Groggily rubbing my eyes, I tossed and turned in my bed. Unable to sleep, I let out a yawn and looked over at my alarm clock. The obnoxious, red, digital numbers hurt my eyes to look at, their dim light being the only thing lighting up the darkness. Turning away from the clock, a chill ran down my spine. Shivering, I could see my breath as I curled in a ball under the covers. The telltale signs that Rodney was nearby. Looking towards the door to my room, I saw a translucent bluish hand waving at me. Letting out a sigh, I hid under the covers.
"Not in the mood, Rodney." I groaned, rolling on my stomach.
Rodney was one of my closest friends, and also just so happened to be about my age, well he was wen he died anyway. He haunted the small apartment complex I lived in, not in the traditional sense people think when they hear the word haunting though. He acted just like any other resident, outside of the fact I was the only one who could physically communicate with him. Most of the other tenants only notice what's left over after his interference, being it a misplaced remote, or lost keys. After a moment of waiting, he finally replied.
"Come on, Cassie. I know you can't sleep, you insomniac." Rodney teased.
"Fine, come in." I sighed, still keeping the covers tight over me.
Peeking out at him from a gap between the covers, I watched as Rodney walked towards the bed. He was about 5'4", another few inches added on due to the fact he was hovering. He was a fairly good looking guy, tall, chiseled, and was able to pull off the bald look really really well. He wore a plaid button down shirt and a pair of blue jeans, presumably what he wore when he died. He sat down next to me, a smile on his face. Rolling away from him, I wrapped myself up even more in the blankets, like a catapilar in a cocoon. As much fun as he was, I hated when he came in this late, especially because of how cold it got when he was around.
"What's up?" Rodney asked, looking down at the balled up mass of blankets beside him.
"What do you think? I'm trying to sleep here Rodney." I sighed.
"And knowing you, sleep won't come easy." Rodney laughed.
"Damnit Rodney, I've got work in the morning and I'd like to at least try to get some sleep..." I groaned, rolling over.
"Still working for that bitch, eh?" Rodney laughed.
"Oh come on, she's not a bitch. You were the one who walked in on her in the shower last time she stayed over to get away from her clients." I laughed, remembering the event.
My employer, Lilly, had asked if she could stay the night at my appartment in hopes of getting away from her clients. Being in experimental medicine is a messy job, and she was in desperate need of a shower. I had decided to do some paperwork while I waited. No sooner had I gotten to work, Lilly had let out a shriek as Rodney floated through the bathroom door. It was pretty embarrassing, but in the end we all got a good laugh out of it. Just remembering that night made me laugh.
"Stop laughing at me!" Rodney protested.
"I'm sorry, I can't help it." I tried to control my laughter but couldn't.
"It's not that funny! Seriously!" Rodney whined.
"Yes, it is that funny, and no, I won't stop laughing." I continued, teasing him.
"Cassieeeee.... Stop it!" Rodney complained.
"I'm sorry, it's funny!" I squealed.
"Fine, laugh all you want, I'm not gonna hear it!" Rodney protested, walking out.
I calmed down, warming back up under the covers. Rodney really was a sweet guy, when he wasn't being overly intrusive at the most inconvenient hours of the night that is. After some time tossing and turning, I knew I wasn't getting any sleep anytime soon. Leaning over, I pulled open the drawer in my small nightstand and grabbed my cellphone. Flipping it open, I searched through my contact list. Finding Daryl on the list, I gave the send button a gingerly tap.
"Hello, Daryl speaking. Who is this?" he asked groggily.
"Hey sweetie, can't sleep." I groaned sweetly.
"Aww, I wish i could do something for you." Daryl sighed.
"Yea, got work in the morning. If only you were here to keep me company." I giggled suggestively.
"I wish I could be, but you know I can't take the drive out there at this hour. I'll see you tomorrow though." Daryl said as he gave me a kiss through the phone.
"Yes you will sweetie, I get off at seven." I said with a smile.
