by Opal Carew
“I can cure lycanthropy,” Mandenauer said.
Adam’s sharply indrawn breath was drowned out by my blurted, “You can?”
“Not me, but there is someone I would call.”
I turned to Adam, hope making me babble. “This could be the break you’ve been looking for.”
“Or a trap. He said he’s a hunter. All he knows is how to kill.”
True. Why should we trust someone who’d walked out of the swamp? He could be anyone. Or anything.
“You were in the army, Ruelle. Elite Special Forces. A team known as Company Z—last resort. You were assassins.”
“How do you know that?” Adam demanded. “No one is supposed to know that.”
“I have worked for the government most of my life,” Mandenauer said. “Even now, though I am in complete charge of my unit, I receive my funding from them.” He pulled a cell phone off his belt and tossed it to Adam. “You must have a contact, a friend, still in the employ of Uncle Sam. Call him.”
“If you are who you say you are, no one will tell me anything.”
“They will if I say so. Call your friend; have him access my file, then type in A-I-R-A-M when asked for security clearance. After he relates the information, you can decide if you want to tell me the truth. But remember, I will either kill or cure whatever I find here. It is your choice which it will be.”
Adam’s gaze met mine and I shrugged. What could it hurt?
He followed the instructions, then listened as his contact recited the information in Mandenauer’s file. Adam disconnected, appearing a little shell-shocked.
“He is who he says he is. He runs some Special Forces monster-hunting unit.”
“You mean werewolf-hunting?”
“According to my contact, there are a lot more than werewolves out there.”
“Simon was right all along.”
“And often quite helpful to us,” Mandenauer said. “We monitored his Internet and library usage, his book purchases—”
My eyes narrowed. The Patriot Act could be a real pain in the ass. Although this seemed to be slightly beyond the realm of the rightly paranoid Homeland Security Force. Just what kind of power did Mandenauer wield?
“Your husband was very good at weeding the truth from the lies,” he continued. “Often we followed him, and on more than one occasion we eliminated what he found.”
“Those times he said he’d discovered something, but when he took me to see it, it wasn’t there.” The times I’d wondered about his sanity.
“We killed the beasts before they killed someone else.”
“What about the night he died?”
I’d always wondered what had really happened. Not that it made any difference. Dead was dead. Or was it?
Simon had died from a fall. His body had been broken, marked, torn. Then, I hadn’t thought to check for bite marks. If there’d been one—
The Simon I’d seen at the window of Adam’s shack could very well be running around the swamp on four paws. And if Mandenauer actually had a cure—
My heart leaped with hope, even as my gaze went to Adam. What would I do? I loved them both.
“Was one of your agents there that night?” I asked. “Did they see what happened to Simon? Is he—?”
“Out there killing people? No. We made certain he would not rise again.”
“He was bitten?”
“Yes.”
“But you said you could cure lycanthropy.”
“The developments are recent I am sorry.”
“You couldn’t save Simon before he was attacked?” Adam asked. “What kind of army are you?”
“The best that we can be. But sometimes even the best are too late. All the Jager-Suchers can do is continue to fight as we’ve been fighting since the war.”
“Which war?” I asked.
“World War Two.”
The idea that monsters had been multiplying for over sixty years was disturbing, to say the least.
“You had better explain what you mean by that,” Adam ordered.
The old man collapsed onto the stump where Frank had been. “I was sent to Berlin to find out what Hitler was up to.”
“Hitler,” Adam repeated.
“I hate that guy,” I said.
Mandenauer’s lips twitched. He didn’t seem like a man who would smile much or laugh ever, but I’d been wrong about the nature of a man before. I took Adam’s hand in mine, some of my tension easing when he not only let me, but held on, too.
“The fuehrer ordered Josef Mengele to create a werewolf army.”
“Mengele was the one who performed the experiments on the Jews?” I asked.
“And the Gypsies and those lacking in their mental capabilities, and anyone else Hitler did not like.”
“Which means he had plenty of test subjects.”
“He had no shortage,” Mandenauer agreed. “Mengele was given a laboratory in the Black Forest. By the time I discovered this, D-day came and went. Hitler panicked and ordered Mengele to release what he’d created into the world. I was only able to watch as unimaginable atrocities emerged from the trees.”
“And the werewolf army?”
“Has been multiplying ever since, as have all the other beasts he created.”
“What others?”
Mandenauer didn’t answer at first; then he clapped his hands on his knees and rose. “One problem at a time.” He fixed Adam with a stare. “I can help you, if you will help me. What is going on in New Orleans that has left so many dead and so many others undead?”
Adam took a deep breath and began to tell Mandenauer the history of his family and the curse. He revealed everything, except that he had a son. The old man listened without interrupting.
Though Edward Mandenauer was spooky, he seemed to know what he was doing, and while his story about the Black Forest was far-fetched, it was also plausible. I had no problem imagining that Hitler might demand a werewolf army; I found it easy to believe Mengele would concoct monsters. He had, after all, been one of them. And it made perfect sense that those horrors had been released into the world to wreak havoc for the next half-century and beyond. I’d always known Hitler was far too evil to just die.
