Beast

by Kate Harre

  ‘Busted,’ he murmured. He tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, his fingers lingering to trace around the lobe and along her jaw line. ‘You should get that… before we forget we’re standing in the kitchen where anyone can walk in.’

  Annie nodded dumbly, still trying to gather her senses. Pulling her phone out, she glanced at the screen. It was Chelsea.

  ‘Help me, Annie,’ Chelsea whispered frantically, her voice fearful and on the edge of hysteria. ‘Adrian was waiting… at my house… in the… the garage! He dragged me to the forest and he’s… h-he’s not normal!’

  Her heart pounding, Annie’s eyes flew to Alex’s. He tensed, reading the expression on her face, and hurriedly began re-buttoning his shirt. ‘Where are you?’

  ‘The lake. I’ve got t-to go. He’s coming b-back.’ The phone disconnected.

  ‘Adrian’s got Chelsea at the lake in the woods,’ she said calmly. And then her face screwed up and panic set in. ‘Alex, I don’t even know where that is!’

  ‘I do.’ His expression grim, Alex strode quickly towards the utility room off the kitchen. He returned with a baseball bat. ‘Call the Sherriff and tell her what’s happening. I’ll go after Chelsea.’

  In the act of dialling 911, Annie’s head snapped up. ‘No way. I’m coming with you.’

  Alex shook his head, already moving towards the door. ‘The last time you went into the forest you almost died. I’m not living through that again.’

  Annie followed him into the foyer, her expression fierce. ‘Do you honestly think I could just sit here waiting? Not knowing what was happening, whether you had been hurt or killed, whether Chelsea was still alive? I can’t do it Alex. It would do my head in!’

  Jake rushed into the foyer, drawn by Annie’s raised voice. He looked at them both, took in the baseball bat in Alex’s hand and the determination on his face. ‘What’s going on?’

  Annie spun towards Jake. ‘Adrian has Chelsea in the forest, and Alex,’ she gestured wildly in his direction, ‘thinks he’s going to go off alone and face him while I sit here and practice origami.’

  Jake paled and drew out his phone, punching in numbers furiously. He put the phone to his ear and spoke to Alex while he waited for it to be answered. ‘I’m going with you and…’ His attention was drawn by the person on the other end, but his stare remained fixed on Alex, willing him to wait. ‘Sherriff, it’s Jake Archer.’

  While Jake curtly filled in the Sherriff, Annie turned to Alex. ‘If you try to make me stay, I’ll only follow as soon as you’re gone. Isn’t it better to just let me come?’

  Frustration tightened Alex’s face. ‘Annie, I…’

  ‘I’ll be careful,’ she interrupted. ‘I promise I won’t do anything rash.’

  ‘Let’s go,’ Jake said, wrenching open the front door. ‘The Sherriff’s on her way, but we’re closer.’ He glanced at Annie who had raced through the door ahead of him and then looked at Alex pityingly. Grabbing an ornamental wooden walking stick out of the coat rack, he cracked it over his leg, snapping it into two jagged pieces, one of which he gave to Annie. ‘I take it you lost the battle.’

  ‘When do I ever win?’ Alex growled in irritation.

  Jake laughed without humour and clapped Alex on the shoulder in shared sympathy. ‘She’s painfully stubborn, always has been.’ Then his gaze narrowed on his daughter. ‘You stay behind us and if either of us tell you to run, you run. Because if you don’t, I swear I won’t be responsible for my actions. Got it?’

  Annie nodded. It was selfish of her to want to go. She knew it would mean both men would be worrying about her when they should be concentrating on their own safety. But she needed to watch over them. Besides, it wasn’t in her nature to do nothing while her friend was in danger. If Alex wanted to be in her life he’d have to get used to that.

  They raced through the woods, not bothering to mask their passage. If Adrian was in wolf form, they wouldn’t have a chance of arriving undetected anyway. Annie was grateful for the hours of exercise Alex had put her through, as he set a punishing pace, his long legs devouring the miles. She developed a stitch in her side within minutes, but pushed through it, knowing time wasn’t on their side. Unfamiliar parts of the forest flashed past her and she had the inane thought that once this was all over she’d have to come back and explore the woods properly, enjoy its beauty rather than fear the creature it sheltered.

