Panthera Spelaea

Breakfast was a relatively quiet affair; we couldn’t speak openly with Consuela and the other maid around, and Mom was still getting over the shock of finding out her daughter turned into an Eagle. Consuela made my favorite breakfast burritos, and I showed the girls how to dip them in fresh Texas salsa. Svetlana took a bite, and her eyes got wide. She swallowed it quickly, then drank half a glass of milk. “That stuff is HOT!”

“No, this is the hot stuff,” I said as I pointed out the green salsa. “I figured you could work up to it.”

“Where is the mild,” Anna asked after tasting a tiny bit.

“Wimp,” I told her as I passed a different bowl over.

“John Jacob Cantwell, you quit teasing the girls,” Mom said. She used my full name, so she wasn’t kidding. The next step was the wooden spoon.

“But Mom! They made me eat all the Russian foods, so it’s only fair I introduce them to proper Tex-Mex!”

“Don’t take any crap from him,” Mom told my mates. “He pranked his sisters all the time. It takes some time to get used to the genuinely hot foods, and he knows it.”

“Busted,” Melanie said as she reached for another burrito. We went back to eating, and I know Mom and Dad were shocked by the amount of food their children were putting away. “There’s nothing like Consuela’s cooking,” Melanie said when asked about it.

We finished up and followed my father into his study. “I doubt anything will shock me after last night,” he said as he sat with Mom.

“Stand by,” Mom whispered.

Melanie went to sit on Dad’s other side, the three of them squeezing into the love seat. It turned out to be a good call; as I went through my tales about Russia, she helped keep Dad calmed down. Even Mom, who had been there with me, was shocked at what I’d been going through without her. “You could have told me!”

“The Russian security services had me under constant surveillance,” I said. “I had the girls, and we managed.”

“I had no idea how close I was to losing you,” Dad said. “I always believed there was no evidence, and they would clear you.”

“Eventually, I was, but there was more behind my treatment than a search for justice.” That would have to wait as I started to explain how the relationships developed between me, my lion, and my two mates. “It’s more than love; it’s a deep attachment I share with my Cave Lion with them.”

Mom was crying, soon rushing over and hugging Anna. We’d confessed to our triune relationship and dual pregnancies last night, but hearing about her son’s love for the girls had her verklempt. She was happy to hear about Svetlana’s parents and their acceptance of it. She’d get the marriage ceremony here in Texas since we couldn’t go back to Russia and the legal status. Anna was an orphan and would be live as a concubine, not a wife. “It’s not fair,” she said as she wiped her tears. “You should get a special day as well.”

“It’s all right,” Anna said as she hugged her back. “I have John and Lana, and the rest doesn’t matter.”

“Still, I want to do something special for you after the wedding.” She reached across me to touch Svetlana’s hand. “I’d like to speak to your parents. I’m sure your Mom isn’t happy about a wedding halfway around the world, and we have a lot of planning to do together. I assume you want to get married in the next month or two?”

I could see the gears going around. Mom knew we’d want to get married quickly before Svetlana’s pregnancy became obvious. Svetlana agreed. “We can see if my parents, or at least Mom, can visit us here. Could we do things over the phone for a few weeks so we can get settled?”

“The sooner, the better. Do you have any idea how much work goes into a wedding? Nadezna and I will need to spend a lot of time with the girls getting everything done.”

“I don’t think it will be THAT bad,” Svetlana replied. “I don’t want a huge production of a wedding. The press is still after us, plus all the people who still think John is a killer. It wasn’t long ago that we were hiding out in the woods from everyone. I’d prefer something small and private, with family and close friends. Perhaps we could do it here? Maybe in the back?”

Mom’s head was spinning with ideas. It provided a good distraction while I continued with the story, culminating in the court hearing and the dinner with Sergei and Nadezna in Moscow. “After dinner, we returned to our room to find a woman waiting for us. It was Ekatarina, the Winter Palace Eagle.” Mom’s eyes bugged out as I gave them the short version of her story. “Ekatarina was the first Switcher we met, but the surveillance on us spotted her. My lawyer, Marina, told us of the danger and got us out of town before the police could get to us.”

“I thought the police had nothing on you,” Dad said. “The Judge released you!”

“The Lead Investigator was also working for someone else. Mikhail Abrahmov’s grandmother was there in the Winter Palace when Ekatarina got her Eagle. He knows about switchers, and he suspected I was one. He was willing to kill me to get it.”

“Abrahmov’s dead,” Dad said. “I read about it a few days ago. His helicopter exploded in midair.”

“He was dying of cancer, Dad. When a Switcher comes into you, your body heals. Keep that in mind as I tell you what happened in Europe.” I told them about our flight to Sardinia, then our welcome aboard the Elements. “Art Karpen is the Cave Bear switcher, Dad. He’s been alive for five and a half centuries and still looks my age.”

Melanie giggled about ten seconds later. “Third time we’ve shut them up,” she said.

“Art Karpen? Art Karpen of Karpen Investments? The recluse who never leaves his boat?”

“That’s him. The whole ‘hiding from the world’ thing is a ruse; it’s a way to keep the world from noticing he never ages. His senior executives and crew are all trusted family members, either his sons, daughters, or children of previous ones over the years. He’s got hundreds of relatives working directly for him or working in key real-world positions and reporting back to him. Judges, politicians, law enforcement, he’s got tentacles in it all. Marina is Art’s granddaughter. Art arranged for Mom to hire her because he suspected I was a Switcher.”

I kept the tale going, with the other Switchers arriving and some of the things I learned about our kind from them. I’d talked with the girls about names; we only used Duncan’s and Edward’s first names since they weren’t famous. There were stories about Art in the news, so we didn’t hide his identity.

