Monsters in the Midwest (Book 2): Northwoods Wolfman (26 page)

Chapter 38

Back
at Dallas’s place, the two relaxed on the couch. Aletia patted her stomach
appreciatively and groaned with pleasure.

“That
really was a good breakfast,” she sighed. “Sometimes, we end up in towns where
the best thing to eat is the leather belt you brought with. Not Ronnie’s
though. I can see why it’s famous. Yummy and filling.” Poking Dallas in the
stomach, she added, “Por Dios, you must be stuffed. Even Colton doesn’t eat
that much.”

“Oh,
yeah. Well, man’s gotta eat and um, yeah. I’m fit to burst,” he laughed,
inwardly praying that he’d get a chance to grab some more food when she wasn’t
looking. “Speaking of Colton, where’s he at? If you’re here, he can’t be far
behind, right?”

“Poking
around town. He was going to try and track down Randall. We didn’t get a chance
to teach you everything, but Society members have a sort of secret code. We’re
pretty good about leaving info and clues for other hunters. If Randall came
this way, Colton will turn up sign of him soon enough. We’re going to
rendezvous at the cabin later tonight. Plenty of time for us to enjoy ourselves
until then. That is, if you’re not too full,” she offered, stretching her legs
across his lap.

Dallas
wasn’t too full by any stretch of the imagination, and he wanted to enjoy
himself. He really, really did. Unfortunately, he also really wanted to come
clean. He’d tell her he was a werewolf, that it happened by accident, and that
it was only for a few days a month. Otherwise, he was completely human. No big
deal, right? She’d understand, and everything would be okay.

“Aletia,”
he started after rubbing his sweaty palms on his pants. “We should probably,
you know. Talk about a few things.”

She
sighed, nodding her head.

“Yeah,
you’re right. I can’t put it off forever. Grab me a beer, and I’ll tell you why
I joined the Society.”

While
it wasn’t exactly the topic Dallas had in mind, he figured it’d be a good place
to start. When Dallas returned with the beer, Aletia wasn’t nearly as relaxed
as she’d been a minute before. Instead of stretching languidly across the
cushions, she sat up straight, feet firmly planted on the floor and hands on
her thighs. Taking the beer, she took a long, introspective drink and began her
story.

“I
grew up in southern Mexico but moved to Oregon when I was thirteen. Papa was a
professor, and he’d accepted a position teaching international studies at
Southern Oregon University. I was sixteen years old when he ended up in the
hospital. The doctors told mom it was a dog bite or maybe a coyote. He’d been
teaching a night course and was attacked in the parking lot after class. A
couple of his students found him and called an ambulance. The entire way to the
hospital, Papa was raving, completamente loco. First he swore he’d been
attacked by a giant wolf. Then he said it was just a really hairy crazy guy.
The doctors doped him up with sedatives, but they weren’t working. He was still
raving when we got there. I remember watching him and thinking it was the
scariest thing in the world. I hadn’t seen anything yet.”

Aletia
took another drink of beer, giving Dallas’s whirling mind a second to catch up.

Her dad was bit by a werewolf? What
are the frickin’ odds?

He
didn’t have much time to ponder the implications though, because Aletia wasn’t
done.

“Papa
spent one night in the hospital. Just one. The next morning, Mama and I showed
up, and he was fine. Completely, totally fine. The bite that a night before
looked like it was bare centimeters from ripping his arm off at the elbow was
just a lightly puckered scar. His mania was gone, and he was cool as a
cucumber. When Mama asked him about being attacked, he shrugged and said he
really couldn’t remember the details that well and that the doctors were
probably right. Just a dog. Maybe a coyote. He didn’t have rabies, and since
his wound wasn’t as bad as they thought...”

For
a moment, Aletia stared at her beer can. A sharp laugh escaped her lips.

“Wasn’t
as bad. Increíble. That was the understatement of the century, but I was the only
one that seemed concerned about that point. He was discharged, and we all went
home. About a month later, I was making out with my boyfriend Jason in the back
of his Pontiac and starting to freak out about being out past curfew. It was
such a beautiful night though. Completamente romántica, with a full moon and
everything. Eventually, I convinced him that I really should go home. When we
got to my house, we found the parts of Mama that Papa hadn’t eaten. I was
holding Mama’s head in my hands when Papa attacked. Jason managed to fight Papa
off, and we ran. The local high school was nearby, so we hid in the equipment
shed.”

Aletia
sighed and sat quietly. Dallas was about to ask what happened next when she
took a deliberate breath, shook her head, and continued.