“My grandpere wasn’t made by Mengele,” Adam said. “But by a voodoo queen.”
“Not all the monsters came out of the Black Forest. There are things walking the earth so ancient they are beyond the scope of our minds. Every culture has its dark myths, and legends. Each day new beasts are born and others mutate by accident or design.” He spread his hands. “Magic, if you will. What worked to kill them once, does not a second time. This is why my Jager-Sucher society is getting larger with each passing year.”
“It’s a wonder I’ve never caught wind of you,” Adam said.
“We are a secret society.”
“Yet you told me.”
“I am sure you can keep my secret as you have kept your grandfather’s for so long. I’ve sent agents here before. None of them were able to discover anything until this one. And they all disappeared.”
“Maybe they got tired of working for you.”
The two men held each other’s eyes like two alpha wolves over a fresh kill.
“Maybe,” the old man conceded.
I knew as well as Mandenauer did that Adam had taken out those he’d sent. But the Jager-Sucher didn’t seem angry about it. Instead, he appeared intrigued.
“Will you give me a chance to end the curse?” Mandenauer asked.
Adam rubbed his forehead, his hair swinging forward to cover his face as he considered the request. If the cure didn’t work, Mandenauer would most likely kill Henri, then Adam. From the looks of Mandenauer, he’d probably kill Luc and only lose a single night’s sleep.
“All right,” Adam agreed. “I’ll give you one chance at a cure, but I won’t let you kill him. I’ll kill you first.”
“You can try.” Mandenauer pulled out his cell phone.
While he gave orders to someone
named Elise, Adam beckoned me. “I’m going after Grandpere. I want you to take Luc out of town. In case the miracle cure doesn’t work.”
“Or in case it’s bogus.”
He brushed my hair off my cheek. “Great minds, cher.”
“All right” I agreed. “But I want to know as soon as the cure is successful; then I can bring Luc home.”
Adam lifted his chin in Mandenauer’s direction. “He’ll know.”
“So will you.”
“You can’t contact me until you’re certain the cure has worked, and if it hasn’t you need to disappear. If Mandenauer kills Henri, I’ll be searching for you, and I won’t be me anymore.”
I remembered Henri’s cold eyes, his vicious words, the blood he’d spilled just for kicks. I didn’t want to see Adam like that. I’d do anything to keep his son from seeing it. Still—
“You wouldn’t hurt Luc.”
Sadness flickered over Adam’s face. “Wolves are very good parents, but werewolves could care less about their young. To them a child is just another midnight snack.”
I winced.
“Promise me.” His voice was urgent; his gaze, intense. “Promise you’ll take care of him if I can’t.”
“Of course.”
His eyes gentled. “Thank you.”
Mandenauer ended his call. “My assistant is on her way. She has the cure and will meet us at your mansion in—” He glanced at his watch. “Three hours. Is that enough time for you to locate the beast?”
“It’ll have to be.”
Adam kissed me on the forehead, then disappeared. I touched the place where Adam’s lips had brushed. A good-bye if ever I’d felt one. I guess he wasn’t as confident as Herr Mandenauer that the cure would work.
“I have to run some errands,” I said, and headed for the mansion.
Mandenauer followed. I hoped he didn’t plan to stick to me like gum on a shoe until Adam came back. If he did, I’d have to take drastic measures. My eyes searched the underbrush for a great big branch or maybe a rock.
To distract him, and because I was curious, I asked some questions. “What is this cure? A serum? A pill?”
“No. Although Elise has invented an antidote that can restore the bitten if they are injected before the first change.”
“Which would be handy if you were around the serum when you were attacked.”
He shot me a speculative look. “My point exactly. Most people aren’t, and they don’t realize they’ve been infected until it’s too late.”
“Then what do you do?”
“That is where the cure comes in.”
“What is it?”
“You shall see,” he said cryptically, which only made me more nervous. “Elise has also invented a serum that will fade the bloodlust under the full moon.”
“Did it help with the—” I wasn’t sure how to explain the soul-deep evil I’d sensed. “Henri appeared human, but he wasn’t. Not really.”
“Lycanthropy is a virus, passed through the saliva when a werewolf bites a human. The virus destroys their humanity, leaving behind pure wickedness. What we call the demon.”
I guess I’d been right about possession.
“Henri wasn’t bitten,” I said. “Does he have the virus?”
“Did he make others by biting them?”
“Yes.”
“Then I assume the curse created the infection. It is impossible to know without testing him.”
“If he isn’t like the others will the cure work?”
“Also impossible to know.”
We reached the mansion. The police had gone. The place was deserted.
“I’ll be back as quickly as I can,” I lied.
Mandenauer studied me with faded yet sharp blue eyes. “It is good that you leave him. Even if the loup-garou is cured, your lover will never be normal. There are too many memories, too many secrets, too many deaths.”
