Natalie had been supporting him and he stopped, panting as he straightened up.
“I—I’m okay now,” he promised her. “I’m me again.”
She stared at him, tears in her eyes. He could see how defeated she was. Despite everything.
“It didn’t work,” she murmured as they rushed forward to get back with the main group. “You werewolfed out. It’s not the full moon. So the surgery didn’t work. And I’m going to fucking kill Linda for triggering you. It had to be her, and that bitch is going to be sorry.”
Alec reached out and grabbed her hand, dragging her closer. “Natalie,” he said. “It wasn’t Linda who triggered me.”
She wrinkled her brow. “What? What do you mean? It certainly wasn’t the mummies.”
He shook his head. He could scarcely believe what he was going to tell her, either.
“No one triggered me. Natalie, I turned myself. I had control of the change this time. And once I was in werewolf form, I also had control over what I was doing. Didn’t you notice I stopped when you said to do so? That I changed back?”
Natalie hesitated. “Yes, but I figured someone just turned off your remote.”
“At exactly the right time, like a coincidence?” he asked with a chuckle. “Don’t you watch movies? No such thing. No, I did it.”
“Are you saying you’re in control of your powers now?” Igor asked.
Alec jumped. He hadn’t realized the entire group had come to a skidding halt in the middle of the stinky sewer tunnel and were now staring at him.
“Yeah . . . At least for now that seems to be true,” he breathed.
Natalie covered her mouth, shocked, but he could also see she was overjoyed. “Are you telling me you might have even better superpowers?”
He thought about it. “Um, yeah. Yeah, I just might.”
“Is that going to make you insufferable?” Natalie asked, but she was grinning from ear to ear.
“I sure hope so.”
Cain stepped forward before Alec could kiss her. He was shaking his head. “Okay, seriously, someone needs to explain a lot to me. Who are all you people? Like, you’re all different monsters, so how does that work? How did you find me? Where am I? How—”
Natalie touched his arm. “Come on. Let’s get back to the mummies and the Swamp Dweller. Then we’ll tell you everything.”
Drake cleared his throat as they started walking again. “Will you also explain to everyone how exactly you just surrendered to the Van Helsings? And how that’s going to help us?”
Natalie reached back and grabbed Alec’s hand as they entered Pat’s secret hideaway. She smiled up at him, a knowing, devious expression he loved that he couldn’t trust.
“Yeah, I have some thoughts about that, too . . .”
20
One month later
“Why do we have to meet on Valentine’s Day?” Kai asked as she snuggled closer to Rehu. “It sucks.”
Natalie rolled her eyes and looked around the apartment where they were now holding their meetings. Cain’s place, bought with the shit-ton of money her “brother” had apparently made in futures trading over the past fifty years. Once he’d gotten it all figured out about the Van Helsings and the chip and all that, he’d been very nice about allowing them to meet at his place, so long as Igor agreed to decorate it for free.
And besides free decorating, Igor had helped them all remove the chips from those who had been assaulted by Hyde and the Van Helsings. Several surgeries later, Linda, Igor, and Cain were all chip-free. With only a few withdrawal symptoms that were rapidly clearing up.
“Look, I get that you and Rehu are now super-duper soul-bound or whatever, thanks to the ritual you performed at Hyde’s place,” Linda said with a shake of her head. “And that’s . . . so weird and so romantic for you. But c’mon. You can wait for your date for an hour while we have our regular meeting.”
“And we should start that, so everyone sit down,” Natalie said, motioning to their circle with a smile. “I have a lot to share and so do several of you. First, I’m happy to announce that none of our formerly chipped members are having problems.”
“Unless you count my awesome ability to wolf out whenever a problem,” Alec added, then grunted and promptly turned into a Wolf Man.
“Good Lord, we all know it’s great,” Natalie said with a laugh. “Put it away.”
He scowled, or as close as a Wolf Man’s face could do, and then grunted and turned back into himself.
“Operation Destroy Their Power is in full swing,” Natalie continued.
Drake sighed. “Why do we have to call it that?”
“Because it’s awesome,” Natalie said. “I like it being like a military operation. For as long as I can remember, the Van Helsings have had the power. And with this mission, they’re losing it every day.”
“Explain to me again how it works,” Linda said with a shiver. “It still makes me nervous.”
“The Van Helsings keep power over us by threatening to expose us, thereby bringing down all those ‘consequences’ that they love to rail on about like some terrible movie villain,” Natalie explained, for what felt like the fiftieth time. “But when we had our last encounter, I realized that the only way to take that power was to reveal ourselves on our own terms.”
“By outing ourselves,” Pat said with a shiver of his own.
