Inhuman Heritage

by Sonnet O'Dell

  “I would never have imagined you as a fang-banger.”

  “I’m not but you should always try something at least once just to say you did.”

  He smiled at me. He wasn’t an unattractive man but he had a large trio of scars up his neck, which meant they had to be pre-turning. It must have been from his attack, it had to be horrible to have a reminder like that.

  “You must like it rough if you went for a deader. Ever gone with a wolf?”

  “Not had that pleasure yet,” I said returning his smile. DJ looked at me with horror on his face, he had realized I was flirting and was disgusted. I gave him a sharp look from the corner of my eye that told him to keep quiet and just let me do what I was doing.

  He turned his head to look in the other direction. He was strangely possessive for a guy I wasn’t even dating or planning to date.

  I had enough of possessive men with Magnus, he’d been stupidly possessive. I turned my attention back to our guard who was running his eyes up and down my body like he was undressing me. I flexed my back and stuck my chest out. He looked at my breasts like he couldn’t help himself. The movement had drawn his eyes like a moth to a flame. He put his beer down on the floor next to the leg of his chair and leaned forward in his chair, it looked like he was very uncomfortable sitting there. I could only guess why.

  “Oh it is a great pleasure I assure you. I’ve never had any complaints.”

  “I prefer to judge for myself,” I said flexing my leg to work some of the cramp out of them in case I needed them. The last thing I wanted right now was to have an attack of pins and needles. He edged a little further forward.

  “What’s your name?” He smiled at me like he was delighted to be asked a personal question.

  “Travis.”

  “Travis,” I repeated in my best attempt at a sultry voice. It must have worked because it sent a little shiver through his body. “Aren’t you sad to be the one who had to stay behind?”

  “Hell no,” he said cocky and self-assured. “I think I got the better deal.” His eyes focused on my chest again watching me breathe in and out. I smiled while he wasn’t looking at my face. Travis had to be younger than he looked because this was working way too well.

  “Why don’t you come a little closer, Travis? I promise I don’t bite.” Travis dropped to his knees and crawled to sit on my lower legs. I slid them out from between his, I didn’t want my legs trapped under his weight and wrapped them against his sides. It was like a giant invitation to him, he edged even closer to me, I could feel what had made him so uncomfortable on the chair as it prodded against my leg. I let out a little gasp and mouthed “oh my.” He smiled broadly at me and placed his hands on the floor either side of my hips, he was looking into my face.

  “How about you and I have a little fun while the others are away?” Travis suggested stroking his hand up my side. I rubbed my knee against his hip.

  “Right here, in front of them, are you kinky?” He chuckled.

  “Only a little.” He reached into his back pocket and produced a pocket knife. He flicked the blade out and I got a little nervous about how close it was. His hand came up to caress my face, sliding into the hair behind my head and he leaned in kissing me. I let him and even kissed back a little to egg him on. He kissed hard, forceful and hungry, he was desperate to throw me over a table or back me against a wall so he could have me. His pulled back so his mouth was just inches from me and I could feel his hot ragged breathing against my skin.

  “I’m going to cut you loose, then we’ll go into the bathrooms where we can be alone. Don’t try to run or you’ll regret it.”

  “I won’t run, I want this,” I said all innocent eyes and trying to match my breathing to his so it seemed like his kiss had really done something for me. It hadn’t but admitting that wouldn’t help me now. He leaned over me and I rubbed my face against his chest for affect as he sliced through the rope careful not to draw the blade over my skin. I felt the rope break and the pressure on my wrist released. I drew my arms out from behind me slowly and wrapped them around his neck. He snapped the knife close sliding it back into his pocket wrapping his arms around my waist pulling us both to our feet with me pressed as tightly to him as possible. I kissed him again letting his tongue explore my mouth as eagerly as his hand roamed over my bottom. His hand clamped around my wrist and separating from me he pulled towards the door at the back. I turned to look at DJ and Farir signaling with my hand that I would be back in just a minute. We went through the porthole door.

  Through the door on the right looked like a kitchen, it was all stainless steel work surfaces and I could see a deep fat fryer in the far corner for fries I imagined. The corridor here was longer than I had imagined, with the building being a rectangle the dimensions were a little off. The bar hadn’t seemed like it was very square but it must have been to make this area as large as it was. On the left were four doors. The two closest to me were close together and had signs with animals on, one read Dogs and the other read Bitches. I rolled my eyes. Wolfs had a very strange sense of humor. Travis continued to drag me through the door that said Dogs. He pressed me up against a row of sinks and had a good feel of me. He was really eager now, I heard his trousers unsnap. I forced him back from me a little.

  “Aren’t you forgetting something?” I said and when he looked puzzled I indicated the little machine on the wall. He growled but nodded and started routing for change walking over to the machine. The sinks were along the left side of the room, along the wall next to the door where we’d come in were the urinals and opposite the sinks were three cubicles. While he was fussing and cursing the machine on the wall I wandered into one of the cubicles. It was standard, with a toilet and the doors that swung either way. I heard the drawer on the machine pop and him exhale with relief. I braced my arms on either of the walls and brought my feet up so that they were balanced on the rim of the toilet seat. Travis must have turned around and found me gone because his voice came out a little gruffer.

