The Night Beat

by Gini Koch

  I jumped for the other side, but Jack caught me around my waist, spun and tossed me back onto the bed. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked, as he climbed into bed with me.

  “Nothing.” Canines don’t lie well as a rule and I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to win any awards this time. “Just need to check on the others.”

  “They can wait.” Jack grabbed my wrists and shoved me back onto the bed. “C’mon, Vic.” He smiled, a really sexy, enticing smile. “We haven’t even tried to do it doggy-style yet.”

  I wondered if, on another day, I would have found this appealing. Maybe. But today it struck me as totally wrong, and off-putting to the nth degree. “Jack, now isn’t a good time.”

  His eyes narrowed. “As I understand it, werewolves are a pack-like animal. And that means there’s a pack leader.” He leaned closer to me. “And that pack leader is supposed to be male.” He wasn’t growling, but only just. “And you promised me -- together forever, no one in between.”

  “What about Susan?” The words came from somewhere, but not the front of my mind.

  Jack grinned. “She’s not in between us.”

  “But you’re sleeping with her.”

  He shrugged. “So what?”

  I’d said it in the present tense, not the past. And he hadn’t argued. True we’d only become a couple a day or so earlier, but in my experience, you explained past lovers as being past, if only to appease the current lover. And he wasn’t even trying to make an excuse.

  “Get off me.”

  He bared his teeth at me. He was still in human form, but I realized he made Ralph’s growl look kindly. “You’re mine. And I do what I want with what’s mine.”

  I started to fight in earnest. He’d always been bigger, but as an undead, I’d been stronger. But not any more. My struggles were futile. In fact, I could tell he was enjoying them. I wanted to cry, but that wasn’t an option. Survive first, cry later.

  The shift happened naturally -- I was fighting and I fought best in wolf form. But it didn’t work. He still had my paws in an iron grip. I was reluctant to claw his stomach with my hind claws -- what if he was just having a bad reaction to the transformation?

  Jack grinned, and it looked feral. “You like it rough?”

  I decided, confused or not, he was getting the claws. I raked his stomach, but he transformed to wolf, too, and all I got was fur. “Back off.”

  “Bad girl.”

  “I’ll give you a bad girl.” I lunged up and caught his throat. But he batted my head away with a paw like it was nothing. On the positive side, this meant one of my front paws was free and I raked at his head with it. On the negative side, he’d hit my head hard and I felt it.

  “I don’t know what’s wrong with you,” Jack snarled.

  “Me? You’re the one acting all Call of the Wild.” I managed to scramble away and off the bed. Sadly, Jack was between me and the Necropolis slide point. “So what’s up with you and Susan the Dispatcher?”

  “Come on. Animals aren’t monogamous.”

  “Wolves are.”

  As Jack lunged across the bed at me and I leaped out of the way, all the angelic warnings coursed through my mind. Ken’s worries, too. They’d been worried about Jack’s ability to face the Prince because they were picking up something wrong with him. Something I’d either never noticed or ignored.

  I focused now, while he played with me. It was play, too. He’d lunge, I’d leap, he’d bat at me, I’d scramble out of the way. He never let me get near enough to the slide point to cross over and he also blocked my path to the door. He was good, I had to give him that. Too good for a brand new undead.

  “How did you do it?” I asked as I tried to leap over his head and got batted down onto the bed again.

  “Do what?”

  “Fool me, fool the others.”

  He flipped me onto my stomach and pinned me. His muzzle was next to my ear. “It was easy. You wanted a mate so badly. And you had one, right in front of you. That had to be stopped before it could start.”

  “What are you talking about?” I tried to crawl out from under, but he was using his full weight to hold me. I decided to focus on the more pressing point. “How did you give us away?”

  He chuckled. “It was easy. You were so trusting. I could do anything, you weren’t paying attention. But get over it. It’s time to follow your heart. After all, you’re in love with me.”

  “Not any more.”

  “You promised. None in between us, forever.” His voice was a deep, terrifying growl. “You promised on sanctified ground.”

