Monsters Within (5 page)

4

Kara Humphrey drove her beat-up old Ford Escape down Greenway Road, headed for a place she had no interest in going. She was driving her personal vehicle rather than the patrol car so she wouldn’t stir up any sort of suspicions and give the gossip mill more kindling for their stupid little fires. She’d just eaten her lunch—a turkey and cheese sandwich—and she could feel it sloshing around in her stomach. She felt uneasy, anxious, and if she was honest with herself, a little excited.

Less than a mile up the road was the driveway that wound slightly back into the woods, ending at the place she had always known simply as the Benton Cabin. She knew that her duties as Deputy -especially when filling in for the ailing Sheriff- should have  superseded any lingering beliefs regarding the town’s rumors about the Benton family, but she found it hard to let go of all she had heard.

Besides…it was her job. She had to go to the Benton Cabin to question Saul Benton.

Or, at least that’s what Lester Dobbs had said.

Kara had been at work for no more than fifteen minutes that morning before Lester Dobbs stumbled into the station. The man had a bruise on his forearm, and was holding his neck as if he feared his head might fall off of it – nothing too unusual, given the man’s prepotency to get into trouble. The fear that clouded his face – that had been rather new.

“I need to report a violent act,” Lester had said. He’d recited the words just as he had heard them on one of those lame crime shows on television.

Kara had humored him and listened to his story. It had started with being pushed through the window at Randy’s Roost and ended with him leaving Saul Benton’s cabin, fearing for his life. She’d not believed any of it at first but when she visited Randy’s Roost and saw the smashed window, alarms began to whir in her head., She had spoken with Randy himself, as well as visited Hank Dooling at Lester’s request; after all was said and done, she had known that paying Saul Benton a visit was no longer optional.

Kara still didn’t buy Lester’s story in its entirety, but there was certainly something going on. The property damage enough was reason to talk to Benton, even if Randy was not planning to press charges.

Kara turned her Escape into Benton’s driveway, mentally cursing Lester Dobbs for putting her into this situation. The man had just graduated from a nuisance to official pain in the police’s ass.

The cabin came into sight before her. Kara blinked; it was an anti-climactic sort of moment. The place looked rustic and quaint, resembling in no way a haunted house or Satanic headquarters. It looked like the kind of cabin where you would sit on the porch on hot afternoons, drinking beer and strumming an acoustic guitar.

Kara parked her Escape at the end of the driveway next to Saul’s car and stepped out. She looked back towards the road and realized that she could just barely catch glimpses of it through the trees. Still, while she was less than three miles away from the Red Creek city line, she felt like she was hundreds of miles from civilization.

As she walked toward the house—no pathway, just the perfectly manicured front lawn—she felt her lunch trying to roll over in her stomach. For a dizzying moment, she thought she might actually throw up.

Stop being stupid
,
she told herself.
 
Forget about the rumors and the gossip. Just go up on that porch, knock on the door, and do your job.

Kara tried to imagine what Sheriff Morel would say if he knew that she was reacting like this. He’d have a laugh or two and then go up there and show Saul Benton who was the boss. Well, maybe not; although Kara had only seen Saul Benton a handful of times, she knew for a fact that the man was built like the side of a mountain.

With all of that going through Kara’s head, she had reached the porch steps without even knowing it. Kara waited for her stomach to calm itself, did her best to focus, and knocked on the door.

5

Saul was stirred awake by a knock at his front door. He sat up in bed quickly, instantly on alert. No one had ever knocked on his front door other than his family when they had still lived here together. But his dad was dead and Jill was somewhere else in the United States. Unless…maybe i
t
wa
s
Jill, somehow. Maybe she’d come back.

No, that didn’t make sense either. It was daytimeoutside. That meant this visitor was most likely human, and therefore trouble
.
Two unexpected visits to the house in less than twenty-four hours
,
Saul thought.
 
This can’t be good. The Guard will surely know about this and I’ll end up having to answer a bunch of stupid questions.

All of this went through his head as he dressed and headed for the door. He opened it quickly, a flick of a motion; the woman on the other side looked alarmed. He studied her slight built, the nervous way in which she attempted to smile at him, and frowned. The woman was dressed in the local police’s uniform. The name on her breastplate read
Deputy
Humphrey. Deputy, huh. Not good.

“Hello?” Saul said.

“Hi, Mr. Benton,” said Deputy Humphrey. “I am Deputy Kara Humphrey. I’m sorry to bother you.”

Saul shrugged. “What can I do for you?”

Kara looked at her feet, as if she didn’t want to explain why she was there. When she looked back at him, she had to crane her neck upwards. “I got a visit from Lester Dobbs this morning. He says you invited him and Hank Dooling over here for a beer last night and then attacked them.”

Saul let out a weary laugh. “That’s what he said? Yeah…that’s not how it went at all.”

“He also says that you pushed him through the window at Randy’s Roost. Randy backs this story up; there are at least four other men that saw it as well.”

