A Cajun in Colorado(15)

"Can I get you a soda or some tea, or something?" Chris asked, wondering  how he could make the clearly agitated young man more relaxed. From the  way he'd watched him and Manon interact, this was the last placeChris  would think he'd show up.

"No, thanks," Baxter replied. "Look, I know you think I gotta problem with gays, but I don't. That's not why I'm here."

"Okay." Chris found himself saying that a lot around Baxter. He sat down  on the couch and motioned for Baxter to take a nearby chair. "Why  areyou here?"

"It's that guy you were with … your boyfriend." Baxter plopped onto the  indicated chair and gripped his hands tightly between his knees. He  rocked back and forth, and really looked like he was gearing himself up  to say something. Finally, Baxter's head came up and he blurted, "He's a  werewolf."

It was a good thing Chris had already swallowed his sip of tea,  otherwise he would have spit it across the room. "I'm sorry. Did you  just say Manon is a werewolf?"

Baxter nodded.

Great. The kid is a syfy geek and a space cadet. Chris rose. "Look, I think you need-"

"What? Help? A shrink? To be locked away?" Baxter rose too, glaring at Chris. "I have proof," he snapped.

Chris's pulse picked up as Baxter reached into his coat, and it only  settled back down when he saw the small, hand-held video camera. His  brows show up. "You have Manon turning into a werewolf on tape?" Now,  this, he had to see.

Baxter nodded. Focusing on the camera, he pushed a few buttons to start  the recording and then held it out to Chris. Chris took it and stared  down at the small screen. It was tough to make out for a second, then  everything came into focus as if the person recording it had adjusted  some settings.

"I'm the one recording. I was inside my brother's truck. He insisted I  stay out of the way because he didn't want me to get hurt," Baxter  whispered, his voice catching slightly.

Chris glanced over his shoulder at him, seeing the young man's gaze  riveted to the screen, too. He refocused on the scene playing out on the  screen. Two men were in a forest, carrying something that looked like a  big dog. The recording zoomed in, and Chris gasped. It was a wolf.

"What are they doing?" Chris whispered. "Where was this taken?"                       
       
           



       

"In the woods north of here. Just keep watching. I'll explain in a second," Baxter murmured.

The two men slid the unconscious wolf into a cage. When they hefted it  up, three more wolves burst from the trees, snarling and snapping. The  heavier man screamed like a little girl, dropped his end of the cage,  and stumbled backward. The cage slammed into the slender man, knocking  him down. A black wolf pounced on the slender man instantly. A second  wolf leaped and tackled the fleeing heavy-set man.

It was what was happening to the third wolf, a large, lean strawberry  and brown animal, that riveted Chris's attention. The wolf's body  shuddered, then seemed to twist, contort. The tail and fur disappeared.  Seconds later, a man knelt over the downed slender man, squatting next  to the black wolf that pinned him.

Through the video, Chris heard the truck engine roar. The naked man looked up, straight into the camera. It was Manon.

Chris gasped. He would have dropped the camera if Baxter hadn't quickly  grabbed it from his numb fingers. Chris's head swam. He felt himself  being pushed onto the couch, then a hand on the back of his neck urging  his head between his knees. Faintly, as if through a tunnel, he heard  Baxter tell him to breathe.

Chris obeyed, struggling to understand what he'd just seen. Surely it  couldn't be true. There were no such things as werewolves. And even if  there was, for Manon to be one? Ridiculous, right? He was a good guy.

Feeling better after his reasoning, Chris took a deep breath and eased  back into a sitting position. Baxter scooted away, but didn't go far.  "I'm really sorry," he whispered, and he actually sounded like he meant  it. "I just-I just thought you should know."

"Have you shown this to anyone else?" Chris asked, uncertain why this was important, just knowing it was.

Baxter shook his head.

