“So, those men have been hunting you since you were a teenager?”
“Since I was nine, actually. I was an early bloomer, but it still took them three years for them to track my mother and I down.”
“I see.” He went quiet again, thinking. “Why do you think you haven’t gone mad then?”
“I don’t know, to be honest. I have these moments sometimes where I think I’m close. It’s like my mind drops away and all I want to do is jump someone’s bones or fight them. I call it going feral.”
Something lit up behind his eyes. “Is that what happened at your last birthday?”
She paused, thinking back to when he was referring. They had been bowling, and she had drunkenly dropped a five-pound ball on her foot. She remembered cursing like a sailor, then limping to the bathroom so she could cry/whine in peace.
Her foot had only taken about fifteen minutes to heal, but before she could exit, David had knocked on the door, asking if she was okay. It was then that she had realized how terribly she wanted to be held, to sink her teeth into someone’s shoulder as they took her roughly.
She had yanked David into the one-person bathroom and they had quickly gotten two it like newlyweds. It was wild and delicious and she felt her cheeks color at the recollection.
David was smiling when she looked to him again. “You left a couple of scars that night. I wasn’t sure whether I should have been upset, but it was too hot for me to hold a grudge.”
“Yup,” she said, lips tight. “That sounds like going feral to me.”
“Huh.” More quiet and she sank down as far as she could into her blankets. “Do you think that what’s helping you stay sane for longer?”
“Pardon?”
“The going feral bouts. Maybe they’re like little snippets of madness spread out over time to keep you from going full on insane.”
“That’s… that’s an interesting idea.”
He nodded. “It makes sense. Or at least it does in a world that has people animals running about killing each other for what seems like essentially a genetic mutation.
“I’m sorry for what you’ve had to live through, Jaelle, but just know that I don’t care if you’re an abberwhatever or a werewolf or even a groundhog. No one deserves to be hunted down for what they can’t help.”
“Thanks.” The word didn’t quite seem to be enough, but she didn’t know quite what else to say.
“Well, I don’t know how amazing and mystical these Hunters are, but we probably shouldn’t stay here for too long. We’ll stay here for four hours and then try to put at least a hundred miles behind us before stopping for a rest and more gas.”
“How are you affording all of this?”
He looked a bit sheepish as he answered. “I might have not been entirely upfront with you, either. My grandparents may have won the lottery back in the fifties and invested it well. I’m kinda loaded.”
“Loaded as in never having to order off the value menu, or loaded as in you own the menu?”
“Actually, that’s a pretty apt way to put it, considering my grandparents bought several fast food franchises.”
“What? Are you serious?!”
“You’re having trouble believing that, but you just unloaded that there are magical animal-people?”
“Good point.”
“Exactly.” His face softened and he was back to being her funny, easy going farmhand boy-toy. “Get some rest. Something’s telling me we’ll need it.”
“Okay. You, too.”
Despite everything that had happened, she made herself comfortable and slipped into sleep, feeling safe once again. Tomorrow was terrifying, but she would face it in stride.
Chapter Nine: Crossing the Lines
Morning came without being ripped limb from limb by Hunters or being seized for future execution and Jaelle counted that as a success. And by morning, she meant five am when the sun was just beginning to think about rising in the sky.
David put away the windshield foil and raised the seats while Jaelle huddled deeper into the swaddling of blankets she had made herself. He turned on to some generic country channel or another and then they were off, driving down the highway once more.
This time, she was less terrified as they cruised along, and she paid attention to the interstate signs as they rapidly passed by. They were headed… north? Why north?
“Hey, where are we going, anyways? You have a game plan, right?”
“You mean besides driving this truck through a wall to save you?”
“Yeah. You know you never told me why you came back to John’s place.”
“And you never told me what murdered all the farm animals and one of the strangers in your mechanic shop.”
“It was another Aberrant. An actually crazy one. Now answer the question.”
“You’re not going to like it.”
“You saved me. I’m sure I’m going to be grateful for it however it came about.”
“Yeah, you say that now but…” His eyes flicked between her and the road. “I had a kind of bad feeling as I left, but I dismissed it. I went further along the road and found a couple more hunters’ lodges but they hadn’t seen anything, either. I was set to go back home and try to think up a new plan, but when I got back into my car I wasn’t alone.”
Her stomach dropped. “What… what are you saying?”
“I’m saying that when I got out of my car I was alone. But when I got back in, there was someone sitting in my back seat. I know what you’re thinking, a real horror movie moment. But he was perfectly polite.”
“He?”
“Yeah. It was just some kid. He couldn’t have been older than twenty-two or so. He was wearing a standard T-shirt and jeans, you know, completely normal. He told me I needed to go back to that first house, the one with the rude guy. That you were there and you were in danger. He said to be careful, because men were coming that wanted to kill you and I would have to show them no mercy if I wanted you to survive.
