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  Across the world people are paying attention to this story, but it raises more concerns than what a standard kidnapping might. What do you need with a bunch of young children that can shift? I like to think of myself as creative, but I can't think of anything that wouldn't end up in a horror novel as reasons for taking these children. All we can do is hope and pray they are found soon. ~SacWasp Editorial

  Toni's pain followed him into sleep, surrounding his own sorrow and adding a new quality to it. But even if he lost McKenna, while it would hurt, he didn't fool himself that he would have any idea what Toni would go through at losing her kids. All he could do was trust Kenna, trust that she would keep everyone safe and find a way back.

  Trusting others had never been easy. His parents had made sure of that.

  With a soft growl he rolled over on his suddenly uncomfortable bed, seeking sleep and escape there. Scenarios of finding her dead body, finding the kids dead and discarded filled his mind for what seemed like hours before sleep claimed him.

  "Are the numbers being whispered about correct?"

  He heard the words, but he kept his eyes trained on the mustard brown walls, not twitching so much as a whisker towards the speaker. The soft pad of feet on floor indicated two people walking towards him.

  "I have no reason to not believe what they are saying. Millions of Kaylid available to harvest. We can take the best, the strongest, the fastest. Maybe some on this world can even compete against the Wyrms. Then we can destroy those abominations forever." A level of glee filled the speaker's voice as they got louder and came closer.

  His thoughts seemed slow, almost sluggish, as if fighting through a fog.

  Where am I?

  He tried to move but couldn't. In fact, he really couldn't feel his body at all. The senses, yes, but he couldn't even figure out how to close his eyes.

  The voices distracted him as if the body was straining to listen to them.

  "Can you imagine that? We might fill every tube we have with them. We might have to bring in more ships to store all of them. We could swarm every planet and know we have replacements. And even if many are killed, they can just be used to fertilize the gardens once we move in. There are people petitioning to be allowed to claim some of the houses on the reclaimed planets, regardless of the odd way they lay them out."

  "Ugh, living on a planet? Dealing with children? No, thank you. Crèches exist for a reason. But having the body count will be nice. Maybe we now can look for Home?" There was an odd wistfulness to the tone, and he could hear the capitalization.

  "Maybe. I don't really care. I just want to find more pretty things." The voices were right behind him, and he realized he stood in a room with the door open behind him. The steps continued past him.

  "You and your collection. How you can get so much stuff in a ship is beyond me. But I don't know. A place, land, a home, and no House of Rircn telling you what to do at every turn? Sounds attractive at times."

  "They can do as they wish. I enjoy creating my nanobots and have a wide selection of partners who like my pretties. The rest can go do what they want. I'm happy."

  "You always were a bit more direct than most." The voices started to fade, but another set of steps, brisk and hard, unlike the speakers, with a strange clicking to them, approached.

  A being came in the room and this time his eyes snapped to him. Something about him screamed catlike, but he stood on two legs, dark eyes looking at him, and JD couldn't read any emotion on that furred face at all. But a white tail drifted back and forth behind him.

  What the hell? Am I trapped on a sci-fi set?

  The being slowly scanned him up and down, a whisker twitching.

  "I can see the strength, and your tests put you at the top ranking for logical thought and being calm under pressure. While we are still creating the team for the Commander, it has been decided you will be a good core member. Another team member has been found."

  Another being walked in and the eyes JD couldn't control darted to the side. He got an impression of black, female, fur, and the same odd type of being the one in front of him was, humanoid animal. But then the eyes locked back on the speaker.

  JD realized he'd lost part of the conversation and rapidly tried to tune back in. "…she will be a good addition for most teams. Protective, loyal, and vicious when needed. You will be training and working together until the rest of the team is assembled. Though we still are waiting for the Commander to fully activate."

  Dark eyes narrowed, glaring at him then the female standing beside him.

  "Both of you have contact and should already know the Commander. Why have you not made that contact official? Where is your Commander?"

