Shifters

Chapter 3

Jared chuckled as he sipped his water.  He wasn’t a werewolf, or at least not in the typical sense.  He didn’t remember how he came to be or how he had gotten his gift, or curse as it happened to be sometimes. He knew he wasn’t born with it, or at least he doesn‘t remember being born with it. He can still remember some of his childhood. Not a lot, but some. It had somehow been given or transferred or whatever the hell it had been, to him.  Or so he thought. He could not remember how he came to be what he was.

Silver seems to affect Shifters like, well like an allergy.  Unlike the werewolf legends it did not kill him if shot with a silver bullet. It irritated him, making him lose control of his shifting.  But only if around large quantities or in the rare cases of ingestion. He grimaced at the thought.

It was so long ago he forgot some of the details but he remembered some waitress that was serving him some food had taken a liking to him.   She kept trying to get his attention, leaning over him, throwing her chest in his face, but at the time all he could think about was eating.

For a long time he didn’t realize the amount of energy it took for his body to shift. Not actually being human or canine. It was the shifting that took the most energy. By the time he had eaten all his food the waitress was screaming at him.

He hadn’t paid attention really.  He was used to woman throwing themselves at him and then using whatever means they could to get his attention. Anger, screaming, crying, they were all ploys. 

Not until he left did he start to feel the uncomfortable cramping in his stomach area.  At first he thought he had eaten bad food or had been poisoned.  He walked down the dirty streets. Barely noticing anything but the cramping and pain growing in his gut.  He had just made it around back of some store when he doubled over.  He had wandered for about twenty minutes before he realized what was happening. His body was trying to shift.  Thankfully it was dark by then and he had stayed in his shifted form for two days before the damn silver had finally passed. It was a few more hours until he actually felt like himself again.

Thinking back he laughed as he remembered that waitress screaming at him. She was mad yes, mad that he didn’t take any of her advances. But she was even more pissed that he had eaten her silver trinket.

But that was in the past. He hoped.  He had told General Hammondine that he thought it was the liquid that made it so he couldn’t function properly.  It had started making him lose control and it impaired his sense. He was a liability now.  If they had that stuff and he was around it long enough, he might lose control and just kill anything and everything in sight. Including his team. 

He had put in his leave of absence. He wasn’t part of the military really. They had found out about his, unique gifts, and had given him a proposition to consider.  He was bored so he accepted but had made them put in a few rules of his own. He knew there were others of his kind.  There were a few at the special training base that was made especially for the training of Shifters.

But he was so bored.  He wanted something to do, something worthwhile maybe. Saving people, working with the military’s most elite groups, like in the last mission.  He had to admire those humans.  Tough right down to their souls. Like Alex.

Jared smiled, Alex was probably the only person he considered a friend. There were very few in the military that knew exactly what he was.  Alex was one and he could trust him with his life.

Jared had always been a lone person. A lone wolf, he chuckled a bit.  It didn’t bother him so much, being alone was good. A man could think, have a clear head, could pull up and move without a words notice.  But sometime over the last thirty or forty years he was having a feeling of wanting to stick it out somewhere. Pretend to have a normal life, a normal job. Or as close as he could get.  He thought he was bored, but lately, it just felt like more of weariness. 

He glanced around at the little neighborhood he had moved to last year.  Quiet, peaceful.  Well except when school had started. Damn kids had no respect, no sense of manners or brains.  Oh they taught them their ABC’s and all sorts of other advanced things. But nothing about life, love and manners. By god eighty years ago kids would have never done what they did today.  They respected their elders, thought about what was right and wrong. Thought about others.  But then again people were more open minded, more accepting now.

Well in most places.   People can be so cruel and so odd. So many different kinds, so many different religions and cultures. So many differences he thought it was all interesting. 

It was then he noticed the girl across the street. Talking to her rose bushes.  Her face was drawn into a frown. Like she was thinking deeply or was very pissed.  She knelt by a big rose bush and started inspecting it.  Looking it over for something. Sitting back on her heels her frown deepened.  She sat like that for a minute, then sighed and stood up.  Walking back to the front of her little house she went into the front door.

He sighed and leaned back in his chair. It was quiet this weekend.  Not a lot of people were out. Some wandered by walking their dogs. Always they would stand at attention in his yard looking at him.  As if they wanted to come visit. Domesticated dogs were funny things. Happy as can be and most were loyal to a fault. But still they had that deep down instinct. To be part of a pack, to be part of a whole, to hunt and even to kill. It was all still there buried deep down waiting if needed. Most humans didn’t know the inner workings of the canine breed.  Silly, frilly and lacey clothes, they dressed them as children or as toys. It was disgusting really. Poor things. Jared snorted in disgust.

Oh well.  Humans were silly. But then he was human too once at one point before he became a shifter or at least he thought so.  He wondered when he stopped thinking of himself as human. Maybe when it was when he accepted that he was different.

The girl across the street came back outside, she had a glass of something dark, he smelled iced tea, and a book.  Crossword puzzle it looked like as he focused in on the cover. She sat on the chair on her porch and put her bare feet up on the railing.  She was mumbling something so he focused on her to hear.

“Stupid bushes, wonder why they aren’t getting any buds,” she mumbled under her breath.

“God I am so bored, I don’t want to do these stupid things,” she whispered to herself. He watched her put the book down and take a sip of her tea. She set the cup down beside her and tipped her head back on the chair and closed her eyes. The sun was on the lower part of her legs. From about her knee’s down. She had jeans on but he bet she had strong, lean looking legs.

Where the hell did that thought come from? He didn’t wonder about women’s legs. He really didn’t give much thought to women lately. All he had to do was walk down the street and they were falling all over him. He realized it had to do with him being a shifter. The power, the darkness, and the danger he had seemed to draw women to him like a magnet. It got to be so damn annoying he just avoided them all together. One of the reasons he went on suicide missions with the military. It kept him busy and away from the damn silly women.

Jared wondered what the woman across the street would do if he went over to say hello and introduce himself.  He wondered why he suddenly cared. He got up off his chair, stretched and started to walk across the street.