by Mel Todd
She stood for a moment, listening, and then the sudden sharp spike in noise as the sirens entered the clearing had her tearing back to where most of this had gone down, in a dead run. Hackles raised she raced into the area, looking for the children, heart slowly as she couldn’t see but, but she could smell them. Wanting to make sure she had as much control as possible over the situation until she knew the people here would help, she moved over to the one who she had left unconscious and stood over him, watching the vehicles coming tearing into the little clearing.
Chapter 38 - Calvary Arrives
While scientists are still debating the actual cause of this new ability, current statistics are locked in at 2% of the world’s population having this new aspect. The feeling and pulse of those with this ability is slowly moving from fear and anger to excitement and wonder. The common name that seems to be emerging from the blogs, chatting, and general discussion going on is—The Changed. As one blogger explained it, “… when I turned into a cheetah, everything changed. My outlook on life, my relationships, and me. So we are The Changed.” There has been strong resistance to the term ‘were’ though those whose forms are wolves are holding on to the term more than any other group, however shifter or shifters seems to be acceptable as a neutral term. Politicians and various governments are still struggling to figure out how to address this change in the world’s status quo, people as a whole are struggling even more torn between religious beliefs, mythology, and the new reality. For now, the only constant seems to be change, pun intended. ~ TNN Anchor
As she watched, two sheriff's’ cars, three police cars, two ambulances, and the vehicle that made her heart leap with joy, a black Hummer, all pulled into the area and people boiled out of the vehicles. Police and sheriffs came out, guns drawn looking around the area. The EMT’s jumped out with bags, and stood by their vehicles, waiting, bodies tense.
The Hummer doors flew open, and two people flew out. Her eyes locked on the figure taller than most of the people around and twice as broad in a kilt all the tension went out of her. He stood there for a minute, scanning, and as she stood up, he pumped his arm.
“Everyone stand down, that’s McKenna,” he bellowed and started forward so fast his kilt snapped and cracked as he moved.
“You can’t know that.” Someone shouted, she didn’t know who they were, and didn’t care.
“Yes, I can. And if it isn’t, it’s an insane cougar just standing there waiting for me. You want to stop me, shoot me.” His pace never slowed, and she sat back licking her lips. The taste of blood on them made her look down. Her claws and body seemed to be covered in it liberally.
Oh well. They can’t hurt anyone ever again.
Just hearing his voice, his scent washing over her, and even though she was miles from home, she felt safe. For the first time in way too long, she felt like it might really be over. She walked towards him, creating a bit of space from the unconscious man.
JD dropped to his knees in front of her. “Kenna, are you okay? Is this your blood?” He paused and looked around. “Where are the kids?”
Others were approaching slowly, and she heard an outcry as someone discovered one of the bodies.
“I’m going to need some blankets over here and evidence kits.” He called out, even as others were still looking for more victims, bad guys, or the kids. McKenna didn’t care. She glanced around, then looked at the person walking up behind JD. Toni. She wanted to smile, but at this point showing more fangs might not be a good thing, and she couldn’t answer questions in this form.
Tired, hungry, and scared everything would be taken away just as she grabbed for it, she reached for herself, fighting the urge to stay in the form that could run and fight. With a creak of pain, and stabbing hunger, she flowed back into her human self. And she realized even as she became human, the other forms were her too.
A sense of satisfaction rippled across her awareness, but she shoved it away, to look at JD, Toni, and an EMT rushing towards her. An emergency blanket in his hands. She took the blanket, looking at it for a moment before remembering her nude state. Focusing became hard as she began to bottom out from the adrenaline and hunger. With shaking hands she took the blanket and wrapped it around her, even as she glanced back at the only person she had left alive.
“Kenna? Where are my kids? Please tell me they’re okay?” Tears ran down Toni’s cheeks, and her voice cracked as she spoke, both hands clasped so tightly together her fingers were white. JD had a weird look on his face as he ran his eyes over her.
