Object of My Affection (17 page)

Unlike the other guards on campus, John had a gun and he pulled it on Bade.

“What the hell is going on here?” he asked shakily.

“John?” He looked at me like he hadn’t noticed me before.

“John take cover.”

I retrieved my blade from the back of the shewolf’s head where she lay spread-eagled almost at his feet and John whimpered. I looked behind me and saw Bade slamming the two smaller wolves together as if he were playing some bizarre type of symbols.

He paused and looked at John, “Put the gun down, jackass.”

John shook so badly that he nearly dropped the gun on cue. I suppose hearing a werewolf speak would do that to someone who’d never seen one before. Let alone have it speak to you with an Australian accent.

“John please!” I finally got him to look at me. “We think Keith Taylor might still be in the building.”

John nodded.

“Get him.”

He nodded again. Keith’s office was only three doors down and I saw no other wolves down the hall. I didn’t want to take a chance on him shooting Bade. It wouldn’t be enough to kill him, but it would be plenty to provoke him into killing John.

Bade let go of one of the shewolves as he slammed her into the floor with such force that the concrete underneath the carpet cracked. As he turned his back to deal with the other wolf, the one on the floor reached out to slash the back of his leg. Without thought as to whom it was I was protecting, I cut off her hand before her claws made contact.

She howled in pain as I leaped onto her body and put all of my weight into the downward thrust of my silver machete. It came out the back of her skull with a crunch and I twisted it while she shook violently. The body of the other shewolf fell limp beside me and I looked up at Bade. He’d torn her throat out and his muzzle was covered with blood.

“Where’s the little man with the gun?” he asked.

I pulled the machete free with a wet slicing sound and wiped it on the fur of the fallen monster as I replied, “I sent him down the hall to get Keith Taylor, if he’s here.”

A low growl escaped Bade’s throat and he took a step forward.

“You can’t eat them,” I added.

He looked genuinely disappointed. As David and Richard emerged from the doorway to the stairs where they’d been hiding Richard blurted out, “Sure you can! I hate those guys.”

I gave Richard a scornful look as Bade said, “I like him.”

David’s large body had blocked much of what had just happened from Richard’s view. Bade reached over and closed the security office behind us before Richard’s head could turn in that direction.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“Now can I eat the man with the gun?”

“No.”

Before we rounded the corner to Keith’s office I heard a scream. We all broke into a trot and found John standing frozen with fear in the doorway. Across the desk were the scattered remains of what was once a woman.

Bade reached between us and wrapped his large clawed hand over John’s gun, “Give me that,” he growled.

John began to shake again and let go of the gun. Bade passed the gun to Richard. “Hold onto this.”

I wasn’t sure that giving Richard a gun was such a good idea, but I’d rather him have it than John. David and Richard stayed in the hall while Bade and I walked through the front office into the nicer room that it connected to. Something moved in the bathroom at the back of the office and we both heard it. I snatched the door open and had a blade at his throat before I recognized Keith Taylor. He was in his boxer shorts and t-shirt cowering in a corner.

“What happened here?” I asked.

He looked up at me with a confused expression. “Aren’t you Lilith, Richard Stacey’s friend?”

I didn’t respond.

“You won’t tell anybody about this will you? Finding me here, I mean? Melissa and I were just....”

“Melissa is dead,” I interrupted coldly. “And you’ve got worse problems than getting caught banging a student.”

Keith started to shake as he said, “Those things ... they killed her? I saw them come in and I....”

“You ran back here and left them to her,” I finished. “You disgust me,” I said as I turned my back on him. Keith Taylor could rot for all I cared.

“Left your girl to be eaten by werewolves, eh? Oh, that’s top notch, that is,” Bade rumbled.

Apparently Keith had not seen Bade before then. He screamed and closed the bathroom door again.

“Chicken shit,” Bade spat.

I turned around and kicked the door open, breaking its hinges.

“Get up you coward.”

“What are you doing?” Bade asked.

“He’s still a human being. I’m not leaving him to the wolves like he did her.” I gestured to the other room. “Get up you piece of shit.” I kicked him hard enough that my foot should have went up his butt.