“So, I drove as fast as I could toward the cabin. It took me about an hour and the entire time I was sure that you were dead. I was all set to barrel in, guns blazing, when I saw other cars pulling in and surrounding the building. I put my car into part, shut off the lights and crept forward. At first, I wasn’t sure what to think, but then I saw rope, duct tape, tranq-guns and regular ol’ guns piled in the back of a couple of the jeeps.
“They obviously hadn’t expected company, because the keys were in some of their vehicles. I crept to the window of the cabin and that’s when I saw two of the men holding you. And the rest, as we know, is history.”
“Why would the Aberrant help you save me? He could probably sweep in and kill us all since we were so distracted.”
“I would think that’s it obvious that he doesn’t want you dead.”
“But why?”
David shrugged. “He’s insane, right? Maybe he doesn’t need a reason. Or maybe he’s lonely and you’re the only one of his kind that he’s ever met. Everyone like him has been ruthlessly murdered. Yet you’re fine, and you’re sane. If I were him, I’d want to protect you ,too.”
“He tried to kill me when he first met me.”
“Maybe he didn’t realize who you were. Or maybe it took him a while to realize he wanted you to live. Or maybe he’s bored. Look, I’m not going to pretend that I’m some sort of expert in all of this, I’m just telling you what I would do if I was alone and my very existence was illegal.”
“I know. I guess I’m just uncomfortable with how much sense you’re making.”
“Yeah.”
The conversation died down as David focused on changing lanes, and Jaelle found herself remembering the last time she had been on the run from Hunters in a quickly moving vehicle.
She was nineteen and had been way too cocky with her anonymity. She had signed up for classes at a local community college, ready to learn something to help her have a career that wasn’t minimum wage and thankless. Unfortunately, that was
also before she had learned to change her name or create a fake identity, so somehow, someway her name had popped up in a Hunter database and the next thing she knew, they were surrounding her dorm.
If it weren’t for the Shifter’s strict rules about not revealing themselves to humans, she would have been captured for sure. She had pulled a fire alarm and escaped in the resulting co-ed chaos. An hour later, she had been on the nearest bus and speeding out of town to her next destination.
But this time would be different. She wasn’t alone, and she had learned a whole hell of a lot in the time that had passed since her failed freshman year. She had joined some sort of trade school and picked up her mechanic skills, then bounced farther and farther southwest.
“Wait a minute,” she blurted suddenly. “You never answered where we’re going.”
“Oh, right. I have family up at the army base in Alaska. A couple of my cousins were born there. I figure if there’s any place you will be safe from these Hunters or Aberrants or whatever, it’ll be there.”
“And how are you going to explain me to your family?”
“That part’s easy. You’re my girlfriend and you’re recovering from a severe depression bought after your last living family member passed away. We’re visiting Alaska to get you away from it all and fill you with fresh air. If there’s anything that will have and Alaskan eating out of the palm of your hand, it’s saying that their state is magical enough to cure anything.”
“I feel like that’s an insult.”
“It probably is. I haven’t seen them since I was seventeen, anyways, so they’ll be happy to have me back as it is.”
“Why haven’t you visited them in so long?”
“They’re far and it’s boring up there. I also don’t like being in nighttime for six months at a time.”
“Wait, that’s a real thing?”
“Yes, that’s a real thing. I find it funny that you apparently can shapeshift into whatever you want, but you have a hard time believing how the poles effect daylight.”
“Hey, it’s not like I had a normal education. If it was taught after third grade, I had long since been yanked out of school. Everything I’ve learned since has either been out of a stolen book or at trade school.”
“Right. I’m sorry. I didn’t think about it. You know you don’t come across as uneducated.”
“Because people confused uneducated with stupid all the time. And I’m not stupid. I just didn’t get the chance at schooling that many others have.”
“You’ve done amazing with what you have been given, though. I know people who’ve had twice as many opportunities and have done half as much.”
“Thank you.”
“No problem.”
Once more the conversation fell away, but the quiet was not uncomfortable. They were both just in their own heads, digesting and contemplating. But, in the silence of the moment, David reached out and lay his larger hand atop hers.
Smiling, she wrapped her fingers through his and took comfort in the sign of affection.
When he had first saved her, she was sure that the ocean between them was uncrossable. And yet, as she looked down to see his farmer tanned fingers wound through her olive ones, that distance didn’t feel nearly so vast now.
*
Two solid days passed with little sleep and a whole lot of driving. David and she had taken to napping in shifts so they didn’t have to stop overnight in the car like sitting ducks, but it lead to long stretches of silence as one of them snoozed and the other made sure they didn’t crash. That left Jaelle a lot of time to think, and she began wondering about what was going to happen after they made it to the base in Alaska.
She had never intended to tie her future to David. She had always considered him a fun friend and boy toy, but not much else. And yet here she was, binding her destiny with his. She wasn’t sure if that was a bad idea, or an outright selfish idea, and her hours of musing didn’t provide her with an answer.
