by Jamie Davis
“That time frame matches up with what Barry and I found today. A woman was turned into a succubus and she nearly wiped out an entire urgent care clinic downtown before we figured out what was going on. We’ve isolated her for now but I was able to find out that she started feeling strange four days ago too. It took several days to complete the change and alter her physiology.”
“Mom, these have to be related, right?” Jaz asked. “Could our demon be randomly changing people into Unusuals?”
“I would say that in this case there is no such thing as a coincidence,” Jaz answered. “I don’t think it is random. There has to be some connection between these two situations. The time frame has to link them somehow. Based on what I’ve been able to research, the demon would have to be in pretty close proximity for hours to enact the change.”
“So this isn’t a case of someone causing this to happen just brushing up against someone on the street?” Dean asked.
“No, it would have to be done in a secure location based on the time required.” Jaz leaned forward and rested her elbows on the table. “I think we have to interview the two subjects again to get anywhere further.”
“There is the amnesia to account for,” Jo interjected. “They don’t remember anything strange in their recent past, so there must have been that spell on them, too. That takes a while to cast if my teachers were correct. It takes a half hour or more to correctly lay on the memory blocks in a person’s mind. To cast it on more than one person would take over an hour.”
“The question is how many more are out there?” Dean asked.
Chapter 16
Eddie had been itchy all day. It felt like there was something moving just under his skin. He’d scratch and scratch and then it would stop, for a while. When he had to go to work at his telemarketing job for the bank that afternoon, he hoped it would stop. At least there would be air conditioning. It didn’t stop. It got worse.
The latest bout with the elusive itch was right between his shoulder blades. His growl of frustration caused some of his work colleagues to peek over their adjacent cubicle walls to see what he was doing. What they saw was him, contorting his arms and body to reach the middle of his back with a pencil, trying to scratch there.
Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore. He looked at the clock. It was almost ten PM. He only had one more hour on the phones. They called until it was eight PM on the west coast. The three hour time difference put the end of his shift at eleven o’clock. He got up and headed to the bathroom to splash some water on his face. Walking down the hallway, he found he couldn’t stop staring at the full moon out the windows lining the corridor. He almost walked right into a co-worker, the woman dodging out of his way with a startled shout. Eddie muttered an apology.
Stumbling into the restroom, he was glad to see the stalls were empty. The itch was moving all over his body now. He could barely control himself as he scratched. He made his way over to the sinks and looked in the mirror. He almost screamed when he caught a glimpse of the yellow-irised eyes staring back at him.
He reached up to touch his face, and stopped as he saw his fingernails start to lengthen and sharpen into talons, his fingers and the back of his hand sprouting thick brown hair. Eddie shouted for help but all that came from his lengthening snout was a howl of pain as the shift consumed him, tearing apart his clothing, leaving shredded strips of cloth hanging from him. The last thing he remembered was the door opening and inquisitive voices calling to see what the noise was.
* * *
———
* * *
Dean’s phone buzzed in his pocket with a text message as he drove Jo back to his apartment. He was almost there, so he didn’t bother to pull over and check the message. Jo’s phone buzzed, too, immediately afterward. He glanced at her as he pulled into his parking spot on the street in front of the Baxter’s house and detached garage. She turned from looking at her screen with a huge grin on her face.
“We’ve got a lead. A wild animal is running around the inside of the Elk National Bank building.”
“What?” Dean pulled out his phone and looked at the screen. His text was from Gibbie and said the same thing.
“It’s the full moon dad. Look,” Jo pointed toward the night sky. The bright white orb hung there, a harbinger of busy EMS nights and ER overcrowding. It also pulled at the adolescent Lycans, causing the youngest and the newest to shift against their will. It likely had the same effect on any newly created werebeasts, too.
“Get the address from Gibbie. We’ll meet him there.”
Dean put the gear lever back into drive and pulled away heading back downtown. He waited until Jo was done texting and asked her if police units were responding.
“Apparently, the police are backed up and have called the ASPCA animal response unit. Their ETA is over an hour away.”
“Are you armed, Jo?” Dean asked. “I suppose I shouldn’t assume you are, but …”
“Of course I’m armed, Dad. I’ve also got an idea for a spell that might work. We don’t want to kill this guy, right?”
“No, we don’t want to kill anyone,” Dean confirmed. He took out his phone as he drove and used the voice recognition feature to call Rudy, the Elk City werewolf pack leader.
“Hey, Dean. What’s up?” Rudy answered.
“Rudy, I’ve got a lead on a potential newly turned Lycan downtown. I’m headed there now. I don’t suppose you’re available to meet me down at the Elk National Bank building in say, ten minutes or so?”
“I’ve got several new pack members who just aged up to start the change tonight. I’m booked up. If you can contain this one for a few hours, I can probably catch up with you later this evening.”
“I was afraid that would be the case. I’m meeting Gibbie there. I think he has Marian with him. Will she have enough pack seniority to back a newbie down?”
“Maybe,” Rudy answered. “It’s hard to say. You could try, but don’t let her do it alone. Her dad will have my hide if anything happens to her. I vouched for you guys when she started riding along with you all on these CERT team calls.”
