by Gayle Keo
“So this is the beast?” she said primping. “Rather short, not very impressive. I may have to amend my offer.”
“What offer?” Jason said.
“My dear girl,” Vanessa said. “Is it always so impertinent, speaking out of turn like that?”
“Okay,” Marla said. “This is over now. Okay? It has been a pleasure to meet you Ms. Kitteredge, but I really think that you should leave now.”
“My dear you haven’t even heard my terms.”
“I really don’t—“
“The lady asked you to leave,” Jason said. Marla heard the growl in his voice and her heart went cold. “I suggest that you do.”
“Despite being so rude,” Vanessa said, “it is loyal.”
Jason’s growl was audible.
“Oh, that’s such a cute little purr.”
The sleeves on Jason’s shirt began to rip.
“Jason!” Marla cried. “Jason she’s trying to goad you.”
“Of course I’m trying to goad the animal,” Vanessa said. “I want to see what I’ve come all this way to bargain for. But it seems reluctant. Perhaps it is afraid?”
“Jason please.”
“Are you afraidmalen’kiyshchenok? Hmm?”
“Jason!”
The transformation always horrified her. She knew that it was painful by the sound of Jason’s guttural snarls. But the transformation was rapid. His clothes tore away as his animal muscles formed and grew. He fell to his knees, then to his hands. His thighs shifted into beefy hindquarters hunched and tucked by his flanks. His ankles stretched, deformed and reformed into contorted dog legs. His arms kept their human shape but his hands became elongated and savage paws. His chest grew as his belly shrank, and the sleek, dark hair swept along all of his flesh
But the worst was seeing the twisted change in his face. It became more than a lupine maw. The snout was long but wide. The hair sprouted and slicked as if a wind were sweeping it back. His teeth were hidden but the canines gleamed. And his eyes were horrid. Marla knew that they were Jason’s beautiful, tender and loving eyes. But wrapped as they were in that hideous skull they became narrow and slanted and evil, and that evil was framed with the silver sprouting over his brows.
What he had become was not a wolf-man, nor was it anything like the proud and majestic animal. He was a thing from a deadly nightmare. A thing that could only have been conjured by an ancient and wretched curse.
Marla knew that in that state Jason’s brain had shriveled and was capable of only one thought at a time. And now that thought was focused on Vanessa, and that thought held rage.
Jason leapt. His jaw open and his eyes burning, he sprang for the woman. But even as he did, the driver dove in front of Vanessa. He threw his forearm up and caught the deadly teeth. Jason clamped the arm and the driver tumbled onto his back. Jason ripped into the man’s flesh. Marla watched in horror, expecting to see the parlor awash in blood, but the man’s mangled arm showed nothing. As Jason bit, the man landed a blow with his other fist that sent Jason sprawling.
Jason rolled, recovered and crouched low eyed his foe. The man started to rise to his knees, but Jason gave no quarter and lunged again. The man’s motion was a blur. He planted his mangled arm on the floor and kicked out with his feet. His body pivoted on the arm, his legs whirled, opened and caught Jason in the midriff like a pair of scissors. Then he twisted his legs and Jason was flung away to slam against the wall. The wolf lay stunned. The driver jumped across the floor and caught Jason from behind. The man’s arms clutched him by the throat, yanked and began to squeeze.
Marla screamed. Laird burst into the room but in that moment Vanessa took a small pistol from her purse and leveled it at Laird.
“I have never believed in the myth of silver bullets,” Vanessa said. “Besides, the metal is too soft. I load full metal jackets. Remarkably effective.”
And with a nod to her driver the man pulled Jason’s neck tighter. The wolf let out a pitiful screech. Its hind paws flailed like mad, and then slowed, and then stopped. Jason crumbled. The man let him fall to the floor and stood away.
“You killed him!” Marla wailed running to the body.
“Nonsense,” Vanessa said. “Why would I do that? I want him alive and healthy.”
*****
“Now that I have your “attention,” Vanessa said.
