It made me ill.
The worst part was the dual nature of my feelings. The human part of me was disgusted, but the wolf part of me liked the smell of the blood. The wolf was antsy and jostling inside me. It wanted back out, wanted to feast on the dead men. It wanted blood spurting over its muzzle, wanted to taste and eat. It would enjoy that.
That made me want to vomit more than anything.
Kale was thrusting one of the guard’s uniforms at me. “Come on, Piper, you said you were tough.”
I snatched the uniform away from him fiercely. “Fuck you.”
“We don’t have time to feel bad about the dead guards,” he said. “We need to find Hudson.”
He was right, of course. I was taking a luxury that I couldn’t afford. I began tugging on the uniform, but I still couldn’t stop thinking about the dead men—their dull eyes, their bloody necks.
When we were dressed, we headed into the warehouse. The security guards were armed only with big Maglite flashlights, no guns. It was just as well, I supposed. I didn’t know if it would be any easier to shoot someone than to bite someone to death.
Or maybe it would be easier—much easier, just to pull the trigger. And maybe that was worse, because it shouldn’t be so easy to take someone’s life, to snuff someone out like a candle.
Inside the warehouse, only the ghostly low lights were on. They were on the walls, illuminating everything with a faint greenish tinge. There were pallets and pallets of boxes. I wasn’t sure what was in them, but Tiny had said they moved various stolen goods through here, so I supposed they could be anything. Clothes. Blankets. Dildos.
The pallets were stacked in rows, hulking green shadows that towered over us. There wasn’t much chance that Hudson was being kept down one of these rows. They’d want him someplace that they could secure him.
We went to the other side of the warehouse. On this side, there were three doors. Maybe they were meant to be offices or something. I didn’t know.
We tried the first door, and it was locked. But we had taken the security guards’ keys, so it only took a couple of tries to get the door open. We shined our flashlights through the door.
Inside, like I’d thought, was an office—desk in the corner, corkboard on the wall, fake potted palm by the door.
The next room was empty, however, just a concrete floor and blank walls. Our flashlights swept over every inch of the room.
Nothing.
At first, it seemed as if the third room was going to be the same story. The first swipe of our flashlights over the room didn’t reveal anything. Bare floor. Bare walls.
And then…
My light settled on the back wall, where I saw Hudson. He had been chained up inside a big metal cage. I supposed the cage was necessary in case he shifted into a wolf. They’d hurt him.
They’d hurt him badly.
I let out a little cry and rushed to the cage.
Hudson’s arms were spread eagle, chained to the back of the cage. His head hung down. I could see the angry red welts on his torso, his shoulders. He was only wearing a pair of jeans, and they were stained red with his own blood and ripped in places where they’d whipped him or something.
I thrust my fingers through the cage, reaching for him. “Hudson.” I was agonized.
He stirred. His first sound was a groan.
I couldn’t handle seeing him like this. Tears started to stream down my face. “We have to get him out of here.”
But Kale was already working at the lock on the front, trying the keys we’d gotten from the security guards. None of them were working.
“Hudson, look at me,” I said.
He barely raised his head. His gaze was unfocused. He groaned again.
Oh God, what had they done to him? I shoved Kale out of the way. “Let me try,” I said. It was a key lock, and they were easy enough to jimmy open. I found a slim enough key from the key chain, wedged it inside, and felt around.
I needed to find the…
There.
The lock snapped open.
“Whoa,” said Kale. “How’d you do that?”
“Tricks of the trade,” I said.
He ducked into the cage to kneel in front of Hudson. “Hey buddy.”
But I knew that we needed to get those chains undone, so I went around back to unchain his hands. I had to work on those locks back there as well.
Biting my lip, I concentrated as hard as I could on getting the locks undone.
“Come on, Hudson, talk to me,” Kale was saying.
“Kale?” whispered Hudson.
“Yeah, it’s me. We’re getting you out of here.”
“Piper,” he said, eyes suddenly wide. “Where’s Piper?”
