Kissing the Werewolf - An Izzy Cooper Novel (13 page)

Unlike the previous occasion when I’d stood in front of those doors, this time I was definitely afraid.

On my last visit I’d been curious, and like most young people, I was certain nothing could ever happen to me, at least nothing too serious. I was invulnerable, maybe even a little immortal.

But that was a long time ago. My way of thinking had changed a lot since then. Partly because of what happened to me on my last foray to the Marsh estate, but also because of being hit by a certain truck, and then getting a visit from Mister Grim. 

Whatever it was that I saw that day, it taught me a lesson in real fear. It was a lesson I had no desire to repeat.

But being afraid wasn’t the only difference. This time there was no padlock, and no chains. I wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not.

“Last time I was here, it was locked.”

Jerking his head around, he fixed me with a cutting stare. “You’ve been here before?”

“Yeah … it wasn’t a good experience.”

“I’ll bet. Do you want to tell me what happened?” he asked, still boring into me with those dark eyes.

“Not really.” I shook my head. “That is unless you want to cough up the info I asked for, namely the reason why Sawyer doesn’t want me here?”

“Judging by the look on your face, I have a feeling you might know already.”

“What’s here?” I asked.

“If I told you that … I’d have to kill you,” he remarked, adding a smile to take the sting out of his words.

Since I wasn’t sure if he was serious or not, I tossed him a sour look and reached for the door handle. I’m not sure what it was I was expecting, possibly a jolt of electricity, or a dark revelation, but I was a little surprised when nothing happened.

This gave me courage, so I pushed the door open.

It was exactly the way I remembered it, dark, gloomy, and ancient.

“We can search faster if we split up,” I told him, deciding it was time to take charge of the situation.

Elias shook his head. “That’s not a good idea.”

I mostly agreed with him, but I also wanted to get the search done and get out of there as soon as possible.

“Please Elias. I just want to get this done. I don’t like being here any more than Sawyer likes it.”

For an instant, I saw indecision flicker in his eyes, so I pushed it home. “If we split up, we can do a quick search and be gone before anyone even realizes we were here.”

When my words didn’t appear to sway him much, I added, “Don’t forget Elias … I am an FBI agent. I can take care of myself.”

Nodding, he pointed to the second floor. “I’ll take a look around up there, and you can check down here. Scream as loud as you can if you see anything … anything at all.”

“Okay,” I agreed.

As soon as Elias was gone, I began my exploration of the first floor. Not a lot of daylight managed to make it through the grungy windows, which made for a lot of shadows and dark corners. It was a good thing I had one of those key chains with a tiny flashlight.

The little beam of light didn’t help a lot, but it was better than nothing.

“Annabelle!” I called out, hoping she’d make it easy and scream or something.

But there was nothing but the sound of my own footsteps as I made my way through the various rooms.

Mostly it was difficult to tell what each room had been. There was still some furniture, though it was covered. The library was full of books, but they were so dusty you couldn’t even make out the titles of most of them.

The entire place had a medieval flavor to it, which would have been awesome, if it weren’t abandoned, spooky, and dustier than a spinster’s negligees.

I’d gone down so many passages that I was probably lost by the time I discovered the huge door. Even using both hands, it took some effort to pull it open.

Behind the door was a staircase that led into an abyss of darkness. I wasn’t exactly thrilled about this new area that would need to be searched. The girl going into a dark dungeon alone was a classic recipe for disaster.

How was it that I was always finding myself in these crazy situations?

I could call for Elias, but in the time it would take for him to hear me, and then find me, I could probably be done searching the lower level.

Taking a deep breath, I pointed the tiny beam of the flashlight into the dark. It barely penetrated the inky black void at all.

When I found Annabelle, she was so going to get a piece of my mind. My sister was always getting herself into messes.

Not that I didn’t realize this was probably not Annabelle’s fault, but still. She knew how much I hated dark, musty places. Why did she have to go and get herself abducted?

As I descended the stairs, the sound of creaking wood resonated through the surrounding darkness.

This went a long way in turning an uncomfortable situation into something spooky.

“Focus Izzy.”

Julius was in my head again.

