Chapter 4

"Phillip has disappeared." Barnabas told Megan what Vicky had told him. "It is not like him to disappear like this, leaving a pregnant wife behind."

"Did he leave any kind of note?"

"No. You mean a suicide note?... No, he would not do that."

"He might have killed himself to let Vicky have the insurance money. But, of course, if it was known it was suicide, the company would not pay. Poor Phillip." Megan shook her head. "he had no money sense. I used to take care of that, but Vicky could not do it. Phillip should not have tried to make a living as an artist. Too much economic uncertainty. Today you are raking in money, tomorrow no one wants you. Maybe the day after, tomorrow, you'll be lucky again. And maybe not... I wish I had done more. I wish I had warned them, somehow.

"I feel like I failed him. Both of them."

Yolanda stepped out of the room. Edmund did not need her constant supervision now and she was impatient to test the powers of the mask.

"She's a weird one, inst' she?" Elsa commented to Edmund.

"I guess she's all right." Edmund said, patronizingly "Uncle Roger still thinks that here is something odd about her."

"And you do, too?"

Edmund shrugged, aping a sophistication that he was far from having. "Sometimes Uncle Roger exaggerates."

In an uncharacteristic display of tact, Elsa refrained from commenting on Roger's mental abilities.

"How's your shell collecting doing?" Edmund asked.

"Haven't been doing it lately. I've been busy. You see, Mr. Davenport, you know him, is interested in U.F.O.s and he wants photos of them, so I have been trying to take them."

"Have you?"

"No. But Mr. Shaw is helping me. He was a way of knowing..."

Julia welcomed Barnabas and the dog to Wyncliffe.

"Is this the dog you spoke about?"

"Yes."

"Looks a bit too large. Too much like a wolf." Julia frowned. "I do not think that it would be a good idea to let him near the children."

"Oh, I am sure you can." he caressed Comet's ears. "He's very gentle."

"Well, I guess if you can keep him from howling when he sniffs you, you can get him to do anything."

"Well, getting over that was not so difficult. He knows who feeds him. The hard part is coping with the cats getting jealous. I think that they'll be glad that he's gone."

In spite of her reservations, Julia came close to the dog. "Yes. Looks like a nice dog. It is just that I don't like large dogs. Not this breed at least..." she shook her head. "Never mind, it has noting to do with you or the dog. But still, he could make a lot of trouble here, you know."

"No trouble, I assure you."

"As if I didn't know what your assurances are worth."

"Come on, Julia."

"All right. You can have him. On a trial basis only. If it works, I might reconsider."

Megan waited outside of Sandy's house. Tonight she would be able to protect Sandy's children and to put some sense into Sandy's head.

Angelique was working on the ritual needed to bring about Sandy's relapse, a few days ahead of schedule, when she could give it full-time attention. She hoped that that would not make Sandy suspicious. The relapse should not appear to be caused by outside forces, or the point that she was trying to make to Sandy would be lost.

Sandy was about to put the children to bed. She had been sewing and watching TV. She wondered if she should add more fuel to the stove.

No, there was no need. it was warm enough.

In fact, it was too hot.

She removed her sweater after both her children were in bed, under orders to go to sleep. She'd better get back to her sewing. Davenport expected more orders and wanted to be well stocked... She should have trained her assistants better. But then she had interrupted their training to run away with Chris Jennings...

It was Chris' fault. And Barnabas' and Megan's.

It was hot in there. She undid her collar and scratched under it. Her clothes were so itchy...

Her clothes were itching... just as they were when... when she changed.,...

No. She was not going to change again.

Megan and Trask had tried to warn her...

But it wasn't true. She had noting to worry about, for noting could touch her now. It just wasn't true what they said. They had lied so much to her in the past, and this was another of their lies.

Still, it was too hot...

From outside Megan watched her with a mixture of pity and irritation. Why was she so stubborn? Why did she force them into this? She had never seen anyone with such a capacity for self-deception, Not even Barnabas.

Sandy still wasn't changing. Oh, well. She would, soon. And it would be painful.

The pain started.

Sandy doubled up, holding her stomach, trying to tell herself that it was something that she ate, nothing more.

But then more pains came and as she fell from the chair, she realized that Chris had been right.

"Mother!" Cindy's voice said from upstairs. "what's wrong?"

"Mother!" her brother repeated.

The children... in the same house with her. In her mind, she saw them running downstairs, running to their mother.

And finding what? A hungry wolf?

She tried desperately to make contact with the wolf mind as she had been taught to. But it was too hungry to notice her. A hunger that had to be satisfied...

She had kept it hungry for too long, and tonight it would feed.

"No! Not my children!"

And flesh would do for a wolf.

She argued and pleaded with it, but it was too late for that. Her body was changing and her mind was becoming blank, being swallowed up by the wolf mind...

She fought it and for a moment it seemed as if she had won. The she looked down and knew that it was not so.

She was outside her own body. And she could see it changing. And she could hear the footsteps of her children coming down the stairs.

Helpless, she saw the hair cover her body. Saw the body get up and face the stairs. Not a wolf body. A monstrous hybrid that could still walk on its hind feet.

And then Cindy was down, in her nightgown.

"Cindy!" Sandy screamed soundlessly.

The creature lunged.

Then a quick flash of pain reached her in her disembodied form. A pain that she knew well. The touch of silver.

Megan was now between the slavering beast and her children, using a small silver ring as a weapon. As Barnabas had once protected her from Tom Jennings with his cane.

The beast lunged again and Megan blocked its way again.

Even disembodied as she was. she was aware of the feelings of the creature that her body had become. She knew its hunger and rage. She knew of the terrible need that had to be satisfied.

And Megan was all that stood between that creature and her children.

Megan and the beast were grappling with each other. The wolf's teeth grazed Megan's shoulder, but Megan pushed the beat out of the house, closing the door behind it.

Megan had been wounded. Slightly. She still held on to her silver ring, but did not used it anymore than he needed to. She had to guide the wolf away from children and other people, anyone who could be hurt, and into the woods where it could hunt deer.

And the deer came into view. The creature sniffed them and gave chase. Megan followed it until the creature claimed its prey. Then she stepped back, leaving it alone to feed.

Sandy watched the beast devouring the raw flesh, sickened to know that it was her own body doing this thing. And looking into the glazed eyes of the slaughtered doe, she knew that it could be her children's eyes staring t her while the wolf devoured them.

The wolf's movements became lethargic now that its hunger had been satisfied. Sandy was pulled back into her own body. She was aware that Megan was approaching her, writing something... She was tired... She wanted to sleep...

She woke up lying over the carcass, covered in blood.

It was daylight. All that remained of Megan was a note.

"Dear Sandy:

Do not worry. You changed last night, but no harm was done. I hope you don't mind my telling you 'I told you so'. I have been keeping my eye on you, and I managed to keep your children safe. The deer was the only victim of your spree.

Megan Graham"

Sandy got up. She was shivering, and not from cold.

She walked back home, dreading what her children would ask her. How could she explain it to them?