Shifter Secrets

by T K Eldridge

  Mom made a little shriek sound when she walked into my room and found me sitting up. “Siddie,” she gasped and rushed over to cup my face, looking into my eyes. “How do you feel?”

  “Like a stiff breeze will blow me over,” I said. “You look good, Mom. Are you okay?”

  “Am I okay, she asks. Sidonie Marie, I’m not the one that was on death’s door for the past few days. You gave us all a scare.”

  “I’m sorry, Mom,” I said. “Where is everyone? What day is it?”

  Mom put the cup she’d been carrying on my bedside table and sat beside me on the bed. “It’s Tuesday. Sin came home a week ago last Friday. He’s been by a few times, but he’s been working a lot. Your grandmother took you to Abraham’s a week ago Sunday. Jolie came here on Wednesday with a new version of the potion, and we only started seeing improvement two days ago. The fact you’re sitting up and coherent right now, well…”

  “Mom, I feel shaky and weak, but my head is clear and I don’t feel like passing out. I’m thirsty, and could use more water?” I tried to keep her from sobbing all over me. If she started, I’d start and I felt dehydrated already.

  Mom got up and sniffled, wiped her eyes, and went to refill my water bottle. She paused by the door and said “The cup is a blueberry protein shake. Why don’t you get started on that while I get your water.”

  I managed to get about half the shake down by the time Mom returned with Grandma and Aunt Sett in tow. They all kissed and gushed over me, assured themselves I was on the mend, then left me with Sett.

  “I’m going to answer the questions you didn’t ask your mom or grandmother. Nico hasn’t been seen since the day you went to Abraham’s. His clothes and truck are gone, he’s not in town anywhere that we’ve found. There’s an alert out with the supernatural and human police to pick him up if they see him, but I think he might have gone back south. Micah is still here, still helping out and staying sober. He came home from work to find Nico and all of his things – and some of Micah’s money – gone.”

  That news felt like a blow to the chest. I curled forward and took slow breaths, the anger and hurt rising hot and fast. “He tried to kill me? I slept with him – and he tried to kill me?”

  Sett pulled me into her embrace and I let the tears come for a few minutes, then wiped my face and pulled back. “I’d like to take a shower and wash my hair. Will you help me?”

  I needed to feel some control over my life, but I wasn’t so stupid as to think I could manage a full shower and shampoo without help. I looked at myself in the mirror as Sett combed out my hair afterwards – I looked emaciated and my skin seemed faded and saggy. My hair was thinning and even Sett’s gentle combing took out way too many strands.

  “Don’t worry about how you look, Siddie,” Sett said. “A week or so of Gram’s cooking and my protein shakes, and you’ll be back to your old self.”

  “A week? Maybe a month,” I said. “This targeted shifters, right? That’s where half of my rapid healing and stamina comes from. If I’m only relying on my witch healing, and that’s what’s been keeping alive, along with the fae and mythic pieces, unless the mythic parts also got damaged, then it’s going to take me more than a week.”

  “You’ve got a point there, hon. What would you like to wear?”

  “Sweat pants and my blue t-shirt and a hoodie. And fluffy socks. And please, can I go sit in the recliner instead of in here? I need to not be in this bed for a few.”

  That was the start of the longest sixteen days of my life. I slept and ate, read a little. Watched a lot of streaming TV and movies, and on those rare moments when I was left alone, I cried out my anger and frustration. Then I made plans. I would find Nicodamas Lamontaine and I would get the answers I needed, one way or another.

  I also went back to my research, since it was all tied together. Back in 1885, Piers Lamontaine had been run out of town after being found guilty of vandalism and harassment against shifters and witches. He was put in a wagon with all the wagon could hold, his wife, his youngest son and daughter, and escorted to the town boundaries. His house and farm were sold at auction – and the farm’s land became part of the Fortin farm. That was considered fair and acceptable by the townsfolk after what he’d put the Fortin family through.

