“Stacy.” A dark form loomed in the mist, just beyond view. She knew that voice, though it couldn’t be him.
His blue-grey head burst through the cloaking fog. Unable to accept what she saw climbing toward her, she backed up three stairs, toppling on her ass.
“Stacy–it’s me.” He lurched up two more stairs, dragging something bloody behind him. Something no longer completely there; something quickly losing blood as it bumped skyward. “Stacy, sweetheart, I brought you a present.” Oozing behind the man’s damaged leg she saw all that remained of Phil.
She knew the man. Rather, she’d known him, before the botched suicide had taken out the left side of his face. She’d loved him once, and smiled whenever he’d entered her life. Back before he’d put a slug through his mind. Back before the medical examiner had slashed him open in a big Y. Back before her shining knight, crowned in a curly silver wig and dressed all in black had taken permanent lodgings in a box and been screwed into the ground.
“D-daddy? It can’t be you. Daddy–you’re dead!”
“Am I, dear? Certainly not to you, pumpkin? Come give your daddy a big kiss. Nobody will see. We’re quite alone out here. You deserved far better. "He indicated the dripping heap of offal oozing behind him. Screaming, she didn’t look, but turned and ran up the stairs.
He moved even faster.
* * * *
Her name had been Stacy Conti. She’d been a Providence nursing student moonlighting at Fatima hospital. He was Philip Stonington, an honor student doing graduate work in corporate law. Both were bright, affluent, and good-looking. Each was intelligent, ambitious with the promise of rewarding lives just ahead. Now they were just so much cooling meat.
Chapter 37
“What the hell are you doing? I need you two to get along! We’ve bigger problems right now.”
“She spit in my face! Called me a back-stabbing Spick whore! What was I supposed to do? She’s got her claws in you pretty deep, doesn’t she, James?”
Jamie followed Lacey in to the bathroom, slamming the door behind him, and nailing her to the wall. She pulled away from him, thumped her arms across her chest and leaned into the wall, glaring at him, struggling to hold back the angry tears. Jamie couldn’t fail to see the mix of sorrow and fury bleeding into her dark eyes.
“I told you I thought I’d lost you, Lace. What was I supposed to do? You’d made it pretty clear you hated me and blamed me for your blindness. Where was I supposed to turn, Lace? Tell me.”
“I know! I’m sorry! I feel like yesterday’s stinking trash,” Lacey cried. She couldn’t look at him just then, riveting her eyes into the cracked linoleum floor, noticing for the first time the knife and bagged fetus were gone.
“I do love you! More than you can ever guess. But…I can’t leave Kat right now. You saw how weak she is. The baby was very small; the cuts I made no more painful than had to be. Most of her pain is emotional. She needs me, Lace. She’s depending on my being here with a smile and a kind word. This has been incredibly hard on her. She thought a child would bind us together. Trust me, she knows she screwed up. But she’s really hurting now. I don't want her to do anything foolish. I can’t just leave her–I have to be here. Not forever, just for a little while. Can’t you accept that I have to do this?"
“Y-yes.” She threw herself into his arms, trying to bury herself in his broad chest. “What choice do I have? I won’t lose you again. I-I’ll deal with it–I’ll have to.” She clung to him, sobbing her heart out, soaking the front of his cambric shirt.
He pried her away, held her at arm’s length, watching. He didn’t let go of her hands. When he smiled, her sun peeked through the clouds. He kissed her then, long, passionately and full of determination. When he broke away, he smiled into her eyes and told her he loved her. Lacey’s tormented soul danced.
* * * *
“Here, take this.” He thrust a small cloth-wrapped bundle into her outstretched palm. “The others all know what I am. Eric has a .45 loaded with silver bullets.”
“They know you’re a werewolf?”
“Yes.” He’d looked at her a long while before he said the word, as though he wanted to add more and thought better of it. “Eric claims he saw me in my nice hairy form one moon-lit night.”
Lacey gasped. As she listened to her lover, she’d idly lifted the cloth from the object in her hand, and saw an old-fashioned glass and brass syringe full of bright green liquid. She almost dropped it.
