Turning Wolf Page 5

  "Oh my God you're bleeding," she whispered and instinctively grabbed the dressing from Garrett's hands.

  "Yeah, Eddie caught me pretty good. I should have known better."

  "Eddie? I met a guy named Eddie yesterday. He seemed so nice. But... today when I got home from work. Everything's so hazy. How did I get here?"

  "Eddie attacked us. Hit me first. Then went after you."

  Allyson nodded and dabbed at Garrett's wound with a cloth.

  "This is deep. We shouldn't be here, we need to get to a hospital."

  "No. We need to stay here."

  "Garrett you need stitches."

  "Then sew me up."

  "What?"

  "You heard me. If it needs stitches, then stitch. Otherwise just wrap it up. I'll go to the hospital after everything's over."

  Allyson glared at Garrett and grabbed the first aid kit. Antiseptic wipes, bandages. Not much available to hold together two ends of a gash. She sighed and glanced around the cabin.

  "Is there a sewing kit somewhere around here?"

  "Bedroom," Garrett muttered through clenched teeth. Allyson dropped the first aid kit off in the bathroom and rummaged through the drawers in the bedroom until she found needles and thread. From the kitchen, she grabbed a small bowl of ice cubes. She ran back into the main room. After using a lighter to help sterilize the needle, she held the ice to help numb Garrett's skin.

  A few seconds later, she held her breath and pushed the needle through.

  Garrett's screams were nearly unbearable.

  Her hands trembled, slipping as more blood poured from his side. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Calm down, she ordered. Calm down and calm him down. Get him talking. Distraction.

  "How did you meet Eddie?"

  "What?"

  "Eddie. How did you meet him?"

  A chuckle burst from Garrett's throat and he gazed at Allyson. Distraction worked for her. Her hands calmed and the needle felt easier to control.

  "He was at my wife's funeral. Said the police made a mistake."

  "What kind of mistake?"

  "They determined that Jennifer had been killed by an animal attack. But Eddie said it was murder. That it could have been prevented. And that he knew whose fault it really was."

  "Did you find out who murdered her?"

  "Yeah. A wolf. But the real problem was the hunter who was supposed to kill the wolf first."

  "What do you mean?" She wiped over the sewn wound again with an antiseptic wipe and tried to tie some bandages around him to help control the bleeding. Washing the blood from her hands seemed to take forever.

  "I don't understand. Why aren't we calling the police? Why are we hiding out in this cabin instead of trying to get help?"

  Garrett shook his head and cupped the side of her face in his hands. She closed her eyes and reveled in his warm hands.

  "Okay," he whispered. "Have a seat and I'll start talking."

  Allyson followed Garrett's lead and sat down on the sofa in the main room.

  "All right, tell me about the horror movies."

  Garrett laughed.

  "Okay, well, it's not exactly like the horror movies. But..." He took a deep breath and brushed the tips of his fingers through her hair. "You see, in the movies you get scratched or bitten or something and then boom. Next full moon you change. Some movies say it's a curse. Others say it's an illness or a supernatural power. But otherwise it's all pretty much the same. And the change is painful but smooth and graceful. It all happens in a matter of seconds. But in real life--."

  "Garrett, you're doing it again."

  "Sorry. In real life, the change isn't fast. You have to build up to it. You know how the past couple of months things have been a little weird? You get nausea for a couple of days. Nightmares that keep you up most of the night. You cry at the slightest thing."

  "Jeez, you make it sound like I'm pregnant. I can promise you, Garrett, I'm not--."

  "I know. I mean, I know it sounds that way, but that's not what I'm trying to get at. The thing is, is that your body is training itself. It takes a couple of months to adjust and get you ready for the intensity of it all. So that gives us two to three months after someone has become infected to find and kill them--before they change and start killing people."

  "Wait. You said you were sent to kill me? Is that because you thought I was going to start killing people? I'm a nurse, Garrett. I would never--."

  "I know you wouldn't."

  "Then why?"

