Enemies and Lovers Amongst Us (19 page)

No! She couldn’t accept it.

They didn’t deserve this. They deserved to live and enjoy life until

the ripe old age of eighty or so. Not die having tried to help her.

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A ringing began in her ears. It sounded so bizarre, and at first she

didn’t know if it was her imagination or was she really hearing it.

When she picked up a pattern to the sound, she guessed it was a

police siren. Help was on the way.

Forcing herself to ignore the turning room and the wicked images

fermenting themselves before her eyes, she made her way toward

Sam’s body.

In her calculating mind, she figured there was still a chance to

save her men. It was a small window of chance that they were still

alive and their pumping blood would be able to absorb her werewolf

venom and stop them from dying, but she still had to take that chance.

With the police arriving any minute, she had to move fast.

Praying to a God she rarely spoke to, she wished for a miracle,

and took the first of two bites to save the men she loved with all her

soul.

* * * *

She still felt like hell. The antidote had stopped the poison’s

progress, and her body was now filtering out its toxins as she stood

there staring into the two-way mirror in the room. But the aches and

spasms continued to surge through her. She knew the doctor at The

Haven would come in any second and order her to bed to rest, but she

couldn’t bring herself to do it.

Staring through the two-way mirror at Jake and Sam as they lay

unconscious in the other room, hooked up to monitors and werewolf

blood transfusion machines, cool tears streamed down her warm

cheeks. They had a long and arduous road to recovery ahead of them,

but they were going to be all right. Her bite had saved them.

Saved them. Would they see it that way when they regained

consciousness? They would no longer be humans, but werewolves,

damned to walk the Earth, sometimes in human form and sometimes

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in beast form, for centuries to come. Did they want that? Did they

deserve that?

No.

She had taken power out of God’s hands and made a decision that

could never be undone. At the time, it seemed like the only solution.

She couldn’t bear seeing them die. She loved them too much to lose

them.

But now, she wondered if her actions were in vain anyway. Once

they heard of their situation and that she did this to them, they might

never forgive her and hate her for the rest of their werewolf lives.

The knob clicked, and Doctor Fenelle’s smile turned into a frown

when the door opened and she gazed at Triala.

“What are you doing out of bed, Miss Barns?”

“I just wanted to make sure they were all right,” Triala said as she

turned and slowly walked to her hospital bed. Her joints cracked with

her every movement.

“Their recovery will take time, and adapting to their new bodies

and increased libido isn’t going to be easy, but they are doing fine so

far. They don’t seem to be rejecting the werewolf transfusion, which

is a great sign.” The doctor smiled as she helped her cover herself

with the blue blanket.

“Can I see them now just for a second?” she asked purposely with

hopeful eyes.

The doctor’s frown returned. “I’m afraid no, Miss Barns. You are

much too weak to be out of bed. You need to gain your strength,

because once they wake up and their sexual werewolf urges begin to

rise, they’ll be needing you most of all.”

The doctor took out a syringe from a storage cabinet beside the

bed and brought it to Triala’s arm. “This will alleviate the pain and

will help you rest and sleep.”

Triala nodded, closing her eyes when she felt tears return. The

doctor obviously didn’t realize how much her statement affected

Triala. O nce they heard what she had done to them and that she

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turned them into condemned monsters, the last thing they would want

from her was her helping to satiate their sexual, wild, rising urges.

“You’ll begin to feel the effect of the sedative in moments. I’ll

come back in a couple of hours to see how you’re doing,” the doctor

said as she headed to the door.

Triala didn’t open her eyes and just listened to her departure. The

pain began to lighten, and her head became heavy. Taking deep

breaths, she waited for sleep to come. Maybe when she woke up,

she’d find out this was all a dream.

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Chapter 24

“Ring around the Rosie. Pocket full of posies. Ashes. Ashes. We

all fall down!”

Sam walked through the dark aisles as the song kept playing in his

ears. He heard the kids, but couldn’t see them. Where could they be,

and why were they singing that song?

For that matter, what the hell was he doing here? Was he working

a case?

His exhaling breath turned into a bright mist when it hit the cool

air, lighting up his way. It was damn cold in here. It felt like the dead
of winter.

Wrapping his arms around himself to try to keep warm, he

speeded up as the children’s voices became stronger and clearer.

They were close now.

When he got to the end of a long and winding aisle, he saw them.

They were about twenty, he guessed. From their height, he estimated

their ages to be between eight and ten. They danced in a circle all

holding hands. The ceremonial masks they wore looked like the ones

the Dan tribal hunters in Liberia, Africa wore. He remembered the

brown wooden masks he saw in photos in an online article he read

last month. They resembled beast monsters, with high foreheads,

pouting mouths, and pointed chins.

As he got closer to them, he asked, “What are you kids doing

here?”

They didn’t stop dancing or even glance at him, their dance and

song uninterrupted by his question.

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Frowning, he approached them and tapped one of the kids closest

to him on the shoulder. “What are you doing here?”

They continued to chant, the masked boy he addressed personally

ignoring him as if he weren’t even there, as if he didn’t exist.

“Ring around the Rosie. Pocket full of posies. Ashes. Ashes. We

all fall down!”

At the word “down,” all the kids took off their masks in unison,

throwing them to the floor. To Sam’s horror, he realized they weren’t

children hiding behind those masks but wolves.

