Ryne gave a dark laugh recalling the last time he had thought a villain was dead, only to have her crawl away when they weren’t looking. Not this time. No assuming. He wanted to see a dead body before he told Kane things were one hundred percent safe.
Wearily, he picked up a cell phone to call Kane back. He imagined the other man was ready to rip a strip off him; after all, no one dared hang up on Kane Sinclair! About to dial, he caught sight of himself in the rear-view mirror and froze. His face was streaked with mud and his hair stood up on end. And, he didn’t have any clothes on! His frantic form-shift to save Melody had caused him to miss a step. No wonder the parking attendant had given him a strange look! Giving a brief chuckle, he dialled Kane’s number and braced himself for the coming onslaught.
*****
Cassie wearily got off the bus, dragging her small bag of possessions behind her. She ached from the stiff uncomfortable seats and, not for the first time, thought wishfully of the luxury vehicle she’d abandoned hours ago. Arching her back, she forced herself to forget the car. There was no time for regret; more pressing matters needed to be dealt with such as—she paused and surveyed her surroundings—where she was. It was obviously a bus station in a small town, but where exactly? All she knew was that she wasn’t near her uncle’s estate where he... She couldn’t bring herself to finish the thought.
It was the middle of the night and the town was mostly in darkness. A motel across the street had a vacancy sign, so she crossed the road and entered the dingy front office. The clerk looked at her askance, no doubt wondering what illegal substance she was taking, then continued on with his phone call. As she waited for him to finish, she looked outside, catching sight of her own reflection in the darkened window; her eyes over-dilated and her face pale, framed by long unkempt hair. Shivers swept over her body as if she needed the next hit of her drug.
When the man finished his call, she explained what she needed and handed him a handful of bills. The clerk slid the key card over to her and she took it, giving a brief nod of thanks.
“I don’t want no trouble, you hear? This is a clean, family motel.” As he spoke, the clerk spat a wad of tobacco juice into a can on the counter.
Sure. A family motel. Cassie glanced around, noting the open can of beer on the man’s desk, the porno flick playing on TV, and filthy, torn linoleum floor before looking back at him. “I won’t cause any trouble.” She exited the office and wrapped her arms around herself in a futile attempt to still the shakes that wracked her body.
“Damned druggies.” She heard the man mutter just before the door swung shut.
As she crossed the parking lot and made her way to her room, she laughed darkly. It wasn’t an illegal substance that was responsible for her present appearance. It was the damned migraine pills. She hadn’t wanted to take them, but as the night advanced, the strangest feelings came over her; a tingling sensation in her arms and legs, a tension coiling inside her that made her shift restlessly as she drove. Fearful of being alone and sick while on the run from the terror she’d left behind, she’d finally pulled over and taken one of the pills. Unfortunately, a few miles later the pill had started to take effect and she’d been forced to abandon her car, realizing she was in no fit state to drive. Too scared to stay where she was, she’d found a bus station and taken the first available bus to...well...wherever she was now.
At the moment, she was too tired to care. Fumbling with the key card, she opened the door and went inside. A bed dominated the room and she stumbled towards it, desperately wanting to lie down and let the pills work their magic. For over a year, she’d hated the fuzzy, floating numbness the pills invoked. Now she craved the numbness and the deep dreamless sleep that followed. It would help her forget. Dropping her small bag of possessions on the floor beside the bed, she lay down, her eyes half shut.
The room was rundown, but appeared clean and a faint antiseptic smell lingered in the air. Shifting a bit, she managed to snag the blanket folded at the foot of the bed and wrapped it around herself.
Slowly she relaxed, her limbs feeling heavy. She’d been fighting the need to sleep for hours, not daring to do more than rest on the bus. Fear had forced her to keep watch, constantly checking if the bus was being followed and examining each new passenger that boarded. Of course the werewolf man had never appeared, but somehow she knew he wouldn’t just forget about her. If the bus driver hadn’t finally told her it was the end of the road, she would have stayed on; constant movement made her feel somewhat safer.
Still, she was in the middle of nowhere. If she didn’t even know where she was, then how could he? She knew there was a flaw in her logic, but at the moment she couldn’t focus enough to decide what it was. Drifting in and out of consciousness, bits and pieces of the night’s events played out in her mind, but it was as if she was detached, watching a movie where she didn’t really care about any of the characters...