The Cannibal Cure

by Jeff D Ellis

  Kat was silent for a moment. “I am like her, but I don’t want to be part of that world. I want something more from life than giving into my hunger and being controlled by Greta.”

  Abby took Kat’s other hand. “I know exactly what you must have been going through. I only wish I knew before how alike we were.”

  “Thanks, Abby. I hope we can still be like sisters.”

  Abby squeezed her hand. “Kat, we are.”

  Kat let go of both their hands and folded hers in her lap. She looked down for a moment, and then looked sharply at both of them. “That woman is the head of the Vampire Clan and I don’t want any part of it, but she keeps trying to pull me back in.”

  David drew Kat’s eyes to his. He lowered his voice into gentle tones. “You don’t have anything to worry about from us. I’m happy this is all out in the open between us, and we can grow closer with no secrets. I know it’s not polite to ask a woman her age, but are you as young as you look?”

  Kat smiled. “It's not polite, but I can understand why you’d want to know. I’m not much older than you are. I think part of the reason the Clan lets me get away with being under their thumb is they still consider me to be a child, and they expect me to come back to the fold when I grow up.”

  Kat looked over at Abby. “I can tell you two are really deeply in love. It's not something I can ever know. Love is forbidden to Clan members.”

  Abby looked at David, and then reached out to grab Kat’s hand again and nodded. They knew. Kat was warmed by their empathy, but she withdrew her hand and looked down again. She felt a little ashamed of her envy.

  Abby changed the subject. “Remember I told you about Grandfather? I’ve been finding out so much about myself from him. I have both Human and Veiled ancestors and it gives me some ability with magic. Grandfather is teaching me magic!”

  “Your tribal Shaman, right?”

  “Right! He was teaching me about all of this Veiled stuff when I started going out with David. He knew what David was before David knew himself. This is so new to both of us. I always thought I was treated differently being Native American. You were the only one who treated me like I belonged back in college.”

  Kat loved Abby’s warm honesty. She smiled and touched her arm. The server brought more chips and took their food orders.

  David reached for a chip. “I think we’ve talked enough about this for now. We can talk more about how special we are later, some place private. I hate looking over my shoulder checking to make sure no one heard any of this.”

  Kat smiled. “Yes, let’s see how special we are later.”

  Abby grinned. “Maybe we should move on to wedding planning!”

  Kat smiled a little uncertainly. “I’ve never been maid of honor before. I’ve never even been part of any bridal party.”

  David tuned the conversation out as Abby and Kat talked about wedding plans and how much Abby appreciated Kat being her maid of honor. After dinner, they still hadn’t heard anything back from the office, so Abby suggested they all go back to their place to talk more.

  Talk of the wedding was hard for David to hear. It was all he could do to keep a smile on his face and pretend everything was fine.

  ***

  David was quiet on the ride back. The girls had been talking excitedly about the future, but he didn’t know if he would be part of it. It was making him feel sick.

  When Abby pulled up to the house, she lowered the rear window for Ember to take a flight around the house to make sure things were still secure. After their home had been broken into by necromancers, using protection spells and scouting had become part of their daily process. When things were clear, Abby parked the SUV in the garage. She held the door open for Ember to fly in.

  They were met inside by Flower. “Welcome home, Protectors! Flower has everything clean for you. You get more cereal for Flower. Almost gone.”

  The doorbell rang. “It's okay, Flower, we’ll get you more of your favorite cereal soon. Please get the door. It's our friend, Kat.”

  Flower went to the door and opened it for Kat. “Protector, the fire-head woman! You let her come here? I thought Abby your mate?”

  Abby walked over to the front door. “Welcome to our crazy home, Kat. This is Flower. She is one of the Dogwood people that live in the forest near here. She’s our housekeeper.”

  Kat bent down and offered her hand to Flower. “It’s nice to meet you, Flower.”

  Flower turned and ran off deeper into the house.

  Kat shook her head and stood. “Was it something I said?”

  Abby laughed. “It's okay, Kat, the Little People are a bit bashful. Why don’t you come in and take a seat in the living room? Can I get you anything?”

  Kat took a seat on the couch in the living room. “I’ll take a glass of wine if you have something open. This looks like the couch from your condo. Didn’t David have any furniture?”

  David sat across from Kat. “I’m hopeless when it comes to decorating. I liked what Abby did in the condo and let her do what she wanted here. You’ll see her touch throughout the house. Some things we moved and some she added.”

  Abby brought in a tray with a bottle of red wine and two glasses. Since David didn’t care for wine, she brought him a soda. David poured the wine for the girls.

  Kat took a sip. “Nice wine. How did you end up with one of the Little People as a housekeeper and how did she know me?”

  David grabbed his soda. “The Dogwood people used to live in a mine up the hill from here. It had been taken over by a necromancer who abducted Abby. After I rescued Abby, the leader of the Dogwood People, named Root, was so happy for the help that he sent his sister here to help with the house. He said it would give us more time to protect The People. Don’t tell anybody, but I think he also did it to spy on us. They know a lot about everybody.”

