Kissing the Werewolf - An Izzy Cooper Novel (15 page)

I was too excited to sleep. I had to see Elias and share the news with him.

I could remember it all.

Throwing on a pair of shorts and a football T-shirt, I made the drive from my seaside cottage to Elias’s house in record time.

With it nearing midnight, I hoped he was still awake.

When I pulled up to the cabin and saw the lights still on, I let out a sigh of relief. There was no way I’d be able to sleep tonight unless I saw him.

It took three rounds of knocking before he finally opened the door. He was standing there in nothing but a towel.

With his chest and abs as bare as the day he was born, I couldn’t help but drool a little.

“I remember everything!” I blurted out.

A parade of expressions flew across his face. First there was surprise, and then excitement, but then I could swear I saw despair.

No matter. I wasn’t letting this opportunity get away. I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him smack on the lips.

At first he tensed, but that only lasted about half a second. The next thing I knew his tongue was in my mouth, which sent shivers right down to my toes.

Elias lifted me in his arms, and kicking the door shut, he carried me to his couch. When he let the towel drop, my mouth fell open.

He was huge and erect.

There was a glowing yellow sheen in his dark eyes that meant he was having trouble holding the beast at bay.

None of that mattered. All I cared about was being with him.

As he tried to remove my clothes, he scratched my skin with the claws that were growing from his fingertips.

“I don’t think I can do this without hurting you,” he growled, losing his fight to control the hunger burning inside him.

In that moment, the wickedness inside of me blossomed, turning me into a harlot.

“I don’t care,” I moaned. “I just want to feel you inside of me.”

A moment later my clothes lay in shreds around the couch and he prepared to mount me.

He covered my mouth with his in an effort to squelch my screams, just before he entered me.

At first the pain was excruciating, especially when he seemed to grow even more enormous.

But then the pain gave way to pure ecstatic sensation. Heat seared through my body as he moved within me, taking me into an inferno of passion where I met him in an amazing orgasm.

Even with his passion spent, he couldn’t pull out. It was part of the werewolf’s nature to become engorged just before release, and it took a while for it to subside. He was trapped inside of me.

“That was unbelievable,” I breathed the words into his ear.

It was our first time, and something I’d been waiting years for. Before I’d gone off to college, we’d experimented, but never really went all the way. He’d always been too worried about hurting me.

Damn did it ever hurt, but it was the most pleasurable pain I’d ever experienced.

“What happened? How did you remember?” he asked.

I thought it best not to tell him about my demon guardian shampooing my hair for me while I was in the bath, so I sidestepped that part of it.

“It just came back all the sudden, while I was in the bath tonight.”

It wasn’t really a lie, just not the complete story.

After several minutes, his male part slipped from my body.

Gathering me in his arms, he kissed me again. “I’m glad you remember now, but what made you forget?”

Did I dare tell him about Jasper?

Again I opted for only part of the story. “When I was in Portland, a vampire compelled me to forget our engagement.”

He looked at me sharply. “A vampire?”

I nodded.

This seemed to trouble him.

Placing his fingers beneath my chin, he forced me to look at him. “This island is bad for you. Maybe you should consider moving back to Portland?”

I was confused. Now that I remembered everything, he wanted me to leave.

Pushing him away, I jumped off the couch. “Do you mind if I borrow this?”

Without waiting for him to answer, I wrapped his towel around me and headed for the door. Unfortunately, I had to move slow on account of my girl parts being sore, but the pain was nothing compared to what was in my heart.

“Wait! Don’t go,” he said, grabbing my arm.

“Tell me what you mean then?”

Sighing, he released me. “I can’t explain right now.”

I left without so much as turning to look at him. No way was I going to let him see the tears in my eyes. That would have made me feel weak and vulnerable. After Jasper, I’d never let a man see me vulnerable.

In that moment, I promised myself that I would never let Elias know how much he’d hurt me.

* * *

When I opened my eyes, the morning light burned right into my brain. I was sure I’d gotten wasted the night before, and totally forgot about it.

Getting an emotional ass kicking was just as damaging as downing a fifth of whiskey. At least it had always been that way for me. Both had a tendency to slam me with a hangover from hell.

My phone was ringing, and no wonder. When I forced my eyes open enough to see the digital clock next to my bed, I about choked when I saw it was already 10:00 am.

I was in deep trouble. Being an hour late for work on a day that could prove to be the busiest day of my career, probably wasn’t a good thing.

I tried sitting up, but that turned out to be too difficult, so I just threw the blanket off me and rolled to the floor.

Stupid me had left my phone on the arm of my sofa. Now I would have to crawl all the way to the living room to answer it.

