by Terry Yates
“He didn’t bite him, Shelly.”
“How do you know? How do…”
“I know. That’s all.”
“But how?”
“Instinct.”
“Instinct?”
“Yes. When you become what we are, you don’t just turn into a wolf when the moon is full, you’re also given the instincts that go with it. Both of us know that the bite on Oliver’s neck belongs to the one that bit us. We’ll always know each other’s bites. We’ll know each other’s scents. We’ll keep these instincts even when we’re in our human forms.
“So, you’re telling me that the monster…while he was a monster…took Oliver, gave him just a little bite instead of eating him, and then made a little fort for him to keep dry from the rain. Is that what you’re telling me?”
“Yes.”
Shelly knew that she would have to be crazy to believe either one of them, but she wanted them to be a family so badly that Marcus’ words began to make sense to her.
“Suppose I did join you down here. What about Kayla? If the three of us are gonna be werewolves, what do we do with Kayla…or had that entered your plan?”
“She’ll be one of us,” Marcus answered.
“You wanna bite her, too? Marcus, that’s…”
Marcus took her by the shoulders again. “We can be a complete family. The four of us and Martinez can start our own…”
“Pack?” Shelly interrupted.
“I was going to say ‘den’.”
“What about Aurelio? Isn’t he gonna want a wife…or a mate…or whatever you call it?”
“I’m going to send for Shou and have her come here,” Martinez said. “We’ll start our own family, but we’ll still be part of the same pack. It’ll be great.”
“Does Shou know that she’s coming here to be bitten by a werewolf?”
“No,” Martinez started, “but she’ll come around just like you.”
“Are you going to give her a say so in the matter?”
Martinez didn’t answer. Instead he walked away, Shelly watching him the whole time. Finally, Marcus put his hand on her cheek and made her look at him.
“Shelly…”
“No. You’re not biting my daughter.”
“Shelly, it’s the only way we can be a family. It can either be me and Oliver and you and Kayla…apart for the rest of our lives, or we can be one.. forever.”
Shelly’s mind was racing. She didn’t want to put her baby girl in peril, but Marcus was right. It was either she and Kayla or he and Oliver but not both. Shelly wiped her nose again and dried her eyes. She tried to think of what she must look like right now. Her face was streaked with dried tears, mucus was dripping from her nose, and her breath smelled like vomit…and yet, Marcus wanted to spend eternity with her. She didn’t have a choice.
“What do I have to do?” she asked.
Marcus broke into a wide grin and pulled her and the baby to him.
“Bring Kayla to me,” he told her, kissing the top of her head.
Shelly pulled away from him. “When?”
“Tonight.”
“Tonight? What if there’s a full moon tonight. You’ll kill me.”
“No I won’t, Baby. Not if you’re marked.”
“Marked? How?”
“I have to bite you. It won’t be a big one, Shelly. Just a small bite. That’s all it takes. It’ll only hurt a little, I promise.”
Shelly stared up at Marcus. Even though his eyes looked dead, the rest of his face seemed to pleading. He could just take her if he wanted to, but he was giving her a choice. She looked down at Oliver whose eyes were open. She saw that they were no longer green but that strange black like Marcus’, Aurelio’s, and Miss Munn’s.
She didn’t want to give her baby up, but she could see that it was too late. If they were to be together, she and Kayla would have to join them. It could be worse, she thought to herself. Marcus and Oliver could both be dead. And remember, they wouldn’t always be werewolves. They would be normal most of the time. They could find out when the moon was full and maybe somehow survive during those few nights when they turned by going down into the bowels of this place and hiding out until the moon was no longer full. Marcus was right. They could stay down here for a long time. There was everything they needed down here. And no one would be able to kill them. They would be a family forever and no one would call her babies “Zebras” or “Oreos,” or any other racist names…well, they might, but not without consequence.
Shelly gazed down at her baby once again, then back up to her husband.
“You won’t hurt me tonight when I come back?”
“No…I promise you.”
Shelly held Oliver up to Marcus, who motioned with his head for Martinez to join him. He handed the baby over to Martinez, who took him in his arms and stepped back again. Marcus cupped his hands around Shelly’s face, then bent down and kissed her on the lips. Shelly pulled back from him, and slowly turned her head. This was it. The decision was final. It would be over in a moment and they would all be together. As Marcus sank his teeth into her neck, she thought of green meadows and sunshine and clouds…and the four of them running hand in hand, all by themselves with no one else in the world around, just the Dixon’s and no one else. Together forever.
CHAPTER 48
“So then, my father moved to Hawaii to try his luck there. That’s where he met my mother.”
Sam Fong felt like he might as well be talking to a jar of paste. Locklear O’Hearley would ask him a question about his past, but before Sam got more than a minute in, Locklear’s eyes would dart over to the monitor where he’d seen…or thought he’d seen something strange, but he wouldn’t tell Sam what it was. He just answered “probably nothing”, every time he asked.
“Anyway, I was born in Hawaii as were my older brother and sister. My father became a sales rep for Big Kahuna Seafood and…sucked on a big donkey nard! What the shit do you see?” Sam yelled after watching Locklear’s eyes move once again to the monitor.”