"Hows work going by the way? See anything interesting?" Daryl asked.
I never really told Daryl the truth about my job. I told him I worked in a diagnostics lab, but thats about it. I'm not planning on telling him what Lilly really did in there. He'd probably think I was crazy if I did, and even if he did believe me I doubt he'd want me having any part of it. I sighed as I replied with my usual answer.
"Nothing special."
Sleep suddenly washed over me like a tidal wave. I cut my conversation with Daryl short, dozing off to sleep.
Chapter II
I finally made it to the small office after much difficulty. Everything seemed to be going wrong for me. The alarm clock didn't go off, for starters, but that was the least of my problems. Thanks to Rodney's aimless wanderings near my bathroom, I was forced to take an unbearably cold shower. As soon as I pulled up to the small corner house, I figured the worst of my troubles were over. I walked past the small sign out front, the only indication that this place was a diagnostics lab. Aside from the sign, the house was just like every other white colonial style house that seemed to overpopulate Long Island like some kind of plague. It was a two story house, the only window being the one shedding some light on the waiting room.
As soon as I walked in the front door, I could already tell today's horrible events were only beginning, and things were about to get much worse. The patients were all staring at each other, wide eyed. They looked as though I had just interrupted them from planning a mass escape from this place. A loud crash echoed from inside the examination room, startling every single person in the waiting room, myself included. I walked over to the door and gave it a light knock.
"Who is it? I'm kind of... son of a BITCH! Stay still already!"
Lilly was in a good mood, as always, when dealing with a difficult patient.
"Need help?" I asked, considering it was my job, after all.
"Yea, grab the silver syringe from behind the counter. You know the one, that special tranquilizer I mixed up just in case." Lilly replied.
That special tranquilizer just so happened to be elephant tranquilizer, which Lilly had just so happened to lace with some silver powder. There could only be one thing on the other side of that door, as much as I hated to admit it, and it scared the shit out of me. She was dealing with a werewolf. That would also explain her mood, considering she hated them with a passion. They were dangerous, temperamental, and usually horny. I unfortunately learned that last one from personal experience, though Lilly was there to take care of it before things got too out of hand thank God.
I grabbed the large syringe off the shelf and stood in front of the door to the examination room. Taking a deep breath, I opened the door and stepped inside. Lilly had the werewolf pinned to the wall, trying to keep its flailing to a minimum.
"Cassie, hurry up and stab this bastard!" Lilly yelled, still keeping her eyes fixed on the beast.
I ran to her side, syringe at the ready. I tried to keep my composure the best I could, but considering how damn scared I was of those things, it really didn't go so well. Clenching my eyes shut, I stabbed the syringe into the werewolf and injected the tranquilizer. The drug went to work almost immediately, the werewolf nearly collapsing on top of Lilly. I quickly grabbed some empty vials and a needle while Lilly prepped the beast's arm. Handing the needle to Lilly, she stuck it in the werewolf's arm, piercing one of its veins. She watched as the blood ran up the small tubing and slowly began filling the vial. As she readied the second vial, the werewolf started changing back into a human. His fur began to shed, his body structure reverting back to it's human state.
"Shit, come on... just one more vial..." Lilly groaned, popping the final tube into the IV. She watched it fill as the wolf continued to change, his bones shifting and reforming. At last it was over, the beast was gone, and in it's place was a cute young redhead... a very naked, cute young redhead... and of course, just when I thought things couldn't get any more awkward...
"Cassie, can you bring him into the recovery room for me?" Lilly asked as she washed her hands.
Begrudgingly, I listed the young man over my shoulder and carried him into one of the spare rooms. Lying him down on the bed, I pulled the covers up to his chest, trying to at least keep myself from blushing. I must be the unluckiest person alive, because the second I let go of the blankets, he decides to wake up. Mental note, tell Lilly her tranquilizer needs work. He stared at me for a moment, still a little groggy from the tranquilizer. Every inch of my body told me to get out of there, but something inside me just wouldn't let me.