The hardwood floor was killing my knees. I’d been too distraught to get into my pajamas. Instead, I’d simply thrown on an oversized t-shirt and a pair of panties. It was a good thing I hadn’t been pulled over by one of Jeb’s deputies the night before, since I’d made the trip home in nothing but a towel.

They’d have run me in for sure. I could just imagine explaining that one to the boss man.

I was half way to the bedroom door when someone grabbed a hold of my arm and hauled me to my feet.

Julius was angry, as was evident by the way his eyes were burning a hole into my face.

“What’s wrong with you?” he barked.

Yanking my arm from his grasp, I met his rage with a bit of my own. “Isn’t a girl entitled to a breakdown once in a while?” I snapped.

It was just like Julius to go from rage to amusement at breakneck speed. Now he was laughing at me. “I gave you what you wanted, didn’t I? Maybe you forgot what Granny Stella is always telling you about being careful what you wish for.”

I narrowed my eyes to slits, and for a minute there, I could actually feel the hellfire burning in them. “You did that on purpose, knowing what would happen.”

“Pretty much,” he nodded.

“Why?”

“Maybe I did it because I was tired of you being lovesick over dog man, and I thought it was time you knew the truth about him.”

“I still don’t know the truth.” I shot back. “Besides … he isn’t a dog. He’s a werewolf.”

“Close enough,” he shrugged. “And you do know the truth … you know that there is something more important than you. That’s all you need to know.”

Well he was right about that.

“You have a job to do, so get your ass going and get to work.” He wasn’t yielding an inch.

“Aren’t you supposed to be keeping me from atoning for my sins, not pushing me to it?” I grumbled.

“Well the sooner you bleach those black wings back to white, the sooner I can stop babysitting you and be on my way.” It was the stupidest excuse he’d come up with yet, but it still hurt my feelings.

“Whatever. Get out of here so I can get dressed.”

Julius gave me a wicked smile. “You weren’t too anxious to tell dog man that last night.”

“I’m going to tell you this only one more time! He’s a werewolf … not a dog. And mind your own business.” I told him in voice as hard as steel.

“Have it your way,” he sighed. “I’ll see you later today.”

He started to leave, but then turned back. “Keep your gun on you today … and stay away from dead things.”

Now what was that supposed to mean?

He was gone before I could ask.

It was just as well. With my head throbbing the way it was, I was in no mood to play word games with him.

Today was Storm Cove’s Bicentennial, which meant I’d have to dress up a little. I spent about five second standing at my closet and thinking of what I should wear.

I hated decisions, and I had no fashion sense. That was something I’d accepted a long time ago.

Closing my eyes, I reached for a hanger, deciding it was the best way to choose an outfit. It was random, but usually worked fairly well.

This time I pulled out a yellow sundress. I wasn’t real fond of dresses, but since I had to doll up a bit, a sundress probably wasn’t a bad choice. It would mean that if I wanted to carry my gun, I’d have to bring along a purse to tuck it into. That was if I decided to listen to Julius at all.

After pulling the dress over my head and situating it so it looked halfway good on me, I pulled my hair back in a ponytail, and then searched my closet for a matching pair of sandals. Five minutes later, I was ready take on the world, kind of.

On my way out the door, I checked the messages on my phone. There was only one, and it was from Delia.

I called her back as I was getting into Lady Luck. “Hello Delia. I’m sorry I missed your call.”

I did my best to sound normal, if not totally professional.

“I just wanted to let you know that Aggie checked out another movie this morning.”

“What is it?” I asked, dreading her answer.

“I can’t remember the name, but I think it was an old zombie movie.”

Oh rats! I hated zombies, even more than I hated spinach and maple syrup.

Yeah, my dad actually tried to feed that to me when I was a kid, and mom left him in charge of breakfast.

The lesson I learned from that was to never leave a guy in charge of breakfast, not unless he’s a chef, or knew how to find fast food sausage sandwiches.

“Thanks. I’d appreciate it if you kept a close eye on her today.”

“Sure … I’ll be going to the Bicentennial celebration this evening, but until then I’ll keep a watchful eye on her.”

Thanking Delia, I ended the call.

This time I got to work as quickly as I could. Usually I made a side trip to get some coffee at the Quick Stop, but not today. Dealing with Frankenstein and a mummy was one thing, but zombies were an entirely different ballgame. I needed Ayden and Tim’s input on this one.

As soon as I walked in the office, both Ayden and Tim’s mouths fell open. It was the first time they’d seen me in anything other than a pair of jeans and a T-shirt.