  "You aren't you anymore, Allyson. Eddie took that away from you."

  Her eyebrows furrowed in a blend of anger and confusion.

  "What does that mean, he took that away from me?"

  "How much do you remember about the first time you met Eddie?"

  "He showed up at the parking lot when I was trying to go to work yesterday. I was in a hurry, but I was trying to be polite. He was trying to ask me out."

  "No. Not yesterday. You met him before that. Almost the same time you met me."

  Allyson closed her eyes and tried to remember. She shook her head and shrugged.

  "I don't know. Yesterday was the first time I remember meeting him. Are you saying he was a stalker?"

  "Kind of. We used to work together. We were hunters. Part of a family of hunters. And our job was to find and research newly infected wolves and kill them before they turned. But when we got the file on you, something didn't add up. I followed you for a couple of days, even got that apartment in the same building. But you weren't showing any signs of infection. And I reported this. Then one afternoon, I heard screaming."

  "Oh my God...."

  "By the time I got outside to figure out what was going on, Eddie had already attacked you. I saw the needle next to you and I thought, at first, that he had jumped the gun. That he’d got tired of waiting and decided to try to get you then and there without waiting for the proof. But that wasn’t it – he’d figured out that we were wrong, and he’d decided to get you anyway. So he attacked you, and infected you, then tried to make it look like a mugging."

  "You knew who mugged me? Why didn't you say anything?"

  "I thought I could keep him away. I thought I could make it better. I knew I had three months to try, and thought that, with enough research, I could maybe find a cure before you turned. And by the time I realized how wrong I was, it was too late. All I could do after that was to try to help you get ready for turning, but I didn't know how to tell you."

  "You keep saying turning. Wait. And you said you were supposed to kill newly infected wolves. Wait. Shut up. No. What did you say? Shut up. Are you saying you think I'm a werewolf?"

  Chapter Nine

  Garrett grimaced as Allyson caught on to everything.

  "That's what it is? You think I'm a werewolf?" She laughed at the irony. "Well then there's no problem. I'm not a werewolf. I thought you were! I mean this morning I thought that maybe you were a werewolf. I was trying to make sense of what you were trying to say and I thought you were trying to tell me that you were a werewolf. Which only made a little bit of sense. I mean you're strong and mysterious, and when you get angry you're a little scary, but--."

  She stopped talking as his eyes sank. The look was back.

  "No. Stop giving me that look. There's no reason to feel sorry for me because I'm not the werewolf."

  Garrett stood up and crossed the room. He grabbed a needle and some glass slides from a large cabinet and motioned for her to join him.

  "What is that?"

  "This is the needle Eddie used to infect you."

  "Infect me? Like a disease? Then we can just use that to make a cure and--."

  "It's a virus, Allyson. You know there's no cure for a virus. At best, you can only suppress it. At worst, it spreads. But you can learn to live with it. And that's what your body has been doing for the past three months is learning to live with it."

  "But I feel fine."

  "I know."

  "I'm not a werewolf. I don't
go howling at the full moon every month. I'm not hairy."

  "Allyson--."

  "And look, I can use silver just fine look. These earrings, silver."

  "Allyson!"

  "What?"

  Garrett took a deep breath and reached out for her hand.

  "Most of the stuff on the Internet is crap. Some of it we placed up there to help keep people from discovering the truth. But most of it is crap because kids are running the Internet now. And they just don't know any better. So they unwittingly help spread the lies and misinformation and we let them because it's better than letting the truth get out."

  "And to you the truth is that I'm a werewolf even though I don't turn into one and I can be around silver."

  "The truth is that you were infected with the werewolf virus and your body wasn't able to suppress it. Only about 1 in 1700 infected people can."

  "Can what?"

  "Suppress the virus. Keep themselves from turning. Kind of like people who get infected with bronchitis but never get sick. The virus is still there, but it doesn't make them sick."

  "But I'm not sick."

