“That being able to heal quickly doesn’t necessarily mean healing will be instantaneous.”
“Instantaneous! That’s a big word. Where did you pick up that?”
The young Jaelle gestured to the pile of books beside her. Being stuck in bed for so long meant she was struggling to keep her rapidly expanding mind entertained. “Those. I like the ones about the detective.”
“Ah, yes. Those were my favorites when I was younger, too. They’re a bit of a product of their times, but a good read, nonetheless.”
“What does that mean?”
“What mean?”
“A product of their times. I don’t understand.”
Her mother chuckled softly, leaning forward to kiss her child’s forehead. “That’s my Jaella, always learning. A product of their times, let’s see, how would I explain that.” She tapped her chin, her dark eyes flashing with creativity, and for a moment, she was back to normal. How she had been before Jaelle had first showed signs of being what was forbidden and she had whisked the both of them away into hiding. “So, you know how in the past people thought very wrong things were perfectly normal?”
“Like what?”
“Well, like slavery.”
“Oh, and how Romani were often chased off of people’s land?”
“Yes. Exactly like that. In the past, a lot of terrible things were considered absolutely normal. Such as calling Asian people Orientals, or us, Gypsies. These things wouldn’t fly now, but because those books were written so long ago, they use such terms and ideas as if they’re normal.”
“I see. So kinda like a flawed narrator?”
“Not quite. But what is my precious little eight-year-old doing learning such things? This is your time to be a child, to run free and not worry about parallel structures or flawed narrators.”
“I’m an Aberrant, maman. Being eight years old is about middle-aged for us. I have to do what I can. Besides, if my brain isn’t churning, it makes my head hurt and I get itchy all over.”
Her smile faltered slightly, and the fox Shifter pulled her child into her arms, nearly crushing her. “Not you, my baby. You’re going to live a long, amazing life. I will fight tooth and nail to make sure of it.”
“I would rather you didn’t, maman.”
“That’s just the Aberrance talking. Your body is going through massive changes right now, and your mind is just struggling to adapt to the amazing power you now have. I will always be here to protect you.
“But—” her tone grew serious. “If you ever find yourself in a situation where you’re face to face with Hunters, and I am not there, you must fight. No matter how sweet their promises of a peaceful exit, no matter how tempting rest might sound. You fight, Jaelle. With everything you have. You’re my angel who’s going to change the world.”
“How am I supposed to change the world with a broken spine?”
“That will heal in time, as will other terrible injuries that will come and go. But you are eternal, my child. I promise this. No matter how you change. No matter how much your mind expands and shifts. No matter what.”
For the first time in a while, Jaelle felt that childlike comfort of a parent’s assurance flood through her. “Thank you, maman.”
“You’re welcome, my darling. Now, time to change the bandage on your leg. And what’s the other lesson we’ve learned out of all of this?”
“Don’t take on a new form when jumping between roofs, you can be startled out of a shift and end up smackin’ into the ground.”
“Very good. I swear, one day you’re going to give me a heart attack.”
“Never, maman. You will protect me forever, and I will protect you. Pinky swear.”
“Pinky swear,” she repeated, offering her smallest digit.
Their fingers hooked into each other and they rested their foreheads together. After a few moments, Jaelle’s mother rose to take care of the dishes, disappearing behind one of the two doors in the tiny shack they were occupying.
It would have been a nice moment, but instead of being a child, like she should have, suddenly the Jaelle in the bed was full-grown and completely aware of what happened next.
Despite all their promises, their words amounted to nothing. A few months later her mother would be dead and she would be utterly alone.
Jaelle’s stomach churned at the thought, and the dream began to shift around her. Slowly, the walls sank down into the ground and she was surrounded by frozen tundra. She knew what would happen next. It was the same dream that had plagued her for years.
The death of her mother.
“No,” she hissed, slamming her fists into her thighs. “Wake up! Wake up, wake up, wake up!”
She tried to close her eyes but her dream did that strange thing where it didn’t matter if they were opened or closed. Her mind wanted her to relive this for the millionth time. It seemed after more than a dozen years wasn’t enough to dull the survivor’s guilt.
But instead of her mother dashing across the snow, yelling at her to run, there was a different figure zooming across the stark white.
It came closer and closer, impossibly fast. She had no time to move, even if the dream would allow her to, and before she could even think, the Aberrant was leaning over her bed, mouth full of fangs.
“You killed her, friend. Just like you’ll kill everyone you know as long as it’s illegal for you to live.”
“Stop it!”
“No, you stop it!” he snarled. “Stop running and hiding like a little rat and fight them!”
She jerked backwards, hurtling through the scene until she was right back in her bed in Braywire. But even in the comfort of her own home, she felt no solace. Her mind was full of ideas and thoughts she had never allowed before.
Was she… a product of the time? Was she wrong in assuming that her eventual descent into murderous madness an inevitability?
She didn’t know, and she sank back down into the darkness of unconsciousness.
