Alex: A Rylee Adamson Short Story Read online

  Deidre. I clung to her name, even if what she looked like was gone. After an hour of driving, taking turn after turn, Rylee pulled over. We were in a very rundown part of town. Though the name of the place escaped me, I recognized it. I’d walked here, walked these streets looking for something. Something important that had gone missing. Damn my brain and the holes spreading in it. The buildings looked as if they’d been through a rough period, holes in the windows, doors hanging on hinges, concrete cracked and chunks missing. There were very few people on the street, and those that walked past us didn’t even look up.

  Rylee tapped the steering wheel, her eyes going distant and the three colors spinning faster, blurring together. “You stay in the Jeep.” Her hands drifted over her body, touching the handles of her swords, blades, tightening straps and adjusting everything.

  I watched her, eyes and heart drooping, then gave a soft woof. “Alex comes. Helps Deidre too.” I had to go with her. Deidre was the only one I remembered. Maybe she could help me hang onto what was left of me. A faint hope it might be, but it was all I had.

  “I can’t hide you, Alex. And you will freak the humans out.”

  My lower lip trembled. “Please.”

  She rolled her eyes and tipped her head back against her seat. “Shit.”

  I put my front paws together, as if I were praying. “Please. Alex goes too.”

  She scrubbed a hand over her face. “Just wait here a second.” Reaching into the dashboard she pulled out a geriatric looking cell phone, and then stepped out of the cab. Even with the door shut, I could hear her clearly. Maybe there were a few perks to this werewolf business.

  Her hand gripped the cellphone so hard her knuckles turned white, but it seemed to work for her. “Milly, I know you’re shacking up around here. Can you do me a favor?”

  I couldn’t hear the response, but Rylee nodded. “Yeah, I need something to hide a werewolf.” She glanced over her shoulder at me, her eyes taking me in. “Maybe a collar?”

  My tail thumped against the seat. She was going to take me with her.

  Hanging up the cellphone, she opened up the door and chucked the phone back into the dash. “Ten minutes. You better hope it doesn’t cost this kid her life.”

  I swallowed hard. I hadn’t thought of that, of Deidre being in real trouble, of her being more than just a runaway.

  A whine worked its way up my throat and I struggled to not let it turn into a full fledged howl of fear.

  Rylee seemed to sense my issue. “Be quiet, or it won’t matter if Milly can turn you into a fucking mouse, I won’t take you with me.” She turned sideways so that her legs were out the door, but she still sat in the driver’s seat.

  The whine died in my throat and I leaned forward to put my head on Rylee’s shoulder and whispered. “Alex quiet.”

  She reached up and scratched behind one of my ears. Damn that felt good, I leaned into her fingers, rubbed my chin along the bones of her shoulder. Fifteen minutes passed before a woman I assumed was Milly strolled into view. She wore a flowing green dress that hung to her knees and clung to her curves, and matched her green eyes.

  “Got lonely out at that rickety old farmhouse?” Milly smiled when she said that, but I could smell her and she smelled… funny. But I didn’t know what it was, just something that tickled my nose and made me… I sneezed hard, bashing my head into the roof of the Jeep. Like sulfur and a night with no moon, her smell bothered me.

  Rylee laughed and shook her head. “I’m getting this salvage done and then I’ll find him a home. He won’t be staying with me.”

  Milly just smiled. “Okay, well, this collar is temporary, maybe it will last for a few hours, if you’re lucky.”

  The collar was a thin braid of leather done in three colors, black, white, and red. Rylee took it and put it around my neck, tying the ends together. A tingle ran through me, a shiver of energy that centered around my neck. It didn’t hurt, but I knew it was there. Knew something was happening. I blinked up at her and she nodded. “Looks good. Now you can come, but you stay right next to me and no talking. Not a word.”

  I crossed my heart with a claw. Anything to find Deidre. Whoever she was, I thought she was important to me for some reason. “Gots it.”

  Milly didn’t come with us. She waved and walked back down the street. She lived here? She didn’t seem to fit with her fancy dress and beauty and then the rundown state of the area. But my mind didn’t linger long on the stinking witch or her motives for living in a bad part of town.

