The Baby Shift- Maine

by Becca Fanning

  Diana must have only been unconscious for seconds. She opens her eyes to find herself on the floor of the car. Her mom and dad are still knocked out from the shock. Some of the doors have been blown off their hinges. She is about to call out when something stops her. A shadow; large and in the shape of a lion, was heading towards the wreckage.

  She watches in horror as the lion comes into view. Even in the dark she can see its sheer magnificence as it regards the unconscious couple. Then suddenly the lion begins to melt away, transforming into something entirely different: a full grown man. Even if she wants to scream, she is too weak

  She can't see the man's face, but she can see the outline of his beard. The man walks up to the wreckage. He takes out a long object from the wrecked car. Moonlight reflects off the metallic object as he drives it into her unconscious mother who shudders once and then stops moving completely, blood gushing out of a wound in her chest.

  He walks around the car to the other side, where her father is passed out. Just as he is about to raise the metal, the headlights of another car suddenly shines in the direction of the wreckage. The man hesitates for a second, still unseen by the light but in threat of being exposed any second. She watches him turn around, swiftly shift back into a lion and then disappear into the woods. The darkness that has been threatening to overpower her finally engulfs her.

  Diana screamed as she awoke from her disturbed sleep. She immediately knew where she was. This time the nightmare felt real. Almost as real as it was fourteen years ago, when her mom was murdered by a werelion.

  Loud music blared from the speakers as she walked past the crowd in the large hall. This was the first time she had been to a party since college. These days, working as her father's personal assistant gave her little time to go out and have fun, which was why when Alexander Warren finally texted her and invited to the annual party for the oilfield workers, she was all too willing to accept.

  Somebody held her arm lightly. Diana turned to see Alex smiling at her. He really had the most disarming of smiles. Her eyes involuntarily ran across his face where a golden layer of beard formed a trail from his cheekbones to the middle of his jaw.

  "Care for a martini?" Alex asked, holding up a glass.

  The party turned out to be just like any other party she could remember attending: boring and lame. However, she had a great time because he was there with her, keeping her company with his humor and endearing attitude.

  "I think it's time I head back. I need to meet with my father at the office tonight," she said.

  "He's still working by 11 AM?" Alex sounded surprised.

  She laughed. "Yeah, my father is a bit of a workaholic."

  "Is he working on something big?"

  At this point she became alert. She could not afford to let him know her family was planning a hostile takeover of his employers' company. She replied, "It's just the usual paperwork a CEO has to handle after moving to a new branch. Nothing serious."

  He nodded. "Alright. Allow me drive you home."

  The drive from the town hall to the only Reyn Empire branch in Maine lasted for ten minutes. Alex pulled up and adjusted on his seat to look at her.

  "Thanks for coming. I had a great time," he said, and in his heart, he meant it. He had been with a lot of women in the twenty-five years of his life, but none fascinated him as much as this one did. She smiled and he could swear that his heart skipped a bit at the parting of her lips.

  "I had a great time too, Alex. Let's do this again sometime," she said.

  "Yes. That would be grand. I hate almost all the restaurants in Rockville; all except one. That's where I want to take you."

  "Alright. Text me the time and place whenever you're ready."

  "How about tomorrow?" he asked, grinning.

  "Perfect," she replied with a grin of her own. There was silence after that, neither of them said a word because their eyes locked and all they could do was stare.

  Alex's heart began to thump heavily against his chest. He felt twelve years old again. Not breaking eye contact he leaned in, inching his mouth closer to hers.

  "Your eyes," she whimpered as she parted her lips and raised her head.

  "What about them?" he asked. By now their lips were only inches apart.

  "They're unreadable. It's almost like I can't tell what you're feeling through them," she said as she sucked in her breath, ready to receive his kiss.

  He did not know what it was about her comment on his dark colored eyes that affected him so much, but he found himself pulling away from her.

  Coughing, he said, "Your dad must be waiting for you."

  The look of confusion and hurt on her face nearly melted his heart. She stammered, "I... I'm sure he'll be a little pissed by now. Thanks once again, Alex. Goodnight."

  "Take care of yourself," he said. Then he watched her walk out of the car and into the five-story building before driving off into the night.

  "Sometimes I just can't believe how stupid I am. 'I can't tell what you're feeling through them.' Why the hell did I say that? It's cheesy as fuck! No wonder he ran off," Diana ranted as she stormed through the empty reception of her father's company.

  Just a couple of days knowing each other and she was already acting all starry-eyed. She had to learn to stop saying emotional things like that next time, and that was assuming he ever went out with her again.

  She was so distracted that she did not notice the lack of security guards at the door and on the ground floor. Even when her father worked after closing hours, the guards were to keep patrolling the building. She almost did not perceive the smell of smoke until she was on the first flight of stairs.

  Just before her brain could register what was happening, she saw her father at the top of the stairs. He was lying on the floor in a pool of blood. A long dagger was sticking grotesquely out of his lower back. By the time she could recover from the shock, the smoke was all around her. The upper part of the building was on fire.

