The Leatherwing Chronicles Book One

by James Brock

  “Still doesn’t mean I’m not pissed a fuck at you for what you did to Marta AND for what you tried to do here. Your Uncle would not be happy with you.”

  I wanted to snarl several nasty things from him but kept my tongue in check.

  He was right.

  “I’m still really weak and need to go feed. Let Ty have some time. You scared him. You scared me. If we hadn’t come in here when we did we might have lost you. Now get some rest because you’ve got to talk to Marta and get her back. I’ll talk to Ty.” With that he disappeared into the bathroom and brought out wet towels and dry towels. Cleaning me up he lifted me back into the bed and tucked me in, shutting out the lights as he left the room.

  I could only let him. Seemed like thing were fixable after all. Leave it to Ash.

  Mind reeling I closed my eyes again and dosed for awhile, waking to another nightmare at the foot of my bed

  Chapter Eleven

  There is a song that has a line that goes something like “after a hurricane there is a rainbow”, which would have been so much nicer to wake to instead of the still churning shit storm greeting me.

  “Well at least I know how to take Ash down.”

  Sally Davis stood at the foot of my bed, hair and makeup back to their usual sweep of blue above the lid and loose chignon, American flag pin fastened to her lapel. She looked as if she were getting ready to gavel a PTA meeting to start. Even her removed hand was back in place.

  “Oh don’t look so shocked. I really expect more of you Carter; you’ve been living around us long enough to know there is nothing “normal” about our abilities. Ash didn’t kill me. I managed to regenerate enough to get under the bed. You had thoughtfully sealed up the cabin I was alright. Since the boys used Laura Sue as their personal snack pack I had to take out a few crew before leaving but we were back in port by then and it is not a long flight back up here. A good night of rest and bam! Here I am! I saw Ash take off, to go feed I assume, and I am certain our little Ty is out having a wonderful time as usual, so it’s just you and me for the moment.”

  She smiled, a wicked, knowing grin.

  “It stinks in here,” Sally said, looking at the floor next to my bed, “but that doesn’t matter because we are just gonna wait out Ash’s return, he’s bound to check in on you because you frankly look like shit. And when he does he will again sign over Connor, I will take you all out including Ty just on principal.”

  I lifted my head slightly only to have her leap on the bed, straddling me, a hand pressed down on my throat. “I WANT YOU to die in front of Ash, you little puke, but you just watch your every move or I will take you out right the fuck now. You understand?” I managed to nod my head yes slightly. “Good,” Sally said, sliding off of me and crossing the room while humming what seemed to be a patriotic cross between God Bless America, Amazing Grace and Take Me Out To The Ballgame. She was going to go far after her work here in my suite was finished tonight, of that I was certain.

  “Laura was one of the very best who ever worked for me. I could have easily fed myself while we were on the ship but she still brought me blood. That is loyalty. She had my ambition on top of being as loyal as you are to Ash. He and I both know humans like you are rare. I can find another Laura but Ash will never find another you. He’s too nice,” Sally muttered as much to herself as to me. I just tried to ignore her prattle. I was a little numb to death after being held hostage, shot, a failed suicide and now, circle complete! Being held hostage again!

  Bringing out a canvas tote with the Trader Joe’s logo printed on it Sally reached in, bringing out two thick darts, lethal looking things from a British pub complete with a thick plume of feathers. The long needle like ends had been jabbed deep into corks. She clearly did not want to take a chance of being stuck so something powerful must have been on the metal shafts. Probably a vampire lethal dose of whatever concoction she had used to take Ash down on the ship. I turned my head on the pillow and closed my eyes. This was it, there was nothing I could do and frankly after all I had been through was quite ready to have it over. And since my little trip down through the Valley of the Dolls had been foiled anyway all I could do was hope it would be fast and painless.

