by Bea Biddle
"Karen, I'm naked!" he shrieked at her. But she had already slammed the door shut. He banged on it and continued to shout her name. But there was no way she was letting him back into the apartment. Not now. Not ever again. She found his phone on the kitchen table. "Karen for fuck's sake!" he shouted, "Karen, don't do this, I'm completely naked here."
She opened the door. Colin's relieved expression was soon wiped off his face when she hurled the phone at him. "Here, call your boss, I'm sure she'll help you out with this little predicament." And then she shut the door in his face once again.
"That's a brand-new phone, Karen!" Colin cried when he couldn't catch it and it bounced down the stairs. "Karen!" He continued to hammer on the door with his fists. "Karen!"
She knew it was a new phone. He had treasured that phone for a week now. She had wondered where he got the money to buy something so expensive, but he had told her not to worry about it. She finally understood where it had come from. She knew where his new cologne had come from. She knew where his new shoes had come from. She knew where his new expensive jacket had come from. So many things she hadn't even questioned, all because she had been too busy to notice. Or chosen not to notice.
She pressed her back to the door, that Colin was still pounding on, and slid to the floor. After a while, the knocking stopped. She heard him curse and mumble, then heard him walk down the stairs to get his phone. For a moment, she wondered who he would call but then realized that she didn't care one bit.
She thought she was going to cry. She thought she was going to wail. Her body started shaking, she assumed it would be sobbing. But then she heard herself laugh, a loud and clear laughter bubbled out of her and she couldn't stop. She didn't need to cry, she didn't need to sob or wail. She wanted to laugh.
Ten.
When her alarm woke her the afternoon after, Karen couldn't really put a word on what she was feeling.
She had gone to bed as soon as she had picked herself up off the floor and stripped the bed of all the linen in sight, all the linen that Colin and Anna might have touched. She would have to burn it she decided. She had fallen asleep instantly, lying on a bare mattress still in her clothes, with an old blanket over her. But for some odd reason, it was the best sleep she had had in years.
She had slept in the middle, not made herself stay on one side. While she hadn't slept with Colin since she started working nights, she had still respected his side, still respected his pillow, his space. She hadn't even given that a second thought when she had fallen onto the mattress. And she was rested for once. It was so strange.
It hit her like a brick, making her bolt upright in bed. Relief. She felt relieved. She could breathe easier, move easier. She was light as a feather as she jumped out of bed, she was flying, walking on air. She felt- well, she felt horrible to admit it to herself, but she felt free. Free and alive. Moving into unknown territory, it should have scared her, but she was only excited.
Days later, she left her apartment a couple of hours early, bought a coffee and a newspaper on her way to work. That amazing feeling had continued. Freedom, complete and utter freedom. She had heard nothing from Colin since that incident and didn't miss his presence in the apartment at all. She had found herself laughing more at work, joking around with customers, and with Sylvester and Zac too. She had been dancing between tables, skipping up and down the ancient stone staircase to the blood cellar.
There had only really been one thing missing, and it certainly wasn't a skinny blonde with a superiority complex who treated her like shit. No. However, she constantly found her thoughts wandering, glancing at the diner door, hoping to catch a glimpse of a much more burly, darker specimen of manhood walking through. Cef. She still hadn't seen him around. Where was he? She hated herself for missing him, she didn't even know him, and he still made her miss him.
Although, not even that could put her down too much. Nothing could. Everything was just great, everything was right. She did feel a little guilty for feeling so good, shouldn't she feel depressed? Or hurt? Something? Her relationship of six years had ended, and quite badly at that, shouldn't she feel a little lost at least? But no, just happy. She shivered, it was freezing cold and she had forgotten her gloves but even that couldn't wipe the smile off her face. No, everything just seemed right. Well, almost everything.
