Immortal Coil: A Novel (Immortal Trilogy Book 1) Read online

  Maggie jumped up.

  Dylan held Gar up at eye level and looked into the boy’s eyes. Then Dylan looked at Maggie. Maggie’s eyes filled with tears and her hands clenched into fists at her sides. She wanted to snatch the boy out of Dylan’s hands and then decapitate him, but she was afraid that any quick movement would cause this tense situation to turn tragic.

  “Please give me back my son.”

  Dylan continued to hold the boy at arm’s length, but was looking at Maggie.

  Dylan looked at Gar again. The boy was laughing. Dylan smiled, pulled the boy closer to kiss him on the cheek, then put him on the floor. Gar ran back into his mother’s eagerly waiting arms.

  “He wasn’t afraid of me,” Dylan said. “He has no reason to be. Neither do you. For now, anyway.”

  “I don’t care. You don’t go near him or I’ll kill you myself.”

  “I would never hurt your son, or anyone else for that matter. Not until the night following tonight, that is. In fact, I am kind of interested in seeing how this is going to turn out. I want to stick around. Just remember to move me to the panic room before it’s too late, though.”

  Maggie wasn’t really listening to Dylan anymore. She was scurrying out of the room with a death grip on Gar. The boy did manage to blurt out one word before being escorted out of the room. He turned to Dylan, pointed at the man chained to the radiator near the bed and said what was very likely his first word.

  Gar said, “Doggie.”

  21.

  When Antony and David returned home from the hunt, Maggie told them what Dylan had said. They agreed that locking him in the panic room was a good idea. Better to be safe, David thought. Maggie did not tell them she had taken Gardner into the room with Dylan and then lost control of the baby. If David didn’t kill her, he would surely have killed Dylan. She also did not tell David about Gar’s first word, mostly because she wasn’t sure what Gar had said. It sounded as though Gar had called Dylan Daddy, and she didn’t want David’s feelings to be hurt knowing his son had called another man—a stranger, in fact—daddy.

  David fixed Maggie with a questioning glance, and Maggie knew that David was aware she was not telling them something. She didn’t elaborate, and he didn’t pursue the issue. She sighed. She was visibly relieved she didn’t need to say more.

  The three of them climbed the stairs to the room where Dylan was being kept. Maggie cringed as she thought of what Dylan might say regarding hers and Gardner’s visit. David spoke to Dylan as he and Antony escorted the captive to the panic room. Dylan was charming and cooperative. To Maggie’s relief he said nothing about his encounter with Gardner. David conversed with Dylan as though they were friends heading to the bar for a drink after work. Dylan, too, seemed exceptionally calm for a prisoner.

  “You’re a very cooperative captive, I must say,” David said.

  “I know you are doing the right thing, that’s all. By controlling me, you’re doing me a big favor. Why wouldn’t I cooperate?” Dylan’s broad smile was genuine.

  David asked questions and listened to the answers carefully. David wasn’t oblivious to the way Maggie kept looking at Dylan. Did she find him attractive? He was a very good looking guy. Had Maggie fallen for another troublesome male? He didn’t think Dylan could be anywhere near as despicable as Grover had been. Still, he didn’t want her falling for another con, and he didn’t want Maggie getting hurt. This man was very open about what dangers he posed, and how to control him. This mere mortal held no threat to Antony or himself, but his son and the mother of his child were still defenseless to the dangers of the world. Even more daunting was the knowledge that during the day Maggie and Gar were unprotected. David hated turning in at dawn knowing that Maggie was going to be defenseless for the next sixteen hours every day for the rest of her life.

  Of course, if David tried to call Maggie defenseless to her face she would have shown him just how defenseless she wasn’t. But that was little consolation to the fact that she was, in fact, defenseless during the day. His thinking was that if there could be another man around, a mortal man, she could have the protection she needed to be safe while her vampire protectors were incapacitated.

  For this reason, David wanted to trust Dylan.

  David said, “You don’t need to be locked up yet.”

  Antony looked at David as he replaced the handcuffs on Dylan’s wrists.

  “Take the cuffs off him Antony. He doesn’t seem to show any interest in getting away, and that has me curious. He’s not afraid of us and he should be. I think we should tell him why we are not afraid of him.”

  Dylan was still holding his cuffed hands out to allow Antony to remove the cuffs, just on the off chance the oldest--and probably the Alpha male of the group--relented to the younger male’s wishes.

  When Antony removed the cuffs, Dylan was stunned. The dynamic of this group seemed all wrong. But Dylan didn’t argue.

  Dylan rubbed his sore wrists. He thanked David quietly.

  “You won’t be disappointed.”

  “And you won’t be dead, as long as you don’t try to run,” David said.

  Dylan checked out the so called panic room where in a few hours he would be kept safe from harming others. It was amazing, and must have cost a fortune. These guys were loaded, apparently. The four of them left the basement and returned to the living room where Randal was playing with Gar on the floor.

  “Don’t worry,” David said, seeing the concern etched on Randal’s face. “He will be confined again at dawn.”

  “There is really no danger from me until tomorrow night.”

