Two men with a stretcher materialized beside her, and Ellie felt herself lifted onto an ambulance. She saw the forest before they closed the back doors and felt a jolt as the ambulance roared to life. Someone was talking to one of the paramedics, saying something about a concussion. Ellie relaxed her grip on the knife.
Matt Simmons remained at her side, holding her hand. “What was that thing?”
“A monster,” she managed to say at last. “It was a monster.” Ellie’s eyes closed, and she lost consciousness as the ambulance sped down the lonely road.
From the dark recesses of the forest, the beast watched.
Chapter Fourteen
Ellie woke in the hospital.
“Good. You’re awake.” Matt sat beside her bed. “Your parents are on their way.”
Ellie propped herself up and winced. Her head pounded like a drum.
“Careful. You’ve been through a lot.” Matt took a sip of coffee.
Ellie glanced out the window. It was still dark. She was a few floors up, from the look of it. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed since she’d lost consciousness, but the door to her room, left propped open, revealed a quiet hallway. It was late. Ellie returned her gaze to her hospital room. She was in a hospital gown. Her clothes lay in a pile beside her bed. She vaguely remembered receiving a CT scan.
“How do you feel?” Matt took another sip of coffee.
The memories of her flight through the woods came rushing back. She needed to tell Matt about Alexander. Sarah and Winston were still out there! Ellie opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. Her throat hurt.
“Try not to push yourself too hard. You need rest. Can I get you something to drink?”
Ellie nodded. “Thank you.” Her voice was painfully weak.
Matt pushed away from his chair. “Good. I’ll be right back. It’s the night shift, and I haven’t seen many nurses on duty, but I’ll see what I can do.” He paused at her bedside. “Don’t worry. You’re safe here, Ellie. I promise.”
When he left, Ellie slumped back on the pillow and waited for her head to clear. Matt said she was safe, but Ellie wasn’t sure. A small part of her hoped it was all in her head—some strange dream brought on by her concussion. People didn’t just turn into monsters. If she told Matt what she’d seen, he’d probably think she was crazy. Still, his presence was comforting.
Not all that long ago, everything in her life had been perfect. How had it gone so terribly wrong? What was Alexander, and why did he want to hurt her? Every question had an impossible answer. The more she thought about it, the more nothing made sense. Slowly, her eyes grew heavy.
“Ellie.”
Ellie rubbed her eyes. Her window was ajar. When did that happen? She looked closer. Someone had forced it open. “Matt?”
A hand clamped over her mouth. “Don’t scream.” It was Alexander.
Adrenaline coursed through her veins and fought off the wave of fatigue. Ellie thrashed blindly. Alexander, while managing to restrain her, had failed to notice her grab at the pile of clothes beside her bed. Her hand closed around the pocketknife in her jeans pocket, and she stabbed him in the stomach.
Alexander backed away. “You shouldn’t have done that.” The blade protruded from a bloody hole in his shirt. Alexander grimaced and pried the blade free. “Silver.” The knife clattered to the ground, and Alexander toppled backward and hit the floor.
Ellie tried to shout for help, but her voice broke. As she grappled for the call button, she leaned over too far and fell off the bed. She landed beside Alexander. His eyes were closed. He’s still breathing. She crawled over him toward the door. Alexander’s hand shot out and seized her ankle.
“Let go of me!” Ellie kicked him in the face and managed to break free. She used the bed to steady herself, but he had her cornered.
“Ellie. I’m just here to talk.”
Her eyes flickered toward the door. If she could just get past him, she could make a run for it.
Alexander followed her gaze. “Don’t bother. There’s no one around to help you. Matt is downstairs on the phone, and your nurse is on her coffee break.”
“You can hear them?” She glanced back at the open window. “How did you get inside? What do you want from me?”
Moonlight spilled inside, and Alexander’s eyes gleamed with an amber glow. “Stay back.” His voice was all but a growl. It appeared as if he was fighting with himself. After a moment, his eyes returned to their deep blue. “We don’t have much time.”
