The hotel was set up as a series of bungalows, all probably built in the ‘50’s. The trees and undergrowth had crept up around them, which gave the two the privacy they craved. They almost ran up the steps to the path that would lead them to Number 18, the last bungalow in the line.
Aiden was surprised when the three men stepped out from between two of the bungalows to block their way. He should have sensed them, but his senses had been more attuned to other, more prurient things at the moment. There was no mistaking the men’s stances, however. They meant business.
“Hey, haole. How ’bout you give us your wallet, yeah?” one said, stepping forward.
The men looked to be local boys, both in clothing and accent, but something about them triggered the warrior in Aiden. He didn’t know if it was the Marine in him or the werewolf, but he was certain that these were not three young men out to jack a tourist. They were professionals, he was sure.
He pulled Claire behind him and said, “Look, we don’t want any trouble.”
The leader looked back to the others and laughed. “Ai yah! He say he don’t want no trouble. Well, maybe you betta give me your wallet, then,” he added, turning back to face Aiden and Claire.
“We were just at the beach. I didn’t take my wallet. I’ve got a twenty here with me, though. You’re welcome to it.”
“Twenty? You think we do dis for onna twenty? No way. What say we take you to your room, an den you give us any kine what we want.”
“I know what I want,” added one of the men in back of him. “I want me some haoli wahine. How ’bout it, sistah?”
Aiden felt Claire bristle as she tried to move around him. He held up his arm to stop her.
“Ooh! Look at dat, givin’ me the stinkface! You bedda listen to your man, dere, girl. He trying to protect you.”
The words were there. The language was there. But the more they talked, the more Aiden was sure these men were not casual muggers. The local pidgin seemed too forced. They were too alert, ready for action. But who were they? Had the Council finally decided to act? If these men were werewolves, then the two of them were in big trouble.
“Fuck you,” Claire said, ready to fight.
Aiden felt a surge of pride for his fiancé. She was not a shrinking violet, that was for sure. But she had to keep in control.
“Oh, you like beef? I think it’s time to kick your man’s okole,” the leader said. “You ready to give um, little man?”
If they were local thugs, then Aiden knew he had a chance. He might not be very big, and he was certainly much smaller than the three men in front of him, but he was stronger than he looked.
Still, he glanced behind him. All the bungalows were dark, but the hotel office wasn’t too far away. Hopefully, the receptionist would hear something and call the police.
Looking back was almost his undoing. The leader rushed him and hit him low just as Aiden was turning back around. The man was strong—ungodly strong. He obviously knew what he was doing, too. This wasn’t his first rodeo.
Aiden struggled to push the man off of him, and big hammer blows hit his face. It took two bucks, but he managed to throw the man off. His opponent rolled easily to his feet and stood balanced there, ready for Aiden.
The man was strong, but with a thrill, Aiden knew he was stronger. He could take him if the other two stayed out of it. If Claire weren’t there, he’d have shifted, but it was just possible that he’d be able to fight out of this as a human.
The man was ready for him, but he wasn’t ready for Claire. No one was going to attack her man, and she flew into a superman punch, hitting the man from the side, sending him to his knees. Aiden took the opportunity to rush the man, sending one powerful punch to the guy’s chin. Anyone else would have been knocked senseless, but the big man was only dazed. He glared blurrily at Aiden as he tried to regain his feet.
Aiden’s blood was up, and he wanted to crush the man’s skull. He moved forward, ignoring the others. Only Claire’s scream cut through his single-mindedness. He looked around to see Claire, clutching her arm, blood seeping from between her fingers. The man who had said he wanted her was standing in front of her, casually holding a wicked-looking knife.
Whatever had been holding Aiden back disappeared in a flash of white rage. No one was going to get away with hurting Claire!