"Stop, right there, ma'am." A hand in a black glove blocked Karen's path, stopping her from walking any further. Happily bouncing around in her own thoughts, she hadn't even seen the police officer step out in front of her. "This street is closed off," he continued. Karen was going to apologize, but she was a little thrown by the fact that she had almost stepped through the yellow tape and she hadn't even noticed. People around her were pushing and shoving, trying to see what was going on. To Karen, it was nothing exciting at all, just a bank. And that looked normal as well.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Bank robbery earlier today," he answered, "No one is allowed on or near the premises until the detectives have cleared the scene. Stay behind the tape please, ma'am." He turned and left, about to scold a boy that had snuck under and was filming the flashing police cars with his phone.
She was going to have to take the long way around. She sighed, but it really didn't bother her that much, she was going to be early for work anyway. Apologizing as she pressed her way through the crowd, her ears picked up a few sentences from a nearby conversation.
"They said the place inside was trashed, they even burst through into the vaults but no money has been taken," one woman eagerly relayed to a man who stood nodding, taking it all in.
He shook his head. "No money was taken? Then what's the point of breaking into a bank?"
"I don't know, but my nephew works at Capital One Bank in Soho, the very same thing happened there only yesterday. Surely you heard?" the woman continued with a raised finger. When the man nodded again with a deep frown on his face, she added, "And that wasn't the first bank in New York to get that treatment.”
"But who does something like this?" the man asked her, getting nothing but a shrug from the woman as an answer.
Karen pushed herself all the way out of the throng. This was New York, of course, there was going to be some weirdos doing stupid shit like this. She was not surprised at all. She brushed it off and sipping her coffee she walked to work.
The bell rang as she entered, the usual greeting. The sign in the door still said Closed, the chairs hadn't been put down yet, the lights were off, and there was no sign of Sylvester yet. She checked her phone, she was over an hour early. It didn't matter, she decided and pulled down a stool. She would have a nice, relaxing sit-down, drink her coffee and read her newspaper in peace and quiet. But before she even started skimming interesting headlines, she had a very loud, and very passionate, reminder that the diner was also someone's home.
"Oh, Sly!" a female voice cried out from the basement, "Yes! Yes! Oh, fuck yes!"
"Nope. Nope. Oh, fuck nope," Karen told herself firmly. She shook her head and jumped off the stool. "There is no way I'm getting sucked into that again." Picking up her newspaper and coffee, she retreated straight back out the door. She closed it after her, as quietly as she could without Sylvester hearing her. No point in disturbing him. And whoever he was with. She crossed her legs and sat herself down on the stone step just outside, it was cold and she could feel it through her jeans, but her coffee was still hot and the wind was calm enough not to knock her newspaper out of her hand. Pretty good solution all around.
She began skimming the articles. The robberies were mentioned, robbers breaking into banks only to trash the place, leaving all valuables behind. Safe deposit boxes had been torn out of the walls and turned inside out. Nothing was ever taken. A great mystery. That's what the article said anyway, Karen had started to get a slight suspicion as to what could be the cause. Gang violence was on the rise, another article said, unprovoked attacks around midtown. She shuddered, not sure if it was the cold or because of the sudden premonit
ion she felt. She swallowed a gulp of coffee and rummaged through her pockets, pulled out a cigarette pack and... lint? "Fuck," she breathed with the cigarette dangling from her lips. "Come on lighter. Oh please, tell me I didn't forget a-"
"Light?"
A lighter appeared before her face. It clicked, and the flame sprung into life. She hesitated, but the flame was threatening to blow out any second, so she chose to accept it and lit her cigarette. "Garth," she exclaimed in surprise when she saw who the lighter belonged to. She hadn't seen him since her first day there, but she was sure she would never forget that face. She scrambled to her feet, tried picking up the newspaper as gracefully as she could but ended up with an armful of crumbled paper.
"Good evening, Karen," he said putting his lighter back in his pocket. "I assume you're well?" He seemed like a completely different person since the last time she saw him. His nose had healed, crooked, but healed. Then again, she wasn't sure what it had looked like before she had broken it. His arm was no longer in a sling, a scar on the back of his hand was the only reminder she had crushed it with her heel less than a month ago. He was a large man, not much taller than Karen, but he was stocky and wide. It was hard to believe this man would transform into the huge wolf that had almost killed her.
