She shrugged. “No, I just forgot which name he went by. But it makes perfect sense, especially for them. Jekyll and Hyde are too well known. People would get squigged out.”
Alec looked at her for a moment. “Is that why you go by Gray and not Frankenstein?”
She flinched. “I’m not Frankenstein, the doctor is Frankenstein. People always screw that up. I’m just his . . . monster. Well, one of them.”
Alec nodded. “Yeah, but he’s kind of like your dad. You never went by his name?”
She shook her head. “No way. He wouldn’t have wanted that; I was a creation, not a daughter. Anyway, that guy torpedoed my life. I wouldn’t want his name.”
She folded her arms and tried not to let the complicated, angry feelings she still had for Frankenstein invade her mind. She had way too much other shit to deal with to face any daddy issues that might be lingering.
“Wow, he did a number on you, didn’t he? We should talk about that more in group. You know, if we survive,” Alec said.
Natalie opened her mouth to snap at him, but before she could, the doors opened and revealed a short hallway with two doors a few feet in front of them. They looked at each other.
“Must be the penthouse.” Alec hesitated. “Why am I whispering?”
“I don’t know,” Natalie whispered back as they stepped out of the elevator and she knocked on the door marked A. After a few minutes, it opened and revealed Jekyll, annoyed and pale.
“You’re late.”
She shrugged. There was really no point in denying who she was. “I’m always late.”
Jekyll pursed his lips, but he motioned them through a marble-accented hall to a huge parlor on the left. As they entered, Natalie couldn’t help but suck in a breath.
The apartment was a mausoleum, but it sure was a snazzy one. All the floors were marble and polished to a high shine, no doubt by a servant who was never seen by guests. The furniture was of the highest quality, including Persian rugs (that were probably really from Persia . . . when it had been called Persia), leather chairs, and a sterling silver tea set on a marble-topped side bar.
The rest of the group was already gathered, perched on the fine furniture in varying states of discomfort. Only Kai looked like she belonged, with her black suit and sky-high black heels with the red on the bottom. Those things probably cost the same as a month’s rent at Natalie’s place.
“About time,” Kai muttered, though her tone was filled with a lot less annoyance than usual. The Mummy Girl even spared her a brief smile.
Natalie shrugged. Why Kai was lowering herself to Natalie’s level, she didn’t know. “Sorry. To make it up to you, I brought these.”
She dug into her purse and grabbed the copies she’d made of the police reports the night before. She had highlighted all the parts that related to The Story for both men.
Alec gave her a quick glance. “Good thinking, Nat.”
She felt the heat of a blush creep up her neck. He was complimenting her and calling her by that nickname . . . in front of everyone. Not that it meant anything. She ignored the embarrassment as she shoved copies of the reports into his hands and moved toward Linda, who was the closest to her on the nearest couch.
Linda’s hands shook as she took a set of copies and held them in her lap. Drake had no such reaction, snatching both and immediately perusing them. Kai did pretty much the same thing, though she was less snatchy.
With a frown, Natalie approached Hyde. He was standing at a bank of windows with his back to the group.
“Here,” she said, holding out the papers.
He didn’t turn. “Don’t bother.”
She wrinkled her brow, but couldn’t press him because at that moment Jekyll appeared at her elbow. He looked tired as he tapped her arm.
“Just give it to me,” he said softly. “No need to trouble Hyde.”
Natalie shook her head, but did as she’d been told. Not that she wanted to have a big heart-to-heart, but Hyde needed to be involved in this as much as anyone. Still, she wasn’t going to be the one to tell him.
She found a spot on a chair where Alec couldn’t join her. He chuckled like he knew exactly what she was doing, but remained standing behind the couch.
She scowled. Let him laugh, as long as he stayed away. Right now he disconcerted her. From his suddenly supportive and interested attitude to the fact he’d kissed her. He made her feel all discombobulated and human.
The monsters were silent as they read the reports, but Natalie could see when they reached the key points. Frowns turned to scowls, tears formed in eyes, sighs grew heavier and way more appropriate for overwrought horror stories.
