Though Lovers Be Lost (revised)
By Thomas Mc
Season 3 Episode2 - To The Rescue
Slowly Catherine's senses returned. She didn't feel quite right. Her body felt leaden and disconnected. She also couldn't move her arms or her legs. Through a gray mist, she caught the odor of old dust. She heard a man talking quietly somewhere nearby. "All I know is Geonelly wants that book, then we get rid of her." A second voice spoke. "I don't like this. What if the boss finds out? He'll kill us." The first voice responded. "He won't find out." She slowly opened her eyes and saw the two men standing with their backs to her. She glanced down and realized that she was tied to a chair. She looked around and it appeared that she was in a vacant office of some sort. The smaller of the two men turned and noticed that she was awake then they were both facing her. It was the two delivery men.
The larger one came over and glared down at her. "Where is the journal?" He demanded.
"What are you talking about?" She asked groggily.
He slapped her. "Don't give me that crap. Where is the gray book Maxwell gave you?"
"I don't know what book you're talking about." She shook her head as she replied defiantly.
The larger man delivered several hard painful slaps as he asked again. "Where . . . is . . . that . . . gray . . . book."
Her ears were ringing. "I haven't got a gray book." She yelled back.
He delivered several more painful slaps and punches. "We know you have it and if you don't give it up, things are going to get very unpleasant." The smaller man came over and stood glaring at her. She mutely shook her head.
Finally the smaller man spoke. "Lock her up. Let her stew for a while. Then we'll get down to some seriously nasty methods to loosen her tongue." When they untied her, she discovered that she could barely control her arms and legs. "Just gave you a little something so you can't fight back when the fun begins, we've heard about your feistiness." The he told her with a nasty laugh.
They dragged her into another room and dumped her onto the dusty floor. Once they had closed the door, she began to check the room out as best as she could. She couldn't stand but she could crawl. She knew that Vincent could no longer sense her so she would have to find another way to get help. She suspected, based on what she had seen, they were in some old abandoned office building. She located an old master steam pipe that was no longer in use. This could be a break. She started tapping a coded call for help on the pipe. Her coordination was way off and she was having difficulty getting the message cadence right. She also was a bit limited in her knowledge of the pipe codes She just hoped someone below would hear it. And if they did hear it, would they understand it and be able to trace it to this building?
~ o ~
Vincent was sitting in Father's study reading Great Expectations. For the last hour, he had been feeling vaguely uneasy but he could not identify the source. He was just about to head up to Catherine's apartment to check on her when Pascal came running in. "Catherine's in trouble. We picked up a call for help from her on the pipes." He announced as he skidded to a halt.
Vincent jumped up from his seat. "Where is she?"
"It's from a building not too far from here." Pascal replied.
Vincent bounded over to him. "Show me," he demanded as together they raced out of the room.
Jacob watched them disappear down the tunnel, worry plainly showing on his face. "Be careful son." He said quietly to the opening where Vincent had just exited. "Bring her back safe." He pleaded to the emptiness.
Pascal began filling Vincent in as they ran. "I heard it on an old steam pipe near one of the outer sentries. Vincent, her signaling is so poor, it sounds like she's drunk or drugged or very sick." Pascal was running as hard as he could but Vincent soon chaffed at his slower pace. Very soon, Pascal began slowing down. "Can't keep this up . . . much longer." Finally, Pascal came to a stop and leaned against the wall, panting hard. "Can't go . . . any farther . . . Have to go without me." He pointed down the tunnel they had been following. "Down that way . . . right, at dead end . . . fifth opening on left . . . big black steam pipe . . . two copper pipes . . . either side . . . lead you right to it." Pascal slid down the wall and ended up sitting on the floor breathing hard as Vincent continued on his own. Pascal watched as Vincent disappeared around the corner. "Be careful, Vincent." Pascal muttered under his labored breath.
~ o ~
Catherine continued to tap out her distress message on the old pipe, wondering if she had been heard and understood. Suddenly the door banged opened and both men were standing there. "What the $*#&% are you doing in there? I'm going to break your face . . . " Then both men were clubbed from behind, hard. They both went down and she saw two other men standing behind them.
She could see blood already pooling under the two downed men when one of the new men said to the other, "Juice her and let's get out of here." The other man came in and grabbed her. She tried to fight back but she didn't have enough coordination to give much of a struggle. Then she felt a sharp sting in the side of her neck and everything went gray as she began to float in a formless mist.
