Big Gator: A BBW shape shifter paranormal romance (9 page)

             
This
is why it was a challenge to hang out at any bar or restaurant that
served fried gator tail. This part of the curse repeatedly
traumatized even the most hardened, heartless shifter – like Hugh
Cliburn, for example.             

             “
So
tell me about this potential Floridian candidate,” Brandy said.

             
Shit-this-person-is-HERE?
Marianne
mouthed to her.

             
Ray's
own interest was perking up now.  He LOVED being a shifter, and
he would not take too kindly to anybody trying to take that away from
him. In prison, he already had experienced what it was like NOT being
able to shift no matter how badly he wanted or needed to in a
dangerous situation. He even took up Zen Buddhist mediation to try
and control the urges behind bars, which in one sense made him a
stronger man, but he still never wanted to go through a gator-less
existence again.

             
Ray
now also had shifted back into human form, but he didn't have the
decency to cover up. He stood up and faced Brandy and Marianne in his
full glory.  Ray was forever hoping Brandy would see something
she liked, since she apparently had liked it on two previous
occasions over the years.

             
Brandy
turned away from the intruding part of Ray that was at eye level. 
It was, indeed, distracting.

             “
Well,
it's a woman,” Josephine said. “And Jenny says their sources have
confirmed that she's a conjure woman.  They've tracked her
visiting supply shops for ingredients.”

             
By
ingredients, Aunt Josephine meant a variety of herbs and the ground
bones of various animals to be used in the casting of spells and the
creation of talismans.  Quite frankly, some of the stuff you
don't have to buy.  For example, a number of Hoodoo spells
require the inclusion of human excrement. Menstrual blood might come
in handy, too.

             
The
most nefarious rumor among Brandy's family members involved the idea
that Eve LaBelle COULD and DID have a child, and that it was a
Guyette who knocked her up and then abandoned her.
 
What
the other Southern families did to her, who really knew.  You'd
have to ask THEM about the rumors floating around in the family lore
of THEIR kin.

             
According
to this tradition that assumed true Guyette guilt, that's what got
Brandy's family into trouble. A variation on this tradition further
insisted that as long as Eve LaBelle had living descendents, the
Alligator Curse remained in force for everyone.  If her family
line was snuffed out, the curse would be lifted.

             
If
the worst case scenario were true, and that a Guyette had gotten Eve
LaBelle pregnant and then abandoned her and the child, that meant
that the rogue anti-gator Guyettes would going after one of their own
kin, not just one of Madame LaBelle's descendants.

             
Brandy's
opinion was that the easiest way to see if the curse could be broken
would be for a Guyette to be willing to undergo an exorcism, just to
see what happened. But even though there really seemed to be nothing
to lose, no Guyette had been willing to step foot in a church since
1884.

             “
Jenny
plans to be up your way in a few weeks,” Josephine told her niece.
“How would you feel about putting' her up at your place?”

             
Oh,
that could be tricky, if folks know what she's up to,
Brandy
thought.

             “
I'm
not sure that's such a good idea,” Brandy said.

             “
Look,”
her aunt said. “You said it yourself, this is probably another wild
goose-chase.  And really, it's a long way from a rumor to
reality.  I need you to watch out for her.  She's gonna be
involved in this anyway, and I don't want anything bad to happen. 
Not at the hands of a LaBelle, and not at the hands of any shifter.”

             
Jenny
was blood, and Brandy knew she was obligated.  So she she agreed
to let her cousin stay with her as she hatched her plan.  Maybe
she could actually talk some sense into her if she was under her
roof.

             “
Who
else is involved?” Brandy asked.

             “
I'll
let Jenny give you the details,” Josephine. “I try to stay out of
it for the most part.”

             
Not
long after, Brandy ended the call.

             “
No,
no, NO!!” Marianne insisted. “Who is this?  Let me guess -
you're cousin Jenny.  She's looney tunes.”

             “
Yes,
it's Jenny,” Brandy said.  “And she's coming to stay with me
for awhile.”

             “
I
can't believe we're back to this again,” Ray said, adding his own
two cents.  “Seriously, Brandy, this is nonsense.”

             “
Ray,”
Brandy said, “you're more afraid that it might NOT be nonsense.”

