by Raven Hart
Panting, I leaned against a tree and righted my clothing. I marveled at what Eleanor had managed to accomplish from afar. Perhaps I would let her amuse me in my off hours while I was here in London. If I was to rescue her, I would make her sing for her supper, as it were. I refocused my mind on the task at hand and waited.
At about the same time as the previous night, the evil little family came out of the house. My heart lurched when I saw my blond, inexpressibly beautiful Diana. It was impossible to reconcile the creature she now was with my memories of her as my human love.
And my son, reared under the influence of the wretched Hugo, was so malevolent I regretted saving his life with the gift of my blood. In fact, I had given Melaphia my solemn vow that I would return Renee to her even if I had to kill my own son to do it.
I had mourned both Diana and Will for five hundred years. Then, miracle of miracles, they came back to me, or so I thought. I now wished them as dead and buried as I had for so long believed them to be.
They walked in the same direction they had the night before. I thought to follow them, but I found I was moved despite myself by Eleanor’s plight. When the three of them were out of sight, I went to the back of the row of houses and found my way to the cellar.
Eleanor was sleeping or unconscious when I entered. She had probably used the last ounce of her strength to minister to me in the special way she just had. In the dark, she looked much the same as she had the night before. At least she was still undead. I pulled the string attached to the overhead light and the bare bulb flickered to life. She stirred, blinking her eyes, and tried to stand. “William?” she said.
“Were you able to find out anything about Renee?” I asked.
“You ask me about Renee after what I just did for you? Is that all you have to say?”
“Thank you,” I said. “That interlude was most enjoyable. Now, on to important matters. What have you found out about Renee?”
Her eyes suddenly focused on something behind me and she gasped. A hand spun me around just in time for me to see the head of an iron mace go spinning past my cheek. I felt the metal spikes bite painfully into the flesh just above my shoulder blade, forcing me backward and off my feet.
My back connected with the wall and Will was on me in an instant, his face inches from mine, pushing the point of a wooden stake into the flesh right above my heart. His golden red hair was vivid under the harsh light of the naked bulb.
“You,” he spat. “You were going to let me, a fellow blood drinker, die rather than give up your precious little human.”
“I knew Gerard could save you with his vaccine. And so he did.”
“You knew no such thing. It was a gamble with my life.” He pressed the spike deeper and I could feel the blood begin to seep beneath my clothing. Behind us, Eleanor began to sob.
“I wouldn’t have let you die.” It was the truth. I would have found a way to save him. If only he had stayed with me in Savannah and left Renee alone. But why should he? As far as he knew I was nothing to him.
“Bollocks! You would have sent me to hell to rot for all eternity. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t do the same for you.”
I looked him in the eyes, and I couldn’t imagine why he hadn’t realized the truth the moment he met me. Will’s eyes were not just the same as mine in hue, but also in what they held within. The rage sustained him just as it sustained me.
“Because I’m your father.”
Jack
The night of the brawl, Seth went straight back to my place to crash. Sally and I took Connie to her car and followed her back to Savannah to make sure she made it home without encountering any of the wolves. As I was seeing her to her car, I told her she should come by the garage right after sundown the next night and I would explain the world of shape-shifters. Well, as much as I knew anyway.
While I had Sally alone, I read her the riot act about drugs, the Thrashers and even prostitution while I was at it. I couldn’t tell her they were werewolves, of course, but there was plenty I could tell her. She cried and denied everything, but I wasn’t having any of it. I gave her the facts about meth—how it would ruin her skin and her teeth, make her look so old before her time that, if she insisted on staying a whore, the only johns she’d be able to attract were the lowlifes that hung around the bad side of town. I also told her what the drug would do to her internal organs, especially her brain.
The next night, I thought about my talk with Sally as I was tuning up an Oldsmobile. Only time would tell if I got through to her.
Connie showed even before the irregulars started to trickle in. I wanted the chance to talk to her before Seth got there, but he strolled in about the same time she did.