~ o ~
By the time Vincent reached the abandoned building, the tapping had stopped. The first floor was empty and he continued up. Vincent burst into the second floor lobby, passing a dead man just inside the door. He went through each room until he found one with two more dead men in it. He could smell Catherine's scent but she was not there. He went through every room in the building but they were empty. He was too late, and Catherine was gone, taken away by someone else. His sense of her was too weak and fuzzy to track her. For several minutes, Vincent crashed around inside the building venting his rage. He was beginning to feel fear and panic rising in him as the nightmare from last night appeared to be coming true right before his eyes.
When Vincent had finally calmed down, He decided to go back to Catherine's apartment. He could look for clues to what happened and maybe he could use what he remembered from the nightmare to track her down. He headed over to the underground entrance to Catherine's apartment building as fast as he could. Once he got to her roof he scanned the horizon looking for the building where he had finally found the dying Catherine in his dream, but nothing matched what he remembered from that nightmare. He reluctantly gave up on that idea and went down to Catherine's apartment.
When he looked inside from the balcony doors, he was stunned. The place had been torn apart. Somebody had been searching for something. He entered the apartment and checked it out carefully without disturbing anything. He knew someone had been in here recently because he could still smell their scent. He had no idea what he was looking for so he tried thinking and observing the scene like Sherlock Holmes would, but he only ended up feeling foolish. He heard the elevator doors open and he felt a presence approaching the apartment so he gave up and left. He ended up in the park across from her building and found a location where he could hide and watch the front of Catherine's apartment building. Maybe someone would come along who could lead him to her.
~ o ~
All day Jenny had been feeling that something was wrong. That evening she suddenly felt a strong need to call Catherine. The first time she called there was no answer so she waited for several minutes and called again. The second time she called, Catherine's phone was picked up but there was no response. "Hello, Cathy, is that you?" Still there was no response. Suddenly a cold chill ran down Jenny's back as she was hit by a wave of overwhelming evil. She slammed the phone down and sat there shivering for several minutes.
When she finally got herself under control, she knew that she had to go to Catherine's apartment right away. She did not know why but she felt it was critical that she go there first. On the way, a traffic accident delayed her for nearly two hours. When she arrived at Catherine's apartment building, the doorman and the guard at the front desk were both missing. She was really getting scared now and she suspected that Catherine was in real trouble. She went up to Catherine's apartment and found the door unlocked and partially open. As soon as Jenny passed through the door, she felt a strong presence on the balcony but it disappeared before she was all the way inside. Once inside she found the apartment had been trashed. When Jenny reached the middle of the room she was suddenly overwhelmed by a very strong impression of Catherine in danger. She was absolutely sure she could locate Catherine but she needed more help. She had always been able to tell when something momentous happened to her friends and the stranger her dreams the more likely that they were prophetic. Her friends had always teased her about being psychic, but what she was feeling now was so powerful and so different from anything she had ever experienced before. It was as though she had tapped into some sort of alternate source. Her sense of Catherine's presence felt like it was coming from somewhere outside of herself. She knew that she must now go to find Joe.
~ o ~
Vincent had been waiting in the park in front of Catherine's apartment about a dozen minutes when he saw a woman come out of the building, pause a moment looking around then cross the street heading almost straight towards his hiding place. He was sure it was the same presence he had felt enter the apartment a few minutes ago. She stopped close to his location and seemed to look right at him.
She called out. "I know you're out there somewhere and I know somehow you were on Cathy's balcony a few minutes ago. I think I can find Cathy but I need more help so I'm going to the hospital to see Joe. I think we are going to need your help also. Don't lose us." She turned around got into the waiting cab and headed towards the hospital. Vincent followed his sense of her at a fast jog.
As he took off after the woman, Vincent tried to sense Catherine through the tenuous link but all he got was the barely perceptible feeling that she was still alive but not well. At the same time he could feel a second presence that he knew was that woman. Somehow the three of them were now linked together. All he could do was follow the woman and hope she was right.
~ o ~
As the gray haze slowly lifted, Catherine found that she was once again tied down to a chair and there was now a new interrogator standing before her. Something about this man looked vaguely familiar. "Welcome back, my dear. You've been out quite a while. Once again, it seems that I find you interfering with my operation. I believe you have something of mine and I am going to get it back." His eyes were ice cold and downright creepy. His voice sent a shiver down her spine. He picked up a manila folder and looked in it.
Then Catherine recognized him. She had seen him once before. He was the very wealthy and very reclusive Gabriel Mason. He had inherited a massive fortune when his father died fifteen years ago in a mysterious laboratory fire. There had always been strange stories circulating about him and his father Julian. Some believed that he had killed his father and set the fire himself to cover his crime but no one had ever been able to find any proof.
