Blood Cure

by K. R. Willis

  The dark-haired man frowned. He extended his hand toward me and said, “Come, take my hand.” The smile returned, even more brilliant than the one before. “I will show you a world you will never forget.” The words were kind, sweet—sweeter than the wind whistling in the trees. I smiled back at him, ready to join him.

  “Keira, stop!” that voice shrieked again, near hysterical this time. I stopped mid-step and frowned. I knew that voice. It was someone important, someone I cared deeply for. But who? And why did they want me to stop? I glanced back up at the dark-haired man just in time to catch a glimpse of something dark, sinister, lurking behind that sweet seductive smile before it vanished.

  I blinked. The image was enough to jostle some common sense back into my brain, to make me second-guess what was happening. I took a cautious step back.

  “Yes!” the voice cried. “Keira, come back. Come home.”

  I shook my head to clear out the fog and took two more steps back. The dark-haired man scowled; his beautiful smile twisted and turned into a gnarled, ugly thing. His anger seemed to erupt from every pore as he thundered across the room toward me.

  I screamed.

  Something grabbed hold of me and pulled, doubling me in half and sucking me backward. I came crashing to the floor in my living room, immediately rolled—certain he had followed—and sprang to my feet. With my heart in my throat, I spun in a circle, searching. Left, right, up, down, I looked everywhere, but there was nothing in the room except furniture.

  Keira!

  I recognized that voice now.

  What the hell just happened, Rya? I breathed in and out my nose, trying to calm myself down. The last streaming rays of the sun as it set filtered in through my living room window, giving me just enough light to search my immediate area. Again, I saw nothing but familiar furniture.

  Well, if I had to guess, I’d say that Sabin gifted you with the ability to become invisible, or shadow, the way he did. She stepped to the forefront of my mind.

  The invisible part I kinda get, I told her, but what about that man? I’ve never seen him before, but he acted as though he knew me. I still breathed hard, but no longer felt like I would have a stroke.

  That, Rya spat, was the Evil One.

  I paused in my search of the apartment. The Evil One? You mean that was Raging Buffalo’s son? But…how?

  Sabin was connected to the Evil One through his link with Stone Wolf; it would seem that when Sabin gave you his power, you became connected to him as well. The good news is that it only seems to happen when you shadow.

  I hated the thought of being connected to the Evil One in any way, but if what Rya said was true—and I had no reason to think she wasn’t since he hadn’t been able to follow me here—then I had nothing to worry about. I just wouldn’t shadow ever again.

  I checked the apartment one more time, just to be sure he hadn’t followed, and then flipped on the lights and looked around the kitchen. I was hungry, covered in blood, sweat, grime, and exhausted. The last thing I wanted to do was cook after the day I’d had. Good thing the pizza joint down the street delivered.

  CHAPTER 26

  “Go away,” I yelled, hoping that whoever beat on my door at 6:30 the next morning would get hit with a sudden case of intelligence and leave. When I didn’t hear anything for several moments, I thought maybe I’d gotten lucky. Soft pillows welcomed me as I snuggled deeper and closed my eyes.

  The sheep were lining up for me to count them on my way to la-la land, when my stupid cell phone rang, shattering the silence and making me jump hard enough to hit my head on the head board. Ouch!

  I answered on the fourth ring. “What!” I blurted, half asleep and half angry from hitting my head.

  “Morning, sleepyhead,” Sally gushed, sounding way too chipper and excited considering what time it was. If I could have hit her with a pillow I would have. “I know I woke you up and I’m sorry, but I found something. Can you let me in?”

  “Dammit, Sally,” I grumbled. “Can’t you just tell me over the phone so I can go back to sleep?” I closed my eyes and snuggled deeper into the covers before her words dawned on me. “Wait. Did you say let me in?” I sighed. “You’re the one banging on my front door, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, so can you let me in before I wake all your neighbors? I’ve already been shushed by some old man wearing Donald Duck pajamas.” I could almost hear her eyes roll as I threw back the covers and stretched. “I mean, seriously, who wears that sort of thing?”