Well, now, wasn’t this just peachy? I figured this would be one freaky group encounter session. I could just picture me as one of those TV shrinks. Connie, Seth’s a werewolf. How does that make you feel?
Connie poured herself some coffee and sat down at the dinette table. She looked like she hadn’t slept a wink. Seth jammed his hands in his khaki pockets and looked down at his Weejuns. Connie stared into her cup as if she was reading tea leaves.
“Don’t everybody talk at once,” I said. “Do the two of you have some things to ask each other?”
“Okay, I’ll start,” Connie said. She glanced at Seth. “So, you’re a werewolf?”
Seth said, “Yeah.”
“Have you always been a werewolf?”
“Pretty much.”
Since Seth had all of a sudden become a man of few words, I added, “Connie, unlike vampires, werewolves are born, not made. That stuff about getting bitten by a werewolf and then turning into one is just something that happens in the movies.”
Connie looked relieved. “So the business about the full moon and the silver bullets…”
“Well, now, that part’s true,” I said.
Seth rubbed the back of his head. “We have to…turn when there’s a full moon. We don’t have any choice. At other times, we can turn at will.”
“Turn? Does that mean what I think it means?”
“Yeah.” Seth looked away again.
“When he changes, he looks a little like Chewbacca the Wookiee,” I explained helpfully. Seth gave me a look.
“I don’t look anything like Chewbacca,” Seth said.
“Oh God,” Connie muttered. “Jack, do you have any aspirin?”
“Sorry,” I said. “Vampires don’t really get headaches. Except for hangovers, I guess…. Anyway, there is no aspirin around here.”
“And I don’t look anything like a werewolf in the movies,” Seth said. “Not in the old ones, anyway.” I guess I’d piqued his vanity.
“Relax, dude,” I said. “It’s not like the American Kennel Club has a standard for good-looking werewolves, but if they did I bet you’d win best in show.”
Seth clearly didn’t think that was funny, and he bared his teeth in that annoyed way he had. “Well, at least I have a pulse,” he snarled. “And I can go out in the sun, which is more than I can say for you.”
Now, that was just hitting below the belt, if you ask me. “You can, but you probably shouldn’t,” I said. “You know what they say about mad dogs and Englishmen. Besides, how do you get that sticky SPF 15 sunblock out of your fur?”
“Why you pale, glassy-eyed sonofabitch. I oughta—” Seth stood up and came at me. I set down my coffee and took a step toward him.
“Stop!” Connie shouted, and as quick as the Sundance Kid, she drew her service revolver out of her shoulder holster and pointed it at the ceiling.
Seth and I froze in place with Connie still seated at the table between us. “Are those silver bullets?” I asked her. “Because if they’re not, you’re just going to piss him off.”
“I’m already pissed off, and not at her,” Seth said. “Besides, she’s going to shoot you, asshole.”
“Me? What’d I do?”
“Shut,” Connie said, “up!” She reholstered her weapon and got up fro
m the table. Her chair made a screeching sound as it scraped across the linoleum, which I reckon made her head hurt even more, because she winced.
“One woman is missing,” she said. “Another one is in serious danger, and y’all have just touched off a werewolf war. And now you’re bickering about who makes a good-looking wolf and who can’t go to the beach? Are you two crazy?”
Seth and I looked at each other. “You’re right,” I said. “Sorry.” I reached out my hand and Seth shook it.
“Yeah. Sorry,” he said. “What do you mean a woman is missing?”
Connie sat back down and so did we. She explained the situation with the domestic violence case she was investigating, skipping the part about going it alone. He asked her a couple of questions about the case, but I could tell she was eager to change the subject. Finally, she did. “All right,” she said. “Tell me what’s going to happen between you and Samson Thrasher on the night of the full moon.”