"That little gray journal belongs to me and I will get it back." The man's voice was dripping polite oily slime. Something about his presence made her skin crawl. "But before we deal with that, I have another subject to deal with. I have come to suspect the existence of a creature that is found in and around Central Park area. I am trying to get information about this creature." He came uncomfortably close to her. "And I think you may know something about it. I have found several correlations between reports of this creature and incidents that involved you." He reached over to a table, set down the folder and picked up a hypodermic syringe. "Now I'm going to give you a little something to help you talk to me."
Gabriel injected the drug into Catherine and she seemed to be floating in that gray haze again. She was having trouble maintaining any kind of coherent thought. He asked her a couple of very personal questions and she just blurted out truths that she would never have told another living soul. She felt like her body and her brain were not her own. Any thought that entered her head came pouring out of her mouth.
"Now my dear, you're going to tell me everything you know about this 'Central Park Creature'."
She felt herself opening her mouth to tell him all about how wonderful Vincent was, when she could suddenly feel Vincent's presence through the link filling her heart and giving her strength. She hesitated. Her mind became a little clearer. Suddenly she felt like her soul was being softly held in Vincent's love through their bond. She pictured the creatures in the Central park Zoo.
"I've seen lots of creatures at the park zoo." And she began describing all the animals that she had seen in the zoo.
Vincent's love seemed to be holding her soul separate from her brain, giving her a limited ability to misdirect her brain down any path she wished as long as it was related to her interrogator's last question. This gave her a very limited degree of control. Once she redirected the thoughts in her brain, her mouth would just continue babbling in that new direction.
Gabriel quickly stopped her. "No, no, I'm talking about the beast running around free in the park"
This time it was a little easier. Once she had nudged her brain in the direction she wanted it to go, she could relax and let her brain continue on its own. She began describing all the wildlife that could normally be found running free in the park until he stopped her again.
"You know what I mean; I want you to tell me about the monster."
Vincent was not a monster! "I know of no monster." She paused; there had been a monster movie on TV last week. "Oh! I do! Frankenstein made a monster." Once again, she was off rambling on about movie monsters until he stopped her again.
As he got more and more frustrated, he became less precise and it became easier to misinterpret the questions. Gabriel still had not yet realized that the misunderstandings were deliberate on her part. She wondered how long she could keep it up.
For years, Gabriel had considered his father's ramblings about an old experiment to be nonsense until the stories about the Central Park Creature had begun to surface. Now he had someone who might have more information and all he could get out of the stupid twit was inane gibberish. Then Gabriel noticed two blood spots on the back of her torn shirt and some stitches through one of the rips. He ripped the back of her shirt open, exposing the scabbed over scratches down her back. The blood had come from a torn stitch.
"I knew it." He crowed in triumph. "Who did this? Who made these marks?"
"I did it. It was so dark . . . misty dark . . . couldn't see . . . " For some reason she was starting to have more difficulty controlling her response to such a direct question. She wanted to tell everyone that it wasn't really Vincent's fault.
Two burly men came in dragging a struggling Joe between them. Fortunately, that distracted both her and Gabriel.
They plopped him down in another chair and tied him in. "We got him; . . . Snatched him right out of the hospital room. Almost got caught though; had to hide for an hour or so."
Joe looked over at Catherine. "Cathy!"
Catherine's head swiveled around, and then nodded back and forth slightly as she zeroed in on Joe.
"Are you all right?" He asked.
Catherine responded. "Oh no . . . I'm kinda loopy . . . I think they're gonna kill me." She started to giggle. "Loopy . . . Kill me . . . Loopy . . . Kill me . . . "
"Shut up." One of men growled, and smacked Catherine across the face.
~ o ~
Dismissing the cab, Jenny went into the hospital where Joe had been taken. She had a strong feeling that this was where she would find the help that she needed. She figured that she was drawn here because Joe would lead her to someone who could help her but whatever the source she knew this was where she must go. Always before her gift was limited to vague feelings and often confusing dreams but now her unique ability seemed to be operating at an incredibly powerful level as though she were getting a boost from somewhere. When she got to Joe's room, she found no sign of Joe. Instead there was an unknown woman standing there beside the empty bed. Jenny sensed no overt hostility from the woman but there was a careful wariness to her. "Where's Joe, I must find him. It's very important." Jenny stated anxiously.
The woman replied, "Joe has disappeared. He was abducted from this hospital room just a few minutes ago, and there are three seriously injured hospital employees left behind." There was real anger in the unknown woman's voice as she spoke as well as a curious wariness in her eyes as she studied Jenny.
"Who are you?" Jenny asked wandering if her feelings had led her astray.
The woman displayed an official looking ID. "I'm Detective Diana Bennett of Special Crimes Unit 210. I'm investigating the explosion that killed Joe's friend. What is your part in this?"