Chapter Fourteen: Dark, Damp and Chainy
Pain was the first thing her mind was able to process. Followed immediately by a bone-chilling cold that got into the deepest parts of her and made its home there. And then there was the damp.
Groaning, she tried to open her eyes, only to find them solidly glued together by a layer of crust.
“That’s disgusting,” she hissed to herself, bringing up her hands to rub the discomfort away. But her hands came to an abrupt stop, as if they were being held down. The sound of small metal pieces clinking against small metal pieces told her exactly what she didn’t need to know.
Chains. She was in chains.
That wasn’t the best way to greet the day.
Realization of her situation began to slowly dawn on her. Cautiously, slowly, she sat up. Her spine protested the entire time, throbbing in earnest but allowing her to rise into a sitting position. Once she was relatively stable, she bent her head down and tried the whole eye rub thing once again.
It hurt, boy, did it hurt, but slowly her eyelashes were freed from what was holding them in place and she was able to open them.
She looked around, blinking rapidly, to see she was in some sort of cross between and ancient dungeon and a modern prison. The walls were roughly hewn stone, water dripping down the sides and pooling in the corners.
Jaelle moved her feet to see if she could stand, and more clinking of metal told her that there were chains attached to her ankles, too. Reaching down, she found the same thick, metal manacles that were holding her wrists.
Although she was sure it would be next to useless, she concentrated on expanding her form rapidly into something that would break the cuffs with ease. But, after a few seconds of nothing, she realized that she was stuck in her human body.
“Cuffs must have wolfsbane in them,” she groused to herself. Or the walls did. Or the silvery bars of the prison did. Honestly, there was at least ten different ways they could have laced that pesky herb into the structure of the room she was in t
hat would leave her unable to shift.
It also explained the growing nausea threatening to make her upchuck bile from her empty stomach.
One of the additional mysteries of Shifter life was how one little plant threw so much out of whack. While it couldn’t keep a determined shapeShifter out, it did depower them brilliantly. Unlike the myths of old, the member of the mint family didn’t just effect ‘werewolves’. It worked quite well for Shifters across the board – except for Aquarians, of course.
Her evaluation of her bonds done, she slowly stood. She couldn’t quite make it to her feet, but she managed a wide-legged stance with hunched shoulders. It seemed even her neck was chained to the wall behind her. How much of a threat did they think she was?
Then again, she was possibly the oldest Aberrant in known history. She had never heard of one living to twenty, let alone a few years shy of thirty like she was. She was an unknown to them. A boogeyman that had somehow broken a whole lot of rules that they depended on in order to feel safe.
“Hey, you in there.”
She looked back to the bars to see a dark figure there. Their eyes were glowing, but she could hardly make anything else out. Another unfortunate side effect of the wolfsbane, it had a habit of dulling her Shifter-blessed senses and making her no different than a human. It was decidedly strange to be so cut off from knowing a new person. She couldn’t smell his scent, or heart his heartrate, or anything of that nature. It was like she was blind, deaf and nose-less, but not quite.
God, she hated wolfsbane.
“You called?” she groused, her voice gravelly in her own throat.
“Don’t get smart. It won’t keep you alive any longer.”
“Yeah, I’m sure of that. But… why am I alive in general?”
“Only a Hunter or Clan Leader can properly dispatch a freak like you. They have to discuss who will end your sorry existence and send you off with some sort of peaceful, hero’s ending that you don’t deserve.”
She took a step toward him, but the chains jerked her back. “What’s a matter, big boy? Did we get off on the wrong foot?”
“You disgust me,” he hissed before spitting at her feet. “The world would have been a better place if you were dead when you arrived here three days ago.”
“Three days ago?” she repeated. “And here I’ve had the same bedding the whole time. That’s not very good-host of you.”
He let out several long swears then stalked off somewhere she couldn’t see.
Jaelle sighed and collapsed back into a sitting position. It seemed like, after all her running, all her clever schemes, she had finally reached the end of the line.
At least David was all right, and that was the thought that she would have to hold onto to comfort herself until her end.
It was the only thing she had left.
To Be Continued…
Book 2: Locked Down
Sarah J. Stone
Chapter One: Less than Pleasant Wake Up Call
Drip.
The water trickled down the walls.
Drip.
The water splashed down from the ceiling, droplets hitting her head like cold little bullets.
Drip.
The water invaded her dreams, giving her no rest, just a constant reminder of her cold, damp imprisonment.
Drip.
Jaelle groaned, opening her eyes slowly. Normally dreams were the best way to escape, offering a channel to slip into worlds far from reality. But even her dreams featured the constant and obnoxious reminder that she was a prisoner in hostile territory.
“What’s a matter, sleeping beauty? Your accommodations not to your liking?”
She rolled over to look at her guard. It was the same lovely gentleman who was there to greet her when she first arrived, and he had lost approximately zero percent of his charming demeanor. It bothered her to no end that she still couldn’t tell what kind of Shifter he was. Being cut off from her enhanced senses made her so powerless. So helpless.
She hated it.
