Turtleshift

by Linton Bowers

  Merc girls number two was thin with a small waist and hips as wide as her shoulders giving her a slight hourglass shape. The Chloe was the tallest of the three with a small bust and thick hips and thighs. She also had the best ass of them. Reina was in between bubbly and merc girl two with slightly bigger breasts then both and a sexy washboard stomach.

  “You ready, or should we spin so you can get a better look?” Reina asked.

  “Sorry,” I said while giving them an apologetic smile. “It’s just hard not to look at you three. I mean, damn.”

  “I suppose I can forgive that,” Reina said. “Still, we have a job to do, you ready?”

  “Let’s do it. I’m eager for some action.” The last word came out as a growl. Seeing the merc nude and being so close to Izzy was making me crazy.

  My turtle was still a mystery to me. One I had to solve in order to get back to the old Terry. A part of me wished she would just tell me what she wanted. At the same time, I knew she was worth the work and I would do whatever it took. I just wish it didn’t have this effect on me.

  Merc girl threw the door open and the Mercs rushedin. I followed behind Izzy with Scarlett and Morgana behind me. The next room was a kitchen just as shiney and immaculately clean as Michael's kitchen.

  We made it to the far end of the room when the voice came out to play once more. “I am impressed you survived mystone warrior. I am certain you will not live through this, however. Have fun.”

  Something fell off a counter on the other end of the kitchen and we all jumped. The granite countertop melted and dripped onto the floor. Another item fell from the counter across the room from the first with a clatter. We moved our focus to the sound and watched the second countertop melt and spill onto the floor. The remaining two countertops made a splash as they hit the floor. By my estimate there was sixty feet or granite on the floor. The question was why?

  And the answer came to us soon after. The first molten slab bunched up and rose on four pillars. It morphed taking on a dog shape. The other three followed suit make a pack of four granite dogs standing four feet tall.

  “This is bad,” Scarlett said. “Think the beam will work again?”

  “I don’t know,” I growled. The clear and present danger posed by these living stone creatures had my hackles standing at attention. The mercs weren’t mine, but I felt responsible for placing them in danger and wanted them to be safe. That thought, along with my fear of my Tua and morgana being hurt spurred me into action.

  I jumped with kangaroo grace crossing the distance between myself and the pack in an instant. The closest dog leapt at me and I pulled fifty percent. Just enough to gain the slow time effect but not hinder Izzy and Scarlett too much.Stepping left let the rock mutt sail by without hitting me. I slammed both fists down on its back changing its trajectory to straight down. It hit the floor with a loud crack and slid along the tile.

  “Terry!” Izzy shouted. Hearing her frantic voice brought her to the forefront of my attention and I felt the fear she had for me. I pushed her feelings aside. They wouldn’t help me in the fight, and I really wanted to fight.

  I jumped onto the back of the next closest dog and used him as a platform to kick the third dog out of the air as it tried jumping on me. Then I jumped straight up allowing dog number four to land on dog number two. They hit hard enough to shatter and send granite shards flying. More hen a couple pierced my skin or left cuts on exposed skin.

  That left one dog to deal with. The first three went down too fast and let me feeling unsatisfied. The last one had to be better, needed to be better. I ran at it and dropped to my kneed sliding under it as it snapped its jaws shut inches from my face. I set my hand on the ground and sprang up. He mutt turned and I hit it in the face with a right cross. Then it was on. The dog tried biting me and leaping in,but I dodged each attempt and punished the failed strike with a blow from my fists. Not long after we started my blood covered its head. Every hit against the stone split my skin and left a little red behind. I didn’t care. The pain fueled my rage and made me hit harder. The bones in my hands started to crack, then brake. I kept punching and dodging.

  The stone mutt got in a lucky strike and latched down on my left forearm. The pain was intense and sweet. The presser of its strong jaws shattered the bones in my arm. I screamed out as I hit it over and over with my right fist. Its gripe lessened when cracked appeared where I hit it. The sixth punch after the first crack appeared ended it. The dog’s head fell apart and the chunks hit the ground. A moment later the rest of the beast collapsed pulling me down with it.