I wondered if my guardian demon realized that he could have been a lot more help if he would have just accompanied me on the search. Getting into my head to whisper warnings and instructions wasn’t all that helpful, or practical. Well maybe it would be helpful, if he would be a little more specific, and we could have a two-way conversation.

I was focusing, the best I could anyway.

For example, I was focused on all the spider webs clinging to the rock walls.

Scanning the walls and passage, I noticed the webs were broken in certain areas.

That meant someone had come through there recently.

This gave me hope. Just maybe Annabelle really was down here.

The basement level of the house was like a dungeon. It was a maze of passages, alcoves, and rooms, not to mention the area I found that resembled cells, of the dungeon variety.

What could the Marsh family have needed cells for?

Unless they acted as the law keepers in the beginning?

That wouldn’t have been too unusual for a small frontier town during the nineteenth century. Still, it was weird.

While trying to recall which area of the basement I’d already searched, something caught my attention.

It was the faint sound of footsteps in the distance. As I listened, the footsteps grew louder, which meant whoever was making those footsteps was getting closer.

“Elias! Is that you?” I called out.

There was no answer, but someone was obviously in the basement with me.

Holding my breath, I flattened my back against the cold rock wall and let my hand slide to the pistol at my hip. As quietly as possible, I pulled my gun from the holster and began working my way toward the sound.

Whoever was following me, and I was sure that’s exactly what was happening, was going to have a big surprise coming their way.

It was never a good idea to sneak up on someone who was armed.

Inching along the wall to the point where the passage turned, I raised the gun and stepped around the corner.

And then I froze.

I was too shocked to do anything but stare. Not only because I’d come face to face with the culprit, at least one of them, but because less than fifty feet away was Frankenstein.

The monster was completely unfazed by my show of force. He kept lumbering toward me, his arms held straight out in front of him.

Well if the monster wasn’t going to be intimidated by the badass gun I was holding, I would have to show him I meant business.

“Freeze! Keep your hands where I can see them!” There was some doubt the bit about the hands was necessary. The monster appeared to need his hands in front of him in order to walk.

That didn’t do the trick. He was still coming.

It was time to do some threatening. “I’ll shoot!”

Didn’t work. I wasn’t even sure he could hear me.

He was only fifteen feet away. I was going to have to shoot or run.

With as slow as the monster was moving, the running part would probably be easy, but I couldn’t find out much about what it was, if I were running.

Aiming for the left leg, I squeezed the trigger.

I’m not sure exactly what it was I was expecting, but it sure wasn’t exploding monster. One minute Frankenstein was coming at me, the next he was nothing but glowing red dust.

While I was still trying to absorb what happened, Elias came running up behind me.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, but he’s not.” I pointed to the pile of dust scattered about the ground.

“Who?”

“Before I put a bullet in it, that pile of dust was your Frankenstein monster.”

His face twisted into a mask of confusion.

I couldn’t blame him. It was difficult to imagine how such a big monster could turn into a pile of dust.

“It couldn’t have been real then,” he commented.

“Well of course it wasn’t real.” I rolled my eyes. “Everyone knows that Frankenstein is fiction, along with his friends, the mummy and the wolf man.”

Pausing, I gave Elias a sideward look. “Well okay, maybe not the wolf man, but you know what I mean.”

Elias continued to stare at the pile of ash for a long time before finally turning to me.  “The point is … if it wasn’t real … what was it?”

Shrugging, I asked, “Do you have a piece of paper? We can get a sample and have it tested.”

“Clean out of junk papers,” he replied.

“I might have something,” I said, sliding my hand into the front pocket of my jeans. I grabbed the first thing that felt like paper. Fortunately, it happened to be the foil wrapper for the gum I’d been chewing.

Smiling, I held up the foil wrapper. “Just what we need.”

“Do you usually keep trash in your pockets?” he asked, cocking his head to one side.

“Pretty much,” I admitted.

There was no sense in denying my habit of putting candy wrappers and such in my pockets. I hated pollution, and vowed I’d never contribute to it. That included candy wrappers and such.

Kneeling down, I pushed some of the ash onto the foil wrapper before carefully closing it.