Would her mother be ashamed of her? The fox Shifter had fought so hard to make sure her daughter would remain free, and yet here Jaelle was, captured and waiting for death.
But at least she had gotten them away from David. She shuddered to think what they would have done if they found the two of them together, the scent of their sex rife between them.
Hmm… thinking about sex with David in this dark, disgusting place seemed so wrong. Like she was defiling the memory or something. That was too bad, as daydreaming about him was a solid way to pass the time.
Time, that was another tricky concept.
In her new, caged world there was no sun. There was no moon. She didn’t couldn’t even sense what phase the moon was in, which ruled the Shifter biological cycle more than any other celestial object. The only way she could tell that time had passed at all was when her usual guard changed place with others for a different shift. Whoever relieved him was always different. I’d had a white woman, a black man, someone who looked like they might be an islander. But whoever they were, her original guard always returned a few hours later.
Perhaps he took delight in seeing her rot. Maybe his own family had been killed by an Aberrant. She had no way of knowing as the only things he ever spoke to her were either insults or promises of violence, and neither of those things improved her day.
She didn’t know what was taking the Clan Leaders so long. Or at least she thought it was a long time. Maybe it was just a day. But she had slept three different times so she found that very doubtful. Plus, with all the guard changes, Jaelle was guessing it was at least four days that had passed.
“Not quite,” she said, finally answering her guard’s mocking query. “Maybe you could come in and turn down the bedding? That’s what you are in this situation, right? A maid?”
His face turned red and his already barrel chest swelled up. As predictable as every other alpha-male, bro-Shifter, he strode to the door, unlocked it and charged in.
But she was ready for him.
She waited until he was within range of her chains, then struck, thrashing both of her feet out in a double kick. It certainly wasn’t the most powerful move – as they hadn’t fed her in her entire tenure as their guest – but one didn’t need a whole lot of power when aiming straight for the balls.
Her feet landed right where she wanted them at just about the same moment the bone-headed guard must have realized that walking into a room full of wolfbane would render him just as powerless as Jaelle.
He stumbled backwards, screaming curses and clutching his manhood like she had done some real damage. She rounded on him, ready to grab keys from his belt, or a weapon, or anything, but four others came rushing in, some sort of illuminated stick in each of their hands.
Jaelle didn’t have time to wonder what the gizmo-looking glow sticks were, because suddenly she was getting hit with one. Fire-hot pain lashed through her whole body, and her muscles tensed so hard she thought she heard her jaw cracked. Her limbs shook violently while at the same time pulling close to her body.
It was all over in a second. Once they pulled the weapon away, she slumped back to neutral. Albeit a very exhausted neutral.
“Are those taser rods?” he gasped, voices sounding strange in her ears.
But they were already rushing out of the door, dragging the fallen guard with them. They slammed the door into place then turned to stare, watching her as she sat up.
“You little bitch!” Mr. Bruised Balls spat, nearly throwing himself against the bars. “I’ll make you pay for that.”
Jaelle just shrugged at him and gave him a bit of a cheeky grin. “Only if the Clan Leaders give you that honor.”
He grumbled several curses ut the other guards began talking him down, placating his ego like the good little enablers they were.
Whatever, it wouldn’t be Jaelle’s problem for very long. There wasn’t anything that he could do to her that wouldn’t get himself into some very deep shit wit
h the Clan Leaders. In the cold, damp, ominous cell she was in, that was the one comfort she could hold onto.
“You think you’re so smart, don’t you, Aberrant? You’ve got this whole thing figured out.” She opened her mouth to shoot a particularly scathing comeback, but suddenly one of the thinner guards lunged forward, striking out between the bars with their little shocker stick. It hit true, and Jaelle’s body seized up just like before.
Only this time, they didn’t pull away after a few seconds. They held it there for what felt like an eternity. When they finally separated, the shapeshifter swore she could smell smoke and the acrid scent of singed air. Her eyelids fluttered for a moment, and then they slid closed once more.
Chapter Two: Sashay to a Funeral Dirge
“I don’t get it. What’s taking the Clan Leaders so long?”
“What are you talking about? You know the test takes twenty-four hours, and then they have to do a secondary one to confirm the results of the first test. Then all of the elders have to submit who they believe should be the one to carry the duty of execution, as well as administer the last wish and rights. The fastest I’ve ever seen this done was a week, and that was with someone that they already had a full sample and file on before they were captured.”
“Well, you would think they would rush this one along considering how long she was in the wild. Who knows how many she killed?’
“Oh, get off it, Jacob. She obviously hasn’t gotten the madness yet.”
“But how’s that possible? She’s too old not to be sick.”
“And yet she’s not. Look, I’m not trying to tell you what to believe or that you feel sorry for her, but don’t try to make her out to be something that she’s not. She’s an Aberrant, but she’s a living being like you and us, scared about meeting her end.”
“You almost sound like you sympathize with her.”
“I pity her. And if I was born like she was, I’m sure I would have done the same thing. It’s a sad fact of life that she has to die, but I agree with Leader Elanor that rushing the process is an injustice to both us and her.”
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