  “Mr. Roberts isn’t old,” I said as I slid out of bed into my fuzzy house shoes, and shuffled down the hall toward the front door. “He’s in his thirties, and his six-year-old son bought those for him last Christmas, that’s why he wears them.”

  “Yeah, well, you wouldn’t catch me dead in something like that,” she declared. “Crap, Keira, what the hell is taking you so long? Your apartment isn’t that big.”

  I hung up on her and yanked the door open. “Hey, you’re the one who woke me up at dark-thirty in the morning.”

  She thumbed her phone off and shouldered past me while I held the door open. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t sleep. I was up most of the night doing research for you ya know.” She made a beeline straight for my kitchen table. I hadn’t noticed it before, but now that she had walked several feet in front of me I saw she carried a shoulder bag she plopped onto the table.

  “What kind of research?” I asked as I headed into the kitchen to start coffee. If I was going to be up this early, I needed caffeine. I dumped the old coffee grinds out, put in some new ones and checked that it had water. It started to gurgle, letting me know I had about five minutes. I turned to find Sally with her laptop out on the table and about a dozen papers strewn every which way.

  “I found Janelle Williams,” she said, her excitement almost tangible. She motioned for me to come closer.

  I sat stunned for a moment. Had Sally really found Janelle Williams? The woman we believed started my trek through hell. I pushed off the counter I leaned against and sidled up next to her. Her laptop booted up and she had papers spread out with notes scribbled all over them.

  “Wow,” I said. “You have been busy.”

  “After the last time we talked and you told me everything your father said, I started doing a lot of thinking. And research.” She typed in her pass code once her laptop was ready. “Your father told you to look to the ones who are afraid, and the place where all of this started, right?” I nodded. “Okay, so who is afraid? Werewolves, vampires, humans? It could be any number of those. When that didn’t get me anywhere, I looked at the second half of what he said. Where did all of this start?”

  “The hospital,” I answered. “This all started when my blood went missing from the hospital.” I twirled my hair around my finger, waiting for Sally to get to the point.

  “That’s what I thought,” she said, her voice rising with her excitement. “But that didn’t get me anywhere either, so I had to start thinking outside the box, farther back. It hit me last night while watching a special segment on the History channel about Navy Seals.” I quirked my eyebrow at the fact she had been watching a show about Navy Seals, but realized it was more than likely for the hot guys, rather than the content. The point of what she just said was lost on me. She must have seen my confusion because she said, “Don’t you get it? The military is where this all started—Area 51. They’re afraid of supernaturals. It makes sense.”

  I shook my head. The wheels inside my head squeaked, then ground to a halt, refusing to make any connections between what she was saying and what we were dealing with. “Okay, I must be thick. What does that have to do with us finding Janelle Williams and putting a stop to every supernatural gunning for me?”

  Sally rolled her eyes and huffed out a breath as if to tell me how dumb I was. She typed something into her computer while she said, “I called in a favor from an old boyfriend who used to do…questionable things with his computer before he got caught. He hacked into several secure militar
y databases looking for anything unusual that had to do with the military and supernaturals aside from what we already know.” She smiled at my shocked expression and shook her head, telling me I didn’t want to know. I knew she’d dated some interesting guys, but sheez. “He sent me what he found a few hours ago.”

  After a few more taps on the keyboard, she spun the laptop around to face me. A delicate-looking woman in her twenties with sandy blond hair and blue eyes stared back at me. Her eyes were bright, nearly matching that of her smile. She wore the customary green uniform indicative of the Army, posed in front of the American flag. She vaguely reminded me of someone, but I couldn’t quite figure out who.

  I looked up at Sally. “Okay. Who is she?”

  She beamed at me. “This,” she said with a flourish, pointing at the picture on the screen, “is Sergeant Lilith Johnson, AKA Janelle Williams. This is the woman from the hospital. Her hair looks different, but the eyes and the small dimple on her chin are the same.”

