Pushing Up Daisies

by Melanie Thompson

  “No pickup yet. I’m working on it.”

  “You two coming with me or staying here?”

  “I’ll stay with the wounded man,” Freidrick said. He pointed to a bloodstained bandage on his leg. “I’ll just slow you down.”

  House nodded. He remembered Sarah telling him one of the U.N. guys had been hacked by a machete.

  “I’m coming with you,” Coop said.

  House stripped off the AK and handed it to Coop. “Great, let’s go,” he whispered.

  Back out in the hallway, House stopped to listen. He heard men coming into the house talking and laughing. He heard footsteps in the kitchen under them. “We got company,” he whispered.

  Coop nodded as House moved silently toward the third door on the hall. He opened it with one hand and followed the sawed-off into the room. A huddled form covered in a black robe jumped up. Another dark figure leaped out at House. “Look out,” Sarah screamed.

  Everything happened at light speed. The dark form sprouted a fifty-caliber Desert Eagle and fired at House. House moved quicker than most humans can see, dodging the bullets meant to kill as he opened up with two shotgun blasts. From this range, the man dressed in black robes exploded.

  Footsteps pounded up the stairs. Now they were screwed. Men coming and no way out. “Watch the door,” he shouted to Coop as he grabbed Sarah and hugged her hard. She sobbed into his chest. “I thought you’d never get here.”

  He leaned back to look at her and smiled. “I like the head gear. Got all your ornaments properly covered.”

  “From the Quran right?”

  He nodded. “Know your enemy. In this case that means reading their fucking holy book.”

  Sarah looked at Coop who was staring. “Hi, Coop, I see you met House.”

  Coop nodded. “He’s something else.” Coop turned to House. “How do we get out of here?”

  “Don’t know yet. Something will turn up.” House pushed Sarah back against the wall. “Stay,” he ordered and she smiled. He moved to the dead al Qaida man and stripped him of his Desert Eagle and an M-203 he recognized. It was Berry’s. He was snatching the ammo bags off the dead man when the door flew open and Coop opened up with the AK.

  The men coming in the door were mowed down by Coop’s spray of bullets. They weren’t al Qaida, just pirates. House finished collecting the ammo bags from the al Qaida fighter and eased backwards toward Sarah. He had to get her out.

  He took his eyes off the door for a second to glance at her, motioned for Coop to take one side of the door while he moved to watch the other side. They’d just taken up their positions when the wall exploded. Coop flew backwards, hit House and knocked him down. The pirates had used a stick of dynamite…old school stuff but effective. House instantly recognized the oily-sweet, banana-like odor distinctive of dynamite. A cloud of powdered rock and sand blew into the room choking everyone.

  Through the cloud of dust, House saw pirates and two al Qaida men crammed into the narrow hall. They milled around uncertainly in the dusty darkness coughing. Finally one of the pirates was shoved forward by an al Qaida man. When he tripped over what was left of the wall, House fired three times dropping him. Two other men loomed through the dust cloud. House fired from his position wounding them. They screamed and fell into the gap clogging it. The rest of the pirates turned and ran toward the stairs, but reinforcements blocked their retreat. House could hear them cursing and swearing in at least three languages.

  As Coop groaned and tried to sit up, more men were shoved stumbling into the hole in the wall. House grabbed the M-204, rolled and came up firing. Each shot deafened him. Suddenly, the men began screaming even louder. There was mass pandemonium in the hallway. Men were shouting Diab, Diab, which meant wolf in Arabic. House prayed it was Daisy.

  As men streamed into his room to get away from the wolf, House cut them down with the high-powered rifle. He clearly heard Daisy’s growls and so did the men. She’d found a way to make them see and hear her. Gun fire erupted in the hall and men were hit. They shrieked with terror and pain as they fell.

  Footsteps pounded back down the steps and Daisy bounded into the room, tongue lolling, huge grin revealing rows of sharp white teeth. House wished he could hug her. Instead he grabbed Coop’s arm. “Can you see the wolf?”

  Coop’s eyes were wide with fright. He nodded.

  “Don’t worry, she’s dead.”

  “Why does that make it better?” he croaked.

