by Tim Myers
I gutted him, slashing as he approached. He was hurt, maybe even dead, after I was finished with him. The wolf in me wanted to end him, to rip out his throat and howl with bloodlust, but the man in me knew I had friends in trouble. I looked around and saw that Bowen was wrestling with a monstrous wolf twice his size, but I could tell he was holding his own.
Jim was another story altogether. He was pinned in a corner, a paw holding him to the floor. It looked as though his opponent was playing with him before he killed him, batting him with his claws enough to draw blood from a dozen places, but not enough to kill him outright. I threw myself in the air, and as I landed on the wolf’s back, I could hear something snap inside him. He crumbled to the ground like a sack of bones. Jim tried to get up, but he couldn’t manage it.
“Stay,” I grunted as I turned to Bowen to help him, but he didn’t need my aid. His own adversary was down as well, his neck snapped into an angle it had never been designed to take.
I nudged my original foe and saw that he was dead, so I shifted back, and my friends followed suit. Our jumpsuits were shredded in dozens of places, but they survived the combat as well.
There’s a myth that when a werewolf dies, he suddenly transforms back to his man form, but it wasn’t strictly true. Like most tales of folklore, there was a germ of truth in it, but the process took ten or fifteen minutes.
I helped Jim up and said, “Let’s get out of here.”
“Not yet,” Bowen said. “We need to know who these jokers are.”
“What does it matter? They’re dead, and he needs help,” I said.
Jim shook his head. “He’s right. We have to know if one of these guys is Harkins. I’ll be fine.” I knew some of my friends in wolf form, but it was a difficult identification, even under the best circumstances.
“Fine, wait here. I’m going to go get the car. I’ll be right back,” I said.
I raced toward my car, fighting the urge to transform back into the wolf, but knowing the amount of energy it took, I wasn’t sure I could do it. The fight had taken a lot out of me. Where had the three of them come from? They’d been stronger than any wolves I’d ever gone up against, and the odds were nearly impossible that there were three werewolves in all of Dogtown who were stronger than me and I didn’t know. We’re a pretty tight community, and I knew my enemies, as well as my friends.
I retrieved the car and pulled up to the front door of the house.
Bowen and Jim were staring at the three bodies as they finally finished their shifts. “That’s Larry Wheel,” I said as I recognized the one I’d been fighting.
Bowen nodded. “This is Pearson, and that one’s Steiner. I don’t get it. These three aren’t that good, but they almost took us down.”
“They had to have been juiced too,” I said. “It’s the only explanation.”
Jim asked, “How much of this crap did Bailey make?”
“We need to find out, but first we have to get you to a hospital.”
Bowen shook his head. “We can’t take him there. They’ll have to file reports, and do we really want your buddy Dalton knowing what we’ve been up to? When he finds these three bodies, the first thing he’s going to do is look to see who got treatment for wounds.”
“What do we do then?” I asked.
“Put him in the car. I’ll be right there.”
There was no arguing with Bowen when he was like that. I helped Jim into the backseat where he could lay down, and two minutes later, Bowen joined us.
I started to drive off when he put a hand on my arm. “Wait for it.”
“For what?” I asked as flames started leaping from the house. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t want anyone stumbling across what we’d done.”
I yelled, “We didn’t search the rest of the house. Jennifer Granger could still be in there.”
“Relax, I checked the place while you were gone. There was no sign of her, or Harkins either. It was a trap all along. I doubt he was ever there.”
“Sue Ellen has some explaining to do,” I said coldly.
“What do you think her life expectancy is once Harkins finds out his little plan failed? He’s going to do worse to her than we can even imagine.”
I started driving toward the bail bondsman’s office. “Sorry, Jim, but this will just take a second.”
“I’m fine,” he said, but I could hear the pain in his voice.
The office was closed, though the door read they should have been open for another two hours. Was Sue Ellen back in bed with her boss, or was she already dead? Either way, I had a friend who needed help, and I didn’t know where to take him.
“Go to Jasmine’s,” Bowen said.
I thought he could have stayed with us until we figured something out, but he had helped me when I needed him, and I wasn’t going to question him now. I pulled up in front of the restaurant, and he waved me off to the alley behind it.
Once we were there, I kept the car running and waited for him to get out. “Thanks for your help. We couldn’t have done it without you.”
He frowned at me. “Shut off the car, Trask. We’re taking him inside.”
“I’m not hungry,” Jim protested. “I’m dying back here.”
“You’ll live,” Bowen said as he looked over the back seat. “Jasmine will take care of you.”
I expected Jim to protest, but when I looked back at him, I saw that he’d lost consciousness. I said, “We need to take him to the hospital. I’ll deal with Dalton about it later.”
“Jasmine should have been a doctor, but she was born with the wrong genes. She’s studied at night for as long as I can remember. She can help him. Trust her.”
I wasn’t sure, but then I didn’t think we had a lot of time. Bowen said, “Are we going to sit her debating it while your friend bleeds to death? Help me carry him inside.”
