by Celeste Raye
There was a bit of Déjà vu as they drove on in the night. Again, they were running for their lives, right after an attack from witches, and again they had prevailed. How many more times were they going to be so lucky? Scott was going to have to keep them both closer, and that did not bother Scott in the slightest. He rather liked the idea.
“So, you have to tell me what happened.”
Vanessa looked behind her and saw that Shane was sleeping.
“Why do you not want to talk about it with him up?”
“Because I don't want him to have to relive it. Shane has just been through so much. He saved me tonight.”
“Are you telling me that my son shifted for the first time?”
“If that is what you call it. I have never seen a lion that big. He was twice as big as you were when you finally showed up.”
“Bigger than me?”
Scott had been trying to figure out how his son had taken down two witches at his young age, but now he was even more perplexed. Shane had to be smaller than him. He was the Alpha after all. There was no way that he should be bigger than him, especially not when he was so young.
“Yeah, a lot bigger than you. I'm telling you; he was at least twice as big as you were. I couldn't believe it, and his eyes turned completely black. There wasn't any white in them and the air was pulsing. It was one of the craziest things that I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Scott did not believe it for a moment.
“That's not how it works.”
“I saw you shift, and it was different than how your son shifted. He was upset and he just kind of started shaking like he was having a seizure, and then all of a sudden, he was a lion. And then he just kept getting bigger and bigger. Then he finally went towards the witch and practically pulled her head off. I don't think I'll ever be able to get those images out of my mind.”
None of it was making any sense and he made her repeat herself a couple of times until she was frustrated with him. How could this be? His son was too young to be shifting, although sometimes when under a great deal of stress, they would shift early, but this was different. He should never have been bigger than him, and he should have never been able to take out the witches.
“The witches said a couple of things that might help us. She said something about him being their booster for magic. Your son is supposed to make them stronger somehow, but I’m not really sure how. There is a lot that we don't understand, and I think that you need to get some more information out of Shane. I think he knows far more than he realizes.”
“I have tried that already.”
“You need to try it again because he took down those witches. He was bigger and stronger than he should have been. Not to mention, there are some changes in him, and we need to make sure that we know what's going on.”
“What is it that you're not telling me?”
“Well, if what the witches said was true and I understood it correctly, what if he is a magic booster and he boosted his own magic?”
“Shifters don't have magic.”
“Well, you sort of do. I mean, you are paranormal, and you turn into animals. What else would you call it but magic?”
Scott could see where she was coming from, but he had no idea where she was going with it. What did it matter if they turned into animals?
“So, what does that matter?”
“It matters, because what if he could boost other people's magic as well? If the witches expected him to boost their magic and make them stronger, why can't he do the same for all of you? I know that all of the shifters are coming together, trying to find a way to take down the witch. What if this is the way?”
Scott did not know what to say for a moment. What if that was the way that they were looking for?
“Instead of taking you guys to a place tonight, I think I'm going to take you with me to go see Jack. Maybe we need to have a conversation with him. Tomorrow, we can see if your theory is correct. If we can boost the other shifters to make them bigger and stronger, it would give them a better chance of taking out the witch. With what my son did to those two witches, I can only imagine what all of us could do, if we were all stronger. If he could get that big, imagine what he could do to us?”
She smiled at him and sighed out loud. It had been another long day, and it didn't look like it was going to get any better for a while.
“I want to see this through, Scott. I want to see this end.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“I know that you don’t want to talk about this, Shane, but we have to. You have to tell me what they did to you and what else you can tell me. We are going to take care of those bad witches, but I need your help.”
That got his son’s attention, but Scott was still worried that he was asking too much of a child that age. It was easy to see that he was still bothered by everything, but there was nothing that Scott could do about it. He knew that the only way that everyone was going to be able to heal was to get it all out on the table.
Jack waved at the pair, and then Scott looked to his son.
“What did they do to you?”
“They made me a weapon, Dad. That’s why I didn’t want to tell you. I am the weapon that they are going to use against you. I don’t want to be a weapon. I don’t want to go back with them. That’s why I got so upset.”
It was the first time that he’d seen him actually cry since Shane got back. Before, he’d been just like everyone else, but since he had been rescued, Shane’s eyes hadn’t welled up at all. It was easier for him to see now that something was getting through to him in a whole new way.
“What sort of weapon?”
“I don’t know, really. I am just supposed to make them better and stronger. I don’t know how it works, but they did a lot of testing and stuff on me.”
It was a lot to process, but while Shane was in a talkative mood, Scott knew that he was going to have to get out all of the information that he could. It might be a while until it happened again. Shane had been very quiet about everything that had happened. He wanted to know as much as he could before he talked to Jack about it. There was also the desire to test it, but that could wait.
