridiculous. But she knew it wasn't a dream. Knew, that as impossible as it seemed, they'd been attacked.
Never one to shy away from reality—no matter how painful—Bethany recounted everything that had happened, each little detail. An escape from the zoo didn't explain the actions of the lions. Was someone controlling them? A trainer or tamer who was out to get Nick?
Oh, God, where was Nick? The thought that the lions had killed him spun through her mind and soured her stomach even more. He had shoved her out of the way. Protected her. Her first thought should have been of him.
She forced her mind back to the present when all she wanted to do was relive the past in a merry-go-round flash of memories. This place, this apartment reminded her of the tour her fifth-grade class had taken of a slaughterhouse.
Rotting meat.
Her eyes burned and watered as she uncurled from the floor and peered through the dimly lit room. A shredded twin mattress slumped in the corner, a broken crate keeping it company. A small, high-to-the-ceiling window revealed that the sun was up, but the pane was far too small to squeeze through even if she could somehow climb up there. She scratched at the back of her neck. Her fingernails came away packed with dried blood, but she didn't feel any wounds where the lion had bit her. The blood-soaked carpet squished beneath her body as she pushed herself up on her knees and forced herself to stand on wobbly legs.
Seeing no other means of escape, she tried the door. The knob turned easily in her hand. Blessedly unlocked. Thinking better of opening it only to be confronted by another nightmare, she pressed her ear to the warped paneling and listened for several minutes. Nothing but silence. With a shaking hand, she opened the door a crack.
Her breath caught. She stifled a gasp.
Her bedroom opened onto a living room. A lion slept with his furry head resting on giant paws, his thick tail curved over his hind legs. Bits and chunks of meat and gnawed bone littered the room. From the shredded clothing and recognizable body parts, she knew the lion's leftovers were human remains. A shudder went through her. She couldn't avoid the thought that Nick might be there among the mostly eaten corpses.
Tears leaked down her face, unnoticed until they dripped onto the rhinestone buckles on her sandals. The drip-drip sounded loud and terrifying. Keep it together, she admonished herself. Get out. Then you can fall apart.
The faded gray door, across the graveyard of a living room, looked like it should let her outdoors or into an outer hallway of the building. She crept across the living room, stepping over and around the gore, watching, listening to the lion's breathing. The outer door loomed just a couple of yards away. So close. Her entire body shook with the need to bolt, but she refused to give in to her panic. One slow step across the blood-stained carpet at a time. Pause. Listen. Wait. Then another step and another.
The lion's tail twitched. Bethany's knees tried to buckle beneath her but she refused to go down. She took another step and was finally at the door.
Never wake a sleeping lion, she thought as she grabbed the doorknob, twisted, and pulled. She put one foot over the threshold. The lion leaped across the room. Knocking her away from the door, he chuffed as if reprimanding her. She stumbled back, tripped, and fell into something smelly and slimy.
Tail twitching, the lion advanced on her. She scrambled back to her feet, unable to take her eyes off the great beast as it stalked her across the room. Blood stained the fur around his mouth. When her back thumped up against the wall, he chuffed loudly and jerked his shaggy head toward the bedroom. Whimpering, Bethany followed what she thought was his lead and inched into the room.
He filled the doorway. The lion's body twitched and shuddered. The hair on Bethany's arms and the back of her neck stood on end. She fought to breathe as the lion transformed. Fur receded into pink skin. Paws into hands. His large rectangular head grew small and round. His mane gave way to a shaved human head. The change took seconds. And then a generic white man—a very, very naked man—rose to his feet and stood over her. One corner of his mouth lifted. "Shift."
His one-word command zinged through her like an electric current. He grabbed her, flipped her over so that she was on her hands and knees, and blanketed her body with his. Fear broke over her, taking control of her shivering body. His chest pressed against her back, and he snuffled aside her hair. His canines punctured her skin and sunk deep.
"No." Bethany didn't know, couldn't tell if she said the word aloud.
Pain and adrenaline poured into her bloodstream. Her heart raced and her muscles jumped. An alien presence ate her from the inside out, filling her with the animalistic instinct to submit. She fought the urge. She fought the command inside her head. Grinding her teeth, she blinked back the tears forming in her eyes. She fought him, fought herself, but her body was no longer her own. Her waking nightmare twisted into something horrific as her muscles twitched and then jumped under her skin. Claws burst through her fingertips. Tendons snapped and popped.
Her muscles stretched and reshaped. Her throat reformed, strangling her scream. Her bones broke and transformed. Fur sprouted and spread over her transforming body. In a matter of seconds, she'd changed…shifted into a lioness.
Her mind had shifted, too. But the lioness hadn't simply taken over her body, she had taken over her mind. As if Bethany had two personalities, one side of her—the side she knew as herself—whimpered in fear as she looked down at her own huge forepaws standing on her sandals. The other new alien, animalistic side pushed her human self away and simply took over.
She squirmed out of her clothes and spun to see the lion man now standing across the room. She tensed and pounced. He quickly stepped back and slammed the door in her face. She snarled, her long tail lashing back and forth, and then sat and stared at the door, waiting. When the lion man didn't return, the lioness slowly receded from her mind.
Regaining a smidgen of control, Bethany beat down her panic and closed her eyes to picture her human self. She could not, would not stay like this. She was not an animal.
Like magic, the lioness receded, and her body shifted back to her human form, her spine popping, fur thinning, pressure crowding around her nose and throat. For a terrifying instant, she could not breathe. Then it was done. She was human again.
Naked and trembling, she felt as if she had been reborn as a monster. After that, days passed at a turtle's pace. Bethany accepted the truth. Knew that somehow fantasy had become her reality. She faced the fact head-on, not allowing for cowardice. She had survived worse when she was just a child. She would live through this too.