I did as he asked, looking down at my Jim’s wounds. Pearson had done a job on him, but it could have been worse. If he hadn’t taken the time for a little sadistic pleasure, my friend would be dead.
We carried him inside and put him in a back bedroom I didn’t even know existed. Jasmine joined us when she heard us come in. There was a healthy scowl on her face. “You can just take your friend somewhere else, Bowen. Do you hear me?”
“You wanted to be a doctor. So here’s a chance to practice more of what you’ve been reading all these years.”
She looked down at Jim. “What happened, did he run into a buzz saw?” Then she glanced at both of us. “All three of you need help.”
Bowen said, “We’ll heal on our own, but he’s pretty messed up. Are you going to help him or not? If you don’t do anything, we’ll drag his body out back and throw it in the dumpster.”
“Get out. Both of you,” she said as she put a hand on each of our chests.
I wasn’t about to let her throw me out. “Can you help him? He’s my friend, and it’s all my fault this happened. If you can’t do anything for him, it’s fine, but I’ve got to get him some care.”
“I can do it,” she said. “But not with an audience. Let me close the diner, then I’ll get right to it.”
She shoved us out the back. In the alley again, I asked, “Bowen, can she really help him?”
“Don’t worry, Trask, I’ve seen her practically bring people back from the dead. Valentine’s going to be okay.”
“How about you?” For the first time, I noticed that one of his ears was bleeding. “Are you all right?”
“This?” he asked as his hand went to his ear. “It’s nothing. Let’s go talk to Bailey and see how much of this crazy juice is still out there. If there’s going to be an army coming after us, I need to be ready for it.”
“I appreciate the thought, but it’s not your fight,” I said. “You don’t owe me anything.”
Bowen shook his head. “I’m not doing it for you. This one’s for me. Harkins set us up, and I’m pretty sure he knew you’d get me to help you. He probably didn’t count on
Valentine, and we would have had our hands full with three of them. This is personal now. Finding your guy has just become my number one priority. Who knows? When this is all over, maybe I can get Bailey to whip up some of that potion of his for me.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that, so I kept my mouth shut as we drove back to Bailey’s lab. It was my third visit there in one day, and I was hoping this time, I’d get all the answers I was looking for.
He looked incredulous as we told him what had happened at the house. “Three of them, besides Harkins? Are you sure they were dosed, too?”
Bowen said, “Either one of us could have taken all three of these guys if they hadn’t been hopped up on this juice of yours. Trust me, they were enhanced.”
I asked, “Could they have made more of the stuff themselves? Your assistant might have set up a lab of his own.”
Bailey said, “That didn’t happen. Trust me, there’s nobody in the world who could make this formula but me.”
Bowen raised an eyebrow. “You have a pretty high opinion of yourself, don’t you?”
“It’s not arrogance,” Bailey protested. “I came up with the technique purely by accident, and I doubt anyone else could follow the procedure, even using my equipment.” He paused, then added, “The serum must be stronger than I thought.”
“You have any more of it lying around?” Bowen asked innocently enough, but I knew there was a reason behind his question.
“No. It’s all gone, and with what’s been happening, I doubt I’ll ever make any more.”
“When this is all over, we can talk more about that,” Bowen said.
Bailey looked at Bowen quizzically, then said, “I don’t have any more serum, but I do have something that will help you both.”
He handed Bowen a cup full of clear liquid, then gave me one as well.
“Is this as good as the stuff Harkins took?” Bowen asked as he drank the liquid. I sniffed mine before I tried it, smelling acetone and peppermint.
Bailey explained, “It’s not the serum, or anything like it. It’s a super vitamin I’ve been working on. It should help you heal much quicker than you normally would, even by werewolf standards.”
Bowen looked disappointed, but I gulped mine down. My reserves had been tapped, and I could feel how sluggish I was becoming. If I was going to go up against Harkins and more of his minions, I needed to be at full strength. It tasted like battery acid, burning all the way down my gullet.
Bailey handed me a small bottle. “Here’s some for Jim. He should take half now, and the rest in the morning.”
I tried to give it to Bowen. “Would you mind seeing that your sister gets this?”
He shook his head. “I can’t. There’s somewhere I need to be.”
“Is that the truth, or are you afraid of Jasmine?”
He laughed. “Maybe it’s a little of both. Good luck with that.”
After he was gone, Bailey said, “He seemed awfully interested in my serum.”
“He wants some for himself.”
Bailey’s eyes widened. “Are you kidding me? He’s one of the fastest wolves out there. Why would he want to be enhanced? There are risks to it I haven’t even found yet. It’s too dangerous.”
“I don’t think he’s afraid of side effects. His sister might be the only thing in the world he’s afraid of.”
Bailey shook his head. “You have the oddest collection of friends, don’t you?”
I slapped his shoulder. “I wouldn’t be too judgmental. After all, you’re on the list yourself.”
Bailey hung his head low. “Even though I’m responsible for what’s been happening?”
“It’s not like you handed out free samples. Your assistant stole the serum and gave it to Harkins.”
