by Alexis Davie
She opened her eyes slowly, wincing from the headache.
To her relief, she saw something she recognized: her cute little apartment. She was sprawled out on her couch with her laptop beside her.
She leaned up to a sitting position with a groan. What happened? Had she dreamt it all? She was still wearing the clothes that she had been wearing at the store. She glanced around her apartment. Nobody else was there.
“What the hell?” she muttered, holding her head from the headache.
That’s when the guy from her car walked out of the kitchen with a banana in his hand.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I was hungry.”
“Get away from me!” she shrieked, throwing the closest thing she could get her hands on at him.
It turned out to be a pillow, which bounced off his chest pathetically. He seemed slightly amused, but otherwise unharmed.
He looked less confident when she got her hands on the metal globe on the coffee table. A friend of hers had given it to her a couple years ago for Christmas, but somehow, Cara doubted her friend had anticipated that it would be used as a weapon against a stranger in Cara’s home. She flung it as hard as she could.
She normally wasn’t a good shot. In fact, at get-togethers, she was always the one that had to get up and hand the remote to someone. She wasn’t allowed to toss anything to anyone—ever. But apparently, all the motivation she needed came in the form of fear and anger because the globe sailed right for the stranger’s head. It looked like it might bash him in the nose, but at the last second, his hand flashed up and caught it five inches in front of his face.
“Stop throwing stuff at me,” he growled. “We’re on the same side.”
“Get out of my apartment!”
“Would you please listen to me? You’re in great danger even if you don’t know it.”
She threw up her hands in exasperation.
“Fine! Fine. Tell me, then get away from me!”
He smirked, then leaned back and put his hands behind his head, getting a little too comfortable. He started to explain.
“There’s a group of hunters chasing me, okay? I’m a werewolf. They want to kill me and take my pelt. They want to kill you because you happen to have been selected. You do not want to be selected.”
“Can we go back over the part of you being a werewolf?”
“I showed you in the car earlier. You saw it. I know you did because you passed out. That’s okay. Lots of people can’t understand it. The point is, you’re being hunted. I’m being hunted. I can help get you out of your dilemma, and you can help get me out of mine. Comprendo?”
“No, no comprendo. This is insane. I can’t…I won’t believe it.”
He scowled.
“You’re being very stubborn about this.”
“I think the word you might be looking for is ‘rational.’”
She wasn’t sure where this backbone was coming from. Normally, she’d have been melting. Apparently, there was some part of her deep down that had courage. She just hadn’t ever needed to access it before. She was still scared and confused, but she wasn’t passed out on the floor and that was something.
Suddenly, his nose twitched.
“Don’t believe me, huh?” He reached into the pocket of his pants and pulled out a professional-looking handgun, and said, “Well, looks like you’re about to be proved wrong…”
“What are you—”
That’s when someone kicked down her door.
She’d seen doors get busted down in movies. It wasn’t like that in real life. It’s fast, scary, and unexpected. She couldn’t get a perfect view of the door from her seat on the couch, but she did see a foot and then the door swung open.
Three thugs ran in, holding crowbars laced with some sort of glowing liquid around the hilts and a strange glittery substance on the ends. They appeared to be made of a silvery material.
Her companion didn’t stand around to see if they were silver or not. He jerked up the gun and shot. The noise boomed through the small apartment.
The first thug caught a bullet in the chest and went down. He hit the shattered remains of the door before getting back up, clutching the wound. He and another one of the thugs attacked her companion, while the third came straight for Cara, wielding the crowbar.
Cara’s father had taught her some self-defense when she’d first gone to college. He armed her with pepper spray as well, which she carried at all times. She even carried around one of those Tasers for a while. Even though she had taken a few martial arts classes, she’d never been great at the sport; thankfully, she had picked up a few tricks.
The first one: you don’t want to be there when the fist lands.
When the thug swung at her, she simply stepped aside and let him go on by. He swung the crowbar at her head, getting close enough for her to hear the wind as the metal whisked past her face with a velocity that could crush her bones – but he didn’t actually hit her. He came in with too much speed, so she simply stuck her foot out as he went past. He tumbled over the couch with a crash, crushing the coffee table. At any other time, Cara would have been furious.
She heard a couple more gunshots, but she didn’t have much time to think about it because her thug was back up in a moment. He came slower this time. Cautious. He had underestimated her the first time around. It was a mistake he wouldn’t make again.
He didn’t say a thing, which bothered her more than it should have. She’d always thought if anyone ever attacked her, he or she would be talking smack the whole time. This guy didn’t. He was wearing a hood over his head and dark sunglasses over his eyes. She had no idea what he looked like, clad in dark colors from head to toe.
“Don’t do this,” she pleaded. “Don’t make me—”
He said something, but whatever it was, it wasn’t in English. It sounded guttural and primal and somehow ancient.
He started across the floor towards her. A siren from outside the window distracted him. Cara, meanwhile, bent over and pulled the rug. She’d never put it under the couch because she had never been able to actually lift the couch. She felt proud of her weakness right then because nothing held it from sliding wildly across the floor. His feet flew out from underneath him and he slammed into the ground.
