So what the hell was going on?
I’d had some time before I had to be into work but now I’d be running late and I was starting to get nervous. We had to get home. Eventually, I just let Andy jump into Miguel’s arms and he cradled Andy, carrying him home and hoping no human types would notice us, although Middlesmark was majority shifter as far as demographics.
But Andy was meowing, crying as he clutched Miguel with his sharp claws. He looked so scared, his gaze turned to me, his eyes big. He was trembling.
“Miguel, I don’t know what’s wrong,” I said, my voice wavering. “This has never happened before.” I held onto Miguel’s arm as he walked us home. I tried to console Andy but he just kept crying like a terrified kitten. It was killing me.
What if he couldn’t shift back?
I’d never heard of anything like that. Unless there was some curse or hex involved. That made me wonder.
“I’m ditching practice,” Miguel said thickly, as we made our way back into the building. “Until we fix this. I don’t know what it is. But we’re gonna figure it out.”
A few minutes later, once we were back in the safety of the apartment, and settled on the couch with Andy in Miguel’s lap, I looked in his eyes again and my heart felt like it was dropping to the floor. His eyes were a weird color, They were normally brown and now they were too bright and too yellow and there were silvery swirls around his pupils.
What in the hell?
“I’m calling in sick,” I said. My voice was shaking as I whipped out my phone. I tended to work even when I shouldn’t. Shifters very rarely got sick but I’d had to be sent home by force a couple of times when I was clearly too sick to be working around customers. So when I called in half-crying because I didn’t know what was wrong with Andy, the owner of the place was very understanding.
“You stay home and take care of your boy,” he said. “Don’t worry about a thing. You let us know if you need anything.”
I don’t know what I would need that they could help with, but that was a load off my mind at least.
“He’s not meowing anymore,” Miguel said darkly, when I’d hung up the phone. He was cradling Andy whose eyes were almost opaque now, still a little swirly with that strange ribbon of silver in them. Andy was silent, his mouth slightly open, his ears turned down. He looked out of it.
“He’s sick or something,” I said. “But I’ve never heard of anything like this with shifter kids. I just don’t know…” Andy was limp in his arms, as if he were passing out.
My heart was racing. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been so scared.
“I’m putting him to bed,” Miguel said, getting to his feet. “I don’t know what this is but I have to think it’s...some kind of magic. Something. A curse? A hex? I don’t know…”
I followed him into Andy’s room and watching him get our son comfortable in bed. He looked strange in lion form in his human element and it felt just awful to see him lying on his side, just staring into space, his little pink tongue sticking out. For a few minutes, we just sat there, softly stroking his little cub head and feeling scared and helpless.
“I’m going to get help,” Miguel said finally. “Sit tight. I’ll keep in touch.” He got up again and I followed him to the living room where he grabbed his jacket. “Luca might know someone who can help. We need a witch.”
That was the way in the shifter world. When some weird magic was going down, you got yourself a witch. It was like having a good doctor. I hadn’t needed one since I’d been in Middlesmark, but I hoped Miguel could find someone good.
“Miguel,” I said. My voice sounded like a whimper. I was still wearing his jersey, which somehow felt comforting now. I stuck my hands in my back pockets, and stared at Miguel. “What if…” I shook my head. I had no way to end that sentence that wouldn’t make me burst into tears and he crossed to me and cradled my face in his hands.
“He’s going to be okay,” Miguel said. “We’re going to find out what’s going on and we’re going to deal with it. I promise you, Daisy. You think I just found you two and I’m not going to fight tooth and nail to protect you, you got another thing coming.” I nodded and he kissed me sweetly. “Gonna be okay. I swear.”
He was already gone when I remembered what Andy had said about the “magic man” who had given him a potion.
It hadn’t been just a story after all.
Chapter Nine: Miguel
It was the feeling of Andy going limp in my arms that put me over the edge. The discolored eyes were bad enough but when the little boy who’d been so full of life and bouncing around like he had springs in his legs turned into jelly and simply stared out at nothing, it made my skin crawl and filled me with fear.
There was something wrong here
I didn’t have a car at Daisy’s place and now I ran back to the woods to shift and make my way back to St. Dom’s the long way, as fast as my legs could carry me. The guys would be home, or I hoped so anyway. We didn’t have practice until late in the afternoon, I was hoping Luca would be around with either knowledge of what the hell might be going on or a number for a witch who would.
The run took too long. It was agony even as the woods blurred around me and I pushed myself to the absolute limit, feeling as if every second, Andy was in further danger. Finally, I was human again and pushing open our front door, my lungs burning from the combination of pushing myself to run and the bitterly cold winter air.
“Hey!” Charlie said, looking cheerful from the couch where he was playing video games. “Somebody got laaaaid!” When he saw my expression, his grin fell just as quickly. “Holy shit, what’s the matter?”
“Where’s Luca?” I said, too warm now in my jacket. I took it off and tossed it on the arm of the sofa.
“Kitchen,” Charlie said, springing up and following me as I rushed past him. “What’s the matter? Dude, what is it?”
Luca was in the kitchen, apparently trying some complicated recipe because once in a while he caught the cooking bug. Dylan was at the table looking at his phone and when he saw me, his eyes widened.