  It is said to get darkest just before the dawn and it was pretty freakin’ dark there in my antique filled (comfortable as fuck, too!) suite when no, the dawn didn’t break and vampires didn’t turn to dust but the door did creak open (well it really didn’t creak, Marta wouldn’t stand for a creaking door here at Lavender Hill but it does help create a more ominous atmosphere for us to imagine a creak right about now. Of course there is a MONSTER with a MONSTER killing potion right over there in the corner so we really don’t need that much help atmosphere wise, huh) and in came no, not Ty to rant or hold me. Or Ash, having fed to watch over and or protect me but yes, it was the recently discovered and recently fired mother of me.

  Timing. If I had been female it would have been rare that I would not have been pregnant. I can swim like a seal, sing like a canary; drive a motorcycle and a Ferrari nearly blindfolded but timing? Rhythm? Luck? Count me out on that bunch good stuff. So when Marta, fired and exiled, came back in right then with Sally sitting prim on a small floral upholstered arm chair I never even realized was in the big room, I knew right away where my lack of timing, rhythm, luck came from.

  “I am not staying. I have packed my most personal things and the rest can be sent. I am only returning your keys in person.”

  Bolting across the room and grabbing Marta by the forearm Sally snapped the key ring out of her hand. The angry thing threw the keys out of the open doorway to the balcony and shoved the shocked Marta toward the bed. I half rose when Sally hissed at me, yes, HISSED at me-like a big angry cat, fangs deployed and the scariest thing I had ever seen.

  “C’mon hero, do it,” she threatened, “I’ll drain mommy in a heartbeat”

  “Sally you are hurting me,” Marta said in a very calm voice, wrenching her arm away from the vampire. I couldn’t tell if she was actually strong enough to have made the move or if Sally let her go. “Take me; you have no reason to hurt Carter.”

  “This isn’t personal Marta, it is just time for all of us to move on and this is the only way,”It was interesting to see the respect Sally was offering Marta.

  “I will not fight you Sally, you should know that,” Marta said, continuing to cross toward the bed.

  “She means it Marta; she’s going to eat us,” I said in a panic. Get me over here, have a mother for all of what, an hour and getting sassy with her.

  Sally threw her head back in hearty laughter at this as Marta saw the mess on the floor and detoured into the bathroom.

  “I won’t eat you, that is just stupid!” the vampiress exclaimed as Marta came out of the bathroom with an armload of cleaning supplies and went down to her knees next to the bed and started slopping up the mess I had made there when Ty pumped my stomach. “I may suck you dry of blood but I’ve never tasted flesh! Yuck!”

  “Stop it Marta!” I yelped, slinging my legs over the side of the bed.

  “Someone has got to clean it,” she said in her usual stoic way, as if a vampire were not holding she and her newly admitted child hostage.

  “Really Marta, you shouldn’t spend your last minutes alive doing that,” Sally said with true feeling in her voice. Wow, care from a killing machine. Kind of like having a great white offer you some Pepto-Bismol for an upset stomach just before chewing you up.

  Ignoring us Marta continued her work when the double doors to the suite flew open, Ty loping through, shouting at the top of his lungs:

  “One more thing you STUPID FUCK, I LOVE YOU!”

  There was a split second of silence as he assessed what he saw, followed by Sally throwing her head back in a throaty laugh. I don’t know what she found funny, if there was one thing in particular of just the general show of what was going on and never found out because Ty, letting out a roar, charged her at top speed. His long lean body hit her full on in the m
id section, shooting the two of them into the outside wall with such force the entire room shook.

  Taking this opportunity offered and moving like a cobra (which frankly did not surprise me much) Marta grabbed the bucket of hot water she had been using to clean my mess with and sluiced it at Sally, who had in a split second pulled herself free of Ty and was again hissing-this time at the undead kid who had just professed his love for me. In return Ty was hissing back, his fangs gleaming. In the flash that it took Sally to register what had happened Marta snagged my wrist and yanked me under the bed, somehow managing to pull my body into a ball she wrapped herself around me. It didn’t take an expert on the un natural to determine that Marta had no special powers, that she was only exhibiting the true nature of a mother protecting her young.