It wasn’t exactly by the book evidence collecting, but there wasn’t much to do but improvise. Since I was searching without a warrant, I couldn’t exactly call in the CSI unit.

“Did you find anything?” I finally remembered to ask.

Frowning, he shook his head. “But I think we should follow this passage and see where that thing was coming from.”

“Good idea.”

“Stay behind me,” Elias ordered as he was stepping around the ash.

“But I’m the one with the gun.”

“I don’t need a gun,” he said over his shoulder.

I thought he was being a little too optimistic, but men were like that. No matter what the risk, they had to act tough.

There didn’t seem to be much sense in arguing, so I fell in behind him.

The passage appeared to run the entire length of the house, but finally Elias stopped.

Since I wasn’t expecting such an abrupt stop, I managed to run into the back of him.

“Sorry,” I muttered, craning my neck around him to see why he’d stopped.

The passage ended at a door.

“Are you going to try it and see if it’s locked?” I asked.

When he pushed on it, the door swung opened. It didn’t even squeak, which told me that someone was probably using it on a regular basis.

I sensed Elias’s hesitation.

“What is it?”

“Just a strange room.”

He wasn’t kidding. The large room was painted completely black, including the walls, ceiling and floor. If that wasn’t weird enough, there was an old TV in the far corner, and it was on.

With me clinging to Elias, we made our way to the Television. It was one of those old bulky TVs, like you might see in the 1940s.

There was a movie playing on it. I wasn’t absolutely sure, but I thought it might be
The Mummy’s Curse
, or something along those lines.

Confused, I stared at the screen, trying to figure out why there would be some old movie playing in a black room, beneath an abandoned house.

That’s when I saw her.

Annabelle was in the movie. It appeared as if she were running through a maze of passages in some old pyramid. In fact, the passages kind of resembled those we’d just explored.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

Elias turned to me. “I guess you and I should have a talk.”

“You think?” I asked with a cynical twist of my mouth.

During the drive back to Storm Cove, I went over everything Elias told me. According to him, the story about Captain Beaufort was true, but the old captain wasn’t actually killed. His soul was sent to another dimension, while his body was placed in a silver-lined coffin and buried beneath the Marsh house.

So all that was old news, and shouldn’t matter to the here and now, that was my thoughts on it anyway.

Turns out. that isn’t the case, according to Elias.

The town keeps people away from the estate because they are afraid someone will release the old captain, and if that happens, no one on the island will be safe.

Captain Beaufort was an ancient vampire and as is the case with most ancients, he is very powerful. In fact, if one were to believe the stories, Beaufort’s power rivaled even a deity’s.

If released, he would be out for revenge on the entire town.

I still wasn’t sure what that had to do with my sister being trapped in an old classic horror movie, but I was hoping Ayden or the ghost hunter might have some idea.

Elias was as confused about Annabelle as I was, though he did explain why it was that Commissioner Weasel called on him to stop me from going to the Marsh place.

It turns out he and the rest of the Roseland pack have been charged with keeping Beaufort locked up nice and tight. Most of the people on the island weren’t aware of the real reason for the Roseland pack coming to town.

Feeling a little more comfortable with his involvement, I confided in him about what happened when I was a teenager. He had no answers to offer.

There was always the possibility the place was actually haunted, and it had been a ghost to scare the crap out of me, but I wasn’t buying it. The entity, or whatever it had been, seemed way too ominous to be just a simple ghost.

I couldn’t get over the feeling that what I’d seen years ago, was somehow connected to what was happening on Mystique Island.

Suddenly I remembered that my phone had been off the entire time I’d been at the Marsh estate. Tim or Ayden could have been trying to call me.

Keeping my eyes on the road, I groped the passenger seat for my phone. As soon as I found it and turned it on, there were message alerts.

I was already well acquainted with the dangers of using a mobile phone while in transit, so I waited until I reached the Quick Stop and pulled into the parking lot.

Glancing at the screen, I saw that Tim had been trying to call, but there was nothing from Ayden yet. I hoped Tim had some news.

He picked up on the second ring. “Where have you been? I’ve been trying to reach you for over an hour.”

Well it would seem formalities like hello, wasn’t Tim’s thing at the moment.

