Chapter Twenty-Two

After Kayleigh’s cryptic comment, Tim dragged Jimmy near the remaining guard and set Eliza to watch them both. Perhaps he didn’t trust Kayleigh with them; I know I didn’t. She seemed perfectly normal right now, but I couldn’t forget the sight of her savaging Ken’s body even after he was dead. Tim, Kayleigh, and I went downstairs, me trailing behind. My anxiety about Carson spiraled up my spine, now that I wasn’t distracted by life-and-death danger.

Kayleigh led our small group down the hall, toward the other locked door I’d noticed. I realized there was not one dead guard in the kitchen, but three. Killed cleanly, from the looks of things; a couple of gun shots and what appeared to be a broken neck. I looked at Tim with new respect. Not bothering to find a key, Kayleigh merely twisted the door knob and the lock broke with an audible ping. Then she flicked on the light and went downstairs. I followed the two Weres, rubbing my arms hard as energy mounted in the air. I realized with a start they both growled deep in their throats, so low I felt it in my chest as much as I heard the noise.

“What is that?” Tim asked sharply.

“I’m not sure,” Kayleigh said in response. “That’s what we need to find out.”

As we descended into the basement, I saw the space had undergone a recent remodel—hasty at that. A rough cement block wall stretched across the room, its gray expanse broken only by a heavy metal door. On this side of the new wall, the basement looked bizarrely like a cross between a hospital and mad scientist’s lab. A metal table stood just off-center, with several movable lights. Thick leather restraints outfitted the table, and coils of silver chain lay beside it. A glass-fronted chest glinted with various metal instruments, several IV poles dotted the side wall, and other bits of unintelligible medical equipment caught my eye as the Weres crossed quickly, very quickly to the metal door.

Tim raised his gun and thumbed off the safety. He cocked his head at Kayleigh, who lifted her chin in assent. Then, after checking the door handle, he threw his entire weight at the door.

The hinges snapped, door flinging violently into the dark space, and Tim ended in a crouch that put him well below instinctive target height. Kayleigh let out a cry somewhere between a roar and a howl and darted through the opening.

A cacophony of noise rose like a solid wall. I stood, covering my ears against the growls and howls and screams. One voice rose loudest and the others responded, quieting into whines and scuffling noises.

Slowly, Tim stood to his full height. “Mother moon,” he breathed more entreaty than curse. “What have they done?”

I took unsteady steps to join him.

The area behind the wall was dimly lit. As a human, I couldn’t see as well as the Weres, so I reached out a hand in slow motion to flick a switch. Overhead lights flooded the area. A hall ran the length of the concrete block barrier, facing the cells. Or pens. Five of them. Each containing one or two…creatures…the stuff of nightmares. The things in the pen were neither human nor wolf, but something somewhere in the middle, something horribly, horribly in the middle. They were all different, like lumps of wax half melted between shapes, combining various aspects of teeth, hair, limbs. Each had the same eyes, though. Eyes full of horror and hatred and anguish and anger, reflecting the electric lights like cats caught in the middle of the street.

Kayleigh stood in the hall, still as stone.

We fell silent, just as the creatures had ceased their noise, though they continued to watch us while pacing and shuddering in their cages.

In a flurry of movement, Tim turned on his heel and stormed back up the two flights of stairs, leaving Kayleigh and me to follow him, dragged in his wake. When he entered the room with our captive, Eliza sprang to her feet, looking at me wildly.

“What. Have. You. Done.” Tim punctuated each word with a sharp kick.

Jimmy didn’t cry out. Even after he’d regained his breath, he didn’t speak. Tim kicked him again, harder, right in the ribs.

“Were those…things…Weres?” I asked Kayleigh. She shook her head, mute.

“Fine.” Tim turned his back on the still-silent Jimmy. “Perhaps you’re not ready to talk.” With one quick motion, he threw the bound guard over his shoulder and set off through the house. I quickly followed him.

Back in the basement, Tim threw the guard roughly on the cement floor in front of the cages. The nearest creature slunk to the bars and tried to stick its muzzle through, sniffing and drooling.

Tim sat the man up, holding his head until he looked directly at the creature. The guard blanched.

“Do you remember what Kayleigh did to your friend Ken?” Tim’s voice was mild, oh so mild. “Do you have any doubt these creatures would do the same or worse, were I to open the cages and have you join them?”

The man tried to avert his gaze, tried to look at me, perhaps thinking I was the weak and squeamish link. I thought about Carson, and clenched my hands.

“Is your loyalty to little Jimmy worth such a death?”

The man’s mouth worked several times before he managed to make sound. “It wasn’t supposed to happen that way. They were mistakes. Jimmy and Dr. D was gonna fix ’em.”

“What wasn’t supposed to happen that way?” Tim’s voice rang through the tense room.

“Changing them, making them change. They was supposed to be strong and real, like Ken. That’s why they volunteered. But he’s going to fix ’em, that’s why we needed to try another Were. And it’s working—look at that one.” The man jerked his chin in the direction of another cell, “He’s better now. Almost.”

The creature in question retained human legs and hands with his otherwise wolf-form. His face looked like lump of clay squeezed by a child’s fist. His eyes, one high, one low near his foreshortened stump of a muzzle, and mismatched: one a tender brown and the other green. Both shot with blood. He keened, pommeling his front legs at the bars of his cage. His fingernails were caked with blood that streaked his hands and the fur of his legs.

The man winced. “Jake,” his voice was gruff and broke slightly, “you’ll be okay, man. You’re getting better.”

My gorge rose again.

“These… You knew these people? These were people, you knew, that you… Were they all dark moons? Is this what happens when you change a dark moon?” I looked at Tim in desperation.