  Randal walked around Dylan, leaning into him and sniffing the air. “His blood smells funny,” Randal declared and walked away.

  Dylan just stared at the boy.

  Dylan proved to be as good as his word. He was helpful and courteous. He showed no signs of making any attempt to escape. David kept one eye on Dylan while watching Maggie’s reaction to every move Dylan made. David could tell that Maggie didn’t trust him, but she wanted to.

  David moved with that amazing vampire speed any time Dylan looked to make a move toward Maggie or Gardner. He would put himself between his family and the stranger. Dylan would just smile and back away.

  David wanted to tell Dylan they were all, to the exclusion of Maggie and Gardner, vampires. He felt this information would not be lost on Dylan. And although he had no misgivings about telling Dylan their secret; he still felt that Dylan, himself, was hiding something from them. Until Dylan gave up what he was hiding, he didn’t feel it prudent to tell Dylan about them. David wouldn’t betray the trust of the others by telling Dylan their secret.

  There was some anticipation as to what would transpire the following night. Although no one was willing to admit they were thinking about it, the main topic filling the room was Dylan and his violent alter ego. When dawn approached, Dylan was escorted to the basement.

  David said, “You understand that this is only to keep Maggie safe. Maggie and Gar’s safety is of utmost importance to us. We will see how tomorrow night transpires, and if all goes well you will be free to stay with us.”

  “Or to go, if you so choose,” Antony added.

  Dylan nodded and watched the two men duck out of the room and close the door. He listened to the whoosh as the doors were hermetically sealed. He sat down on the futon and waited out the seclusion in semi darkness. There was some light shining down on him from the above where several LED lights, no bigger than pencil erasers, dotted the ceiling. Also embedded in the ceiling were small round vents breathing fresh, HEPA-filtered air into the room. He was not cold; he was not warm. In fact, the atmospheric conditions were so ideal he felt himself getting drowsy and had no trouble falling asleep.

  Dylan bolted out of a sound sleep. He had no idea of the time, but he was sure it was close to nighttime. He looked toward the door. It was still sealed. He walked over and inspected the seal. He suspected that the door was magnetically sealed. Depending on the tons of pr
essure it could withstand this door should be able to hold him in. If not, nothing could help this family from the horrors that would befall them when his alter ego escaped.

  If there were cameras on him, he couldn’t see them. There was no change in the steel walls, not even welding creases, so he doubted there were cameras. And if there were no cameras it could also be determined that there were likely no microphones either. The family outside was blind and deaf to the activities occurring in their panic room.

  Dylan’s stomach cramped and he knew the moment was at hand. The alter ego was struggling to be set free. If he fought against it, the process would be excruciatingly painful. He had learned not to fight. The cramps dropped Dylan to his hands and knees. Recovering from the first set of cramps, Dylan stood. He stripped off his shirt, and then stepped out of his jeans. He had become a commando kind of guy since all this had begun happening to him. When you needed to undress quickly, it was best to have as few clothes on as possible. He folded his clothes neatly on the futon. He had no sooner finished this when a new series of cramps wracked his body. He screamed and collapsed to the cold steel floor of the panic room, rolling and crying out as the pain took him into a new consciousness. Apparently, some part of him still wished to fight the alteration. In the soundproof room, however; no one could hear his screams.

  22.

  A light switch at the top of the stairs illuminated the rickety wooden stairs leading down into the basement. It was a basement like any other: cement walls, cement floor, wooden beams in the ceiling marked the rafters of the floor above. There were cobwebs covering everything, and hanging down like gray gossamer drapes. The basement was a well-lit, open space below the house. There was a partition cutting the basement in half. In the first half of the basement, where the stairs were located, the incinerator sat like a giant steel stove in the corner. In the second half of the basement, beyond the partition, was the panic room.

  The panic room was airtight and soundproof. There was seven inches of steel locking Dylan in. He could not escape the room, no matter what this other personality thought it could do. Upon entering the doorway of this second half of the basement, a control panel on the left of the wall opened the panic room door; and unless that switch was hit there was no way to open the door to the panic room. There was no such control inside the room.

  Antony and David stood near the door to the panic room. Maggie stood in the doorway of the partition, ready to bolt at the first sign of trouble. Randal, having already hunted for the night, stayed upstairs with Gardner.

  David was the closest to the door when the excitement began. He heard nothing, but he saw a dent form in the steel door. David jumped back, forgetting that he was the monster. He laughed nervously when he saw Antony’s disapproving glare.

  David moved back even further when he saw another dent form in the door.

  What the hell could dent seven inches of solid steel?

  Maggie, having seen the door now, moved closer to the panic room, concerned for David.

  David moved closer to Maggie, motioning for her to get back.

  Maggie didn’t move.

  Another dent hit the door, only this time it was accompanied by… sound? The panic room was no longer soundproof. How could that be? When another thump on the door resounded, everyone flinched including Antony. Was the door going to hold?

  Boom! And the door dented again.

  Boom!

  Boom!

  Antony shot toward the door, checking the magnetic seal.