“Prob…”
“And don’t say “probably nothing”! You keep asking me about myself, and every time I try to tell you, you look at that damn monitor! Now what the hell is going on?”
“I’m sorry,” Locklear came back. “I thought I saw something on that monitor that shouldn’t be physically possible, and I haven’t been able to look away for more than a few minutes since.”
“Seconds is more like it,” Sam said. “Now what did you see?”
“Come over here and I’ll show you.”
Sam joined Locklear at the monitor, which showed the same hallway on floors nine through thirteen.
“What about it?” Sam asked.
Locklear pointed his finger at the top right corner of the monitor and waited. First they saw the hallway on floor nine, then ten, then eleven, then twelve.
“There,” he said pointing. “That corner. See it?”
“Yeah…so what about it?”
“I saw something. A person…a shadow actually…move to that corner and then just disappear.”
“They disappeared?”
“Into thin air. Crazy right? The geek professor’s finally gone around the bend! But I swear I saw it!”
“Was it a man or a woman or what?” Sam asked him, studying the corner of the monitor.
“I’m not sure.”
“Well, let’s see,” Sam started, sitting down at the console. He pushed a button, then looked up at the screen again. The monitor stayed on the thirteenth floor instead of rotating between floors. “Ah…” he sighed, pleased with himself for getting it right the first time.
The two men stared silently at the monitor for a moment, neither taking their eyes off of it.
“I don’t see anything,” Sam said, finally breaking the silence.
“That’s what I’m telling you. It was probably nothing.”
“Is there any way we can go back and look at it?” Sam asked, looking at all of the buttons on the co
nsole. “I wish these buttons were labeled.”
Sam was afraid to push any more buttons. For all he knew, one of these buttons might blow up the whole building. He doubted it, of course. A button like that wouldn’t be at a security console. It would be hidden somewhere…if such a button existed at all. He pushed a button next to the button that froze the camera on the thirteenth floor, and looked up at the monitor. The pictures on the monitor began to move quickly from one floor to another.
“That’s not it,” Locklear said, still looking at the screen.
“Thanks,” Sam replied, pushing the button again. The monitor returned again to the thirteenth floor. “Shit,” Sam said. “One of these buttons has to be a replay button. You don’t have security cameras without a way to replay them. It doesn’t make any sense not to have a tape or a disk or something. I mean, that’s how cops solve half their cases. A surveillance camera somewhere picks up the bank robber or the killer who stopped to get gas, or someone robbing a person at the ATM machine. They’re all made to replay, yet I can’t find it here. Personally, I think…”
“There it is again!” Locklear screamed, startling Sam so badly that he fell back in his chair, hitting his head hard against the floor.
Shelly walked quickly down the hallway, the bite mark on her neck covered with a bandage. She placed her hair over the wound where hopefully no one would see it. She knew that she would have trouble with Dr. Kyler who was always trying to check her out to make sure that she was all right, but he needn’t worry. She was more than all right. Once she had made up her mind to take the bite, all she could think of was getting Kayla and going back down to Marcus. They would be one big happy family, forever and ever. The bite tingled and burned at the same time. Marcus said it wouldn’t hurt, but right now, it seemed to be working its way into her bloodstream. As she walked, she wondered what it was going to be like to be a werewolf. She knew that she would grow hair all over her body and grow fangs. She and her family would hunt together and play together and live together and sleep together and that was enough for her. She would probably never get to see her parents or her brother again, but they had pretty much disowned her anyway for marrying a black man. “We’re not racists,” her father had said, “but you need to stick to your own kind.” If that wasn’t prejudiced, she didn’t know what was. She couldn’t help whom she fell in love with. No one can.
Their plan was for her to wait until everyone was either asleep, or if the rescuers got there, wait till no one noticed her, then slip away with Kayla back to the lower floor. Marcus had given her the cardkey, which she had hidden in the lining of her underwear. She couldn’t afford to be seen carrying it or someone would take it from her, and want to know where she got it. She had to keep their secret.
She put her hand against the bandage. The wound felt like it was getting hotter with each minute that passed, but Marcus had told her that it would for a couple of hours. It had with his and Aurelio’s anyway.
She turned right down a hallway. She knew now that she was headed in the right direction. She would make a left at the end of this hallway and then make a right at the next one, and she would be at the sleeping quarters where she would sit with Kayla until it was time to meet Marcus and Aurelio.
Shelly froze as she heard footsteps running down the next hallway.
“This way!” she heard a voice say loudly.
“No, I think it’s this way,” argued another.
“No, it isn’t! It’s down here!” the first voice retorted.
“No, I think…”
At that moment, Shelly saw Sam Fong round the corner. Upon seeing her, he stopped dead in his tracks…until she saw Professor O’Hearley slam into him, causing both men to hit the hallway wall.
“Sorry,” the professor muttered, as the two men disentangled themselves.
“Shelly?” Sam asked, noticing that Shelly was startled. “It’s me Sam and Professor O’Hearley.
“I see that,” Shelly said, forcing a smile. “What are you doing down here?”