“James, what is this? W-what am I supposed to do–” she asked. As its purpose dawned on her, she almost threw the syringe against the wall. “Oh no! No–you can’t expect me to–I can’t!”
“Everything all right in there?" several concerned voices came from outside.
“Yes, we’ll be right out!” Jamie turned back to Lacey, and drew her into him. His fist closed over hers, making sure she didn’t throw the syringe away. “Maybe, hopefully, you’ll never have to use this. But if you do–if I change and come at you, Lacey, please, Please do not hesitate to stick it here–he indicated his left eye–it’s the only thing will stop me. This will stop me. Promise me, you’ll do it.” He stared into her large dark eyes, his big hands almost crushing her wrists. “Promise!”
“I-I will! I promise!” She broke away then, and stood before him quivering. Fresh tears poured down her cheeks. She felt as though her heart was being crushed inside an icy fist.
“Lacey–sweetheart, one last thing. There’s only the one needle. No one else is safe. Not Eric or Abby. Not even Kat. Just you. I choose to protect you. Remember that.” Without another word, he turned, opened the door and walked away.
Lacey did not emerge for another five minutes. When she did, her tears were gone, her face looked determined, her heart resolved.
She would make amends with Kat. She would forge a friendship and share her man if she must. Maybe someday, he’d make a choice. The syringe in her hand hinted he already had.
The needle. Damned thing. She’d never kill Jamie. Never! She thrust the syringe in her bag and stalked out of the apartment. No one seemed to notice; at least no one stopped her. They seemed to be having a council of war or something. Out in the shadowy hallway, she quickly found the stairs leading up, and climbed towards the sky.
* * * *
Across the room, Kat watched her rival leave. She got shakily to her feet, already feeling better. She’d been lucky. Jamie told her he’d gotten to her in time, getting rid of the fetus before it took her life. Foolish man. She smiled, feeling her own burst of determination. She crossed the room, draped her arm across her lover’s shoulder and drew her body into his. His mind lost to keeping them all alive, he turned, a look of concern on his lips. She kissed him, clamping onto his lips like a lamprey. If there was going to be a war; she meant to win every battle.
Chapter 38
He'd screwed up. When Jamie sliced the tick-like fetus from Kat, he’d left behind a tiny second head imbedded in her flesh. Healing her with his searing touch, Jamie had insured this parasitic clone’s survival. Deep within Kat; severed tendrils writhed and fused together. Parasitic nodules twitched and stuck, growing bloating on their mother’s blood. Slithering through mom’s body, tiny tentacles wove a tangled web through her organs and began sucking life from their unsuspecting host. Jamie knew so little of his kind he never suspected that mom was still a nurturing cow. But someone knew, and came creeping. Contact was made, demands given. Deep inside mutated synapses twitched, and answered.
Chapter 39
“Okay, that’s the aerial map I got off Goggle. Here’s where we are now.”
“Hey, Jamie–you notice how the island looks like the body of a man,” said Eric. “Lost Hope here for one leg, and Wolf Head…there, for his arm. Damn, look at the size of his –”
“Eric!”
“Sorry Sis. But look at it.” They all had a good laugh.
“Actually, that’s the causeway to Principal Sweetling’s estate. You do know our illustrious principal is a descendant of the founding fathers?”
“No shit! Which one?”
“Eric! Language.” Both Eric and MacLeod gave Abigail a look. Rolling her eyes, she shook her head and clammed up.
“Paine. He’s related to Jeremiah Paine. Anyway, getting back on course, is everybody clear on our plans? We’ll begin tomorrow. I think we need to move out of here as soon as possible and get to my house. It’s more defensible.” Unsure of himself, he hesitated a minute before going on, “And there are restraints ready should I start to change. Lacey, we’ll swing by your house so you can pick up some things. Lace?” Jamie looked quickly around the room, not seeing the teacher. “I know she came out here. I assumed she was sulking in the background. Look, guys, we’ve got to find her.” Eric noticed he looked really worried, Kat just as plainly pissed, her nails digging into Jamie’s exposed arm. “Eric, Abby, try the hallway. Kat, I need to talk to you. Now.” He turned around, noticing Eric and Abby still lingering. “Go! She can’t be far.” Scrubbing his palm down his face, he shrugged off his fatigue. He looked older, totally wiped-out. “Guys, be nice to her. She’s been through hell.” Turning, he prepared to endure Kat’s fiery blast.