“You hurt me.” Ellie tried again to scream, but her voice remained a whisper.
“I wasn’t myself.”
Ellie looked from Alexander to the pocketknife, just out of reach. “I saw what you became. I know what you are. You’re a monster—a werewolf.”
“That word doesn’t even begin to describe it.” Alexander held his left hand in the moonlight, and it sprouted into a claw. “The word was lost long ago. The closest is ‘Loup Garou.’ It’s French. Like the legends say, the curse is passed down with a bite, and the first transformation begins under a full moon—but there is much more to it than that. I haven’t aged in twenty years. Even while human, I retain enhanced strength, speed, and senses.”
It sounded impossible, but it explained how he broke into her room. “You tried to kill me.”
Alexander averted his gaze. “The curse has its drawbacks. Impulse and desire become impossible to resist. Passions burn. Control must be learned. Some never master it. The moon overwhelms them.” He held up his hand again. “And I’m missing my ring.”
Ellie remembered the serpent ring, the one also worn by Aristae. “What’s so special about it?”
“They’re magic, like us. Voodoo. The rings allow complete control over both human and inhuman forms. It lets me transform at will—with or without the full moon. Otherwise, the full moon drives me to give in to my baser instincts.”
“Baser instincts?”
“Bloodlust. My mind was the mind of an animal, Ellie. That’s why I attacked you.”
“But you hesitated. You must have some control.”
“That was your doing. Your pocketknife must be made of silver. You hurt me with it—enough to clear my head.” He took a step toward her.
“Stay back.” Ellie shot him a look of warning. “You’re a murderer. You killed Patrick Doyle. You almost killed Jack Taylor.”
Alexander flinched at the accusation. “Patrick Doyle shot me. I was defending myself. Since I arrived, I’ve satisfied my cravings by feeding off animals. Whatever else I am, I’m not a murderer.”
Ellie wasn’t sure she believed him. “Where are Sarah and Winston? What have you done with them?” If I keep him talking, maybe I can stall him long enough for Matt to return. Matt had a gun. Ellie wondered if the rest of the legend was true. Could regular bullets stop him in his human form?
“Relax. They’re safe. They’re in the house, locked in the cellar. This was never about them.”
“Then what was it about? Who are you really?”
“My name is Alex Hawthorne.” Alexander’s voice no longer sounded cold, but neither did it sound like the one she had come to know.
“It is you. You knew my mother.”
“Twenty years ago, she and I were inseparable. I loved her.” He cocked his head to one side, as if listening to something outside. “I was on a camping trip when Aristae attacked me. She’s like me. She turned me into what I am now. The act bound me to her physically. By the time I was able to free myself from her influence and return to your mother, it was too late. Samantha had moved on. Everything we had…gone, in an instant. I wanted to make her pay. Aristae promised me vengeance.”
If that was true, Aristae was far more than Alex’s ex-girlfriend. If Ellie’s mother was the woman who broke his heart, it was Aristae who turned him into something monstrous and filled him with the need for revenge. That didn’t make Alex any less culpable.
“You used me. The whole time you were making me fall fo
r you so you could get back at my mother—just because she chose someone else.”
Alex appeared pained. “I planned to kill you before I even met you. That was before I got to know you. You’re a good person, Ellie.”
“And your father?”
“An excuse I made up to explain what I was doing here. He died years ago.”
“You lied to me from the start.” Alex wasn’t a college student either, not if he was her mother’s age. The thought made her sick. Then there was Boomer, whom Alex had turned against her. He had stalked her before they’d ever seen each other. She suspected their meeting in the arcade had occurred by design.
“I did.” Alex stopped abruptly. “Matt is on his way back. He’ll be here soon.”
“What are you going to do?” Ellie trembled.
Alex sighed. “You don’t have to be afraid of me. I’ll let your friends go. I’ll make everything OK.”