  Something slammed into Jack and his weight was off me. I rolled to see Ralph between me and Jack. “She’s not her mother, and you’re not taking her.”

  Jack shifted again. Only this time, he wasn’t in wolf or werewolf form. And while he looked human, he sure didn’t look like himself. He looked just like Little Harp. He smiled, and it was the most evil thing I’d ever seen. “Bet me, dog-boy.”

  Chapter 57

  The Adversary, or at least part of him, was in my bedroom. Inside, point of fact, my until-just-now boyfriend. Meaning I’d slept with the Adversary at least once. Did things get better than this?

  Yes, they did, if by “better” I meant “really, horribly worse”.

  Ralph and Little Harp attacked at the same time. Ralph was all angry, protective werewolf in action, but Little Harp was using Adversary-type skills, including a set of horrific claws I’d only seen on the vamps in major Nosferatu mode. He slashed while Ralph bit and clawed, and they both rolled around my room. Well, until they crashed through the walls. Then they rolled through the living and dining areas, right before they flipped and slid onto the Necropolis side, I assumed to destroy the other half of my living quarters. Not that I was too focused on that.

  I tried to get into the fight, but they were flipping around so much it was impossible to be sure I’d bite the right being. Ralph was holding his own, but I didn’t think it was going to last, especially since I could see him bleeding from a variety of locations. Sadly, I got the feeling Little Harp wasn’t trying too hard. They did like to play with their prey, as I recalled, when they felt they had the time.

  And he seemed to have the time. What was a shock, once we were on the other side, was that no one else was there. I knew for a fact Sexy Cindy and the others had gone to sleep over here. So, where were they? I sniffed -- nowhere around. I didn’t smell death, so hopefully they’d just wandered off for some strange reason.

  The Adversary was playing, but Ralph wasn’t looking good. I ran for my weapons room. But I’d already shown Jack where that was, so the Adversary blocked me. By throwing Ralph at me. Showy, but effective. Ralph slammed into me and we both slammed into the wall. Meanwhile, Little Harp sauntered into my weapons room. This was definitely on the “horribly worse” side of things.

  He sauntered out carrying what looked like an elephant gun. Well, it was an elephant gun, but it was modified into a Duster. Yeah, I was one of the beings entrusted with one. “Nice,” he said to me, grinning widely. “All loaded for me, too. What a good girl you are.”

  We all had something that would dust another undead -- in case one of our own turned to the bad. But, from mildest holy water bullets to the mighty Dusters, we never turned it on each other until that point. Of course, this wasn’t really a situation where I could say one of our own had turned against us. Frankly, if what I was seeing was real, and Ralph’s blood all over me said it was as real as it got, part of Little Harp’s soul had always been in Jack.

  I got in front of Ralph. “Get out of here.”

  Little Harp laughed, then shifted. It was Jack looking at me, holding the gun which he had cocked and aimed right at me. “Come on, Vic. Let me get rid of him. Then we can go off together, just like you always wanted.”

  “I wanted what I thought you were, not what you really are.”

  “You’re sure?” He cocked his head at me and looked almost boyish. “Maybe I’m exactly w
hat you wanted.”

  “I didn’t want to hook up with one of the Prince’s major minions. To set the record straight and all.”

  He snorted. “Sure you did. You were hot for me from the first moment you saw me. And what’s wrong with that? We belong together. You don’t fit with him and you never will,” he pointed at Ralph with the gun barrel. “He’s a loser. Besides, you can’t stand him, and you know it.”

  “He’s a better being than you’ll ever be.”

  “Big words. Impressive and heartfelt, I’m sure.” Jack sighed. “But let’s be realistic. He’s not the one for you, now, is he?”

  “I think the bastard’s trying too hard,” Sexy Cindy said as she slammed one of my end tables against the back of Jack’s head. “Or however that quote goes. And like I said to her freak mother, get away from our girl.”

  “Methinks the lady doth protest too much, my dear,” Freddy said, as he hit Jack at the knees with my coffee table. “From the Bard. And I agree with both sentiments.”

