Page 91 of A Light in the Dark
“Much like what happened to you but harder. You took a flashlight to the head. He took a bat.”
I gasped. “Someone hit him with a bat?”
“He’ll be fine. The idiots did it right in front of first responders. Joel went to you when you got smacked, and he picked a fight he lost. But the entire incident was recorded, the cops know who did it, they’ve already been arrested, and Joel’s pressing every single charge he can. Even the people who’d taken you have already been apprehended, as they were recognized by multiple people on the street. Apparently, they believed targeting migrants into Stonecreek would earn them sufficient good will to dodge arrest, so they came right back to town after they dumped you. You and Joel are both well liked, and they had no idea who Joel is. Anyway, pressing charges will keep him amused until we can get you safely home. But first, you will be coming to Moonriver to make sure your concussion and other injuries are healing well. We have no doubt you’re probably a walking disaster.”
As I had no doubt I had a concussion, I gestured to where I’d been hit. “It hurt horribly at first, but it’s not bad now.”
“You have active shifter genes if you’re already improving at that rate. And if you do, such injuries can trigger a first shift. Stress and anxiety can as well.” Roger pointed at Coraline. “She shifted for the first time because she was anxious about her mate. His mother died from faulty shifter genes, and she worried herself right into her first shift over it.”
Coraline sighed. Before she could do any more than that, an entire pack of wolves came barreling through the underbrush. A silvery gray one went for Coraline, nuzzled herthroat, and otherwise did an excellent job of usurping her attention.
“And that would be Calden, her partner.”
A wolf similar to Calden but bigger came over, flopped across my lap, and stared at me with sad wolf eyes. As I was not saying no to petting a wolf, I went to work scratching behind his ears.
“And that would be Allasandro, Calden’s father. Yes, the leader of Moonriver. Just keep petting him, and he’ll be happy.”
It seemed Moonriver was a strange but interesting place. “Mr. Stephans came here forme?”
“He’s wanted to try his paws at search and rescue for a while, and we involved every single shifting wolf we could to scour Moonriver for you. The stealthier hunters are in Stonecreek. The more distant wolves will howl and eventually everyone will be called back. Also, thank you for the tip off about the toxicity reports. All victims we could pull tissue samples from tested positive for a variety of natural toxins, heavily skewed towards strangleberry.”
Only horrible people would kill refugees from a destroyed world, and I would do my best to see them all pay for it. “One of my neighbors took to feeding everyone new to the city death cobbler to prevent this from happening to us.”
“And when you have a helpful neighbor poisoning people to increase their survivability, there is likely a major problem. Mr. Stephans wanted me to warn you that there was going to be an unfortunate amount of publicity regarding your kidnapping. And now that we know it was also a poisoning and attempted murder, the publicity is going to get out of control.”
“But why?” I blurted. I kept scratching the wolf in question, as I didn’t want to find out if wolf teeth were as sharp as they looked.
“The men who kidnapped you are the aides of Stonecreek’s mayor, and there’s no way in hell he wasn’t aware of the situation. They were driving one of his SUVs.”
My mouth dropped open. “What the hell is going on in Stonecreek?”
“Are you sure you want to know the answer to that?”
I considered his question, and after a few moments, in which I acknowledged I already knew the answer, I nodded. “I do.”
“Genocide.”
TWENTY-EIGHT
In heels. It was horrific and impressive.
While I’d becomeangry over having been kidnapped, poisoned, dumped in a river, and left to die, the thought that my home city-state would go so far as to actively participate in a genocide enraged me. While Coraline had shifted due to anxiety, fury took the blame for having decided to shed my frail human form. An explosion of white did an excellent job of making a mess of any plans to act. The substance, thin, stringy, and unexpectedly heavy, grounded me when all I wanted to do was fly, find the assholes behind the probable genocide, and beat them until they never bothered anyone else ever again.
Rather than fly, I waited while a sighing Roger peeled away the gossamer strands doing a good job of pinning me to Moonriver’s leader. “Oh, look. Another case of a shapeshifter pining over a pretty woman and causing trouble for everyone else.”
I opened my mouth to scold him, and rather than words, I made a squeaking noise.
“Huh. She’s vocal. That’s unusual. Sit tight, Valerie. It seems we won’t be doing another shifter gene test after all. While you didn’t have silvery hair, you did show as having shifter genes in your first test. It seems your love of silk must have been significant enough you went and stole Joel’s genetics. I’m sure you’re heartbroken, learning you can supply yourself with silk. You’re true to form for a luna moth, albeit larger than normal. Your wings are currently non-functional, so try not to panic. You’ll be flying soon enough.”
It took me a shamefully long time to realize the white, gossamer threads were silk ripe for the spinning, in long strands I’d love playing with. Once Roger freed himself, he started picking the silk off me. He worked a hand under me and lifted me off Mr. Stephans, who lolled his tongue in a canine laugh. As I could no longer communicate using words, I settled with more squeaking.
“Coraline, would you mind shifting? I’m going to need help gathering the silk. The first shift silk is pretty precious to flutters, and Joel will have our heads if we don’t at least try to collect the stuff and bring it back. He’s already going to have our heads for irritating her straight into shifting. I’m betting he wanted to do as flutters do and coax her through some long and elaborate plan he hasn’t even had a chance to start planning yet.” The wolf bobbed her head, and without bothering to move, went about transforming. Unlike other shifters I’d seen, her clothes transformed with her. “Why don’t you hand her to me while you dig us out? Ask someone to get a helicopter over us and dump some sacks down so wecan gather it up. We can make the pack run the sacks to the cars.”
Roger did as told, and after some conferring on how to prevent damage to my new wings, which wouldn’t be usable for flight for at least twelve hours due to their wrinkled and semi-folded state, Coraline held me in the palms of her hand. The man went to work gathering handfuls of the silk, draping it over his arm and doing his best to keep from breaking any of it.
Even if he did, I’d have no trouble spinning the silk into useful threads and yarns. I observed, squeaking away as the collection of fine strands grew.
“I wish I could just spit out the stuff for my hobbies when shifting,” Coraline said, and she shook her head while laughing. “Wolf fur is not great for turning into yarn, by the way. We’re too bristly. I tried. It was scratchy yarn. I figured I should have Calden brush me and make use of the fur, but no. We’re bristly. And if we do manage to get that crap fur out of our undercoats, we just don’t shed enough to do more than make a mess. As such, I gave up that hobby after a week and returned to reading books, skinning rabbits, and going camping.”