“Frank, go grab that cooler out of my Hummer, please,” he called out, even though his eyes never left hers.
Feeling like she fought to move through quicksand, McKenna lifted her head to look at the various officers.
“Tell them all bad guys are dead. Don’t shoot the animals.” Her voice cracked, maybe all the roaring had damaged her vocal cords after all.
JD reacted instantly, no hesitation. He stood and bellowed, his voice easily heard throughout the area. “We’ve got animals coming out. No one shoot, hell put your damn guns away. No one left to cause us issues.” He glared at people and most of the police officers holstered their weapons though the two sheriffs looked resistant. “NOW!” His tone caused Toni to flinch, but McKenna just waited, too tired to even react. They were so close, she wouldn’t take the chance someone might shoot one of the kids.
They looked like they would protest, but a police officer whispered to them, and they holstered their weapon, reluctance clear in their movement.
JD turned to look at Kenna, kneeling down again, his voice low. “Are they okay?” He didn’t even try to hide the fear in his voice, and she liked him better for that.
“Kids. Come to me.”
Rustling and a soft yelp came from the manzanita bushes, and then an explosion of fur, paws, and tails as six bodies converged on McKenna. Charley curled up next to her as Paul, Jalmer, and Nam threw themselves at her legs, covering her in a warm blanket. Not licking, but almost as if their animal natures warred with their human restraint, they cuddled as close as they could, tails lashing. Two black cats bumped their faces against hers for a long moment their soft purrs clear in the odd silence. With a chirp they turned and leapt into their mother’s outstretched arms, knocking her over as two sixty-pound cats slammed into her, and then transformed into two naked six-year-olds.
“MOM!” they cried out in unison as they wrapped arms around her, pulling her tight. Toni wrapped her arms around them, so tight that McKenna didn’t think any of them could breathe easily, and she didn’t think they cared.
“My babies,” Toni whispered as tears streaked her face and she held the kids as if someone might try to take them from her.
More blankets were rushed over to them as the EMT started checking out the kids. McKenna looked at the fur blanket surrounding her and smiled. “You can shift now guys. It’s safe. No one will hurt you.”
The animals looked at her, then at the people surrounding them. As usual, Charley made the first move. He pulled away from her and shifted, standing into a strong young boy, who looked to her to be older than he had when this started. But her sanity was questionable, so she was probably wrong. The others followed Nam staying shyly next to her until a female EMT wrapped a blanket around her. And then the questions started flying.
Toni remained kneeling, holding on to Jessi and Jamie, but others started trying to get the kids away, and the kids started to fight.
“No,” Charley insisted. “We stay with McKenna. She protected us.” He pulled away from the EMT and latched onto McKenna, and the other kids started to struggle in earnest.
“We need to examine them, make sure they are okay. And examine you,” an EMT protested.
McKenna fought to stay conscious at this point. “They aren’t hurt past a scrape or two within the last few minutes. I made sure of it.”
A sheriff’s deputy spoke up. “Please, you can’t mean you’ve been with them non-stop since you went missing.” His v
oice held derision and contempt, and Charley snarled at him.
Even as McKenna tried to find the words and the energy to respond, Charley did instead.
“Yes, she can. They raped her, and she never said a word, or let us see the tears.” McKenna flinched at his words, but she didn’t look away from JD’s gaze. The only safe place to look.
Charley continued, his hard voice not giving anyone any leeway in what he said. “Since they took us, she has been there, fed us, kept us safe, told us stories, and never took out anything on us.” His voice cracked. “I should know what that looks like, since I’ve seen my step-dad rape my mom and then feel her take out her anger on me. Trust me, we're fine. She,” his voice broke, as tears started to run down his cheek, and he trembled even as she wrapped an arm around him. The silver blanket crinkled as she pulled him close and he leaned his head on her should. “She protected us from them.” He jerked his toward towards the man lying unconscious near them, but never quit leaning on her. “She took our punishments for us.” All the kids flinched, and Jalmer let out a high animal like whine. She placed a hand on his shoulder squeezing.
