Shifter Mountain

by Annora Soule

  Jordan saw that Cephas had punched her in the jaw.

  "You fucking bastard, I will skin you alive before this night is through!"

  Jordan rushed toward Kay to help her out, and he stepped on the target spot.

  Cephas shifted into his panther form in a flash, intending to leap upon Jordan. Jordan shielded Kay with one arm, while he reached down to touch the rock underneath him with the other.

  Nothing was happening!

  Cephas sprang upon Jordan, who scrambled back, away from the target spot.

  "Run, Kay!"

  "I'm not leaving you!" she shouted, trying to stand up.

  Cephas leapt to circle around Jordan and force him to head back to the target spot. This is what had worked for his own father.

  The difference between Jordan and his own father, the former Man-in-the-Mountain, was that Jordan was neither a burnout drunk nor was he stupid.

  The definition of insanity is attempting to do the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. Jordan's father had let himself stayed hemmed in by Cephas' father, because he couldn't believe that touching the stone underneath his feet wasn't producing the expected results. He kept trying to jam his hand into the rock, like a frustrated chimp that wasn't smart enough to realize that you can't shove a square object through a round hole.

  Jordan had recognized immediately that his power failed him on the spot where Kay had been thrown down. And he was smart enough to realize that Cephas was trying to keep him right on that spot.

  Kay recognized that something was wrong, too. She had seen Jordan grab for the rock with no result. She scrambled around, ignoring the fact that she was pretty sure her arm was broken. She found a small rock nearby and picked it up with her left hand.

  "Jordan! Catch!"

  She tossed him the stone.

  As soon as Jordan caught it, the length of his arm petrified. He hurled it at Cephas, clipping his back leg. It was a bad shot, but better than nothing.

  Pissed off more than ever, Cephas growled and roared, loud enough that it seemed to shake the tree branches.

  Once he had thrown the stone, Jordan's arm turned back to normal, and he was vulnerable again. But Cephas in his fury had left an opening as he paced, and Jordan made a run for it. He ran back for the outcropping he had just emerged from. On one side there was an opening, and Jordan realized that it was actually a small grotto, just big enough for a man his size to slip into.

  Cephas chased after him.

  Jordan reached the grotto, and then turned to face Cephas. He reached up and braced himself, by pressing his palms at chest level into the stone on either side of him. His arms started petrifying. He pushed his hands further into the rock.

  Cephas had leapt fully into the air at this point, his jaws wide open and fangs dripping. He was gunning right for Jordan's neck.

  As Cephas sailed toward him, Jordan's whole body suddenly petrified.

  As Cephas jaws clamped down on what he thought was Jordan's neck, he bit instead into solid rock with almost 200 pounds of pressure. The force broke all of Cephas' teeth.

  Kay's eyes widened into saucers when she saw what had happened. She realized that Jordan was very quickly learning the extent of his authority on this mountain.

  Cephas howled in pain and fell back. The agony was so excruciating that he immediately and involuntarily shifted back into human form. His mouth filled with blood. He coughed and heaved and accidently swallowed several shards of his shattered teeth. Then he spat out two whole molars.

  Jordan ripped himself back out of the rock and stood over Cephas.

  "I know that if I let you go, Cephas, you will come after Kay — and me — again and again. Because you are a stupid, sorry excuse for a man."

  He looked up at Kay.

  "Whatever you think of me because of this, Kay, it's something I have to do for you."

  With the strength of five men, Jordan dragged Cephas to his feet and dragged him to the outcrop.

  "What the fuck are you doing!! Get your hands off me!!"

  Cephas screeched and hollered, having no real idea of what was coming, only that it had to be bad.

  When Jordan reached the outcrop, he kept hold of Cephas with one hand, while pulling apart the outcrop with the other. He shoved his arm into the stone all the way up to his shoulder, and ripped open a gap that began melting into clay.

  The whole outcrop now began softening into clay — and even more akin to wet cement. Before Cephas could say anything more, Jordan pushed him into the clay, shoving hard, until Cephas was fully submerged. Then Jordan pulled his arms back out.