  "I know you don't feel sick. But the virus works the same way. And your body has been training you to live with it. That's why all the nightmares, the hormone flare-ups, the empathy skyrocketing. Your hearing, your eyesight. It's all more intense now than ever before. The nightmares are to help you learn how to function on little to no sleep. The empathy and hormones are to help you find other wolves. The nausea is your increased need for proteins and…"

  "Oh my God. You really believe everything you're saying right now?"

  "Allyson--."

  "No. Garrett. No. What you're saying is crazy. If you really thought I was sick why would you bring me out here instead of bringing me to a hospital? If Eddie infected me with some virus why are we here? You can't pretend to care about me one minute and then turn around and isolate me in a cabin in the middle of the woods where I can't even find help."

  "You think I'm crazy and I'm the one who is putting you in danger?" Garrett's cheeks tingled from frustration and anger. His jaw muscles rippled as he gritted his teeth.

  He wasn't sure what else he could do to help convince her of everything that was about to happen. Not in time. And Eddie was still out there. Who knew how much time they really had?

  Sunset was still about an hour away.

  "Fine." He rushed across the room and grabbed a phone receiver from the wall. "Here. Here's a phone. It's a landline. You don't have to worry about finding a signal. Even without a phone account, 911 will work. Take it. If you think I'm the one putting you in danger, take this. Call someone. Anyone. Call the police. Call 911."

  He glared at Allyson. Unwavering. His heart thumped in his chest like a drum line. Waiting to see what she would do. Finally trust him? Or call the police. What would he do if she chose the police?

  Allyson took small steps. Glancing from the phone in his hands up to Garrett's eyes. She snapped her arm out and grabbed the phone. Coming through the speaker: a dial tone. Seconds later, the dial tone faded into an annoying series of beeps signaling that the phone had been off its hook for too long.

  She hung up and then lifted the receiver up from its cradle again. The dial tone was back. A real phone.

  He must be telling me the truth, she thought as she dialed her cell phone number. Why would he give me a working phone? Her cell phone chirped for an incoming call from the bedroom.

  Allyson took a deep breath and placed the phone's receiver back onto the cradle.

  "You're telling the truth," she whispered.

  Garrett sighed.

  "I'm telling the truth."

  "But... but the signs. The hair and the temperament. The silver?"

  "Silver doesn't kill werewolves. Not like it does in the movies. But silver can kill the virus."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Silver, that is a special kind of silver called colloidal silver, can bind with certain diseases and viruses. And the metal eats them. Kills the virus almost instantly."

  As he spoke, Garrett turned his laptop on and pulled up a website detailing the medical benefits of colloidal silver. The more he talked — the more he explained — the more tears fought to free themselves from Allyson's eyes.

  "Anyway. If a person is in wolf form and colloidal silver is injected into their bloodstream, it spreads quickly enough and kills the wolf almost instantly. But the person almost never survives. I've only ever seen one person survive that. And he didn't live for very long after."

  "Why?"

  "Too much of his body was gone. You see, in wolf form, the virus is dominant. Taking over everything: the heart, the lungs, the muscles. All that was left of him was a fraction of his muscles and tissues. Less than half of his heart. Plus, the only way to inject the colloidal silver into the wolf is to shoot it into its heart."

  "A bullet."

  "Yeah."

  "But why not give it to them beforehand? Before they turn?"

  "I tried. I hoped it would work. But now I think that maybe, before they turn, the virus is still in hiding. Your body is training to live with the virus, but the virus is dormant. The silver can't find enough of it to make much of a difference."

  "The earrings? That's why you gave me the earrings? To try to kill the virus?"

  Garrett nodded.

  "Well, maybe it worked. I mean you don't know for sure--."

  "No, Allyson. It didn't."

  "But you don't know."

  "I know."

  "No, but--."

  "Allyson. Allyson I know. The virus progressed. Your nightmares grew stronger. The other night, the missing women on the news, you cried and you couldn't explain why. I was slipping colloidal silver into your meals for weeks. Every day hoping you would tell me the nightmares were over. Every day hoping to wake up and see that the virus was gone. That Eddie had failed."

