by Angela Allen
“Shut up, nigga!” Lou yells. “This is grown folks talking.” He walks over and stands behind Malika. The vampire begins kissing Ricky on the neck. The boy’s blood rises, despite himself. And between his legs he can feel something else rising.
“Baby, I just want you to know that a part of me still loves you,” Lou tells Shelly. He ignores his son completely.
“Let him go,” Shelly pleads. “Let him go and I’ll stay.”
“Mom, no!” Ricky moans, enjoying Malika’s touch and hating himself for it.
“Good times and bad, I loved you, girl,” Lou says soulfully to his wife. His eyes are still locked on hers when he draws a wooden stake. He raises it in the air. And slams it into Malika’s back so deep that it pierces all the way to her black heart. “But I got to do what’s good for Lou, you know what I’m saying?” he whispers.
Malika screams. She falls to the ground, desperately trying to twist around to pull out the stake. In seconds all that’s left is ashes.
Lou laughs. “That bitch thought ’cause she could read minds, she was always one step ahead of the game. But what I noticed was that the more I thought about you, the madder this bitch got. She played herself.”
“So you’ll let our son go?” Shelly asks. But she already knows the answer.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Lou says. He takes a short step away from Ricky and back into the deep shadows.
A second later he tosses out the badly beaten but still-breathing bodies of Smokey and Pete. They land with a grunt at Shelly’s feet.
“I got the Prince of Darkness himself jonesing for that kid. But you can have these two, if you want them.”
Shelly helps her injured father over to the sagging sofa. He’s been both beaten and shot. He looks like he’s living on nothing more than force of will. The spirit is strong but the body is failing.
“Come on, Lou,” Shelly says. “Let’s deal. You got something I want and I got something you want. Let our son go and I’m yours, Lou. All yours.”
“Oh really.” Lou laughs. “You got something that I want? Ain’t but one person got what I want, bitch. And he wants this!” And Lou buries his fangs into his son’s neck. He drinks deep. Then he abruptly raises his head, spitting out the blood he’s tasted.
“Oh shit,” Lou says, looking at a laughing Ricky. “This nigga ain’t no virgin!”
Ricky chuckles. “I got three words for you, Dad: Tasty Boom-Boom. My uncles chipped in on an early birthday present for my sweet sixteen. Thought you knew.”
“Oh shit,” Lou mutters. “That motherfucker knew. Satan played me.” And with those words, the room fills with evil laughter.
Shelly notices Pete coming to and whispers to him quickly, “Get my father and son out of here.”
“Alright. But what about you?”
Shelly pulls out Yusef’s spear. “Me and my husband have a dinner date,” she snarls.
As quick as lightning, Lou pulls out his silver-bullet gun, firing off a round at Shelly.
Still standing, Shelly smiles and opens her blouse. A bullet-proof vest. It pays to have a brother in law enforcement.
“Ricky was right,” Shelly chides. “You don’t pay attention. See back in the apartment that night, it wasn’t my father that ripped you to shreds. It was me. Didn’t you notice that the claw ripping you apart was wearing a wedding band? The same cheap-ass gold band you bought me.”
Damn her! Lou tosses a folding chair at Shelly. She ducks it easily. It clatters against the wall.
Shelly is moving so fast she’s almost invisible. Lou doesn’t even see her until she slashes her lying husband’s face. Before he can lift a hand, she reappears in front of the door. Blood is running down Lou’s face from the deep slash marks, blinding him. He blinks. Wipes away the blood. And Shelly is gone.
Lou points his gun at Ricky. “Where is she?” he shouts.
A wolf’s claw emerges out of Lou’s chest squeezing his still-beating heart. “Nobody fucks with my family,” Shelly growls.
Lou looks down. There’s a huge hole in his chest. But wait, that bitch he killed said he could grow back anything except a head. With that twisted thought, he points the gun at his son and squeezes the trigger.
Suddenly, a wavy blur comes between Ricky and the oncoming bullet. Smokey falls to the floor in human form, a bullet wound in his chest.
Lou laughs. He struggles to his feet, grabs Pete by his shirt, then heads for the hallway, dragging Pete behind him.
Ricky gets free and runs over to the fallen Smokey and cradles his head. He whispers in his ear, “Don’t you die on me, Granddad. Come on, man!”
“Good-bye, Daddy,” Shelly says. She kisses her father on the cheek. Ricky wails. She can still hear her son’s anguish as she runs out of the room, Yusef’s spear raised high.
In the hallway outside, Lou is dragging Pete inside an elevator. He feels light-headed from blood loss. He needs to feed. He pulls Pete close, prepared to drain every last drop of blood out of the cop when he feels something looking down on him. He looks up and sees…
Shelly. Standing upside down on the ceiling of the elevator. Shelly drives the spear through the center of Lou’s forehead, pinning him to the back wall of the elevator. Lou jerks like a speared fish. His hands reach for the spear but don’t have the strength to remove it. Then he sees Shelly coming back.
Shelly changes into a form that is part woman and part wolf. She raises her claws and rips. Lou’s head remains pinned to the wall by the spear, but his body falls to the floor. Both parts erupt into flame, then turn to dust. There is a faint sound of demonic laughter but the joke’s on Lou.
Shelly transforms back to human form and pulls Yusef’s stabbing spear from the wall. “Consider that a divorce,” she says.
She drops to the floor by Pete, and they enjoy their first kiss.
“Thank you,” she says.
“Mom!” Ricky screams.
Shelly and Pete race back into the apartment. Inside they find Ricky still holding on to Smokey’s corpse. He is now surrounded by the ghostly skeletons of werewolves. One stands on its hind legs and walks as a man over to Smokey, its body magically assuming full flesh and muscle until what stands in the room is a tall, African prince with the head of a wolf. Yusef.
Shelly recognizes him from her dreams. Yusef gently cradles Smokey’s body in his arms as if he were a newborn babe. The wolf spirits begin to howl in unison. It’s an unearthly and haunting sound. A bright light fills the room; then Smokey and Yusef disappear. The other ghosts fade away.
“Ow! It’s burning!” yells Ricky, clutching his arm.
Shelly walks over and rips off the boy’s right shirtsleeve. Underneath is the family brand, the wolf’s head still steaming. It’s a birthday present he’ll never forget.
A day later, a few minutes before dawn, Shelly finds Doc sitting on a swing at the local playground. The vampire bite on his neck is still clearly visible.
“Pretty this time of day,” Doc says. “Quiet. Like the world’s thinking.”
“Or praying,” Shelly adds. “Daddy always prayed at sunrise.”
“Your father was a good man, Shelly. I know you’ll do him proud. We’ll be rooting for you,” he adds. And then he turns to face the rising sun. And turns to dust.
Mr. Big shuffles over sadly. Shelly picks up the little dog and as they begin to walk home, she thinks about how blessed she is to have family. Both two-legged and four-legged.
’Cause there are monsters out there.
And, sometimes, you gotta fight back.
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