Chapter 2: the massacre at caddo lake
Leah wakes with a gasp, shooting into a sitting position. Her head whips around the room, disoriented. Her nose is bombarded with the scent of antiseptic, staleness and death. Everything in the room is too bright, too vivid. She can't focus on one sound for too long, and she feels like something is crawling under her skin and ready to burst forth. It's nauseating.
She leans over the side of the bed and vomits. Her hair, impossibly longer than she remembered, falls around her face like a black curtain. She sits back up when her stomach is finally empty and shakily wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. Something scratches against her lips.
Looking down, she notices the band around her wrist. The hospital bracelet reads 'Jane Doe' and nothing else. Glancing around the room, she realizes there are other occupants lined against the opposite wall and on either side of her, all asleep.
Leah snatches the TV remote from the bedside table and flips through the channels until she finds a weather channel. Her eyes lock on the lower corner of the screen in horror.
May 17th, 2010 4:13AM
"Four years," she mouths, clutching her middle and slouching forward. "Four fucking years."
Her wedding was held in the deep bayous of nowhere in Louisiana, surrounded by Spanish moss, dark waters and endless greenery. The humidity made her white dress cling to her body like a second skin made of lace, and the bouquet of flowers in her hands wilted by the minute.
The officiant, an old man and neighbor of Leah's who she had grown close to, rattled off the closing remarks of his wedding script, but Leah could hardly hear him. Her attention was solely focused on the beautiful man she was marrying on that hot summer day, standing in front of her in a beige linen suit.
She met him seven months ago in a supermarket, having just moved into one of her safehouses. She was cradling her then three-month old brother, Seth, in one arm while trying to reach for flour with the other. The bag was just out of her reach until someone else grabbed it for her with ease.
A dark skinned man, with the nicest smile she had ever seen, held out the bag of flour to her. "Your son is beautiful," he murmured. His voice had a Creole drawl that made his words slow and persuasive.
Leah automatically opened her mouth to correct him, but thought better of it. "He is," she said instead, nuzzling her nose against Seth's. Her eyes turned back to the stranger. "Thank you for grabbing that for me…"
"Laurent," the man supplied. "Laurent Da Revin."
"Thank you, Laurent."
Laurent cocked his head to the side. "You got a name, pretty lady?"
She told him her name was Julia Jones, and the rest was history.
There was something about his perfect smile and his Southern charm that drew Leah in. His pretty brown eyes with gold flecks in them were like molasses, full of sweetness and affection just for her. And his hands, large and strong, played with Seth during the day and held Leah tenderly at night.
"By the power invested in me by the state of Louisiana, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss."
Laurent cradled her face with his large hands and pressed his lips against hers in a searing kiss. The force of it alone weakened her knees, and she melted against him as he continued to lavish her lips with slick kisses until the officiant uncomfortably cleared his throat.
They briefly parted from each other with matching mischievous grins. Laurent crushed her to his chest with a deep, imperious laugh that made her stomach do funny things.
Leah turned her gaze to their audience, a lonely party of two. The officiant's granddaughter was holding a now ten-month old Seth in her arms. The girl picked up Seth's hand to wave at the couple, and Leah melted at the sight. She broke from Laurent's hold to grab up her brother and blow raspberries into his belly.
Seth giggled with delight and clapped his chubby hands. Behind her, Leah felt Laurent press a kiss to the crown of her head before he gave a loud, smacking kiss to Seth on the cheek. Seth's giggles grew shrill as he reached out with grabby hands.
"C'mere, big man," Laurent cooed, taking Seth and spinning with him in his arms.
"There was nobody else around to invite to your wedding?" The girl asked.
"I have all the family I need right here," Leah murmured, gazing fondly at her brother and husband.
Leah heard Sam before she saw him. Dread curled in her gut as she stiffened, but everyone else stood around none the wiser.
Out stepped Sam from the moss draped around them like white cobwebs, looking as handsome as ever in a white button down and dark denim. His slow clapping and calm swagger in his walk were at opposite poles with his angry expression.
Everyone quieted, even Seth, at Sam's panther-like approach.
"It seems like congratulations are in order," Sam said, deceptively calm.
"What are you doing here?" Leah bit out.
"You know why I'm here," Sam purred. He gave her a lustful onceover. "You make a beautiful bride."
"Who are you?" Laurent demanded. At the same time, Leah growled, "Get out of here, Sam!"
"This is where you've been staying? In a dump like this?" He glanced around the bayou with a smirk. "Sure doesn't seem like this joker you're marrying makes a lot of money to support you. Not like I could."
"We're going to do just fine," Leah snapped.
"As opposed to jetting around the world, killing without a care and getting paid bank to do it?"
"Yes," Leah hissed. "I won't let you kill Seth!"