  “She can’t eat you,” House said as he crawled toward Sarah.

  Daisy bounded to Sarah’s side and Sarah smiled at her. “Love you,” she said to Daisy and touched two fingers to her lips and blew Daisy a kiss.

  House grabbed Sarah in his arms and hugged her. “She figured out how to make everyone see her,” he said to Sarah. “She scared the shit out of the pirates.”

  “She scared the shit out of me,” Coop said. “What is she some kind of pet wolf come back from the dead to protect you?”

  “Something like that,” Sarah said.

  House had just decided to try the hall again when the two al Qaida fighters leaped into the room. They ignored Coop and opened up on House. Sarah screamed and threw herself in front of him. She took the hits meant for him in the middle of her body. As she crumpled, House used the Desert Eagle to blow the two al Qaida men straight to Allah.

  He grabbed Sarah. Her eyes were glassy and her mouth slack. Daisy howled. “Stop,” he growled at Daisy as he began snatching Sarah’s voluminous robes up so he could find the wound. If she died trying to save him, he was going downstairs and he was going to blow every one of those fucking pirates straight to hell.

  Before he could examine her wounds, more pirates rushed the door and he had to drop her. Coop opened up with the AK and House, pissed beyond reasoning, grabbed the sawed-off, leaped to his feet screaming and attacked. He fired off one round after another low from his hip as he stepped over what remained of the wall into the hall. He saw more pirates, maybe ten, crammed into the dark, tunnel-like hall, but he didn’t care. He just kept firing. When the sawed-off was out of ammo, he pulled the Desert Eagle out of the waistband of his pants and opened up with that. Each shot was a dead pirate. House was extremely accurate. He finished all the pirates off before he ran out of ammo in the Eagle, turned and dived back in the room loading the shotgun from his improvised pouches as he ran.

  “We’re moving,” he yelled to Coop, scooped Sarah into his arms and was out the door again. He ran to the next room, kicked the door open and motioned to Freidrick and Coop. “Help Berry up. We’re leaving.”

  The two men picked Blackberry up under his arms and supported him as they cautiously entered the hall. “Sorry, babe,” House whispered even though he knew she couldn’t hear him as he tossed Sarah over his shoulder so his hands were free to fire.

  They had to step over dead and wounded pirates as they headed for the narrow staircase. There were no lights, zero visibility, and House no longer heard the generator. House could see like it was day. “Follow me,” he told them.

  “You can see?” Freidrick asked.

  “Trust him,” Berry groaned. “He can see.”

  They eased down the steps. When they got to the bottom, they had to take a turn to the right to get out, crossing the kitchen area. House held his hand back to stop Coop and Freidrick and peered around the wall dividing the stairs from the kitchen. Daisy leaped into the open, growling. The hoard of pirates milling aimlessly in the living area and the kitchen screamed when they saw Daisy and scrambled for the exit. House followed, shooting them down with the sawed-off.

  Out in the night, House slowed. A shot rang out from behind a building. “Shit,” House cursed. “They’re out front.”

  “They spend a lot of time on the beach,” Coop said.

  House turned and ran for the hall and the door that fronted the Gulf. A boat he hadn’t seen before was pulled up on the beach with three men guarding it. One he recognized immediately. It was the pirate with the gold too
th, the one the Bedouin woman said killed Daisy.

  “Wait here,” House growled. “I got something I have to do.”

  He laid Sarah down in the hall and handed the startled Coop his shotgun. “Guard her with your life.”

  “Where are you going?” Coop asked clearly bewildered.

  “I’ll be right back. I got some business to take care of.”

  He tore the khakis and the ammo pouches off and kicked his smelly borrowed boots aside. Shifting into a gigantic black wolf, he leaped across the beach in huge bounds. He knew the pirates watching would not see him until it was too late.

  His last leap took put him on top of the pirate with the gold tooth. The man screamed and tried to bring his AK up to shoot. House was already on him. Mr. Goldtooth fell onto his back with House’s huge paws on his chest. House was savoring the moment when Daisy joined him. The pirate with the gold tooth had yet to stop shrieking. House grinned a wolfish smile at Daisy and she growled her answer.

