Page 1 of Lica

Chapter 1

“Run.” When they only stood there staring at him, Lica finally shoved his two brothers in the direction of the woods to get them going. If they were caught by their father, he’d knock them out and then blame the accident that he’d caused on them. As they were getting away, it was Edmond, his brother closer to his age, who shifted—which is something they rarely did, especially out in the open like they were, but he was getting further away with each bound of his paws. When Guy, another younger brother, did the same, Lica hoped they would be far enough away that no one noticed. Christ, he hoped so. That’s all they needed was for their father to know that they could shift into a wolf after all this time when they’d been hiding it from their parents since birth.

Since their mother was a wolf, not even a full-blooded one, and their father was a human, the chances of them being able to shift were slim. The six of them, since they were old enough to be able to shift at ten, had been told to keep it from their parents or they’d use their ability not just against them but other people as well. It had been easy for them to hide it, so far anyway, since their mother couldn’t shift either. Lica thought it was the only thing that had saved their lives a lot during their childhood so far. Being able to shift to heal their wounds after a severe beating from them.

“Where are they? Them other two? Where’d they go?” Knowing that he was testing his father’s already short temper, he asked him who he meant. The slap to his face knocked him backward, rolling him down the hill enough that he’d not be able to get to him quickly. Lica laid there. “Your fucking brothers. Where did they go? One of you is gonna take the blame for this, and I’m guessing it might well be you. You fucking shit.”

He didn’t mind the name calling. In fact, Lica rarely noticed him being called anything but some version of fucking something his entire life. There were other names that he was called, rarely Lica Frazier, which was his real name. None of his brothers were ever called by their given name.

Climbing up the hill when the police arrived, he stayed as far from his father as he could. Mother hadn’t been with them this time, which was a good thing. She would have surely noticed that the other two could shift. And that, as they say, would have been the literal end of all six of them. The three with their father, and the three at home with their mother.

“Damned boy, there was driving.” He’d not been, and he was positive that the officer knew it. Dan Wilkins. At sixteen, Lica could pass for a person ten years older, but Dan knew how old each of them was since he’d been around when they’d been born. He was a part of their wolf pack. “Trying to get him to stay on the straight and narrow is damned near impossible with them other ones screaming in the back seat.”

Dan spit out his tobacco juice before speaking. “Don’t see no other kids, Fred. You been drinking again?” Dan leaned in and sniffed father. “Yeah, I’ll say you’ve been drinking a great deal. And that boy there, he wasn’t driving. I told you last month we got us some camera’s all over the place now, just about on all the roads. I saw you getting out of the driver’s door.”

“You calling me a liar, Daniel?” Dan said that he was on account of him lying to him again. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. That boy there, he was driving and the one that tore out Mr. Charles’s fencing when he swerved off the road.” Father laughed. “It don’t matter to me, none who you think was driving. That little fucker is the one that is going to be putting the fence back up for knocking it down. And you call me a liar again, and I’ll snap your head off where your mouth is.”

“You’re not above the law, Fred Frazier. You best be remembering that. Now, I’m going to ask you again, you driving that car? Remember what I said? I got us cameras all over the place now.” Father glared at him, but Lica knew he’d not hit him in front of the police. For all his blustering, his father was afraid of the police more than he was their mother. And she was terrifying to every living soul in the world. They all knew that.

“I was driving. But I ain’t going to be putting that fence back up. That’s what I got these damned kids for. Doing the work that I don’t want to.” Officer Wilkins said he’d see about that, and Lica knew that their father would be putting up the broken fence, and they’d be getting the beaten for him having to do it.

Officer Wilkins told him to get under the wheel to drive the car back to his home. That it was all right this time. Father was put in the back of the cruiser and locked in before Lica was ready to admit that he was terrified. Hanging onto the handle of the driver’s side door, he counted to twenty, four times, just to keep himself from falling over before he turned and talked to the officer.

“You gonna get your ass beat, ain’t you, boy? You tell me the truth now. You hear me?” He said yes, sir, that they all would. He wasn’t going to lie to him anyway, the man carried a gun, and that was for sure more dangerous than his drunk father was right now. “Your brothers, they out there someplace? Hiding?”

“Yes, sir. I didn’t know what he’d do to them when you showed up. So I sent them on their way.” Lica glanced at the cruiser with his father sitting in the back. “He ain’t going to like you talking to me like this either. He’s going to think I’m telling you falsehoods.”

“I’ll tell him you didn’t say a word. Won’t matter, I don’t think, but I’ll tell him that.” Dan spit again, then looked at him. “I want you boys to come over to my house tomorrow after you’ve been put to bed. You can do that, can’t you? I’ve seen you out and about working.”