"I'm well," she managed to get out, "And yourself?" She was a little bit scared of him, even in human form, and right then all she wanted was for him to leave.
He scoffed at her with half a smirk as he took a drag off his own cigarette. That's when she smelled it, the alcohol on his breath. No, not only on his breath, he smelled as if he had taken a bath in tequila. It was so strong Karen coughed a bit at the fumes he was giving off. He ran a hand through his thinning hair and she started wondering how old he was, she had heard Sylvester say he was one hundred and sixty but how old was that in Were-years? He didn't look more than in his late forties. He burped loudly, giving her something else to think about as another stink bomb exploded in her face, and leaned his hand on the wall next to her.
"I've been wondering about you, princess," he said flicking the excess ash off his cigarette in an elaborate display, his voice raspy and slurred.
"Have- have you?" Karen asked even though every fiber in her body told her not to do so. Why was she so intimidated by this man? He wasn't even that scary looking. Only, there was something in his eyes, something in his wolfish grin that unnerved her.
"I think, that you just might be more than human," he spat at her. Literally. A tiny speck of spit landed her cheek and she had to use every ounce of self-control not to wipe it off straight away.
She wanted to gag or to run, but she couldn't move further back without jumping into the diner. And that might make him angry. Instead, she forced out a small laugh. "No, no, I'm all human."
”Hardly, you're Alyssa's pet, aren't you?”
Karen laughed nervously, trying to make light of the situation. ”That sounds like something I should be taken offense at-”
He interrupted her. ”Come now, you must be Alyssa's pet for a reason, I'm sure of it.” He took a long drag of his cigarette, blowing the smoke directly in her face. "You can tell old uncle Garth here." He leaned closer and Karen pressed herself up against the brick wall so hard she felt the grooves digging into her spine. "I won't tell a soul."
Karen felt her pulse quicken. He felt unpredictable and dangerous, and his honey sweet tone made her skin crawl. ”I've already told you, I'm all human. It's all I've ever been. Thinking I'm anything else is ridiculous.”
"But it makes no sense," he whispered, mostly to himself, and ran a hand through his hair again. In a sudden flash of anger, he threw his cigarette onto the sidewalk and stomped it out. "You beat me," he said as if accusing her, his finger raised, waving dangerously close to her nose. "How? I was fully transformed."
"Maybe you had an off night?" Karen suggested, the words falling out in a panic, she couldn't stop them. "And I had some serious menstrual cramps that night, I mean, I could probably have kicked anyone's ass and-"
He cut her off by brushing his fingers along her cheek and over her lips. She almost gagged again. They smelled like gas and alcohol. "But you're so little," he breathed close to her ear, "I feel like I could just snap you in two if I wanted to, princess."
Once again Karen found herself force a tiny chuckle. "It's just lucky for me that you don't, eh?" He murmured something she didn't hear, she wasn't even sure they were words. But the gleam in his eyes made her want to cower.
"Garth."
Karen hadn't heard him approach, hadn't even heard his footsteps on the pavement, but to her surprise, and immense relief, Cef now stood next to them. His hands were in his long coat and the beanie pulled tight over his dreads. His beard had grown, it made Karen's insides flutter when she saw it perfectly complementing his soft looking lips. His eyebrows pushed down over his black eyes in annoyance. "Long time, no see," Cef continued, "What brings you by at this time? The diner isn't open yet."
Garth started chuckling, a deeply feral sound Karen never wanted to hear again. "We were just talking, Cef," he said matter-of-factly, "Nothing wrong with that." Garth stopped leaning on the wall next to Karen but her relief was short lived as he then wrapped his arm around her shoulders instead, pulling her close. "We're old friends, you see."