Jekyll was the first to finish and set his papers aside. Hyde, who had moved to a high-backed chair across the room, shook his head. “This is worse than we thought.”
Alec glanced up and glared at Hyde. “But you didn’t take a copy of the papers.”
Hyde shrugged and dug into his pocket for a thin gold cigarette case. And from the way it shone in the light, Natalie guessed that was real gold. In today’s market, worth a little more than her electric bill in a six-month period.
Alec tilted his head. “So you couldn’t have read them. How do you know what’s worse and not worse?”
Hyde didn’t answer for a long moment, but lit a cigarette and took a long inhale of smoke. “Not all powers are about strength, Wolfie, dear. Some of us have more sophisticated taste and ability.”
Natalie’s eyes went wide. They talked about their powers at group, of course, and how to use them to their advantage when it was safe to do so. But she was constantly amazed when she heard about new ones.
“So you’re saying you don’t need to read what Jekyll does, but you still know what he saw?” she asked.
He nodded. “Always. What he reads, I read. I don’t have to bother to actually do it. It can be quite tedious.”
Jekyll set the pages aside and shook his head. “And horrifying,” he added.
Hyde chuckled, but it wasn’t a pleasant sound. “You simply need to expand your horizons, brother.”
The two men met eyes and all kinds of unspoken communication passed between them. A tug-of-war that was as obvious as if they’d met in the center of the room to grapple.
Natalie shivered. Those kinds of monster powers freaked her out. She preferred strength or the ability to change into a beast or whatever. Those things made sense, they were straightforward. But mind control, thought sharing? Weird.
“So, what did anyone else find during their searches?” she asked, hoping to change the subject and get everyone back on topic.
Jekyll dropped his eyes to the floor. “Last night, Hyde and I felt like we were being . . . followed.”
Hyde stood up and paced to the window. “I wanted to break apart and beat the guy to a bloody pulp.”
“Hyde—” Jekyll began.
Hyde turned from the window and glared. “Henry, you are too soft on these people. These humans. They aren’t worth protecting. And sometime . . . you won’t be able to protect yourself from them. I might not be there. And what will happen then?”
Dracula got to his feet. “I also felt as if I were being followed last night. I was on my way home. It made me so disconcerted that I—” He stopped.
Kai stared at him. “What did you do, Drake?”
He pursed his lips. “I turned into a bat on Fifth Avenue.”
Natalie shut her eyes and flopped back against her seat. “Shit.”
“Shit is right,” Kai burst out. Any annoyance she had spared Natalie for her tardiness was fully turned on Drake. “What were you thinking?”
Drake shifted. “There were theatergoers, but I don’t think anyone saw me.”
“Really? In New York, you think no one saw you? Someone always sees you in New York!” Kai jumped to her feet and raised her arms in frustration. “What the fuck is wrong with you? All of you?”
She looked around the room and in that moment Natalie could see her as a god
dess, an ancient priestess, someone who would draw others to her and use their worship to her own ends. Of course, that hadn’t ended so well for her before . . .
“Don’t you get it?” Kai continued. “Changing shapes in public, breaking apart from one man to two and beating someone to death on the street . . . that is acting like a monster! That kind of thing will only make this situation worse. And for what?”
“If we’re being followed, I can understand why everyone might freak out,” Alec offered. “Give them a break.”
Kai turned on him with a glare. “But we don’t know that we’re being followed. We might all just be paranoid thanks to the deaths.”
Natalie jerked her face toward Kai. Back to denial, it was. Why did she always do that?
Alec pondered Kai’s statement for a minute and then he smiled. “Actually, we can know if we’re being followed. Jekyll, you do have a computer in this museum, don’t you?”
Jekyll shot Hyde a hooded look and then nodded slowly. “Yes. I use a computer for my work.”
Alec got up and stretched out his fingers. “Well, hand it over, buddy!”
