by Martha Carr
“Nice to meet you, George. Let me know if I can ever be of service. I do some protection and rescue work on the side.”
“I get it…like a superhero.”
Yumfuck stood up straighter, put his hands on his hips, and pushed out his chest.
“Totally see it. You have a phone number, just in case? Be good to have.” George carefully looked him up and down. “Would you like some lemonade? Lily made it.”
Yumfuck let out a soft trill and took the glass, downing it in one gulp.
His lips puckered and his eyes grew bigger before he smiled.
“She makes it kind of powerful.” George chuckled. “Superhero work must make you thirsty.”
The door of the brownstone opened and Lily smiled. “Oh, here come the others. That’s Marcy, and behind her is Emmitt. They’re both Light Elves. Elijah, who’s a Wood Elf, has the place on the top floor. Can blend into damn near anything. Surprised me while I was trying to eat my Lucky Charms. Almost dropped the bowl.”
“That was a good one.” Elijah’s glamour slipped for a moment, and when he touched the railing his skin briefly took on the look of polished black iron before returning to a warm brown tone as the glamour was restored.
“Next time I’m throwing the bowl and asking questions later.”
“That’s most of the crowd,” Lily told him. She put up her hand and waved at the people making their way down the steps. “Marcy come meet Yumfuck. He’s our new neighbor.”
“He’s our new neighborhood watch with claws.”
“Would you look at that?” Marcy came over, her hands on her hips. “Love trolls! Aren’t you the cutest thing ever, and I like that name…has a certain ring to it. Never had the courage to try and bond with one…”
Yumfuck gave her a sharp grin. “It’s by mutual agreement, Marcy. You wouldn’t have a chance.”
Marcy shook with laughter, the motion causing her bracelet to slide down her arm. “Too true.”
Emmitt rubbed his bearded chin. “I saw you on a video. Well played, getting the locals to think it was all fake news.” Emmitt pulled out a Payday candy bar and unwrapped it as the smell of salty peanuts hit the air.
Yumfuck swallowed hard, doing his best not to stare directly at it.
“Where are you guys off to?” Lily dug her trowel into the dirt and tossed the resulting rock to the side.
Elijah shook his head. “We’re heading down to the police station to report our stolen lawn gnomes. They have so much going on over there we don’t expect anyone to care.”
“Hooligans.” Yumfuck took another glance at the quickly-disappearing candy. “Motherfuckers…”
“Yeah, we’ve all been here for decades,” Marcy told him sadly. “It used to be the safest place you could be. There was a time when this was an up and coming neighborhood.”
“Some of it got up and left.”
“Sad but true. Crime around here has skyrocketed. I’ve had to put stronger protections around this building every year. Not easy to maintain, either.”
Yumfuck casually picked up a fallen peanut and popped it into his mouth as he formed a plan. This was his chance. This was exactly the kind of thing he was here to prevent. Robberies, muggings, and mysteriously-disappearing lawn gnomes.
“What about the police? Thank you, don’t mind if I do.” Yumfuck took a cookie off the plate George held out to him and slid it whole into his mouth, trilling contentedly. Relief at last…
George put the plate back on the tray. “This city is a wonderful place to live, but there are definitely sections you want to stay out of—even with a wand.”
Elijah shuddered. “Even if you can blend in with the brickwork. They have their hands full with the drugs and the murders over in Southeast and Anacostia. The last thing they are worried about is petty theft.”
Marcy looked at the townhouse down the block. “Do you live in that big house all on your own?”
“I have company.” The troll trilled softly.
Lily smiled as she looked at the others. “You are just what this neighborhood needs.”
“That and a good neighborhood doughnut place.”
“Aloha!” chirped the troll.
Marcy stood up. “Hey, are you guys hungry? I have some Watergate salad and hot dogs left over from the cookout yesterday. I can heat up the hotdogs and have them ready when you get back from the precinct.”
“I can help cook.” Yumfuck put down his backpack.
“That’ll work. Invite your roomies. I’m guessing they have a little magic running through their veins too? Good, everybody come on over and we’ll fire up the grill. It can be a welcome party.”
Yumfuck ran back to the townhouse but found it empty. Leira and Correk were already out. There was a note on the counter in Correk’s neat handwriting. Leave my Twizzlers alone.
“There’s Twizzlers?” The troll glanced around the shelves in the pantry but didn’t see anything. No time. New friends and hot dogs were waiting.
He ran back out of the front door and down the sidewalk to where Marcy was waiting for him. He followed her up the stairs to the second floor to her apartment.
“We don’t lock the doors much during the day. The spell over this place has done a pretty good job so far. Not even sure where I left my key. I suppose that’s going to be changing a little.”
Yumfuck went in and looked around in awe, taking in the knickknacks and pictures on the walls. “These are all artifacts from Oriceran.”
“Good eye. I like you. Anyone named ‘Yumfuck’ has to have something going on.” Marcy absently picked up a deck of cards with different Oriceran symbols on each card. Yumfuck trilled and felt himself relax. The neighborhood was already starting to feel more like home.
“I’ll play you a hand.” Yumfuck cackled.