  The question thundered in his head again and again until it dissolved into a strident beeping. With a groan he rolled over and hit the alarm. The dream slipping away.

  What was it? I was trapped? In a body? A statue? Why did I get an impression of Toni? Someone was asking me something?

  The harder he tried to pull the dream to the forefront, the faster it slipped away. Leaving him with a headache and the feeling that he'd missed or lost something important. Something about McKenna. With a groan he headed to the shower, looking forward to the hot water clearing out the cobwebs.

  When he came out dressed, holding his belt, Toni had coffee and food going. He glanced at the clock, five-thirty a.m.

  "Did you sleep at all?" His voice came out huskier than he meant, he flushed, coughing a little to clear out the sleep roughness.

  She shot him a look, a bitter twist to one side of her mouth. "Sleep means dreams that are either nightmares of my children dying or weird ones with creatures that leave me clawing to remember them while I can't forget the images of my dead kids." Toni turned back to the scrambled eggs she was making with lots of protein and vegetables. "So no. I'm avoiding sleep if at all possible."

  Avoiding the dead-kids-dream comment, the images that had chased him into the clutches of sleep a bit too fresh, he grabbed onto the other one. "You, too? The weird dream that seems like you should remember something important? Something where you..." He trailed off, frustrated what little he had retrained disappearing as he tried to put words to the thoughts and ideas.

  Toni turned, looking at him then nodded slowly. "Yes. That. I thought it was just grief, stress, whatever. But you're having them, too?" She opened her mouth and started to say something then stopped, her brows furrowing together.

  "What?" He coaxed even as he focused on the coffee.

  "I could have sworn you were in the dream, but you weren't, not you, but you." She signed and shook her head, redirecting her attention to the food and creating breakfast burritos.

  "Huh. I. Maybe?" He sighed. "It's gone." His phone beeped, and he grumbled. "I have to go. That's my ‘get your ass in gear' alarm. I'll see you tonight?"

  She shrugged even as she handed him burritos wrapped in tinfoil. "Don't have any place else to be, and this is a hell of a lot better than an empty home."

  JD glanced at her and nodded. "You have a place here, as long as you need it."

  "Thanks. Get. I'll keep poking at information today. Maybe brush up on my Peruvian Spanish."

  "Okay. You've got my number. Call if anything comes up." With that he headed to work, hoping maybe there had been some new information.

  5

  Salvation

  Hope fades as time passes with no word as to the missing children or police officer. While there has been no official word from the various agencies involved in the hunt, unofficial word is that they don't have any leads and don't know where to look at this point. Donations are being accepted to help the parents who have lost their children. ~KWAK News

  As the days passed with no information, they fell into a familiar pattern, almost like roommates, except for the stress of grief that underlaid every interaction. Toni went home occasionally to deal with personal issues and make sure nothing in her house had gone sideways. Plus, her leave was running out, which meant she'd ha
ve to go back to work soon. JD tried not to think about what it would mean if they never found McKenna. Never found the kids. The idea was too awful to even comprehend.

  Working extra shifts to keep busy, he got a call to respond to a probable shifter in distress. How funny was it that they actually had codes now to distinguish shifters. However, it let the cops know to expect someone who would probably be nude or an animal. Shifters were hard on clothes.

  Flipping on his lights, he headed to the address provided. As always, he prayed this call would have some clue that led to McKenna. Pulling in, with backup a minute or two behind him, he saw a large naked man sitting on the single concrete step leading into a warehouse.

  JD blinked. The man sitting there was pure muscle and might almost be bigger than he was. His tensions rose. Often men his size thought they had something to prove when they saw him. Getting out of the car, he had his hand on his weapon, watching the man.

  "You call for the cops?" JD asked. The man didn't seem to hear him at first, then shook his head and focused.

  He rose to his feet swaying a bit. "Do I know you?" Eyes a bit glazed as he tried to look at JD.