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” For all she knew, this new docility was still part of his game. Ellie felt anger rising inside her. She had been betrayed and almost killed by someone she thought cared for her. There was no way she was going to let that pass so easily. “If you really mean what you say, you should leave. I don’t ever want to see you again. I liked the Alexander I met in the arcade—the Alexander who never existed.”
“You still need me, Ellie.”
“Why? What aren’t you telling me?”
“Aristae wants me for herself, body and soul. She thinks I’ll only be free when your mother is dead. That’s why she pushed me so hard to pursue vengeance. She won’t be happy when she learns you’re still alive. I can protect you.”
“Protect me?” Ellie stared hard at him. “You can’t even protect me from yourself.”
Alex started to speak, but footsteps sounded in the hallway, and Matt entered with a cup of water. When Ellie looked back, Alex had vanished.
Matt followed her gaze to the window. “Ellie? Is something wrong?”
She didn’t waste time. “You have to go back to the house in the forest. Sarah and Winston are trapped inside.”
His ring waited on the weathered dining room table. The silver serpents sparkled in the candlelight. Alex picked it up and turned it over in his hand. He studied the ring with revulsion. He hated having to depend on something so small to maintain his grip on himself. The ring was a symbol of the thin line between monster and man. Nevertheless, he felt better once the ring was returned to his finger.
“We should leave.” He sensed Aristae’s presence. “The authorities are coming.”
Aristae emerged from the darkness and kissed him passionately. Her expression darkened when he recoiled. “They are but mortals. We need not fear them. There is work yet to be done. With Ellie dead, we will savor her mother’s grief and end her suffering—together.”
Alex wondered if God answered the prayers of monsters. “Ellie isn’t dead.”
“You spared her?” Aristae’s expression contorted in rage, and she cut his face with a fingernail. “It becomes wearisome having to continually point you in the right direction. When will you learn to embrace your true self? Your hands are as dirty as mine, in case you’ve forgotten.”
“I only kill those who deserve it.”
She laughed, hard and cruel. “And you’ve never slipped up? Not once? Come now. I know you better than that. You can lie to yourself but not to me. This was to be your moment. I promised you revenge against the woman who hurt you. I gave you life unending, and this is how you repay me?”
“Enough!” Alex slammed his fist against the table with enough force to splinter it in two. “I’m not like you.”
She leered at him with derision. “But you are. I am in your blood. Who taught you to control yourself? Who gave you that ring? Our hearts beat as one.”
Alex shook his head. “I left you after you turned me. Samantha could have saved me. She could have brought me back.”
“She rejected you. She cast you out. I was there for you.”
“You took advantage of me—tried to turn me into your puppet. And you call it love. You cursed me, Aristae. Forever.”
Her mask of contempt dropped for a moment. “What has changed? Am I no longer enough for you?”
“For twenty years you’ve been by my side, whispering revenge in my ear. I’ve lived in darkness with you for too long.”
With that, Aristae’s face became cold as stone once more. “It’s that girl, isn’t it? You want her, as you wanted her mother.”
“It’s not like that.” His feelings for Ellie were…complicated. In the beginning, she had been nothing to him. He hadn’t cared about anyone in so long—not since Samantha. His body was frozen in time. He would be in his twenties forever, and yet he felt almost paternal toward Ellie. Protective.
Then there was Samantha. Seeing her had brought back all the old resentments and feelings of betrayal, but there was something else too. He’d remembered what she’d once meant to him. Was making her suffer really the best way to deal with his pain? It was hard to know what impulses were from the monster within and what were his true thoughts—or if there was any difference at all.
Aristae shook with rage. “You have allowed an insignificant child to come between us. You have rejected everything I have given to you.”
“Aristae—” He could see where this was headed, and he needed to stop it before her temper got out of control.
She cut him off. “Since you lack the courage, I will take revenge on your behalf. Only this time, Ellie will be the one saved for last. Her death is on you.”
