.
Mick groaned and got to his feet, seeing the taillights retreating around a bend. How he felt wasn't important right now. He still had to get to Beth. He began to run. Not even Mick's vampire agility could prevent his rigid, plastic ski boots from skidding on the road's frosty surface. Only one more burst of speed, and he'd be around the next bend and able to head straight onward to the cabin.
An orange glow flared behind the tree line. He cursed. The only possible thing aflame in that vicinity was Josef's cabin. Beth's only choices would be to stay inside like he'd told her and risk a fiery death, or to venture outside to where the beast was surely waiting for her.
He doubled his speed and began to pray.
.
*~*~*~*~*~*!
.
Beth screamed and ran as the beast's powerful hind legs launched the creature in her direction.
Fire crackled from every corner of the room and licked at the ceiling above her. The thick, black smoke billowing outward in a roiling mass and threatening to choke her was the least of her concerns. She cringed, expecting to feel talons ripping her unprotected back and neck, but didn't stop, moving as fast as she out of the werewolf's reach. A glint of silver caught her eye as she dashed by and without thinking she collected the little crossbow loaded with darts and clung to it with an iron grip.
Floorboards buckled beneath her feet and she screamed again as a blast of rank, fetid breath enveloped her. The thing must be right on top of her.
Oh God, she was going to be eaten alive!
.
*~*~*~*~*~*!
.
Mick's throat tightened.
Josef's cabin was dead ahead and it was engulfed in flames. He looked around desperately, hoping that Beth would step forward from the tree line nearby. Nothing. He couldn't afford to wait. He was going to have to go in after her. Although he didn't think it would make much difference, he dropped to the ground anyway and rolled, covering himself in the melting snow surrounding the building.
Please God, don't let Beth be hurt inside.
As he bounded onto the porch, a terrified scream sounded from within.
.
.
Several things happened at once.
Falling as she turned, Beth aimed the crossbow beneath the beast's outstretched arm and fired one of the darts toward it just as a blast of freezing air gushed into the room. Through the fire and smoke, Beth watched as Mick rushed toward the beast from the cabin's entrance.
As if in slow motion, Beth saw the tiny arrow arc toward the werewolf and bury itself deep with the thing's sparsely covered belly just as Mick's desperate hands closed around its jaws, jerking it's head savagely to one side.
With a loud, wet crack, the werewolf/vampire hybrid fell to the ground. Without thinking, Beth fired a silver dart, then another directly into the centre of the wretched creature's chest.
The thing began to writhe. Groaning as if in agony, the coarse grey hair, jaws and talons shrunk back into its body in exactly the way that horror movies had always portrayed. Finally all that was left was a naked vampire, a once handsome, well built male, his silver eyes fading, his fangs retracting back into his greyish gums.
The dying vampire looked first at Beth, then at Mick and over the roar of the fire they both clearly heard him say, "You… you're not Josef Kostan." Then his body stilled and blackened and burned as fire began to envelop him.
"Beth!"
"Mick!"
Grabbing her hand, Mick pulled Beth toward the door. With a loud whoosh, the burning lintel crashed to the floor, blocking both the doorway and the living room windows.
"Come on," Mick shouted.
They ran toward the kitchen. The room was ablaze and Beth began to cough, doubling over from the effects of the heat and the smoke. Embers flew all around them, several settling onto Mick's arms and shoulders. Having just seen the ease with which the other vampire shrivelled and burned, Beth beat them out with a desperate fury.
"Get out of here, Mick. Leave me," she said, her eyes streaming. "Please."
He didn't bother to reply, his head jerking left then right in an attempt to plot an escape route through the raging inferno.
A loud crack sounded from above. They looked up. Mick pulled Beth close and wrapped his body around her.
"I love you," he said.
With the grinding noise of a mountain shifting on its axis, the ceiling buckled and then came down on top of them in a searing, ball of flame.
.
*~*~*~*~*~*!
.
Four days later
.
"They told me I could find you here," she said, and rested a consoling hand on the shoulder of his coal black Givenchy suit.
