Zia… Parking Area of Zia’s Apartment Complex

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“Miss Zia! Miss Zia!”

It was far away, but she knew that voice. Zia shifted through sounds to isolate the utterance.

Up until now, there had been a bombardment of noise from the chaos. Violent collisions had been the chorus of a vengeful soundtrack she’d been forced to endure. Crescendos of what had to impact blows, grunts, yells, and a few screams of pain here and there had escalated.

Surreal was too tame a word to describe what happened all around her. This was ground zero for a real fight. Zia Carter was smack dab in the middle of a battle. One that she wouldn’t have been ready for had she come here alone. She owed Greg her life and sanity.

Her main hopes were that the battle was tipping in their favor, that it would come to an end soon, and that Boogie’s voice was real and not a phantom piercing the pandemonium.

A hard drumming heartbeat continued to thrum in her head. It was spurred on by the activity looming so close to the car. Yes, there was no denying that a war zone had erupted in the parking lot. Zia pushed down the thoughts of what the neighbors must be thinking and if they were safe as she focused on if that voice had been real or not.

Was he trying to get to her in the midst of all the turmoil she’d seen and heard?

Please Goddess, she asked remembering to honor the Goddess of her mate, let Boogie and the others be safe, especially, my Greg.

“Miss Zia?”

The voice found its target again. This time it was closer and had a slight twist to it as if pain and desperation drove the call. Reflex had her attempt to dart up until a sharp and piercing pain stung her eyes with fire. The effect was to drill her back down to the floorboard of the SUV.

Disorientated confusion enveloped Zia’s ability to see for a moment as her body’s instinct to survive kicked in. She shook off the trippy feeling to regroup. A fuzzy recollection came into focus. Memories of where she was and what had transpired to this point righted her perception of her current circumstances.

It hadn’t been easy getting down here. Cramped and confined, Zia’s body wedged itself between the car seats and the dashboard. The only way she’d been able to pull off putting her womanly figure in that space was with the design of the car not having a middle console separating the two front seats.

Space age design, with no need for a lot of the earth components of mechanical engineering, gave more space for seven-foot tall men to drive with relative comfort. Tall, full-figured women squashed into that floor space, not so much.

“Where is she? Her man told me to find her?” Zia heard the shaky voice say close to the car.

Even with the dark of the night settling in, Zia didn’t want to put the team in danger. If she made a rookie mistake out here, forgiveness might never come. Fearing her sudden appearance in the vehicle window might be an extra burden on the team if she popped up to reveal her position, Zia waited. A great deal of the noise had disappeared.

After what she guesstimated had been a minute and no other sounds had come through, Zia decided to poke her head up from the floor of the SUV to see him.

Hildy held the boy at bay with a single hand on his chest and her body placed between him and the vehicle. Boogie looked worse for wear.

She eyed Hildy who was closest to the vehicle. The woman looked as fresh as she had when they started. It was the expression on her face that gave Zia pause. When the woman gave her a quick nod of approval, Zia opened the door and jumped out to grab the child.

They’d done it.

Boogie ran toward her as another of the generic looking human-dinosaur-bird things fell away to the ground from the fighting nearby. Unconfined, her blood circulation began to move freely again, bringing with it the tingles of her limbs waking up.

Boogie ran fast enough to tackle her. Zia used a force of will to right herself and braced for impact. Her efforts were right on time to prevent a fall to the unforgiving rough asphalt ground. It was hard to make out much detail by the poorly lit lighting of the parking lot, but she pulled the youth back enough to scan his face.

It looked like he’d been put through the ringer and a dust bowl to boot. Zia focused on his eyes to tell her the extent of his ordeal.

“Boogie, look at me, dear,” she said, as soft and comforting as possible.

He looked at her to reveal bloodshot eyes. They darted around and connected with hers in an intermittent frenzy. Another wave of disorientation rocked her as well. Zia couldn’t think straight as if she swam through an ocean of psychological manipulative sludge.

She wasn’t sure which of the two held the other as Zia had to take a moment to allow the bizarre sensation to pass. Deep down in her knowing a warning bell went off. Boogie’s eyes were glazed and confused as if he weren’t fully engaged.

Something was wrong—really wrong.

“Hildy?” she called, continuing to hold the boy at arm's length to examine him. “Come here.”

Hildy took the few steps to come closer. Zia turned the boy around, and Hildy stared.

“He’s been dusted.” Anger etched a vicious trail against the woman’s face as she continued to look at Boogie. “Those effin’ bastards.”

