Part Three
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The howl sounded reedy in the thin mountain air. It was close and it had definitely come from the vicinity of the cabin.
He needed to get to Beth immediately.
Making sure the old man couldn't see him, he put his shoulder to the rear panel of the ambulance and pushed. The big vehicle slid easily across the icy surface of the road. In seconds he'd made enough room for the Land Cruiser to drive past. When he returned his face was grim.
"Take the ambulance back to base and don't stop for anyone," he said. "I'll return the Cruiser in the morning."
He didn't wait for the old man's reply, just watched as he exited the vehicle open-mouthed and slammed the door closed. Mick crunched the truck into first gear.
As the truck and trailer sailed past him, the old man scratched his head. He was sure he'd tied that tarpaulin down good and tight. The loose tarpaulin flapped in the breeze and as it did, his breath caught in his throat. From out of the darkness underneath, a baleful pair of red eyes shone out at him with malevolent fury, and faded away with the taillights as they receded in the distance.
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Both women screamed and backed away from the window. The window frame began to shake and then to split with deep and terrible scratches.
"I'll get a knife," Beth yelled over her shoulder and began to run toward the kitchen. "Get to the master bedroom room and get ready to lock the door."
"No, not there!," screamed a terrified Simone. She dug frantically into her handbag. "The downstairs bathroom would be safer."
The beast was snarling, the tips of its terrible claws visible through the rents it had left in the wood beside the glass. The side of the cabin seemed to bow beneath the fury of the attack. Beth ran back into the living room, a large carving knife shaking in her hand.
Before either woman could move, the beast tore the window right out of its frame and launched itself through the gaping hole and into the room between them.
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Not far now. Not far now.
The three words kept repeating in Mick's mind as he pushed the pedal almost through the floor, swerving dangerously around each bend in the road. Only his superior vampire night vision and dexterity were keeping him from hurtling over the precipice beside him. So focussed was he on the road ahead that almost didn't notice the flicker of movement from behind. When he glanced into the rear view mirror, the only thing he could see was the werewolf's ferocious muzzle pressed up against the glass at the back of the truck.
"What the - ?"
A razor-tipped paw smashed through the truck's rear window.
Mick braked. He heard the back window smash and the beast's body hurtled against the front seats, knocking him violently against the console. The thing was huge, the size of a grizzly, and up close the stench of it made his eyes water. Its shoulders scraped the truck's ceiling, forcing its paws under its wrists. Its muzzle was jammed between against the two front seats, and even as Mick looked on, its jaw began to shake from side to side, then began to snarl viciously and snap at Mick's elbow and forearm.
Mick leapt out of the cabin and slammed the door shut. He looked around desperately. There had to be something out here he could use as a weapon! That thing wouldn't stay caged for long. Even as the thought crossed his mind, the truck began to shudder, the beast inside convulsing in a snarling, scratching frenzy. One paw punched through the rear passenger door, its two-inch claws clicking shut onto fresh air where Mick had stood only a second before.
It wasn't often that Mick felt afraid, but he could feel a creeping terror coming over him. Not only for Beth, and for the danger she was facing at the hybrid's hands, but this time also for himself. If he were to be bitten even once…
The beast yelped as its arm caught on the jagged edges of the hole as it tried to withdraw its paw back into the vehicle for a second lunge at Mick. The Land Cruiser juddered as the beast renewed its furious struggle to escape the vehicle and slid two feet forward, almost forcing Mick over the edge of the road and down into the abyss below.
Suddenly, he had an idea.
He skirted the truck, the back of his neck prickling as the awful red eyes followed his movement from the truck's interior, and put his shoulder against the rear pillar. If he could move the ambulance on the icy road, maybe he could encourage this truck over the edge. He braced his feet; his shoulders bunched and he put his weight behind the vehicle and pushed.
The Land Cruiser didn't move.
The werewolf must weigh a ton! The truck began to shake madly as the beast tore the inside of the car apart to turn itself into a position to get at him. Mick pushed again, his feet sliding a little on the icy road. Every time the beast inside moved, the truck lightened for a moment, slid a little. Mick waited until the beast moved again, then pushed.
The truck skittered to the edge of the road, its tyres only an inch or two from the edge.
Mick's face was hit by flying glass as the window closest to him smashed and a great, hairy forearm reached out, dark yellow ridges clearly visible on each of its curved claws.
Mick threw himself to the ground, the beast's arm swiping back and forth uselessly above him. He braced himself and put both feet against the wheel and waited for the beast to move again. With a sharp metallic sound, the werewolf's arm punched through the Cruiser's roof and began to peel it back, one screeching inch at a time. The vehicle rocked as the beast's head emerged and with a final, desperate push, Mick sent the vehicle careening over the edge where it rolled and disappeared into the inky dark of the mountain below.
