The Howling

hand, but there was no sign that Inez had seen.

* * *

Inez Polk kept her eyes straight ahead as she drove back out the narrow lane, up through the main street of Drago, and onto the back road that led to Pinyon. Then she pulled off to the side of the road and stopped. She gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white. Her head fell forward.

'Oh, my God,' she said in a voice twisted with pain. 'I thought that was all behind me.'

She could still feel the press of Karyn's soft body against her own. How close she had come to making a terrible mistake.

Irresistibly her thoughts were drawn back through time. Back to the years in the convent when she was known as Sister Adelaide. For the thousandth time she relived the night the young novitiate had come to her room. The girl was in tears, shaking with a fear she could not name. Inez had taken the girl's hand and sat with her on the narrow bed. She had spoken words of comfort and faith while she stroked the girl's smooth white hand. Gradually she became aware of a response in her body. It was a yearning, a need that was utterly foreign to her.

It had seemed the most natural thing in the world to take the girl into her arms. The girl had come willingly. No, eagerly.

Without consciously making it happen, Inez had found herself lying on the bed with the girl. Naked. The girl touched her and caressed her in ways Inez could not have imagined. The caresses aroused sensations indescribable. Inez' body, her very soul, had caught fire that night. Her reason fled. She wanted only to possess. To be possessed.

It was there in Inez' narrow bed that they had been found. Inez had left the convent and the order immediately and in silence. The girl was turned out, of course. Inez never heard from her again. Never tried to contact her. Tried never to think about her. In vain. For often in an empty night when she lay between chaste sheets in her solitary bed, Inez' hand would stray over her own body and she would remember the delicious, forbidden caresses.

Never since then had she been tempted to act against the laws of God and nature. Never until tonight when she had held Karyn Beatty so briefly in her arms. Inez knew there had been no intent on Karyn's part to arouse her. No response at all in that way. If there had been… if Karyn had really wanted her…

Inez forced herself to break off the thought. She pounded the steering wheel with her fists, letting the pain drive the unwanted memories from her mind. She had to think of other things. She would have a busy day tomorrow doing library research. It would fill her mind. Tonight she would read a very dull book until she fell asleep.

'Please, dear God, don't let me dream.'

Chapter Twenty-Two

Roy Beatty heard Inez' car approaching well before it reached the house. Since the other night when… when whatever it was had happened to him in the woods, Roy's hearing, along with his other senses, had become unnaturally keen. He was aware of the change particularly at night. As he lay sleepless beside Karyn he could hear a whole symphony of night sounds that had been inaudible to him before. Tiny forest creatures chittered and squeaked. Trees groaned, their branches clacked and whispered in the dark. The house itself had a score of voices as boards creaked, a shingle flapped, the stone foundation settled another millimeter.

The nights were restless times for Roy. He had acquired an ache in his joints that came when the sun went down and made it difficult for him to find a comfortable position in bed. Knowing how worried Karyn was, he held himself still and pretended to be asleep whenever she looked over at him. All the time his mind was fully alert and ranging far from the bed where he lay.

In the daylight hours his nerves jumped like worms on a griddle. Although he tried, he could not sit still for more than a few minutes. Karyn's presence in the same room irritated him for no reason. Only when he walked in the forest did Roy find partial peace. Striding along through the brush, inhaling the myriad new smells, listening to the daytime forest music — so different from that of the night — Roy knew a kinship with his surroundings. But even at those times he felt incomplete. When he returned home after hours of walking in the woods he would be jumpier than ever.

Roy had tried very hard to remember what had happened to him that night Karyn found him lying outside the door. All he could bring to mind were vague, shifting images. There was some kind of an animal, of that he was sure. And the eyes, always the eyes. Green as jade. Eyes that knew him too well.

But the picture would never form completely, and as his head began to hurt Roy would give up trying.

He heard Inez Polk's car drive away. A minute went by before Karyn came into the house. She was blurry and red around the eyes.

'Oh, you're home,' she said.

'Yes. I found your note. Is anything wrong, Karyn? Have you been crying?'

She started to come to him, then something seemed to stop her, hold her back.

'Roy, are you feeling well enough for us to leave?'

'Leave? What do you mean, leave?'

'I want to go away from this place. It's not healthy for you or for me.'

'Leave Drago?' Sudden apprehension sent a chill through him.

'The other day you said we would go back to Los Angeles. I'm ready now.'

'I don't remember saying that.'

'If we don't get out of here something awful will happen to us. I know it — '

Roy stepped toward Karyn and put his arms around her. She was stiff and unresponsive. He released her.

'All right, if you want to go, that settles it. We'll go.'

'When?'

'We can't just walk away. It will take time to make arrangements. We'll have to do something about this house. And we sublet our place in the city for a full six months.'

'How soon can we go?'

'Dammit, I don't know.' Roy felt an anger building that was far out of proportion to the cause. He made an effort to be calm. 'If you're in such a hurry, why don't you go back alone? I'll come after I get things straightened out.'

'I don't want to do that, Roy. I want us to leave together.'

'All right,' he said, 'we'll leave in a week. That will give me time to tie up loose ends here and find somewhere for use to stay in Los Angeles until we can get our apartment back.'

'Thank you, darling,' Karyn said, greatly relieved.

'Sure.' Roy continued to fight down the irrational anger. 'Now that it's settled, why don't we have a drink?'

'Are you sure it will be all right for you?'

'Hell yes. There's nothing wrong with me.'

'I'll mix them. Are martinis all right?'

'Sure, fine.' Roy had not taken a drink since his experience in the woods. He had no desire for alcohol now. But having a drink had seemed like a good way to get off the subject of leaving Drago. The raw smell of gin burned his nostrils as Karyn stirred the cocktails out in the kitchen.

She brought in two icy glasses and handed one to Roy. He took a sip, swallowed, and the liquor tore at his throat like broken glass. He fell into a coughing spasm.

Karyn, quickly putting down her own glass, came to his side. 'Are you all right?'

It took several seconds for Roy to get his breath back to answer. 'Some of it went down the wrong way, I guess.'

'Maybe you shouldn't drink on an empty stomach.'

Roy sniffed at the glass in his hand and his stomach turned over. 'Maybe you're right.' He set the glass down and moved away from it, trying to mask the overpowering revulsion he felt.

'I'll start dinner,' Karyn said. 'What would you like to eat?'