George was somewhere else. A lush green forest surrounded a clearing, in which several enormous dolmen arches stood. There were more stars in the night sky than George had ever seen before. The moon was terrible and enormous, it hung bloated and white in space. Two similarly oversized crescent moons bracketed it on either side. The symbol of the Triple Goddess, Hecate.
George took a step forward, and at the feel of the cool wet dewy grass beneath his feet, he looked down to realize he was stark naked.
"Bloody-" he murmured.
He heard a stream nearby, babbling excitedly beyond a clump of trees (no trees like that on earth, that was for sure. The leaves were pinkish white with traces of green. He moved past the trees to see the stream. It was wide, and on the far side crouched a huge man-like wolf licking tentatively at the water and shaking its head. The wolf saw him, and howled once, a lonely piercing cry that seemed to echo through the night.
Then it bared its fangs and began growling at him.
George was afflicted with a terrible thirst. Kneeling at the bank, he put his hands into the water, and yanked them back out again. The water was icy cold. He drank some of it, and though it quenched his thirst, he felt a sharp stab of brain-freeze like when one eats too much ice cream too quickly.
"You are the beloved of my Daughter." Said a voice. The voice was terrifying in its power, and undeniably Female. It seemed to be made of several voices, one strident, one mocking, one a sibilant hiss.
The voice laughed a laugh almost as cold as the stream.
"What do you want here, Moon-Cursed?" it asked.
"I need the wolf to come out. My friends are in danger." Said George, his teeth chattering from the coldness of the water, which never left his mouth.
"Your wolf is just there. Go and claim him!" mocked the Goddess.
"I c-c-can't. It's too cold in that stream." Said George. The very thought made him want to scream.
"The stream represents the Division of your natures. Whoever can cross the boundary can gain control of the other. The wolf will not cross the stream to claim you, because it is just a beast. Beasts know nothing of enduring pain to achieve their goal. Up until now, this has held true for you as well. Are you a beast? Or are you a Man? If Man you are, then endure the pain and cross. Be warned, if you reach the halfway mark and fail, then the Beast will claim you. And your friends will die as it emerges from within you to ravage them. Or, do not try. Let the stalemate continue, and I will send you back to find your fate. Choose now. Time will not pass for your friends until this matter is resolved."
"I will try." Said George aloud.
He put one foot in the stream and screamed as bone cracking cold engulfed his foot and seemed to travel up his leg.
"One step nearer!" exhorted the voice.
George put his other foot ahead of the first. He thought the agony could not be greater. He was wrong.
"One step nearer!" it came again.
George had no idea what the bottom of the stream was made of, as both his feet were numb. He had the feeling he was on wooden stilts rather than standing on his own legs. He sent the mental signals for his leg to move, and to his surprise, it did though he didn't feel it. This brought the level of the water up to his groin.
The night echoed with his screams.
Tears were pouring down his face. How had he ever thought his transformation was painful? That was a ride at EuroDisney compared to this.
One more step would put him past the halfway mark. Past the point of no return. The water would be up to the level of his heart. If he made that step, and then retreated, it would mean the doom of all.
"One step nearer!" came the voice again.
George retreated back to his own side of the bank. Amazingly, the water seemed to get warmer, and when he stood once again on dry land, he felt the numbness retreat.
The voice when it spoke again, was kind. George thought it would have been mocking.
"The wise know when to give up a futile battle. In all the centuries, Man has never been able to conquer the Beast within him. There is no shame. None have ever passed this test. Return to the clearing, and I will send you back. Perhaps you can think of another plan in the five minutes you all would have left. If not, I will welcome you all to my Garden."
George retreated away from the bank about ten steps. Just past the tree was the clearing, and a glowing arch that was his way home.
"You know, no one has ever passed a test like this playing by the rules."
The voice of the Goddess barely had time to utter an enraged squawk before George turned and ran back toward the stream, legs pumping, arms swinging wildly. At the last second, he leapt. He barely had time to register the seemingly astonished look on the face of the man-wolf before he plunged into the stream just past the halfway point. Without thought, George plunged through the soul-destroying cold water, now submerged completely. He drove himself forward ruthlessly, moving through the water with all the feeling of a statue. The cold began to slow his movements.
