Page 23 of Shifting Years (Whispering Hills #5)

Date Unknown Todd

Eat! Rip prey. Survive.

No!

Dark man, enemy? Friend?

Hell if I know how I did it, or anything, in the last couple of minutes. One minute I was a hairy, gigantic wolf with blood-colored fur, before hair sucked back into my pores. Bones broke forward and back before healing.

Bobby stared wide-eyed in horror, then jumped when I threw up. My other me might crave raw meat, but human Todd didn't. The tiger in the hut was no more. A short and naked commander with large chunks torn out where I had ripped out his animal flesh lay in his place.

"What in the holy hell are you?" Bobby's voice barely rose above a whisper, but the terror in it was deafening.

"A man, I think."

"No, you ain't a man. You're, uh…"

"A grunt. Like you."

"No! Not like me!" Wide eyes narrowed. I'll say one thing for him. He watched two men turn into animals and while surprised, handled it fairly well.

"Like you with a gift then."

"You mean to tell me you could do this all along, and you never used it to escape?"

"I didn't know I could until now."

He paused, taking in the words.

"Okay fine. So, change back, and let's get the hell out of here. We'll argue later."

I let out a breath—half admiration, half relief. If he thought of a tactical advantage, then he didn't see another enemy. We had enough waiting outside.

A memory flickered with a short man and books on animal spirits. I reached for it. Pulled. Red fur grew over my arms, bones twisted, then snapped back like a rubber band. Pain seared through me, and I collapsed, retching up tiger flesh.

"Doesn't look like it," I said after heaving.

"Damnit." He chatted like I was, well, human but kept the knife pointed at me.

"I'm not going to do anything to you, but I don't know what's going on." I shrugged and continued. "This might be a dying dream. Maybe that SOB in the dirt finally offed me."

"Thanks, man. That's a nice thought. I'm not even real."

I didn't die, did I? It would make sense.

The smell of sweat and gunmetal grew closer. Instinct took over. Quick gestures ordered Bobby face-down on the ground near the grunt he killed. My new strength lifted me over the door. Hope bamboo can support my weight.

After a few tentative shouts in Vietnamese, they came in.

They were soldiers and pointed guns at Bobby while they shouted at their dead commander, now nothing more than bones and meat.

I dropped and punched one in the throat, doing more damage than I expected.

Bobby lurched forward and stabbed the other in the stomach.

This was the moment we waited for, and after years, it was here. Bobby must have thought the same thing since he no longer aimed the knife at me.

I clapped him on the shoulder. "Let's move, soldier. Time to go home."

***

We killed more on the way out thanks to my new abilities and extra strength. I sniffed long and hard between scouting the area ahead. We already discovered a few traps.

"It all happened," said Bobby as he limped through the jungle. "And you didn't know you could do it until an hour ago." He wasn't asking.

Scar tissue along my head gave an explanation. "I don't remember a lot. Wouldn't know my name if it weren't for earlier prisoners telling me."

"Do you remember what you do to humans who discover werewolves?"

An instant headache came. After several seconds of breathing through it, I continued. "I don't kill humans." Bobby's eyebrows rose. "Those back in the camp were something else. Nobody does that to another man."

He nodded.

"Someone has to know about me," I said. "I have a wife and she's got to have a kid by now. My kid." The words faded out into a mumble.

His eyes flickered to the side while his walk slowed. "Mmmm…"

"What? I have a wife."

"Do you?"

"Yeah."

He chuckled to himself. "Bullets, Vietcong, Californian bigots, Alabama sergeants, and a werewolf but nothing scares me like this."

"Like what?"

He exhaled long. "You don't seem like the wife type, not that I care, you dig? I know men like you, so it's cool."

Memories of fistfights between two soldiers at Basic came. I wasn't involved, but one made a joke about another man marrying Liberace. Head throbs came of a short guy saying I was different, although he wasn't cruel.

Yet I yelled at him. Why?

Bobby's baritone voice called out. "You okay?"

I pushed a curved branch out of the way. "No, but yeah."

A twang came from the right, followed by long one-foot spikes shooting toward us. Instinct raised my arm and sharpened bamboo sunk through my forearm and into my chest. A fecal scent I should have noticed meant infection soon.

