Shifters Gone Wild; Collection

by Skye MacKinnon

  I stood with my back against the wall and watched as my twin brother twisted his ball cap into a nest of cloth and cardboard. The cops had wanted to talk to him first, which was fine with me. I had nothing to say. I had fallen asleep in my friend Aaron’s car and barely woke in time for my ten o’clock class. I never made it home last night. Listening to Sin, it sounded like he hadn’t made it home either.

  I was starving. It was time to put the Boudreau moxie into play. I sauntered over to the table and leaned a hip against the sticky metal surface.

  “Officer Jenkins, could you please tell us what is going on? I’ve got…plans.” I gave him my best sexy smile and peered up at him through my lashes. Hell, I even bit my lower lip.

  Sin leaned back and folded his arms over his chest. “Yeah, I think we’re done here. I’ve told you where I was, what I was doing and who I was with. My sister and I need to get home.”

  Jenkins smirked and shook his head. “Damned Boudreaus always think you’re better’n everybody else. Well, you’re not. Sit down and I’ll ask all the questions I want.”

  My sultry look disappeared, and I sighed as if he’d just disappointed me beyond measure. “Okay. Lawyer.”

  “What?” Jenkins snapped.

  “Law…yerrr. Lawyer. You either get us a lawyer now or you let us go,” I told him. Hey, pre-Law classes came in handy for something. That, and family history.

  “What about you?” Jenkins asked Sinclair.

  “Lawyer,” Sin said.

  “Well, fuck you both. Go ahead. But good luck getting into your house,” Jenkins smirked as he got up, grabbed his notebook and stormed away before we could ask him what he meant by that.

  I took one look at Sin. He nodded then said, “My car’s outside. Let’s go.”

  Once we were in his car, I asked Sin how he’d ended up at the station. “Stumpy called and said they needed to talk to me, so I drove here. How’d you get here?”

  “Stumpy. He picked me up outside Kittredge Hall after my sociology final.”

  “Where’s your car?”

  “Home. Bella came and got me last night and we hung out at Aaron’s. He dragged me to the campus with him but his exam was at eight, so I slept in his car until time for my exam at ten. Went in, took it, came out and there was Stumpy.”

  Stumpy was actually Detective Patrick Clancy, our dad’s best friend since they were toddlers. We couldn’t say ‘Clancy’ when we were little and ended up calling him Stumpy. It stuck. He was more of an uncle to us than our blood uncle who had lived on the other side of the continent most of our lives but now lived in town.

  “Well, if Stumpy called you and picked me up, why was Jenkins the one questioning us? What the fuck happened that Stumpy wasn’t there?” Sin asked as he pulled up next door to our house. We couldn’t get any closer with all of the police cars around.

  “I think we’re about to find out,” I said and got out. “Stumpy’s car is over there.” Something cold settled in my chest. I reached out for Sin’s hand as he came around the car. “I’m scared,” I whispered to him.

  “You’re not facing this alone, Sid. Never alone,” Sin said and squeezed my hand.

  “Never alone,” I repeated. Our mantra whenever we had to face something that made us worry.

  We walked past my cherry red Mini and our parents’ SUVs, one silver, one black. Crime scene tape blocked the path to the front door along with two officers. We made our way around the cars to the side of the house. I pulled out my keys, unlocked the back door, and we entered the kitchen. Both of us slapped our hands over our noses as the smell hit us.

  “What is that smell?” I asked Sin.

  “Blood. It’s blood,” Sin said.

  Leave it to the pre-Med student to know what blood smells like. Two steps into the kitchen and we saw where the smell was coming from. It was sprayed all over the kitchen and into the dining room. Belle Cove police and crime scene techs were taking samples, photos, and examining everything from the kitchen on through to the front door.

  “Hey, you two can’t be in here,” yelled one of the techs.

  “Fuck you, we live here,” Sin snapped back.

  “Not right now, you don’t. This is a crime scene. Who let you in here?” The tech wore blue paper booties splattered with blood as he edged around a particularly large smear. I held up my keys.