"I'm not going to make it." He thought.
He kept going.
Finally, his head broke the surface, then he was waist deep, then ankle deep. He stepped onto dry land.
The wolf stood before him.
George moved toward it, and it took a step back.
"I claim you as mine." George said, and grabbed one of the wolf's heavily clawed paws.
It came to him and embraced him, and George had a few seconds to marvel at the feeling of the heavy fur on his bare skin. Then it was gone.
In the night sky, the crescent moons moved inward to embrace the whole, exactly resembling the amulet he wore back on Earth.
"It would appear my Daughter has chosen well." Said the voice. Its three aspects were blending together now into a whole. At the end, the voice sounded like his own mother's, though far kinder than she had ever been.
"You've done well, my Son."
The world spun around him briefly.
George came to, and stood up. The others watched him warily.
"Penny, please put this back on." George handed her the amulet.
"George, they'll shoot us if we try to use that against them!" said Amanda.
"We won't need it." He said.
The door opened, and Herrick and Gedrick came in. There were a crowd of scorched eyes and glistening fangs in the dark hall outside.
"The guests are here. Which one of you would like to start the feast?" asked Herrick.
George smiled at him.
"I volunteer."
Herrick made a sneer of distaste.
"Thanks, I'll pass. I'm not due for my jabs for another six months."
"Oh, no." said George, pulling off his shirt. "That is not what I meant at all."
"Oh, what bloody nonsense!" Gedrick snarled.
He swung a punch at George that should have left him counting sheep, but George caught it easily in his own hand. A hand that was suddenly sprouting very sharp claws.
George's mouth was positively crowded with sharp fangs. And before his face had even finished pushing outward, he had yanked Gedrick forward and tore an enormous chunk of his throat out. George swallowed the lump of flesh whole and licked his lips hideously.
"Now that," said Mitchell, "is how you bite someone on the neck!"
George's eyes, the venom green of the wolf, came to rest on Herrick. Gedrick was tossed aside like a ragdoll, and George lunged at him. Herrick was not able to get the door shut in time, and George slammed it into the wall on his way out, breaking the heavy iron hinges like tin foil, his body still in the throes of transformation; the clothes shredding off his body.
The screams of vampires came back to the former prisoners. Despite how richly the vamps deserved what they were getting, the group couldn't help but shudder in horror.
"I swear, you'd never know it looking at him…" said Fleur.
Nina and Penny both sighed.
"That's our George." They said together.
They made their way out of the room to the aspiration chamber, Mitchell carrying Kate in his arms.
"After all that, we didn't need the big weapon we'd prepared beforehand!" said Penny.
"Who knew we were going to get locked up in a room without those things on the ceil–" Nina suddenly stopped talking. Cara had sprung up from behind the large table and had Nina in a choke hold.
"Damn! Another doggie! Oh well, I don't need to drink from you to enjoy killing you!" growled Cara.
"Hey! Let her go, or else!" shouted Penny. She had pulled her lighter out of her pocket.
"Or else what? You're going to light me a cigarette?" asked Cara.
"No. I'm going to do this!" Penny held the lighter up to one of the sprinkler nozzles in the ceiling. Cara looked up just in time to get a faceful of water. Water that earlier that day had been blessed right in the tank by Pastor Mark, and had a hundred Host wafers dissolved in it.
Cara screamed as she seemed to melt, the flesh falling of her bones as if she'd been par-boiled. Mitchell had ducked back to the prison cell as soon as he saw the lighter. The cell did not have any nozzles in it, so they had been unable to implement their weapon. This worked out just as well, however.
When the water stopped, Mitchell returned, along with George who was in human form once more, stark naked and streaked in blood. He grabbed a sterile linen sheet from a nearby drawer and wrapped it around himself for modesty. Fleur had to tear her eyes away, as did the other women. Mitchell shook his head. He would never understand women.