  Satisfied Daisy was there to watch, the giant wolf put the pirate’s entire head inside his jaws, paused for one more second of satisfaction in this moment of revenge, and then crunched down on it. The other two pirates were frozen with fear. The sight of two enormous wolves, one very real and one a ghost, had them paralyzed. House finished them easily, tearing out one’s heart and crunching the second’s throat in his great jaws. Daisy’s wraithlike form sat down beside him and they both lifted their heads to howl.

  House scanned the beach, saw three pirates running for their lives away from the pirate’s stronghold. Not satisfied, he and Daisy circled the house to make sure all of the pirates and al Qaida men were gone. He found the older al Qaida raider climbing into a black SUV. Grinning, tongue lolling between rows of white teeth, House leaped forward.

  The al Qaida man turned to stare at House with terror shining in his eyes. The whites were clearly visible. He screamed and held his hands out to fend off the huge wolf bearing down on him like a freight train. The driver fired wildly, missing House but hitting his superior in the shoulder. Blood spurted, the old man grunted with pain, and House leaped on him and crushed his throat. Hot blood splattered House and the side of the SUV. The driver shrieked with primal terror and took off running toward the village. House let him go. The driver had helped by shooting the bad guy. He deserved his life.

  With all of the enemy dead, dying or running, House returned to his meager pile of clothes and shifted back. He pulled them on and went to find Sarah.

  Coop knelt over her holding her close to his body. Fury filled House. Someone was touching his woman. He was so close to his wolf nature, he wanted to kill Coop. He had to fight the urge. He stalked close and hovered over Coop. “What are you doing?”

  He looked up startled at the venom in House’s voice. “I thought…uh, I thought she moved. I was just checking.”

  House pushed Coop away and scooped Sarah’s inert body into his arms. “Sarah, can you hear me?”

  He tore the burqa up and found no blood on her purple dress. He felt her body and found the lump of the idol in her pocket and something else. There were two holes in the front of the pocket. He found two smashed bullets lodged against a huge pair of vice grips. When he touched them, they stung his fingers. Silver! Al Qaida had used silver bullets to fight him. They knew he was a werewolf. But the silver had saved Sarah. The soft metal had not been able to penetrate the steel of the tool.

  Chapter 20

  Sarah came around as he carried her to the SUV abandoned by the pirates. The al Qaida commander lay dead and bloody where House had killed him. House put Sarah in the back and searched the older man. He found a cell phone and nothing else. He checked the phone. It was a cheap throw away, but he stowed it in his pocket anyway.

  Sarah struggled to rise into a sitting position. “I can sit up,” she said. “House, where are you?”

  He found her and she threw herself into his arms. “I thought they killed you,” he said in a harsh voice. “I thought you were dead.” He dropped his head against her chest with his arms around her and choking sounds emerged from his throat. Crying was so unfamiliar, he didn’t know how to do it. All he could do was choke on the huge lump in his throat.

  Sarah stroked his hair. “I saw Daisy. They all saw Daisy,” she said with wonder in her voice.

  All House could do was nod.

  He drove out of Qandala to where he’d hidden the Rover. Coop climbed out to drive it, carrying bottles of water for the girls waiting inside. “Where should we go?” Coop asked.

  Sarah leaned out the passenger window. “Boosaaso, the UN will take care of us there.”

  House climbed in beside her. “Perfect, we need to report and call off the hunt for Coop and Freidrick. And Berry’s got to get some medical help. I’ll call for an evac.”

  Sarah sat as close to House as she could get. Freidrick sat next to her and Berry was sprawled across the back seat. She knew he was in terrible pain but he never uttered a word.

  As the SUV bounced over the rough road, she thought about what had happened. House was a werewolf. She’d seen him shift and she’d seen him kill. Killing was something she had never condoned for any reason. It was why she’d joined the U.N.; to help people, not to hurt them. She loved him with all her heart but wasn’t sure she could deal with House the crazy soldier or House the werewolf. It was a lot to absorb.