But Marla was hardly attentive. She knelt at her Jason and tried to caress him, but the wolf was so heavy. She placed his head on her lap and gently, tenderly stroked his brow. She cooed softly. Laird stood motionless, held by Vanessa’s pistol. The driver took a place at the woman’s side. He was thoroughly unperturbed
“Marla?” Vanessa said. “Do I have your attention?”
“Hardly,” Laird said. “She’s a bit distraught.”
“So I see,” Vanessa said eying him. “So you are the renegade Hroth, aren’t you?”
“Not sure as I like being called a renegade,” Laird said.
“Then what would you prefer to be called?”
“Laird.”
Vanessa’s watery laugh tickled the room.
“Laird,” the woman said. “The man from the stars.”
“Not sure I like being called a man either.”
“Whatever,” Vanessa said with a shrug. “Fascinating as you may be, my business is with your Mistress.”
“What do you want?” Marla said.
Vanessa shook her head. She handed the pistol to her man who trained it on Laird. She stood over Marla, legs spread and stretching her skirt, hands on her hips.
“As I have tried to make clear,” she said. “I want him. Now before you go off on one of your tirades, I will again assure you that I do not want to keep him. I need his services for a limited time, two weeks, perhaps three. But the window on that time is closing and I want an answer before I leave.”
“Then leave now,” Marla said. “Because the answer is no.”
“In recompense for his services,” Vanessa said ignoring her, “I offer seventy-five thousand dollars American.”
“You could offer a million.”
“The money will be delivered in cash,” the woman went on. “And as an additional incentive I also offer my protection.”
“What?”
“I think,” Laird said, “that it is a veiled threat.”
“Wise star-man,” Vanessa said. “Your alien understands that as the three of you, all starry-eyed and in love, rushed to hide from the world you made some promises that you never kept. You have made enemies.”
“You don’t understand,” Marla said clenching her eyes.
“I know enough. In particular I know a certain Vietnamese general.”
Marla felt her blood turn to cold slush.
“Now I have your attention,” Vanessa said with a smile. “Seventy-five thousand dollars and my guaranteed protection.”
“And if we don’t accept?” Laird asked.
“I will shoot you both dead,” Vanessa said. “Then I will take the werewolf.”
“You bitch.”
“But I would rather have him come willingly with me and at your behest. It would be so much easier all around.”
Vanessa gazed down at Jason. Marla saw the glint in her eyes.
“Magnificent,” Vanessa said. “Such form.Such grace. And there is a delicate tracing of silver over its eyes. I have never seen that. What does it mean?”
“I don’t know,” Marla lied.
“I think that you do. But it is of no matter. So Marla Alyona Navarro, what say you?
“There is a third option,” Laird said.
“If you think for a moment.”
But that moment was all that Laird needed. He braced to spring. The driver fired. The barrel erupted with the flash and the air filled with the acrid smell. And then there was the dull sound of metal thudding inert. The air before Laird rippled as the bullet crushed before him, and then fell.
Laird sprang. The pistol flashed again, and again the bullet rammed
the force field only to fall to the floor. The pistol flashed a third time, but this time Laird had knocked the thing from the man’s hand and the shot sprayed wild. Laird grabbed the man by his head and flung the body to the floor. The head came off in Laird’s hand.
“Der’ mo,” Vanessa said.
But even as she spoke Jason came alive. He sprang from Marla’s arms and leapt at the woman. In an instant, Vanessa was sprawled on her back. Jason’s animal limbs pinned her. His maw opened over her face, his lips flared and his teeth were bare. He reared to rip her throat, Vanessa shut her eyes and turned her head.
“Jason!” Marla cried. “Jason stop!”
“If he kills me,” Vanessa said, her eyes still clenched. “You will be found.”
“You were ready to kill us!”
“You are of no count,” Vanessa said. “Your pathetic lives do not matter. The sheriff would find a grisly scene and the people would be appropriately horrified. Then they would say that they knew all along that there was something strange about the three people in that farmhouse. And that would be all.”
