Broken

by Monica Rossi

  “You can stay here as long as you need to Jessica. I’m proud that you tried, even if it didn’t work out the way you’d hoped.”

  Jessica’s eyes seemed to fill with tears and she cleared her throat, “Thank you Sidney. I wasn’t sure you’d feel that way, but you’re all I have left.”

  Sidney nodded, “Well don’t worry, we’ll work it out. But not tonight, I’ve got to go get in bed before I fall into a coma on the floor.”

  The steady cold drizzle didn’t seem to bother any of the Dogs, they were used to being out in all kinds of weather, and it was lent a fitting mood for the day. They’d gotten all the bodies of their fallen members from the abandoned facility and returned them to their families. The Club decided to have one large ceremony for all fourteen of them instead of dragging the grief out for days and days doing each one individually. Once they could get past this they could take care of the business at hand. Big Dog.

  Red watched as all of the family and friends filed into the cemetery, some wore black suits or dresses, some came in their jeans and cuts, but all of them wore the same expression. Loss and anger; a dangerous combination. It was in times like these that people stopped caring about what was right and started doing what felt right. And killing Big Dog was going to feel so right. He wished Demon hadn’t stopped him from doing it right after he’d been healed. Healed with magic, the thought of it disgusted Red. He would have almost have rather died than have been tainted even further with such unnatural foulness. He’d seen what that magic could do to a man. His father was living proof of how it could corrupt and rob a man of his morals, his memories, his life.

  As if he’d conjured him just by his thoughts Demon appeared at the edge of the gravesite, Sidney and another girl Red had never seen at his side. Red sneered, and congratulated Demon silently on finding someone like himself to be with. Yes the two traitorous liars would get along well together. He ignored the twinge of jealousy and the feelings of longing that surfaced as he watched Sidney maneuver through the crowd, Demon’s hand on her back, damp black dress clinging to her every curve as she moved. He ignored the response his body gave as he noticed her hard nipples clearly pressed against the thin fabric of her dress. It was probably some glamour she’d worked, to make men want her whenever they looked at her. He looked away, Demon had found a black suit to wear somewhere. That figured as conceited as he was. Yes, the two of them would get along nicely, they even looked right together. Red pretended that thought didn’t punch him in the gut and put his mind back to Big Dog and the other two they had tied up back at the clubhouse.

  The club had voted on what to do with them, against Red’s wishes, and had decided that they needed to be questioned before judgment was handed down. Another thing he could blame Demon for. He’d wanted to kill them all immediately but Demon had persuaded the guys to hold a vote then he’d made his case for finding out anything Big Dog might know about that Frederick guy before they killed him. Demon wasn’t even a real member of the Club, he was a Loner, not part of the family no matter what blood ties he had. He shouldn’t have had any say in what went on during a meeting but he’d convinced all of the voting members that his way was the right way. They thought he was being to hot headed, that he was too emotionally involved because Morgan had been kidnapped, but Red thought they should all feel the same way he did, and the fact that they didn’t hurt him. He’d be glad when this business was over and he could step down and get the fuck out of town. He’d had it with the whole thing anyway and now Demon was convincing the guys to turn against him. Even Donny-O had sided with Demon. He couldn’t trust anyone.

  Everyone was there and waiting around the fourteen empty graves, with identical oak caskets sitting by each one. They waited for Martin “Sno” Turner, the oldest living shifter in Three Oaks, former member of the Dogs, and the closest thing they had to a preacher, to take his place at the podium.

  He emerged from the crowd, his granddaughter at his side with her arm around his back and hand under his elbow, ready to catch him if he stumbled. He carried a large leather bound book under his arm, the book of laws they all lived by, a code of honor that had kept them safe for thousands of years, a book of wisdom that helped ease the troubled times that sometimes befell them. His thin white hair was matted to his scalp and his skin draped across his bones like a death shroud making him look like the most ancient thing in existence.

  He approached the podium and lay the book on it with a thud. Red didn’t need to listen to know what he was going to say, it was said at every shifter funeral, but he listened anyway.

  “Hey folks,” Sno’s voice boomed across the cemetery, in sharp contrast to his frail appearance, “You all know why we’re here this afternoon. Each and every one of us have suffered a terrible loss. A brother, a sister, a son or daughter, a husband or wife, a lover, or a friend. Today we mourn their passing not because we’re scared about where they’re going, because we know where they’re going and it’s a better place then this will ever be. No we’re mourning because we’ll miss them in our lives. Miss them sharing a beer with us at the clubhouse, or tucking in their kids at night. We’ll miss seeing them at a barbeque or riding through town at our side. But they won’t miss us. You can look out and smile knowing they’re roaming through the eternal forest under a bright moon, chasing their prey, and howling with those kindred who have gone on before us. No they won’t miss this world where our two natures are at constant war with one another, where we must hide from the outside in villages and communities of our own making for fear of being hunted. No friends, today they’re free. Free to be who they are for the rest of eternity.

  “But we still feel the loss. Our little town will be a sadder place because they are no longer with us. But we can hold our heads up high because they died with honor, fighting against those who would harm one we loved, our brother.”

