Club Monstrosity (17 page)

“Here,” he snapped, hoping a strong tone would keep her focused despite the pain and probably mortal injury. “Hold this, I have to check on Natalie.”

But to his surprise, the mummy waved him off. “Go!” she ordered. “I’ve got this.”

Alec put
What the hell?
on his list of questions to ask later and slid on his knees across the floor until he reached Natalie.

She was still slumped over, her back against the windowsill Georgia had just departed over. She was holding her bleeding hand and arm, but she was staring straight ahead. Not blinking. Her eyes glazed over.

At least she was breathing.

He reached out and then hesitated. The last thing he wanted to do was have her freak out when he touched her. It would only make a bad situation worse. He did, however, have to get her aware enough to get out of here, with a busted-up mummy in tow. The cops were certainly on their way.

“Natalie,” he said softly.

She continued to stare into nothingness.

“Natalie!” he repeated, this time much sharper.

Finally, she blinked and shook her head. The fog in her stare cleared and she looked over at him.

“Alec?” she whispered. “Is Kai okay?”

“Better than expected,” he said. “I’m worried about you now. Aside from the finger thing and your damaged arm, are
you
okay?”

She looked down at the stubs where her fingers had been and flinched. “I can reattach them.”

He nodded. “Okay, I’m going to find them right now. But once I do, we have to go, girl. The cops are going to be here in a minute.”

“The cops,” she repeated, her voice still way too blank for his liking. “They know me from my job. They said they knew where to find me.”

Alec caught a glimpse of the bloody fingers under a chair a few feet away and dove over to sweep them up. He counted them and the number matched how many Natalie was missing. With a sigh of relief, he held them out to her.

“That may be true, honey, but even your job can’t save you from being questioned and arrested if the police find us in this dead woman’s apartment. Especially if you’re missing fingers and bleeding all over. I
think
they might put two and two together.”

Natalie nodded as she took her fingers and put them in her purse, which had come off her shoulder in the fray. She stared down into the half-full bag at the torn digits and let out a hard, loud burst of laughter.

“Oh shit, my fingers look ridiculous in there,” she muttered.

Alec groaned. Yeah, she was all fucked up from what had just happened. So now it was time for some tough love. Tough
like
. Whatever.

“Look at me,” he snapped as he grabbed her shoulders and shook. “You have every right to lose it a little bit, and I promise you that as soon as we’re back at our apartment, I will hold your hair while you puke or cry or whatever. But right now I need your help, Natalie. So snap out of it.”

She blinked once, twice, and then she pushed to her feet and nodded. “Yes. Of course.”

She spun on Kai and looked down at her. The mummy was doing all right, considering she’d been shot. Pressing the T-shirt against herself, she watched Natalie and Alec with unmasked interest.

“Can you get up?” Natalie asked.

Kai nodded slowly and started to push to her feet. Natalie caught her arm and slung it around her good shoulder to offer her support.

“Okay, Wolf. What’s your plan to get us out of here?” she asked.

Her voice was bright, but falsely so. Still, Alec appreciated and respected her attempt to get it together.

He peeked out the door. No one was out there. Anyone home right now had probably already run downstairs to see what had happened, or was getting the full show from the comfort of their own windows.

He waved for Natalie and Kai to move into the hallway in front of him, but when Natalie started for the elevator, he shook his head.

“The lobby area will be crawling with witnesses and maybe even cops,” he said softly. “I think there’s a back stairway over here. Let’s take that.”

She followed him around a few turns in the hallway and, sure enough, they found a fire stairway. There was an alarm attached to it, but with a few flicks of his wrist, Alec disconnected it and pushed the door open, revealing a dimly lit stairwell.

Through the thin walls, Alec could hear the sirens approaching. An ambulance for Georgia, even though he doubted the woman would need it. Being dropped five stories and hitting a car? Most monsters couldn’t survive that, let alone humans.

And the cops were probably out there, too. Interviewing witnesses who might talk about three people fitting their description entering the building. Worse, someone might say that Georgia hadn’t jumped or fallen, but had been thrown. From certain angles in the buildings around them, Alec was sure someone could have seen Natalie hurtle the woman to her death.

“Alec,” Natalie whispered as she met his eyes.

She was thinking the same things he was. Only they hurt her a lot more.

“It’s okay,” he reassured her. “I won’t let anyone get to you, I promise.”

She hesitated for a minute, then nodded.

“How’s Kai?” he asked as he led them down, step by step.