Mick collapsed with his hands on his knees; his thighs shaking from the effort. Terrified screams sounded sharply from somewhere close.
He straightened and started up the road at a sprint.
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Beth and Simone scattered.
The beast crouched in the room between them, its chest heaving. It seemed a little more than man-sized; dark, wiry, hair covered its body sparsely over grey, dead-looking skin. In her terror Beth was reminded of the furless dogs and cats whose pictures sometimes made the papers as the ugliest pet on record. Its red eyes flicked from Beth to Simone and back again and its bones crackled as it stood. It tipped its head and in a curiously human gesture, it frowned and lifted its muzzle to scent the air. Before either she or Simone could react, it had bounded up the stairs, and a snarling, snapping fury erupted from the master bedroom.
Seeing their chance, Beth began to run toward the front door. "Come on Simone," she panted. "We're getting out of here. We can make it to the car and drive down the mountain."
"You're half right," said Simone sounding curiously calm.
"What do you mean?" said Beth, looking over her shoulder with a frown.
"Only one of us is leaving."
"Wha- what?"
Simone was holding a deadly, little pistol and it was aimed right at the centre of Beth's heart. She opened the victim's backpack and pulled out the silk shirt and threw it at Beth. "Put that on."
"What are you doing?" Beth said desperately. "That thing's not going to be preoccupied for ever." Even though the beast still raged overhead, she knew it would only be a matter of time before it came for them.
"I know," Simone said coolly. "Just shut up and put it on." And then she pulled the trigger.
Beth felt a hot sting against her upper arm. She clapped a hand over the area and when she pulled it away there was blood on her palm.
"Just making doubly sure," said Simone enigmatically. She waved the pistol in an unmistakeable gesture for Beth to hurry up.
Beth pulled the shirt over her head, her nose filling with the scent of cologne. Familiar cologne. "Hey, this is Josef's shirt!"
"Yes and this is Josef's cabin," Simone sneered, her eyes darting upstairs toward the master bedroom.
A light began to dawn behind Beth's eyes and when she spoke it was her voice that was full of suspicion now. "What – ? What are you doing here, Simone? You said Josef told you not to come here." A look of horror crossed Beth's features. Josef's scent must be everywhere, but it would be strongest in the master bedroom. "You knew," she accused, "That … that thing -. It's here for Josef isn't it?"
Simone smiled a grim little smile. Keeping one eye on Beth, she reached into her handbag and pulled out a cigarette lighter. Neither woman registered the silence from above, nor the re-emergence of the beast crouched over the head of the stairwell.
"He was supposed to be here alone," Simone said, her fury at Josef's absence showing itself a second time that night. It all would have been so easy." She held the lighter to the living room curtains. "I'm sorry, Beth," she said. "I just can't afford for Mick to know that I was here."
Smoke began to rise in a lazy curl.
"You.. you can't stop me leaving," Beth said, determination sounding in her voice even though her teeth were chattering.
"Maybe I can't," said Simone, "but it certainly can."
The beast was creeping down the stairs, snarling softly and its red eyes were blazing unwaveringly at Beth and at the white silk shirt she was wearing.
"Hasta la vista, Beth," Simone said. "See you on the other side." She smiled. "But not anytime soon."
Beth heard Simone's footsteps echo against the floorboards as she tore out of the cabin, then a car engine start. She coughed. Both curtains were alight and fire was licking at the ceiling.
With a growl the beast leapt at her from the bottom stair.
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Mick sprinted around a bend in the road. A pair of yellow lights swept the curve ahead and a car raced toward him from the opposite direction. His heart leapt.
Maybe it was Beth.
He stood in the middle of the road smiling in anticipation and raised a hand to shield his eyes from the glare. But the car didn't slow.
All he saw as he sailed over the bonnet, bumped against the roof and then onto the roadway beyond, were a pair of female eyes fringed by a fur-trimmed hood.
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Simone peered at the body laying on the road in the rear-view mirror and flipped open her phone with a shaking hand.
"You sent a werewolf? A werewolf? You ruined everything," she yelled. "I don't care if you wanted a back up plan. My man had everything in control. It would have been neat. Tidy. And no one would have known. Just in and out with a silver cross-bow and no more Josef Kostan." Simone shook with rage and took another breath. "Well let me tell you - not only is Josef Kostan is still alive and kicking, but his best friend's woman is barbeque wolf chow by now. The mess we've left... Tomorrow he'll be out there and turning over rocks the size of a hydrogen atom to find out who did this."
There was a silence at the other end of the line and then a cool voice said, "Is your cover blown?"
She thought about her last sight of her vampire/werewolf assassin as it came down the stairs toward a bleeding Beth in the escalating inferno. She blew out a breath. "No."
"Good. Then you're still in the game. As far as he knows you're pining away for him in L.A. Make sure he believes it."
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