Immortal Coil: A Novel (Immortal Trilogy Book 1) (21 page)

              “I’m not afraid,” Dylan said and puffed out his chest. “You can count me in on this conflict.”

              David smiled and shook Dylan’s hand.

              “Welcome to the group.”

Dylan ate half the contents of the refrigerator once he was allowed upstairs. When he was finished chomping on a ham and cheese on wheat, a quart container of rocky road ice cream and a half a dozen chicken wings, he was ready to answer the rest of Maggie’s questions. Maggie sat to the left of Dylan and David sat to his right. Maggie opened her mouth, but David was so anxious to ask his own questions he didn’t give her time to form her first word before he asked Dylan three questions in quick succession.

“Why didn’t you tell us you were a werewolf? Just how powerful are you in that state? How could you turn into a werewolf when the full moon isn’t for another six days?”

After washing down a mouthful of chicken flesh with a root beer, Dylan interrupted the stream of questions to begin his answers.

“I didn’t tell you exactly what I was because I didn’t know how—or if—you could handle knowing the truth. Would you have taken me seriously if I had spouted off about being a werewolf from the start? I wasn’t sure, so I didn’t take the chance. I’m sorry for not giving you the benefit of the doubt.

              “I honestly don’t know how powerful I am. I believe I am stronger than an ordinary wolf, but just how much stronger, I don’t have a clue: never tested the theory. And if you’ve never seen a werewolf I didn’t think you would know the difference between a wolf and a werewolf. They are quite similar in appearance.”

              “I know you’re uglier than an ordinary wolf,” David said.

Dylan ignored him.

              “Okay, now listen up; my transformation cycle does not run in synchronization with the moon. Some werewolves probably do and maybe that was where the myth was born, but I don’t. There is so much about the ability that I still don’t understand.”

              “Maybe Maggie could help you,” David said. Maggie flushed with guilt and shame for the lie she was carrying. Did David know of her new power to heal rapidly? She thought she had been so careful. But then it dawned on her that he was speaking of her visions and she regained her composure.

She shrugged. “I’m clairvoyant, but that won’t help me to understand what he is. In fact, in my visions I never see a wolf. The best I can do is to tell you that werewolves have a brown aura. That’s not much help here, though.”

              “So let me see if I have this straight,” Dylan said. “I’m in a house occupied by a witch, three vampires and a human baby?”

“And now we can add a werewolf to the mix,” David said.

Dylan said, “Is there time for me to tell you how it was that I became a werewolf? I mean, I know vampires have to hide from the sun, right?”

“We do,” said Antony. “But there is still time. Please tell us your story.”

The group retired to the living room where they could get comfortable. Randal took Gardner to another part of the house, disinterested in hearing what the
werewolf
had to say.

David and Maggie sat on the couch side by side. Dylan took the recliner and Antony stood near the window.

              Dylan looked around the room at the eager faces and smiled. He had never been so elated to tell his grim story, but then again, there had never been anyone to tell it to. Until now. He began.

“The whole thing started for me twenty-two years ago on a two week camping trip with friends to the Bridge Bay Campgrounds in Yellowstone Park on Yellowstone Lake. It was the trip of the century and we’d been looking forward to it all year: Alan, Jacob—or Jack as we affectionately referred to him, Marie who was Alan’s significant other, and Julie. Our campsite was ideal. It was off the beaten path enough so that we didn’t run into a lot of other campers until we left for the various sights. We were really looking forward to seeing old faithful and the different hotspots; at least I know I was. Julie was our serious nature lover and animal spotter. She could pretty much tell you the name of every species of bird, fox, rabbit and deer we ran into. She was also our plant specialist, and thanks to her I managed to avoid spending the last five days of the trip afflicted with poison ivy.