  “Shakespeare,” Merc added as he swooped in and grabbed Ralph. “I’m sure he had a ‘get away from our girl’ quote, too.”

  “Nice to see you guys, where did you come from?” I leaped over the table and grabbed the gun. Sadly, Jack still had it firmly in hand, but at least I had the barrel pointing up and not at any being I cared about.

  “We were hiding,” L.K. said, as he wrapped at bath sheet around Jack’s head and held it there. Jack shook his head wildly, but L.K. held on.

  “Where?” I tried to wrench the gun away, but Jack wasn’t having any of it. I decided not to complain -- if he had both hands on the gun, he couldn’t take the towel off or get L.K.

  “Somewhere we’ll tell you about when enemy dude isn’t right here,” Sexy Cindy said. “Now might be a good time to tell you that he wasn’t an infrequent visitor to our corner, both before you were his partner and after.”

  I was well-placed and, by now, beyond angry. I slammed my knee into Jack’s groin. Happily, he made the sound men make when they’re so slammed. I slammed my other knee into his face as he crumpled to the ground, still holding onto the gun.

  “We’re officially broken up. I promise. On sanctified or desecrated ground or just totaled apartment building. I’m officially cutting you loose.”

  “You promised.” How he could get that out clearly I didn’t want to contemplate.

  My doors burst open and four beings swarmed in. Black Angels One and Two looked angrier than I’d ever seen. I really hoped they weren’t that angry just at me.

  Cain reached us first, grabbed the gun, and wrenched it out of both of our hands. I fell back into Freddy’s conveniently waiting arms. L.K. zipped over to us. Merc still had Ralph, who wasn’t looking anything close to great, but who was, for all I could tell, still unalive.

  Miriam grabbed Jack and spun him towards her. “I warned you.”

  I couldn’t see his face, but I could hear him clearly. He laughed. “You warned a part of me. That part cared. But it’s dead. Like you’ll be.” He shifted again, and instead of Jack or Little Harp or a werewolf, the Adversary was there, all twelve feet of him. He smashed through my ceiling as he leaped into the air, still holding Miriam.

  I didn’t think and I’m pretty sure Ralph didn’t, either. Instincts took over and we both leaped. I caught one leg, Ralph caught the other. We locked our jaws and held on. Then we went on Mister Adversary’s Wild Ride, Magdalena, Cain and Abel right behind us.

  We weren’t slowing him down. Hampering, maybe, but not slowing. I couldn’t see what he was doing, but I could hear, and the sounds were awful. Miriam was one of my heroes, and he was killing her, slowly and with great malice aforethought.

  It’s risky to change form while you’re only holding onto something with your jaws, because the human bite is nothing like the werewolf one. But I needed hands, not paws. I took as deep a breath as I could, relaxed, and did the switch, grabbing his leg as my jaws lost their hold.

  It worked. I was still flying through the air attached to the Adversary. I considered my concept of “working” but decided to table it for when my feet were on terra firma. I wrapped my legs around his leg and started to climb up his body.

  This gave new meaning to the term “icky” but I gritted my teeth and tried to ignore what I felt moving under his clothes. It wasn’t Jack, it was the Adversary. It wasn’t someone I’d been in love with, it was my most sworn enemy.

  He was either vastly overconfident or Miriam was causing him to have to concentrate. Either way, I made it up to his neck. Then I wrapped my arms around it and squeezed. “Let her go.”

  He laughed. “If you insist.” He opened his hands and Miriam dropped like a stone. I saw Black Angel One catch her. Magdalena was still on our trail. “So brave. All of you. But you can make it stop.”

  “How’s that? By killing you? Good plan.” I squeezed harder.

  “No. By accepting your true place. I’ll let them all live, if you just acquiesce and come home with me. I promise.”

  He sounded calm and reasonable. I was exhausted and heartsick and, the moment I thought about it, frightened. Giving up sounded so safe and easy.