  I shook my head and pressed up against Rylee’s leg, tension rippling through me. The little my brain wanted to remind me about was telling me that this was a really, really bad idea. That this place was ugly on a lot of levels. Gangs, shootings, murder, and suicide were rampant here. Not a place I wanted to be, but if Deidre was here, then we had to get her out.

  Rylee reached down and touched the top of my head, and I relaxed a little. This time I wasn’t here alone.

  Rylee headed toward a building on the far side of the block, the red brick crumbling, and a sign that said “Harry’s Hardware and Hunting Supplies” hanging so that it partially covered the busted down door.

  She paused at the bottom of the steps that led up and into the building. “Alex, you smell anything?”

  I lifted my nose and sucked in a lungful of air, blinking several times as my brain identified scents I didn’t even know existed. Dark and murky like a muddy swamp, the smell converged in my brain and created a picture of a creature, tagging it with a name.

  “Goblin.” I took another deep breath, the second scent one of darkness, but musky, like sex and violence mixed together. “Incubus.”

  Rylee started and stared down at me. “You’re sure?”

  “Yuppy doody.”

  And I was sure, even if I wasn’t sure why Deidre was important, I knew those scents and they imprinted on me. (Goblins don’t exist and what the hell is an incubus?) What was left of my own brain stumbled over this twist to the story. Rylee, though, took my pronouncement in stride. She loosened both her blades and pulled them free from their sheaths before slipping through the broken door. I followed, slinking along, breathing in the scent of blood and rotting food that hung in the air. Rats skittered along the edge of the wall, their claws clicking in a weird echo of my own steps.

  Light filtered in through broken windows, in between wood slats that had been haphazardly pounded into place over the openings. Rylee worked her way through the building, me close on her heels, the creak of our steps seeming loud to my sensitive ears. But I could hear nothing else. No other things were in this house, so how could she be sure that this was where… Deidre… was?

  Using her sword, Rylee pushed aside a thin piece of material that hung in a doorway and stepped through. I pushed the material aside with one paw and froze. Deidre had worn that, whatever it was. I could smell her, strawberries and chocolate, on the cloth.

  But Rylee didn’t seem to notice; instead, she searched the kitchen, moving things with the tip of her sword.

  I took a deep breath a sudden intense scent filling my nose, far stronger than before and I whispered, “Goblins.”

  A split second and the little beasts were everywhere, bursting out of cupboards, streaming in through the doorways, covering every possible surface. Greys, greens, and black, they would be perfectly camouflaged in a forest with their mottled skin.

  Three eyes, and two noses each, their mouths were wide, almost bisecting their leathery-looking faces. Though they were smaller than Charlie, I didn’t think they would be as nice as the brownie. Needle sharp teeth glistened, and a high-pitched chittering escaped them as they surrounded us, their excitement obvious as they paused for a breath before launching themselves at us.

  “Kill them, Alex,” Rylee shouted as she spun slicing three goblins in half with one sword as her second swept by, catching another two.

  Then I couldn’t watch her anymore, seeing as I had some problems of my own. Goblins backed me in
to a corner, lunging at me with their sharp teeth and I tried to push them away, shoving them back. I had never killed anything in my life, I couldn’t start now.

  “Sissy werewolf,” The goblin closest to me snickered and bit down on my tail. I howled and spun, inadvertently throwing him through the air. “Alex sorry!”

  “Don’t apologize to the little bastards, just kill them!” Rylee then let out a grunt as a goblin latched onto her calf, drawing blood and taking a small chunk of flesh like an upscale piranha. She yelped and booted the monster in the head, sent him flying into an open cupboard.

  The weirdest thing happened. The fear that had burrowed into me dissipated, I saw her get hurt and there was only one thought running through my head.

  “No hurt Ryleeeeeeeee!”

  I leapt toward her, scattering the goblins, grabbing them with my mouth and claws, snapping necks, gutting the horrid little creatures with all the fury I could muster.