Jenny was frantic but she felt certain that this woman was exactly the help that she needed so in a rush she blurted out to Diana who she was and about Catherine's disappearance. She paused to take a deep breath, trying to calm down then began to plead for Diana's help. "I know this is hard to swallow, but I can feel Cathy's presence and she's in great danger." Jenny realized that Diana was the help she had been led to, but she had to convince this woman quickly. "I think Cathy was helping Joe with something that led to their disappearance. I'm positive she will be dead by morning if we don't find her. I need your help right now or it will be too late." Jenny saw the doubt in the woman's eyes and was beginning to get desperate. "Please help me! I know that we must go right now if we're going to save Cathy!"
Diana was not sure what to make of her, but she could hear the desperation in Jenny's voice. The woman was obviously frantic and worried, bordering on just the tiniest edge of hysteria, but she seemed to be lucid enough otherwise. Diana had no doubt that the woman was dead serious about everything she was saying. Diana currently had no other leads now that Joe had disappeared. She made a decision. Grasping at straws was still better than standing in this empty hospital room and fuming. "OK, lead on."
As they left the hospital, Diana started towards a nearby taxi but Jenny stopped her. "No, we have to go on foot. Don't ask me why because I don't know for sure. I just know that we will fail if we get into a car. We must go this way." And Jenny headed north up the street.
Diana shrugged her shoulders. This was getting stranger by the second but she was already committed so she followed Jenny's lead. Jenny led them towards Central Park. After a few blocks, Jenny began talking about Cathy, telling Diana stories about their friendship.
Diana finally asked, "Doesn't all this talking disturb your concentration?"
Jenny shrugged as she responded. "No, actually talking about Cathy seems to strengthen the impressions that I'm following."
When they reached Columbus circle, Jenny followed the sidewalk across the street from the park as she continued to talk about Cathy. When they passed it, Jenny pointed out Catherine's apartment building. Diana was impressed that Catherine Chandler could afford a place like that. Jenny told her about Catherine's wealth and how she had never let it go to her head.
Finally they reached the north end of the park. "This way." Jenny turned away from the park.
Jenny was moving so quickly Diana had to break into a trot occasionally to keep up. She had lost track of where they were but she was sure they had covered a couple of miles since the park. Diana also noticed that Jenny was constantly scanning their surroundings. For the last few blocks, Jenny had ceased talking and seemed to be concentrating very hard as she constantly scanned their surroundings. Diana looked around but except for once when she thought she saw someone moving swiftly across an alleyway, she could not see what Jenny was looking for. She wanted to ask Jenny but was afraid to break her concentration.
Since they had left the park behind, Jenny had occasionally caught glimpses of movement in the shadows. She never saw who or what it was, but she could feel the presence following them. She suddenly spoke up. "Yes, we are being followed. I'm not sure who he is, but he is as worried about Cathy as I am and I'm sure we are going to need his help before this is over. I also think that he is somehow involved in my current ability to feel Cathy's presence."
After a few more blocks, they ended up at a large area surrounded by a seven-foot wall. "She's in there." Jenny pointed towards the wall and began to try to climb over it. After her second attempt, Diana stepped in and gave her a boost to the top. Far to her right, Diana thought she caught a glimpse of a dark figure leaping to the top of the wall and vaulting on over. She jumped up and caught the top then swung her leg up to hook it over the top. With Jenny's help, she scrambled up onto the wall.
What Diana saw was totally unexpected. The wall apparently surrounded a small estate. Most of the land around the house was heavily wooded except to the left where the main drive went up to the front of the house. Jenny dropped clumsily to the ground. Diana shrugged and followed her down. The trees were not very large and from the ground appeared to provide less coverage than Diana had expected.
~ o ~
Gabriel had to stop and regain his composure. This line of questioning was getting him nowhere. And she was making him very irritated. There was nothing he hated more than being made a fool of. He decided that he was mistaken about her connection to the creature he was looking for. The notes left behind by his father were so vague that he could not even be sure if there was any connection between those thirty-year-old entries and the rumors of this Central Park Creature. Besides, he had more important things to deal with as he started in on Catherine again. "OK, now where is my book?"
With a question this direct Catherine had to push real hard to direct her babbling. "Oh, I've got lots of books. I've got a whole library of books. Blue books, brown books, red books, black books . . . I've got a little black book . . . Got numbers in it, lots of numbers." She looked at Joe. "Got Joe's number." She looked a Gabriel. "Don't have your number . . . Don't want your number. You're not nice."
