Kissed By Moonlight (17 page)

I'd already finished one slice of bread. Normally, I would have asked for a glass of water or milk or something, but I was so hungry I didn't mind the way it gummed up my mouth.

It sounded like a familiar story. Man cheats on wife, decides he doesn't want mistress anymore, tries to get rid of mistress. Mistress tries to get even.

"So... what did she do?" I said, leaning my elbows against the cool, hard marble.

Adam shrugged and brushed some strands of hair off his face. He still hadn't taken off his jacket.

"They found her guilty and went to burn her.
Right in the center of town. So they tied her up at the stake, lots of wood and kindling and all that at her feet."

I shivered and looked over my shoulders at the long, quiet room. What a poor woman. I thought about what it must have been like, tied to some wooden post, angry, ignorant Puritans waving torches. Would she smell herself cooking? What a morbid thought.

"So she calls my ancestor up to the front, who's just hanging out, waiting for the burning to start. For some reason, he walks right up the wood pile to stand in front of her. Maybe she had him under a spell or something. But he kisses her, and she bites his lip to draw blood. The villagers drag him away after that. Just as the fire really starts to get going, she calls out the curse in some awful tongue no one can understand but my ancestor."

The second piece of bread only had one bite out of it. My eyes felt dry, but I couldn't blink. This was awful. I kept picturing it all in my head, the witch tied up, the flames licking at the hem of her dress, the ends of her hair beginning to smoke as she cackles...

"What? What did she say?"

Adam ran his fingernails through the stubble along his
jaw line, making a scratching sound that had me wincing. He took a deep breath and glanced up and down the room.

"She said that the firstborn son of his line in every generation will be cursed to walk the earth in the skin of a wolf. It was blood magic, that's why she needed him to kiss her. It sealed the deal."

I blinked, my eyes grateful for the moisture. My first reaction was anger, hot in my chest.

"What is this, a joke? Are you trying to tell me that you're a werewolf?"

"Yes, actually. I can control it most nights..." he said, looking down at the butter knife smeared with peanut butter, twisting the blade between his fingers, "But then, when I went out with you..."

I pushed away from the island.

"You are such an asshole! What does all this crap have to do with Jenn? Did you even look for her?"

"I know it sounds crazy. But it's true. I also know you don't believe me, but you will."

"Why are you telling me this?"

He came around the island as I leaned against the big fridge. The stainless steel door felt pleasantly cool against my back as I rubbed at my eyes with my wrist.

"Because I feel good around you, normal. I don't know why, but I think we have a connection. I noticed it that first night I saw you, at one of Jim's parties."

He stood in front of me, putting one of his hands over my shoulder against the fridge door. I became aware of how close we were, of how he smelled. I swallowed heavily as he looked me in the eye.

"I like you, Steph. A lot, I think. I thought you needed to know the truth about me, that maybe you wouldn't think I was such a monster."

He swallowed then, too, his eyes flicking down to my lips and back up.

"You're scaring me," I said, I kept thinking of what Vick told me.

My body buzzed with heat, and it was hard to get
enough air into my lungs. My heart slammed against my ribs.

"There's just one thing I want to do first, before I tell you the rest," he said.

"The rest of what?"

My hands slid along the fridge door trying to find the edge so I could pull myself out of there. The last time I'd felt anything like this was with Jenn, that night, with her hand on the back of my neck, pulling my face towards hers.

But there was more fear this time, more uncertainty mixed with the desire to feel him against me. I didn't know what I wanted to happen anymore. The guy believed he was a werewolf!

My fingers found the edge of the door and I started pulling.

Then he kissed me. His stubble was rough against my skin, and his mouth insistent. And hot, so hot. I put my hands on his shoulders, ready to push him away. But I pulled him closer so our hips touched.

His arms wrapped around my waist and crushed me against me so hard I could barely breathe. I trembled in his grasp as our lips worked, my entire body electrified with an unshackled need.

Then he pushed back away from me, shoulders heaving as he stumbled and caught himself against the counter.

“What… What is it?” I said, reaching a hand towards him but not sure if I should go to him.

“Nothing, it’s nothing…” Adam said, shaking his head.

But it was something. I could tell, or rather, I could feel it. Nothing about the way he looked had changed, but something animal and dangerous seemed to hang in the air about it.

It set my heart to pounding, an adrenaline rush pushing through my body leaving my limbs shaking. I didn’t know whether I was excited, terrified, or both.

Then he fixed me with his eyes and I couldn’t deny either of us what we wanted any longer. All other thoughts and worries fled from my mind. I had to have him, there and now.

And he had to have me.

Adam grabbed me by the waist and lifted me up as though I weighed nothing at all. Not gently, he sat me down on that expansive island. His mouth came in for my neck even as my ankles locked together at the small of his back.

