Blood and Beasts

Chapter 47

Hushed voices, soft and barely comprehensible, began to sift through the haze. Horrible dreams had plagued a feverish sleep. Cara couldn't remember now what the dreams had been, but they had terrified her, scared her so bad she had desperately fought her way back to consciousness. However the waking world is often crueler than dreams and heavy sorrow beat down on her with thoughts of the previous night.

The voices were coming clearer now.

" – should call the police."

"No, there's no telling what they'll do with her."

"That's not our concern. We don't know what was going on last night. She could be dangerous." The last word came out as a hiss. The woman's voice sounded familiar.

"Please, I need you to trust me. We have to protect her." A man's voice.

"Then let's at least call her an ambulance. She nearly bleed out, all over the good rug too." Cara wondered where she was.

"I don't want to do anything until she tells us what's going on. Besides, she seems stable now, and the bleeding has stopped. Please, Meredith, trust me." The Johnsons. Somehow she had ended up at their place. Cara opened her weary eyes a crack to the highly polished faux rustic cottage. She was in a living room with lovely hardwood floors and a table to match sitting atop a lavish white fur rug, now stained dark crimson in numerous large splotches. A gas fireplace was ablaze against one wall with a large flat screen set in the corner opposite. Cara was lying on a large couch of dark brown leather, with many towels piled around her head and neck, and a soft blanket overtop of her. A matching chair sat on the opposite side of the coffee table, just in front of the large bay windows and screen doors. The curtains were drawn tight, but Cara could see early morning light peeking in.

As she looked around, she felt the intense strain at the side of her neck, over her left shoulder. She moved her other arm up to feel. There was a thick layer of bandages roughly taped down over the area. Cara peeled them back with a grimace and felt the wound underneath. It wasn't bleeding anymore. Quite the opposite. It now had the quality of an old scar. The bite hadn't killed her, but the unnatural wound brought home the dark realization. The next full moon, the change would begin. And the next after that...the wolf would take control.

But Cara was able to push all that aside for the time being. She would have to survive that long to worry about it.

"You're awake," Ted Johnson's soft voice said from the corner of the room. Cara pushed herself up a bit to look at him better. He was wearing a night-robe and pyjamas, both with some damp spots and blood splatters on it. Meredith hustled over next to him at this. She looked much the same, though far more frazzled.

"How did I get here?" Cara asked, voice cracking in her throat. She needed water.

"I couldn't sleep well last night, heard all that commotion in the forest. Sounded like they were hunting out there. Or something like that." Cara saw the steady, knowing look on Ted's face as he said this. "I was watching out our window, though didn't see much, until someone washed up on our shore. I woke Meredith and we went down to check. When we saw it was you, we brought you inside. You were in rough shape, we weren't sure if you were going to make it at first, but you steadied as the night went on."

"And you didn't call anyone?" Cara asked, a little shocked.

"You see!" Meredith jumped in. "Even she's wondering why you didn't call the cops. I'll go call them now."