Duel Nature (9 page)

“Is that why you guys came here? Hunting
dragonflies?” I asked.

They exchanged a glance and I realized
something new about them. They were a couple. I hadn’t seen that
coming. My gay-dar isn’t very well developed; it generally takes me
a while to figure out what some people notice in a glance.

“No, the fishing and the insect collecting
are side interests,” Mitch said, after coming to some decision.

“Our real hobby is cryptozoology,” Gordon
said in a rush. They both watched to gauge my reaction.

“Oh, like Bigfoot and Loch Ness and the
Tasmanian Tiger,” I said, surprised.

“Well, yes, basically. You see, we look for
unknown species of animals. Legends and sightings, while colorful
and often graphic, usually have some grain of truth buried deep
inside them. Lake monsters, like Loch Ness or New York’s Champ, are
probably some kind of eel that hasn’t been documented. There are
theories that Bigfoot is an extraordinarily intelligent and large
great ape,” Gordon lectured.

“So what’s around here? Bigfoot?” I asked,
although I already knew the answer.

“There have been reports over the years, but
no, we’re investigating reports of Michigan’s Dogman,” Mitch said,
with just a trace of sheepishness.

“Oh, right, I’ve heard of that one. Wasn’t
there a show about American Werewolves or something. The Beast of
Bray Road and all that?”

“That’s right. Michigan has had all kinds of
sightings, but there have been a couple of recent ones right here
at this resort!” Gordon answered. He was totally into his passion,
completely serious about investigating cryptids, but Mitch seemed
to be slightly more sensitive to how this hobby might be
perceived.

“That’s why my pal here caught your eye?” I
asked.

Mitch laughed. “Chris,
Awasos here would catch
any
eye, but yes, he is an amazing specimen. Do you
think we could cast some of his tracks?”

They really didn’t need my permission, all
they had to do was wait till Awasos left tracks in the sand at the
beach, but it was nice of them to ask.

“What do you say pal? Can we leave them some
good tracks?” I asked the canine in question.

He finished off the current burger, his fifth
I think, then trotted over to the sandy shore of the pond in front
of us. He pounded into the soft grains, leaving four perfect
tracks, then stepped deliberately in a walking pattern for five or
six feet.

Mitch and Gordon watched the performance
incredulously.

“I’d say that’s a yes. He left you a direct
register set when he stepped into his own tracks, so you can get
stride length then compare to his actual hip-to-shoulder ratio,” I
added.

“Are you a crypto tracker too, Chris?” Mitch
asked, suddenly suspicious.

I laughed. “No, I’ve mostly been a criminal
or lost person tracker, but I do track regular animals from time to
time.”

“Oh, you a cop?” Gordon asked.

“Used to be, then a consultant to Homeland
Security. Now I work for a private corporation, troubleshooting and
security work.” I said.

“That was one of the most amazing displays of
intelligence in a canine that I’ve ever seen,” Mitch said, still
staring at Awasos.

“Yeah, he’s a smart one alright. He’ll con me
out of my burgers if I don’t watch him,” I said, hurrying to eat my
second as Awasos scarfed his sixth.

“His coloration is unusual,” Gordon
noted.

Awasos looks almost like someone laid a dark
brown blanket turned to form a diamond on top of a wheat-colored
wolf. The point of one corner of the brown ‘blanket’ comes up over
the top of his skull to end just above and between his eyes. The
other end of the diamond ends at his tail. Addition brown points
come down the top of each leg in a very uniform pattern. It looks
very, very similar to the coloration of my Damnedthing friend
Okwari, who had died protecting me and then, I believe, may have
been reborn as Awasos.

“Yes, it is somewhat unusual, but then he’s a
very unique fellow,” I said, starting my third burger.

“Are burgers good for him?” Mitch asked.

“Ya know I told him the same thing….burgers
would clog his arteries. He wasn’t interested,” I joked. “Honestly,
his vet says it’s okay in moderation, so when we’re on vacation we
live a little.”

“Just a man and his dog…er..wolf-dog,” Mitch
laughed.

Actually,
were-bear-wolf,
I thought to
myself.

“Man, wife and wolf-dog,” I corrected.

“Oh?”

