All-Nighter 26

Episode Twenty-Six

Sammy

Grant looked at me and said, "So we have your ass covered, Sammy. We need to start looking at our options." Lindy pretty much ignored us while she dug through her bag searching for something. She still had her silver blade in her fist, but it was loosely gripped while she held the handles of the duffel bag. She caught me looking and shrugged -- she wasn't bothered in the least that I had seen her ready for anything. Damn that woman had balls -- probably in a jar in that damn bag from the grin on her face.

He went to one of the set of monitors that were against the furthest wall from the door, and from what I saw was for all purposes a damn panic room, and Grant pulled up some different shots than I'd seen earlier. These weren't anything from around here that was shown to me before, and from the brush and bushes, it wasn't in this resort or even this immediate area. Definitely not the Boca Raton I knew, but looked to be further out towards the west. He kept tapping keys and scrolling in and out of various shots that came up on the screens of the monitors he was closely studying. Then I saw a bright sparkle of light, and something pulled closer to where the camera lens was focused.

"Come see this, Sammy." Lindy had already drawn near to the screen to watch what had grabbed Grant's attention. He hadn't needed to call her over to his side. I went to his back and saw he was focusing on a monitor in front of him. His fancy office chair was low enough that I had no trouble watching the scene unfolding for the camera feed. I know that my mouth dropped open as my brain raced to catch up with my eyes. A fucking werewolf was looking directly into the lens with a wide toothy grin. I felt a fissure of terror run down my spine. Lindy said, "Damn, doesn't he look dashing." Her dry tone gave a lie to her comment.

Grant chuckled and said, "Nobody I know. You?" He wasn't talking to me but to Lindy.

She asked if he could sharpen the focus and he clicky clacked on the keys and soon the picture was clear as day and it was well past nightfall.

Lindy sighed and said, "Fuck me I do."

Both Grant and I spun to her and even Grant's mouth was gaped open nearly as wide as mine.

"Yeah, that's Lester Morris. Look for a smaller smoke and dust-colored were near him. That'll be Fern." She shook her head and said, "This is way crappy."

When Grant kept his mouth open and didn't speak I ventured, "Okay, we already saw a newscaster spattered over the screen along with his cameraman. How could it be worse?" I really was curious.

When shadows danced closer, her worry became really damned clear to me. There were at least five or six fur-covered forms growing larger and more menacing, gathering behind good old fur face in the lens with evil grins and no clothes. A smoke and dust shadow went right up to 'Lester' and bumped against his side with a possessive shuffle. The fact that werewolves had mates never crossed my mind and Lindy sucked in air. I was still working out that they were all pretty fucking naked. Okay, fur-covered, without any shreds of denim and flannel in sight. They were well over average human size and their faces weren't in the least human. I flashed back to that creepy ass werewolf movie in London and gulped. They didn't look like oversized dogs, wolves, or coyotes, but they looked fucking scary. Their eyes had a flat shine I thought of as nasty and dangerous, and as I watched, the Lester one nuzzled his mate Fern and looked back to the lens. A rapid motion and the lens went black -- I guess they were done with being filmed for the moment.

"We really must leave, but Lindy, I think you need to tell us more about Lester and Fern Morris if you wouldn't mind," Grant sounded very calm while I saw a small tremor in his right hand. He was fucking faking it even as he tried to seem bossy. I had to give him props for that. I was keeping a clear focus on not pissing myself or worse.

Lindy nodded and asked, "Can we abandon this ship yet or is there more for you to do first?"

Grant pushed a few more buttons and said, "No, we are good to go. But I think we need to use a different exit and grab another vehicle. My BMW is too small, and I doubt that Sammy's grandma's going to appreciate his using her car to escape a werewolf invasion in Boca."

Laughing Lindy said, "Really? You have something better than my SUV?" Her eyes were dancing. Grant gave her a glance and I watched his mind twist and turn. It was freaky but informative. He really was thinking it through. Personally I figured Grant had paid out the ass for whatever sort of car-slash-truck he had and yet Lindy's offer was giving him pause.

"Possibly, but I would be happy to accept your offer. Give me half a second," he pulled out his fancy phone. I don't know if it was a 'smart phone' but with all the clicking and soft dings he seemed to be happy.

"Okay, I've added a clause to your paperwork to cover the vehicle in the event it is destroyed in our journey." Grant wasn't kidding.

Lindy smiled and said, "Thanks. Besides, I have a few toys in the back that will come in handy."

I didn't ask. I mean she'd been through hell and back, and from her pointed questions earlier, I was sure she had some rotten bits of horror that could come in handy. I mean, she fucking knew the werewolves we'd seen.

Without too many more questions we headed out.