He jumped in shock and hit his head on something.

“Damn, that hurts!” he cursed as he opened his eyes. The bright

overhead neon lights assaulted his vision, and pain shot through his

skull.

An ugly, short nurse who was checking the IV drip next to his bed

grinned at him with a wide smile. “Ah, you’re awake.”

He didn’t know if he had actually awoken from his nightmare or

was still stuck in it. Hell, she was the ugliest nurse he had ever seen.

Her shifty, bulging eyes got him dizzy as she looked at him. He

couldn’t tell if she really stared at him or over his shoulder.

But her soothing voice and friendly demeanor made up for what

she lacked in looks. Rubbing his sore forehead, he asked, “Where am

I?”

“You’re in The Haven.”

“The Haven?”

“Yes, it’s a hospital that specializes in special cases of

rehabilitation.”

Taking in his environment, he saw Jake lying in the bed next to

his. He asked quickly and in a worried tone, “Is he all right?”

She glanced at his partner and nodded. “Yes, he should be waking

up soon, too.”

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Relief flooded him then. “That’s good to hear.” But that relief was

short- lived because he remembered about the warehouse and Triala.

His Triala. Their Triala. Was she okay?

His heart pounded so hard in his chest with worry for her.

He was just about to ask the nurse if she knew anything about her

when the door to their room opened and in walked the most beautiful

woman in the world. She wore a sweet smile to accompany her sweet

and loving demeanor.

If he didn’t feel like he had just literally been put through the

ringer, he would jump out of the hospital bed and run to her, grabbing

her in his arms and twirling her around kissing her, telling her how

much he loved her and that he thought he lost her. He couldn’t go on

living if anything had happened to her.

“Triala, you’re okay?” he asked.

Her smile widened. “Yes, I am. How are you feeling?”

He shrugged. “I’ve had better days,” he joked.

The nurse looked at Triala, then at Sam. “Well, I think I better

leave you alone now. You have a lot of catching up to do.” Directly

addressing Triala, she added, “If you need any help, just push the

button.”

“Yes, thank you, N urse Avery. You have been so kind. I’ll

certainly call you if we’ll need anything.”

Once she exited and the door closed shut behind her, he asked,

gesturing she come sit on the bed with him, “Thank God you’re all

right, Triala. When that bastard said he had given you a poison and

that you were dying, I thought I was going to lose you forever.”

She followed his request and came to sit beside him in the bed,

staring at him with big eyes. She looked so worried, so stressed.

Taking her hand, he brought it to his lips and kissed the back of it.

“Baby, I love you. I don’t know what I would have done if

anything had happened to you.”

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She turned her hand and cupped his face. Tears formed in her

eyes. His heart fell into his chest knowing his baby love was

distressed and crying.

“What’s wrong, Triala? Tell me everything that happened.”

She wiped her tears and whispered, “I’m so sorry, Sam. I hope

you’ll be able to forgive me for what I did to you and Jake someday.”

His head hadn’t stopped aching, but with her crazy words just

now, the pain just escalated. “Forgive you, baby? There is nothing to

forgive. You were the victim in all that happened.”

She shook her head and lowered her gaze to her hands resting on

her lap. “No, once you and Jake hear what I did to you, you will see

what I mean.”

“Then tell me. But I know already there is nothing to forgive.”

“Yeah, I agree,” Jake said groggily.

Sam turned to see Jake’s eyes half opened, staring at him and

Triala. “Well, look who else is awake.”

She got up and went to his bed next, taking his hand and smiling

through her tears. “How do you feel?”

“Like shit.”

Sam couldn’t help but laugh at his remark. A surge of pain shot

through his torso with the exertion on his tired body

Jake took her hand and slowly placed it on his chest. “Why don’t

you dry those tears and give us a kiss?” he asked.

She wiped her tears and kissed his forehead. She then looked back

at Sam, and taking a deep breath, she blurted out, “Why I’m saying

that you won’t forgive me is because I turned you both into

werewolves.”

* * * *

Jake just wanted her to stop talking so he could kiss her. She kept

saying she was so sorry about everything she put them through and

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that she understood if they never wanted to see her again or forgive

her for the horrible thing she did.

Granted, waking up to find out that he and Sam were no longer

human and were on their way to becoming full- fledged werewolves

wasn’t exactly what he wanted to hear. But they were both alive and

could be with Triala, and that was what mattered.

Taking her hand in his, he was about to tell her to stop talking and

kiss him when the door opened and a doctor came in.

“Well, I see you’re both awake,” she said with a greeting smile.

Triala responded, “Yes, Dr. Fenelle. But I haven’t explained to

them how the treatment works.”

The doctor nodded as she glanced at Triala.

Jake’s inquisitiveness got the better of him. “Treatment? What

treatment?”

Taking their charts, the doctor wrote something on each and then

placed them back on the stand at the foot of their beds. “Triala is

talking about the recovery treatment. The transition from human to

werewolf is a complicated one, and the treatment lasts about a week if

the patient responds well to it. If not, it may take longer and further

treatments will be required.”

“What type of treatment are we talking about here, doc?” Sam

asked with a worried look.

“Well, you completed the first phase, which was the werewolf

blood transfusion. The second phase is the hormone injections. They

last a week, and of course the most intense and stressing one is the

sexual treatment.”

The doctor’s last statement got Jake curious. “Sexual treatment?”