“Yes, Tanya did most of the driving to get
here, right through the night, so she’s taking a nap. You’ll meet
her later I should think,” I said.

“Are burgers good for
you
?” Gordon asked,
watching me pick up my fourth.

“Well it goes back to that live it up on
vacation bit. I also have a pretty fast metabolism,” I said.

“Well you’re not overweight,” Mitch said,
eyeing me in a way that suddenly made me self-conscious.

“Yeah he reminds me of Jake from the cabin
next door….always eating,” Gordon said.

“Oh yeah?” I questioned.

“Two brothers…here to hunt
spring turkey from the way they tell it,” Mitch explained. “But
come to think of it they never seem to bring any turkeys back with
them. Anyway, Jake is the younger brother and he’s still got that
youthful metabolism that lets him eat anything. That
will
go away someday, ya
know?”

Awasos got tired of looking at my two
remaining burgers, his being all gone. With a dart of his head, he
twisted his jaws to snap up one of the burgers. I beat him to it,
grabbing both of them.

“Whoa! You’re fast!” Gordon said, his eyes
large.

“It’s a game we play” I said, smirking at
Awasos, then relenting and tossing him my sixth burger, keeping the
fifth in my other hand. “That’s it though, you’re all done
Mister.”

He scarfed down the bundle of bread, meat and
cheese, then laydown with his head on his front feet.

“Gordon, we better get out on the pond if
we’re going to catch that dragonfly. They’re most active during the
heat of the day and all,” Mitch said. It was odd to hear my last
name as someone else’s first.

His shorter, older partner gave me a quick
little wave goodbye and headed in a bee-line for the canoe. Mitch
shook his head at Gordon’s lack of social graces and thanked me and
Awasos for such an interesting meeting, then followed his
friend.

They paddled out onto the pond with more
skill than I would have thought, Mitch guiding the canoe from the
back while Gordon looked everywhere and anywhere for his prized
dragonfly.

The day had warmed to the mid-seventies, and
I found myself worried about the remaining uncooked food. There
isn’t a bacteria currently in existence that can harm me, not after
the V squared virus has had its way with my physiology, but old
habits die hard and no one really wants to eat spoiled hamburger,
even if it’s harmless. So I hauled the leftovers inside to the
fridge.

Chapter 10

Awasos was lying by the firepit gnawing one
of his truck tire chew toys. Lydia had them custom made in a
recycling center from steel belted tractor trailer tires. Each tire
would make a dozen of the rolled and twisted chews, which was good,
because despite their awful smell, Awasos loved to tear them to
shreds and each one only lasted an hour or so. Black chunks of
rubber were strewn about the cabin site like an interstate
blowout.

I was just coming back outside when I heard
the screen door from Billy’s cabin slam. Turning I found a man in
jeans and a polo shirt headed our way. He looked close to forty
years old, but his thirties hadn’t been kind to him. His hair was
thinning and the beginnings of a paunch was forming on what had, at
one time, been an athletic frame. He sucked on a cigarette as he
purposely headed toward us, his body language aggressive.

He came right up to about ten feet away,
stopping suddenly when he spotted Awasos lying on the ground on the
other side of the cider block fire pit. Jabbing one hand in my
pal’s direction he opened his mouth and pissed me off.

“Keep that thing and yourself away from my
wife and kid!” he spit out. “If you can’t, for any reason, I will,”
he added, raising his untucked polo shirt to reveal the butt of a
snub revolver. Part of my mind automatically catalogued it as a
Ruger SP101, .357 magnum.

The rest of my mind was suddenly seeing
red.

“Listen, mister, Awasos here wouldn’t harm
your kid or your wife if they were jumping up and down on his tail.
You on the other hand, he doesn’t like at all!” I replied in a
quiet voice that wasn’t quite my own. He looked at Awasos and
caught the flash of lava red that rolled through the extremely
alert eyes of the giant wolf.

He stepped back involuntarily, his right hand
touching the butt of his gun.

“Billy seems like a good
kid, and I get the whole protective dad thing, but I still get the
feeling that you’re a giant douche bag. But for Billy’s sake I’ll
give you a little advice…shooting Awasos
always
pisses him off, and frankly, it
sends me right through the roof!” I said, voice still pitched low.
The God Tear necklace around my neck warmed in warning at my
anger.