Until a moment ago the chapel had been empty but for Josef and the two coffins lying in state before the altar.
He didn't answer her, didn't make a sound, merely closed his eyes with such a profound expression of sorrow on his face that she might have wept herself but for the fact that Mick's and Beth's deaths ensured her own continued survival and another chance for her secret mission to succeed.
"He told me once he'd been raised a Catholic," Josef said as if to no one, staring straight ahead at the expensive caskets. "I thought maybe if he had a traditional funeral, he… he might rest a little easier. He… ". A choking sound cut off his next remark and he dropped his head into his hands. "They're being buried. I couldn't bear the thought of them being cremated after…"
His shoulders began to shake. Simone knelt down and gathered him to her.
"Josef, Josef, I'm so sorry."
She cradled him in her arms and kissed the top of his head, all the while crooning comforting little nonsenses into his hair. She had been sorry to hear that Mick had died along with Beth in the fire she had started at the cabin. She had genuinely liked Josef's best friend.
Josef sat up, easing himself away from her. "This wasn't supposed to happen, Simone." His voice sounded angry. "This wasn't supposed to happen, dammit!"
"What did happen?," she asked carefully.
Josef shook his head in utter disbelief. "They said a spark from a log in the fireplace caused the blaze. They said the two of them were trapped by its ferocity. I just.. I just don't understand why they didn't get out. Why didn't they get out, Simone?"
Her heart stopped for a second. Was that a trick question? Did he know? His upturned face displayed such bewilderment she dismissed the notion immediately, putting the tiny doubt in her mind down to the simplicity of guilt.
"I don't know, Darling," she said, standing up and stepping a little closer to the coffins.
She was relieved to see that despite news of the manner of their deaths, Josef had ordered open caskets prior to the funeral. Although her plan to dispose of Beth had clearly worked, a gnawing anxiety wouldn't be stilled. She needed to be certain. She composed her face into a careful semblance of grief and glanced inside the first coffin.
It was Mick.
He was dressed in a grey suit and tie he never would have allowed Josef to outfit him in had he still been living and was lying so very still that the truth of his death was obvious. Although his handsome face was mostly intact, marred only by a terrible, red burn to one side of his face, his hands and what was visible of his forearms were charred and twisted stumps. A faint hint of smoke emanated from his body. With a gulp she stepped back, suddenly unwilling to look onto the horror of what must be left of Beth's human remains.
"You've been here twenty four hours straight now, Josef. Let me take you away from here," she said, her voice shaking.
"The funerals are tomorrow."
"Just for a little bit then," she wheedled, anxious to be anywhere but here. "Come on. I've planned a little something special for you."
His lips twisted. "You have?"
She nodded and gave him the sort of smile that indicated he was going to enjoy the little something extra on the menu.
.
*~*~*~*~*~*!
.
He was silent as the Ferrari purred around the curves of the Hollywood hills close to his home. The journey was slow, much slower than it would have been at his usual cruising speed, and she gazed at his profile with curiosity. His face was blank, as if he were in the midst of deep contemplation and he never took his eyes off the road.
Finally he turned the wheel and the car pulled into his driveway. Heavy iron gates rattled closed behind them.
The silence between them had been so profound she almost gasped when he said in a voice so like his usual confident self she could have believed that nothing was wrong, "See up there? That's a cold moon rising."
Two tiny lines deepened between her brows. "A what -?"
"A cold moon," Josef said. "A phrase those cursed by lycanthropy use to describe any phase of the moon that doesn't heat their blood, bring on the change." He turned and looked her full in the face, his own so cold in the silvery light of the waning moon her blood froze within her veins.
He couldn't possibly know. The cabin and its contents had been completely consumed by fire and Mick and Beth were dead, she'd seen them herself just now.
The sleek metal door of his underground garage began to rise, and there in the harsh, orange glow of the halogen lighting stood Mick and Beth.
Josef's fingers crushed her wrist the moment her fingers curled under the passenger side door handle.