  Red could feel the eyes of people turn towards him but he kept his head up and his gaze on Sno as he continued, “Their sacrifice will not be soon forgotten, and at night we will tell our little ones of the men and women who gave everything they had in service to their family. Let us read from The Book of Moons and Mysteries, if you have one with you, you can turn to page three forty one and read along.”

  Sno waited while the few people who had brought a copy with them flipped obediently to the specified page before he began, “And so it was on the day of reckoning that…” but his voice was drowned out by the sound of car tires going to fast on gravel.

  Every eye turned toward the cemetery access road as three black cars made their way towards the group. The hairs on the back of Red’s neck stood up and he almost shifted before he could get control of himself, and he saw similar reactions throughout the gathering. This was a crowd on the brink, the slightest thing could set teeth to snapping this day.

  The cars slammed on brakes, tires squealing and slinging gravel as they stopped. When the men in suits stepped out, everyone held their breath, ready to shift in an instant and kill these men who had taken so much from them. Red watched women put their children behind them, he watched teenagers step in front of their elderly grandparents, boys and girls barely old enough to have gone through their first shift were shimmering, the change about to overtake them simply from the rage coursing through their bodies.

  “Don’t be hasty folks,” one of the suits said, “We haven’t come here to fight.”

  Red gathered his composure and walked to the front, directly across from the man who had spoken, showing as much calm as he could muster, hoping that he could forestall any violence. He’d seen what these men could do, and this was not the time or place to test them again, especially with all the non-fighters in the crowd.

  “Then what exactly did you come for?” Red asked, modulating his voice so that the sheer disgust and fury didn’t come through.

  “We’ve come to return something to you,” the man nodded to one of the other suits who turned to go back to the car, “and we have a… proposal.”


  “I doubt we’ll be interested in any kind of proposal with your kind,” Red said, barely keeping the snarl out of his voice. The man who had gone back to the car returned and sat an ornate black box down in between Red and the suit who was speaking.

  “Don’t be so hasty. Frederick sends his regards,” the man’s hand indicated the black box, “and makes you this generous offer: join with him or your entire community will be destroyed. Some will be killed, some will be kept as test subjects, and you’ve seen how that plays out.”

  Red remembered the lump of breathing meat on the table and felt his stomach turn, “The answer is still no.”

  “We’ll see. We’ll be back in a week for your answer, and there will be a lot more of us.”

  Red let his lip curl, exposing his teeth. The shift was coming, it was almost beyond his control, “And what if we just kill you now? That will give Frederick his answer won’t it?” He felt his skin beginning to stretch and his teeth elongating, and he could feel the answering response from everyone around him.

  Until a hand pressed against his chest pushing him back. It was Sno, with Demon at his side.

  “Then we’ll see you in a week,” Sno said, his eyes on Red, not on the suit, challenging him to back down.

  Red turned his eyes toward Demon. This was his doing, he was once again thwarting Red, but he back down anyway.

  “Good, a person with some sense around here,” the suits turned and got back into their cars, leaving just as suddenly as they’d appeared.

  “Why the fuck did you do that? We could have killed them and been done with it, there are enough of us here,” Red pushed Demon, making him take a step back.

  “Look around you, brother, what we’ve got is a bunch of women and children, and all of them are trying to grieve for their families. Do you want to add more to the list just so you can blow off some steam because you’re too angry to be reasonable?”

  “Fuck reasonable, I’m tired of being reasonable, the only reason those fuckers are –“ he was cut off by a scream from the crowd. Both Red and Demon turned to see a woman with her hands over her mouth and horror written in her wide eyes.

  Sno had opened the box left by the suits and inside staring out lifelessly were the heads of Squint and Squirt.

  Demon turned up the glass and drained all the liquid in one smooth motion and the whiskey burned a lovely trail down his throat and directly to his stomach. The grimy old bar didn’t have many patrons and none of them paid Demon any attention, which was just the way he wanted it, and the reason he was drinking in the local bar instead of at the clubhouse. He needed to get away from all of that, from Red, for a while. He needed to be alone.

  Because it had been one hell of a day.

  After the funeral it had been a pissing match the whole way. From calming everyone down instead of riling them up, which Red seemed determined to do, to keeping him from gathering all the guys and chasing them down for a nice old fashioned slaughter. If he had a God he believed in, he’d be wondering what the hell he was doing right about now. Because shit was fucked up. And there was no easy way to fix it. It was like walking through a room full of glass barefoot and hoping you didn’t get cut.

  And when they’d got back to the clubhouse Red had really lost his shit.

  “So you want to find out what Big Dog and the others know? Lets go do it,” Red had said and Demon had followed reluctantly behind. What happened after was something Demon wished he’d never seen.

  “Man, there are better ways to get information than this,” Demon grabbed Red’s arm, the one holding the red hot fire poker that was aimed straight for Big Dogs impressive gut.

  “No, you wanted to get information before we killed him, so here we are, we’ll get what we can out of him, but we’ll do it my way.”

  Demon looked to the other guys standing around them for support, this wasn’t the way the Club operated, but Red had a crazed look in his eyes and nobody wanted to be the one to stand up to him.