“Sorry … my phone’s been dead.” These little white lies were really starting to become a habit.

I made myself a promise that starting tomorrow, or soon, I’d stop the fibs.

Earning my white wings back was going to be a lot harder than I thought.

“Have you found Ayden yet?” I got back to the reason I was checking in.

“Yeah, Ayden’s here now. He needs you to come in.”

The relief I felt was like half a ton of weight being lifted from my chest. Now that Ayden was safe, at least I assumed he was, we could concentrate on Annabelle’s mess.

“I’ll be there in about ten,” I promised.

Glancing at the red and white building that housed the Quick Stop, I considered a quick run inside to buy another soda, but thought better of it. Two sodas in one day would show on my thighs for sure, and I was in no mood for diet. Too bad chocolate ice cream would be even worse. I could have used a couple scoops of that.

Stress eating would end up killing me sooner or later, but at least I’d go happy.

My regret manifested itself in the form of a sigh. Putting Lady Luck into gear, I got back on the road.

I hoped Muriel would be occupied with something else when I arrived. Trying to explain to a ghost that Captain Marsh, may not actually be Captain Marsh, would require far more concentration that I could muster.

* * *

There was a storm brewing. I knew it as soon as I entered the office.

Tim was busy shuffling papers on his desk, while Ayden was totally engrossed in something on his computer.

As soon as I entered, Tim glanced at me and shook his head.

“Where have you been?” Ayden asked, looking up. “You know when we are on a case, you need to stay in contact.”

The double standard thing really irritated me, and it was way beyond time I let the boss man in on that fact.

“Is that so? It seems to me that we spent almost two days looking for you. … who wasn’t in contact while working a case.” I folded my arms in front of me, hoping to drive my point home.

“I had something to take care of that is classified. It couldn’t be shared with the team,” he explained.

“Well then that’s my excuse too.”

I knew I’d hit a nerve by the way his jaw tensed and his mouth thinned.

“It was last minute … otherwise I would have let you know that I would be going out of town for a couple days,” he explained further.

Normally I don’t back down from confrontation. In my opinion, a good fight every now and then keeps you on your toes, but this time I had something to attend to that was a little more important than pointing out my boss’s double standards.

I turned my attention to Tim. “I take it you didn’t find anything on the North Beach search.”

“Nothing.” Tim shook his head.

“Well to answer your question about where I was … I was doing an illegal search of the Marsh estate.”

By the pained, and even livid expression on Ayden’s face, you’d think I just told him I intended to dump a bus full of kindergarteners on him for a week. Tim was again shaking his head, a little dismayed, but not shocked.

Tim seemed to have a much better grasp of my true nature, and just how wicked I could be.

“The director is going to have a field day with this if the county files a complaint … and you do realize that anything you find while searching without a warrant is completely useless in getting a prosecution. All you’ve done is jeopardize the case,” Ayden finished his rant.

“You should at least hear what it is I found before you decide that.”

Leaning back in his chair, he leveled icy blue eyes on me. “Let’s hear it.”

Taking a quick look around to make sure Muriel wasn’t hovering nearby, I recounted everything that had happened since leaving my post in front of Ayden’s house. Of course I left out some of it, like my tentative plan to take Commissioner Weasel hostage, as well as Elias’s kiss.

I expected disbelief, and perhaps even some laughing, but to my surprise the boss man seemed to be taking my story seriously.

“That’s my sister in that TV, and I intend to find out why … and how to get her out. If I know Annabelle, she’s probably dying to get out of that show. She hates those old black and white movies.”

I wondered what would happen if Annabelle were killed in that old movie. If that happened, she might actually be dead in the real world too.

“We need to have this analyzed,” I told them, pulling the gum wrapper from my pocket.

That shot Ayden’s brow upward. “I know you are aware of the proper way to collect evidence.”

“It’s all I had,” I told him with a shrug of my shoulders.

I figured collecting evidence in a gum wrapper was better than not collecting it at all, though he was right about one thing. It would never hold up in court, but it wasn’t like this was a case we could take before a jury anyway. That was even if we’d had a suspect to charge and put on trial.

