Arrival of the Prophecy (6 page)

“What would you do if you cut yourself cooking?” he asked, drying
her leg with a wash cloth.

“I eat a lot of stuff out of the freezer. I just heat it up in the
microwave, can’t get hurt too bad doing that.”

“I think this will be fine in a few days,” he lied, holding the true
knowledge in his eyes, while smiling at her.

“It seems to be getting worse every time I look at it,” she said
turning her leg out so she could see it better. “I think I may need to see my
Doctor.”

“Trust me, it will get better.”

“If it’s not better by tomorrow I may just go on in and have it
looked at,” she claimed getting off the counter. “I’m
starving,
I’m going to go call for that pizza. You like pepperoni?”

“I love any type of meat,” he replied, with the first worried look
since meeting Sky.

After calling in their dinner, Sky began looking through the movies
while Anthony poured them both a cup of coffee. He was grateful and relieved to
see that Shy was not overly worried with her leg, but he had every reason to be
concerned by her going to
her
doctor.
The last thing he needed was to have her blood-work examined by any normal. He
had to find a way to take her mind off of the damage that her body was rapidly
going through until her final change. Maybe he could talk her into going to one
of his doctors to get her something for the pain that she would soon start
experiencing.

The doorbell rang, coaxing Anthony out of the thoughts that he was
having. Sky yelled out that she would get it and grabbed her purse. She
answered the door thinking it was the pizza delivery, but started backing up,
clinching her purse to her chest as soon as she saw that it wasn’t. Three tall
men in expensive suits stood wearing looks of pure rage on their faces. Anthony
set his cup on the coffee table and pulled Sky behind him.

“What are you doing here, Timothy?” Anthony asked in a serious tone,
a tone that Sky hadn’t heard before.

“Tory told me of your findings and by the smell of this one,” he
said pointing at Sky behind Anthony’s back. “You have already marked your
claim.”

“This is none of your affair, so take your goons and go,” Anthony
demanded in the form of an animalistic growl.

“If your decision affects the clan, you make it my business,” Timothy
replied stepping closer to Anthony, showing his teeth as he spoke.

“I will challenge any wolf to the death that interferes with my
decisions...even you my brother,” he growled stepping up to his brother’s
chest, snapping his teeth that had started to elongate.

Sky couldn’t see Anthony’s face from where she stood, but she knew
that something had changed by the way he sounded and the way he stood with his
shoulders slightly hunched over. His back rose and fell in a different way; it
was if he needed to take deeper, faster breaths. She looked down and saw his
hands reform into the same shape that she had seen back at the house and became
a true believer in what Anthony had been trying to tell her, at that very
moment. His once human fingers now had three inch, black talon like claws and
were twice as long. The bones morbidly snapped and popped as they transformed
right before her eyes. Sky summoned every ounce of courage she had, placing her
hand on Anthony’s back. She instantly felt him start to calm down. Timothy on
the other hand, was being held by the two huge men that stood at his side.

“Don’t threaten me, Anthony, we aren’t children anymore and father
isn’t here to pull me off of you,” Timothy said through clenched teeth, trying
his best to pull away from the arms that firmly held him.

“You’re right, we aren’t children,” Anthony replied, standing
straighter. He continued speaking with a calmer tone. “But, it was a promise,
not a threat. I order you two to get him out of my sight, before I bring you
both up on charges of conspiracy.”

 
Both men bowed their heads in
unison,
then
dragged a yelling, Timothy down the hallway
away from Sky’s apartment. Anthony shut the door then put his head against it,
with his claw like hand still on the knob. It wasn’t until he felt Sky’s hand
on his back for the second time, that he released the knob and turned around. She
wrapped her arms around his waist, while he wrapped his arms around her upper
body and laid his head down on top of hers.

“What a dick,” Sky said, making her own observation. “I’m sorry I
didn’t believe you before. I thought you were going to wolf out all the way for
a minute there.”

“I almost did. If you hadn’t put your hand on me, your apartment
would need to be
remodeled
right now,” he replied,
walking with her over to the couch.

“What did your brother mean when he said you already ‘marked your
claim’?” Sky asked as they sat down together.

“He was talking about the mark on your leg,” he replied, thinking he
might as well just tell her and get it over with. “You’re infected.”

“I know, you can tell by looking, it’s infected,” she replied,
completely ignorant to what he was trying to say.

“I don’t mean that form of infection...I mean, I infected you when I
scratched your ankle.”

“What are you saying, Anthony?” she asked, sitting up on the edge of
the couch.

“My clan will not accept a normal human as one
of
its own
. They never have, not once in all of our history. I can’t tell
you enough that we are meant to be together, my soul is the other half of
yours, which means
you
were meant to be one of us all
along,” he compassionately explained, taking her hands into his.

“So you infected me without my knowledge?” She stood up. “That’s
like having aids and sleeping with someone first, then divulging the
information.”

The doorbell rang for the second time that afternoon, causing Sky to
jump so bad she let out a small yelp. She stood where she was while Anthony
answered the door, relieved that this time it was the pizza delivery boy. Sky
was biting her lip, thinking about the subject that they had just talked about,
with as much curiosity as she had contempt for what he had done. She watched as
Anthony set the pizza, that neither one of them wanted anymore, on the table. He
picked up his shirt,
then
he walked over and started
putting on his boots.

“Are you leaving?” she asked, closing her house coat tighter.

“I think it would be best. You have a lot to think about. Besides, I
believe I just blew the mood, so to speak.”

“You know it really stinks that you can get into my head. Of course
I’m upset, you just told me that...I’m going to change to…like your hands…” she
paused. “I think I’m
gonna
be sick.” She ran as fast
as she could to the bathroom.

