So one hundred years later, we are still here, alive and kicking. We are immortal. We shift when we need to. We help keep the swamps safe from poachers and killers. That night, as well, Joslyn was bitten by a vampire. Her parents went to the tomb, as well, although she does not know about that. We have kept that from her. Her parents did not think she was strong enough with just her tiger shifter abilities. So, they asked Laveau to make her unstoppable. So she did. I have tried so many times over the years to tell her the truth. But something always came up and I never could tell her. I feel so bad, because my cousin is everything to me. I love her so much. She needs to know that she was not turned into a vampire because of anything that she did.
At one point, we thought our newfound ability was a curse and we thought that way for a very long time. But, we have come to realize that it is a blessing, not a curse.
I walk out onto the deck with a cup of coffee in my hands.
The bayou has a unique smell to it. It smells of water, moss, and earth. Along the bayou are smaller channels that take you to other bayous. Down our bayou are many houses, but the majority of them are houseboats. There was a new one brought in earlier last week. I have not had a chance to go and meet the person yet. In fact, I have not seen them outside yet. Whoever lives there must keep to themselves, and that is fine with me. I do not need to know our neighbors’ business. As long as they stay out of mine, things will be alright.
The heat is horrendous today. It is almost ninety five degrees with the heat index. Man. It is going to be a long ass summer, and it just started. By the time summer is over, the temperatures will probably still be that high, if not higher. Then, we run into the problem of hurricane season. That is the only thing I hate about summer. This winter was not too bad. We did have some cold days, but it never got under freezing. So I guess we cannot complain. If we have a mild winter, it usually means we will have extreme temperatures during the summer. Oh well. There is nothing I can do about the weather. It just makes our job more interesting. The swamp creatures always come out in the heat. They love it.
We own a swamp tour business. We have had this business for over seventy-five years now. No one is the wiser on why we do not age. We have started doing night tours recently. The demand for the night tours is extraordinary. So to keep up with the higher demand, we have gone out and bought two more air boats that can hold up to ten people at a time. We officially start night tours tomorrow night. We are super pumped up about this. We already have night tours booked up for eight months. The night tours are by reservation only. Our day tours are booked until the fall of next year. We are one of the better tours, and all of our customers recommend us to everyone. So we stay pretty busy. We are not complaining at all. That is why we have asked Skylar and her family to help us out. Plus, it gives them all something to do. So for each tour at night, we will have a total of four boats. Each tour lasts three hours. We will have at least three tours each night.
We love what we do. We would not change our lives for anything. We are what we are for a reason, and we love it.
Chapter Two
Adele
I am a one hundred year old shifter. My family has been blessed with keeping the peace in the Catholic religion for centuries. I am the last of my line. The buck stops with me. For the past seventy years, my family has lived in France, but when my parents died thirty years ago, I left France to move to South Louisiana. I live in a small houseboat on the swamp in Mosstown. I moved my houseboat here a couple days ago. Although I have lived in this town for a very long time. I wanted to get out of the city and live on the water.
I love everything about this town. The swamp is my absolute favorite place to be when I am not working. The pull to move here was indescribable when my folks died. For some unknown reason, I just had to move here. I am happy with my decision. It is everything I had hoped it would be.
There are woods behind my houseboat that lead to the main road. So, my car is parked right on the bank on the drive to my houseboat. I have noticed that each houseboat here has a driveway that leads to it. Along the bayou are many different kinds of houseboats, but down a few houseboats from me is a swamp tour place. It is a two-story house. It seems that the business is on the first floor and whoever lives there, lives on the second floor.
I have long, black, slightly wavy hair with deep brown eyes. I stand about five foot five. I am really nothing special to look at. I guess I have all the stuff in the right places, because I get whistled at a lot by men. I never pay much attention to them, anyway, because they do not have what I am looking for. I want someone who is a shifter like me. He does not even have to shift into the same animal as I do, but he needs to be a shifter, none the less. I will settle for nothing less than that.
Non-shifters need to just fiche moi le paix (get the fuck away from me). I am not interested in them. I am naturally a shy and quiet person. I keep to myself and never bother myself with other people’s business. Louisiana is full of all kinds of things paranormal. I can sense vampires and shifters everywhere. Maybe one of them is my soul mate, and maybe not.
I hate being in big crowds. It scares me so much. Crowded places make me feel all clasaustophobic. I cannot stay in stores for very long, because the florescent lights give me the biggest headache. This land is full of magic. It radiates from the ground and waters. Magic has been in this part of the country for so many centuries that everything around you is saturated with it. Actually, I would not have it any other way.
Magic is a part of life, even if we do not use it. Some people are born into great magic. Recently, I felt a big shift in power. Not in a bad way. This power is special and it comes from the house on the other side of the woods from me. I have no idea who or what lives there, but I do not feel any malice from that location—only good.