  “Where are you?”

  “In the first cubicle getting out of my clothes, hurry I’m so hot for it.” His eager sound returned and I looked to the gap at the bottom of the door. His feet lined up in the gap, he was right in front of the door. I begged the strength to work for me as I swung my legs forward kicking the door for all I was worth. It hit him straight in the face barreling him over backwards and his head crashed down on the edge of the tiled sinks. I dropped down and caught the door that was still swinging. I pushed through and looked at Travis. Blood was seeping from a wound at the back of his head, his eyes were closed tight and his hand had fallen open dropping a packaged condom on the floor. I bet when he woke up he was going to regret stopping to take safety precautions. I checked his neck; he was alive and would probably survive the wound on his head. The guard at the community building had a similar wound and the medic assured me he would be just fine. I frisked him for anything that could be useful. I took the pocket knife but there was nothing else on him, like a key to the locks on the chains. I stepped quietly to the door to the corridor and opened it slowly checking the corridor just in case, it seemed just as it had before. I hurried to the door into the bar and raced over to where the two good Weres were chained up. DJ looked at me slightly relieved but also slightly annoyed.

  “Was that really necessary?” he asked.

  “Hey stopped bitching, it worked didn’t it. Now hold still so I can see how many locks they’ve got on this.” I started searching through the wrapped layers of the chains and found another three locks on top of the one I had seen before. I focused on the ones at the back trying to focus my magic enough to snap them open without a key. The first one clicked, I pulled it free and tossed it across the floor before starting on the second one. It came free just as easily. I ran around the front and took the third lock in my hand.

  “Hold on guys, just a couple more.”

  Just then the door to the back swung open.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

>   When I heard the hammer of a gun click back I rose slowly to my feet leaving the third lock undone but still hanging on the chains. I looked at the man holding the gun. He was shaking as he held it, his right arm was in a sling and I recognized him from the roadside attack earlier. He’d slammed into the concrete wall I’d created to protect LeBron. He didn’t have the same confidence the other man had, he looked scared and weak especially as he only had one working arm.

  “Step away from them,” he said and even his voice was shaking. I took a couple of steps back away from them and raised my hands up in a gesture of surrender. He took a couple of steps forward so that he was level with them, he didn’t check their restraints, his eyes were focused on me like I was the bigger threat.

  DJ and Farir twitched in the chains. Without the third lock holding them down, they could wriggle themselves out of them but they had to go very slow and careful so that the chain didn’t rattle too much and give them away. I guess it was up to me to keep the second guard distracted. I sunk back into the persona that had drawn the other guard into making a fatal mistake.

  “Easy there, big guy. I wasn’t going to do anything. I was waiting for Travis to come back. We’re going to have a little fun. Do you want to play too?” His arm flexed and his finger twitched against the trigger.

  “That’s funny bitch, as Travis is passed out in the toilets. His head is all smashed up.”

  “Oh it’s just a little bump. I got a bit frisky and he just wasn’t wolf enough. But you look like you might be.” I took a step towards him, but he thrust the gun at me like it was a crucifix and I was a vampire.

  “I said step back.”

  With the gun pointed at me I had no choice but to retreat a few more steps. He stepped forward so he was past DJ and Farir who had worked the chains down to their waists, all they had to do now was pull themselves up slowly to stand. The man took his eyes off me for a second to look at the rope that was still on the floor next to the bar.

  “Stupid Travis, always thinking with his dick. Pick up the rope, bring it here and put your arms behind your back.” I bent down picking up the rope from the floor. I twirled it around my hands and snapped it so it was taut between them. He jumped a little.

  “You want to tie me back up, is that what you’re into?” I took a step forward, swaying my hips and licking my lips like the idea appealed to me. He swallowed nervously. Even he couldn’t ignore the energy I was giving off. The hand with the gun shook even harder. I took another step.

  “Back off,” he said stuttering. I took another step. “I said back off.” He was gesturing with the gun. He didn’t lust after me even a little but he was afraid of me. He’d seen what I could do with magic and it scared him. DJ was on his feet, Farir was struggling because the chain had got snapped around his shoes and he didn’t want to kick it off, it’d clank. DJ stepped over the chain angling his body like he was going to attack and my world overlaid in colors of Sepia.

  “No,” I yelled and it spooked the guard. His finger tightened and I heard the gun go off and then DJ wrestling him for it. The guard hit the floor with a whimper.

  “Farir, give me the chains and get the guy from the bathroom, Cassandra can you relock…”

  He stopped talking when he saw what I was looking at. The blood was blossoming from my stomach, it was flowing over my jeans even though my hands were there desperately trying to keep it in. The bullet had sliced through my flesh like it was butter, which only went to prove that I wasn’t invulnerable. I crumpled to the ground with the pain and lay there staring up at the ceiling. I’d been shot. I’d been bitten, I’d been stabbed but I had never been shot before. I’d never thought about having to fight a werewolf with anything other than bare hands. I’d never imagine that they might come to a fist fight armed.

