by Bonnie Dee
I hurried to the woman and rolled her to her back. Checking her pulse, I felt nothing and when I pulled the blanket away from the infant’s face, I was prepared for death. But the baby squirmed and howled like a siren. Lifting it in my arms, I raced toward the cars.
Another vehicle packed with people like a clown car was about to drive away. I slapped my hand against the window to get the driver’s attention. The woman behind the wheel braked. Someone in the back seat lowered the tinted window and I thrust the baby inside. Unseen hands took the infant and I watched the car drive off then turned to look for Rick.
He stood over the still body of the gargoyle woman, sides heaving and tongue lolling. His fur was spattered with gore. Lowering his head, he nosed at the bat-winged woman, checking her for life, but she lay still. In death, her wings retracted into her body and her face melted into a human semblance. I was overwhelmed at the sheer variety of supernatural beings I’d seen that night. How could such things exist all around us with humans ignorant of them?
Rick looked at me, his amber eyes glowing in the shadows. His dark gray body almost blended into the night. He stalked toward me, a long-legged, rangy animal exuding raw energy. For just a second, my fight or flight instinct kicked in and I fought the urge to run from him. Yes, he was Rick but he was also ‘other’ and rather terrifying.
I stood my ground, holding my hand out to him. He walked up to me, his head level with my waist, and rested his blood-matted muzzle against my hand. I touched the top of his head, scratching him between the ears like he was some big dog. He licked my hand, a wet, sloppy kiss. I was struck by the bizarreness of it--the man I was attracted to contained in the body of an animal.
There was no time for more than a fleeting touch before we were catapulted back into action. Many of the prisoners had escaped, but there was a final line of defense holding off the Invictus Malus while the others got away. I spotted Chris alive and sending a jolt from a taser into one of the creatures. Others fought using objects found in the house. One man brandished a coat tree; a woman jabbed at her attacker with a pool cue.
Rick charged a man who appeared perfectly normal except for having rather pointed ears. But when Rick bit into his arm, blood as black as crude oil geysered from it. Once more I was reduced to throwing rocks for lack of a better weapon until a horn honking and engine revving alerted me that another car was ready to go. The last of the escaping captives had shoehorned themselves into the vehicle. Chris called to me from the vehicle, urging me to hurry. I would’ve raced for the open door but I couldn’t leave Rick fighting on alone.
“Go. Just go,” I shouted.
Turning away, I spied the broken coat tree on the ground, scooped it up and raced toward Rick and his opponent.
Chapter Thirteen
Rick
It felt as if I’d been fighting for hours. My energy was flagging and my reflexes slipping. Running through the forest chasing bunnies was one thing, but I’d never battled anything before, let alone a host of beings with strength to equal or surpass mine. I was barely holding my own against a creature with foul-tasting black blood when Amy came charging in like Xena.
She screamed a wild battle cry and brandished a piece of wood like a jousting lance. She raced straight toward my opponent. I leaped aside and the weapon just missed me as it drove into the creature’s body. The thing howled as its heart was impaled and the makeshift spear was jerked from Amy’s hands. The monster writhed and twisted on the ground.
I leaped on top of the black-blooded creature and took a bite out of its jugular just to make sure it would stay down. Beneath me, my opponent flailed its limbs and then it lay still. I climbed off the corpse and turned toward Amy.
For one blessed moment we stood panting and gazing at one another. The dark night around us was silent for the moment. There was nothing left to fight. But before something new came out the door of the mansion, it was time to get away. That was probably best accomplished with opposable thumbs.
It was easier this time to shift back into human form and the shifting didn’t seem quite so painful now that I wasn’t mentally fighting it, although my bones ached like usual. Human again, I lay on my back on the ground staring up at the sky, readjusting to my duller senses then, at last, I sat up slowly.
Amy still stood beside the creature we’d killed. She stared dully at the remains then nudged a leg with her toe.
I climbed to my feet and limped over to her. “You all right?”