“Luca,” Dylan said sharply, because Luca was bouncing on his toes as he minced garlic, and singing softly to himself.
Luca spun around and when he saw me, he put down his knife. “What’s wrong?”
“Something’s wrong with my son,” I said.
“Your what?” Charlie said behind me.
Oh, right. I’d sort of forgotten that everyone didn’t know about everything that had been going on with me. There was only Dylan, and he had apparently kept his trap shut, which was admirable of him.
I explained everything as quickly as I could. I gave them all the gist anyway. I wasn’t about to get into the complicated emotional drama of it all.
“He can’t shift back,” I said finally. “Daisy said this has never happened. He’s stuck in his lion form and now he’s catatonic or something and his eyes are a funny color, like silvery? Something is seriously wrong with him. We think it’s gotta be some kind of dark magic or something, right?”
“Shit,” Luca muttered. “I don’t know any good witches myself. Not anyone I’d trust with something like this anyway.”
“Luca,” I said, gritting my teeth. “If I don’t fix this…”
“I know,” he said softly.
“What about Jeri?” Dylan said. “She knows everyone. Might know a helpful witch.”
Jeri was the Team Manager’s secretary. She did all the admin stuff for the team and for the rink and she knew everyone in town and everyone in the world of Minnesota minor league hockey. She was a wolf shifter herself and she had a lot of good contacts in the magical world. She might know somebody.
“I’m calling her now,” Luca said, already digging his phone out of his pocket.
I listened with bated breath to Luca as he spoke on speaker to Jeri. I had to cover my mouth with my hand, I had such a strong urge to jump in. But Luca was doing fine and I would only hold things up. The sooner Jeri w
as on the case, the sooner I might find an answer.
I just kept seeing Andy’s empty eyes, I could still feel the phantom sensation of his tiny body limp in my arms. It made my stomach turn.
Jeri told Luca she knew a couple witches she would try to get a hold of. Somehow, I hadn’t expected that. I’d expected her to reach someone instantly and maybe have some equally instant solution like we’d cut a potato in half and put it under his pillow and bam, he would be better in ten minutes. I don’t know why I thought that.
I guess because the alternative was what I was doing now, which was nothing. All I could do was wait and that seemed interminable. I leaned on my hand and Luca made me some coffee that I sipped half-heartedly. I tapped my fingers and jogged my knee and texted Daisy an update. She texted back that it was possible that Andy had been given some kind of potion by a wizard, but she’d already talked to the daycare workers who would have been taking care of him at the time and nobody had seen anyone. She wasn’t sure if it was even true or not.
Oh, great. Now we had a potential answer but it might also be the kid’s crazy imagination. And we couldn’t ask him...because he was a lion…
I wondered how long this could last.
His eyes are glowing now, Daisy texted. I’m so scared.
I groaned and rubbed my eyes. All I could think to reply with were stupid platitudes. I felt useless. The guys were all doing the best they could, trying to give me some space but also asking questions they thought might be useful. I had no idea what to do next.
But I was going to lose my mind if I sat at the table for hours.
I got to my feet, heaving a breath. “I gotta get out of here,” I muttered. “Can’t just sit here. And I can’t go to practice like this. I...I don’t know.”
“It’s alright,” Luca said, nodding. “Where are you gonna go?”
“I don’t know.” I rubbed my eyes and sniffed. I couldn’t begin to imagine what Daisy was going through right now. I’d only known my son for two days and I was already losing it, knowing he was in some kind of danger. “I’m gonna just look for help somewhere. But let me know what’s happening with Jeri’s people?”
“Will do,” Luca said, nodding. “We’ll keep each other in the loop. Good luck.”
When I said I’d look for help somewhere, that was literally my only plan and I didn’t even know where to look. I guess I just really wanted to move.
I just started walking with no clue where to go. Eventually, I figured I might try our favorite dive that was open all day and where shifters tended to congregate. I figured somebody might know somebody who could help there. I changed directions, heading to the bar, and watched my breath steam in the cold, my hands shoved in my pockets. I was clutching my phone, willing it to vibrate, and give me some good news.
I’d had one perfect day when it seemed as if everything I wanted in life had just been handed to me and just like that it might all be taken away. I felt tears in my eyes and wiped them away.
Fuck this, I thought. Seriously.
Nobody at the bar was remotely helpful although they all felt sorry about it. I also got some congratulations since I apparently had a son now and some sad looks from a few women since I was also apparently off the market. Outside, I leaned against the stone wall of the bar and rubbed my eyes, trying to think of who to try next, and checking my phone for the thousandth time even though it hadn’t vibrated. No news from anyone.
I didn’t see the woman in red until she was almost on top of me.
She was young, no older than me. She was waify too; a little small and a little too thin. She almost looked like a kid. She was wearing a red cloak as if cosplaying Red Riding Hood. She stood on the icy sidewalk in front of the bar and just stared at me with a funny smile on her face.
She was weird, sure. But I had bigger things to think about.
