Authors: Jenna Payne
“Now me and you are going to have a little talk and when we’re through we are both going to leave in your car.”
“I don’t have a car here. I ride the bus to work to save money. My car is at my house.”
The man rubbed his temples with his thumb and middle finger like he had a headache and sighed. “That’s fine. We’ll walk to your car and then we’ll take a little trip. How does that sound?”
“Truthfully?” She shrugged her shoulders. “It sucks and I wish you would just leave me alone. I’ll give you the keys to my house and my car. You can have my money too. I’ll even tell you where I keep my few pieces of jewelry if you’ll just leave me alone.”
“I need you so that’s not happening. Now shut up and let me think for a minute.”
Cynthia shut her mouth and bided her time. When the man turned around to study the library, she knew that she had to act or risk being killed. She pulled the letter opener from her sleeve, took a good grip on the handle, and stabbed at the back of the man’s neck with all her might. Just as she swung, the man began to turn around. He saw the letter opener coming and ducked to the side incredibly fast. Faster than she would have believed a human could move. It wasn’t fast enough to avoid the stab altogether, though. The letter opener sunk deep into the flesh of his shoulder.
He let out a yowl that didn’t sound like a human noise at all and stumbled back away from the desk. Cynthia took the opportunity and ran for the door. She undid the bolts as quickly as she could. As she reached for the last one, she heard him scream ‘bitch’ and then the sound of boots on the floorboards as he ran toward her. She slammed the bolt back and tore open the door. A pair of men stood on the top steps. The sight of them surprised her enough to stop her in her tracks. A hand grabbed her on the shoulder and spun her around so hard that she fell to the floor. Her back hit the floor hard and she looked up, half expecting the man to fall upon her and attack, but he merely stood and looked out the door with a wild look on his face and his mouth open. His lips quivered for a moment.
*****
“How . . . how did you . . . find me?” He asked the men on the steps.
“You’re too loud Jimmy. Much too loud.” The voice that answered was gruff and deep, but somehow soothing at the same time.
“Come on guy . . . ”
A hand shot forward and grabbed the man by the neck. Cynthia gasped as the man whom the hand belonged to stepped through the door. He was huge. The sleeves of his shirt were stretched tight over the bulge of his biceps. Another man stepped through behind the first. He wasn’t quite as big, but he was close. The first man backed her attacker into the room while his companion shut the door and locked it. She watched the men closely, afraid that she was in even bigger trouble now.
“You put up a good chase Jimmy, but you’ve come to the end of the road. I’ll give you the same ultimatum we give everyone else. Fight one of us or be executed like the animal you are.”
“I...don’t want any trouble.”
“You should have thought of that before you killed that old woman for her money Jimmy. Now, which will it be?”
“I don’t want to die.”
“So be it.” The muscled up man let go of Jimmy’s throat and gestured to his partner. “This one is your prey Gerald.”
“Good. I hate it when they prey on the old helpless ones.”
Gerald, the man who had been guarding the door, stalked forward with a grin on his face. The man who had attacked Cynthia tried to back away. He held up his hands.
“I didn’t mean nothing by it. She just happened to get in the way of a robbery that’s all.”
“You raped her you bastard. Now I’m going to tear you apart.”
Gerald’s body shuddered once and then something seemed to happen. His skin changed before Cynthia’s eyes. He grew fur and claws. His muscles bulged and his teeth elongated. In seconds, he looked like a grizzly bear, but she knew that was impossible. The man that had attacked her backed away and shuddered as well. He grew fur and claws like Gerald, but he looked different. He looked more like a weasel or a ferret once he had changed. Cynthia wanted to scream, but one look from the huge man who had grabbed her attacker by the throat stopped the scream in the back of her throat.
Gerald approached Jimmy with a confidence that showed he wasn’t afraid of anything. Jimmy tried to back away, but there was little to nowhere to run in the library. The only exit he knew of was the front and to get through there he would have to go through both men. Desperate, Jimmy lunged forward with unnatural speed. He bit Gerald on the arm, but Gerald didn’t seem to mind. With his off hand, he batted Jimmy across the room. As he lay on the floor in a heap Gerald rushed forward on all fours.
Cynthia watched in horror as Gerald finished off Jimmy with one massive swipe of his paw to the man-weasel’s head. She didn’t have to try to scream this time. It came out of its own violation, but the other man laid his hand across her mouth.
“Shhh. There is no need for that. We aren’t here to hurt you. We were after that man.”
He waved a hand at the man laying on the floor with half his head crushed from the massive blow dealt by his partner. The dead man had already taken the form of a human again as had the guy who had killed him. All of it had happened so fast. She could not believe what she had just seen. It was like something straight out of one of the books that she loved so much. The man with his hand over her mouth looked her in the eyes.
“I’m going to remove my hand. When I do, I want you to keep calm. Don’t start screaming. Alright?”
Cynthia nodded her head. She was scared to death and intrigued at the same time. The man pulled his hand from her mouth and she sucked in a lungful of fresh air. It took a real effort not to look at the crushed and broken man on the floor.
“My name’s Shaun and this is my partner Gerald.”
“What the hell are you?” She looked at Gerald wide-eyed. He simply smiled at her and went to watch out the window that overlooked the street.
“You know it’s considered impolite to not tell someone your name once they have given you their own.” Shaun squatted on his haunches and let his hands dangle between his thighs.
“Sorry.” Now that she was a little more calm Cynthia noticed how handsome the man who called himself Shaun was. “My name is Cynthia. Now, what the hell is he?”
“She is persistent, isn’t she?” Shaun barked a laugh.
“A good trait to have.” Gerald’s voice was weirdly high-pitched for a big man.