“Huh?” She looked at me and her eyes were wide and vacant. In shock, I thought. I took her arm and pulled her toward the cars. “Come on. We’re not safe yet. We’ve got to get out of here.”
Amy stood lookout while I searched for the wires to start the car. I’d never hotwired a vehicle before, but I’d seen people do it in movies. It didn’t look that difficult. Minutes later I was still cursing and struggling with multicolored wires I’d pulled down from behind the dashboard.
“Hey.” Amy poked my bare hip. “I got keys from that dead guy.”
I unfolded myself from beneath the steering wheel.
She pressed the button on the key ring and woke one of the sleeping Mercedes. A beep-beep and flash of lights beckoned us over. Amy slid into the driver’s seat and I happily collapsed on the passenger side, sinking into the plush upholstery.
As she drove the commandeered Mercedes to my house, Amy told me about her solo investigation on behalf of Brian Addington and explained Angela’s true agenda. I was furious at Amy for putting herself at risk. If I’d had any energy left at all, I might’ve yelled at her. As it was, I was too exhausted to work up to a good scolding.
“I suppose we should go report this to the cops,” I said.
“And tell them what? We’d be there half the night trying to explain all this in a way they could accept.”
I pictured the NOPD at the crime scene and imagined them trying to rationalize dead demons mixed among the humans. Perhaps by now other Invictus Malus members not present tonight had sent a clean-up crew to erase the crime scene. We’d appear insane trying to describe even a portion of what had happened if there weren’t dead bodies at the mansion to back up our story.
I sighed. “Probably some of the other captives will tell the police. Let them deal with it.”
I was too weary to care about following some conventional protocol. I’d fought a score of opponents and transmogrified several times--a process that drained my energy as much as if I’d run a marathon. I was ravenous and dog-tired.
Leaning against the window, I looked out at the lights of civilization growing brighter as we reached the outskirts of the city. My eyes drifted half closed and the lights became a blur of color. I wasn’t aware I’d fallen asleep until the car stopped and Amy shook my shoulder.
“Are you okay?” Her voice was softer and sweeter than I was used to. Her fingers gently touched a cut on the side of my face. “God, you should see yourself. Your face is a wreck. Just a minute. I’ll help you get inside.”
Except for the aches and pains racking my muscles, I felt drowsy, comfortable and content to let Amy baby me. She came around and opened my door. I eased my battered body out of the car and looped an arm around her shoulders. Our nude bodies pressed together and even in my exhausted state, I couldn’t help but be very aware of her skin sliding against mine.
Amy kicked the door closed behind me with one bare foot.
“Careful of the paint job. That’s our new business car. I don’t think anyone’s going to come to claim it.”
She gave a small laugh that sounded a lot like a sob. I looked at her pale face and the shadows beneath her eyes and shifted my weight so I was supporting her rather than leaning on her. “Are you okay? You’ve been through hell.”
She shook her head. “I’m fine. It’s just the b-babies.” The stammered word turned into a sob. “Who’ll make sure they get home all right?” Suddenly she was weeping, her hands covering her face.
I gathered her into my arms and held her c
lose, naked right there in front of the gate to the courtyard of my building. I didn’t really care who saw us.
“It’s all right. The people they’re with will take care of them and the police will get them all safely home. It’s okay,” I murmured soothingly.
Of course nothing was okay. People had been killed tonight, dismembered and devoured right in front of her. Hell, she’d seen me at my worst, tearing bodies apart and ripping out throats. She was probably in shock and I’d let her chauffeur me home while I slept like a lazy ass.
Although the night was steamy, Amy’s body trembled, and knowing how close I’d come to losing her sent a shiver through me too. I rubbed her back and continued to whisper useless words of comfort. My chin rested on top of her head. Her face was buried against my chest and her tears trickled down my skin. The feeling of her body pressed so close to mine was undeniably arousing. Her height was just right for my growing erection to push into her belly. I was embarrassed by my body’s reaction. How could I have enough energy for an erection when I was so tired I could barely stagger to the house?