“Yes, sir. So long as he’s not up and around.” He said he’d not be doing much but sleeping when he got home until the fence was up. “We’ll be there. Around midnight?”

“Yeah, that sounds about right. I got me some work for you six that will give you some pocket money. I hear tell that your parents aren’t paying your dues for school. I’ll pay you enough to take care of that and get you some boots, too. I hate to say this to you, but you’ll have to find a good hiding place for them so he doesn’t find them. He’ll sell them off for sure, knowing him.” Lica said he had the perfect place. “I’m right sorry that you and the others have to put up with them as your parents. You’re good boys, and I hate that he beats on you so much. Both of them do it, don’t they?”

“Yes, sir. They’re powerful mean when they think we’ve done something wrong.” Dan nodded. Then he asked him when he’d be eighteen. “I’ll be eighteen in thirteen months and three days. But I won’t be running unless he makes me. Us brothers, we made us a promise that we’d stay together until we can all leave. And Devlin, he’ll be eighteen in four years.”

“Gonna be hard, you know that, don’t you?” He said that he’d not leave his family behind. “All right then. I’ll keep an eye out for you boys. Them fates, they surely did mess up a bit by putting them two together and then giving you boys to them monsters.”

He didn’t bother agreeing or disagreeing with the man. Dan had known his parents since they were kids together. And from what his grannie had told them when she could visit, was that their father had been just what Dan called him. A monster. So had been their mother.

Driving the car back to the house, he was inside and in his room before his mother noticed him. Checking on the other two, just making sure they made it home, he was glad to see that not only did they make it, but they didn’t seem to have been hurt any either.

Their mother would be making her way to the police station tomorrow. Walking too. None of them had a driver’s license but their father. He told them they couldn’t have one until he was sure they’d not run off. But they would, licenses or not. Just as soon as they were all of legal age to do it. Just a little over four more years, and they’d be out of here. Lica only hoped that the six of them lived that long.

Over the next month, the six of them chopped wood for Mr. Wilkins and anyone else who had the money to pay them for work. It was hard work, chopping in the dark, but they were able to get plenty done in that time and also were able to put a new roof on Mr. Chance’s house, round up Ms. Lane’s pigs that got out, and to pick corn and pumpkins for Mr. Brown.

The four hundred dollars they managed to make that was left over from paying their school fees was held onto by Mrs. Wilkins. She even put it all in the bank for them so that they could get it when they wanted. A plan was worked out, too, such that if any of them had some extra cash to put up, they only had to leave it on the back porch under her basket of apples, and she’d put it in the bank. Extra or not, it was going to go into the bank for them to run with. Even if it was ten cents they found on the way into town, it would go into the basket money and be put into the bank.

Over the next several months, the six of them managed to save up just over a thousand dollars. That was after they each got a much-needed pair of boots, coats that they could wear to school, and some paper and pencils for classes. They were all aware that it wasn’t a great deal of money. But it was a start, they thought. They didn’t take much in the way of chances with the cash, never having it on them when they were at home or working. As soon as they got paid, one of them would go right to the Wilkins home and put it under the basket. It was the only way that they felt safe with having a job. Then, their mother caught them working one night.

He hadn’t any idea how she’d figured out that they weren’t home that night. She and father had gone to the bar to play cards and get drunk, and that usually meant that they’d be gone well into the afternoon the next day. They’d be too drunk to drive home, so they’d pull into some lot, pull out their tent, and sleep off their drunkenness. It was their Friday night thing to do.

They had been coming back from working at six in the morning, dirty and exhausted, when she found them along the side of the road walking home. Luckily, he supposed they’d left their tools, an axe, and a limb saw at the place they’d been working. Otherwise, Lica was sure that she would have used it on them. Father was out cold, but she was raging mad.

It was the first time that he’d gotten beaten so badly that he had three ribs broken as well as his left arm. The others, Devlin, had a broken collar and enough cuts to warrant him getting fifty or so stitches. But it was Edmond that had gotten the worst of it. Not only did he have broken ribs, nine of them, but he had both arms broken and his left big toe removed when she used her high heel on his foot to club him, she called it.

She was arrested then. Officer Dan had made it out that they were working out some kind of trouble they’d caused and had to be healthy to do it. Unless she wanted to work for their trouble. Which needless to say, she didn’t. There wasn’t any trouble they caused, of course. But it worked, and Mother ended up in jail. Long enough for them to have healed like humans because shifting would have been dangerous for them.

For the next three months, they were on their own convalescing. If they dared to shift, they’d be all right, but their parents didn’t know they could, so none of them risked trying it. He was nearly eighteen by then and was old enough to be able to care for them on his own if it came to that.

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