Zia was thankful for Hildy’s slight self-censor of the word. Boogie was a child after all. She watched as Hildy took the edge of his t-shirt and began to wipe away the dust from his face paying close attention to his eye area.

“Wipe your hands and don’t put them near your eyes or mouth,” came a gruff command from Hildy as she continued to wipe away as much of the dust from Boogie as possible.

“Why, what’s wrong?” Zia came to stand next to Hildy on the other side as the boy squirmed in an agitated fit.

“Stay back. You can’t see it?”

“See what?”

“Zia, are you for real? I would think of all people you would notice Vodun when you saw it. Aren’t both your parents from the islands and south Louisiana?” Hildy noticed something on the side of her face. She did the same with Zia’s top as the woman used it to wipe away something on the side of her face and neck.

“Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?”

“Be careful,” she said in a warning to Zia. “Don’t let any of that dust touch your skin if possible. I’m not sure if you’ll be affected by it or not. Since I’m a rare version of my species, I doubt the spell was cast to include me.” Hildy wiped her hands on her pant legs. “But you can never be too cautious.”

“Grrr…ruff!”

“Ooh, shit!” Zia reacted despite herself.

Hildy was lightning fast as she shuffled Zia to stand behind her.

“Ajax, finish up and get your gorgeous ass over here,” Zia heard Hildy say in the comm to her mate.

“Easy for you to say, you had a fraction of these nasty muthafuckers compared to my lot.”

“Save the commentary for playtime later and get over here.”

Zia couldn’t help but chuckle at hearing the intimate smack talk Hildy gave her man. She made a quick note to try that out with Greg when they got things settled with Boogie.

Thoughts of Boogie had her peeking around the taller woman to see the new sight. Another pang of confusion slammed against her conscious hard enough to make her stumble.

“You all right?” Hildy whispered through the comm.

“Yeah, lost my step, is all.”

Zia righted herself once again. Standing behind Hildy, she had to look over her shoulder to see the teen. Inhuman sounds, low and primal, emanated from him as he continued to squirm.

Boogie’s face had transformed into a hairless version of a lean animal that might be mistaken for a greyhound. He shook his hands as if they burned and hopped on alternating feet.

“What’s wrong with him?” she heard herself asking.

“Like I said, he’s been dusted. No telling what it was meant to do but looks like he’s fighting to regain control. Stay back until I can get him contained.”

“Don’t hurt him.”

Hildy looked back and down to her and said in a cold whisper, “I don’t hurt innocent children, ever. I’m going to try to help him gain an advantage over this spell he’s been subjected to.”

Convicted of prejudging Hildy’s intent, Zia blurted out, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to infer that you—”

“Shush it, Zia. I know what you meant. I just want to make sure you know he’s safe now. No one will hurt him as long as we breathe.”

Hildy’s words held vast layers of meaning to them. Zia couldn’t quite grasp that Hildy might have a soft side to her about children.

Ajax stood next to her. He’d been so quiet she hadn’t noticed until now. How had he crept up like that? It wasn’t like he was small. The man was only a hair shorter than Greg, and that was still taller than most basketball athletes. Geez, one more thing she must work on if she ever wanted to join them on assignments in the streets again.

Without turning around, Hildy reached for her mate and pulled him forward. Zia didn’t dare try to step forward with them. Something in Hildy’s demeanor said she’d catch a snatch-you-back slap if she did.

“Look at him,” Hildy said to Ajax through the comm. “I could kick those bastards’ nuts up to the roof of their mouths. That poor baby. We must help him.” Her voice flowed with compassion, and a tenderness Zia would have thought was a myth before now.

Ajax’s voice was kind, devoid of his usual snark. “This is one of the worse cases we’ve seen.”

“I know. What do we do? We can’t leave him out here like this.”

“We get him over to see Miss Connie and then place him with one of the safe families for Lycanthropes we work with. In the meantime, try to see if your Siren’s Call can help give him some relief.”

Zia was impressed. Hildy usually took the lead on how the couple interacted, but when it came down to it, they were equally matched in every way. Ajax’s authority and clearheaded approach to her emotional turmoil over the child gave Zia a rare insight into their couple dynamic.

“Come stand beside me, Zia,” she heard Hildy say. “Looks like his episode has calmed down. Didn’t want you having nightmares over this.”

That was all she needed to hear to scramble into place. “No, I’m fine. I want to get the evil folks who did this to him.”

“We will.” The solemn statement sounded like an oath coming from Ajax.

“Zia, Say something to him,” Hildy encouraged her. “He should hear your voice again. That might keep whatever hex or spell this is at bay until we can get him some help.”