Amy must have felt my hard-on, but she stayed in my embrace for another few moments with her arms wrapped around my waist before pulling away. She had the grace to turn away for which I was grateful since my cock thrust from me like a compass needle pointing north.
I opened the gate and ushered Amy ahead of me into the little garden courtyard. By the time we reached my front door, embarrassment had shrunk my cock to a manageable size. I quickly unlocked the door to my apartment. It had never felt so good to be home. I gazed around the tiny apartment in rapture, appreciating every square inch of it as never before.
“Why don’t you take a hot shower? I’ll get you a T-shirt and shorts to wear.” I escorted Amy to the bathroom and grabbed a towel, soap and toothbrush for me to use in the other room.
At the kitchen sink, I washed blood from my face, arms and torso and brushed the foul taste of demon blood from my mouth. I went to my bedroom and put on a T-shirt and shorts then picked out the smallest pair I had for Amy to wear. I laid them outside the closed bathroom door. Listening to the coursing water in the shower, I thought how nice it would be to stand under the steaming spray for about an hour just holding Amy and letting the evening’s tension drain away from both of us. Reluctantly, I moved away from the door.
Now that I’d had a little rest and was thinking more clearly, I knew I had to make an anonymous call to the police. There might be survivors of the carnage needing medical attention. I didn’t want to spend hours at the station inventing a story that didn’t defy logic, but I could at least call. I reached the Metairie desk sergeant and gave directions to the estate in the bayou. I claimed to be a neighbor who’d heard a disturbance there, which was clearly ridiculous since the place was in the middle of nowhere.
The sergeant said a number of people previously declared missing had turned up at several stations around the city and a dispatch had already been sent to investigate the crime scene. He asked me for my name and address. I hung up.
Gingerly rotating my wrenched shoulder, I went to the sideboard and poured a glass of whiskey. It wasn’t what I needed on an empty stomach, but the warm glow in my belly steadied my jangled nerves. I went to the kitchen and took cold cuts from the fridge intending to make a sandwich, but was so hungry I wolfed down the meat and cheese without bothering to put it between slices of bread.
The phone rang and I jumped, convinced for a second that the police had tracked my call and were going to drag me into the station. But the caller was my mom.
“Chér, are you all right? What happened? Did you find Amy?”
“Yeah. Amy and I are both fine.” I filled her in on everything that had happened. “The weirdest thing was this … force field or entity or whatever it was that came over us. Every creature that wasn’t human went crazy. Me included. It was like I was in some kind of killing frenzy. Not that I didn’t want to attack those guys anyway, but there seemed to be an outside force controlling me.”
“There was,” she said. “After you left, I was so worried and felt so helpless not being able to even call the police. It killed me thinking of the odds you were facing with no one to help. I ended up telling Don everything and he believed me without hesitation. He was the one who suggested calling on the local witches for help.
“One woman I’d questioned about the Invictus was Charlotte Remeur. She’s a powerful voodoo priestess. Gerald Racette was a respected man in their community. I told her what had happened to him and urged her to seek justice for him as well as save a lot of innocent people. It didn’t take much encouragement. Charlotte was eager to help and to bring down Invictus Malus. She called together the witches in her coven and others and they gathered to perform a ritual to call up an elemental force to do their bidding.”
“No shit?” I’d always thought voodoo was more local color and show for the tourists than real magic.
“It’s tricky. Such powerful entities can sometimes spin out of control, but the coven focused their concentration and aimed the force right where they wanted it to go with a clear directive not to harm any humans.”
“How did they know where to send it?”
“I’ve told you before these voodoo people are no joke. They have eyes and ears all over the community and more power than you think. Just because no one would tell me where the Invictus Malus was meeting doesn’t mean they didn’t know.”
