Undying (29 page)

“You make your own?” For a moment she thought she really would vomit.

He struck the pose again. “Don’t I look like a sapling if I stand like this?” Before Macy could respond, Teddy turned his head sharply, letting his hands fall to his sides. “Hush, Mother. Please.”

She watched him carefully. “Is…is your mother here, now?”

“She says I shouldn’t have brought you here. She says you don’t love me. That you could never love me. She says I’ll have to kill you.” He glanced at the dark window. “Good thing you can’t see the moon tonight. I love it, but it makes it hard for me to think sometimes, the moon.”

The way he said it made her skin crawl. She had to get out of here. She wouldn’t survive until morning, she knew it in her bones. “Teddy, please don’t listen to her,” Macy said softly. “Listen to me.” Again, the forced smile. “Your Marceline. We’ve waited a long time to be together.”

“A long time to be together,” he repeated, filling the empty can with water from the faucet.

She watched him go through the simple preparations, thinking that she had to keep Teddy talking. He was so crazy, so starved for attention, for love, maybe there was a chance she could talk her way out of this.

Teddy set the saucepan down hard, so hard that red water splashed over the side, onto the immaculate stove top. “I’m not listening.” He covered his ears with his hands and spoke loudly. “I’m not listening, Mother. You’re dead with worms crawling in and out of your eyes,” he said petulantly. “You’re dead, and I’m alive.”

“That’s right.” Macy rose off the stool and walked around the counter, into the kitchen. “You’re alive, Teddy.” She couldn’t bring herself to touch him, but she stood there beside him. “Look at me,” she said. “You’re alive.”

His lower lip trembled. “She hurt me. She hit me.” He pulled up one leg of his long shorts. “She burned me.”

Macy couldn’t help but stare at what appeared to be small round scars on his overly hairy leg. Cigarette burns?

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, surprised by the emotion she felt for him. She still hated him, but now she also pitied him. She found herself looking into his face. He had grown a serious five o’clock shadow in the last few hours; she wasn’t sure how she hadn’t noticed it until now. In fact, under the bright light of the fluorescent kitchen lamp, she took note that Teddy was a particularly hairy man.

And he smelled funny. Strong and musky. She hadn’t smelled him in the car.

She took a step back from him. “That was wrong of her, Teddy, to hurt you like that.” She glanced quickly at the pistol on the counter. It was still just out of her reach, but if she could distract him…

Macy had never handled a gun in her life. But she’d seen enough cops and bad guys on TV fire them to guess what to do with it if she managed to get to it.

Teddy squeezed his eyes shut. “Shut up!” he shouted. “Shut up!”

“Me, Teddy?” Macy whispered, inching her way closer to the counter. He was so distracted by the voice he heard. Maybe too distracted to realize what she was doing until it was too late. “Do you want
me
to be quiet?”

“No! No, I want to talk to you. It’s her. She won’t shut up.” He covered his ears with his hands again, squeezing his eyes shut. “She says I can’t trust you. She says—”

Macy never made the conscious decision to go for the pistol. One second she was standing in front of Teddy, the next, she was lunging for the gun on the counter.

Teddy’s eyes flew open. His hands fell from his ears. “You promised,” he screamed at her. “You swore on your mother’s grave!”

As Macy sprung for the pistol, she knocked into Teddy, pushing him backward. Her hand closed over the handle of the gun and wrenched around, grappling to get a proper grip on it.

“You promised,” he shouted, his voice suddenly deep and gravely. “You promised on your dead mother’s grave.”

She whipped around, pointing the pistol at the tearful Teddy. She wrapped her finger around the trigger. “I lied.”

Macy didn’t know what happened next. Maybe she jumped from the present to some dream world. Maybe she’d been dreaming all along. One instant she was staring at balding Marvin Clacker in his madras shorts, the next instant, a hairy half-man, half-wolf creature loomed over her, fangs bared.

Macy screamed and pulled the trigger.

“D
id you hear that? Turn here! Turn here,” Kaleigh shouted, pointing repeatedly.

