by Lynn Red
“Don’t do it too soon though,” Erik said with a grin.
The giant closed the fifteen feet between them in the blink of an eye, only this time, Erik rolled at just the right moment, parrying the blow and shoving Atlas head first into a tree trunk. A sickeningly heavy thud of flesh and bone hit my ears.
As Erik approached the prone body his arms swelled and silver hairs sprouted from his neck.
Turning away – I never could watch him transform... it just looked too painful – I caught a glimpse of Jenga as his mouth fell open and his beard started jingling with all the metal and bits of bone and twigs braided in the tangled mass of hair.
“Atlas!” he shouted, looking at me. His jaws waggled and his bottom lip seemed to move on its own. “Why are you fighting Erik? Although I have to admit, I didn’t know I’d remade you quite so well. Impressive, isn’t it? So long dead and look how well he moves.”
I shook my head and turned back to the fight just in time to see Erik catch a huge fist in the jaw. His lupine head whipped around with a force that probably matched being hit by a car. The giant monster stumbled slightly when his foot tangled in a root and in those few moments, Erik managed to lift a knee hard into Atlas’s gut and then drive an elbow into his face, sending a tooth flying.
“It doesn’t bother him,” Jenga said under his breath, with awe in his voice. “None of the pain is bothering him... I, I finally did it! I made the perfect golem! Isn’t it amazing?” He grabbed my shoulder, spinning me around to face him.
The man’s yellow teeth and rotten-sweet breath almost turned my stomach. Of course, what I took for breath might well have been the aroma of all the things dangling from his beard.
“I’m guessing,” I said, “he’ll still come apart.”
“Wh... what? What are you talking about? Look! He’s so strong!”
Erik slammed his knee square into Atlas’s face and then slashed his chest with a claw. Anyone else – man, wolf or otherwise – would have been in agony, but Atlas just stood there, a dispassionate look on his face, his eyes glazed over.
I was thinking on my feet, talking from my toes. I wanted to panic the old witchdoctor and somehow make him call off his monster. Then I remembered something Erik said on the way here: that a lot of times, the witches and warlocks and even this old witchdoctor, had golems or zombies, and they were their only friends.
“Even if it doesn’t hurt him,” I continued, “what if Erik tears him apart? You don’t want that, do you?”
Almost on cue, as my gaze darted back and forth from the aged, crooked witchdoctor, and the crazed bear-on-wolf violence in the other direction, Erik took a chunk out of Atlas. A wild swipe from Atlas went wide. Erik ducked and smashed his fist into the underside of the bear’s arm.
Any normal arm would have shattered, but to my amazement, instead of a crunch of bone, I heard cloth tear, and then the arm sailed free of Atlas’s body. The whole thing surprised Erik enough that he stumbled and sat down hard in a murky puddle.
The arm flew end over end, in a slow, rainbow-like arc, and then landed with a thump about ten paces from where Jenga and I stood, both of us with our mouths wide open.
“Didn’t know I could hit that hard, huh? Hey! Hey! Ah!”
I looked away from the still-clenched fist just in time to see the giant zombie shove two of his remaining hand’s fingers into Erik’s mouth, yanking his head to the side. Erik groaned, and then bit, then spat, and started flailing.
“Jenga! You have to do something! If he hurts Erik or... or kills him, while he’s under your control, that’s...”
“Not good,” the old man finished for me, scratching his beard. “But I don’t know how, I mean, I’ve never had to worry about something like this before.”
“You don’t want this to happen,” I said. My voice was low and slow. “You never meant to hurt anyone. You just wanted money, right? Stop this before you end up in even worse trouble than you’ve already got.”
Erik rolled left and then right, finally getting up to his knees and taking the pressure off his jaw. Atlas let out a hissing groan when Erik got a good punch in his ribs, and then just as quickly as Erik had been ambushed, he was back on top.
The first punch sent another tooth flying and the second made Atlas’s jaw go funny, and that was all it took.