"Who are you?" he stammered, getting his bearings.
"And why am I... don't tell me we... no... we didn't..."
He paused for a moment, breaking out into a cold sweat. He started to tremble a bit, trying to scramble out of bed.
"Luna's going to kill me for this! Shit, I've gotta stop drinking so much." he groaned, practically falling out of bed.
"Calm down, you've gotta shake of the tranquilizer before you can go anywhere!" I pleaded, trying to get him back into bed.
"Tranquilizer? I guess that could be kinda... what am I even thinking, that's definitely not my style..."
Okay, I needed to clear things up, and fast, before he jumped to any other brilliant conclusions about what didn't happen between us. Things could only get worse from here if I let it.
"Okay, we didn't have sex! You're in a medical clinic, we needed to draw some blood."
"I don't get why you needed tranquilizers for..."
"Wolf form!"
There was a brief silence as he pondered for a moment.
"Oh...yea... that makes sense..."
"You should get some rest. I'll have Lilly come check on you in a little while." I sighed, walking out of the room.
Lilly simply sat in one of the soft cushy chairs in the examination room, catching her breath. Taking a seat across from her, I stretched my back.
"At least I only have to go through that once. That should be enough blood to make some strides in finding a cure." Lilly said with a yawn.
"Yea, I wasn't too thrilled either..." I replied with a groan.
"I'd imagine, especially what happened last time we had a werewolf..."
The second she saw the look on my face, the angry glare of death that, if looks could kill, would be repeatedly plunging a knife into her throat, she knew damn well to stop talking.
"Still a touchy subject..." she giggled.
"OF COURSE IT IS!" I snapped, extremely on edge just thinking about it.
"Sorry I brought it up. Maybe a nice night out will help take your mind off things. Besides, we haven't had a girl's night out in a while." She said excitedly.
"Can't, already promised Daryl I'd go to dinner with him." I sighed.
Lilly let out a dissapointed whine, slouching back into her chair.
"We've known eachother for how many years, and I've yet to meet the elusive Daryl. I'm beginning to think you're making him up." she replied with a laugh.
Lilly always teases me about never meeting him whenever I bring up his name, but there's a good reason for that, a reason I'm constantly repeating to her.
"You know I like to keep my work life and social life separate..." I groaned.
"Oh, come now, don't tell me you're ashamed of working here." Lilly teased.
"No, it's just that people would think I was crazy."
"I could vouch for you." Lilly replied, giving me a grin wide enough to reveal her fangs.
"You know they won't take you seriously, Lilly. People nowadays are obsessed with vampires. It's like some new fad or something. They'll probably think you're just some fanatic who decided to get fang implants."
"Such things exist? Wow, medicine sure has changed since my day..."
"What, you mean when anesthetics were just a lot of alcohol and blunt force trauma?"
"Very funny, Cassie. I'm not THAT old. But joking aside, would it really be that big of a deal if I met Daryl? He doesn't have to find out about the nature of your work, as horrible of an idea I think it is. It's only going to make things harder for you. What if he decides to visit you at work... wherever it is you told him you work, because I'm certain you never gave him this address. If he really loves you as much as you say he does, I'm sure he'd at least hear you out."
"No, the best thing to do is just keep things simple. The less he knows about my work the better."
Actually, Lilly was absolutely right, and I knew she was. Was I going to sit there and admit that fact? No.
"Fine, then I'll be a simple work acquaintance, nothing strange about my line of work, or about myself for that matter."
"You're not letting up until you meet the guy, are you..." I groaned.
Lilly just smiled, but I knew by the look on her face she would pester me about this for weeks until either I cracked or she got bored. Guess which happened first.
"Fine, I'll tell him you're coming. I groaned."
I pulled out my cellphone and sent Daryl a quick text. I bent believe I was actually agreeing to this, but then, Lilly is probably my closes friend aside from maybe Rodney. Before I could even put my phone away, Daryl replied to my text.