  I stared hard at the picture on the screen, trying to place who she reminded me of. “Are you sure? Maybe she just resembles her.”

  Sally shook her head adamantly. “Oh it’s her all right. I’ve spent the last two hours studying this picture. I did a lot of research on her, and made sure before I called you. According to what I found on the Internet, she was attacked by a werewolf about three months ago.”

  My arm bumped the table, making the laptop wobble. “A werewolf?”

  Sally nodded. “She was infected with the lycanthropy virus, and disappeared off the radar. Going off my calculations, that was a week or so before she showed up at the hospital. It makes sense she would know about your blood if she was turned and then met any of the local pack. They would have told her, possibly offered her the chance to turn back considering the circumstances.”

  “Yeah, but why all the secrecy? Why change her name? And if she is the one who took my blood, why? We readily offer it to those who need it; what would she gain by stealing it?”

  Sally shook her head. “I don’t know. There’s so much of this that doesn’t make sense.” She spun the laptop back around to face her and squinted as she read something on the screen.

  The coffee pot belched the last of its steam, letting me know it was ready. I walked over, reached into the cabinet above the sink, and retrieved two coffee mugs.

  “Want some?” I asked Sally. She shook her head so I pushed her mug to the side and filled mine. I took a few sips, hoping the introduction of caffeine would help my brain make sense of everything. Why the secrecy, and why steal my blood?

  Maybe it has to do with the military, Rya offered. She’d been quiet during my conversation with Sally. Her sudden input startled me. Sally glanced up from her perusal when I jumped, but went back to whatever she was studying when I shook my head.

  Crap, Rya. I swear if I could hang a bell around your subconscious I would. She made a hacking sound; her version of a laugh I was sure. What did you mean about the military?

  Well, think about it. As much as the public seems to accept the idea of supernaturals, having them in the military guarding humans is still considered unacceptable. More likely than not, she would want to keep that little secret to herself.

  Okay, I thought. That explains the secrecy, but not why she took my blood. I took another sip.

  Perhaps she was ashamed or embarrassed and took the blood so no one would know.

  I didn’t know, but I wanted to find out. “Hey Sally?” She looked up at me over the top of her laptop. “Can you write down her address for me please? I’d like to go see if maybe I can talk to her and get some answers.”

  “Are you nuts?” Sally squeaked. “She obviously doesn’t want to be found, let alone confess to a crime. She’s more likely to eat you than talk to you.” She crossed her arms over her considerable bosom and glared at me.

  “Look. I have to figure out what happened to my blood, and why the supernaturals are dying before my time runs out. I’m more worried about the Vampire Council slitting my throat than I am this Janelle Williams/Lilith Johnson woman possibly eating me. I know one will kill me, the other I’m not sure about.” Aside from the fact my time was running out, literally, I wanted this whole mess to be over with.

  Even if she didn’t give me the information I wanted, I would pay Lilith a visit. I’d give her name to Leo and have him track down her address. I’d rather get it from Sally, but would call Leo if I had to. I still hadn’t figured out how I felt about him.

  Sally uncrossed her arms and gave me an I’m-going-to-regret-this look, then slid a notepad and pen over from her pile and started writing. I smiled. She’d always had a hard time telling me no.

  When she’d finished, I held out my hand for the paper, but she snatched it out of my reach and headed for the front door. She shoved the note in her pocket.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, trailing after her.

  “If you’re going after this woman, to talk to her and find out what happened to your blood, and possibly get eaten, I’m going with you.” I started to protest, but she held up her hand to silence me. “Don’t even try to talk me out of it, Keira. You’ve been running around trying to fix this all by yourself, getting your ass kicked and nearly killed instead of letting your friends help you and watch your back.” She put her hands on her hips and locked eyes with me. “Not to mention the fact that you owe me for not telling Sam what’s going on. I’m going.”

  I stared into her deep green eyes and knew she meant it. She’d had enough of sitting on the sidelines, not knowing if I would survive my next attack or not, and she’d reached her limit. Nothing short of tying her up and gagging her would keep her from walking out that door with me. I considered doing just that before tossing the idea out the window, but only because I didn’t have any rope.