“It’s okay. I didn’t want you guys to know,” she whispered as all the kids leaned against her, touching, and glaring at the adults around them.
“I smelled it. I knew what that smell meant. Then when you came out of the shower your eyes were red. So, I knew.” Charley whispered, but everyone heard.
McKenna tried to focus, but her head spun, she couldn’t figure out why she couldn’t think straight.
“Kenna, here. You’re turning gray. How much shifting have you done?” JD pushed something into her hand, the one not wrapped around Charley.
She looked at it blankly, then realized he had put a cooked chicken breast in her hand. Her stomach clenched even as saliva pooled in her mouth, chasing the metallic taste of blood. McKenna shoved it into her mouth and chewed and swallowed as fast as she could. The first few bites and swallows were torture, not enough food or calories, but every time she finished what she held in her hand, JD placed something else in it. Cheese, fish, grilled cheese, cold steak. After about the third thing she realized the kids were being handed food just about as fast, and her head had cleared considerably. She might be able to think.
Clearing her throat, the kids looked at her instantly. “You guys need to go with these people. Let them check you out and call your parents. I’m sure they are missing you greatly.”
“Mama,” Nam whispered. She swallowed hard and pulled away, but not before she put a gentle kiss on McKenna’s cheek. She let one of the EMT’s pick her up wrapped in silver, and they carried her to the back of one of the ambulances. One by one, Paul and Jalmer were taken off, though they both looked at her as if not sure they wanted to be leaving.
“Come on, you two. I want, no I need, the paramedics to look at you also. I need to know that you are okay,” Toni said, her voice still rough and she couldn’t stop touching the two kids. “And I’ve got clothes for you, and for McKenna.”
“But what about McKenna, who is going to take care of her?” Jessi asked, her green eyes wide as she kept looking back at McKenna.
“I am.” JD replied, his voice reassuring. “Me and all these people here. We’re going to take very good care of her.”
“They will Jessi, I promise. Do you know how I came to be here today?” Toni asked.
The two kids looked up at her, shaking their heads. McKenna had wondered that also, but in the scheme of things she hadn’t cared enough to ask, at least not right now.
“JD has been incredible. He knew I didn’t want to be alone, so I’ve been crashing at his house. We’ve talked about getting all of you back. I was there when the call came in that they might have found you. We grabbed the emergency kits we’d prepared and raced here. I know he’ll make sure McKenna is just fine.”
The two kids nodded, then yanked away, to a gasp of pain from Toni, to enfold McKenna in a quick hard hug. She hugged them back, and they returned to their mom. Toni looked at McKenna and mouthed something, but she couldn’t figure out what she said. With a soft grunt Toni lifted Jamie into her arms, even as a female officer picked up Jessi. Together they moved towards the Hummer. As they got there an EMT peeled away from one of the others kids and came to talk to them.
“I’m not leaving. My parents won’t be here.” Charley snorted. “Lay you money they left as soon as I was taken.” His voice wasn’t bitter, but instead almost relieved and McKenna pulled him tighter to her.
“Since he knows, he helped me rescue Nam, I doubt anything I can tell you will surprise him.” McKenna said around a mouthful of food, too hungry to care about social niceties.
JD shrugged, but he looked at a deputy. “This is your jurisdiction, not mine.”
The sheriff’s deputy, a man looking like he’d spent a lot of time in the sun, with laugh lines around his eyes and mouth. “Yeah, though I might be willing to give it up this once. The Sheriff is on her way, she’ll be here in ten. If you can just wait, I’d rather she lead the questioning. But I must to ask, what is up with the scars? Not to get too personal, but I don’t remember seeing them on the videos.”
Charley growled, an odd sound from a human boy, and she leaned her head against his for a moment. “I was an example to the kids to follow the rules. They whipped me.”