             
Brandy
didn't think that any potential success could come of her cousin's
plan.  But, if there was even a chance of something here, things
would get ugly real fast.  There could be a real feud, worse
than the Hatfields and the McCoys (and the states of West Virginia
and Kentucky almost went to war over
that
family
fight).   Shifters who wanted out – those who wanted the
curse lifted – were a small minority among all the families. 

             “
Well,
it's a good thing most of us don't support this bullshit,” Marianne
said. 

             “
Except
for the Powells,” Ray said. 

             
The
Powells of Alabama were the wealthiest family out of the seven,
heavily invested in industry and national politics.  Being
shifters was now causing significantly more inconvenience for them
than the rest of the community, since many of them increasingly were
in the public eye.  Frankly, their public existence made
everyone nervous.

             “
The
Powells won't do the dirty work themselves,” Ray said.  “But
I bet they're financially backing the efforts of breakaway
dissenters.” 

             
Brandy
understood what he was saying.  Everyone knew that the Powells
would sell them all out in the end, if they had to.

Chapter 10

             
Brandy
showed up for her first day at Animal Sphere.  This involved
filling out paperwork, getting a uniform in her size (which did not
happen right away), and getting a tour of the inner-workings of the
whole theme park.  Four hours had gone by, and she still had not
seen McEvans

             
When
he finally showed up, he told her to meet him out by the gator pit
after her late afternoon coffee break.

             
When
Brandy went looking for her boss, she found him mending a wire fence
with a couple of maintenance guys on the eastern side of the manmade
swamp.  He was pushing against the fence, telling the guys that
the fence was not strong enough to withstand a wily/angry gator who
wanted to lam it.

             “
Someone's
gonna push his snout under this thing and lift it up,” McEvans told
them.

             
It
was a scorcher that day, 100 degrees in the shade. McEvans was
shirtless, with sweat glistening all across his torso.

             
Brandy
was transfixed.

             
He
has a set of abs that are begging to be slathered with barbecue sauce
and thrown on a grill,
she
thought.  Brandy often confused good food with good sex. 
They were both sensual experiences, after all.

             
He
finally turned around and saw her standing there.

             “
Guyette!”
he said.  “Good to see you!”

             
He
walked over to her, picking up his shirt from the grass. He put it
back on, but didn't button it up yet.  Those abs continued to
sizzle right before her very eyes.

             “
Are
you ready to meet our crew?”

             
McEvans
meant the gators.

             
Brandy
definitely was ready.  Primarily, she was wondering if the
Cliburns were still around.

             “
I
heard that you had to shoot some of them not too long ago,” Brandy
said.  “A nasty fight or something.  Did you have to put
them down?”

             
McEvans
did not look to pleased at being reminded of that night.

             “
Three
of them went after Shirley,” he said. “There was something really
wrong with those gators. They weren't behaving normally.”

             
He
sighed.

             “
You've
been on the bridge, I'm sure,” he said. “Let me show you the view
from the other side, where only employees are allowed.”

             
He
wasn't answering her question.

             “
So
did you put them down?” Brandy repeated, as they walked together.

             
“
One
of them died,” he said.  “The other two were okay, and the
vet gave them a clean bill of health. We kept those two separate for
a couple of days, and then reintroduced them back into the main
population.  I'd put them down if I could, but there are
protocols.  It's one thing if a gator attacks a human.  But
it's another thing if it’s just another gator.  I know that
something's wrong with them, but then again, they're reptiles. 
They're primal.  They didn't actually commit a crime.”

             
Like
hell they didn't,
Brandy
thought.

             “
The
really creepy thing,” McEvans continued, “is that two that
survived cannibalized the one that didn't before we could get him out
of there.  All we have left was a chunk of his lower jaw.

             
Brandy
panicked.  Was this a section of a
human
or
gator
jaw? 
McEvans didn’t sound like he was suspicious about the jawbone, so
either it had to be a small chunk of human bone, or a large chunk of
gator bone.

             
Brandy
also wondered which one had died.  The other two were trapped,
and she'd be coming face to face with them soon. She knew that the
Cliburns would be out for her scaly ass for real this time. 

             
She
had to figure out a plan to get rid of them as soon as possible. 
Knowing that McEvans had kept them alive against his better
judgement, this meant that he wouldn't be so sad if something
'accidentally' happened to them on Brandy's watch.

             “
Do
you still have the jawbone?”

             “
Yeah,
why?”

             “
Can
I see it?”

             “
Uh,
sure,” McEvans said.  “Why?”