Sex Symbol (22 page)

“It looks like someone in a wheelchair!”

“What the hell are they doing out here?”

“Like I know?” he said.

James started to get out and I reached for him. “Wait.”

The look he gave me said it all, even before he spoke. “You want me to leave someone in a wheelchair lying across the road? Really?”

“It’s not that.”

There was no way to express what I felt, but something wasn’t right here. Looking closer I could see that the person in the road was a man. His chair was turned on its side and he was facedown. A mass of wet brown hair obscured his face. The only thing I could see clearly was his red shirt. James was soaked through by the time he stepped in front of the headlights. I grabbed the umbrella and got out too.

James approached the man slowly, crouching down as he moved. “Hey, buddy? You all right? Can you hear me?”

The man didn’t appear to be breathing. My heart was hammering like a drum. Why was I so afraid?

“Should I call 9-1-1?”

James was right beside the man now and as he turned to answer me the man lifted his head. What I’m about to tell you next happened in an instant. There was no time whatsoever to react. The man’s eyes flared to life like two amber torches in the darkness and fangs at least two inches long extended from between his lips. He snarled as he backhanded James. The body of my ex-boyfriend went flying past me and through the windshield of his car.

I had no idea if he was dead or alive and no time to check. It happened so fast that I forgot to scream. Or maybe I was just too terrified. I tore off through the woods to my right, praying that was the right direction. The storm and the horror of what I’d just seen had me so confused. But I was pretty sure that my house was back to the right and through the woods.

I didn’t realize I was still carrying the umbrella until it snagged on a branch above my head and snatched me down flat of my back. Coughing on mud and wet leaves I scrambled to my feet. Everything looked the same as I scanned the woods. I had to get my bearings or I didn’t stand a chance. That is if that thing was following me. Did it really need that wheelchair or could it run?

The tree that had snagged me had several low branches. If I could climb up maybe I could get a look around and figure out which way I was going. Climbing a wet oak tree is not easy. The tree was covered in moss that slipped beneath my hands and my tennis shoes as I tried to climb.

I’m wasting time, I thought frantically. I have to get out of here!

The rain felt like needles pounding down on my head as I reached the top of the oak tree. Well, it wasn’t exactly the top, it was as high as I could safely climb and have the limbs hold my weight. At first I was afraid I had just wasted precious escape time. But then I saw a big dark shape in the distance. Just over the top of the next hill was what had to be my neighbor’s barn. I was so excited that for a second I felt weak. This meant I was going in the right direction. I just had to cross the farm and the road and I’d be back home. What the hell I’d do once I got there was another matter entirely. Then I remembered Eramus. I would run to Eramus. He’d know what to do.

I was about to climb down when I heard something coming through the woods toward me. The rain was so heavy that it looked like a white sheet in front of my face. Whatever was out there, it most likely had the advantage because I couldn’t see shit if you threw it at my face.

There was no doubt in my mind that what was coming intended to do me harm. My chest hurt as I thought about James. He was probably dead or lying there dying and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it. I’d dropped my cell phone when I took off for the woods and I didn’t have a weapon. So it was either outsmart this thing and get away, or die. I felt stupid just sitting there, waiting for death to find me. But what was I supposed to do, jump down and flag it saying, “Here I am, eat me?”

The reason I thought of it as a “thing” and not a werewolf is because it wasn’t exactly a monster I recognized. Its face however was very familiar. As the creature grew closer I figured one thing out, it needed that wheelchair, at least most of the time.

He was limping through the woods with a halting, uneven gait that looked painful.

“Goddamned silver necklace,” he mumbled as he drew closer.

Silver necklace? He must have meant James’ necklace. I gave it to him the first year we were together and he’d worn it ever since. Apparently when he hit James the silver touched him. And it affected him this badly?

“Well, well.”