  The outcrop immediately petrified.

  Cephas was now trapped in the rock. For good.

  Kay almost fainted on the spot. She had managed to stand up and now was in danger of tumbling back down. Jordan rushed to her side to help her stay up.

  "Did — did you really just do that?"

  "Never mind him. He can't hurt you anymore. He's effectively dead. And you’re a widow."

  Kay's whole body trembled.

  "Where did he hurt you?" Jordan asked.

  "I think my arm is broken," Kay said. "And he hit me in the head with a vase."

  "We have to get you to a hospital," Jordan said.

  "But you can't leave the mountain," Kay said.

  "Maybe, maybe not. I'm taking you to a hospital, and we'll worry about what might happen to me after we make sure that your arm gets taken care of. And you might have a concussion."

  Kay was too physically messed up at this point to stop him. She started to lose consciousness until Jordan shook her awake. He found the keys to Cephas' car and helped Kay into the front seat.

  "You can't...do this..." Kay moaned.

  "I'm doing it," Jordan. "Don't argue with me about this."

  Chapter 13

  The nearest hospital was a half hour from Scopes Mountain. I was about 8 p.m. when Jordan and Kay arrived at the emergency room. They had to wait another half hour before a doctor was available to check Kay out.

  The doctor, a redhead in her mid-40s, walked into the waiting room, clipboard in hand.

  "Kay Mandrell?"

  Kay was slouched in her chair, with Jordan's arm around her. She had managed to stay awake, largely because she was in so much pain because of her arm.

  The doctor already could tell she was favoring the arm, and she immediately noticed a cut over her eyebrow.

  "Come with me," the doctor said. "I'm Dr. McFee."

  Jordan helped Kay stand up, making sure she was steady on her feet before sending her off.

  The doctor brought Kay to a private area and drew the curtain.

  "Well, already I can see you've got an issue with your arm."

  "I think it's broken,” Kay told her.

  Dr. McFee helped Kay gently remove her shirt, since Kay was in too much pain to wriggle out of it herself.

  "Well, I see no bruising or swelling where I might expect, but your shoulder looks out of place."

  Then she asked Kay if she could bend her elbow, bend her wrist, and wiggle her fingers. It was uncomfortable, but she could do it.

  "I don't believe anything's broken, but your shoulder is clearly dislocated. This is going to hurt pretty badly, but I need to reset it ASAP. Bear with me, and please don't tense up no matter how bad it hurts."

  The doctor had Kay keep her elbow to her side but bend her elbow at 90 degrees. Dr. McFee held her hand and gently turned her arm out and back, then asked her to lay down back on the exam table and rest her arm straight out next to her. Dr. McFee then pulled gently but firmly on the arm, lengthening it, until Kay felt her shoulder pop.

  The reset itself was excruciating, but immediately afterward, much of the pain began to subside.

  Dr. McFee applied an ice pack to her shoulder, taking Kay's opposite hand and putting it on the pack so she could keep it in place for herself.

  "You'll want to ice this for a while. And now that that's out of the way, I need to check you f
or a concussion."

  Dr. McFee checked her pupil dilation and asked her various questions, concluding that she really showed no signs of a concussion.

  "You're pretty lucky," the doctor told her. "So, I have to ask, what exactly happened to you?"

  Kay looked away from the doctor, unable to make eye contacted.

  "It's okay to tell me."

  "I was beaten up."

  "By the man out in the waiting room? The man who, I have to say, looks an awful lot like Jordan Lawless?"

  "No! No — he rescued me and got me to the hospital."

  "Well, then who. We should report this to the police.

  "It was my husband. And, well, it's already 'been reported' I guess."

  "Has this happened before?"

  "Yes."

  "You don't plan to go back to him after tonight, do you?"

  The doctor was not being delicate, even thought confronting an abused woman regarding her situation was tricky.

  "No. It's over. For good."

  "I'm going to give you some pills for the pain, but they're strong, so first I have to ask, any chance of being pregnant?"

  "No. I was. But I miscarried three weeks back."

  "How did that happen?"