  From our dark spot under the bed we listened to the fight; Sally battling for world domination, Ty for a love he had just re found. The duel would have been SO much more romantic if me and Marta being Sally’s dinner had not been among the victors spoils. I had wanted to re decorate for a long time but had planned on talking to Uncle’s buddies first. From the sounds of the Crashing! Booming! And general pounding the room was taking total demolition and starting over seemed the way to go. French provincial? Perhaps Southwestern? Classic modern. Oh the possibilities were endless. If we lived through the next ten minutes or so that is.

  “I’m sorry and I love you Marta,” I whispered, hugging her back as tightly as I could.

  “Thank you and I love you too, everything is going to be just fine,” she whispered.

  “Do you really think he can take her?”

  “No but I would not be a good mother if I did not try and make you feel better,” she replied.

  My Marta to the end.

  On that happy note a hand suddenly shot under the bed and grabbed my ankle. I tried to untangle myself from Marta but the yank pulled us out from our hiding spot, me cursing the beautiful dark hardwood floors Marta kept so clean and shiny. We slid out quickly, as if we were on an Olympic ice skating rink.

  Sally hovered over us for a second, the feral look in her eye showed she was out for blood, not feeding blood but rather a killing frenzy. Ty leapt on her again as Marta snagged a bottle of cleaning fluid which was thankfully uncapped and sluiced it on Sally’s face, the vampires hands went up to her cheeks for just a second, allowing me time to roll to the end of the bed. Scrambling to my feet I grabbed the two darts, flipped the cork covers off and turned. Sally glared at me, Ty swung away from her to allow for a better target and Marta remained low on the floor.

  Throwing both darts at the same time I was relieved to see them travel straight and true, planting deep into her chest directly between her breasts.

  Her stare still boring into me Sally yanked the darts from her body and slammed them to the floor.

  “What. You think I’d go to all the trouble of coming up with a vampire killing serum and not have an antidote in me?” she spat, “This is a St. John. I’ll have to send it back to the company to be repaired!” she spat. Game back on with that. Ty swung high as Marta grabbed low, Sally toppling then roaring as Ty jumped back on top of her.

  Sally had wrapped had wrapped her claw like hand around Ty’s neck, clamping down so tightly I saw Ty’s eyes bulge. This was not good.

  Then things got weird.

  Running around the edge of the room I was trying to decide how close I could get to the bed before Sally popped Ty’s head off like a ripened grape and what I would hit her with when an unearthly smell filled the air. A smell so thick we all, living and dead, seemed to gag in unison.

  “What the fuck!” Sally yelped, her fingers slipping from Ty’s neck. In what I guess is a typical reaction for a vampire he didn’t choke or gag but fell back into a normal state, eyes again back in their sockets where they belonged. The Hugo Boss suit he was wearing did show the signs of the fight, it hung around his lean frame like shredded ribbons.

  With a clatter (claws I later learned) a HUGE dog had lept into the room through the wide open window. And my suite is on the third floor, remember.

  Well I thought it was a dog, it looked like a cross between a beautiful husky-silver and white patches with white forelocks that darkened into a deep silver as the fur moved up its body-and, well, a gorilla or something equally as muscular. Head thrown back the creature opened its muzzle and let out a terrific roar, jagged teeth glistening. Whatever it had been rolling in had not been pleasant, either. It had been dead for a long time and stunk, stunk, stunk.

  Lassie, it seemed, had come home.

  “Get out of here you stinking mutt!” Sally snarled (snappy dresser, good snarler, I’m not saying that one didn’t have her points) at the giant muscular dog, wolf? Bear with really thin legs. It was near grizzly size and remember I knew me some bear.

  Lunging forward the beast clamped its massive jaws around Sally’s leg. Shrieking she went down, hard, on the floor. The head of a mere mortal would have split open like an eggshell with the force of the impact but this was a republican vampire we were talking about with Sal. While the initial bounce took some wind outa those sails it did not take her down. Grabbing the beast she caught her fingers deep into a shoulder and started squeezing as Ty jumped up and moved around the edge of the room trying to keep as much distance between himself and the ball of tumbling vampire fury rolling around my bedroom floor trying to holding onto the huge furry snarling, snapping thing on top of her when he stumbled against me, pushing me by accident against Hank.

