Lycan Fallout (Book 2): Fall of Man (19 page)

“I think Mathieu should be informed of your intentions before the next full moon and he completes the cycle of the virus.”

“Little late for that,” I laughed. “He’s been a werewolf for fifteen years.”

Azile stepped back. “How…how is that possible?”

Mathieu gave her a short accounting of the years as they passed and I filled in our particular vamp-to-werewolf encounter. Her mouth just kept opening wider and wider as she listened.

“Gonna have canaries perching there soon,” I told her. “There’s more. We found a clutch of zombies.” If I thought she was shocked beforehand, well, this just took it to a whole other level.

“Mike, we need to talk.”

“We will, Azile, just not right now. I am more tired than I can ever remember being. I do not believe I have slept more than a couple of hours these last four nights. There are a couple of things I would like to attend to before I sleep, then I promise we will have that talk. I do not see Bailey. How has she, the children and Oggie fared?”

Azile’s head immediately began to bow as if it had grown heavy with thoughts. “These are the things I wanted to talk to you about. The boy turned and attacked Bailey.”

“Is she alright?” I asked in alarm, my earlier exhaustion pushed back as I heard this troubling information.

“She’s fine, as is Breealla. The boy is dead.”

“And Oggie?” I noticed that she had conveniently left him out of her explanation.

“We do not know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“He was fine when he left Bailey. Nobody has seen him in over a month.”

“A month?” My chest tightened just thinking about my lovable Oggie out on his own for that long. I had no doubts he could survive on his own, as he was an incredible hunter. But he was my baby, and it was not looking good that I would ever see him again. Who will scratch behind his ears, and rub his belly and give him just about anything he wants? Another family member lost, another anchor to this world un-tethered.

“Oh, Talbot, I’m so sorry.” Azile had moved in and wrapped her arms around me. I was so lost in despair I had not even noticed she had called me by the same name of affection Tracy used to use so many years ago.

“Umm, Mike, I’d like to rest and then see if I can get ahold of some materials for a new batch of beer. I’m truly sorry for your dog.” He patted my shoulder.

Even those golden words from Mathieu were not enough to lift my spirits much beyond a blip.

Azile grabbed my hand and led me upstairs in the small hotel, where she somehow had a bath already prepared. I was on autopilot as she left the room and I stripped down. The water was not hot enough to sear away my pain nor cold enough to freeze my thoughts. I sat in the warm water and, from time to time, remembered to rub soap across some particularly nasty part of myself. Three times the hotel staff came and changed the water out; impossibly, the second and third times were each dirtier than the previous, as if the dirt was somehow being time released from my body in greater amounts as I stayed in the water longer.

That second time was horrible. The water had almost become a solid, and the staff nearly had to remove it as one giant clotted ball of filth. I must have lost ten extra pounds of waste water that day. It did feel good when I was done, though, like I had finally liberated the person trapped beneath. I had made up my mind towards the end of my marathon cleaning session. The war be damned—I would go out looking for Oggie, and either we both came back or neither of us did. I felt good for that decision, at least for a little while.

I checked on Mathieu, who had a room a couple of doors down, but he was downstairs talking with the tavern keeper. Discussing beer brewing, I would imagine. I decided to leave them to their own devices. Maybe they’d hurry up and get some batches going.

Night had come, and I was lying in bed, mostly staring at the ceiling and watching the light from the candles play across the uneven surface. I heard some boards creak outside my room and figured it was Mathieu coming up to get some sleep. I had not been expecting the soft tap on the door.

“It’s open.” I wasn’t overly worried. If someone was coming to kill me, I was fairly certain they wouldn’t announce themselves by knocking. I had my hands clasped under my head, and I turned slightly to see who it was. I figured it would have been Bailey, but she wouldn’t have knocked either. “Azile?” I asked when she strode through the door, turned and shut it quickly, and more suspiciously, quietly.

She turned back around, and in one deft motion removed her large red cape, every supple inch of her exposed as she purposefully walked toward me.

“Whoa,” was all I could suavely manage as I sat up.

Her body was hypnotic as she swayed. I don’t know if she was using some sort of magic but I’d swear it seemed like she was taking an awfully long time to cross that small room. She pushed me back down onto the bed, with her left hand on my chest; she planted a passionate kiss the likes of which I hadn’t felt in an eternity. Unfortunately, I was never one to just let a good thing play out on its own.

“I’ve got to ask,” I said as our lips parted a couple of inches.

“Yes?” I don’t know if it was my imagination, but that answer came out with a heavy huskiness to it that almost made me forget my question.

I swallowed hard. “Um, now, don’t take this the wrong way.”

She pulled a little further away. “I am naked, Michael Talbot, and in your room. Do not waste this opportunity.”

“I realize that, but I need to know, you’re somewhere in the neighborhood of the same age as I am.”

“Yes.” Her eyes narrowed as she answered.

Man, I just know all the moves with the women…should have written a book back in the day. “Okay, so we’ve established that fact,” I started up. “Now I’m sure both of us watched enough horror movies in our time, that I, umm, I just need to know if this is some sort of like glamour spell on your part.”

“Glamour spell? What are you talking about?”

“I’m just afraid that we’ll be kissing and I’ll see through the spell and you’ll really be this hundred and seventy-year-old crone or something with blackened, cracked skin the color of an old baseball glove.”

She reached down and grabbed my hand. I thought she was going to make me smack myself with it. Instead, she tenderly caressed the side of her face with my hand. “Does that feel like the skin of a crone?”

I swallowed hard again. “Umm…no.”

