Werewolf's Humanity

Apex Predator, Part 5

Cassie dropped him. The other vampires had gathered around him. He was surrounded. With his eyes starting to adjust to the darkness, he could barely make out shapes. He frantically glanced around, but one of the creatures had already picked up the walkie-talkie and was studying it. Press it, Donnie willed. Please. Press the god damn button!

"He's my husband," the vampire said, and dropped down into a crouch. She smiled a sickly smile at him. "Look, Don. I spent my whole life looking for cryptids, and now I am one." She giggled.

"You're not my wife," he spat. He couldn't get away, but he leaned as far from her as he could. "Lisa never would have wanted this. You're just her shambling corpse!"

Her corpse pouted. "I thought we could have fun together, Don. But now you hurt my feelings." She stood up, swayed, and then leaned into the arms of Cassie.

"There, there, my pet," Cassie said, and the two kissed. Donnie shut his eyes, but he could not shut out the sound of moaning as what was left of his wife made out with the creature that had killed her.

"Do you want me to kill him for you?" Cassie offered when the kiss broke. "His blood will keep us going for a couple months, at least."

Lisa nodded. "Whatever you say, Mistress."

A growl echoed through the cavern, compounding into a loud rumble.

"I'd rather you didn't," came another voice from Donnie's past.

Familiar but different. Throatier. The vampires froze and looked towards the entrance. Donnie managed to twist his head around enough to see three hulking werewolves blocking the way out. All three had their lips pulled back, slaver dripping and foaming from their exposed fangs. The frontmost had a long stem of hair coming off the back of his head which was woven into a braid. Sammy!

"Dogs!" one of them cursed.

Cassie bent over and hefted Donnie up again. "Don't come any closer, or I crack the pipsqueak like an egg!"

"Sammy, just kill them!" Donnie screamed. "I don't care what happens to me, just wipe them out!"

The other male vampire moaned and grabbed Donnie. "Blood... feed..." it mumbled as it tore his vest open with grimy, long nails scraping at his skin underneath. Donnie smelled foul, diseased breath in his face and reflexively kicked. In his crapshoot of life, at least his final act would be a defiant one.

"Bastard!" the vampire screeched, grasping at his nose. He tore Donnie out of Cassie's arms and threw him into the stalagmite. Donnie felt more ribs than he dared count crack, and something shifted painfully inside him.

He screamed. So much for going out with dignity.

"DONNIE!" the werewolf roared, and all hell broke loose. The three werewolves descended on the vampires. They were outnumbered three to one, but Danny watched in awe as he witnessed a battle normally not privy to humans. One werewolf grabbed a vampire by the arms and yanked them clean off. Another clamped his mouth over the head of one of the female vampires and lurched back, tearing the head off the body.

Sammy backhanded one vampire into a wall, and suddenly Lisa was in front of him. "Did I hear him call you Sammy?" she asked. "Donnie talked about you all the time. He wanted you to be best man at our wedding, you know."

"You're Lisa?"

"Kid, kill it!" shouted one of the other werewolves, with a voice like a chainsaw.

What had once been Lisa hissed and leapt at Sammy. The werewolf blocked her attack, though, and Donnie watched as he threw her into the ground. Donnie heard her scream, but he couldn't bare to watch what happened next. The scream turned into a gurgle, and then stopped.

Donnie opened his eyes. In the almost nonexistent light of the cave, his best friend's green eyes seemed to glow just a foot away.

"Oh man, Donnie. This is so messed up. I'm so, so sorry."

Donnie opened his mouth... and spewed blood.

"Donnie?" A massive hand gently pressed against his chest. Donnie could feel the ends of his claws against his skin, but they just rested there, not piercing him, not so much as pricking him.

Cassie seemed to realize that her people had no chance, and while her companions were being slaughtered, she shot off deeper into the cave. The chainsaw-voiced one took off after her, the sound of his growls diminishing into the depths.

Donnie reached around and grasped Sammy's middle finger. His whole fist barely wrapped around it. He coughed, but this time managed to make words. "She's getting away..."

"Don't worry, she won't get far from Hatchet." The mayhem of battle died off, and Sammy whipped his head around. "Odysseus!" he called out. "He's dying!"

The third werewolf, who was clearly the Alpha that Sammy venerated, came closer, but stopped when his foot bumped into Donnie's suicide vest. He picked it up and sniffed it. In a cool, rumbling voice he asked, "What's this?"

"That was my contingency plan," Donnie admitted.

Sammy looked appalled. "Do you think your wife woulda been happy with that?" he asked, glancing the corpse's way. "D'you think the real her would have wanted you to die?"

"Shut up!" Donnie shouted. "You didn't know her! Don't you dare pretend to know what she would have wanted just because you met her corpse!" He felt shock setting in but that could not suppress the rage rising up. Not at Sammy for being so presumptuous... but for being so damn right.

"I know you," Sammy soothed. That such a gentle tone could come from such a fearsome face... it was a dichotomy. The other enormous paw wrapped around Donnie's hand and held it. "An' I know you could only have loved someone who was wonderful."

The living Lisa's smiling face materialized in his mind and it brought such relief. Donnie felt himself relax. His time had come, he knew it. At least he had Sammy by his side for his last moments. He had his brother again. "She was," he groaned, smiling despite the agony.

The one called Hatchet emerged back into the cavern. "Damn thing got away. She must have scouted this cave out beforehand. Slipped through a niche too small for me to fit through."

"What?" Donnie wheezed. He struggled to sit up, but Sammy's firm hands kept in from moving. Just as well, as the mere squirms he made shot agony through the rest of his body.

He struggled for what were no doubt his final breaths. "You gotta... you gotta... get her. Promise me. Don't let her... do what she did to Lisa... to anybody else.

"We'll get her," promised Odysseus.

Sammy turned to look at Odysseus again, and his alpha nodded. Sammy scrambled back to the mouth of the cave, but Odysseus beat him to it and handed him the leather satchel. He snatched it and ran back to Donnie's side, dropped to his knees, and opened up the case. The others joined him and Hatchet started wrapping a rubber band around his arm while Odysseus pulled out a long tube.

"Wut... is?" Donnie managed to ask.

Sammy looked down at him. "This might not work. We only try this with a human's consent, but your choice is this chance or certain death, and as the closest thing you got to a next of kin, I'm makin' this decision for you."

"Wut... decishun?" It was getting harder to think. He was in too much pain to notice the prick in his arm before he passed out.