  Diana screamed as she caught sight of flames coming down the stairs towards where her father lay. She ran back downstairs to call on the guards. Her slender body would not be able to carry him away from the flames without help from the guards.

  When she reached the ground floor, she did not meet the guards. Instead she suddenly found herself surrounded by three men dressed in black coveralls and wearing white masks with tinted lenses to cover their eyes. They all held long and sharp daggers.

  "You killed him," she screamed. She knew she should be afraid as they inched closer to her, but in that moment, the pain and loss she felt clouded her judgment. By now there was smoke all around the ground floor. One of them sprinted towards her, dagger raised high.

  There was a sudden loud shattering of glasses and in an instant something leaped at the attacking man, striking him on the chest and smashing him hard against floor. Diana's breath caught in her throat as she realized what had leaped in through the window was a large lion. It was over six and a half feet long with a very bushy golden mane.

  The men trembled as they each began to take wary steps back. The lion fixed his golden eyes on them, as if expecting them to pounce any second. The one who had fallen began to get to his feet. He suddenly dropped his dagger and pulled out a pistol. The lion attacked just as the masked man pulled the trigger.

  Diana did not instantly understand what happened. All she knew was that the lion struck the man once more, flinging him across the room again, but this time into the arms of his colleagues. It dawned on her that the creature could have used his claws to strike the gunman twice now but did not. They picked him up and ran out through the exit of the building.

  The smoke was everywhere now, yet she could see the lion staring at her with bright golden eyes. Fear gripped her once more. Images from the past flooded her mind. Her legs began to shake. Only when her eyes fell on the lion's bleeding forelimb did her senses return. He was bleeding from a bullet wound.

  The wailing of a police siren cut through her thoug
hts. She turned to look out the window. The police car was not too far off. When she returned her gaze, there was no one in front of her anymore. The lion was gone.

  Alex awoke the next morning to a great deal of pain in his left arm. He winced as he sat up on the bed. He had almost died last night. The bullet had narrowly missed his side and grazed the underside of his left forelimb instead. He realized that the masked man would not have had the chance to draw out a gun if he had clawed him to death on his first attack. However, killing a man in cold blood was something he would never do.

  After dropping Diana off last night, he hadn't driven up to a hundred meters when his lion senses picked up the smell of smoke from one of the rooms in the building. He went back to warn her about a possible fire only to find her in deep trouble. He smiled. At least she was okay. That was what mattered most for now.

  Alex realized it was a Saturday, and he was to have breakfast with his siblings that morning. Though the Floyd mansion was just two houses away from his, he was already running late. He had a first-aid kit in his wardrobe, so disinfecting and dressing his wound did not take long.

  Hair colored to a darker shade, beard well-trimmed, black contacts in place, long sleeve shirt to cover the bandage on his arm, Alex stepped out looking like every other human in the neighborhood. He strolled down the street with a smile on his face and happiness in his heart.

  The large number of police cars parked outside the Floyd mansion gave him the first shock of the morning. The sight of Diana in the mist of three police men gave him the second. He immediately walked up to her.

  "Diana. What's going on here?" he asked.

  She turned to look at him. He could tell from her swollen eyelids that he had been crying. "My father was killed last night and his company burnt. I have reasons to believe the Floyds did it."

  Her words hit him like a blow. That was impossible. His siblings couldn't have been those masked men. He was also shocked to hear her father was in the burning building.

  He managed to say, "You may never know how sorry I am, Diana. Why would you think the Floyds did this?"

  She sniffed. "Our families have been nursing a feud for many years. The only reason we returned to Maine was to take over the oilfields. They must have found out and..." she broke into tears.

  Alex's heart bled for this poor woman. She had lost so much in one night. He held her close while she quietly sobbed on his shoulder. When she raised her head, there was a look of deadly determination in her eyes.

  "I know for sure it was them," she said. "There was a werelion there last night. He tried to make it seem like he was saving me but I know better. It was all a ruse. No lion would fight without claws. That was what led the police to them. They are the only werelions in Rockville."

  Alex stared at her, unable to speak. The impact of his actions last night was only just beginning to dawn on him.

  She continued, "Lion shifters killed my mom, now they have murdered my father. I won't rest until they are all exterminated, every single one of them."

  Chapter 3

  "I want to believe the police are doing everything to get justice for our family," Marko said. The four Reynolds siblings were seated in the spacious living room, discussing with a police detective. Diana glanced at the man beside her. Detective Jacob Preston was the officer in charge of the case. So far he had been very helpful, especially with bringing the Floyds into custody.

  Jacob Preston replied, "We are doing our best. It's gonna be tough though, as there's no concrete evidence. Getting the arrest warrant for the Floyds was a lucky shot that paid off. My superiors have been itching to get a lead on the Floyds and their illegal activities."

  Marko nodded his head in begrudging satisfaction. He was a tall burly man and the second eldest of Henry's children, twenty-eight, and three years younger than Clarissa who was the eldest. Seated by his right was Timothy, his immediate younger brother who was twenty-five years of age and had an even more imposing stature than he did.

