Shifters Gone Wild; Collection

by Skye MacKinnon

  How had my life gotten so complicated? I’d managed to stay out of trouble for millennia, mostly because even the other gods couldn’t remember who I was, but something told me all of that was about to change.

  And this jackal was part of it.

  “We’ll be home in fifteen minutes, bud. I’ll check you out once we’re there and work out what we need to do.”

  Great. I was talking to something that couldn’t talk back.

  Except that I could sense his gratitude. Almost like I could sense the gratitude of my scorpions when I…

  No. It was better that I didn’t go there. I’d only drive myself crazy with the thoughts of what could have been. There was no changing the past. Especially with who I was. I didn’t want to risk everything coming out and the backlash. In the modern world, we’d all sworn to keep our heads down and not draw any attention. I had no idea how the humans would react if they found out the truth. They probably wouldn’t be bothered at all. So many of them had stopped believing in us long ago. They’d even stopped believing in the versions of us they’d created since.

  Each time, some thought they’d be different. That they’d keep the faith system they’d made. Some lasted longer than others, that was for sure, but almost all of them had fallen by the wayside. Now, everyone seemed to believe something different. I liked it in some ways. In others, it reminded me just how much of the past we were.

  “Just a couple more minutes,” I told the jackal, not once questioning why I was doing that. The creature was in my care, I’d treat it with the respect it should have.

  “We’re here now.” I pulled into the drive and parked my car.

  One thing I hadn’t thought of was how to get the jackal out of my car and into the house without hurting him more. The only thing I could actually think of was to get a wheelbarrow and move him that way but that might cause some other problems.

  “I’ll be back in a moment,” I told him, getting out and doing just as I’d thought. There was no way I could carry him on my own and this was the only idea I had which was worth it.

  I settled the wheelbarrow next to the back of my car and opened the door. The jackal gave me an odd look, like he wasn’t sure what I was thinking either. He had a point. My idea was weird to say the least.

  “It’s the only way I can think of,” I told him. “Are you going to let me?”

  The jackal nodded and I did a double take. Had he really just done that? Could jackals even nod? I didn’t remember them doing that when I’d been around them before but I might have been wrong. I was more of an arachnid kind of woman anyway.

  “You’re going to have to help me.” I shuffled the jackal forward, making sure not to pull on him too hard. He seemed to help and let me move him about a bit. Eventually, I got him into the wheelbarrow. Getting him out and onto another surface in my house was going to be another thing but for now, I was relieved I’d even got him out of the car.

  I wheeled him in, being careful to lock all my doors behind me as I did. Some people might have called me overcautious but with all the things I’d seen over the years, it was better to be safe rather than sorry. We passed through my kitchen and into the living room, leaving a dirt trail behind me as a result. Knowing the mess was there grated on me but at the moment, I had a job to do and I didn’t want to ignore it just because I’d made a mess.

  “I’m just going to tip the barrow,” I said, not knowing why I was still informing the jackal of what I was doing. A small part of me thought he might forgive me easier if I was honest with him. Realistically, I knew that wasn’t the case.

  Resting the front of the barrow down and counting on the weight of the animal to keep it there, I switched ends, trying to slide the creature out of the wheelbarrow and onto my rug. The fabric should be soft enough to make him comfortable but not impossible to clean for me afterwards.

  “Yes!” I cried out as my plan worked.

  The jackal grinned at me, baring its teeth in a completely non-threatening way.

  “We did it,” I told him. “Thank you for making it so easy.”

  He nodded again. This time it was impossible for me to ignore. The lights were on and it couldn’t possibly be the shadows playing a trick on me. He really was responding to me.

  I pushed the thought from my mind and began to examine him, trying to assure myself nothing was broken and there wasn’t any immediate risk to his life. Luckily, I found nothing. No cuts. No breaks. But there was an infected looking graze on the underside of his belly. Grabbing some disinfectant and gloves, I cleaned out the wound. I’d need to keep an eye on it but doubted it was anything too dangerous for the animal.

  There was nothing else for me to do, so I got him some water and some minced meat I’d been intending to make some bolognese with and went to bed. I’d check on him in the morning and hope he made it through the night.

  Despite having a wild animal in my house, I felt weirdly safe and secure. Like I was doing the right thing.

  With that thought ringing through my mind, I climbed into bed and shut off the light.

  Chapter 3

  I groaned as the blare of my alarm clock woke me again. I hated mornings in winter. I was used to getting up with the sun and retiring with it. This whole culture was so alien to me. There wasn’t any give and take for the seasons or the passing of the day. But I liked a lot of it. Modern gadgets were fun. As was the variety in food.

  Stretching off the bed, I loosened up my limbs and blinked the sleep from my eyes. I couldn’t laze around for too long, not when I had a house guest I needed to check on before I went to work.