There is also old voodoo magic coming from that house down from me. The one that has the swamp tours. I cannot put my finger on it, but it draws me in every time I pass it coming home from work every day during the week. I have not made my way over there yet. Why go now? I have felt the pull for thirty years now, and I have resisted it for this long. I can keep on resisting it.
Maybe one day I will happen to cross paths with whomever lives there and see what this pull is. But for now, I will keep staying to myself as I always do. Most magical beings like myself, prefer to keep to themselves. We only come out when it is necessary for us to come out to someone. When we meet another shifter, you instantly know that they are a shifter. Although you cannot tell what kind of shifter they are unless they let you smell it on them. Most shifters can hide the nature of their beast from other shifters, but are still able to tell that they are shifters.
There are shifters that are made from legends. Legends are formed around these special creatures. My family is one such case, but I will get into that in just a little bit. I have never met a creature that is based on legends. Since moving here, the locals speak of four white alligators that are massive in size, which patrol the swamps at night. They keep poachers and murderers out. They supposedly keep the swamps safe for the creatures and locals that rely on the bounty on their harvest from the swamps.
I am friendly with my neighbors. I always say hello, and talk to them when they start up a conversation with me. I am never rude to them. I am there when they need help with something on their houseboats, and they help me if I need it. We stick together. If someone new moves in, one of us will go and meet them and see what they are about. That person is usually me, because I can sniff out trouble a mile away. My neighbors never question my methods. I never reveal to them what I am. They know that I am different somehow.
Little do they know, that I am a creature from a local legend. I was born and raised down here before my family moved to France. I have kept my secret for one hundred years now. I have no intention of revealing myself to them, or to anyone else for that matter. I have to keep my secret safe. There are people who would kill me if they found out about me.
What am I?
Well, I am the rougarou. I shift into a white wolf at will. Although I am mainly human the majority of the time, but when needed, I shift into my wolf. Plus, down here, I keep the devout Catholics in line. That is my purpose. But I have taken on another purpose as well; I try to save people who are drug to the swamp to be killed. So far I have saved over a thousand lives since I have been down here.
Centuries ago, a witch blessed my family because they helped her from being burned at the stake. So as repayment for saving her, she cast a spell on my family line. A spell that changed us forever. Each new child born into the family would grow into an adult, then at that point they would stop growing and never age. She gave us the ability to shift into a white wolf. She said we are now the rougarou. I can be killed, however, by a silver bullet to my heart. So far in my existence no one has tried to kill me. But, they do not make silver bullets, so that is good for me.
I am seen as a sacred creature. I am in tune with Mother Nature. I always have been. I know when she is hurting or when she is happy. And lately, she has been happy. Someone special has restored the balance between good and evil and, finally, Mother Nature can take a breather. But, there is still evil in the world.
I guess you could say that I am like a normal person, only cooler. I want the same things that a normal person wants. I work a normal job. I pay bills and I live my life in secret. Never letting anyone get close enough to me to know the real me. I just cannot do that. I cannot take that chance with my life.
When I was a little girl, my mom used to tell me that we are all put on this Earth for a purpose. When we get older, we will find out that purpose. But, our main purpose in life is to find our other half. When we meet that special someone, we will instantly know it. Even if we have not spoken to that person yet. We will know when we can feel the electricity sparking between us even from a distance. Our hearts will stop beating for a moment and then start again, beating in tune with that person’s heartbeat. Some women have tried to run from their other halves and in the process have died a horrible, painful death. We cannot live without our other half once we come into contact with them. If we do not embrace our other halves then we will die; both of us will die.
I know that one day I will find my other half, and I am fine with that. But until that time comes, I will continue to do what I am doing. Hopefully, my other half will be like me and we can help people together. Hopefully, he will have the same values and morals that I do and view the world like I do. Together, we could do so much more than just one person. I want to raise a family someday, just like every other woman out there.
I am a trained special needs assistant. I work in the local schools to help children with special needs. I love being around kids in general. But, kids with special needs just pull at my heartstrings. These kids need extra help to accomplish their goals in life and in school. I am one of those helpers. I help them achieve their goals. When I see their faces light up, when they have conquered a task that has been giving them lots of trouble, it confirms why I do what I do. Most of the kids grow up to live a normal, happy life, but there are a few that will always live with their parents. Some can never overcome daily challenges. Their disability is too severe and weighs heavily on their hearts. For these kids, we try to make things as easy as we can for them. We help them overcome the basics and slowly work on the more challenging things.
I will never tire of my job. I love waking up each day and going to work. I love the kids I work with so much. I can never let them down; they need me. I also volunteer in the local soup kitchen once a week. There are so many people that need help everywhere. But here, these people who come to the kitchen, are looking for a hot meal. They are homeless and sleep at the local shelter. The shelter is not able to provide a hot meal every day. So once a week, the soup kitchen does. On holidays, the soup kitchen takes over and provides a holiday meal for the homeless.
