The Mercenary Read online

  “I think we should take turns standing guard. Just in case he comes back before he’s human again.” “Ok,” Zach said.

  “You want to go first or second?”

  “Oh Jodie I don’t care.”

  Somehow, she knew they were not talking about the same thing. He might as well have been on another planet. Sighing, she realized that he wasn’t going to volunteer the information he needed to rid himself of. Of course not, he’s a guy. “Do you want to talk?”

  For a moment, it seemed he might consider saying no. Then he sighed, “I’m going to have to retire from sport.”

  “Are you sure?” Jodie’s voice softened, laden with sympathy. She could see his point, but felt the need to debate the matter regardless. “They might not find out.”

  “That’s not what I meant,” he continued. “I’m as competitive as they come, you know that. I always strive to be the best. Now I’ll have an edge. I’ll be stronger and faster. It will be an unnatural advantage. Even if I win, I won’t be winning.”

  “I’m sorry,” Jodie said though it seemed inadequate.

  “Sport is my life,” he laughed bitterly. “I’m sorry, was my life.” “You might not get it.”

  “Don’t be naïve Jodie,” Zach sat down on the couch, maneuvering himself to avoid the pressure of the jeans on his wound. “You go to bed, I’ll take first watch.”

  “Alright,” she agreed. “But you come and get me if he comes home, promise me you will?”

  “Sure, whatever.”

  Jodie left Zach sitting on the couch and crawled into bed beside Grace and Rose. She could have gone to Luke’s room, but a tiny part of her felt better being near the girls. She might not offer much in the way of protection, but she’d be better than nothing. At least if she slept in there with them, Jodie would know where they were. She couldn’t afford to risk one of them wandering off too.

  Burrowing down under the covers, she tried willing herself to sleep. It seemed like it was never going to happen but the next thing she knew, morning sunlight filtered through the crack in the curtains. Zach had let her sleep the whole night.

  Jodie leapt out of bed and hurried out into the living area, slipping on her robe as she went. Zach shuffled about the kitchen making breakfast. Ravenous at once, Jodie’s mouth began to water and she remembered she hadn’t had dinner the night before. She searched Zach’s expression hoping for good news, but his brunette curls bobbed as he shook his head. Luke hadn’t come home. Before either of them could think of anything intelligent to say, the two girls came bouncing out.

  “Hi Aunty Jodie!” Grace exclaimed with exuberance, “where’s Daddy?”

  “He had to go to work early,” Jodie said. “He’s very sorry he missed you and he’ll be back later.”

  “I wanna see Daddy. Now!” Rose pouted.

  “Mummy says Daddy doesn’t have a job,” Grace babbled.

  “It’s not a real job,” Zach put in as he squatted down to their eye level. “He just promised to help someone today. He arranged it before he knew you were coming. You wouldn’t want him to break a promise, now would you?”

  “No,” Rose said, her green eyes serious as she contemplated this.

  “You broke a promise,” Grace threw at Jodie. She had one hip thrust out and her thin arms folded across her chest. Her expression seemed far too comprehensive for her age and her eyes more calculating than they should have been, “you promised Daddy would be here when we woke up.”

  “I know, and I’m really sorry about that, I didn’t expect us to sleep so late.” Jodie’s guilt weighed upon her, she just couldn’t seem to catch a break.

  “What are you cooking?” Grace asked with suspicion as she eyed Zach and the goings on in the kitchen.

  “Pancakes,” Zach wiped his floury hands on the back of his pants and leaned over to examine the recipe book on the counter.

  “Yummy!” Grinned Rose as she brushed her long blonde hair out of her eyes and climbed onto a kitchen chair to wait.

  “Mummy never makes pancakes,” Grace held her prima-donna pose, but her face stayed turned in Zach’s direction.

  Jodie breathed a sigh of relief and sat down at the table.

  After breakfast, Jodie went outside to remove all the ruined clothes from the line. As she put the clothes pegs back in their basket, a low moan came from the direction of the woods. Quite different from the growls and grunts she’d heard the night before, the noise sounded human. Without bothering to put on any footwear, Jodie ran to the boundary fence.

