Club Monstrosity (10 page)

He opened it and retrieved a laptop that he brought back to Alec. The werewolf set it on the glass table in front of him and started typing.

“I noticed the cameras both outside and in the hallways,” he explained as his fingers clattered over the keys. “And in a building with security like this, I’m guessing they keep the digital copies of the video for at least a few days, maybe even up to a week, before deleting them from the server. Just in case some lady complains about the cleaning lady stealing the Hope Diamond or something. If I can just access the system . . .”

He trailed off, leaned away from the computer screen. Slowly his gaze came up and he glared at Jekyll and Hyde.

“Shit, you guys have a lot of porn on here. And I’m just going to assume the worst ones are yours, Hyde . . .”

Jekyll’s cheeks darkened to near-purple; he opened his mouth to speak, but all that came out was a sputtering sound as he held out a hand to demand the computer back. Hyde, on the other hand, looked quite proud of his video collection. He leaned back against the wall, arms folded and a grin on his face.

Alec ignored them both and went back to typing furiously. His golden eyes moved back and forth across the screen and then they crinkled with pleasure and triumph.

“And here we go. Shit, for a security system they have very little computer security. But I can access the videos for the last . . . three days.”

“Wow,” Kai said with a shrug. “That’s actually impressive.”

Natalie nodded and found she was feeling quite proud for some reason. As if a compliment toward Alec had anything to do with her.

“Told you,” she said. “How do you think I got those police reports?”

“That system was way harder to get into,” Alec admitted. “But I guess it should be. Okay, I’m accessing the footage from last night. What time did you two feel like someone was following you?”

“Three a.m.,” Hyde said as he paced back to the window to look over the city.

Alec glanced at him a second time. “Wow, late-night partiers. I shudder to think what
you
were doing in New York at three a.m.”

Hyde sent a rather menacing smile his way and Alec shook his head before he went back to work on the computer. Natalie stared at Hyde as Alec clicked away. He was darker than ever right now, more monstrous when he was being threatened, and that fact sent chills down her spine. Sometimes she wondered why they let him stay around anyway. They had kicked others out of their group for less.

But then she looked at his brother. Jekyll was pale and sweaty, tired and a tiny bit broken by the constant struggles against Hyde’s desires. And yet he loved Hyde; that was clear. And he was a good man. Anyway, they were all monsters. Whether they liked it or not, they had to stick together. Especially right now, when someone was intent on tearing them apart.

“Okay, here’s the time stamp, assuming they’ve corrected for daylight savings.”

Alec leaned back and motioned everyone else in around him. They gathered around the back of the couch, watching the grainy video. It was in black and white and a little blurry, not exactly coming-to-a-theater-near-you quality, but it worked.

Soon a man walked up to the building.

“There we are,” Jekyll said, pointing.

Natalie crinkled her eyes. Yup, from the cut of the expensive suit, that was him. Them. Whatever. Jekyll and Hyde.

In the video there was a moment of small talk with the uniformed doorman.

“It’s coming up in a minute,” Hyde said with a yawn, though he never looked at the screen. “I remember because I was trying to tell Jekyll that we don’t have to stop and speak to the help every time we come to the building.”

Jekyll turned on him. “Davis has been the night doorman for this building for ten years and his wife has cancer! Of course I’m going to ask after them. Hyde—”

“Shh!” Kai snapped. “Watch.”

The brothers glared at each other. Finally Jekyll refocused on the computer just as a figure moved in behind them on-screen.

“Hey,” Natalie said, pointing. “Look. Trench coat behind Jekyll-Hyde.”

Alec leaned closer. “That’s affirmative. But I can’t really see the face. Hang on, let me fiddle with the settings.”

He paused the video with the person standing on the street, staring at Jekyll-Hyde while they talked to the doorman. He clicked on various settings and the picture grew lighter, darker, more and less pixilated, but there was no clearing of the watcher’s face.

“Huh, sorry,” he said. “The video cameras aren’t that great at night, I guess.”

“And to think of what we pay for our supposed
security
here.” Jekyll sniffed.

Hyde laughed. “Don’t worry about cameras. I’m your security, brother. In fact, I wish they’d get rid of them. That kind of evidence could be . . . tricky.”

Alec shrugged. “Let me back it up and slow it down and maybe we can see something else of value . . .”

He messed with the computer and replayed the footage, this time much slower. In the frame-by-frame sequence the stranger clearly turned almost completely to the side to look at Jekyll-Hyde.