  DJ skidded to my side, his T-shirt wadded up in his hands and pressed it to the wound. I could hear him yelling to Farir to secure the guard and then to call a medic but it sounded sort of in the distance, not like he was right next to me. My vision started to blur as I tried to look at his face. He was speaking to me, asking me to hold on but soon his words lost all sound and I couldn’t read what his lips were trying to tell me. I closed my eyes even though I could feel him shaking me, trying to keep me awake but the blackness was pulling me in. Out.

  I started to dream. I was standing in the same tunnel I had stood in many times staring down the corridor at the giant red and gold glittering bird that hung in the air, flapping its wings and coming towards me. For the first time there was a voice in my dream.

  You are dying.

  “Who’s there? Who are you?”

  You are dying.

  “I know. I got shot.”

  You are not meant to die. You must accept your birthright and then you can rise from the ashes.

  “Rise from the ashes? Are you saying I would be alright? I was shot for gods sake.”

  When you rise, you will be whole, you will be fine.

  “Who are you? What are you?”

  There will be a time when you know, child, but now you must accept what you are if you want to live. Accept yourself. Unlock what was never meant to be sealed.

  “How do I do that? I don’t understand.”

  Embrace your nature.

  “Embrace my nature?” I looked at the glistening bird and made the gesture of an embrace, my arms spread out wide like I waiting for the creature to hug me. It flew at me, its cry pounding in my ears the closer and closer it got.

  Accept the power. Say it.

  “I accept it.”

  The bird flew into my open arms and it consumed me in red and gold flames melting into my flesh till there was nothing left of it.

  * * * *

  I gasped awake. All sound and sensation coming back in full living color. DJ was next to me and desperately trying to do something to help me. I felt fire in my belly and I cried out as it seemed to explode all over me. My nerves tingled with it and DJ cried out. I saw him scurrying back from me on his bottom and hands staring up at me.

  Up? I looked down and I was floating a few meters off the floor. My belly was circled by fire. DJ’s T-shirt had fallen to the floor and was soaked through with my blood. My arms dropped back as I felt helplessly pulled into the air by the point in which the bullet had entered my body. I felt the fire spread, but it didn’t burn my flesh, it covered it in warmth but my clothes however did not seem to survive. Charred tatters of my jeans and my top fell to the floor below me.

  I stared down my body to see Farir on the other side of the bar, he was shielding his eyes either from the flames or to protect my modesty, I didn’t know which. I could see my stomach, it was splattered by my blood but it looked like it was slowly being drained back into my body from the hole it had come from. I felt a scream building in my throat but as I threw back my head to let it out, the sound that erupted was the shrill call of the bird from my dream. It was frightening to hear that sound come from my throat but as I did the pain in my gut ceased and I heard the gentle plink of something metal hitting the floor. I felt relief wash over me as I grew silent. There was no more pain, I could feel the wound on my stomach closing up, the bullet had been expunged and my body was healing itself. Once my flesh knitted together, the flames went out like a candle on a birthday cake and I fell to the floor. I twisted my hips and used an arm to cover my breast as I tried to sit up enough to see what was going on around me.

  My hair fell over my face and I could see DJ through the curls. He was staring at me with wide eyes, half scared and half in awe or something, his mouth was wide open and he was shirtless. I took a minute to admire his pecs which were both firm and tanned. Hey, if he could stare at me like that I think it’s perfectly alright for me to get a little of my own back. I met his gaze which made him close his mouth.

  “Hey, I could use some clothes, this floor isn’t exactly warm.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Farir fetched the unconscious Travis from the bathroom and bound him to th
e guy with the broken arm where they had been restrained. Travis sat with his head slopped forward against his chest but the second was cussing under his breath. DJ had gone to get me something to wear and I was surprised when he came back with some lycra exercise shorts in black, a T-shirt and sweater that had a giant shamrock on the front with the legend underneath reading “Kiss me I’m Irish.” He’d even managed to scrounge up a pair of white tennis shoes for me.

  I had been sitting with my back to the room doing my best to keep my body hidden from any of the other eyes there. DJ handed me a long bath towel which I was grateful for as I wrapped it around me so that I could stand up. He’d put on a new shirt and I felt a wee bit disappointed that he was all covered up, he seemed to share the sentiment from the way he eyed the towel.

  “I hope they fit, they’re clean but the shorts and shoes came out of lost property. Sometimes people get into fights and shift in the bar. The energy is contagious, so clothes get thrown and people give into the change. I salvage bits and pieces in the morning in case they want them back.”

  I walked behind the bar resting the clothes he’d brought me on top.

  “I’m kind of glad no one claimed them right at this moment,” I said wriggling the shorts up under the towel. I turned my back to him, dropped the towel and pulled the T-shirt over my head. As soon as I was covered, I turned and pulled on the sweater. I was a bit too top heavy to go without a bra but desperate times and all that. I was just happy not to be naked anymore.

  “What was that?” DJ asked leaning on the bar looking at me. “I’ve never seen anything like it but now I am pretty positive you’re not ordinary.”

  “I’m inhuman.”

  “You’re a Marvel superhero?” he asked and I could tell he was teasing me by his smile. “You’re saying you’re not human. Never would have known it to look at you.”