Claws (20 page)

Vivvie felt comforted by the large hand
that held hers. She missed Jericho’s closeness. He kept a careful
distance from her now. It was necessary, but she still resented the
fact he had more control than she did.

Many nights she entered her dreams and
her footsteps found her back at the compound. Sometimes she stood
outside his door before she caught herself. She’d wake up and get
out of bed, pacing in agitation to know she went to him
unconsciously.

Fearful of what that meant; she was
glad he didn’t encourage her anymore. No, it was over as far as he
was concerned. When she got back with Eli that left them with
nothing but memories and a son he could never claim. He went back
to entertaining the tribe’s females and she was shocked at her
jealousy to know he was back making the rounds among
them.

“Dina will find me if she’s there.
Curiosity killed the cat,” she whispered moodily.

~ ~ ~

Ty picked her up at the airport in
Melbourne. She put the wig on before she got off the plane, feeling
itchy all the while. She walked by him unnoticed until he caught
her smell and grinned back at her.

“Nice touch,” he remarked when she
joined him.

“It was Eli’s idea,” she told him and
grinned. “How do I look as a blonde?”

“Cute, but I like the two-toned look
you got going on.”

“You’re the only one,” she confided as
they moved to the terminal to get her suitcase. “Eli hates my hair
now.”

Ty smiled as he collected her bag. “How
are things going? You two get it all worked out?”

Vivvie could see the pain in Ty’s eyes
and avoided laying it on too thick. “Yeah, everything’s good. The
house is a work in progress. The kids are getting big.”

Ty said nothing as they went to the
parking garage and got into his SUV. He waited until they got on
I-95 to tell her everything he knew about Dina.

“She got out of the compound before
Derek and the troops got there. She stole one of her Mother’s
credit cards and moves around a lot. The last activity on the card
was last night at Racine’s lounge.”

Vivvie rolled her eyes. Dina would keep
going back to her favorite bars. “Why would she stay
here?”

Ty shrugged. “It’s all she knows,
Vivvie. She must be disguising herself. No reports of any
sightings. She’s still listed as missing.”

Vivvie felt a sense of dread as they
passed familiar sights. She was hungry for the sight of her town,
sadly disappointed to see it was unchanged. What had she expected?
She was the only thing that changed.

They checked her into a Super 8 motel
and she rolled her eyes as Ty gave her the key. The ice machine was
broken and they didn’t even have a pool, the desk clerk informed
them.

“Why are you guys being so cheap? Come
on. Don’t I rate a Hilton as a Chief’s wife or
something?”

“Eli’s orders; I’m afraid. Here’s your
allowance,” Ty said with a chuckle and gave her a twenty dollar
bill.

“Whatever! First I fly coach. Then I’m
in this second rate dive. Now you give me just twenty bucks to eat?
Geez; see how I rate?”

“Oh, and he says no car rental for you.
You’re hoofing it unless I drive you around,” Ty informed her with
a pleased look. “You know how tight the guy is. He hasn’t forgiven
you for the last time you were here. Eighty grand, Vivvie? What the
Hell didn’t you buy? That’s got to piss him off.”

Vivvie snatched the plastic key ring,
muttering under her breath as Ty snickered at her back, carrying
her suitcase behind her. Her room wasn’t so bad. She glared at Ty
as he eyed the twin bed inside and burst out laughing.

“Oh shut up! He’s just freaking out.
He’s just jealous,” Vivvie told him and smiled as she considered
how diabolical her husband was in making sure she didn’t have any
company in her bed. Her own feet would hang off the end of the
ridiculously small bed.

“Is this one of these rooms they
reserve for little people?” Ty asked and choked with laughter as
she pointed to the door.

“I want to lie down for awhile,” she
told him. “Pick me up at nine and take me to Racine’s. We’ll see if
she takes the bait.”

Ty was still laughing over her room
when he left. Vivvie flopped on the twin bed and smiled despite
herself. Eli worried about a guy from her past. The one to worry
about was his closest friend within the compound.