  Kay didn't answer.

  "Are you sure you miscarried?"

  "There was a lot of blood. And cramping. Yeah, the baby's gone."

  Dr. McFee paused.

  "Lie down for a minute."

  Dr. McFee felt around her abdomen.

  "I want to do a pregnancy test just in case."

  This caught Kay by surprise.

  "I just want to be sure," the doctor told her.

  The pregnancy test ended up coming back positive.

  "How can this be?! He beat the crap out of me — I lost a lot of blood!"

  Kay was in shock.

  "The baby's strong, obviously. He or she really hung in there. How far along do you think you are?"

  Kay did the math in her head.

  "It would be about four months now."

  "I have to ask — if this is your husband's child and he's been this abusive to you, do you want this baby?"

  Kay didn't know what to say. She looked up at Dr. McFee with confusion in her eyes.

  "This is not something you have to decide right now, but you should decide soon."

  Kay had no health insurance, so Jordan told the receptionist to bill him, but made it clear that he expected full discretion — that no one from the hospital should plan on calling a tabloid newspaper to report that Jordan Lawless had brought a beat-up woman into the hospital emergency room in the middle of the night.

  Jordan then took Kay back to her cabin. Kay didn't say much on the ride back. She had no idea how to tell Jordan that she was still pregnant.

  "Pack some things. We're leaving here and going back to Nashville."

  "This is getting pretty risky," she told him. "You're not supposed to leave the mountain."

  "We were gone for at least a couple of hours and I feel totally fine. You need a place to rest and recuperate, and we don't know if Cephas' brothers are going to come looking for you. "

  "I don't feel entirely comfortable about this."

  "I have an entire life outside of Scopes Mountain," Jordan said. "I know I'm now permanently connected here — and to you — and I'll never go far for too long, but I'm not giving up everything I've worked for. I've got to remain based out of Nashville. I'm going to have to go on tour. Plus, I never got a chance to cancel tomorrow night at the Opry. And if there's one thing a person can't do is stand up the Opry."

  Kay acquiesced and packed a couple of bags. They left Cephas' car behind, unlocked with the keys on the seat, and took off in Jordan's truck.

  Kay was not at all prepared for what she found when Jordan took her home. He actually lived a half-hour outside of Nashville in the historic town of Franklin. Past a couple of megachurches they eventually came to a neighborhood of mansions on the outskirts of town.

  Jordan pulled up into a long driveway, circling back towards a palatial Georgian. He parked the car at the front door, just as a young man in his twenties cam out.

  "Kevin, meet Kay," Jordan said, introducing the two. "Kevin's my personal assistant, so if you need anything while you're here, he's our man."

  "Nice to meet you ma'am," Kevin said, looking quizzically at Jordan.

  "Kay will be staying here indefinitely. You can have the maid bring her luggage up to my room."

  Jordan tossed Kevin his car keys.

  "Then you can park my truck and pull out the Jag."

  "Yes, sir," Kevin said, trailing behind Jordan and Kay into the main house.

  "Don't be overwhelmed," Jordan told her. "All this took some getting used to for me at first. You go upstairs, take a bath and get some rest. We'll have a good breakfast in the morning, and then we'll take a drive around Nashville. Right now I've got to go check in with Bob and see how the editing is going with the video."

  "It's pretty late to be working."

  "The editor will be working on the video overnight. They barely will take a break until it's done."

  "I don't think I have anything to wear to the Opry tomorrow."

  "You can dress up or you can dress casual. You don't have to worry about impressing folks. The Opry's family. Just wear what makes you feel comfortable enough that you can hang out and enjoy yourself."

  Jordan left and the maid showed Kay around and then drew a bath for her. Jordan's bedroom alone was bigger than her entire cabin. She soaked in the tub for about 20 minutes, then crawled into the king size bed and drifted off to sleep.

  The next morning, when Kay opened her eyes, Jordan was sitting next to her in the bed, gently nudging her awake. He was fully dressed.

  "You didn't come to bed last night," she said.

  "I was at the studio. Haven't slept yet."