“Vanessa says that you shifted for the first time last night and that you were a lot bigger than me. How is that possible?”
The young boy grinned for a minute. “I told you, I boost power. You will be bigger around me now too. You will see.”
“Can you show me?”
“It doesn’t work all of the time. It’s a reaction. And it’s not the first time. I’ve shifted many times before.”
“What do you mean by reaction?”
“It happens when I am afraid or hurt or mad. I have to be really mad or really afraid for it to happen though.”
Scott pushed his lips together and tried not to think about what that actually meant for his son. He had been with them for two years, and they had tested him a lot. He had to be really scared or mad…Scott swallowed hard and closed his eyes to focus. He had to get through it.
“What else do you remember them saying?”
“Well, the head witch came to see me, and I was able to make her glow. She had the whole room buzzing.”
“You made her stronger?”
Shane nodded his head and agreed. “She was very happy, and they let me down off of the hooks for a little while. It was a good day.”
He watched his son smile at the memory, and he didn’t have it in him to ask what the hooks were. His imagination hopefully made it far worse than reality.
“Do you remember much about her?”
“She can melt people.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, when she was around me and she started to shake and stuff, the whole room shook too. Then she touched this one guy, and his head melted. It was really horrible, but kind of cool, because it looked like wax.”
That left Scott disgruntled, but he knew that he had to go on. His son was so different, and it was no wonder why. He talked ab
out a man’s face melting like it was nothing new. Had he seen worse? Again, he was afraid to get the answer to that.
“Did she say anything else to you that you think is important, that I should know about?”
He thought about it for a minute and then shrugged. “She said lots of things, but it was all just threats. She doesn’t like shifters very much. She doesn’t like vampires either, but they’re going to be harder to wipe out. She wants to wipe us all out, and she thinks that I will be the way to do it. I don’t want to help her though. That witch wants to make us her pets.”
“Of course, you don't. We are not going to let her get close to you.”
“I hope not. She is not very nice at all.”
“Do you know what they plan to do?”
“I have heard them talk about it, but I don't know for sure. I do know that I have to be there for it. They have some kind of spell on me I bet. They were always doing spells. There was a spell for everything.”
“Do you think that's how they keep finding you?”
Shane agreed, and Scott wondered if the witches that Jack was talking about could help them. He didn't know if he trusted witches in general, but he was willing to do just about anything to keep Shane safe. And if that meant that he needed to work with a couple of witches, then that's what he’d do.
Shane told him a little bit more, but he was still not sure if he knew everything. There was no way that he could tell him two years’ worth of information, and Scott knew that he just had to go on what there was. Even though he wanted to test his son's theory, he didn't think he had to. Vanessa had witnessed it, and he planned to bring her with him. She could explain it better, and he trusted her. Whatever was going on, they needed to find a way to use it to their advantage. It could be the only way they were going to be able to take down the witch.
He left Shane to play with some of the other boys that were about his age, and there were several people outside watching the children. The security had certainly tightened up since all of the kidnappings.
Then a thought sickened Scott. What if they were going to make all of the children little boosters?
Chapter Twenty-Two
Vanessa saw Scott coming up, and she told Fran that she had to go. There was worry on his face. Whatever information he had gleaned from Shane had not made him happy at all.
She didn’t know how to feel about it. Vanessa didn’t know if she could handle any more bad news at the moment. It was wearing on her mind and body as well.
“Why do you look so glum?”
“You know why.”
“Yeah, I mean, I guess I do. Did you learn anything that could be useful?”
He agreed that he had, and Vanessa was relieved. She knew there had to be a way to take down the witch, and it didn't even really matter how, just that they would stop coming after them.
“I want you to come with me to talk to Jack. Shane is still a little sketchy about everything, so I don't want to bring him to talk to somebody else. Just tell Jack what it is that you saw and maybe he'll have a better idea of what we're working with.”
“Anything you need.”
Vanessa stopped when Scott put his hand on her face. She knew that he was going to kiss her, and she waited for it. It felt terrific. He kissed her hard for a moment and made everything go away.
She just wanted to forget for a moment, but then Jack was calling for Scott, and she knew that she had to go with. Whatever she could do to help take down those awful women. That's what she was going to do.
She followed Scott to a small building. It wasn't much bigger than a shed, but somehow there was a revelry that was hard to deny. Whatever this place was, Vanessa could feel that it meant something to people, more than it’s obvious worth. She kept quiet for a little while, just looking around. There was nothing fancy, just furs and very few pieces of furniture. This was a place to meet and gather, maybe even worship. She knew nothing about the religion of the shifters. There was a lot Vanessa didn’t know about the men that she was around now.
