Lights, Camera…Monsters Page 5

  His legs were the most confusing, in her terror Lena had trouble making any associations that would help her understand what she was looking at. Finally she realized the reason they looked so odd was that the joints faced backward, hinged like a horse’s rear legs.

  The legs ended in great paw-like feet, claw bedecked as the hands were.

  She looked him over again, from the feet upwards, this time taking in the face, a great dark head crowned by a long tangle of brown and black hair. It had almost human features—eyes, nose, mouth, but they were molded in a way no human’s was. His nose was broad and flat. Brows, cheekbones and jaw were chiseled and heavy. Beneath those brows his slanted eyes were black, entirely black.

  It was definitely male. If his chest muscles hadn’t tipped her off, the monster cock dangling between the legs, would have.

  His mouth opened exposing long fangs—one clawed hand reached for her.

  Lena screamed. Again.

  Since “flight” was no longer an option, she settled for “fight”.

  Reaching down she picked up one strappy black shoe and hurled it at the monster. It hit his chest and fell to the floor. The monster looked down at the shoe, so missed seeing her throw the second one, which smacked him square on the forehead.

  “Ow!” The monster staggered back a step.

  Lena let out a little “Ha!”

  She took kickboxing on Thursday nights—she could take this thing. Too much adrenaline had given her false confidence in her physical prowess.

  She started forward. The monster, still clutching its head, looked up, fathomless black eyes narrowed on her face. Lena detoured for a weapon. She’d wait before trying to take it on with her bare hands.

  She darted to a storage closet tucked into the wall near the patio doors and threw the door open. Her hibachi, a keg tub and three tiki torches went flying. She emerged triumphant with her Louisville slugger in hand.

  Turning to the monster, she planted her feet and put the bat into position on her shoulder.

  “Alright, freaky monster thing, this is your last warning. Get out.”

  “Last warning?” Its voice was a rumble, like a low G from a bass guitar pumped through an amp.

  There was something about that voice…

  “What was my first warning?”

  “The shoes.”

  The monster started forward, the great legs lifting and flexing to bring its body towards her.

  Lena screamed. She couldn’t help it. Every time it moved a bolt of fear, strong as if she’d stuck a fork in an outlet, raced through her. Driven by this newest surge of fear and adrenaline, Lena raced forward, closed her eyes and swung as hard as she could.

  “Ow!”

  She opened one eye to see the tip of the bat against the creature’s ribs. She looked up into its eyes. The monster turned his gaze from the bat to her face. Lena hit him again.

  “Ouch, damn it, Lena!”

  It knew her name.

  She raised the bat over her head, but this time the monster caught it as she swung, ripping the bat from her hands.

  She aimed a few aerobics-class punches at his belly, but hit only air, as she wasn’t actually close enough to strike, and wasn’t about to get any closer.

  Giving up that attack, she ran back to the pile of debris that had spilled out of the closet. She grabbed the keg tub and flung it at him. The heavy, plastic bucket went wildly off the trajectory, heading for her brand-new plasma TV.

  “My TV!”

  The monster reached out and caught the bucket, preventing the destruction and set the tub down.

  “Lena, please—”

  She grabbed a tiki torch and threw it like a lance. The first one scraped the ceiling before the monster caught it and set it down, but the second, thrown while he was dealing with the first, found its mark.

  The sharp end found a home in the mass of muscles on top of the monster’s shoulder. They both looked at the torch.

  The creature reached up and jerked it out, black blood pouring from the hole. Lena pressed her fingers over her mouth, horrified and elated by what she’d done. The monster turned and set the bloody torch on the kitchen counter.

  Run, run now while he’s distracted. But she didn’t.

  The monster turned to face her once more.

  They faced off, the shaking fear-driven woman versus the seven-foot monster.

