by Thomas, Ally
“I don’t know really. The virus works fast on humans. You were born on Earth?”
From my favorite large lounge chair, she smiled at me and flipped her legs out from under herself. She could not sit still. The virus was working on her.
I knew what she was. I wanted to know if she knew. The ‘w’ word did not come up with unless the person brought it up.
Crossing her legs again - left knee over right and then right knee over left - she could not get comfortable. “I am not human.”
“What are you then?” I asked.
“I’m were.”
“What do you mean?”
“Whatever, dude. Werewolf, you know.” She flicked her long blond hair over her shoulder and then gathered it up into a ponytail and started playing with it.
I wanted to bury my head in her thick hair. I’d never seen such a honey blond hair color, except maybe on some of the fledglings of the vampire angel, Michael. All my kind had the ‘dark look’ as we call it. Both my mom and dad, a vampire and a werewolf had black hair and dark features.
“That’s not what my family calls it,” she retaliated. “It’s just being ‘were’. I haven’t gone through the change yet, so technically I’m not…”
Before she could finish her sentence, she started convulsing. Her blue eyes rolled up in her head. This was not going to be easy…at all.
I rushed to her side. Of course, she was oblivious to my movements, but I knew I had to keep her from getting away from me or leaving my room. It was my only chance. It was her only chance.
I wrestled with her, finally pinning her into the large recliner. “Hold still,” I shouted. Christ, I don’t even know your name, I thought. The realization stabbed into my heart. How fucking sad, I said to myself.
“How fucking sad, is this?” I asked her as she thrashed about. At times, her long hair covered her face.
She growled at me. Viciously. Sadistically. When she threw her head upwards, I saw the demon virus surface in her white eyes. She struggled against me, biting, snapping, heaving her head, the only part of her body she could move, at me. A faint smell of roses hit me. Strawberry shampoo, I wondered. I’ve got to at least know your name.
Suddenly visions of my demonic aunt flashed before my eyes. The stories my mom and dad had told me. The images I had seen myself, in my nightmares. The snakes. The hounds. The pits. The pain. The torture. The sacrifices. It was the origin of the new virus, the one I had feared my entire life would finally arrive, the one passed on to me when my demonic aunt had bitten my mother when she was pregnant with me. Succumbing to it and becoming one of them was Hell for human, werewolf, vampire, or zombie. The virus did not play any favorites. Somehow my mother survived and I was born mostly normal. It did not affect me. Well…sort of.
Even with the countless transfusions I had been given since birth, the blood virus did not leave me. It was a part of me. It was in my DNA. It was the reason I was a different type of werewolf. It did not matter if most people I met did not ‘get me’ or understand what I was. I knew I’d never be rid of the virus, and I’d probably never be understood by another. One day I want to meet my aunt and show her what I am, I thought. I knew on a new level why my mother despised her sister now. She was the reason this girl before me was fighting for her life.
A pain surfaced on the side of my neck. My birthmark burned again, same as it had when I had seen the zombie bite the girl. Amid the chaos in the coffee shop, the tingling sensation had gotten my attention. Was it a call to another creature like me?
Now in my room, the girl slammed her head into the back of the chair, whisking her golden locks over her shoulders. I got a glimpse of her neck. The mark on her neck was glowing as well. I knew I had a chance to try something insane.
Maybe my cure would work. If not, the girl would be dead quick enough like the others infected who did not make it. But I had to figure out something. A cure had to exist for this new virus that was jumping species. Werewolves, vampires, humans were all at risk now. We had been getting reports about instances of such cases.
Afterwards I would not have time to send a seek and destroy distress signal to my dad or my team. I did not want to be destroyed or have this girl destroyed, but we’d need to be if this did not work.
I repositioned my body on the girl again, this time straddling her. I growled at her, baring my teeth. The Zombie Wolf was always in me. I did not have to work at it anymore. He was only a moment’s notice away, always waiting, always ready. All I had to do was visual the Zombie Wolf and I’d turn into him. To what degree I transformed, sometimes did matter. I could control how far ‘zombie’ I’d go.
