บท 10: Chapter 10: Scary Wolf
"We sound like the Waltons." She thought she heard swearing in her dreams.
The next morning, Sabrina woke alone and sat on the side of the bed to do her exercises. Most new wives would want their husbands still in bed when they woke. Most wives didn't have to go through a set of exercises each morning to be able to walk. Last night had been wonderful. Coming back from the -
She stared down at her scarred knee. "That qi yall. He messed with my mind." She slapped her hands down on the exercise mat. "That oversized long toothed bat played me." She slapped her hand down again, the satisfying sound negating the discomfort in her hands. "I'll kill him."
The wolf padded into the room, managing to look curious and regal at the same time.
"Don't even start, you. I'll send you back to your ancestor. Or show the tokkelosh where you sleep."
The wolf turned smartly and left.
Suppressing a groan, she went to take a shower. How could he? What kind of cold and calculating man would make love to her so beautifully and then try to wipe her mind? She replayed everything that happened last night. How could she be sure she didn't forget something important? Sabrina viciously scrubbed the washcloth over her body, over every inch he'd kissed and caressed. She'd find a way to resist him messing with her mind. Right after she killed him.
She looked into the mirror. Her face appeared distorted by the fog. The steam and glass of the shower gave the illusion that her figure was clothed in ethereal fog, giving her blue eyes a supernatural look.
She blinked, half expecting to see a lightbulb over her head. That's it. She knew how to safeguard her mind. Not by thinking of a brick wall. Not by trying to keep him out of her mind. Instead, she'd show him what he expected to see. She'd hide her real thoughts behind an impenetrable layer of false emotions.
She slammed her palm against the fogged mirror. No one made free with her mind. She'd be more Stepford than the Stepford wives.
"Ouch." Cradling her hand, she went to her closet. It was still hot enough to wear her favorite red dress. After she brushed her hair and put on makeup, she went down to the kitchen and found Wolf sitting suggestively at the fridge.
"You won't intimidate me into feeding you," she told the wolf.
He managed to look skeptical.
Scowling she put a piece of bacon down for him. "All right, that's not really true, but we both know you turn mean to force me to give you food."
He wasn't above growling and baring his teeth in a very intimidating manner to get his way. Though maybe she could scare him again with the tokkelosh if he did that again. Her great grandmother had slept with bricks under her bed to prevent it from getting her during the night. Maybe it would go after a wolf as well.
Should she leave Mark? She loved him, but he scared her. Whatever he was involved with, it had something to do with Jo and those dead eyes that spooked the living spirit out of Sabrina. She had this awful sense of evil coming, a pressure that she could almost see tightening its hold on her city. He'd wanted them to leave her house. She knew Mark didn't scare easily so what exactly was coming?
Through the window she saw Samuel guarding the front door and on the floor next to her, eating his bacon was the wolf, trying to pretend he was a dog. She needed space, a safe place where she could think without Mark's guards around. She slammed the coffee mug into the sink. Where he couldn't mess with her mind while she tried to make decisions. No matter how tenderly he'd made love to her last night, she needed to remember what he was. The way he went off with Jo. That he'd messed with her memories.
Church. She had to get to a church. He won't be able to enter that, vampires burned if they try to enter. She rubbed her chest. She didn't want him to burn and she didn't want him unable to enter a holy place because he was evil. She wasn't one hundred percent sure he was a vampire, even taking into account the bat idea, the brief glimpses she'd seen of wings didn't look vampirish to her. Call her a coward, but she didn't want confirmation that he was a vampire.
"This is so crazy." She rested her forehead on the kitchen table. "Maybe I'm going crazy." Wolf put his head on her thigh and she cautiously sat upright. He'd never done that before. Gingerly she patted his head. "Good wolfie."
He growled at her.
She held her hands up. "All right, all right, big mean very scary wolf."
He gave her a fake doggie smile, with entirely too many gleaming white teeth for her piece of mind.
"I don't suppose you'll help me get away from Samuel."
Get real, she could read it on his face. It was scary how human-like and intelligent his expressions could be.
"If you're a dog, I'm the queen of Sheba," she muttered and went to the back door. Samuel was at the front door and the back door looked out on a tiny courtyard surrounded by houses. It had a small space beside her house, just enough to drag the dustbin for emptying every Wednesday.
Hopefully, she could use that to get away while Samuel's back was turned. The dog stayed on her heels. Sabrina turned and glared down at him. "Go back," she whispered.
He didn't budge.
"I'll make you a steak, just for you if you go back." She didn't know what would be worse, if her neighbors saw her sneak out of her own house or saw her bargaining with a dog as if he understood her words.
"If you get me caught, I'm giving the tokkelosh directions to your bed," she muttered softly and tiptoed down the narrow lane leading to the road. The dog stayed on her heels.
She carefully opened the gate and slipped outside into the street, praying none of her neighbors saw her and called out a greeting. She peeked carefully. Samuel stood with his back to her. She slithered down the street and around the corner as fast as her knee would let her. That dog stayed on her heels. At least he kept quiet.
An hour later, Sabrina huddled in one of the pews in the old church close to her house, feeling foolish. Mark would never harm her, that much she did trust him. And if he wanted to suck her blood or hurt her, he could've done it by now. Sneaking out of the house had been a bit excessive. But then, he did try to control her mind and having a bodyguard and dog around all the time was wearying. Before they married, she'd been used to spending a lot of time on her own. It was hard getting used to having people around all the time.
On top of that, she had this sense that Mark was struggling with something he had to do, and when he got around to doing it, she'd be the one to suffer.
Wolf sat quietly in the aisle next to the pew where she sat, as if he knew he'd get chased out if he barked or ran around.
She couldn't stay in here forever. She'd always thought herself to be level headed and above believing in superstitious nonsense. Suspecting her husband was a winged vampire changed her perception of the world around her. The first few times she'd seen him move faster than her eye could follow, she'd shrugged it off as her imagination. Then she'd seen his eyes glow a few times and every now and then the shadow of wings appeared at his back. She touched her neck. Did he suck her blood last night and erase her memory of it? How could she be sure she remembered everything?
Sabrina glared down at the dog. "After he messed with my mind. Who knew what happened, what he made me forget?" she whispered at it.
"I thought they only had services on Sundays," Mark said from the pew behind her.
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