  Chapter 17

  The minutes seem so slow when you’re fearing for someone’s life. Even though she was running as fast as she could push her body, it still seemed to Annie like everything was passing her by in slow motion, taunting her progress. But at last they broke through the trees into a small clearing beside a lake. In the near darkness the water looked like black ink, lapping against the stony beach.

  At the far side of the clearing, Adrian loomed over Chelsea’s cowering form, his back to the forest. Alex skidded to a halt on the fine gravel, followed closely by Jake and Annie. Still in human form Adrian, spun fluidly to face them, his body mostly blocking Chelsea from view. His eyes flickered in surprised recognition at the sight of Jake, but he quickly masked the typical teenage reaction, his lip twisting into a sneer when his gaze settled on Annie.

  ‘So you survived.’ His eyes shot to Alex and he muttered sullenly, ‘No doubt due to the heroic antics of you, her horrifying boyfriend.’

  Again, he spoke to Annie, his tone a blend of anger and bewilderment. ‘Why is it you can see beyond the ugliness but Chelsea can’t even get past an ordinary face? I don’t understand why you’re friends with her – you’ve got depth and she’s merely a shallow spill of water.’

  ‘She’s not!’ Annie started to move forward, only to find her way blocked by two unyielding arms, one Alex’s, the other Jake’s. They both glared at her, which under other circumstances would have been funny. She stood still to appease them but kept her gaze trained on Adrian. ‘Why are you doing this, Adrian? You care about Chelsea.’

  His face clenched with angry pain. ‘And what did that ever get me? She barely even registered my existence.’

  ‘That’s not true,’ Chelsea whispered weakly from behind Adrian. ‘I just didn’t have the guts to tell you how I felt.’

  ‘Shut up!’ Adrian shouted over his shoulder, his hands clenched into fists. ‘After the way I suffered pining for you while you flirted with every other guy in school, it gives me pleasure to see you terrified. You’re not so dismissive now!’

  ‘This isn’t you, Adrian,’ Annie pleaded, drawing his attention back to her. ‘You’re better than this.’

  Adrian snorted. ‘My cousin is the one the girls always wanted, never me. Do you know what years of rejection and repeatedly having your self-worth pummelled does? It turns into bitterness and eventually anger and hatred. It’s all been festering inside me for so long, eating away at my insides and then, not so long ago, I found a way to let it out.’

  ‘The wolf,’ Alex murmured.

  ‘And now it’s me who’s got all the power.’ His fists unclenched and his fingers had turned into claws, long and deadly. His eyes bored into Alex’s. ‘Want to fight me again, pretty boy?’

  Annie’s stomach twisted. If she could somehow stall Adrian, keep him talking for a bit longer, Sherriff Denton and her Deputies might arrive before anyone got hurt. ‘Wait! Why the other two girls? What had they done to you?’

  ‘Nothing.’ Adrian shrugged. ‘When Brad got bored with whatever girl he was screwing he’d get me to take them home. Well, that was his usual modus operandi, but…’

  ‘So you were at the party. I should have thought of that,’ Alex murmured, more to himself than Adrian. But Adrian’s wolfy hearing picked it up anyway.

  ‘Actually, I wasn’t. Not really, anyway. I was hanging around outside in my car, waiting to drive Brad home when he was done partying. That’s his idea of spending quality time together!’ he scoffed bitterly.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Annie saw Jake slowly beginning to creep towards Ch
elsea. She kept her eyes trained on Adrian, not by a flicker of an eyelash indicating she’d seen anything out of the ordinary and focused on keeping him talking.

  ‘Did he ask you to take Danielle home?’ Annie asked curiously. Because if he did, he must have known all along Adrian killed her.

  Adrian grunted scornfully. ‘Are you kidding me? He was too wrapped up in himself that night to spare a thought for her. I saw Danielle come out of the house all upset and offered her a lift.’ His lip curled. ‘I shouldn’t have made the offer though, because I was seriously tired of being his lap dog, having to listen to their heartbroken sobs as they wondered what they’d done wrong. Danielle was so pathetic. She kept whining about how she couldn’t live without Brad. So I decided to help her out.’

  Annie swallowed down her disgust. There was no sign of the boy she’d come to know over the last few months. This Adrian was consumed by hatred. It was doubtful there was any way she could get through to him.

  ‘Was it all research for your book?’ she blurted desperately, trying to keep him distracted from Jake’s slow progress towards Chelsea.

