"I'm not sure," he said, handing the card to Nolan. "Give home-base a call. Tell them I want a ten-eighteen on this guy."
Nolan frowned. "A ten-eighteen? Will they approve that?"
"They will if I say so."
"Damn, Sean. Isn't that a little overkill? Shit, the guy's family…."
"It's just precautionary. There's nothing in this place that suggests our puppy even knows anyone, except this card. My brother knew every move she made, every person she talked to, and didn't mention this guy. It's just a feeling, Nolan, but I don't think he sells vacuums door to door."
"Okay. You're the boss. You should get your foot looked at."
Sean shook his head as he backed out of the apartment. A werewolf with no pack, with no friends of any kind. All she had was an out-of-business bar due to a fire, and a business card. Did she have anything to do with Rob's death?
"Just stay alive a little longer, little pup," he whispered. "I've got some questions for you."
CHAPTER 29
Jack let out a relaxed breath as he parked outside the hotel. He finally felt at peace. All the tension was gone. It was nearly five o'clock in the morning. He'd worked through the entire night, but it was worth it. Charlie's body parts were scattered all over the woods of Sandy Cliffs. He would never stalk or hurt another mortal again.
Reclining his seat back, Jack didn't feel the urge to leave the car right away. He basked in the moment. After visiting Erica's grave one last time, he went to an all-night fast food place and ate a burger. Now he could prepare to go home, kick the witch out of his house and get back to a normal life. Taking Tiffany to school, helping her with homework, cooking dinner. All he had to do was call his pilot and the limousine service. There was a good chance he could get home before she got out of school.
The thought of stopping to see Marie before he left crossed his mind.
Angry with himself, he shoved the idea aside. Thinking about her, allowing himself to be curious, it was a sign of weakness. She had his contact information, and she would use it if she wanted. Until then, he would snuff her from his thoughts, fight his attraction to her.
The last attraction he'd entertained didn't turn out so well.
He left the car and walked through the hotel lobby. The lone woman at the counter smiled and waved, and he nodded in return. Several mortals were checking out, while others ate breakfast in the dining room. He thought about the work ahead of him. There was some light packing to do, a few calls to the people that worked for him, checking out. He owed a phone call to the witch, to get him packing his disgusting witchcraft and cleaning up the couch Jack was certain he had sex on.
Unlocking his hotel door, he flipped on the light, and didn't expect what lay before him.
Marie was curled in a fetal position on the floor at the foot of the bed, nearly unrecognizable. She wore only underwear and a bra. Blood and mud covered her from head to toe. He could see bullet wounds all over her body. The window was shattered, the glass leading inward, and the morning breeze billowed the curtains.
"Marie?"
She looked up at the sound of her name. Shivering uncontrollably, her head fell back to the carpet. She didn't even have the strength to keep it lifted. Jack saw what could only be described as a large set of handcuffs he was sure was made of pure silver. One cuff was on her wrist while the other hung loose. The flesh on her wrist was swollen and red from the reaction. A gash started at the top of her head near her hairline and ran down her face, across the eye socket and down her cheek. Her right eye was swollen shut.
Jack shut the door behind him and knelt next to her. He ran a hand along her bare side, and she trembled. He was familiar with how a werewolf reacted to silver. Their entire body slowed down; the pain was everywhere. It ate at their strength, their senses, not letting them change. If the silver stayed in their system long enough, they would die.
He gently tried to examine her. She was in obvious agony, but didn't whimper, didn't cry. His already high opinion of her improved.
"How did you find me?" he asked.
He felt foolish as soon as he asked the question. Marie's hand reached up and flicked her nose, and she actually smiled.
"C-Chocolate," she said, her voice barely a whisper.
Jack grabbed her hand and squeezed it gently. He was trying to comfort her, and that fact surprised him.
He only had his daughter to blame, making him care about things.
"How many bullets?" he asked. "How much silver?"
"Alot and…alot."
"I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere."
"Ha…funny."