Fortunately, the truck had an amazing tank capacity, with them only having to refuel twice, maybe three times in a day, depending on the landscape. That helped them keep the pace up, although they did usually take fifteen minutes to use the bathroom, wash their faces and load up on more snacks as well as ice for the stolen container in the back.
They settled into a sort of a rhythm and she would have been comfortable with them going on like that forever. Of course, that wasn’t practical and eventually it had to come to an end.
It was only on the third day, just after dawn, that they slowed down to a near-halt, stirring Jaelle from one of her many naps.
“Why are we stopping?” She murmured, rubbing one of her eyes as she sat up. They had just gotten gas a few hours earlier, so unless she was out for way longer than she thought, they should still be joy-riding along.
“Just the line to the border. It’s not that bad, so hopefully we won’t be here more than an hour or so.”
“Wait, we’re going through the official border?” she gasped, all semblance of sleep falling from her.
“Uh, yeah, where else would we getting into Canada?”
“I dunno! I thought we would be going some backwater, secret hillbilly way!”
“Why would I know where any of those are and why are you so freaked out?”
“Because, David, I have a fake identity. Jaelle Michelle Smyth doesn’t actually exist and if Jaelle Aishe Boswell is clocked going across the border, then the Hunters will know exactly where we are.”
“How would Shifter Hunters have access to government records?”
“I don’t know!” She was panicking, but she felt she was justified. How could she have been so stupid? How could she have forgotten about the border check?! “Moles, maybe?”
“Is… is that a Shifter joke?”
“What? No! It’s not a Shifter joke. Mole Shifters aren’t a thing!”
“Well, how the hell am I supposed to know? You can turn into any sort of animal, right?” She stopped dead in the middle of her growing furor. Abruptly she dissolved into giggles. “What’s so funny?”
“Oh, my god, David, I’m being really stupid. I’ll just shift into an animal.”
“But what kind? Canada’s pretty strict about bringing pets in without full documentation.”
She slid downward into the well between the seat and the dashboard, winking as she went. “Promise me you won’t freak out?”
“I don’t think that’s something I can safely say. You’re about to turn into a creature, right?”
“Don’t worry, it’s not a big deal.”
“You’re about to turn into a creature.”
“I know, I know. But you’ll get used to it. I’ll have to concentrate when I do it to get down to something so small, so give me a ten-minute warning before we’re close.”
“Right. I’ll do my best.”
She nodded then curled down as far as she could into the gap. She could just Shift into the animal she had in mind, but holding that for nearly an hour sounded draining. It was one thing to hold an animal form that was equal or greater to a human’s mass, it was another thing entirely to shrink down into something smaller. It required compressing one’s existence into dense chunks of anatomy. It was hard to explain, as it was mostly a subconscious thing she did and there wasn’t exactly copious amount of Shifter studies available, but if she tired herself out by holding a shape too long, she would return to her human body even if she didn’t mean to.
It wasn’t the most comfortable thing being jammed down in the little cubby, but she had confidence this would work. As long as they didn’t do a full-on inspection of the car, she doubted anyone would find her. And it wasn’t like there was anything about David that would raise suspicion. He was a regular, everyday joe with a regular, everyday tr—l=
The truck!
“David!” she hissed, raising her head from her little hideaway.
“What, babe! We’re almost there.”
“The truck! It’s not regi
stered to your name! Even if it somehow hasn’t been registered as a stolen vehicle, it’s going to come up as a red flag that you’re driving a vehicle that doesn’t belong to you.”
“…Shit.”
“What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never driven in a car that didn’t belong to me or my dad.”
“Shit! How did we not think of this?”
“I dunno, was I supposed to worry about border-traveling stipulations between driving a literal truck through a literal wall and learning that there’s a whole world of mythical shapeShifters right under our noses?”
“Yes! This was your plan. I assumed you thought it out a little.”
“I guess I didn’t! So what are we going to do?”
“Wing it, I guess. But if you get detained I’ll have to run. I can’t afford to be locked up.”
“Thanks for the reassurance.”
She tried to shrug but it was far too cramped to pull of the gesture. “You’re not the one with a highly trained, powerful group of Shifters after you.”
“True.” His mouth was now a grim line. “It’s time. Do your shifty thingie.”
“Ah yes, my shifty thingie. I’ll hop right on that.”
Despite her mocking tone, she concentrated, narrowing down her focus to a singular animal. She felt her form begin to meld and warp, shrinking down in mass as her limbs began to retreat into her own body. She briefly remembered back when she had first accidentally shifted during her sleep when she was six. She had been terrified to awaken with no hands or feet, instead having four soft paws to interact with the world. The form she was taking now was even more unfamiliar, but she didn’t fight it.
A few moments later, the space in the cab became much larger and she became a whole lot more streamlined. Her small, forked tongue flicked out, scenting the air with startling accuracy. She could feel the heat of the engine behind her, radiating through the floor of the vehicle. It warmed her, but she sensed that if she stayed in place too long that she would become too warm, and that would make her sick.
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