  "But... so now you have to kill me? Just like that?"

  *****

  Allyson's eyes watered again.

  The new information seemed to come at her from every angle. Jumbled memories and thoughts waving through her mind as she started putting the pieces together.

  "So, let me see if I’ve got this straight. Eddie was the guy who mugged me. Or, rather, he attacked me, infected me with this virus -- um. What's the virus called?"

  "The Lupine erythroparvovirus."

  "The Lu-lupine eryth... ro... parvovirus?"

  "LEPV."

  "Holy -- that sounds like… but I thought parvoviruses caused rashes. I haven't had a rash."

  "Allyson...."

  "I know," she sulked. "I know. They don't always cause a rash. But... so you really don't think that there's any chance for me at all? I'm going to turn into one of those things forever, until some hunter like you shoots me in the heart with a silver bullet?" Garrett sighed and pulled Allyson in to his chest for a hug. He buried his lips in her hair and clenched his eyes shut. "That's why you always felt so sorry for me. That's my fate. Isn't it? I'm to be hunted for the rest of my life."

  "No," Garrett said. "No, I don't think so. That's why I got this cabin. Hunters follow signs. Murders. Disappearances. Groups of people with no connection all of a sudden gathering regularly. I thought if I could get you out here, explain everything to you, that we could isolate it. It would just be a hunting cabin. Far enough away from the city where we wouldn't have to worry about you killing anyone, and still close enough you could continue living your life between moon phases. I thought--"

  "That's why you got this cabin? To help hide me from the hunters?"

  "I think as long as we can keep you under their radar, you'll be safe. I still have to deal with Eddie, though."

  "But what happens when other hunters find me anyway? When the other ‘Eddies’ out there hunting me catch wind that every month, I hide out in a hunting cabin? What happens when I turn? What if I turn on you?"

  Garrett pasted his most reassuring smile onto his lips and caressed her jaw with his
thumb. He leaned in and pressed his lips against hers. Plunging his tongue between her lips. Dancing with her tongue inside her hot mouth and inviting her to reciprocate. Her fingertips dug into his broad shoulders as she pulled him in closer to her.

  He stepped back toward the sofa, tugging her to him. She lifted a leg over him and sat across his lap. Tongues still dancing across their lips. Their breathing harmonized by light moans as she tangled her fingers through his hair. Every sway of her hips sent new bursts of lightning through his being. He reached his hands up beneath her shirt. Caressing her overheated skin. Fondling her breasts as he prepared to rip off her shirt. She leaned up and threw her head back.

  Then it happened.

  Chapter Ten

  Eddie parked Amber's car down the road and crept through the cover of the forest to reach the cabin. The window next to the front door was wide open. Voices drifted out from inside. He ducked down and listened. The voices were completely oblivious to his presence.

  "That's why you got this cabin? To help hide me from the hunters?"

  "I think as long as we can keep you under their radar, you'll be safe. I still have to deal with Eddie, though."

  "But what happens when other hunters find me anyway? When the other ‘Eddies’ out there hunting me catch wind that every month, I hide out in a hunting cabin? What happens when I turn? What if I turn on you?"

  Eddie smiled to himself. He leaned up to peer through the window. Allyson and Garrett were writhing in each other's arms on the sofa, their lips locked as if the danger had already passed.

  He rolled his eyes. This is going to be easier than I thought. They'll never see me coming.

  He leaned back and kicked the door in, his gun drawn and aimed at the two. Allyson screamed and stumbled backward off Garrett's lap as blood exploded from his shoulder. His blood spattered across her face and mouth. The sharp ringing of gunfire drowned out all other sounds as Allyson scrambled to duck around the corner.

  Garrett followed, pushing her to move faster.

  More gunshots. Garrett pressed his back against the wall and covered Allyson with his arms. She screamed into his chest as dust from the drywall sprinkled down around them.