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Liz

SHALLOW END OF THE GENE POOL

“L iz, stop being stubborn and get in the car. You need the money, and there’s nothing left for you here. They’re invading this entire state, and there ain’t nothing we can do but take the money and rebuild somewhere without all the freaks. You can’t stay here all alone. You need to find a husband and start your life. Your clock is ticking.”

The way Geneva’s nose wrinkled in disgust as she said ‘freaks’ was more than enough to ignite a fire within me. The insinuation that my life wasn’t going to start until I was married was just as infuriating. Despite the constant irritation her ignorance caused, she was my sister, and I loved her deeply. But my god, the amount of narrow-minded nonsense that came out of her mouth daily could fill the Grand Canyon and still have some left over.

“You know I can’t,” I said, trying to keep my temper.

Getting mad at Gen and yelling back just gave her a ladder to climb up on her soapbox and preach her ignorance to anyone within earshot. God hadn’t granted me the patience to deal with her on top of everything else going on today. I’d already gotten dumped by a text message, not that I was too attached to him anyway, and the school was closing down until further notice. How was I supposed to teach my seven-year-old little brother to read? I filled my kindle with enough steamy books to make a sailor blush, and probably not be able to look any of his shipmates in the face for a week.

“Gen, I have a life here, and our brother needs me to—”

“That thing is no brother of mine,” she spat. “That thing ruined our family, and I won’t let his sinful existence take any more of your life either.”

“He did no such thing,” I sighed, praying Leif was up in his room and the window was closed so he didn’t hear Gen’s ignorance. “Our family was ruined because our father loved the bottle more than us, and Momma ran off the first chance she got. That’s not the fault of a child.”

“You’re wasting your life,” she screeched.

“It’s my life to waste,” I said, stepping out onto the porch and closing the door behind me. It didn’t matter what Gen thought, he didn’t deserve her hatred. I was going to spare that child every bit that I could.

“You’re not thinking.” Gen stomped her foot. “What kind of future could you have among the freaks? What kinda babies are you going to have? Being a mother is the greatest thing a woman can be.”

I rolled my eyes. Then, I looked past her to her car, where she had her three kids packed into the back of her old rust bucket, fighting over who knows what. “I’m only twenty-one, my biological clock hasn’t even been wound up yet. I have time, and I want to use that time raising our—my—baby brother and taking care of our family home. I’m not the only human staying, and maybe I will end up with one of them. Maybe I will end up with someone who isn’t entirely human. Or maybe I will decide not to have kids. I don’t know the future.”

Her blue eyes, the ones that were almost identical to mine, filled up in horror at my words as she clutched her fake pearls and gasped.

I wasn’t sure if she was more disturbed by the idea of half-breed children or no children at all. It didn’t matter.

“Look,” I said, putting my hand on her head like Momma did when we were little, smoothing out the few hairs the humidity had made stray. “You go, raise your babies how you see fit. The borders are closing soon, and I’m sure you want to have this damned place in your rearview mirror well before that happens.”

She nodded, taking in my words. “You’re right, but if you don’t come with me, that’s it. You’ll never see your nephews again.”

I looked back in the car, only counting two heads now, one a little higher than before, telling me he was no doubt sitting on his brother’s head, his favorite way to establish dominance.

“I’ll be okay,” I said, smiling reassuringly at her and walking her to the car.

“No, you won’t,” she said. “You’re going to die alone, probably with dirty vampire fangs in your neck, pulling your soul right down to hell.”

She turned on her stiletto and got in her car, rolled down the windows, and started yelling at her boys as she drove off.

My big sister, who had been my rock for most of my life, left in a hurry, and I knew I would never see her again. I should have been sad, but all I felt was relief after how she’d been treating Leif recently.

“Lizzy?” His voice came from behind me and I turned to look at my adorable baby brother with his mess of red curls and pointed ears sticking out from among them.

I would never understand how we didn’t realize he was part Fae before the existence of creatures was announced. There’d been rumors of vampires and magical humans actually existing for years, but no one had ever truly believed them until a turf war broke out between vampires and wolf shifters that resulted in dead humans in several major cities and elementals involved in the trouble too. The Fae had stepped in to end things, but not quick enough.

Human governments around the world were pissed, and rightly so, even though paranormals insisted they’d be largely peaceful and able to live amongst humans for centuries; all paranormals but the Fae were to be confined here. I guessed hindsight was twenty-twenty.

“Hey, Kiddo,” I gave him a bright smile. “Ready for lunch?”

“Why does Gen hate me? What did I do?” He asked, a single tear trailing down his freckle-covered cheeks. My heart clenched. I went to him, kneeling on the porch and pulling him into my arms.

“You didn’t do a single thing, baby. Every family has secrets. We all have skeletons we’d rather not have come to light, but we still have to deal with them because they’re family.”

“Am I the secret?” he asked, mumbling into my shoulder while his little hands gripped my shirt.

“Of course not. You’re the brightest, funniest little boy in the whole wide world, and you’re not just special. You’re perfect,” I reassured him. “Gen is the secret. I hate to admit it, but we have someone in our gene pool who is… so…”

How did one translate ‘as obnoxious and toxic as pig shit on a hot summer’s day,’ to a seven-year-old boy?

“So… what?” he asked, looking up at me with his huge mossy green eyes with flecks of gold.

“Hmmm.” I tapped my chin, exaggerating my movements to make him giggle. I loved that sound. It always reminded me of wind chimes. “Sooo uneducated!” I yelled, grabbing him under his arms. I stood and swung him around in circles, moving into the front yard. He screamed and giggled, telling me that, at least for now, he was happy, and with any luck, he would forget about the nasty things she’d said around him recently. Gen and her small-minded views were no longer our problem.