  Demon let of his arm, “Fine, but this is on you brother, I want no part in this.”

  “What? Demon, the big bad wolf who takes such pleasure in killing is afraid of a little torture?”

  Demon wanted to shout at him, tell him he’d never enjoyed killing a single soul, be he knew Red wouldn’t listen, all he saw was what Demon was, not who he was. “He might be a traitor, and he might be a piece of shit, but he’s family Red. Family doesn’t do this to family. Ask your questions, he’ll answer, he knows he’s going to die anyway, this is,” Demon looked for the word bad enough to describe what he was seeing, “This is inhuman.”

  Red’s eyes hardened, “You forget Demon, I’m not human, and neither are you, so you can get off your fucking high horse. He lost the right to be called brother when he sold us out and put our family, my Morgan, at risk.”

  Demon shook his head, “There are better ways to do this, man.”

  “What the fuck would you know? You goddamned half-breed.”

  Demon looked around and everyone’s eyes were on him.

  “That’s right, he’s a motherfucking half-breed. His mother was a witch. Ever wonder why you hardly ever see him shift, even when we’re fighting? It’s because he hates it. Says it feels alien and unnatural, he’d rather rely on his magic than his wolf. His dirty fucking magic.”

  “That dirty fucking magic just saved your life,” Demon’s voice was as quiet as ice cracking.

  “You should have let me die.” Red turned away from him and stuck the poker to Big Dogs bare skin, the scream of agony cutting off further conversation.

  Demon had looked around the room, imagining distrust blossoming in each set of eyes, the chasm between him and the only family he’d ever known growing into something that could never be breached, so he’d turned without a word and left. His secret was finally out. Or at least part of it. In a way it felt like a relief, he’d find out now how the rest of the club would deal with him being a hybrid, even if he wasn’t exactly the kind of hybrid they thought he was.

  For years he’d hidden behind a mask, separating himself from the only family he’d ever known so that they wouldn’t see him for what he was, or what Red and Glory had been led to believe he was. And now all of that was over. He took another shot of whiskey, the chips would fall where they may, he was tired of giving a fuck.

  “Hey man, haven’t seen you around in a while, where ya been?” An old man in a flannel shirt and a baseball cap came and sat down on the leather barstool beside Demon. He couldn’t remember the man at all.

  “Oh you know. Around.” He signaled the bartender and the busty brunette placed another beer and a fresh shot in front of him without being asked. “Thanks, honey.”

  “I haven’t seen your mama in a good long while either,” the man said, nursing his own beer. Demon looked at the man more closely trying to place him. His face was a ruin of wrinkles and dirty looking grey stubble, his eyes drooping and partially hidden by lids that seemed like they’d collapsed from the sheer weight of his bushy eyebrows. “She back in town too?”

  “No,” his mother hadn’t had any friends in town, in fact the only reason she’d moved there at all was so that he could have some sort of relationship with his father and his brother. And that had turned out wonderfully, as was evidenced by Red’s display of contempt earlier that night. But she’d kept mostly to herself, only venturing into town to get supplies or drive Demon somewhere before he was old enough to drive himself. This man had no reason to remember her at all.

  He was about to start asking some questions of his own when the door to the bar opened and Sidney walked in, still dressed in the slinky black dress she’d worn to the funeral. He watched as she took her own seat at the bar and spoke quietly to the bartender, asking very politely for a glass of Pinot Grigio. Demon smirked as she was told that they had beer or hard liquor and nothing in between and then was asked to show some ID.

  The woman was from another plane of existence, one where they served fine wines in bars and
said ‘oh dear’ when they stubbed their toes. Even after having been rained on and wading through mud she somehow managed to look fresh and clean, as if she’d just stepped out of the salon.

  He pushed the questions he had for the inquisitive man out of the way, he could get to him later, and instead picked up his beer and made his way over to Sidney.

  “Needed a night out on the town, huh?” he sat with his back against the bar so he could watch her. She looked over, like she couldn’t imagine who would be talking to her and he saw the recognition when it hit her eyes, along with something else.

  “I had to get out of the house, Jessica was driving me crazy. I didn’t know the funeral was going to include so much… shifter stuff. And then there were men yelling and severed heads and… well she just has a lot of questions that I don’t have the strength to answer right now. Hell, I have questions of my own that no one seems interested in answering.”

  “Such as?” he asked.

  She looked at him, maybe trying decide whether or not he had any answers she wanted, “Well I doubt you can help me very much.” He could see the moment she remember him healing Red and knew the conversation was going to take a turn he didn’t want it to take. “Or maybe you can. Are you some kind of witch? Is that the reason Red called our potential children ‘abominations’?”

  Demon winced at the word. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard it and it wouldn’t be the last. He shrugged, “The Book of Moons and Mysteries says that any being created between two non-humans is an abomination. It doesn’t matter which two it is. The Book also seems to play to a shifter’s natural ego, making it seem like they are the pinnacle of creation, the end point of evolution and to sully the line would be a great offense to one’s genes.”

  “But it’s ok to mate with humans?”