“You’ve seen these before? My grandmother used them to tell people their future.” Marcy gave Yumfuck a sly wink. “I use them to tell Emmett the future I want to see happen.” She put them back down. “Maybe later. We have a party to throw!”
Marcy handed Yumfuck an orange ceramic bowl filled with Watergate Salad. “Take this outside for me.” She pushed him toward the back door and the fire escape that led down into the fenced yard.
Elijah was already out there heating up the grill, wearing a black apron that read, Classy, Sassy, and a Bit Smart-Assy. “I stayed behind to get the party started. No point all of us trooping down there so they can tell us nothing can be done. Besides, now we have you!” He saluted Yumfuck with his spatula.
Yumfuck set the bowl down on the table and stared at the salad in the bowl, dipped a claw in the cream and licked it. “Restraint,” he muttered it under his breath, teeth clenched.
Correk was doing his best to drill the word into him, especially after an unfortunate incident in the local Safeway in the bulk candy aisle.
Marcy came down the steps with small white bowls and easily spotted the cream on Yumfuck’s furry face. She dished him out a small bowl of the concoction.
“Ever have Cool Whip before?”
“No, whipped marshmallows but not that,” he said sticking his finger into his bowl. “Better than Cheetos.” His eyes grew wider as he chomped down on a pistachio.
He took a bigger dip, getting a marshmallow and pineapple on his finger with a glob of green whipped topping and shoved it into his mouth.
“Mmmm.” He groaned at the sweet taste of the pistachio cream and held the bowl closer to his face. He was tempted to shrink and throw himself into it. “Restraint…” came out in a hiss as he licked the top.
“Good, huh?” George asked, sitting down next to Yumfuck. “She makes it every summer and brings some over to me and Lily. Doesn’t last two days.”
Yumfuck gobbled the rest and licked the bowl clean as he took a seat in an Adirondack chair and leaned back, watching as Elijah put the dogs on the grill. He pulled his furry arms behind his head and let out a deep breath, feeling like he had finally made new friends.
“What
’s it like where you’re from?” Elijah spread out the hotdogs. “I’ve heard stories, but I haven’t had a chance to go. Keep meaning to take a trip; open a portal. They have hotels?”
“Beautiful,” Yumfuck told him. “Blue skies, two moons, an endless forest filled with flowers and animals and birds. No cars and not much technology; not like here. Don’t need it. They use magic for most things. It’s a really peaceful place. And they have inns for travelers.”
“Do you have family there?”
“Yeah.” Yumfuck smiled. “A few hundred brothers and sisters. Nothing too big.”
“A few hundred...” George lifted an eyebrow. “I thought I would go crazy with three kids. Bless your mother.”
“She’s the best.” Yumfuck thought about his last visit to Oriceran with Mara.
By the time night had fallen Yumfuck was so stuffed he could barely move. He just laid in the chair wearing George’s golf hat and watched the three men play a rousing game of rummy with Marcy’s enchanted cards.
Marcy stood at the base of the fire escape and yawned, giving the signal that the party should draw to a close.
“Wheel of Fortune will be on in ten minutes,” Lily yelled to George from the door to their apartment.
“That’s my cue.” George took his hat off Yumfuck and situated it on his balding head. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Yumfuck. Don’t be a stranger.”
“You too, motherfucker.” The troll got up and slung the backpack over his shoulders.
George gave him a hearty laugh and a salute as he headed for the door.
“Don’t forget your leftovers, Yumfuck.” Marcy came down the fire escape with a large covered paper plate. “A midnight snack for you.”
He smiled and took the wrapped plate of leftovers from Marcy.
“I’ve heard about troll appetites.” She gave a crooked smile and headed back upstairs. Yumfuck left by the back gate and made his way down the alley toward the townhouse. More like a second dinner.
“They will like Leira and Correk.” Yumfuck smiled to himself. “Will have to introduce them soon.”
Just as he went to reach for the door a gust of cold wind hit him, ruffling the fur on the back of his neck. He shivered, feeling something more than cold in the air. When he looked at the sky there were dark clouds approaching. He stared at the coming storm, grasping his plate tighter. He might not be a Jasper Elf, but he knew dark energy when he felt it. Enough battles on Earth had taught him what it felt like—and the feeling in the air was unmistakable.
“The darkness is growing,” he whispered before walking into the house.
Lucius made his way carefully through the night into the suburban area and reached a small park. The quarter moon glowed in the sky, barely lighting anything below. Lucius didn’t need it though, since he could sense where he was going. Once he reached the center of the park he stepped into a circle of trees, taking off his shirt and put his hands together, breathing deeply.
Light sparked and crackled around him as it moved from his feet to the top of his head and he groaned and rolled his shoulders, throwing his head back as the change took him. Not only was he a Light Elf but a shifter too, a change that had happened centuries ago. Though most of the dark magic had left his body, his ability to shift had remained.
Once a shifter, always a shifter.
It had been a year since he had killed Rhazdon, his dark magic draining with her last breath. Still, he couldn’t go back to the life he had once known, and with the prophecy steadily ramping up for the opening of the portals between Oriceran and Earth things were starting to get a little hairy. After the battle he had run off to escape the feds and the magical beings trying to police him, and set out on his own in search of a pack to call family.