After a little more of this type of fruitless questioning Gabriel finally gave up trying. He knew that no one could resist the drugs he had been using on her. His informant must have been wrong. Or she just didn't know what she had. Heads would roll over this fiasco. In particular that fool Geonelly. This whole mess was his fault. As it was, this woman was still a danger to him and would have to be dealt with. He picked up another hypodermic from the table and injected something else into Catherine. "If you won't give me what I want, you're of no further use to me."
Seeing this, Joe began cursing and redoubled his efforts as he struggled against his restraints. Gabriel turned his attention to Joe.
~ o ~
Suddenly Jenny stopped and looked puzzled. Then she looked very scared as she faced Diana. "Joe, he's in there, too. Oh my God, they're both in terrible danger. We have to get them out right now." Her voice betrayed a rising feeling of panic. "There's no more time." There were tears running down her cheeks. "Something has happened. I can feel Cathy dying."
Diana grabbed Jenny by the shoulders and gave her a shake. "Calm down. Get control of yourself. They need our help right now. You've got to focus."
Jenny and Diana got as close to the house as they dared. There were two armed men on their side of the house blocking the way. Diana pulled her gun. If this woman was right, they were quickly running out of time. She had to act now to get both men and hope she could justify her actions later. She couldn't believe she was doing this just on the word of this woman. Diana was about to charge in firing when one of the two armed men answered his two-way radio. He talked for a second then both men started off, at a trot, heading around to the other side of the house.
The two women waited until the way to the side door was clear, and then ran across the open space. When they got there, the door was locked. Diana pulled something from her hair and quickly got it unlocked. As she opened the door to see a long hallway, she smiled at Jenny and shrugged. "Dividends of a misspent youth." Suddenly they heard a tremendous amount of commotion from somewhere around in front of the house. She jumped and pulled the door nearly closed as several men came out of a room and ran up the hall away from them. Then the hallway was empty and they both steped into the building.
~ o ~
After going over the wall, Vincent went around to the far side of the house from the two women. Though very faint and unfocused he was able to get a definite sense of Catherine and she was somewhere inside that building. The first thing he had to do was take out the guards patrolling the outside of the estate. He climbed into the trees then he started making low growling sounds. One of the two nearby guards spoke into a radio then they both headed towards his position. As the guards approached him, he blended into the shadows. In the darkness under the trees he was able to see better than the guards. He waited until they passed him then jumped them and knocked them out. He quickly took out six guards this way. Then he went around to the front of the house and peered down the side where the women had been, just in time to see them opening the side door. If he drew attention to the front of the building, it would give them a better chance of getting Catherine out of that place.
Vincent rushed from the trees toward the front door of the house. Two men came out the front door and were both knocked over by the large roaring figure as he barreled past them into the house. Inside Vincent was attacked by two more men. Roaring his rage, the battle was joined in earnest.
~ o ~
As quickly and quietly as they could, Diana and Jenny moved down the hallway following Jenny's lead. From the front of the house came the sounds of a pitched battle and mixed in with the yelling of men Diana heard what she could swear was the roaring of a lion. The third door on the left was slightly ajar. Inside they could see Joe, Catherine and Gabriel. Catherine was tied to a chair and appeared to be out of it. Gabriel was approaching Joe with a hypodermic in his hand. In the back of her mind Diana couldn't believe her luck. She had been after Gabriel for months and now here he was in the middle of a of a major kidnapping case. Not only had she found him but she had him red handed. Diana and Jenny burst into the room and surprised Gabriel, causing him to drop the hypo. Diana then ordered Gabriel to put up his hands and back away. That's when a henchman that neither woman had seen jumped out from behind the door, hitting Diana from the side and sending her gun flying. Diana swung on him with a roundhouse that sent the henchman flying.
While Gabriel had been questioning Catherine, Joe had been working on the ropes that tied him to the chair. When Diana burst into the room, Joe gave one last heave and was finally able to break free. Gabriel dove for the gun and came up with it. As Gabriel straightened up Joe dove at him grabbing the gun that was already in Gabriel's hands. Diana had to deal with the henchman who had come back at her swinging. While all this was happening, Jenny was busy freeing Catherine who appeared to be heavily drugged. While grappling with Gabriel for Diana's gun, Joe yelled to Jenny, "Get Cathy out of here!" Jenny got Catherine to her feet and helped her towards the side door. As they passed a table, Jenny spotted a vial and felt an intense need to grab it without realizing why. She shoved it into her pocket and continued to pull Catherine out the door. She could still hear the uproar coming from the other end of the house, spurring her on as she headed down the hall towards the outside door.
~ o ~
As Vincent continued to battle the numerous men that had attacked him he heard two shots and a crashing sound. He knew that Catherine was fading and his rage intensified. Men's bodies were flying in every direction as Vincent slowly drve his way forward through Gabiel's goons.
