Animal Attraction

by Tracy St. John

  I agreed. We set about brainstorming our options.

  It turned out we had none except to wait for me to be called to my nighttime body. We could not get ourselves loose from whatever occult flypaper kept me and Dan stuck. I found it bitterly amusing that murdering anti-paras had called in a topnotch witch to shield their little killers club from unwanted intrusion. I wondered if hexes were in place to deal with vampires.

  That meant we spent hours listening to Ryan. The werebear alternated between praying, crying, screaming, and shifting as he attempted to break loose from his cage. For me, the worst part was hearing him sob apologies to Ashley and Jesse. Apologies he was convinced more and more they would never know about. I alternated between wanting to throttle him for getting himself into this situation in the first place and reassuring him that he would get the chance to beg forgiveness in person.

  After an eternity, I felt the familiar pull of the body that demanded a soul. I uttered a sigh of relief and smiled at Dan. “Sundown. I’ll bring help as fast as possible.”

  “Please do. It sucks not being able to kill myself so I don’t have to hear him anymore,” Dan replied with gallows humor.

  The tugging increased. I was certain I was going, and yet my surroundings never changed. The yanking grew harsher, more demanding. It wasn’t quite painful, but it sure as shooting wasn’t pleasant. I grunted and moaned as I jerked helplessly against the spell pinning me to the tiled floor.

  Dan watched with mounting concern. “Brandilynn? What’s happening?”

  “I don’t ... know,” I groaned at the insistent yanking. “I’m trying ... to go ... but I can’t frigging move.”

  It felt awful. I fought the ward holding me in place, struggling to find relief from the call of Patricia’s body. I moaned as the discomfort went on and on. I thought I might go insane from the desperate need to leave and the inability to do so.

  Dan’s grip on my arm was meant to be comforting, but there was no such thing at that moment. He encouraged me as best he could. “Hang in there, okay? Gerald knows we were going to look for Ryan. When he doesn’t hear from you, when you don’t show up, he’ll come looking.”

  Dan didn’t deserve to be yelled at, not when he tried to keep me calm, but I found new reason to panic. I snapped, “Oh yeah, that’s just great.” Grunt. “These jerks can have a fine time – groan –hunting a bear and a panther then, right?” Whine. “Two for the price of one.” I yelled the last between clenched teeth. “Ugh, this feels terrible! Stop calling me, body! I can’t go to you!”

  I flailed. I yelled. I begged. I fought. I couldn’t get loose. In that endless hell of my predicament, I have to say that as much as I didn’t want to not be a vampire, I’d have given anything to be in Patricia’s body right then.

  After several minutes struggling, I became aware that Tattingail and his merry huntsmen had returned. There were two men besides the trio of the Tats, Duke, and Mark. I took little notice of them or the heated exchange that cranked up between them and Ryan. I was too busy with my soul’s insistence on leaving the room and its inability to do so.

  It was getting worse too. I thought the battle between going and staying might tear me apart.

  Somehow Ryan’s agonized yells broke through my own. “—then shoot me now! You want to kill, then do it!”

  “There’s no sport in that,” Tattingail spat. He turned to Mark. “Perhaps you should go fetch his wife and son. You said they would come with you if you told them you’d found him.”

  Through streaming eyes I saw Ryan had half shifted again. He still managed speech through his elongated muzzle. “You leave them out of this, you monstrous bastards!”

  Cold to the end, Tattingail said, “Last chance.”

  I fought to pay attention. They couldn’t bring Ashley and her little son into this. They wouldn’t dare.

  Ryan glared, but he finished his shift. Within seconds, a hulking black bear hunched in the cage. It rumbled a growl. Duke hit a huge button on the wall, the kind that malls use to open doors automatically. Behind Ryan, the door to the outside swung out. I saw the outlines of trees in the darkness beyond.

  Tattingail smiled. In that moment he looked as predatory as any vampire I’d ever met. “The deal remains despite your poor sportsmanship. Survive the night without leaving the hunting grounds and we destroy the evidence of your wrongdoing. You go home to your wife and son and obscene parody of a life.” He checked his watch. “You’ve got a ten-minute head start from this moment.”

