I’m wasting time, I thought frantically. I have to get out of here!
The rain felt like needles pounding down on my head as I reached the top of the oak tree. Well, it wasn’t exactly the top, it was as high as I could safely climb and have the limbs hold my weight. At first I was afraid I had just wasted precious escape time. But then I saw a big dark shape in the distance. Just over the top of the next hill was what had to be my neighbor’s barn. I was so excited that for a second I felt weak. This meant I was going in the right direction. I just had to cross the farm and the road and I’d be back home. What the hell I’d do once I got there was another matter entirely. Then I remembered Eramus. I would run to Eramus. He’d know what to do.
I was about to climb down when I heard something coming through the woods toward me. The rain was so heavy that it looked like a white sheet in front of my face. Whatever was out there, it most likely had the advantage because I couldn’t see shit if you threw it at my face.
There was no doubt in my mind that what was coming intended to do me harm. My chest hurt as I thought about James. He was probably dead or lying there dying and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it. I’d dropped my cell phone when I took off for the woods and I didn’t have a weapon. So it was either outsmart this thing and get away, or die. I felt stupid just sitting there, waiting for death to find me. But what was I supposed to do, jump down and flag it saying, “Here I am, eat me?”
The reason I thought of it as a “thing” and not a werewolf is because it wasn’t exactly a monster I recognized. Its face however was very familiar. As the creature grew closer I figured one thing out, it needed that wheelchair, at least most of the time.
He was limping through the woods with a halting, uneven gait that looked painful.
“Goddamned silver necklace,” he mumbled as he drew closer.
Silver necklace? He must have meant James’ necklace. I gave it to him the first year we were together and he’d worn it ever since. Apparently when he hit James the silver touched him. And it affected him this badly?
“Well, well.”
He bent to pick up my umbrella and took another look around the woods. In order to keep steady he propped against the trunk of the tree where I was perched only a few feet above his head. His hands were hairy and his fingernails had become claws. His eyes glowed so in the dark that they seemed to light the flesh around them, giving him a jack-o’-lantern sort of look. His fangs reminded me of a vampire. Not that I’d seen one in person, but that’s what they looked like. But I’d never heard of a vamp with hairy hands. I’d also never heard of a vampire or a werewolf with a physical disability.
He ran his nose up the handle of the umbrella and a chill ran through me that had nothing to do with the freezing rain. He was trying to pick up my scent. I might get hypothermia, but at least the rain was good for something. It was helping to mask my smell. That much was obvious, otherwise I was certain he would have found me by now.
“Fuck.” He tossed the umbrella down with a snarl. “Don’t worry, Lucy. I’ll find you.”
He knew my name? Who the fuck was he? His voice didn’t sound familiar. Then again, it was deepened so from his transformation that it sounded like something you’d hear in a horror movie. The only thing familiar about him at all was his face. Not the features, which were also slightly transformed, but the shape. I felt like we’d definitely met, I just had no idea where.
I sat there for what felt like an eternity, waiting for those awful jack-o’-lantern eyes to look up at me and praying they wouldn’t. He stumbled around the area where I’d fallen, looking for tracks I suppose, but the rain had washed everything away. I’d never been so grateful for rain in my life. I thought about jumping down on him and hitting him in the head. But then I remembered what he’d done to James. James was over six feet tall and weighed two hundred pounds. He’d flung him into the car like a rag doll. So, seeing as how I’m not a ninja, I quickly pushed all thoughts of assault from my mind.
Finally he limped off in another direction and as soon as he was out of sight I began climbing down. I lowered myself down from the last branch as far as I could. My upper body strength wasn’t enough to hold me there for long. I stretched my feet toward the ground as much as possible, hoping to keep from making any sort of splash. But I had no such luck.
My feet hit the ground with a wet smack and I took off toward the farm like a madwoman. Not even looking to see if the monster had heard me I tore through the woods at a break-neck pace. I had just made it out of the woods when a bone chilling howl cut through the night.
I bit back a scream and saved my breath for a running start as I scaled the wooden fence that surrounded the property. The horses were in the stable across the field and I could hear them going crazy. The monster was getting closer, because they could sense him. I would have tried to make it all the way across the ranch and to my neighbor’s house, but it was the weekend and I knew they were away. They worked the ranch during the week and spent almost every weekend out of town. Of course there was a caretaker, but he didn’t spend the night.
Lightning split the sky and the barn stood out like a big red beacon. I slipped as I crested the hill and for the first time I could hear the creature behind me. He had just reached the edge of the woods. I knew this because when I looked back his profile was illuminated by another flash of lightning. If I had seen him I had no doubt that he’d seen me.
I had no idea I could run so fast. I think I traveled half the distance to the barn on my hands and knees, trying to plow my way through the wet grass and mud. As stupid as it may sound, my mind was suddenly filled with movie clichés. I’m a large breasted woman being chased by a monster in the middle of a storm, I thought. By movie standards, I’m fucked.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Remember when?
Under different circumstances my thoughts might have been amusing. But in my current situation they were frightening. I guess it’s not that unusual that I thought about scenarios in movies. I mean, it’s not like this is what normally went on in my real life. I didn’t even know any monsters until recently and now I kept getting chased by them. I’ll admit I had wanted a bit more excitement in my life, but this was not what I had in mind.