“Don’t worry, Rudy, I’ll make sure we don’t put her in any unnecessary danger. We’re prepared to do what we need to, to protect the team and the public. I’ll let you know how it goes.” Dean hung up the call. He glanced at Jo as he drove.
“I hope your spell works, or that Marian has the ability to calm this person down, Jo,” Dean said as he drove onto the freeway. “We can’t let this one bite a bunch of people and have a whole crop of new Lycans next month when this happens all over again.”
It took them just under ten minutes to make the drive and Gibbie’s beat up, rusty white van was pulled up out front of the bank building when he and Jo arrived. The two of them got out and walked up to the van, tapping on the tinted windows. The passenger side window rolled down and an excited teenager’s face topped with bright pink hair popped out.
“Good, you’re here. Hey Jo, ready for some fun?” Marian asked.
Jo nodded and Dean decided he needed to nip this in the bud right away.
“Scene safety and team safety first, ladies. Remember that, okay?”
“Yes, Dad,” they both replied, followed by a string of giggles.
Gibbie climbed out of the driver’s side of the van. He was wearing his non-uniform uniform. It looked like a typical EMS uniform for the city’s fire department, matching Dean’s in every way except for the lack of official patches and a badge. Still, he sort of looked official.
“Come on, let’s see if we can even get inside the building,” Dean said, leading the way for his group of four responders.
The distraught security guard seemed relieved that someone else, anyone else, was here to take over for him and his colleague.
“Man, am I glad you guys are here. I called nine-one-one a half hour ago.” The guard unlocked the front door and let them in.
“The city is busy tonight and thought we might be able to help,” Dean lied.
“My partner and I are here to treat any injuries and these two ladies are interns from the zoo.” The last was a sudden inspiration for the young ladies accompanying them. “They have some experience with wild animals and might help us contain the creature.”
“I don’t care who you are, honestly. I have twenty people cornered up on the fourth floor in the call center. They’ve barricaded the door, but the animal is between them and the hallway leading to the stairwell and elevators.”
“Are there any injuries?” Dean asked.
“I believe there are a few bites, but nothing too serious.”
Dean looked at Gibbie. “Do you have anything for that?”
“I have a basic med kit that we can use. It has what you need, Dean. I’ll have Marian and Jo go back and get it. I should have made sure we carried the bags in with us.”
“No worries, Gibbie. Have them get the gear. We needed to see what we were going to need anyway.” Dean turned to the guard and had him show them where the stairwell was.
Without saying it aloud, Gibbie had told Dean he had wolfsbane extract that could be administered as an antidote for the bites, counteracting the Lycanthropy virus that caused the change from human to were-form.
It only took a few minutes to gather the gear they would need. Dean learned that the other on-duty guard was waiting for them on the stairwell landing outside the fourth floor. The first guard had to remain here by the front desk and doors.
Dean and team went into the stairwell and started up to the fourth floor. By the time they got halfway there, Gibbie was out of breath, or whatever a vampire ran out of when he got tired. He was sweating and muttering quiet complaints by the time they arrived at the landing where the other guard awaited them.
The guard shook Dean’s hand with enthusiasm. “I’m sure glad you all are here. I don’t know what to do. I can hear the - the whatever it is - prowling on the other side of the door. Sometimes I can hear it snuffling at the door like it’s smelling me.”
“Well we are here now. We’ll take it from here,” Dean said. “My team and I need to get set up. Your partner said he might need your help downstairs if you don’t want to be here when we open the door.”
The guard seemed relieved. “Yeah, that might be a good idea. I should go down and help him out.”
Dean waited until the guard was out of sight around the bend in the stairwell before he turned to the rest of the team and began to lay out his plan in whispered tones.
“Marian,” Dean asked the teen werewolf. “How aware is this guy likely to be? Can we talk to him in his Lycan form?”
She shook her head. “If this is his first shift to animal form, he won’t be able to control himself. I might be able to shift and get him to listen to me. It’s all about seniority in the pack and I’ve been in the pack longer but it’s not a sure thing since this one’s not officially a pack member yet.”
“Okay, you try and get control and I’ll be right behind you, then Gibbie and then Jo.”
“I should go in second, Dad,” Jo spoke up.
“No, absolutely not.”
“I’m the only one here who is armed and has the firepower to put this creature down if that is the only other option. Plus, I have that spell I’d like to try if Marian’s idea doesn’t work. I think I can create a local time-shift around them that will cause a shift back to human form.”
Dean thought about it. He knew she was right but he felt like he was supposed to protect her from risks. Wasn’t that what a parent does?
“Dean, I can go in second, right behind Marian. My vampire strength and speed should be enough, at least for a little while, to hold the creature off if it attacks any of us. Its bite can’t affect me or Marian. You and Jo can go in last.”
Gibbie had a point, too. “Okay, Marian and Gibbie, then Jo and I’ll bring up the rear. Marian, do you need time to prepare or anything?”
The pink-haired teen shook her head.