~ o ~
Joe and Gabriel both had a death grip on Diana's gun as they struggled for control. The henchman ran face first into Diana's roundhouse kick but she felt a sharp pain in her calf from a knife that she had not seen. The gun Joe and Gabriel were struggling over went off twice and several beakers full of chemicals were shattered. A second henchman came through the door and dodged the slightly off center kick but not the knee to the groin and he too went down. There was a flash and one whole side of the room was quickly engulfed in flames, which blocked the door they had just come in through. A third henchman came in the other door and grabbed Diana. Then the world spun dizzyingly for him and he found himself flat on his back on the floor.
Because of his weakened condition, Joe was rapidly losing the battle for control of the gun. The man Diana had kicked jumped up, his clothes on fire, and staggered around the room until he stumbled into the part of the room already ablaze. He went down, smashing his head on a table. Diana's gun went off again and Joe went down, a bullet in his abdomen. As Gabriel raised the gun to finish off Joe, Diana pulled her backup gun and shot him through the heart. The two remaining henchmen scrambled out the other door and ran for it.
~ o ~
Vincent had waded through dozens of Gabriel's men only to find his way blocked by a rapidly spreading fire and had to work his way around it. Then he heard two more shots. As she stood knelt near the trees, trying to get some kind of reaction from the barely conscious body of her friend, Jenny heard several gunshots. She looked up and could see flames in some of the windows.
~ o ~
Diana put away her backup gun then she limped over and retrieved her other gun from the floor next to Joe. Gabriel was dead and the first henchman was covered in flames and beyond her help. The fire was spreading rapidly and Diana realized she needed to get Joe out of there fast. She tried to drag Joe's unconscious body away from the flames, but he was too heavy and she was injured and too exhausted. The smoke was getting thick and she was starting to have difficulty breathing.
Suddenly a large monster appeared, advancing through the smoke. It was huge and it looked like it was half man and half lion. It appeared to be scanning the room looking for something as it approached. In fear and shock, Diana stepped backwards as she pulled her gun. A pain shot up her injured calf muscle throwing her off balance then she tripped over a broken chair and felt a sharp pain in her other ankle as she collapsed backwards. She hit the floor hard jarring her gun from her hand.
The monster took two quick steps and, looming over her like a fearful apparition, looked down at her for about a second. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she stared at his leonine features. The creature reached down and picked up the gun, then he reached out towards her with his other hand which, she saw, ended in very dangerous looking claws. She heard it speak in a low mellow voice, like silk over gravel. "Take my hand. You must get out of here, quickly, before this place burns down." Diana noticed that he had the most incredible deep blue eyes. She tentatively reached out her hand. Suddenly his clawed hand had hers in a grip of iron as he pulled her to her feet, then just as suddenly he had released her and handed her back her gun. "Now go," he called as he turned, pulled his hood over his head and scooped up Joe like a rag doll.
As Diana started to turn around a sharp pain shot up her ankle again, causing her to cry out as she went down. The monster turned back around and looked down at her as she tried to crawl across the floor towards the second doorway. He shifted Joe's unconscious body over his left shoulder and reached out with his right hand. "Take my hand." The creature ordered.
When she reached up, he again grabbed her hand and pulled her back up to her feet. Then so suddenly she could barely follow the movement, the creature had his right arm around her back, supporting her, and he started moving towards the second door. She put her left arm around his waist and started hobbling along on her less disabled leg.
The monster kicked away a burning chair that was blocking their way and they went through that door. Diana found it hard to ignore the warm tingly goose bump feeling having his strong arm wrapped around her back was causing. Still she did her best not to slow him down, despite two injured legs, as they made their way through the burning house. Finally, they made their way out of the front door of the building. He took them to a safe distance from the burning building and gently lowered Diana to the grass then he carefully set Joe down on the grass beside her. He cut Joe's shirt away with one of his very sharp claws and quickly examined the wound. He shook his head. "It's bad." He looked up as sirens could be heard approaching. "But I think he may have a chance if they get here soon enough." He looked back in the direction of the house and smiled exposing, she noticed, four very deadly looking fangs. "I have to go." Then he ran off, disappearing into the trees closest to them as the first of the emergency vehicles appeared through the front gate.
Diana stared after the creature in shocked disbelief and wondered how in the world would she put this in her report? She could just see her superior's reaction if she wrote that she and Joe had been saved by a lion-man. As Diana sat there, looking around, she spotted Jenny and Catherine over by the side of the house and coming towards her. That must have been what the creature had been looking at when he had smiled. It must have been Miss Aronson or Miss Chandler that the creature had been looking for when she first saw him.