Instead of going straight in the barn, I ran around the side. I wanted him to think there was a possibility that I might have gone on. That way, there was a chance he might not even go in the barn. At least, that’s what I was hoping for.
There was a big tractor parked up against the backside of the barn. I climbed up on top of it and through the loft window. It was all I could do to breathe. I felt like I was making way too much noise, like my breathing and my heartbeat were magnified. What was it Eramus had said, that he could hear my heartbeat? Couldn’t this creature do the same? Or was the rain drowning out the sound?
He came crashing through the front doors and I slapped a hand across my mouth to keep from screaming.
“Here kitty kitty,” he growled.
He was taller than before by at least a foot and his back was curved like he was hunched forward. His hair was longer and his hands were now transformed into giant claws. But the way he limped let me know that something was still wrong with his legs.
“I promise not to eat you,” he drawled. “Come on, Lucy. Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”
He fell down with a roar. “Your fucking boyfriend’s necklace! Who the fuck wears silver anymore?”
I edged closer to get a better look at what was going on, but was careful to only lean and not actually move my whole body. I didn’t want to take a chance on a board creaking or some other such stupidity.
“Don’t you recognize me?” he panted. “Remember? We used to be friends?”
He turned his face up toward me then and I screamed. He’d known where I was all along. As frightened as I was, I did not like being toyed with. Matter of fact, it really pissed me off.
“Come on down, darling. Let’s get reacquainted.”
I was more than a little surprised when my knees didn’t wobble and my hands didn’t shake. I took hold of the ladder leading from the loft and climbed down. As I approached him the monster took a hammer in his right hand. I froze.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “This isn’t for you.” He held the hammer high, then paused. “You might want to look away.”
“I probably should, but forgive me if I don’t trust you enough to turn my back.”
His smile was evil as he lifted the hammer up and proceeded to break his own shin bones. I screamed, but I didn’t look away.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Fear was obvious in my voice, but I didn’t care. I wanted to know who he was and how he knew my name. Fighting back bile over what I’d just witnessed, I forced myself to watch him.
The creature let out another awful howl before turning his distorted gaze back to me. “You mean besides the obvious?” He gestured at his broken body. “I’ve been in a goddamned wheelchair since I was twelve.”
Despite my best judgment, I knelt in front of him and gasped when I finally recognized the monster before me.
“Ron?”
He smiled, flashing his fangs. “You do remember me.”
“What happened to you?”
He winced and when I glanced at his legs I saw that they were already reforming. I scooted back on the dirt floor, but I still didn’t stand up.
“You remember my accident, right?”
“Of course.”
“Well, growing up like this wasn’t easy. That’s an understatement and a cliché all at once, but I’m in a lot of pain here.” He roared as his foot broke backwards and began to reform into a massive paw.
“As I’m sure you can imagine this is not pleasant, but severe injury speeds up the process.”
“Ron…what are you?”
He waved off the comment. “I’m getting to that. Like I said, I hated being in that chair. So I—” He stopped and looked back at me again. “Do you know anything about lycanthropy? About the effects of the disease itself?”
I shook my head. “Only the obvious stuff. It turns you into a werewolf.”
He growled again only this time I kept watching his face. I didn’t think I could handle what was happening to his legs.
“It does more than that. If you have a physical disability, scars, anything of that nature it can heal it. Like say you lost your hand and all you had was a stump. If you were turned into a werewolf, you could grow that hand back. Of course, you’d have to cut off part of it again in order for your hand to regenerate, but what have you got to lose? Same thing for scars, just find a way to re-injure the skin and it will heal completely.”
This gruesome picture was finally starting to come together.
“You contracted lycanthropy on purpose to try to heal?”
His laugh was a cold, bitter sound. “I’ve never exactly been lucky. That was the plan, but it didn’t work out. As it so happens, I’m immune to lycanthropy. I got bitten by a werewolf for nothing.”
“But…” I gestured at his hands and fangs.
“I’m getting there. I actually became friends with the werewolf who agreed to bite me. See, it took some persuading, but once he decided to help me he was in ’til we came up with something else.”
He paused and I noticed that his legs looked almost whole. Only they weren’t perfectly formed human legs, they were nearly perfectly formed werewolf legs.
“What did you do?”
“He suggested that if we mixed werewolf blood with that of a vampire that it might still work. It would sort of be as if the vampire blood was a carrier for the virus. I don’t know how to explain it to you any better than that, but a vampire can’t mix with a werewolf. It can, however, carry the virus in its blood without infecting anyone else.”
His explanation was dizzying.
“So you somehow got a vampire’s blood and mixed it with werewolf blood. Then what?”
“Then we injected it into my bloodstream and tada! As you can see, it didn’t work out like we’d planned, but it did work. I have to stay in that damn chair when I’m human, but when I transform…I get to walk again.”
As horrific as his story was it was also heartbreaking.