She smiled. “Yes. It was Lydia who gave me the idea, when she was so proud of the fact that #killthemonsters was being used in conjunction with the #monstersinnewyork tag on Twitter. I came home and looked, and what she didn’t say was there were just as many hashtags about how awesome real monsters would be. So I decided to take over how to spin it.”
She motioned to Alec and he clicked on the computer. It began to project onto Cain’s huge television screen, showing Twitter. But not just any Twitter account: @monstersinNYC. With over fifty thousand followers, growing every day. And there were hundreds of tweets directed at the account that were mostly supportive.
“So what do we do with this . . . thing?” Drake asked. “Twipper?”
“Twitter,” Natalie said, laughing.
“We’ve been taking pictures,” Alec offered, and clicked over to show a tweet they’d posted just today. Alec in a coffee shop, but in full Wolf Man form. Sipping his coffee, reading the paper.
“You did what?” Kai said, letting go of Rehu long enough to sit up in horror. “That was in public?”
“Uh-huh. He only stayed that way for a minute and we were in a booth in a corner. The public may not be ready to see us in person yet, but they love the pictures,” Natalie explained. “Our plan is multifaceted. We get the social media support and the traditional media support. Check and check, because the story is already getting some play locally in the news magazines.”
Alec grinned. “They said my name on TV. Wolf Man. It was awesome.”
“And then what?” Linda asked.
“Then we start to come out in real life. Get some support for the fact that we may be different, but we’re just like everyone else in New York. Just trying to be normal.”
“We could have a reality show!” Igor said, clapping his hands. “Ooooo!”
“No, no,” Natalie hurried to say when Linda looked like she would faint. “I don’t want us to be stars. I want us to get played out. Just be another weird thing in New York, like that naked cowboy dude and that guy that looks like Santa who roams around the park even in the summer. An oddity, but not worth really talking about.”
“So we shall actually become normal, instead of just pretending to be,” Pat said, his deep voice filled with wonder.
“Yup,” Natalie said. “It’s radical, but I think it’s worth a try. Worst-case scenario, we have to run again. Best-case? We never have to worry about the Van Helsings again. The more normal we become, the crazier their rants will be. So what do you say, everyone, are you with me to try?”
She stared at the group, holding her breath as she awaited their normal res
ponse of freaking the fuck out. Linda stood up and Natalie braced herself. But to her surprise, the Swamp Dweller nodded.
“I’m in.”
“I will also try it,” said Pat with a quick smile for Linda, which she returned with a blush of her own.
Drake nodded. “I still can’t come out during the day. But I’ll allow you to try this.”
Igor laughed. “Maybe it will help me start my design business here. Monster Designs, I’ll call it! Can we advertise?”
“Sure,” Natalie said with a blink of confusion. “Why not? But we’ll discuss the timeline for reveal.”
“We’re in, too,” Rehu and Kai said in unison.
Natalie shook her head at their newly formed psychic connection. It was as weird on them as it had been on Jekyll and Hyde. But whatever.
And that brought up her final problem.
“Our only issue is Hyde,” she said with a glance for Linda. “Have you heard from him since he smashed out the window, injured?”
She shook her head. “No. He told me before everything went bad that he wanted to go back to Europe, so I’m guessing that’s where he’s gone. But we’ll have to tread carefully. You know how he is about revenge. Cold or hot, he will try for it eventually.”
“And we’ll cross his bridge when we come to it,” Natalie said. She looked at Alec, his handsome face so filled with pride . . . in her.
“I guess it’s time for a new tweet,” she said, and clicked a few keys to compose it.
We’re coming out. #dontfearthemonsters
She took a breath, hit send, and closed the computer.
The war was over. And the battle had just begun.
About the Author
Jesse Petersen grew up a geek in love with Star Wars, video games (King’s Quest, anyone?), books of all kinds, and even the occasional RPG. Eventually she grew up, at least in body, but she still loves anything with whimsy, and her books reflect that. Whether it’s funny zombies or monsters in group therapy, you’ll find books that mix giggles with gore. You can find Jesse online, where she talks about Weird Al, cats, and even her books.
Visit her online at www.JessePetersen.net
Follow her on Twitter @JessePet (www.Twitter.com/JessePet)
Or check out her Facebook fan page at http://www.facebook.com/AuthorJessePetersen
Other Books by Jesse Petersen
Featuring Natalie Gray and cast
Club Monstrosity
The Living with the Dead series
Married with Zombies
Flip This Zombie
“Shambling with the Stars”
Eat Slay Love
The Zombie Whisperer
We hope you enjoyed reading this Pocket Star Books eBook.
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Pocket Star Books
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2013 by Jesse Petersen
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Designed by Nancy Singer
ISBN 978-1-4767-1619-0
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
About the Author
Table of Contents
Cover
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
About the Author
Copyright
The Monsters in Your Neighborhood Page 17