Jack marched out of the room and down the hall. He headed for the door near the elevator marked for maintenance. Turning the knob, he wasn't surprised it wasn't locked. The maintenance worker probably cared as much about security as Jack did the average mortal. If it was locked, he would have broken down the door.
He searched the maintenance closet, and saw exactly what he expected. Loose parts and tools, dirty rags, a busted television, some papers scattered about. Jack found what he was looking for, and grabbed the toolbox from the corner. He popped it open and saw the two tools he needed. If Marie survived, she would hate him.
Not that he cared.
Jack carried the entire box back to the room. Marie wasn't moving, and her eyes were closed. A quick stab of panic poked him as he glanced at her chest, looking for movement.
"Marie!" he said harshly.
She jumped, her eyes searching around frantically. She smiled when she saw Jack and settled back on the carpet.
"You'd better appreciate the hell out of this," Jack said. "I usually push people toward death, not pull them away."
"Sorry…nowhere else…to go."
"Shut up. Save your words for the million thank yous you'll owe me. That is, if you live."
"You know…just…what to say…to a girl."
Marie laughed, but the laugh quickly turned into a grimace of pain. She coughed, and Jack rolled her on her side. She nearly touched the bottom of the bed. He ran into the bathroom and grabbed a clean towel.
"Put this in your mouth and grab a hold of the bed frame."
"I'll bet…you say that…alot. Kinky."
Jack smiled. He liked her sense of humor.
He turned on the television to help with the noise he knew was coming. Opening the toolbox, he pulled out the needle-nose pliers and utility knife. There was no point in sterilizing them, not with a werewolf.
"Okay, Marie," he said. "I know you're aware of this, but this is going to hurt. Very much."
Jack went to work. He started with Marie's legs, only because he thought those would be the easiest bullets to dig out. The one in her shin wasn't bad, but her thigh wound was difficult to work with. Marie screamed and bit into the towel as soon as the pliers touched her flesh. She gripped the bottom of the bed frame so hard Jack thought she would break it. Smoke escaped her wounds as the silver burned her flesh.
"Sit still," he told her. "This is hard enough as it is without you jerking around."
The bullet in her thigh wouldn't cooperate. He grabbed the utility knife and cut into her leg, making the wound bigger. Marie howled and clenched her eyes shut, and for a brief, fleeting second, he almost felt her pain. Jack knew a mortal wouldn't survive the gruesome surgery. There was a chance Marie wouldn't survive. But luckily she lost her mortality long ago.
Jack finally pulled out one of the larger caliber bullets he'd ever seen. The hunters after Marie weren't playing around. Her leg was a mess, oozing blood and pus.
Two bullets down, a few more to go. Marie didn't look to be in good enough shape to take much more. The towel fell from her mouth and she breathed quickly, almost panting. Her leg twitched. Jack was sure he did major damage, but he didn't have a choice, not if he wanted to save her life.
"Haven't you ever been shot before?" he asked. "Stop acting like such a little bitch."
He achieved the reaction he wanted. Marie turned and glare
d at him, rage in her eyes. Jack took that moment to dig in her shoulder. She screamed without the towel, trying to cover her mouth before he handed it to her. She gripped Jack's shirt with her free hand, nearly twisting it off his torso.
"This will cost you," he said. "I'll need to have the window fixed. How did you even get up here? Did you have one last wolf jump in you? Then the room will need scrubbing. I'll have to lay out a bribe or two."
Jack's shirt ripped as Marie writhed in pain. He pinned her down as best he could, but she was strong, even in her weakened state.
"And you owe me a new shirt."
It took over an hour for Jack to remove every bullet. The sun rose while he worked. He gave Marie a two-minute break in the middle while he hung the Do Not Disturb sign outside the room. After pulling out the last bullet he looked her over. Her body was in terrible shape. Open wounds, blisters, singed skin. Blood was everywhere on the carpet. The mud caked all over her was dry.
"Those silver handcuffs don't look comfortable."
"Burns…."
"I'm sure it does. Okay, again, this won't feel good."