~ o ~
As Jenny knelt there with Catherine, she was debating whether she should try to go back into the burning house. She had also noticed that Catherine was getting less and less responsive. Then she saw a huge cloaked figure come out the front door carrying Joe over one shoulder and supporting Diana with his other arm. She knew that this was the other presence she had felt outside of Catherine's apartment. The large man set Diana and Joe down on the grass, examined Joe, said something to Diana, and then ran off into the wooded area. Jenny half carried Catherine, who was stumbling along, barely able to stay on her feet, over to where Diana and Joe were.
Jenny pointed into the woods. "Who was that?"
Diana, still somewhat in shock, shrugged her shoulders. "A . . . aaaahh . . . good Samaritan?"
There was a loud Whump sound and half of the house collapsed in on itself as fire shot high up into the dark sky. Then the fire trucks, police cars and ambulance came to a stop next to them. Joe was immediately loaded into the ambulance and rushed to the hospital. Diana identified herself and gave the policemen an abridged explanation of what had happened while the paramedic tended to the stav wound on her calf. She told them that Catherine had been drugged and should be taken to the hospital as quickly as possible. Then Jenny remembered the vial that she had put in her pocket. She pulled it out. "I think this is what they were using on her."
One of the police cars took Catherine, Jenny and Diana to the hospital where they turned Catherine and the vial over to the doctors. By now, Catherine had slipped into unconsciousness. Diana was rushed off to X-ray where it was determined that she had a cracked bone in her ankle but no actual break. The Doctor stitched up her calf and taped up her ankle then handed her a pair of crutches and told her to put ice on both legs to keep the swelling down and stay off it as much as possible. He also told her to keep it elevated as much as possible. Then Diana went out and joined Jenny in the waiting room. For several hours, Jenny and Diana sat out in the waiting room, waiting for news about Joe and Catherine. One of the nurses brought Diana an icepack for her ankle. For both women, time seemed to drag by with agonizing slowness. Jenny got up and got them both coffee from the vending machine and thanked Diana for her help.
As Diana sat there she kept thinking about that creature, no, whatever else it was, that gentle voice and the intelligence she saw behind those incredible blue eyes said human. Who was he and where had he come from? All she had was a mystery that was too bizarre or crazy for her to be able to tell anyone about. She wondered irreverently if she was going to be running into Bigfoot next.
Finally, a doctor came out to talk to them. "Who brought the vial?" He looked at them expectantly.
"I did." Jenny admitted. "Was it the right thing to do?"
The doctor nodded, "You probably saved Miss Chandler's life. Whoever had her, had given her a lethal dose of that drug. We were able to get an antidote into her in time. If we had not had that sample, we would never have been able to identify the drug used in time to save her. She would have been dead within an hour after she arrived here. As it is, it was still a very close thing. We'll keep her here under observation for thirty-six hours but I think she will recover fully. She should be able to go home by noon, day after tomorrow."
Diana asked, "What about Joe Maxwell?"
The doctor's frown deepened. "Joe Maxwell's case is critical. He's in emergency surgery right now. The wound was serious but the surgeons are optimistic. A bullet wound in that area can be relatively minor, or it can be irreversibly fatal. It really depends on exactly where the path of the bullet went. We'll have a better idea of his chances after he comes out of surgery but the color of the blood from the wound indicates that we may be lucky."
"When do you think I can talk to them?" Diana had switched to her detective mode.
The doctor looked at the clock. "It's twelve forty-five; Miss Chandler should be reasonably alert by morning, although she may not be completely coherent that soon. In Miss Chandler's case it will take a while for the effects of the drugs those men gave her to wear off completely. The antidote is only able to counteract the more deadly effects of the drug." He thought for a moment. "She should be pretty much fully recovered by late evening." He looked at both women. "If the surgery goes well, Mr. Maxwell will be out of recovery by tomorrow afternoon. You should be able to talk to him then. We'll probably keep him here for three to six days depending on the seriousness of his injuries."
~ x x x x x ~
Jenny had fallen asleep on one of the sofas in the waiting room while Diana slipped in and out of a light slumber. Around six in the morning, Diana's ankle was really bothering her and the local anesthetic where they had repaired her calf had worn off, making it impossible to relax, so she decided to go check on Catherine. As she reached the door to Catherine's room, she noticed that it was not closed all the way. Leaning on her crutches, she quietly peered in. There, standing over Catherine's bed was the lion-man. While trying to decide what to do she heard Catherine speak.
~ o ~
Vincent had slipped into Catherine's hospital room around three o'clock in the morning. Fortunately, the window to her third floor room was easily accessed from the roof and easily opened from the outside. Vincent thought how odd it was that they had put Catherine in the same room as that time a couple of months ago after she was attacked in her elevator and the time she had been shot by Mitch over a year and a half ago. She lay there so still that it hurt him to see her like this. Around five, she began to stir. Around six, just as Vincent was about to leave to beat the sunrise, Catherine awoke. As Catherine slowly came out of her fog, she saw Vincent looking down at her. "Vincent?"
