Mythical Link ▸ Link Neal {Book One}

Seventy Three

     After telling the sheriff in as much detail as they could remember on what happened, they were let go. Link carried Lily out to the car and insisted on sitting in the back seat with her as Rhett offered to drive them back to his house. While they may have been in a serious altercation, they had the pictures that they needed to make Christy believe. At least they hoped she would believe. Rhett glanced at the clock briefly as they coasted down the road, it reading 8:42. They've long since missed dinner, and the kids were probably getting ready for bed at this point.

     By their mistake, nobody told Christy or Jessie where they were going so they were all probably worried sick. Surprisingly, neither of them had any missed calls so maybe nobody noticed. With the way their luck has been recently, Rhett wasn't going to bank on that possibility. They pulled up in his driveway and Link was the first out of the car. He started walking toward the house, Rhett catching up with him in a few long strides. 

     He stopped Link by placing a hand on his shoulder and Link turned to face him. "I think we should tell the both of them," he said, and Link narrowed his eyes at him. He had no idea what Rhett was talking about, and he was honestly too tired to try and figure it out. "Our wives. We should tell both of them at the same time." 

     Link's eyebrows shot up his forehead. "You want to tell Jessie about this stuff too?" 

     Rhett nodded his head, although he looked unsure of himself. "Yes. I'm almost 100 percent positive that Christy already said something out of disbelief, and I certainly don't want Jessie to feel like she's out of the loop. That's the last thing I want," he trailed off, lowering his eyes to the ground.

     "You and me both," Link said as he turned to face the door. Their eyes widened in shock when they saw that the door was open, and Jessie was standing in the doorway with her arms crossed over her chest. She had this look on his face that Rhett knew all too well. The both of them were in trouble.

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     Link tucked Lily into bed, gave her another kiss and reluctantly left the room. He knew that Christy, Jessie, and Rhett were waiting in the guest room to have the conversation that he was dreading to have. The last time he tried telling anyone anything, he was laughed at in his face. It was a big stab to his heart. He trudged to the bedroom and saw that the door was opened a crack. He pushed the door open to see both of the girls sitting on the edge of the bed with expectant looks on their faces. 

     Rhett was pacing back in forth in front of them. "The reason why Link and I haven't told you this stuff was because we were trying to keep you safe."

     "Keep us safe from what exactly? I would appreciate it if you stopped beating around the bush already," Jessie said with annoyance. 

     Christy rolled her eyes. "This isn't worth our time. Come on," she took Jessie by the arm. 

     Link bolted into the bedroom. "Wait!" He held his hand out, and the same look of annoyance washed over his face. He was not about to have anyone laugh in his face again. He needed to convince them. Jessie and Christy looked at Link. A sudden sharp and annoying pain shot through the front of Link's head and he stumbled a bit, bringing his hand up to his forehead. Rhett eyed him with concern.

     "Do you guys remember the night the wolf attacked our house?" The girls stared at him with blank, unamused expressions. "I have pictures of its claw marks on my phone, and it's identical to the scratches on my leg." Jessie's eyebrows raised and she glanced at Christy sidelong. Christy's lips slightly came apart, but she was really good at holding her poker face. 

     Link pulled his phone out of his jacket pocket and pulled up the photos. All the extra photos he took were blurry and he swiped through them until he found one that was crystal clear. He then did the unthinkable and pulled his pajama pants down, revealing the marks on his leg. Jessie flew off of the bed when she saw the wound.

     "That looks like it's seriously infected Link," Jessie said, her eyebrows raised.

     Link shook it off. He held the phone up to his leg to compare the marks, which were almost identical. "The wolf left these marks on the wall and baseboard of our hallway downstairs. The same marks are obviously on my leg, because I was attacked by one of them."

     "One of them?" Christy inquired.

     "The big guy that y'all saw briefly in the window attacked our friend Terra in the parking lot of our headquarters a few days ago. He bit her and took a huge chunk out of her side, but she survived it. She's just like him, and she attacked me." 

     Jessie's face had gone pale and she looked up at Rhett. "This is... really real?" 

     He nodded his head. "Everything Link is saying is true. We both saw it with our own eyes. Even some of the crew members have seen the werewolves up close. They were nearly killed by them," he said as he remembered Mike and Alex. He wondered if they had arrived home safely. 

     Christy had lowered her eyes as she fiddled with her fingers. Link swayed to the side a little, and she snapped her head up. He was leaning against the dresser. "Are you okay?" She asked, worry in her eyes. She didn't discredit what he was saying anymore, but she didn't say that she believed either. 

     Link lowered his head, feeling the pounding reverberate through his skull. He wrapped an arm around his stomach, squinting his eyes because the brightness of the light was making his head pound even harder.

     "I think he should probably get to bed," Rhett said as he began moving toward his friend. 

     Suddenly, Link lurched forward and retched, spilling the contents of his stomach all over the carpet. Rhett did a little dance to jump out of the way, his eyes wide with shock. Christy and Jessie bolted to the bed just in time, and they looked at each other and back at Link. Christy jumped off of the bed where it was clear on the floor and wrapped her arms around Link.

     He laid his head on her shoulder and wiped at his mouth, Jessie eyeing the pile of vomit on the floor in horror. She tapped on Rhett's leg and pointed to the mess. Rhett looked at it with an eyebrow raised. There were specks of black splattered throughout. Some were roughly the size of quarters while others could compare to a deck of playing cards.

     "What in the hell is that," she whispered harshly, and Rhett shook his head. He had no clue, but it made his own stomach perform a flip.

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