They were traveling fifty miles an hour down a country road on wet blacktop. “Here?” Arlan hit his brakes hard.

“Hurry!” she insisted.

He made a sharp left and swung the truck onto a gravel driveway. “Sorry,” he muttered, glancing up in the rearview mirror at Fia, who was driving a bureau car. He couldn’t see her face because of her headlights, but he could imagine Fia was cussing a blue streak, using several variations of her favorite,
Mary, Mother of God.

“Is she here?” Arlan hit the gas, speeding down the bumpy road.

“Did you hear that? Did you hear it?” Kaleigh’s face was pale. “A gunshot. A…a scream. Growling. He’s growling at her!”

Kaleigh sounded close to hysterical. The girl was scared out of her pants. She wasn’t making sense.

“Growling?” Arlan asked.

She held on to the armrest on the truck door to keep from being thrown too hard in the confines of her seat belt. “It doesn’t make any sense,” she cried. “I kept thinking it didn’t make any sense.”

“What didn’t make any sense?” Arlan hit a pothole and the truck bounced violently.

“In my vision. The man who kidnapped Macy, he wasn’t…he wasn’t a man.”

Arlan suddenly got a bad feeling. It had never occurred to him or Fia that Teddy was anything but an evil human. If they were dealing with something else, the two of them and a teenager might not have a big enough arsenal to fight it. “What
was
he?”

“I don’t know. It was like…a wolf….” She covered her face with her hands. “I’m sorry.” She shook her head. “That sounds crazy. That’s why I didn’t tell you.”

“A wolf? Anything else you can tell me?” The bad feeling was getting worse.

“It wasn’t exactly a wolf, but like…a wolf man. All hairy with a snout. And…and he smelled bad, like…dog pee.”

Arlan swore under his breath as he speed-dialed Fia. Spotting a house in the distance ahead, he cut his headlights. Fia, behind him in the Crown Vic, immediately did the same thing.

“What? Are we four-wheeling, here?” Fia demanded when she picked up the phone.

“Something’s happened in the house. We have to get there fast. Kaleigh thinks she heard a gunshot.”

“I didn’t hear a gunshot.”

“Fee, we don’t have time to argue,” Arlan said tersely.

“You’re right.” She sounded breathy. Pumped up. She had to be thinking they might finally be so close to stopping this bastard.

“I’m sorry,” she said in a rare apology. “She get anything else besides a gunshot?”

Arlan glanced at Kaleigh on the seat beside him. He wasn’t sure how much to say in front of the teen, especially when he wasn’t clear on what, exactly, they were about to encounter. “Just be ready,” he said into the cell phone. “This is going to get ugly.”

The gun exploded with a bone-rattling bang and the smell of burning black powder. It jolted Macy’s arm all the way to her shoulder and she stumbled to stay on her feet. The monster that had been Teddy a moment before howled with pain and staggered back.

And she still didn’t wake up from the dream.

Run.
It was the only thing Macy knew to do. But where? Which way? Deeper into the house, there might be doors she could lock herself behind, but her instinct was to get away, get as far away as possible.

Macy sprinted for the garage door, the way she’d come. She knew Teddy had the car keys and the creature wasn’t wearing pants; she wouldn’t be able to take her car and she had seen no other car.

She raced through the laundry room, slamming into the door to the garage. The dead bolt. She fumbled with it, one handed, still gripping the pistol, and unlocked it. He…
It
was getting up off the floor. She heard its nails scraping on the tile. The thing was howling like…like nothing she’d ever heard, human or otherwise. Her blood ran cold. She thought she’d hit it with the single shot she’d pulled off, but if she had, obviously the gunshot had not been fatal.

It was coming after her.

She smelled his hot breath on the back of her neck as she heard the dead bolt slide free and she jerked the door open. She bounded down the steps, having the sense to punch the automatic door button.

The creature howled with fury. It barked and growled as it lurched after her.

Terror-stricken, Macy kept running, the gun still in her hand. The garage door was rising, but too slowly. Too slowly! He would catch her before she made it outside.