She had a lot of time on the plane ride
to think about her mixed up feelings for Jericho. This new nature
of hers seemed to mock monogamy and her desire to be with Eli
forever. It was a struggle. Was it this hard for Eli? Did she dare
ask him?

It troubled her to think sterilization
might be the answer. Jericho said the sex drive for females changed
after the procedure. The heat didn’t come on any more. She suddenly
wanted to explore that option, fearing all the forbidden desires
that kept cropping up outside her marriage.

Vivvie slept for an hour and got up.
She pulled open her suitcase and picked out a cute bar outfit. She
picked up the wig and sighed. Not her style, but it caught Eli’s
eye. It was a chic, bobbed blonde wig.

She suddenly recalled Erin had a
similar cut and color and realized she was being ridiculous. Just
because she was dream-cheating didn’t mean her husband was doing
anything wrong.

That was the thing about infidelity.
When you were guilty; you assumed everybody else was doing it too.
What she did with Jericho was cheating. They might not have
actually touched physically, but her son was proof it was as real
as it got. Justifying it any other way was to let it go on. He
wouldn’t anymore.

She knew she was being selfish by
expecting Eli to toe the line while she was creeping around in her
dreamscape. Nothing could come of it. She knew when this thing with
the demon blew over Jericho would leave and take Justice with
him.

It was because of her he left. The
guilt made her feel icky, especially when Eli was trying so hard to
be a modern Dad these days. Vivvie knew she had to give
sterilization a chance. She loved Eli.

The thought of hurting him or losing
him finally made her decision. No more children. Their five would
breed fifty within a decade. That was enough family for
anybody.

She was glad she made this trip now,
even if she set a trap for Dina. These doubts and fears plagued her
every day. One thing was clear; she adored Eli. Nothing changed
that. Whatever thoughts and feelings she had for Jericho had to be
controlled.

With that in mind she got ready for the
evening, disgusted to tote her twenty bucks to Walgreen’s to buy
snacks and come back with four dollars. How her husband expected
her to survive on twenty dollars a day annoyed her.

Ty arrived and gave her cause to wonder
what he was up to. He looked so hot she was reminded he was very
much an Alpha too. Recalling in vivid detail their time together
made her gnash her teeth on the way to Racine’s.

The bar was packed. She sipped on a Bud
Lite without interest. Beer no longer tasted as it once did and she
held it more than she drank. Ty held a drink to blend in as well.
They sat at a table and she covertly looked for Dina among the
partying patrons.

Ty looked at her and winked. “I
remember the last time I took you to a bar. Good thing they don’t
have catnip whiskey here.”

She giggled at the memory of his going
away party. She got shitfaced on catnip whiskey and made a complete
fool of herself. Those memories reminded her of all she fought to
hold onto now. When she recalled those early days where she fought
her overwhelming pull to Eli; she felt silly now. She couldn’t
resist him then or now.

“I don’t see her,” Vivvie said loudly
over the loud music and felt disappointment. She wanted to get this
over with and find out what happened to Kevin and
Lennie.

“We’ll give it another hour and see if
she shows up,” he said and scowled at his drink and set it
down.

Vivvie looked over the crowd, searching
for the glitzy blonde among them. Smell was their greatest ally and
none of their kind was here. They left near eleven. Ty dropped her
in front of the Super 8.

She decided she was hungry and
Walgreen’s was still open. She blew the rest of her twenty dollars
on beef jerky. She grumbled to think her husband really expected
her to eat on twenty dollars a day. She rounded the corner to
return to her room and saw someone lingering on the
stairs.

It was a woman dressed in jeans and a
dark hooded jacket. Even from this distance; she knew it was Dina.
Her smell must have preceded her. Dina didn’t waste any time to
track her here. Cautious of her running off; she pulled off the
blonde wig as she got closer, tucking it in her purse. Dina would
recognize her now.