He nipped at me lightly, his hands squeezing my thighs, and I buried my nose in his hair and breathed deeply of his smell.

It was intoxicating. My body shivered, my nipples perking and a ball of heat building within.

His fingers ran up beneath my shirt then scratched down my flesh, making me suck a breath in through my teeth.

It was like there was a beast inside him with these hungers, and now it was coming out.

Well, there was something inside me, too. I grabbed his jacket and pushed it down off him. The little steel zippers tinkled against the floor at the same time as I yanked his shirt up over his head.

When I touched his bare shoulders, I almost pulled my hands away. It felt like he was on fire!

“You’re hot! Why are you so hot” I said.

But then those questions, too, left my mind. I felt the bulging of his desire against me when he grabbed my hips and ground our bodies together.

I helped him pull my shirt off, and I got the feeling that if I hadn’t reached around quickly and unclasped my bra, he would have simply
torn it off me.

Then he pushed me back so that I lay flat on the marble counter.
Its cold shocked me, but his lips running down between my breasts made me forget that sensation, as well. I ran my hands down his broad shoulder blades, looking at the expanse of his muscular back.

Had it been so broad before? I couldn’t remember, and couldn’t care.

The heat of his bare flesh against mine, the warmth of his lips as they trailed down between my breasts, down the little dimple in my stomach between my abs, that made me put that question, too, from my mind.

His hands shot up to my breasts and squeezed. It hurt enough to make me gasp again, but I liked it. I returned the favor by running my fingernails up and down his back, leaving little red trails behind in his flesh.

His shaking hands then started on the button of my jeans. I sat up and did the same to him, undoing his button and pulling down his zipper to reveal a pair of grey boxers, his manhood straining against the fabric. Seeing it made me swallow, got my juices flowing.

But before I could free it from its prison, he shoved me back down against the cold island.

His fingernails grazed my thighs as he wrenched my jeans and panties off savagely, letting them lie on the floor.

His face was a mask of animal hunger and desire. It touched something deep inside me, fueling my own fire, fanning the flames to an incredible heat the even the coolness of the marble beneath me couldn’t quench.

Before he could stop me, I slid down onto the floor in front of him, grabbing his member through his boxers and squeezing it. He groaned, throwing his head back and covering his face with his hands.

I’d always been nervous with guys before. Not that I was with that many, you understand. It’s just I always felt so self conscious.

Except this time. I could think of nothing but how I wanted to make him feel good. How I wanted him inside me. I wasn’t certain how or why I felt that way, only that my lust-soaked mind considered that matter for a moment before dropping it.

It was like my body took over, spurred on by something it sensed with him. I yanked Adam’s pants and boxers down, and he kicked them off. Then we were both natural and naked, his shaft trembling close, so close. I needed to taste it.

I took him in my mouth and he groaned. It was a deep groan that vibrated deep inside me, heightening my own pleasure, making me salivate around him. My lips strained around him, and his manhood burned even hotter than the rest of him.

He tasted salty, and the taste grew stronger the harder I sucked on him and the faster I stroked up and down his length, which I’d made nice and slick with my spit.

He groaned against, getting harder against my tongue, stiffer in my fingers. I wanted him to feel good. Making him feel good made me feel good. So I stroked him harder, faster, urging him on.

“No!” Adam said suddenly, pushing my back against the island, his shaft trembling even as my saliva dripped from it.

Somehow gaining some measure of control over himself, he went over to his jeans and rummaged around. He’d grabbed a blue-wrapped condom from his pocket or wallet. I watched with my own set of hungry eyes as he rolled it down his shaft. He could hardly keep his hands steady enough to do it, but he managed.

Then he bore down on me, picking me up and spinning me around to face the island, he pushed me over it so that my breasts pressed down onto its cold surface.

He kicked my legs apart, and I arched my back, accentuating my bottom for him.

“Adam…” I breathed, my whole body quivering with need, my walls hot and slick and trembling with the need to feel him.

He slid the head of his member up between my sopping lips, finding my entrance. Then he grabbed me by the hips and pushed. I cried out, my hands moving over the smooth surface of the island, looking for something to hold onto. Finally, they found the edge of the sink and I grabbed it.

My tightness held him back for only a second, holding us both in anticipation. Finally, he slid into me and we both groaned. He filled me up, little shocks of pain making me gasp as I stretched out around him.

It felt like he burned inside me. How was he not on fire? How could someone be that hot.

Then his grip on my hips got stronger.

This wasn’t going to be a gentle lovemaking session, I knew. This was something else, something primal. We both needed something, and needed it bad.

