“Oh great, so I should be more concerned that my neighbors could be dead?” I shrieked.
“No, not the more likely scenario. They’re too cunning. You wouldn’t believe the ways they’ve gotten innocent bystanders out of the way before battle.”
“Great. Cunning. Always a comforting word when used in reference to your sworn enemies, men who change into wolves to boot. So, you’re telling me that my only concern is my living room at this moment. My neighbors are fine while my carpet is cut and stained. My furniture lies in ruins, challenging you to figure out what it once was, and I have three oversized wolf bodies dead and bloody on my floor. I don’t even have a television to hide away from reality with, not that I’d have a place to sit to even watch it. Oh shit, and there is a hole in the wall over there. What am I going to do?”
“Not hyperventilate for one,” he said, stepping close, but stopping his hands again from touching me. “We have people for that. I’ll make a call, and it will be handled in no time. New carpet, new furniture, and a patched wall so that no one could ever tell. And, we’ll get you a new TV.”
“And, the bodies, or carcasses?”
“We have people for that, too. We call them cleaners.”
“And you don’t suppose that my landlord or neighbors won’t wonder when they see hunks of bloody carpet going out my door and down the hall?”
“They are very discreet. Trust me, they are professionals at this. It will all be fine in no time at all. Just let me make a call. If you wouldn’t mind, though, what I do need from you is use of your shower. And, well, I’m naked again. So I’d better ask the cleaners for some clothes.”
“Not the first time you’ve done this, huh?” I huffed, tightening my lips into a disapproving frown.
“Yes and no. I’m pretty old, and as I told you, you are not my first charge to protect. But, we’ve only needed cleaners for dead wolves. The fight has never come inside. Though, I have no fear that they have a plan already in place to take care of such an issue.”
“Really, a plan? Well, I just love being the first, the one they work out the kinks on,” I sighed.
“It will be fine. I promise. Now, shower, please. I’m grossing myself out, and I’m almost healed.”
“Of course, I’ll go get you out some towels, even get the water running, while you make that call. I’m assuming it will be quick? Not that I care, just didn’t want to waste water,” I rambled on suddenly.
I hated blood in any amount. So, the way it got to me at the minute now, given the amounts that covered Lex and the house, the revulsion came at me in waves. I’d already stepped back as I’d looked things over, so much so that I could now lean against the breakfast bar that separated the kitchen from the living room. I wrinkled my nose at the smell, one turning more putrid by the minute. Wet fur was one thing, it being soaked in saliva and blood was another. I put my hand out as if I could make it all magically disappear as I looked away, up to Lex.
He’d only nodded at me. So, once I turned on my heel, looking away from him, I let my face scrunch up fully, the way I’d been forbidding it to in his presence. Lines tightened at my eyebrows, increasing the ache in my head. He’d protected me the only way he could, so he didn’t need the thank you of the physical expression of disgust. My nose crinkled up even more, till the skin pinched, taking the lead over the rest of my face. With my mouth turned down and my eyes wide, I actually worried about lines being permanently etched into my forehead.
I’d not even cared that he was naked. Honestly, I’d had trouble looking below his face due to the slasher film effect he had going on. Even though I’d attempted to tell myself it wasn’t real, each time I took in a breath, the metallic smell moving more and more toward rotting flesh said otherwise. Treading lightly toward the bathroom showed the tiny shake still left in my legs, even as my heart rate returned to normal. The thing had taken a beating this weekend.
It takes a licking and keeps on ticking, went in a sing song fashion through my brain. The slight upturn of my mouth at the silly words didn’t last, as the thought of dead bodies, more exactly those of werewolves killed in wolf form, just one room away, came barreling back into the forefront of my mind. I knew these images would haunt my dreams. Hell, I’d even see them during the day, every time I closed my eyes, or some trigger, whether word or sight or smell, would bring it all flooding back. Images like the ones that still existed in my living room... well, one just didn’t dismiss them and move on.