  I put in a call to Finn and asked him if he could have Queen Maggie come visit me. She was there, in person, and I needed to apologize – and get some information. While the old records said it was a ‘fair and equitable arrangement, considering all the Fortin’s had been through’, it never told me what had actually happened. Grandmother Maggie could.

  I also needed to apologize for snapping at her at the wedding. Looks like she was right and I was an idiot. Boy, was I ever an idiot.

  One of the things I’d been working on was a family tree so I could see if there were any Lamontaine family members still in the area. An advantage of supernatural genealogy was that while there were usually a large number of children per couple – the actual generations were few. The closest I’d found was one of Piers’ daughters had a granddaughter in Sorsyville, but she was married to another shifter and didn’t seem to be interested in anything other than their five kids. All of the rest were either dead or not in this state.

  I slept when I felt tired and ate everything Grams and Auntie Sett put in front of me. Each day had me feeling a little stronger, and a lot more impatient with being stuck at home. Four days had gone by and I called Finn again.

  “Did you ask her to come visit?” I asked.

  “I did. She said she was busy, but would be by at some point,” Finn replied.

  “Did you tell her I had almost died?”

  “No, should I have?”

  “Yes, because that’s why I need to talk to her. It’s all connected and she’s the only one that knows what happened back then so I can try and figure out what’s going on now.”

  “You should have said that, then,” Finn chided.

  “I had just become aware after weeks of being near death. Forgive me if I wasn’t specific enough.”

  “Don’t get testy with me, little cousin. I’m not the one that verbally bitch-slapped the Queen of Faery in the middle of my brother’s wedding. If she dropped everything and ran when you called, no one would ever listen to her again.”

  “I am going to apologize to her, first thing, when she gets here. I’m not allowed to go further than my front porch, otherwise I’d go to her myself. If I sent you a gift for her, would you get it to her? I know Faery Isle isn’t exactly on the postal delivery route yet.”

  “Make it one of the gift baskets from your Grandma’s store and I’ll get it to her. I’ll also tell her you wish to apologize but are still too ill to travel in person. I will also make sure I say it loud and clear in the reception hall of her palace. Agreed?”

  “Thank you, Finn. I really do appreciate your help with this.”

  “No problem, little cousin. Now, get better so we can go try that new ice cream place near the station house.”

  “New ice cream place? Aw, now you’re just tormenting me. Love ya, Finn. Bye.”

  His laughter rang through the phone until he disconnected the call. I then called Gram’s shop and ordered the supreme deluxe basket with fresh herb and flower bouquets, lotions, scrubs, sweets, and chocolates all done up in a gorgeous wicker basket. It would be at Finn’s tonight – along with a smaller basket as a thank you to him for being my intermediary. Sometimes, it was good to have a big family.

  Chapter Twelve

  Sin

  I worried about Sid while she was ill, visited once or twice, but most of my time was consumed by taking care of Mira and Ethan – and working my ass off.

  More and more incidents were happening. A teenage shifter had been mugged outside the movie theater and beaten so badly that it took him three days to heal. More shifter homes and businesses had been vandalized, so Benny had put out a collection jar to help people cover what insurance wouldn’t.

  One family moved to a pa
ck land cabin and left their house boarded up after a night of terror. The parents and their three children under the age of five spent the night barricaded in the bathroom while five different scents smashed windows to get inside, spray painted the walls, destroyed furnishings, and stole everything they could carry. The parents were now training in firearms and the children screamed in terror any time returning to their home was mentioned. Benny was going to get a crew to fix it up, pack up what could be salvaged, and help the family sell the place so they could start over somewhere else.

  A gourmet specialty shop owned by two shifter brothers had been burned to the ground. They had moved out of the area since. The shop had been in their family for nearly two centuries and the family heirlooms that had been part of the displays, part of the charm of the place, were ashes. The pain of the loss was too much for them to face and their mother had moved to Arizona a few years back, so they headed that way to be closer to her.