When I put him back down, I sat on the porch step and he sat next to me, resting his head on my arm.

“Lizzy, why are so many people leaving? Isn’t this still a good home?”

“This is the best home. But sometimes people move, and towns change. We’ll get new neighbors soon, I’m sure of it.”

“Why is it changing?”

“Do you remember when we found out that all the fairytale creatures were real?” I asked.

“Yeah, I remember the guy who turned into a gigantic wolf on TV.” He spread his arms wide.

“That, right. Well, all kinds of people are special and different. And these special folks are moving to Nebraska! So, who knows, we might have a wolf as a neighbor!”

“Or a vampire. What about one of the guys who can play with fire?” He was bouncing up and down with excitement, just waiting to see what the world would bring him. I wished his thirst for discovering the unknown was contagious, but I was pretty sure that pure joy was reserved for those who still had faith the world was a good place. I wasn’t so sure anymore.

After I got Leif seated at the kitchen table, I checked my phone and saw the alerts for several missed calls and texts. Before I could go through them, my phone started vibrating, and ‘work’ flashed on the screen.

“Hey, Boss,” I answered with a bright smile, knowing that was how Mr. Perry preferred to be greeted. He never said as much, but the way he stood taller with his chest out every time I called him ‘boss’ told me and it made my day. Mr. Perry was a sweet older man who ran the office supply store and had given me my first actual job after Mom left and Daddy drank himself to death. He even let me bring Leif when he was a toddler and set up a playpen at the back of the store.

“Hey, Liz. I’m afraid I need to speak to you for a moment. Is now a good time?” The tone in his voice told me I needed to sit down. My mind started racing to the worst-case scenarios. Had something happened to the store? To his wife?

“Yeah, now’s fine. What’s up?”

“I’m selling the store. I know I said I wouldn’t, but some big hot shot came in and said it was the perfect location for a gym. He just made me an offer I couldn’t refuse and—” his words rammed together and I could barely understand him, but it didn’t matter. His message was obvious. I was out of a job.

“I understand, and I appreciate you calling to let me know.” I tried to keep my voice light since I knew Leif could hear me.

“I’m glad you understand. The grandkids are coming this afternoon to clear the place out and then Margie and I are going to Atlanta with them. We’re looking forward to enjoying our retirement in the land of ripe peaches and amazing barbeque. But I’m real sorry about all this…”

“I hope you have a fantastic time. Did I need to come pick up my last check?”

“No, dear. I’ll put it in the bank, and even though you don’t need to come in again, I’ll make sure you’re paid through the week. Least I can do.”

“Thank you, sir.” I wasn’t sure I could get out many more words at the moment. “I hope you and Margie love Georgia.” I quickly hung up the phone and stared at it, tears burning in the back of my eyes.

At that moment, I didn’t have time to fall apart. I blinked hard, willing the tears back in. For now. A glass of wine and a good cry into my pillow would help after Leif went to bed. First, I needed to figure out how I was going to keep a roof over his head and food on the table.

It had been two weeks, and the last of my neighbors who had chosen to leave were long gone. Main Street looked like a ghost town with boarded-up windows and signs that said ‘For Sale,’ everywhere.

Thankfully, the necessities had reopened first.

They’d already started working on changing Mr. Perry’s office supply store into that gym. That, according to the signage, catered mostly to shifters of all types.

I hadn’t even realized that there were more than just wolf shifters.

Most of the grocery stores were open, and the specialty aisles that had once held Top Ramen and sriracha were now stocked with protein bars that had blood additives. I didn’t want to think too much about that one. But there were plenty of normal foods. Fruits, vegetables and surprisingly good prices on meat. That was at least one benefit. Apparently, shifters preferred large quantities of protein and demanded a fair price.

Since the town was in such a state of upheaval, I knew it might be tricky to find a job. Especially as a human, when it seemed the new paranormal business owners preferred other paranormals. But I still spent several hours every day scouring bulletin boards, online forums, job websites, everything I could think of.

In the meantime, I needed money. So, I did what my grandmother did when she faced a similar, but far less supernatural, problem. She rented out several of the rooms in the home to boarders.

Just like her, I had to be careful of who I let into the house. Not only because I was a woman, and didn’t want anyone thinking they could take advantage of me physically or otherwise. But I had a child in the house, his safety had to be first.

I had interviewed maybe a dozen different people, everything from shifters to elementals who entertained Leif by showing off their powers, even a vampire too. They were actually far nicer than I’d thought they be. But each time they smiled and shook my hand, and I told them I would be in touch, I turned to Leif. Every single time, Leif would give me wide eyes and shake his head no.

I didn’t know if being a halfling gave him special abilities, or if he just knew how to read people. But his intuition was never wrong, and this was his house, too. I wouldn’t make him live with someone he wasn’t comfortable with.

It was the fourth day of interviews, and I sat down at the dining room table absolutely exhausted. Watching the condensation drip down the glass of iced tea that I had just poured but didn’t have the energy to drink.

“Lizzie!” Leif came sliding into the room, almost falling on the tile flooring. “They’re here, they’re here! They’re perfect!”

“Who’s here? Neighbors?” I asked, thinking he must have been talking about the neighbors who bought the house down the way. The neighbors were close enough to see, but still down the street a spell.

“No, the perfect roommates!” He was shaking so hard with excitement he was practically vibrating.

I stood up to look through the living room to the front porch, where I saw two of the most gorgeous men I’d ever seen.

Nope. Absolutely not.

Men that pretty were never anything but trouble.