Banished To Earth Book Two, Souls Adrift (10)

Chapter 7

 

  36

 

   “Pry!” Silhouette yelled as she rushed to the balcony.

 

    Crumpled against the railing, Pry was so fixed on the distant wood she did not notice when Sil stepped out of her bedroom. Trudy was by her side a second later.

 

    Soon the three of them were kneeling behind the railing, peering out across the sparkling dew-dappled field.
 

“Little bit, what in the world?”   

 

   Silhouette glanced over at Trudy, then down at Pry. “Chase?” His name fell from her mouth like a stone.

 

    “He is out there.” The little vampire cried. Rising slowly, she drew in a deep breath, inhaling her composure as she spoke. “He needs me.”

 

   “Wait, what, why?” Trudy asked.

 

   “He changed,” Silhouette had already guessed what had happened. “Didn’t he?”

 

    Her tiny frame collapsed against the sleek Huntress. Suddenly, Silhouette was doing something she had never done before, comforting another.

 

   “Changed?” Trudy stepped back, “You mean?”

 

   Sil looked at Trudy, “Yes, he’s a werewolf now.”

 

   Trudy shrank away. “I, I should, ah, go check on Nikki and Beth.”

 

  “You do that.” Silhouette smiled sweetly at Trudy. “Sure, hope your boyfriend doesn’t find him first, not joking.”

 

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   Trudy’s cheeks reddened for a moment. She nodded and turned away. The fear on her face was not lost on Sil or Pry…

 

   

     Trudy found Nikki tightly wrapped in Beth’s arms, on the floor, hunched behind the bed. “Chase was screaming and yelling. What’s going on?” Beth said when Trudy slid down beside them.

 

   “Chase, he ah cha….”

 

 Beth pulled her right hand from Nikki just long enough to hold it up to Trudy, then nodded. “Did he hurt Pry?”

 

   “Who Mommie? Who hurt Pry?” the child cried.

 

   “Oh, baby, no one hurt Pry. She, she’s with Silhouette, watching the sunrise.”

 

   “And Chase?” The little one pleaded.

 

   “He, he went for a walk.”

 

     Nikki’s eyes narrowed, “No, he didn’t! It’s not story time.”

 

   “Tucker will find him,” Beth assured Nikki, “Won’t he, Trudy?”

 

    “He shore will and goin’ to bring hm back safe and sound. You can count on that.”

 

     Beth and Trudy traded worried glances…

 

 

        A lanky shadow slid across the diamond dewed grass, a short jaunt from the large red and white barn standing behind Trudy’s house. It loomed over the backyard like a giant sentry.

 

     Tucker was just about to check on Trudy’s horses. On his first circuit of her property, he noticed they were standing stone still, apparently transfixed by the great oak. It towered at the centre of the back field, less than a quarter of a mile away.  

 

   Since then, they had not moved an inch. Something was not right. However, he never made it to them. A grey shape streaked through his peripheral vision. Just to the left of him, a hundred feet away, it galloped by, leapt over the corral’s white planks and into the dark forest in the direction of Chase's childhood hovel.  

 

  He had already checked out the abandoned shack earlier. It and the oak were giving off the same vibe, a very unpleasant vibe, at that.  Still, he had not sensed monster or Hunter presence, that is, not until now.  

 

38

 

     Now both were whining loudly and unmistakably in his mind. “Chase?” He muttered. “Or Pry?” He asked aloud as if expecting the bright blue morning sky to boom down an answer.

 

    It made no sense. Well, that was why he was out here. A moment later, he leapt through a shift portal and stepped out onto a shadow-cloaked alcove where the tumbled-down shack squatted against the briar and vine-tangled wood. Something lurked there.

 

    A moment later, he saw Pry. She had slung on a pair of denim cutoffs and a white T-shirt, without bothering to find shoes.

 

    “He is here,” Pry said a second after she jumped out of the air into the dirt yard and ran up to Tucker.

 

    “What else is he?” An odd but honest question. Tucker's tone was grim.

 

     A low growl answered his question. “He is inside.” She thought aloud.

 

    A gloomy lattice work of shadow and light slid across Pry's slight frame as she eased up to the house.

 

    Tucker’s heavy duster rustled when he snatched his pistol from it. Pry glanced over and saw it.

 

   “Do not shoot him.” Her normally sweet voice was stern and sharp with warning.

 

     His lips pressed tightly together as if trying to keep words locked inside as he put his gun away. “And if he attacks?”

 

   “He won’t.”

 

  “You don’t know that…”

 

   “I do. Chase,” she yelled. “Come out, please.”

 

    He roared. The shack trembled. Warped grey planks of half-rotten boards tumbled away from the shack's rotten frame.

   

     “Chase, stop. It will fall on you. Come out, please come out.”

 

     The back porch had collapsed.  The back door lay flat on the sagging kitchen floor. It squealed when Chase shuffled across it and kicked the crumbling remnants of the porch out of his way.

 

    Eyes swollen with shock, they watched a seven-foot-tall werewolf rip through a springy wall of brier and vine from the right side of the abandoned ruin and dog walk toward them.

 

   “Leave me.” It growled.

 

39

 

  “Never,” Pry yelled, running up to him, her arms spread wide. She threw her body at him. Tucker snatched his pistol and aimed right at the wolfman’s head.

 

    He caught her in his great hairy arms. His claws arched up, careful not to bite into her tender