“What do I say?”

“Tell him you’re okay. His biggest fear was that you weren’t here. The little guy is strong. It took a lot to keep him from trying to rip the SUV apart,” Hildy said over the comm.

Zia looked at the boy and spoke up. “Boogie, can you hear me?”

He stopped fidgeting and looked over in her direction. Still unable to focus on her, he bowed his head as if in shame.

“No, no—no need to try to hide. I’m here. I’m safe. See?” she said, holding her arms out to the side to demonstrate.

This time he did manage to look up and focus. “Miss Zia?”

“Yes, Boogie, it’s me.”

“Sorry, you seeing me like this. I don’t mean you no harm. I can’t help it.”

“You’re fine, dear one,” she tried to keep her voice calm and soothing. “I know you’d never harm me or anyone without cause.”

He paused and cocked his head to one side as if pondering what she said. She waited, giving him the chance to process. Zia hoped Hildy’s hypothesis was correct. If she could keep him from doing those sporadic shifts, he wouldn’t endure so much pain in trying to control them.

“I don’t know about that. Not now,” he said, looking back down.

It might have been her imagination, but a wave of emotion wafted off Hildy as she listened to him speak.

A throat cleared as Hildy spoke up. “How about Ajax and I give you two a moment to catch-up. We’ll be over here collecting trash.”

Zia watched as the two moved like graceful gazelles to the areas where Egolar remains littered the parking lot.

When they were out of normal hearing range, she asked, “Boogie? Can you tell me what happened? Please, walk me through what went down.” She had to gather as much information from him before another episode erupted.

He began to speak without looking directly at her. It was as if he didn’t deem himself worthy enough to do so.

“Seems like you kind of know what I am. What all these busters out here dead are too.”

“Yes, I do.”

“I sort of knew you would when you showed up with that big lion angel.”

“Lion angel?”

“Yeah, you know, Mr. Greg. I tried to hide that I knew what he was when y’all came over here the other day. I don’t want nobody who shouldn’t know to find out that there are folks like me around them. People trip out when they find out. I don’t hurt folks, but they don’t understand.”

Her heart ached at this vulnerable display of his painful life.

“I know, sweetheart. Now, please, how did this happen to you?”

“I came over to check on your ride like normal. I like to do it when the little kids still in school. That way, I can take my time and look over everything. That’s when it happened.”

He stopped.

“Take your time, but please, I need to know what they did so we can help you.”

“It was two of them directed by a man in a suit who grabbed me. The two guys had something wrong with them. They was like the others that come looking for kids like me. I could sense the evil like it was inside of them. Like a lot of the others.”

She wouldn’t allow his description to spook her, so Zia concentrated on getting him to give her details about the rest of his ordeal. “Where they two black guys in their twenties?”

“Yeah, sounds like them.” He shuffled his feet before speaking again. “They was too strong for me to fight them off. They made me talk to you on the phone while the man in the suit slashed your tires.”

Seething and hot, blood boiled within as she listened to his tale.

“Then what happened? I know you went through a lot all day.”

“I stayed as strong as I could. They took me up to your place while the guy in the suit sprayed your door.” He stole a look at her. “He picked the lock to your door and made us go in. That man took some stuff out your bathroom. I could see a hairbrush. Then the other two went into your bedroom. I stayed out front. I didn’t want to see what they would do.” His exhale was long and labored. “Miss Zia, they brought your pillows out, put them on the floor and pissed on them.”

“Those nasty bastards!” Zia trembled with anger and a degree of sickness of the stomach to know that demon-possessed people had been in her apartment and peed on her pillows.

“Yeah, they did some more stuff, but I couldn’t see what it was. I’d say if you can, have someone else go in and get your things because the other ones made me come back with them after I was handed off.”

“Wait, tell me about the handoff. Did they all seem to know each other?”

“Yeah, it seemed like they talked about a person who knew everyone. They didn’t look like they knew each other good, though.”

“Okay. Then why did the Egolars—you know, the alien birds—take you back to my place?”

“I don’t exactly know how long it was. All I remember was that the dude in the business suit blew something into my face and when I woke, only them folks was around. That’s when they made me take them back over to your apartment.

“They busted the door down. I felt like they wanted me to go in first like they were on the watch for booby-traps or something.”

“What did they do once they were there?” She had to know what was so interesting that her apartment had become Grand Central Station.

“After I went in, they followed. When they saw the pillows, they were pissed. After they went into the bedroom, I could tell those guys from before had done something bad in there for how fast they ran out. It was like they had been, how you say it when you can’t get what you wanted?”