  The twisted form that lay in the long grass rolled over and Jodie’s heart skipped a beat as Luke looked up at her. Bruises and lacerations covered his naked body, his bloodshot eyes from the drinking the night before giving him a demonic like quality. Though Luke’s eyes were open, he seemed to lack the strength to get up or crawl to cover the final distance to the house. A drinking binge and then shape shifting in the same night did not appear to be a wise combination.

  Over the fence in seconds, Jodie knelt down and whispered to him, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. “Luke, it’s Jodie. What can I do to help?” She wiped a mud smear from his cheek and pushed the hair out of his eyes. Jodie’s heart ached. Even though she knew she’d later be furious with him, right now he was just her brother, her very hurt brother.

  Filled with shame, Luke struggled to meet her gaze. “I’m sorry,” he managed.

  “We’ll talk about all the secrets later. For now I just want to get you back to the house so you can start to heal.”

  “I’ve already started,” he said, his voice hoarse. “It’s one of the few benefits to my new lifestyle. I heal incredibly fast,” he coughed and spat blood onto the grass.

  Jodie tried to erase that image from her mind and looked away, “how bad are you hurt?”

  “I’ll live. I think my legs are healed enough to walk, will you help me up?”

  Jodie did as he asked. It wasn’t easy to support his weight with him being an entire foot taller, but somehow they managed. He clung to her as they stumbled along, the realization her brother wasn’t infallible, hitting hard.

  “The girls are at the house.”

  “Laura and Ainsley? I saw them arriving last night. I hid in the woods for a while before I allowed myself to hunt, I wanted to make sure that you were all safe and my enemy had gone.”

  Jodie wanted to pursue that subject but there were other matters to attend to first, “no not Laura and Ainsley, Grace and Rose.”

  “What?” Luke tripped, using the fence to catch himself.

  “Mara turned up after you disappeared; she dumped the girls and drove off without looking back. She didn’t even say goodbye to them.”

  “That makes no sense,” Luke frowned. “Are they okay?”

  “They’re fine,” Jodie assured him. “I can’t let them see me like this.”

  She nodded, “I agree but you can’t stay here. Let me help you to the garage, you can lie down on the back seat of your car or something. How long do you think it will be before you heal completely?”

  “Maybe a few days? Hopefully I’ll be able to pretend otherwise in a few hours.”

  Between the two, they managed to get Luke over the fence and into the garage. Jodie found a sleeping bag on the shelf and unzipped it. After draping it over his unclothed body, she closed the car door, careful to avoid his feet. Then she made her way back to the house.

  Expression full of concern, Zach waited for her at the back door, a dishcloth in one hand and a scrubbing brush in the other. The pancake batter on his left temple seemed comical, but his tone rectified it in an instant.

  “Sheesh, don’t do that,” he moaned.

  “Do what?” Jodie frowned.

  “Disappear on me! One second you were in the yard cleaning up, the next you were just ... gone. I wanted to go out there and see if something had happened to you, but I couldn’t leave the girls.”

  “You did the right thing, I’m sorry I worried you,” she threw back at once.
Jodie began to feel more and more like a parent despite the obvious lack of biological children. “I found our lost piggy over the back fence. He’s sleeping in the garage. “Shit, is it bad?”

  Dragging her ponytail over a shoulder, she thought about it, “I’m not sure. I thought it was, but he convinced me otherwise, he said he has healing abilities.”

  “He does, but he’s also a fantastic liar, I’d better go and see. He’s more likely to be honest with me,” Zach decided. He handed Jodie the dishcloth and brush.

  “Gee thanks,” she muttered.

  “Can I see the piggy?” Grace asked, appearing out of nowhere.

  “Uh, no.” Jodie blurted, scrambling to come up with a valid excuse.

  “The piggy is hurt,” Zach said.

  Oh, what Jodie would have given for his charisma. In that moment he could have said anything and Grace would have believed it.

  “We have to take it to the vet,” he added.

  “What happened to it?”

