Panthera Spelaea

Art finished directing his leadership on their subsequent actions before dismissing them from his office. There was a lot of work to be done, and the traitor’s cooperation would be needed. I didn’t ask what Art would do to her and her sister; it wasn’t my problem. Olivia had her lunch delivered with Anna’s in my room, wanting more time with her new friends.

We moved to his private dining room for lunch, just aft of his office. The four switchers in the world right now sat down at the small table. We were heading southeast at high speed, and it was too windy on deck for comfort. Art waited until we’d been served, then told the stewards to remain out until he called for them. “There’s one more thing we need to talk about.”

“The Eagle,” I replied.

“Yes. You did well in collecting it and returning it to us. I’m curious why you didn’t have one of your girls touch it, especially Svetlana with her injuries.”

Duncan looked at me from across the table. “I’d like to hear this as well. I don’t know if I could have resisted if it had been Olivia.”

“When I stuffed the carcass into the backpack, I didn’t know about Svetlana’s gunshot wound. When I did, I was too focused on stopping the bleeding. Honestly, I forgot about everything else for the moment, including Ekatarina’s eagle. I wanted to get her to the Doctor, and we did that.”

“What if she was too wounded to pull through surgery?”

I shrugged. “If there was no other choice, I might have done it. I was confident that if Doc could stabilize her, I could heal her. That’s what happened, so what-ifs are meaningless.”

Edward was shocked by this. “You wouldn’t want her to be a Switcher like you?”

I thought about it for a moment before replying. “It’s a little selfish, but no. Svetlana already has most of the benefits; she will live without aging, can’t get sick, and her injuries today will heal as if they never occurred. The only thing she doesn’t have is a beast. I could see how flying around would be fun once the minds melded together, but what about my Lion’s reaction? Would he still be mated to Svetlana, or would her Eagle choose another?”

“I don’t know,” Art said. “There’s never been a mating of two Switchers.”

“That we know of,” Edward added. “It’s not like our history is well-researched.”

“And it doesn’t matter now. Svetlana is healing up, and the Eagle is in the freezer.” I went back to eating my prawns in red chili sauce; the chef on board was fantastic.

Art picked up from there. “That is the opportunity we’ve never had before, gentlemen. Until now, changes in Switchers have been the result of luck,” he nodded to me, “or proximity to a family member when the switcher dies. The Eagle represents an opportunity to select the next member of our exclusive group.”

“John was the one who recovered the Eagle; by all rights, he should select the next recipient,” Edward said.

“This isn’t a contest,” Duncan replied. “The Eagle deserves a new host. The longer we delay, the more of a chance there is that we lose control of the choice. Ten million dollars was enough to flip loyal family members. How much more would Mikhail offer for that backpack?”

“As much as it takes,” I replied. “I agree; the backpack is both an opportunity and a risk. We should get a new host before we have another Todd situation.”

“I hate fucking Todds,” Edward agreed. “But who? The only people on board are Art’s family. I’m sure there are good choices, but I can think of several candidates. I’m sure Duncan can, too.”

“I have some ideas,” Duncan agreed. “John is right; we need to take advantage of this opportunity to bring in a Switcher who makes our group better. The real question is, what do we look for?”

“Looking around the table, I’ve learned a lot from how you’ve all lived,” I said. “Ekatarina and Edward are loners, never mated, and moving around. Both made enough money to live comfortably, but what did they accomplish? Is the world as a whole better because of you, or did you exist?”

“That’s a little unfair,” Edward said. “My first responsibility is to myself, and then to this group. It’s not easy living without aging. Avoiding notoriety and moving every decade or two keeps the secret.”

“It does, but shouldn’t there be more to immortality than existing?”

“I’ve built up a family empire and fortune,” Art said. “I can’t save the world, but I’ve done my best to make sure my family had education and opportunities. Thousands work in my companies, even though I have to work and live like a recluse. Doesn’t that count for something?”

“Family is how the rest of the world seeks to live beyond their lifetime,” Duncan said. “It rarely extends beyond a generation or two. Olivia and I have dozens of children and hundreds of grandchildren and beyond, but only two know we are alive. We don’t get to share in their accomplishments, but we know they are making the world better.”