She made her way up the stairs with her
shopping bag and stared as she saw it was indeed her former
roommate. She stared at her, cringing to see how messed up she
looked. Her teeth were yellow, her hair ratty, and her smell told
her she didn’t bathe much anymore.

“Hey Viv, long time no see,” Dina
commented as she approached. Her blood shot blue eyes glowed
brightly. “I looked for you. I went back to the apartment and some
old geezer lives there. Imagine my surprise to find out that you
split? Did you even think about me that night you walked away and
left me there?”

“Hey, you’re the one who got messed up
with Dean and Ryken, Dina,” she reminded her with a sad shake of
her head. “I told you they were bad news that night.”

Dina gave a harsh laugh. “Yeah, you
were little Miss Goody Virtue. Now look at you? You’re no better
than me! In fact; you’re just like me. I smelled you as soon as you
got here. They did it to you too!”

“What do you want from me, Dina?”
Vivvie asked and her green eyes glowed in anger. “You’re not here
to chew my ass for not winding up where you did that night, are
you? As I recall, you had a choice in it. I don’t think I ever got
one.”

“Quit being mean to me, Vivvie,” Dina
said with a ragged sob, her eyes wild. “You didn’t get forced to
breed those things for them! Oh God, I had to go through that three
times! It was so gross!”

“How did you escape them? Ryken said he
killed you.”

Dina grimaced at the mention of Ryken.
“Ryken killed Rachel. He fed her to those things. Those creatures
even ate the one baby that was born dead. Oh my God, Vivvie; I
barely got out of there alive.”

“You didn’t answer me,” Vivvie said and
was tempted to smack Dina upside her head to get her to focus. “How
did you escape the compound?”

Dina looked sly then, her bloodshot
eyes narrowing. “I bided my time, that’s how. Ryken just left us
there to die in those cages. I waited until one of his guards
checked in on us and took care of him. Then I ran.”

“Where have you been
staying?”

Dina looked nervous. “My Mom is a
realtor, Vivvie. I’ve been staying in a couple different
repossessed houses. Where was I supposed to go?”

“Dina, please tell me you didn’t have
anything to do with Kevin and Lennie disappearing?”

She laughed then and it came out as a
hoarse cackle. Vivvie could see Dina was seriously wacked after the
trauma of being forced to breed Ryken’s army. She was obviously
unhinged.

“It was too much to resist, Viv. He was
such a total loser. He and his skanky girlfriend were doing it in
his car. I mean; whatever, right? Get a room! I only meant to rob
them. I just saw red, Viv. After what that creep did to you; I
couldn’t help it.”

“Dina, what did you do to them?” Vivvie
asked in a tense voice with a feeling of fear as she saw Dina’s
eyes glow with an unholy light in them.

“I was so hungry, Viv,” she recalled
with a shrug. “I don’t remember much. I just kinda tuned out, ya
know. I barfed up the chick’s acrylic nails later.”

Vivvie paled, knowing Dina probably
wasn’t aware she was shifting at the time. The animal within her
took over. She never had guidance learning to control it. She
remembered nothing later, certainly not eating those she
attacked.

The taste for blood, human blood, had
turned her feral now. There was no going back for Dina. She would
attack humans when hungry enough. Pity for her swept over her,
realizing this could be her, had Ty not taken her away.

“
Where have you been all
this time, Viv?”

“I went away after you disappeared,”
Vivvie told her. “A safe place in the mountains.”

“Can you take me there with you,
Vivvie?” she whined. “I’m so tired of running. Take me with you,
please?”

Vivvie would have answered her except a
net was suddenly tossed over Dina. Several guards from the compound
moved in from the top and bottom of the stairs, trapping her and
Dina in between.

Before her eyes, Dina began to shift,
snarling wildly and growling and snapping at anything as she became
a large panther. Her blue eyes glowed hatefully at Vivvie. Ty drew
her away as the guards dragged Dina down the stairs to a nearby
van.