Wolf with Benefits (40 page)

I
t was a farm somewhere in Upstate New York where they all headed. A cheap parcel of land the church had purchased and where they sent their converts when they were ready to move to the next level of mind control.

Funny thing was, they didn’t lock the small gate or secure the fence around the acres of property. So Ricky Lee just ambled on in. Just parked the SUV, and walked down the lane. As he walked, the cult members nodded at him, smiled, but didn’t stop him. He made sure to smile in return, but he kept moving. He kept his pace brisk, making sure to look like he knew where he was going. Most of the housing was cabins. One-floor deals made of unfinished wood with porta-potties sporadically placed. It wasn’t as bad looking as what the Manson gang had back in the day, but it wasn’t much better, either.

But he did finally see a large, finished building and he immediately knew that this was where they’d put their “Prophet” as he was called.

That’s where Ricky headed. He walked right up the stairs and into the building.

“Hey,” he said as he passed several members working on notebook computers.

“Uh . . . sir?”

Ricky kept walking, not stopping until he reached a large set of double doors. He pushed those open and walked inside, closing the doors behind him.

“Well hi there,” he said to the three men standing by the long mahogany table.

The one in the middle, looking just like a false prophet would with his worn jeans and sandals, shaggy hair, scraggly beard, and gold watch that probably cost somewhere in the twenty-grand range, smiled a little.

“How y’all doin’ today?” Ricky asked.

“You’ve come for the boy,” the prophet said.

Ricky nodded. “I’ve come for the boy.”

“Unfortunately I can’t help you.”

“And you’re gonna regret that decision.”

 

The cheap, wood fence surrounding the cult’s property was not exactly a challenge for Livy. She’d been trained at an early age to get around all sorts of fences, walls, armed guards . . . whatever might be between her and what she wanted. Yet Livy was under no illusion that this would be easy. Although she hadn’t discussed anything with Toni, Livy knew that Delilah just wanted money. Now that she was eighteen, she wasn’t about to spend her life playing second fiddle to the rest of her siblings. Nor would she allow herself to be ruled by Toni’s brilliant scheduling skills. She wanted her freedom, but unlike the rest of the world, she wasn’t about to do something like
work
to maintain her expensive lifestyle. So she’d come up with this ridiculous plan. Ridiculous because Delilah had to know that Toni wasn’t going to just let her run off with Freddy. Of all her siblings, he was the one that Toni would destroy the entire universe to get back. Not because Toni loved him any more than the others but because he was the one that needed her protection more than the others. He was the one whose soul was so pure and loving that they all knew just about anyone with a smile and a lollypop could get the boy involved in all sorts of crap.

Even the twins, at only three years old, had that predatory edge that would keep them generally safe. But Freddy was the puppy who would gleefully romp too far from his mother, and end up alone with a pride of lions or trampled by a herd of buffalo.

So they all felt an inherent need to protect the boy. Even Livy, who didn’t feel the need to protect anyone but herself. But there was something about the kid that warmed even Livy’s cold heart.

As Livy moved forward, sniffing the air every few minutes, trying to locate Freddy while avoiding any of the loser cult members—joining a cult? Really? Were people really that pathetic?—that might be nearby, it took her a surprisingly long time to realize that she wasn’t alone.

She stopped, spun around. Vic Barinov was behind her.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Following you.”

“Why?”

“Because we’re all pretty sure you’ll be the one to find Freddy.”

“Just stay out of my way.”

“How can I be in your way when I’ve been staying behind you?”

She was about to answer that when she realized it wasn’t worth the effort.

Turning, Livy headed deeper onto the farm, briefly stopping when she finally caught Freddy’s scent. That’s when she began running . . .

 

The group had split up, knowing they could cover more ground that way. Toni was trying to find Freddy’s scent but, deep down, she knew she was really looking for Delilah’s. This had been a long time coming. She knew it. Del knew it.

So when Toni did lock on her sister’s scent, she didn’t try to ignore it. Instead she followed it right to one of the few finished cabins. There were guards outside, but when Toni walked past them, they didn’t try to stop her.

She stepped into the cabin and took it all in. There were curtains over the windows, a large bed, a bathroom, fresh fruit on the table . . . everything a spoiled sociopath could need while everyone around her was probably starving.

“I knew you’d come yourself,” Delilah said as she stepped out of the bathroom. “You could have sent Dee-Ann or that big wolf you’ve been fucking. But I knew you’d come.”

She walked across the room until she stood in front of Toni. “But Freddy’s not here.”

“I know,” Toni said. Then she pulled her arm back and slapped her sister full in the face, knocking her to the floor. Once she had her there, she kicked her in the gut, sending her flipping over.

By the time Del landed, she’d begun to shift. Toni joined her, her limbs, torso, and head changing, her hands turning into claws, her fangs bursting from her gums. Just as she shook off her clothes, Delilah rammed into her with such force, they went flying across the room and out the open front door.

 

Vic watched the bungalow where he and Livy were sure little Freddy Jean-Louis Parker was being held. On the outside, he counted four guards. All male. All armed with knives. No guns that he could see, but the way they moved suggested they’d had some training. He doubted, though, any of them had been in the military, or were cops.

He did think, however, that they were fervent believers.

Believers worried Vic more than well-trained military personnel. Because there were no limits to what true believers would do to protect their belief system.

So he’d want to move carefully on this. He wouldn’t risk the safety of the boy.

With all that in mind, Vic turned to the female next to him but quickly discovered that he was standing alone.

Biting back an annoyed growl, he looked around until he finally found her—on the bungalow roof.

How she got up there, he didn’t want to know.

Livy looked at him, then pointed at the four guards outside the building. Vic briefly debated killing them but couldn’t. At least not yet. They hadn’t done anything to prove they were anything more than desperate full-humans in need of a messiah. So he decided to go with the tried-and-true misdirection.