“She’s done nothing wrong. If you hurt her, I swear I’ll—” He stopped, realizing he’d made a mistake.
“You dare threaten me?”
Alex had seen her venomous look before, only now it was directed at him.
Raw power seemed to seep into the room. The candles flickered on the table, and a current blew within the house. Aristae crossed the room in an instant. Before he could defend himself, she grabbed him by the throat and lifted him high. He tried to pry her grip loose, but she was too strong. Aristae threw him from the house with enough force to send him crashing through the wall and into the night.
Sarah strained to hear.
Winston frowned. “Something’s happening.”
“Keep quiet.” Sarah didn’t know what had caused the commotion, but she doubted it meant anything good.
Footsteps sounded upstairs, then faded.
Sarah waited for what felt like an eternity. Aside from the moonlight streaming into the narrow window, the cellar remained cloaked in darkness.
A whining noise came from the distance. Sarah listened carefully as the sound grew louder. Sirens were blaring, growing closer with each passing second. Police sirens! “We’re saved.” Sarah began beating against the door. “We’re in here!”
A few minutes later, she heard more footsteps inside the house. They were coming closer. Sarah’s heart beat furiously when the knob turned and the cellar door hissed open.
“Hello? Who’s there?”
A woman stepped into the cellar. Her green eyes glowed faintly in the dark, and her teeth sharpened and elongated to become fangs. Sarah and Winston backed against the wall, but there was no escape.
“My name is Aristae, and I won’t lie to you. This is going to hurt.”
Chapter Fifteen
By the time morning arrived, Ellie felt more or less herself. Her ankle still hurt, but she was eager to leave the hospital. Her parents brought a change of clothes for her, and she checked herself for bites or scratches as she changed. To her relief, she was unmarked. Apart from the cut on her cheek from her flight through the forest and a bruise on the back of her head, there was no visible sign the monster had ever attacked her. The psychological scars would take longer to heal.
Alex’s warning came back to her. Although Ellie no longer trusted him, her gut told her there was more to come. She was probably safe enough in the daylight, but what would happen aft
er the sun went down?
Her parents waited in her room. They had hardly left her side since their arrival at the hospital.
“How do you feel, kiddo?” her father asked.
“Good as new.” Ellie tried to sound cheerful, but her words fell flat.
“Matt’s waiting for you in the lobby. He has a few questions about last night, but I told him it would have to wait until we got some breakfast in you first.”
Ellie hadn’t eaten anything since their unnerving family meal with Alex Hawthorne. She stole a glance at her mother. Should I tell her the truth about him? Would Ellie’s mother even believe her if she revealed her mom’s old boyfriend had returned in the form of a werewolf bent on revenge?
“Breakfast sounds terrific. I’m starved.”
The hospitalist had already discharged her, and she was free to leave. Ellie made sure her pocketknife was secure before following her parents from her room. Silver. In the movies, silver bullets killed werewolves. At the moment, the pocketknife was her only protection. Matt’s shotgun certainly hadn’t done lasting damage to Alex.
“Did the police find Sarah and Winston?”
Ellie’s parents exchanged looks. Her mother was the first to speak. “I’m sorry, Ellie. They weren’t there. The house was empty.”
Ellie didn’t bother concealing her disappointment. Alex lied again. She was certain her friends were in the house. What had happened to them?
Aristae. She remembered the fear in Alex’s voice when he mentioned her name. Ellie had only met Aristae once, but that was enough to know there was something deeply unsettling about her. Maybe they escaped. They can’t be dead. They can’t be.
The hospital cafeteria didn’t smell particularly inviting, but Ellie was hungry enough to eat anything. She moved through the line and added a muffin and a banana to her tray. Her parents joined her, and they made their way to a nearby table.
Her father watched her closely. “I don’t want to make you revisit unpleasant memories, Ellie, but what exactly happened last night?”
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