When my long claws came forth, elongating and extending from my fingertips, I felt the zinging sensation. Fuck, I thought. I hate that feeling. But I did not will them to retreat again into my hands again. There was no turning back now.
I watched as they grew longer, some twenty-four inches – one inch per year of my werewolf age. My claws were as strong as steel. I slammed my hands down into the rungs of the recliner chair. They dug in further than I had intended. My claws ripped through the soft pillow fabric, slamming into, and then pass, the metal frame. My muscles filled out, the upper portion first followed by my thighs and legs. I stopped changing any further in front of the girl. My sunken skull face I could save for another day. She did not need to see the complete Zombie Wolf just yet.
The girl paused for a moment. With the basic appearance of my werewolf self, I had probably scared the last fiber in her being.
“You’ve never seen the likes of me, have you?” I asked, my wolf sense bringing out the cocky attitude I possessed.
Her eyes widened. She shook her head.
“I’m sorry to say it gets worse.”
She simply nodded.
“If this doesn’t work,” I said to her. My eyes flashing werewolf gold. My mouth full of the one inch razor sharp demon teeth I had inherited from my demonic grandfather who was the other member of my mom’s family who she refused to let me to meet. “If this doesn’t work, we’re both dead,” I told the girl.
Telepathically I sent the signal to my dad. He’d have to destroy us both. My mom would never forgive me, but I had to know if the girl was like me. She had to be like me. I could not be one of a kind, a freak of nature because of a demonic blood virus.
When I sank my fangs into the girl’s neck, into her birthmark same as mine, she calmed down for a few moments. The burning sensation in my neck subsided as well. I worked feverishly sucking away the poison. Its bitter taste was the first thing I felt sliding down my throat. As I drank from her, spitting out the poison in between breaths, I hoped and prayed I’d eventually taste blood. Then I’d know the virus had been cleaned out of her system. She had to be worth saving.
***
“Zachary, we need to talk.”
When I opened my eyes, my vision registered everything upside down. This can’t be right, I thought to myself. Did my cure not work? Quickly I realized my dad was standing in the middle of my room, and I was hanging from the ceiling upside down. His tall, muscular frame commanded a presence that was all his own. Seven feet tall. There was no missing him in a crowd. He wore a tightly fitted gray t-shirt and black nylon gym shorts which was his normal attire and complimented his dark looks. Black hair. Gold eyes. Rugged features. I was my dad’s son through and through, I thought. Except for the scaring and tribal tattoos I had across the right side of my face, from the virus, I looked just like him. My mom had told me that many times.
“The old man saved your ass again,” my dad said.
Dad was not old by any means. When you’re immortal, how can you grow old? He had been a pure werewolf for a very long time.
“Thanks,” I said, understanding that tone he took with me when I had fucked up. “Can you let me down?”
Casually he strolled over to my corner of the room. I hung upside down by a few sturdy ropes, one wrapped around each ankle. He sighed loudly, blowing steam in my face
.
Momentarily, I squeezed my eyes shut.
“Son, explain to me one thing. You go on a mission to kill zombies. And you bring one home? What is this girl doing here on our planet?”
I wiggled around in my constraints. “That’s a great question, Dad,” I offered, hoping I could stall long enough to cut myself down. Before I could move, he reached up and slashed the cords with his long claws. There was no getting around my dad. He’d see right through me in an instant.
I fell in a heap on the floor. When I collected myself and stood up, I saw the girl. She had been placed in a large steel cage on the other side of the room, probably for her own protection. Instantly I was angry. Calm down, Zachary, I told myself. Dad will not deal well with you if you freak out. I ran through my options in my head.
“Son?”
Fuck it, I thought. I’ll just tell the old man the truth. I’d tell him what had been buzzing around in my head since I had seen the girl. My wolf sense could be way off, but I did not think so.
“Look at her neck,” I said. “Do you see it? I have the same mark, by birth, Dad. How would she have that unless she was born with the virus too? I had to save her. At the least, I had to try. I think I got all the poison out. Can you tell? I’m mean…” I paused because I could tell he had suddenly become very alert, very calculating, yet unsure of the situation. He was paying attention to my every word.
