Yesterday:
He took a while to come to a conclusion, but then sighed, nodded once to her and dropped his hands from her wrist. She was about to begin when he spoke, almost too quiet to hear and she held off to listen.
“Sentinel, do it. I am weary. I have battled my conscience for too long now. Each Full Moon, I have the urge to kill and torture my prey. I don’t want to live with this anymore. I swear to myself that this time will be the last and that I shall have the strength to do what I should have done even before the judgement was passed, but I don’t have the strength. End it for me. For what it is worth, I am sorry.”
“Jez, also for what it is worth, I don’t think you are able to help yourself. You are being punished for something that was not your sin. I too am sorry.”
He nodded his head - an almost imperceptible movement - in acknowledgement. Then she lowered him down the wall and letting go of his neck, she slashed open his throat and in a fluid motion, ripped downwards, cleaving his still human belly from solar plexus to pubis.
His eyes opened wide in surprise, even though he knew that it was coming, one hand reaching for his throat to try to stem the blood as his primordial instincts took over. His other hand flailed and tried to grasp hers.
His body began the transition to Wolf once more. She ignored the changes taking place and slapped away his thrashing hand to reach into his abdomen, snapping the bottom ribs as she pushed her fist up and through.
She grabbed hold of his heart and squeezed it until it burst. She felt the strong beats rise with his panic as she applied pressure, then as gore washed over her hand, she felt the final fluttering of the destroyed muscle and Jez was Werewolf no more, his last metamorphosis remained incomplete.
Flipping the still-twitching body onto its back, she dragged it by the shirt collar for the last few metres to her car, grabbing her discarded workbag as she passed it. The trail of blood ebbed. There was only a dribble of blood from his wounds now that his heart was no longer pumping it through his veins.
She dropped his collar, his head made a sick-sounding crunch on the pitted tarmac of the car park; she opened the boot and retrieved a plastic sheet.
She draped it over the whole of the floor and left a tail over to the outside.
She lifted the body as though it weighed no more than the corpse of a child and dumped it in her car, arranging the sheet over it and pulling up corners so that no blood spilled onto the carpet. She took off her coat, pulled the gloves from the pocket first and tucked them into her trouser front pocket. Then she bundled it up with the blood soaked sleeve on the inside and threw that on top of the body.
She sensed someone approaching and finishing her task, she wiped her hands on a cloth. Then throwing the bloody cloth into the boot, she slammed the lid and turned around to sit on the car, discouraging interference.
She recognised the massive shape of the approaching man as her long-time friend Steve and relaxed. The broad shoulders and flattop cropped hair were distinctive, as was the Cromby style coat that he always wore which did nothing to hide the power and strength in his frame. His rugged features were battle-scarred but worn with modest self-assurance rather than the arrogance associated with thugs. His hands, shoved in his pockets, were also battle-scarred. They were massive hands, powerful and hefty, the useful tools of an experienced and successful boxer.
“You caught him then.” Steve made this a statement of fact rather than a question.
“I did, but you knew I would.” She said this without boast.
Steve nodded and said, “I did as you asked. I waited on the other side of the wall so I could witness you giving him his choices.”
“Thanks, but that’s not the only reason I asked you to be here.” She relaxed more, crossing her arms.
“Oh? What other reason then?”
“Well, he was an experienced Wolf - very experienced. He would have sensed me and left me alone, but he’d already spotted you and obviously thought it was you that he was aware of. It never crossed his mind that I could be a Wolf too. It helped that he was filled with bloodlust and impatient with it. It was lucky that he’d not already found another victim tonight.”
“You’re not just a pretty face then, after all,” he grinned. “But how did you know that he was experienced?”
“He’s noticed me before, well, I was sensed rather than seen. I can guard against newer Wolves recognising me as Wolf, even one as old as you would have difficulty in sensing me if I didn’t want you to, yet somehow, he knew. I was so annoyed when I realised that he was avoiding me on purpose. That’s why I did some more research on him.”
She got up from the car, grabbed her bag and nodded for her companion to get in. She threw her work bag into the back of the car, just behind her seat.
They were out of the car park and driving through deserted streets, driving in silence, but something was bothering Steve. He was beginning to become agitated and restless. He kept looking behind him into the back seat. Then he began to sniff the air. When he became too irritating for her, she asked him what was wrong.
“I don’t know. I can smell something, blood, but not the body. This is Hume blood. Where is it coming from?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot about that,” she said, reaching behind her to grab her bag from where she had thrown it. She passed him the bag. “This is my secret weapon. It’s the main reason that Jez followed me tonight. I needed a certainty. It’s in the front pocket, but be careful.”
More tomorrow!
Excerpts from Deadlier Than The Male
Part 1 -
@michelle.gent/my-first-novel-serialised-for-steemians-original-content
Part 2 -
@michelle.gent/my-first-novel-serialised-for-steemians-original-content-chapter-1-part-2
Part 3 – no, don’t argue, I know what it says, but trust me…@michelle.gent/4zdzw8-my-first-novel-serialised-for-steemians-original-content-chapter-1-part-2
Part 4 –
@michelle.gent/my-first-novel-serialised-for-steemians-original-content-chapter-1-part-4
Part 5 -
@michelle.gent/my-first-novel-serialised-for-steemians-original-content-chapter-1-part-5