Blood. He could smell it. Sweet, sweet blood.
He licked his mouth, and forgetting the man at his feet, walked toward her. His instincts told him she was easy prey. There’d be no chase. Just the satisfaction of an effortless meal. But something held him from charging her. Something he didn’t understand.
“Abby!” someone shouted.
His head hurt. Strange sensations buzzed through his body. He felt something. A heaviness inside. And a lightness.
“Tarik, it’s me. It’s Abby. I’m hurt but I’ll be okay. Stop this. Please. Come back. Fight.”
Fight?
Come back?
The words barely made sense to him at first. Then the sensations increased, the pain in his gut, the chill that had nothing to do with the temperature in the air. Slowly his head cleared. It was like flying an airplane through a cloud. Suddenly, he could see again. He understood what was happening. The light filled him.
Abby.
She was shaking, wide-eyed and terrified. Pale. Weak. She needed him to protect her.
Torborg.
He turned and was sickened by the sight of his former boss and mentor lying on the ground, his abdomen torn open. A crimson puddle stained the gravel of the parking lot.
Had he...? Done that? Killed Torborg?
The truth slammed him like a brick. He’d killed a man. And not just any man. A man he’d admired for years. The one man who had the answers he needed to hear.
Torborg lay dead, silenced forever.
Raul stood dazed, not far from Torborg, a gun raised and aimed at Tarik’s chest.
“Don’t move,” Raul said in a low voice. His eyes were wide and full of fear.
Tarik briefly considered moving toward his friend, knowing he’d shoot out of fear.
Better to be dead than to kill again. This time the beast had taken over, totally wiping out his ability to think, feel, comprehend the consequences of his actions.
It would happen again. And next time...who would he kill...?
An innocent child?
Or a defenseless woman?
Abby?
The beast within him whispered, easy prey.
“Tarik, it’s okay.”
He felt Abby’s light touch on his back through the thick coat of fur.
Abby.
He raised his head and looked at Raul again. Shoot me. End this now. Before I do something else. Something worse. Something to Abby. He took a step toward Raul and he stiffened.
“No!” Abby screamed. “Don’t shoot him. Don’t. Oh God, no!”
Raul’s gaze shot to a point behind Tarik. It didn’t stay there long. Tarik drew in another breath and took another step toward his friend.
Shoot me. I can’t stop this. I can’t control it. I’m dangerous to everyone.
Raul flinched again, but he didn’t shoot.
“Noooo!” Abby scrambled around him, stopping in the line of fire. She turned a tear-streaked face to Tarik and gently stroked his chest. “I won’t let you do this, Tarik. There must be another way. There has to be. If anyone can find it, you can. Please, please don’t give up.” She shouted over her shoulder, “See what that man did to him? See now? Who’s the beast? The one who was forced to suffer or the one who created the suffering?”
Raul lowered the gun and Tarik knew he’d lost his chance at freedom.
He felt the first twinges as his body started to change back. Within a few heavy heartbeats, he was once again swept up in agony. Muscles and skin stretched and burned. Bones cracked and popped. It felt like it took forever for the change to end. He was left limp, trembling and nude. The gravel bit at his exposed skin.
Abby knelt beside him and, wrapping her arms around his weak form, fell into heartrending sobs.
Looking over her shoulder at his friend, he held Abby until she had stopped crying. Her hot tears chilled as they dripped down his arm.
Raul put a shaking hand over his mouth.
“This is what Torborg created,” Tarik said. “This is what he’s trying to hide. I didn’t know until a few days ago. I had no idea. And I have no idea if I can stop it.”
Another woman ran from a nearby car, Abby’s friend, no doubt. She shouted, “Time to go!” The two struggled. Abby’s friend yelled again. Abby yelled back.
He gently pushed Abby toward her friend. “Go.”
She visibly swallowed several times. Her eyes were watery and bloodshot, the hue of the stain on her sleeve. “No. You need help. Where will you go?”
“You’re shot. You need to get to the hospital,” her friend said with a shaky voice. “We can find him later. Right?” Abby’s friend lifted begging eyes to him. “Right?”
“Yes. I have my cell…” He looked around, spotting his tattered clothes about twenty feet away. He doubted his phone was intact but he wasn’t going to tell Abby that.