Within seconds, Aiden the human was no longer there. Aiden the varg appeared and let out a roar. The man with the knife stared up in shock at the sudden apparition that had appeared before him. He tried to raise his knife, but it did him no good. Aiden crashed into him, driving him to the ground. Aiden’s jaws closed around the hapless man’s throat, and with one jerk, the man was almost decapitated. Blood drenched Aiden, filling his mouth and covering his head.
The blood still spurted in an arc as Aiden vaulted over the body to where the third man had moved into some sort of martial arts stance. These were professionals, the human part of Aiden noted from somewhere in the back of his mind. That didn’t matter. Aiden charged, taking the roundhouse kick off the side of his head as he crashed into the man. He put his arms around the man’s torso, and looking right into the man’s eyes, he squeezed. The anger in his opponent’s eyes faded into panic, then as a loud snap filled the night, went cloudy. Aiden let go as the body slid limply to the ground.
Aiden turned to where the last man, the leader, had struggled to his feet. Aiden wondered if the man was armed, but even so, his time was about up. He moved forward, step by deliberate step, until he stood before the man.
“Who sent you?” he asked, the human words difficult for his varg body to make.
“Someone bigger than you,” the man said, his pidgin accent gone. “And now I know why.”
The flash of steel catching the moonlight was enough for Aiden. He moved his arm to block the man’s knife, the blade burying itself in his forearm. Aiden reached with his other arm and grabbed the man’s throat. There was no surrender, only hate in the man’s eyes as Aiden squeezed the life out of him.
As he dropped the lifeless body to the ground, Aiden lifted his head and howled into the night. For a moment, the laughter and crowd noise still audible from the bar below went quiet, only to slowly pick up again in jerks and starts.
Aiden felt the familiar joy of victory, of proving himself against his enemies. Then he remembered.
He turned around to where Claire stood staring at him. She had let go of her arm, and now that arm was covered with blood, a stream dark brown in the moonlight as it flowed down her arm, onto her fingers, and dripped onto the ground. Her mouth was open as she tried to process what she had just seen.
Aiden shifted back. He was covered in blood, and his T-shirt was mangled, but at least he was human for the moment.
“Claire, it’s me. Aiden!”
Chapter 43
Jack Tarniton leaned back in his chair, contemplating what he’d just seen. Part of him wanted to jump up and pump the air with his fist, but part of him knew it all along, so it really wasn’t a surprise. It was good finally to get confirmation, though.
He was alone in a secured room on the third floor of the US Pacific Command headquarters at Camp Smith. In front of him was a monitor on which he’d just witnessed Aiden Kaas transform into a werewolf and kill the three men sent to trigger just such a reaction. The feed from a minicam on the team leader’s shirt had been grainy, and the darkness affected the quality, but there was no getting around it. Kaas was a werewolf and a very effective fighting machine.
The men he’d sent, although they’d had orders not to kill Kaas for any reason and to try not to kill the girl, were some of the best operatives the country possessed. The colonel had smiled as he listened to the island lingo of the leader of the team. The man had been an all-American wrestler at Lehigh, then received a masters from Cornell, yet he had flowed into the part. The colonel regretted that the man was dead. He could have used someone like that for other operations. But sometimes, sacrifices had to be made.
Once
Kaas’ travel plans had become clear, the colonel had decided to avoid a confrontation in Vegas. Too many coincidences could spook the kid. So he’d gathered his troops and flown to Hawaii to oversee the operation himself. Ward was still recovering, although what to do with the major was still an issue, and Seagal was a limp-dicked civilian foisted on him. No, it had to be him, and he’d gotten results. There, on his laptop, he had the proof. Werewolves did exist.
What to do with the proof was still a question that he was pondering. He could report in with it, but he knew that he could then be shunted aside while his boss took the credit. At the Pentagon, a colonel was barely above the janitor who cleaned the latrines. But if he held onto it for now and developed it, then he might be able to make himself part of the program, someone too vital to push aside.
The colonel didn’t see this as a way to cover his ass. He truly believed that he was the best person to run the program he envisioned, and his program would ensure the safety and viability of the country. It was not a self-serving intent, but a patriotic one.