Karen couldn't speak, if she opened her mouth, she would be able to taste the awful stench of him. She shot Cef a pleading look. She hadn't meant to, but she couldn't help it.
Cef reacted immediately, wrenching his arm away from Karen and forced Garth off the pavement and onto the deserted street before the diner. "Get off her. Now," he demanded steadily, "Go home, sleep it off."
"Did you think I was going to hurt her?" Garth asked in mock innocence, "No, I wasn't going to hurt her, I was just having a talk with the little lady."
"Just get out of here, Garth." Cef's voice was low but there was no hiding the warning in the words. "I don't want to have to say it again."
Karen, finally able to breathe without choking on fumes, coughed. "It's alright, Cef. He- he didn't do anything." All she wanted was to see Garth leave, not a confrontation. If that meant letting him off the hook, so be it.
”Are you sure?" Cef asked her. "I wouldn't want-" He stopped himself, not really knowing what it was that he didn't want.
His uncertainty made Karen smile and she nodded. "No harm done." She was just so relieved to see Cef she completely forgot their usual awkwardness. And then he returned the hesitant smile, the corners of his mouth actually curved upwards, and her heart skipped a beat. She was not prepared for that. There was so much she wanted to ask him, so much she wanted to tell him. But she could do nothing but stand there, looking at him. She fought the urge to giggle like a hormonal teenager seeing a handsome man for the first time.
Garth, who had been stumbling around on the empty street trying to regain his balance, roared with laughter when he saw the exchange. That didn't help him stand up at all, and he had to lean on the bent streetlight, that had just flickered on, to steady himself. "Well isn't this just interesting? Isn't it?" he yelled with a laugh, not able to keep his voice down, "Alyssa's pet Demon and her pet human? That's just fucking hilarious! Wow, really? Cef, well done man. There were a couple of us that didn't think you had it in you."
"Garth, this is your final warning." The smile quickly vanished from Cef's face. His hands balling into fists at his side, his knuckles cracked. "Leave. Now."
Garth slapped his knee, still laughing, and then waved Cef away with a final snort and spat on the ground. "I'm going, I'm going," he said, managing to boil down his laughter to a low chuckle. "You two." He waved a single finger at them and shook his head. "Now that's interesting. How does that even work? You in all your huge Demon-ness." He continued to wave his hands around for emphasis. "And then you, you're such a little human." He went to spit again but instead drool started running down his chin.
"Will you just fuck off, Garth," Karen yelled, trying to hold back her disgust. She
had had enough of this. "Dogs are supposed to be kept on a leash in this part of town." She felt much safer with Cef around, and she was going to take full advantage of that.
Cef turned his head slowly and raised an eyebrow at her. "You're not really helping."
"You!" Garth spat on the ground again and pointed angrily at her. "Just be happy that we're not in transformation week yet."
For a moment Karen caught herself wondering if the man was drunk when he transformed, would the wolf be drunk, too? But that was a topic for another night. And then her mouth formed at sentence once again before her brain had time to double check if it really was a good idea. "True, I'd just have to whip you again. How is your nose these days, anyway?" Garth puffed up his chest in anger and roared in fury. She instinctively took a step behind Cef. So much for her short-lived bravery.
Cef growled to himself. "Again, is this you helping the situation?" he hissed at her.
"I had it under control before you got here." Karen puffed a strand of loose hair out of her eyes. She hadn't, and she knew that, if Cef hadn't shown up she didn't know what would have happened. But she wasn't about to let Cef know that.
"Just go back into the diner, alright? I'll deal with this." Cef took her arm and turned her towards the door.
“What is there to deal with?” She pulled her arm out of his grip, refusing to be bossed around by a Demon who had been avoiding her.
"Will you stop being such a damn frustrating female," he boomed at her, irritation clear in his voice. "I said I'm dealing with this.”
"Did you just call me 'a female'?" Karen asked slowly. That was almost laughable.
"A lover's spat!" Garth called out. He was hugging the streetlight in a, not completely voluntary, tight grip.
