The Accidental Werewolf 2: Something About Harry (Accidentally Paranormal Novel) (28 page)

Sorrow at Guido’s still form mingled, danced, warred with rage until rage won the battle. “I’ll kill you!” Mara howled, racing toward Leah’s back, preparing to launch herself at it.

Out of the inky darkness, Nina was there, her warrior cry a high-pitched roar of wrath. She fell on Leah, tearing her from Guido’s body just as Harry ran to his side, ripping his shirt off and pressing it into the oozing wound.

Wanda and Marty pulled up short behind him, dragging him from Guido and replacing his hands with theirs. “Go!” Wanda ordered with a harsh bark. “What Leah says is true. Arch says she has the kids! Find the kids and Jeff!”

Nina hauled Leah up by her neck, shaking her like a rag doll. “Where are the kids, you fucking fruit loop?” she hissed in her face, jerking her body, flashing her fangs.

Leah hung almost lifeless, her eyes half-mast. Yet she summoned the will to spit in Nina’s face. “I’ll never tell you. Never, ever!”

Mara’s rage spread through her limbs and tore at her self-control. She shoved Nina hard, dragging Leah from her grasp and wrapping her fingers around her neck. “Where are Mimi and Fletcher? Tell me, damn you!” she screamed, curling her fingers into Leah’s hair and drawing her head back until her body bowed.

“Let’s play a game, Mara,” Leah choked out with a grin. “I’ll give you a clue, you have to . . .” She swallowed, blood from her split lip seeping from the corner of her mouth. “Guess. You have to guess!” She began to laugh; whatever was broken in her was pulling away, leaving nothing but fragments of the Leah Mara thought she’d always known.

Mara’s teeth clenched, her nose flared again. Still no scent of the children. Suspicion began to claw at her gut. “Liar!” she hollered. “I don’t believe you have them, Leah. You don’t smell like them. Now who’s the liar?”

Leah laughed, sputtering a cackle. “I have them. Yes, yes, I do! Olly olly oxen free!”

“Tell me where the children are, Leah, or I’ll kill you myself!”

Leah struggled against Mara’s grip, her hands clawing at Mara’s. “You’ll never find them,” she said on a harsh gasp for air. “You’re not the only one who’s smart enough to create a serum. I made one, too. I took away their scent. You’ll never find them without me . . .” She was bragging, taunting, and it only made Mara want her dead—pummeled so far into the ground, no one would ever find her remains.

Mara’s other hand went to Leah’s neck, she squeezed until her eyes bulged and unconsciousness was almost upon her. Her hands shook from the force she was using, her head pounding, screaming the wild rage erupting in her.

“Stop!” Harry yelled, putting his hand on hers, pulling. “Stop, Mara,” he said quietly. “She’s the only one who knows where the kids and Jeff are. Stop now!” he bellowed in her ear.

Leah’s eyes popped open when Mara’s grip eased, focusing on Harry, becoming soft. “I loved you, Harry,” she said on a gasp, her chest pumping up and down. “But . . .” She hacked a cough, a tear, glistening in the moonlight, fell from the corner of her eye. “You never even knew I existed. We would have been good parents together. I would have taken good care of them.”

Harry gritted his teeth. Mara watched him gather himself, batten down the hatches on his fear and anger. He ran his hand over Leah’s hair, soothing her, gazing into her dull eyes. “You can still do that, Leah. Take me to them. Good mothers want to protect their children, right? Let’s protect them—
together,
” he forced the word out as though it tasted sour.

Mara’s eye caught something on the ground, a familiar piece of spiral notebook paper just like the one they’d found at Jeff’s. She scrambled to pick it up, kicking up dirt, ignoring the gash in her forehead she’d somehow acquired. A map. It was a hand-drawn map . . . One Leah had probably made in order to remember the spot where she’d left Mimi and Fletcher. She stared hard at the paper—a piece of it missing. It was torn, frayed, probably from Leah’s fingers worrying the edges.

But it looked familiar.

Her eyes widened. She knew where this was. She and her brothers had played there often as children. The kids were . . .

No. Jesus. No. Not there.

There was nothing there for miles and miles but a grouping of caves and frozen ground and rocks—so many rocks. Even with the strength of their paranormal skills combined, as cold as it was, and the amount of time the children and Jeff had been missing, they’d never find them in the masses of rock before they froze to death. If they hadn’t already. Oh, God, how long had they been there?