“Clearly.” I glanced up as Amy appeared in the doorway dressed in my T-shirt which hung down past her knees. The oversized shirt on her small frame made her look like a lost little orphan. She was unbearably cute.
“Thank you, mamá. You saved our lives. Je t’aime. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
After I hung up, I told Amy about both phone calls while fixing her something to eat.
“Thank God for your mom and the local witches.” Amy sat at the table and took a small bite of the sandwich before setting it back on the plate. She folded her arms on the tabletop and leaned against them. “I can’t eat this right now, but thanks for making it.”
I noticed a couple of bandages on her arm. “What happened?”
“This one’s a scratch and the other…” She carefully pulled the gauze away and held her inner arm up so I could see the mark of the Invictus. “The fuckers branded all of us. Souvenir for a lifetime.”
“You should go to the hospital.” I took her wrist in my hand and examined the wound.
“Naw. They shot me full of antibiotics. I’ll heal. I don’t want to go anywhere. I just need some sleep.”
“Do you have any other injuries you haven’t told me about?” My worry about her made my tone sharp.
Amy frowned and her mouth grew tight. “You’re not my keeper.”
“Well, you need one! I can’t believe you went off half-cocked and got yourself kidnapped.” It was easy to fall into familiar patterns and argue with Amy when what I really wanted was to hold her and whisper all sorts of mushy things.
She pushed away from the table and stood then paused a moment, visibly bringing her temper under control. Her hands rested on the edge of the table and she stared down at her uneaten sandwich. “I’m sorry. I haven’t thanked you yet for coming to rescue me. You were ... great. So thank you. How did you know where to go?”
“I could sense you. I knew you were in trouble. It was easy to follow the trail and find you.”
“What trail?”
How could I explain it in a way that didn’t sound creepy? It was more than her scent. Her blood, her very essence had called me. I moved around the table so I stood beside her and lightly touched the mark on her neck. “It’s this.” My fingers lingered on her soft, warm skin for a moment, feeling her pulse. “It connects us now.”
Her eyes widened and her hand went to her neck. “Does this mean...? I’ve watched movies. I know a werewolf’s bite is supposed to turn you into one, but I didn’t think about it until now. I mean, you barely nicked me. You didn’t even dr
aw blood.”
“No. The infection only happens when you’re bitten during a full moon cycle by a completely transmogrified wolf and their blood must mingle with yours. Racette explained that along with a lot of other things when I was first turned.”
“Good. That’s good.” She continued to rub the bite absently.
I wanted to say more, but Amy and I had verbally sparred for so long, I didn’t know how to talk to her about deeper emotional things. “Look, I know you don’t think much of me. You think I’ll hook up with any woman I can, but I’m not really like that.” I thought about all the one-nighters I’d pulled over the past year. “Well, maybe I am--or I have been, but it’s not like I feel women are ... disposable or something.”
This wasn’t coming out the way I’d hoped, and Amy didn’t say anything, only stared at me with inscrutable eyes. I thought about the way her ex had treated her and couldn’t blame her for thinking I was the same type of womanizing scum.
I hunted for words to express how I felt about her. “Tonight’s probably not the time to talk about things. We’re both wrecked and we’ve been through hell. It’s a terrible time to discuss feelings, but ... I like you Amy.” I offered a smile. “Always have. Since I met you. Even when you’re being a bitch.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Thank you?”
I drew a breath and tried again. “Since I got turned, I’ve known I could never have a normal life. It seemed smarter and safer not to try to have any relationships beyond one-nighters. I didn’t want to get involved with anyone I liked. After all I’m a monster--you saw that tonight.”
“No, you’re not. You’re...” She frowned and seemed to be having as much trouble as I in snagging the right words out of the air.
“I am a monster. I know it. You think I don’t worry about it? Wonder if I might hurt somebody while I’m turned or think about what being a werewolf means in terms of an afterlife? I think about shit like that all the time. How could I subject a person I love to what life with someone like me would involve? Jesus! What about kids? Would they be normal?”