“What’s that around the neck?” Kai asked. “Pause it.”

Natalie looked at the grainy picture. When the person turned, something swung out from under the trench. “It looks too big to be a necklace. It’s square and it looks like there might be some kind of jewel on it. Like a . . . medallion?” she suggested, though saying it out loud was ridiculous.

Alec chuckled. “How very Bram Stoker of the stalker.”

No one else laughed, but Jekyll waved at the screen. “Play the rest.”

Alec did as he was told and let the footage play at full speed. As Jekyll-Hyde spoke to the doorman, the trench-coat wearer walked by a second time, looking at them again. Then Jekyll-Hyde went inside the building. A few seconds later, the trench-coat wearer was back, this time to stop outside the building and look up. He stood there a few moments before the doorman came out to shoo him away.

But he looked over his shoulder as he left the frame, and even though the expression on the unknown face was too blurry to read, there was no doubt that someone was after the monsters in their group.

And there was no telling who that
someone’s
next victim might be.

10

Alec froze the picture with their unknown adversary’s foot just leaving the frame and sat back against the leather seats of Jekyll’s white couch. He braced himself for the usual response from his monstrous cohorts. Crying. Howling. Whining. Bitching. Moaning.

Instead, there was a curious, heavy silence that hung in the room for so long that Alec locked eyes with Natalie. She seemed to recognize his silent question because she shrugged and shifted in discomfort.

It was Linda, of all people, who finally spoke.

“Obviously we’re being stalked,” she whispered in a broken, shaky tone.

She picked at her hand and didn’t even seem to notice when a block of fake flesh broke off to land on Jekyll’s expensive carpet. Jekyll noticed, though. His nose scrunched in displeasure and Alec could almost guarantee he’d have a cleaning lady here by daybreak. Maybe even before.

Kai turned on Linda with a shake of her head.

“Now, wait,” she said and her voice was sharp. “Calm down, everyone. Once again, we’re jumping to conclusions.”

Natalie burst out with a laugh that was anything but humor-filled. “Ellis died the same way as his story,
Blob
died the same way as his story, and someone was following Jekyll and Hyde. How is
that
jumping to conclusions?”

Kai paced the room like an Egyptian cat. Actually, that was a perfect way to describe how Alec had always thought of her. Sleek. Devious. Unaffected by anything or anyone.

He was a dog person.

Except now Kai’s voice was tense and cracked, almost as if the words she said were to convince herself as much as anyone else.

“I’m not saying these things aren’t bad,” Kai conceded. “I’m not even saying there isn’t some kind of danger lurking out there.”

“Then what
are
you saying?” Alec asked. “Because it kind of seems like you want to put your head in the sand and play dead pharaoh. Dead pharaoh is a thing for you, right?”

Kai’s eyes narrowed until Alec wasn’t sure she could even see past them. Then she took a deep breath and growled, “No, I’m just all for taking my time before I jump to conclusions. I think we’ve
all
learned that lesson over the hundreds of years we’ve been roaming this earth. Well, everyone except for Hyde.”

Hyde snorted out a laugh. “Looking before one leaps is highly overrated, my dear.”

Natalie folded her arms. “Except, in this case, our
conclusion
that someone was hunting us has turned out to be right. The proof of it is there on video. Why do you refuse to see that?”

Kai looked at the frozen screen and her lip twitched.

Great, at least something was finally getting through to her. Trust Natalie to just go the direct route—one Alec continued by saying, “
Someone
was following Jekyll. Even you can’t deny that, no matter how much you want to.”

Kai held up her hands. “Once again I have to bring up the fact that Ellis was an
asshole
who very well might have brought that attack upon himself. Whoever followed Jekyll could have been an admirer in a club, a business contact, or just a run-of-the-mill criminal looking to jump a rich person.”

“Your explanation has one big missing piece, though,” Natalie said.

She slowly got to her feet and moved to pour herself a drink. Alec was a little disappointed she chose filtered water, not booze. He would sort of like to see her buzzed. Was that even possible with her hodgepodge metabolism? He would have to find out.

Kai turned her attention to Natalie. “What’s that?”

“Blob,” Natalie said softly. “He
wasn’t
an asshole; in fact he was the exact opposite. Plus, I doubt he had business contacts or criminals after him, and no one could mistake him for a rich mark, not with the life he was living in that hellhole of an apartment. But someone still locked him in a freezer to die a slow and painful death. Just like in The Story.”

