“Oh, yeah. But you only partially here. You’re holding shit back.”
They rode in silence for a little while, before Lucien started talking of his own free will. “I worked for and with some shady people. Shifters, just like us.”
“Doing what?”
“Security mostly. Mule every once in a while. I don’t give a damn what they bring into the bayous at night. No skin off my back. Make a few grand by standing guard while they unload and ship it out to other locations. If they got a location they can’t manage to get to, I can usually get it there for them, make another grand or two for my trouble.”
“You steal from ‘em?” Maverik asked.
“No. I started noticing they were shipping out as many packages as they were shipping in. And that wasn’t the way it was before. Kept an eye on things, started poking around. And stumbled over a death scene like in the movies. Only, it was animals, not people.”
Maverik stayed quiet and let Lucien gather his thoughts.
“I mean, carcasses everywhere; thrown on top of each other, just rotting in the sun. I can understand hunting to feed your family, you know? But this wasn’t hunting. This was just killing. And the carcases had been skinned, leaving the rest of the body to decay. In some instances the teeth were pulled out. The heads had been removed. The paws and claws removed.”
“They were harvesting the hides for the black market,” Maverik said.
“Yeah. Gators, wolves, nutria, beaver, foxes, panthers, bears, anything you can think of that lives in the bayous and swamps. I told them to move their operation somewhere else, and stop murdering the animals, or I’d make them pay.”
“They didn’t like that.”
“They laughed. For a little while.”
Maverik shot a look his way, waiting for the explanation.
“Told them every time I found new bodies, I’d take one of them in trade. And I did. I’d move up behind them, lock onto them and take ‘em to the deep water. I stored their bodies in the beaver dams and the gator holes underwater.”
“That’s all kinds of fucking freaky,” Maverik said. “But fully understood.”
Lucien grinned. “Scared the fuck out of them. I was about six in before they came to find me.”
“They waited until you took six of their friends?”
“Yep. But don’t get confused thinking anybody is their damn friend. All they wanted was me to stop killing people so they could find more people to work for them.”
“Did you?”
“Hell no. But things got real when I happened to grab one of the ringleader’s brothers. They started hunting me. It was fun,” he said with a shrug. “But then I got another one. They figured out they couldn’t stop me, and if they didn’t stop killing the animals, they’d all be dead. They knew I was a shifter; they were, too. But they were foxes, cougars. None of them were at home in the water like me. I thought I had the upper hand, but then they found a way to get to me. I never saw it coming.”
“Too arrogant for your own good.”
“Yep. But don’t tell anybody I admitted it.”
“What’d they do?”
“They dropped two sticks of dynamite into the swamp. They’d just seen me and knew where I went under. I thought I’d swim away in time. But I didn’t realize they had people spread out. They all dropped dynamite into the water, too. Created a huge fucking kill everything in the water circle around me. I remember an ‘oh fuck’ moment as the explosions started, but then nothing, until this female was trying to bury me alive.”
“Hellen.”
“Yep. Turns out she found me floating belly up in the water, pulled my ‘ungrateful ass’ as she puts it to land and dumped me in a hole. I woke up when she started shoveling dirt on top of me.”
“How bad was it?”
“Well, last I was aware before the explosions, I had two eyes. There’s a scar in the back of my head where the bullet went in, so luckily it missed my brain, but took my eye. And people think gators having a walnut sized brain is a bad thing,” Lucien said, laughing at his own funny. “I’ve got slashes across the midsection of my body, I’m not sure, but I’m thinking they’re where the propellers got me. Which I’m sure was done on purpose. Couple of more bullet holes through my chest and belly.”
“Damn, they really wanted you dead.”
“Seems that way. They’ll probably be pissed if they figure out that I’m not. Can’t imagine how they’d know that, though. So, while it wasn’t very smart to come here for that very reason, I don’t see how they’ll find me alive. I really think Hell’s safe. As is everyone else.”