“I’m here,” I said, finally freeing his right hand.
“Good,” he sighed. His sentences were labored. “They said they were going to hurt you. They said if I didn’t tell them everything I knew… they’d do things to you. But I didn’t know… anything. I didn’t know where the necklace was, and they wouldn’t stop… asking me…”
“Don’t try to talk,” I said, moving over to his left wrist. “Just stay calm. We’re going to get you out of here, okay?” I jammed the thin key into the lock on the left side.
Suddenly, light flooded the room.
“What the hell’s going on in here?”
CHAPTER TWENTY
We’d been discovered. There were four men at the door. Two of them were in security outfits like we were wearing, and two of them were in regular street clothes. I didn’t recognize any of them.
Hudson cringed at the sight of them, though.
Were these the men who’d hurt him?
I saw red. The wolf inside me had been scrambling to get back out ever since I’d gotten a whiff of the security guards’ blood. Now, it seemed to burst out of me without my bidding.
These men had hurt Hudson. My Hudson. When I looked at him, it hurt my heart to see how badly he’d been beaten, all because of this stupid necklace, and I couldn’t forgive them for that. I wanted them to hurt like he did.
The wolf wanted out.
My rage summoned the wolf, or the wolf rode a wave of my anger—either way, the result was the same.
I shifted, and I lunged at the men.
The security guards weren’t armed except for their flashlights, which they both raised defensively.
But the other men had guns, and they pulled them out, firing on me.
I didn’t care. I ran at the bullets. I was too angry to let that stop me.
The rage rode my body, drove me forward. I dove at them. It was magnificent, just like the way it felt to hunt under the full moon in the woods, taking down deer and squirrels and other things that twitched and ran. It was easy. It was poetry.
I leaped on them, I tore at them. My teeth sunk into their flesh. Their blood sprayed over me, and it tasted like freedom and dominance, and I was alive. This was who I was. This was perfection and beauty.
I couldn’t get enough. I killed the men, ripping out their throats, but that didn’t stop me. I kept clawing at their flesh, eating out their soft, delicious stomachs, gorging myself on them.
They were prey. I was the hunter. It was the way things were supposed to be.
I wouldn’t have stopped if it hadn’t been for Kale, who yanked me back by the scruff of my neck, screaming in my ear that we needed to go.
I fought him, because I didn’t understand. I was too deep inside my wolf, and all the wolf wanted was to eat. I had hunted, now it was time for the reward.
“Shift back,” Kale ordered. “Shift back.”
He twisted my neck in some odd way, some way that made me feel dominated by him, subservient. And so I did. I shifted back.
And then I stood naked and blood-streaked over the annihilation I’d created.
I put my fingers to my mouth, horrified.
My hands were bloody. So were my lips. I could taste the blood.
I bent over and vomited. I don’t k
now what came out of my stomach, but I think it was…
Oh God.
Kale took me by the shoulders. “We have to go, Piper. Do you understand me? We have to get out of here.”
I nodded, feeling numb. Of course we had to do something about Hudson. He was hurt, and we needed to get him someplace safe. But I had…
I looked behind me at the ruin of the men’s bodies.
I’d killed again.
I felt empty inside.
* * *
Kale drove the truck, and Hudson sprawled in the front seat. Every time we went over a bump, he groaned. He wasn’t in the greatest of shape. I sat between them. Mostly, I stared straight ahead, but occasionally, my whole body would start shaking as I relived the monstrous things I had done anew.
It was quiet.
I didn’t bother to ask Kale where we were going. I didn’t care anymore. I was the monster that I feared, and I didn’t know what to do.
After what seemed like hours, Kale asked me if I was okay.
I gave him a funny look. Did it seem like I was okay?
Then I just started speaking. I needed to explain things to him, and I didn’t know how to do that, so this was what came out of my mouth.
