Sookie helped him to push the lid up, propping it against the mound.
A beautiful mahogany casket lay inside the yawning earth. The polished hardware gleamed under the anemic light. Sookie let out a whistle. She could see the great craftsmanship of the casket. Jesse was right. This was the Rolls Royce of caskets. What a freaking waste. Throwing twenty-five grand away on something that was going to be buried in the ground. It wasn't like the resident of the casket was going to know it anyway. Twenty-five grand was her total earnings last year. It had put her and Jesse under a roof. Paid their utility bills. Put food on the table. Sometimes the way rich people spent their money disgusted her.
"I'm going to open it," Jesse announced.
"Do you know how?"
Her brother cast her a dark look. "Hello? Who’s the handsome devil working in a funeral home?”
Sookie sniffed. She snatched the lantern and climbed out of the hole. Digging it was her limit. Ogling a corpse was out of the question. She took another breather, watching the sky.
From the pit, Jesse grunted again before he said something that sounded like, "Eureka!"
It seemed he was able to open the casket.
Sookie averted her gaze from the hole, bracing for any smell of decomposition. How did Dean and Sam Winchester manage to do this kind of stuff in the show? All she was missing right now was rock salt and lighter fluid to assist the malevolent spirit passing into the next life. Sookie bit the inside of her cheek so she wouldn't grin. Despite how bone-tired she was, doing this kind of stuff was kind of cool.
"Umm, sis?" Jesse called from the hole.
"Did you find the package?" Sookie half-expected to smell something awful by now.
"Ah, yeah, but, sis..." Jesse faltered. "Take a look."
"No thanks. I’m not fancy to see Mr. Corpsey. Just get your stuff and fill this hole."
"I think you really should take a look.”
“Why?”
“Just do it. Please?”
Sookie rolled her eyes. She lifted the lantern and peered down. A waft of formaldehyde and something sweetly rotten assaulted her nostril.
Then, she saw it.
For long minute, she couldn't make heads or tails of it. Slumbering inside the final resting place was a body of misshapen man. Grotesque was an understatement. Every inch of his skin covered in black matted fur. He was unclothed and face down. From where she was kneeling, she could see the back of his head bore a hole. His brain matter glistened in the light. Pink and grayish in color. There were also multiple bullet holes visible on his back torso and...hind legs.
Oh, God, what the hell is this?
Sookie tore her eyes from the sight. She fought a nasty urge to barf. That's not a man. That's...a monster. It's not possible. I'm hallucinating...
"Jesse..." she finally mustered an effort to speak. Her voice came out like a wheeze. Her stomach twisted.
She didn't hear a reply.
"Jesse!"
"Yeah." Her brother's voice was as weak as hers was.
"Grab the damn package and let's get the hell out of here. I have a bad feeling about this."
"Aren't you, at least, a bit curious? I mean, this man was a total freak, dude."
Sookie temporarily had forgotten that Jesse was a teenager. A boy of sixteen. Kids his age would find something this abhorrent fascinating. Especially for a kid like Jesse.
"We should, like, take pictures or something, or maybe collect some samples. I really should make a video out of it and post it on YouTube," Jesse drawled on. "This is an internet sensation waiting to happen. It's going to be bigger than alien autopsy or even—"
"Jesse! Are you fucking stupid? I thought you were smarter than your airheaded friends," Sookie barked. "Forget filling in this hole. Let's just leave..."
Her words trailed away when she realized they were no longer alone. Their bickering had attracted some attention. There were four men in billowing trench coats closing in on them from two different directions. They shone their bright flashlights into her face and the hole.
Sookie squinted.
Crap, crap, this isn't happening. We got caught.
Inside the grave, Jesse was still rambling on and on, totally unaware that they had been discovered.
"Jesse, shut up!" Sookie barked again. Oh God. How are we going to get out of this one?
The men stopped a few feet from them.