  ‘No.’ He smiled maliciously. ‘That was just an added bonus. I was looking forward to you reading it and seeing if you made the connection. How did you figure out it was me?’

  Annie was about to answer when the snap of a tiny branch under Jake’s foot sent Adrian’s head spinning in his direction. Taking an aggressive step forward, he snarled, his shoulders quivering violently. He was about to change, Annie realised, her heart starting to pound. Alex, realising the same thing, thrust her behind him. She had to take a couple of deep breaths to calm herself, her last encounter with Adrian’s wolf form all too fresh in her mind. The experience of almost dying hadn’t yet faded from her memory… neither had the feel of his claws ripping through her flesh.

  With Adrian moving slightly, Annie got her first good look at Chelsea. Her hands were tied behind her back, there was a gash on her forehead and she was convulsively shaking. But otherwise she was in pretty good shape. Her eyes flashed first to Annie and then on to Alex standing so protectively in front of Annie. Even in the dim, fading light Chelsea could see his disfigurement and she recoiled against the tree behind her, her mouth opening in a silent scream of horror.

  Disappointed in her friend’s reaction, but not surprised, Annie glanced up at Alex hoping he hadn’t noticed. His gaze was locked on Adrian and she relaxed slightly… until he began moving forward, stepping carefully closer to Adrian.

  ‘Easy, Adrian,’ he murmured soothingly, hoping to prevent the beast from taking over.

  Jake had frozen in place, warily watching Adrian. As Alex slowly approached from behind their eyes met and some kind of silent communication passed between them. Alex took one more slow step forward and then nodded ever so slightly. Both men sprang forward, tackling Adrian to the ground in perfect synchronisation.

  Seizing the opportunity to move while everyone was distracted, Annie raced across the beach and dropped to her knees beside Chelsea, casting aside her piece of walking stick. Getting to work on the knots binding her wrists, she noticed Chelsea’s phone clutched in one of her hands. Annie didn’t know how she’d managed it, but somehow Chelsea had twisted her hands around enough to retrieve her phone from her pocket so she could ring for help. If she hadn’t managed to do that, Annie had no doubt Chelsea would have been the third body found in the woods.

  ‘It’s going to be okay,’ she whispered, as she managed to loosen the first knot.

  ‘I think he’s gone insane,’ Chelsea whimpered.

  Working her fingers between the strands of rope, Annie felt the last knot start to give. ‘Probably. The Sherriff’s on her way – we only need to keep him distracted for a bit longer.’

  Chelsea nodded and as the rope finally gave way, she brought her hands around to the front with a wince and started rubbing her raw wrists. Curling her arm around Chelsea, Annie pulled her against her side.

  The three men were rolling around the beach, Jake and Alex trying to subdue Adrian but struggling against his supernatural strength and vicious claws. Annie swallowed back a cry of distress when one of those claws swiped across Jake’s back, drawing blood. He grunted, but didn’t release his hold on Adrian.

  Chelsea, too, was absorbed in the action, her body tight with tension. ‘That guy,’ she whispered with a nod at Alex, ‘he’s the one you’ve been texting? Your self-defence teacher?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Swallowing down her revulsion, she looked intently at Annie, her gaze faintly accusing. ‘He’s your boyfriend?’

  Annie nodded. ‘As of a few days ago.’ She looked away. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. You would have wanted to meet him but I couldn’t subject him to the pain of your reaction.’

  Biting her lip, Chelsea’s face cleared. ‘I deserved that and I’m sorry. It was the shock.’

  ‘I know.’ She watched as Alex forced one of Adrian’s arms above his head, pinning it to the ground.

  ‘He looks kind of familiar.’ Chelsea stared intently at Alex. ‘But – no offence – I’d remember that face. Who is he?’

  Annie sighed in resignation. She’d been waiting for this moment, knowing Chelsea’s curiosity made it inevitable. ‘You went to…’ Her voice trailed off, her attention diverted by the fight on the beach. In a burst of rage, Adrian had twisted out of Jake’s hold and launched himself off the ground, ripping free of Alex as he transformed in mid-air into the violent, snarling wolf.