  “It looks like a dog might have attacked it.” Zach said. “I’m going to take care of it now. You girls should help Aunty Jodie clean up the kitchen. She hates doing the dishes. It makes her very grumpy.”

  “I know.” Grace giggled.

  Jodie shot Zach a look of gratitude. Dirty dishes would always be preferable over having to explain to Grace why her Daddy looked like he’d been hit by a bus.

  Zach returned half an hour later, looking relaxed and almost happy. After promising the girls that the piggy would be just fine, he gave Jodie a discrete signal. With a glance at the girls playing with their dolls in the living room, she approached Zach in the kitchen.

  Jodie had to lean in close to hear what he said. Zach explained that Luke had come as close to dying as was possible and still be around to tell the tale. Her brother been lying by the fence for hours before she’d found him, hours healing at several times the normal rate. As bad as it appeared, Jodie had not seen the worst.

  Waves of discontent crashed over her. How could she protect her brother? He was a shifter with inhuman strength and amazing healing abilities and yet he had almost gotten himself killed. Jodie had become the primary caregiver for his two daughters despite having a full time job, and Zach could turn porcine at any moment.

  Jodie had no idea what to do about that and didn’t have a clue what it would be like to change. It has to be painful, surely, and what about the first time? Jodie had read a lot of science fiction and had plenty of theories.

  Abandoning Zach was not an option, Jodie wouldn’t dream of it. Nevertheless, how could she risk letting that happen around the girls? Due to her slim knowledge, Jodie figured Zach had until the next full moon in two weeks. Anything could happen in that length of time. Desperation took hold as she hoped she’d be able to protect the girls. Jodie knew she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if anything happened to them when they were in her care.

  With these thoughts circulating, Jodie still hadn’t achieved anything by the time Laura called. The strong tone and dry wit she usually sported absent; she asked if Jodie might be able to talk. Whatever impression Jodie and Zach had left, hadn’t satisfied them.

  As soon as Jodie told her that the girls were there,

  Laura and Ainsley were on the doorstep twenty minutes later with a tray of steaming espressos and a basket of muns. A smile spread across her face at how well they knew her.

  Stepping aside, she let them in.

  Zach sat at the dining table with Grace and Rose, drawing pictures of families and cute little cottages with chimneys and puffs of smoke. It turned into a hive of activity as Zach offered encouragement, helping them choose the colors. Jodie ushered her two oldest friends into the living room. They sat down on the couches, still in view, but far enough away that they could talk privately.

  Both women stared at her with expectant faces, waiting to be enlightened. She opened and closed her mouth several times, but no words came out. Jodie frowned and sighed in frustration. How could she begin to describe the events that had so recently unfolded?

  “Where’s Luke?” Ainsley asked, mahogany ringlets bouncing as she looked around.

  Jodie’s gaped at her. Opening and closing her mouth a few times, speech continued to elude her. She really needed to get a hold of herself.

  “Well the place is looking better than last night but it could still do with a bit of work.” Laura announced one hand resting on the thigh of her stretch denim flares. “Have you phoned the glass company?”

  Good old Laura, ever practical. Jodie managed to shake her head. Taking a deep breath, she dry washed her face and looked up again. Ains had the cordless phone in one hand, thumbing through the yellow pages with the other. Now sitting at the table, Ainsley’s bouffant skirt wrapped about the chair leg as though trying to escape the confines of her lap. Jodie’s gaze became fixated on the repeated prints of Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe pictures, knowing she must have had it made. It seemed a bizarre thing to notice amidst a crisis, further proving Jodie’s state of mind.

  Glancing to the side Jodie found Laura sitting in the same place on the other couch, waiting patiently for her to get it together. She forced her thoughts away from the fashion analyzing to give Laura her full attention.

  “This couch is torn and I need to sew it back together. Then I need to move it. I don’t like moving it but I have no choice because it’s a really big rip and everyone will see the rip. I don’t want to have to dream up a fake story, I’m not good at those. I am so not ready for fake stories.” Jodie blurted in a tumbled rush.