“His name was Shawn. I started dating him when I was a junior in college. He was a junior, too, and he was majoring in English, even though he didn’t have any idea what he was going to do with an English degree. He said he’d probably just go to grad school, he guessed. I liked that about him. I liked that he was unconcerned with the future. He lived in the moment, really in the moment, and I was never able to do that. But when I was with him, I could do it a little better, you know? And that was why I liked him.
“I don’t know if I ever would have loved him. We were so young then, and it was hard to commit to big words like that. We danced around saying them, so we never did. But I met his family, and he met mine. I went out to dinner with them at least ten times. His mother was little and round. Her husband towered over her. He was tall and thin. Shawn looked just like him. He had a sister too. A little sister, who was still in high school. His sister thought I was cool. She looked up to me. I used to daydream about what it would be like if Shawn and I got married, and his sister was my sister-in-law. I thought it would be just fine.
“But then I killed him.”
“Piper,” said Kale, looking at the road. “You don’t have to—”
“You don’t understand. I liked him. I liked everything about him. I didn’t want him to die. But when I woke up, and his blood was in my mouth, it…tasted good.”
Kale didn’t say anything.
I took a deep breath. “After it happened, they sent me to the SF, and I missed the funeral, not that I would have been welcome, anyway. But when I got released, his little sister came to see me. She wanted to know if I had any control over it, if I could have stopped it. And I told her no. Because it was true. Back then, it was true. It was still horrible, knowing how badly I’d hurt her, knowing that she’d never have her brother at Christmas or Thanksgiving, knowing that he’d just been cut off. Ended, you know? And she was so devastated. She cried. I cried too, but it wasn’t the same, because of what I’d done. It killed me knowing what I’d done, and I hadn’t even done it on purpose. I thought I would break in two with that kind of knowledge. But this.” I gasped for air. Suddenly, thinking of those dead men in the warehouse, I could hardly breathe.
Hudson turned to me with effort. “Shh, Piper,” he said. His voice sounded raw. “It’s okay.”
It broke my heart to see him in so much pain. I didn’t understand how to feel. I put my fingers to my temples and pushed.
“Don’t think about it,” said Kale.
“Don’t you see?” I whispered. “It was horrible when I didn’t have a choice. But this time, I did have a choice. And I chose—”
“Me,” said Hudson quietly. “You chose me.”
I looked at him.
“Thank you,” he murmured.
I let out a little gasp, collapsing into my seat. I hadn’t thought of it that way.
“They deserved it,” said Kale.
“No one deserves—”
“They did,” said Kale. “Do you see what they did to Hudson?”
Hudson reached over and grasped my hand. “It means a lot, especially seeing how much it’s upsetting for you.”
I shut my eyes.
We were all quiet for several minutes. I sat there, my hand in Hudson’s, feeling Kale close to me, and I had to admit, it was better now that all of us were together again.
“Where are we going?” Hudson asked.
“I was thinking that Piper needs—well, that we all need a place to hunker down for a little bit,” said Kale. “So, I was thinking about the carnival.”
“The carnival? Hell yeah,” said Hudson. “You know where they are right now?”
“I do,” said Kale.
I opened my eyes. “What’s the carnival?”
* * *
It was early afternoon when we first saw the carnival in the distance. The circle of the Ferris wheel rose up above the tree line. As we got closer, we could see the other rides as well. The carnival was open for business, and the rides spun and gleamed in the afternoon light. The sounds of laughter and screams of joy filtered through the open windows of the truck. We could smell roasted peanuts and the sickly sweet scent of cotton candy.
“Right after I graduated from high school,” said Kale, “I got a little bit of wanderlust. I went and told my dad that I wanted to travel, and that I didn’t know if I wanted to be part of the conclave. I should have never said anything to him, because he always had to have his own way. If it was about the conclave, he wasn’t about to let me go anywhere on my own, you know? So, this was his answer to traveling. The carnival.”
“I don’t understand,” I said.
“He sent me to work here,” said Kale. “This carnival is owned by a werewolf family, and a lot of the people who work here are werewolves.”