Jack grabbed her thumb and dislocated it. Marie, tired of biting the towel, clamped her other hand over her mouth. He wiggled the cuff down her wrist and over her hand, leaving burnt flesh behind. She shouted once again when he popped her thumb back into place. He ran the back of his fingers tenderly down her cheek as her eyes closed and her muscles went limp.
Standing up, he looked at the various silver at his feet. Bullets of different caliber, an impressive set of silver restraints. Rob was telling the truth. They were prepared.
Marie's sudden silence caught his attention.
She didn't move. Jack worried for a moment she didn't make it, that her body finally gave out. Then he saw her chest rise slightly, and she shivered. Cold didn't normally bother a werewolf, but with silver involved, her body was at the mercy to the elements like any other living creature. She'd obviously spent most of the night running, hiding, trying to survive.
Jack left her side for a moment to start a hot bath. He watched her from a distance as he left the bathroom, trying to see the scene in his head. From what little clothes she had on, he assumed they surprised her, maybe after a late-night shower or while she was sleeping. That didn't make sense. It was difficult to sneak up on a werewolf.
"Marie," he said, moving to her. "How are you feeling?"
"Better," she croaked.
"Well, you don't look like it. You look like shit."
"Fuck…you."
"Stop flirting, now. It won't work. And please, don't take this the wrong way."
He knelt beside her and grabbed the utility knife from the floor. He cut away her bra and underwear, leaving her completely naked. Marie didn't even have the words to shout at him as he scooped her in his arms. Her limbs went limp and her head rolled into his chest. She didn't have the strength to support her weight.
"Damn," he said. "You're a light little puppy."
"Don't…call…me that."
He set her in the bath. She winced at first, then let out a noise that sounded like contentment. She managed to give him a thumbs-up, and he smiled. It took over a half hour to get her to a beginning state of clean. He washed her hair and scrubbed her body. The tub needed to be drained once and filled again, due to the mud and blood. She started to look like the woman Jack remembered. Her wounds were still ugly, but without the silver in her, the redness and swelling was beginning to disappear.
Jack knew she was on the road to recovery when he took another pass at her breasts, with the best of intentions, and she weakly pushed his hand away.
"Okay, finish washing yourself. Whatever."
He stood up to look at her. The color was slowly returning to her cheeks. She breathed normally and was holding herself up in the tub. She'd heal much faster if she had a werewolf's favorite food. Meat.
"I'll be back soon," he said.
"Jack."
He turned to face her. She was still uncomfortable, but her expression was no longer twisted in pain. Covering her breasts with one arm, she smiled at him.
"Thank you."
He nodded, and left the room.
Jack drove to the only Walmart in Sandy Cliffs, on the far end of town. It had just opened its doors when he arrived. He paid a young female employee, with a similar body type to Marie's, one hundred dollars to help him pick out an assortment of clothes. He also bought bottles of water and several steaks he'd have the hotel cook.
The mystery of what he was doing settled on him as he paid for the items. He was helping someone, expecting nothing in return. It wasn't a feeling he was used to.
After returning to the hotel, he went straight to his room. He wanted to check on Marie before having a steak cooked for her. The TV was still on, the pile of silver where he left it. The first thing he spotted were the wet footprints on the carpet. They led from the bathroom to the shattered window. They were spaced evenly apart. Marie had calmly walked out of the bathroom and jumped out the window, most likely into the woods. Jack leaned out the window and stared at the green covering the landscape behind the hotel.
He set the water and steak in the fridge and jumped out the window himself. The fall didn't bother him at all. The only witness was a stray dog with his head halfway in a nearby dumpster.
Jack followed Marie's footprints into the woods. Her tracks went about one hundred yards away, off a path and into the grass. It wasn't difficult to see where she'd changed. The grass was disturbed and matted down in one spot, the area just large enough to contain a woman on her side.