He bent to pick up my umbrella and took another look around the woods. In order to keep steady he propped against the trunk of the tree where I was perched only a few feet above his head. His hands were hairy and his fingernails had become claws. His eyes glowed so in the dark that they seemed to light the flesh around them, giving him a jack-o’-lantern sort of look. His fangs reminded me of a vampire. Not that I’d seen one in person, but that’s what they looked like. But I’d never heard of a vamp with hairy hands. I’d also never heard of a vampire or a werewolf with a physical disability.

He ran his nose up the handle of the umbrella and a chill ran through me that had nothing to do with the freezing rain. He was trying to pick up my scent. I might get hypothermia, but at least the rain was good for something. It was helping to mask my smell. That much was obvious, otherwise I was certain he would have found me by now.

“Fuck.” He tossed the umbrella down with a snarl. “Don’t worry, Lucy. I’ll find you.”

He knew my name? Who the fuck was he? His voice didn’t sound familiar. Then again, it was deepened so from his transformation that it sounded like something you’d hear in a horror movie. The only thing familiar about him at all was his face. Not the features, which were also slightly transformed, but the shape. I felt like we’d definitely met, I just had no idea where.

I sat there for what felt like an eternity, waiting for those awful jack-o’-lantern eyes to look up at me and praying they wouldn’t. He stumbled around the area where I’d fallen, looking for tracks I suppose, but the rain had washed everything away. I’d never been so grateful for rain in my life. I thought about jumping down on him and hitting him in the head. But then I remembered what he’d done to James. James was over six feet tall and weighed two hundred pounds. He’d flung him into the car like a rag doll. So, seeing as how I’m not a ninja, I quickly pushed all thoughts of assault from my mind.

Finally he limped off in another direction and as soon as he was out of sight I began climbing down. I lowered myself down from the last branch as far as I could. My upper body strength wasn’t enough to hold me there for long. I stretched my feet toward the ground as much as possible, hoping to keep from making any sort of splash. But I had no such luck.

My feet hit the ground with a wet smack and I took off toward the farm like a madwoman. Not even looking to see if the monster had heard me I tore through the woods at a break-neck pace. I had just made it out of the woods when a bone chilling howl cut through the night.

I bit back a scream and saved my breath for a running start as I scaled the wooden fence that surrounded the property. The horses were in the stable across the field and I could hear them going crazy. The monster was getting closer, because they could sense him. I would have tried to make it all the way across the ranch and to my neighbor’s house, but it was the weekend and I knew they were away. They worked the ranch during the week and spent almost every weekend out of town. Of course there was a caretaker, but he didn’t spend the night.

Lightning split the sky and the barn stood out like a big red beacon. I slipped as I crested the hill and for the first time I could hear the creature behind me. He had just reached the edge of the woods. I knew this because when I looked back his profile was illuminated by another flash of lightning. If I had seen him I had no doubt that he’d seen me.

I had no idea I could run so fast. I think I traveled half the distance to the barn on my hands and knees, trying to plow my way through the wet grass and mud. As stupid as it may sound, my mind was suddenly filled with movie clichés. I’m a large breasted woman being chased by a monster in the middle of a storm, I thought. By movie standards, I’m fucked.

Under different circumstances my thoughts might have been amusing. But in my current situation they were frightening. I guess it’s not that unusual that I thought about scenarios in movies. I mean, it’s not like this is what normally went on in my real life. I didn’t even know any monsters until recently and now I kept getting chased by them. I’ll admit I had wanted a bit more excitement in my life, but this was not what I had in mind.

Instead of going straight in the barn, I ran around the side. I wanted him to think there was a possibility that I might have gone on. That way, there was a chance he might not even go in the barn. At least, that’s what I was hoping for.

There was a big tractor parked up against the backside of the barn. I climbed up on top of it and through the loft window. It was all I could do to breathe. I felt like I was making way too much noise, like my breathing and my heartbeat were magnified. What was it Eramus had said, that he could hear my heartbeat? Couldn’t this creature do the same? Or was the rain drowning out the sound?

He came crashing through the front doors and I slapped a hand across my mouth to keep from screaming.