Chris sighed, for some reason relieved. "How'd you make this?" he asked.  "Why? Is Manon an ex of yours and you don't want him to date anyone  else?" He remembered Baxter's sneered comment at the animal shelter.  Surely, this was caused by jealousy, right?

Baxter stood up and glared at him, hands on his hips. "I'm not gay," he  snapped. "I took this out in the woods just north of here.  These … these … monsters, attacked my brother and his friend! I'm trying to  help you!"

The other content of the video came back to Chris. He rose, too, and  pointed an accusatory finger at Baxter. "And just what were you doing in  the woods capturing a wolf, anyway? That's poaching,you know. It's  illegal."

Throwing up his hands, Baxter let out an aggravated growl. "What will it  take to convince you? If it matters so much, my brother and his friend  are part of an environmental group working against a government  organization. They were capturing the wolf to prove that the scientists  were mistreating animals. They never would have allowed any harm to come  to the wolf."

"That's, uh, a bit convoluted," Chris muttered.

Baxter rolled his eyes. "Well? What about my question? Huh? What will it take to convince you?"

Oh, shit. He really had been trying to avoid thinking about that.  Anything was better than finding out his lover was a monster. "I want to  see one."

"So, call your boyfriend," Chris sneered.

Glaring, Chris snapped, "My boyfriend is working. Why don't you take me out to where you shot this, huh? You said it's not far."

At his taunts, Baxter's face paled.

For a second, Chris thought the man would pass out from lack of oxygen. Finally, he nodded.

"Yeah. Okay. I should really see if I can find my brother's … " He gulped audibly, then finished on a whisper, " … body."

He felt like a heel. "I'm sorry. But how do you know your brother and  his friend didn't get away?" Chris asked, trying to be gentle as he  probed for more information.

"My brother would have returned my calls," Baxter muttered. "I haven't heard from him since that night."

"Maybe he's lost in the woods. If he's an environmentalist, surely he  could live off the land, even if he didn't know how to get back here,"  Chris said, trying to offer hope.

Baxter shrugged.

It was something. Chris slipped his sneakers on and then grabbed a coat.  He turned to his new cat, who sat watching from her position where she  sat on the back of the couch. "You be good, Rose. Don't shred the  furniture," he ordered.

The cat's tail flicked.

"You really want to go out there?" Baxter asked, trepidation filling his tone.                       
       
           



       

Chris nodded. "It's obvious something is going on in the woods. We  should see if we can figure out what it is before telling the cops wild  accusations." Inside, his heart was breaking, and he prayed the video  was somehow a hoax. The idea of just taking it and showing it to Manon  entered his mind. He tossed that out, though, thinking that if Manon  really was a werewolf, he couldn't let others know about it, right? That  would be dangerous, even if Chris was his boyfriend.

"Wait, shouldn't we take weapons?"

At Baxter's nervous question, Chris paused. The teen had a point. They  needed some way to defend themselves, but he didn't have a gun. Even if  Chris did, he wouldn't want to inadvertently hurt a normal animal. He  brightened and said, "I'll call Daren. He has access to tranquilizer  guns. We'll show him the tape, and maybe he'll let us use them."

Daren did more than allow them to borrow them. He decided to come with  them. As dusk fell, Chris found himself bouncing along a rutted service  road in Baxter's pick-up truck. Baxter stopped in a clearing, and with  tranq guns in hand, the three men climbed out.

His heart sped up in his chest when Chris recognized the area from the  video. Dark shadows stretched across the forest floor, and a shiver  worked its way down Chris's spine. His hands sweat where he gripped the  handle of the gun.

"This was a mistake," Chris whispered.

As if to confirm his words, a howl echoed through the still evening air,  and it sounded close. Chris heard growls and snarls right before three  large wolves crept out of the forest. Baxter squeaked and began to  shake. Daren cursed and began to back toward their vehicle.

The growl of a fourth wolf came from directly behind them. They spun to  see the large, tan beast standing between them and the truck.