“I’m not exactly a vampire and I’m not exactly a werewolf. Since the two don’t mix naturally, I guess you could say I’m just fucked up. Normally if someone is bitten by a vampire and then a werewolf, they’ll take on the traits of whoever got there first. In my case, since I couldn’t contract lycanthropy on its own, I took on a little of both.”
I rose to my feet and backed up slowly. Ron rolled over and was lying facedown in the dirt, growling as his body continued to reform itself.
“That stupid necklace delayed my transformation or I’d have caught you in the woods.”
His voice was even deeper now and nothing could have hidden the malice in his words.
“Why are you here?”
He lifted his face up and I gasped. He was covered in hair, but he didn’t grow a wolf snout like Nick had done. He looked like a human wearing a monster costume. A really good monster costume.
“I’m here because you have been marked.”
Okay, I’d had enough of this shit. “What is everyone talking about with this damn mark?”
He laughed. “You really don’t know? It’s an honor, Luce. You’ve been chosen.”
“For what?”
“To mate with the alpha who helped me.”
I retreated so fast that I stumbled over a wheelbarrow full of garden tools. It’s a miracle I didn’t stab myself with something.
“What the fuck?! You can’t just decide you want to mate with someone! Is that why you’re here, to bring me to him?”
“Yes,” he snapped. “And you’re lucky it’s me. His second choice would not have been as kind.”
“You call this kind?! You show up, scare me to death! You probably killed James! I don’t understand. We really did used to be friends. At least, I thought we were. Why would you do this to me, Ron?”
“It’s not all about you,” he spat. “I recommended you for the position because he needed a good woman. You were the only one who was ever kind to me. I thought that if anyone could love him it would be you. So, when he gave a sample of his blood to the shaman for the mark, I gave him your name. There were other recommendations given by other members of the pack, you know. We had no way of knowing who had actually gotten the mark. That is until recently.”
“You’re delusional. I don’t know any fucking shaman or any such bullshit. You’re doing this because you’re sick. Let me help you, Ron. It might not be too late. I know someone who—”
“Eramus,” he growled, cutting me off. “You should forget about him right now.”
Ron rose to a crouching position and as he did so his clothes ripped off, he’d completely outgrown them.
“Once you get a taste of a real alpha werewolf, you’ll forget all about that monster hunter.”
I backed up until my back hit one of the poles that held up the barn. My hand wrapped around a wooden handle and I clutched it for dear life. If he came any closer I was going to hit him with it, whatever it was.
“I still don’t understand why you’d do this to someone you thought was kind. Isn’t being raped by a monster something you save for your enemies?”
He laughed. “My master has never had to rape a woman. Your blood calls out to him. He’s become a part of who you are. Even now you are drawn to the wolf in me, whether you like it or not.”
His words were shocking. But even more shocking was the fact that he was right. I was drawn to Ron. It wasn’t necessarily sexual, but I definitely had the urge to touch him.
Well fuck that. I’m not some weak minded fool who can’t control her libido when her life is at stake.
“Just let me go, Ron. Pretend you couldn’t find me…for old time’s sake.”
“No such luck, Luce.”
He lunged at me, but I was expec
ting it. I snatched the handle behind me and brought it around as fast as I could. Ron must have still been affected by the silver, otherwise I never would have been able to hit him. I’m nowhere near as fast as a werewolf. For lack of a better term, that’s what he appeared to be.
I didn’t even realize until the tool swung past my face that it was a pitchfork. I jabbed it through his chest just below his armpit and he howled.
“I’m not going to kill you, but you shouldn’t press your luck.”
I pulled the pitchfork back and stabbed it through his throat. Ron’s eyes showed just how surprised he was as he fell to the ground. If he got back up, this might be my only chance to escape. He was still clawing at the pitchfork, trying to get it out when I ran through the front doors and out into the storm.
The rain was still coming down too hard for me to see the road, but I knew it couldn’t be far. On a clear day you could see the barn from the side of the road across from my house. I had to make it to Eramus. “This is not the night I die,” I kept telling myself.
Have you ever had one of those dreams where you’re running from something and you can never seem to get anywhere? That’s what it felt like trying to get to the road. Part of me expected to wake up at any minute and curse whatever it was I’d drunk before going to bed. Vaguely I was aware that I’d stopped feeling cold. That could either be because I was running flat out down a hill or because hypothermia was starting to settle in.
Keeping in shape was something I enjoyed, but I was a casual exerciser. I enjoyed long walks and gardening. Occasionally I’d use the exercise bike in my spare room. But I was not in the kind of shape to be running like this without passing out. Not normally. Ron’s words haunted me as I continued my mad dash through the rain, completely exhilarated and not even remotely tired. Had my blood really been mixed with an alpha werewolf? I sure as shit knew I couldn’t run through the woods and then clear across a large ranch without even a stitch in my side just a month ago.
Maybe this was just the effect adrenaline had on my body, but I doubted it.
When I finally reached the shallow ditch beside the road I tripped. The rain was too heavy to see through and I fell face first. I turned my face up to the rain as I gasped, sucking down air like I’d been underwater. I ran my hands over my face and down my arms, wiping away the mud. I’m not sure why I felt the need to take a mini-shower in the rain, but I am obsessive-compulsive to a slight degree.
Sex Symbol Page 18