“Deprived?”

“Yeah, that’s the word. Seemed to me they acted like they had been deprived of smelling you in there. By the time we had been back, it smelled like piss and…” He paused. “What I hope ain’t shit in your bedroom.”

“Ew, gross! Why would they do something so horrible?”

“One of them Egolarts,” Zia didn’t try to correct him on the proper pronunciation. Plus, his words were coming to fast to try to stop their flow as his pace continued to speed up, “said them dudes must be trying to mark the place so that more of them could come back. I remember them saying something about it not being a fit place for a portal.”

“A what?” Zia’s skin crawled. “Did you say they thought my place was a portal?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Hildy and Ajax came to rejoin them. Both of them looked around the dark area.

“This was too easy, something’s off.” Hildy stayed alert as she continued to scan the area.

“Why do you say that?”

“Because we’re not swamped with hundreds of Egolars and demons,” Ajax said.

Zia shot a glance over to Boogie as his eyes grew big. Leave it to Ajax to be blunt to a fault.

“Here, the man in the suit told me to give you this.” Boogie pulled something out from his back pocket. He gave her a surprisingly ornate envelope. When she took it, he stepped back to put some distance between them.

Zia eyed him. “Did they do more to hurt you besides that dust?”

His young face twisted into a snarl and a bark, as the child appeared to have a war going on within.

When he spoke, his voice was deeper, thick and graveled like that of an animal. “I don’t know what all happened. What I do know is that I’m not safe to be around, Miss Zia. They did something, and now I can’t control myself.” He stopped talking as humps of muscle popped up on his shoulders, and his arms began to lengthen. “Go, I’m not myself,” he pleaded.

“Not until we figure out what’s going on, and how to help you,” she assured him. “Where are your parents? I need to get you home and safe.”

It took a moment before the teen was human enough to respond. Thankful Greg had told her about Boogie’s true nature, and what to expect of a young shifter’s temperamental system, Zia was able to deal with the various iterations of his partial shifts.

“I don’t got no parents. They was killed a few years back while out for a run up where we used to live in Lawrenceville,” the boy said. “I live over there now.”

He pointed to a highway overpass in the distance. It was Hildy that stormed forward. She tore his outer t-shirt off to Zia’s shock. Hildy turned the t-shirt inside out and started to clean him up more, grooming the kid like a protective mother hen.

“Here, you’re a big boy.” Hildy gave the t-shirt back to him. “Finish cleaning this dust off of yourself. That might help you to stop shifting.”

They all watched and waited while Boogie wiped his arms and pants with the abused shirt. It was a good thing he had another t-shirt underneath because the temperature had dropped enough for Zia to need a jacket.

He held the shirt in his hand awkward with where to put it as Hildy came back close and held him in a tight embrace. Zia watched as tears welled up in the woman’s eyes.

Boogie stole a glance at Zia to see if she trusted Hildy. When she nodded, he allowed himself to relax in the woman’s arms.

Hildy spoke to the anguished youngster. “If you allow it, I can tell you a story to help you feel better. Would you allow me to do that?”

He remained quiet for a moment as if fighting more internal turmoil. Finally, he spoke. “I don’t think you can. They can make me hurt whenever they want.”

Zia’s heart broke. She had to know, “Sweetheart, who is they? Is it the man in the suit?”

Boogie looked up, his eyes moist as Hildy continued to hug him. “No, he not strong enough. He act like he working for somebody. I’m talking about the big guns. They the ones who come and snatch us up if they want. All the time, I be on the lookout.” Even in the dark, Zia could see defeat weighing him down. “I tried staying off they radar for a long time. It was them who took me. They evil, Miss Zia. I couldn’t let them get you.”

Ajax was by Hildy’s side now.

Zia had to protect him from whatever this was. “They can’t do anything to me. That woman showing you all that love is Miss Hildy. She’s very strong and exceptionally good.” Zia softened her voice as another attack morphed the young man’s brow into an elongated version of itself. “Please, Boogie, if you can hear me, give Miss Hildy permission to help. I’ll be right here to help too.”

She opened it to reveal a note written in a beautiful calligraphy script.

If you want this little wolf to have any hope of a peaceful life, you’ll follow these instructions.

Zia looked up at Ajax and Hildy who had started to read the note along with her. She didn’t make it far until a huge realization hit.

“Where’s, wait…” she dropped her hands down to her side as strength to go on ebbed away. Zia willed herself not to react as she looked around in a controlled level of panic search. Where’s Greg?”