              “Alan was our resident firebug. He was a hulk of a man and a firefighter, so he knew how to build them and knock them down, so to speak. He could have a blazing campfire stoked and flickering high into the sky in just a matter of minutes. Jack was the worrywart. ‘that fire’s too high’ or ‘we’re going to get sick if we eat that’ or ‘don’t touch that, you don’t know where it’s been’ were just a few of his favorite catechisms. Marie and Alan were the only official couple in the group, but I think Julie had her eye on Jack. Maybe it was the other way around. I’m not sure, but it doesn’t really matter now anyway.

“Alan and Maria shared a large tent with three separate rooms. One room was a fully equipped kitchen, and the other two rooms were a living room and the couples’ bedroom. Jack, Julie and I had our own tents for sleeping stationed around that big one, but we spent the rest of the time in the living quarters of Al and Marie’s tent.

              “Day one was spent setting up tents and getting to know the surroundings. We had a quarter mile hike to the bathroom, which the girls both seemed to have to hit at the same time. Mostly we guys did it like the bear does it, if you know what I mean—even though it was against the rules.

“Day two was designated as our sight-seeing day. We got to see old faithful and a few other spots we wanted to see. Day three we rested, mostly. We nursed our aching muscles and soothed our sunburns.

              “Day four was a disaster. It rained so bad that we had to wait it out in our cars. After the rains swept through we had some cleaning up to do. Night four Julie thought she saw a bear in the campsite. We tried to convince her that the bears didn’t come into the campsites, but the next night we all saw it. Turns out, Alan wasn’t throwing his trash away with the rest. Julie had stressed the importance of all foodstuffs and trash needed to be bagged and taken to the main disposal site to prevent the animals from coming into the camp.

              “‘What’s the big deal,’ he said. “So I have a few candy wrappers in my knapsack.’

              “Julie said, ‘it will be a big deal when the bear rips your face off while looking for the source of the food.’

              “So we remembered to burn any trash we could that didn’t make it to the disposal site.

              “Over the weekend, so many things seemed to just change. Suddenly, Alan and Maria were at each other’s throats—although, in hindsight, their whole relationship seemed strained from the very first day of the trip. It just seemed that whatever beef they had been having had come to a head then and there. Then there was Julie and Jack, who had become inseparable. They went off in search of adventure and would be gone for hours. Alan took off, no doubt looking for a bar, which left Maria and I alone to chat and hang out by the fire Alan had started before he left. We cooked S’mores. Marie was eating the uncooked marshmallows, though; because she didn’t like graham crackers, and I was gobbling up the chocolate. We let the fire die down, neither of us knowing what to do to keep it going.

              “‘Alan’s going to be angry with us for letting his little darling die,’ she said as she crammed another white fluffy cube into her mouth.

              “‘Then he should have stuck around to keep it going.’ I said. She seemed to be on the verge of wanting to say something, but didn’t. I got the impression she wanted to tell me why she and Alan had been fighting. ‘Besides,’ I said, continuing when she didn’t speak. ‘He’s the firefighter. If I try to build a fire the forest will burn down without him here to prevent it.’

              “‘You’re not that bad,’ she said. She tapped my shoulder playfully.

              “Of course I acted like she just broke my arm. I wailed and moaned. She leaned in toward me, worried that he had actually hurt me. I stopped the act smiled at her. She snarled at me in fake anger and tapped me again, harder this time. I reached over and tickled her. She cried out for me to stop, laughing hysterically.

              “When I did, our mouths were only inches apart. I bravely leaned in even closer until our lips were nearly touching. She did not pull away. I went for it and kissed her, a quick peck on the lips, testing her resolve. When I pulled away she followed me and now she was initiating the kiss. This one was deeper and longer. When the kiss ended we both fell away from each other and turned back to the fire as though it was the most fascinating thing we’d ever seen.

              “‘I’m sorry,’ I started to say, but she cut me off.

              “‘There’s nothing to be sorry about. What happened—happened. It didn’t mean anything and no one need know.’

              “I agreed and we left it at that. Not long after the kiss, Jack and Julie returned. I wondered what they were up to, but they weren’t saying. And I couldn’t very well ask him what he had been doing if I didn’t want him asking the same thing from me.