“Who are you, and what have you done with Izzy?” Tim asked.

“That different huh?” Now I felt self-conscious and suddenly wished I’d stuck to my usual attire.

“You look great.” Tim smiled.

Ayden cleared his throat to get my attention. “You’re late again.”

“Sorry … I was talking with Delia from Sunnyside. She was letting me in on which movie Aggie Wardwell borrowed this morning. I suppose Tim filled you in.”

Damn, I glossed that one over pretty well.

“He did, “ Ayden nodded. “What movie did she borrow?”

“A zombie movie … she couldn’t remember the name.”

Frowning, Ayden scrunched his brows together. “I don’t believe that’s an accident. Whoever is doing, this is probably planning an attack during the celebration.”

I agreed.

“Shouldn’t we alert the Sheriff’s Department?”

“I told Jeb most of what we found out last night,” Tim said. “By the way, he said that awhile back, someone broke into the Marsh place and was living in that room. He thinks they must have put a TV down there and ran it from a generator.”

That made sense, though I hadn’t noticed a generator there yesterday.

“So what’s the plan boss man?”

I really hoped he had a plan because I sure didn’t. At this point, I had no idea what to do, aside from target practicing on zombies, which is exactly what I’d do if I saw one.

“I think we need to go to the source,” he said, getting to his feet. “It probably wasn’t a good idea to wear that dress.” Ayden directed his words to me.

He most likely was right. Going back to the Marsh property meant going through the cemetery. That might not be such a good thing if zombies were in the picture.

“What are we going to do there?” I asked, though I had a sinking feeling I knew.

“I think if we destroy that television, we’ll destroy the window Beaufort is using.”

That’s when I remembered Uncle Aaron’s spyglass. “What if she has something of the captain’s linking her to him?”

“
You have a point,” Ayden admitted. “It looks like we will have to pay another visit to Miss Wardwell before we head to the Marsh estate.”

“Did you get a search warrant yet?”

“Not yet, but I don’t need it when I’m taking care of Council business.”

Well that sucked. I wouldn’t have had to strong arm Commissioner Weasel if I’d known about this.

* * *

This time when we knocked, we didn’t bother waiting for her to answer. Ayden opened the door and walked in.

The television was alive with zombies, and they were in the process of tearing down a door to get to the victims inside a house.

Aggie was sound asleep in her recliner.

If she were sleeping, that must mean there were zombies about? I’d already decided that she was probably channeling while she slept.

I put a hand on her shoulder and gently shook her awake. “Wake up Miss Wardwell.”

Blinking several times, she jumped up from the recliner faster than I would have believed possible for someone her age.

“What in the hell are you doing in my house?” she yelled.

For a minute there, I thought she was going to start zapping us with random spells. That wouldn’t be good.

“We need your help.” I spoke in a soothing voice, hoping to calm her.

“What do you need?”

I looked to Ayden and Tim to see if either of them was going to tell her, but they stood as still as statues, watching the situation unfold.

A lot of help they were.

I related what we knew about the situation, which took too long as far as I was concerned. The sooner we got rid of the zombie threat, the sooner I’d feel better.

“So you think I’m doing all this?” It was obvious she was having some trouble coming to grips with our theory.

“Pretty much,” I nodded.

Finally the boss man stepped in. “We need to know if you’ve found anything lately … like something antique perhaps, or something that looks like it might have come from an old ship. You could have found it on the beach.”

At first all we got was a blank stare, but slowly understanding sparked in her eyes. “Well now that I think of it … I did find this ring in the sand when I was digging for clams.”

Aggie held out her hand so that we could see the ring. It was bulky, like a man’s ring, and appeared to be made of gold.

I leaned over her hand so I could get a better look. There was a design on the front of a rose embedded in a Celtic cross.

“
Do you mind if we take this for awhile … just to be sure?” Tim asked.

Shrugging, she pulled it from her finger and handed it to him.

“Also, we need you to come out to the Marsh estate with us.”

The blood drained from her face, but she gave him a curt nod.

I knew what Ayden was thinking. He figured we might need her magic to undo the spell that had Annabelle trapped. Aggie seemed to be the only witch on the island who still had some witchy juice in her.

* * *

The four of us hopped in Ayden’s black SUV to make the trip to Luna Road.

We hadn’t gone far when I began to notice some very bizarre people. An old lady in a somewhat grungy bathrobe was making her way down Simmons Road. That wasn’t exactly out of this world strange, but the pallor of her skin was a sickly yellow, and there seemed to be some decaying of her face.