Jenga, bless his crooked heart, went running across the distance and hurled himself on Erik.
“Please!” he shouted. “Please don’t hurt him anymore! Or not hurt him so much as dismantle him! He didn’t do anything!”
Erik drew his arm back for another blow that I was sure would dislocate Atlas’s head.
“Erik!” I shouted. “Listen to him!”
His fist started to descend, but Jenga grabbed Erik’s muscled, silver arm, and dug in his heels, making the blow go left and slam into the ground instead of Atlas’s nose. Erik turned his head to the side, his yellow eyes and wide nostrils flaring.
“I give up!” Jenga announced, dramatically flinging himself to the ground. “I can’t watch you do this to my old friend. I just...”
“What?” Erik snarled.
The panther police, along with Duggan and Jamie, finally made their way through the dense, smelly swamp to where we were.
“What happened? Erik? Are you okay?” Duggan ran to Erik’s side, shaking him until he responded.
“Atlas,” Erik said, breathing hard. “He came through the forest and we had a hell of a fight. God that felt good!” He was shaking the same way he did after we made love, like his entire soul was relieved of a weight.
Jamie sighed with a grin and helped me to my feet. How she was walking around the muck-pit in stilettoes I’ll never know.
“You okay kid?” She asked as I steadied myself.
I nodded. “I’m more worried about him though,” I said tilting my head in Jenga’s direction. “I’m pretty sure that zombie’s his only friend.”
Jamie blinked.
“I know it sounds weird,” I said. “As soon as Erik got the upper hand, he punched Atlas’s arm off and Jenga got all upset.”
“Wait, really? He punched Atlas’s arm off?”
I pointed with my toe. Jamie turned her head and snorted a laugh, then walked over and picked it up by the wrist. “This is incredible,” she said. “He managed to make an arm. This is synthetic. Here, touch it.”
Before I knew it, she whopped me on the arm with the, er, arm. It was spongy and gave a little, like normal flesh. Actually, it was exactly like normal flesh, except there was no blood, and it was still moving a little bit.
“We’re going to have to take you in, Jenga,” one of the police officers was saying. “Conspiracy to commit grand theft, beating up the alpha with use of a zombie, and unlicensed corpse assembly. Seems like we’ve been down this road before.”
Jenga nodded, then vehemently shook his head. “No! The theft, fine, yes that was me. But this wasn’t unlicensed. Atlas and I were good friends, you remember that.”
“That’s true,” Duggan added. “I remember you two being close.”
“And,” Jenga continued, “I have it in his handwriting that I was allowed to reanimate him. And anyway, that’s his brain in that skull of his. He can answer for you.”
“He... can?” Erik was standing with his hands on his hips shaking his head. “Come to think of it, he did groan something before.”
“Hnnnng,” Atlas said. He pointed in Jamie’s direction and when she delivered his arm, he held it and smiled a little.
“See? He likes it. He likes the fancy limbs I’ve made. Would you like to see?” Jenga tugged on the arm, but Atlas wasn’t letting go. “Well at any rate, it’s a synthetic! Sort of anyway. It’s made from ballistics gel, cow muscles and—”
“That’s enough, I think,” Duggan said before turning to Atlas. Duggan’s face was slightly green. “Is all this true? You’re conscious in there? If so, that’s... well this is just crazy is what it is.”
“...Yes.”
&
nbsp; Everyone took a breath at once.
Erik rubbed his sore nose.
Jamie sneezed.
“Jenga... friend.” His voice was deep and powerful but very shaky.
Jenga, sensing something was wrong, reached up and popped Atlas’s jaw back into place with a satisfied grin.
“Much... better.” Atlas patted Jenga on the shoulder, almost knocking him down.
While I was watching Jenga try to explain himself to the police while his giant friend kept interjecting two word responses, Erik pulled away from the crowd and grabbed my hand.
“Well,” he said, turning to me and bending down close to my ear. “What say we leave them to it? If they have to take a statement from a zombie, this could be a pretty lengthy process.” He flashed that disarming, heart-stopping grin of his as he pulled me close.