She reached a little further down, my hand rubbing down the side of her breast. “Does that feel like the skin of a crone?”

I would have swallowed hard but I think I was holding my breath. I could barely manage to shake my head back and forth to acknowledge her question.

She was guiding my hand even lower.

“I think I know where this is going,” I was able to blurt out. “Be gentle,” I told her as she lay down on top of me.

The morning, and duty, both intruded on us far too soon. Azile was lying next to me, her head on my shoulder and her hand on my chest. She gave me a lingering kiss before she arose. The sunlight illuminated her body giving her a luminous glow. If I thought the subtle shadings of the night had framed her body in a beautiful picture I was wholly unprepared for what the day was going to bring.

“Are you getting up?” she asked as she fastened her cloak back around herself.

“I am, and I need to tell you something.”

“If you tell me you’re pregnant, Michael, I will toss something heavy at you. Now hurry up. There is a war council meeting we must attend.”

“That’s the thing, I’m not going.”

“I do not think I have worn you out so completely that you cannot drag yourself out of that bed.”

If the flush of heat going up my neck was any sort of signal, I was blushing. “That’s not it,” I said as I tried to keep my visible emotions in check.

“Then what? It is getting late.”

“Late? It can’t be much past six a.m.” That wasn’t going to work, as Azile was not going to allow me my distractions and pontifications. “Fine, I can’t go to the council because I am leaving to go find Oggie.”

For the briefest of moments I saw the rage that was about to erupt. This was quickly smoothed over and softened when she realized my reason for wanting to go. “Oh, Talbot.” I flinched faintly, the intimacy with which she used my last name made me think of Tracy, and I couldn’t help but feel like I had somehow betrayed my wife on some level. She came towards me. I was sitting on the side of the bed.

She placed a hand against my temple and stroked slowly. “I loved Oggie.”

“Love.” She was looking at me questioningly, when I corrected her tense. “You said ‘loved.’ That would imply past tense.”

“I love Oggie as well, but there are more important things going on right now. The Lycan will reinforce themselves and attack and we still have to deal with Denarth and her allies.”

“What about Denarth and her allies? Forget it, I don’t want to know, it’s not my problem.”

“It’s
all
of our problem.”

“Okay, it’s
all
our problem. It’s not
my
biggest problem. I need to find Oggie. He’s one of the last ties I have to this world.”

“And me? Am I not one of those ties?”

“Was that what last night was about?” I rose. Yup, I’d done it now, the red from Red Witch rising in her features. I could almost feel a charge of electricity crackling off her body.

“How dare you!”

I barely heard her words over the tempest that was rising, plus I was busy wondering if I could survive a lightning strike. The energy she had accumulated quickly dissipated as she released it and the anger.

“No, you fool; it was not some secret plan to bond you to my side.” Her head sagged a little. “I have loved you for years.”

“Love.”

“What?” she asked, looking up, her tear-lined eyes looking at mine.

“Loved implies past tense. You
love
me.”

“I do.” Her arms encircled my waist, her head crashing into my chest as we fell back onto the bed. Finding Oggie and going to war councils was going to be delayed a little bit longer.

It may have been closing in on noon when a heavy knocking disrupted my contented sleep.

“Get up, Michael Talbot!” I swear Bailey was hitting the door so hard the room was shaking.

I rolled over to wake up Azile and realized that at some point she had left. There was a chance I would have thought the whole thing a dream except for the single red rose she left on her pillow. I brought it to my nose and inhaled deeply. “It even smells like you,” I said as I let it go.

The door booming happened again.

“Hold the fuck on!” I yelled.

“Now, Michael! Representatives from Denarth, New Georgia, and Ft. Lufkin are here, and we are waiting on you before we start!” She was banging so hard the door was allowing light in from around the edges where it separated from the frame.

“Fine, you’re in such a rush.” I went over to the door and opened it, completely aware that I was as naked as one can be. It was nice to see Bailey actually a little chafed. For a moment she looked fairly flustered. Even with her dark skin tone I could see the rush of embarrassment rise up her neck and bloom on her face. “Let’s go.” I began to walk past her.

“Perhaps you should put on some clothing.”

“Well, I would have, but I was afraid you were going to bring the hotel down around me, so let’s go do this.” I was showing her my lily-white ass as I headed down the hallway.

“Michael, this is a diplomatic meeting in the hopes to prevent a war. I do not think you showing up nude would be appropriate.”

“About as appropriate as you knowing I was back and then not finding me to tell me personally, about my dog.” I turned back around. “Unlike you, though, I will do the right thing.” I brushed past her again and into my room, slamming the door behind me.

“I am sorry, Michael. I was out on patrol making sure nothing happened to the delegation as they came in.”

It took me all of a minute to get dressed—and that included tying my boots. Wasn’t a day went by I didn’t appreciate being a guy. Life was simpler in so many ways.

“Was he alright when he left?” I asked as I re-opened the door.

“He was fine except for missing you. I was having a difficult time keeping him by me. He would venture out for longer and longer times until one day he didn’t come back. I waited as long as I could. I am sorry, Michael.” She placed her hand on my shoulder.

“Me too, Bailey. I just need to get him back. Besides me loving the damn mutt, he was a gift from Tommy. I do not think I can afford to lose both of them.”

“I understand. I will do all that I can to help you look for him.”

“I appreciate that, Bailey. Now let’s go tell these fuckers to go to hell.”

“I do not think that is how one enters into a diplomatic meeting, Michael.” She was now racing to catch up with me as I was heading for the summit.

“One more stop.”

“Oh for blessed sake Michael we do not have time for this.”