Mara’s heart screamed in her chest.
Think, Mara, think!
There had to be a specific reason Leah had chosen this area. Everything she’d done so far had been carefully planned—meticulous. All of it geared toward an obscure message she wanted to send. A game she wanted everyone to play, to recognize and validate, while she sat back and reveled in her superior intellect while no one had a clue she was the one pulling the strings of this marionette.

And then she knew. Without a shadow of a doubt, she knew.

“I know!” Mara screamed into the night, holding up the piece of paper. “I know where they are!”

“
Where?”
Harry rasped, his voice tight.

She couldn’t say it—she couldn’t say the words out loud. She’d rather die than say the words out loud. Turning her back to the group, she forced herself to speak the next words calmly. “Get Guido and Leah and follow me. Do it now!”

Mara took off, pumping her legs harder than she ever had in her life. Harder than when Sloan and Keegan had raced her to home base when they played tag. Harder than when she’d run track against Lavinia Meyers in high school, her toughest opponent in all of paranormal-ville.

She ran harder because she knew—she knew what Leah had done, and there couldn’t be much time left—if there was any at all.

If she let it, the horror of it, the sick, twisted plot involved to pull it off would thwart her, wear her down until she wouldn’t be able to move a muscle.

Leah had buried the kids and Jeff alive.

* * *

T
HEY
all came to a screeching halt in the exact spot marked on the map. Harry flung Leah’s semiconscious body down on the ground, the air wheezing from his lungs.

Nina had wrapped Guido’s wound with Harry’s shirt, pulling it tight under his arm to stop the bleeding.

Wanda grabbed Mara’s hand with trembling fingers, looking out at the vast expanse of nothing but snow-covered ground and miles of rock. “Where are they, Mara? I can’t smell anything! I know these kids now. I know their scent!”

Marty lifted Leah up by the front of her shirt, shaking her so hard Mara heard her teeth rattle, then hurled her back to the hard surface beneath their feet. “Tell us where the children are
now
!” she screamed down at a broken and battered Leah, her hands balled, the wind pushing at her slender body.

“You’ll never find them. Never, ever.” Leah wheezed a giggle from the ground before Nina planted a foot on her chest and drove it into her flesh, making her scream in pain.

“Shut the fuck up, fruity, or I’m gonna shoot your ass myself!”

Harry began to pace, his heart thudding in his ears like thunder itself. He sniffed the air—nothing. Jesus Christ, there had to be at least a million square miles of rock. Piles and piles of rocks. It was getting colder by the minute, and he couldn’t smell them. What good was this damn werewolf thing if he couldn’t smell them? “I don’t get it, Mara!” He yelled the words over the wind that had begun to swoosh in heavy gusts. “How can they be here? I can’t smell them either!”

Mara dropped to the ground on all fours by the first grouping of rocks, stacked taller than he was. She placed her ear to it, her hair flying around her head in a tangled mass of ebony. “She’s covered their scent with something. Now, shhh! Listen, Harry! We have to listen! Listen and look—look for anywhere the dirt is soft.”

The stacks of granite were endless. Why weren’t they ripping them apart? What good was all this superhuman strength if they didn’t use it? Harry’s hands reached to the top to begin pulling the rocks down, away from their tiny faces.

“No!” Mara screamed, bolting upright and pushing at him. “Don’t just start haphazardly throwing things around! What if they cave, Harry? If I’m right and they’re under this mess, we can’t afford for it to collapse!” Squeezing his hands, Mara fell back to the ground, pressing her ears back to the sharp edges of the rocks.

She was right.

Fear clawed at his throat, terror ripped a hole in his gut, but he dropped on all fours right along with her and listened.

“They’re going to die. Everyone’s going to die.” Leah laughed on an ugly gurgle of blood. “There’ll be no playing mommy for you!”

Harry’s eyes flew to Leah’s body but feet away from him and he fought the urge to rip her face off.

Nina leaned down next to her, raising her fist up high, she brought it down on Leah’s jaw, the crack of impact slipping to his ears on the wind. She hauled Leah with her, clamping her ankles as she, too, dropped on all fours and listened.

His chest was tight—so tight he thought he’d never take another breath again without laboring.

Focus, Harry. Find the kids. Donna will kill you if you don’t find the kids.

He began crawling along the face of the rocks, his ear scraping the ground as he went, inching his fingers across the rough edges, willing himself to focus.

Donna’s gone, Harry. She’s never coming back. You’re all they have. They need you. Find the kids, Harry. If you do nothing else with this werewolf gig, use it to help you find the kids. Listen. Listen for Mimi’s breathing—you know it. You’ve heard it a million times while she napped on your lap. You know the pattern.