In a split-second decision, Macy threw herself on the immaculate cement floor behind her car. As she fell, she hit her head so hard that it bounced and she saw stars. The beast fell to all fours and swiped at her with his paw. White-hot pain ripped through her calf.

Macy rolled under the door, trying to take aim and squeezing the trigger as she went.

Arlan slammed hard on the brakes of the pickup as the garage door went up. The truck fishtailed and he heard Fia’s tires slide on the gravel.

“Here it comes!” Kaleigh screamed. Before Arlan could get the truck into park, she was out of her seat belt and throwing open the passenger side door.

“Kaleigh!” Arlan flung his door open. “You have to stay in the truck!” But his words were lost to the night as the teenager raced up the driveway.

At that moment, someone—Macy—rolled out from under the garage door that was only one quarter of the way up. A gun fired.

“Fee!” Arlan shouted, running after Kaleigh.

“Behind you,” Fia called. He heard her footsteps.

Macy rolled into the driveway and bounced up with startling agility. It was at that moment that Arlan realized she had a gun. He could barely see it in her hand in the dim light, but he could smell its discharge.

“Kaleigh, get back here! Macy! It’s Arlan! Don’t shoot.”

The predator crawled out from under the door and staggered to its feet. Blood oozed from a wound in the left shoulder, matting the long fur. It was as pissed off as Arlan had ever seen one.

Kaleigh screamed, still moving forward with the momentum she had built up, scrambling to stop.

“Arlan!” Macy screamed. “It’s him! Get the bastard! It’s him.”

“Holy shit!” Fia shouted. “Arlan, I don’t have the right ammo.”

“Shoot! Shoot!” Arlan hollered.

Macy passed Kaleigh and suddenly the teen was looking up at the creature. She was so stunned, she couldn’t move. She had never seen a werewolf. Never smelled one. At least that she could recall. But there was no doubt in her mind what it was or that it was real.

“Down, Kaleigh,” Fia ordered.

The kid had the good sense to drop to the ground. Fia hit the beast with her first shot, but it kept coming at Kaleigh. Fia fired again. The werewolf howled in pain, staggering backward, but remaining upright on its hind paws.

“Jesus!” Macy kept saying. “Jesus, what is it?”

Arlan put out his hand. “Give me the gun!”

Fia fired again. Third shot. She had four more. A silver bullet wasn’t necessary to kill a werewolf, but it took plenty of firepower. If Arlan had had an Uzi right now, he’d have been kissing the barrel.

Four.

“Macy, get Kaleigh!” Arlan shouted.

He wasn’t at all surprised when Macy turned and ran right at the werewolf. Sweet God, her balls were as big as Fia’s.

Fia fired again. Five.

Now the werewolf was seriously pissed. It dropped on all fours and lunged at Fia.

Six.

Thankful that Kaleigh and Macy were out of the line of fire, Arlan took aim and pulled the trigger on the pistol he’d snatched out of Macy’s hands.

Fia fired her last bullet. Fur and blood and bits of flesh exploded in the air. And still, it kept coming.

Macy dropped to the ground on top of Kaleigh to protect the teen as the werewolf and Fia collided.

Sweet Jesus, how was Arlan going to get a shot in now? A bullet wound wouldn’t kill Fia, but it would injure her and the thought of putting her in further danger was more than Arlan could stand.

“Take the gun!” Arlan flipped the safety on and hurled it at Macy. She caught it and spun it around, aiming in the direction of Fia and the werewolf grappling on the ground.

Arlan flexed his jaw, concentrating on the beast attacking his Fia. He felt the muscles and sinew in his body tighten like bands and his vision grew hazy as the transformation took place. The moment Arlan’s front paw hit the ground, he leapt into the air. He landed on the werewolf’s back, taking it completely by surprise.

Fia rolled out from under him as Arlan sank his teeth into the back of its neck, clenching his jaw. The werewolf howled with pain and struggled to escape Arlan’s grip.
Gun. Macy,
Arlan tried to telepath. In an animal state, the messages were harder to form, harder to send.
Fia!