He wandered the woods for an hour, long after he'd lost her trail. He could see why she liked the scenery of Sandy Cliffs. Quiet and peaceful. Jack could imagine camping out with Tiffany, away from mortals and the busyness of civilization, gazing up at the stars at night, cooking food by a roaring fire.
He was on a trail leading back to the hotel when the shrubs next to him shook. There was barely enough time to turn his head when the wolf jumped on him. He landed on his back, his head bouncing off the ground. It was the first time he'd seen Marie as a werewolf.
She pinned him in place, her paws on his shoulders, claws digging in his shirt. Standing eerily motionless, she kept her eyes on his, staring into them. She didn't pant, barely made a sound. The only movement was her nose twitching slightly.
Marie was strong, like all werewolves. Jack made no effort to move.
"Hey, there," he said. "You want to be a good girl and get off me? I'll give you a treat."
She didn't move. Instead, she leaned down and licked him across the face. Her tongue left a trail of saliva on his skin.
"Whoa, hey now. I'm not in to any bestiality bullshit. I'm not one of those freaks who dresses up in costumes, either."
Marie lay on his chest and whimpered quietly. Jack wondered what was happening, but then heard her bones break. Her muscles stretched and the hair slithered into her skin. The whimpering turned into a quiet, feminine moan.
Jack held her, and Marie folded her arms across his chest. She blinked at him. The wounds all over her body were gone. Her naked body pressed against his clothes. She straddled him slightly, her legs rubbing in the dirt. She had no problem getting dirty once again.
"Is this better?" she asked.
"Much."
"You taste delicious."
"I've heard that before." Unable to resist the opportunity, he let his hands drift down her ribs to her hips. He felt the sides and backs of her legs. Marie didn't object. "I see what you're saying about the hair thing."
"It's nice," she said. "I haven't owned a razor in fifty years."
"How did you heal so fast?"
"There's a restaurant not far from here. I sneaked in through the back and stole about twenty pounds of bacon."
Jack laughed. "Well, I've got water and steak back at the hotel. And some clothes."
"Listen…you saved my life. Thank you again. I feel like a new woman."
"You're w
elcome. You can thank me even more by getting off me."
Marie smiled and put her hands on his shoulders. She fully straddled him, throwing her legs over his hips. Sitting upright, she gave Jack a full view.
"And what if I don't want to?" she said, playfulness in her voice.
He ran his hands up along her hips, over her slim stomach, and finally to her breasts. She smiled as she took his hands in hers. They were cool to the touch. It wasn't warm out, but the weather didn't bother either of them.
"I thought you said my body wasn't better than any other?"
"Eh, I lied. Give me a break. We'd just met. I can't compliment someone I'd just met."
"Yeah. Heaven forbid you say something nice."
"You still plan on running?"
"Nope. I'm going to have my way with you here in the woods, then I'll find who attacked me and kill every single one of them."
"Wow, when you talk like that, that pretty much makes me ready to go."
She put her hands on her hips. "Well? What's stopping you? Why are your clothes still on?"
Jack honestly didn't have an answer to her questions. Surprise, perhaps? A beautiful, naked woman was on his lap, and he wasn't making a move.
Marie put a finger to his lips.
"Jack, this isn't a trap. I don't want to be your lady, don't want to meet your daughter. To be honest, I'm still trying to figure out if I even like you. But you and I both know you don't have to like someone to get turned on."
"You've got a point."
"Do you realize how long it's been since I've been with an older man?"
"I've never banged it out with a werewolf in the woods."
"See? Fresh experiences for both of us." She crossed her arms and shook her head. "I've also never had to talk someone into having sex with me before."
"No more talking. You've sold me."
He sat up and tugged at his shirt. She eagerly helped him out of it, tossing it into a nearby bush. She was the first one to start the kissing. Gently, at first, until Marie let out what almost sounded like a growl. The gentleness vanished in a hurry. Jack met her all the way, lacing his fingers in her short hair. She pushed him to the ground and reached for his belt. Jack smiled at her aggression. Werewolves and aggression went together very well.
Damned and Cursed (Book 2): Witch's Kurse Page 32
