The Monsters in Your Neighborhood

by Jesse Petersen

  There had to be a way to justify it . . .

  “What are we going to do?” she whispered as she rested her head in the hollow of his shoulder. She didn’t look at him. She couldn’t.

  He shrugged the shoulder she wasn’t leaning on. “I don’t know.”

  “You believe what they say now, don’t you?” she whispered after a moment. “About the chip?”

  She watched Alec’s eyes come up to look at the cabbie in the rearview mirror. The guy had headphones on even though he wasn’t supposed to.

  Alec sighed. “I don’t think there’s any other explanation. I . . . um . . .” He looked at the cabbie again. “I changed when it wasn’t a normal time for me to do so. I don’t remember anything about it. It’s like someone erased that time. And then there’s the video of me with the book. So . . . yeah. I would say the chip is a pretty strong possibility.”

  She nodded.

  He hugged her tighter against his side. “What about you? Are you okay? Seeing your . . . would you say he was like a cousin or a brother or something?”

  “Something like that.” She sighed. “I wish we could have taken him with us.”

  “We’ll figure it out,” Alec assured her. “I swear we won’t just leave him there with those—those—”

  “Monsters,” they finished the sentence together, and now she leaned up to look at him with a smile.

  The driver continued up the street and Natalie sat up to look out the window. “Hey, wasn’t that the best way to turn?”

  Alec pulled her back to lean against him again. “We’re not going to our apartment.”

  “No?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “Then where are we going?”

  “Just relax, Natalie,” he assured her. “Some things we can’t control.”

  She frowned as she did as he asked, but she didn’t feel good about it. There was something about his tone, about this mysterious ride, that scared her. And she wasn’t going to feel good about it until she knew what the hell was going on in that doggie brain of his.

  “This is Drake’s building,” Natalie said as Alec paid the cabbie and watched as he pulled away.

  “Yup,” he said, taking her hand and leading her toward the lobby of the building.

  “Why are we here?” she insisted, just barely resisting every urge to pull away from him. To run.

  “Come on,” he said as a way to answer. He smiled at the doorman. “Hey, we’re here to see Mr. Drake in six-sixty-six?”

  The doorman nodded. “Yeah, I remember you. Mr. Drake and his other guests are upstairs.” He pulled the door open and motioned them in.

  Natalie stared at Alec as they got into the elevator. “Guests?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know. I just wanted to see Drake, but who could his ‘guests’ be?”

  “Van Helsing,” Natalie whispered, shivering. “Could they have sent people here to operate on him? Or stake him?”

  As the door dinged open, Alec hurried into the hall. “If they did, they’re in for a shocker.”

  They rushed to Drake’s door and Alec started pounding. “Drake—are you okay? Drake—do you need help?”

  After a second, the door opened and Drake stood there, perfectly fine and healthy. Natalie smiled in relief, until he moved back half a step and revealed Kai, Rehu, Pat, Linda, and even Igor standing behind him.

  She folded her arms. “Wow. I guess we didn’t get the memo about the meeting time and place being moved.”

  “Actually,” Kai all but snarled, “I think it was made pretty clear to you earlier that you two were out of the group.”

  “No,” Natalie said, shaking her head. “You two said you were leaving.”

  Kai’s lips pursed. “Oh, I’m sorry. Let me say it to you directly, then. You’re fired. You’re out of the group.”

  Natalie gasped. “Bitch! You’re kicking us out and replacing us with Igor?” she snapped, and glared at her father’s old assistant. “Hey, traitor!”

  Igor shifted. “Sorry, but you two took off and I had nothing better to do. Drake had my cell number from when we hung out the other night and when they called . . .” He trailed off with a shrug.

  Natalie rolled her eyes. “Seriously?”

  Rehu’s eyes narrowed. “We don’t have to explain ourselves to you. Not after what he did!”

  Natalie’s blood was boiling, but Alec was strangely calm as Rehu pointed at him like they were in a scene from Les Mis or something and he was about to shout, J’accuse!

