An Apple for the Creature

Shannon gave me another container of soup, saying, “Remember, you’re not human. You don’t have to go slow.”

I took her at her word, and slurped down that and the next two portions without hesitating. Only then did I say, “David, I think you can put me down.”

“Must I?” he said, but did so and promptly wrapped his coat around me. I wasn’t cold, but I did appreciate having his aroma to inhale. I wasn’t sure I would ever get the stench of that cage out of my nose.

“What happened?” I asked again. “Captain Bob said you’d gone to meet Angie.”

“I did, but Angie was in no hurry. She said she just wanted to ask more questions before letting me feed from her, but I don’t believe that she ever intended for me to bite her. She thought that if she drained my blood herself and drank it, the effect would be the same.”

“Would that have worked?”

He shrugged. “The wolves found us before she could try. She shot one with a dart gun, possibly what she’d intended to use on me, and they killed her before she could fire again.”

“Then how did you find me?”

“A friend helped.”

To my complete shock, Captain Bob floated into view.

“Since when are you a friend?” I asked.

“Since I helped save your life!”

“You helped Angie drug me in the first place.”

“I helped save your boyfriend, too.”

“You also helped lure him into Angie’s trap—still no points.”

He thought for a minute. “I told the wolves to bring you food.”

“Really?” Maybe we were friends after all.

The rest of the wolves stayed at Angie’s lair to explore it and decide what part of her research was worth saving. In a surprisingly short time, they dismantled the place and destroyed any evidence of supernatural beings. Of course, that meant destroying evidence of the murders, too, but Angie and Carl were both dead, so it seemed like the best choice.

While all that was going on, David drove me back to the Cahill Resort—it was too close to dawn for us to be sure of getting home. Captain Bob came along, cheerfully criticizing David’s driving. At least he had enough manners to leave us alone when we got back to my cabin.

There was only half an hour left of darkness by then—enough for me to either eat again or thank David properly for rescuing me. I think I made the right choice.

With David in the closet for the day, I took an obscenely long shower and then went down to the main building to see if the breakfast buffet was open. It wasn’t, but when the staff saw me, they started bringing me food. I don’t think French toast had ever tasted so good, and luckily for me, it was just the appetizer.

Other werewolves started arriving for breakfast after a while, and a good number stopped to say hello. Some were shy, some expressed concern and sympathy, and one was bold enough to make jokes about what I’d been through. It was all good. They’d rescued David and me. They might not be my pack, but they were my friends.

After people started heading off to seminar sessions, Captain Bob floated in.

“I thought you’d be getting some rest,” he said.

“Too hungry to sleep.”

He looked at the empty plates around me. “So I see.”

“You’re just jealous.”

“Maybe, but at least I never get heartburn. And I only fart when I want to.”

“There’s no fart like an old one,” I replied, and he chuckled. “So what changed your mind about David?”

“You love him. I thought it was Stockholm syndrome or something like that at first, but you weren’t abused or hypnotized. You just love him. I couldn’t take him from you.”

“Thank you.”

He smiled, I smiled back, and it was very sweet.

Of course he had to spoil it by saying, “Why you picked a vampire to love I’ll never know.”

I wasn’t going to try to explain it to him. “One more question. How did you talk the Council into riding to the rescue? They’d known Angie a long time—it couldn’t have been easy to convince them that she was a murderer.”

“It took some doing.”

“Yeah?”

“First I showed them my death bite, and told them what you’d said about mouths. One of the alphas is a dentist and once she took a good look, she could tell a werewolf had killed me after all.”

“And that did it?”

“Not completely. They were willing to investigate, but they can’t do anything without forming a committee. So I pointed out that if they didn’t stop Angie, there was going to be a vampire nearby who knew pack secrets.”

“That must have lit a fire under their tails.”

“It got them moving, but not fast enough to save your boyfriend. For that, I had to get tough.”

“How does a ghost get tough?”

“I threatened to haunt them.”

“They went for that? I mean you can be annoying, but you aren’t that bad.”

“Wanna bet? You remember how I can take any form I had in life? I picked the worst form I could think of.”

“A teenager?”

“A baby. And I had colic for my whole first year.”

“Remind me to never get you mad at me.”

“Been there, done that.”

I started yawning, and decided I could use a nap after all. I went back to my cabin and ended up sleeping most of the day, and woke up with David beside me. It was very nice.