  ‘Oh no…’ Annie whispered, her voice drowned out by Chelsea’s terrified scream. The one part of her mind that wasn’t busy processing the deteriorating situation considered making a facetious comment to Chelsea about how Alex didn’t look nearly so bad now in the face of Adrian’s red-eyed, fang filled maw. That small part of her mind was fortunately outvoted though, because somehow it didn’t seem appropriate when her father and the love of her life were in such danger.

  Adrian spun lithely, his enraged eyes fixed on Alex, who he deemed the greater threat. Scrabbling to his feet, Jake took a swing at the wolf with his jagged stick, momentarily deflecting Adrian’s attention and giving Alex time to spring upright. Adrian howled and swung one powerful foreleg, sweeping Jake from his feet and sending him flying into a tree. There was a sickening crunch as Jake slumped, unconscious, to the ground.

  ‘No!’ Annie screamed, crawling forward and frantically reaching for her own inadequate weapon. The gravel dug painfully into her hands and knees, but she barely noticed.

  Without taking his eyes off the wolf, Alex thrust one hand behind him in a staying gesture. ‘Keep out of this, Annie!’

  Gnashing her teeth in frustration, Annie turned back to Chelsea. ‘You need to get out of here.’ Her hands cupped Chelsea’s shoulders as she looked into her scared eyes. ‘Go back into the trees and run until you meet up with the Sherriff. She has to be close by now.’

  ‘What about you?’ Frightened tears were streaming down Chelsea’s face, but she stubbornly refused to move when Annie pushed her in the direction of the trees. ‘I’m not leaving without you!’

  ‘I’d go with you but I can’t leave them behind.’ She gestured towards Jake and Alex. ‘Please, Chelsea, if you’re safe, you’re one less person I have to worry about. And we really need to find the Sherriff.’ Annie pleaded desperately. Every moment she spent trying to convince Chelsea to go, was another moment she wasn’t helping Jake.

  ‘I’ll take her,’ a quiet voice said from behind them. Spinning on her knees, Annie was surprised to come face to face with Sydney, who was stepping out of the trees onto the beach.

  Her shoulders slumped in relief. ‘Sydney! Man, am I glad to see you. Can’t you...?’ She wiggled her fingers suggestively.

  Sydney’s lips twitched in a faint smile, but her eyes were serious. ‘I’m forbidden from directly interfering.’

  Disappointed, Annie’s face dropped. ‘I understand. If you could take Chelsea to the Sherriff, that would be great.’

  Nod
ding, Sydney pressed something cold and smooth into Annie’s hand. She glanced down. It was a small vial, filled with a sludge brown liquid – one of Sydney’s potions. She looked up, her eyes wide. ‘What does it do?’

  In her peripheral vision she could see Alex twisting and turning, ducking and diving around Adrian in a graceful dance of avoidance as he waited for an opening to take him down. Adrian, increasingly frustrated, was taking wild swings at him, trying to draw blood.

  ‘It will wrench the beast from the boy, killing the beast while the boy still lives – hopefully.’ Sydney hesitated. ‘I haven’t used it before, so I can’t guarantee it will work.’

  ‘It’s worth a shot,’ Annie said gratefully. Without his wolf form to call upon, Adrian was relatively harmless. Alex should be able to subdue him without any trouble.

  Handing Chelsea a tissue, Sydney gently herded her towards the trees. Chelsea reached out and her fingers trailed across Annie’s in a silent gesture of thanks.

  As soon as they were out of sight, Annie turned back towards the beach. Alex had drawn Adrian closer to the water, a risky move but it meant if Annie stayed close to the tree line she’d be able to get to Jake. She crept quietly, choosing with care where to place her feet, her head swinging backwards and forwards as she constantly checked on Alex. He was holding his own, but she wasn’t sure how much longer he could last before exhaustion made him clumsy. Everything depended on Sherriff Denton arriving soon.

  After what felt like an eternity, she crouched down beside Jake. Her fingers fumbled around his neck, finally finding a strong and steady pulse. Rolling him into the recovery position, she tugged his t-shirt up and inspected the gash on his back. It had clotted and, aside from needing a clean, it looked alright. He was still unconscious, but she relaxed slightly.

  A furious roar snapped her head around to meet Adrian’s blood red eyes. Seeing her beside her father, his gaze flew to where Chelsea had been tied and when he discovered she was gone he focused again on Annie. His black lips peeled back from his fangs in a malevolent smile as he bounded forward, his intent clear.