He withdrew himself most of the way, pausing for only an instant before slamming himself all the way back into me, his shaft flexing within me, our bodies slapping together wetly.

He did it again and again, his fingers digging painfully into my hips, holding me against him while he unleashed his inner beast, his inner desires.

My screams echoed throughout the halls of the old house, and I didn’t hold back.

He went so hard and fast that part of me actually worried that the condom might break. But the rest of me didn’t care about that. He rode me closer and closer to my climax. I could feel myself tightening around him, which in turn made him go harder and faster.

“Oh, God, Adam!
I’m coming!” I said, my head arching back as my body tensed up.

My sex worked his member rhythmically, alternating between clenching down around him and relaxing. When he felt this, he slammed himself all the way inside me. Then he spent himself, his shaft jerking. Each time he pulsed, I whimpered a little.

He groaned as well, but there was something different about the sound. Something that made the hair on the back of my neck stand, tickling at that ancient part of the human mind that knows when a predator is near.

The sound excited him, and his fingers dug even deeper into my hips.

I wanted him to linger, to stay inside me longer, but he pulled out of me and stumbled backwards.

The intense and satisfying relief that normally follows a climax like that was tainted by concern. Adam caught himself on the fridge, leaning his weight against it and panting.

“Are you okay?” I said, trying to ignore the dull ache inside me.

“Yes, I think so… Normally, I control it…” he said. “Would you hand me my clothes, please?”

Chapter 24

After we dressed, he pulled me close into another kiss. Then, like before, he stumbled back.

His face twisted like he was in pain.

My lips stung, we'd kissed so hard. My body flushed with heat
again. It had been incredible, just as I'd wanted and imagined. But the wish fulfillment was tainted by what he'd said.

"What
… what else did you have to say?" I said.

"Not much time," he breathed, squeezing the counter so that his knuckles turned white, "There's a room, downstairs. Come on."

He pushed himself away. I wanted to call after him, to ask what was happening, to ask what he was going to reveal. But he stumbled from the kitchen. I had to choose between following him and being by myself in that old, creepy house.

So I came with him. He opened a door that led down to the basement, nearly falling down the stairs when he hit the
light switch. He was hunched over, and I could hear his breaths whistling in and out between his clenched teeth.

My own breathing was rapid, too. Adrenaline coursed through me, hot and cold, all my senses sharpened from it.

"Adam? Where are we going?" I said, almost whispering. It felt like a whispering occasion, somehow wrong.

He trailed one hand along the rail, gripping it tightly every time he descended a stair. Again, I considered just running back up and outside. There was that BMW parked out front. But Adam had the key for it in his pocket.

Something snapped inside him, the noise alone enough to send my stomach tumbling. He nearly fell down the stairs, then.

"Adam!" I said, grabbing him by the arm to keep him from tumbling away.

Beneath his jacket, I could feel his flesh and bones moving, changing shape.

I wanted to let go as a primal fear shot up my spine, but another spasm grabbed him so I kept him from falling.

"Just... over here..." he said.

When I saw his face, it was absolutely dripping with sweat. His features were twisted, his teeth clenched together and his lips pulled back.
Whatever it was had to be absolute agony.

My body started responding to him, feeling a sympathetic pang deep in my muscles every time he groaned.

"There... that room," he said, leaning against the wall and pointing at an opened wooden door with thick steel bands running across it. It had to be at least four inches or so thick.

I ran over to it, pushing it the rest of the way open and searching for a
light switch, running my hands along the wall. All I felt were deep gouges in the wood. The only light came in through a skylight, right in the middle of the ceiling about thirty feet from the floor.

My eyes adjusted, and I saw the deep scratches all over the walls. They were jagged and long.

"What... what is this?" I said.

"Now you believe me," Adam said.

I jumped at his voice. It had changed again, taking on that awful, modulated tone. And he was right behind me, leaning against the doorframe.

"Lock me in... not safe out here..."

"What is it, Adam, what's happening?"

He's turning into a werewolf, I thought. Something in my mind knew, even though the rest of me wouldn't accept it. Werewolves were stupid dog monsters for late-night horror flicks.

But I moved aside all the same. He fell onto the floor, his back arching up as he tore at his hair.

"Damn..." he said, "Not the jacket... Here!"

He worked the already torn jacket off his shoulders and tossed it to me. Then he started trying to take the rest of his clothes off. His t-shirt ripped as his suddenly clawed fingers tore into it.

His abs and chest, just like his face, were soaked and glistening with sweat.

"Close the door!" he said.

His eyes had changed. They were yellow, now. My brain reacted, taking over. I slammed the door shut, turned around, and leaned against it. From within the room
there was a ripping noise, followed by an inhuman cry of pain.

