Chapter 6
Margaret felt Gary’s hand tighten on hers, and she knew he wasn’t going to let her leave without a fight. So it was no surprise when he turned his big brown eyes upon her and whispered, “Don’t leave me alone with him. Please.”
He had the look of a child afraid of the monster under his bed.
And yeah, she knew that his mother had fed him all sorts of stuff about how his dad was a dangerous loser, but she also knew that Gary wasn’t afraid of him.
In fact, after his parents divorced Gary and his father had built a solid foundation through baseball games and guy nights.
Which meant she could ignore this big-eyed, don’t-leave-me-with-him ruse.
“Nice try, Gary,” she said twisting her hand out of his. “But this is a father-son thing.” After her humiliating confession of a few minutes ago, she really needed to regroup alone.
Except, Mr. Baldner still stood in the doorway, his hands shoved in his baggy jeans as he took in the dented lamp, the overturned couch, and the generally disheveled way she and Gary both looked. But then he smiled, his expression genuinely warm.
“You’re Margaret, right? The girl next door who’s been helping my boy.”
She smiled and extended a hand that he engulfed in his own. “That’s me. And I don’t ‘help him out.’ We’re friends.”
“Best friends,” Gary clarified as he wheeled himself forward. “And we’re not done talking.”
She held up her free hand and mimed a puppet. “‘Blah blah blah.’ We’re done.” She turned to his father, feeling nervous relief—or maybe hysteria—bubble up within her. “Is it weird that he wasn’t any less mouthy as a bear? All sorts of whines and whimpers.”
Mr. Baldner jolted. “You saw? You know?”
His reaction surprised her. “Yes. I was here the whole time.”
“You didn’t leave?”
Suddenly, it all came rushing back: Last night’s terror, the way her mind had whited out everything else. She’d seen teeth and claws and hadn’t been able to breathe, much less think. Even now her mind skittered over the details while her skin burned with gooseflesh.
“Whoa there.” Mr. Baldner’s hand tightened around hers while Gary’s caught her on the other side. “Maybe you ought to sit down.”
“Don’t run, Margaret,” Gary said. “Please. I need you here.”
She turned and saw the honesty in his eyes. But how could she help him while half a breath from going insane?
“I would have run if I could,” she confessed. “Last night. When you were a bear, Gary. I was terrified.”
“But you didn’t,” he said.
She snorted. “There was a grizzly in the way.”
“But there was a moment, right?” his father asked. “A second when it all came into focus, when you saw the man instead the bear. Do you remember?”
“When…when he was looking at himself in the mirror and moaning. Like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.”
“I couldn’t,” Gary said.
“That’s when the magic let go,” Mr. Baldner pronounced.
Both Margaret and Gary looked at him, and he pulled up another chair, reversed it, and sat.
“Magic doesn’t like to be found.” He held up a hand.
“Just stick with me. You’re gonna have questions: How can shifters exist, how can people turn into animals and nobody knew it before now?
It’s ’cause magic doesn’t like to be found. ”
“Make sense, Dad,” Gary growled—literally. Margaret was distracted for a moment as she realized he’d never spoken with that deep rumble in his chest before last night.
“It doesn’t make sense,” his dad continued. “Never has, never will. Magic is a force that can blind normals to the truth. Even when people do see, it’s a struggle to remember.” He looked directly at Margaret. “You’re something special.”
“I’m—”
“You saw,” Mr. Baldner repeated. “And you didn’t run. His mother could never accept the truth, never truly see. It broke us. She could never see the man in the bear.” He looked at his son. “It’s really something special when a person can.”
Gary’s expression softened, and he squeezed Margaret’s hand. “You don’t have to tell me she’s great, Dad. I already know.”
She held up her hand. They didn’t understand, and they had to stop praising her. “I’ve never been so afraid,” she whispered.
“I’m sorry,” Gary replied. His words were soft, his expression sad. As he could never forgive himself for scaring her.
“The point is, you’re still here,” his father said. “I was a full shifter before I got together with his mother, and I never told her. Not until after the wedding.” He shook his head. “That was wrong—for both of us. When I finally got up the nerve, she couldn’t face it. I don’t blame her.”
Beside Margaret, Gary sat back in his wheelchair. “Is that what happened? I always wondered, and Mom just said ‘Your dad is an animal.’”
“Yup.” Mr. Baldner sighed. “She’s a good woman, just not good for me.”
All three of them were silent for a moment, thinking.
Gary spoke first. “So, you’re like me? Or I’m like you? And we can change into bears.”
Mr. Baldner’s expression tightened. “I don’t know, son.” He took a deep breath. “Thing is, when the gene is passed down, most shifters change in their teens. I thought you would, but you didn’t.”
“So, what happened? Why did I change last night?”
“Someone dumped shit into the city water system. It wasn’t detected at the purification plant, and it sure as hell wasn’t filtered out.”
“It’s turning people into bears?” Margaret asked.
Mr. Baldner shook his head. “Not normal folk. For them, it’s headache, fever, hallucinations. The old and the very young are dying.” He peered at her. “You feeling anything?”
Margaret shook her head.
“Good. Stay away from the tap.” Mr. Baldner turned to his son. “But you’ve got shifter DNA, so you changed. I’m full, so you’re half. Those with less than half—we call ’em hybrids—don’t fare as well. Most go stinky and crazy.”
“From the water?” Margaret asked.
Gary frowned. “I couldn’t stop guzzling it yesterday.”
His father nodded. “Then you shifted—and now you’re one of us!” There was pride in his voice, and a fond smile curved his lips.
Margaret leaned forward, anxious. “What does ‘stinky and crazy’ mean?”