Laurent grasped her forearm. "What the hell is he talking about?"
"He's an abomination!" Sam roared, his eyes turning an ice blue. The buttons of his shirt popped one by one and his jeans began to tear as his muscles ballooned to an unbelievable size. He let out an ear-splitting howl. A chorus of howls answered.
Leah was completely unprepared for the attack. Without her weapons, she would be useless against them. "Sam, no! You can't do this!" she cried.
Her pleas fell on deaf ears, and the bayou turned to chaos. Two giant wolves, silver and chestnut colored, descended from the thick of the forest, black lips curled back in snarls and saliva dripping from their maws. The officiant and his daughter screamed in terror, and they're the first to be torn to shreds.
Laurent tugged on Leah's hand, tucking Seth against him like a football and urging her to run. She followed, but she knew they were done for. Turning your back to a wolf was a death sentence. The chase was only a game for them, and with their pitiful human speed the couple could only make it so far.
A charcoal wolf with a dusting of white on its ears skidded in front of them, licking its black lips. It was the only thing that stood between the couple and their only hope of escape: a fishing boat on the marsh. Wolves were notoriously terrible swimmers, known to sink and drown in deep waters. They wouldn't be able to follow in the water, and that could buy Leah some time to think of a better plan. But that was wishful thinking.
The charcoal wolf charged at them, wasting no time raking its claws across Leah's face. She screamed in horror and agony, clutching at her face as it gushed torrents of blood and burned like fire. She fell to the ground and tried to blink away the blood from her left eye, the other now rendered blind.
Seth was sprawled on the mossy ground, red-faced and crying, kicking furiously at the air. The wolf had Laurent in its jaws, thrashing him like a rag doll. He screamed in pain and Leah covered her ears against the noise.
"Run, Julia!" Laurent shouted. Even as the wolf was tearing into his bowels, he still thought of her safety. "Go, now!"
With a sob, Leah rushed forward to grab Seth as the other wolves began a slow, mocking trot toward them and ran for the boat. The adrenaline coursing through her veins allowed her to briefly ignore her agony, but she knew it wouldn't last long.
The boat engine hardly kicked on before the wolves ran near the edge of the marsh, snapping their teeth and growling at her as the boat sped forward. Their angry sounds were wrenched into silence when Sam walked behind them, his clothes now torn, staring after Leah with a blank expression. She stiffened, wondering what game they would play now.
She didn't have to wait long to find out.
Long, pale white fingers grasped the edge of the boat, and a pair of red eyes broke the surface of the murky water with a laser focus on Leah. Long brown hair, turned teak from the water, floated along the surface in loose tendrils. Leah slowly shook her head as the creature began to crawl into the boat, silently baring sharp canines from an otherwise innocent, youthful face. She lowered Seth into a pile of blankets behind her and grit her teeth.
"You fucking leech-"
The vampire lept, its arms like an iron cage around Leah's body as they both plunged into the warm water. As they sank, the vampire pressed its fangs into Leah's neck and drank from her artery. Leah's blood left a red cloud in the water, and her strangled screams sounded empty underwater. She was being pumped full of a paralytic venom, the kind vampires use on their prey to ensure they stay still as they feed.
Now limp, Leah panicked as water began to fill her lungs, but she couldn't move a muscle in her body to do anything about it. The vampire pulled back, briefly smirking at Leah before it swam back to the surface, dragging Leah by one useless arm.
Leah coughed and sputtered when they reached the surface. She was being dragged by the vampire still, the joint in her shoulder radiating with pain and the skin of her back screaming as it scraped against rocks and twigs. Without warning, her wrist was released, and Leah's numb arm fell to the ground with a thud.
"Do you think I'm sadistic?" Sam asked, standing over Leah's battered body. His head cocked to the side.
She ignored him in favor of trying to breathe through the agony as she painfully turned her head toward the direction of Seth's cries on the boat. She just wanted to see his little face, to confirm with her own eyes that no one touched him.
Sam crouched beside her head, blocking her view. He wiped her stinging face with a handkerchief that had his name embroidered on it with blue thread.
"I'm sure you're aware enough to know there's nothing sadistic in my actions." Sam paused to chuckle. "Well, maybe towards those other jokers…" He caressed her cheek, whispering, "But not you. Never you, Lee-Lee."
Leah finally met his gaze, hurling all of her rage toward him with a glare from her one working eye. He knew how much she hated that stupid nickname he gave her. It was a nickname that used to suffuse her with love all the way to her bones, but now it filled her with pure hatred. Her eye socket burned as a violent red haze enveloped her vision.
Sam straightened from his crouch and shook his head. "If you won't be one of us, you can't run around knowing our secret anymore. Liability and all." He pulled a gun from his back pocket and aimed it toward her face with a bittersweet smile. "And Seth, well… I had high hopes for him, but he's just another genetic disappointment."
