Interruptions Page 4

  Chapter Two

  WE WALKED IN SILENCE FOR ABOUT FIVE MINUTES, then Eloise said, “I know you think I came by just to get Sam out the house, Cadence, but my car really did break down.” She indicated we should turn and go left at the corner.

  I glanced up at her - she’s a lot taller than I, at least five-ten or so - and was startled to see that worried “I-don’t-want-you-to-think-badly-of-me” look on her face. Okay. She was Southern, which was obvious by her accent - the stretched out words, her “you” coming out as “yew”, that sort of thing, not to mention the “y’all” - but I hadn’t pegged her as somebody who’d give a rats ass what I thought. I shrugged.

  “It’s all right, Eloise, I don’t think that,” I lied. I thought about the fact she’d said she couldn’t get a signal on her cell. Well, there were some dead zones in this area. Maybe she’d hit one of those. We tromped along for a few more minutes, making a right at another corner. Uh huh. Sure as shittin’ I would definitely have had to start sniffing out whatever trail she’d left.

  “How did you and Sam meet?” she asked, “I mean, if that’s not getting too personal.”

  “No, it’s not,” I replied. I gave her the simple story. “We met at the train station in Boston. He was waiting to catch a train to get to Salem and I’d just gotten off the train from New York, and was trying to get to the taxi-stand so I could get to Cambridge. A man ran into me, knocked me down, and tried to run off with my shoulder bag. Sam came to my rescue.” That was all I ever told anyone who was not a werewolf, or some other kind of supernatural. And usually didn’t even tell them the whole thing. Too involved.

  “Oh! You poor thing! To have somebody try to rob you like that! Why, it’s a good thing he was around, and such a gentleman!” she exclaimed.

  I smiled. Yeah, Sam’s a gentleman all right. Most of the time. “Yep. We had coffee after that, he missed his train, we exchanged numbers”- almost true - “and it developed from there.” I could see a silver, late model Mercedes ahead, pulled close to the curb but with the back sitting out as if it had just sort of drifted there. “That your car?” I asked, inclining my head at it.

  “Yes. It just started sputtering and stalling, so I pulled over to the side. I kept trying to get it restarted but it just sat there making a horrible noise every time I tried.” She sighed, shaking her head. “I just had work done on it, too. It was running great when I got to the store. It only started acting up after I got out of the parking lot and headed home.”

  Hmm. I looked around the area. It was at the edge of my neighborhood where there were no nearby houses and not many street lights. You could see the distant lights from the main road, and cars going by - not many this time of night - so it was pretty dark. A good area to get mugged. Not too much of that going on out here, but you could never be too careful. I sniffed the air. I smelled pine trees, car fumes, and somewhere not too close, thank the Lord, somebody had hit a skunk. I set my tools down.

  “Open the door and we’ll try it, Eloise. Could’ve just been a momentary glitch and maybe it’ll start now.”

  She hauled out her key and got in. I waited while she put it in the ignition and gave it a turn. It made an ugly noise, and the engine didn’t turn over. She kept trying ‘til I waved at her to stop.

  Well.

  “Pop the hood for me, I’ll take a look.” I leaned in, and over the scent of the gas, smelled an odd, sweetish odor. I straightened up, thinking.

  I walked back to her gas tank cover and peered closely at it. Deep scratches around the edges. It had been pried open. I was betting somebody had poured something into her tank. Something designed to make the car stop after a few miles. My bet was on antifreeze, which meant the car wasn’t starting again until the gas tank was drained and cleaned.

  I rose up and looked around, sniffing the air. It had been maybe forty-five minutes since she left the car there. We were only two or three miles from the Harris-Teeter. Whoever did this must be in the area by now, even if they’d been on foot. Probably had been too many cars coming through when she’d pulled over, and they’d gone past her then, looking to come back. There were no cars now. Then, I saw one coming toward us on the opposite side of the road. I watched as it slowed down and came to a stop, just as Eloise got out of the car. She hurried back to me, nervously.

  “I recognize that car, Cadence. It was parked beside mine at the Harris-Teeter,” she whispered in that breathless voice. She had her cell ‘phone out, and was turning it around trying to detect a signal.