  Marko said, "I want them locked up during the course of the full investigation. I don't want them breathing free air ever again."

  Diana could feel the deadly tension in the room. She had never seen her siblings look so murderous. This must have been the kind of desperate rage that drove her father into lying in court. This time she was determined to make sure every member of the Floyd family paid.

  Alex sat in the interrogation room for over half an hour. His only company was the two big police officers guarding the room dutifully. None of them appeared to be in the mood for chitchat. So he sat there with his back to the door. In front of him were a large table and three chairs on the opposite side of it.

  He heard the door open behind him. A tall lanky man walked in with Derek, Junior and Deborah following closely behind. Alex was pleased to see that hadn't been cuffed. Even though it had already been twenty-four hours since their arrest, they still looked good.

  The detective said, "Hello, Mr. Warren. I am detective Jacob Preston and I understand that you wish to discuss confidential business matters with your employers. You will have the room for five minutes. Keep it short, please."

  As all three police officers exited the room, Alex realized that he had seen the detective standing beside Diana during his siblings' arrest. He turned to look at his half-brothers and sister. It looked like they were about to pounce on him.

  Derek spoke first, "You piece of crap! How could you have been so stupid?"

  Deborah words were more explanatory, but no less furious. "We know you saved the Reynolds bitch, and in doing so put us in this shithole." She was a slim but stern looking woman, and of all Alex's siblings, the werelioness scared him the most.

  Floyd Junior spoke next. "I heard the workers saying you left the party with a Reynolds girl, and there I was thinking you were aiming to pump her for information. I never expected this. Not in a million years. You should have let her die."

  Alex felt his own anger rising. "I understand that this looks bad for you, and I'm sorry. I really am. I never knew about the feud until yesterday. And I don't know about you but in my Pride, we don't fold our arms and watch innocent people get killed."

  Derek smiled. "Innocent? Don't be naive, bro. Think about it, she most definitely knew you worked for us. There's every chance she was with you to get information on us. Do you have any idea how many companies are lining up to steal the oilfield from under us now that Dad's gone?"

  Alex looked away from them. Questions flooded his mind. Was this true? Had Diana been using him? And why the hell did the idea hurt so much? In the mist of all those questions came a solution - one that would cost him. He looked back at is half-siblings with his expression as determined as ever.

  "Don't worry," he said. "I know what to do."

  It was already three days since the police had arrested the Floyds but Diana did not feel any better. After her mom's death, her father had become someone she could hardly recognize, but she still loved him dearly and the pain of the loss would not subside. There was another pain nudging he corners of her heart: Alexander Warren.

  He hadn't called her or come to see her since the day she met him outside the Floyd's mansion. For some reason his negligence hurt her a great deal. Detective Jacob, who came to their mansion every day to provide updates on the ongoing investigations claimed Alex came to him every day trying to negotiate a release for his employers. Between that and running the oilfield in their absence, she guessed he could not create time to see her. Or he just did not care.

  "The detective is here," Clarissa said peeping through the window. All four siblings were seated in their living room making plans for their father's funeral. The detective walked in a few seconds later. One glance at his face and Diana knew something was awfully wrong.

  Jacob said, "I'm afraid I've got bad news for you. We had to let the Floyds out."

  At first they stared at him in confusion. Then one by one, they began to bombard him with questions. He raised his voice so they could he
ar him in the uproar that followed. "We had no choice. Alexander Warren had us pinned to a corner."

  At the mention of Alex's name, Diana's heart began to pound painfully in her chest. She felt a fearful chill run down her spine.

  "What in the world could a site manager have over you?" Marko said.

  Jacob avoided their eyes when he replied, "It would appear the police made a false assumption about the number of werelions in Rockville. Even now, we are taking a lot of heat from activists who feel the police are biased against shifters.”

  He continued, "Alexander Warren came to me with new evidence. He's Jonathan Floyd's illegitimate son and a werelion himself. He threatened to go to the media with the news. The story would be if one werelion can slip through our radar, then more can, which defeats the whole foundation of the arrest. With the 'Fight Against Discrimination' activists sniffing around, the Rockville police cannot afford such bad press."

  All Diana could do was stare at the detective with her lips slightly parted. She was already beginning to find it difficult to breathe. Alex was a Floyd all along; and even worse, a werelion. He was an embodiment of everything she hated and more. How could she have liked him? How could she have wanted him so bad? All around her she heard her siblings’ angry voices. Surely they were as angry as she was; however, they certainly weren't feeling her level of pain.

  Minutes after detective Jacob Preston left, the siblings sat in silence, every one of them lost in his or her own thoughts. It was Derek who broke the silence first. "That bastard, thinking he can screw us over like this. He must have hung around our sister just so he could get more information on our family."

  As soon as he said this, Diana's mind flashed back to the party she attended with Alex. She remembered telling him her father would be working late that night. She also remembered him texting someone on his phone. Another memory flashed through her mind. The lion that saved her. Could that have been Alex stopping his brothers from killing her? Everything was so confusing she began to feel sick.