  The dazed, exhausted look on the man's face removed all his worry and instead JD headed to get him some clothes from the stash in the trunk.

  "Nope, but you probably recognize me because of McKenna." Even saying her name slashed at him, but he kept a smile on his face. "I'm Officer Davidson. Come on, tell me what happened."

  The guy was one Perc Alexander, and JD did at least know the name from the NFL, though for a sports star he seemed pretty laid back.

  After Perc led him and the other officers through the warehouse, full of skinned bodies and pelts, he realized it was shock more than anything else. The scope of the situation they found made him sick to his stomach. And cemented his good opinion of Perc.

  JD thanked his lucky stars there was no sign of McKenna or the kids. The idea of having to go tell Toni that her kids had been skinned? He choked on the thought.

  Let them be okay, please, let them be okay.

  Something about the man called to him, but he couldn't say why he thought McKenna would like him. JD took it as a positive sign he was trying to set up his best friend, though he'd deny it on pain of torture, even while hopes were dying.

  He did what he could to help the football player but didn't dwell too much as he tried to focus on work to stay sane. He kept the number to maybe call later.

  The next day, at the end of his shift, Anne called him in. "Sit. Don't break my chair." He heaved a sigh and sat down gingerly on the edge, letting his legs take most of his weight. Something he had learned to do a long time ago.

  "JD, are we going to lose you, too?"

  Her question threw him, and he looked at her, brows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

  "I mean I don't think you've shifted since McKenna was taken. You haven't taken a day off. You're getting grimmer and grimmer every day. So I repeat my question. Are we going to lose you, too?"

  He just looked at her, unsure how to respond. Suicidal thoughts hadn't gone through his head, but if not for Toni he doubted he would've spoken to anyone outside of work. Even now their conversations had faded with the information about the jaguar cult, there didn't seem to be much else they could do. And nothing had been found about McKenna. Toni was losing weight. The circles under her eyes and the brittleness of her manner worried him. But he couldn't do anything to help her, and she refused to break. And if he didn't know how to help her, he sure didn't know how to help himself.

  "No?"

  "That doesn't sound very sure. Take the next two days off. It's an order. You've gone over the limits for overtime anyhow." Anne forestalled his next protest. "We'll call if we hear anything. I promise. I will call you."

  The protests died on his tongue and a weight that seemed more than he could bear settled onto his shoulders. "Yes, Sergeant."

  Anne sighed. "Go home, JD. Sleep, drink too much, cry. I don't know what else to tell you. I know you two weren't lovers but dammit, you're acting like your wife just died."

  He rose, even with his legs supporting most of his weight, the chair creaked. "No, just my best friend. My sister. And the closest thing to family I'll probably ever have. I'll see you Monday." He said it as a promise and a warning.

  "So noted. Now get out of here, I don't want to see you until then." She dismissed him by going back to what he knew was a never-ending pile of paperwork.

  Never becoming a sergeant. They'd never find a desk chair to deal with me.

  The thought made his mouth twitch a bit. Lost in his own thoughts about how to fill the next few days without going insane, he walked without actually seeing his surroundings. Hitting something and a muffled ooof brought him back to the here and now.

  Raul Hernandez stood glaring at him rubbing his shoulder. "What, with Largo gone, you're just all brawn and no brains? Figures the chica had the active brain cells." He stalked away, muttering.

  With slow precision, JD pivoted and watched him go. The behavior surprised him. Outside of the few times they'd met per the captain, he'd never spoken to Hernandez that he could recall. Why the level of anger?

  He filed the information in his head, but he didn't worry about it as he headed home. Instead he called Toni during the drive.

  "JD," she answered, and he had to fight to not close his eyes at the bleak despair in her voice.

  "I've been told to take the next few days off. I need to do a few things around the house and go shopping tomorrow. But want to go to the mountains Sunday, change into animals and let off some stress? Be an animal for a while."

