The Aberrants Box Set (Books 1-5)

by Sarah J. Stone

  “It doesn’t really matter, does it?” All of their hands were hovering just over their weapons. She could make a break for it, but her chances of survival were slim at best. “Look, you’ve got a choice here. You can come quietly, get a hot last meal of whatever you want and a nice, peaceful send off. Or, you can make this difficult. Hell, you might even kill one of us, but you’ll end up riddled full of bullets or with your throat ripped out.”

  “I don’t suppose there’s a third option where we all talk this out and realize we’re pawns of a societal pressure that’s directly in conflict with evolution?”

  “There is no third option for Aberrants.”

  “That’s what I thought.” Jaelle raised my hands above her head. Sure, she could fight and probably die, but she stood much better chances if she went with them and escaped later. Every group had a weakness, some dynamic she could exploit to her advantage. She just needed time, and she couldn’t get that if she was bleeding out on the floor.

  The lead hunter took a step forward, confident grin across his face, and then suddenly the world exploded.

  Well, perhaps that wasn’t the best way to describe it. But one moment there was a line of hunters in front of her and a front wall of the cabin, and the next there was a car.

  Jaelle’s body dove out of the way, her mind still scrambling to figure out what was going on. It was only after she crashed to the ground and looked behind her that she realized what had happen.

  Where there had once been Livingroom there was now just debris. Oh, and a familiar, giant truck sitting halfway in the house.

  “What the hell?” She gasped. “David?!”

  But the truck was moving again, gunning backwards, out of the house.

  “Get in!” David cried, sticking his head out of the window.

  She didn’t need a second order and sprinted forward, hopping over one of the bodies. She was nearly to the truck when something gripped her ankle, yanking her backwards.

  She yelped and looked down to see a half-furred arm holding her, claws digging into her skin.

  “You can’t keep running,” it hissed through broken teeth that were already healing.

  “Watch me,” she hissed, shifting her leg into that of a horse and kicking with all of her might.

  The hunter’s head bounced off the floor and they let go, allowing Jaelle to bound forward and dive into the passenger’s side.

  David peeled off without another word. She wanted to ask him about a million and one questions, but she sensed it wasn’t the time. Hell, she was still trying to understand how he had known to come back at all.

  But for the moment, she was somewhat safe, and growing more so with each mile that David sped down the road. She had a lot of explaining to do, but she had never been so happy to do so.

  Chapter Eight: Repairing Broken Trust

  For the first hour, not a single word was uttered in the cab of the truck.

  Initially, Jaelle thought he would take her back to Braywire, but after about a dozen or so miles she realized that they were heading the opposite direction. She almost opened her mouth to ask where they were headed, but the stern look on David’s face kept her silent.

  The second hour, she realized that after all the panic of the morning that she desperately needed to relieve herself. And yet as they passed rest-stop after rest-stop, she didn’t say anything.

  All in all, four hours passed and night fell before they stopped, pulling into a gas station in the middle of nowhere. Even more nowhere than Braywire.

  “Be quick.” David ordered, sliding out of the car and immediately going to the pump. Jaelle nodded and went about rushing to the bathroom.

  She almost expected a hunter to jump out of the next stall over, or even the mirror, which didn’t exactly make peeing very easy. It took her longer than she would have liked, but after a little less than five minutes, she was sliding back into David’s truck and waiting for him to get in.

  Leaning over, she looked into the driver’s side mirror only to see that her ex-lover wasn’t there. Panic shot through her yet again and her already frazzled nerves threatened to short out entirely. However, that same level of fear dropped down to nothing when David crossed around the front then got in, his arms loaded with snacks.

  “Thought you might be hungry,” he said flatly before putting the trunk into gear and driving off.

  And then there was more silence.

  “Thank you,” she murmured quietly, digging through the small pile between them. In it, she found a bag of her favorite trail mix that was more junk food than actually nutritious snack, and a bottle of the soda brand that she liked.

  Grateful, she opened the bag only to have it burst open in her shaking grip, spilling trail mix all over her lap. She froze for a minute, as terrified as she had been that morning, and her gaze flicked to David.

  He glanced at her a moment, eyes hard, before a laugh burst from his mouth. It was sudden, and unexpected, but it was exactly the catalyst she needed. Her own choking sounds of mirth filled the cab along with his and they howled for several minutes.

  Sure, it was a bit manic in tone, but it was a blessed relief compared to the dead silence that had reigned so long.

  “I wish you could have seen your face,” David said, wiping tears from his cheeks as they slowly began to come down from their sudden high. “I’m sorry, but it was just so priceless.”

  “It’s okay,” she assured, using the spare bag from the gas station to scoop up the mess in her lap. “I’ll clean your car when we get a moment.”

  “That’s fine. It’s not my car.”

  She looked to him curiously, the last of the bubbling giggles draining from her. “What do you mean, it’s not your car?”

  “Did you think I bought a brand-new truck in the time you’ve been missing?” His smirk grew dry. “This belongs to one of those people in the cabin. The ones that were going to take you.”

  “You mean the ones you killed.”

  He shrugged. “I’m not certain on that end.”