Clearing my throat, I pointed the woman out. I wanted to scream zombie, but was afraid of sending Aggie’s blood pressure over the top. That could be deadly at her age, and if she happened to bite the big one, not only would we probably not get my sister back, but then we’d be stuck with a zombie in the vehicle with us. Now I had some regret for volunteering to ride in the backseat with her.

“I see it?” Ayden said, his eyes fixed on me through the rearview mirror.

“But how is that possible? She’s awake.”

Tim twisted around to look at me. “If I had to make a guess, I would say it means his power has grown to the point that he no longer needs someone to channel for him.”

Why did Tim always have to be such a smarty pants?

Even worse, why did he always have to be right, which he was more than ninety-nine percent of the time?”

At the last minute, Ayden must have changed his mind about where we were going because he took a sharp right toward Pier Alley, which would take us to Founder’s Park.

There would already be events going on at the park. I knew that the baking contest would be taking place about now, along with the chili cook off. I’d also heard something about a dog show that was scheduled to start sometime before noon.

“We better take a look at what’s happening,” he explained when we all gave him one of those quizzical, what the F are you doing, looks.

When we arrived at Founder’s Park, I was suddenly convinced the boss man must have some kind of sixth sense.

There were people running in every direction.

This was a heck of a lot more activity than one might expect for a chili cook off.

It couldn’t be what was causing all the chaos, though I had a pretty good idea what the cause was. Sure enough, there was a herd of about half a dozen zombies grabbing at people as they tried to get away.

“The cemetery is miles away. Where are they coming from?” I asked, as I was rolling the window down to get a better look.

“The hospital is only a block from here,” Aggie pointed in the general direction of Mystique Harbor Hospital. “They’re probably coming from the morgue in the basement.”

I couldn’t help but wonder how bad things would get if those corpses in the cemetery were to reanimate and dig themselves out of the ground. It would be mass hysteria and total mayhem, even worse than it already was.

When Sheriff Bourne caught sight of Ayden’s SUV, he frantically waved his arms to get our attention.

Pulling off to the side of the road, Ayden looked over at Tim and me. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

Well that didn’t make a lick of sense. How was he going to fight them all off alone, and then deal with the crowd?

Ayden ran to where Jeb was ready to pull the trigger on one of the walking dead. This one was especially spooky, his arm was half gone, like one of his dead friends had already tried to chew it off.

We were close enough that I could see that zombie glazed look in his undead eyes.

Ayden pointed to the zombie’s head and said something.

Jeb aimed at the thing’s head, and fired. Half its head was gone when it hit the ground.

The boss man was saying something else, but a moment later he ran back to the SUV.

“Aren’t we going to stay and help?” I asked, my voice sounding a little too tight, but that was because I was still holding my breath.

As soon as I exhaled, I felt much better.

“No …  there are not that many of them. I told Jeb what was going on and gave him instructions on how to kill them. These aren’t cats turned to monsters. These are the real deal.”

I’d already figure that much out when the zombie actually fell to the ground, without exploding into dust.

“We need to get to the source and stop this before we end up with a horde of them coming from the cemeteries,” he explained further.

I agreed, but I didn’t so much agree that we should go by way of the Hope Grove Cemetery. They were bound to be a few of those things there.

“Why don’t we get on Luna Road from the other side of the island,” I suggested.

“It will take longer,” Tim reasoned.

“Well so will fighting zombies to get to the Marsh estate.” I hoped my logic wouldn’t be lost on them. Thankfully it wasn’t.

“She’s right,” Ayden spoke up. “The drive will be a little longer, but we probably won’t have to deal with zombies, which will mean we can get right to business.”

So there we were, on our way to do battle with the source, and we’d even found a way to skirt around the walking dead.

Imagine my surprise when we were on the Island Loop Highway, only a mile from Luna Road, and there was one of those things moseying down the middle of the street.

“What the hell?” I gasped.

“Where did it come from?” Tim asked. “Could they be migrating to this side of the island?”

“Roseland’s cemetery isn’t too far from here,” I reminded them.

Ayden shook his head. “That one is dripping water. It came from the sea.”

“Holy hell! Do you think the dead from the Mystique could be coming out of the water?” This time there was no hiding the fear that was winding its way around my throat to cut off my breath.

“That’s what it appears to be.” Tim pointed to a spot beyond some pines where the beach was visible. There were several dozen of them making their way out of the water.

Then I remembered my cottage was less than half a mile away.

One thing was for sure; going home would be out of the question.

Instead of hitting the zombie, Ayden swerved around it.

“Why didn’t you run over it?” I asked, not ready to believe that my boss would actually spare something as horrifying as a zombie.