But what if she wasn’t . . .

Don’t think about it, Harry! Find the kids.

And then he heard it. That slight hitch, the adorable little hiccup Mimi always made when she was sound asleep.

Use your ears, Harry—follow the sound. He crawled. He crawled for all he was worth.

His eyes grazed something—something plastic—caught up in the formation of rocks. His eyes focused on it, rounding in horror.

He yanked it from between the rocks, examining it. It was just like the straw from the juice boxes the kids were always trying to convince him that Donna had let them have.

He’d have never seen them without his new eyesight. Not in a million years. And in that second, he was grateful—so grateful.

He couldn’t stop the mere second or two of horror—at the mental instability it took to do something like this, but when it passed, he began screaming, his voice hoarse and raw, the cold wind biting and unforgiving. “Here! They’re here!”

CHAPTER

20

All at once, five pairs of hands began digging; dirt flew in frozen clumps, tearing at Mara’s knuckles, ripping her flesh. Shards of rock broke and scattered, and she had to remind herself to slow down. If this caved in . . .

“Slowly!” she screamed, remembering the intricate way Leah had designed Carl’s trap. If this was anything like that, Leah would have designed it to fall on the kids and Jeff. “We have to be careful not to jar it or it will cave!”

Oh, God. Please, please don’t let it fall.

Marty was bleeding, too, tears streaming down her face, flecks of dirt in her blond hair, as she dug right alongside Wanda.

Wanda’s nylons were shredded, her shoes lost, her prim driving gloves falling away from her fingers with each drive of her hand into the wall of rocks.

Harry began screaming Mimi’s and Fletcher’s names while Nina anchored Leah with her knee in her chest. She yelled into the face of the crumbling tower, “Auntie Nina’s coming, kiddos! Hang tough, Jeff!”

As they widened the hole around the straw, Mara caught her first peek of Mimi’s purple hat. Joy welled up inside her, the most unbearable joy she’d ever experienced. “Here! Mimi’s here!”

“Fletch!” Nina called out next. “I found Fletcher!” she hollered above the screeching wind.

“Jeff!” Wanda and Marty screamed simultaneously, digging faster.

Leah’s head lifted suddenly, howling her rage. “They’re all dead! Dead, dead, deader than doornails!” she keened.

“Shut up, you crazy nutbag!” Guido screamed before the final shot of the night rang out, scoring Leah’s skull. He fell back on the ground with a grunt, the gun falling to the frozen ground.

Tears stung Mara’s eyes, but she looked straight ahead, steeling herself, willing herself to dig until her hands touched flesh. Mimi’s flesh.

She tore at the dirt around Mimi, reaching for her body, hauling her out of the clump of heavy rocks, unsettling the ground with the force of her pull. She dragged Mimi to her and began tearing at the duct tape over her mouth, ripping it from her hands and feet while Harry did the same with Fletcher.

Mara frantically put her fingers to Mimi’s throat, feeling for a pulse. Her skin was ice cold, her lips almost blue, and then she was yanking off her prison garb, removing Mimi’s sodden clothes with swift hands. “We need to warm them!” she yelled above the howling wind.

Skin-to-skin contact, wasn’t it? Mara began to rock, whispering into Mimi’s ear. “C’mon, princess. Please, please wake up for me,” she sobbed. “Coconut needs you. Uncle Harry needs you
. I
need you. We’ll have hot chocolate and marshmallows with Carl, if you’ll just wake up!”

Nothing. Mimi remained lifeless, her bare arms icy cold. God only knew how long they’d been down there. Fear ripped through Mara, bringing hot tears to her eyes while the freezing air tore at her exposed flesh.

No, no, no. This would not happen. She hugged her tighter, curling Mimi’s small body into her own as she rocked. “C’mon, sweetie. Time to wake up now. We have so much to do. I need you to help me pick out the color purple for your room. There are so many shades. We want the right shade, don’t we? And we can’t let Uncle Harry pick it. Look what he did to your room the last time.”

Still nothing but Mimi’s thready pulse ringing in her ears. Panic began to take over. She had to force herself to keep it together. “Wake up, Mimi!” she whispered fiercely, leaning back into Nina who’d come to sit behind her, throwing her hoodie over Mara’s shoulders and pulling her flush to her chest.

Nina began to rock, too, reaching around Mara and squeezing Mimi’s limp hands. “C’mon, pretty girl. Auntie Nina misses you. You haven’t even met Charlie yet. She told me just the other day she needed a new friend. I need you to be her friend. You love
Dora the Explorer
, right? If you don’t wake up, I’m gonna have to watch it with her. I don’t like Dora. Help a mommy out, huh? So wake up, Mimi! Wake up!”