He popped a thumb drive into his laptop, copied the recording, and pocketed the drive. The fact that he put classified material on an unclass drive meant nothing to him. The ends justified the means.
He finger only hesitated a moment before he hit the delete, erasing the recording from his laptop. He opened up an unauthorized program, one that guaranteed to completely eliminate all traces of a deleted program, past the efforts of the most skilled technician to recover it. With one click, the 0’s and 1’s started flooding the supposedly free memory of his hard drive. The program filled and deleted the memory seven times, and the recording was gone, truly gone.
The only proof that there was a werewolf in the United States Marine Corps was in his pocket as he left the building and walked out into the Hawaiian night.
Chapter 44
Aiden pulled the last body out of the trunk while Claire grabbed the slit-open garbage bags they’d used to line it. Two of the bodies had already been dumped in water past Makaha, and the third, that of the leader, was the last one. The body of the first man Aiden had killed had been the most mangled, the throat ripped open. The second man had a broken back, while the leader had been asphyxiated. Aiden didn’t think the bodies would remain undiscovered, but hopefully, out on this desolate stretch of road, it would take awhile, and by then, the crabs would have made their impact on the bodies, and hopefully any DNA evidence linking Aiden and Claire to them would have been hopelessly corrupted.
They’d tried to clean up the mess the best they could, but Aiden had watched enough CSI Las Vegas to know that if the police got a hold of the car, they would find evidence of the three men. He just hoped it wouldn’t come to that. Aiden had his clothes in another garbage bag, and he intended to burn them.
Even if the police never found the bodies, whoever sent them would know that they were missing. They would realize that the two of them were alive, and they would probably send more to finish the job.
What worried Aiden more was that Claire wasn’t speaking to him. She dutifully helped clean up the mess. She went into the small local market for the garbage bags. She helped load the bodies into her trunk. But she hadn’t said a word.
It wasn’t every day that someone found out her fiancé was a werewolf, he knew, but he was hoping for some sort of dialogue. He needed to know what she felt.
Aiden had contemplated checking out of the hotel, but leaving at 11:00 p.m. was a warning flag, one that would be remembered if the police came around asking questions. So after dumping the bodies, they drove back. Claire took a shower closing the bathroom door. She came out and slid into the bed, ignoring him. Aiden looked at her for several moments, then sat down on the couch where he could look out the window. He stayed there all night, not sleeping, keeping watch.
In the morning, they cleaned up, gathered their bags, and checked out. Claire responded to questions with a few yeses and nos, but she didn’t initiate anything. They decided—Aiden decided, that is, and she didn’t object—to drive to the windward side of the island and find another cheap hotel for the night. Aiden would pay cash in case someone was tracking their credit card usage.
They drove back to Pearl City, then up the H2 past Schofield Barracks and the Dole pineapple plant. They had planned on touring the plant, but this didn’t seem the right time to bring it up. When they reached Haleiwa, they stopped at a drive-in. Aiden was famished, as he usually was after a shift, and this time, after healing a knife wound to his arm, he was even hungrier. He took three teri beef plates. Claire raised her eyebrows as Aiden dug in, but her own appetite seemed strong as she took a loco moco plate and ate everything.
They drove back past Waimea Falls Park. It had only been yesterday there when things had seemed so bright to Aiden. Now, he had no idea what was happening between them.
They found a small, run-down surfer hotel. The big winter waves had not hit the islands yet, so they were able to get a room. Aiden paid cash, and the two walked into their refuge for the night.
“OK, Aiden, what the fuck?” Claire asked as soon as he locked the door.
Aiden felt a surge of relief. At least she was talking.
“I . . . uh . . . I’m sort of a werewolf,” he got out.
“‘Sort of?’ It looked to me that was more than sort of!” she said. “And if you just asked me to marry you, don’t you think you might have wanted to tell me about this?”
“I wanted to, but I was afraid that you’d, you know—”
“Afraid I’d walk out on you?”