“I’m okay,” Kai groaned. Her stare was still filled with pain, but she was helping Natalie by taking steps on her own and holding some of her own weight.

It took them what seemed like forever, but finally they stood in front of the exit door. Based on location, Alec figured it went to a back alley. At least, he hoped it did.

Alec disconnected its alarm and slowly opened the door. To his utter relief, there was no one outside, just a smelly trash receptacle and a few pigeons pecking around for food.

“Okay,” he whispered as he looked around for any trouble and eased into the alley with the girls behind him. “Let’s just be careful.
Cool
. We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves.”

Natalie shifted her weight and motioned to Kai with her still-fingerless hand. “Um, how do you suggest I do that while hauling Kai?”

Kai glared at her. “Let me try to walk on my own. Oh, and put your damn hand in your pocket; it looks crazy with those stubs.”

As Natalie flinched and did as she’d been told, Kai straightened up. She sucked through her teeth in pain, but managed to stay upright and take a few practice steps on her own.

“I’ll be okay,” she said, her voice stronger than before. “But can I have your jacket to cover up the blood? It’s a little obvious.”

Alec shrugged out of his hoodie, even though it covered up his torn shirt, and handed it over. A bit of belly showing was way better than Kai’s bloody side exposed to any and all bystanders.

She zipped it with a tiny grunt of discomfort. It looked weird over her suit, but not as weird as a big spot of blood on her ribs.

“I’m sorry,” Natalie whispered. “I’m so sorry you’re hurt.”

Kai turned on her in surprise. “It’s okay, Natalie. It’s not anyone’s fault but Georgia’s.”

Natalie flinched at their attacker’s name. She was wrecked by this, but that was something to deal with later.

Alec led the way out of the alley with Kai behind him and Natalie taking up the rear. The street was visible at the end of the alley and they moved out onto it cautiously. It wasn’t the side of the building where Georgia had fallen, though, but around the corner.

The sirens were really loud now; there had to be ten police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks on the other side of the building. Still nothing on their side, though, except a few pale bystanders getting out of the way.

Quickly, Alec hailed a cab. Once they had all climbed into the back, he told the driver to go to Natalie’s apartment.

The cabbie nodded and turned up his radio as he rounded the corner and took them right in front of the scene with the cops.

Natalie stared out the window and Alec looked with her. They had already covered Georgia’s body up with a sheet. A crowd was gathered, staring and taking pictures as the cops made measurements and collected information from the doorman.

“What happened?” Kai asked, her tone strained as she glanced at the cabbie in the rearview mirror.

He shrugged, unmoved by the scene they were passing.

“From the radio, it sounds like some lady killed herself. Splatted right on that poor guy’s Honda.”

Natalie flinched at the cabbie’s throaty laugh, then leaned back against the seat and shut her eyes. From the tension on her face, Alec could see that she was reliving that last moment with Georgia over and over again.

And Alec was afraid she wasn’t going to be able to forgive herself. Even though her actions had saved all their lives. Including her own.

And for
that,
Alec was eternally grateful.

17

“Wow.”

Natalie stared at Kai’s ribs. They should have been shattered, bloody, broken. But instead her skin was red, and there was no hole where the bullet had hit her not an hour before. No blood except for what had dried on her skin and clothes after the initial attack.

Kai shrugged as she looked down at the red welt on her skin.

“Yeah.” The mummy shrugged. “It’s pretty hard to kill me. There’s a book and words and spirits dragging me back to the underworld and the whole deal. That bullet hurt . . .
a lot
. And it will rattle around inside for a bit before it finds a way out, but I’m going to live after all.”

Alec sighed in relief. “Good. I’d hate for you to have put yourself out for me.”

“As you can see, I didn’t,” Kai said, but she was smiling at him.

He turned serious. “Really, though, thank you. I would have been dead if that silver bullet so much as grazed me.”

Natalie shivered at the thought of Alec taking the hit Kai had. The day wouldn’t have ended so well then. They probably wouldn’t have been able even to get him out of the apartment before it was too late. The rest, losing him . . . she wouldn’t even let herself think about.

Kai shrugged, but despite her nonchalant attitude, she actually seemed moved by his thanks.

“We’ll find a way to even it out someday.” She pulled her shirt down and zipped Alec’s hoodie back over her bloodstained clothes. “For now, I’m going home for a steamy bath and a very strong drink.”

She turned toward Natalie. “Are
you
going to be okay?”

Natalie stared at her in surprise. “What? I mean, yeah. I didn’t get shot.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Kai’s face softened. “And you know it.”

