Club Monstrosity

by Jesse Petersen

  “Good riddance,” Drake muttered, but despite his nasty comment he, too, looked concerned. His eyebrows knitted down and his gaze grew distant and fearful.

  “Okay, everyone calm down,” Kai said with a no-nonsense brittleness to her tone. “We don’t know if anyone has gotten Alec yet.”

  “Who got me?” Alec asked as he strode through the door and shut it firmly behind him.

  Natalie wasn’t expecting the relief that rushed through her at the sight of the goofy mutt, but it flooded her nonetheless. She smiled at him and he returned it briefly before looking around the room.

  “Jesus, you are all a bunch of downers, aren’t you?” He chuckled.

  Kai scowled at him, but she seemed relieved as she said, “See, Alec is fine. To be truthful, we don’t know if anyone has gotten anyone yet.”

  “Bullshit,” Alec said as he flopped into a seat. He motioned toward Natalie with one hand. “Natalie and I talked about it for a long time last night. One of us dying the same way we did in The Story is one thing. But two? That just can’t be a coincidence.”

  Kai flashed a quick, arched brow at Natalie as if to say, Last night? Natalie tensed. Shit, she hadn’t really thought of how she was going to explain their new living arrangements. There were going to be questions and insinuations and—

  Kai turned away and glared at Alec without engaging in the inquisition Natalie feared was coming at some point.

  “Natalie’s texts were pretty vague.” Kai sighed. “As usual.”

  “I have a cheap phone and a limited number of characters, what do you want?” Natalie said with a glare for Kai.

  “You mean there are limits on characters to text?” Drake interrupted, pulling that silly smartphone from his pocket.

  Natalie took a long breath before she spoke. “I swear to God, I will send you a link to everything you ever wanted to know about that thing, okay? Can we focus? For once. Please?”

  Kai nodded in agreement. “Look, back to the topic, okay? Why don’t you tell all of us exactly what happened to Blob? Bob.”

  Alec motioned toward Natalie and she shook her head. She didn’t want to tell them what had happened . . . to think about what had happened to Blob. But Alec lifted his eyebrows in encouragement and she hauled herself to her feet with a sigh before she started in on the whole story.

  The rest of the monsters, who usually were forever interrupting and interjecting during explanations, remained strangely quiet during her tale and for several long moments afterward.

  Finally, Kai shook her head and her normally olive complexion was pale and blotchy.

  “Okay, I’ll admit that does sound bad. Especially the part where he got . . .”—she swallowed hard—“locked into the freezer.”

  The moment she said it, all hell broke loose. Linda returned to the loud, screeching sobs that echoed in the room and made Natalie flinch like someone was jabbing her eardrums. Jekyll and Hyde began to argue back and forth quickly, though since they were joined as one person, it was rather comical. Meanwhile, Alec and Kai were just yelling at each other.

  Natalie sat back, watching them all. What good was this going to do? If someone was aware of them, stalking them, killing them, then fighting in the basement of the church wasn’t going to stop that.

  Maybe only one thing could stop it: Running away. Again.

  She sighed. It was too bad, really. There was so much she loved about her life in New York. This city was alive and filled with freaks like her or even stranger. People minded their business and made art and music and great food and architecture.

  Weird boss, expensive apartment, and roommate issues aside, she hadn’t felt like someplace was so close to home in a lot of years. Maybe even ever.

  Suddenly Drake surged into the circle and banged his hand against one of the empty chairs. The loud crack of his heavy fist on wood silenced the group and everyone stared at the aging vampire.

  He shrugged out of his cape and stood there, dressed from head to toe in black, his graying hair slicked back against his skull. He looked . . . regal, almost. Dangerous.

  “Stop,” he ordered, his voice thicker with the Eastern European accent he normally controlled.

  He made a point to look at every single person in the room before he continued. When his gaze fell on her, Natalie felt the odd pull of his vampire mind tricks before she shook off the effect. She hated when he did that!

  “This infighting will do us no good,” he continued, his tone softer, though still tough as nails. Or wooden stakes. “We are acting like children, but we are monsters.”