Leah wheezed, slowly shaking her head back and forth. "Sam," she choked out. "He's just a baby-"
Sam pulled the trigger, lodging a bullet in her head. He fired off a second shot, sending an additional bullet through her heart.
Leah flinches. The explosive bang of the gun is still ringing fresh in her ears. The bullet must've caused significant damage if she'd been comatose for four years. She draws in a ragged breath, frantically patting her neck, chest and face, but there's no discernible scarring under her searching fingertips.
She snatches the metal tray by her bedside, knocking off the medical instruments on it. What appears in her reflection almost makes her scream.
Ice blue eyes stare back at her, both intact. Her skin is unblemished, only flushed and glowing with the perfect picture of health. She tosses the tray to the ground, disgusted.
She crawls to the edge of the bed and lifts the clipboard from the folder on the frame.
JANE DOE
FEMALE
20s
COMATOSE. NO INJURIES UPON ADMITTANCE.
Leah flips through the rest of the pages, but there's nothing of note. Nothing about her husband or her neighbors. Nothing about Seth.
The door opens, and she turns toward the sound with a growl. The male nurse freezes in shock, dropping the coffee cup in his hand. He squeaks, pointing a shocked finger in her direction.
"Y-Y-Y-You-You're-"
Leah decides in that moment what her game plan is. She tosses the covers from her legs and leaps from the bed, landing on top of the nurse. He topples to the floor and whimpers in fear, opening his mouth to scream, no doubt. His cries are smothered by Leah's hand.
"Shhhhh," she cooes. The side of her hand slams into his neck, and the nurse is out cold.
She drags him to the corner of the room, patting his pockets. With his wallet and car keys in her possession, she quickly disrobes the nurse of his scrubs and puts them on. The clothes are a terrible fit, but she makes do.
The other nurses and doctors in the hallway give Leah funny looks as she briskly walks past them, but she doesn't allow anyone enough time to ask questions. She takes the elevator to the garage and presses the panic button on the key fob. The alarm of a vintage red pickup truck goes off on the second level.
Leah turns the ignition and switches the radio on, checking the stations to get her bearings. They're mostly familiar to her, and she takes that as a positive sign. Not quite near the safehouse, but still within the state of Louisiana.
Her mood plummets when she catches a glimpse of those stupid blue eyes in the rearview mirror. She screams in anger. Of all the times for the werewolf gene to finally decide to kick in, why now? She was the first in her family of generations of werewolves to present as purely human. Seth suffered the same fate as the second, and he paid for it with his tiny life.
She hits the steering wheel once, and it dents under the force of her blow. She stops, staring in disbelief between her fingers, now sprouting claws, and the wheel. Another blink, and the claws return to her normal fingernails.
With an annoyed groan, Leah switches the gear into reverse and peels out of the parking garage. The hospital is three hours away from her home tucked in the backwoods.
By the time she arrives the moon is hanging in the sky and the swamp is swallowed in black. Her new eyes have no problem navigating in the dark now.
Her home, a cottage really, is rundown and unkempt from years of neglect. The door is unlocked, and the scents within have long gone stale. She drags a finger over a photo, covered in a thick layer of dust.
It's a photo of herself smiling at her baby brother, who's laughing in joy at the funny face Laurent was making at him. She rips the picture from the fridge and presses it to her heart.
She sobs once, and it releases the floodgates she'd been holding back. The tears falling from her eyes seem endless. Loud, ugly sobs tumble from her mouth. She cries for Laurent and his untimely death. For the loss of their loving, beautiful relationship. For the loss of their home, built painstakingly from the ground up by their own hands. For the loss of her human life. For the loss of her sweet, innocent baby brother.
Conviction curls in Leah's stomach, and it gives her enough strength to lift herself from the kitchen floor and into her old bedroom. She quickly dons her old clothes, now covered in dust and cobwebs, and pulls an old shoebox from her armoire. Fake passports and credit cards, cash, and a burner are inside. She tosses the necessities into a duffle bag and rushes to the front door.
Leah pauses, glancing around one last time. She pats the front door as a way of goodbye and speeds away from her almost-life without a look back.
The airport is even further away, and the gas tank is just about empty by the time she arrives. She abandons the stolen truck in the parking lot and navigates through the windy maze of the airport until she finds the ticket counter.
She needs a weapon, a really fucking good one for this mission, and there's only one place where she can get that kind of quality from.
The agent at the counter greets her with a smile. "Welcome to Hawaiian Airlines. How may I help you?"
"Molokai. One way."
If you couldn't tell, the red pickup truck (a nod to Bella's truck!) replaced the Pussy Wagon ;)
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