Vincent reached out to take her hand and it hit him like an electric shock. The link between them suddenly snapped into clear focus with a strength he had never felt before. He could feel her love and concern for him flooding into him. At the same time, Catherine felt Vincent's love and concern flowing into her and forming a warm safe cocoon around her heart. It was unlike anything she had ever felt before. She also felt her hazy mind suddenly sharpen to crystal clarity. For several seconds neither moved as sapphire blue eyes and emerald green eyes gazed into each other. Vincent recovered enough to speak first. "I was so afraid. I couldn't feel you over our bond and I was afraid I had lost you. It was like my nightmare was coming true."
Catherine reached up with her other hand to hold his in both of hers. "Never." She smiled. "I told you before, I would never leave you," she reached up and caressed his cheek, "and that I would never let you go." Her hand fell back to the bed. "You're far too precious to me. I owe everything to you." Catherine looked around at the surprisingly familiar hospital room. "What happened?"
"I think it was your friend Jenny. She led myself and a female police detective to you." Vincent shook his head. "She apparently knew I was close by because she called out to me in the park and told me to follow her." Vincent got a sheepish look on his face. "By the way, I'm afraid that female detective saw me."
Catherine felt a sharp pang of fear. "Oh, no. How?"
"Your boss, Joe, was down, shot, inside the house and it was on fire. I could not leave him in there, and she was too exhausted and injured to get either of them out of that fire. I had to get them both out." He patted Catherine's hands. "Joe was unconscious but she wasn't. I think I scared her half to death coming at her out of the smoke like that."
"Joe, shot?" Her concern for Joe took over. "Is he alive? How bad is he?"
"It's bad, but the ambulance got there fairly quickly. I think he's got a chance." Vincent reassured her.
"Oh, I hope he's OK." Then she remembered the detective. "Vincent, what are we going to do?" The revelation about the detective had her very disturbed. "I can't lose you again. If that detective says anything to the wrong person and is believed, you could be in terrible danger. You could be killed, or worse, locked up in some government scientist's cage."
Vincent smiled. "Don't worry about me. You know what its like down there. I could disappear into the lower caverns and no one could ever find me. Besides who is going to believe another Bigfoot story? I'll be fine."
They remained like that for several minutes when Catherine suddenly got anxious. "The book!"
Vincent was startled by the anxious worry he suddenly sensed. "Book?"
Catherine gathered her wits. "Joe gave me a gray journal that was given to him by a friend just before the friend was killed. I remember telling you about it last time I talked to you. It supposedly contains details of massive corruption in the city government. It was in code so I couldn't read it. That's why they kidnapped me. They wanted that book. Then another bunch of men took me from the first group. I remember that man Gabriel saying that the journal was his." Catherine felt a surge of fear. "Vincent, he knew about you."
Vincent shook his head. "Don't worry about that right now. I'm pretty certain that he died in that fire. If not, as I said, I can easily disappear."
Catherine thought it over for a minute. "Vincent, I need you to retrieve that book and hold it for me 'til I can figure out who I should give it to. You remember that time you were escorting me home and that loose brick, near the ladder, came off in my hands?"
Vincent nodded and chuckled. "Yes, you landed on your rear. We both laughed pretty hard over it."
Catherine rolled her eyes. "That's where I hid the book, behind that brick. Once I figure out who can be trusted, I'll send you a message to bring it. Now you'd better go quickly before it gets light out and someone sees you."
Diana saw the lion-man go out the window and up. He must have gone to the hospital roof, but where does he go from there? Diana had only been able to make out about one word in three but she had learned that his name was Vincent, he was very close to Catherine Chandler, and he lived in some kind of tunnels or caverns under the city. She also now knew that there was a lot more to this case than she had originally thought. There was some kind of book or journal that could blow the lid off of a massive corruption scandal. Diana also knew that Catherine knew that she had seen Vincent . . . 'Vincent'. Such a gentle sounding name for such a fearsome looking creature. How in the world did a wealthy pampered heiress like Catherine Chandler end up involved with something like this Vincent creature? The more she thought about it the deeper and stranger the mystery became. The big question was, what should she do next?
Continued in Part 3
'Beauty and the Beast' and its characters are owned by Witt-Thomas Productions and Republic Pictures. No infringement on copyrights is intended. This story is presented merely for the enjoyment of fans. Original concepts and story elements may be used by other authors as long as appropriate credit is given.