“And you’re special.”
“I am. Kill me and you will be hunted by far worse than a disgruntled General from Southeast Asia.”
Jason snarled. He raised a forearm and held his paw over the woman’s face. Vanessa cringed. Jason traced her face in the air. Marla knew that he wanted to destroy her, but she was confused by his strange move.
“Can he understand me?” Vanessa asked.
“I can’t be sure,” Marla said. “Right now his brain isn’t that sophisticated. But that’s of no matter to the business at hand.”
“What do you want?”
“I want you to get the hell out of here,” Marla said. “I want you to get in your fancy car and go back to Maine and forget about us and find yourself another werewolf and just leave us alone.”
“Done,” Vanessa said.
Jason growled. His paw moved to the woman’s blazer and he hooked his claws. Vanessa squealed and cringed.
“What is he doing?”
“He wants your word,” Laird said.
“On the lives of my children!” Vanessa cried. “I swear!”
“Jason?”
The wolf reluctantly drew back. Marla skittled away.
“And take your flipping android with you,” Marla said.
*****
“We should have listened to him,” Marla said softly.
She held Jason lovingly on the floor of the parlor.
The wolf had stayed alert and active as Laird carried the body of the android to the car and saw Vanessa off. Then he paced the porch, and then he paced the walk and then he paced the driveway. His fur was raised the whole time. It was almost two hours before Jason crept back into the house and curled up on the braided rug in front of the hearth. It was almost as long before he closed his eyes and let sleep take him.
As awful as his mutation from man to wolf was, the long, slow journey back to humanity was worse. The thing in him that responded to anger was rapid, and when Jason was in a rage his wolf was as ravenous as the image implied. But when his anger quelled and his human side reclaimed the man, the change was long and agonizing.
Marla watched each follicle as the smooth hairs receded. She felt every twitch of the wolf’s muscles reform and regenerate. She held him and stroked the silver on his brow, the curve of his ears and the nape of his neck. The animal seemed relaxed, but it twitched and spasmed as the human regained the soul. Marla held his naked form and stroked him, cooing softly and reassuring the man that he had something to return to.
Laird sat close in his lotus position. Marla knew that the poor thing was so uncertain. He understood the pain. He understood the agonizing need for patience, and he understood Marla’s tender ministrations. But she knew that he didn’t understand humans or werewolves or any of the crazy, insane things that he had been thrust into. And so he did the only thing that he knew, sitting close and so wanting to be a part. Marla took his hand.
“We should have run when he said to,” she said softly
“If we had,” Laird said, “I think that this would have been simply postponed. The woman was remarkably single minded. She had a determination that bordered on manic.”
“She’s a Witch,” Jason said.
“Darling,” Marla cried. “You’re back!”
She smothered him in her hugs and kisses. Laird clapped for joy and kissed Jason’s sweaty brow. Jason shut his eyes and lay a while, just breathing.
“Darling Jason, “Marla said soothingly. “What do you need? What can we do for you? I can fix some hot tea if you like?
Jason slid open his eyes and gave her a strange look. Laird chuckled and fetched a bottle of brandy. Jason pulled straight from the bottle.
“What the hell happened?” he asked after his second slug.
“You don’t remember?”
“I remember getting pissed at that woman,” he said. “Then I remember biting into something rubbery, and then my head exploded, and then . . . it’s all fragmented.”
“She antagonized you,” Marla began.
And so she and Laird recounted the tale. Jason sipped, nodded and remembered. And when the two had finished, Jason lay back, nestling into Marla’s lap. She thought that the look in his eyes was odd.
“So,” she said after a while, “you say that she’s a witch?”
But Jason didn’t respond. He stared up at her. His eyes drooped some and a small smile crept across his face. Marla was confused. Jason stretched his shoulders and rolled his head, his gaze still on her eyes. Laird took the bottle from him. Jason arched his back some, spreading his legs, and that was when Marla saw.
“You’re kidding,” she said.