  “Like he said. We live here. What the hell is going on?” I told him.

  The tech sighed and shook his head. “Go back out and around to the patio. I’ll send Detective Clancy out to talk to you, okay? Just…be careful where you step.”

  Sin took my arm and led me back to the door. “Thank you,” he muttered as he ushered me outside. I was a mixture of furious and completely freaked out, so of course, I snapped at my brother. “What the fuck was that? You’re going to let some twit tell us to get out?”

  “It’s a crime scene, Sid. Let’s let them do their job. We’ll have plenty of time to do ours when they’re done.”

  I stomped around the back of the house to the patio and dropped onto a cushioned rocker. Once I pulled out my phone, I dialed Mom’s number. She’d be pissed that I bothered her during work hours, but this was serious. Our house was a blood-splattered disaster area.

  The call went to voicemail.

  I tried Dad’s number.

  Same thing.

  “Sin, why are Mom and Dad’s phones going to voicemail?” Yeah, I know, you probably think I’m being a clueless idiot and not putting one and one together. It was not my finest moment.

  “Sid, where do you think all the blood came from?”

  I stopped dialing and shook my head. “No, if they were dead, we’d feel it. Right?”

  Sin just looked at me.

  “Right, Sin?”

  “I don’t know, Sid. That’s an awful lot of blood for someone to still be alive.”

  “But they’re powerful, Sin. They wouldn’t go down easy.”

  “No, they wouldn’t. That’s why the house is so trashed.”

  “Well, if they’re dead, where are the bodies?”

  Stumpy came around the corner as I said that and shook his head. “There are no bodies.”

  He was holding an evidence bag with a piece of paper in it. “This was stuck on the front door. There are no prints on it.”

  Sin took the bag and read the note. “We have Andre and Amelia. We will exchange them for Sinclair and Sidonie at Arcadia Park in two days at sunset. If they do not present themselves, we will kill the parents.”

  I took a breath. “We’ll be there.”

  “Not alone,” Stumpy said. “If you plan on using yourselves as bait, I’ll be bringing cops to keep you safe and help take down the kidnappers.”

  “Right, because anyone strong enough to take both of our parents, leave that much blood and still put a coherent note on the door, won’t notice cops skulking around the park,” Sin said.

  “Did the cops find out if the blood was our parents’ blood or something else?” I didn’t want to think about Mom or Dad losing that much blood or what condition they’d be in now if it was all theirs.

  “They can’t tell yet. The lab will have to test it,” Stumpy said.

  “What about magical means?” Sin asked.

  I saw something shift in Stumpy’s expression. If I hadn’t been looking at him, I would’ve missed it.

  “The SPD was on another case and couldn’t come. We’re only using Belle Cove’s PD,” Stumpy said.

  “What the actual fuck, Stumpy?” I could feel the rage boiling through me. “The SPD was on another case? That’s absolute bullshit and you know it.”

  Sin turned away from us both and punched the side of the house, denting the siding.

  Stumpy just looked down at the patio stones under our feet while I raged.

  “This is because of their archaic ideas of what is acceptable in paranormal society. Can’t have witches and shifters mating. If they do manage to have kids, those kids are mutant monsters. Well, fuck t
heir acceptance and to hell with their bullshit.”

  Sin turned to Stumpy, voice deceptively calm. “Are we allowed to go up the back stairs and get some of our things out of our rooms? We need clothes and such for the next couple of days.”

  “Yeah, I’ll make sure they’re done upstairs,” Stumpy said. “Give me fifteen minutes.”

  I watched Stumpy leave and turned to Sin. “I’ll grab clothes and toiletries for us both, you hit the attic and get everything else. If you can’t carry it, put it in the trunk and spell it.”

  “Exactly what I planned on doing,” Sin replied. “We can’t let them get into the attic. I know they haven’t yet because they’re Danes. But if the kidnappers come back or someone from SPD shows up, they might get past the wards.”