  "Aren't you tired?"

  "No — I feel great, actually."

  "Are you sure?"

  "Relax, Kay, I feel fine. We've been away for over 12 hours and I feel perfectly okay."

  The ate a hardy, full-scale Southern style breakfast whipped up for them by Jordan's cook, then Jordan took Kay for a ride in the Jag. They drove past Carnton Plantation, the site of the famous Battle of Franklin during the Civil War, and headed to the town center. Main Street Franklin had preserved most of its Southern Charm. They grabbed coffee and took a stroll. A couple of folks said a friendly 'Hey' to Jordan, but no one gushed over him.

  "This is part of the reason why I love it around here," Jordan said. "So many great musicians, so many famous and some not-so — but I can live my life in peace for the most part. Things might get a little crazy at the Opry, and if I headed over to Broadway, but that's because we have tourists and out-of-towners. I never mind. Folks are pretty nice for the most part."

  Coffee-in-hand, they jumped back in the Jag and sped along route I-65 North toward Nashville.

  "I'm going to take you to the Gaylord Opryland Resort. We'll be back there tonight, because it's right by the Opry. But you should see it during the day."

  "Why?" Kay asked.

  "You'll understand when we get there."

  They pulled into the Opryland Mall parking lot, drove past the launch for the General Jackson Showboat, and parked on the backside of the Gaylord.

  They entered through the Delta Portico and came across a ramp for an indoor riverboat ride. Then Kay looked up and gasped.

  "Amazing, isn't?" Jordan said.

  It was. The hotel spanned around a mammoth indoor, entirely enclosed arboretum. A river ran through the hotel, large enough for a boat to take a short ride on. Sunshine or rain, natural light filtered in through the glass overhead. Two or three restaurants lined the side of each river, so that diners always had a full view of the arboretum from almost any angle.

  "It kind of reminds me of some post-apocalyptic world," Jordan told Kay, as they strolled along hand-in-hand. "Like, if we ever got nuked, everyone could run and hide
in the Gaylord and wait until the dust and smoked cleared outside. Kind of like that show 'Under the Dome.'"

  "I haven't seen it," Kay said.

  Suddenly, a young couple approached them.

  "Hey! Are you Jordan Lawless?"

  Jordan winked at Kay.

  "Here we go," he whispered to her.

  "Yes, I am" Jordan said cheerfully.

  "Could we get a picture with you?"

  "Sure."

  "Ma'am, would mind taking a picture of us?" the man asked of Kay.

  "Sure. Just show me what to do."

  The hotel guest gave Kay quickie instructions how to operate the camera on his cell phone, and then he stood back. Jordan took his place in between the couple, and Kay snapped a shot."

  "Let me take another, just in case," Kay said. She snapped the second shot. "Okay, take a look at that and tell me if it's okay."

  "Thanks!" said the man. "What's your name?" he asked her.

  "This is Kay, my girlfriend," Jordan said.

  Kay's jaw dropped in surprise.

  "I'm Jason and this here's my wife, Sherry. We're on our honeymoon."

  "Nice to meet you both," Jordan said, as everyone shook hands. "We have to head off. I've got some errands to run, and I'm at the Opry tonight."

  "Yeah, hey — thanks for stopping!" the man said.

  This happened no less than four more times at the Gaylord, after which Jordan decided it was best they head out. He really did have some errands to run.

  "So what errands?"

  "Well the Jag needs an oil change. My assistant usually takes care of that, but I went to school with my mechanic — we go way back, and I'd like you to meet him."

  They brought the Jag in to Nashville Euro Motors, and hung out with Jordan's mechanic and friend while they waited.

  After the mechanics, they stopped at a fish and tackle store because Jordan had to pick up a rare fishing rod on order, and then they grabbed some barbecue for lunch.

  Kay was surprised at how normal the day felt. They really were just running around taking care of errands, without being trailed by some celebrity entourage.

  "This day feels weird." Kay said, as they polished of plate of Jack Daniel's apple and cinnamon glazed ribs.

  "How so?"

  "You seem really normal in your home environment."