  Piece by piece, my town was being destroyed and I still didn’t know who was behind it. Worse yet, my family was afraid, my sister had nearly died, and while I spent hours helping Grams and Sett trying to come up with a better potion to help, I felt useless.

  Mira and her friend Leah spent days going back and forth to each other’s homes, keeping the boys distracted with play dates and homeschooling. Timmy and Ethan were about the right age for preschool and kindergarten, but we had decided to wait until things settled out before sending them. Bastien Pascal, a teacher at Collegiate who had become a friend over the past few months, helped set up some online things for them to do that filled the qualifications for class work. Between his help and the trips to museums and the zoo, the boys were learning and growing. Thinking about Bast reminded me I hadn’t been by to visit since the wedding, so instead of going to park and stake out the next place on my list, I headed to Bast’s place. First, I stopped and got Thai take-out.

  When I had first met Bastien, I had stopped by the Thai place and we discovered a mutual love of the delicious food. It was now a staple in our hang-out visits and I wasn’t about to break tradition now.

  I pulled up outside his townhouse and grabbed the food.

  Bast was on his front porch, pacing as he spoke into the phone. “What do you mean, you haven’t seen her in three days? Aren’t you supposed to be by there every day to clean and stock supplies?”

  I set the bag on his outside table and leaned against the railing.

  “Fine, you go check, do your damned job, then call me back.” He punched his finger at the phone to disconnect the call, then growled in frustration. “What’s that saying?” Bast said to me. “If you want it done right, do it your own damned self?”

  “I brought soft drinks. Should I go back out and get beer?”

  “No, I’m just frustrated with the acceptable level of stupidity of some people.”

  “I brought Thai and I need some conversation about anything other than shifters and babies. Please, Obi Bast, you’re my only hope…” I clasped my hands together and gave him an eyelash flutter and sappy grin.

  A snort of laughter and Bastien reached for the bag. “There better be coconut shrimp in here.”

  I brought the drinks and followed him inside, laughing. “I know better than to forget your favorite.”

  We took a minute to unpack and get plates, cups, and settle ourselves at the table. The only sounds were of chewing and passing containers of food back and forth until the first pangs of hunger were sated.

  “So what were you so upset about out there?” I asked.

  “I pay someone to help Agnes Hutchins out at her B&B. They’re supposed to go over every day and help with the cleaning and food prep, run errands, things like that. She’s very independent and wouldn’t normally accept the help, but one of my students’ families is having a hard time making ends meet, so I got him a job and got Agnes some help. He said the last two times he’s gone by, some man has told him Agnes didn’t need his help today, so he went off with his friends.”

  “I do not look forward to dealing with teenagers. I was a monster as a teen. Speaking of monsters, Sid is doing better, but it’s going to be a while before she’s back at full strength. Micah insists that Nico would not have done this, but it’s pretty telling that he disappeared when she got real sick, and Abraham said it was a shifter thing, so who else would it be?”

  “Occam’s Razor, yeah – but what if it really was a coincidence? Something spooked him and he ran, at the same time Sid got sick. I mean, it’s possible, right?”

  “You just don’t want to think poorly of anyone, Bast, and I get it. And while it is possible, it’s not very probable. You saw the fight between Queen Maggie and Sid at my wedding, right?”

  “Yeah, everyone saw that. When you first told me Sid was sick, I thought maybe the Queen had punished her.”

  “The thought had crossed my mind too, but she loves us and would not have let it go so far as to risk Sid’s life.” At least, that’s what I was counting on. I didn’t really know my great-grandmother Margaret Fortin MacCumhaill, Queen of the Faeries, but what I’d seen of her so far, she seemed more likely to embarrass, not kill one of her descendants.

  “So, how is married life?” Bast leaned back with his drink and grinned at me.

  “Not much different than before we were married, honestly. Mira seems more relaxed and settled, though, and that I like. I’ve been working some seriously long hours with all of this crap going on around the shifters. She knew what she was getting, marrying a cop, but it doesn’t mean she likes it all the time.”