  The base of my tail wanted a word. “Really? You’ll just stop trying to kill all my friends and associates, stop trying to take over all the planes of existence? And all I need to do is say yes to you and go down to the depths of Hell as your baby-mamma?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Really. Does that offer cover Ken?”

  “Yes.”

  “Jude?”

  “Yes.”

  “How about Ralph?”

  I knew what the answer was going to be, before it came. I felt the Adversary flail about, felt the kick connect, heard Ralph’s canine whimper of pain, looked around to see him plummeting towards the buildings below. “No. He’s dusted. Sorry.”

  “Then I have nothing to lose, right?”

  “Right.”

  “That’s what I thought.” I flipped myself into the Adversary’s arms. “Let’s kiss and make up.”

  He smiled, and shifted to look like Jack again. “I knew you’d come around.”

  I wondered just how stupid the major minions really were. I shifted to werewolf form as I bit his neck again. Only this time, I wasn’t going to let go.

  Chapter 58

  Jack, or whatever he was, really hadn’t been expecting me to bite him, if his reactions were any indication. He flailed about and I was happy to note he was having trouble flying. How he could fly without wings I didn’t know, but now seemed the wrong time to inquire.

  “Let go, you stupid bitch!”

  “Nuh-uh.” That was about all I could reply with that wouldn’t cause me to lose my hold. I took the opportunity to rake all four sets of claws against his chest and stomach. I couldn’t tell for sure about his body, but I knew the clothes he had on were trashed.

  He pried at my jaws. He was strong, but he wasn’t able to get me off. I wondered about this. I figured he’d been able to kick Ralph off because he’d been so badly injured. I wasn’t really hurt, so he wasn’t having the same effect on me.

  Of course, I wasn’t the only one able to put two and two together. Jack started hitting me, hard. “You want me to really make you hurt?” he snarled. “Let go, or I shred you like I did your pathetic wannabe-mate.”

  I sank my claws into his flesh, let go of his throat, and grabbed an arm with my jaws. I bit down, hard, and heard the happy sound of bone breaking and Jack screaming in pain. He was going to have to change forms soon, or this one was going to be trashed.

  He hit me with the other arm. Okay, I was happy to switch sides. Let go, grabbed the working arm, chomped down again, heard the bone crunch and the scream of pain. So far, so good. But at the same time, so very stupid.

  Jack wasn’t a moron. He was a great cop. All other issues aside, he was smart enough to know that he should be defending himself differently, at least changing form. The Adversary, on the other hand, didn’t nece
ssarily have all the smarts in the world. But their lack of intelligence was overcompensated for by their innate, total viciousness. Still, were they really this stupid?

  He kicked at me. So maybe yes. I could bite his legs, but that was going to move me into a more precarious position than I was already in and I’d have a better chance of success in wolf form -- and I needed to stay in werewolf in order to ensure I didn’t lose hold of Jack. I went back for his throat.

  “Let go of me, or I’ll take you to Hell with me right now.”

  It seemed an idle threat, considering we were still flying in the air and not heading towards much other than maybe the moon. It was getting chilly, but werewolves don’t feel the cold all that much. Fur’s a great insulator.

  However, I was still a cop, and I wanted some answers. I switched back to human and flipped around onto his back, arm locked around his throat again. “I wonder how you could actually do that.”

  “You promised yourself to me, on sanctified ground.”

  “And you’re about the most unsanctified thing on any plane of existence, so how would that affect me?”

  “Your promise ties you to me -- forever.”

  “Right. If you’re really all that I think you are, you’re also my biological father. Can we just say that the gross-out factor is beyond high and then follow that up with a ‘no way, José’ comeback?”

  “You love me.”

  “No. I was in love with Jack Wagner. I don’t know what you’ve done to him, if you were always a part of him or not, but he’s not there any more. Looking like him and being him aren’t the same thing.”

  His body started jerking around, like it was fighting something other than me. The body changed, too, going back and forth into a variety of forms. It was creepy to watch and worse to hold on to, but I didn’t let go. It also looked like it was healing itself, which was a real disappointment on a variety of levels.