  “Abby, you never told me! I had no idea you were in danger.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but I’ve been so busy between learning new jobs, fighting monsters, and getting engaged, it never came up.”

  “David, why did Flower think I was a mate?”

  “Right, sorry. The necromancer killed my parents when I was young. My father was also a Shapeshifter, but much more experienced than I am. Root thought the necromancer would kill me as well and there would be no one to protect The People. So, he told me I should forget about Abby and take the fire-headed woman as a mate instead. Seems he was talking about you.”

  Abby laughed. “You never told me that!”

  “After almost getting us both killed, Root’s comments slipped my mind. I was focused on you and saving us from Tebbs.”

  Kat took a big sip. “Strange, I wonder how they knew about me. They must have seen me when Abby and I met for dinner in Issaquah. I wonder if they knew what we were talking about.”

  “I bet they did. Not much happens that they don’t know about.”

  “I can see why Abby loves you so much. If you really are a Shapeshifter, I can understand why she said you were able to keep up with her physically.”

  “If I really am a Shapeshifter? Is that a request for a demonstration?”

  Kat looked David directly in the eye. “Yes. Impress me, Shapeshifter.”

  David smirked and nothing happened. He tried again and this time the change happened.

  Kat gasped. David had become Abby’s twin. Kat got up from the couch to take a closer look. “Amazing! You can turn into other people? I thought you were talking becoming a wolf or something.”

  Abby laughed. “David, show her something else.”

  David tried again and after a moment took Jaguar form. Kat stumbled back and fell down. David pinned her down with his big paws and sniffed her face. Kat’s eyes got wide. After licking her face, he backed off. He nuzzled her with his head like a house cat wanting to be petted.

  Kat recovered and laughed. She hugged David around the neck. “I can see why Abby keeps you. Hey, if you wanted to lick me, you just had to as
k.”

  David shifted back to his normal form. Kat’s arms were still around his neck. Kat planted a big kiss on his lips. “Thank you for sharing. Maybe I can do some sharing of my own with you and Abby.”

  Abby looked over at the two of them. “Down, boy. I’m still not convinced you can handle the both of us or even Kat by herself.”

  Kat looked over at Abby. “Please let him try. Before I was just playing, but I have never met anybody like David and want to have a deeper connection with both of you. This time, you know I can’t steal him away from you, even if I wanted to.”

  David tilted his head. “You two had a threesome together?”

  “We can talk about this later. I don’t think this is the right time for this. I’m not saying no, just saying not tonight.”

  David returned to his seat. “I’m good with that. Seeing Ms. Prescott’s dead body today was gruesome.”

  Kat took her seat on the couch and shook her head. “What? Did you just say Councilmember Cora Prescott is dead? I saw her yesterday at work.”

  “Interesting! We’re trying to retrace her steps for yesterday. You can’t tell anybody about this. We think a Windigo is involved, and the public can’t know that. She was cooked, eaten, and her internal organs are missing. It was a shock to see.”

  Kat gasped and pulled out her phone and checked her schedule. “I left about five-thirty last night and she was coming in to see my boss, Dr. Thorn. She comes by the office every couple of months. I think he also goes to see her sometimes. I was told it was related to her supporting our research. You don’t think Dr. Thorn has anything to do with this, do you?”

  “We don’t know what to think. We want to talk with whoever saw her that day. What does your company research?”

  “We do research on cancer, AIDS, and anti-aging. We also take on projects from other companies.”

  David pulled out his phone and sent a message to Hammer filling him in on the new information. David also sent the information to Jeff to make sure it was part of his research. “Thanks for the information, Kat.”

  “The Clan reached out to me this afternoon saying we should all be careful. Is what happened related to that?”

  “The body was found in the Underground, not far from a secret entrance to The Second Circle. Greta seemed shocked but admitted that the victim was a VIP there. Please don’t say anything about this to anybody. As far as the public knows, she’s missing, not dead, and I expect it to get covered up somehow.”

  “On one condition. What exactly are you and Abby doing? You went from video game development to consulting or something?”

  David showed Kat his badge. “I’m sorry for not telling you about our new jobs. Abby and I are Deputy U.S. Marshals, and our job is to basically police the Veiled. The Marshals service has been doing this since the 1800s and keeping it a secret from the general public. They chose us since we have some Veiled ancestry which gives us some protections and abilities that normal Humans don’t have. We are working this case because the nature of this death suggests a supernatural creature is involved.”

  “You’re Marshals?”

  “Don’t worry! As long as you aren't killing people or trying to expose the Veiled, everything is cool. Today I found out my parents knew about The Second Circle. As long as they aren’t feeding on people to death, it doesn’t seem to matter.”

  “What about people that hurt us?”

  “Abby and I care about both. If someone was hunting Vampires, we would stop them, like we helped get justice for dead hikers, my parents, abducted women, and the Dogwood People. Only the hikers were Human. That was the first case we worked. We’ve only been doing this a short time. We still have a lot to learn.”

  Abby grabbed her hand and looked into her eyes. “Are we good, Kat?”

  “Abby, we’re good. All I’ve ever heard about the Marshals is that you guys come and make Veiled disappear if we do anything wrong at all.”