A thousand excuses ran inside her head and none of them was good enough to offer as a plausible explanation without implicating what she and her brother had done. She had a feeling what they had witnessed somehow was worse than desecrating the grave itself. Those men didn't look like cops or the employees of the cemetery. No, sir, they weren’t. The men were built like Mack trucks with menacing gaits and hardened faces. At this distance, Sookie noticed that they were packing. Flashlights weren't the only things they were holding. Sookie never would have guessed this was the day she would look into the barrels of guns. Her blood ran cold. Her heart froze in her chest.
Sookie was choked with fear. "Jesse!"
Her brother stopped dawdling. "What is it?"
"Put your hands behind your head and get up slowly," a burly man with a shaved head and sunglasses commanded her with a steely voice.
Sookie did what he asked. "I don't want any trouble."
Shaved Head seemed to be their leader. "Move away from the hole."
The other men barked an order to Jesse. Her brother startled at first, then grumpily climbed out of the hole, cursing under his breath. He saw the shaved head and murmured conspiratorially at her, "Geez, what kind of asshole wears sunglasses at night?"
Sookie stomped on his foot so Jesse would shut up. She drew a deep breath before she spoke to the shaved head, "Sir, we have a perfectly good explanation for this. My brother here accidentally stowed something in the expensive casket and we have to—"
"Shut it." The shaved head tilted his head and talked to one of his henchmen, who wore a long ponytail. "Is it open?"
"Yeah, they saw it."
"Nope, nope. We didn't see anything, hear anything or do anything. We aren’t even here," Sookie said quickly, hoping that these men would let them go.
Jesse seemed to realize that their situation was, indeed, dire and decided to be a good boy by keeping his mouth shut.
Shave Head narrowed his eyes. They were yellow. The fuck? Sookie shivered inwardly. Who the hell are these people?
Shave Head gestured with his gun. "Walk that way."
"But, sir—"
Sookie screamed when she heard a loud bang. Shave Head had fired a warning shot and the bullet had missed her by an inch. She pulled Jesse against her, shaking. But her brother’s body tensed, he was bristling. Jesse was rather attached to her. Once he outgrew her by a foot, he thought he was her protector. "No, Jesse," she hissed sharply. "Don't do anything stupid. Just do what he said."
"Like hell."
"Please, Jesse. Listen to me for once." Sookie turned to shave head. "We're cooperating. Don't shoot, please."
Shave Head gestured again, rather irritably. He seemed to be a man of few words.
Sookie tugged Jesse to start moving. Her brother didn’t budge until she pinched his arm. He cursed under his breath, trudging along grudgingly.
Behind them, the ponytailed man ordered the other two to fill the grave hole. He then joined Shave Head. The men herded Sookie and Jesse for a long walk to where they’d parked their car. A white van and a black Escalade flanked Sookie’s old Saturn. Sookie wondered how these men found out that the grave had been disturbed? Did they install security cameras or something? But I didn’t see anything resembling a camera when we were digging.
Jesse caught her eyes as a panic was settling on them.
She quickly shook her head. "Don't worry, everything will be all right," she whispered. "And please, don't do anything stupid."
Sookie knew her brother all too well. Jesse was toying with the idea of outrunning the men to their car. Just becau
se he was fast, it didn’t mean he could outrun bullets.
When they got to their car, Shave Head ordered them to empty their pockets. He crushed their cellphones with his steel-toed boots. Ponytail took away their shoes, bound their ankles and then bound their wrists behind their backs with zip ties. Their mouths were covered with duct tape when Sookie started asking questions. She and her brother were then crammed into the back of the van.
Ponytail sat with them. Shave Head made a quick phone call before he entered then van, sitting shotgun. They waited quite a long time before the two other men returned. One slipped behind the van’s steering wheel and the other went to the Escalade. Sookie assumed they must have filled in the hole that she and Jesse had dug. Her feet and hands felt numb from the ties that restricted her blood circulation. Her legs cramped and her nose was itchy just because she couldn't scratch it. The men were no longer pointing their guns at them, but she felt even more terrified than before. Jesse was too. She could see it in his eyes.
They drove for what seemed an eternity.
