“I walked into that bar and didn’t realize that it was a bar of shifters. I saw the men watching at me, but I didn’t know why. I ordered a beer because I wasn’t really a drinker and it wouldn’t take much for me to get drunk. That’s what I wanted to be, drunk, where I could handle the morning beatings and the shouts of slut and whore when I returned from the hospital,” Ann said. Her voice soft and broken.
“Was Sabastian working at the hospital then?”
“No. It was a year later when he came. By that time Robbie and I were a pair. A pair of misfits. Him a werewolf and me a human. They say opposites attract.”
“I think I heard that somewhere myself,” I said. “Finish your story.”
“Well my husband got off early and tracked the car to that bar and rushed in expecting me to be with some man. I was all alone and none of the werewolves or shifters came near me. That’s because Robert, I call him Robbie most times, but Robbie had said that no one should touch me or come near me because I was his.”
Ann smiled remembering the incidence but her smile turned and she had a hurting look on her face. “When my husband grabbed me by the hair and pulled me down on the floor, Robert stepped forward and told him that if he touched me again he would kill him and my husband pulled me up to my feet and slapped me.”
Robbie’s human’s face changed from a smile to that of a roaring beast on two legs in a few seconds, and he ripped my husband’s face off with his claws. Can you imagine how surprised I was? My tormentor of a husband bigger than life, who made my life miserable, was no longer alive. No longer able to frighten and abuse me.”
When I came out of shock, Robbie was standing with me in his arms. He had changed back to that handsome man I had seen about town but was afraid to look his way. Later he told me he had been following me and looking at me when I didn’t see him. At that moment standing over my husband, Robbie said that I was his. That he was claiming me and that he would take care of me. I had no objections. And we are still with each other and I love him more each day.”
“I hope Robbie knows how much I appreciate what he did for me.”
“I think he does. Sabastian thanked him and tried to pay him but Robbie is like that, he didn’t want money. He did it for me. But I’m not opposed to taking money.” She smiled. It was a closed smile, but her eyes lit up, and she turned and faced the door looking at the surrounding area of tall trees, to the sound of windshield wipers swishing back and forward.
“Whatever you need you have it?” She gave out a sigh of relief and relaxed her shoulders as if there was something weighing on her.
“Let me think,” she said turning and looking pensive at me with her finger under her chin. I thought Ann would ask for a new car or home and I was prepared to pay for one with Sabastian’s money of course. Me, I didn’t have a dime. But as Mrs. Sabastian Vesper, I would be rich and could give my friends presents.
“All I want is for you to buy me some lingerie.”
I turned my head slightly from the road and said, “Is that all you want? If you need anything more, text me. “We’re moving you know.”
“When? Where are you moving to?” Ann asked with a raised panic voice.
“I don’t know. I hope it isn’t far. The way Sabastian talks it will be soon.” The silence grew between us and words became fewer. Ann’s face took on disappointment and sadness. She held her hand in her lap and twisted it as if nervous.
Maybe it was the loss of a friend that made her react that way because I felt the same panic and uneasiness when told I had to move again.
What started out as a bright cold sunny day turned into a dark and gloomy, rainy midday as we drove into Seattle. But I refused to let that put a check on the day. “We’re going to have lunch first and then shop,” I said to Ann.
She seemed to brighten up a bit. “Ok.”
“There’s this restaurant I’ve always wanted to go to but was never able to afford it. You and I will have the time of our life on Sabastian’s credit cards. “Let’s go spend some money.” I drove up to the restaurant to valet parking. We exited the car and both she and I looked around as if we had never been to a five star restaurant before. We glanced around as if we were tourist and we were.
Ann pulled out her phone and started taking pictures. When we got to the door, the guy at the front said that we had to put our phones away. We weren’t allowed to take pictures because there were very important people inside.
Looking at Ann, I made a decision, “Maybe this isn’t the place for us.” Surprisingly Ann agreed. We both felt uncomfortable, not because the people walking around were looking at us as if we had no right to enter a place like that but because it wasn’t our kind of place. We were fast food junkies.