  The monster started forward, moving fast for something of its size. Lena turned in a circle, scanning the items on the floor for her next weapon, but before she could select one, the monster grabbed her. His claw tipped hands came around her, and together they were big enough to completely circle her waist. He lifted her from her feet, and the reality of his presence, the heat that radiated from his dark skin, the sight of his claws against her flimsy robe, froze everything inside her with terror.

  She had a moment to fear for her life, to mourn her own short time on the Earth, before the monster shoved her into the closet.

  She waited for him to follow her in, though how he would have fit she didn’t know, but when the door closed Lena was alone inside. She pressed her back against the wall, one hand over her still pounding heart and waited.

  And waited.

  Adrenaline and fear alike faded, absorbing into a body that was shaky with the letdown. Lena slid down the wall and put her head on her knees.

  What had just happened?

  She’d woken up to find a monster in her bed where Luke should have been.

  Luke.

  The monster had eaten Luke.

  Lena leaped to her feet and grabbed the doorknob. After a few tugs convinced her it wasn’t opening, she started banging on the inside of the door.

  “You let me out, you monster-bastard! I’m not done with you. I’m going to kick your ass. How dare you eat Luke, he was the best sex I’ve ever had!”

  Her hands started to hurt, so Lena kicked the door, forgetting she was shoeless.

  Leaning against the wall with her leg bent so she could massage her damaged toes, Lena continued shouting at the monster. Now that she didn’t have to look at him it was easy to be mad rather than scared.

  “I’m going to chop off your balls, and kickbox you in the head, and—”

  “I didn’t kill Luke.”

  The voice rumbled through the door, lighter than it had been before. In fact it sounded almost like…Lena pressed her ear to the crack between door and jamb to listen.

  “Do you really think I ate your lover?”

  That voice… No, it wasn’t possible.

  “What am I supposed to think? I went to bed last night with one of the most incredible men I’ve ever met, and I woke up with you.”

  “Incredible men?”

  “You heard me, monster-breath.” Ugh. What a pathetic insult. Lena thunked her head against the door in self-disgust, but its laugh had her refocusing on the sound of its voice.

  “I’m glad you enjoyed Luke.”

  “I’d planned to enjoy him a whole lot more. I mean, he was incredible with just his hands and cock. The oral sex would have probably put me in a coma.”

  It laughed again, and said, “And he wanted to enjoy you too.”

  Lena pressed one hand over her mouth, struggling to make sense of what she heard. The voice was Luke’s, she had no doubt.

  “Luke?” she asked, voice wavering with uncertainty.

  The light that seeped through the crack between door and jamb disappeared as a body moved in front of it. “Yes, I’m here.”

  Relief and confusion, and the vague fear that she was either having a mental breakdown and hallucinating or had accidentally ingested some funny mushrooms, had Lena sinking to the floor. She leaned against the wall and let hot tears slip from behind her closed lids.

  “Luke,” she whispered, not sure if he could hear her, but her throat was too tight to speak louder, “I don’t understand.”

  The door opened. “I know. I’m sorry, I didn’t want to show you like this.”

 
Strong arms slipped around her, and Lena kept her eyes closed. The one who lifted her felt and smelled like Luke. If there was anything else out there she didn’t want to see it.

  He carried her away, into the bedroom, where he set her gently down on the bed. A moment later the drape hoops clinked and the light dimmed, before his weight dipped the other side of the bed.

  Luke lay beside her and curled Lena into his body, stroking her back, kissing her hair and temple.

  Lena started to cry in earnest, the sobs coming from the part of her that realized nothing would ever be quite the same again.

  After all, she’d just learned that monsters were real.

  Chapter Seven

  It was over an hour later before Lena spoke again. They’d changed positions, and Lena lay on her side, with Luke cuddled against her back. Her eyes were open and dry, the tears giving way to intense thought.

  “You’re the monster, aren’t you?”

  Luke jerked against her back, though she didn’t know if his startlement was from hearing her voice after the prolonged silence, or from her question.

  “Yes,” he finally answered. “I’m the monster.”