 

“I know you think you’re doing the right thing,” the prophet told Ricky Lee. “By coming here for the child. But you don’t understand.”

“What don’t I understand? Explain it to me.”

“It’s true. Delilah did take him for financial gain. To help my church, because she loves me.”

Ricky Lee chuckled. “Son . . . that girl don’t love nobody.” The prophet’s eyes turned steely. “She loves
me
. She loves the god I represent. And she knows I’ve seen the future. The boy has to be here . . . because he is the ultimate darkness. He will bring the beginning of the end.”

Ricky Lee sighed. “Oh, Lord . . . I was hoping you were just a good ol’ fashioned con man. Trying to make money off the boy like Delilah. But you’re a true believer of your own bullshit, ain’t ya? And trust me when I say that’ll cost you. In tears. Because if you think that girl is going to give up cash so you can start the end of days . . . you’ve lost your damn mind.”

“I’m sorry you don’t understand.”

“I’m sorry you think I came alone.”

Panic raced across the man’s face. “Keep him here!” he ordered his men before running out of the building.

The two already in the room moved closer to Ricky Lee, and more full-human males walked in through the now-open doorway, surrounding him, all of them watching Ricky close. They were willing to follow their Prophet’s orders no matter what. Which, of course, was real unfortunate for them.

What with his big brother coming through that open window and unleashing his claws . . .

 

Livy waited until the hybrid had lured the guards away from the building. He was smart about it, too, luring them away with noises and possible sightings of something moving in the trees.

Once they were far enough away, Livy climbed her way up the brick of the bungalow’s chimney and inside. She worked quickly, easing her way down the flue until she was right over the fireplace. Thankfully it was summer and nothing was lit, because that would be damn uncomfortable.

Livy listened carefully and she heard nothing but humming. She smiled when she realized that the song being hummed was from the Dead Kennedys. A little trick Toni had taught Freddy. “Anytime you get nervous, hum ‘Man with the Dogs,’ instead of picking up a lighter.”

“Man with the Dogs” was one of Paul’s favorite Dead Kennedy songs from back in the day, so Livy now knew she was right where she needed to be.

Livy put her hands out and, shimmying down a little farther, rested them on the empty wood grate. She lifted her head and looked around the one-room bungalow. Although she scented the few people who’d been in and out of this room, she didn’t see or hear anything else, so she brought the rest of her body out of the chimney and slowly used her hands to crawl out of the fireplace and onto the hardwood floor.

Once she was completely out, she stood up and began to walk toward Freddy. He was busy with a coloring book. Although he wasn’t really coloring as much as blacking out, the black crayon he held no more than a stump as he blacked out each page of the book and continued to hum his father’s favorite song.

The poor kid was completely freaked out, completely panicked, and very close to losing it. In fact, the cult was lucky they didn’t have a fire going in the fireplace or the kid would have brought the entire farm down to the ground by now.

Livy, not wanting to say anything and possibly alert anyone outside the building, softly clicked her tongue against her teeth.

Freddy looked up at Livy and began to smile. But when it faded and his eyes suddenly looked past her, Livy knew someone was behind her.

A strong arm went around her shoulder, and before Livy could fight, a needle was jammed into the side of her throat and poison was forced into her veins. The effect was immediate, her body convulsing, her lungs stopping, her heart seizing. She only had a second to think,
“Shit,”
before whatever they’d given her, killed her.

 

The sisters rolled into the middle of the road, Toni stopping to shift back to human so she could punch Delilah in the face. It was so satisfying punching the little bitch.

By now, most of the cult members had run out to see what was going on, then stopped to watch, shocked and horrified. Unable to move.

Del shifted back, too. She punched Toni in the face, the stomach. Then they shifted to jackal once more and dug into each other’s throats with their fangs.

 

Freddy was still humming when that man named John walked away from Livy. She was lying on the floor, no longer moving, her body frozen. It looked like one of those shows Freddy saw his parents watch at night that had lots of cops staring at people on the ground and saying important things before tracking down the one who “did it.”

John stopped a bit away from Freddy and stared down at him.

“He says you’re the one to bring the ultimate darkness,” John said, although Freddy didn’t know what he meant. From what Freddy knew, Delilah jut wanted him to write out the contents of Miki’s very cool notebook. Something Freddy would not do. “He says you’re to be protected. So we’ll protect you. You’ll be safe here.”

Freddy would only be safe with his mom and dad and with Toni. He didn’t want to be here. He wanted to go home.

But the way John was staring at him, Freddy was just starting to think that he might never go home. That he might be stuck here with these too-nice people that terrified him.

Then, behind John, he saw Livy twitch. First her hands, then her feet. Then she sat up straight, her eyes blinking open. Freddy’s heart began to race, but he tried not to show it.

Livy looked around a moment until her gaze locked on the back of John’s head. She abruptly hopped up, completely silent, until she was crouching on the balls of her feet. She looked at Freddy and with her forefinger, made a circling motion. Livy had done that before when she’d snuck into the window of his parents’ home back in Washington. Between them, it had always meant, “I don’t want you to see this so you have nothing to testify to in a court of law.” It was their little joke, but Freddy knew it was serious now.

So, without getting up, he turned his body around until he faced the wall and, when the screaming started, he began humming his daddy’s favorite song . . . “Man with the Dogs.”

Because that would keep him calm. Calm was important for him; otherwise he did things, like set fires and steal.

And, let’s be honest, it was stealing that had gotten him into all this.

 

Del, fed up with all this bullshit, shifted back to human and shoved her sister off her. By the time Toni landed a few feet away, she’d also turned back to her human form.

Bloody and bruised, the sisters got to their feet.

“You’ll regret what you did,” Del told her. “No one—”