  With that thought, I swung around and got up from the bed, grabbing my robe as the chill around me hit. A warmer climate was a must next time I had to move to conceal the fact I barely aged. I did have the ability to make myself appear about ten years younger or older than my body appeared naturally but that was about it. I still had to move on before anyone became suspicious. Reinventing myself was becoming more and more difficult now cameras and the internet existed too. If anyone came across two photos of me from two eras, they were never going to believe I was two different people.

  I pattered down the stairs, eager to check my guest was alright. I didn’t want anything bad to have happened to him, even if I did have a lot of questions. I doubted I’d ever get the answer to any of them though. It wasn’t like the jackal was about to start talking to me suddenly. This wasn’t a cartoon.

  Pushing open the door to the living room, I stepped in, steeling myself against whatever mess I found inside. While I knew enough about jackals to recognise one, I didn’t know how they’d respond to being stuck in a random room far away from their natural habitat.

  I shrieked and jumped back as I saw what had really happened.

  “Hello Serket.”

  “Don’t call me that,” I hissed.

  “Why not, it’s your name?” The man leaned back on my sofa with one of his legs against the other and waggled it about.

  “No one calls me that.”

  “I heard. Sera is it now? That’s not very different from Serket.”

  “It doesn’t need to be. What are you doing here?” I recognised him. It was hard not to. All the gods knew one another.

  “I’ve come to find you.”

  “And now you have. Goodbye, Sed.” I waved in the direction of my front door, hoping he got the hint and left.

  Instead, he chuckled. “Not so fast.”

  “Yes, so fast. That was a nasty trick you played. Pretending to be a jackal just so I’d help you.” I crossed my arms and glared at him but only because a part of me was jealous. Not only was it an amazing idea but I longed to take my animal form every once in a while, but was too scared to actually do it.

  “I wasn’t exactly pretending and you know it.”

  “You weren’t being honest either. Why didn’t you just come straight up to me and tell me what you wanted in the first place?” I ignored the fact I’d have walked away.

 
“For exactly the reason you’re thinking now.”

  “I don’t remember you being a mind reader.”

  “And I don’t remember you being awkward. As I recall, you were one of the more helpful types. Always trying to heal and make things better.”

  “Which you used to your advantage.”

  “Exactly, you haven’t changed much at all, Sera.”

  “What are you doing here, Sed?” I repeated, noticing that he still hadn’t answered my initial question.

  “Why don’t I tell you over breakfast?” He gave me a cheeky smile that made me very glad he wasn’t naked. It would have lost some of its charm if he had been. One of the advantages of being a deity was that we didn’t have to lose our clothing while in animal form. Some of our followers hadn’t had the same advantages. We’d tried to teach them but it never worked.

  “Fine. What do you want?”

  “Whatever you’re having,” he replied.

  I sighed and made my way to the kitchen. I’d planned on feeding the jackal anyway, this technically wasn’t that different, at least not in theory.

  Pulling eggs and milk from the fridge, I whipped up two quick omelettes. I’d have made something fancier but I still needed to go to work after this and didn’t have the time.

  I plated the food and set it on the table along with a steamy coffee pot and some orange juice I’d somehow left unopened in the fridge.

  “Thank you,” Sed said as he tucked into the meal.

  I smiled. Despite my surprise and annoyance that he was even here, I still loved the look of joy on his face as he ate. I’d only crossed paths with Sed a couple of times, we hadn’t known each other any better than recognising each other’s faces and status. As a lesser god, he’d been below me in the hierarchy so I’d never paid much attention to him.

  At least until I’d been taken down a peg or two by being forgotten. That had been a wakeup call and a half for me.

  “Are you going to tell me?” I asked, taking a bite of my eggs.

  “You know who I am?”

  “Yes, but it’s generally frowned upon not to introduce yourself when you break into someone’s house.”

  “I didn’t break in. Your brought me here.”

  I glared at him. Technically, he was right but he’d done it under false pretences and I wasn’t about to forget that.

  “Sorry, I’m Sed, the protector of Kingship.” He rolled his eyes at the end, probably because of the ridiculousness of the whole situation.

  “Is there much of a need for that at the moment?”

  He snorted. “Not really. There’s kings about but they don’t believe in me.” He shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal. “What about you?”

  “People always need healing,” I pointed out.

  “Yet you’re working as a vet?”

  “A veterinary nurse, not a vet,” I corrected.

  “Is there a difference?”

  “Veterinary school.” I ate more of my omelette, ignoring his probing the best I could.

  “So, basically you’re minding your own business healing animals instead of humans? That’s not the Serket I remember.”

  “That’s because you’re the only one who remembers me,” I muttered under my breath.

  He laughed. “That’s not true. It’s actually why I’m here. Osiris has been poisoned.”

  My mouth fell open and my fork froze in mid-air. I was only dimly aware of the egg dropping off my fork and hitting my plate. I had more important things to concern myself with like the poisoning of one of our main gods. If he was in danger then it wasn’t just me who was in danger of being forgotten. The others would be heading the same way for certain.

  “Well that takes you off the culprit list,” Sed said cheerily, shovelling eggs into his mouth without a care in the world.

  “I was on it?” I squeaked.