Lindy

I was stunned to see Lester and Fern Morris in their fur forms on the monitor in Grant's crazy control room. Sammy held it together better than he'd done in the past, but admittedly even I was blown away seeing the werewolves. They'd been a slice of hell I'd escaped two years ago in Kentucky. I'd gone there to find what was killing cattle in a rural community and stumbled upon the werewolf pack. They'd been innocent of the beef slayings, but involved with some crappy hillbilly slaughtering. The hillbillies in question were part of a remote moonshine operation that had caused some kids to die. Not their product, but the kids were wandering the back hills unsupervised by their corn mash family members, and became lunch for a few hungry weres. I was shocked at how uncaring the families were over the deaths of their kids.

After a few weeks of tracking, I had stumbled literally upon Lester and his crew. They weren't the wayward werewolves who'd been killing the locals. I had no reason to kill them other than my gut feeling, but instead focused on the true evil creatures who'd been killing the children. While I was cleaning out the pack, Lester's group vanished in the middle of the night. Sickened by the whole deal, I continued on my path and figured I'd find them later. It seemed like later was tonight. Happy happy ... not. I shared my tale as we headed into the night. My SUV suited Grant, and I didn't much care for how Sammy was feeling. I really wasn't a happy gal, but at least I felt my adrenaline pumping and sparking a bit of interest.

"Where to, Grant?" He was in the passenger seat while Sammy was sulking behind me. It was like he thought he was invisible and I wasn't able to see his pouting in my rear view mirror. Grant was happy to be asked and he said, "I think we need to get closer to the incident."

Nodding, I headed west towards the I-95 freeway. Grant kept giving me directions, and since I'd never lived in Florida, I graciously accepted his guidance. As we drew closer to the area that looked like the stuff we'd seen on the news, I saw that tons of folks had the same idea. A few cops were trying to direct cars away, but looking at the bumper to bumper cars I knew that they weren't having much success. A few stray cars did head away after the cops waved them off, with the drivers trying to duck from our gazes. Cowards.

I didn't see anywhere to park as we slowly closed the gap between the roads and the interstate. "Grant, any bright ideas about where to park?" I finally asked.

He was tapping away on his cell phone and said, "Yes, the Mistress found a place." I kept my trap shut, and to my amazement so did Sammy. Grant was pretty shaken up to keep using the term Mistress, and I was happy that Sammy wasn't stupid enough to challenge the scary dude. I still wasn't completely sure what Grant was, but he clicked in to me as pure anger and a wicked force of nature that I didn't have any desire to challenge. I guess Sammy had grown up since we'd last been together.

Grant had me turn down a small street, leaving the rabble, and Sammy gave a slight squeak in the back seat.

"What's your problem?" I bit out while still following Grant's pointing and gesturing. The roads were getting smaller, and I didn't see anyone else traveling the same routes. I didn't know that roads were even this small while still living in the 'real world.'

"There is something flying overhead that's not a plane or helicopter. I can see the shadow chasing us."

Sammy was right. I didn't hesitate, but stopped abruptly, shutting off the engine while hauling ass to the back of the SUV. I opened the back and pulled out a small crossbow and a quiver of arrows, slinging the strap over my shoulder while loading my weapon. I dropped down behind the driver's side rear wheel and looked for the threat.

Waving his hands Grant stumbled out of the passenger side hissing, "No, they are with me."

I stilled and turned to him hissing back, "What the hell? Why didn't you say something?" I was furious and trembling with unused energy.

Shaking his head, he said, "I didn't think anyone would notice."

Laughing I pulled the arrow back from launching at the shadow overhead and said, "Well you were wrong on two counts."

Seeing the confusion on his face I said, "Sammy saw them, and I was two seconds away from taking them out." I actually had seen three shadows and had a bead on one of them, when Grant had called me back. I was still not sure that they were oh-so-innocent. I mean sure, they were like some kind of friends of Grant and Melissa. That made them safe ... right? Even I didn't think that and from Sammy's wide-eyed stare, he was equally disturbed by Grant's secret friends flying overhead while we traveled in some current possible werewolf territory.

Grant made some odd sound in his throat that wasn't a whistle but more like a coughing noise. Then four feathered creatures landed next to me. I hadn't seen that many, and my stomach tumbled at that notion. I was rapidly feeling like I was getting over my head and we'd yet to even meet up with the werewolves. I was pretty sure that this evening was going to be too long, and the body count wasn't going to be pretty either. I hated knowing that I was right, but damned sure I wasn't wrong. From the look on Sammy's face he wasn't far behind me.

"Lindy and Sammy I am pleased to introduce you both to Melissa's creatures. This is Fawn, Giselle, Natalia and Howard."

Howard? Okay.