“I suppose you’re right about that Gerald.” He agreed with his partner and turned back to Cynthia. She noticed that his eyes were the same intense light blue as the ice in the glaciers that she had seen on TV. “We are shapeshifters. Specifically werebears.”
“Wait.” She held up a hand and waved it toward Gerald. “So you’re saying that both of you can do what he just did?”
“Yep.”
“How?”
“That is something that I couldn’t tell you. The best explanation I can give you is that our parents were werebears. We inherited it from them. Other than that your guess is as good as any.”
“There must be literature on it. What was he?” Cynthia pointed at the dead man without looking at him. She didn’t want to look at his dead body again.
“He was a wereweasal.”
“Why did you kill him? Was it because he was a wereweasal and you are werebears?”
“What he was had nothing to do with it. His actions condemned him.”
“Did you know her?”
“No, but she was a shapeshifter like us. We heard from her family that what had happened so we tracked down Jimmy over there and did our best to make things right. It’s what we do.”
“So you’re shapeshifter bounty hunters?” Cynthia smiled and shook her head. “This would make a great book.”
“She’s not like the others.” Gerald spoke from the window.
“I noticed.” Shaun turned back. “Aren’t you scared of us?”
“No. Why would I be? If you were going to kill me, I doubt that you would have taken the time to explain to me who and what you are.”
“Smart too.” Gerald grunted.
Cynthia tried to stand to her feet, but a wave of dizziness overtook her and she fell forward. Strong arms caught her and held her like she weighed nothing and she knew better than that. The last time she had checked she weighed a little more than two hundred pounds. The dizzy spell subsided and she pulled away from Shaun. He grinned at her and she felt her heart flutter.
“Looks like you fell for me, Cynthia.”
She blushed red and let out a small laugh.
What the hell are you doing?
She asked herself.
This man and his friend hunt and kill people for a living and you're flirting with him? Are you crazy?
She knew that she might be, but there was something about this man and his partner that made her feel safe. Something about them that made her feel other things too. Things that she hadn’t felt since she was a teenager and still interested in boys more than making a living for herself.
“I think I need to go home.” She hoped that the two men would let her go home. Now that she thought about it, she was afraid that she was about to find out how the characters felt in countless novels that she had read when someone told them that they couldn’t go home. Her heart leapt into her throat when Shaun turned to Gerald.
“I think we better go with her don’t you Gerald? Just in case Jimmy here had a friend.”
“Just in case.” Grunted Gerald in agreement.
“I’ll be fine. Really.” She tried to sound confident, but suddenly she didn’t feel that way at all.
“I’m sure you will, but we’ll tag along just in case.” Shaun winked at her. She knew that it was supposed to feel better, but it didn’t.
Cynthia grabbed her purse and things off the desk and headed for the back door of the library. They all three went out and she locked it behind them. She started for the bus stop, but Shaun laid a hand on her shoulder and stopped her.
“We have a truck. There is no need for you to ride the bus. Besides. It could be dangerous.”
The closer she got the two men’s truck the more uncomfortable she became.
You don’t know who these men are. What if they’re killers just like the other man? What if he was part of their group and they killed him because he double-crossed them or something like that?
She shook her head to clear it of such thoughts and climbed into the backseat of the truck while Gerald held the door open for her.
She gave them directions to her house, sat back in her seat with a deep sigh, and closed her eyes. Not until now had she realized how tired she was. She remembered reading somewhere that a person might go into shock after what she had just been through. Shock wasn’t what she felt. She was sure of that. What she felt was something that she couldn’t quite describe. It felt like every nerve in her body was on edge.
Shaun pulled the truck to a halt in front of her house and turned around in his seat. “Is this it?”
“Yeah. This is my house.”
“Check the back, Gerald. I’ll go through the front and let you in if the door is still locked.” Shaun looked at her and nodded. “You come with me, but stay behind me.”
Cynthia seemed to float through the checking of her house and afterwards she sat down hard on the couch. Her eyes drifted closed and she seemed to fall asleep.
You’re going into a fugue state dear,
she told herself. With a vicious shake of her head, she snapped out of it. The two men who had saved her from she knew not what stood by a window at the back of her small house deep in conversation. The one called Shaun was a huge man with shaggy, brown hair so light that it was almost blonde. His partner, Gerald, on the other hand, had brown hair so dark that it was nearly black. Both men stood with an air of confidence, but Shaun was clearly the leader of the group.
Quietly, so as not to disturb their conversation, Cynthia sat forward on the couch and started to get up. The two men instantly turned and looked at her. A smile formed on Shaun’s face and Gerald’s as well.
“You’re back.” Shaun walked over in front of the couch and squatted on his haunches with his hands dangling between his thighs.
That must be a favorite position of his,
Cynthia thought.
I’ve seen him like that more than once now.
“Are you feeling okay?” He asked.
“I think so.” She rubbed her temples. “I feel a bit of a headache and I’m thirsty but other than that I think I am fine.”
“Good. You went into shock there for a moment. Most people do after witnessing the change of a shapeshifter for the first time. Although, you came out of it quicker than I have ever seen. Didn’t she Gerald?”
“Yep.” Gerald grunted the response and went back to looking out the window.
For the rest of the night, the two men kept watch while Cynthia went about her normal routine as best she could. She went about going to bed and tried not to think about the two strange, yet fascinating men in her living room. The thought of sleep seemed to evade her as she brushed her teeth, but seconds after her head hit the pillow she was asleep.
The next morning she awoke and went about her normal routine of taking a shower before she did anything else. Dressed in her robe and slippers she made her way into the living room and nearly screamed when she saw Shaun asleep on her couch. She clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle the yelp she let out just as Gerald stepped out from the kitchen with a cup of coffee in his hand.