  When they reached the U.N. headquarters, she climbed out of the SUV on her own power. The soft silver of the bullets had been stopped by the vice grips. She was bruised and sore but more than able to walk. The impact of the bullets had thrown her against the wall where she’d hit her head. She rubbed the back of her skull as she walked into the familiar building. She was finally home.

  It was about three in the morning. No one was awake. She led the way into the cafeteria area and switched on lights. Coop followed close behind with Freidrick, both supporting the injured man from House’s team.

  The U.N. commander, Walter Smith, stumbled from his room clutching a faded blue terrycloth robe around his skinny body. “Who’s there?”

  U.N. soldiers who had been on guard duty in the office came out holding their rifles in front of them. They all saw Sarah and stopped. She pulled the cap off her hair and smiled. “It’s me, Commander Smith.”

  Coop and Freidrick laid Berry on the floor. “I need the medic out here for this man,” Coop said.

  House followed everyone into the building leading the two Bedouin girls. Smith turned first one way and then the other as he tried to absorb what he saw. The medic showed up wearing a pair of khakis and no shirt. He glanced around the room and immediately went to tend to Berry.

  Sarah slowly slipped away, down the hall to her room. Her roommate, Anna, was asleep. She rose off her bed on one elbow. “Who is it?” she asked.

  “Go back to sleep,” Sarah said. “I’m home, Anna. It’s just me, Sarah.”

  “Sarah!” Anna screamed and doors banged open all along the hall. Sarah sighed. She’d hoped to quietly get into her bed and let all the recent events flow away in a stream of dreamless sleep.

  Her friends and coworkers crowded around her asking hundreds of questions all at once. Sarah told them her story omitting all of the werewolf stuff. That was House’s secret, never to be shared. It was just one more difficulty to accepting him and any kind of relationship with him.

  The French girl, Eloise Lefavre, shook her head when Sarah finished her narrative. “This is so unbelievable. You were kidnapped by pirates and al Qaida? Why would they want you?”

  “They were holding me for ransom, El,” Sarah said. “The U.N. would pay to get me back.”

  The French girl snorted with disbelief. Hillary put her arm around Eloise and they leaned against each other. Sarah suddenly wished for Daisy to be there. The pain of her friend and lover’s absence was harsh and impossible to handle. As tears rushed down her face, she reached into her pocket and held the golden idol in her hand.

  “I’m right beside you,” Da
isy breathed into her ear.

  The women standing around her made her feel crushed and short of breath. As tired as she was, she needed air, the freedom of the night and the desert. “Go away,” she said as she waved her hand at her coworkers. “Leave me alone.”

  The room emptied and only Anna remained. She stood looking at Sarah sitting on the bunk. It seemed rude and insufferable. Sarah snarled at her. “Leave me alone.”

  “My, aren’t you touchy,” Anna said.

  Suddenly, she couldn’t take being in the small room any more. She hated all the self-centered people she worked with and wanted to be far away from them. As she ran out the door and into the night through a back exit, she realized she’d never grieved for Daisy, probably due to lack of time and the fact that Daisy was still with her as a ghost. Her loss filled her with so much pain she doubled over and slumped to the ground with her knees drawn up and her back to the building. She sobbed as the agony filled her heart and tears flooded her cheeks.

  “Daisy,” she cried. “I miss you so much.”

  She felt the warmth of Daisy surround her. “I’m here, Sarah. I’ll always watch over you.”

  “What do I do about House?” Sarah sobbed.

  “He loves you in a way you can’t understand. Wolves only love once in their lives and you are his chosen.”

  Sarah scrubbed at her eyes with a fist. “I’m not sure I can deal with the killing and…you know, the werewolf thing. It’s kind of horrible.”

  Daisy chuckled, a low and eerie sound. “He is who he is. Don’t you find it exciting?”

  “I need a hug,” Sarah sniffled. “Why are you gone? Yes, he’s exciting. But I’m not sure I’m ready for the entire forever commitment. It’s a heavy burden. His love, I mean.”

  Daisy touched her hand and to Sarah it felt like a feather drawn across her skin. “Only you can decide.”

  Sarah wiped the last of her tears away and stood up. She squared her shoulders. “I hate everyone in there. They won’t leave me alone.”