  “Where are we going to stay? The cabin?” Our Grandpa had a cabin on Syren Lake, about half an hour from here. No one in the family used it but us because it was deep in shifter territory.

  “Yeah, that’s our best option. At least we’ll be protected there,” Sin said.

  “Don’t forget to hide the trunk and set the trap. No wards, you know they look for those.”

  “I won’t,” he whispered as Stumpy came back out.

  “You can go up and get whatever you need. And you can take whatever car you want,” Stumpy said.

  I turned to Sin. “You take your car, I’ll take Mom’s. We can come to get mine later.”

  “Sounds good,” he said, and we headed into the house.

  The smell was still really strong but upstairs it wasn’t so bad. I opened a couple of windows while I packed two duffel bags full of clothes and a couple of smaller ones with toiletries, books, laptops, charger cords and photos. I bagged up Mom and Dad’s jewelry and their laptops and Mom’s spell gear that she kept in a small chest in her room. It was a good thing I’d be using her car. Mine wouldn’t fit half of this stuff.

  Sin came down from the attic, a carved wooden box in his hands and a large canvas sack floating behind him.

  “Careful,” I hissed at him. “Danes in the house.”

  “Yeah, I know. But not up here. I did the ‘hide me’ spell on the trunk and slid it into the storage cupboard under the eaves, then buried it with a bunch of dusty stuff. No wards, don’t worry.”

  “Okay, you do the float spell on everything but our duffel bags and I’ll do the invisibility spell until we get them into the cars.”

  “I’m going to check my room first,” Sin said and disappeared down the hall. I went around and closed up the windows and locked each room as I left. Anything to slow any nosy ones down.

  Sin came out and we spelled the gear and headed down the back steps, making sure to keep the invisible bags between us. Once we got to Mom’s SUV, I opened the back, dropped the seats and we started to load the stuff in, removing the spells once it was inside. Sin was smart enough to have grabbed a couple of comforters, so we spread them out over the boxes and bags and then spread some of the car clutter on top of that.

  I moved my car into the garage and locked it up, then got into the driver’s seat of Mom’s SUV and started it. Sin pulled something out of Dad’s SUV and carried the duffel with him. The cops that had been parked behind me were idling in the street, so Sin got in with me and I backed out, stopping next to his car so he could get in. I followed him down the streets we’d grown up on, a feeling in my gut that this might be the last time I called this place home.

  Sin

  I had to keep my anger in check. Sid needed me to stay calm and rational because of the two of us, I tended to be the less emotional one. She was holding on pretty damned well, considering – but if I started to show weakness, she’d try and be strong and hold everything in. We all know how bad holding it in is for a person. I’m in pre-med and it’s something we’ve been taught. The whole ‘physician heal thyself’ mantra. I can go to the dojo and let it out. Sid? She’ll just hold onto it until she explodes and then it’s messy and sprayed all over everyone and everything.

  No, really. Last time she lost it, she smashed three bottles of wine and threw the bucket of popcorn across the living room. Then she screamed so loud the neighbors called our parents to complain about the noise. That was about two years ago. Sid had been stressed and waiting to hear if she got into the pre-law program and I’d just found out I was accepted into the pre-med program. It was a perfect storm.

  I hefted the last two bags and carried them into the cabin. Sid had lit a fire in the woodstove that was taking the damp feeling out of the place.

  “Sid, I’m going to go to the grocery store. Is there anything special you want?”

  “Yeah, make sure you get the good coffee? We’re gonna need it,” Sid replied. “And some fruit and stuff. I only see a few canned things in here from last fall. Do you need any cash?”

  “No, I’ve got it. Just don’t fall asleep. I’ll need help carrying it all in and putting it away.”

  “I know. I’m going to scrub everything down, magic style.”

  “Okay, back in a few.” I made sure her keys were on the hook by the door and headed out. There was a grocery a couple of miles further out that I planned on using, but first I had to stop at Benny’s house and let the pack alpha know we were at the cabin. It wasn’t necessarily a law, but it was considered good etiquette. Grandpa Boudreau taught us that it was easier to be polite and upfront than have to lie and hide.