“Here kitty kitty,” he growled.

He was taller than before by at least a foot and his back was curved like he was hunched forward. His hair was longer and his hands were now transformed into giant claws. But the way he limped let me know that something was still wrong with his legs.

“I promise not to eat you,” he drawled. “Come on, Lucy. Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

He fell down with a roar. “Your fucking boyfriend’s necklace! Who the fuck wears silver anymore?”

I edged closer to get a better look at what was going on, but was careful to only lean and not actually move my whole body. I didn’t want to take a chance on a board creaking or some other such stupidity.

“Don’t you recognize me?” he panted. “Remember? We used to be friends?”

He turned his face up toward me then and I screamed. He’d known where I was all along. As frightened as I was, I did not like being toyed with. Matter of fact, it really pissed me off.

“Come on down, darling. Let’s get reacquainted.”

I was more than a little surprised when my knees didn’t wobble and my hands didn’t shake. I took hold of the ladder leading from the loft and climbed down. As I approached him the monster took a hammer in his right hand. I froze.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “This isn’t for you.” He held the hammer high, then paused. “You might want to look away.”

“I probably should, but forgive me if I don’t trust you enough to turn my back.”

His smile was evil as he lifted the hammer up and proceeded to break his own shin bones. I screamed, but I didn’t look away.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Fear was obvious in my voice, but I didn’t care. I wanted to know who he was and how he knew my name. Fighting back bile over what I’d just witnessed, I forced myself to watch him.

The creature let out another awful howl before turning his distorted gaze back to me. “You mean besides the obvious?” He gestured at his broken body. “I’ve been in a goddamned wheelchair since I was twelve.”

Despite my best judgment, I knelt in front of him and gasped when I finally recognized the monster before me.

“Ron?”

He smiled, flashing his fangs. “You do remember me.”

“What happened to you?”

He winced and when I glanced at his legs I saw that they were already reforming. I scooted back on the dirt floor, but I still didn’t stand up.

“You remember my accident, right?”

“Of course.”

“Well, growing up like this wasn’t easy. That’s an understatement and a cliché all at once, but I’m in a lot of pain here.” He roared as his foot broke backwards and began to reform into a massive paw.

“As I’m sure you can imagine this is not pleasant, but severe injury speeds up the process.”

“Ron…what are you?”

He waved off the comment. “I’m getting to that. Like I said, I hated being in that chair. So I—” He stopped and looked back at me again. “Do you know anything about lycanthropy? About the effects of the disease itself?”

I shook my head. “Only the obvious stuff. It turns you into a werewolf.”

He growled again only this time I kept watching his face. I didn’t think I could handle what was happening to his legs.

“It does more than that. If you have a physical disability, scars, anything of that nature it can heal it. Like say you lost your hand and all you had was a stump. If you were turned into a werewolf, you could grow that hand back. Of course, you’d have to cut off part of it again in order for your hand to regenerate, but what have you got to lose? Same thing for scars, just find a way to re-injure the skin and it will heal completely.”

This gruesome picture was finally starting to come together.

“You contracted lycanthropy on purpose to try to heal?”

His laugh was a cold, bitter sound. “I’ve never exactly been lucky. That was the plan, but it didn’t work out. As it so happens, I’m immune to lycanthropy. I got bitten by a werewolf for nothing.”

“But…” I gestured at his hands and fangs.

“I’m getting there. I actually became friends with the werewolf who agreed to bite me. See, it took some persuading, but once he decided to help me he was in ’til we came up with something else.”

He paused and I noticed that his legs looked almost whole. Only they weren’t perfectly formed human legs, they were nearly perfectly formed werewolf legs.

“What did you do?”

“He suggested that if we mixed werewolf blood with that of a vampire that it might still work. It would sort of be as if the vampire blood was a carrier for the virus. I don’t know how to explain it to you any better than that, but a vampire can’t mix with a werewolf. It can, however, carry the virus in its blood without infecting anyone else.”