Jekyll didn’t budge from his seat, just kept staring at Alec like he’d turned into a werewolf right in the living room, then piddled on the Persian rug.
Natalie shook her head. She could understand Jekyll’s hesitation. After all, Alec didn’t exactly look like a guy who knew his way around a computer.
“Look, just do it,” she said with a shrug. “Despite the shagginess, he actually knows what he’s doing. What he wants to do is probably a felony . . . but he’s good at it.”
Alec sent her a quick grin. “Aw, thanks, Nat.” He turned back to Jekyll and held out a hand. “Come on, Doc. Computer. Let’s go.”
Jekyll let out a put-upon sigh, but he got up and walked across the room to a rolltop desk beside the window. Mid-eighteenth century, if Natalie remembered her French furniture correctly. Worth a fortune.
He opened it and retrieved a laptop that he brought back to Alec. The werewolf set it on the glass table in front of him and started typing.
“I noticed the cameras both outside and in the hallways,” he explained as his fingers clattered over the keys. “And in a building with security like this, I’m guessing they keep the digital copies of the video for at least a few days, maybe even up to a week, before deleting them from the server. Just in case some lady complains about the cleaning lady stealing the Hope Diamond or something. If I can just access the system . . .”
He trailed off, leaned away from the computer screen. Slowly his gaze came up and he glared at Jekyll and Hyde.
“Shit, you guys have a lot of porn on here. And I’m just going to assume the worst ones are yours, Hyde . . .”
Jekyll’s cheeks darkened to near-purple; he opened his mouth to speak, but all that came out was a sputtering sound as he held out a hand to demand the computer back. Hyde, on the other hand, looked quite proud of his video collection. He leaned back against the wall, arms folded and a grin on his face.
Alec ignored them both and went back to typing furiously. His golden eyes moved back and forth across the screen and then they crinkled with pleasure and triumph.
“And here we go. Shit, for a security system they have very little computer security. But I can access the videos for the last . . . three days.”
“Wow,” Kai said with a shrug. “That’s actually impressive.”
Natalie nodded and found she was feeling quite proud for some reason. As if a compliment toward Alec had anything to do with her.
“Told you,” she said. “How do you think I got those police reports?”
“That system was way harder to get into,” Alec admitted. “But I guess it should be. Okay, I’m accessing the footage from last night. What time did you two feel like someone was following you?”
“Three a.m.,” Hyde said as he paced back to the window to look over the city.
Alec glanced at him a second time. “Wow, late-night partiers. I shudder to think what you were doing in New York at three a.m.”
Hyde sent a rather menacing smile his way and Alec shook his head before he went back to work on the computer. Natalie stared at Hyde as Alec clicked away. He was darker than ever right now, more monstrous when he was being threatened, and that fact sent chills down her spine. Sometimes she wondered why they let him stay around anyway. They had kicked others out of their group for less.
But then she looked at his brother. Jekyll was pale and sweaty, tired and a tiny bit broken by the constant struggles against Hyde’s desires. And yet he loved Hyde; that was clear. And he was a good man. Anyway, they were all monsters. Whether they liked it or not, they had to stick together. Especially right now, when someone was intent on tearing them apart.
“Okay, here’s the time stamp, assuming they’ve corrected for daylight savings.”
Alec leaned back and motioned everyone else in around him. They gathered around the back of the couch, watching the grainy video. It was in black and white and a little blurry, not exactly coming-to-a-theater-near-you quality, but it worked.
Soon a man walked up to the building.
“There we are,” Jekyll said, pointing.
Natalie crinkled her eyes. Yup, from the cut of the expensive suit, that was him. Them. Whatever. Jekyll and Hyde.
In the video there was a moment of small talk with the uniformed doorman.
“It’s coming up in a minute,” Hyde said with a yawn, though he never looked at the screen. “I remember because I was trying to tell Jekyll that we don’t have to stop and speak to the help every time we come to the building.”