Shifters had been feared for as long as Lucius could remember, and he knew that Earth would be no different. They had myths and legends of werewolves too. Not surprisingly the stories weren’t all that far from reality, which made sense since a shifter had planted them on this world. Still, the rumors had run rampant, just like on Oriceran, painting their size and aesthetic to something evil and failing to understand the truth.
Their numbers had grown when the dark families created legions of them in their failed quest to turn them into weapons.
Most chose to live life in their human forms and start families, shifting at night, taking long runs, and hunting as often as they could. Earth was almost a sanctuary for the shifters, since none of the humans could sense their magic. They tended to live as low-key as possible.
Lucius’ body bent forward and his arms stretched out wide as the bones twisted and reformed and fur sprouted all over his body. After the loud crack, his head hung low and the change was complete, leaving a large panting black werewolf on the ground.
Slowly, Lucius pushed up on his hind legs, snarling and growling until the pain of his change subsided. He stretched his muscles and took a deep breath, easily smelling the other shifters in the nearby houses. He scratched at the ground and his Light Elf magic surged through him, causing his eyes to glow brightly.
He crept out of the trees and stood for a moment in the center of the park, howling loudly, lifting his head toward the moon. The noise rose into the air to echo across the night sky.
It was his call to arms, his message to the other shifters in the area to meet him in their normal gathering place. He howled again and crept back into the shadows to wait for the others to arrive.
Across suburbia, the sound of a howling wolf filled the homes. The humans in the town shivered, not used to wolves being that close, but the other shifters knew exactly what that call meant. They tucked their children into their beds, finished their meals, and sent a last email.
Across the neighborhoods people emerged on their porches, shutting off the outdoor lights and nodding to neighbors who were doing the same.
They stripped and left their folded clothes in baskets or metal boxes in the bushes or by the front doors.
Quickly their bodies began to morph, twisting and changing into their wolf form. A chorus of barking from neighborhood dogs could be heard as the howls erupted one by one.
This was their signal; the reply to let Lucius know they had heard him and were on their way. One by one they left their front yards and porches and loped through the shadows to avoid detection or raise alarms. They raced across an empty parking lot to reach the park and across the open fields to the edge of the tree line.
Lucius sat hidden among the trees, listening to the sounds of his tribe running to greet him. The magical community had no idea how many shifters were now on Earth, which was a lot more than when they had first crossed from Oriceran thousands of years ago.
They were his family, these creatures who knew the pain and stress of being hidden away while the others slowly destroyed each other through light and dark magic. Eight hundred years later, Lucius could still see the degradation that plagued his kind. He’d watched long enough from the World in Between to know how much his kind had been made to suffer.
One by one the shifters sat in neat rows and stared at the black wolf. There was no fear in any of them. None of them had dark magic in them—Lucius had made sure of that—but that didn’t mean they worked for the light either. Everything was changing rapidly, and Lucius knew he had to bring the shifters together.
They needed a plan…fast.
7
More shifters moved into the park, barking and whimpering as they connected with friends and relatives, nuzzling deep into fur. They moved seamlessly through the shadows, keeping to the trees as they made their way to the others.
No one could recall a gathering this large so close to their homes.
Lucius crept to the tree line and looked at all the wolves, a dull murmur of their telepathic conversations whispering through his head.
He was leagues above the others, his size and abilities greater than even the old Alpha’s. The former leader had easily been made to fall in line with the others when Luciu
s had arrived. Lucius’ size wasn’t the only difference. His Light-Elf ability to channel energy even in his changed form made him unique among shifters and powerful among all magical beings.
He hushed the crowd with a low growl. The majority of the shifters were part human, changed in recent years and now part of the magical community. The rest were descendants of the original shifters who had come to Earth in the last large migration. Lucius didn’t care where they had come from or how they had become shifters. He was forming a pack—a large one, which spanned the globe—and they were just one of many such groups.
Thank you for coming, Lucius bellowed telepathically. I have called us together under this quarter moon for two very important reasons. Earth is changing, magic is practiced openly everywhere, and the dark families are starting their revolt. We as shifters have been pushed to the side and been made to live in the shadows for far too long, both here and on Oriceran. I do not blame the humans; what is different can be scary. But we cannot allow that to keep us hidden forever.
“We can’t just change in broad moonlight,” one of the shifters yelled.
“No, but we can become more aware of the battle that is arising, which will help us no longer fear joining the fight,” Lucius said. “Having met all our close brothers and sisters, we know their scents, and know we are greater in number than is believed. I have come here with a task in mind. We will create a pack with those of you who will follow me as your Alpha, leading you into a better tomorrow. This pack will span the globe, having groups just like this all over the world. We will be organized and aware of the situation at all times. We will have each other to lean on, to grow with, and to change the future.”
“What about the government?” the former Alpha asked, pushing his way to the front from the center of the crowd. “They’ve feared us for our entire existence. Humans and Oricerans alike have treated us like trash. They think of us as a problem. Something connected to dark magic.”