Chapter 5

Soon the yard was clear of responders. Jeremy, Brady, and Heather turned their attention to Poppy. She stared at nothing, vehemently rocking. It was three in the morning.

“Poppy.” Heather gently touched her sister’s shoulder.

Her sister turned toward Heather. Poppy’s face contorted in anguish. The tears flooded past her crinkled eyelids as Poppy sobbed hysterically. She tried to speak, but Heather couldn’t understand her spastic words.

“Honey. Don’t try to talk. I’m here. I’m here for you.”

Heather held her sister as empathetic tears trailed down her own face. She hated Hank. Hated the way he treated her sister. But she’d never wished anything like this on him. Especially since it would be Poppy who killed him. GiGi had told the girls about their legacy with shapeshifting. It had been presumed to be dormant for four generations. Hank must have really pushed Poppy to the brink of absolute intolerance. Maybe she could ask Poppy about that tomorrow.

She glanced at the stopwatch clock. It was already tomorrow. Well, maybe tomorrow-tomorrow, she’d ask Poppy what happened. Another thought popped into Heather’s head. Did she have the dormant ability? It had to be in her DNA. Haddy received a double dose of the legacy when she was conceived. Brady had told her the shapeshifting was passed down through the male lines in his family, but with Heather having the “gift,” as Jeremy put it, Haddy was the first female in the Armstrong family to have it too. Of course, Heather’s family, the Rivers family line, had both females and males who shifted.

Maybe their ability to shapeshift was similar to Brady’s, it only manifested itself for self-preservation.

“Huh.” Heather turned to Brady, who looked at her curiously.

“What?” Brady glanced between Heather and Jeremy.

“Nothing.” She gestured toward her sister.

Brady nodded. She loved the way he understood her without any words being exchanged. They would talk about it another time.

Jeremy leaned forward. His elbows propped on his knees. “She’s going to have a lot of things to take care of. I’ve been through this. When my wife died giving birth to Chelany. It can be overwhelming. I’d like to come back and help her with it, if I may.”

Haddy let out a cry down the hall. Heather turned to the sound. “Of course. But I need to get her before she wakes the other girls.”

Jeremy nodded.

“If I didn’t know any better,” Brady considered Jeremy. “I’d say you’ve been harboring some sort of attraction for Poppy.”

Jeremy lifted his eyes and looked directly into Brady’s. “I can’t deny I have, but I’ve never done anything inappropriate. I swear. I respected Poppy’s marriage. Although, it killed me to stand by and watch—”

“Yeah. We know.” Brady nodded. “We’ll help Poppy all we can too, but it sounds like you know what she needs to do next. I can only imagine the amount of paperwork involved.

Jeremy lowered his head. “Yeah, it can be a nightmare in itself. Funeral arrangements, life insurance claims, social security survivors’ benefits, transferring everything into Poppy’s name, it seems endless. And there will be more reports and maybe interviews with the police. Animal control will probably get involved...”

Brady slapped Jeremy on the back. “Well, good thing you are willing to be her friend and help. But don’t—”

Jeremy jerked his head up, meeting Brady’s stern glare. “I know. I won’t do anything to cause her more emotional trauma than she’s already going through. Learning that you have the gift is strain enough. Add all this—”

“Yeah.” Brady nodded. He put his hand out and shook Jeremy’s. “Thanks for understanding. And for being Poppy’s friend.”

Heather walked back into the living room with Haddy in her arms and a receiving blanket over her shoulder, covering the baby and herself. She sat in Hank’s recliner and rocked her baby while she nursed. Her eyes blinked slowly as her adrenaline plummeted.

“We’ll stay here for the rest of the night.” Brady turned to Jeremy. “You should probably go. Chelany is fine to stay or...”

Jeremy hesitated. He glanced at his watch. “If I wake her now, she’ll probably be up the rest of the morning. I think it’s best I let her sleep. You’re welcome to call me the minute she wakes up.”

Heather’s words slurred in her sleepy state. “She’ll be alright through breakfast. We don’t have to tell the girls everything the second they get up.”

Jeremy smiled. “Looks like your wife should go to bed, herself.”

Brady returned his smile. “Yeah. We’ll call you later in the morning. We won’t do anything to upset the girls or Chelany. I understand the need to keep everybody calm.” He gazed with warm fondness at the suckling lump under Heather’s thin cotton blanket. “Even though she’s a newborn, she’s quite a hand full.”

Jeremy lifted his brow with a knowing look of understanding. Brady stood with Jeremy and walked him to the front yard. “I probably ought to wash this into the ground.” He picked up the garden hose and turned it on. Spraying the bloody area, as he waved goodbye to Jeremy. The only people in Brady’s life whom he could trust with his secret about shapeshifting was his family, and his regimen who owed the monster their lives. This was a new experience. Maybe it was time for him to know others who bore the legacy— the “gift,” as Jeremy referred to it. Perhaps Brady could learn a thing or two from this interesting new acquaintance, Jeremy Black.

But his instincts and a lifetime of hiding his abilities reared its head with a warning to be cautious— very very cautious of this Jeremy Black.

Poppy woke later that morning soaked in post-fever sweat. She lifted her phone. 9:03.

Wow. How had the girls let her sleep this late? Were they still in the treehouse? It wasn’t like Marla and Mable to not clammer for breakfast. She looked at her nightstand. Where was the baby monitor? She rose to sit at the side of her bed, but her head swooned, like a boat on a rough sea. A headache stabbed her temples with a piercing migraine-like pain.

“Whoa.” She massaged her temples. The t-shirt clung to her body from the perspiration. Her fever must have broken in the night.

What was she wearing? She never went to bed in pajama pants. How— A flood of memories slammed into her brain all at once.

Hank’s violent attack. Jeremy Black waking her. A bear had killed Hank! In the front yard. Brady and Heather ... the police ... an ambulance? Heather helping her shower. The blood! Haddy crying. Heather and Brady stayed the night.

Just then she heard happy voices waft down the hall. Heather was speaking, and Marla too. An unfamiliar girl’s voice. Chelany was still here. Brady shhing them. “Keep it down. Poppy’s still asleep.”

She smiled. “No, I’m not anymore.” She stood and took one step. A vision slammed into her head. An Afghan hound!

She was a shapeshifter. She had shifted and ... killed Hank.

A gasp caught in her chest. She tripped back and collapsed onto the bed. Her fingers found material and wadded the sheets with a white-knuckle grip. Tears pooled in her eyes. Her lips trembled.