I cringed. "So you're telling me the wolf was lying in wait even as I fed the guy?"
"Yes, and that means the wolf is far more cunning than I feared if it has the patience to wait for its kill to be alone," he told me.
I rolled my eyes. "So this werewolf has manners. This isn't exactly the time to be admiring it. We have to go find Eb. He might still be alive," I pointed out.
"We must proceed with caution or we may suffer the same fate as Eb," he argued.
I snorted and tugged on his arm to drag him outside and onto the paw trail. "We've got your super-sniffer, your super-strength, and your super-intellect. I've got-" I looked down at my empty hands. "I've got-" I swept my eyes over the barn floor behind Adam and caught sight of a thick piece of board. I snatched it and tapped it into my hand like a bat. "I've got a bat. I think we can handle this one. Besides, maybe it doesn't even know you're here, so we have the element of surprise."
"Perhaps your judgment is blinded by your need to be a hero," he countered.
I frowned. "Maybe, but it's one of my neighbors' life on the line, so I'm willing to try to be one. Now you can let me be lunch, or follow me." I turned and waded into the deep snow. The storm from the previous night left another three inches of the fluffy-white evil stuff. It didn't take long for Adam to overtake me and swoop me into his arms. He trudged forward with me against his chest. "Hey! I can walk!"
"As heroic as the picture of your floundering would be, it does not assist us in finding the werewolf and your missing neighbor," he pointed out.
I folded my arms and glared at him. "Fine, but just remember that I wanted to flounder-er, walk on my own."
We marched onward on the rescue mission. Adam was fast, but our prey was either faster or had a far greater headstart then we imagined. We reached the edge of the trees and the snow patches were more shallow, but Adam paused at the tree line. He tilted his head up and sniffed.
"The werewolf has a two-hour head start," he told me.
"Well, put me down and we can move faster. Eb may be skinny, but he was probably thrashing and yelling, so I bet they couldn't get too far too fast," I argued.
Adam frowned. "Did you hear any noise during the time you last saw Eb, and when your mother and I returned?"
I paused and furrowed my brow. "Now that you think of it, no, but I wasn't really listening for anything. I was watching the road, and sometimes I went upstairs to my bedroom, and that's at the back of the house. Why? You think maybe Eb was knocked out?"
He shook his head. "I cannot figure this strange puzzle. Since that is the case, we must press on. Perhaps there will be answers to my questions farther up the trail."
Adam set me down and we hurried through the trees. The beast had followed one of the familiar paths until two miles in when it took a sharp right that arced backwards into a rougher patch of the woods. The walking trail disappeared and I had a hard time pushing through the brambles.
The weather also took a turn for the worse. The storm Ben warned about gathered above us and in another hour a light snow began to fall. The wind picked up and kicked the soft white fluff into our faces. I shivered and tucked my coat closer around myself. The cold chilled me to the bone and my boots weren't doing a good job of keeping the snow from my socks. They were soaked, and my pants were likewise wet. The worst part was even if we turned around at that moment it would have taken two hours to return.
"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea," I muttered to myself.
Adam stopped and pressed his lips together. "Unfortunately, I must concur," he replied.
I snorted. "This definitely isn't one of my brighter-" I took a step forward and all of my foot disappeared into a rabbit's den. My other leg collapsed beneath the sudden fall and I fell face-first into a pile of snow and bushes. I sat up and sputtered. My mouth was full of snow, my face was wet, and I was cold. "Okay, let's just say I was an idiot for suggesting this and go-ah-go-achoo!" The sneeze whipped my head back and I cringed. "Go back right now before I catch my death of cold." Adam pulled me from the hole and scooped me into his arms. I shivered and snuggled close to him. He opened his coat and a puff of fur pushed through his shirt and pressed against me. "What would I do without your fur?" I teased.
He didn't like. Rather, his eyes scrutinized my face with concern. "I should have come alone," he whispered.
I snorted. "And I would have followed you even if you'd tied the barn around me."
That got a little bit of a smile from him. "Let us return home."
