We hadn’t stopped to get another gag, the store had just been too far away to get to and back before moonrise. I grabbed a length of rope and placed it over Gail’s mouth. She resisted opening, but I gripped her chin and forehead and forced her jaws apart. She twisted free and snapped at my fingers. When she tried a second time, I pulled the rope between her jaws, drawing it tight and tying it behind her head.
Sitting on her back, trying to keep her pinned down, I saw the dark hair growing out of her shoulders. I grabbed a handful of medallions and shoved them beneath the material of her bra. Grabbing another handful, I leaned back and pushed them under the lace trim of her panties. She bucked and snarled as silver reacted with her skin. Little tendrils of smoke rose from everywhere silver touched her.
Taking another of the silver chains, I wrapped it around her neck, just above the collar and snapped the clasp shut. Her struggles were growing, even with her arms pinned behind her by the bracelets and me sitting on them, she almost threw me off. Her heels pounded into my back, pitching me forward onto my belly, pressing Gail’s face into the mattress.
I grabbed one of her ankles and wrapped a length of silver chain around it. She kicked me in the face with her free foot. I grunted in pain as my eyes teared and blood began streaming from my nose. I tried to grab her other foot and she kicked me again, catching the side of my head as I tried to save my nose from further damage.
My fingers latched onto the snap hook and I forced her feet together, clasping the hook closed as I did. She jerked both feet out of my grip and bent, throwing her heels into my chest. I exhaled explosively, blew blood from my battered nose, and grabbed another handful of medallions. I gripped the back of her bra and slid the silver beneath the elastic.
Something big and furry crashed through one of the tarps.
Chapter 12 – New Work
Still straddling Gail’s back, I drew my Colt and snapped off a quick shot toward the corner where the werewolf was rising, snarling, and ripping at the tarp as it struggled free.
Gail jerked nearly double and bucked me off her.
My feet tangled in the bedspread and I had to catch myself with my hands, banging the knuckles of my gun hand on the wood floor. My chin hit the floor and I bit my tongue.
Cursing, I rolled, kicking to free my feet, and threw the torn remnants of Gail’s bra away. Lying prone, I brought up the Colt.
In the corner, the werewolf rose. It looked different than the four others we’d killed. It stood taller than my own six-two. It was broad in the shoulders and narrow at the hips. Pointy ears stood erect on a head that belonged to neither human nor wolf. Its eyes, set in deep sockets on either side of a thick brow, glowed yellow. The beast’s heavily muscled chest was broad, furry, and damp where drool dripped from massive jaws that snapped at the air.
A shiver shook me and for an instant, my aim was unsteady. The beast turned to face me. I forced myself to calm, steadied my sight picture, and tightened my finger on the trigger. I fired twice as the beast leapt toward the side. The first shot broke another window in the front wall, but the second spun the snarling werewolf off its feet. I got to my knees. I rose to eye level with the bed and found a pair of yellow eyes in a furry face staring at me. Gail bared fangs, growled, and bit down on the rope in her teeth.
With my left fist, I slugged her as hard as I could. The blow snapped her head back. She sagged forward as blood welled from a split lip and then she collapsed onto the bed, limp.
I dragged myself to the edge of the bed, firing toward the werewolf as I did.
The beast rose again, and I pumped round after round into the creature as it rose. It staggered with each impact. I stood, pulling a fresh magazine from my belt. Walking toward the werewolf, I fired one handed from a range of twenty feet.
When all eight rounds were spent, the Colt’s slide locked back, and I popped the magazine release, as it fell, I shoved the full magazine home and hit the slide release.
The werewolf snarled. It was bleeding from a half dozen wounds that smoked as much as bled. I drew a bead on the creature’s head. The damn thing swung one of its massive claws and struck a chair, flinging it across the room.
I got off one more shot and then the chair slammed into me.
I landed heavily on my back and gasped for breath. I threw the chair off me and took aim between my feet. I fired as the werewolf rushed toward me. There was another squeal of pain and as suddenly as the attack had begun, the werewolf had had enough. It leapt to the front door. There was a splintering of wood as he jerked it open and disappeared into the night.
I rolled to my feet, stood, and ran toward the open door. When I got there, the werewolf had already vanished into the forest.
“Sonofabitch!” I emptied the rest of the magazine into the undergrowth.
When the slide locked back, I loaded a fresh magazine, released the slide, and stepped back inside. I turned on the outside and inside lights, and closed the door. The doorframe was splintered around the lock. I lowered the wood beam across the door.
I safed the Colt, holstered it, and went back to Gail.
She lay still. Blood spotted the sheet next to her mouth. As I watched, her split lip healed. Her jaws were no longer fully human and had elongated. Large