"Sounds like fun."
Great, he's going along with it. Just what I wanted to hear. Putting the phone away, I looked over at the door to the waiting room.
"You know, we should probably take the next patient. The waiting room was packed when I walked in." I sighed.
"Ten bucks says our furry little friend scared them all off." Lilly said with a laugh.
"You're on." I replied with a smirk, taking a ten dollar bill out of my pocket and tossing it on the table.
My heart was racing as I grabbed the doorknob. Turning it, I gently swung the door open. The waiting room was empty, well, almost empty at least. I nearly shrieked as a small black widow spider came scurrying across the floor, stopping a few feet away. Lilly, on the other hand, was perfectly calm. Crouching down, she looked over the spider.
"A broken leg. You poor thing... let me fix that for you." Lilly smiled as she led the tiny spider into the other room.
She slipped me a folded ten dollar bill on her way into the examination room, closing the door behind her. I can handle almost anything, vampires, werewolves to an extent, but spiders always scare me half to death. It's kind of sad really.
Not even five minutes later, Lilly walked back into the waiting room, the tiny spider in her hand. She had made a makeshift splint from a toothpick and used it to keep the spider's leg in place. It was actually cute, if it wasn't on a spider it would have been anyway. The spider slipped out of Lilly's hand and skittered out the door. Looking up at the clock, I let out a groan.
"It's only one and this place is so dead. It's going to be one of those days." I sighed.
"That it is. Might as well make the best of it. I'm going to go catch up on some paper work. Hold the fort for me, will you?" Lilly groaned, walking into her office.
I took a seat behind the reception desk and booted up the computer. It was pretty out of date, but then again, Lilly and technology rarely got along. it wasn't until last year until I finally convinced her to get a cellphone, and she still hasn't figured out how to add contacts without my help. At least the computer has the bare essentials, and by essentials I mean solitaire. I started up a game to kill some time. After all the ruckus that werewolf caused, I had a feeling it would be a slow day. The clock ticked by ever so slowly, it almost felt as thought it was going in reverse. The only problem with solitaire is it gets boring really fast, so I decided to switch to mine sweeper for a little while, keeping an ever vigilant eye on the damn clock. Three o'clock rolled around, and by that time I had given up on mine sweeper and had moved on to free cell. I'm not very good at mine sweeper, and my main strategy is pretty much just clicking frantically and pray.
Hearing the front door click, I looked up, eyes wide with excitement. Finally, signs of life! A young woman walked in, her black hair falling midway down her neck. She was dressed pretty casually, black jeans and a T-shirt that might as well have been a billboard with the words "I'm single and desperate" written across it, considering how damn tight it was. She walked up to the counter and leaned over it, looking down at the computer screen.
"Nice choice. I was always more of a hearts kind of girl though. Is Lilly around?" She asked with a smirk on her face.
"Yea, let me page her for you." I replied, picking up the phone.
"Lilly, there's someone here to see you."
There was no response. I tried paging her again and again, but she refused to answer. It wasn't like her to ignore a patient, unless she was really caught up in her work. I stepped into the back and walked to her office. Giving a light knock, I waited for a response. Still nothing. I turned the doorknob and slowly opened the door. Peeking inside, I found Lilly passed out in her chair, leaning over her desk with her head in her arms. It was actually kind of cute, and she looked so peaceful. I didn't want to wake her. Fortunately, I didn't have to. The woman out front had made her way to Lilly's office.
"Hey, you can't be back here here!" I protested, but she could care less.
She walked over to lily and started to give her a shoulder massage. Lilly let out a soft moan, her shoulders loosening up more. I was at a total loss. I didn't even know what to do about any of it, if I should let her stay or try to get her to leave.
"Don't worry, I'm a close friend of hers." the woman laughed, now sliding her hands down Lilly's back.
"Well, I still don't think you should be..."
I was totally shocked at what happened next. She reached around Lilly's waist and started groping her chest. It was really... awkward... Needless to say, it got her attention. Her eyes slowly opened, an agitated glare on her face.