“Jason
showed me the bite on his shoulder, and I did the best I could to clean it and
bandage it. He raved and ranted all night. The next day, he was fine. That
night, when the full moon rose again, I was ready. I cut off his head with a
gas-powered hedge trimmer and then hunted down Papa. It was a hard fight, but I
won.”

Aletia’s
eyes stared hard at the floor. “I killed them. When I was sixteen years old, I
killed my boyfriend and my father with a hedge trimmer.”

Aletia
finished her beer and set the can carefully on the coffee table.

“Need
another?” Dallas asked quietly.

Aletia
shook her head as a yawn stretched her full lips in a wide ‘O.’

“No.
I can barely keep my eyes open.”

Fidgeting,
Dallas asked, “So what did you do? After your dad, I mean.” Seeing tears well
up in her eyes, he backpedaled. “Never mind, it doesn’t matter.”

Wiping
ineffectually at the tears, she sighed.

“It’s
okay. I promised you the story, so you’re getting the whole story. To answer
your question, I ran. Since I had nowhere to go, I came back. I knew that no
one would believe that Papa and Jason were werewolves, so I hid. For close to a
month, I slept huddled in alleyways, ate out of dumpsters, and tried to find
the courage to kill myself. It was just dumb luck that the Society had sent a
new hunter to investigate the possible werewolf attacks. Even luckier that
Colton found me, ragged and half-mad, and had the heart and the patience to
clean me up and straighten me out.”

Another
yawn pulled her out of her story for a moment. Dallas took advantage of the
ensuing quiet to give a slow whistle.

“Aletia,
I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine what that must’ve been like.”

She
looked up and wiped ineffectively at the tear tracks streaking down her cheeks.

“I
think you can, mi amor.” She placed a hand on his cheek. At first, he thought
he was feeling the tears on her fingers. As her thumb stroked his skin, he
realized she was pushing away his own.

Hand
sliding down his face, her arm fell back to her side. Confused, Dallas watched
her eyelids droop and close. She settled back heavily into the couch cushions,
and her chin dropped down toward her chest. A moment passed, and she was sound
asleep.

“Aletia?”
he asked, gently shaking her arm. “Hey Tia? You okay?”

“Geez.
That took long enough,” a familiar voice said, scaring the crap out of Dallas.

Leaping
from the couch, he spun to see Lois’s face poking in through the front door.

“I
lied about the eggs,” she explained with a shrug.

Stomping
over, he yanked the door open and loomed over Lois.

“You
cast a spell on her? Balls on a badger! Why in the hell would you cast a spell
on her?”

In
response, Lois shoved a finger into his chest.

“Why
in the hell would you bring your murdering girlfriend to Ronnie’s? Why in the
hell would you bring her anywhere? Why in the hell aren’t you doing everything
in your power to get her out of here? Or warning me and Herb so
we
can get the hell out of here?”

“I
was going to tell her the truth,” he sputtered in response to her fury. “About
me. I think she’ll understand. Like you and Herb, you know? Me and Tia, maybe
we can work it out.”

For
the second time in as many minutes, an unexpected voice scared the crap out of
Dallas.

“No.
You won’t,” Colton said, and then everything went dark.

Chapter 39

Dallas
came to and was instantly annoyed.

What good is having super hearing
if these guys can keep sneaking up on me?

Wits
coalescing around that particular thought, he decided to give himself a pass.
He had been thoroughly distracted by Lois’s arrival and not really paying
attention to much else.

Lois! Oh crappers, did he get Lois,
too?

Turning
his head, he was overcome with nausea and suddenly gave back most of his
breakfast. Long after the contents of his stomach had been artlessly deposited
on the floor beside him, Dallas continued to dry heave.

“Hang
in there, Dallas,” he heard Lois say, her voice as raw as his throat felt. “I
think it’s a side effect of whatever he used to knock us out. It should pass in
a minute or two.”

Thank god she’s okay,
he thought.
Except she’s here, which means she’s probably not gonna be okay.

Opening
his eyes again, he saw Lois bound and slumped against a nearby wall. At least
she still had her clothes on. Dallas wasn’t so lucky. He’d been stripped down
to his boxers. A quick look around confirmed what he’d already smelled. They
were in the cabin in the woods. Colton and Aletia were nowhere to be seen. Just
him and Lois, tied in heavy coils of sturdy rope.

“Feels
like a class-five hangover. Lucky for me, I’ve had worse. Gimme a sec, and I’ll
be right as rain,” Dallas grumbled. Taking a series of deep breaths, he shoved
his brain into
ya gotta work even if
you’d rather curl up and die
mode.