"You're surely not leaving so soon, Simone? Not when I've gone to the trouble of having something special planned for you, too."
He opened her door like a gentlemen, but didn't let go of her arm.
She gaped at Mick in shock. "You're dead, I saw you. Your hands…" Her face twisted in revulsion at the memory of his destroyed forearms.
Mick reached into his pocket and threw the stump of a blackened hand onto the paving in front of her. "Makeup. Prostheses," he said.
"Simone, Simone, Simone," said Josef, shaking his head in mock disappointment. "Have you forgotten where I live? The special effects director for Twenty-first Century Fox lives next door." He looked a little smug. "The effects really were quite convincing, weren't they?"
"I thought the acting was a little cheesy," said Mick.
"It was easy for you," Josef parried. "You just had to lie there and look natural."
Simone looked from one man to the other, then over shoulder. There must be some way she could get out of this. She looked in desperation toward her former friend.
"Beth - ?"
Beth strode forward and slapped her across the face. Hard. The two men raised their eyebrows and stepped back a little.
"That was for me." Beth slapped her again. "And that was for putting Mick in danger. If it weren't for Josef's wine cellar, we both would have been dead by now."
Mick reached out and pulled Beth back into the crook of his arm.
"So what was the deal, Simone?" he asked calmly. "You hire an assassin to take Josef out at the only time of the year he's alone and incommunicado. Only something went wrong. Your assassin gets killed by a werewolf, changes himself, but like the consummate professional he is, sticks to the job he's been hired to do. It's why you made Beth put on the shirt." His jaw clenched in anger for the first time and he pulled the sooty silk shirt from the depths of his jacket and threw that at her feet as well. "You didn't want to leave anything to chance, making damn sure the assassin had both sight and scent recognition of the target. But you didn't count on something. I'm guessing there's no way you would have put yourself in danger by going to Josef's cabin if you knew a werewolf was on the loose."
She was dead. Josef would surely rip her throat out and bury her in the deepest pit he could find.
"But there was something fishy about that too," Beth said, speaking at last. "Mick tells me that a werewolf will go out of its way to avoid a vampire. Only this one didn't. This one went straight for the only vampire there was out in the open. The only vampire carrying a personal item belonging to Josef Kostan, that is."
Josef's eyebrows rose. Not even he had put those two particular integers together. Mick looked at Josef. "We think it had been specially trained to attack you, friend. Unlikely I know, but - pissed off anyone powerful lately?"
Josef smiled, "I've got all the time in the world to find out." His eyes softened a little as he looked at Simone. "And as for you, was it just the money or something a little more... personal?"
Simone's eyes glittered. "Not only the powerful people you hurt can be dangerous, Josef."
"Something personal then. Was she a friend or a family member?"
Simone looked away. Josef's eye caught Mick's. "What to do with her afterward?"
Both men looked at Beth. She'd made Josef make a promise once. Her mouth set in a grim line.
"You're vampires. Figure it out."
"No. No, Beth. No," Simone pleaded. "Noooo!"
Mick and Beth huddled together and walked out of the garage and into the night without ever once glancing at Simone as they passed. Her scream cut off abruptly as the metal door swung shut behind them.
.
*~*~*~*~*~*!
.
Mick drew back from the kiss with obvious reluctance. "I am so, so, sorry," he began, "I never wanted you to be sullied by exposure to the vampire world, by stuff like this."
"Hush, Mick. We've been over that," Beth said, drawing his lips to hers a second time. "I'm a vampire's mate. I'm beginning to understand what that means and just how - strong - I can be."
She didn't mean strong, she meant ruthless. The innocent little girl he'd loved was gone. Even as a part of him mourned, a small, unacknowledged part exulted in her ferocity. He nodded. "Josef's offered us his guest house in the Bahamas as an apology," he said.
Her eyes widened and she kept shaking her head and smiling as the both of them fell back onto the sofa in a long embrace.
In the still of the night, long after Beth had fallen asleep, Mick lay there listening to her breathe, and thinking.
.
*~*~*~*~*~*!