Fifty Eight. Psycho Mike Joins the Fray

I try to kick Carson off of me, but he’s already got his teeth in my neck, claws ripping away at my midsection and further weakening my blows.

Heavy footsteps sound in the hall outside, and I think it might be Grace, grown impatient and wandering right on in here instead of waiting in the car like she was told. She has no way of fighting off a monster like werewolf-Carson, and I want to shout at her to run, but I can’t get any noise to escape my throat anymore, not even screams.

The intruder’s shadow falls over us, but that is not Grace. It’s Mike. Unlike the rest of our brothers, he’s looking fully human, dressed in boots and leather jacket, as he walks right up to us, rips Carson off of me with disturbing ease, throws him up against the wall and rips his head from his shoulders.

Nick is whimpering and tearing up at that most traumatizing sight, still bleeding out on the floor behind us, but Mike ignores him entirely, crouching over me with a savage grin. “You have no idea how long I have been wanting to do that. Just needed to pick a time when you wouldn’t freak out and attack me for it.”

My response is just a gurgle of blood, and Mike peels back the remains of my shirt, studying my torn out throat and shredded torso in calm evaluation. “Don’t worry, kid. I’m not gonna let you die. I’d carry you right to Ravenna for another resurrection if it came to that, but with this amount of damage, day of a full moon…” He pats me on the shoulder. “You’ll be fine. It’s already scabbing over, just look.”

I give a ragged gasp, feeling my broken collarbone snap back into place. “Ambulance…”

Mike frowns, eyes darkening. “The hell kind of pussy are you? I just told you--”

“Not for me.” I grate. “Nick. I can... maybe get him stabilized, but… He needs a hospital.”

Mike glances over at my seriously injured friend with an expression of complete apathy and disinterest. “Yeah, I’m not calling anyone and inviting those sorts of questions. Slap a band-aid on him if you want, but after that, you’re coming with me.”

He seizes my hand, pulling me right to my feet. I’m still a little light-headed, wracked with pain, but the worst of the damage to my throat has mended now, so it’s only shallow cuts left. I have a truckload of questions to interrogate Mike with, but first I need to help Nick.

He’s just passed out from the blood loss, and I don’t have any type A on hand to give him a transfusion. He needs to go to the hospital. I don’t care what Mike has to say about it. I staunch the worst of the bleeds with a bunched up lab coat and dial 9-1-1 on my cell. “I need an ambulance at 1450 Harper Road. It’s an animal rescue, but I think something got loose and attacked the vet. He’s unconscious and bleeding, bad.”

I hang up without answering any further questions and cast a look back at Mike. He’s dragging Carson’s remains over toward the kennels. “What? I’m just supporting your cover story. Still, we’d both best be gone by the time the paramedics get here. I’m used to having Ravenna cover up these types of incidents by casting a brain fog on the police, but she won’t be helping out today.”

“You’re still sticking by that story?” I demand. “Saying she’s powerless on the full moon?”

“You say it like you know already it’s a lie,” Mike notes, and my glare only deepens.

He raises Doctor Carson’s flaccid hand. The nails have retracted back to human proportions, the unnatural body hair sloughing off of him, now that he’s dead. That happened with my grandfather too. Nothing dad tried could get him back to human, not until he stopped breathing. A werewolf always reverts back to what they were in their final moments. Makes it a lot harder for mom to cover up her hunting.

“I gotta say I did not expect to find Carson fully turned in here, tearing up his own clinic,” Mike comments. “Did you bite the mad doc, or was dad the guilty party?”

“Neither of us did,” I mutter, studying sadly the headless corpse of the mentor I once looked up to. “He was drinking our blood, hoping the healing factor would combat this genetic disease he had… He still shouldn’t have turned this fast though, especially not in the middle of the day.”

“Our brothers all looking the same as he was then?” Mike demands. “All furred out and red-eyed?”

“You know they are,” I accuse. “It’s your wife that did it.” I don’t have proof of that yet, but I am pretty damn certain. “Now are you really here to help me or just to stop me from getting them the vaccine?”

“Vaccine?” He arches an eyebrow, lips splitting wide in a smile. “This lunatic developed an actual vaccine for werewolf curse?”

“Yeah, I used it on Grace the day after Felix bit her.”

“Felix bit her?” He didn’t even know that much. I guess he thought Grace was just visiting for those dinners, not spending her nights locked up in the attic being monitored. “Well shit, so the two of them finally screwed. Remind me to congratulate the sanctimonious former virgin when we see him next. But for now, we gotta move, so get your hands off the bleeding dough-boy already.”

He tosses Carson’s remains out into the next room then stalks back over to me and Nick. His expression is still all grinning and laid back, but his hands are covered in blood. “You really are a psychopath,” I mutter. “And I am not going anywhere with you. I need to keep pressure on this bleed until the EMTs get here…” Though once they see the scene inside this clinic, they’re going to want to turn me over to the police for questioning. And I need to get that vaccine back to dad and the others as quickly as possible. I won’t get the chance if I’m arrested here. I also meant to run those check-ups on Grace…

“You’re looking a little overwhelmed, kid,” Mike notes. “Though that is why it was so easy to catch wind of your trail. I was driving out to the farm to get you, when I caught your scent right here in the city.” He puts his hand on my back, and I tense, ready to fight him off. “You absolutely reek today, all fear and nerves. Still, you’re looking human, in control, and that’s all that matters. Come on now.”

He hauls me away from Nick, and I swing right for his head. He catches my fist, eyes weighing into me in rebuke. And yeah, Mike, I can hear that distant howl of sirens drawing closer by the second, but I do not care. You’re the danger here, not the cops. “You trying to haul me right back to your witch?" I accuse. "Get me to change into a beast just like the rest of our family?”

“Shit no. I *am* planning to take you right to Ravenna, but only because she’s a lying bitch and we need to kill her.”