“Yes, that might have happened,” Saul answered. “But I did not invite him over here.”

“Lester claims that you invited him and Hank over for a beer as an apology of sorts. I honestly don’t believe him, but he had bruises on him. He’d been i
n
som
e
kind of altercation. I hope you understand I have to ask you some questions or I wouldn’t be doing my job.”

Saul nodded. “Come on in, I guess,” he said.

Kara stepped into the cabin and Saul could tell right away that she was uneasy. She didn’t take a seat when he offered her one; instead, she stood close by the door.  Saul could tell that she was scared but was doing her best to hide it. He smelled the fear on her, but he smelled something else as well: excitement. And it was more than just excitement—it was a woman’s excitement. It was one of Saul’s favorite scents and not just the lust-fueled excitement that he had longed for in his youth. There was really no better smell, other than that of freshly spilled blood.

“Would you mind telling me your version of the story?” Kara asked.

Saul did. He told the whole truth with a few slight exceptions. He did not tell her that he had been sitting on the couch, reading. He didn’t tell her that he had known they were coming as soon as they had stepped onto his driveway. But other than that, he told her everything. Of course, he had also left out the part where he had felt his eyes go red. He wondered if Lester had mentioned that during his visit to Kara earlier in the morning.

He saw her looking around, trying to find any evidence of the fight. He was relieved when he saw that she looked almost embarrassed to be here. She didn’t believe Lester’s story at all but, as she had said, she was doing her job. He didn’t blame her. Hell, he wasn’t even angry that this was the second human being that had come through his doorway in the past day.

“You’re welcome to take a look around,” Saul offered.

He rather hoped she would. The scent coming off of her had him getting rather excited, too. However, his better judgment told him that could lead to danger. He had his urges under control and knew that he would not kill a human no matter how strong the urge got—but there was no sense in testing things.

His desire for blood he was able to control. But the need for sex…that was still a struggle.

Kara Humphrey let out a sigh and shook her head. “I appreciate it, but I think I’m good here. Lester is…well…he doesn’t have the best reputation.”

“Yes, so I hear. I feel for him, as I can say the same.”

A slight blush rose to the Deputy’s cheeks. “I guess so. Although I wouldn’t say yours is
a
ba
d
reputation.”

“No? Tell me, what are the latest rumors?”

Kara blushed again and the excited smell seemed to radiate from her now. Saul took a single step towards her and breathed it in. Somewhere in the furthest reaches of his primal mind, he wanted to go for her throat. There was another urge beyond that, one that was fueled by a male need that had not been quenched for a very long time. Thank God she was wearing a police uniform that hid most of her natural curves.

“I haven’t heard any new ones.”

“Really? Nothing at all?”

She rolled her eyes. “Well, the old dumb ones still float around. People think your family was into Satanism. Some think you’re witches or vampires or demons or some damned thing.”

“Disappointing,” Saul said. “You’d think they’d come up with something much more unique in this day and age.”

“Oh, they aren’t as bad now.  No new rumors, really. Although, I’m sure this event at Randy’s Roost will change all of that. Which…I have to say…I wouldn’t be surprised if Randy presses some sort of charges for his window. I haven’t heard from him on that yet.”

“I’ll gladly pay for the window. I’ll head down there later this week.”

“That might help matters. But if you decide to do that, let me know. I’ll take the money to him. No sense in you risking another encounter with Lester.”

“I suppose not.”

“Also, if he pays you another visit, please call the station as soon as you can. I have a feeling that if i
t
di
d
come down to an actual fight, you could put him in the hospital. So let’s avoid that, shall we?”

“Agreed.” Secretly, he thought
:
I don’t think Lester Dobbs will be paying me any more visits any time soon.

“Well,” Kara said, “that’s all out of me. Just had to come by and get your side of the story.”

“I understand.”

There was a very brief pause that lingered in the air. Saul gave Kara a smile and when she looked at him, he saw interest naked in her gaze. He’d seen that look before, had felt that sensation before. As a vampire, it was something he was used to but had never fully understood. It was a burning knowledge that if he chose to do so, he could have Kara Humphrey in his bed within the next five minutes.

But there was so much going on, so many changes. And he was certain The Guard was watching him. He could feel their presence just as clearly as he could feel Kara’s eyes crawling over him.

He walked to the door and opened it for her. When he did, her scent smacked him the face and his primal urges swarmed like bees inside him.

“Let me know if I can be of further assistance,” he said.

She nodded at him and walked out onto the porch. When she passed, Saul saw the curvature of her neck where it met her shoulder, exposed by the ponytail she wore her hair in. He nearly had to grind his teeth to steady himself.

“Thanks for your cooperation,” Kara said when she reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Absolutely.”

He watched her get into her Escape and didn’t take his eyes off of her figure until she had turned it back up the driveway and towards the road. He stood in the doorway and squinted at the mid-afternoon sun. He could still smell that scent of excitement that she had left behind—sharp and somewhat salty.