Jason’s smile grew to a lascivious grin. He was half hard and Marla felt the hairs on the back of her neck prickle. Jason reached up and cupped her breast. Marla was shocked, but not so shocked that she didn’t feel the beginnings of her own arousal. Jason’s nostrils flared and he inhaled sharply. He squeezed her so that it almost hurt – almost.
Marla gasped and cringed, pulling away. She knew the game. Perhaps the wolf brain hadn’t fully subsided. Perhaps there was some savage vestige remaining in her lover, or maybe he was just using that as an excuse. It didn’t matter. She felt a flush in her loins and everything just happened.
She squealed and skittered away backwards only to run into Laird. The dark alien grabbed her arms and Jason crawled toward her, so wolf-like and graceful, his eyes gleaming with an evil light. Marla wailed and fought Laird, flailing her arms like a girl. Laird just laughed and pulled her back onto the floor so that she lay prone, her arms stretched wide. She kicked her legs but Jason was there. He grabbed her by the knees and spread her wide. He tore open the skirt of her dress and she wailed and thrashed. Jason’s head went straight between her legs.
He tore open her panties with his teeth and a moment later Marla tensed and gasped as his tongue invaded. Her futile struggles were a poor mask for her own growing passion. Jason’s tongue was like wild eel slithering and sliding and lapping and thrusting. And even as that muscle drove her wild he used his nose to mash her button. His iron grip held her flailing legs wide as the flood began to well inside of her.
Still holding her arms, Laird plunged down on her breasts. The delicate gauze ripped easily and he feasted on her nipple, his forked tongue working wonders. Then he drew up and pressed his crotch to her face. Marla shrieked like a school girl as he began to evolve and grow. In a moment he had himself out and she took the thing all in her mouth.
Then she wailed in angst when Jason suddenly pulled away from her, leaving her trembling and wanting. But in that moment Laird slid away from her tit, his thing still deep in her mouth. And then Jason mounted her. She screamed in delight as he drove into her and began to do her savagely.
Marla lay rapt in a different sort of bliss as her lovers ravaged her. This was not the gentle loving that was so often their way. This was a wild, urgent,
raw and driving sex for the sake of sex, and Marla threw herself into that scene and did her whorish best.
*****
Marla took a pull from the brandy bottle. She never would have done such a crude thing, but then since she fell in with those two she found that she could do a lot of things that she never would have. She looked at her assailants and chuckled. The two tried to look sheepish, but their twin idiot grins gave them away. She lay with her head on Jason’s lap, Laird nestled between her legs toying with her breast.
“Well,” she sighed. “That was different.”
Both her lovers were silent, but she felt Laird stifle his giggle.
“And just look what you done to my dress. You both owe me one.”
“Gladly,” Jason said with a contented sigh. “You are – you’re wonderful.”
“No,” Marla said planting a soft kiss on his lips. “You are.”
“No, you.”
“No, you.”
“Um,” Laird began.
“I’m sorry sweetheart,” Marla said kissing his head. “You’re wonderful too.”
“Yes,” he replied. “I am. We’re all wonderful. Well and good. But before we all get too comfortable and complacent in our rapture, there is that other matter.”
“The witch,” Jason finished. “You know you can be a real wet blanket sometimes.”
“A what?”
“Never mind.”
“What’s a witch?” Laird asked.
“Witches are not nice people,” Jason began to explain. “They started a long time ago, when the powers of the Earth and the Heavens were more, I don’t know . . . more approachable; more tangible. They used their womanly ways to seduce those powers.”
“You mean sex?” Marla asked.
“Yeah.”
“How does one go about seducing a power?”
“You gotta see it to believe it,” Jason sighed. “So anyway they get all caught up in the spiritual plane and they are able to see things and do things, and the more they see and learn the more they want to see and learn. It’s serious addictive behavior. And like any addict it gets to the point that they live for that fix. But also like any addict the price gets higher and higher, and so they have to pay more and more until it gets to the point where they are driven to find that ultimate high.”