Erin Dameron-Hill (26 page)

Chapter
Twenty Seven

Anubis’ blood spattered all over my face. I opened my eyes and saw that his head was completely gone. He was just a body still holding me tight. His neck turned right to left and looked for whoever pulled the trigger on the shotgun.

“Get the fuck off of her,” I heard the deep and rich voice of the Hunter say. For the first time in a long time, I felt relief. I wasn’t alone. Anubis had not taken every one away from me yet. I still had my hunter. I turned to look at him and saw both Matt and Sheila standing beside him. They were both very beat up, blue and purple in the face, but they were alive just as Shirley was still alive. She was the only one looking severely pissed. The Hunter looked determined and Matt and Sheila looked worried and scared.

Several small cracking noises brought my attention back to Anubis. From his severed neck grew a new head. Blood and muscles twisted and joined together as new bright, white bones created a skull. I wanted to vomit as I watched the monster regenerate his own head, watched as blood as tissue wound their way together to form flesh, to form skin, to form his face.

Finally, after only a few seconds, his shiny gold eyes turned to face me once more, “Do you actually believe that I was made into a god because I was a ‘werewolf’? Tut, tut, Anput. I am a God. I can’t be harmed.”

He growled mercilessly at the Hunter and said to the multitude of wolves crouching around us, “Kill them.”

The werewolves howled loudly and in unison with a chilling bark that would freeze anyone’s blood. I heard the Hunter reload his shotgun, the clicking echoing louder than the stampede of wolves. I felt Matt’s power collide with Sheila’s as they both turned into wolves themselves, making a weapon out of their own body. And as Shirley looked into the mob running towards them, I felt her smile.

“No!” I screamed out loud as Anubis kept pushing me down into the wet ground, “let them go, you son of a bitch!”

“Do you see what happens when I leave someone alive? They try to rescue you. I had thought your friends were all dead, but what’s the old saying, if you want something done, you better do it yourself.”

“Then why are you over here instead of killing them?”

“And leave you all by yourself? Nice try, Anput, but I will never let you go again. Once my wolves finish off your friends, I will bind us together for eternity. You will worship me, you will obey me, you will bow to me, and what is the saying kids use these days, oh yeah, you will blow me. You will suck my dick and like it.”

“Not even in your wildest fantasies,” I said simply.

“Once I bind you, you will beg me for the honor of getting down on your knees. But for an appetizer, I want you to watch your friends die.”

Anubis grabbed me by my wet and matted hair lifting me up from the ground. I squinted through the dark haze and blazing torchlight and saw the hunter reload. He fired quickly into the furry pack before I saw even more weapons appear into his large hands. I couldn’t really tell from this far away, about half a mile in the dark, but I knew my friends were winning. Matt and Sheila were growling and barking as blood followed their claws while Shirley was single-handedly wrestling five wolves and holding them down. I knew she was otherworldly, but dear lord, I didn’t think she could kick so much ass.

More yelps echoed through the mound of fur and guns crackled in the night sky as more and more wolves fell dead before my friends. We were winning. We had to be. I inhaled deeply and smelled only small streams of blood from Morty, Matt, and Sheila. Shirley hadn’t lost any blood, but I could smell something else oozing from her skin. It reeked of thick steel being melted in a volcano, she completely smelled of metal. I knew she wasn’t human.

“I think your plan is backfiring, Anubis,” I said with a cocky smile on my face. It felt good to watch him lose. I was finally taking something from him, hurting him in the way he hurt me, emotionally.

“Your friends are tougher then they seem. But, as you know, I can control wolves,” he growled with a soft, toothy smile and slightly closed his eyes. I saw his power shoot from his entire body, the normal orange curly-cues now strode out from him like a thousand stampeding mustangs right into Matt and Sheila. For a split second, they were quiet, still…

Oh no. Not Matt and Sheila. Please don’t let them get hurt or…I held my breath as Matt and Sheila turned to look at the Hunter and Shirley.

Anubis’ power yelled at my skin, biting like a hoard of hornets as he whispered to Matt and Sheila, “kill them”. With slow-motion horror I saw my ‘mother’ and my ‘father’ turn on my lover and my friend. They ripped the weapons out of Morty’s hands as for a split-second he stood surprised. That’s all it took for him to end up on the ground completely covered by several torn and bleeding wolves. Shirley, on the other hand, kept fighting. But I could see she was becoming more and more drained by the second. She wouldn’t be able to last much longer. My friends would die in front of me if I didn’t do something.

“Anubis, please stop. Please don’t hurt them anymore.”

He smiled at me wickedly, “I told you that you would beg me.”

“Whatever you want from me, I’ll do it. Just please, stop. Please,” I said with several more tears streaming down my face, washing away the swamp grime that was embedded into my skin.

“That’s a tempting offer, but no. When the binding takes place, you’ll beg me regardless. You’ll do whatever I want, why don’t you understand that?”

“Please stop hurting them! They‘re all I have left!”

“No, you have me. I’m your soul mate. You don’t need anyone else.”

I screamed into his face with a guttural growl that sounded distant and unknown. He really was going to take away everyone I loved.

My eyes searched the ground for anything and with one quick motion I grasped a slimy branch and smacked Anubis upside the head with it. And then I ran. I had to. I had to run. My heart ached with the loss of my friends and the pain of exertion. My lungs clenched as I breathed in more and more swamp air while my sides burned with acid because of the running. I don’t know how far I ran when I felt a huge body collide with mine.

“Why,” he panted with strained breath, “do…you…insist…on running away!” He yelled violently as his hand broke my jaw. I couldn’t really feel the pain because adrenaline was still pumping through me, pushing me to fight or flight.