I could not imagine my life being any different than it is now. Except, I do get tired of going home to be alone each night. I have had several one night stands, but they mean nothing to me and never will. I long for my other half—more since I moved to the bayou. The longing just gets worse every day. Will I ever find my other half? God, I sure as hell hope so. I do not want to be alone anymore. I am tired of being alone. I am the last living in the Boudreaux line. I need to carry on my line. Please God. Let me find him.
Chapter Three
Deuce
“Deuce, are you decent in there, bro?” asks Pierre.
“Yeah, man; come on in.”
“Deuce, I think we may have a new problem to look into. The locals are saying that they have seen the rougarou lately roaming around the woods at night. They say it is in the form of a white wolf this time.”
“Well, merde! I guess we will have to keep a lookout to see if we spot the mysterious white wolf. You know, legend says that the rougarou is around just to keep the Catholics in line, so I do not think that we will have a problem with it.”
“The locals are also saying that this wolf has killed several criminals in the swamps the past few weeks. You know the same criminals that we have tried to stop in the past from dumping bodies in the swamp. Apparently, this wolf can track them better than we can, brother,” he says.
“Well, then we need to find this wolf and become allies with it. After all, we serve the same purpose it seems. I think having this wolf in our corner will benefit us and the swamp.”
“You know, Mama could see into the future, Deuce. She told me that one day a white wolf would come and that she would tame you.”
“Hmm, very interesting. Unless this woman is my soul mate then I do not see how it will tame me. The only person who can tame the beast within me is my mate. We both know that. Each of us has a mate out there somewhere, that will one day help us keep the beast under control.”
“Yeah, Mom was very smart. She told me that my mate would be a darker shifter, but would never go into any details with me about it. She said that when that day came, I would know immediately that the woman would be my mate,” he says in an almost dream like state.
“She told me that my mate would be a sacred and legendary creature. She would never elaborate with me either. I think she did not want to give us too much information. So that when we meet our mates, we would not run and hide in the other direction. We have lived a very long time now. I, for one, am tired of being alone. Not that I do not love you and Sebastien and Alexandre, but I want something that is just for me. Something like what Joslyn has with Dean. She is so blissfully in love, and so happy. They both light up the room when they see each other. You can feel the love that they have for each other. I want something like that one day,” I tell him honestly.
“I am so happy for our cousin. She deserves all the happiness that she now has. We have all been through so much. For once, things need to start going our way. I agree with you, Deuce. I want a love like that someday. Hopefully, we will not have to wait too long.”
We sit in silence for a few minutes, contemplating what we just talked about. To have a love like all of the Mackenzie’s would be amazing. I enjoy every time we get to hang out with them. The love that they give to those beautiful babies is a true beauty to behold. The love a mother has for her child is magical and spiritual.
I run my hand over my slight stubble. I refuse to shave, but I do not want a full beard. The only one of us who does not have any facial hair is Sebastien. He has inherited our mother’s femine features and refuses to grow any facial hair. His baby face gets many admirers. The rest of us have inherited our father’s rugged features.
“Hey, Pierre, I am going to go and take a boat ride. I want to test out the new boat before it is used in the tours. Plus, I have noticed there is a new houseboat that moved in not too long ago and I want to see if I can catch the owner and meet them. I like to know who all of our neighbors are. As far as the rougarou goes, we will just have to keep an eye out from now on. Hopefully, our beasts will not want to eat it when and if we find it,” I
say.
“Yeah, that is the only problem with our beast; they want to eat everything in sight. Keeping them under control is a task all by itself. Our other side, since it is such a predatory animal, always wants out to hunt. Keeping it at bay and in control can be a challenge some days. Some days it is harder than others. I think that is why Zander is in the gym as much as he is. He keeps himself busy and it must keep his beast in check. Which is why we all put everything into this business; it helps us to be out in the swamps. The beast craves being in the murky waters and with the nature that it thrives in. But, since we are not in the water as much as we used to be, still being in the general vicinity helps tremendously. Running the tours, which people love, and we love, helps our beasts stay in check. I long for the day I find my mate,” he says, hanging his head low in exasperation.
“We will find our mates. I know it will take time, but it will happen. Do not be so glum about it. Our day of happiness will come soon enough. We need to make sure that our hearts are ready for the challenge of having a mate to care for. We need to be able to keep an open mind and open heart. Are we ready now?” I ask.
“Go and take your boat ride. I am heading into the Big Easy for supplies with Sebastien and Dean. Enjoy your day, for the night tours start tonight, brother.”
“Have a good day, brother. Love you, man. See ya later, gator,” I say.
“Love you, too, Deuce. See ya in a while, crocodile.”
After Pierre leaves my room, I finish getting dressed. Luckily, for us, the tours are closed during the day today. It gives us time to do maintence on the boats and make sure they are ready for tonight. We are taking out four boats this evening. Tonight, Joslyn will be riding with me on my tour. Which is awesome. I love spending time with my cousin whenever I can.
Deuce (Swamp Desires Book 1) Page 2
