Taming the Night (Creatures of the Night Book 1) (11 page)

“Your shoulder. It’s bleeding. I thought you were supposed to heal fast or something.”

“I usually do but…”

“But what?
” he asked as he watched her walk to the bag. She rummage through it until she produced a first aide kit sized tin. She came back to him and knelt down. Her eyes were tamer.

“I took more than
one good hit when I was trying to save Russ. That thing in the room broke my arm, that’s why it took me so long to shoot it. In the woods at the hospital, they bit into my shoulder, and then the big one tossed me into the trees and broke my neck. After that, well, you saw what happened to the ones who attacked you. Even a hunter only has a limited energy pool and all this happening so soon after breaking my back in that accident.”

“So you’re hurting?
” he asked in summation.

“Like an elephant sittin’ on a
little cats tail cher. But do not worry. I’ll live. I always do,” she said as she finished wrapping the clean bandage around his leg.

“Is ther
e anything I can do to help you?” he asked as he saw the blood glistening at her shoulder. It was dark red and painful looking.

“You can help me by not asking me questions like that.”

“Why shouldn’t I-”

“Because it is very important that I stay focused right now
, and you asking me gentlemanly questions like that just makes my little old heart go pitter pat,” she said with a wink as she went back to her post. He smiled.

“
At least you’ve recovered your sense of humor,” he shot at her back.

He fished into her makeshift first aide kit and found a pair of scissors. He cut the legs out of the pants and had a much easier time getting them up this time though he didn’t dare button them. He took off the hospital gown and turned it around to cover himself in the front and instantly felt ten times better.

He got up and went back to his own post. He didn’t see anything out there but he was so keyed up that he didn’t dare do anything but stare out there into the darkness like a madman.

*
                            *                            *

Her eyelids were heavy and dropping by the time the sky lightened to a shade of gray. A lonely howl
split the air before silence reigned and she felt them receding. The silence after they were gone was a different kind of silence. The crickets began to chirp and the morning birds started to wake and sing a song. Her shoulders slumped with the realization that the night was over and the creatures had gone back to their hiding places, where ever that was.

This was a new experience for her. She was used to being able to kill them all before she left the area but the
re had just been too many. They’d just kept coming and coming. It had seemed like they might have the eternal struggle against good and evil right there and then and, she’d feared that she might be on the loosing side. She didn’t so much fear that for herself, for that was where she lived everyday anyway, but for Jerry.

She headed towards the armchair near the window and fell wearily into it. She hadn’t been this tired in some time.
She had lost too much blood and used too much energy to heal her broken neck. Her hands were nearly shaking with the effort it took to stay awake. She had to get them out of here. She didn’t know how much longer she could go on protecting him like this. The first thing she had to do was get some gas. She looked over to Jerry. He was slumped against the wall, the shotgun limp in his hand. He looked spent.

By sheer will alone she got up and went to the cupboard. He needed to eat something. She found some beef jerky, power bars, and bottled water. The breakfast of champions. She took the food to him and knelt down in front of him. Her arm was nearly dead weight by now and it was still bleedin
g, which concerned her more than she wanted to acknowledge. It had been a while since she’d last eaten herself.

“Eat,” she said as she held the power bar out to him. His head fell back and he looked at her through bloodshot eyes.

“Thanks,” he said as he took the power bar and ate it in nearly three bites. She made sure he had some of the water before she headed back to the front window. For some reason the gray light of dawn was making her squint just a little.

“That was the longest night of my li
fe. What are we going to do now?” he asked as he ate the beef jerky in big chunks. She could smell the scent of the beef and it teased her nostrils. She could still remember what beef jerky tasted like.

She stopped watching the dawn and looked down at her stomach in puzzlement. Was that… hunger that she felt? “We need to head out and get some gas.”

“When you say head out… you mean on foot?”

“Unless you grew some wings overnight…” She cast an expectant glance at him.

He made a show of looking over his shoulder at his back to check and see if he had wings. She rolled her eyes. Apparently he hadn’t found any shirts that fit because he’d turned his gown around the correct way to go over his shorts and his feet were bare. Most people would have lost all sense of humor by now if they had been through what he had and she liked that he didn’t.

“Okay. So are we going to catch a few zzzs before we head out or are we going to march into town like a
few zombies looking for brains?” he asked as he continued to eat the jerky.

She closed her eyes as a wave of hunger rolled over her and nearly took her breath away. She hadn’t felt hunger like this since… ever. “Probably best we get a little sleep before… before we…” Suddenly she was unsteady on her feet. She began to fall but he was there to catch her before she touched ground.

“Alicia,” he called to her and it was as if it was from a faraway place. Her eyes rolled in her head. Something wet touched her lips and she realized with a gagging certainty that he was trying to poor water into her mouth. She came to and spewed the water everywhere. She tried to push to her feet but the room was way too bright.

She buried her face into the front of his hospital gown. She heard the sound of his heart beating in his chest and heard the blood pumping through his veins. They were loud in her ears and the scent of him, the unequaled mouth watering scent of his lovely e
ssence made her feel dizzy. Hunger tore at her middle. It became like a giant gapping hole, pulling her in and there was no escape. He was holding her close and asking her what was wrong.

“I’m… I’m… I’m hungry,” she whispered.

“Is that all?” he asked as he went to the cupboard. He returned with another power bar and another bottle of water. She could smell him as he neared her again. She hissed and backed away. The light, that was now getting brighter outside, filled the front window and she hissed again running to a corner. The pain and hunger ripped at her senses until she was forced to put her hands over her ears and ball up in the corner.