From the corner of her eye, she saw Harry haul Fletcher’s half-clothed body to his bare chest. Wanda was there, throwing her coat over his shoulders before pulling Jeff with her while Marty brushed the dirt from his nostrils.

Wanda pulled Jeff to her like he was a rag doll. She opened her shirt, never once stopping at how awkward it was to have a fully-grown, strange man who wasn’t her husband, naked and in her arms. She began rubbing Jeff’s arms, speaking to him in words Mara couldn’t hear, her fear Mimi wouldn’t wake up pounding in her ears.

“Fletch—it’s Uncle Harry. Wake up, buddy. I need you, Fletcher. I need you so much, pal. Please, wake up!” Harry’s frantic plea, gravelly and raw, tore at Mara’s soul.

Scooting near Harry, she huddled against him, both of the children on their laps, their heads bent as they whispered to them. Tears fell, but Mara couldn’t be sure if they were hers or Harry’s.

And the wind howled while Nina knelt in front of them and sheltered them from the chilling cold, clamping her hands on their shoulders, kneading their flesh to keep them as warm as a vampire could.

Marty came up behind them, stretching her arms across their backs, rocking, whispering prayers, soothing.

Mara’s heart crashed as they rocked, her hand reaching for Harry’s.
No, God, please, please no.

He clamped his hand around hers, pulling her and Mimi tight to him.

And they rocked. They rocked while Nina spoke hushed words of encouragement. While Marty, tears falling from her face to Mara’s naked back, pressed closer, rested her head in the space between Harry and Mara.

“Uncle Harry?”

All of their heads shot up. Eyes met, wide and in wonder.

Fletcher, sleepy-eyed and drowsy, looked up at Harry and Mara. “Where are we?”

Harry gathered him up, hauling Fletcher’s weak body to his chest, burying his face in the boy’s neck. His shoulders shook in silence as Marty stroked the top of Fletcher’s head. “Oh, thank God. Thank God,” he husked out, his voice tight and raspy.

Fletcher didn’t fight him. Instead, he snuggled closer, letting his cheek rest on Harry’s shoulder with a weak sigh.

Mara froze when Mimi stirred, reaching for Nina’s hand to help keep her upright.

Nina flopped to the ground, her beautiful face a mask of relief. She tugged on one of Mimi’s curls. “Well, look who’s awake? ’Bout time, little lady. You sure are lazy,” she teased, running her finger along Mimi’s pert nose.

“Mara?” she whispered against Mara’s skin—the most beautiful whisper in the world.

She gulped, fighting the onslaught of tears while Marty dabbed at her cheeks, silent tears of her own coursing down her face. “Yes, Mimi?”

“Where’s Uncle Harry?”

Mara’s breathing hitched, but she fought the lump in her throat. “He’s in Africa, playing with the elephants. You want me to tell him you called?”

Mimi giggled—it was weak and it was thin, but it was a giggle. That was all that mattered. “He is not.”

Mara nodded, fighting a cringe when the wind tore through her flesh. “Is, too,” she said, smiling down at Mimi’s beautiful, precious face, fighting the urge to squeeze her hard.

Mimi reached upward, her hand slow and shaky. She touched Mara’s cheek with a finger and smiled sleepily. “Do you think Uncle Harry would let us have an elephant?”

Harry pulled Mara and Mimi closer, cupping Mimi’s rounded cheek with a smile, his eyes glinting in the dark. “He will not, Miss Mimi.” With another shuddering breath, Harry let his head fall back on his shoulders and blinked his eyes for a long moment before finally lifting his head.

The sound of a helicopter roared above them, lights shone down, coming from all directions in the sky.

Harry looked at her, his teeth beginning to chatter. His eyebrow rose in question.

Mara rolled her eyes, fighting the violent shudder of cold ripping through her. “Keegan. He can smell Marty from a hundred miles, and he’d rent a jetliner to get to her, if that’s what it took.”

Nina knelt beside them, looking down at Fletcher and Mimi. “Hear that, dudes? That means it’s time for you to go to sleep now. So close your eyes.” She ran light fingertips over their eyelids. “And dream sweet dreams for Auntie Nina.”

Both children took deep breaths before their eyes fell closed and they slumped against Mara and Harry.

Harry looked to Mara again, though it was with complete trust, melting her heart. “Should I ask?”