* * * *
“That’s all I wanted to say. Just so you understand me, Kat. With all that’s going on in town, I’m just too busy trying to keep us all alive.”
“I get it, Jamie. Really. I’ll try my best to make peace. Right. Go find her before she falls off the roof or something.” Go find your whore and give her a good shove.
“The roof again. Oh shit!” Kissing Kat on the forehead, he hurried from the room. As if I'm his fucking sister, Kat thought bitterly.
As soon as he was gone, Kat flopped back in bed, and began mulling over their conversation. He’d done most of the talking. He’d asked her to try and accept Lacey. Become her friend. He’d added a warning that if he turned into a beast, she was to get behind Lacey for protection. He’d given her some kind of weapon to kill him with. She was to make sure little Lacey actually used it. Could she use it on the Rodriguez slut instead? She should have been more forceful; demand that he get rid of Lacey. She wished that she was Jamie’s Tigress in truth; she’d rip the bitch’s heart out.
Jamie didn’t seem too angry that she’d lied and gotten pregnant. How was she to know he was serious about the “safe period” and all? She barely was able to accept that she was in love with a werewolf. He’d told her to rest another day and she should be fine. Extra quick healing seemed to be the only thing she’d gotten from her son. Jamie said it was a boy. She’d never even seen her kid. Kind of looked like she wasn’t destined for motherhood. Two kids and she’d killed them both. Correction, Jamie killed this one. The bastard.
So now she was supposed to forgive Lacey for messing with her man, and become friends with her. Bull shit! They planned to stand united and fight the forces of darkness that were engulfing their small island home. A geek, his wimpy sister, a slut, a werewolf, and her, the village idiot. Yeah, that’d make the bad guys quiver.
Remembering Lacey's comment about Jamie’s beard making him look dangerous, Kat was considering talking him into shaving it off when a knifing pain stabbed through her womb. Shit, he said she’d heal fast. He didn’t say anything about the pain!
Suddenly sleepy, her eyes fluttered. Drifting off, she thought of another weird thing. As Jamie bent over her, the tooth he always wore had swung forward and bumped her in the face. Grabbing it, she sarcastically asked if his whore had given it to him. After all, he’d already been wearing it the day they met. Laughing, he said no. In fact Lacey didn’t like it either. Hanging on to him by the tooth, she’d joked a bit, saying it was pretty small and weird looking, just that tooth and six little beads. He’d tried gently to remove her fingers, saying it was just his baby tooth. That made her wonder. It certainly didn’t look human, or even wolf-like. More like a shark’s tooth with its rough serrated edges. The beads were odd too; small alternating blue and brown, they looked ancient, more a woman’s than a man. There were stains in the grooved calligraphy of the beads as though they’d once been drenched in a liquid that dried and cracked, leaving a dark brown crust. No wonder Rodriguez thought it was gross. For once they agreed on something. With a frowning smirk, she’d yanked on the tooth, hoping to rip the ugly thing from his throat. Instead, the thin wire bit into her hand, cutting two of her fingers. Oddly, none of her blood stained the necklace, but spattered off as though flung away. As he turned to fetch antiseptic and a bandage, he’d said it protected them, he shouldn’t remove it. And then as he hurried after the meds, she thought she’d heard him add, mostly to himself, “Besides, it’s pretty much all I have left of my mother.”