  Whatever calming effect he’d had on everyone faded with that observation. The group muttered in collective dissent but it was Linda who shook her head.

  “I’m not a monster. How could say that? How dare you accuse us of being what everyone fears?” She sniffled theatrically and stared at him as if she were awaiting his apology.

  Drake arched a fine, aristocratic brow. “Just who fears us, Swamp Dweller? A few teenagers after a matinee movie? Even that fades. They laugh at us. They mock us. They make cute cartoons of us and even dress up like us on Halloween.”

  He said the name of the holiday with disdain dripping from every syllable.

  “But they don’t fear us,” he finished. “Because we do nothing to make them fear us.”

  Natalie blinked. Okay, Drake had her there. She had marauded once or twice in her life, way back in her younger days. But she hadn’t done anything scary (aside from take garbage to the chute at the end of her hallway without wearing her makeup) in so long, she couldn’t remember it.

  Drake shook his head. “Perhaps that fact, the fact that we are no longer frightening, is what has led to the deaths of our friends.”

  Alec tilted his head. “What do you mean?”

  Drake turned his attention to Alec with a scornful sniff. “Someone out there knows we’re monsters, but they also know we will never truly act like monsters. And so they feel free to take the lives of those near us.”

  Kai stared at him, and for the first time since Natalie had met the girl, she actually looked impressed by someone other than herself. She put a hand on each slender hip and shrugged.

  “What do you suggest we do about that, Drake?”

  He paced the room with purpose, tapping his fingers together. “First, we must assess whether or not there truly is a valid threat to our group. You are right, Natalie, that one death paralleling The Story is frightening, but two is very likely not coincidence. But we need proof, not mere conjecture. And once we have it . . . we must battle.”

  “B-battle?” Linda said with a shiver.

  He glared at her. “If necessary. Our first weapon must be knowledge. We all need to research our current situation. We must analyze everyone we know, everyone we’ve met, even in passing, to determine if we have a common enemy who has recently become a part of our lives.”

  “Okay, that seems”—Kai shook her head—“oddly reasonable, actually. I’m completely down with going out, thinking about our activities, let’s say in the last month, and trying to figure out who is new to our lives, who might know all of us.”

  “We should do that work in pairs,” Drake continued. “Not only will it help us determine a common link faster, but we will be more able to protect each other. There is currently no reason to think that this person who hunts us will stop at Ellis and Bob. We’re all in danger, and we only have each other to turn to in this dark hour of need.”

  Alec sat up, staring at the vampire. Then he tilted his head back and started to laugh. The room was silent except for the laughter, which was full and rich, utterly pleasant, and completely out of place for their current situation.

  “And just what is so funny, Wolf?” Drake asked over the laughter.

  His lips were pursed in a thin line and Natalie could actually see the faint outline of his one good fang against the taut skin. Sometimes she forgot Drake even had a fang anymore. Or that Dracula had once meant something. Shit, when she was “
young,” there had still been people terrified of Drake. Women who crossed themselves when they said his name and hung garlic inside their windows to keep him and his kind away.

  Alec pushed to his feet and grinned. “Nothing, I was just wondering how, after all these years of trotting around like a doddering old man, you managed to wake up on the right side of the coffin all of a sudden.”

  Drake took a long, menacing (for him) step toward Alec and Natalie surged to her feet to wedge herself between them.

  “Great, this is a plan,” she said as she shoved Alec away from the pissed-off vampire. He was still grinning and it was only serving to anger Drake more. It wasn’t that she thought the vampire would hurt the werewolf, she just didn’t want to have to deal with a fight. “I’ll take Alec to search on my end.”

  “Why Alec, Natalie?” Kai asked as she folded her arms and looked at the two of them evenly.

  Crap. The questions about what was going on between them hadn’t been tabled like Natalie hoped.

  She shrugged. “I’ll take him if only so that no one else kills him.”

  Plus she kind of wanted to know whether he was moving into her apartment or what.

  “Right,” Kai murmured in a voice that oozed sarcasm. “We’ll leave that to the monster murderer roaming the city.”