Chapter 14
I don't remember much of the return, or the following day. My little cold that developed on the trail turned out to be a fever. I do remember arriving at the house because I'd never seen my parents so ashen-faced. By the time we arrived the storm was in full force and battered our bodies without remorse.
My parents met us on the porch, and I smiled at them. "Hi, Mom, hi, Dad," I weakly greeted them.
One look at me and my mom gasped. Dad hurried forward to take me, but Adam gently pushed past him. "I will take her upstairs. Please get some hot water and quilts for her," Adam commanded them.
"Of course," Mom agreed.
Dad followed us upstairs and Adam helped me pull off most of my clothes. In any ordinary time I would have been embarrassed for my dad to see me in such undress, but at that moment I was too feverish to care. "What happened? Where have you been?" he questioned us.
"We followed tracks into the woods and the storm came upon us," Adam explained.
Dad frowned and I saw his hands balled into quivering fists at his sides. "You and that stupid obsession with that wolf, is that it? You think it's important enough to get my daughter sick?"
Adam helped me beneath my blankets and turned to my father. His eyes stared directly into those of my father and even Adam's face looked a little pale. "No, sir, I don't, and I will do everything in my power to see she is soon well. Is there a doctor that can be called?"
Dad shook his head. "Not with this storm. They'd probably run off the road and into a ditch."
"Then we must care for her ourselves, and after she is well I will gladly accept any punishing words, or physical actions, you wish to bestow on me."
My dad scrutinized Adam's face, and after a long pause he sighed. His balled hands loosened and he ran a hand through his hair. He looked down at me and his face aged twenty years. "Damn it."
"Don't swear in the house, Ralph," Mom scolded as she flew into the room. She juggled a pile of quilts in her arms, and atop those were a hot pan of water and medicine from the bathroom, all of which was deposited on the floor beside the bed. "Besides, Adam's right. You can have your fist fight later. Right now we need to get Chrissy better."
"All right, but this doesn't let you off," Dad warned Adam.
Adam bowed his head, and helped my mom stuff more quilts over me. The heat relaxed my chilled body and I drifted off into sleep. The next day was like a dream. My parents and Adam sat in a chair beside my bed, and outside the storm waxed and waned with my fever. The weather was inconsistent enough to keep a doctor from coming, but their care and my mom's homemade chicken soup was enough to revive me.
It was a few minutes before sunset when I opened my eyes and really saw the room for the first time in twenty-four hours. The time was hard to tell because the outside world was dark and gray in a decent imitation of the midnight hour. My dad sat beside me reading a book on how to build jet engines. "Please tell me you're not going to do that," I croaked.
He started and his head whipped to me. A smile brightened his morose face and he closed the book. "I don't think your mother would let me," he pointed out. He stood, set the book on the chair, and took a seat on the bed beside me. "How are you feeling?"
"Fine." I shifted and my muscles ached. "A little sore, but I think I can get up." I tried to sit up, but my dad gently pushed me back down.
"Not until I know you're better," he insisted. My dad laid a hand on my forehead, then got a thermometer and stuck it in my mout
h. He looked at the reading and his smile widened. "Well, it looks like your fever's gone."
"So I can get up now?" I pleaded.
"No."
"Oh, come on. I'm just fine. See?" I sat up and, though I was weak, I didn't feel bad. "I'm as strong as a racehorse."
"If that racehorse had a bad case of the cramps," he teased.
"Hardy-har-har. Don't you have anything better to do than to harass your patient?" I asked him.
He pondered my suggestion for a moment. "Well, I now have my chance to have a fist fight with you boyfriend."
My face fell, and I leaned forward to grab one of his hands. "You shouldn't blame Adam. I'm the one who-" He held up his hand.
"I know, Adam told me the whole story. Well, actually, he told your mother the whole story, and she chewed me out for thinking him guilty when I should have been wanting to scold you for being such an idiot," he scolded me.
I snorted and gestured down at myself. "Say it all you want. It's a little hard for me to argue against it."
"You're an idiot, or perhaps a super-idiot. We shall call you an uber-idiot," he suggested.