  “Everyone just settle down for a minute, okay?” Alec finally said on a sigh. “We just want to talk. It’s probably better that you’re all here, anyway.”

  “No,” Kai began. “No, I think—”

  “It is my house, Mummy,” Drake interrupted, and motioned for them to enter. “And I decide who comes and goes. I want to hear what they have to say, what Alec’s explanation is for what happened, not just a secondhand account from the two of you.”

  Kai shook her head, but she turned on her heel and marched into the living room. The rest followed and Natalie caught her breath. The room was set up with chairs in a circle, one clearly at the head.

  “You all really were having a meeting,” she whispered, and tried not to feel the hurt that was welling up inside of her. She hadn’t wanted to lead meetings, anyway. She didn’t care. Much.

  “Yes,” Pat answered when no one else did. He shifted uncomfortably once he took his seat.

  “Who was leading it?” she asked.

  Kai took the leader chair and glared.

  “You?” Natalie burst out. “You? But you’re so . . . no offense, but you can be kind of a bitch, not really empathetic.”

  From the other side of the circle, Linda nodded like a bobblehead doll.

  “Maybe we don’t need touchy-feely as much anymore,” Kai said with a shrug. “Whatever, Natalie. What are you guys doing here?”

  Natalie looked back over her shoulder toward the hallway and the door. Part of her wanted to just go. A big part of her wanted to get the book and give it to Van Helsing and fix Alec. Even though she knew what the results of that would be for Kai and Rehu. She might as well kill them both herself if she was going to do that.

  But Alec . . . how could she not protect Alec?

  All these thoughts rushed through her head until it throbbed with the strain and spun with confusion. But she didn’t have to answer. Because Alec stepped forward and looked at the group.

  “We needed to talk to Drake,” he explained. “But this is as good a time to tell everyone as any. I assume Kai and Rehu have told you what happened and that I stole the Book of the Dead from the Met while I was missing.”

  Natalie reached for his arm, staring at him. “What are you doing?”

  The group nodded, and he ignored her question and continued, “Natalie and I have just come from the Van Helsings’ and I can tell you exactly why I did it. And what their plan is.”

  “Alec,” she said, this time at full voice. “Please.”

  He turned toward her. “Natalie, we have to tell them.”

  “But you . . .”

  “If we don’t, we’re monsters. The kind of monsters Van Helsing has always accused us of being.” He shook his head. “I don’t want to be that. Do you?”

  She stared into his golden, wolfish eyes and knew everything about his honor and his goodness. And that he wouldn’t help himself. And that it would destroy him.

  She sank into a folding chair outside of the circle and just watched. Watched as he told them every detail of his changing and attacking her, about the Van Helsings and what they had done to him with the help of Hyde. And finally, he looked Kai and Rehu straight in the face and told them exactly what the Van Helsings wanted in return for his life.

  When it was over, no one spoke for at least three full minutes. Finally, Kai pushed to her feet and paced toward him. Natalie got up, too, ready to cut a bitch if Kai dared to try to hurt Alec after everything he’d just given up for her.

  Ins
tead, the Mummy Girl stopped in front of him and said, “Thank you.”

  He shook his head. “Why?”

  “You could have just done what they wanted.” She looked at Natalie. “I’m sure you must want to do it, to save him. And I understand that. But you’re giving us a chance anyway.”

  “But what will you do?” Rehu asked. “If you don’t deliver the book, it seems like they’ll send the Creature they control after you. Or Hyde could just trigger you at any moment.”

  Alec sighed, the strain obvious on his handsome face. “Yeah, there’s that. And since we can’t remove the chip without risking my death, that means you’re going to have to lock me in a room. Until or unless you get control of Hyde’s trigger.”

  Natalie took a long step toward him. “Alec! But we might not be able to get it. Then what?”

  “Then I stay locked up.” He gritted his teeth. “I stay locked up forever.”

  “Alec,” Natalie said, but it sounded more like a sob.

  He reached out and, right there in front of a roomful of monsters, he cupped her face with both hands. “Right before I tried to kill you, you told me you loved me.”