  The reality of the situation began to dawn on her and her stomach dropped once again. “You stole one of the Hunter’s cars? They’re going to be after you for sure now.”

  “What are Hunters?”

  “The people who wanted to take me.”

  His tone was hard again as he spoke. “And why did they want to take you?”

  “It’s… complicated.”

  “That’s not a good enough answer, Jaelle. And after everything we’ve been through I think I deserve one. I—” He cut himself off and took a deep breath. It was strange to see her calm, simple David so adamant about anything. “I might have killed someone for you. You owe me a reason why.”

  “You’re right,” she murmured. “I’ll… I’ll explain everything, but I don’t think now is a good time. Driving and discovering there’s a whole new world that you ever knew existed don’t really mix.”

  “Fine,” He said, nodding resolutely. “Tonight then. After we stop.” They went quiet again and she braced herself for another oppressive silence. However, she was surprised when his fingers brushes against the top of her hand. “I’m glad you’re alive,” he murmured.

  She looked to him and it was easy to see the concern, the ache there. What had she put this innocent, brave man through? “Me, too,” she murmured, smiling softly at him. “Me, too.”

  *

  They drove on and on and on, chewing through the fuel that David had purchased as the hours flew by. When they eventually did pull to a stop in a rest-area, the clock read just after midnight.

  Both of them stumbled out of the car, stiff from the long ride. Again, without speaking, they went about going to their respective bathrooms. Jaelle, washing her face and rinsing her mouth out with water from the faucet and Bradley… well, he was doing whatever it was that Hunters did when they were roughing it in the great wilds.

  For the briefest of moments, Jaelle debated making a run for it. It wasn’t like David would be ab
le to find her again, and riding around in a stolen Hunter truck wasn’t exactly the wisest course of action. But he had risked his life to save her. Nothing could ever make her forget that moment the massive truck had barreled through the wall of the cabin, slamming into the men who had meant to kill her.

  The least she could do was give him the truth. He had more than earned that.

  She exited the bathroom to find David was already back at the truck, fishing things from the back of the truck. She slid into the cab, brushing her curls with her fingers, nervous once more. David soon joined her, throwing two water bottles that had obviously had only been recently pulled from a cooler, a mess of blankets, and one of those windshield covers that was supposed to protect from the sun. Her guess was that it was more to protect them from any prying eyes.

  “So, these Hunter guys were pretty prepared,” he said. “Lean forward, I’m going to lower the seat.”

  “You can do that?”

  “The beauty of an extended cab. If it doesn’t go down all of the way, it will at least recline significantly.”

  “Oh.” She didn’t say much else, doing as he asked. Sure enough, the seat reclined almost all of the way, stopping at quite the obtuse angle. From there, David handed her several worn pillows and a couple of blankets before sliding in himself.

  He set up the windshield foil before setting up his own nest. The distance between the two of them was quite noticeable, and she couldn’t exactly blame him for it.

  “So…” she said, once they were both settled and facing each other.

  “So,” he repeated noncommittedly.

  “I guess we should start with what the Hunters were.”

  “Or why all the livestock on the farm was wiped out. Or why you disappeared. Or why those people swept into town then disappeared right at the time you did.”

  “All right, that’s a lot of options. Um… okay, so in order to understand what happened in Braywire, there’s a few foundational blocks you need to learn.”

  “Are those foundational blocks going to include why the men that were going to take you away didn’t look quite human?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good.”

  She swallowed, trying to collect her thoughts. She had never had to explain her world before. She either interacted with people who knew all about it, or humans who didn’t need to. And here she was, about to reveal the secrets of the Shifters to a human, which was decidedly against the rules. If the Shifters had the ten commandments to govern themselves, not revealing themselves to regular mortals had to be about number four on the list before ‘don’t eat each other’ and ‘Aberrants must be destroyed’.

  “Okay, so you know what werewolves are, right?”

  “Of course.”

  “Well, they’re real, in a way.”

  “What do you mean, in a way?”

  “Give me a minute. I’ve never done this before, okay?” Another breath, but it hardly did anything to help. “They’re real in the way that some people who look like humans can take the form of a wolf or something between a wolf and a human. They can do it whenever they want and the full moon has nothing to do with forcing them to Shift. However, they also can be forced to do it when they’re upset, or they lose control, or they’re in danger. A lot of reasons, really.”

  “So, what, you’re a werewolf and so are all of those people who came to town and the men in the cabin?”

  “Uh no. Not quite. Wolf Shifters are just one specific Shifter clan. Oh, Shifters are what we call ourselves, by the way. There are bear Shifters, bobcat Shifters, tiger Shifters, aquatic Shifters, avian Shifters. Basically, if there’s an animal that might have been revered by one culture or another, there’s a Shifter for it.”

  “How is that possible?”

  She shrugged. “There’re a lot of different theories. One is that we’re all blessed by different spirits that prefer certain animal forms. Another is that it’s ancient DNA manifesting with the strange paranormal abilities. But that one is less believable.”

  “Really? The DNA theory is less believable?”

  “Well, yeah, because Shifters are often born to human parents, which absolutely sucks, and every now and then two Shifters will have a human baby. Also, when two Shifters of different types have a child, their child is either one or the other, instead of being a mix of the both, as genetics would dictate.”

