Hawking a Future by Zenina Masters Page A

genetics.
    Mijak smiled. “They normally do not, but you are a special case. We needed to see you because our images of you are in conflict.”
    Lencor nodded. “I see a bird.”
    “I see a bat.”
    Hayley nodded. “I can see your confusion. I am both and neither. I am an unshifting shifter.”
    The pale green eyes blinked in unison.
    Mijak said, “We don’t understand.”
    She sighed. “Since the Shifter Council sent you here, I will fill you in. My parents were one of the rare matings where there was no bond between them. They fell into lust, had sex and I appeared as a result. I shouldn’t have been possible, but here I am. I host both beasts, but they don’t speak to each other and do not speak to me. I can use their skills for echolocation and reading micro-expressions, but I cannot shift. I have lived with the humans all my life, and since the Council got in touch with me, I come here during my holidays to help shifters in their recovery after they have been rescued from bad situations.”
    Lencor leaned forward. “Where do you stand on the fey?”
    “I have never stood on a fey.”
    Mijak cracked an independent smile. “Would you consider one as a mate?”
    “Um. I don’t see why not. But I am heading back to work tomorrow. If I don’t show up, I lose my job. This has been all the time I could arrange.” She quirked a smile. “I really don’t see one turning up in the taxation building during a night shift.”
    Mijak leaned in. “So you are amenable?”
    “If the right man is the right man, it doesn’t matter what he is. I will either know he’s for me, or I will feel nothing.”
    Lencor cocked his head. “Do you have a current lover?”
    “No. I feel nothing for any male I have run into to date.”
    “Female?”
    “Nothing for them either. Not like that. I have plenty of friends of either gender, but nothing sparks.”
    Mijak asked, “You have no family to call upon?”
    “No. Only the Council and my friends.”
    They nodded to each other. Mijak smiled slightly. “That might explain what we have seen.”
    “I still don’t understand why you are here.” Hayley drummed her fingers on the table.
    Lencor blinked. “Ah. I apologise. We have been seeing you and your beasts in our visions, and you are a mate candidate for one of the fey at the Crossroads.”
    “Oh. Well, that is neat and all, but I don’t have any spare time to go and play the dating game. I have to get back to my job.”
    Mijak and Lencor had a quiet moment together before Lencor spoke. “Thank you for your honesty. We will notify our people of our findings. Thank you for granting us this interview.”
    They stood up and disappeared in a twinkling of light.
    Hayley got up and grimaced, batting the sparkles away. “That was weird.”
    She left the boardroom and headed to the office and those hanging around the door, muttering, “All clear. They are gone.”
    The office manager sighed in relief. “Thanks, Hayley. What did they want?”
    Hayley chuckled. “Apparently, they wanted to know if I had a date for Saturday night. I told them I was busy. I finished my last session with Molly. I head out in the morning.”
    “I will send your time sheets to the Council. Thanks for your help with this batch.”
    Hayley smiled and headed to her room to pack her bags before dinner. It had been one helluva vacation.
     
    The next morning, she stood in the transport circle, and she waved goodbye to those who had come to see her off. “It was good to be here. Thanks for inviting me.”
    The staff laughed and the patients waved farewell.
    Light flowed, and she was lost in a tunnel of bright light, falling head over heels until she landed on her feet.
    Her bags dropped at her sides, and she groaned as she stood. She felt like hell. She had never had a transport that violent before.
    When her vision cleared of the brightness, she stared at the building around her. The blanks were bleached wood, a zen-style rock garden had been