“Okay.
I’m good,” he said after a throaty belch. “What happened back there? How’d he
get the drop on us, and why am I in my birthday suit?”

Lois
shrugged or at least tried to. Her restraints didn’t leave a lot for freedom of
movement.

“Your
buddy Colton is a professional monster hunter. Guess he had a few tricks up his
sleeve we weren’t expecting. As for the you being almost naked part, I have no
idea. I’d ask him, but they took off about fifteen minutes ago in his truck.
God, I really hope Stanley and Herb are okay.”

Dallas
groaned. Nothing, not a single thing, was going as planned. It really pissed
him off, even though there wasn’t much of a plan to begin with. Shifting his
posture, he started to flex against the ropes.

“Well,
nothing to worry about. Big D is here, and we know from recent experience that
a few ropes aren’t a problem. Colton might think he knows what’s what, but he
doesn’t know jack about old Dallas.”

Squirming
and flexing, Dallas let himself get caught up in his building rant. It felt
good to finally have an outlet for the simmering rage.

“What
Colton didn’t bank on was that nothing,
nothing
can keep this wolf down. Not a sneak attack or a sucker punch or taking my
clothes and sure as badger shit not a bunch of ro… aaaaaaAAAAARRRRGGHH!”

The
pain scorched deep across his skin, and caused him to contort and flop over on
his side. Unfortunately, that just made things worse. It was like someone had
set the ropes on fire. Gasping in shock, he tried to figure out just what the
hell was happening.

“Dallas!
Stop! There’s a padlocked silver chain wound in with your ropes. I can see it
now. You must’ve pushed it up against your skin. Try to stop moving. See if you
can get the ropes between you and the silver again,” she advised.

He
heard her, but it was really hard to concentrate on her words. The pain scoring
his arms and chest turned his brain into a whimpering pile of jelly. Flopping
like a beached bluegill, he twisted and shook, every movement a dance of agony.

Calm down! Get a hold of yourself,
he thought frantically. By sheer
force of will, he stilled his spasms and tremors until he lay completely still.
He could feel each link of silver burning into his flesh, but by opening
himself up to the pain, he was able to accept it and move past it. After a few
deep, controlled breaths, the burning felt more like nuked Cheez Whiz on his
skin instead of molten lava. Moving gingerly, he shifted his center of gravity
and pushed himself back into a sitting position. Once upright, he started to
shrug his shoulders and wiggle his arms. As he’d hoped, the silver chain wasn’t
bound tight like the ropes. They must’ve figured the pain of contact with his
skin would be enough to keep him in line.

Damn near did, too, except that I’m
a frickin’ badass,
he
thought, his grimace becoming a rictus grin.

As
he shifted and hitched his shoulders, the looser links of silver slipped over
the coils of rope. When the various sections left his skin, the burning
sensation abruptly stopped. After a minute or so, Dallas felt less like a flame
broiled Whopper and more like a really pissed off guy tied up and dumped in a
busted down cabin in the woods.

“Aaaahhhh,”
he sighed in relief. “Better. Much better, except I don’t think I’ll be busting
the ropes anytime soon. Sorry, but our escape plan now hinges exclusively on
you. Time to do something witchy!”

“Can’t,”
Lois replied, tersely.

“Whadaya
mean? Don’t you have, I don’t know, like a, ‘Tony Danza was the boss, turn
these ropes to dental floss,’ spell or something?”

Lois
shook her head sadly. “I tried a few spells. There aren’t many that can be done
just with words. Most need some type of gesture or special herbs or artifacts.
There are a few though, and I tried every one I know. Nothing happened. I’m
guessing the ropes they used on me are enchanted.”

“So
we’re stuck,” Dallas muttered in frustration. “Fan-frickin-tastic.”

“What
do you think they’ll do, Dallas? I mean, they wouldn’t just kill us right here,
would they?”

Dallas
levelled a look at Lois that conveyed his utter helplessness. “I think that’s
exactly what they’ll do. And lucky us, we won’t have to wait around long for
the fun. I can hear Colton’s truck.”

Dallas’s
sensitive ears had picked up the tell-tale rumble of the old pickup truck.
Soon, it was loud enough for Lois to hear, and they both looked anxiously
toward the cabin’s door. When the truck arrived, Dallas’s ears picked up
another noise, the sound of Stanley’s scared and stuttering voice. A moment
later, Colton shoved Stanley roughly into the cabin. Kicking out his legs, he
dumped Stanley down next to Lois.