“A carnival of wolves?” I said. Weird.
“Yup. My dad knew them, and he shipped me off for the summer. I did all kinds of stuff. I ran the Tilt-A-Whirl for a while and I manned the Ring Toss. When I first got here, I was not happy. It was not at all what I had in mind. But within a week, I felt like I’d come home. The people who run this place, Calla and Ryder, are just awesome people. And the atmosphere is like a big family, really accepting. And there was a lot of drinking too, and I was underage.” He grinned at me. “Anyway, I liked it so much that I stayed. Maybe it was kind of a way to thumb my nose at my dad too. I wintered with some of the carnival workers, living out of a trailer in Florida for a few months, and then I went back on the road with them again. I saved up a lot of money, and when I got back home, I had enough to start my landscaping company. All on my own. Without my dad, you know.”
I smiled. “So, it worked out well, then. You got free.”
“Not really,” said Kale. “I went back to the conclave. If we sell this necklace, that’s what’s going to make me free.”
“You got out for a while,” said Hudson. “I never did. I was always jealous that Kale got to go work at a carnival. I just stayed back home and fixed cars. Always wanted to come here.”
“Well, here we are,” said Kale.
He swung the truck around to a back parking lot, which was full of RVs and big truck cabs. I guessed those were used to pull along the rides when they were traveling. This was obviously the parking lot for the workers of the carnival instead of the customers.
Kale got out of the truck, and we both helped Hudson out.
“I’m fine, guys,” he said. “I can walk and everything.”
“You don’t look fine,” I said. He looked horrible.
“I just need to get cleaned up.”
“Let’s find Calla,” said Kale. “She’ll help us get squared away.” He led the way out of the parking lot, and up to the carnival gate.
The girl inside the ticket booth l
eaned out boredly. “It’s ten dollars per person.”
“I’m actually looking for Calla,” said Kale. “You know where she is?”
“Oh,” said the girl in a different voice. Now, she was looking us over. When she saw Hudson, her eyes widened. “Hey, what happened?”
“Never mind that,” said Kale. “Just, do you know where she is? Or Ryder, if she’s busy?”
“Oh, she’s making cotton candy, but really, dude, you don’t look good. Maybe you should go to a hospital or something?”
“I’m fine,” said Hudson, looking annoyed.
“Come on,” said Kale, leading us into the carnival. He walked with a purpose, winding around the trailers and buildings. “Looks like they’ve got everything set up the same way. Cotton candy’s in the midway. Follow me.”
I tried to get a look at what we were passing, but we were going too fast. I barely made out some games and food stands.
And then Kale was banging on the back door of a trailer with big lights surrounding it, wrap-around signs proclaiming, Cotton Candy. Funnel Cakes. Ice Cold Drinks.
The back door opened, and a woman poked her head out. She was older, maybe in her mid to late fifties, but she was still quite pretty. Her hair was pulled up in a bun on top of her head, and she broke out into a huge grin when she saw Kale. “Oh my God! Kale Morgan? What the hell are you doing here?”
Kale grinned. “Hey, Calla.”
She threw her arms around him. “It’s so good to see you.”
They hugged tightly for a moment before releasing.
“Look, I hate to spring this on you, but we’re in a bit of a jam,” said Kale.
She’d just seen Hudson. “Jesus Christ. What happened?”
“It’s a long story,” said Kale. “This is Hudson Slade, and he needs someplace to get cleaned up.”
“Hudson?” Calla smiled. “Well, Kale would never shut up about you. I’m sorry you’re in such a state.” She turned to Kale. “Uh, you planning on staying for a few days?”
“If we could,” said Kale.
“Well, you’re in luck, because Brady just went on one of his yearly sabbaticals to rehab, so his trailer’s open, and there’s no one in it. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you took up residence there.” She noticed me. “But it is a little cramped if two of you need privacy.”
Under a Raging Moon: Part Three Page 8