“Because I hate you!” I screamed into his face as my legs kicked him hard in the stomach. I may be on my back, but I can still hurt someone with my strong thighs.

Anubis groaned slightly and growled even more loud than I thought possible, “You will make me lose my patience, Anput. And you don’t want that.”

“Why not? What else could you possibly do to me? You’ve done everything you can to make my life miserable. So, what happens when you lose your patience? Huh? You kill, who? There’s no one else to take from me. You’ve already promised to bind me so that I’ll freely give you blowjobs, so what else are you going to do to me? What else
can
you do to me?”

Anubis didn’t say anything, he just stared at me with those deep, intense gold eyes.

“That’s what I thought. Your threats are meaningless because you can’t do anything else to me,” I said shaking my head and feeling a few tears run down my cheeks. I wasn’t trying to be threatening, but it’s difficult to look tough when you’re crying.

“Oh, Anput,” he replied with a delicate smile quivering on those sharp teeth, “this is why I love you. In the face of danger, you still bite back.”

“You don’t know what love is.”

“Ha! I followed you for thousands of years, killed everyone you loved just so that I could have to myself. If that’s not love, then I don’t know what is.”

“Exactly, you really don’t. You actually believe that making my life miserable will endear you to me, that all my leftover love will be yours. That’s not how it works.”

Another smack bellowed through the air, burning my cheeks and my already broken jaw. I could feel a few of my own sharp teeth explode onto the ground, ripping out gums and plenty of juicy, stringy blood. It was difficult enough to talk, yet alone breathe.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Anput.”

“One more thing,” I said spitting out more crimson trails through swollen lips and cheeks, “My name is not Anput.”

I think its despair that causes someone to really and truly fight back because I was filled with it. I had just run away from watching Matt and Sheila tear apart the Hunter and Shirley, I had just run away from my were-family that were under the control of Anubis, I had just run away from my fears and my nightmares. And I think that’s why I was angry because I was filled with my own cowardice and despair.

Anubis had started this, but I could finish this. Instead of wallowing in that same pitiful despair, I would use it against him. Take back the power and shove it in his broken jawed dog face.

I pulled my legs together once more and kicked with everything I had. Anubis went flying backwards for a split second before he was back on top of me as another shotgun blast echoed across the dimming night.

“How many times do I have to shoot him?” yelled the Hunter from across a broken log.

“Morty,” I replied with a smile, finally feeling despair wash away and instead joyful relief come crashing on top of me, “he’ll be back.”

“I know, let’s just get out of here. We need to regroup. Shirley is keeping the other wolves at bay for now, giving us a few moments to make a new plan,” he said pulling me up to my legs. I was so much bigger than him in wolf form and his broken arm trembled under the pressure. Through my broken jaw and split lips, I smiled. It was so good to see him again. I bent over him and placed my muzzle into the nape of his neck. It was still such a perfect fit.

I heard his blood softly flowing directly under the skin and I felt safe just as I had when he had first held me at Charlie’s apartment. I listened closely to his pulse and then I heard the crunching of bones and knew Anubis was growing his head back.

“I don’t know how to defeat him,” I said begrudgingly.

“I can only keep shooting him for so long until I run out of bullets. And honestly, I don‘t want to do that forever.”

I chuckled, “yeah, I agree.”

I should be more afraid, more frightened that an immortal god could regenerate his head and that he might never stop chasing me, but I wasn’t. With the Hunter by my side, as my partner, nothing could stand against us which is a reassuring thought. And that’s why I had chuckled. I knew we would prevail, I just didn’t know how.

Another shotgun blast echoed in the silent swamp and Anubis fell to the ground again. I still nuzzled into the Hunter’s neck as the feeling in my jaw returned. It throbbed miserably and I sorely wished adrenaline was back in my veins. But it was gone. Probably for awhile. My body was left weary and tired and in pain. And the fight wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.

But there were two things that were making me feel better; the Hunter was alive and well, and that I was at one with my beast and the Entity. I wasn’t torn apart by all of these powers, instead, I was symbiotic and whole and for that, I should probably thank Anubis, after of course, he’s six feet under or whatever.

My ear twitched and I heard a few soft paw prints make their way towards us. The padding of the feet was too gentle and quiet to be a wolf; it sounded more like a cat with the delicate steps and quiet grace. I pulled out of the strengthening embrace of the Hunter and searched the darkness. Through the black night I saw two bright golden eyes stalking in my direction. They were taller than I had expected them to be. I had thought it was a cat, but the creature was about as tall as myself. For a slight second, I panicked, wondering if Anubis had another werewolf like himself when the oddest thing happened. The eyes dropped close to the ground and the black cat from my apartment was inching nearer.

Perhaps I had a concussion because that was just unnatural watching something shrink right before my eyes and yet I just accepted it as if nothing had happened.

The Hunter turned to look in my direction and asked, “Is that the cat that kept tapping on your windows?”

“Yeah. It jumped in the car when I came over here,” I replied slowly, still a little bit confused as to what had just happened.

I heard the crunching of bones again and knew Anubis was regenerating his head again, taking my eyes away from the cat. I saw the red meat and white bone form together once more and I had to wonder if that hurt to regenerate a full head like that. I hope it hurts.

“Morty, why aren’t you shooting him again?” I asked.

“I don’t think I should.”
“Why not?”

“Because I cannot punish a body without a head,” the cat said in a very feminine voice.

“Did you hear that?” I asked the Hunter. I was seriously hoping I wasn’t going insane again.

“Yeah.”

A talking cat. Well, I guess anything is possible especially after that whole shrinking thing.

The small domestic cat crackled and moaned as a slight breeze twisted the heavy mud into the air, shaking the ground beneath my feet. The cat grew out of the mud and into a large black, were-cat, part human and part cat just like the ancient Egyptian statues.