Suddenly, her companion was there. Part of his shirt had been torn off, and he had a bruise forming over his right cheek. He was holding the smoking gun and the two that had attacked him were nowhere to be found. He fired once into the skull of the man on the rug, who vanished into a cloud of dust.
“Well done,” he said, reloading his gun. “You didn’t die. You’re the first.”
“What. Just. Happened?”
“Vampires,” he said, like it made perfect sense. He picked up one of the crowbars and pointed to the liquid vial inside part of it. “See this? Holy water. Designed for demons. And this?” He gestured to the sparkles. “Granite sparkles. Good for goblins. And this…” He pointed to the whole thing. “Made of silver. Designed for me. They’re your classic ‘Acme Rent-A-Thug.’”
She looked at him, then at the dust on her rug. Him. Dust. Him. Dust.
“So,” she said. “What now?”
“Now,” he replied, sliding his gun back into his pocket. “We get the hell out of Dodge before the cops show up. They tend not to like this kind of thing too much.”
With that, they hurried out of the apartment. They got into her Honda and started driving. A minute later, they heard sirens. She ducked down into her seat as they zoomed by, sirens blaring. Somehow, and she wasn’t sure how, her companion had started driving. It was her car. She should be the one to drive, but he’d taken charge.
“Believe me now?” he asked as they merged into traffic.
“I’m starting to.”
“Do you know you’re the first person I’ve ever seen actually pull the rug out from someone?” He chuckled in amusement. “Such a bad idea. I’m amazed it worked so well.”
“Can we just cut to the chas
e? You just shot up my apartment! Who were those guys? Why do they want to kill me?”
He glanced in the mirror to make sure nobody was following them.
“I didn’t hurt your little apartment. I saved your life. And secondly, they were hunters. They’re looking for both of us for very different reasons. You notice how they were all bundled up? Vampires. They were vampires.” He shifted lanes. “As for why they’re trying to kill you, it’s pretty simple. You’re single. Your parents are dead. You’re an only child. You have very few connections as far as I can tell.”
“How the hell do you know all that?”
“Haven’t you ever seen any vampire movies? They kill people. It’s what they do. They stopped killing just anyone years ago. Now they pick their targets – people that won’t have too many relatives or friends snooping around to figure out what happened. You’re the perfect target. You’re so alone that you made their list.”
Well, that one hurt. Right in the ego.
“Oh…”
“Yeah, I know. I got a copy of their list, and I’ve been going around trying to recruit one of you humans to free me. I’ve had…” He counted with his fingers. “Six die. You’re the first to live this long.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Nope.”
“And you expect me to follow your lead, knowing you’re basically a death sentence?”
He shrugged his shoulders.
“You know what’s a death sentence? Not having me. Face it, human. I’m your best chance at survival. It was only a matter of time until your little vampire buddies decided to show up for a snack.”
He looked over at her, not watching the road.
“Listen. If you run from me, I won’t stop you. But there will be more vampires after you. Do you really think you’ll be able to survive without me to save you?”
She sat back in the seat, crossing her arms silently. He looked back at the road.
“Fine,” she said quietly. “I’ll bite. How do I get off this list?”
“It’s easy. You get married. They got plenty of single people to kill without having to worry about spouses. But unless you got someone waiting with a ring—and I doubt it, seeing as you’re still single—your best chance is to get a spell cast on you. It’ll keep you safe for years.”
“I assume you can do that?”
He snorted. “Hell no. But I need something from you first, then I’ll send you to someone who does know how to cast spells.”
Everything started to add up. Well, everything except the fact that she was talking to a werewolf about vampires coming to kill her.
“Why me? I mean, you can obviously handle yourself and I’m not really great with fighting.”
He fished out his phone and handed it to her. There was her picture with a bunch of different stats, such as height, weight, eye color, age, and education.
“And I’m officially creeped out right now,” she told him. “How did you get this information?”
“It’s from the list,” he replied. “Anyway, look at education.”
She did.
“Okay? So?”
“So? You’ve got a master’s degree in computer science. Just so happens I need myself a hacker. You ever hack someone before?”
“Well…” she cleared her throat. “Once or twice.”
“You’re such a good hacker. Why the hell are you working for a publisher?”
“Because it’s my passion, not my…” She paused. “You know what? Forget it. It doesn’t matter.”
He grinned. “Easy there, tiger. I didn’t mean to offend you. Anyway, do we have ourselves a deal? You hack something for me and I’ll give you directions to a mage or sorceress.”
She hesitated.
“I don’t even know your name…”
“Reuben.”
He stuck out a powerful hand. Her hand was tiny inside his.
“So, do we have a deal, Cara?”
She thought about it. Without him, she was guaranteed certain death. She had to come to grips with that. If he hadn’t been there with her in the apartment, she already would be pushing up daisies. And it wasn’t like she could just post a Craigslist ad saying Monster Protection Needed.