“She’s erasing their memories. So they’ll never remember . . .” Mara closed her eyes trying to regain her composure. If she let the horror in—even just a little—she’d close her eyes and never open them again.

“So they won’t remember that fucking loon and what she did to them,” Nina finished for her. “Kids should stay kids for as long as they can. I’m just doin’ my part to keep it that way.”

Harry reached up, grabbing Nina’s hand, pulling it to his cheek, his words trembling. “Thank you.
Thank you
. I’ll never, ever be able to thank you.”

She squeezed it before she took a swipe at his head. “Shut the fuck up, nerd, and let’s get these monsters and your lady love the hell home. I’ve had enough drama for today. Carl’s waiting, and I need me some zombie-time.”

Just as the helicopter landed, and Keegan burst out of the door, Jeff woke up.

His eyes were wild, even if his body was weak, when he realized he was in the arms of a semi-naked woman. “Who . . . the . . . hell . . . are . . . you?” he screamed at Wanda. “And why are we . . .
naked
?”

Nina strutted over to Wanda and looked down at Jeff. “She’s Wanda, I’m Nina, and I bet you don’t wake up naked to a broad as hot as this very often, do ya nerd? Sorry you won’t be able to enjoy it longer. Shhhh, Jeffie, it’s night-night time.” Nina quashed his protests by leaning down and repeating the act of erasing his memory.

Keegan ran toward them, his long legs covering the area in seconds. He didn’t say anything—he didn’t have to. His face said it all. There was worry, fear, a million questions on it when he looked at Leah’s lifeless form, and Guido, his teeth chattering, his body quaking.

He gathered Marty into his arms, pulling her close and breathing deeply as though he hadn’t taken a breath until she was with him again. “You worry me, honey,” he muttered, fierce, possessive. “Stop damn well worrying me.”

Marty reached up and tweaked his jaw, following it up with a kiss. Her words shook on the way out, the fear of their nightmare obviously catching up with her, too. Collapsing against him, she said, “Don’t ask questions. For now, just take us home, and let’s have the kids checked by Dr. Field.”

As everyone made their way to the helicopter, and Sloan, waiting inside, began to pull each of them in, covering them in blankets, Harry handed a sleeping Fletcher and Mimi over to him and turned to Mara.

He drew her to his chest, his hands like ice, his words hushed. “Thank you. I’d have never found them without you. Jesus Christ, I don’t know what I would have done . . .”

She put her fingers to his lips, letting the tears of relief slip from her eyes. “Then don’t. Don’t wonder. Please don’t or I’ll make the Crypt Keeper erase your memory.”

He chuckled, his mood shifting instantly. He swung her up into his arms. “Would I forget the other night?”

She grinned, burrowing closer, breathing—just breathing. “You mean when we . . .”

“Yeah. When we,” he teased.

“You might.”

His arms stiffened around her, tightening. “I
never
want to forget that, Mara. Not ever.”

Nina slapped his shoulder from behind, Guido in her arms. “Then shut the fuck up and get in the damn helicopter, or I’ll make you forget the dates for the next Trekkie convention.”

Harry laughed, sliding Mara into the helicopter. “God, she’s mean. So mean.”

Mara giggled, pulling her legs in and holding her hand out to him. “The meanest.”

He took it, settling in beside her. “Will you come with me when this doctor checks on the kids?”

Mara fought the burst of joy exploding in her heart, but she kept her reply simple before she pressed her lips to his. “Wouldn’t miss it—not even for my very own TARDIS.”

* * *

H
ARRY
stood beside Mara as they watched Mimi and Fletcher sleep—safe, warm, loved. Carl slept on the floor on a blow-up mattress, Coconut curled up in the crook of his stiff arm. When they’d arrived back at her cottage with the children, Darnell told them Carl had been fidgety all night, nervous and jumpy in a way the demon said he’d never seen before. Until the kids were carried in and put in bed, that is.

He’d then dragged the mattress Nina’d been sleeping on in the closet and placed it next to the bed, covered the children and lay down next to them, patting Fletcher’s hand before nodding off to a sound sleep.

After they’d arrived at the hospital, while Dr. Field examined the children, the council had questioned Mara, deciding to let her go for the moment, but leaving the discussion about her serum still a question.

Nina, Marty, and Wanda had taken a sleeping Jeff home, straightened up his house, and Nina erased all traces of Leah and the torture she’d so clearly put him through during the time of his captivity from his memory. Whatever had happened, maybe after seeing what they’d seen tonight, it was better they didn’t know.