Say one thing about shifters, they never get embarrassed about showing their emotions.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea? I mean you’re kind of in charge.”
He shook his head, tossing his brown locks from side to side just a little. “Alphas are just figureheads. These guys are the ones who do the real work.” He laughed. “Anyway, I’ve done what I’m good at. Leave the subtle stuff to those guys.”
Slowly, we started to back away, toward Erik’s bike, which was somehow still upright, despite all the excitement. As Erik handed me a helmet, Duggan turned. Instead of saying anything, he just smiled and gave Erik a short nod.
I swear, nothing in the world felt as good as throwing my leg over that motorcycle and feeling it roar to life.
But then I put my arms around Erik’s waist, squeezed him tight, and suddenly, the motorcycle thing took a distant second place.
-10-
“What’s going to happen?”
I pushed the mini blinds in Erik’s street-facing apartment window open and looked out over the town. Behind me, Erik poured himself a drink – a regular sized one this time – and offered a glass to me.
Erik shrugged. “To Jenga? He’ll do some time, some community service. I mean, admitting to a conspiracy is a lot better than getting caught with your pants down.” He laughed a little. “Between you and me, I think we could prevent this happening again by cutting back some of those trees and putting some solar panels on his house. Actually I’m gonna push for that at the hearing.”
I nodded. “But all that money he stole, and putting everyone in danger. How can that happen, and then he gets solar panels out of the deal?”
Erik shrugged. “I guess love made me go all soft,” he said. “As far as the money he actually did steal? He’ll pay it back, plus interest. If he can’t, he’ll have to work it off. He ran a weird snake-oil medical practice for a while... anyway, we’ll find something for him to do.”
“I do feel sorry for him, in a weird way,” I said. “Only friend is a zombie?”
“Witchdoctors do what they do. Sometime we’ll have to go up there and I’ll show you his house. Quite a site. Usually wide open, buncha toads and snakes and stuff running around. And you can’t forget the television. Best picture I’ve ever seen.” He sipped his scotch and watched me. “I get you though, it is sad. But still, he broke the law. Gotta pay the price.”
God those eyes could make me stupid on the smartest day of my life. I stared back, into the glittering yellow of his irises, and tried to think.
“I’m just... if he did something like that out in the normal world – er, I mean, discounting the zombie – he’d be in jail for the rest of his life.”
“Uh-huh,” he said. “We don’t do things the normal way here. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m sure if there were a serial killing were-rhino on the loose we’d have to do some really tricky maneuvering to keep the FBI from barging into town, but for the most part, we’re just out here, being us. Doing our own thing.”
He took another drink and looked out the window.
In the early afternoon sun, Erik was bathed in orange. He smiled and sucked his bottom lip under the top one, which accentuated his already sharp cheekbones. “I wasn’t just making things up,” he said.
“About what?”
“We’ve got something we still have to do, you and I.”
Erik turned and brushed his dark hair back, out of his eyes. That familiar tingle crept down my stomach, making the muscles between my legs clench despite my best efforts to keep myself clear-headed. It wasn’t working as well as I hoped.
I decided to take that drink after all.
“You think they’re fine with it? The council, I mean. From the way you talked earlier, they’d string us both up if we were officially a thing.”
Erik finished his drink and watched me finish mine. “I’m sure there will be talk, and probably some fretting. But they’ll get over it. After all, you’re the one who linked up the whole thing with Jenga and the theft. If that’s not good enough for them, I don’t know what is.”
He took the empty tumbler out of my hand and set both glasses down on the desk with a soft clunking sound. “But we still have other business to attend.”
“Yeah?” I asked, bending my head back and tasting the smoky liquor that lingered on Erik’s lips. “What kind of business?” I asked as soon as our lips parted with a gentle suck.
Outside, a couple of cars went past and someone shouted at someone else.
It occurred to me that no one in the town, except the four people – five counting me – at that meeting, knew what had happened.