“What are you doing down here?” Sam threw back as the two men moved towards her.
Shelly reached her hand up to make sure that her hair was covering the bandage.
“I had to use the restroom,” she replied as the two men reached her.
“You sure were in there a long time,” Sam said, eyeing her suspiciously.
“Girl stuff. You know.”
“Did you get lost along the way?” Locklear asked, studying her face.
“No,” she lied. “Well…maybe for a moment, but then I found the restroom and here I am, on my way back to the sleeping quarters.”
Shelly could feel herself starting to blush. She wasn’t a good liar. She never had been. The two men looked down at her, a puzzled look on both of their faces.
“You didn’t come to a dead end at the end of one of the hallways?” Locklear asked her.
“I saw a few dead ends,” she replied quickly. “This place is full of them. Why?”
“No reason,” Sam answered. “He saw that Locklear was about to say something, but Sam deemed it prudent not to go any further. By rights, they should tell the girl what Locklear had seen, but Sam wasn’t sure himself if Locklear actually saw anything. Both times, he had seen a figure first disappear into thin air, and then reappear several minutes later. The second time, he had sworn that it was a female and Shelly was the only person that they had encountered since they had left the console room.
“You okay now?” Sam asked her.
“Yes…why?”
“Well, you said that you got lost once or twice,” Sam came back. “Do you know where you are now?”
“Sure, it’s just around the corner, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
The two men made her feel extremely uncomfortable. “Any news on a rescue team or anything?” she asked trying to change the subject.
“Not yet,” Sam told her.
“I’d better get back to Kayla. I don’t want to be separated from her when they do come.”
With this, she smiled at the two men and moved past them, feeling both of their eyes on her back as she round the last corner.
“Where’s the corner?” Sam asked Locklear.
“Down this way.”
The two men began to move down the hallway. As they did, Shelly peeked around the corner, hoping that they didn’t find the hidden door, because if they did, Marcus and Aurelio would surely kill them both.
CHAPTER 49
Kyler shot up off of his cot and looked at his watch. His eyes wouldn’t focus at first and his brain was sputtering like an old combustion engine. It was almost 7:30, but he didn’t know if it was morning or night. He shook his head and shook his head till he thought surely something was about to come loose. He looked around the room where he saw FranAnne Fulton, sitting on a cot across the room, holding young Kayla Dixon.
“Did you have a good nap, Doctor?” she asked.
“Nap?” Kyler asked, standing up. “Then I take it that it’s nighttime.”
“Yes.”
“So, no helicopters or anything yet?” he asked.
“No, and Potts…eh, Colonel Potts, is as mad as a wet hen.”
“Can’t say I blame him,” Kyler said as he made his way to FranAnne and Kayla.
He sat on the cot across from them and held his arms out. FranAnne handed him the baby who was sleeping like a log. He ran his hand over her, checking her pulse, feeling her glands, and listening for anything abnormal in her respiration.
“Where’s Shelly?”
“In the ladies room. She asked me if I’d hold Kayla.”
Kyler laid Kayla on the cot and turned her over to see if there was anything strange on her legs or her back. He wasn’t exactly sure what it would’ve meant if there had been. He wasn’t a pediatrician, but it was good to be on the safe side. He scanned her up and down. Perfect, he thought to himself. He watched the baby as she slept on her stomach. The babies that survived the Titanic had nothin
g on this little tyke. She had survived two nights of sheer hell while losing her brother and probably her father at the same time. He wondered what her growing up would be like. Would her mother ever tell her about the werewolf that took “Daddy” and “Bubba”? He tried to think of what he would do if he were the child’s parent. He’d probably too chicken shit to tell her.
“Doctor?” It was FranAnne.
“Yes, Private Fulton. What is it?”
“I wish that you’d call me FranAnne, Doctor.”
“Deal…if you’ll call me Richard.”
“Fair enough.”
“What can I do for you, Priv…eh…FranAnne?” he asked.
“I’m…uh…kind of…” she tried.
Kyler knew what she was going to say, because he knew exactly how she felt.
“Nervous?” he asked her.
“No, I’m flat out scared shitless.”
“I know exactly how you feel, FranAnne.”
“Yeah, but you’re cool under fire.”
“Cool under fire? Me? Boy, have you got me pegged wrong. My friend, there is no one among us that is more frightened than I am.”
FranAnne looked down as she played with her hands. “Well, you cover it well,” she told him.
“So do you,” he came back. “Do you think I could’ve chased that thing out of the hospital with just a pistol in my hand? You gotta be kiddin’ me.”
FranAnne continued to play with her hands. “I screamed like a little girl when I tripped over that man,” she told him.
“Yeah, well I screamed like a little girl when he grabbed me by the foot, and believe me, it’s worse for a doctor to scream than a soldier.”
“I think Colonel Potts would argue that point with you.”
“Well, Colonel Potts would argue with his own reflection.”
FranAnne laughed and nodded her head. “He would do that.”
“You’re still not telling me everything,” Kyler said, trying to look her in the eye.
“I’m just scared that those helicopters won’t get here tonight, and we’ll have to…you know…go through all of that again.”