  The bear continued to growl, but the sound seemed halfhearted. He might have been an animal at that point, but Ryan still managed to look heart crushingly sad.

  He dropped to all fours, wheeled around, and ran out into the night. The men gave a cheer and fell to conversing. I went back to my still-growing misery. I had thought I might rip apart before. Now I was sure I would. I felt stretched, pulled like a rubber band to its final limit before it breaks.

  It wasn’t just a feeling. My ethereal body stretched taut. At some point my ghost had begun to extend towards the far side of the room. I stood tilted at an impossible angle, everything from my ankles up distended in a straight but diagonal line.

  I sobbed to Dan, “I can’t handle this. It’s driving me crazy. Something’s about to give.”

  His gaze horrified, he tugged on me. He tried to make me stand upright. “Come on, baby girl. You’re stronger than this. I know you are. Gerald will figure out something is wrong. He’ll come. Hang on, Brandilynn!”

  I shook my head, as much to refute him as to argue with the force pulling so hard on me. “I can’t. I can’t. Oh somebody, please make it stop. Pleeeease—”

  I didn’t expect an answer. I didn’t expect a white knight on a charger to come crashing in to save me. And when the door on the far side of the room blew open in chunks of wood, it was not Sir Galahad that shoved his way through.

  It was Patricia’s body, animated by sheer undead vampire force. As the hunters howled in surprise and scrambled for the guns in the racks, she stalked straight up to me.

  I had no time to react before the draw of the vampire won out over the ward and I flowed into the undead body that had come to claim me.

  Chapter 12

  From the moment Patricia’s body embraced me, I ceased to have a clear understanding of the events unfolding around me. Even Dan screaming my name had little importance. I knew only raging thirst. The vampire was hungry.

  I sensed warm beings full of blood behind me. I heard their terrified yells. The fear told me they were prey. They would feed me. Only through them could my need be sated.

  The five men, their bodies pulsing with life, struggled with the guns hanging on the wall. I recognized the danger but I didn’t care. For once no werepanther shoved cold, unappetizing bottles of long-dead blood at me. Before me stood the real thing. The best thing. The thing that would bring me back to true life, to warmth and feeling and joy.

  I gathered myself to launch at them. I sighted on the one that had angered me too often before. Yes, he should be the one to take away the first of this onslaught of hunger. I would enjoy drinking from him best of all.

  Three of the five turned, pointing shining metal at me. Dan yelled again. Sparks of fire and smoke appeared at the muzzles of the guns. I felt the shot digging small tunnels through my body an instant before the guns spoke their deafening voices.

  Pain, almost blinding in its agony, erupted into rage. They had hurt me. Now I was famished and furious. I not only had to feed to find peace, but to heal the damage they had done. If I’d had a mote of conscience before this moment, it was long gone.

  I sprang at the one I wanted most as the guns fired again, digging more agonizing tunnels into me. The primary object of my wrath – Tattingail, his name was Tattingail – grabbed another man and shoved him at me. Too crazed to care who I devoured first, I bit into the throat of the betrayer named Mark.

  I barely felt his desperate battle as I fed on the sweet heat filling my mouth.
His fists bounced off my back unheeded. His frantic kicks went nowhere. I kept my eyes open as I claimed his life force for my own, keeping his struggling body between me and the others. He shrieked for help, but there was none to be had. They could not shoot me without killing him.

  Except for Tattingail, who ran out of the room, the rest tried to save that first feast. They danced around, jockeying to find a clear shot. I put the wall to my back and shrieked with demonic fury as they tried to yank away the man in my arms. My strength was so much greater than theirs. All they could do was curse and yell at me as they pulled the pleading meal.

  I had one clear thought; that humans were not nearly as delicious as werepanther. Yet they were still wondrous. I felt gloriously alive and sexually excited. But more than that, I was furious. More than sex, I wanted to kill. Most of all I wanted to catch and destroy the one who’d gotten away.