“No.” Tim’s face remained impassive. “When you change a dark moon, if it’s successful, there’s no difference between that Were and a born Were. If it’s not successful, the dark moon dies.

“My guess is these were ordinary people—regular humans—someone tried to change. With bone marrow transplants, yes?” Tim toed the guard.

The man sighed and closed his eyes for a moment before looking up at Tim. “Yeah. That’s right. Ken said the Weres just weren’t strong enough, though. Or maybe it was the blood-type. I’m no doctor.”

“But typing for bone marrow is a lot more complicated than blood type, isn’t it? I think it’s really hard to find a match.” I searched Tim’s face as if he had the answers.

“Where’s the doctor who did all this?” Tim asked. When the guard didn’t answer, he knelt down in front of him, holding the man’s chin and forcing their gazes together. “Do you think your friends—are you confident Jake is still Jake? That he still knows you? That he bears no grudge for the fact he is in there, like that, while you continue to help Jimmy mutilate and torture others, in a vain attempt to create Weres? Mafia Weres? What would happen, if I put you in his cage?”

The guard shot a quick glance at the-creature-who-had-been-Jake. A shudder crept over me.

“I dunno, man. I dunno where the doctor’s at. He comes in the mornings to start the procedures. You gotta believe me, I’m just the muscle here. They don’t trust me with nothing.”

Tim flung the man down, and I winced as his head hit the cement. A thin trickle of blood made its way from his blond hairline and all of the creatures scented the air with sudden avidness. Tim walked over in front of the cage holding Jake and investigated the lock with studied nonchalance.

“Really, I don’t know nothing! Ask Jimmy where Dr. D is, Jimmy would know.” The guard babbled on for several moments that stretched and stretched, as Tim remained facing the cage doors, holding the bars, ignoring the man’s words and then pleas.

With a disgusted look on his face, Tim turned around, picked up the guard, and left the basement. He motioned for me to precede him. Before leaving the room, he faced the cages once more.

Speaking clearly and with utmost formality, he said, “By mother moon and her silver light, I promise you I will return and I will see you either rehabilitated or granted the mercy of death.” He bowed his head to the misshapen creatures and closed the door firmly.

****

On our way up the stairs to the second floor, my cell phone rang. I jumped, understandable given my taut nerves. Were I a violin, my strings would snap. When I fumbled the cell phone out of my jacket pocket, I saw Sheila calling.

Carson.

“Did you find him? Sheila?”

“Jules, he’s fine. I scryed for him and he’s fine. He’s with Dave, and he wasn’t even crying and we’re going find him, okay?”

“Where the hell are they? Where are he and Dave?”

“They were in a car—”

“Dave took my baby in a car? Without his car seat?” I found myself shouting into the phone and took a deep breath. Perspective. Must maintain perspective. My baby had been kidnapped by a rogue Werewolf and car seat safety was not the straw to break this camel’s back.

“I’m sorry,” I said, much quieter. “Go on.”

“Okay…They were in a car, a cab, and I watched them pull up to a house, a fancy single-story ranch house right off a golf course. I even saw a sign for the Painted Desert Golf Club.”

I repeated the name once aloud and several times to myself.

“Where are you guys? What’s going on now?”

“Uh, long story. We rescued Kayleigh and captured Jimmy Bianco, who’s apparently the son of the brother-in-law of some head mafia guy named John something. We also have one of his guards as prisoner. Also, uh, several dead guards. We found eight…creatures. Half-man, half-wolf creatures. Apparently, they are regular humans the mafia tried to turn into Weres by giving them bone marrow transplants.”

Silence on the other end of the phone and I imagined Sheila trying to digest the news. I heard Ian asking her if everyone all right, so I answered the second question and told her we were all fine.

“Okay,” said Sheila. “So now what?”

“Now I’m coming back to the hotel, and we’re going to find Carson. That’s what.”

I ended the call and walked into the bedroom where everyone congregated. Tim had dumped the guard on the floor about six feet from Jimmy. Jimmy sat up and provided monosyllabic answers to the Weres. At the moment, I cared about none of it.

“Sheila found Carson. I’m going back to the hotel and then I’m going to rescue him. Are any of you coming with me?”

“I am,” said Eliza, immediately.

“I’ll come, too.”

At Tim’s answer, Jimmy’s eyes visibly widened.

“You’re going to leave us here, with her?” he asked.

Kayleigh smiled, a feral movement of her lips, and said in her breathy voice, “We’ll have a good time, Jimmy. You and me. Just like the last few days. Although,” she made a slight moue, “a little different.”

Her wink might have been a gunshot, judging from Jimmy’s reaction. His gaze swung wildly to where Ken’s body still lay, barely covered by the now red-soaked sheet.

“I can be helpful,” he said, sitting as upright as possible given his bonds.

“You haven’t proven so,” said Eliza matter-of-factly.

“If you harm me, my father—and Romano—will kill you. They will hunt you down and kill you.”

“Now, that’s not helpful talk, is it?” Tim directed his next question to Eliza. “Shall we?” He motioned to the door.

“Dammit, Jimmy, that bitch is going to kill us as soon as they leave. Answer their goddamn questions,” the guard shouted.

I had the feeling the guard wasn’t used to yelling at his boss.

“I’ll answer your questions, really. Just don’t leave me alone with her,” Jimmy said, his eyes wild with terror.

“I tell you what,” Tim walked over to Jimmy, “I’ll stay for a while, for as long as you answer our questions. If you stop cooperating, I will leave Kayleigh to guard you.”

“Tim, call us on Julie’s cell,” Eliza said over her shoulder as she and I hurried out the door.