“But there wouldn’t have been anything to steal if I hadn’t come up with it in the first place.”
I shrugged. “You can feel responsible for what’s been happening if you want to, but I’ve got to get this to Jim.” I stopped at the door and added, “You know what? I’m feeling better already.” It was almost as if I could feel my wounds closing up and healing. “What was in that stuff?”
“At least I was able to do some good,” Bailey said. “You’re going to have a ferocious appetite, but that’s the only side effect to the mix. Don’t worry; I tested it on myself before I gave it to you and Bowen.”
“And you think we’re the ones who are brave.”
I tapped on Jasmine’s back door, clutching the container of super vitamin in my hand like it was the Holy Grail. I hoped it had the same affect on my friend that it had on me. I swear, I was feeling so good, it was all I could do not to whistle as I waited for her to answer. If it weren’t for the driving hunger I was starting to feel, I was almost back to normal again.
“What do you want?” Jasmine snapped as she finally opened the door. “I’m busy.”
“I brought some medicine for my friend.”
She frowned at the bottle in my hand. “He’s getting everything he needs from me.”
Jasmine started to slam the door shut when I put my free hand on it. “It’s not medicine. It’s some kind of super vitamin for werewolves my friend made.”
“Who’s your friend?” she asked as she looked at the bottle suspiciously.
“Bailey Hope,” I said.
Her expression softened. “Give it to me. I’ll make sure he takes it.”
“I want to see him,” I said.
For a second, I thought she was going to phase into werewolf mode, and I could see why Bowen had joked about being afraid of her. It seemed there were more men who were werewolves than women, but the ladies made up for it with a viciousness and abandon in attack that made most men wary of angering one of the fairer sex.
“Please? He’s my friend. I’m worried about him.”
She stared hard at me, then the anger was gone. “Come on in, but be quiet. He’s asleep.”
I didn’t want to say what I had to next, but there really wasn’t any choice. “We have to wake him up then, and get half of this into him. Trust me, the stuff’s like magic.”
I pulled my jumpsuit aside and showed her the fading scars. Even with my lycanthrope healing powers, I’d never been able to heal that quickly.
She studied my chest a moment, then nodded. “Fine, come on in.”
Jasmine disappeared inside, and I had to assume it was okay to follow her.
Jim was on the cot, but she’d gotten him out of his bloody jumpsuit and into a faded set of pajamas. The top was open, and I could see bandages covering his chest wounds. Through the white of the dressing, I could see droplets of blood welling up from beneath.
She took the bottle, measured half of the liquid out, then gently stroked Jim’s forehead. It was an odd juxtaposition from the angry Jasmine I’d seen a few seconds ago. “Jim? Wake up. You need to take this. Jim. Jim.”
He started to stir, and when his eyes opened, he glanced in my direction. There were no comments, no quips, just a quick flick of the head in my direction before he focused on Jasmine.
She held his head up and he managed to swallow the liquid. Jasmine said something to him I couldn’t hear in a soothing voice, and Jim looked at me and said, “Thanks,” before he fell back to sleep.
“Is that normal?” I asked.
“His body is healing. He needs the rest, and I gave him a potion earlier to help him sleep.” She glanced at her patient, then led me out into the diner.
“I’m worried about him,” I said.
“He lost some blood, and the damage was severe, but he’s healing, and if that elixir is as good as you claim, he’ll be fine soon. Right now he needs his rest.”
“I hope so. I never should have put him in harm’s way. He’s a civilian.”
“And my brother’s not,” Jasmine said flatly.
“Bowen’s a lot of things, but he’s not a rookie at fighting bad guys. I can’t be telling you anything you don’t know.”
“I’m well aware of
my brother’s propensity for violence.” She stared hard at me, then said, “There’s something I’ve wondered about for years, but I never thought it was any business of mine, so I’ve kept my mouth shut. Now you are in my debt,” she said as she looked back to where Jim was sleeping, “and I feel I have the right to ask.”
“Go ahead. I’ll tell you anything I can.”
“You and my brother are an odd match. How did you get to be such good friends?”
The question startled me. “Are we? I never got that vibe from Bowen.”
“Trust me, there are only two people my brother trusts with his life, and both of them are sitting at this table. On the face of it, you two are not that similar.”
“We’re not as different as you might think.”
She laughed, and it was a sharp, brittle sound. “Trust me, Trask, I have no delusions about my brother. I know how hard Bowen is. But you help people as a private investigator, and my brother usually just hurts them.”
“He is what he is,” I said. “I’ve never seen him hurt someone who didn’t deserve it.”
“That’s hardly noble, though, is it?”
I smiled. “If you think what I do is noble, you can’t really know what I do. Sometimes I wonder if I do anybody any good at all.”
“I don’t think you give yourself enough credit. What are you working on now? Or can you tell me?”
“I didn’t sign a nondisclosure agreement, if that’s what you’re asking. I’m looking for a girl who fell in with the wrong man. Her parents are worried about her, and from what I know, I think they have every reason in the world to be terrified.”
