Page 52 of Shifter's Homecoming

Troy’s face went confused. “Conri? Really?”

“Yeah, actually, she’s dated quite a few police officers.”

“Really?” Troy said again.

Uh oh,Trent thought. He didn’t know who they were talking about, but he could foresee the fireworks already.

Trent hit open farm road and floored it.

There was nothing wrong with a little fireworks sometimes.

36 - The Dream

Rowan checked the instrument panel on her potentiator, a countertop machine her and one of her past co-workers had created for just this kind of thing. She made a few adjustments, then stood back and eyed the mixture she had created. Now it only needed to cook for forty-nine hours, and then it would be strong enough for her to get serious with it.

It was time for her to get some sleep, but first… She picked up the box of mice off the counter, grabbed some scissors, and headed outside. She went out one of the sliding glass doors in the back of the lab. It wasn’t really a lab, it was actually an old pumping station, but it was no longer in use as a pumping station and the company she worked for had converted it to a laboratory years ago, including adding a second floor as living quarters. The lab had been the base of operations for the attempted clean up of the reservoir for decades now. Rowan was the latest in a long line of scientists and research veterinarians who had been given the job. She intended to be the last. She would be the one to figure this mystery out. She would be the one to make the water safe for the local wildlife again.

Rowan walked across the wide wrap-around porch, one eye on the water out back. It really was pretty. The reservoir itself was manmade, and there was a massive crane that crossed it, with three support posts plunging into the water and a base that touched the ground on one side and the dam on the other. The entire area was surrounded by forest in a way that made it look like a natural lake, except for that crane. Closest to the building a swimming pool-sized portion of the reservoir had been separated from the rest of it and fenced in with 8-foot high chain link, plus wire fencing on top to keep the birds out. This pool was where the poison originated, but it could not be boarded over or filled in or even housed inside a building for safety. According to her boss, they’d tried many things over the years and anything but this open-air fence around this makeshift pool made the poison move or concentrate to the point that it got in the groundwater and threatened the wildlife that way. The problem was, the fence never lasted long. Something about the poison corroded it, and the animals were always trying to get in. Rowan had only been there for a week and she’d already cleaned up several dead mice, a few sparrows, and two squirrels.

Rowan made her way down the porch steps, across the lawn, to the forest. She found a trail and walked in a little ways, looking for a good spot to let the mice go. It was not the first time she’d released laboratory animals into the wild, and she had a feeling it would not be the last.

A fallen log just off the trail caught her attention. It was a perfect spot. She set the box on the log and got to work, slicing open the top of the first box, then every little box inside, shaking out each mouse onto the log, gratified to see each one find a hiding spot right away.

When she was done, she set the box down next to the log. She covered it with some leaves and sticks, thinking she would come back tomorrow. Any mice who had decided to stick with the box, she would bring inside and keep as pets.

A low noise, almost like a big animal growling, caught her attention from behind her and her heart leapt into her throat. She whirled around and stared into the trees, thinking hard. There were no bears in Illinois, no wolves, no mountain lions, and she could not think of anything else that could make that deep and dangerous sound, almost like a live chainsaw would sound.

She stared down the trail, then into the trees on each side, looking hard, praying she had imagined it. Then she looked up into the trees, and when she did, she saw it crouching on a thick branch. It was a massive mountain lion, tawny and brown, staring straight at her. Their eyes met and Rowan said a little prayer.Dear God, if I’m about to be lunch for this big cat, please make it quick.

It blinked. She didn’t. It blinked again, seeming to radiate intelligence. It curled its top lip and showed her massive killing teeth. Rowan stayed as still as possible, not looking directly at it, completely at a loss for what to do.

But the cat moved backwards on the branch until the sight of it faded into the darkness of the forest. Rowan didn’t dare move a muscle. She didn’t dare breathe a sigh of relief. Was it circling around, intending to pounce on her from behind? She whirled around, then around again, still unable to move.

Finally, Rowan was able to get herself walking. She headed back down the trail slowly, as silently as possible, trying to look every way at once, even though she knew it was hopeless. The mountain lion could be on her before she ever saw it.

Unbidden, her mom’s words came into her mind.There’s werebears and werecats, too.

She put one foot in front of the other, again, and again, and again, until finally, she was out of the trees and in the sunshine. She made her way to the porch stairs, then stood there with a hand to her head, watching the tree line, breathing heavily, trying to get her mental footing back.

After a few minutes had passed, the sunshine began to convince her that she had imagined it, and that made her think of her mother’s genetics. She frowned. She’d never had any reason to doubt her own sanity before, and she didn’t want to start now. Just to be safe, though, she would get some bear spray before she ever went in that forest again, and no more night-time excursions out to the pool of water, that was for certain.

A metal on metal noise caught her attention and she looked to the pool, knowing what that sound meant. There was a deer at the pool, trying to get in the fence, trying to get at the sweet-smelling poisonous water.

Rowan headed for it, clapping her hands and shouting. It saw her and took off the other way, disappearing into the forest, but when she got close, she saw that there was a fox laying half in and half out of the water, limp and lifeless.

“Oh no,” she whispered, trying to figure out how it had gotten in. She found a hole in the fence near the animal. It was a small hole caused by corrosion and animals chewing, and there were other spots that looked ready to give way. She didn’t understand what made the animals so determined to get in there. The poison smelled sweet, but that alone should not lure wild animals the way it did. She would get someone out here to fix the fence.

First Rowan cleaned up the fox. She couldn’t bear to put it in the trash, so she wrapped it in a towel and took it to the equipment shed and laid it near the entrance. She would figure out what to do with it later, when the sun wasn’t quite so high in the sky.

Rowan headed inside the shed, sleep and mountain lions forgotten for the moment. She found a bit of spare fence and some wire cutters, and even though she didn’t know what she was doing, she did her best to fix the hole the fox had gotten through.

When she was done, she tested it. It seemed strong enough to hold for now.

***

Rowan went inside. Her eyes felt leaden, her body exhausted. She needed sleep, but first, she called the company she worked for and told them again she needed some professionals out there to fix the fence as soon as possible. The boss’ secretary sounded doubtful it would happen before next week. Rowan had no choice but to wait and see.

When that was done, she took a quick shower in the downstairs bathroom, then made her way to the couch, not wanting to head upstairs to her bed. She wanted to hear it if the alarms on her machinery sounded. She took a pillow and a blanket out of a chest behind the couch and lay down, already anticipating “the dream.” Every time her mother told “the story,” she had “the dream.” That was ok, she liked the dream.

---