  “As far as we can tell, the poison came from one of your scorpions.”

  “What? My…what?” I didn’t even keep any of them myself anymore, so how had one gotten into the hands of someone else in the first place? I had no followers. No one knew enough about me to use them either.

  “One of your scorpions. From your temple?”

  I shook my head. “There’s nothing left of my temple. It’s been gone for centuries,” I countered.

  “Are you sure about that?”

  “Yes, I’m sure my temple doesn’t exist.”

  “How?”

  I laughed bitterly, considering what my life had become and what I could admit to him. Names were a big deal in Egyptian culture and admitting mine had been forgotten…

  Then again, he’d said himself that the people he had to protect no longer believed. Maybe he’d understand better than I thought.

  “No one remembers my name,” I said slowly. “No one’s been to my temple in a millennium. No one’s said my name in six centuries, at least not enough.”

  “Your powers are fading,” he observed.

  “My powers are almost gone.”

  “Including your immortality?”

  “No. That seems to be fine. It’s just my magic itself that seems to be an issue. I healed a kitten yesterday and won’t have enough power saved up to do the same for at least another couple of days.”

  “Wow.” He leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath. “I’d heard rumours of it happening but had no proof. I don’t have extra magic myself.” He shrugged as if that explained it, and in some way, it did.

  All gods were immortal and most of us could change into an animal form. But being able to do other things wasn’t always an option. Sed was one of those. He offered protection but more in the form of watching over people and sending signs if they were in danger. The gods like me had magic other than that. We could do things like heal or create water.

  “Sorry, I really can’t help.”

  “I didn’t ask you to yet,” he said.

  “I know. But it’s coming, right? It’s poison from my scorpions and I’m a healing goddess. It’s only logical.”

  “You need to help, Serket.”

  “Stop. Calling. Me. That,” I ground out.

  “But if I don’t call you that, then how are you going to let yourself be remembered?” He cocked his head to the side, clearly confused about it.

  “Maybe I don’t want to be remembered. Maybe I like the quiet life where I don’t need to do anything for anyone. Where I can take care of animals and make sure they have healthy lives.”

  “Maybe, but I don’t think so,” he said.

  “Oh, and why’s that?” I raised an eyebrow, not looking away from him.

  I was dimly aware of my breakfast going cold in front of me but this was more important. If what he was saying was true, we were all in serious danger. Myself included even if I didn’t want to admit it.

  “Because you haven’t actually told me no. You’ve said you can’t help and for some reason really believe you can’t, but you haven’t told me no.”

  I slammed my hand down on the table and looked deep into his eyes. “No,” I said firmly.

  “Please?”

  “See yourself out and make sure you lock the door.” I rose from my seat and left the room. I had to get ready for work even if I knew I wasn’t going to be able to think of anything but his words all day. Why did he do this to me? Couldn’t he just have left me to go about my normal life? I’d been perfectly happy without the interference of the other gods.

  “Damn it,” I muttered, throwing myself back down the stairs and into the kitchen. “Alright, I’ll help,” I said before realising I was completely alone. The only sign he’d been here was the empty plates on the table.

  What had I done?

  Chapter 4

  It wasn’t until I was pulling into the car park that I realised I’d forgotten to text George the night before. I hoped he hadn’t been too concerned about me, I didn’t want to cause extra worries for him. Not when there were enough of those in our clinic anyway.

  I rushed
to the door, pulling it open and throwing myself through it despite the fact I was early.

  “I see you didn’t get your face eaten off,” George said, a jokey note to his words.

  “I’m so sorry, I was exhausted and just crashed.” That was honest at least. I had been tired and gone straight to bed, I’d just done it after taking care of the jackal who wasn’t a jackal.

  “I figured. I drove past your house on the way to pick up dinner for Joyce and saw your car there.”

  I smiled weakly, unsure how I felt about him checking up on me like that. In some ways, I liked it that he cared about his staff but this was a whole new level.

  “I hope it wasn’t too out of your way.”

  “Not at all,” he countered. “There’s a great little pizza place on the way.”

  I relaxed, sure there really wasn’t anything more to it than that. “What have we got on today?” I asked as I hung up my coat.

  “Not much. No one else has been brought in overnight. We do have a gentleman in the waiting room wanting to look at the animals we have.”

  “Oh?” I perked up. If we played this right, one of our charges could be going to a loving home and be taken care of properly.

  “Yes, if you want to deal with him while I do the checks on our newest resident?”

  “Okay.” I’d have suggested it even if he hadn’t. One of the other nurses could help him with anything medical that went on. Without my healing powers, I was only as good as any of the others.

  Not waiting any longer than I had to, I almost skipped into the waiting room, only stopping short when I realised who it was sat waiting for me.

  “I thought you’d left.” I forgot my earlier change of heart, mostly due to the intrusion of Sed now being in my place of work without any invitation.

  “I did. And I came here.” He slapped the magazine he was reading down on his leg, revealing the horoscope pages. “Do you read them?” he asked, seeing where my gaze had strayed to.