“I’m a scientist,” I said. “Paleobiology can help us understand what happened in the past, but it isn’t much for our future. I think Svetlana and Anna, both nurses, have a better shot at making the world a better place than I do. What can they do with immortality? Both can become doctors, maybe researchers? How much could a medical professional learn in a lifetime, much less multiple lifetimes? That’s what I’m getting at. If we’re going to pick someone, we should choose a person who can help us AND the world.”

“Someone with morals and a desire to help others,” Edward agreed. “Someone willing to work together with us.”

“And someone who can handle both the Eagle and immortality,” Duncan said.

“And someone who can disappear from the world while the Gift works,” Edward added.

The challenge was apparent to all. “Look, I’m the new guy. I can’t make this choice alone because I’m not the one who knows what to look for.”

No one said anything for a bit as we thought about it. Art finally spoke up. “What we’re talking about is a job interview. We bring in candidates, test and interview them, and select the best person for the job. What if each of us picked one male and one female candidate. My people will bring them here, and we can go from there.”

“And John gets to pick,” Edward asked?

“No,” I answered. “I would prefer a consensus, but we should at least have a majority vote of the immortals on board.”

“Not switchers?”

“The seven of us,” meaning the four switchers and the three mates, “are the ones who will be working with the Eagle in the future. I know this gives my triad three votes, but it isn’t enough to force through a candidate alone.”

Edward nodded. “I can live with that. It’s better than having it all on you.”

There was some discussion over leaving the mates out for fairness, but Art eventually agreed. “Get me the names of the people you’d like to propose, and I’ll start bringing them in. We deal with Mikhail first, and then we’ll have time to do this properly.”

There was a knock on the door before Olivia came back in. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but Anna wants John in their cabin for the next (air quotes) ‘treatment.’” The others broke out laughing, knowing what that entailed. Even Olivia couldn’t help laughing with us.

“We can’t go against the Doctor’s orders,” I said with a grin. “I’ll be back later.”

“Take your time,” Art said. “Talk to the girls about candidates, and spend the afternoon with your mates. They need it after this morning.”

It was good advice, and I would.

Four hours later, Svetlana had Anna screaming out her fourth orgasm as she sucked her last medically required ‘treatment’ out of her. By then, the gunshot wound healed up except for the scar, and Svetlana was both thankful and horny. Anna had been servicing me without reward all day, and the two of us decided to change it. I had the girls go into a sixty-nine on the bed, then pounded Anna from behind to two orgasms before coming deep inside her on her third. Svetlana rolled Anna under her, then dove back in. She had been licking her the whole time and doubled her efforts to clean it all out. By the time she was clean as a whistle, she’d cum one more time and collapsed back onto the bed.

I’d recovered enough to enter Svetlana by then, and we made love in the missionary position next to her as Anna recovered. When I’d taken good care of both of my mates, I laid on my back and pulled them into my sides. “Any ideas on candidates?”

I’d talked to them about the meeting and the decisions we’d made. “I have no idea,” Anna said. “I can think of Medical School Professors or Doctors I’ve worked with, but I don’t know them on a personal level.”

Svetlana snuggled in. “I’d say my parents, but I know I’m selfish. I don’t want to lose them as time goes on. It would be awkward watching them age in reverse until they look like my classmates.”

“I know what you mean,” I replied. “I love my Mom too, but family means everything to her. If I picked her, she’d have to watch us and her grandchildren grow old and die, and she’d hate that. My Dad doesn’t work with me now, so he’s out. Patrick and Melanie are still in school, but Melanie might be a good choice.”

“She’s in graduate school, right?”

“Yes, she’s at the Wharton School of Business. Melanie’s good with people, honest, and intelligent. She’s the best choice to take over the family business.”

“And Art is already our business guy,” Svetlana said with a sigh.

“Yeah. In Melanie’s favor, our family loyalty is already in place for me, and the Gift won’t change her appearance enough to require changing identities soon.”

“I’m good with Melanie as our female choice, and now we need a guy,” Anna said.

“Jason Mamoa would be good,” Svetlana teased. “Maybe Jeremy Renner? Hawkeye would be cool as an Eagle Switcher.”

Anna smacked her arm. “No one famous, remember?” We still hadn’t picked out anyone before dinner.