Getting the wolf to attack was easy. It was getting him to stop at the appropriate moment that required my strength of will. When it was over, we had to wait for the boy to recover enough to do our bidding.
Nightling and I waited. The attempt was a double transfer. I passed some of my immortality to the wolf, which, in turn, I hoped, would pass some to the boy during the attack. What we were trying to create hasn't existed in this world for longer than my ancient memories could recall, although the legends persisted.
When the boy finally awoke, I drew him to me. His face was pale and his eyes dull and listless. I wasted no time. I shoved my hand into his abdomen and pulled out his liver. As Nightling held her down, I force fed it to Ronnie. I did the same with the boy's heart. When we'd finished, I let Ronnie rest for a bit. The next phase of what we were trying would be brutal, but necessary. When she managed to pull herself to her feet, the time had come.
Again, I had the wolf attack; but this time it was Ronnie. Her cries assaulted our ears and senses as the wolf ripped chunks of the already dangling flesh from her bones. She tried to crawl away from it, but it would not release her. I watched, carefully monitoring the damage being done. When I was satisfied that we'd reached the point we needed, I called off the wolf.
"Now we wait again. But not here. We must seal up the vault. We will return in two nights. Then we will know."
24
When we entered the vault, Ronnie was standing in the center. Once again, she looked as beautiful as she had so long ago in my distant memory.
"Richard? Is that really you?" she asked. She ran over and hugged me. "Where am I? Why am I a prisoner here? I can't remember much of anything."
I could see the confusion on her face. I could feel the struggle inside her to recall the past, and I could sense her inability to do so.
"It's alright now, Ronnie," I said. "But things will be different than you may recall."
Nightling ran over and hugged her. The surprise and confusion on Ronnie's face was evident. She took a step back, pushing Nightling away.
"Who are you? I don't know you."
"You're my mother," said Nightling, flatly. "I know you don't remember me, but I'm your daughter."
Ronnie stood there looking at us. I could see her trying to process everything.
"C'mon," I said. Let's get out of here."
"Are we going home, Richard? I want to go home."
"Yes. We're going home. And when we get there, I'll explain everything. You're not going to believe me-" I looked at Nightling. "-us, not at first. And there are things about your life that will be difficult for you to accept."
25
It had taken Ronnie over two months to adjust to and accept her new life. I was sitting in the kitchen with Nightling, Adam and Marco when she came in. Adam jumped up and wrapped a robe around her. Marco had a fresh set of clothes laid out on the bed for her. On nights like this, it had been her routine to come in, rest, and then shower and redress.
"How many?" asked Nightling.
"Only two. I tried to be careful, but when the change comes, I can't be sure."
I reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. Her eyes were still aglow, and there were still remnant tufts of hair sticking out of her skin here and there. Her nose was not quite reformed, still looking half snoutish.
"It's ok, Ronnie," I said. "You know that we'll take care of you."
"Can you remember where you made your kills?" asked Marco. "Adam and I will go take care of the bodies."
"Yes," added Adam, "this lunar cycle is over."
"It's getting close to dawn," I said. "Nightling and I must rest. Will you be all right?"
"Yes," she said, nodding. "Once my transformation from wolf to human is complete, I'll take a shower and lay down. I won't be hunting anymore."
"I can still stay up for a while, if you want," said Nightling.
"No, honey. It's ok. I'll be fine."
"Come, Nightling. Dawn approaches."
About The Author
T. A. (Thomas Andrew) Bradley was born in 1955 in Pennsylvania. He was raised in the middleclass neighborhood of Roxborough. He served as a Clinical Specialist in the Army Medical core during Vietnam, after which he worked in a number of civilian hospitals and care facilities. He eventually went back to school and got his Bachelor's degree in Microbiology and did his Master's work in Virology/Immunology. He worked for a number of biotech firms as a virologist, the last of which had Biodefense contracts with the government. During his career he worked with such viral pathogens as: West Nile, Smallpox (vaccinia), Monkey pox, most of the Picornaviruses (rhino, polio Coxsackie, etc.), Dengue (all four serotypes) and many more.
In January of 2008, following a prolonged bout of flu, he was diagnosed with complete heart block and required a pacemaker implant. Shortly after he returned to work the virology department was eliminated and he found himself out of work. For a short time he did lab safety consulting. It was at that time he considered turning to a fulltime career as a writer - a scary prospect, but he had always been writing from the beginning.
So far, he has published three horror novels and quite a few short stories (though he does not consider himself to be an adept short story writer). His first novel "Relic of the Damned: The Coming" has just been nominated as a semi-finalist in the 2014 Kindle Book Review's Kindle Best Book Awards competition. This is the first book of a duology. The second book is titled "Relic of the Damned: Carpe Noctum." Originally, these books were published as a single edition under the title "Lucifer's Pommel." After re-reading it, T. A. decided that it needed a strong rewrite and should be turned into a two-parter, which he did.
He followed the Relic books with Primordia, a novel that looks at the horrors a family goes through when medical ambition and mistaken identity collide in terrifying fashion.
His short stories have been featured in such magazines as Horror Bound, Horror in Words and John Betancourt's Vampire Megapack edition of Wildside Press. He also published a collection of 13 short Twilight Zone type stories entitled "13 Echoes."
T. A. currently resides in the Drexel Hill suburb of Philadelphia with, his two German shepherds, Georgia and Morgana. He has four novels in the works at present.
In his spare time, he enjoys playing with his shepherds and just relaxing with friends. At one time, he played lead guitar for his own band, Centerfield - a Classic Rock cover band in the Pocono Mts. Today, he can no longer play as he has recently been diagnosed with adult-onset Muscular Dystrophy. He is an avid chess player (especially tri-dimensional - he has a full sized replica of the original Star Trek board made and loves playing that).
You can find T. A. at:
www.tabradley-derangedwriter.com
Other Works by T. A. Bradley
RELIC OF THE DAMNED: THE COMING (Vol. 1)
RELIC OF THE DAMNED: CARPE NOCTUM (Vol. 2)
RELIC OF THE DAMNED (Complete and Unabridged)
PRIMORDIA
13 ECHOES (13 Short Stories in the Twilight Zone tradition)
Sundown Rising Page 8