Keith shook all over, but he got up.

“Your death will not be on my conscience,” I hissed.

He looked at Bade and shook more violently. Bade refused to step back so that Keith and I both brushed against his fur on our way out the door. In his defense, it was a small space for a large animal. But I think he just wanted the opportunity to frighten Keith.

When we entered the adjoining office and Keith saw Melissa’s remains he went ballistic. He screamed and clawed in an effort to get past me and back into his office, but Bade blocked the door. I stood my ground and continued to push him toward the exit. Keith Taylor was about six feet tall and slightly overweight. His hissy fit made his bulk even harder to maneuver out the door.

When he scratched my face, I’d had enough. I backhanded Keith so hard he flew out the door. By the time he hit the floor I was on him and I hit him again.

“How dare you touch me you bastard,” I growled.

I felt my eyes burn back to amber once more as I pulled Keith’s face toward mine.

“Look at me,” I whispered menacingly.

Keith whimpered, but he looked.

“I’m trying to save your life. Do you understand me?” I shook him hard with my last words.

“Yes,” he nearly cried.

“If your fat ass ever touches me again,” I looked at Bade over my shoulder and then back to Keith, “I’ll let him eat you.” I nodded toward Bade and much to my satisfaction he growled on cue.

As I rose to my feet again Richard exclaimed, “What’s that smell?!”

“Loverboy here shit his pants,” I answered as I gestured toward Keith.

“There’s one left,” David said. “What do we do now?”

“I need to get them out of here.” I motioned to the three men in the hallway.

“We’ll escort you to your truck. David and I can take care of the last one.” Bade looked around before adding, “And we’ll clean up.”

“Alright.” I sighed. “John? You came in that way, right?”

He nodded.

“Then I’d say that’s our best bet. We can go through those doors and straight through the woods to my truck.”

As we stepped outside once more the rain pounded us relentlessly. It was difficult to see even a few feet ahead. It was also impossible to detect a scent and if someone remained very still, they could easily get the drop on us.

We had just reached the edge of the grounds when the remaining shewolf knocked John to the ground in front of me.

Bade reached forward and flung her off. Unfortunately, part of John’s throat went with her. Keith took off across the wet grass, screaming like a banshee and slipping in the mud. I watched the shewolf gain her footing again before running after him. I also watched Bade and Richard step out of her way. Richard I could understand, but Bade could have stopped her.

“Hurry, while she’s focused on him,” David said.

“I know he’s an asshole, but he’s still a person,” I objected.

“That’s debatable,” Richard snorted.

“I say we cut our losses,” Bade rumbled.

As he spoke Bade stretched out his long arms and herded us all toward the woods. Just as we reached the trees horrible shrieking and tearing noises reached my ears and I knew Keith was beyond my help.

We tore through the woods at a break neck pace Richard couldn’t keep up with. We stopped halfway for him to catch his breath and Bade dropped to one knee in the mud.

“Get on,” he growled, “or you’ll never make it.”

“You want me to ride piggyback through the woods on a werewolf?”

“Yes. Don’t expect me to offer twice,” Bade snapped.

“What are my other options?”

“Richard.... “
A howl cut through the night before I could finish what I was about to say and Richard climbed on Bade’s back without further objection.

Once we reached the truck and got Richard safely inside David assured me that he and Bade would dispose of any evidence of werewolves. As I went to get in Bade grabbed my arm.

“What is it?” I asked as I looked back to him.

He hesitated a moment before replying, “Tell Marco ...

we’re even.”

And just like that he was gone. I didn’t know what to make of what he’d just said, but there was no time to think it over.

Once Richard and I had made our way down the long winding drive, past more trees and buildings, we were left with only the sound of the pounding rain. I’d known Richard long enough that even if we rode the whole ten minutes to his house in silence it wouldn’t be awkward. But, I wanted to talk to him.

“How are you doing?” I asked.

Richard was taking a good look at the inside of the Hummer. He tapped the door, “Armor plated,” looked in the back, “heavily armed.” Richard looked back at me as he concluded, “You must have taken Alfred’s truck.”