  I pulled up outside Benny’s shop and saw the lights were still on inside, so headed there first. His engine repair business was in an old gas station garage with his house off the side behind it. Benny knew us and was cool with Sid and me, but not everyone around here felt the same. Prime example, Joey Garcia. “Hi Joey,” I said as I walked past him and headed towards the office.

  Joey made sniffing sound, then coughed. “Thought I smelled something rotten.”

  I smirked and shook my head. “Change your underwear more often.”

  He pushed off the wall and started towards me as I opened the office door. “Benny, it’s Sin. You got a minute?” I called out, then let the door shut behind me – in Joey’s face.

  “Sinclair Boudreau, what brings you to this neck of the woods? You staying at your Grandpa’s place?” Benny was about six feet tall, and about five foot wide. Not fat, no. The guy was solid muscle. Made sense that he preferred a bear’s form when he shifted. Yes, I said preferred. Shifters could pick forms. There was usually one that was instinctive, the first one we turned into during puberty, but most of us had three or four we liked best.

  “Hey, Benny,” I shook his hand. “Yeah, Sid and I are at the cabin for a bit. I was just headed out to get some groceries but wanted to stop by and let you know we were here.”

  “Good man, Sin. Glad you’ve got your Grandpa’s manners,” Benny said, then turned and glared at Joey who stood staring through the office door window. “Unlike some of the others around here.” Benny led me towards the desk and a couple of chairs then sat down. “I heard something, and I haven’t asked around yet. I was going to call your Grandpa and talk to him first, but since you’re here, I’ll ask you,” Benny said. “I heard something happened at your house, to your folks.”

  “Yeah, something happened. They were taken,” I told him. “Lots of blood all around the house and a note stuck to the front door.”

  “And what’s the SPD doing about it?”

  I couldn’t hold back the snort of laughter. “Nothing. The SPD won’t take the case. We’re stuck with good old mundane BPD.”

  Benny growled and every hair on my arms stood up. “The SPD won’t take the case? That’s because of you kids, isn’t it?”

  “I’m guessing so, yeah. That, and they are still pissed my parents are together. Grandma Fortin used to call my father ‘that furball’ when she had a glass or two of wine. You’re one of the few that treats us like we’re worth the air we breathe.”

  “What else can you tell me?”

  I seriously considered telling Benny about us having to go to the park in abo
ut forty hours but I didn’t want a shifter versus witch war happening in the middle of town. I didn’t know if shifters or witches had taken my folks and if Benny was asking me, then it wasn’t shifters. “Not much. I’m hoping they’re still alive, but there was a lot of blood, Benny. Stumpy is on the case too.”

  “Well, he might have zero ability as a shifter, but null or not, he’s one of us. He’ll call us in if he needs our help.”

  “I’m hoping so,” I said, wondering if that was how Benny found out so much already.

  “Go ahead and get your shopping done, Sin. I’ll have a couple of my boys keep an eye on the place while you’re there – from a distance, of course. I’m just worried about you kids and we take care of our own.”

  “I appreciate it, Benny,” I said as I stood, and we gripped forearms before I turned to leave. I opened the door and Benny yelled out for Joey. I kept my ears tuned in and heard him start to rip into the dickhead before I got in my car. That put a smile on my face.

  I probably spent way too long in the grocery store, but I was hungry, and I could be sure Sid needed to eat tonight, too. We’d grabbed drive-thru on the way here, but it wasn’t enough. I loaded us up for a few days just in case and headed back to the cabin. I spotted a fox near the driveway and waved. Candace preferred the fox form and I recognized the stripe pattern on her tail. That meant her husband, Stefano, was around in wolf form somewhere. They liked to work together on details, and I could feel the tension ease in my shoulders, knowing those two were out here. Candace and Stefano were friends of our parents and only a few years younger. Game nights out here when we would come on vacation always included them and some of their kids.