  He seemed surprised by her lengthy response. “That was a, uh, very scientific answer.”

  “Of course. I’ve been living in this world for over twenty-five years. You tend to pick up the lingo.”

  He nodded and she gave him several moments to digest the wealth of information. To his credit, he was taking it marvelously well. Sure, his brow was furrowed and his eyes were dark as thoughts spun behind them, but he wasn’t call her a liar or insane.

  She supposed it helped that he had already seen several people in mid transformation and subsequently committed possible man-slaughter.

  “So what kind of Shifter are you?” he asked finally. “Some sort of werecat?”

  “Are you just saying that because I have an unnatural obsession with playing with laser pointers?”

  He cracked the tiniest of grins. “More because you’ll never be domesticated and you merely tolerate the presence of others when it’s convenient to you.”

  “Oh…”

  “So what kind of Shifter?”

  She shrunk down into the cocoon she had made herself. “A kind that they don’t like.”

  “You’re being vague again.”

  “I know! It’s just… speaking it out loud is like giving it power. As if I’m setting off some paranormal beacon that will let them find me.”

  “Who are they? Why are these Hunters after you? And who are you in all this? I get that you’re saying this is hard, but we don’t have time to pussyfoot around the topic. Everyone in town thinks you’re dead. From what you’re telling me, it sounds like a whole lot of powerful folk are trying to kill you. Now, I don’t want you dead, but I need to be in the know if I’m going to protect you, or be of any use to you at all.”

  “I know, I know, it’s just…let me get my words in order.” She glanced out the passenger window. It would be so easy to just open the door and bolt away into the darkness. But in truth, she didn’t want to. As uncomfortable as the conversation was, it needed to happen. “So, the Shifter world is separated into different clans. In general, they all stay separate, with only a few select groups that intermingle. Supply outposts, certain medical towns, a small para-military and then the Hunters.

  “The Hunters have a special purpose. They’re the best of the best. They’re all personally chosen by clan leaders and have to pass several tests before they can call themselves Hunters. Quite a few die in these tests, but if they pass, they’re granted almost carte blanche to uphold their duties.”

  “And those duties are?”

  “To keep the peace between the clans and stop any criminals that might be causing cross-clan harm or deaths. To hunt down and eliminate any wendigos—”

  “What the hell are wendigos?”

  “Shifters who consume the flesh of other Shifters. It’s very bad and curses them with and eternal life of hellish existence, constantly craving the living flesh of others. If left unchecked, they can wipe out entire populations. They’re impossibly strong, and fast, with only a pervasive fear of fire to help in their defeat.”

  “Dammit. That’s intense. I thought that was only some Indian myth.”

  “Native American,” she corrected automatically. “And some hypothesize that they were the catalyst for Shifters on this continent. They seemed to be the closest to the spirits, and had a long history of honoring animals as kindred. I mean, I’m not an expert in it so I’m sure I’m fudging some of the details, but that the general reasoning as far as I know.”

  “So, what makes these Hunters want you? You’re not a wendigo, are you?”

  “No. But I’m the third thing that they are swo
rn to hunt down and destroy.” It was getting harder and harder to keep her voice steady, but she pressed onward, “You see, when Shifters are born, they’re supposed to be blessed by one spirit and one spirit only, which means they only have the one animal that they’re supposed to shift into. Occasionally, a Shifter will be born that doesn’t have just one form. They have any form. Anything that they’ve seen and can envision morphing fully into is fair game.”

  Instead of horrified, his expression was more impressed than anything else. “That seems badass. Why would that be an issue?”

  “It’s an issue because these children, the ones that can shift into anything, only face one fate.”

  “You tone is telling me that it’s not one filled with happiness.”

  “No. All Aberrants are destined to go mad, killing everyone around them and everyone they ever loved before going on to murder anyone else they come across. Shifter, human, it doesn’t matter.”

  “How does that make them different from a wendigo then?”

  “Wendigos are near mindless creatures driven insane by their lust for flesh. They usually only eat Shifters and lie dormant in the bountiful summer months, preferring to hunt during fall and winter. Aberrants are mad with bloodlust, but are fully in control of their faculties otherwise. They can plan. Set traps. Drive cars. Even blend in with humans for a short while before the call to destroy gets to be irresistible. A lot of those notorious serial killers that have never been found are Aberrants that were taken out by Hunters.”

  “And that’s you? One of these serial killers?”

  Her eyes went wide with horror. “No! Gods no! I haven’t had the madness overtake me yet.”

  “Yet?”

  She shrugged. “They say it is only a matter of time. Usually Aberrant children are mercifully put down in their youth, but my mother hid me away.”

  “Wait, what? Children? Put down?! Are you telling me these Shifters murder children?”

  “For the protection of the whole, yes. It’d probably be easier if Aberrants were able to be detected when they were in the womb, or even babies. But Shifter abilities and blessing do not manifest until sometime during puberty. So, by the time a parent finds out their child is cursed, they’ve got eleven to fifteen years of bonding there. Hence the Hunters.”