“Get out Jerry. Get as far away from me as you can before it’s too late,” she yelled.

*

Jerry watched her. He didn’t know what he
could do to help her, but he knew he needed to help her. She was nearly writhing with pain in the corner and it was all he could do not to run to her and hold her in his arms. After the night they had just gone through together… he couldn’t stand to see what was happening to her.

“What do I do Alicia?
” he asked her.

“I told you. Get away. Get as far away from me as you can!”

He looked towards the front window. The sun was peeking from behind the hills. Al screamed at this and rose to put her back to the corner and to stare at the sunlight in horror. “I’m burning,” she screamed as she began to smoke a bit. She pulled off her jacket and tried to cover her head but he still saw the smoke coming from her.

“Al, what can I do?
” he yelled again as he got closer to her.

“Stay back,” she yelled as she threw off the coat and he saw her face. He drew ba
ck. Her face was completely contorted and fangs had descended like sharp K9’s. Her eyes were starting to turn from violet to white, like she had no eyes at all. He stepped away and nearly ran for the door. She nodded.

“That’s right and if anyone ever asks you, you never saw anything. You don’t know anything about the wolves,” she said as she turned her head and slumped into the corner her body smoking.

He stopped in his retreat and wanted to slap himself in the face. He felt mad with himself. Here he was slinking off like a coward when she had saved his ass time and again. She needed him and he was just going to run off. He turned back to her. She wasn’t going to tell him what to do to help her so he went to her satchel. He grabbed her cell phone and looked up the contacts until he found the name she had said to him. Bateman.

He punched the number and someone picked up on the third ring. “Hey gorgeous. It’s three in the morning here you know,” the man answered in a sleepy tone.

“Thanks sexy. It’s six here,” he replied.

The voice on the other end of t
he line suddenly became serious. “Who is this and how did you get this phone?”

“Al is in trouble.”

“What do you mean Al is in trouble?”

“I mean I’m here with her and she’s hissing and smoking and her face looks… different and I want to know what I can do to help her. She won’t tell me.”

The man on the line cursed very proficiently. Once he regained his composure he answered in a glib almost uncaring tone. “The best I can tell you to do is get as far away from her as you can. I’ll send a team up to pull you out of there and protect you, but I can’t guarantee that they will get there before nightfall.”

“What’s wrong with her?”

“She is in full hunter mode. It’s been too long since her last feeding. I told her not to let it be so long between feedings. She never-”

“Feedings? What does she eat?”

The phone was silent for a very long time. He almost thought Bateman wouldn’t answer, but then he did. “You must be a semi intelligent being seeing that you are calling for my help. And if you are calling me then you know about the wolves. You have to have at least seen some of the recent pop culture films. What is the natural enemy of the werewolf?”

Jerry sucked in a breath as he looked over at Alicia’s writhing form.

“She’s a… a…”

“I think you get it
old boy. Usually she doesn’t need much to survive but if she’s gone into full hunter mode in the daylight… you’d do best to get out of there right away.” How could he be so smug, so unfeeling?

“What wil
l happen to her if I just leave?” he asked breathlessly.

“The sunlight will finish her off of course.
Turn her into a statue as hard as stone.”

“You mean she’ll die?”

“It is something like death. I told her not to let it be so long between feedings. They can’t rejuvenate themselves without blood.”

Jerry let his words and all their implications run through his head. “So she risks her life to save innocent people every day
, and all you can say is it’s her own fault for not taking blood from a human victim more often. Gee. With friends like you who needs enemies huh? Keep your team and shove them where the sun don’t shine. I’ll take care of this myself.”

“No need to be crass. She has exposed us and if you knew what could happen if this were to get out… let’s just say that more innocents would die than just you cowboy. She knew the risks. I’ll miss her to be sure. She was always… interesting.”

“Well if it’s all the same to you I’d like to keep her interesting self alive.”

“Fine. It’s your funeral. We’ll be sending the team one way or the other. Hopefully
you’re still alive by the time we get there. If not, I suppose an ‘I told you so’ will be a day late and a dollar short.”

The phone line went dead and Jerry took a calming breath. What an asshole. He heard a mewling sound come from the corner of the room and he saw a welt bubble up on Al’s face. The sun was going to eat the flesh from her face. He looked over and noticed the closed door. It had to be a bathroom. He went to Al who was mumbling deliriously now. He picked her up in his arms and made a run for the bathroom as she screamed and smoked.

*

Al came to her senses again ju
st when she thought she was already gone. It was cool and dark and the only thing that marred the perfection of this room was the light that came into it from beneath the door. That’s when it hit her again. The hunger. It clawed at her from the inside as if it could rip its way out. It was stealing away her senses.

Then the smell filled her nostrils and her mouth watered. It was a nearly uncontrollable beast that locked its talons into her and tried to make her move towards him. He was afraid. His fear made him smell all the sweeter and she felt drawn to him without any thought as to why she shouldn’t go to him.

Because he’s human and you will kill him! You’re too hungry!

She stopped mere feet from him and yelled at him. “I to
ld you to get out of here Jerry! I mean it. I can’t control it!”

“Will I become like you?
” he asked out of the darkness.

She opened her eyes. The bright light coming from beneath the door showed his face as perfectly as if they were standing there with the lights on, at least to her eyes. He kept the fear from his face very well.