Natalie shrugged. Were her tangled emotions all that transparent? That was more than a little embarrassing.

“Yeah. Well. I’m fine,” she insisted. Lied. Whatever. “I promise. Go home and feel better.”

Kai hesitated but then patted Natalie’s good arm and made for the door. Alec escorted her out, and in the foyer Natalie heard Kai tell him to take care of her. She flinched. How could he? He couldn’t change what had happened. No matter how much they both might wish he could.

Alec came back into the room and stood staring at her. Then he reached out and took her purse from the console table and dug in it until he found her disconnected fingers.

“Want these?” he asked softly.

She nodded.

“Have thread and a needle?”

“In that weird drawer in the kitchen,” she said.

He smiled. “The one with all the warranties and pens and crap?”

“That’s the one.”

Natalie shook her head as he walked away. Had she ever been pissed at him for working it out so he could live here? She had no idea why. There was no way she could have done this alone, or with Whitney as a roommate.

He came back into the room with the needle, thread, and a Diet Coke.

“I figured you’d want the hard stuff,” he said as he put the opened can next to her good hand.

She took a long swig. “You’re a saint.”

“Never been called that before,” he muttered as he sat down next to her on the couch.

He took her hand and set it on his lap as he threaded black thread through the needle. She flinched as he made his first few stitches, but when she looked at his handiwork, she couldn’t help but be impressed.

“Those are good stitches. Small,” she said.

He smiled at her briefly, then went back to his work. “Thanks. Don’t worry, I won’t scar you.”

“Thanks, you know how vain I am about that kind of thing,” she teased.

He was quiet as he finished stitching, and Natalie stared at him as he worked. Her mind kept flashing back to that afternoon. Only this time all her memories had to do with Alec.

Georgia had pointed a gun loaded with silver bullets at him. Worse yet, she had fired it at him. Only luck and Kai had kept him from being dead.

“Alec,” she whispered.

He tied off his last stitch and set the needle aside. “Yeah?”

“I—I thought she was going to kill you.” She shook her head. “And I—I—”

Alec pushed her hair away from her forehead and nodded. “I know. I felt the same way. When she had you . . . I was terrified. But we’re okay. Just don’t forget that we’re okay.”

Natalie shut her eyes.
Was
she okay?

“I killed a human.” Tears she hadn’t shed for years welled in her eyes. “Doesn’t that make me a monster?”

Alec’s expression softened and he shook his head. “Georgia Winslow . . . okay, let’s just call that bitch Van Helsing . . . she held you at gunpoint. She nearly shot me and she
did
shoot Kai. We tried to reason with her, but she was crazy, Natalie.”

Natalie pondered that for a moment. It was all true, of course. All perfectly reasonable. But she still felt so wrong and empty and sad.

“And I killed her,” she whispered.

Alec tilted her face up to look at him. “Monsters in those stories about us . . . they never have a motive, honey. That’s what makes them so awful. They kill for the sake of killing. But what you did was
self-defense
. You killed to defend yourself and your friends from someone who had already proven she would end a life without thought.”

Natalie considered his words for a moment and they comforted her. She cupped his cheeks and pulled him closer for a long kiss. When they parted, she rested her forehead on his. “Thanks.”

“Thank
you,
” he whispered.

She pulled back. She could see what he wanted in his wolfish eyes, and she wanted it, too.

“I want to stay,” she said as he rested a hand on her knee and gently stroked. “A lot. But . . .”

He frowned. “But?”

“I should go in to work.
Someone
has to make sure Georgia’s death is marked as a suicide. To protect myself.”

Alec cupped her chin. “To protect
all
of us, Natalie.”

She nodded. “Yeah, to protect all of us.”

“Hello, my name is Natalie and I’m a Frankenstein’s Monster. It’s been a week exactly since anyone discovered my true identity,” Natalie said as she stared around the circle.

There were fewer monsters left now than there had been a few weeks ago when this all started, but for the first time she felt like the people in the room were her friends. When she smiled, it was genuine.

“What
you
are is a hero,” Linda said.

“Yeah,” Kai agreed. “
And
you got us back into the church basement. How did you do that? I thought we were too weird for the Catholics.”

Natalie smiled as she looked around the room. The meeting room in the church basement might be musty and dingy and dimly lit, but it was home.

“Actually, I didn’t have to do anything but ask nicely. Apparently there was some kind of
misunderstanding
with Drake. He used his mind control powers and scared the bejesus out of the poor priest.” She shook her head. “But a few kind words and explanations from me . . .”