I heard the girl growl and then whimper.
I wanted to go to her, but I held my ground, hoping to appear stoic, regal like my dad was. “No other werewolf has a mark like that. It has to mean something. “I can’t be the only one of my kind,” I said.
I heard the girl whimper again.
Throwing up his hands, he glanced over at the girl and then back at me. “This is not me. This is you. Will you please? She won’t quiet down for me.”
I did not understand what he meant until I saw her face and her liquid blue eyes. She was upset.
Dad kicked his heels a time or two, making his way slowly to the cage where I stood. “That’s why you saved her?”
“Yes,” I snapped.
He frowned at me, rubbing the stubble on his chin.
The girl growled several times at him, so my dad moved to the other side of the cage away from her and me.
“Why is she caged up?” I asked, tracing my hands along the steel rod, hoping she’d come closer to one of the sides, preferably my side. Finally I stopped near the steel door, opposite her at the other end. The cage covered much of one side of the large room. I motioned for her to come to me, sticking my hand through the bars.
“I did not want her to get away. What were you doing?” Dad asked as he finally placed his hands on his hips in frustration.
“I did not have a chance to finish my experiment.”
“Zachary, this isn’t something you need to get involved in. Just let it go. I’ll call Containment. We’ll act like it did not happen. We don’t need this kind of trouble.”
Instantly I reacted. My body went rigid. She wasn’t going to be put down. I owed it to my werewolf heritage to try to save her. I had heard my mom’s version of my mom and dad’s romance. Dad had never gone into details, but I knew what he had done to save my mom because she had told me. I wasn’t anybody’s fool. I decided to use some of my mom’s logic on my dad.
“Did you leave Mom in Hell to rot when she was turned into a vampire? Did you? A daughter of Satan? When she drank Satan’s blood, you were there. She told me. You were there to see her change into a vampire. That was not by accident. You knew then who she really was, and how important she was. She wasn’t evil like everyone thought, and you knew that. You never doubted her even when she did. Her exact words. Over the years, you’ve done everything you can to save her. Every time she has needed saving. Mom told me!”
“Your mother is a writer. She exaggerates,” he replied, rolling his eyes toward the ceiling. “Who is this girl to you anyways, Zach? You don’t even know her?”
“I get that. I’m not an idiot.” I tried to control my rage. “I’m not sure, Dad. But I felt it when I saw her in the coffee shop. I don’t want to regret later that I could have done something, you know? I don’t want to live alone, being the only freak of nature, a werewolf zombie even if it means I can walk among them undetected. I don’t want that! If I don’t try to save her, I won’t know. Now will I? What if she too was born with the new virus? What if that makes her unique like me?”
“That would explain the mark. Maybe she was born with the virus. Who is her father or mother? Your aunt? This may be beyond your abilities, son. I’m sorry. We don’t save zombies. We destroy them. We have to stay on top of this situation before it gets worse among the vampires and werewolves.”
“It’s gotten worse, Dad. It’s jumped species. I know it.”
“Do you have proof,” he challenged.
I pointed to the girl in the cage. “She’s a werewolf, Dad. She told me so.”
Not believing me, he grunted.
Using his same logic, I rebelled. He had to understand what he was saying. Rules were meant to be bent sometimes, even broken.
“Before there were zombies,” I began. “Werewolves used to kill vampires. And yet, you did not kill Mom. You were there to protect her.” As best I could, I faced Dad head on. I made a point to thrust my chin up and glare up at him like I had seen my mom doing on more than one occasion. With his height, he had no problem looking down at me, but he had to know I wasn’t backing down. I hadn’t backed down against Rex and the others, and I wasn’t backing down now. As insane as it seemed, I wasn’t wrong about this.
Dad searched my face for many minutes. The silence in the room thickened. I could hear only the girl’s ragged breathing as she fought the poison.