  Their blood was pale blue and cold, and… “Tastes like shit.” I growled as I snagged another one off the counter top and bit down on its skull, the crunch of bone echoing through the room. I spit him out and wiped at my tongue with my paw.

  “Growdy gross.”

  What was left of the goblins ran from us, and in a few seconds the kitchen was as silent as it had been when we’d first stepped in.

  Just like that, it was over.

  Or so I thought.

  Pale blue blood was splattered on everything, the floor, the walls, the ceiling. Rylee stood there, in the middle of it all, her eyes unfocussed and the colors blurring once more. Was she… Tracking? That’s what Giselle had said she could do, that’s what my brain said she was, even if I didn’t fully understand it. Though she had her own smell that identified her as a Tracker, there was nothing particularly special about it, about her. Mostly, she just smelled human.

  But I knew that was wrong.

  Rylee was special, even if she didn’t smell like anything different.

  Slowly, she turned in a circle and then tipped her head up so that she was staring at the ceiling. “We’ve got to get up there.” She pointed up with her sword, and I followed her gaze.

  We were both too short to reach the ceiling. “Table?” I pushed the rough hewn table, surprised at how steady it was. In a place where everything was falling down, the table was solidly built with thick legs and three-inch deep top. Rylee stepped closer to it and stared at the center. I pulled myself up so that I could look at what had caught her attention. In the middle of the table was the distinct mark of a large set of boots.

  “Someone uses this as their stepping stone,” she said softly, her fingers reaching out to trace the mark. “Guess we’re going to follow them up.”

  With a single smooth motion, she jumped onto the table and landed in a silent crouch. She stood and reached above her head, fingers running along a seam that only became visible as she touched it. “The sneaky bastards spelled it closed. Good thing I can handle that.”

  Her hand slid over the ceiling and a handle appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. With a swift jerk she opened the trap door and then dropped back into a crouch on the table, her eyes never leaving the dark opening. Nothing came out, no monsters, no goblins. (Shouldn’t be monsters. Monsters aren’t real) Maybe that had been true before, but not now. I sniffed the air, the sexy musk stronger than ever.

  “Incubus.”

  “Yeah, thanks, buddy.” She slid on her feet across the table, not rising from her crouch until she was off to one side of the opening. Slowly, blades raised, she stood. With a limb flopping scramble I jumped up onto the table just as she pulled herself up and into the darkness above us.

  It was with great difficulty that I stood on my back legs and gripped the edges of the opening. Muscles bunching, I launched myself up and into the dark hole.

  The smell of incubus was strong, and the smell of strawberries and chocolate wrapped itself around me. That was the girl we were looking for and she was important, and she’d been here and was close by. Behind me, the trap door slammed shut, plunging us into a semi darkness that wasn’t as dark as it could have been. Then again, maybe my eyes had improved along with my smelling and my hearing.

  Rylee was crouched beside me, her eyes closed as she tried to adjust to the darkness. I crept forward, stepping over the sticks all over the floor. The thin, white sticks with balls on the end. Really, they looked more like… .

  “Bones,” I whimpered, clamoring on top of Rylee’s legs, clinging to her.

  “Get off,” she hissed, shoving at me with one hand. Reluctantly, I did as she asked, shaking hard, the smell of death finally permeating the smell of the incubus.

  There was nowhere I could go to get away from the smell, and holding my breath only left me gasping large gulps of the nasty air.

  Rylee stood and started to move forward, toward a door at the back of the room. I moved beside her, trying not to step on the bones that were scattered everywhere. To not breathe. To not get in Rylee’s way.

  Below the door, there was a slight gap, an opening that light trickled from. Light, and that smell of strawberries and chocolate.

  “Deidre,” I whispered, and Rylee clamped a hand over my muzzle, her meaning clear. I bobbed my head. Message received, no talking. Her hand circled the doorknob, and turned it slowly, quietly. Nothing happened. It must have been locked.

  She let go, and then took a step back, raising her blade. Driving the blade forward, she rammed it through the lock and then jerked it to the left, slicing through the entire mechanism. The door swung open into a room of pale reds, pinks and whites. It looked like a little girl’s room with butterflies on the walls and stuffed animals scattered throughout. We crept into the room, Rylee sweeping toward the bed, and the nearly skeletal figure sprawled on her back on the shiny red sheets.