When she came out after losing what she’d eaten for lunch that day,
Anthony was gone. A note stood next to the salt shaker on the table.

I will send my car
to pick you up tomorrow night around eight, dress comfortable.

Until then, Anthony

Sky stuck the note on the refrigerator,
then
took out a soda. She grabbed up the box of pizza and went to her room setting
everything on the bed, before going back and turning out the lights and locking
all the locks on the front door. The one thing she didn’t want to see again was
Anthony’s crazed brother and his huge goons.
What the hell have I got myself into?
she
thought crawling up onto the bed, hissing at the pain that was creeping up her
leg. “He is awful cute though, isn’t he, Doc?”

Sky didn’t go into work the next day, because she was in far too
much pain. The red lines were up to the middle of her back and stomach, and her
leg was swollen twice its normal size. She started to panic when she remembered
hearing that if you get blood poisoning and the lines reached your heart, you
died. She hurriedly called her doctor first, then Anthony. She informed Anthony
that her doctor told her to get to the emergency room as soon as possible.

 
Anthony explained why she
couldn’t, and sent his car for her immediately. By the time the driver arrived,
Sky was too weak to walk down the staircase, and the driver had to carry her.
What no one realized was that her
neighbor
from
across the hall had been calling her step mother, telling her everything that
she had witnessed over the past few days and nights. Including the night Sky
went out, Anthony’s short stay and the three strange men turning up and
starting trouble. Now that Sky looked ill and was being carried in the arms of
a strange looking man that was huge in stature, the busy-body was frantically
dialing
the number to Sky’s step mother’s cell phone.

Sky’s step mother, Bonny, called Sky’s father insisting that he meet
her at Sky’s apartment with the extra set of keys to find out what was going on.
He did as she asked meeting her as well as Tiffany, Sky’s step sister, who
started going through her things as soon as they were in her apartment. Henry
stayed in the kitchen talking to the
neighbor
lady,
while Bonny and Tiffany went through Sky’s bedroom and personal belongings.
Bonny hoped to find some form of a clue as to her whereabouts.

“I bet she’s into drugs,” Tiffany remarked, going through Sky’s
panty drawer.

“Did you hear what Annie said about the men that have been here the
last few nights?” Bonny replied, opening the closet.

“I can’t believe a man would even come up to this place, much less
date a toad like her,” Tiffany laughed, pulling out a pair of white granny type
panties.

“Oh please, look at this,” Bonny added snickering, holding up a
yellow and green striped sun dress that looked like it morphed straight out of
the seventies. “It must have been the old hags. Found plenty of this trash when
I first moved in with Henry.”

Both women cracked up laughing so hard that Henry left Annie sitting
at the table to find out what was going on. As soon as he stepped into the
bedroom, Bonny placed the dress back into the closet, while Tiffany closed the
dresser drawer, both shutting down the huge smiles they had on their faces. Bonny
stuck her nose back into the closet, because she didn’t like the stern look
that Henry was giving her. He looked over at Tiffany who snobbishly looked down
her nose and walked over to where her mother stood, pretending to look for something.
Henry slammed the door so hard when he walked out, that both women let out a
small yelp, jumping around, before looking at each other and bursting out
laughing.

“Ignore him, look under the bed and see what she’s hiding under
there,” Bonny instructed Tiffany, while she fumbled through the
jewelry
box that sat on the bedside table.

Tiffany was still giggling at the look on Henry’s face, when she
lifted the bedspread and bent over as she got down on her knees. She was
reaching in saying, “It’s too dark to...,” when she started screaming at the
top of her lungs. She was bouncing on her knees, and swinging her arms wildly,
begging for her mother to get it off. “It’s killing me!” were the words of her
desperation. Screaming other than hers rang out, along with spats of hissing
and growls. Holiday jumped up onto the top of the bed with his fur puffed out
and the adrenaline daring him to join in, as Doc held tight to Tiffany’s arm.

Bonny dropped the star pendant onto the carpet, and grabbed the
pillow off the bed and started hitting at the white cat, missing altogether,
but giving Tiffany something she had probably needed for a very long time. The
more she swung the pillow the more excited Holiday became, jumping at the last
few swipes. Bonny saw his last move and turned, screaming and running toward
the closed door, leaving Tiffany to fend for
herself
.
It didn’t take two seconds for Bonny to be out the door and two more for
Tiffany to be behind her, both crying, and swearing they had been brutally
attacked by Sky’s viciously trained cats.

“Excuse us Annie, but I think I have all the information that I can
use,” Henry said, quickly helping her to the door.

“If you’re sure
Mr.
Delaney, you know my
number and I’ll call if I see anything else,” she replied, looking back at the
two terrified women.

“I can’t believe you two,” Henry sorrowfully said after he closed
the door.

“It’s true…I want those cats put down,” Bonny demanded, holding
Tiffany’s scratched up arm.

“Are you really that dense? I was talking about your lack of concern
for my daughter,” he explained shaking his head.

“You can’t talk to me like that.”

“I just did,” he bent over and picked up his hat. “I won’t be back
until I find my little girl, and then I want to talk about us.”

 
Henry called himself a cab,
and then walked his wife and her daughter to the car they came in. It took not
knowing anything other than his baby leaving in the arms of a big man wearing a
black suit, not to mention the fact that the woman who witnessed the site,
thought his baby looked ill, for him to set the almighty Bonny on her ear. Henry
Delaney was now beside himself with the anguish of finding out what happened to
Sky, and knew going to the appropriate authorities would be the best place to
start.