  I looked at the car, and could see why it would be recognizable. Damned thing was a real rust bucket with flaking green paint, and the grill looked as if it had tangled with a pole or a tree at some point and then pulled back out into some half-assed semblance of straight. Eloise had probably been relieved that whoever owned it hadn’t slammed the door into her Mercedes.

  The door opened, and a big, burly guy stepped out. “You ladies need some help?” he asked, languidly. I could see two other heads in the car, and the door opened out on the other side.

  Uh-oh. I smelled them and knew. In my mind I said: Sam, we got a problem.

  How many? he asked the same way. He knew I wouldn’t call him without a good reason. I could handle three regular human guys. These guys were not human. I surreptitiously sniffed again, to be sure of exactly what they were. Ghouls. I wondered, absently, why the hell they were bothering Eloise.

  Three big ghouls, Sam. Get here fast. “Eloise,” I said quietly, “Get behind me. Don’t say anything. Let me do the talking. I don’t think they’re here to help.” They were probably the ones who’d put the antifreeze in her tank.

  Taking Annamae next door, Babes, then I’m on my way. Hang tough, he said. Good daddy. He wasn’t about to leave our kid in the house alone even though it would delay him a few minutes.

  The big guy walked over to us swaggering a little. I could see the two others coming around the car to start across the road. They were nearly as big as the first one. They were confident they had this. Ghouls can’t smell worth a crap so no way they knew what I was. Some paras can tell even if they can’t smell, but ghouls can’t.

  I’m small as a human, though even then I’m stronger than I look. When I’m outside my neighborhood, I often pretend to struggle with heavy objects, just so I don’t get strange looks. I’m a not-so-small wolf and even stronger then. I could probably take on three little ones though it wouldn’t be easy, but three big ghouls was a whole different bucket of bolts. I could have taken one of them, maybe even two, but three this size especially with Eloise to look out for - not so much. And I knew I’d have to change. I hoped it wouldn’t scare the bejeezus out of Eloise. Maybe she’d just faint and roll under the car or something. Still, I wasn’t changing until I had to. Even though it’s fast, it hurts like a sonofabitch.

  “We’re fine, sir,” I said, as if I didn’t know what he was. “My husband is on his way.”

  They looked at each other and grinned - horribly. Behind me, I heard Eloise gasp. Yeah, razor sharp teeth. She hadn’t seen yet that they also had very long claws.

  “Oh, we’ll just wait right here with you, then,” he drawled, “just to make sure you’re…safe.” The other two snickered. I could see their pointed teeth gleaming in the faint light from the far off street lamp.

  They were trying to get us rattled to heighten our fear. They got off on it. I backed into Eloise as they came closer, and I could feel her shaking. I could smell her fear, too. Damn. That was just going to excite them even more. “If you don’t mind, sir, please stop right there,” I requested politely.

  I’m on my way, dear, keep ‘em talking if you can, sent Sam.

  Trying, but I think they’re about to attack, I sent back just as the big one abruptly moved fast, coming at me like a suddenly unleashed pit-bull, claws extended.

  Eloise screamed as he made to run right over me, trying to s
hove me into her and knock us both down at once. I leaned forward and jumped between his outstretched arms, yelling at Eloise to run. The ghoul and I crashed together and went rolling, and to my surprise, instead of Eloise running, she waded in and started whaling on the ghoul with her fists, screeching at him to let me go. Bless her heart. She thought he had me instead of the other way around. The other two ghouls seemed shocked for a second, that little ole me had jumped and knocked their leader down, then they moved. And I changed. Like I said, it’s fast but God does it hurt. There is no transition. One moment I was a small black woman struggling with a huge man three times my size, the next I was a large white wolf - hey, I can’t help how that works out - going for his throat and ripping it out. I could hear Eloise screaming her head off.

  You have to do more than just rip out a ghoul’s throat. That just slows them down for a moment, then there’re back at you again. I felt myself being lifted off the ghoul by one of the others, and he tried to throw me, but I’m very limber - so says Sam - and I twisted and latched onto his arm with my teeth, holding on as he tried to shake me off, and he howled and lost his grip. I dropped to the road and whipped around to see the other ghoul chasing after Eloise who, while still screaming like a banshee, had turned and was hauling