Alec nodded. “And if someone was just going to kill him, unrelated to the fact that he was a monster, why would they do something so . . .
weird
as lock him in a freezer? Why not just shoot him or stab him or something? It doesn’t add up.”

Natalie shook her head. “No. It
does
add up. It just adds up in one way. Someone knows we’re monsters.”

Kai swallowed hard, hesitating as the wheels in her mind very obviously turned to find something she could call a logical explanation for Natalie’s very good point. Except finally she just shrugged.

“Yes, there is that. Blob makes this more . . . complicated,” Kai whispered, and then sat down with a thud in one of the high-backed chairs outside the main sitting area.

Linda nodded swiftly. “And that person in the video is probably the same guy who killed Blob and incited the riot against Ellis. And if he is, that means
he
knows who we are . . .
what
we are.”

Alec couldn’t believe he was agreeing with Linda, but he nodded. “If Trench Coat is our killer, then I’d say it’s a safe bet he knows
exactly
who and what we are. As well as a great deal of other facts, like where we live, what our habits are, and how best to kill us. The one thing we don’t know is why.”

Linda covered her eyes, but her voice was strangely calm as she said, “I don’t really care about motives. I think we should go to the police. We can show them the connection and let
them
go after this murderer. That’s their job anyway.”

Hyde hadn’t bothered to watch the video of whoever had stalked him and his brother, only continued to stare out the window the whole time. But now he spun around and took a long, menacing step toward Linda.

“Really, idiot?
That’s
what you think we should do? Reach out to the cops and tell them
what,
exactly?” His face was darkening to red and then purple. A vein in his forehead throbbed and slowly he began to get . . . bigger. “That we have evidence some guy in a coat is following us? Because we’re
monsters
? Oh, and by the way, our evidence for this was stolen from their own database and our building’s surveillance system?”

Linda flinched at his ugly, threatening tone. Even Natalie pressed herself back against the couch, and Alec had never seen her fearful in all the time he’d known her.

But then again, in that moment Hyde looked truly terrifying. His eyes flashed dark and angry in an out-of-control way and his breath came in harsh, heavy pants. His nails had grown longer into sharp talons, his muscles bulged beneath his expensive suit, and Alec could have sworn he had fangs now. He looked like he could kill and not even think twice about it.

In short, like a monster.

“You should be the next one who dies, you stupid bitch,” he snarled, moving toward Linda a second time. “Let’s not even wait for the stalker. I’d love to do his job for him.”

At that, Linda curled up on the couch with a squeal of terror. Without thinking, without hesitating, Alec was on his feet. He heard the warning growl from deep in his throat—he was more than ready to fight, his fists raised and his mouth watering with the thought of taking a swing or twenty at Hyde.

Except he didn’t have to. Jekyll reached out and clasped his brother’s arm.

“Stop,” he said, low and calm.

Alec stared. At Jekyll’s touch, Hyde seemed to struggle, his face twisting as he fought to maintain his anger. Then it faded and the shocking changes that had taken over his body during the emotion disappeared with it. He glared at Jekyll. “You
never
let me have fun,” he accused, all seriousness. “I hate you.”

Jekyll flinched, almost as if he were absorbing the rage Hyde felt and it burned him, hurt him. With all the past proof of how deep the psychic bond went between the brothers, Alec had to assume that might not be too far from the truth.

“If I let you have fun, we all suffer,” Jekyll whispered. Their eyes met and held, unblinking, unwavering. “I am trying to protect you.”

Hyde muttered something unintelligible and Jekyll released him. He staggered slightly, and then both men sat on the couch together. After a second, Hyde reached over and took Jekyll’s hand and they sat still in that creepy horror-movie twin way.

Natalie’s shoulders relaxed as the threat of violence seemed to fade. She sighed. “As much as I hate to admit it, Hyde has a point.”

When Linda flinched, Natalie raised her hands. “About the cops! Not the other stuff. I know cops. I deal with them a lot in my job at the morgue. There are only two outcomes if we involve the police in our . . . situation.”

“Which are?” Drake asked. Through everything he had remained quiet, almost bored by the freaking out. This was the first time he’d spoken in so long, Alec had almost forgotten him.

Natalie pursed her lips as she considered her answer. “One, they won’t believe us because our story makes us sound like a bunch of nut jobs.
But
they would take a very strong interest in the fact that two people from our group have died recently. We make that connection for them and I promise you, we won’t like the outcome.”