Fia sprang to her feet and ran limping toward Macy.

The werewolf managed to knock Arlan off balance and the two rolled, biting and snarling and snapping. Pain ripped through Arlan’s back as the creature sank his claws into him. Then, somehow, the werewolf managed to pin him. It bit again and again. Arlan howled, as much from anger as pain. Out of the corner of his yellow eyes, he saw Fia running toward them. She was limping, blood gushing down her leg. A neck wound, too.

Gunshots exploded over and over and the werewolf fell backward, as if hit by a truck. Arlan rolled over, crouching on all fours, tongue lolling, panting hard. He hurt everywhere.

He watched Fia fall to one knee, then eyed the werewolf, which lay quiet on its side. Before his eyes, it morphed into a human.

“He’s down,” Fia breathed.

Arlan lowered his head and felt his muscles relax. A moment later, in human form again, he got shakily to his feet and walked over to Fia. She was resting her hands on one knee, her head bowed.

“You okay?” he asked.

She nodded, not looking up at him. “Just give me a minute. I’ve got to get my service weapon. Dropped it in the grass. Check Kaleigh and Macy.”

By the light from the garage, Arlan saw Macy sitting in the driveway, cradling Kaleigh in her arms. Kaleigh sobbed, holding tightly to the young woman she barely knew.

“It’s all right. It’s all right,” Macy soothed, rocking the girl as if she were a babe in arms.

Arlan went down on one knee in front of them. “You two okay?” He pushed the hair away from Macy’s face so he could get a better look at her. “Macy?”

“We’re okay,” she whispered. “What…what happened? How did you—” She was dazed, her eyes glassy with shock. He knew she was trying to ask him about his metamorphosis, but she couldn’t find the right words. The strange thing was, she didn’t seem to be afraid of him, or worse, repulsed. “Is he…it…dead?”

“He’s dead.” He ran his hand over Kaleigh’s back, trying to soothe her.

Macy looked up at Arlan, her own eyes filled with tears. It was the first time he had ever seen her cry. “Good,” she said.

Twenty minutes later, Arlan sat in the truck with Macy. Fia was getting ready to call in the shooting. He and Kaleigh would have to hightail it out of here before the swarm of cops arrived. Macy would have to stay to help with the pieces of the puzzle; only he and Fia had already agreed she wouldn’t remember anything of the last hour to tell the police.

Marvin Clacker, aka Teddy, a class-one ninth-century Ukrainian werewolf, lay dead in the grass beside his driveway. Fia would have some explaining to do with the FBI, but she’d been in more compromising situations before and survived with her job intact. The fact that she had brought down the Buried Alive Killer would be what mattered most to law enforcement and citizens alike. There would be inquiries, of course, but all would work out in Fia’s favor in the end. It always did.

“You sure you’re okay?” Arlan repeated, putting his arm around Macy’s shoulders, trying to make eye contact with her. He had used gauze from his first-aid kit to wrap her leg wound. She had a bump on the back of the head and a bloody spot marred her beautiful blond hair, but she showed no signs of a concussion. He was bloody and covered with scratches and bites, too, but by morning, they would be barely visible. Another plus to being one of the living dead.

It was dark inside the cab of the truck and she moved her face close to his to look into his eyes. “What was he?” she whispered.

“A werewolf.” No sense in lying.

“A werewolf?” she repeated. “But…but he looked like a man.”

“Didn’t you tell Fia he told you he was a child of rape?” After Teddy was dead, Fia had quickly gotten Macy to fill her in on whatever she knew about the killer, so she could get her story straight.

“That’s what he said,” Macy told him. “He said that his mother hated him because he was a rape bastard.”

“She was probably raped by a werewolf, so he was a half-breed. It’s easier to fit into everyday life if you’re half, but they usually end up being nut jobs,” he explained. The fact that he was only half werewolf also explained why they were able to kill him relatively easily.