Seth saw Rennie enter the far side of the garage and nod hello to us, and he lowered his voice a little. “We’ll meet in the swamp and he and I will have a fight in wolf form. The winner will be the alpha wolf of the pack.”
“That’s what Samson is now,” I said. Then Seth and I went on to give Connie the Werewolves 411. Seth covered pack structure and dynamics while I filled in the gaps about shape-shifters in general. She took it all in, asking a question here and there. She went wide-eyed once or twice, but didn’t really flinch at anything. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The girl was tough.
“Jack, what else is out there besides vampires and shape-shifters?”
“Um, do you really want to know? You’ve got a lot to get used to already.”
She rubbed her temples. “Maybe you’re right.”
“Are you okay?” Seth asked.
“I don’t suppose I have to ask why you didn’t tell me you were a—a werewolf when we knew each other in Atlanta.”
Seth shrugged. “Most humans can’t deal. I didn’t want you to be freaked out. You already had enough trouble in your life.”
Connie gave him a sharp look followed by a quick glance at me to see if I reacted to what he’d said. Seth’s face went blank. Warning bells went off inside my head. What did he know about Connie that I didn’t?
“What trouble were you going through?” I asked.
“Never mind,” she said.
Seth quickly changed the subject. “Why did Samson call you a witch?”
“I’m not a witch,” Connie said glumly. “I’m—I’m something else that’s not human. We don’t really know what.”
“We?” Seth asked, looking at me. Was that a challenge in his eyes, or was it just my imagination?
“Melaphia’s trying to help me figure it out,” Connie explained before I could say anything.
“I always knew there was something different about you,” Seth said, gazing soulfully at her.
I’d had about enough of the deep, meaningful looks between these two. Before I had a chance to change the subject, Connie went back to the original one.
“So what happens if you lose this fight for dominance?” she asked Seth.
He took a long sip of coffee. “I’m not going to lose.”
“Cut out the macho bullshit,” she insisted. “What happens if you lose?”
When Seth was slow to answer, I said, “It’s a fight to the death.”
Connie looked at Seth incredulously. “You’re kidding me, right?” Seth shook his head.
“If Samson doesn’t fight fair and the pack gets involved, I’ll be there to back him up,” I offered.
“Just the two of you? Against a whole pack? I’ll ask you again: Have the two of you gone completely crazy?”
When she put it that way, Seth did sound like one loco lobo. Hell, I wondered if I was playing with a full deck myself. “Werm can fight with us.” When I heard myself say that, I decided that Connie was right. I must be crazy.
“Werm?” Connie looked at me like I was a Martian.
“Hey, he saved your life, remember?” You had to give credit where credit was due.
“What’s a Werm?” Seth asked.
“The only other vampire in Savannah right now. You’ll meet him later,” I explained.
“That’s it,” Connie said. “I can’t let you do this. I’m talking to my lieutenant tomorrow.”
“No!” Seth and I said in unison. Far across the garage, Rennie looked up briefly from his work, then wisely pretended to fish for a wrench in the toolbox.
“You can’t do that,” Seth said. “Werewolves can’t go to jail, remember? You can set up a sting and bust Samson for the meth, but when the judge denies him bail and the full moon finds him in the city lockup, are you prepared to tell your fellow cops why they should switch to silver bullets or get their throats torn out?”
Connie winced. “I forgot. Again.”
“We’ve thrown a lot at you tonight,” Seth said. “I wouldn’t blame you if you were getting overwhelmed. I would be, too.” He reached out and patted her hand, then squeezed it for a few heartbeats longer than I was comfortable with, but I’d already acted like enough of a jackass in front of Connie tonight so I held my tongue.
“There’s got to be a better way than a fight to the death,” Connie insisted.
“Not this time,” Seth said.
“All right,” Connie said. “I won’t bring in the police, on one condition.”
“What?” I asked.
“I’m there with you.”