Chapter 40
Lacey leaned on her elbows and looked out over her island home without seeing a thing. She hadn’t felt this miserable since her older sister punched her in the face and stole her new silver scooter. Or that night in college. Or the night the things came up her cellar stairs. She’d reconnected with Jamie, found out he did love her But he cared for another woman too. Kat. She was expected to share, and wait. It was the decent thing to do. Making matters even worse, there were monsters, apparently lots of them. Jamie was one of them. The man she loved. She felt so over-whelmed and completely in hell. Forcing herself not to wallow in self-pity, she took another serious look at her sleepy town. Off in the distance she could barely hear a fog horn’s monotonous drone. Looking out over the near empty harbor, she noticed the absence of slapping halyards, incoming surf, or even the booming gong of the ancient buoy off Slattern’s Hole. The freakishly warm day’s zephyrs had died, replaced by the sneaking fingers of a sweaty smothering fog. She’d caught a weather forecast that morning before she’d driven to Wolf Head. There’d be another nice day, and then the temperature would turn sharply colder. There was a chance of snow the night of the full moon. Weather in New England was never boring.
She hoped someone would come rescue her before that. Would they miss her? She was such a klutz. Wanting to be alone with her muddled mind, she’d retreated to the roof. As soon as she escaped through the door, the damned thing whacked her in the ass, locking itself behind her. She’d tried everything: yelling for help, pummeling the door, yanking it until her palms were on fire, and her arms throbbed. For the first time in years, she wished she’d spent more time developing her muscles in team sports, less striving to be the smart girl who managed to intimidate most of her dates. The damned door wouldn’t budge. She was stuck out on the roof, and it was starting to feel pretty cold. At least it wasn’t raining, although the creeping fog felt damned unpleasant.
* * * *
“I wondered where you’d snuck off to,” a most welcome voice teased from behind her. Jamie. Thank God. She hadn’t heard him bang open that door, or come up behind her, but then she’d probably been too busy feeling sorry for herself. “We wondered where you’d gone, and got concerned when we couldn’t find you. It was actually Kat who suggested the roof.” Jamie moved closer, nuzzling the back of her neck, kissing it lightly. “I know you’re a big girl, Lace, but you really shouldn’t be alone. It’s just not safe.” His lips moved to her shoulder as his fingers pushed down the strap to her spring dress. He spun her around, smiling lovingly as she faced him. There was just a hint of wolf in his handsome grin. “How about we sneak away for a little while, find someplace quiet, and I show you just how much you mean to me?” He gently ran his fingers along her cheek, onto her throat, only stopping at the neckline of her dress. I’ll even massage your feet,” he said, his fingers playfully tugging the neckline of her dress away from her breasts, exposing more flesh. “If that’s what you want.”
“The gleam in your eyes says getting a couple of things rubbed a good deal higher is more likely,” Lacey almost giggled.
“Seriously Jamie–what about Kat? Is she feeling that much better? Is she okay with this . . . arrangement?” She couldn’t believe he could answer yes to both questions. She certainly wasn’t okay with any of it. “You said you cared for both of us.” She couldn’t help noticing how handsome he looked. There was something different. He looked better. Then it hit her. “Jamie, you shaved off your beard. Looks like a clean shirt too.” She moved in closer, snuggling into his broad chest, nuzzling the thick curly hair peeking from his open throated shirt. “Smell pretty good too.”
“Actually, Kat suggested it. Said she was sick of the beard.” He kissed her passionately on the mouth, one hand reeling her in while his other began fondling her breasts. “I’m so horny I could eat you. Let’s get out of here, Babe.” Kissing her lips, face and throat, she was dimly aware when his tongue flickered into play.
“Babe? Jamie, stop. Please. This just isn’t right. You claimed you cared for Kat too, remember? She just lost your baby. You wanted to stick around—protect her. You’re making me feel like a heartless whore. I want to be sure–”
“Oh stop your whining! I’ve made my choice. I want you. Right now!” Grabbing the front of her thin dress, he tore it open. Lacey screamed. Laughing, Jamie slashed away more of her dress and threw her hard against a ventilator. Lacey screamed in pain and terror. Something was very wrong!
Suddenly the rooftop door began to thud with a cluster of violent blows. On the third it ruptured outward, exploding off one hinge, and two angry males thundered onto the roof.
“Lacey! Lace, what’s going on? Are you all right?”
“Jamie? Is that you? Then who are you?” She turned in time to see her fake lover morph into something far different from her boyfriend before it dissolved to so much foggy mist. In the instant that it showed its true form, she shuddered and passed out.