  “Deidre, my name is Rylee and I’m here to help you. Can you stand?”

  That was Deidre? I trotted forward and put my head on the edge of the bed. The girl looked like she was barely alive, her bones visible through her pale skin, every vein and pulse of her heart. The smell of strawberries and chocolate was strong here, but the girl was just human. So why did she smell important to me? Special, like Rylee did.

  Along with the strong scent, images flooded my brain. Me and Deidre playing in the backyard, trying to teach her how to catch a football, setting off fireworks together, hiding from Dad when he was in a rage, taking her to the hospital when Dad had cut her with a knife, trying to take her with me when I moved out, the two of us finding Mom dead in the tub, blood swirling in the steaming water, of Deidre running away, the note she left behind, me trying to find her and failing, of hiring Rylee right before everything went to hell… Deidre was my sister.

  Panicked, I clawed at her. “Deidre, Deidre, Deidre.” She couldn’t be dead. No, but then why was she so still?

  “Alex, ease off.” Rylee put a hand across my paws, and I turned to face her. Her eyes were soft, almost as if she understood. “We’ll get her out. I promise.”

  I let out a deep, bone shuddering sigh. “Okee dokee. Rylee helps Deidre.”

  She nodded and slid around to other side of the bed, and wrapped Deidre in one of the blankets. “Come on, kid. Let’s get out of here.”

  I smelled him before I saw him, his musk filling my nose. “Incubus!”

  Rylee dropped Deidre and spun, her blades out, but I put myself between her and the man that stood at the far end of the room.

  Handsome didn’t even begin to describe him. His beauty shone around him, as if he were some old time mythological god who’d fallen to earth. Silver was all I saw, his hair and eyes, and even his skin shone with a glimmer of silver that hurt my eyes. He was dressed in a pair of black jeans and boots, but nothing else, his chest bare except for the black tattoo of a snake that crawled down his ribs and into the waistband of his jeans, like an invitation to follow it. Rylee started to laugh.

  “Oh, did you think you could suck me under your spell? Tha
t’s fucking cute. How many girls have you stolen over the years, you pervert?”

  He blinked, and frowned, and I stood there, uncertain about what was going on.

  “Deidre.” I wanted to remind Rylee that was why we’d come. We had to get her out of here. Not to discuss things with that silver dude.

  “Good idea, you take Deidre out of here and get her back to the Jeep. Can you do that?” Rylee didn’t look at me, but if she thought I could do it… .

  “Yup. Alex does it.” I scrambled toward Deidre as Rylee advanced on the incubus.

  There was a thump and I looked over my shoulder to see the incubus not so handsome as he snarled at Rylee. She had a sword buried in his one shoulder and he was swinging her around, slamming her into the wall.

  I wanted to help her, but she’d said to get Deidre out. Deidre stirred and her eyes flickered open.

  “Alex?”

  “Yuppy doody, Alex here.” I scooped her up in one arm, surprised at how light she was and three-legged hobbled to the door. Glancing at Rylee with each step. The incubus was missing an arm now and blood spurted around the room, adding to the red paint, but he didn’t seem to be all that perturbed by it. And then he managed to bend Rylee backward, like a freaky flexible limbo, her arms trapped behind her, and I thought he’d break her in half. No, it was worse than that. He kissed her.

  She slumped in his arms and he dropped her to the ground. “You will be a fine meal, Tracker, but first, I must finish off my last.” His voice rolled over me and I realized that I was the only one between him and the two most important people in my life.

  I laid Deidre down and tried to find that fury that had overtaken me with the goblins. Nope, nothing.

  Trembling, I tucked tail between my legs and hunched my body over top of Deidre’s.

  “Ah, wolf, you can have that human. I will let you take her. She is close to death, her body drained. But fear not, I gave her pleasure she would have never known had I not stolen her.” He was close, only a few feet away, and his arm was… I blinked several times… it was re-growing before my eyes.