“Doesn’t that sound like someone is banging a head against a wall?” I ask.
Gracie covers my hand with hers to stop me from playing with the navel ring on her stomach. “Isn’t that what I just said? And it better not be Jane’s, because if Vuur bangs it too hard, Mom will lose the host!”
She looks over her shoulder at me. “Let’s get the hell down there!”
Luna may be speaking softly, but she’s working the anger loud and clear.
We step out of the stairwell. Someone screams, “Turn down the fucking TV!” from room two-oh-one, and we jump three inches into the air. Breathing hard, we both freeze.
The monster inside me trembles to be let out.
“One more time, and I slit her throat!” Vuur’s voice barrels on the other side of a door down the hall.
“Jeeze, buddy, whoever the hell you are. Stop the banging! I’m under a friggin’ knife in hea’. Youse guys got enough testosterone flyin’ around to grow me one! What’s your fuckin’ problem?”
“Crap,” Gracie voice whispers. “That’s Jane.”
“No,” I say trying to gain control of the moment. “That’s your mother.”
“Oh, God,” she squeaks. “We need to do something!”
The banging is louder, more persistent. The expectancy of a battle spreads my lungs and fire runs through my veins. I feel the beast in me swell. Sweat beads on my forehead. My hands itch with the change. I choke, and grab Luna’s arm. “I don’t think I can stop this!”
I fall to the floor, shudder and dry heave as I try to halt the change. My limbs crack and bend. My spine lengthens. On the fence of reality, I hear a loud crash, a splitting of wood and drywall.
I vaguely hear a woman shout, “Turn the goddamned television down! We’re tryin’ a little romance in here!”
“Gaire,” Luna is saying close to my face. “If that banging came from who I think it did—you can’t kill him. Can you hear me?”
I stiffen as my body continues to transform. “You mean I can’t put the real Vuur down before he shifts?” I’m panting, my voice deep and gravely. I know the change is a hideous process, but Gracie’s face is not registering disgust.
She looks down at me through thoughtful eyes. “Gaire, Vuur doesn’t know my mother is under Jane’s skin. What if he’s trying to save the real Jane? They had this thing. It’s hard to explain, and we don’t have the time. Promise me. Just promise you’ll make sure he isn’t trying to save Jane.”
I growl and feel bones under my facial features shift and extend. It’s only a matter of seconds before the shift is complete. My clothes in shreds, I push myself into a standing position.
Gracie jumps back. “Okay, hold on bad-boy-wendigo-guy. Don’t go doing something stupid … yet. Please,” she says and grabs a clawed hand.
I snort and shake from snout to tail. “I’ll try, but if he gets anywhere near you, I can’t promise I’ll be a good bad-boy.” I curl my maw and give Luna a toothy smile.
My senses are ten times stronger. I smell filth on the carpet beneath my clawed feet. The strong scent of rancid body-fluids increases my lust for blood and the need to stop heartbeats pulsing behind old wood worn doors. Lights burn under small cages and beside each door, and make me hood the wendigo’s eyes from the glare. I can feel the monster’s pulse in my temples, chest, spine, and fingers dressed in long sharp claws.
There’s a loud crash and a man’s angry shriek. Gracie runs toward two-oh-seven. I spring down the hall after her. She slides to a stop in front of the room seconds before I get there.
Something solid hits glass.
A woman screams, “Vuur, stop!”
We burst through the door to find Vuur fighting Vuur, and Jane standing in the middle of the bed, knees bent, arms out, ready to leap.
“That’s it! I’m calling the fucking cops!” the woman down the hall yells.
I kick the door shut and run the deadbolt.
“Which one?” Luna shouts at her mother dressed in Jane.
“Fuck, Fuck, Fuck!” Jane screams back. “The one with the f’n ropes around his arms, idiot. Go left!”
Both women leap onto the men’s chests and lock lips with them. They move around the room like two inebriated couples trying to outdo each other on a dance floor.
I’m frozen in place as the Vuur under Jane’s lips disintegrates into a fine black powder and clings to the doppelganger trying to push her away. The Vuur under Gracie manages to pull her off his chest and darts toward the cloud of smoke being drawn into Jane.
“Stop him!” Luna screams at me as I take Vuur down.
We roll on the carpet, my fangs inches from his throat.
“But don’t you dare kill him!” she yells in my ear. “He was not trying to kill Jane!”
Vuur turns his head to glare at Gracie and spits on the carpet. “Let me guess, another doppelganger?”
Gracie smiles. “Hey Vuur, last time we met I was wearing Jane.”