  Good friend, Rya said.

  Yeah, she is, I thought back. I just don’t want her to get hurt. That’s why I’ve tried to keep her and Sam out of all this.

  She’s a big girl, Keira. She can take care of herself.

  I sure hoped so. My shoulders slumped. “Fine,” I said, defeated. “I’ll get dressed.”

  Sally waited by the front door while I quickly dressed in a pair of comfortable jeans, a thin white cotton shirt, and my jean jacket. I pulled my hair back into a ponytail and joined Sally at the door.

  She opened the door, ushering me out into the crisp morning air. I shivered and huddled deeper into my jacket, not sure if it was from the temperature or from the knowledge that we were probably headed into the werewolf’s den.

  ***

  The sun had risen while Sally was in my apartment. Its rays cast fingers out across the city, chasing back the darkness as we drove out of the city limits, past the old industrial district. Overgrown warehouses with busted out windows and rooftops gave way to open stretches of road and suburban houses.

  At least we won’t have to face her in the dark, I mused. I didn’t know if she was still a werewolf or not, but it was best to assume she was. Not that, if she was, we’d be any safer just because it was light outside, but at least we’d be able to see her better.

  Sally flipped on her blinker, turning right onto Oak Wood Drive, then followed it around several curves and stopped at the end of a row of cookie cutter homes. She pulled the little slip of paper out of her pocket she’d written the address on and studied it for several moments.

  “According to the address and my previous research, that’s it on the end.” She pointed to a midsize, nondescript house sitting at the end of the cul-de-sac several houses away.

  The bland, unassuming exterior had no added colors or plants of any kind to set it apart from every other house on the street, allowing its owner to live relatively unnoticed. I stared at it, trying to find any indication of what kind of person lived there with no luck. I hadn’t expected there to be a flashing neon sign that said EVIL WEREWOLF LIVES HERE, but hey, it would’ve been nice.

  “What do you think?” Sally asked, pulli
ng her red mop up into a ponytail, securing it with a black hairband to keep it out of her face. She glanced at me as I shrugged my shoulders.

  “It’s not like we have much choice.” I rubbed my hand over the mark counting down to my death. It seemed to respond to the touch, warming until it became uncomfortable. I winced and dropped my hand. Sally watched, but didn’t say anything.

  “Come on,” I said as I opened the door and climbed out. Sally followed suit, her wedge heels clopping on the sidewalk as she hurried to catch up with me. I grinned and shook my head. At least if we were eaten, she’d look good doing it.

  Rya, I want you to go around back and stay put unless I call you. She didn’t argue; she’d already become accustomed to being my ace in the hole. Rya detached herself from my skin, landed on all fours and stretched in one smooth motion, then slinked around the back of the house and disappeared into the woods.

  A middle-aged man washing his Jeep Wrangler glanced our way as we passed before going back to his sudsing, as though a large puma hadn’t just darted past him. I reveled in the magic Rya possessed that allowed her to assume her cat form in broad daylight without anyone seeing her. Although it required a considerable amount of energy, as we drew closer to the house and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, I had the sinking feeling it would be necessary.

  Trying to appear as inconspicuous as possible, Sally and I stepped up onto the wooden front porch as if we belonged. It was completely barren; no chairs, plants, or anything else that would have made it feel homey. Instead it felt cold, raising my anxiety level another notch.

  “Are you ready?” I asked Sally under my breath. She fidgeted with the zipper on her purse, but managed to smile and nod her head.

  Here goes. I took a deep breath, and knocked on the door.

  CHAPTER 27

  Sally’s frantic breathing echoed the pounding of my heart as we stood there waiting. Several tense moments ticked by as I listened for any indication that someone was home. Nothing. No footsteps echoed on the other side of the door, no shadow passed behind the curtain hanging in the window next to us. I exhaled softly, letting some of the tension I’d been holding on to escape.