“Chris, what’s up?” a soft silky voice said
from the door to our cabin. Tanya stood framed in the doorway,
wearing one of my long dark tee shirts and nothing else. Even
freshly woken her appearance stunned our vistor.

“Just an asshole threatening to shoot
Awasos,” I said.

Suddenly she was wide awake and full vampire,
her blue eyes staring through Billy’s father like laser beams. She
went from sleepy centerfold to supernatural killing machine in less
than an eyeblink, a fact which registered deep in the primitive
survival center of his human brain.

“That would be….ill advised,” she said, her
voice pitched in a tone I recognized as part of her vocal
talent.

He backed off three quick and awkward steps,
driven by an unconscious impulse to get away. The point where his
conscious mind asserted itself was crystal clear to any observer,
as he stumbled to a sudden stop, halting his panicked retreat. He
frowned and his fear partially changed to anger. “This isn’t over,”
he said, storming off.

I knew his type. Small town athlete grows up
to become small town car dealer who never grows up to being a
father and lives an angry life of self-destruction. He likely drank
a lot, cheated on his wife and ignored his kid. Almost a cliché if
it wasn’t for the fact that every town had at least one of him.

“Making new friends?” my vampire said, still
framed in the doorway but back to looking like my personal gift
from God.

I got up and headed toward the cabin. Billy’s
dad reached his own place, slamming the door and yelling at his
family. Arms circling her lithe body I kissed her deeply. Another
door slam at cabin one broke our kiss. Asshole was now headed
toward the main lodge.

“I’m hungry, but I think we better put off my
dinner. If I didn’t know better, I’d say we’re going to get a visit
from management,” Tanya said.

“Hey I did make friends with the guys in the
canoe,” I said, defensively, waving in the direction of the
pond.

“I know, I heard. Two out of three is a big
improvement,” she said with a sly laugh.

***

Garth Boklund made his way to our cabin,
reluctance written on every part of him. He was followed closely by
Billy’s dad.

“Ah, Chris, Tanya. Mr. Cleveland here has
told us that you threatened him and his family. You’ll understand
that we can’t have that,” the big blond said when he got close.

“Did Mr. Cleveland tell you that he flashed a
gun at us? Did he tell you that Awasos never left our cabin?”

“Ah no.. he didn’t” Garth started, but was
interrupted by Cleveland.

“That’s a fucking lie! I don’t have a gun on
me!” he shouted, pulling up his shirt to show an absence of
weapons. His stomach was flabby.

“Garth, we’ve been minding our own business
since we got here. His son, Billy introduced himself earlier but
never came near Awasos. Mr. Cleveland here stormed up a few minutes
ago, threatened to shoot our dog and us if we didn’t stay away from
his family. His gun is probably in his cabin,” I answered.

Garth turned and looked at Cleveland with
raised eyebrows. “You got a gun in your cabin Mr. Cleveland?”

“What I have or don’t have in my cabin is
none of your damn business! What is your business is this wild
animal running loose in your resort!” Cleveland snarled.

“We can’t have dogs threatening people,
Chris,” Garth said, apologetically.

Tanya spoke up from her seat at the picnic
table. “Mr. Boklund, would you be so kind as to call the local
sheriff. We need to file a complaint about a threat with a deadly
weapon. What kind of gun was it Chris?” she asked.

“Ruger SP 101, .357,” I answered. “The police
can check their records to see if he has it on his permit. Should
be a Michigan permit ‘cause his dealer plates are Michigan tags.
What’s the dealership name? Mirris Motors? I can look that up and
find out the town,” I said, pulling out my iPhone.

“You weren’t even here when he saw it!”
Cleveland said to Tanya.

“So you did pull a gun!” Garth said, now
angry.

“I didn’t pull it…just showed him I had it
was all. No law against owning a gun to protect yourself from
dangerous animals,” he said, obviously including us with the
animals.

“What’s going on?” Mitch’s voice said from
the beach. The two professors had just beached their canoe and were
watching our little drama unfold anxiously.

“A disagreement Professor Chance,” Garth
replied.