Banished To Earth Book One (24)

  His stomach was slowly digesting a nice, sweet chunk of Stayner. He would have loved to finish the meal. But this would suffice.

Satisfied, he broke off the attack, leaving Stayner clinging to life, and helpless to do anything but wait for the horror to come. That would do. Pry was safe. Threat not merely neutralized but consumed.

With speed and power, no shark ever possessed, Chase whipped down, looked up, and savored for a moment the sight of Stayner being torn apart by a ring of sharks circling and lunging at an ever-shrinking meal.

A cloud of pink water, cluttered with Stayner’s remains, shrank behind Chase as he swam back to shore. With every stroke, his humanity came rushing back. It was grey twilight when he finally sloshed out of the water, exhausted and stupefied by what had just transpired.

“Pryathamel’s warrel never died.” He said to the sinking sun. “It was me all along!”

He slumped on the beach, slack arms propped up on bent knees. Nearly naked, he looked around, saw no one, and waited for darkness to hide him.

He was not too far from his beach house, and there was no sign that the Fall had happened. Sky looked normal, beautiful in fact. That was good. There was time. He’d go home, just long enough to get to his cell phone, which was purposely left on his nightstand. It should be fully charged. He’d call Pry. Shower change and hope to never see or be the werewolf again. But deep inside, he knew better. Even now, he could feel its looming presence testing the walls of his mind.

Darkness finally fell, hiding him from any prying eyes. He trudged back to the house, easily seeing every landmark, thanks to his newly acquired Hunter abilities.

Everything looked the same. He smiled and dragged himself inside. Sleep, that would be so nice. But not anytime soon. He had a two-hour drive ahead of him. He dreaded it, but shifting there was out of the question. His little dust-up with Stayner drove that home.

Little dust-up, it was a knockdown, drag-out death match. Stayner was dead and maybe a big chunk of his own humanity, too.

“Pry,” he said aloud. The dark, empty house did not reply. But the sound of her name in his ears cleared his mind and put him back on task. A moment later, cell phone in hand, he reached out to her.

 

94

“Chase,” the sound of her voice, sweet as it was, did little to reenergize him. But it did make him happy.

“Yes, I, I. Are you alright, Beth and Nikki, they good?”

“Yes, Chase, we are good. You sound so tired. Maybe you should stay at your house tonight. It is a long drive, but Beth says we are halfway there.”

“No, getting cleaned up and maybe a…” He started to say, a bite to eat. It was supper time after all. But caught himself. He wasn’t sure he’d ever eat again, considering he vividly remembered biting off a piece of Stayner. Water suddenly filled his mouth. Hot stinging vomit burned up his throat. He raced to the bathroom and filled the commode with slimy bits of Stayner.

Phone still clasped tightly in his hand, he could hear Pry calling his name. And she could hear him throwing up.

He collapsed by the toilet, breathing heavily. Pry was yelling his name now. After a bit, he dragged the phone up to his ear. “I’m here, had a little accident.”

“What, are you hurt?”

“No, sweetie. But the commode has seen better days. I threw up.”

“Threw what up?”

“The new Hunter. That popped right out. He’s in my stomach, Pry, at least some of him was.”

“Oh, so you finally changed?”

“What! You knew?”

“Yes, I sensed my warrel ever since our joining.”

“Coulda’ told me.”

“I sensed your confusion and dread as well. We have much to say to one another. You should stay at the beach house.”

“Do you think I might hurt Nikki?”

“Do you think I might? We are both monsters now.”

 

95

Her hurt stung his ears. “I’m sorry, that’s not what I meant. I just killed a man. I mean, he’s dead, really dead. I did that!”

“I am sorry. You are right. You are no killer. Never been to war, or even in a real fight.”

“Held my own,” He joked. “Actually, the sharks killed him. I just bit him, real hard.”

“Sharks?”

“Yeah, it was crazy. But he was after you, big time.”

“It does sound like a big time.”

“His name was Grant Stayner, big black guy.”

“He was African?”

“No, he just loved black clothes, trying to make some tough guy statement, I guess. Sounds like someone’s been studying.” Chase said, eager to shift the conversation away from Stayner.

“No, it was me. I love Earth. I want to learn all about it.”

“Yeah, that’s good, could ‘ya not tell Beth about …”

“Ah, we’re on speaker Chase.” Beth did not sound happy. “Thank God Nikki is fast asleep. No, it’s alright, new world, new problems. Thank you Chase. I know you mean well, and, and you could have died.”

“Almost did.”

“Look, you do what you feel is best. We’ve been together quite a bit, and you’ve been nothing but good to us.  Your problems are our problems. We’re together in this. Trust is a must. Sorry for the rhyme.”

“No, it was cute. I liked it.”

Pry glanced up and noticed Beth turning red as a smile crept across her face. Now Pry was smiling.

“Okay, Beth, I’ll be joining y'all later tonight. I really want a shower, think I’ll drink a bottle of mouthwash too.”

“Just be careful.” Pry quickly added.

“Yeah, let us know when you get there, okay.”

96

“Of course.”

“We love you.” Pry said, “Do not forget your promise.”

“And I love you. See you as soon as I can. Goodbye.”

The phone went silent. Chase was alone. Alone and fearing he might change back into the warrel. He needed to test himself, see if he could revert. Now was the time to do it. No one was around. No one to kill. But first, toothpaste, wonderful, wonderful toothpaste. And hot soapy water. That’d be good. Clean and calm, rested, normal-the right condition to try and bring out the beast. Maybe he’d wait until after to dress. His last change had left him in nothing but under pants, good thing they were extra stretchy.