  "Yes," she almost sobbed the answer and JD felt his own bear respond in kind.

  I wonder how many trees I'm going to destroy.

  Saturday was spent in grim silence doing basic things, like laundry, changing sheets, trying to catch up on chores that he had ignored, mowing the grass front and back was a priority. All the time he kept expecting McKenna to call and tell him to come over or just ask him a question about some weird thing that had occurred to her.

  They both drank a bit too much that evening and he fell into a sleep full of dreams where he rushed around in a form he didn't recognize with sci-fi guns, but it seemed out of focus and he could never make out what was going on. Waking, he had a fading memory of it, but by the time he finished with the shower it was gone except for a vague sense of unease. It was late when he awoke, well after ten, the dream must have really drained his energy.

  He walked out in a kilt and t-shirt to find Toni packing coolers full of food. The groceries they had just purchased the day before.

  "Something going on?"

  "It dawned on me, when they're found they'll need food. If they've shifted they'll need lots of calories, and clothes, and blankets." She babbled a bit as she packed, her hands shaking. "I need to make sure we have stuff ready. I should have done this before. I should have kits ready for them. I need to go get kits ready."

  He sank down next to her on the floor and pulled her to him, the refrigerator door standing wide open, and hugged her. For a moment JD thought she would cry, but she just leaned against him for a long moment, then pulled away.

  "I'm being irrational, aren't I?" Her voice didn't quite break, but he could hear the pain in every syllable.

  "No. You're being a mother whose kids were taken, and you have no idea what to do. I think this is a great idea. Let's get them ready so we can grab them if—when we need them."

  Toni looked up at him, her green eyes shining, but she blinked rapidly and refused to let the tears fall. "Deal."

  They spent time getting everything ready. It gave them something constructive to focus on. Two hours later everything was organized to Toni's satisfaction and she had managed to calm down a bit. JD had to admit he felt better knowing they'd be ready with supplies when McKenna was found.

  Toni took a quick shower, more to get rid of the signs of grief, JD thought, than any other reason. She came out dressed
in shorts and a tank, with dark circles under her eyes.

  "Ready? Think being animal will help both of us." JD said, picking up his keys.

  "Yeah. I hope so." She didn't sound sure, and JD could only hope it would help them both. The jangle of his phone distracted him and he grabbed it, brow furrowing as he saw Anne's number on it.

  "Davidson," he said.

  "JD. They got a ping off of a tracker one of the kids had. Responders are headed that way. Here's the GPS." He grabbed a pen and wrote it on his counter, not caring as he scribbled the coordinates.

  "Got it." He hung up before Anne could say anything else. He pulled up his map app which allowed him to enter GPS coordinates as Toni watched him.

  "They have a ping on a kid's tracker. They might have found them," he said. Toni spun and grabbed the hamper and bags they had packed, racing to get them in the car as he programmed the coordinates. By the time he had finished, she had the bag of clothes and the food in the car, the garage open and she waited for him in the passenger seat.

  JD pulled out the blue light he kept in the Hummer. He had never used it before, but today he took advantage of it. His badge sat in his wallet and any cops that wanted to pull him over could wait until he got there.

  Pulling out of the driveway, he hit the garage door remote as he shifted into drive and didn't even care if it closed or not. JD tore out of the subdivision, light flashing, as Toni held on. Hope in her eyes. Hope and fear.

  They flew up I-80 weaving in and out of traffic. He thanked the traffic gods that it was Sunday, so most commuters were off the road, because a traffic jam right now might have killed him. Because of where he lived he started a good thirty minutes closer than anyone from the station, and he didn't hesitate to use the intimidation factor of the blue lights and the Hummer to every advantage.

  Toni didn't say a word the entire drive, but when he cast side glances at her he could see the cat vibrating under the surface, quivering with the need to run, to protect.

  Wonder if others can see the animal beneath my skin, ready to explode, to do anything to get to those we love?