  “Right,” Natalie said, swallowing hard. “Wouldn’t want to take away their fun.”

  “Shit, I’m standing right here,” Alec said, but his tone was laced with laughter, despite the dark topic.

  “Fine. I’ll head out with Jekyll and Hyde,” Kai offered with a grimace at the man . . . men.

  Natalie shivered. One of Jekyll-Hyde’s eyes was dark with concern, while the other was bright with sexual interest. She actually preferred them separated because having two such different personalities in one man was . . . disconcerting. When Hyde was separate, you could at least pinpoint the threat.

  Drake frowned. “So that leaves me with Linda.”

  Linda pushed her lip out in a pout. “I’m not a monster,” she insisted again. Poor Drake was going to be apologizing for that comment all night.

  Natalie rolled her eyes and started for the door. “Let’s meet up tomorrow night during our regular time and compare notes on whatever we find. Come on, Alec.”

  She exited the room without looking back at the group and headed down the hallway toward the stairs. If she could just avoid any more arguments, maybe she wouldn’t end up with another migraine before the end of the night.

  “Hey, wait!” Alec called behind her.

  She slowed down and looked over her shoulder. He was jogging to catch up with her, and when he did, she started walking again.

  “Did you really pick me because you want to make sure none of the monsters kill me?” he asked.

  Natalie rolled her eyes. “Yeah, you seem to bring that out in people.”

  “Except you,” he teased.

  She shot him a look. “No, I want to kill you, too. I just have more self-control.”

  Alec laughed as they headed out onto the street and made their way toward the subway station.

  “So what are we doing?” Alec asked.

  She shook her head. How it had come to this, she did not know.

  “You are going to be a good boy and come with me. To work.”

  He grinned even wider. “Morgue time? Woohoo! I’ve always wanted to visit the morgue. Will they let me have a bone?”

  She blinked as she stared at him for a moment, then turned on her heel and walked away. “God help us both.”

  8

  Natalie peeled the backing from the visitor tag she’d created for Alec and glanced up at him as she attached it on his shirt. There were muscles under there. She had touched them. They were kind of . . . nice.

  She cleared her throat nervously. “Remember, if anyone asks—”

  “I’m your cousin who showed up in town unexpectedly,” Alec finished. “Though, in my mind, we’re only cousins by marriage, so if we wanted to hook up . . .”

  “Stop!” Natalie slapped at his hand. She was in no mood for his shenanigans. “Seriously.”

  “Okay, okay, no need to smack.” Alec reached out to pat her arm gently. “Nat,” he began.

  She tensed. Nat? A nickname? She’d never had a nickname. No one had ever been close enough to give her one. With the exception of villagers who screamed, “Demon!” or “Monster!” or “Kill it!”

  She was pretty sure that wasn’t the same thing.

  “I’m not going to screw up your job,” Alec continued. His golden eyes held her with all seriousness. “I can behave when I want to, and I will.”

  Natalie pulled away from his unexpected comfort and glanced at him from the corner of her eye. He seemed solemn enough, but she really wasn’t sure she could trust him. Or, more importantly, if she should.

  But it wasn’t like she had any kind of choice.

  “Good, I appreciate that,” she said. “Okay. Well, let’s go, then.”

  She used her badge to go through the locked door into the back hallway. All she wanted to do was get to her little office, hide out, and do paperwork all night between accessing the files she needed for researching the monster deaths and any relationships between them. Anything to keep Alec out of sight of her coworkers and her boss.

  The moment the thought had entered her head, her boss came around the corner and started down the hall, a pile of papers in her hand. Everything seemed to shift into slow motion as Gretchen Grimes moved closer and closer. She glanced up and smiled at Natalie, and then her gaze slipped behind her to Alec and filled with interest and question.

  “Hi, Natalie,” she said with a broad Hollywood smile. “And just who is your friend?”

  Natalie swallowed. She’d never been much good at lying, and in that moment every bad outcome from doing so flashed before her eyes and resulted in firing . . . fire . . . arrest . . . losing her apartment . . .

  “Alec Dunham,” he said, putting out his hand.