  Some part of me recognized I had to deal with the immediate threat first. I tossed the first victim aside and grabbed the closest man. Again I buried my fangs in the soft flesh of a throat. My eyes rolled in ecstasy as the first gush of blood slid down over my tongue.

  That was the last straw for his companions. Except for the first victim who lay still, the lot ran from the room, screaming almost as loud as my latest catch did.

  The thirst abated, leaving me to contend with my other base urges. Sex as always was there, but anger continued to shove its way to the fore. I remembered Ryan’s desperate pleas for his family. I remembered my fury that these thugs had threatened my sister and nephew.

  I had fed, but some things could not be cured with blood. Vengeance was my new priority, even over an unrequited libido. I would catch them, these monsters who wore human clothing. I would catch them and I would stop them.

  I dropped the second body, letting it fall on the first. I ignored the ghost shouting at me because I didn’t want to be talked out of finishing things once and for all. I ignored the conscience that was more plague than boon when I became a vampire. I heeded only the instincts that felt so right in the moment, the instinct that said I ruled all simply because I was the most powerful creature on the planet.

  Swift as the wind, I raced out of the room, out of the cabin where too many had come to die. I was outside in less than a second. I scented the passage of warm bodies, people who had run away, leaving the scent of fear in their wake. That aroma of panic smelled almost as delicious as the blood they carried beneath their skins.

  I did not have to think about what to do next. I was vampire. I knew how to be that from instinct. I lifted into the air and flew with the wings of night.

  About halfway down the lane leading to the country club’s drive awaited a scene of chaos. Talk about your pile-ups. Even in my state of crazed anger, it wasn’t too hard to figure out what had happened.

  Tattingail had run for it first. In his panicked race to get away from me, he’d lost control of his car, taking a curve too fast and smashing into the trees. The Buick had ended up sideways, the back end halfway in the little trail that was just big enough to allow one car through.

  That hadn’t stopped the rest of the exodus from trying to pass. An SUV had smashed both the back quarter of the Mercury and a tree. The two vehicles clogged the dirt road.

  Ed Duke in Ryan’s F-250 tried to power the truck through them both. The Ford’s front end had crumpled and smoke billowed from under the hood. Yet the engine revved, screaming along with Duke as he tried to push apart the vehicles blocking his path.

  I had a look at his face before I ripped the door off. He’d turned beet red in furious terror. Veins stood out on his forehead as he yelled a single, long cry of frustration.

  His wide eyes looked ready to pop right out of his head when I yanked him out to face his doom. His voice and the truck died at about the same time.

  I didn’t stick around long to make sure the bastard was dead. My thirst was quenched, having been drowned in the blood of three full-grown men. Only pure hatred and the need for revenge drove me now. The silver still slowly ejected from my healing body. It hurt like hell, and someone was going to pay for that, along with their many other sins. There were two more of them out there, and one would not finish the night in one piece. Not if I could help it.

  My next victim hadn’t gotten far down the road. Like Duke, I disabled him in a hurry. I left him incapacitated but moaning.

  I flew again, only slightly marveling on my innate ability to fly well. Tattingail. I wanted Tattingail, and I wanted him dead. My focus went laser sharp on that one goal.

  At last the worst of the bunch was in my sights. He ran, now only yards from reaching the paved road that would take him either to the country club or Highway 17. He would not make it.

  I dropped down on him, flattening him facedown to the ground. Lightning quick, I flipped him over so he could see me. So he could stare Death herself right in her red eyes the moment before she drained him of every drop of blood.

  “No! No!” Tattingail screamed.

  I opened my mouth wide, ready to strike. I never got the chance. A tremendous force barreled out of the dark woods with an earthshaking roar, knocking me several feet away. I howled in pain. My whole body bellowed from the monstrous blow it had taken. I leapt to my feet, ready to tear apart whatever it was that had prevented me from meting out swift justice.

  My fury dropped away as I stared at the screaming Tattingail and what now had him in its jaws.

  The big black bear lifted Tattingail by the throat and jerked its head. The preacher and would-be commissioner flew, thrown like a ragdoll to land unmoving on the side of the road.