              “Alan returned late that night. He didn’t seem drunk, and he started a new fire. We all sat around it for a while. Julie retired to her tent first, then Jack. Maria left soon after that and when it was just Alan and I, he asked. ‘Want to go canoeing with me tomorrow?’ I said sure, tossed a few sticks into the fire then I went to bed. I’m not sure how much longer Alan stayed up that night, but when I woke, the fire was out. Julie had been the only one up before me.

              “Alan and I left for the lake after lunch. We rented a two-man canoe and he paddled us out onto the lake. Somewhere in the middle of the lake he stopped paddling and we just floated for a while. There were a few speedboats rushing by, and somewhere far off there were jet skiers, but for the most part we were alone. I mentioned we should have brought fishing gear and he mumbled something but I can’t remember what that could have been. He wasn’t much for fishing and I knew it. I was just talking to break up the quiet.

              “Then out of the blue, he said, ‘Did you make out with my girlfriend?’

              “I hesitated then said, ‘who told you?’

              “He laughed without any humor and said, ‘you just did.’

“He got me with the oldest trick in the book. I walked right into that one. And he was probably going to kill me, right there on the lake where he could dispose of the body when no one was looking.

              “‘It was nothing,’ I said. ‘We kissed; that was all. It was an innocent kiss, no tongue or anything.’

              “‘Who initiated it?’

              “I couldn’t believe I was telling him this. I must have really wanted to die. “We were just sort of screwing around, tickling each other, and then I kissed her.’ I said.

              “He just sat there waiting for me to continue. I did.

              “‘Then she kissed me.’ I couldn’t believe I had admitted that. I must have wanted to die or something. I don’t know.

              “Alan stood up in the canoe. It rocked a little, but he steadied it okay. He was a two hundred and thirty-pound guy, which is a good fifty pounds on me, and this guy had muscles on his muscles. If he hit me, there was little I could do about it except take the blow. But he didn’t hit me. Instead, he heaved the paddle into the water about twenty-five yards away, then sat back down. I was about to ask him why he did that, but when I looked back at him, he was crying.

              “I’d never seen him cry—didn’t know he even could cry—but he was sitting there with his head in his hands and he was crying. I wanted to console him, but didn’t know how. I never had to console another guy before, so I just sat there and did nothing. It was the right thing to do. When he stopped crying he said, ‘I messed up.’ I asked him how he messed up. What he said froze me in my seat.

              “He said, ‘I slept with Tracy.’

              “Tracy was his ex, and to say she and Maria did not get along was an understatement. I knew what an immense betrayal this must have been in Maria’s eyes.

              “I said, ‘Does Maria know?’

              “‘Yes,’ he said.

              “’Shit,’ I said. ‘You royally messed up.’

              “We were quiet for a while.

              “Then I said, ‘When did it happen?’

              “‘A couple of weeks ago; I was hanging out at Tracy’s place, you know, being defiant. There was no way Maria was going to say who I could and couldn’t be friends with. Then Tracy came out into the living room wearing a nightie. My eyes popped out of my head. I couldn’t believe she would do that. Her nipples poked out of the see-through teddy and I couldn’t help it. We did it right there on her sofa. I felt really bad about it, I gathered up my clothes and I left and haven’t looked back since. I told Maria. She cried, and I cried. I promised her I would never see Tracy again as a friend or any other way. I meant it, too. I was stupid to think I could have that kind of control.’

              “‘What did Maria say? I mean, does she believe you?’ I asked. I think I asked that because I didn’t believe it. If he could cheat once, he could do it again. I wanted to make sure he didn’t plan to do something like this to Marie in the future. She was, after all, also my friend.

              “‘She believes me,’ he said. ‘But she doesn’t trust me.’ He sounded so sad when he said that last part, like he knew deep down she had reason not to trust him. I thought he was going to cry again but he didn’t, though. Thank God. I would never want to see another grown man cry for as long as I live.