  Natalie jolted. She hadn’t actually ever heard Alec’s last name before. It fit him. Also, it was the last name of a character on a TV show she liked, so that made it even better.

  “Doctor Gretchen Grimes, medical examiner,” her boss said, giving her full title, as she always did when she met a new person. Always working the crowd, that one.

  Alec gave that smooth, lady-killer smile that melted the panties off women at clubs regularly. Natalie could hardly cover her irritation.

  “Oh, trust me, I know who you are,” he all but purred. And here Natalie thought he was supposed to be a dog. “I’ve seen you on Court TV.”

  Gretchen pretended to be embarrassed, but Natalie could tell she was eating this up. “Oh, yes. The Ambassador Case. Terrible thing, three murders. But I was just happy to do my job. The fact that the case was televised . . . well, that’s really not up to me.”

  Natalie bit her tongue.

  “You were fascinating to watch. I’m sorry, where are my manners? I’m Natalie’s cousin,” Alec explained. “Just showed up from out of town. The family is always going on and on about her big-time job in New York and her big-time boss.”

  Natalie shot him a glare that she hoped told him, Too much, Alec, and said, “Are they?”

  He nodded and wrapped an arm around her shoulders to squeeze with bone-crushing power. “Oh yes. We are so proud of our little Nata-boo.”

  She shut her eyes. In his scenario she even had a ridiculous nickname? Crap, that was two in the span of fifteen minutes, though she preferred Nat to Nata-boo.

  Jesus, he was good. But then, unlike her, at some point a couple of centuries ago he’d probably actually had a real family. And not an I-built-you-so-appreciate-me-and-do-my-bidding family, either.

  Lucky.

  “Anyway, I’m just so impressed by my cuz, I asked if I could tag along with her to work tonight.” Alec smiled down at Natalie and then he winked. His eyes were all sparkly. It was weird.

  “I hope that’s okay,” Nata
lie managed past dry lips as she shrugged from the cousin-friendly embrace. “I know I didn’t clear it beforehand. It was kind of last minute.”

  Gretchen didn’t even look at her; her eyes were still focused on Alec. Natalie had never seen her boss so interested in anyone other than herself.

  “Natalie, how could you have not mentioned this charming cousin before?” her boss said with what could only be called a giggle. “Of course it’s fine. He wouldn’t be able to come in for an autopsy, but there’s no reason he couldn’t be in the back with you. And maybe later he can join me to see what I do around here.”

  Alec sent that killer grin her way again. “That sounds awesome, thanks. Good old Cousin Natalie always said you were a great boss, and I can see why.”

  Her boss tittered again and Natalie flinched. Shit, that was an annoying noise. Gretchen was too old for Alec, for one thing . . . or at least she should have thought she was . . . and seriously, who macked on someone’s cousin right in front of them?

  “Well, I have a ton of paperwork to do,” Natalie said as she edged toward her office. “So . . . I should go do that. Come on, Alec . . . uh . . . poo.”

  He took Gretchen’s hand a second time and shook it a moment too long. “Until later, eh?”

  Gretchen smiled. “Later.”

  Natalie rolled her eyes as her boss walked away with one final glance at Alec.

  “Wow, cougar!” Alec whispered once they were out of earshot. “Not that she’s bad-looking.”

  Natalie shot him a look. “Please don’t talk to me about how good-looking you think my boss is. It’s so creepy.”

  Alec tilted his head. “I didn’t. And is that jealousy I hear in your voice?”

  Natalie shook her head. “Nope. It’s annoyance.”

  She unlocked her office and stepped inside.

  Alec stopped at the door. “Wow. Tiny.”

  She glanced around. Okay, so it wasn’t huge, but it was pretty good-sized for New York. She had a small desk cluttered with paperwork and her computer, a rolling chair, and a file cabinet.

  “If you can fit a folding chair in your office, it’s big in this city,” she said as she reached behind the door for the folding chair she kept there for when Gretchen came in for one of her powwows and ended up stealing Natalie’s comfortable chair. Two hours of standing one night while Gretchen rambled on and on about herself had taught Natalie a lesson.