  Hysteria lurked beneath the surface and Jodie was so busy fighting it, she didn’t see Laura approach. The sensation of her friend’s arms closing around her in a hug brought forth a flurry of tears. Oh God Laura is hugging me, Jodie realized in dismay. It spoke volumes at how much of a mess she must look right now.

  Laura indulged Jodie’s trembling sobs, while Grace and Rose stared on with wide eyes. Jodie couldn’t let the girls see her fall apart, they needed stability. She forced herself to withdraw and choked back the tears.

  “You alright?” Laura asked, giving Jodie’s shoulder a gentle squeeze.

  “Yes,” she whispered. “Sorry.”

  Jodie managed a weak smile as Laura sat back down. From the kitchen, Ains called out that someone would come to fix the window in an hour. Numb to the core, Jodie couldn’t seem to process the information.

  “Shape shifting is real.” Jodie clapped a hand over her mouth after the declaration.

  “Excuse me?” Laura raised an eyebrow,

  Zach stopped in mid-sentence and Ainsley choked on her mun. It seemed neither person could believe the words coming out of her mouth.

  “Sorry Zach, I had to tell them. I could never keep something like this from them. Plus I need someone else on my side, someone human.”

  “Thanks a lot Jodie.”

  The bitterness in his tone cut into Jodie’s conscience and she looked away.

  “You’re a – you’re a – you’re a – “Ains spluttered, staring at Zach like a frightened rabbit.

  “You’re serious.” Laura said, as her eyes searched Jodie’s face. She appeared to be waiting for Jodie to declare it all a joke.

  “I would never have believed it if I hadn’t seen it.” Jodie’s voice sounded almost apologetic which annoyed her. None of it had been her fault. It wasn’t as though she’d tried to sell them something she couldn’t prove, but nor did she want to prove it.

  “What exactly did you see? Is this why he was naked on the dining table?” Laura didn’t bother to hide her skepticism. “How much did you drink last night?”

  “Nothing! And he wasn’t naked!” She doesn’t believe me either. Jodie groaned inwardly and began making wild hand gestures as she always did when flustered. “Luke got drunk. Then he – “

  She stopped, unsure how to describe it in front of Grace and Rose. It felt difficult enough trying to explain it to two grown women. Explaining it to two small children woul
d have been insane.

  “Luke is a shifter.” Zach said in a hushed tone, finding the ambiguous words that had failed Jodie. “He got out of control last night, hence the damage. Since Luke injured me, I think I’m one too now.”

  Ainsley looked like she might throw up at any moment; Jodie wanted to take it all back. She hadn’t accepted the situation herself yet and here she was, trying to placate someone else over it.

  “Are you seriously trying to tell me that there are people out there that turn into...?” Laura broke off and thrust her gaze at the girls before finishing her sentence. “Nonhumans?”

  “We’ve both seen it.” Zach put in, though in truth Jodie hadn’t seen him change.

  “Laur, I wouldn’t lie about something like this.” Somehow, Jodie’s soft response validated the claims.

  “Shit,” Laura muttered.

  “Shit is a naughty word,” chirped Grace from the table as she filled her page with glorious swirls of color.

  “What kind of animal is he? Please tell me it’s a bunny or something?” Gathering her skirts about herself, as if it would make a difference to the answer, Ainsley looked from Zach to Jodie with large doe-eyes.

  “Boar,” sighed Zach. “Does it matter?”

  “Yes, it does.” Laura answered with an edge to her voice. “It matters a lot when you have children here.”

  “That would never happen to them. Luke only attacked because he got frightened and Zach tried to keep him from leaving the house.” Jodie cut in.

  “And how long has Luke been a boar?” Laura demanded.

  “That’s irrelevant. He’s usually under control,” Zach rubbed his temple.

  “Yes, but will you be?” Laura’s cold grey-blue eyes sent a chill down Jodie’s spine. Zach recoiled and walked out of the room.

  “Damn it,” Jodie moaned.

  “Well this is a fine mess,” Laura shook her head.

  “I need a needle and thread.” Ainsley declared with a bright smile.

  Jodie gaped at her. “What?” Ains made denial into an art form.