Jekyll turned on him. “Davis has been the night doorman for this building for ten years and his wife has cancer! Of course I’m going to ask after them. Hyde—”
“Shh!” Kai snapped. “Watch.”
The brothers glared at each other. Finally Jekyll refocused on the computer just as a figure moved in behind them on-screen.
“Hey,” Natalie said, pointing. “Look. Trench coat behind Jekyll-Hyde.”
Alec leaned closer. “That’s affirmative. But I can’t really see the face. Hang on, let me fiddle with the settings.”
He paused the video with the person standing on the street, staring at Jekyll-Hyde while they talked to the doorman. He clicked on various settings and the picture grew lighter, darker, more and less pixilated, but there was no clearing of the watcher’s face.
“Huh, sorry,” he said. “The video cameras aren’t that great at night, I guess.”
“And to think of what we pay for our supposed security here.” Jekyll sniffed.
Hyde laughed. “Don’t worry about cameras. I’m your security, brother. In fact, I wish they’d get rid of them. That kind of evidence could be . . . tricky.”
Alec shrugged. “Let me back it up and slow it down and maybe we can see something else of value . . .”
He messed with the computer and replayed the footage, this time much slower. In the frame-by-frame sequence the stranger clearly turned almost completely to the side to look at Jekyll-Hyde.
“What’s that around the neck?” Kai asked. “Pause it.”
Natalie looked at the grainy picture. When the person turned, something swung out from under the trench. “It looks too big to be a necklace. It’s square and it looks like there might be some kind of jewel on it. Like a . . . medallion?” she suggested, though saying it out loud was ridiculous.
Alec chuckled. “How very Bram Stoker of the stalker.”
No one else laughed, but Jekyll waved at the screen. “Play the rest.”
Alec did as he was told and let the footage play at full speed. As Jekyll-Hyde spoke to the doorman, the trench-coat wearer walked by a second time, looking at them again. Then Jekyll-Hyde went inside the building. A few seconds later, the trench-coat wearer was back, this time to stop outside the building and look up. He stood there a few moments before the doorman came out to shoo him away.
But he looked over his shoulde
r as he left the frame, and even though the expression on the unknown face was too blurry to read, there was no doubt that someone was after the monsters in their group.
And there was no telling who that someone’s next victim might be.
10
Alec froze the picture with their unknown adversary’s foot just leaving the frame and sat back against the leather seats of Jekyll’s white couch. He braced himself for the usual response from his monstrous cohorts. Crying. Howling. Whining. Bitching. Moaning.
Instead, there was a curious, heavy silence that hung in the room for so long that Alec locked eyes with Natalie. She seemed to recognize his silent question because she shrugged and shifted in discomfort.
It was Linda, of all people, who finally spoke.
“Obviously we’re being stalked,” she whispered in a broken, shaky tone.
She picked at her hand and didn’t even seem to notice when a block of fake flesh broke off to land on Jekyll’s expensive carpet. Jekyll noticed, though. His nose scrunched in displeasure and Alec could almost guarantee he’d have a cleaning lady here by daybreak. Maybe even before.
Kai turned on Linda with a shake of her head.
“Now, wait,” she said and her voice was sharp. “Calm down, everyone. Once again, we’re jumping to conclusions.”
Natalie burst out with a laugh that was anything but humor-filled. “Ellis died the same way as his story, Blob died the same way as his story, and someone was following Jekyll and Hyde. How is that jumping to conclusions?”
Kai paced the room like an Egyptian cat. Actually, that was a perfect way to describe how Alec had always thought of her. Sleek. Devious. Unaffected by anything or anyone.
He was a dog person.
Except now Kai’s voice was tense and cracked, almost as if the words she said were to convince herself as much as anyone else.
“I’m not saying these things aren’t bad,” Kai conceded. “I’m not even saying there isn’t some kind of danger lurking out there.”
“Then what are you saying?” Alec asked. “Because it kind of seems like you want to put your head in the sand and play dead pharaoh. Dead pharaoh is a thing for you, right?”
Club Monstrosity Page 10