Blessings of the Curse

chapter 12

Secore felt a mixture of emotions as he flew over the skyscrapers and buildings which jutted from the ground like spikes below him. Weakness was one of them, yet also he felt so alive. His head and heart pounded so hard he thought they might explode, and his gut burned with the guilt of what he'd just done, but the power he felt inside was intense.

He was several hundred feet above the town but he could hear people inside their apartments whisper in the night, arguing couples, children saying their prayers at bedtime, a woman announcing she was pregnant and many other things he'd never been able to hear before.

His already heightened senses moved to the almost omnipotent level. He liked the feeling yet hated what it represented and of what would come from it, the cost was too high.

The bite was starting to heal, the holes had scarred over now, yet thick dark black hair was growing from it, looking like hundreds of hairy spiders coming out from their

lairs. At the rate it was growing and spreading he guessed the transformation would be complete in approximately four hours or less.

His inner radar picked up an evil resonance, he sensed Verosh was near. The werewolf's raspy voice whispered in his head, antagonizing him. It was like a heartbeat in his brain. Thump, thump. Thump, thump. The beating increased like a metal detector coming upon a treasure, guiding him in the direction needed.

He flew on for several miles until the heartbeat resembled that of a hummingbird's, fast and chaotic. He swooped down when he saw Verosh waiting for him. He was standing on a scaffolding platform behind the screen at a drive-in movie theater. Secore thought it rather ironic that the movie playing was the anniversary, re-release of "The Howling." There was a packed house, cars all lined up to enjoy an evening of B-grade horror and making out. Dozens of innocents could be killed if the battle spilled out

into the lot. He didn't care.

Verosh waited in the middle of the maintenance platform, which extended the length of the screen, with his arms crossed and leaned against the piece of plastic sheeting that was used for a screen. His guise had changed, he now had short brown crew cut hair and looked 25 years old, his skinny, tight face and iron cheekbones with straight lines for a chin made him look stern, but he had a grin on his face, like a schoolboy who had just put a cherry bomb in the toilet.

Secore landed at the far end of the platform, to Verosh's left.

"What happened to the 'old man'?"

Verosh turned to face him, still grinning. "That guise served its purpose, this is how I normally look."

This was a first that Secore had heard of. Werewolves could change shape, he knew that, to a dog, man, or hybrid, but they couldn't pick what human form they could take, they were

never that strong willed. He knew there was more to Verosh then he'd first believed. The feeling of magic clung in the air around him.

"Can you feel it, Secore?"

"Feel what?"

"The change! The power! The ultimate rush!"

"I'm not like you, Verosh. I kill but I'm not a murderer."

"You were in the past, I can tell, you might be trying to change now but you know you can't. Leopards and spots and all that rot." He smirked as he leaned against the railing. "Y' know, in 500 years I've never backed out of a contract. Never. I have honored every deal, even killed people I was friends with, if the price was high enough."