Seth sat up straight. “That’s not going to happen,” he said. If Connie was there, she would see him turn into a werewolf. Seeing a shape-shifter turn is one hell of a sight. Seth knew that Connie would never look at him in the same way again. Part of me wouldn’t have minded that. But I didn’t want Connie there either, for her own safety.
“No way,” I agreed.
“It’s either that or I bust Samson right now and he goes to jail. You can get him out on bail yourself before the full moon if you want.”
“And what if he doesn’t make bail?” I asked. The full moon was only a couple of days away.
Connie shrugged.
Seth and I looked at each other. We both knew we couldn’t just assume that she was bluffing.
“All right. But you have to stay out of sight,” Seth said.
Connie smiled humorlessly. I could tell she wasn’t agreeing to anything.
“At least promise that you won’t go back there looking for the missing woman without us now that they suspect you have some connection to Seth and me. As bad as they treat their own females, they treat human women worse. These are really bad dudes, and you don’t want them to get ahold of you.”
“I get that,” she said.
“Yeah,” Seth said. “If you wait until I get control of the pack I’ll intimidate them until somebody talks. Agreed?”
She looked from one of us to the other. “Agreed,” she finally said. “Now I have to go to work.”
We stood up when she did and watched her walk out the door into the night.
“That went well,” I said.
“You’re kidding me, right?”
I shrugged. “Neither of us has any bullet holes, do we?”
“Good point.” Seth gave me an appraising look. “By the way, Jack, you don’t have to worry.”
“Worry about what?”
“About me and Connie. We were over a long time ago.” There was raw pain in his eyes, so much so that I forgot my jealousy and felt sorry for my old friend. So they did have a thing going at one time. I wondered again what kind of trouble Connie had known in Atlanta, but I knew not to ask. Because of that one warning glance, Seth would keep her secret, whatever it was. He was a stand-up guy.
“Okay, well, thanks for telling me,” I said awkwardly. “Sorry about the werewolf jokes.”
Seth clapped me on the shoulder in that way we men have when we have to make some kind of physical gesture to another guy to indicate we’ve decided not t
o kick his ass. “I’m going to get some grub,” he said. “Want to come along?”
“I’d better stick around and get some work done,” I said.
“I’ll see you later, then.”
After Seth had zipped his jacket and walked out into the cold, I walked over to where Rennie was looking under the hood of a Lexus.
“Damn. What a night. Are my eyes glassy?” I asked. Hey, it’s not like I can look in a mirror.
Rennie took off his glasses and wiped them on a shop rag so greasy I couldn’t imagine how he was helping matters. He put them back on and blinked a few times. He looked carefully up at me.
“Your eyes are like limpid pools of wiper fluid,” he said, and turned back to the Lexus.
I just love a grease monkey with a sense of humor.
Seven
William
Will’s face went slack with shock, and then his eyes filled with disbelief and suspicion. “What the hell are you talking about? What do you mean you’re my father?”
“I am your mortal father,” I repeated. “The one who gave you life. Real life. I am Diana’s husband. I was there when she bore you.”
“You lie! She would have told me!” He pressed the stake more deeply into my chest. “You’d say anything to keep me from draining that precious blood of yours and leaving your carcass for the crows.”
“You were born in Derbyshire on the fifth of June, 1518, nine months to the day after your mother and I wed. Father Gifford was the parish priest who christened you,” I all but shouted.
Will’s eyebrows shot upward. “How—”
“Your mother and I were murdered when you were ten,” I continued. “You were given to be raised by a couple named James and Juney Cecil.”
“How do you know that?” Will dropped the mace, took a step backward, and blessedly lowered the wooden stake.
“I knew them both,” I said. “They were in my employ. Juney was maid to Diana and James was one of my grooms.”
“But—” Will started to protest.
“Fool!” Eleanor said. “Has it been so long since you saw your own image that you’ve forgotten what you look like? You’re the very picture of him. I figured it out in Savannah. I thought you knew.”