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Sam…
“Leave her alone,” Balor snapped.
“Aww, I was just having a little fun.” Sam put down the putter he’d been slipping through the bars to poke her with. She was a tiny thing, barely out of elementary school, with eyes as large as an owl’s. So far, she had refused to say anything at all.
“I want her fresh for the video feed and in her human form. Think about it. What if you scare her too much and she panics?”
Sam’s eyes never left her. Gaze narrowing, the skin around her eyes tightened. “Oh, she is listening. She pays attention.” Amused, he crouched down by her cage, tapping the putter against his palm. “It would be so much easier if you changed for us without duress.”
At the bar cart by the wall, Cary poured himself a bourbon. “But less of a spectacle.” He looked toward Balor. “Are you sure this is the image you want to project? The torture of a child?”
Beside him, Balor shrugged. “It’s not ideal. There will be those who will become squeamish. I wish we could have treed one of the larger youths. Some of the boys looked more wild and less like a child who extorts you out of cookie money in a shopping mall.”
Cary took a sip of his drink. “We could try suffocation. That induces panic, but would appear less brutal on camera.”
“It won’t matter after she changes. Her shape change will mark her as a monster, and that will be enough to justify anything that we do. No one will focus on what brought her to the place of exposing herself.”
“Do you think I could get her to bite me?” Sam began rolling up his sleeve. “I’d like to try that.”
“This isn’t a late night horror flick.” Cary shook his head and rattled the ice in his glass. “If that worked, we’d know at this point. I repeatedly tested the samples we took from the original werewolf. Don’t believe everything you read in fables.”
Balor tilted his head. “Go ahead, Lucky.” He watched from where he leaned against the wall with his arms folded. “She looks like she might bite you. If you were dumb enough to stick your hand through those bars.” Biting down on his lip, he smiled. “And she might just rip your arm off and beat you with it. You should let us film that.” With a low chuckle, he reached into his pocket for his phone.
“She is just a child.” Cary scoffed.
“What do you think, little girl? Would you like to bite me?” She bared her teeth at him, and for a second, he thought they grew longer. A moment of imagination. When he reached through the bars and brushed the back of his fingertips along her jaw, she jerked her face away from him. “Feisty little thing.”
Cary said, “She’ll need that courage tonight. There will be a room full of people salivating for her blood, ready for a show.” His grin was a leer. “She is lucky that what we will be asking of her will be something natural to her. Something she will understand.”
Pressing down his urge to push the child further, Sam said, “What if she has never changed? What if there is like… I don’t know… a maturity aspect? The ability might come with puberty or something.”
Stolen novel; please report.
Balor shrugged. “Then we will kill a child on a live public feed and the viewers who will watch the replay won’t be our intended audience.”
“Doesn’t that bother you?” Cary asked.
“It will disappoint me, but money will funnel into our grand project, regardless.”
Cary shuddered.
*
David…
The pads of his feet were raw and torn to shreds. He’d left blood on the grass as he circled the cabin. The hunters were in there, and they had her, his lithe and laughing partner. He could hear the dogs, behind the house, in their kennels. That was one danger he could remove right now. The building was separate from the house and if he was careful, he could take them and protect the other children he’d been hunting with. Training dogs took time. If these were destroyed, their replacement would not be easy or quick in coming.
Following his nose, he cautiously made his way across the property. David slipped one claw into the kennels barn latch and the door cracked open. Well kept by a rich man, the animals had their own enclosure. These hounds weren’t left to wire walls and muddy runs. The one closest to the door lifted his head and his ears flattened. The growl he released was low and threatening. David watched through the crack.
“What is it, boy?” An older man in overalls came out of an enclosed room at the end of the well lit space. The scent of dog food and air conditioning wafted toward David. A full-time caretaker, just for dogs? David had never culled. He’d been taught on the mountain that it was a waste of time and took a price on the soul. Holding his anger in check, he pressed his nails into the dirt and gravel outside of the kennels. His friend, the girl, was in danger. These dogs, most likely trained by this man, were a danger. When he saw the scraps of wolf hide, twisted into loops and braids hanging from the wall, his fury condensed, and took a form within himself. Maybe there were some humans who should be taken from the earth. This one was living poison, walking around, twisting and distorting nature.
The man approached the distressed dog, making soothing sounds. The animal’s apprehension spread down the row. David could smell their uncertainty and growing fear. He was an unknown. “It’s okay. The old man cooed.” Crouching, the caretaker reached in and stroked the animal’s head, and the hound drew closer to him. “I know you can still smell her. She won’t be alive for much longer. A few hours.”
Before David could think through the consequences, he pushed his way into the building, filling the walkway with the bulk of his powerful bear form. The dogs cowered, and the human turned to look his direction. Without hesitation, David struck him hard in the throat with a raised paw and was awestruck by the damage. The human’s soft tissue ripped free, and blood sprayed in every direction like a fountain. He was dead before he hit the ground. The man’s neck had wrenched to the right when he’d been struck. When his body hit the ground, his head came to rest at an odd angle. Broken. As the blood spread out across the shiny floor, the dogs whined.
David took the innocent creatures fast, tearing apart the wire, slicing through the animal’s bodies. He crushed one, climbing over a cage to reach a baying hound. In a matter of moments, all he could smell or taste was dead dog and man. Blood and bits of tissue had splattered everywhere. The smallest bitch crouched in a corner, separated from the others. She pissed herself as he approached. No mercy left within him, David leapt toward her with his jaws open.
*
Kennedy…
Terry’s mother abruptly stood. “Don’t fret about this later.”
Kennedy shifted away from her as she began to undress. “What are you doing?”
“What I always knew I would have to do.”
Kennedy pushed up from the couch, distracted from the prickling cold by the disrobing woman. “I started this. I will fix it. You don’t have to do anything. This is all my fault.”
“It’s not.” Body worn by time, muscular from her active life, she stood naked and opened her arms in a gesture of acceptance. “I woke her up. Terry’s dad and I both. On a dare.” She smiled a sad smile, the first Kennedy had ever seen on her face. “But there is something the sister doesn’t know.” After a deep inhale, she lifted her arms higher. “Even after all of these years, she’s waiting for me.”
The woman, who had never changed, arched her back hard, and it cracked loudly. Emitting the last human sounds she would ever make, she said, “My body doesn’t know how to change. Whatever happens…” She grunted with pain. “Hold our boy within you. Tell Eric, his Mimi loved him.” Teeth gritted, she hissed, “Don’t let him change in here.”