"I couldn't find Herrick-" George was able to get out before a voice came in over the loudspeakers set into the ceiling.
"Once again, you all have failed to outwit me. You forget, that as long as I live, I can still make new armies, very quickly. You force me to destroy my headquarters to be rid of the lot of you, but this is a small price to pay. The charges I had set here long ago have been programmed to go off in one minute's time."
The sounds of metal shutters slamming down began to echo from all over the building.
"You will never get out in time. Have a nice day." The speakers cut off.
The group all looked at each other.
"Fleur, we've got to take a chance. Its you and me. Make the pledge to Kate and Hecate before its too late. If I'm rejected, then it won't matter anyway!" said Annie.
Fleur and Annie grabbed one each of Kate's hands, and made the pledge.
The lightning struck, and an instant later, the three women found themselves in Hecate's robes. Annie wearing white, and Fleur the red. Kate was on her feet looking in the peak of health, in black. She was furious.
"Thank you girls. Now, let's go crack that ginger nut!" The three women hurled a bolt of force at the nearest wall, blowing through the cinderblock and revealing the outside. The gang ran through the hole, getting as far away from the doomed structure as fast as they could.
Kate looked at Annie and Fleur.
"You two are naturals!" she said admiringly.
The funeral parlor exploded, and everyone flinched but were otherwise unharmed.
Mitchell was just emerging from a nearby store where he had quickly purchased a broom, a mop and a Hoover.
"That's mine!" said Kate, snatching the broom.
Fleur took the mop, and Annie with a grimace of distaste, took the Hoover.
Mounting their cleaning implements, the witches, old and new, took to the sky to hunt down their prey.
Penny looked after them wistfully, Amanda with longing, Nina with amazement.
Mitchell clapped George on the shoulder.
"Let's leave them to it. I want to go home."
Half an hour later, the gang arrived back at the pink walled flat and waited for the coven to return.
When they did, Penny excitedly asked what happened to Herrick.
Kate spoke up first.
"I did the very worst thing I could think of. I made turned him mortal again."
Fleur spoke up next.
"I cursed him to be immune to vampire blood. He can never be converted again."
Annie jumped up and down, clapping her hands.
"I gave him piles!"
Mitchell goggled at her, then laughed until he thought his sides would split open.
Epilogue
Following the birth of Rupert Mitchell Sands, Penny rejoined Amanda and a rather young girl named Molly they'd happened upon (she showed an incredible knack for magic, and was wicked smart) in a new coven. They kept in touch with Kate, Fleur and Annie who had opened a new restaurant in London, where Bernie was promptly appointed a busboy. He did not like this one bit, but with his newly empowered mother he was at a severe disadvantage. Annie found relief from her anxieties about her door and whether or not she should cross over. She never had to worry about the men with sticks and rope again. Apparently, when she became a witch, she was as near as she could tell alive again. It appeared Hecate could bend her own rules when she wanted to.
In return for her help, Kate cured Nina's lycanthropy, and both Nina and Mitchell elected to remain in Bristol and work at the restaurant. Nina did the books, dusting off her old accounting skills she'd given up when she became a nurse. Mitchell waited tables, and so had no loss of female companionship when he wanted it. His tips were excellent.
George and Penny raised Rupert together, and they argued a great deal about what his future life would be like. This lasted until he became a werewolf just after puberty at which point he ran away and joined a rock band called the LupineLovers and did live transformations on stage. The music sucked, but people loved the effect and so the concerts were always sold out.
George would not let anyone take over for him in the kitchen, as he found cooking to be his greatest joy in life.
As for Herrick, he was fired from being a PC and only just managed to get Smithers from Human Resources at the hospital to hire him on as a porter since they were down a few too many. The pay was lousy, but the free medical treatment for his relentless piles more than made up for it. Annie, never one to hold a grudge for long, eventually took away the piles, but this did not stop Herrick from becoming a little lonely bitter old man.
When he finally died, his funeral was attended by only one person.
After he was in the ground, Mitchell paid the gravedigger a five pound note to look the other way while he passed water on Herrick's coffin.
FIN