  She blushed and fought the urge to turn away or laugh off what he’d said. “Yes,” she admitted, though it was difficult.

  “Well, I love you. And to protect you, to protect them, I would do that. I would lock myself away so I could never be used as a weapon in a war against our kind. If it’s the only way, I’ll do it and you won’t argue, do you understand?”

  “Aw,” Igor said, covering his mouth with both hands. “That’s so sweet.”

  Natalie didn’t even bother to shoot him a look. She just kept watching Alec, this man who would sacrifice himself for her. For all of them.

  “You would do that?” Linda whispered. “To save people you don’t even like that much?”

  He shrugged and gently released Natalie to step away. “We’re in this together. Whether we like each other all the time or not, that’s what our group has been about. We have a common bond and I’ll protect that any way I can.”

  “Oh no,” Linda whispered, her face paling as she pushed to her feet and stumbled off toward the windows. The shades had been lifted, since it was the middle of the night, and she stared out into the city.

  “What?” Drake asked.

  Linda paced away from the group and started fiddling with some of the artifacts on one of the side tables. “I did the wrong thing . . . I did a bad thing,” she muttered over and over under her breath.

  Pat moved toward her. “Of what are you speaking, Linda?”

  She faced them slowly. “You’re going to kill me.”

  “No one is going to kill you, stupid,” Kai said with a sigh. “Or we would have done it already. So tell us what you’re prattling on about and let’s get back on topic.”

  Linda flinched, but nodded. “Um, so you know that boyfriend I keep trying to tell you about?”

  “Great God, this again?” Rehu said on a heavy sigh as he rubbed his eyes.

  Linda ignored him. “Um, well, the thing is . . . he kept telling me I deserved better friends. And you all have been so mean and dismissive of me.”

  “Wait—what are you talking about?” Kai interrupted. “Seriously, we’re in the middle of discussing how someone has a book that can kill me, and you want to have circle time about your boyfriend?”

  But Natalie saw the look in Linda’s eyes. The look of true fear and desperation. She moved toward the Swamp Dweller. “You said you did something bad, Linda. What did you do?”

  Linda shifted, biting her lip until the makeup she wore cracked and revealed the green underneath. “Oh God, so he kept pushing me to stand up for myself. To do something worthy so he could love me, and . . . and . . .”

  “What?” Natalie asked. “Who is this guy? What did he make you do?”

  Linda swallowed. “Um, he’s . . . he’s . . . he’s Hyde.” She looked at Alec. “And I’m the one who called you on Friday night. I’m the one that got you to come to him.”

  14

  Alec should have wanted to scream at Linda, kind of like Natalie was now doing, her face turning strange shades of purple as she yelled in English, German, and some form of maybe Czech—he couldn’t tell because the dialect was both really wacky and really old.

  He should have wanted to threaten Linda, to hate her. He didn’t. He looked at her, with her scales showing through her makeup and her eyes filled with the usual “Linda tears,” and he just felt . . . sorry for her. Being a monster was such a lonely existence. He could actually see how Hyde could manipulate a cat lady like Linda into believing she could be loved if she just did enough to prove herself worthy.

  “Natalie,” he said, taking her hand and drawing her away.

  “Baldracca,” she hissed over his shoulder at Linda.

  “Was that . . . Italian?” he asked.

  “Yeah, I ran out of curse words in all the other languages. Figured I’d start in on the Italian,” Natalie said, half panting from the exertion of her freak-out.

  “Take a breath,” he suggested. “In fact, take about ten breaths. I know you’re angry.”

  “Aren’t you?” she snapped, even though he knew her rage wasn’t directed toward him. It was more about fear, anyway.

  He looked at Linda. She was full-on sobbing now into one of Pat’s handkerchiefs, leaving it covered with thick globs of makeup as her lizard face became more and more revealed. She was actually sort of . . . beautiful. Her scales were dark greens and pale greens, with highlights of pinks and blues. It was a shame she had to cover it all up. Maybe that’s what Hyde had honed in on.