“We’ll be suspects,” Drake offered.

She nodded. “In all likelihood, yeah.”

“And what’s the second possibility?” Alec asked. He was still standing, watching Hyde just in case the freak show decided to throw down against Linda or Natalie or anyone else in the room.

Natalie shrugged. “It’s worse: they just might believe us.”

Linda’s green eyes lit up. “Good! That’s what we want! How is that bad?”

Natalie shut her eyes for a moment and then said, “If they believe us, we’ll be outed as monsters. Maybe we even get arrested just to ‘protect the public.’ Or maybe a mob forms. We’ve all seen that happen before, I don’t think I need to go into too much detail about the possibilities.”

Kai nodded. “You’re right. Shit, I can’t believe I’m saying that.”

“Yeah, I bet. It’s almost not even English when I hear it.” Natalie laughed. “It must taste sour coming from your mouth.”

Kai shot her a look, but there wasn’t much darkness in it. Alec actually had the sneaking suspicion that Kai
liked
Natalie. Or at least respected her, which was as good as one usually got with the Mummy Girl.

Alec chuckled. “Well,
I
agree with Natalie, too.”

To his surprise, Natalie looked in his direction and her thankful smile was as good a reward as any for his agreement.

Linda covered her face with a long, wavering sigh. “I just don’t want to die.”

“
None
of us want to die,” Alec pointed out with a shrug. “But we have to figure this out on our own. Or at least have a lot more information before we start going to the humans and asking them to help us.”

Natalie nodded. “We have to be smart.
Who
might have a motive for wanting us dead?”

“Someone who knows we’re monsters?” Linda offered, her tone dripping with sarcasm and anger that her earlier suggestion about cops had been dismissed.

Natalie ignored the snottiness and shook her head. “No way. A regular human who found out there were real-life monsters in New York might call the cops . . . or the
Enquirer
. They’d try to get us on video. But they wouldn’t start murdering us in a series of movie-themed homicides. That just seems too personal, not to mention twisted. What’s happening to us now is part of a pretty deep-seated hatred that goes beyond movie-matinee fear.”

Alec nodded. “True.”

“But there isn’t a common element to the first two crimes. And it doesn’t seem like anyone the group has interacted with lately has a link. Did
anyone
find one?” Jekyll asked.

“Well,” Alec said with a shrug. He hadn’t wanted to bring this up, but it seemed like there was little choice now. “I’ve thought of one person who is related to all of us and might want us dead.”

Kai’s eyes went wide. “Who?”

“You’re not going to like it,” Alec replied. “But what about Rehu?”

The silence that fell over the room was heavier than ever as the rest of them pondered the name he had thrown out. One they hadn’t spoken in months. Natalie stared at Alec and the light in her eyes told him that she liked the idea. Had maybe even thought of it herself at some point.

But Kai froze and was almost paper-pale now.

Not that Alec blamed her. Rehu was Kai’s former lover.
Former
as in a couple millennia of history were shared between them. Their deaths and ultimate reincarnations had been the inspiration for dozens of mummy movies and books. But Rehu was way closer to the more modern retellings of the mummy tale than a Lon Chaney type. He was slick, good-looking, and bubbling with a rage under the surface that rivaled even Hyde’s mad fury.

He had been part of their group up until about a year before, when his behavior had started to draw attention to them. They’d been forced to kick him out, and he’d been enraged.

Kai backed up a long step and glared daggers at Alec. “Fuck you, Werewolf. Rehu didn’t do this. Of course you’d blame him, you always hated him.”

Alec shrugged. He wouldn’t go so far as to say
hate,
but werewolves and mummies didn’t mix. Still, he wouldn’t have accused him without a
real
suspicion that he could be the culprit.

Drake shook his head. “Whatever Alec’s motives, he has a point. Rehu
does
know what we are. He knows The Story for each of us. He knows where we meet and where many of us live.”

Jekyll nodded wildly. “That’s true.
And
he hates us, not only for kicking him out of the therapy circle, but because Drake and I kept him from selling the artifacts from his own tomb for profit.”

“I always thought we should have gone in with him on that scheme,” Hyde said with a sigh. “A pity.”

“You would,” Drake muttered. “And damn the consequences all the attention would bring on us.”

Hyde shrugged. “We could have made them go away and you know it.”

Jekyll silenced his brother with a wave of his hand. “Rehu has every motive in the world and every opportunity.”