  Lena took a few deep breaths, though that was the answer she’d expected. You couldn’t live in L.A., couldn’t be a storyteller, without believing in the unexplained and magical. Now that she’d been confronted with the reality of it, Lena was ready to accept the truth.

  She brought up a mental image of the winged beast, and shook her head slightly. That the creature could be the tender man whose arms encircled her waist still seemed impossible.

  Thinking of him as the monster made her remember the damage she’d done to him. Lena pushed to a sitting position and turned to face him for the first time. Luke, wearing only his pants from last night, smiled tentatively up at her. A kitchen towel was pressed to the front of his shoulder, held in place with duct tape.

  “Luke, I’m so sorry.” Lena changed position to kneel beside him on the bed, fingers fluttering to rest on the makeshift bandage. “Look what I did to you.”

  “It’s fine.”

  “No it isn’t, come in the bathroom and let me look at it.” She scrambled off the bed, and grabbed a pair of sweats and a simple black hoodie out of a drawer. She stripped and dressed before turning back to Luke. He was sitting on the side of the bed, watching her.

  “Come on,” she held out her hand, and Luke placed his in it, allowing her to lead him into the bathroom. She sat him on the toilet and examined the bandage. “It’s going to hurt when I take off the tape. Where did you find duct tape?”

  “In a drawer in the kitchen.”

  Lena wet a washcloth and used it to help peel the tape away. Once the bandage was off, Lena had a good look at the crescent-shaped cut in his shoulder. Pulling the towel away had started the bleeding again, and Lena, who, despite her violent tendencies of a few hours ago, didn’t like seeing people hurt, started crying again.

  “Lena, are you all right?” He cupped her cheek, worry etching lines around his mouth.

  “Y-yes, you’re the one who’s hurt. I’m so sorry.” As she sniffled, Lena cleaned out the cut. Normally she would have suggested stitches, but considering what he was, maybe the emergency room wasn’t the best idea. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, I was scared.”

  “Of course you were scared, I’m a monster.” Luke’s lips twisted on the last word, and he looked away.

  A thousand excuses, pleas and reassurances sprang to her lips, but in truth, Lena didn’t know what to say. She finished cleaning out the cut, slathered it in ointment and covered the whole thing with several large square bandages, held firmly in place with paper tape.

  Now that the wound was taken care of Lena had nothing else to do. The silence between them was uncomfortable. Strangely, after all that had happened, the thing that preyed upon Lena’s mind was the fact that Luke seemed hurt by her reaction.

  She knelt on the cool tile, gazing at the floor, as he sat on the toilet and stared at the wall. The rumble of his stomach finally broke the silence.

  Lena breathed a sigh of relief. At least hunger was something she could fix.

  “We need food.” Now that she thought about it, she was starving. The steak and pizza from last night seemed ages ago. Lena pushed to her feet and offered her hand. Luke turned and looked at her, maintaining his silence. He waited so long to slip his fingers into hers, that Lena had almost withdrawn her offered hand.

  Hand in hers, he rose, and Lena led them from the bathroom.

  The living room was a disaster, which she ignored in favor of coaxing him onto the couch before rummaging through her drawers for the take out menus. She ordered Chinese food, and lots of it, promising a big tip if they could deliver in twenty minutes.

  She grabbed some aspirin out of a bottle and brought them to Luke with a cold bottle of water. She held out the pills, and when he stared at them uncomprehendingly, Lena sat on the coffee table so she could look him in the eye.

  “Luke, can you have aspirin? They aren’t like, um, creature kryptonite, are they?”

  “I don’t know what aspirin is.”

  “It’s a drug that helps your body block pain.”

  “Ahh, like Tylenol.”

  “How do you know what Tylenol is but not aspirin?”

  “TV commercial.”

  “So you know what Tylenol is, but not aspirin?”

  “Most of what I know about humans comes from TV and movies.”

  “Oh goodie. There’s a well-rounded and balanced view of humanity. But back to aspirin, which is another pain reliever, have you ever had any before?”

