In the car I try to turn my mind to business and not think about the potential shit show I’ve made of my relationship with Rayne.
In the passenger seat, Norma sits tall and regal, more like a cat in this pose than at any other time. Her two front legs are planted firmly before her, backside resting on her longer back feet. Her barbed tail points straight up along with her wings, twitching left and right like sparkly antennae. She cocks her head at me, clicking softly at the back of her throat as I work the car into third gear.
The radio shifts from inane morning chatter to music. Something light and peppy, some nonsense written for teenagers too young to understand why faerie tale crushes on vampires and werewolves don’t work.
I’d laugh if not for the sudden uncertainty in my own love life. Then again, at least these days all those fantasy stories about forbidden love make more sense. Who could have known they were all based in truth?
I find myself singing with the catchy tune, tapping my fingers on the steering wheel, shrieking the chorus when it comes.
Norma puts her head back and croons with me, loud and enthusiastic, though of course with her own version of the lyrics.
Damn. Actually, she sounds better than I do.
At this time of morning the roads are empty, and I turn left toward Misona only half aware of my decision to do so.
After reading through all those case notes and mission briefings, it seems my instincts have a plan of action, even if my waking mind is still distracted by the memory of Rayne slumping into her bedsheets.
I grit my teeth.
The steering wheel creaks beneath my grip.
“It’s not my fault. Damn it, she would have freaked out too. I know she would have. Six years and then shark week, out of nowhere? Come on.”
Norma belts out the last chorus with another resounding shriek of my name, then trails off with another soft cackle.
Another song begins, but I turn it right down, occasionally glancing at Norma as I continue.
“I mean at least I know why my body feels like crap now. No wonder I didn’t recognize the feelings. It’s been so long.”
“Karson.”
“Exactly. Back pain, stiffness, fatigue? I won’t lie, I didn’t miss all of that stuff.”
“Son son.”
The traffic lights ahead of me shift in my favour, and I ease the car forward again, aiming deeper into Misona.
The streets are fuller now, but shabbier and darker despite the growing natural light. Wandering figures clog the pavement in varied shapes and sizes.
“I’ll have to ask Pippa when she wakes up. I bet she’ll know what’s going on. Or at least have a test to figure out why my body is being so weird.”
“Nika?”
“Yep. Though not if she keeps telling me I smell. Rude.”
Two hunched figures in tattered clothing start hobbling across the road several yards ahead, and I slow to let them go safely.
They still have that graceful edane glide, but it seems off balance somehow. Awkward in a way I rarely see.
They aren’t the only ones either. Others huddled in doorways or leaning against burnt out cars, they all seem to be moving in a slow, unsteady way.
“Though I bet that would get Mum’s attention, right? I could open a conversation with that…if she ever picked up the phone. ‘Hey, Mum, guess what, my periods are back. Oh, still no grandkids though. I remain as gay as they come and my girlfriend is a vampire.’”
Norma lowers her tail, her cackles fading off to the soft chittering her species is named for.
My car rumbles.
I take a left turn. Cross a roundabout.
“What am I going to do, Norma? Why is everything so bloody difficult?”
“Dan dan-dan? Dan…dan…dan…kar…dan…ka…ka…”
“What?”
I chance a look at my pet.
Slam the brakes.
Norma has curled herself into a tight, scaly ball. Her wings are down and pressed tight to her back, the barbed tail almost vanished beneath her body which is shaking all over.
“Norma? Baby?”
She turns to me, head barely lifting, both eyes wide and bright.
“Norma—”
A stunning impact rocks my car.
My seat belt tightens, saving me from hitting the steering column, but the top of my head cracks hard against the ceiling.
“What the hell?”
Thud. Thud. Creak.
Norma curls tighter still into her ball, even the chittering sound vanished and replaced by a groaning moan.
Creak. Crunch.
Something hard pokes the top of my head, followed by a squealing shriek of twisting metal.
I look up.
“Oh, hell.”
The ceiling is dented by a good three inches, and a ring-shaped set of punctures dents the scuzzy fabric lining off to the left.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Crunch.
A face appears beyond my windscreen, upside down and misshapen with fur bristling from features all mixed up and stretched.
There’s a werewolf on my car. A werewolf in hybrid form gazing hungrily through my creaking windscreen.
“Oi. Get off my fucking car.”
One huge, furry fist pulls back. Massive fangs glisten with sticky saliva.
The car roars as I floor the accelerator. Gears grind and cha-chunk through their sequence as I force the vehicle into reverse.
Tyres squeal.