Sookie gazed outside the windows. The dark night danced beyond the glass. The men didn’t talk, didn’t offer any explanations. She couldn’t speak a word through her taped mouth. It seemed they were headed away from the city from the lack of buildings and inhabitants. Shadows of trees replaced the urban scenery and the road became uneven and bumpy. They travelled on the gravely dirt for a while before they finally stopped.
Shave Head barked some orders. Ponytail grabbed them by their collars and yanked them out of the van. Sookie wildly scanned her surroundings. These men had taken her and Jesse to some kind of dilapidated factory in bum-fuck nowhere. He cut the ties on their ankles so they could walk. Shave Head marched them inside an old warehouse.
The sharp smell of chemicals assaulted her nostrils. It seemed the offense came from the pails of farming fertilizer stacked tall in narrow rows. Shave Head urged her to keep up by shoving the barrel of his gun on her kidney. Sookie yelped. It fucking hurt. She cursed under her tape.
A pair of heavily-armed men greeted them with death stares as they rounded the corner. A few words exchanged between Shave Head and the guards before one of them opened another door deep into the recessed area of the building.
As soon as they passed, the surroundings changed drastically: the corridors and labyrinth of rooms looked new and high-tech. The walls were plastered with metallic chrome. Gone were the dingy and noxious environments. It was clear to her that the old decrepit warehouse was only a front for some kind of sophisticated operation. Dark thoughts spun in her head. Did Jesse and I stumble into an organized crime affair? Or a meth lab? Human trafficking? She glanced at Jesse, fervently praying that they would be spared from whatever fate awaited them.
People swathed in lab coats bustled through the corridors, consumed with their own thoughts and barely gave them a glance. Sookie stole a glimpse into a room when a man exited a door; chimps’ screechings reverberated, rattling in their cages. It alarmed her. What kind of place is this? She had no doubt that these people conducted illegal experiments on those poor animals. What the hell did we get ourselves into?
They were herded into an expansive room where a group of men seemed to be waiting for their arrival. The room itself was only furnished with a table with two folding chairs facing a plush office chair on the opposing side. A twenty-something man dressed in a sleek business suit occupied the comfy one. Shave Head seated her and her brother on the folding chairs. Ponytail replaced Jesse’s ziptie with a pair of handcuffs. He also put a manacle on his neck with the chain bolted into the concrete. Jesse protested behind the duct tape.
For some reason, Shave Head released her ties. He then tore the tape from her mouth.
“Fuck!” Sookie cursed. She was pissed by their treatment of Jesse. “Is that really necessary? He isn't going anywhere. We're cooperating."
Ponytail jabbed her side with the butt of his gun. Sookie flinched in pain. Jesse struggled against his ties and Ponytail moved to discipline him as well.
“Stop it!” Sookie begged him desperately. “Don’t hurt him. Please.”
The Suit observed her in silence. She didn't like the look in his eyes. The man was calculating her worth. “What’s your name?” he asked. His tone was indifferent.
“Susan. Susan Alkin. And this is my brother, Jesse. Sir, this is all a misunderstanding—“
The Suit held up a hand.
Sookie quieted.
“What were you doing in Marcus’s grave?” he asked.
Sookie gulped nervously. “You see, sir, my brother works at Burke’s Funeral Home. He accidentally left an important package inside the expensive casket, so regrettably, we had to retrieve it. We didn’t mean disrespect in any way toward your family, sir.”
“A package?”
Sookie traded a gaze with Jesse. “The package doesn’t belong to my brother. Jesse’s only holding it for the boss’s son.”
“What’s in the package?”
Sookie hesitated to answer. “It might be marijuana.”
Laughter exploded unexpectedly. “You dug up Marcus’s grave because your brother stowed some weed in his coffin?” He looked amused. His scary henchmen let out obligatory grins.
“Yes, sir, please let us—”
Suit cut her plea short with a wave of his hand. His Rolex watch glimmered under the bright fluorescent light. “Did you open Marcus’s coffin?”
“Well, my brother did.”
“Did you see Marcus’s body?”