Vanessa just listened for a while. She learned what Shane had told his father and it was worse than she had imagined. It just made her want to get rid of the witches even more. There was no reason that people like them should be walking the earth.
“Vanessa, why don't you tell Jack what you saw last night.”
She described it as best as she could because she knew that there were going to be a lot of people asking questions. It was unbelievable; his own father hadn’t believed it at first.
Whatever the witches had done to him, had made Shane even more unique than before. It was hard for her to believe it as well sometimes, even though she had seen it herself. There was no way that a ten-year-old boy should have been able to do what Shane had done in front of her eyes. He was so strong, and he had taken out multiple witches.
Vanessa could tell that both men were astounded by what she said. She just told them exactly what she remembered. She also knew that she would be dead now if it weren't for the little boy that turned into the biggest lion she had ever imagined.
They both were quiet for a little bit afterward and she didn't know what to say. It was rather hard to sit there while they just kind of stared ahead. Obviously, it wasn't what they wanted to hear, or at least it wasn't what they expected.
Jack turned to Scott and asked if he had seen it.
“No, I haven't seen him shift. I think that tomorrow we should do a little test. Shane seems to think that the witches made him a booster for magic. Maybe it can boost all of us. If it can make my son double my size, imagine what it could do for us.”
Jack was trying to process it all. It was hard for grown shifters to imagine their children bigger than them. It just went against everything that they knew to be true.
Scott also brought up another issue that was on his mind.
“Have you found your witches?”
“I think I have. Do you think they would be helpful?”
Scott told Jack what he had in mind and how he thought that maybe there was some spell on his son that was helping the witches find them.
“So, do you want to try to find out tomorrow?”
“Yeah, I do. I will get ahold of the coven and see what we can do.”
Scott and Vanessa left the little building, and she had mixed emotions about it all. One thing that she was worried about was him and Shane being in the middle of it. While he could maybe help them take down the Franklin Organization, at the same time, they would both be putting themselves in danger. Very real danger.
“Do you think this is the best way to go forward?”
“You don’t?”
Vanessa said that she didn't. It made her sick to her stomach with him even talking about it. The little boy had been through enough, and even though she knew what it could mean to the cause, Vanessa worried about Shane. Surely, leaving it all up to a kid couldn’t be the best way to go forward.
“What if it does work during the test tomorrow?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, what are you going to do if he can make you guys stronger?”
“I’m still not getting it, Vanessa.”
Vanessa bit her lip. She knew that it was going to be a complicated subject to broach. This was his son after all, and she was just the nanny. She wanted to tell him that he was being ridiculous to put his son at risk in such a way, even after she had brought it up.
“You don’t think that I should do it?”
“No, I don't. I just feel like something can happen, and I don't want him to have to see anymore.”
She stopped herself after she said it. Vanessa had fallen in love with the family; that meant the father and the son. Vanessa had made a promise to Fran and to Shane, and she expected to keep it. If she couldn't, what was the point?
“I know that I have no business saying anything. I do. But I am just worried about your son. That's all. Those witches keep coming, and they are getting stronger every time. I almost died,
and the only reason I didn’t was because of Shane. That's too much on a little boy’s shoulders.”
Scott agreed, but then he said something that made her think about it.
“I know he's only ten, but I don't think Shane will ever be a little boy again.”
The two of them walked back together, hand in hand. Vanessa was trying to figure out what to say. She had a tendency to put her foot in her mouth. She couldn’t even imagine Shane being a regular child again. That ship had sailed.
The decisions that had to be made were far too complicated. She didn’t feel like there was an exact right answer.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“What are you still doing up?”
Scott looked over at Vanessa and just shrugged. He had no idea what he was going to do the next day, and he knew that Jack was going to want to test the theory. Now, that was the last thing that he wanted to do. Vanessa had made him second-guess everything. He was so afraid of making the wrong decision and it affecting his son in a negative way.
On one side of things, it almost felt safer to take him along for the ride, but then again, how could that be safer? The activities that he was planning on doing would be dangerous. Vanessa did have a point. He would see more things that he didn’t need to.
Then he had to wonder if he would even be able to leave him alone anyways. Every time he had, something terrible had happened.
“I just can't sleep.”
“You're going to have to. We’ve got a big day tomorrow.”
“I know, I am just hoping that... Hell, Vanessa, I don't know what I'm hoping for anymore. I don't know if I want it to be true, that he is a booster or not. If he is, how do we not use him? But at the same time, how do we use my son?”
“I know that you're going to do what you think is best. I also know that Shane wants to help. I don't know if it's the best idea or not, but he certainly wants to help you. I think he has a bit of you in him that makes him that way. There’s nothing wrong with that. I shouldn’t have said anything to you about it before. I just don’t want him to get hurt. I know that you’ll keep him safe.”