JD bristled up, his body tense. “Please tell me you killed him.”
Her smile was cold, and she saw Charley’ cold smile reflected in the silver blanket, it had the same level of satisfaction.
“Yes. Too quickly, but he is very dead.” No matter the consequences for this day, she’d never regret a single drop of blood she’d shed in killing them.
The deputy cleared his throat. “And what’s the story with that one?” His voice more hesitant as his eyes drifted over to the man behind them with the other deputy standing next to him, and an EMT working on him. “
“Figured you needed someone alive to talk to.” Her eyes jerked up, and she paled. Both the sheriff and JD saw that and their eyes narrowed.
“What? McKenna?”
“He has a camera, well a phone. He was videotaping it. It can’t get out. It can’t. There should be other video tape. They recorded our every move, even in the bathroom. I suspect the rapes were recorded as well.” She ignored JD’s flinch at the plural. “That can all be evidence. But the video of me killing them. Please, it can’t get out.”
The deputy looked at her for a long moment, then lifted his head to look at the dead bodies being picked up and arranged as the crime techs finished with their pictures.
“Hey, George. Will you come here for a minute?” He asked as he turned and strode a few feet away.
The other man shrugged, glanced down at the EMT. “You good?”
“Yep, dude won’t wake up for a bit. After looking at the damage to his knee and fingers, I hit him with a major shot of morphine. From his track marks he knows exactly how to process it.”
“Cool, yell if he starts to move.”
The EMT nodded as the man walked away, over to where the other sheriff was. JD rose, his movement sure, but unhurried and walked over to the man, there on the ground next to him was a high end smartphone. With a smooth movement JD picked it up and slipped into a pouch on his kilt, then moved back over to McKenna.
The relief that washed through her didn’t seem wholly hers, but that insanity still had to wait.
“Thank you,” the words slipped out, and she wrapped the blanket closer around her. The sheriff’s deputies approached one going back to watch by the EMT’s side.
“So, what exactly happened to him?” The deputy asked, with idly curiosity.
“I still had to find the kids, and I didn’t have handcuffs or anything and needed to make sure he couldn’t get away or shoot me. So,” she shrugged not feeling any guilt. That itself a bit odd, but it simply was one more thing to not worry about.
The deputy flinched back, but before he could respond, his radio squawked and he wa
lked away to take the call.
“You okay? You want more food? Did they hurt you with the rape?”
The fact that he didn’t sound any different than when he asked if he wanted coffee, let her answer JD, though she did close her eyes rather than see his face.
“Minor tearing, obvious signs as I was dry. Last time was yesterday. But I have showered. There might be semen left, but preserving evidence didn’t seem to be worth the trauma as I had no idea when we might be found.”
“Who was it?” The edge of a growl coated his words, and she cracked over her eyes to look at him a slight smile.
“That one over there.” She nodded to where the body of TEC lay. “And the one over there masterminded the whole thing.” Her head jerked to the corpse of Smiling Man who had another cop by him, waiting for the techs to get finished before they moved him.
JD looked at the torn-out throat and ripped open chest of TEC and a slow cold smile spread across his face. “Good, nice to see sometimes karma works.”
McKenna choked a bit on a laugh and Charley squeezed her.
The deputy walked up. “The Sheriff will be here in a minute. You ready for this?”
She wanted clothes, and a shower, and some caffeine. But the clothes and shower would ruin evidence, and the odds of her having a job after this was doubtful, but it didn’t matter right now. “Can I get some coffee?”
“I’ve got an iced one in the car. Let me get it. Charley? You want to come with? I know you know all this, but I bet Kenna might feel better knowing you were taken care of.”
McKenna nodded. “Go, I told you all about JD. He’s my partner and best friend. This is going to be hard enough.”
Charley gave her a long look and then a tight hug before he turned to JD.
“I don’t need you to carry me. But I don’t have any shoes and walking seems stupid when it is just going to hurt.”