  After an agonizing minute of pulling my arm came free. While I walked back to the women my bones reformed and the flesh wounds closed. I smiled, feeling good with the carnage left in my wake.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Izzy asked. “Because you were in the way, we weren’t able to fire a shot out of fear of hitting you. Are you insane?” Izzy asked.

  Her words confused me. I threw myself into combat to keep her safe. After she pretty much rejected me day after day I made the sacrifice for her, and she had the nerve to give me shit for ding it?

  “I did what I had to to keep you safe,” I snapped. “You’re welcome.”

  Izzy looked away, but I felt her disappointment. It was a blow to my ego that cooled my temper. My first thought was to apologize, but that didn’t seem right. If I wanted her to believe I was sorry for what I’d done and said, I had to show her.

  Life has a funny way of helping out sometimes. For instance, when I needed to rectify my mistake of taking on the stone pack without help, the pack reformed and stood up. The fight I had won turned out to only be the first round.

  “Um, guys. We have a problem,” I said while turning to look at the group of women. They were all focused on the next door and hadn’t seen the dogs.

  “What’s up, Chief?” Porshia asked.

  “The dogs are back up,” I said.

  Everyone turned to look. The four stone dogs padded closer and stopped fifteen feet from us. Their teeth pulled back and deep rumbling growls rolled out from them. As one, they rushed forward their stone paws banging against the tile floor. The Lycans rushed past me shifting as they moved. A tendril of water lashed out and a fireball flew by. Round two started.

  The dogs dodged the water and fire attacks then rushed my Lycans. Izzy, the badger, and bore engaged one dog each. The bat flew up and dropped on the back of the fourth and slashed at it. When it twisted to try to bite her she jumped up again.

  Izzy alternated between slamming her fists into the creature, and shotting it. Her fists caused cracks that healed right away. The gunshots send chips of stone flying that liquified and rejoined the main body like a liquid metal terminator.

  Porshia in her badger form was ferocious. She shashed at the dog with quick swipes and dodged each attack. She suffered from the same problem as my turtle. All the damage done corrected itsself.

  The bat kept at her strategy and eas successful at remaining unscathed. She did minimal damage with her scratches and bites, so there was no hope of her having the key to winning.

  The bore was having the hardest time of all the Lycans. She was powerfull and ther tusks were deadly. The stone dog was fasyer, and just as capable of dealing out punishment. The dark matter fur spots on the bore was a testament to just how dangerous the dogs were.

  Through the fight, the mages kept up thier long range attacks. The wayer beam managed several hits. Just lile any other attack, they shrugged it off and healed. The fireballs moved too slow and were easily dodged. Not a one touched the stone dogs.

  Try as I might to think of a strategy, I couldn’t. A fog slowly draped itself over my mind. Seeing Lycans, both my Tua and those I was responsible for, being hurt and failing eroded my reason. My breaths came in deep and fast and left just as dramatically. My brow drew down over my eyes while my lips peeled back into a snarl. Everything became a blur except for the four stone dogs. They were hurting my Tua. They were hurting all of my
Lycans and they would pay for it.

  I jumped forward pulling eighty percent. A dog was half turned to face the newest threat when time slowed. Hitting it with my shoulder the beast went flying across the room and shattered aga8nst the wall with a loud boom. As I dodged the strike the bore sent at the beast I just destroyed I heard the thumps and cracks of the pieces hitting the floor.

  I planted my left foot and kicked off the ground changing my direction to the mutt in line. Time returned to normal. Izzy saw me and her eyes went wide with fear. She jumped back just as I landed on her dog. My arms wrapped around its torso and I kicked my feet up and over doing a flip. The momentum of the movement lent strength to my through and the second one shattered against the wall.

  “Terry?” I barely registered Izzy’s voice.