  I watched in awe as Ryan stomped on hind legs after his prey. Shocked out of my state of pure predator, I wondered if I should try to stop him from killing his tormentor. The Tats had it coming, but my sister’s husband had enough black marks on his naughty list. Besides, Ryan didn’t strike me as the kind of guy who could kill and not have his conscience tear him apart for it.

  The night erupted in growls and yowls. Two big shapes bounded out of the woods and stopped, bristling as they faced Ryan and stood between him and Tattingail. Wolf and panther stood shoulder to shoulder, blocking the enraged werebear from getting to the groaning man.

  The wolf shifted into naked man. Levi Ward stood before the looming bear shifter, speaking in calming tones. “Stop, Ryan. You don’t want a murder charge, man.”

  Ryan bellowed, pawing the air. I guess he was telling Levi he was quite fine with facing a murder rap, thanks so much. I couldn’t say I blamed him.

  Levi tried again. “Listen to me. I know you want to go home to your wife Ashley and son Jesse. Cool down. We can fix this.”

  Hearing the names of the people he loved turned the trick. Ryan took a step back. He dropped to all fours. With a sound much like a human moan, his head lowered.

  He shifted back to human. He sat naked and vulnerable in the middle of the dirt road. Sobs rang out in the night.

  Gerald also shifted into human. Good heavens, naked men all over the place. My blood-fed libido gave an eager surge. I told it to shut up and let me think.

  I spoke up. “Maybe he’s in the clear, but I’m not so sure we can fix what I did. I left one hell of a trail of destruction behind me.”

  Levi took a long look at me. I felt the blood I’d taken drying on my chin and throat. He dragged in a deep breath and muttered under his breath. I could still hear the word he said. “Shit.”

  I nodded. “Does it matter that they had it coming to them? They did shoot me first.”

  There were a lot of exchanged looks. Levi and Gerald looked at each other, fear in their expressions. Ryan looked at Tattingail, anger and horror crossing his face in quick succession.

  As for me, I was still not quite myself . I knew I should have been horrified at what I’d done. But with fresh warm blood singing in my body, I felt exhilarated. I’d flown without any trouble at all. I had three attractive, naked men in front of me.

  I’d unloaded so much e
xuberance in violence that the usual need for sex had blunted. That didn’t mean I wasn’t interested in a taste of naughtiness though. I caught myself licking my lips as I contemplated a feast of a different kind.

  Levi’s voice wavered between amused and irritable. “Eyes up here, lady,” he rebuked in a firm voice as he waved towards his face. He shook his head and turned his back on me. Well, that was a nice view too.

  The agent concentrated on Ryan, who climbed to his feet and stumbled towards the unconscious Tattingail. My brother-in-law looked into the preacher’s eyes, took his pulse, and checked some other things.

  Levi asked, “How’s he look, Doc?”

  Ryan sounded relieved. “Not too bad, but he needs a full work up for the concussion. Call in the paramedics and let’s check on the rest.”

  The pair trotted down the lane, heading back to the pile-up and the cabin to see the damage I’d done. I mused as I watched them run away. “Panthers and wolves and bears, oh my.”

  Gerald eyed me, laughter shaking his big, yummy frame. “Get a grip, girl. You’re in trouble, you know.”

  “Yeah. I know.” I still couldn’t find the worry over it, not when Ryan would be going home alive and well to Ashley and Jesse.

  Gerald and Levi had parked the Cougar in the parking lot, but they had left their clothes at the entrance to the road. Gerald and I weren’t far away from there, and we walked to retrieve them. I didn’t comment about what a darned shame it was going to be for them to get dressed.

  To distract myself from my blood-fed libido I asked, “How did you know?”

  Gerald glanced at me. “Where to find you? At first I followed your – Patricia’s body when it rose and didn’t respond to me. I knew something weird was up, especially when you didn’t take a bottle of Blood Potion or try to bite me.”

  “Hard to believe her drive to find me was greater than that to feed. I was ravenous when I got pulled in. That’s why I lost so much control and probably killed those two guys back at the cabin.”