  “Cops, teachers, nurses, anyone in the service fields tends to spend too much time on work and not enough on family. It’s why anyone I’ve been with only lasts a few months. They want more time and I just can’t give it.”

  “Not seeing Joshua anymore?” He’d been dating a fae who had just landed with the rest on the islands and found a job as a barista in town.

  “No, he was sweet and all, but he was with me more as a way to adjust to his new reality than to actually be with me. I was a means to an end, and while that can be fun, it’s not my idea of a solid relationship base.”

  “I can see that. Well, at least there are more fae options now that they’re on the island. You should ask Finn to help you out. He knows everyone.” I was only half-teasing. Finn could help Bast avoid the more extreme cases.

  “Oh, sure, just ask the Prince of Faery to help me with my love life,” Bast shook his head. “I have a solid brass set of balls, my friend, but not that solid a set.”

  “Fine, I’ll bring him to our next basketball game and ask him for you.” It took every ounce of self control to not crack up laughing at the look of horror on Bastien’s face.

  “You will not do that to me, or we will not be friends. That’s evil and cruel.”

  I spluttered into my glass and started laughing. “I can’t…the look on your face!” I nearly rolled out of my chair, I laughed so hard.

  Bast tossed a cookie at me and shook his head, a grin on his face. “You’re an evil man, Sinclair Boudreau. But the best of friends.”

  We watched the ballgame on TV and worked our way through the Thai food and drinks before I got ready to head home.

  “I needed this time with you, my friend. Thank you,” I said.

  “And I needed it too. Hey, I’m going to go by Agnes’ tomorrow after school. Would you be willing to come by with me? I don’t like the idea of some strange man making decisions for her. She hasn’t been answering her phone – which isn’t unusual. She hates phones. But she would normally answer for me.”

  “Sure, call me when you’re leaving school and I’ll pick you up. We can put your bike in the back as usual and head over.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Sid

  As usual, I overdid it and spent more time sleeping than I did working. This being weak had me frustrated and made my typical charming demeanor oh so cranky. Of course, that had to be right when great-grandma decided to come visit. I had s
ome warning, at least, so I made sure to shower and dress neatly, even if I couldn’t bear rough fabric on my skin. A pair of silk lounge pants and a tunic of cotton jersey looked presentable and didn’t irritate. They were even in her favorite shade of blue. Go me. Actually, go Grams because I had no clue about anything to do with my great-grandmother.

  “Do you think she’s still upset?” I asked Grams as I settled in the recliner and she fussed with a blanket over my legs and lap.

  “No, I don’t think so. But she has an image to maintain, so you had to make the first move before she could do anything.”

  “I still don’t think this is all one-sided. I am going to apologize for snapping at her and defending Nico - but she should also apologize for attacking him at Sin’s wedding.”

  Grams put her hands on her hips and gave me the look that made me feel like I was wrong, again. It didn’t help that today’s t-shirt kept making me want to laugh out loud. It was a rainbow script in a flowery font on a heather gray cotton that said, “Don’t wait till your deathbed to tell people how you feel. Tell them to fuck off today.”

  “Um, Grams?” I interrupted her before she could launch into a tirade. Again. “Do you think that’s the best shirt to wear today - under the circumstances?”

  She looked down at her shirt, then shrugged. “Why not? She probably won’t even acknowledge that I’m in the room. Single-minded in her focus is my mother.”

  Ouch. Some unresolved family issues showing in that particular statement.

  “I love you, Grams. I’ll get us through this hiccup and then you can work out your issues with her. You’re the one that taught me that we can’t let wounds fester.” My tone was soft and loving, letting her know I heard her pain.

  Grams came over and cupped my face in her hands and kissed my forehead. “I love you, Sidonie Marie. Let me deal with my mother in my own way. Let’s get you back on your feet first, shall we?”