  Didn’t matter. There were two more to kill. The bat held one up in her toes while beating frantically at the air trying to get higher. I stopped at the dog’s side and smashed my first thought its body. Then I pulled my arm free and grabbed it by the head and tail. A quick jerk of my arms in opposite directions spit the mutt in half. The bat lost her grip and shot up while I spun and tossed the two halves to shatter against the wall.

  One left.

  The badger had the dog pinned to the ground by putting her weight on its back. The stone mutt squirmed to no effect. She stabbed her claws down over and over at impressive speeds. I ran at them and punted the dog in the head. The came a ear splitting crack that made me think of arctic ice shelves breaking free. The head into the wall and shattered. The badger whooped and leapt to her feet then tossed the body against the wall where it too shattered.

  Satisfied, I turned around wearing a savage grin. My smile and joy faltered as I saw a dog creeping up on Morgana. I had just enough time to shout, “Dog!” The beast was already in the air on its way to the fire mage.

  Chapter 31

  Morgana saw the dog before it hit her and she fell to her side throwing her hand up. A wall of fire spring up between her and the stone mutt. The dog went into the fire head first but didn't come out the other side. It looked as if the fire was a portal and the dogs being transported to another location. As soon as the dog completely vanished the fired died away.

  I made it to Morgana side just as the fire vanished and helped her to her feet. Where the fire had been now lay a black smoldering puddle. We watched with our breast held expecting the portal to form into a new dog, but it didn't.

  "I think my fire killed it," Morgana said.

  "Looks that way," I growled.

  Though we had defeated one of the dogs I still felt the rage inside. It took all of my willpower to not stop on the puddle and beat with my fists.

  "What are you waiting for Chica?" Izzy asked. "Make with the fire and kill all the fuckers."

  "I can't, they keep dodging my fireballs."

  "That just means we need a better plan," the badger said.

  "I got this," I said.

  The next dog in line was coming at us so I jump leaping on it and smashed it to the ground. Then I started pulling the dog up and holding up in front of me. "It is now, use a fireball now."

  "what? No way, you'll get hit."

  "Do it now dammit before I get jumped by the other two."

  As if my words were prophecy a dog jumped on my back and bit into the back of my neck. The pain was intense but I held on and the second dog attacked. This one grabbed my ankle and bit in hard attempting to yank me from my feet.

  "do it Morgana, just Fucking do it," I shouted.

  The fire mage screamed as she let loose a fireball. The flame hit the dog in the chest and quickly engulfed it. The fire sings my arm so I dropped the loading of the dog hit the ground.

  To deal with the other two I crouched and jumped up high landing on my back smashing one dog underneath me. For the other I kick my leg up and brought it down hard smashing that one's jaw and freeing my leg.

  I rolled out of the way and two fireballs came flying each hit the shattered pieces of one of the dogs. The dog I had been holding was no longer on fire and became just a smoldering puddle. While I watched the other two dogs melted into the flag and blackened.

  I rose and limped to the women. Still pulling 80% my wounds healed quickly and by the time I reached them I was walking normally.

  As he stepped into my way before I reach them and looked up at me with a snarl on her face. "Why you keep having to do dumb Shit?"

  "I do what I have to to keep you safe," I said.

  "what you think I can take care of myself, or that none of them can?" She pointed back to the other females. "All your crazy antics did was temporarily inconvenienced the dogs. We might've been able to figure out sooner the effect the fire mage had on them if we do work together."

  I step closer is he getting right in her face. As I was about to give her a piece of my mind her scent hit me in the rage I felt melted away. Instead of tearing my turtle a new ass hole I went with my next instinct.

  I wrapped an arm around Izzy's waist and pulled her tight against me. She let out a little yelp which I cut short by pressing my mouth against hers. At first she was tense, and I wondered if I'd made a mistake, but then her arms went around me. Joined we share the pleasure of drinking each other in.

  "Why can't it always be like this?" I asked. "Why do you always have to resist me?"