“We didn’t know what we saw and we didn’t want to know. We don’t want any trouble.”
Suit made a sound of disbelief. “But you two saw what’s in it.”
“But, sir—”
“Ms. Alkin, the two of you have put me in a difficult position. Therefore, I am compelled to offer you a proposition.”
“Excuse me?”
“Now, now, you can’t expect me to let you and your brother go after everything you’ve seen, can you? You will work for me if you want your brother to be spared.”
Sookie opened and closed her mouth. This asshole was using Jesse as leverage. She thought for a second. “Is it something illegal?”
“Does it matter? You and brother had a possession of controlled substance. You vandalized a grave and on top of that, you saw something you shouldn’t have. You’re hardly in any position to put yourself on a high pedestal.”
Damn it. Sookie swallowed hard. “I-I understand.”
Suit snapped his fingers. His men brought a suitcase to the table. Suit opened it and plucked out an ampoule containing red liquid. He tore open a package of syringes and assembled a sterile needle. With one smooth motion, Suit filled the syringe from the ampoule. Shaved Head took the syringe from Suit and walked toward Jesse.
Her inner alarm blared loudly. “No, no, no. You can’t do that. What are you doing to my brother?” Ponytail and an Asian-looking man restrained her in her chair. “Stop it!”
Her plea met deaf ears. Shave Head locked Jesse’s head with one arm and emptied the content into her brother’s jugular.
“What did you do to Jesse?” Sookie screeched. “I said I’d cooperate! Why did you drug him?”
Suit waved dismissively. “It’s leverage, Miss Alkin. Now, your brother had been infected with an Alpha strain. It will render him strong, fast and allow him to possess the attributes of a superhuman. Sadly, the virus also shortens his lifespan. He has few weeks to live without an antidote.”
“A-antidote?”
He nodded. “After the final incubation period, the antidote needs to be administered every ten days to prolong his life. Without it your brother will fall into a state of suspended animation and die.”
No, no, no…
Jesse started shuddering in his chair, then thrashed wildly. He was writhing, screaming against his bonds, eyes rolling and his mouth foaming under the duct tape. His body underwent a transformation so drastic it was like a scene from science fiction movie. There were sic
kening crunching sounds as his bones rearranged beneath his skin. And there was white coarse fur covering his skin. He started snapping his jaws. The chain was the only thing that kept him from attacking the person nearest to him.
Sookie was frozen in her chair, her brain still refusing to process that this was really happening to her Jesse. Her dear Jesse who Mom had entrusted to her care.
They turned him into a monster.
A fucking crazy, snarling, untamed werewolf.
Chapter One
Ethan Hunter sat straight in his winged-back chair with legs crossed and fingers steepled in front of him, almost motionless. The pack beta, Ash Graystone, stood by his side in equally statue-like stillness, silently watching the celebration party at Lunar Manor swing in full motion. His pack and guests from other houses had gathered in the manor to celebrate Ethan’s miraculous return.
One month ago, the small engine plane he piloted went down in Lake Michigan during a heavy storm.
The accident almost killed him.
It should have killed him.
The nosedive descent broke the plane in half when it slammed against the surface of the water. Ethan had little memory after he was hurled out by the impact of the crash. After relentless searching, Graystone was able to locate him in the water, wounded and clinging to life. The incident wasn’t a mere accident. Someone had tampered with the engine—a disguised attempt to assassinate him. Only his enemies had not calculated that it would take more than a plane crash to kill him.
Knowing that his enemies were still out there, plotting for his demise, Ethan concocted a plan. Graystone announced that Ethan had suffered a transient amnesia. The alpha had no recollection of the accident or events leading to that fateful night. Ethan hoped this tactic would force his enemy to make his next move. And to his delight, his cousin, Cain, did just that. He informed him that Ethan had met a woman and secretly married her on a whim the night before his accident. And without his beta’s knowledge.
Ethan would never do such an important thing like marry someone without letting Graystone know. A clever ploy, Ethan had to give his cousin some credit.
Soul of the Wolves Page 2