“Alright, then let’s open the door and see what we can see.” Dean nodded to the door on the far side of the landing. The team got in the correct order and Dean watched in amazement as Marian partially shifted to her wolf form. Her face elongated into a wolf-like shape and fur sprouted from her head and arms. He noted the talons on the ends of her fingers and the stripe of bright pink on the top of her head amidst the brown wolf hair there.
Marian tried to grasp the door knob but her talons got in the way. Her wolf hand could not operate the mechanism properly and she whined in frustration and turned to look back at them. Gibbie smiled and reached around her, turning the knob and pulling open the door. She darted through and the vampire followed her, with Jo and Dean close behind.
They were in a normal office hallway. It was L-shaped with them at the top and the hall turned the corner to the left about twenty yards away. That would be where the elevators were and the entrance to the bank’s call center, where all the hostages were holed up. The quartet of responders started forward towards the bend in the hall ahead of them.
They stopped when they heard snarls of rage and some muffled cries of fear from around the corner. Marian peeked around the corner and pulled back looking over her shoulder and nodded. Then she stood up and stepped out into the corridor and growled down the hall in the direction of the snarls and human cries.
The snarling stopped for a moment, shifting to growling in return. It sounded like it was getting closer. Marian increased the intensity of her growls and Dean watched as she stood up straight and tall, stretching up on her tip toes. She must be trying to assert her dominance on the other Lycan.
Dean looked at Gibbie and Jo in front of him. The vampire was standing on the balls of his feet, ready to leap forward if needed. Jo had drawn her pistol from the shoulder holster rig under her jeans jacket, holding it in one hand, the other, empty hand outstretched towards her friend and the turn in the hallway.
The snarling of the other Lycan got closer and closer until they finally saw him. It was vaguely man-shaped. It was still wearing the shredded remains of men’s khaki pants and a dress shirt. Other than that, it was fully changed into a werewolf. Gibbie tensed as it walked into view. The creature turned to look in their direction with yellow-irised eyes. A low growl began as it saw fresh prey.
Marian let out a ripping snarl and tried to draw attention back to herself, but this werewolf was too far gone for the teen to command it to stop. She leapt forward and tried to knock it back away from her friends. A single back-handed blow from the larger werewolf knocked her back against the wall. Gibbie jumped towards the creature but Jo shouted “Stop” and she threw herself forward, her open hand beginning to glow.
Dean wanted to cry out and halt her forward motion, but it was as if time stood still for a moment. He couldn’t move. She stopped in front of the snarling creature as it loomed above her and she said one word as she slapped the werewolf on the chest.
“Tempos.”
The wolf had started to swing back a taloned hand to strike her when she struck him with the spell, and Dean was sure she would be killed or at least injured by the attack. Then, there was a nimbus of golden light that outlined the form of the werewolf. It froze in place and then seemed to fold in on itself, falling to the ground.
When Dean looked to the floor, there was a man in tattered, shredded clothing lying there. He didn’t move and seemed to be unconscious.
“Huh, it worked,” Jo said, looking at her hand.
“What?! You weren’t sure it would work?” Dean asked rushing forward.
“Jeeze, Dad. It’s not like this is something they teach in witch school. I figured the theory was sound. I just had to try it out.”
“Try it out?” Dean was furious. What if the spell had not worked? Even Gibbie’s enhanced speed wouldn’t have kept her from getting hurt. “We are going to have a long talk when we get home young lady. That is not how this team works.”
“Dad, it’s fine. See? It worked.” She pointed to the man lying on the floor.
&nbs
p; “Now is not the time, Joanna. Later, we will talk and I think we should include your mother in the discussion.”
“Wow, Jo, you’re in trouble now,” Marian joked. She had shifted back to human form and was getting up from where the werewolf had knocked her down. “The double the parent, double the fun treatment is classic parent-speak for you’re up shit creek.”
“Marian,” Dean said. “I’ll ask you to stay out of this and also watch your language. Otherwise, I’ll have a word with your father and make other arrangements for the CERT team.”
The teen werewolf, closed her mouth and looked at her friend with a shrug. Joanna just gave her a grim smile and then shot Dean an angry glance.
He was not an expert on teens in any respect. He had only been a father for a little more than a month now. That look, however, told him that he was in for a fight over this when they got home. He thought he was the one who was angry, but now he was sure she was just as angry at him because she had been embarrassed.
Gibbie broke the tension. “I hate to bust up this family conversation, but we’ve got untreated patients to take care of at the end of this hallway. Maybe we should focus on them?”
Dean shook himself and reassessed the current situation. He had to take care of the former hostages and he also had to get this werewolf somewhere he couldn’t hurt anyone else.
“Okay,” Dean ordered as he settled on the plan from here on out. “Gibbie, you get the bags and come with me to see to the injured. Marian and Jo, stay here and keep an eye on our friend here. See if you can find a room where you can get him out of sight so we can get the people in the call center downstairs without seeing anything.”
The girls nodded and Gibbie picked up the trauma bag and med kit. It was time to treat the injured and clean up this mess.
Chapter 17