“Deal,” she finally said, and shook his hand.
4
Cara had expected something amazing to happen when they shook hands. Maybe a lightning strike? The storm was starting back up after all. At the very least, she was expecting an ominous shiver.
But, no. It was just like she’d shaken hands with someone completely normal – as if instead of discussing life and death, they were chatting about the weather.
Speaking of the weather, it was late in the afternoon, but it was getting dark from an impending storm. Fast. At first, it was just some sprinkles on the windshield. At the speed they were going, the droplets were whisked away almost as fast as they came.
“So,” she said. “How have you survived this long?”
He grinned.
“I’m hard to kill.”
Looking at him, she didn’t doubt it.
“But you didn’t turn into a wolf at my place.”
“True. Can’t hold it without moonlight.”
Finally, she asked the most important question, “What is it I’m supposed to hack?”
“It’s…complicated. It’s going to need a bit of ingenuity.”
She figured that summed up her entire day so far. She’d wanted to just have a nice weekend, but instead, here she was in the car with a werewolf, being hunted by vampires that had her on a death list. All she wanted was to relax. Was that really too much to ask?
She reached into her pocket. Amazingly, she still had her phone. She unlocked it and opened up a text message to…nobody. She couldn’t think of someone to tell. What he had said before was cruel, but sadly true. She was walking through life essentially alone. She had a couple friends at work, but other than that, her relationships were pretty weak.
She put her phone down and looked out the window at the approaching storm. Somewhere, there were magical beasts. Previously, she’d had her mind blown with relatively boring ideas, such as ‘grass is the fur of the earth,’ but here she was, confronted with the idea that creatures other than humans existed on the earth. She knew that there were at least vampires and werewolves, and Reuben had mentioned something about goblins. What else was out there? What other myths were real?
She opened her mouth to ask, but snapped it shut. She didn’t want to know. All she wanted to do was curl up in her bed, snuggling in the sheets with a steaming cup of hot coffee in her hands and a sappy movie on her television. She wanted to go back to when her greatest worry was having her computer crash. She wanted to go back to being lonely. Now, suddenly, she was the most popular kid on the block. Everyone wanted her for something, either for blood or hacking skills.
What a life.
Reuben drove them to a hotel. It wasn’t a bad one, but it sure wasn’t the Ritz. There were a couple cars in the well-lit parking lot. They could still hear the sound of the interstate, but they were far enough to feel somewhat isolated.
“Here?” She peered out the window as he pulled into the gravel driveway. “I thought the plan was for me to hack something?”
“Oh, we’re going to need to take a break.”
“Why?”
“Just because.”
“No.” She wasn’t sure why she said it, but something inside her stirred, so she kept talking, “I need to know. If you’re expecting me to trust you, I can’t take just because.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“It does matter.”
He suddenly flickered between human features and werewolf ones. She wasn’t sure if it was just the lighting, but she could almost see his pupils vanish. For just a moment, his eyes were jet black.
“Because if you’re stuck in here with me when I turn, I’ll rip your head off.”
The light returned to his eyes as he looked up towards the sun. It w
as starting to go down.
“We need to get inside.”
He pulled up to the lobby and hustled inside, where he checked into a room he had apparently already booked. It took him only a moment to get the key. Cara stayed back, watching him. He was obviously powerful. The longer she got to know him, the more powerful he appeared to get. She wasn’t sure if she was afraid or attracted to him.
He returned to the car.
“Where am I supposed to sleep?” she asked. “I mean, if I don’t want to get my head ripped off.”
“I booked an extra room just in case you lived,” he told her. He paused, as his eyes looked tenderly at her, “I’m glad you lived.”
The tenderness was short-lived. The veins on his forearms were quite visible, and Cara became frightened.
“Don’t worry. I can control it for now. An hour or two? Forget it.”
He extended a key. “Room 221. I’m across the hall.”
She wasn’t sure what scared her more, that she was being chased by vampires or that her best shot at surviving was sleeping in a different room to avoid her supposed savior from accidentally killing her in an enchanted stupor. Part of her was curious about what he would actually look like after the transformation. She’d seen a little snippet of it back at the parking lot, and then again in the car in front of the hotel. If that was him controlling it, she wasn’t sure she’d ever want to see him lose it.
Reuben was right; the rooms were right across the hallway from each other. She was happier than she should have been about the number 222. It was nice. Even. She’d always had a thing for evenness. She liked to joke that she had CDO; it’s like OCD, but better.
“Do you think anyone will come after us tonight?” she asked as he unlocked the door.
Was he suddenly bigger? He looked bigger.
“Maybe,” he said. He fished out his gun and asked, “Do you know how to shoot?”
“Kind of. My father took me to a range a couple times before he died.”
Did she see a shot of sympathy in his eyes? Maybe.
“It’s easy.”
He moved behind her and positioned her hand around the shaft of the gun. His body was so close that she could feel his taut muscles through his shirt.