Melanie had to calm her parents down when we told the story of the mercenary attack and again with Todd and his ten-million-dollar betrayal. “Your Gift is worth that much?”

“Entire expeditions launched and died seeking the Fountain of Youth,” I said. “The Gift is all that plus immortality. I can’t get sick, I heal from injuries quickly, and I never age.”

The implication hit Mom. “What about the girls? What good is immortality if you watch them grow old and die?”

Anna took this one. “The true mate of a Switcher gains some of his Gift,” she said. “As long as we are with John, we’ll stay at peak health and never age. Our children, our friends, and our family will not. They will grow old and die while we don’t.”

“You’ll watch your babies die?”

“It’s the way it works,” I said. “Duncan fakes their deaths when his children are old enough, leaving them an inheritance. They disappear and start living under new identities somewhere far away, repeating the cycle every twenty-five years or so. Art hides from the world, and only trusted family members know his secret.”

“What did Edward and Ekatarina do?”

“They didn’t find mates. Edward is still looking for his.” I continued the story with my near-death at the hands of Mikhail’s son. “The Eagle didn’t like Todd and wanted another human.”

“Who?”

“We decided as a group to put up candidates and decide who would get Eagle Gift,” I replied.

Melanie held her father’s hand tightly for this part. “That’s why I flew off to Europe. John nominated me, and Art’s people told me it was an internship opportunity. I didn’t expect I’d be kidnapped shortly after arriving in Split, Croatia.”

Dad was pissed, but Mom calmed him down. “She’s fine now, dear. Let them tell the story.” I told them about our plan to draw Mikhail to the island and how Mikhail taking Melanie flipped that around. It was tense at the part about Melanie held at gunpoint, and I could see the white knuckles when I described the showdown with Mikhail and his son.

“John and the Liger killed Vasili, but he killed me first,” Melanie said. “The shotgun blast took out half my throat. I could feel my blood pouring out and the blackness coming for me. I couldn’t even say goodbye.”

“We had the Eagle carcass, and I shoved her hand into the feathers. Instantly, she switched into the Eagle, and the Gift healed her from the fatal wound. She’s a Switcher now. This morning, she had her first flight.”

Mom reached her hand over. “And scared the crap out of Mom when she landed and switched back!”

“I did,” Melanie said with a laugh. “Being an Eagle, it’s indescribable. I felt so free up there!”

“Like I feel when I’m running through the woods,” I agreed.

“Or we feel when we’re riding on his lion’s back,” Svetlana said.

I finished up the morning by talking about what happened after Mikhail died. “It turned out that Art and Edward were more devious than we thought. Mikhail knew Melanie was coming from the communications he intercepted. It was Edward, at Art’s direction, that went to Mikhail with a deal. For fifty million cash and a billion in stock in his company, Edward promised to deliver the Cave Lion switcher to him.”

“HE GAVE YOU UP?” Dad was pissed.

“He did, but the plan was to use the Liger as a diversion and kill Mikhail when he landed. Mikhail was too smart to fall for the trap, and Melanie was leverage to get Svetlana and Anna to the island with the Eagle carcass. He planned to take my Lion, then give the Eagle to his only remaining son.”

Svetlana continued. “We used his phone to direct Edward’s payoff, then Art’s people cleaned it all up by sending Mikhail and Vasili to the bottom of the Adriatic. The Liger went to Moscow to close the loop on John’s appearances there.”

Dad thought about it for a while. “Who has control of the money now? And what about Mikhail’s company?”

“Melanie and I each got twenty-five million; the money is in Swiss numbered accounts. The stocks went into my name; I now own almost ten percent of the company since Art was battering the stock price down before the deal. It’s worth six hundred some million now, as the stock declined big-time after Mikhail’s death. Art and the others are buying up the depressed stock now, and we should have enough to take control after Mikhail’s estate transfers.”

Dad thought about it for a moment. “This could have significant tax consequences for you.”

“I know, Dad. I need your help in this, plus I’ll need a good lawyer.”

“Or five,” he told me. “You have to protect yourself. A man like Art Karpen doesn’t give money away like this for no reason. There will be a lot of scrutiny of that steel company, and he’s put you right in the crosshairs of it. AGAIN!”

I hadn’t thought of it that way, but he was right. Melanie and I were the only ones exposed from Mikhail’s side; Art and the others were attempting a hostile takeover. There was nothing illegal about pouncing on a wounded oligarchy. “Maybe more than five.”

“Realizing that Art’s interests are not your own is the first step,” Dad said. “I know you haven’t cared about business, but you need to learn now. Your stake in that company is worth more than my entire company if you manage it well. It also could collapse into bankruptcy, leaving you nothing while Art picks over the carcass. I don’t trust Art Karpen as far as I can throw him, John. You have to protect your interests and your family above any relationship with him.”

“I will, but I have to be careful. Karpen Investments could crush us both like insects if we cross them,” I said. There wasn’t much left to shock them with. We all agreed that Melanie needed to go back to school. She would be inheriting Dad’s company eventually and needed the education. Dad would sign a lease on a larger apartment near campus with better security. It would be big enough for the girls and me to stay while doing switcher training. Melanie would pay him back after the lawyers figured out the best way to bring the money stateside.

“I’d like to see your Eagle unless you two have more bombshells to set off,” Dad said.

“Maybe after dinner,” Melanie agreed. “We all have a lot to do.”

Mom practically jumped out of her seat. “It’s late afternoon in Moscow, so we still have time to talk to Svetlana’s parents! Come on, girls!” I didn’t even get a chance to kiss them before she pulled them out of the room.

“I’m going to search for apartments,” Melanie said.

“And I’ll get the financial documents and come back here.” It had gone better than I expected, and I had my parents solidly behind me. It was time to plan OUR lives instead of reacting to what others wanted.