Body Count Page 7
It was a restless sleep, filled with strange dreams…
She ran through the dark woods.
Running…
There was no end.
At morning’s first light, she woke. Donning her robe and slippers, she made her way downstairs, careful that her movements did not wake Maximillian or Hugh.
They needed rest.
And she needed time to think.
Time. There was so little of it.
If she didn’t come up with a way to slow Hugh and Maximillian’s cell growth, she feared the lack of fresh blood would destroy them.
Marta sat down at her kitchen table and cradled her head in her hands.
She sat like that a long time, and didn’t move until she heard her doorbell ring.
* * * *
She gazed out the small window next to the front door.
Timothy stood outside, looking up at the house before impatiently pressing the doorbell again.
She opened the door and let him in.
“I wanted to see how you were doing.” He held up a bag. “I brought bagels. Thought we could have breakfast together.”
“I-I’m afraid not.”
He put the bag down on a table nearby. “What’s wrong? You look terrible.”
She glanced around. “I have coffee on. Come into the kitchen.”
He grabbed the bag of bagels and followed.
Once in the kitchen, she poured him coffee. Passing him the cup, she noticed he took it with his left hand. His right hand remained at his side. “What’s wrong with your arm?” she asked.
“Nothing.” He accepted the cup from her.
She frowned when she saw a red stain on his shirt. “You’re bleeding.” She nodded towards his upper arm. “Let me see.”
Marta moved towards him and rolled up his sleeve. Timothy’s eyes never left her face.
Blood stained the bandage on his arm, too. She unwound the gauze and noticed four scratches.
“What’s this? It looks as though…”
She suddenly remembered Maximillian and Hugh’s conversation…
…but I think you may have wounded him with your claws.
Timothy jerked his arm away.
“It was you,” she said softly. “You were outside last night in the field of corpses, weren’t you?”
He angled his head, rolling down his shirtsleeve. “So, now you know.”
She plunked down into a chair.
“Know what?”
She glanced back to see Maximillian and Hugh standing in the kitchen.
She rose to her feet on shaky legs.
“I came here this morning,” Timothy walked over to the coffee pot and helped himself to more. “To say thank you.”
“Thank you? For what?” Her voice wobbled.
He smiled thinly. “Your notes. They were very helpful.” He glanced at Maximillian and Hugh, taking a sip from his coffee mug. “These are the uh two, creatures, I take it?”
She moved to stand between them and Timothy.
“Don’t, cherie,” Hugh whispered.
She shooed him away.
“Your notes were very helpful, Marta, and I thank you for giving them to me.”
Maximillian frowned. “You said you destroyed them.”
Timothy smiled. “Ah, yes, she did, but not before granting me permission to use them and present them to the board of directors here at Long Island College. I think they’ll find Marta’s research very interesting. After all, we will share all the monetary rewards you promised, isn’t that right, Marta?”
The look on Hugh’s face—misery mixed with pain and betrayal, was more than Marta could bear.
She turned away from him, her body shaking with fury. “I never said any such thing.”
Timothy raised one sandy brow. “Oh really? That’s not the discussion I recall. I remember you saying quite clearly that this would put both of us on the scientific map. We’d be celebrities, and you two,” he glanced at Hugh and Maximillian, “would be locked away somewhere where you could be examined and studied and, well, viewed by the public.” He laughed, a coarse, sardonic laugh. “The public always loves a good freak show.”
Marta panicked. She glanced at her two loves. “You can’t believe what he says.”
“It is like Moira’s betrayal…all over again.” Hugh shook his head.
“No!” she cried, panic clawing her insides. “I’m not like Moira. I haven’t betrayed you.”
“I’ve got several members of the board of directors on their way here now…and the authorities.” Clayton glanced at Hugh and Maximillian. “It will be better if you come along quietly.”
Hugh growled low in his throat. She watched in horror as he lashed out, his hand growing claw-like talons where his nails should be. He swung out at Clayton, but he backed away, right into a small hutch against the wall. It came crashing down, the plates shattering into hundreds of pieces on the floor.
Marta screamed when Maximillian pounced on Timothy.
He turned his head in her direction, the centers of his eyes burning with bright red intensity. Then he shook his head, the bright red of his eyes gone. “Why?” he asked her. “Why did you do this to us?”
Tears streamed down her face.
“Look at his arm.” Her voice wobbled. “Timothy’s arm has claw marks on it. He was out in the field – you slashed him.”
Maximillian grabbed hold of Timothy’s arm. He pushed up his shirt-sleeve.
The scratches on his skin were gone.
“But how can that be?” Marta shook her head. “The claw marks were there a few seconds ago...”
“You lie, Marta.” Maximillian sighed. “And you broke our hearts.”
In the next instant, Hugh grabbed hold of Maximillian.
They disappeared, as though they had never existed.
All was quiet.
The only thing Marta heard was the ticking of the clock as she stared at the empty space where they once stood.
Timothy stirred on the floor.
Then he got to his feet, rising to his full height slowly.
He didn’t stop.
He kept on rising, and rising…soaring up in the air….
Her eyes widened as she watched his head touch the top of the ceiling.
Long, flowing robes of gold, blue and silver swirled around him.
“You’re Balthazar?” Her body trembled. “But how can that be possible?”
“Your Timothy is a nice warm body to possess...he has helped me move through your time.” Balthazar’s voice boomed. “I needed the body of an evil human. Timothy Clayton proved very useful, for his soul is rotten, his greed boundless. He traded the use of his body for gold. Humans always want riches—the pursuit of wealth is always their downfall. When I’m through with him, I’ll dispose of his body. But now, it is time for me to rid the world of you.”
Marta screamed, but she was certain…no one could hear her.