"Yes, Rachel, they're still in perfect form... if that's what you were getting at..." she growled.
"Just making sure, Lilly!" she chirped, giving Lilly's chest a light squeeze before letting go.
"So, what exactly are you doing here?" Lilly groaned as she sat up in her chair.
"What, I need a reason to visit an old friend?" Rachel asked.
"Knowing you, yes, you do." Lilly sighed.
"Just making sure this old place is still supporting you is all. It seems pretty dead in here though." Rachel sighed with a pout.
"So you just came to check out the clientele, figures. This place isn't a dating service you know." Lilly sighed.
"You know I'm not looking for anything serious, Lilly..."
"Nor is it an all you can eat buffet."
Rachel's head drooped low like a kid who just found out Santa isn't real. She shook her head and let out a whine.
"You mean there isn't anyone here?" she complained.
I instinctively went to answer, the regimented habit of helping people as a receptionist kicking in.
"Well, there's that guy in the back..."
"Lilly shot me a look that I've seen plenty of times, the 'are you fucking kidding me' look. She was far from pleased.
"Guy? Oh ho ho, what are you hiding, Lilly?" Rachel pried, leaning in close.
"If you're that desperate then go to a strip club or something. There should be plenty of fresh meat there!" Lilly snapped.
"Oh come on, can't you help out an old friend in need of a snack?" Rachel pleaded.
"I'd tell you to stop degrading yourself, but since you do it on a daily basis I don't think it'll do much good. Besides, the guy in the back already has a woman, and she should be here any minute to pick him up." Lilly sighed.
"Oh, I'll be in and out before you know it." Rachel said with a smile.
"But the scent wouldn't, and considering he's a werewolf, I'm sure his mate will chase you down in a matter of hours."
"Ooh, a werewolf... such blind passion, brute strength... and that sex drive... Lilly, you know I can't just walk away from this now..." Rachel murmured, her mind wandering off into a blissful fantasy of indecency, or at least that's what I figured from the look on her face.
"So you'd risk incurring the wrath of his mate for a quickie?" Lilly scoffed.
"Oh, you underestimate me, Lilly. I may look frail but I can put up quite a fight." Rachel laughed.
"I'd assume so, considering all the angry wives and fiances out for your head." Lilly sighed.
"I'm not that bad, and you know it!" Rachel whined.
"Oh yes, you are that bad. Remember that guy you chained to that pipe in your basement, and then forgot about?" Lilly sighed.
"Oh yea... he was a fun one. He used to love it when I would..."
I promptly left the room in fear of hearing the end of that sentence. The sex habits of succubi are things I'd rather leave to my imagination. I took a seat back behind my desk and booted up another game of solitaire. Before I could even start, the front door swung open. A young woman walked in the door, her long brown hair snaking down her back as she walked. Her nose started to twitch a little as she stood in the doorway.
"Can I help you?" I asked.
Something about this girl made me uneasy. I couldn't quite place what it was, but I felt like she was picking me apart from the moment she set eyes on me. She calmly made her way over to my desk, a slight smirk pursing her lips.
"I'm looking for someone." she said, resting her arm on the counter.
"Okay, just give me a name and I can look up when they came..."
"Oh I don't think that's necessary. I know you know where he is. His scent is all over you." she replied, staring me dead in the eyes.
No wonder I felt so uneasy about her. She was a werewolf, specifically, a werewolf who was under the impression I had slept with her mate. I needed to clear things up, and fast. The only thing scarier than a horny werewolf is it's pissed off mate.
"You must be Luna." I replied, closing the appointment book.
"So you know of me, good. Now, why is it my idiot of a lover's scent is all over you? Nothing happened that I wouldn't approve of, now would it?" she asked, leaning closer as she asked the question. She was extremely calm... terrifyingly calm...
"Lilly needed my help when we took blood. He wasn't exactly the most cooperative patient."