  "I'm scared," she whispered. "I don't want you to hurt me, and I can't bear the thought of losing you. Each time you do something dumb like rush at those dogs my heart drops in my ass and I feel like I'm watching the last moments of your life. It pieces me often scares the Shit out of me at the same time. Why can't you just sit in our little bunker later buddy else do the work? You're the Fucking alpha you don't have to be so hands-on."

  "Doing things for myself is the only way I know how to be. It's the way my life is always been, and I don't think I want to change it. I've seen the movies and read the stories were the commander since his people off to die and then he has to live with that decision. I can't be that guy, and I can lose any of you. If it means putting my life on the line to keep you safe that's what I'm gonna do each and every time, but on that."

  "So how about those Bears?" The Chloe said.

  "Plain to see you guys have some shit to work out, but this might not be the time," Porshia said.

  "She's right," Izzy said. "We need to get moving. Once this is all over we can work our shit out."

  I walked around Izzy and went to Morgana. "You okay?"

  "I'm okay, just a little shook." Morgana ran her fingers through her hair let out a deep breath. "When that dog jumped I thought I was done for. It's a good thing I was able to help out."

  "I'm glad you're okay, and I'm thinking maybe you underestimate yourself a little bit. For one, you throw fireballs and that's Fucking awesome. And I'm thinking you might be something like a badass."

  "Don't sell yourself short, that's all I'm saying. Does anyone need to rest or should we keep going?" I asked.

  "I think we should keep going," Merc girl said.

  "I think we should take a break for a minute," Scarlett said. "As mages don't recharge as fast as you Lycans do."

  "Break it is then," I said. "And while were in the kitchen let's find some to munch on, I'm starving."

  Izzy was in the same spot but she had turned to face me as I talked to the mages. She no longer looked angry, but she did look concerned. That looks to get me passed me off. I didn't give the thought voice, because I didn't want to start a fight. But if she was right and the reason for my cost in agitation was her, then what right did she have to be upset?

  One of the refrigerators I found a pot roast that was already cooked and had to weigh 2 pounds. I took it out and put it in the microwave setting it for five minutes. I was little concerned that it might get dry but at the size it was it needed the time to get warm. I leaned against the counter waiting for my food and Izzy walked up and leaned against the counter next to me.

  "I'm sorry for giving you our time,"
she said.

  Her scent was there again in my nose. And she placed her hand on mine as we both stood facing out into the kitchen. Smelling her and feeling her ignited my desire for the beautiful Latina. But I did want to have sex it was more than that. I wanted to always feel like my turtle was a big part of my life that she was not only my lover but also my best friend. While I did love her there was still so much we had to figure out.

  "I get it," I said. "I can understand you being worried and afraid. I guess I feel that way when you are one of my other two are in danger. Or when I think that I'm gonna screw up so bad that one or all of your gonna leave me. Of course, it's mostly you or worry about leaving me."

  "Do you know I'm still here?"

  "I could say you're here because being with me gives you an edge. An advantage over most normal Lycans and power to be the best you that you can be. But I know you, kind of." I turn my head to look it my turtle from profile. It was a sight to behold since every side was her good side. "I know that you would rather make your way through the world on your own merits. I respect you and love you for that, and hope that you don't think being with me diminishes your own power. The reality is your power doesn't come from stupid little abilities that I give you or the ability to keep your clothes after shift. Your power comes from who you are. As it turns out I'm the one who has no power without you. Life without Tua, for me, is just a normal plain Jane life. But with you and everyone else, we have the power to be so much more."

  Izzy didn't respond. We stood there, me looking at her, and her looking out into the kitchen while the microwave hummed behind us. We didn't move until the ding signaled the completion of the five minute cycle.

  I turned and pulled the roast out while Izzy stayed where she was. "Would you like share this with me," I asked.

  Izzy looked down at the meeting up at me and smile. "That sounds nice."

  Neither of us spoke while we ate. The others stayed on the other end of the kitchen giving us some measure of privacy.

  When the meat was gone Izzy took my hand. “Do you plan to make any of them pack?”