  David, thinking the door was about to breach, shoved Maggie back toward the doorway. He used a little too much vampire force in the action, and Maggie flew back into the wall. Her shoulder bumped the lever to activate the sealed door.

  Even faster than Antony could move, the door opened with a whoosh as the vacuum seal broke. Something large, heavy and hairy burst out of the panic room, jumping over Antony’s head. The brown furred beast landed on the floor between David and Maggie. It growled at David. David had less than a second to study the wolf before it turned on Maggie.

  The wolf was too large and misshapen to be an ordinary wolf. It snarled and attacked Maggie, going for the throat. She had just enough time to lift her hands and ward off the bite that would have ripped out her throat. The snarling, foaming fangs made another attempt at her throat, but David was there; he ripped the beast off Maggie by its hind legs and threw it into the panic room again. As it struggled to gain its footing, David hit the lever and closed the door. Antony was there at the door to push it back when it tried to leap out of the room before the doors closed again.

  But then the doors did close and the wolf thing was once again locked inside. It pounded on the door for a while longer, and then seemed to settle down for the night.

  David helped Maggie to her feet. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded, shaken but apparently unharmed.

  “I saw its eyes,” she said and shivered. “It had human eyes. It had Dylan’s eyes.”

  This was what Dylan had been reluctant to tell them. Dylan wasn’t a killer, but his werewolf was.

  “I need to hunt,” Antony said to David. “Will you be okay here alone?”

  David nodded. He turned to Maggie. “You should go upstairs. I doubt he will get out again, but if he does I’ll have a better chance at capturing him if I’m alone.”

  Maggie understood and headed up the stairs.

  Antony went out first, and then David would go.

  Maggie retired to her room. She stripped out of the slobber-stained blouse. In a panic, she washed off her arm. Then she could see from where the blood came. There was a row of puncture wounds across her lower arm, near her wrist. There were four teeth marks in the skin, and the two outer holes still bled where the teeth had penetrated the skin.

  Oh no, she thought. Her hands quaked with the realization that she had been bitten by Dylan’s werewolf. Perhaps she would be okay. Maybe not all bites result in changing. As she stared at the wound, she could see the skin repairing itself. Within minutes, she had pink scar tissue where the bite had been. After another few minutes, the scar cleared and perfect skin showed on her arm.

  She ran downstairs where Randal and Gar were playing a round of peek-a-boo that had the baby in hysterics.

  “There’s been a complication downstairs,” she said.

  “I heard the commotion. What happened?”

  “Apparently, we’ve been harboring a werewolf. He escaped but we managed to put him back in the panic room.”

  “I kind of figured. Is everyone okay?”

  “We’re golden,” Maggie said and rubbed the arm that still itched from the healing. “But I’m wondering if Gar wouldn’t be safer somewhere else.”

  Randal said, “Ah-boo!” And then was met with hysterical baby giggles.

  “Would you be willing to take him to the Jersey safe house if things start to go wonky around here?”

  “Of course,” Randal said. “Gar’s safety is the most important thing to me.”

  Downstairs, Antony and David traded off. Maggie returned to the basement. Antony glanced at her. He read something in her eyes and asked her what was wrong?

  She covered quickly. “I’m concerned about Gardner. I asked Randal to take him away if things go bad down here.”

  “Good idea.” Antony turned back toward the door. “Should be fine, though. He has been quiet for several minutes now. I think he is finally settling down.”

  Maggie pulled out a folding lawn chair and sat down to wait for Dylan’s release.

  “You should go back upstairs. I can handle this. You are vulnerable to an attack.”

  “I’ll be okay. I have questions, and he has to provide them. Or he can at least help me figure out how to get the answers.”

  Antony stood watch over the door. No more attacks came from inside. David returned a short time later. By then Maggie had fallen asleep in the chair.

  “What’s she doing here?” David covered her with a quilt.

 
; “She insisted on being here when we opened the doors.” Antony glanced at her and returned his vigilant gaze to the panic room door. He didn’t seem to mind the laboriousness of his task.

  For David the job was mind-numbingly boring. Maggie awoke after about an hour of sleep. She draped the quilt over the chair as she stood.

  She rubbed her puffy eyes. “Is he still in there? When do we let him out?”

  “We might as well see what’s happening in there,” David said.

  Antony agreed. “David, stand by the controls. Maggie, please stand around the corner where the thing will not see you when it emerges if it is still in there. I will stand in its way if it tries to escape.” He nodded for David to open the latch when everyone was in place. David slapped the button that Maggie had hit while backing up earlier that night, and once again the panic room door popped open with a whoosh of a vacuum seal breaking.

  Antony inched closer to the opening, ready if something jumped out at him. David stayed by the button in case they needed to seal it again in a hurry. Maggie tried to see around the corner of the panic room, but Antony motioned her back.

  Antony stiffened as he passed the threshold. He peered in, but what he saw there did not cause him alarm. He stepped away from the door.

  Maggie came around and peered in. She smiled.

  The human Dylan lay curled in a fetal ball on the floor, naked and asleep. When David came over and saw this, he slapped roughly on the steel wall.

  “Wake up, sleepy-head, and get dressed.”