  “No.”

  “Then maybe you shouldn’t take them. Does your shoulder hurt?”

  He hesitated before nodding. “It does, a small amount. This body is fully human, if humans can take it I should be able to.”

  Lena peered into his face, seeing the pain he was trying to hide and handed him the aspirin. She’d watch him, and if it looked like he was having a reaction to the drug she’d take him to the hospital, monster or no.

  She carefully explained how to take the pills, having him swallow them one at a time. She asked him if anything else hurt, and when he tentatively mentioned his ribs, Lena cursed herself and went to get him a bag of frozen peas.

  Once she had him taken care of, Lena started setting the living room to rights, stuffing everything back into the closet and taking her shoes into the bedroom. She left the bloody tiki torch for last. Fortifying herself with a few deep breaths, Lena examined the tip, using a spoon to poke at the black blood that had dripped from it. The blood she’d mopped from his shoulder was red, while this was undeniably black.

  Carefully setting down the spoon, Lena bent to peer at the countertop, checking to see if the blood were eating through the granite like acid. It didn’t appear so.

  “Luke?” she called.

  “Yes?”

  “Why did you put this on the counter?”

  “What?”

  “The thing I stabbed you with, why’d you put it on the counter? Is your blood poisonous? Or maybe if it touches the ground a bunch of spiders will swarm out?”

  Silence.

  Lena stood and looked over the counter into the living room. Luke stared back at her, mouth open slightly.

  “I, uh, didn’t want it to get on the carpet.”

  A blush rushed up Lena’s cheeks. “Oh, okay then.” She grabbed some paper towels and started cleaning the counter.

  “Spiders?”

  “I saw it in a…movie…” All the pieces fell into place. Lena was many things, but slow wasn’t one of them. “That’s why you need us isn’t it?”

  He nodded.

  Lena abandoned her cleaning, brain whirling with what she’d just figured out, fingers twitching to jot down her list of questions before they flitted away. Her purposeful advance was halted by the bong of the doorbell. With a little growl of frustration Lena grabbed her purse and pulled out some cash.

  S
he traded money for two bags of aromatic Chinese food, which she hauled to the coffee table and put down in front of Luke. She handed him a fork and started popping open boxes.

  “We’re going to eat, then you and I need to talk.”

  “You’ve figured it out, you know what we want.”

  “Yeah, I think I do.”

  “Then you will help us?”

  Lena paused with chopsticks loaded with chow mein half way to her mouth. “Are you kidding? Of course we will.” Monsters were real and she was going to be one of the people who got to help tell the world.

  “Yesterday morning…”

  “This is a whole different ball game than yesterday.”

  Luke hung his head for a moment, and Lena set down her food to reach out and touch his uninjured shoulder. “Hey, are you okay?”

  His chest heaved with a sigh before he looked up. The passive, serene expression he normally wore cracking to show lines of strain around his eyes and mouth. Lena would have guessed he was in his late twenties, but with this hunted expression on his face he looked much older.

  “I’m relieved you’ve agreed to help. I…don’t know what we would have done if you hadn’t. You were our last and best hope.”

  “There’s a lot more to this than I’ve guessed, isn’t there?”

  “Yes.”

  Lena picked up a box of shrimp fried rice and poked at it. Once she’d realized what a challenge, and opportunity, Luke and his friends were, she’d made a snap decision to volunteer not only herself, but her partners, in helping him. His words made her rethink that decision.

  “Luke,” she looked up, and met his anxious gaze with her own determined one. “I’m in. No matter what else happens, or who else decides to help, I’m in.”

  “Thank you.”

  He leaned across the table and kissed her. He tasted like spicy tofu, relief and Luke. It was the first kiss since she’d seen him as the monster, and it was all the sweeter for everything that had preceded it. When they broke the kiss, each was smiling. Leaning back, Lena plucked a shrimp out of the rice and held it to Luke’s lips.