The wolf yips.
Again my seat belt tightens, this time against abrupt backward momentum as the car slaloms along the street.
The werewolf clinging to my roof howls, a mix of surprise and fury, then clings for dear life as I increase the speed.
Brakes.
Another yelp and the werewolf shoots back out of view.
It tumbles thud-thud-smack across the roof, then slides down the rear glass out of sight.
I suck a hard breath through my nose.
What the hell is going on?
Howling. Lots of it. From every direction.
A glance through my side window shows humanoid figures stepping out from shadows between buildings. Humanoid figures with overlong arms and huge, thick legs.
“Dan…dan…dan…dan…dan…dan…dan…”
I grab Norma by the scruff and stuff her into my T-shirt. It’s like trying to cuddle an unwilling iguana, but at least she’s safe in there.
Her trembles continue against my stomach.
More gear grinding and the car rockets forward, this time with control and purpose. I heave on the handbrake for a Tarmac-scorching turn then continue, back the way I came.
Werewolves. Everywhere. Some changed, some not, all of them glaring at my car like a packed lunch box.
One darts at my window, forcing me to swing wide to escape. The off side clips a set of tall black bins and sends them careening down the once-abandoned pavement.
I grip tighter.
“Dan…dan…dan…dan…dan…”
“It’s okay, baby, I’m here.”
Another daring leap from a werewolf sends me in the other direction, this time sheering along the side of a parked car. Sparks fountain like a spray of celebratory fireworks and the acrid scent of charred paint stings my nose.
Not far now.
The roundabout I used to enter this area marks the end of pack territory. They shouldn’t follow me beyond that.
Shouldn’t.
Thud-thud.
More roof action.
This time I’ve no choice but to ignore it. A glance in my mirror tells me that.
There are seven wolves back there, and that’s only the ones I can see. Another trick with my brakes will make it far too easy for them to catch up, and I know I don’t want that to happen.
The lump of trembling scales against my stomach mumbles something, the words mostly lost in my belly button.
I try weaving back and forth, anything to dislodge the beast clinging to my roof. More thudding tells me this one has a better grip than the first.
Almost to the roundabout.
Just another seventy feet.
Cold air screams through my back window, chasing a scatter of glittering glass pellets. Some hit my cheeks, more shower down the back of my collar, and again I wrench at the wheel.
“Will you all piss off!”
An angry roar answers my plea.
Something pulls my hair.
I send the car the other way.
The pulling eases.
Fifty feet.
A figure steps out in front. Seven feet tall, at least, with heavy grey fur and arms like tree trunks. Tight, taut breasts are just visible beneath all that fur, and the huge bush of a thick tail shows between the wide spread legs.
It points, such a normal gesture, made terrifying and grotesque by the body behind it.
“Not welcome,” it yells. “Leave.”
“I’m bloody trying.”
Thirty feet.
At the last possible moment, the hybrid wolf steps back and out of range of my car, though not without raking massive black claws down the side of my paintwork.
More sparks fly and I find myself wondering how I’m going to explain this mess to Pippa.
Ten feet.
The wolf on my roof makes one more snatch at my hair then leaps away with a graceful bound.
The shift in weight makes my entire car bounce, and the suspension groans in protest.
I pass the roundabout by simply driving over the painted white circle, taking myself out of pack territory and back into relative safety.
It’s a mile on before I can convince myself to stop. I do so against the side of the road, a haphazard parking fail that would no doubt earn me a ticket, if anybody cared.
One by one, I peel my fingers off the steering wheel, then allow myself to sit back.
Relieved breath leaves my mouth in a long, shuddering sigh.
Norma’s head pops out through the neck of my T-shirt. She eyes me haughtily before climbing all the way through and sitting on my lap with her wings flared.
“Karson,” she snaps. I get the feeling she’s yelling at me.
She’s right to be angry of course. I should have been paying better attention to my surroundings. Guess I’m more distracted than I thought.
“I’m sorry.”
“Nika. Ka, ka dan.”
“What? They didn’t get us, did they? We’re fine.”
She looks pointedly past me to the shattered back window. She may not be able to talk or even understand me fully, but I know full well what that look means.
Ugh.
“Okay, fine, I dropped the ball. Happy?”
“Dan-dan.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on, now we’re definitely late.”
After one last reproachful look, Norma returns to her seat on the passenger side and her previous upright position. Her tail jabs at the volume dial on the radio.
I obey the silent order and increase the volume, but this time, when the latest teen angst track begins in earnest, I can’t bring myself to sing.