My face fell and I playfully glared at him. "Thanks, that makes me feel a whole lot better."
"Now that you're feeling better I'll alert the other doctors and get you some food," he replied. He stood and reluctantly let his hand slip from mine. His shining eyes looked down on me and his smile was bittersweet. "You really scared your old man there."
I smiled back, and tears threatened to slip from my eyes. "I'll try not to do it again."
He snorted. "That's a promise I don't expect you to keep, but I'll be right back."
Dad left, and I sighed and leaned back against the mess of pillows behind me. My moment of peace lasted a full ten seconds before my window beside the bed opened. The wind and snow swept into the room and I watched in amazement as Eb crawled over the sill and dropped onto the floor. He was in worse shape than before with his ragged clothes more ragged, and his face more gaunt. There were blood stains on his hands, and his rags were likewise spotted with the life fluid.
"Eb, what the hell happened to you? How did you escape the werewolf?" I questioned him as he hurriedly shut the window behind himself.
He crawled over to the bed and clung to the sheets like a man drowning. His eyes flitted over the room and his hands quivered. "T-the beast! It's coming again! I can feel it!" he whispered.
"Calm down. Let me just call my parents and-"
"No! No one else! I can only trust you!" he insisted.
"Eb, if there's something chasing you then I'm the least able person around to help you," I pointed out.
He crawled closer to me and grabbed one of my hands in both of his. I cringed from the bloodstains, but he had a tight grip for an old man. "There's no time! It's-it's coming! I can-" he shut his eyes and ground his teeth together.
It was then I noticed his teeth were far sharper than any human's should be. The hands that held mine stretched and lengthened into claws. Hair sprouted from his skin and his torn clothes stretched and tore some more. He opened his eyes and they were a bright, dangerous yellow. Eb was turning into a werewolf.
I gasped and yanked my hand from his grip. "Eb, you have to control it!" I yelled at him.
"It's coming! It's coming!" he chanted. His voice turned into more of a growl and those hungry eyes looked at me like a predatory watching its prey.
I slipped over the other side of the bed and stood. My eyes flitted to the bedroom door as I tried to make my escape. "Listen to me, Eb, you have to stop transforming! This isn't you! You're a-" Eb tilted his head back and let loose a terrifying howl. "-werewolf. You're definitely a werewolf," I quipped.
Footsteps raced up the stairs and the door was flung open to reveal Adam. His eyes swept over the room and fell on the other werewolf, who snarled in response. Adam growled and jumped him, and the pair rolled into the wall under the window.
"Don't kill him! It's Eb!" I shouted.
My parents appeared in the doorway and my dad pushed my mom back. By this time Adam was half werewolf himself, and the pair grappled with one another. "What in the hell-?" he questioned.
I raced over to them and pushed them into the hallway. "No time to explain! Just get downstairs!"
I herded my parents down the stairs just as the werewolf fight relocated to the hallway where we stood only moments before. Adam slammed Eb into the wall and was punched in his turn. They punched, bit and clawed their way downstairs and into the hall. I pushed my parents into the dining hall and we watched their house ruined by tow supernatural beings.
I felt helpless. My parents clung to me, confused and afraid, and my boyfriend fought alone against a ferocious, scrawny werewolf desperate for Monet chow. If only I was a werewolf, or at least armed with some that would help.
"Chris, what the hell is going on?" my dad questioned me.
"Are those werewolves?" my mom guessed.
I pushed them further into the dining room to avoid becoming involved in the carnage. Adam helped by tossing Eb into the living room. "Yeah, um, Adam and I have been meaning to tell you. He's-well, he's a werewolf." I cringed when one of the wolves broke a lamp in the living room.
"When the hell were you going to tell us?" Dad growled.
"Um, surprise?" I squeaked.
He scowled at me. "You are in such trouble, young lady. When this-" Mom placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Ralph, dear, I think we need to focus on helping Adam," she scolded him.
"And not killing the other werewolf because that's Eb." I held up my hands to stop any questions from them. "I don't know how, but it is, trust me. Now what do we have that can incapacitate a werewolf?"