“How did you know?” I grinned.

“The minute gun attached to the wall was a give-a-way.”

I sighed. “Richard I’m sorry I didn’t reach you sooner. I saw Bade just as I drove up. Well, I didn’t know it was Bade.

I tracked him down first thinking he might know where you were. Once we’d realized that neither one of us had a clue as to what was going on, a werewolf attacked me and....”

“It’s alright,” he interrupted. “I’m alive.”

“No, Richard, it’s not alright. I just found one of my best friends chained to a wall because he was unfortunate enough to be close to me.”

“Yeah. I was also unfortunate enough to have someone to call who could save me from those monsters. And unfortunately she interrupted Bill before he could inject me with something to alter my DNA, too. You’re absolutely right.

That was unfortunate,” he said sarcastically.

“He tried to inject you with something?”

While I drove Richard told me what had happened. It was not unusual for several of the science faculty to work until midnight or later. About eleven o’clock Mallory had come to his office. She had asked for his help with something in her lab. Being the nice guy that he is, Richard agreed to go, like she’d known he would.

“You’ve got to learn to say no,” I told him.

But, Richard belonged in an old western somewhere, singing a song and wearing a white hat. His reactions to Mallory and Keith that night had been the first time I’d seen him without the white hat. Richard was a good guy through and through and I knew it was just the stress of what had happened that had made him react the way he did. If I knew Richard, he’d feel guilty about it later.

As he continued with the story I was glad to have him close to me. Richard was like the brother I’d never had, and I couldn’t bear him being hurt because of me. I wanted to pull him close and say, “It’s alright. They can’t hurt you.” But it wasn’t true and that night had proved the point. He said Mallory had pushed him to the floor after telling him why she’d ruined his reputation. She knew I’d come for him and wanted me to find him dead. But before she could put her grubby paws on him, Bill had stopped her.

“You mean he asked her to stop?”

“No. He stopped her. You remember what I said about him experimenting with the snakes?”

“Yes.”

“Well, he’d been working with werewolf DNA. He’d found a way to extract the part that was wolf and replace it with the snake.”

“What did he do to Mallory?” I prompted.

“You know how she was about those damned snakes. She practically deified them. Bill had created a version of the virus that instead of ‘taking on the beast’ as you guys call it, he took on the serpent.”

“So, she fell down and worshiped him?”

“Close enough. All he had to do was ask.”

“Shit,” I said hotly. “Leave it to some sicko like Bill to create another virus.” I sighed heavily, “That’s what Bade smelled tonight. He said it was something big and poisonous.

Wait till I tell Alfred.”

“When’s he due back?”

I looked at the clock. It was after five.

“Some time today,” I answered.

Of course I was going to leave out the fact that I’d had werewolf cooperation to rescue Richard. Especially considering who it was that had cooperated. Bade was number two on a lot of Hunter’s most wanted lists.

—

I took Richard home, treated his wounds and was back on the road within the hour. He was lucky to have escaped with minor bruises and a small cut on his forehead. His emotional scars were not as obvious, but I’m sure they were there. You don’t see people ripped apart and walk away from the incident unchanged. I should know I’d seen it enough. It’s something you never get used to. At least I’d never gotten used to it and I took that as a good sign. If I ever got used to watching people being brutally mangled, it was time to seek a different line of work, and a therapist.

My wounds would all be healed within a few days. But I hated to greet Alfred like that. I’d wanted to be perfect when I saw him again. Any bruising, which if I had any it shouldn’t be severe, would be gone by noon. The scratch on my left cheek from that asshole Keith would be gone before nightfall.

It was the deep puncture wounds on my left forearm that would take the longest to heal. Any injury I’d ever received from a lycanthrope had always taken longer to heal. I’m not sure why, and I tried not to think about it.

It would be around seven when I got home. I’d hoped I could at least take a bath before Alfred arrived.

—

The minute I walked in the door I knew it was too late to take a shower first. The smell of rich coffee wafted in from the kitchen and I knew Alfred was home.