He thought I was hitting the road because I was afraid of what Adam might become, or the problems he might have adjusting to all that he’d done to protect an evil thing. Fine by me. The old man could believe anything he liked as long as he didn’t prevent me from climbing into the car and leaving him behind.
Though I doubted Mandenauer would follow, since he didn’t want to miss Henri, I wasn’t going to take any chances, so I drove around and around the area before I headed for the mobile home. By the time I got there, noon had come and gone. I knocked on the door, and when no one answered, I tried the knob. Just like the last time, it turned in my hand.
I stepped inside and saw the blood.
Chapter 40
“Luc!” I shouted, running into the house, skidding across the floor. I didn’t see a body, and I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.
I stopped in the doorway of Luc’s room. Definitely bad.
Henri sat on the bed, holding Luc in his lap, his hand over the child’s mouth. From what I could tell, the blood wasn’t Luc’s, although Henri was a mess. I guess we were short another babysitter.
Henri smirked. “I knew you would show up eventually.”
Would Adam be able to follow his great-grandfather’s trail to this place? I had a feeling Henri wasn’t that stupid.
“What do you want?” I asked.
He lowered his hand from Luc’s mouth but kept his arms locked around the child’s body so he couldn’t run away. Luc’s bright, happy blue eyes were now dull and very sad. What had he seen? How long would it take him to forget?
“This isn’t Daddy,” Luc whispered.
“I know.”
“Who is he?”
I was surprised Luc didn’t know the truth, but Adam had said he kept his two lives separate. He must have used a very serious threat in order to keep Henri on a leash, so to speak.
“I’m your grandpa.”
I guess the threat was gone or Henri didn’t care anymore what Adam did to him. Maybe both.
“My grandpa died.”
“I’m a few generations removed, but I’m blood of your blood. You’ll understand better when you have a child of your own.”
Luc’s face crinkled in confusion. “Where’s Daddy?”
“In the swamp,” Henri said. “He has a very bad headache.”
My eyes narrowed. “What did you do?”
“Nothing permanent. I need him. But now I’m going to figure out if I need you.” Henri shoved the child from his lap as if he were a pesky dog. “Go in the bathroom and turn on the shower.”
Luc ran to me and I hugged him. Henri had managed to smear blood here and there. Maybe a shower wasn’t such a bad idea. At least Luc would be out of harm’s way by a few feet.
“He hurt Sadie,” Luc whispered. “She cried and cried and I wished she’d stop.” He swallowed. “Then she did.”
“That’s not your fault.” I pushed him gently toward the bathroom. “Do what he says, Luc.”
The boy stared at me with worried eyes.
“I’ll be fine.”
He went, dragging his feet all the way. The door closed and the shower turned on.
“You won’t be fine,” Henri said.
“I know.”
A cunning expression came into his eyes. “I’ll let you go if you leave now.”
“Me and Luc?”
“No. Either you or the kid dies today.”
“Me,” I said automatically.
He tilted his head the same way Adam did. The similarity made me nauseous. “Why so hasty? He isn’t even yours.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“I suppose it doesn’t, but did you ever wonder why?”
“What?”
I was having a hard time focusing, trying to listen to Luc, to think of a plan, to pray that Adam wasn’t dead and was already on the way.
“Ever wonder why you fell so hard and so fast for Adam and his son?”
“Who said I fell? Normal human beings don’t sell out others just because they can; they don’t sacrifice children to save themselves.”
<
br /> “You’re wrong,” he said. “Most people aren’t exactly human and without exception they pick themselves over strangers, even lovers and children.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“What I can’t believe is that you’re one of the few to be self-sacrificing, and now I understand why. Ever seen one of these?” He held up a gris-gris.
My hand went to my pocket. Mine were still there. “A few.”
“I found this one under the boy’s pillow. It’s a love charm.”
I had been under a spell. I no longer cared.
The sound of a match being struck made me jump. Henri held the flame to the bag, and when it went up as if drenched in lighter fluid, he dropped the gris-gris to the floor and stomped on it.
“How you feel now about the boys now?” he asked.
I thought a minute, then couldn’t help but smile. “Exactly the same.”
Henri frowned. “That’s impossible.”
“Guess you were wrong about the magic. We got true love.”
“Adam doesn’t love you,” he said. “He’s as incapable of it as I am.”
He might be right, but I wasn’t going to admit that. I shrugged and his face darkened.
“We’ll find out soon enough. He’ll have to choose, too. You or his son.”
A hysterical bubble of laughter spilled from my lips. “You’re a moron.”
Fury washed over his face. He moved so fast I didn’t even see him coming. His hand at my throat he slammed me against the wall. I saw stars.
“Watch your mouth,” he said.
Since I couldn’t talk, that wasn’t going to be a problem.
“I like to make people choose. I smell their fear, the sweet aroma of despair. I swear it makes me stronger.” He put his nose to my neck, inhaling deeply. “Mmm. Like that.”
I toyed with the notion of bringing my knee up, hard, but I had a feeling he wouldn’t react like a regular man.