Mr. Baldner grimaced. “We don’t understand it—or I don’t. It’s not like I’m a doctor.”
“You may be a plumber, Dad,” Gary said, “but you understand more than we do.”
Mr. Baldner grimaced. “What I’ve been told is that people with less DNA than you only half turn, become part wolf or bear.
There’s cats too, and other stuff. The less-than-halfies stink something awful when they change.
We’ve got a doc at the CDC who’s helping, and she says that most of the ones who change partway lose brain function and go crazy.
They start attacking whoever’s around and won’t stop.
” His hands tightened on the back of the chair.
“That’s what I’ve been doing since this whole thing started.
I’ve been patrolling. Saving normal people and any hybrid we can help. ”
Margaret frowned. “Can’t you leave it to the police?”
Mr. Baldner looked at her. “Tensions are high out there and every-damn-body has a gun. Most cops are out with the flu, and the others…well, like I said, magic hides itself. They can’t see what we see, so they can’t react appropriately.
No, it’s better to have shifters watching out for everybody until this is all done. ”
He finished talking and looked like it was the end of the conversation. As he started to rise, Gary held out his hand.
“You’re saying I can change into a bear at will?”
“We call it shifting.”
Gary frowned. “How? How do you control it?”
His father blew out a breath and ran his hand through his hair. “Can’t explain that, exactly. You just…do it.”
“Any time I want?”
His father snorted. “What do you think? Feel like you have the strength right now?”
Margaret looked at Gary, intrigued. Gary was staring at his hand as if he could will it into a paw.
“So, it just happens?” he pressed his father. “Or I can control it?”
“You’ll learn,” his father promised. “But it takes a lot out of us to do. I can’t shift more than every other day, which is damn fast. Makes me a strong shifter.
That’s why I thought you’d become one of us while you were a teen.
Guess it took the water to push you over.
” He squeezed his son’s arm. “But you’re one of us now. Try again in a week or so.”
“A week!” Gary straightened in his chair. “Dad, my legs worked. If I drink more water—”
Margaret’s head snapped up. “You want to put random poison in your body so you can tromp around as a bear?” She took a deep breath. “Look, I know this probably seems like great fun, but think about the risks. You could be losing parts of your brain!”
Mr. Baldner shook his head. “No, he’s a full shifter like me. His brain is safe.”
Margaret doubted that. “It’s dangerous, Gary,” she pressed. “And what are you going to do as a bear in the city, anyway?”
He looked at her. “It won’t be like last night. I understand what’s happening now. And you don’t need to be worried about me hurting you—”
She waved with irritation. “Not me, you idiot. You! You growled at your own reflection. You broke furniture. Did you wonder where your coffee table is? You smashed it.”
Gary barely glanced at his apartment before turning back to his father. “Dad, my legs moved this morning. My human legs. I can feel things I haven’t felt since the accident. Does that make any sense? Is shifting going to heal me?”
His father looked surprised. Then: “It happens. Guy breaks a leg, shifts, then comes back whole. Never thought of it for you, though.”
“I’m going to drink more water,” Gary said. “You can help me control it.”
He was wheeling toward the kitchen when Margaret leaped out of her chair and stopped him. She planted both hands on his armrests to hold him still. “What the hell, Gary? You’re not this reckless. Since when do you take poison without doing the research first?”
Thankfully, Mr. Baldner backed her up. “She’s right, son. I want to help you with this, but we’ve got to do it smart. Changing takes practice and a controlled environment, especially in the city. And you must be so tired.”
“You don’t get it,” Gary growled. “My legs are getting better.”
Mr. Baldner shook his head. “Let’s not pin all our hopes on this, Gary.
I’ve never heard of a paralyzed shifter, so I don’t know what will or won’t change.
” He gestured down at himself. “We all have a human form that’s our default.
That’s why I always look like this no matter how much I diet.
Whenever I shift back from being a bear, I’m just like I was in my thirties again—chubby from too much beer and beaten down from fighting with your mother. ”
Margaret frowned, surprised. “Always? When you were young you shifted into—?”
“Someone in his thirties? No.” Mr. Baldner adjusted his pants, lifting the band over his paunch.
“As a teen I came back as a teen. But as a man ages, his mind changes. As our minds adjust, so do our bodies.” He blew out a breath.
“Look, I don’t understand it, either. All I know is that I went on one of those diet programs a few years back, lost almost thirty pounds and then went for a run as a bear out at Gladwin State Park.
When I changed back, I was the same weight as before the diet.
So…it’s how I think of myself, I guess. And I’ve heard the same from other guys. ”
“So if I think of myself with working legs,” Gary said, “I can come back with them.”
“But you didn’t,” Margaret pressed, hating the idea that he’d put all his hope into something futile. “You shifted yesterday and—”
“And I can feel things now. Maybe if I keep doing it—”
“You might lose brain parts!”
She blew out a breath. Damn it, he wasn’t listening. He was too intent on getting his legs back, and who could blame him? But he was wonderful just the way he was, and she wouldn’t trade his brain for legs. Never, ever, ever. So she had to slow him down before he headed someplace nobody wanted.
“Mr. Baldner, don’t you have any shifter doctors? What about that CDC person? There’s got to be someone who knows more about these things.”
Gary’s father nodded. “At headquarters.”
Gary jolted. “‘Headquarters’? There’s a shifter HQ?”
Mr. Baldner snorted. “I told you, we’re The Griz. We renovated an old Ace Hardware store.”
Gary shook his head. “I really thought you guys were a biker gang.”
“We’re a bear gang,” his father said with a grin. “It’s called a sleuth. So, you up for a ride? The city’s dangerous right now but—”
Gary was already rolling for the door. “Let’s go.”