He was both delighted and anxious to find that it was lingering in the cabin when he headed back inside, closing the door behind him.

6

Nikki wasted no time after her shift at the Red Creek B&B was over. She had been thinking about what she was going to do all day. She had originally done this in the hopes of talking herself out of it but it had the opposite effect. By the time she left work at 5:15, she was more convinced than ever that she was not only going to pay Saul Benton a visit; she was going to confront him and let him know that she was on to him.

What exactly she was o
n
to
,
she wasn’t sure.

She stopped by her small apartment off of Main Street and changed clothes. She wore a loose-fitting hooded sweatshirt and a pair of jeans. It wasn’t the sort of attire she usually wore, but the baggy clothes allowed her to easily hide the small kitchen knife and the can of mace that she shoved into the front pouch of the sweatshirt.

It was shortly before dusk when she started driving towards the back roads that she knew would take her to the Benton Cabin. It seemed fitting, as most of the rumors around town claimed that Saul Benton only came out around dusk or after dark.

Nikki followed the same route that Kara Humphrey had traveled down less than five hours ago. She tried to think about what she was going to say to him. Would she tell him about the footage Jason had and demand to know if it was him and, if not, perhaps he knew what was on the film?

She didn’t think so. If Saul Bento
n
wa
s
some sort of monster, she didn’t want to put Jason in any trouble.

If she caused Jason any sort of harm, then what would she do?

Nikki didn’t know. She had never been much for planning ahead. Besides, any plans she might have formed would have been obliterated by the rising need in her to understand just what in hell Saul Benton might be. It was a question that was tickling those old interests—the interests that had her involved in Wiccan practices and a very brief fling with things of the dark side in her younger years. She had no interest in ghosts, UFOs, and other such nonsense that sent Jason in geeky excitement;  hers was a need to understand – to find
proof
of the other-worldly forces that she had always suspected shared the Earth with humans.

The footage Jason had caught  together with the brute strength she had seen Saul display outside of Randy’s Roost was enough proof that Saul Benton might be linked to those
other
forces Nikki found so intriguing. Then there was the fact that Saul apparently hadn’t aged a day in twenty years… Yeah, there was definitely something weird going on.

That was the thought that was prominent in Nikki’s head as she slowly rolled her car down Saul’s driveway. She parked beside Saul’s own and got out nonchalantly, as if she her visit was expected and wanted by the person inside the cabin. Nikki spent a moment considering said building; she found herself  a bit disappointed that there was nothing sinister about it. The Cabin was actually charming – warm and inviting, as only a place someone held dear ever was.

Come into my parlor said the spider to the fly
,
Nikki thought. The thought had her laughing at herself as she climbed Saul’s porch steps. And if the laughter was tinged with hysteria…well, the whole damn thing was pretty nerve-wracking.

Nikki felt a wave of panic trying to sneak up on her as she approached Saul’s front door. She took a moment to get herself under control,  a moment to shake off the rising fear. She thought of the face in Jason’s video, the snarling mouth that had torn into Deke Goode’s cattle. There was a fear that came with that image but it seemed to slip right off of her as she stood on Saul’s porch. Besides, logic told her that there was no connection to be made. The thing in the video was a monster of some sort and Saul was—

Was what? Nikki had no idea.

She took a deep breath and raised her hand to knock. The door swung open before her knuckles even had a chance to brush against the wood..

Saul Benton stood on the other side. There was a very confused look on his face. What caught Nikki off guard was the fact that he seemed alarmed…almost scared to see her standing there.

“Can I help you?” Saul asked. He eyed her with suspicion.

Nikki found it disarming to see a man of his size and stature so taken aback at a girl that weighed maybe a buck twenty and had the guile and strength of a housefly.

“Saul, right?” she asked.

“Yes. And you are?”

Nikki took a step forward, as if he had invited her inside. She was amazed at how confident she felt. It was almost supernatural in a way.

“My name is Nikki. Saul, I think we need to talk.”

Saul  visibly hesitated. He looked away from Nikki, staring further up his driveway. Nikki watched him look beyond her and when she studied his face, she was absolutely certain that it was not the same face she had seen in the video: How could the calm, relaxed, and – let’s be honest - ruggedly handsome man in front of her be the same monster she had seen on that screen?

But the memory of the anger that had darkened Saul’s face yesterday was equally real—the look of savage rage on the face of the thing in the video had been exactly, utterly the same. It wasn’t hard to connect the two.

When Saul finally looked back to her, the alarm and bewilderment that had made his face soft were no longer there. In their stead was a quiet confidence – power that he wore well. He gestured her into the cabin.

“Sure. Step inside.”

Nikki walked inside Benton Cabin; she could not help but capitalize both words in her head, feeling as if this moment was of some special significance. Then the door slammed shut behind her, Saul Benton seeming to loom at her back, and she felt the first pang of fear wind its way through her blood - like ice.