Trying to remain calm, I refused to look away from my dad, glaring up at him. I was ready to take on the world. My god, I thought. What has happened to me? I turned my attention back to the girl. She had slowly approached my side of the cage and stood near me, also glaring over my shoulder at my dad. Her blonde hair was tousled amid her face, but I could see the distrust behind her eyes. Even in her chaotic state, she looked adorable.
In typical parent fashion, my dad reached out his hand and rubbed his fingers through my black hair, somewhat shaking my entire body. He was unbelievably strong. He did that dismissal move on me when he wanted me to know that, for now, he was tabling the situation. I knew it wasn’t over.
“We’ll have to address this if your experiment doesn’t work. Okay?” he asked.
“Yes, sir,” I replied.
Finally he patted me on the shoulder. “I forget how stubborn, like your mother, you are.” He chuckled and walked to the door.
Realizing I had gotten my way and he was leaving me to my task, I watched as he lingered at the door. “You know,” he said. “You are the son of a vampire with healing blood. Maybe that can help.”
Our eyes locked for a moment as my mind raced with new possibilities. He had deliberately given me an idea.
“Are you fine with me sharing the details on this situation with your moth…”
I heard him pause, not finishing his sentence or word.
“If I don’t show up for dinner, yeah tell her... Uh…” I did not want to predict the outcome.
“Do you need my help?”
“No. I’ve got this.”
Again he watched me for several minutes, not saying anything. “Well if you reconsider, call me.” He tapped his fingers to the side of his face along the temple area. “I won’t be far away.”
I nodded.
Dad was a man of few words sometimes, but I knew he had my back. He was my ‘Go to’ man if things got really crazy, and I did not take that lightly at all. He returned a nod and closed the door.
***
Once the girl shifted a second time between werewolf and zombie, I knew I had to get into the cage with her before the zombie version stuck. It wouldn’t do for me to simply watch her from outside
the steel bars of her cage as her werewolf self merged permanently with the zombie monster. And the version of zombie I was looking at was the same demonic creatures we had seen at the coffee shop. With her werewolf ancestry, she looked like a demonic werewolf, crazed and uncontrollable. It reminded me of myself when I was in full ‘Zombie Wolf’ mood.
Now as I watched the girl shift back and forth, I realized I hadn’t gotten all of the poisonous blood out of her system, so it was time for Plan B.
Unfortunately, performing Plan B meant I had to get up and close to her, essentially taking my life in my own hands. Knowing you’re immune to the zombie virus is one thing; getting mauled by a crazed werewolf zombie in a cage is quite another. My past fights with human zombies in their raging sickness amounted to a few cuts and scratches. My claws did my work. If I got blood on me, I simply washed it away. Having the zombie virus in my blood just meant I could smell them out faster than everyone else. That was one of my many secret with zombie killing. Any injuries of mine healed, and they healed quickly. Trying to reattach my arm before dinner was going to be hard to explain to my mom and dad.
When the word ‘heal’ crossed my mind, I recalled what my dad had said about my mother’s vampiric blood. Supposedly, she was unlike other vampires. Those turned by her could heal anyone’s injuries. She had saved others on many occasions, a few times with my dad. Even though I was skeptical, it was just the thing I needed right about now.
Suddenly I heard a loud buzzing sound in my ears like a warning going off in the back of my skull. The implant in my head radiated a piercing signal of hesitation as I stared at the lock on the cage door. My arms and legs became frozen in place.
Dad had told my mom the situation, and they were both at their battle stations, controlling my implant. These are the situations that arise when having two supernatural and overprotected parents can be more than a person bargains for, I thought to myself.
I wanted to will my legs to work. I wanted to walk away from the girl who I wanted to save as she struggled with the poison now raging in her body because I knew what the end result would be, for both of us. I felt the implant sizzling in my head, directing me to keep the door shut and wait it out. Dad had definitely told Mom because, above everyone, Mom knew what I was about to do and she did not want to lose her only son. I cursed the fact I had the implant in my head and was allowing myself to be directed by my overzealous parents. I had to do the unthinkable and unleash the beast.