She looked familiar to me, as if I’d met her in another life but I couldn’t place where. But she was so remarkably thin and petite. I could tell even with the red cloak. I thought I would remember meeting someone like her. There was something so creepy about her too. She was eerily pale and her big dark eyes seemed sunken into her face.
She was smiling at me, which only made her seem creepier. Her smile wasn’t natural and there was nothing good in it. It looked like the kind of smile somebody threw at you before they stuck the knife in.
I thought it was best to ignore her. I had enough problems.
Except she kept inching nearer and nearer to me as I checked my phone and mindlessly googled for some answer concerning Andy. Not that it was going anywhere.
“Do I know you?” I finally said. She was probably just a weird fan who wanted an autograph. Even small town minor league hockey attracted some weirdos. “Sorry, I’m kinda busy right now.”
It felt as if everyone should automatically know I had a crisis going on.
“You haven’t figured it out yet?” She grinned at me and her teeth looked straight but too brown, and a couple of them were blacked out. She seemed much too young to have such screwed up teeth. “Stupid boy.”
That rankled me. I was just in the wrong mood. I rubbed the back of my neck and considered just going back to Daisy’s place until we got a hold of Jeri’s people. At least I could be there for Daisy.
I started to say, “Listen, whatever little game you’re playing here-”
“Haldo.”
The name struck like a bolt of lightning. I just went still. I nearly dropped my phone in the snow.
It was Lara. I couldn’t tell if she was smaller somehow or if my perspective was skewed. The last time I’d seen her, I’d been a teenager. But I could swear she’d shrunk a little, as if something had sucked out a little life from her. She was gaunt too. She was leering at me now, that sickly smile still spread across her face.
Lara.
Lara had been the one I couldn’t save. That wasn’t to mention the ones I didn’t know about, the ones who had probably died. Although looking at Lara now as we stood there in the snow, it seemed as if she might have died in some way already. I wondered what had happened to her and what could possibly have brought here now...especially given what was going on with Andy. The abrupt suspicion that the two things couldn’t be a coincidence was giving me a bad feeling.
“Lara,” I said. “It’s you, isn’t it?”
“You look almost the same,” she said. She moved toward me. She almost seemed to be floating in her cloak. “Just a little more filled out, a little less feral. You play hockey now?”
“I never got...to say I was sorry,” I said, blundering through an apology I had always wanted to give. “I wanted to save you that night I got the other girls out. I honestly did. I couldn’t open your...your…”
“Cage,” she whispered. Her breath steamed in the air. “You couldn’t open the cage that you put me into?”
“I’m sorry,” I said again. I didn’t know what else to say.
“You don’t have to be sorry,” she said. She blinked up at me. “It’s too late anyhow. I never left, you see. He got control of my mind.” She tapped her head. “I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe unless he wanted me too. Then he put the magic in me. Got it so I could do the casting on his behalf. At his will. By the time he let me loose...I couldn’t remember how to be a person. So I never left. Now I just do what he tells me. Whatever he tells me.”
Her fate, the fate I had doomed her to sounded like something worse than death.
Suddenly, all that guilt that had been smoothed over just a little bit came roaring back.
“I’m…” There was nothing. There was no way to make up for this. She was right. It was too late. “So why are you here? Revenge?”
“Oh, I have that already,” Lara said, with a careless wave of her hand. “Well, me and Haldo. For once, we want the same thing. Only for entirely different reasons.”
She laughed at that and her laugh sounded too wild and hysterical. I wondered what had happened to her mind after all this time. She had
been warped by Haldo’s treatment of her. She was his puppet and yet she was aware of it at the same time. She didn’t know how to be free anymore. So she allowed herself to remain his slave.
Then it finally hit me what she was saying. It was so obvious, I felt like an idiot suddenly. Yet I had been so shocked to see her, I probably wasn’t thinking clearly.
She and Haldo had gotten their revenge.
Andy.
“What did you do to the boy?” I said tightly, clenching my fists. “He can’t shift. He’s sick. What have you done to him?”
“Ah!” Lara clapped her little hands and bounced on her toes, her cloak billowing around her. “You’ve finally figured it out! It certainly took you long enough.” She walked right up to me and when she looked right at me, I saw the silver swirling around in her eyes. “He’ll be like me. Isn’t that what you deserve?” She leered at me. “
“What I deserve…” I wanted to murder her. I wanted to shift and rip out her throat and then I wanted to rip out my own because I had done this to Andy as much as Lara and Haldo had. All this was because of the terrible thing I had done. “It’s what I deserve, yes. But it’s not what Andy deserves. Hurt me!” I pounded my chest. “Please! Lara, I don’t care what you do to me. You and Haldo, you can take me prisoner, torture me for a hundred years, make me your slave. But don’t hurt Andy or Daisy! Please!”
“This hurts you more,” she whispered, staring up at me. “Making your son a robotic little cub? I can’t imagine what would hurt more. He’ll have no soul, you know? He’ll just be a husk…”
“You bitch,” I hissed, and grabbed her by the front of her cloak, backing her up against the stone wall of the bar. I’d lifted her right up off the ground, her little feet dangling over the snow. “I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you…”
“Oh…” She batted her eyes as if trying to seduce me. “I was so hoping you would…”
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