We didn’t want to go where we had to feel we were using the right fork or spoon or have numerous people stand over us watching how we placed the food in our mouths. Or asking if we needed anything every second.
“Let’s go Ann.” I took her arm and we turned around and retrieved the car and headed to a small bistro. There we could talk and enjoy our food without the trappings of being too wealthy.
As we drove along Ann questioned, “How do those people at that restaurant do that? How do they eat with people standing over them?”
“They are used to people taking care of them,” I said to her.
We got to the bistro and ordered our cheese burgers, had a glass of wine, and after we finished eating, headed for a mall where we could buy food at a market, as well as the lingerie Ann needed to make her werewolf howl.
Walking with our hands full with bags of groceries, and laughing about Ann’s underwear, and how Robbie will be surprised, we didn’t observe our surroundings, otherwise we would have seen the two men following us to the car in the parking garage.
After loading the bags in the back, and closing the rear door, Ann said, “There are werewolves around.” She stood in one place shaking. Her arms and hands quivering. She appeared terrified.
“I don’t see anyone,” I said looking around and around. “Where are they?” I shouted.
Ann looked behind us. “I can smell them. Run. Run,” she said. And she bolted for the door to get to the inside of the mall. She screamed as the door to the garage opened, and a security guard stepped inside the garage. I watched at Ann unable to move.
“What’s wrong Miss?” he said holding on to her arm.
“He’s one. He’s a werewolf, Zoey. Run!” When Ann called out my name, the security guard a young dark haired man with dark skin looked across in my direction. She took out something and raked it across his face and chest and he let her go and rushed in my direction. As he neared me he had changed his appearance.
He was a wolf on two legs with a hairy beard. He wasn’t handsome like I had read, but hideous with hair all over his body and flashing red eyes. When it dawned on me that Ann was right about a werewolf, I tried to run, but by that time, it was too late.
Someone came behind me, sprayed something in my face, held my arms behind my back as I kicked and screamed for a second, as the werewolf placed masking tape over my mouth, and the other werewolf placed a cotton hood over my head.
In a matter of minutes, I became weak not wanting to fight. My arms became limp and my legs heavy. I slumped into a pair of hairy arms. They had subdued me and I fell quiet. I became no threat to them, and no one would know what had happened to me if Ann didn’t get away.
As I wondered what had happened to Ann, my ears rang and my mind scattered and weak, sent me back to when I was a child sitting in the back of a van wondering if I will ever see my mother and father again.
That was then, now I’m wondering about Sabastian and Ann and who are these people who would do such a thing. They loaded me into a van, but it had reinforcement on the sides and where I lay was cushioned and comfortable.
The werewolves climbed in and started the car. The last thing I remember them saying was, “I didn’t have time to go after her friend. This one is the important one. She will bring a lot of money.”
“But not as much as the bounty on that vampire,” one of them said. “He will come after her and his weakness will show, and then we will get out chance.”
“Do you know what it would take to catch him? I’m not greedy and I’m not stupid,” the smart one said. “We wouldn’t have caught this female human, if it wasn’t for the tracker that witch put under his vehicle.”
“She didn’t want a split. She just wanted her dead, but we can get more money for her if we bring her to the vampires.”
It was then I faded away. Not waking for what seemed like days or hours. Maybe it was days because I had a hunger inside of me I had never felt before. When I woke, somewhere I had been bathed and placed in a white gown.
Looking around the room, I knew it was nowhere I had ever been or would want to be. It was a cold huge stone room with white pillars and only a bed. Nothing modern. It was a holdover from the dark ages where men were kings. The only light and warmth was from the large fireplace setting before me burning large pieces of wood.
On a table set fruit in large bowls. I rushed to eat it because I didn’t know how long I had been without anything. Now a great pizza would have hit the spot.
I padded over to the window which was high. I would have to stand on tiptoes just for my eyes to reach the ledge. I could smell the sea air, but I couldn’t see it. I could smell flowers. I wanted to get a look at what was enticing my senses and making me feel at ease and safe. Maybe because it was the middle of the day and the smell of death wasn’t in the air which gave me a false sense of security.
Then the door opened.