  “I hope you can understand we aren’t bad, and only get involved if something threatens lives or exposure.”

  “I understand, but it’s hard to get used to the idea that my best friend works for the group used to scare us into line. Abby, I trust you.” Kat gathered Abby into a big hug.

  Abby pushed her away and grabbed the wine. “Enough of this serious stuff! Let’s talk more about my wedding!”

  David stood. “I think that’s my cue to find something else to do.”

  He headed back to his home office to surf the web. He was feeling a little down and couldn’t help listening in on what Abby and Kat were saying about him.

  “Kat, we need to talk about David.”

  “Hey, if it’s the sex talk, I would be happy to stop. You know me. I’m just having fun.”

  “It’s not that. David got hurt by a Windigo a couple of days ago.”

  Kat gasped. “He’s changing into a Windigo, is he?”

  “No, but it’s already affecting his abilities. He wants to act like nothing has happened and I’m worried.”

  “I can see why. Can Grandfather help?”

  “There is nothing we can do. It’s all up to David at this point. His body is fighting an infection, and if it goes on long enough, after he loses all of his Veiled abilities, he’ll start losing his normal functions and die. I’m so worried.”

  Kat grabbed her for another big hug and rubbed Abby’s back. She took a long moment, and then had to ask, “Are you sure you still want to marry him?”

  “He risked everything to save me. I love him.”

  “Even if he’s seriously hurt? Do you want to spend the rest of your life taking care of an invalid?”

  “He would do it for me.”

  “That may be true, but this is you we’re talking about.”

  Abby stood up and gathered the glasses to take to the kitchen. “I’m sorry I brought it up.”

  Kat followed Abby into the kitchen.

  Things were worse than he thought. The last thing he wanted was to force Abby to waste her life away looking after him. He couldn’t do that to her. He could tell his body was fighting the infection but at best was only slowing it down.

  He needed to protect Abby and this time it was from him. He needed to beat this and fast.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Start of a new day

  THE NEXT MORNING on the drive to work, David grabbed Abby’s hand. “Abby, I was thinking maybe we should slow down the wedding plans. We should give you time to have everything perfect the way you would want it.”

  “Are you sure? You know it’s not going to make a difference. I’m marrying you no matter what.”

  The rest of the ride into the office was too quiet for David’s comfort.

  Gwen brought in coffee and donuts for the meeting.

  David grabbed an old-fashioned donut and took a seat. “Thanks, Gwen! I hope the Marshals are paying for this.”

  Gwen grabbed her coffee. “Driving through Top Pot on the way here was no big deal; I love their donuts.”

  Abby grabbed a cake donut. “I love a good donut, but don’t love the workout to burn it off.”

  Hammer took a sip of coffee. “Sorry to disappoint everybody, but real cops don’t like donuts. This is good coffee though. Thanks.”

  Jeff and Perry took seats at the conference table.

  David took a sip of coffee and started the meeting. “We should get started. Detective Hammer, did the SPD find her car or come up with anything new?”

  “Still no word on the car. I did get an address on the missing assistant, Tracy Keen. We can interview her today.”

  “Jeff, did you have a chance to go through her computers, look into Thorn Technologies, or trace the bugs?”

  Jeff put down his coffee. “I’m still working on the computers. The home computer had been wiped clean, and suggests that someone did clean her house to hide evidence. The office computer requires special care. To be safe I have to work off a cloned drive on an air gapped system. It’s the only way to manage the risk of s
pyware or viruses getting on our network. A consultant we’ve used before, Clark, thinks the spyware I found might be connected to the Russian mob. The video from the hidden camera had nothing on it except us entering the room. Someone must have changed the memory card before we got there.”

  Abby wiped donut crumbs from her lips. “When we were in her office, one of her staff spoke Russian. She didn’t seem to know that Prescott was dead. She said in Russian that she hoped she was dead for making their life hell.”

  Hammer grabbed a donut when he thought no one was looking. “I’ll check with the organized crime unit to see about any Russian mob working in Seattle.”

  David nodded. “Anything else, Jeff?”

  “That’s all for now. I’ll let everybody know when I find more.”

  “Okay. Gwen, do you have anything about the pro-choice or anti-GMO people that might be suspects?”

  Gwen took a sip of coffee. “Perry and I are still researching to see if anybody in those protest groups has a record or is known Veiled. We will let you know if anything turns up.”

  “It seems like we have Tracy Keen and Otis Thorn to interview today along with any names that come up in the research. Perry, can you do some research on Thorn Technologies? It would be good to find a link to Prescott. Thanks, everybody.”

  Jeff grabbed an extra donut. “Abby and David, meet me in the lab before heading out.”

  “Hammer, why don’t you wait here, and we’ll be right back.”

  David and Abby followed Jeff back to his lab.

  “Jeff, what do you have for us?”

  “Just a moment …” Jeff opened a safe and pulled out some guns and set them on the table. He added holsters, ammo, and a range bag as well. “These are some new weapons for you to try out. The pistol and the rifles take the same ammunition. The secret service use these so they should be good for you. Not the most stopping power, but you’ll be able to carry more rounds.”