“What kind of explanations?” Alec laughed.

She held back a grin. Alec wasn’t very wolfie at present. They had survived their first full moon together. With a lot of growling, locking up with steel chains, and some monster strength being used on both sides. And afterward, she had finally been rewarded with a lot more than just kissing.

If anybody asked, which no one had, he was her boyfriend now.

“The priest now thinks that Drake is in the advanced stages of some kind of neurological disorder,” Natalie explained, clearing her mind with a shake of her head. “So he’s not going to take him all that seriously anymore. He was very understanding. I think he might even pray for us.”

Drake folded his arms and glared at her, and this time Natalie couldn’t hold back her laughter at his sour expression.

“Being monstrous doesn’t solve everything,” she said. “Sometimes it just takes being human.”

Alec grinned. “Miss Self-Confidence appealed to their Christian nature.”

Natalie waved her hand at him. All this praise being lavished on her was a bit too much. Especially since she was still torn about the things that had happened a week before and everything she’d done since.

“Okay, okay,” she said with a blush. “Enough of this silliness. Why don’t we just start the meeting? Kai, do you want to run it?”

Kai shook her head. “Nope. I think you’re doing fine.”

Natalie leaned back in surprise, but then she shrugged. “I think our first order of business is to talk about Hyde. Has
anyone
heard from him?”

The blank, concerned faces around the room told the story. Natalie shook her head. At the medical examiner’s office she had kept an eye out for reports on dead people with Hyde as a suspect, or even his own body coming through the morgue after a fight or a suicide . . . but nothing had come across her desk so far. He didn’t answer his cell phone and hadn’t been home for a week.

“We’ll keep looking,” Alec said with a sigh. “Maybe he just took off to some other city.”

“No,” Natalie said. “With Hyde, I can’t believe it’s that easy. He’s hunting and hiding, I’m sure of it. And it’s not going to be easy to calm him down even if we do find him. Not without Jekyll.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Alec reassured her, just as he had been reassuring her for days.

Natalie nodded. There was really nothing else they could do about it yet. “Next order of business: Is there anything else to report since Georgia Winslow-Van Helsing’s death?”

Kai frowned. “That’s more your department. Have we discovered if her suggestion that one of us killed her husband is true?”

Natalie shook her head. “I was able to access his death certificate and he
was
murdered, though the police labeled it as a mugging gone wrong. No suspects. So she
could
be right.”

Kai’s frown deepened. “We just have to keep digging, then. Keeping investigating.”

Alec nodded. “It’s all we can do.”

“As for Georgia herself, the death was officially labeled as a suicide, right?” Kai asked. “I thought I saw that in the paper this morning.”

Natalie nodded slowly. “Yeah. They already suspected it. Since her husband’s death, she had been pretty despondent. It was put on her death certificate about three days ago and the case was closed.”

Kai sighed in relief. “Good, so that’s over.”

“Not quite,” Drake said, getting to his feet. “In fact, I fear it’s only the beginning.”

Natalie turned on him from the podium at the front of the room. “What do you mean?”

He dug into his pocket and brought out a folded sheet of expensive, very old-looking paper. “I received this from Van Helsing last night.”

Natalie hesitated, just as she always did when dealing with anything to do with the Van Helsing family, but finally she took it. Once she had unfolded it, she read it out loud:

The truce is over. Prepare for war.

Natalie handed the paper over to Kai and shook her head. This was to be expected. Between his grandson’s death and Georgia’s, there was no way Van Helsing could keep quiet.

But fearing a war was coming and seeing it confirmed in black and white were two different things.

“Shit,” she muttered under her breath.

She waited for someone to freak out, probably Linda, but instead the Swamp Dweller lifted her chin in a surprisingly tough display of heart.

“You know, if he wants a war, I guess he’ll find we’re finally ready for him.”

Alec smiled at her. “Way to go, Green-Eyes.”

Linda blushed and ducked her head.

“And you’re right,” Alec continued. “I’m officially done running and hiding.
This
is where I belong and I’m not going to let some moth-bitten old man tell me where to go.”

“Neither am I,” Drake said with a wry smile. “Though I’m a bit moth-bitten myself.”

“I’m here to stay,” Kai added, folding her arms.

Natalie smiled. Although the idea of a war wasn’t a pleasant one, she had already faced a nightmare and come through it. With her friends at her side, she knew they could survive the next thing.

“I’m going to live my life,” she declared. “And I’m living it here. Write him back, Drake. Tell him to bring it on.”