  As Ty and I untangled from each other I grabbed the hilt of the sword and shook it free. Lifting it, I closed my eyes and swung without looking, letting the blade fall I opened my eyes after feeling that it had connected with something with a muffled thump. I had opened up an arm, I saw, blood oozing from a long shallow wound.

  Unfortunately it was not a vampire arm.

  The beast on top of Sally had pulled them close to the bed, where Marta had chosen that time to try and pull herself out and I had hit her instead of the monsters on my floor. Every bear fearing kids nightmare times a thousand, btw.

  Screaming Marta rolled back under the bed, my blood going cold. I had just killed my mother, now I was in a blind fury. Raising the sword again with a scream of my own I was about to let it fall again when Ty managed to catch his footing and rose, snagging the thick handle from my hands he swung and made the mark I had missed. Sally’s head was this time fully severed from her body, eyes wide it rolled away as Ty let the sword fall and panting he put an arm around me. Sally had come to a dead (no pun intended) halt of movement, her hand still clenched deep up into the fur of the thing over her.

  “Mmmarta,” I managed to chop out.

  “I’ll be alright,” she said from under the bed but her voice was low and faint.

  “Did you ever get Ash’s chamber fixed,” Ty asked.

  “No but what does that have to do….,” before I could finish he had grabbed the headless torso followed by the head and dashed from the room, body slung over his shoulder, while I ignored the now panting beast and leapt under the bed to help Marta up onto the bed, my heart stuttering when I saw the blood gushing from her arm. Already pale she was as white as my snowy sheets.

  Before I could start a tourniquet or crying I head another of those most amazing sound I had ever heard behind me.

  Ash’s voice.

  “What the fuck happened here!” he had flown in and landed on my balcony, his repaired wings had retracted while he surveyed the wrecked room. The huge furry creature, ok, ok-it was a werewolf. Toldja it got weird. A werewolf had jumped up into my room and inserted its self into the vampire battle going on over the shiny slick hardwood floor of my bedroom. The werewolf had slunk away, no longer snarling, as Ash landed on the window sill.

  “MARTA!” Ash screamed on seeing his friend bleeding out on the bed.

  “Ash, thank you for everything. Take care of Carter.” Marta said, voice low and weak as she neatly tied up ends. I knew her, Marta my mother, an
d knew it was killing her that she had not finished tidying up the mess on the floor and that if she were given the chance she would have the bloody sheets back to the white she demanded of them by morning. Her words to Ash assured me that she was letting go.

  “Ash!” I yelped, finally getting myself together enough to grab Marta’s arm and stripping off my already wrecked t shirt and wrapping it around her arm. I secured the material as Ash pushed me aside and grabbed Marta, carrying her to the balcony he started unfurling his wings as we were all startled by a huge crash coming from Ash’s house next door.

  His wings reached apex and after a fast test flap he lifted off into the air with Marta in his arms, knowing that Marta was being taken care of I turned to see the source of the crash, which was followed by a huge splash of water from his pool. Ty was standing on the balcony of Ash’s bedroom suite having just tossed the sleep chamber with the head and body of Sally inside into the deep end of the pool.

  Which left me alone with the werewolf.

  Chapter Twelve

  Who (or what, I guess) was at that moment was morphing back into a human. Or whatever werewolves turned back into. Writhing on the floor, muscles twisting, turning-the beautiful fur slowly pulling back into his skin, claws retracting. Penis gave away that it was male, yeah I looked. The reversing was happening fast, the thick ripples of muscle turning to long lean smooth skin; the muzzle pulling back in flat and pinching into human features. I gasped when I realized I was looking down at Cole Harris, brother of bully Chip. Cole’s eyes were squinted tightly shut as I stood staring at him, when they snapped open he gave me a grin.

  “Hey,” the werewolf/trick said, pulling himself up off the floor. My bedroom had never seen so much action. “Think you could loan me something to wear?”

  Crossing the room I opened a dresser and tossed underpants, jeans and a t shirt that had all met and been defeated by Marta’s red hot iron.