Chapter Six
“I am tired of walking, cousin. Can we not just disappear again?”
“We can only do that trick a couple of times in a row, Hugh.”
Hugh shook his head. “We have come full circle. We are on the same road that took us to Marta.”
“Do not mention her name again,” Maximillian growled.
“I am going to rest.” Hugh marched over to a nearby log and eased his tall frame down onto it. He stretched out his legs and grabbed a stick, drawing a pattern in the dirt in front of him.
“What is that?” Maximillian sat down beside him. “It looks like a ring.”
“It is.” He sighed, tossing the stick away. “There was something about that man, that Timothy Clayton, that disturbed me.”
Maximillian snorted. “How about the fact that he was ready to turn us into science experiments?”
Hugh shook his head, a thoughtful look on his face. “It was something else.” He turned his head towards Maximillian. “That gold ring he wore.”
“So?” Maximillian raised a brow. “Wha
t of it?”
“It looked familiar.”
“How so?”
“A plain gold ring. Perhaps…” Hugh turned his head away. “Marta had given it to him. But it seems old, it…” Hugh’s eyes widened. “Balthazar!”
“What of him?” Maximillian glanced around. “He is here?”
“No, I’m an idiot!” Hugh smacked his forehead with the heel of his hand. “He is at the farmhouse, with Marta!”
“What? You make no sense, cousin.”
“Oh, but I do, Maximillian. I do. And if I’m right, we don’t have a moment to lose. He has used the ultimate deception on us, our own fears and mistrust.” He grabbed hold of Maximillian’s arm. “Come, we are going back there.”
Maximillian shrugged him off. “I am not. We are getting as far away from that body farm…and Marta…as possible.”
Just then, Maximillian’s ears picked up a woman’s scream, it sounded faint, yet he couldn’t deny what he heard.
Hugh glanced at him. “Did you hear that? It sounded like Marta.”
They took flight. As they soared over the trees and foliage, Maximillian asked Hugh. “How is that ring significant?”
“Because it is the one Balthazar created with his black arts and alchemy from that small piece of lead. He wore it proudly, remember?”
Maximillian’s eyes widened. “And he must have inhabited Clayton’s body. That’s the only way he could get around without being detected. Good God, we must hurry!”
“We are cousin, we are.”
They arrived at the small farmhouse in time to see Balthazar’s face pressed up against the glass of the front window. He had grown in size so much that his entire face and body filled the front room of the small farmhouse. Next to him, he held a struggling Marta.
“She will die if you come any closer!”
They stopped their approach.
Suddenly, Marta broke free of Balthazar. She ran away, but neither Hugh nor Maximillian could fathom where she went.
“Come out, Balthazar, and fight us here, on our terms. Do not involve innocent human beings.”
The house shook.
“I pray that she got out, cousin.” Hugh grabbed hold of Maximillian.
“I shall kill him if he harms one hair on her head,” Maximillian’s voice vibrated with fury..
He blinked once, and Balthazar stood before them.
“You will pay for all eternity for what you did to Moira. I will not let you rest. Never!”
“Leave Marta alone,” Hugh said quietly. He glanced at Maximillian. “Do your worst to us, but leave her be.”
From the corner of his eye, Maximillian saw Marta creep towards them, something in her hand.
“She has done nothing wrong.”
Balthazar snorted. “Other than allowing you to feed? To give you sustenance?”
“She loves us,” Hugh said softly. “And we love her.”
Upon hearing Hugh’s words, Balthazar’s robes stopped glowing, their magnificent colors fading. The gold ring on his hand turned to lead. Soon, it became dust, and disappeared from his finger.
“No!” he shouted. “No, this cannot be. I am fading.”
Hugh grinned. “The love of a good woman has broken the curse.” He clapped Maximillian on the back.
Balthazar turned to run. He collided with Marta. For just an instant, they struggled, and then she plunged a hypodermic needle into his back. He staggered once, and then fell to the ground. Marta dropped to her knees then pushed the end of the needle, delivering its contents into his back.
Balthazar rose to his feet and ran, his robes dropping away from his body in ragged pieces. Soon, he tore through the woods, Marta’s eyes on his naked back.
Or rather...Timothy’s naked back.
“He is just an ordinary man now.” Hugh grinned. “He is just Timothy Clayton, a human being. Nothing more.”
Maximillian turned to face Marta. “Are you all right?”
She walked into his outstretched arms, then Hugh’s. “I’m fine. And as long as he’s just an ordinary man now, he will soon have very extraordinary problems.”
“Such as?”
“I injected him with blood I took from a corpse last week. The man had died of something called salmonella or food poisoning. The bacteria were still alive in that sample. It now lives in Timothy. Soon, he’ll be very ill.”
“It’s the least he deserves,” Maximillian growled.
Hugh grabbed hold of his stomach. Maximillian took his arm. “What is it, man? Are you ill?”
Hugh let go of a bark of laughter. “My stomach. It rumbles. With hunger!”
Maximillian’s eyes widened when his stomach gurgled, too.
She blew out a shaky breath. “Are you human again?”
Then she heard their stomachs rumble. A smile lined her face.
Marta took of both their arms and led them back to the farmhouse. “Come on, I think it’s time we got you some real food.”
At the front door, she stopped and turned to hug each of them.
“My two loves,” she whispered. “Forever.”
About the Author
Catrina Calloway adores writing romance, and her motto is: ‘Two, hot, hunky heroes are better than one.’ Born in Alaska, the land of the midnight sun, and now currently residing in New York, Catrina was an avid reader of romance for many years before penning her first erotic ménage romance story, 'Eight Erotic Nights.' Catrina loves to hear from her readers and fans so please feel free to email her at: www.myspace.com/catrinacalloway
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