“The
gang’s all here,” Colton announced. “Come on in, Tia. Let’s get this sorted
out.”

Dallas
turned to watch Aletia walk through the door. Every muscle was tensed, and the
look she gave him could’ve set ice water to an instant boil.

“Si,
Dallas,” she said, voice brittle with barely contained anger. “Let’s talk.
Where to start? With you lying to me? Or with you having your bruja girlfriend
cast a sleeping spell on me?”

“She’s
not my girlfriend!” Dallas protested. “I told you, she’s my buddy Herb’s
girlfriend. There’s nothing going on with me and Lois!”

If
he hadn’t been naked, tied up, pissed off, and scared stupid, he might’ve
thought Lois and Aletia rolling their eyes in unison was a bit funny. Instead,
it just tipped his scared-to-pissed ratio a little further toward pissed.

“What?
It’s true. Lois, tell her. You and Herb are a thing. We’re just friends.”

“Herb?
El vampiro muerto?” Aletia asked in shock. “Girl, you’ve got some serious
issues if you still consider yourself romantically involved with a pile of
ash.”

Before
Lois could say anything back, Colton cleared his throat.

“Let’s
all just take it down a notch, and Stanley, please stop. Your crying is one of
the weirdest sounds I’ve ever heard. You sound like a baby seal with a nasty
head cold.”

Stanley
choked back his sobs and managed to get them down to scared whimpers. Nodding
with satisfaction, Colton continued.

“Thanks,
Stanley. Much appreciated. Now, Dallas. There seems to be a bit of a conflict
of interests here. You’re a member of the Society. Ancient order of monster
hunters, if you recall. You also, by my reckoning, aided and abetted a
Sasquatch, are actively consorting with a witch, and murdered one of your sworn
brethren. On top of all that, you’re a werewolf.”

“We’re
not consorting! Tits on a tortoise, what do I have to do to convince you guys
me and Lois ain’t a thing. Tia, you’re the only girl I want, believe me.”

Aletia
looked away, and Colton laughed a sharp, mirthless laugh.

“Of
all the things I just said… Okay, Dallas. Let me spell it out in crayon for
you. Consorting means associating with. As in, you’re hanging out with a witch,
not tying-to-a-stake-and-burning a witch. A definite no-no by most
human
standards. That really gets us to
the heart of the problem though. You aren’t human.”

Dallas
glowered. “What tipped you off? Did I forget to hide the flea powder?”

A
bullet appeared in Colton’s hand as if by magic. Stepping forward, he pressed
it into Dallas’s bare shoulder. Dallas cried out in pain and twisted to try and
get away from the burning metal.

“Well,
there’s a nice bit of proof. Although honestly, Randall told me. Well, not
directly. Aletia said she told you how the Society has a system for leaving
messages for other hunters. Randall was many things, but first and foremost he
was a damn good hunter. It didn’t take long to find his trail and turn up some
interesting tidbits about you.”

Pulling
the lump of silver away from Dallas’s shoulder, Colton squatted down on his heels
and searched Dallas’s face.

“I’m
guessing you killed him, otherwise he’d be here instead of you. Really wish you
hadn’t, but that’ll happen. No one said being a hunter was the safest way to
spend your time. I also know you two weren’t exactly sweet on each other. What
I can’t wrap my mind around is why you were planning to kill Aletia. If you’d
shifted, I’d get it. One can’t expect a monster to behave humanely. But for you
and the witch to lure her in like you did today and knock her out so you could have
her as a late night snack after the moon rose…” Colton looked up at Aletia and
back to Dallas, genuine amazement plain in his face.

“Dammit,
Dallas,” he snapped, voice thick with sudden emotion. “That girl thinks the
world of you.”

“Thought,”
Aletia corrected. “Won’t make that mistake again.”

Dallas’s
eyes went wide. “What the hell? You think I planned this? Aletia, I would never
hurt you. I wanted to tell you what I was. I was going to tell you, and the
spell wasn’t my idea,” he added with a dark glance at Lois. “But you gotta
believe me. I thought that if I told you I was a werewolf, maybe… I don’t know.
Maybe you’d understand, and we could, you know. Figure something out because I
think the world of you, too,” he finished.

 
For a long moment, Aletia and Dallas looked
into each other’s eyes. For a long moment, Dallas knew that everything would be
okay. The moment abruptly ended when Aletia turned back to Colton and said,
“How long ‘til moonrise so I can cut his head off?”