I buried my face in his jacket, blotting out the world as I covered my ears. That only succeeded in muffling the noise a little.

I'd never felt so terrified in my whole life. I'd heard phrases like "scared stupid" and "petrified" before to describe the feeling, but never before did I feel so scared that I was actually incapable of moving, of helping myself.

It was like the human body just shut down in that scenario, somehow realizing there was no way out of the situation and choosing instead to let nature take its course.

At first, I thought the silence was just my brain somehow turning off.

No, I thought, you're not dead. He's just not making any noise anymore.

That almost scared me more than when he had been. At least then I had some idea of what was going on.

The air was stuffy and stale in his jacket, too, pressed right up against my nose and mouth like that. The urge to breathe came back and I lifted my face away from it.

That pounding noise was my heart. That rasp the breath rushing in and out between teeth clenched in fear. Despite my earlier coldness, a chilly bead of sweat ran down the curve of my spine.

But aside from that, there was nothing. I heard nothing from behind that door.

Swallowing, trying to push that lump back down my throat, I leaned forward onto all fours and then climbed to my feet. Not knowing what else to do with it, I threw Adam's jacket around my shoulders. It was several sizes too large for me. I fingered the tears in the leather and thought about the claws I'd watched sprout from where Adam's fingernails used to be.

I became aware of something breathing heavily and deeply behind me. My back tensed. This was the part in horror movies when the dumb blonde turned to find the beast staring right at her, its eyes hungry and saliva dripping from its fangs.

I understood that urge now, too. That desire to turn and put a face to your fear.

A thought flashed through my mind: is this how Jenn felt?

Slowly, I turned.

Those yellow eyes stared back at me through the little barred window in the door. Below them was a long, black-furred snout. I got the impression of a muscular, wolfish body standing behind the door.

Those clawed hands, swollen now to monstrous proportion, reached up and wrapped around the bars as he draw his lips back from fangs that were far too white.

"Adam?" I said.

When he growled, I could feel the reverberations in my chest. This wasn't Adam. It shared the same body, but one look into those feral eyes and I knew there was nothing of that man left in there.

The monster tried reaching through the bars, but his forearm was too thick. When it got stuck, he roared.

I screamed and fell back on my ass, turning over right away and scrabbling away on all fours, too terrified to make that leap onto my feet to sprint.

That huge door slammed against its frame as I ran up the stairs and slammed the basement entrance shut behind me.

"I see..." I said, "I see..."

I rushed into the kitchen, the only room in that big, empty house I was familiar with at all, and hid under the marble overhang of the island.

Even with the door closed and little distance between us, I could hear his howls of frustration down there. When he slammed into the door, I could feel the house tremble.

Not knowing what else to do, I struggled for a moment to pull my cell out of my pocket. Now that I was away from the sight of that thing, I could gather myself a little better.

I unlocked it, checking for any messages. Nothing. I was here with Adam (or what used to be Adam, anyway) and there was, as I was growing accustomed to, nothing from Jenn.

I nearly dropped the phone, then. This is what Adam wanted to tell me. And he did it by showing me the truth. I looked at the jacket again, at the little shreds of leather around the scratches, and the way it was torn.

This is what had happened to him the night of the date. He thought he could control it, but he'd lost control (because of me, I knew then).

I'd hurried home as he became that monster. Jenn went for her walk, then. She'd been out there, all alone with him.

Quickly as I could, I stripped the jacket off and threw it on the tile floor. How many of those scratches and tears were from her?

But I also knew why Adam had brought me here tonight to show me this. I looked over at the fridge and touched my lips, remembering that frantic, impassioned kiss. I could still taste him, if I thought about it.

He cared about me, and he wanted me to care enough about him to realize the truth.

That monster had killed Jenn. That was why I couldn't find her. Her body was out there, somewhere.

He also wanted me to see that it wasn't him that killed her. It was the monster. And he and the monster were separate, like different personalities sharing one body.

The truth of it all made me bury my face in my hands, pushing back against my eyes to keep the tears locked behind those lids.

As though he could know what I was thinking and feeling from down there, the werewolf let out a howl that cut through all the walls and doors between us.

"Shut up!" I said.

Was this what Vick warned me about in the cafeteria? But how could he know? I wiped at my cheeks, trying to keep from going crazy right then and there.

If werewolves and witches were real, what else was? I thought I'd learned long ago that monsters and demons and all that crap were all stories, meant to be understood as parables, or ways to keep unruly children in line, or for cheap late night entertainment.

The whole time, it was the children who were right. The adults, the people who were supposed to know it all, were just fooling themselves the entire time. Fooling themselves while they slept in their beds with the closet open, or the space under the bed unchecked. Fooling themselves while out camping.