  “I am angry,” he admitted. “Angry at the Van Helsings for starting this war all over again when we’ve been able to be peaceful for so many years. And I’m angry at Hyde for betraying his kind and acting only on emotion and rage and revenge and whatever else drives his insanity.” He speared Linda with a look. “I also wish you hadn’t let him convince you to do the same.”

  Linda wiped her eyes. “I wish I hadn’t, either, but what do you expect? None of you have ever liked me. You all think I’m an idiot. You’ve never understood that the weeping has to do with the fish thing as much as the emotion. Oh yeah, and FYI, fish feel things, no matter what anybody says. You make fun of my cats. You yell at me and threaten me. I’m like the bully target of the group. I feel like I’m in high school . . . at least what I know of high school from movies.”

  Kai sat down and stared at Linda. “Okay, I’ll admit that’s all true. Maybe we’ve been bitchy to you. But we’re talking life and death here, Linda. So how exactly does that give you the right to plot against us like this?”

  Linda looked like she was searching for some excuse, but finally she shook her head with a sigh. “It doesn’t. Look, I came home one night a couple months ago and there was Hyde, all decked out in a designer suit, leaning against the wall, smoking a cigarette, waiting for me like some leading man out of a 1950s noir movie.”

  “Weren’t you scared of him?” Natalie asked in disbelief. “After Jekyll died, we didn’t hear from him. We’d been spending meeting after meeting pondering if he was off on a thirty-state killing spree. This isn’t to be mean, but you’re kind of scared of everything, noir movies or not.”

  Linda shrugged. “I was scared at first, I admit it. When I first came around the corner and saw him there waiting for me, I was pretty sure he was going to kill me right there. I was ready to call one of you to come save me, but he just started . . . talking to me. Talking. No one ever does that with me.”

  “What was he talking to you about?” Alec pressed softly. Hearing the reasons behind what had happened probably wasn’t going to help, but he somehow wanted to know.

  She shook her head. “He talked about losing Jekyll and all the feelings that swirled around in him. He apologized for threatening me back when the attacks happened. And he offered to take me to a nice dinner.”

  “Wow, he totally played the tortured alpha
-male card,” Natalie said with a shake of her head. “Like out of a book. He’s not bad, he just has feelings.”

  “Case in point with the mocking, Natalie,” Linda said with a reptilian glare in her direction. “Besides, it may sound stupid to you, just like everything else that comes out of my mouth, but in that moment, he seemed genuine. We started seeing each other, and it was like I wasn’t all alone anymore.”

  Alec dipped his head in a moment of shame. Their group was supposed to be the thing that kept them from being alone. Linda hadn’t ever felt a part of that. So maybe they’d all played a part in driving her into Hyde’s arms by being so hard on her all this time.

  “But how did it go from hooking up with a bad boy to betraying the group?” Kai asked. “I can get wanting to change someone who was bad, but that’s the leap that seems like it would be too far.”

  Linda folded her arms. “Well, it’s not like he said, Hey, I want to hurt everyone, help me or else the first night during dessert or something. I’m not nearly as stupid as you think. It was way more subtle than that. We talked about being outcasts and he sort of just let his desire for revenge slip in here and there.”

  “When he did, what did you say?” Natalie pressed.

  Linda shifted uncomfortably. “I thought we were just talking, really. And my feelings were hurt, so I allowed myself the fantasy of what he was describing.”

  Alec nodded. “Of getting us all.”

  “But not killing anyone,” Linda said. “I didn’t know how far he’d go, I swear. When he asked me to call Alec and get him to come down and meet me, I didn’t realize he was going to grab him and haul him off for surgery. But once we were in the back of a van, Alec out cold and Hyde getting ready to cut him, I panicked. I was in it, I was an accomplice, so I did what he said.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Alec, I know it isn’t enough.”

  “But why not tell us afterward?” Rehu asked. “You were sitting there with us all when Alec resurfaced that Sunday morning.”