“Yeah,” he said miserably.
“I should walk out on you. You lied to me.”
“I didn’t lie. I just didn’t tell you.”
“Don’t play games with me. I’m royally pissed at you, Aiden Kaas. Really, really pissed,” she said, punching him hard in the shoulder. “You lied to me by not telling me.”
“I know, Claire. I know. You’ve got ever right to be pissed.”
“Damn right I do. And I should leave you. But I can’t. Do you know why?”
Aiden shook his head.
“Because I love you, damn it all,” she said, falling into him, arms around his neck.
Aiden tentatively put his arms around her and gently squeezed. They stood there, at the foot of the ratty bed, just holding each other. Finally, they broke apart, and Claire sat on the bed, patting beside her for Aiden to sit down.
“Look, I’ve had some time to think about it. I love you, and for the life of me, I’m not sure why. Don’t take this wrong, but you’re not really the kind of guy I’d date. My parents were amazed when I brought you home. You’re not the most, well, handsome guy, the most A-list guy around.
“Oh, don’t look hurt like that. You have to know that, too. But ever since you came up to me in the gym at Fallujah, well, there’s something about you that pulled me in. I had no idea what it could be. And the more I knew you, the deeper I sank. You had something, something I could see that also attracted every other girl around. Now I know what it was. Vampires and werewolves, they have this thing, right? A supernatural thing. That was why I fell for you.”
“But I’m still Aiden,” he said.
“Yes, but evidently, this is part of Aiden, too. And I can’t separate the two parts. I can’t even believe I am sitting her rationally talking about werewolves, for goodness sake. But it is what it is. I love you, Aiden Kaas, and I want to marry you. But right here and now, we are going to sit until you tell me everything—everything. I need to know just what, I mean, who you are. If you can’t, I’m walking right out of here, understand?
He did understand, and he felt as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He had always wanted to tell her, but how do you go about telling the girl you love that you can change into a varg? Now, he had no choice.
He told her the entire story, from being born a “normal” human to being bit in Fallujah. He told her about his first shift, about his battles, about the changes in him. He told her
about how the Council hadn’t approved him being turned, and how he was on sort of a probationary status. This brought up questions on just what a werewolf was from a scientific standpoint, not fairy tales. When she found out about being infected with a bite, she perked up.
“So you mean, if you bit me, I would turn into one of you?” she asked.
“No, it doesn’t work like that. I told you, I’m a kreuzung. I can’t turn someone. Only a blood can.”
He decided at that moment that he wouldn’t go into any details about MAJ Ward for the time being.
“But if you did bite me, what would happen?”
“You would get sick in a couple of weeks, then die. Don’t even think about it.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not ready to die yet,” she said, but with what Aiden thought lacked conviction.
It took almost four hours to tell his story. Claire interrupted him continually with questions, which he patiently answered. The more they talked, the more at ease she seemed to become. It was almost as if the old Claire was back.
If anything, she seemed a little excited, so Aiden made sure to downplay what a werewolf was. He told her that while they were tough creatures, they could be killed. He’d taken one down with a silver knife, the one she’d bought him on Riverwalk, and that maybe a hundred had been killed during an air strike. Still, there was a sparkle in her eyes as she asked more questions. Finally, Aiden was talked out, his voice hoarse.
“I want to see you, in the light. Can you do that for me?” she asked.
Aiden wanted to say that she could already see him, but he knew what she meant. He was dreading this, but if he wanted her to trust him, to stay with him, this was inevitable. He stood up, took off his shirt, and stood there in his shorts. He faced her, then with a flip of his mind, shifted.
If she was shocked or horrified, she gave no indication. She looked at him, really looked at him, from the feet to his head. She stood, reached out, and ran a hand down his chest. She was simply feeling his pelt, he knew, but her touch sent shivers through his body. He strove to control himself. After several minutes, she seemed satisfied.
The Werewolf of Marines Trilogy Page 39