I stumbled back and met Bobby's open-mouthed look. I got most of the spikes, but one sliced his neck.

I had power, and more than I could understand, but it did nothing for my friend or to stop the grey around me.

***

The world flickered. I was in a hospital room, but everything showed in black and white, like an old television. Wounds disappeared from my arms, as did blood and grime. I shouldn't be clean as if I had taken a shower.

Is this Heaven… or the other place?

Trumpets blared like those in basic. "Rise and shine, soldier! Ten hut!" From behind stood me . Except this Todd was more muscled and had medals for valor along his pressed dress uniform. A black rifle appeared in his hand, and he spun it so perfectly that no sergeant would yell at him.

He snapped his fingers, and the uniform melted into a pressed, business suit. He aged until he looked in his forties. "Senator Anderson if you wish . We can't call us both Todd."

"What are you?"

"You maybe."

"This makes no sense," I mumbled. The black and white hospital disappeared, replaced by Bobby and another version of myself laying still in the Vietnam jungle.

"Makes no sense," repeated my double. "What does in our world?"

"Our?"

Wolf claws grew from his hand which looked wrong coming out of a suit but soon disappeared. "I'm—"

"—me," I finished.

"And someone who made different choices."

"Like never got shot?"

"Oh no." He raised his dark hair, revealing long scar tissue, faded by the passing years. "I went through it all but decided I didn't need to remember everything. Had a life most men would kill for, and it could be yours."

He waved his hand. An image appeared of me and a short guy arguing like a couple. My chest seized like someone put a bullet into it. Bobby was right because I wasn't the wife type.

"I'm the you who picks up your friend, goes to the nearest base, and when the time is right, you talk about your girl back home.

You'll tell reporters how she gave you the will to survive, and you'll go to her, and make her remember.

Years later, with a high-ranking father figure, you win a senator's seat as your state's favorite son.

Military hero and your new best friend who you saved will win any election.

Most people get the Black vote, or the White one. You get both."

He paused, letting me imagine. "Of course, there's another option.

" This new me had muscles, but not as much.

I certainly didn't have an expensive suit.

From the t-shirt and smock, I might have worked in a small Southern grocery store.

The short man from my dreams returned and we argued, but he gave back as good as he got.

Working in a store while arguing or a state senator?

"Why are you showing me this?"

"I'm afraid some things are unknowable. I'm giving you a chance to get your slice of the pie. After years of suffering, don't you deserve something?"

He faded away while my head pounded. Color returned via overhanging green leaves and draping vines.

My blood had already clotted and had to be because of my wolf abilities.

Poor Bobby had no such gifts. I tore the leggings from the uniforms we stole and wrapped them carefully around my friend's neck.

Just enough pressure to slow the blood loss, but not so much I'd finish the trap's job.

With a fireman's carry, I slung him over my shoulder, trying to ignore the copper-scented blood not my own.

Most men couldn't do this, but I wasn't like most. Bare feet sank into the wet jungle ground as I held Bobby by his wrist and leg.

A fearful sniff told me I didn't carry a corpse, but I would soon if I didn't hurry.

What was that experience? Was it me?

A fire seared my lungs while I ran. "Bobby, you were right. I'm not the wife type. But maybe, maybe I could be."

I turned into a monster before I escaped. If a man can shift into a wolf, then maybe I could shift myself straight. The years were gone—erased. There used to be someone with warm hands and a soft voice, but even his name was lost to me. With nothing left to hold onto, I should become someone else.

Someone who could still make a difference.

***

"Did that really happen?" asked Kim.

"That's the thing," I said. "You don't always know. Humans use Disbelief but we grew up around them. Makes sense we'd use their 'not sure' magic."

"Sounds like something I'd say back then," teased Mike. "Magic can be wonderful. Sometimes it lets you find the one, even if you have to work at it."

Kim's eyebrows under bright-red hair rose.

"Magic gives and takes," I said. "Tina and Dawn demand we help others, in return for their assistance."

The young Omega stared out, obviously thinking of his Alpha. No matter how much help and experience we had, we couldn't break the chicken out of the egg. He and his Alpha had to do their part. Otherwise, they'd poison each other by existing.

Mike stared at him, guessing my thoughts and the upcoming destruction. "How about we rewind a bit?"

***