The warmth pooled deep within my core before I even finished the thought. I didn't fight it this time. I let it build, let the crackling hum rise up through my chest and down into my fingers, watching the woman's face change from a look of confusion to fear, and then I released it.

For a second the bathroom flashed white. The lights overhead flared, one of the bulbs sparking out, the mirror rattled in its frame, and I felt myself get pulled out of Trisha's body like a thread yanked off a spool.

And then I was propelled forward, falling and flying at the same time, that same lurching, weightless sensation I was starting to recognise, and beginning to love...

The first thing I noticed was the smell. Trisha had smelled like vanilla and cocoa butter from her expensive perfume and meticulous skin care. This one smelled like coffee grounds and wet hair.

The second thing I noticed was that my body felt... solid. Grounded. I looked down and found a thick pair of arms in a black security vest, the sleeves rolled up over chunky forearms. My hands were broad, the knuckles scarred, a cheap silver wedding band cutting into the finger.

"Right..." I said, and my voice came out low and rough. "Er, Different."

I pushed myself up off the floor and I got up on the first try. No wobbling, no grabbing the sink. I took a few steps and my boots hit the tiles with a satisfying thud, no barefoot slapping, no teetering on heels. It was honestly a relief.

I turned to the mirror.

The woman staring back at me was built like a brick shithouse. Late forties, I'd guess, though the years had been kind enough. Short cropped grey hair, buzzed close on the sides, longer on top, like she'd just gotten out of the army and never really left. A face that had seen some things and wasn't impressed by any of them. Square jawed with a nose that had been broken at least once. Dark eyes set under heavy brows. And a body that was stout in the way that meant business, thick through the shoulders, a solid barrel chest, a stomach that pushed out against the vest but sat under it like a foundation. The kind of woman who could carry a grown man out of a burning building and …