My mom's eyes lit up and she hurried over to the china hutch. She pulled open the drawers and pulled out a box which she set on the table. The lid was opened to reveal a large supply of silver utensils. "I'm sure your great-grandmother won't mind our using these for this special occasion," Mom told us.
I wrapped my arms around her and pecked a kiss on her cheek. "Mom, you're a genius. Dad, I need your help to distract Eb with these things by scratching him or throwing them at him, just don't stab him. That would make him into a pile of werewolf ashes."
"But-" I shoved a pile of the utensils into his arms.
"No buts, just follow me." I dragged him to the living room, and Mom followed us with the utensil box in hand.
The living room was a wreck. The furniture was overturned, the TV smashed, and every picture was off the walls. The wily Eb, though smaller in size to Adam, was more agile, and Adam bled from more than one place. The pair faced off against each other with Eb a little closer to the doorway.
"Hey, Eb-wolf, over here!" I taunted the creature.
It whipped its head to me and growled. Adam, slowed by his profuse bleeding, jumped at him, but the wily old wolf ducked and jumped out of the way straight towards Dad and me. "Fire!" I yelled at my parents.
We lobbed forks, knives, spoons, soup spoons, salad forks, and steak knives at the werewolf. The silver utensils burned every part of his body; fur, claw, teeth, and skin. Nothing was spared. Some of the pointier objects caught in his fur and continued to tap and burn him. The wolf howled and stumbled back. Faint wisps of smoke arose from his body and he frantically tried to brush off the silver objects, but that only burned his fingers and palms.
A clawed hand grabbed Eb's shoulder and spun him around. Adam stood there with his other hand pulled back, and he thrust it forward in a powerful punch. The swing connected with the side of Eb's face. He spun around in a half circle and fell face-first onto the floor. He twitched for a few moments and then lay still. His body transformed back into his human self, and I cringed when I saw nothing remained of his clothes. Mom came to the rescue when she removed the cloth from the dining table and covered him with it.
"Much better," she commented as though she'd just dressed a vase with flowers. My dad shook his head at her calm demeanor.
I hurr
ied past Eb and over to Adam. He sat on the ground and pressed one hand against the worst wound on his side. I knelt in front of him and looked him in the golden eyes. "You okay?" I asked him.
I started when someone knelt beside me. It was my dad. He looked over Adam's wounds. "These aren't good. Did you need help getting upstairs?"
"They will. . .heal in a moment," Adam assured him.
"Super healing," I explained to my surprised father.
Dad looked over Adam's furry body and shook his head. "I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes."
"We really did mean to tell you some time," I told him.
A smile crept onto his lips. "This was probably the best way. Otherwise I might have blown your boyfriend away with my rifle. Here I got to see how much he cared about you." My dad returned his attention to Adam. "Thank you for saving her, and my wife and me."
Adam shook his head. "It is I who owe the thanks. The werewolf was much more agile than I expected."
A fork lay close at hand. I picked it up and twirled it between my fingers. "I told you these heirlooms were dangerous."
Chapter 15
With all the awkwardness of explaining Adam's condition over we now had to deal with another dilemma. I glanced over my shoulder and nodded at Eb. "What are we going to do about him?"
"I don't believe that will be a problem," Adam commented. He rose to his unsteady legs, and my dad slipped one of Adam's arms over his shoulders. "He appears to be a new werewolf, and I brought some of the bane elixir to cure him."
My dad raised an eyebrow. "Cure him? You can cure a werewolf?"
"If they are new, yes. My condition is more permanent," Adam explained.
"Well, let's get you upstairs and get a bit of that nasty drink down Eb," I suggested.
"I will be fine," Adam insisted. He slipped from my dad's crutch and tried to take a step forward, but his legs buckled. Dad and I caught him.
"Yeah, real stable," Dad and I quipped at the same time.
Adam smiled. "You greatly resemble each other."
"No time for insults, or I'll drop you myself," I warned him.
Eb groaned and shifted on the floor. "We should administer the cure as soon as possible," Adam advised us.
"Will he remember anything of this horrible experience?" Mom asked him.