Then I realized it didn’t matter. This was the way of things, the way it worked. I had to admit that it didn’t make much sense at all to me, but then again, it seemed to work.
Mostly.
“You, my dear,” Erik kissed me again, slowly, deeply, swirling his tongue against mine and breathing my breath. “You have only been half claimed.”
“I... wait, what did you say? How can someone be half-claimed?”
Erik stared into my eyes for just a moment, refusing to look away. To test him, I glanced out the window that had him framed in light, but he just stood there smiling and staring, until I felt his eyes burning in my soul.
“It’s... something we do to show that we fully, completely, totally trust our mates. It takes both sides being as careful and gentle as possible, and then when it all goes right, magic happens.”
I closed my eyes and felt a wave of heat rush up my throat when he touched my neck with his lips, and another one as his fingers fell along the curve of my sides. “Everything about you, Izzy,” he said softly, “just perfect.”
My mouth fell open and I drew a gasp that he interrupted with another harder, deeper kiss. Erik’s scent permeated every pore of my body, his hot, heavy taste rolled over my tongue like sweet wine.
His fingers trickled all the way to my waist where Erik curled them, holding me tight in his huge hands. “I’m... I’m safe with you,” I said when he pulled away, sucking the end of a kiss off my bottom lip. “You make me feel like nothing’s going to go wrong, not ever.”
“You are,” he said, brushing his lips against my prickling throat. “And it won’t. Not as long as I can help it.”
Against the bare skin on the top of my arms, Erik’s smooth, supple leather jacket slid as he moved his arms up and wrapped them around me, pulling me in close. With my head in the crook of his neck, every note, every hint of oak and leather and spice in the vague afterglow of the cologne he put on hours before filled my nose.
“As long as you’re sure this is exactly what you want, you’re about to make me the happiest wolf man on the planet.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” I asked, open mouthed. I extended my head to try and kiss him again, but Erik pulled back and avoided my lips, instead pecking me on the cheek. “Unless there’s something else about me you don’t trust.”
“Isabel, I—”
“No,” I said softly. “I just need to know that you actually believe in me. That you’re not just telling me you do because you love me, or you’re addicted to me or whatever.
I don’t want to be – no, I won’t be strung along again.”
Erik tightened his jaws. The cords in his neck stood out, and his cheekbones looked even sharper for a moment. “I said those things because I was... scared. I didn’t know what to think. And so, instead of believing you, like I should have done in the first place, I fell back on the story I’d always heard.”
“How do I know it won’t happen again?” I asked.
Cupping my face in his hands, Erik stared straight into my eyes. “I had faith in you, right? With the council?”
I nodded.
“Okay. Then have faith in me. I promise I won’t doubt you again. All right?”
I took a deep breath. “I think I can do that,” I whispered.
“There’s just one other thing,” Erik said, finally kissing me again. “Are you sure you want to be here? I mean, not a whole lot of big concerts come through Jamesburg.”
“Yes, of course,” I said. “I love it here. I never want to leave.”
He shrugged and smiled. “Some people think they like the idea of being here, but—”
Immediately, I shook my head. “I’ve never been happier anywhere. Hell, I’ve never been happy anywhere, not like this. Not like I am with you. I’ve never felt...” I swallowed, hard. Just thinking what I was thinking hurt a little, but to say it made it real.
“What’s wrong? You can tell me anything,” he urged. “Even if it seems like I’m kinda, I donno, aloof and have my head up my ass, I’m always listening. Especially to you.”
“It’s just that I’ve never felt... special before. Not like you make me feel.”
He took my hands and held them down at my sides. I kept breathing harder, but not knowing exactly why. Nothing was happening. Erik and I were just staring at each other, watching one another breathe, like we had done a thousand times before. But there was a kind of energy in the air right then, a sparkle that I’d never felt before, that lit on my skin and made my whole body tingle.
“What is it?” he said with a grin that made the rest of my guard simply drop. “I can always tell when you’re thinking about something really hard.”