Getting up from his desk, Tim held out his hand to receive the gum wrapper. “I’ll take this in the lab and see what I can find out. I don’t think we have time to send it to Washington DC and have it analyzed.”

I had to agree. Leaving Annabelle to run through a horror movie for two or three more days didn’t seem practical. My sister didn’t much like running.

It was a good thing that Tim had half a dozen PhDs, and one of them was in forensics science.

“So do you or your wolf friend have any theories?” Ayden asked when Tim was gone.

I was a little surprised. This was the first time he’d ever asked for one of my theories, but judging by the mask of confusion that hung over his face, this one really had him stumped.

My conversation with Granny Stella came to mind. More and more, Granny’s theory was starting to make sense.

“I think our subject is a witch, and that he or she has found a way to channel the island’s power. It’s making them strong enough to manifest these monsters … and somehow put real people into TV programs.”

Ayden had entered into his silent - brooding mode. I assumed he was running through my theory and looking for holes.

“I also think the Marsh estate has something to do with it … if the story about that old vampire is true,” I added.

“It’s true,” he stated, his tone of voice flat and emotionless.

This was a first. Ayden actually said something that left me speechless. Usually he was looking for the most rational explanation, which made sense. Most crimes had nothing to do with the supernatural, even on Mystique Island.

That was one of the main things I liked about my new job. Most of the time it was so quiet, I could spend my days reading trashy romance novels, while I pretended to be doing research. No one was ever the wiser, at least not until Tim caught me with my nosed buried in a book once.

I’d disguised it by placing the dust cover of a scholarly reference book over the outside of it. It was just my luck that Tim happened to have an interest in researching Project Blue Book, the government name for the study on UFO sightings. Unfortunately, that was the subject of the library book I’d snagged the dust cover from.

Which reminded me, I still had to have a talk with Mary Beth and convince her to let me pay for that book. I wondered how much time one would get for ripping off a dust cover from a library book.

Getting up from his desk, Ayden strolled over to the one painting he kept on the wall. It was a painting of the Mystique being tossed around in dark, churning waters, against a backdrop of murderous gray clouds.

“Beaufort knew this island was special. That’s what drew him here,” Ayden commented.

“How do you know that?”

When he turned back to face me, his mouth was set in a deep frown. “I don’t just work for the FBI … I also work for the CSNB.”

Hmm … so my boss was a double agent. No wonder some of what he did was too top secret for us, but what the heck was the CSNB?

I didn’t think he was going to come right out and tell me, so I asked, “What is that?”

“The Council of Supernatural Beings. The truth is, human governments can only control beings of the supernatural world to a point. After that, it’s up to the CSNB. The FBI is aware of this agency and have classified them Above Top Secret. Anything to do with the Council is on a need to know basis.”

“
And you think I need to know?” I asked.

Nodding, he continued. “The Council has been worried about Beaufort escaping for some time now. That’s why we were based here, instead of Portland.”

“Do you think this could have something to do with him? I didn’t think vampires had any kind of magical powers … at least not the type it would take to pull something like this off,” I pointed out.

“Most of them don’t,” Ayden shook his head. “But Beaufort is a special case. He has some kind of mythical power that we haven’t been able to understand yet, and as you said, he could also be channeling the island’s power through a witch.”

“But who is the witch?”

Just then Tim exited the lab room. “I can’t tell you that, but the ash Izzy collected might give us a clue.”

We both turned to Tim.

“There were actually a few bone fragments in the ash,” Tim explained. “From what I can tell, they are fragments of animal bones, probably feline.”

“So that monster was really a cat?” I wasn’t totally convinced. It looked way to Frankensteinish to be a cat.

Tim nodded. “When you shot it, you must have broken the spell, which resulted in some kind of combustion.”

“Well that points to our witch probably being a cat person,” Ayden put in. “Who around here has a bunch of cats?”

He was looking at me to answer that question, and rightfully so. With me living on the island the longest, I would be in a better position to know the people.

But this was an island of witches, and witches meant cats, or other odd creatures.

When I didn’t answer right away, Ayden continued. “They have probably gone through a recent loss or tragedy that would have acted as a trigger.”