Tyler clocked out and started his way out of the building. He was done for the night and was looking
forward to getting a good solid eight hours of sleep. As he was passing through the department, he
spotted Aster… on the wrong side of the handcuffs. They were getting ready to fingerprint her.
Tyler walked over and patted Roggers, the officer processing her, on the back. “Hey Roggers, what is
she in for?”
“Driving drunk.”
“Do me a favour. Process her, but don’t put her in holding.”
“What am I supposed to do with her?”
“I’m heading over to post her bail right now. I’ll be back to get her by the time you are done processing
her.” He quickly glanced at her file number then headed down to the cashier in the bail office. He said
hello to the officer behind the desk and gave her the number he had remembered. They looked up
Aster’s case. “She’s still in processing.”
“I know, but we can bend the rules and let me pay her bail out right now, right?”
“Well, for you.” She smiled, accepting his credit card. When he was done, he collected the recipe and
headed back to processing. By the time he got back, she was finished and sitting handcuffed to a
wooden bench.
Tyler unlocked her handcuffs, and Aster stood up. “Well, now you must be happy to see me. Had we
not run into one another, you would be spending the night with hookers and meth heads.”
“Congratulations, you’re finally the white knight.”
“You should be nicer to me. I just paid fifteen hundred dollars to get you out.”
She gave him a sheepish look. “Ok, thank you.”
“I’m taking you home. Where do you live?”
“It’s easier if I just give you directions.” She said as they made their way out of the building, with Tyler
frequently grabbing her elbow to help her stay on her feet.
Tyler walked Aster to his car and opened the passenger door, helping her in, so she did not hit her
head on the roof. Once she was settled, he got in behind the wheel and pulled out of the parking
garage. She started telling him to head toward Feral. Tyler was asking her how she had ended up in
the police station when she stopped responding. Glancing over, he saw Aster had passed out. He still
didn’t know where she lived. He pulled over and searched her purse for some form of ID that had her
address on it. Finding a government ID, he memorized the address and headed for her home.
Her place was a good five minutes west of Feral. When he pulled into the driveway, Tyler got out and
looked around. It was a nice place. It wasn’t very big and only one story. He walked around to the
passenger door. Opening the door, he leaned in and searched Aster’s purse for a house key. When he
found one, he walked up to the front door, unlocked it and left it open so he would not have to fight with
it with Aster in his arms.
He scooped Aster up into his arms. Tyler lifted Aster out of the passenger seat and kicked the car door
closed. Carrying her inside, he did the same with the front door, then headed down the hall to his left
until he found the bedroom. He gently placed her on the bed and brushed her hair out of her face. He
reached for her shoes, removing one then the other and placing them on the floor by her closet. One of
the heels was snapped off. He walked back to the bed and watched her. She was wearing a fitted pair
of jeans which showed off her delectable curves. What a girl. He supposed jeans were uncomfortable
to sleep in. Then again, she was so drunk she could have probably slept soundly in an iron maiden.
Deciding undressing her would be crossing boundaries, Tyler pulled the blankets which were tossed in
a heap at the foot of the bed and covered Aster up, trying to make her more comfortable.
Glancing at the clock on the nightstand, Tyler decided he would stay the night. Someone had to take
her to the impound to retrieve her car in the morning. Tyler grabbed the other pillow on the bed and
went out into the hall. He opened doors until he found a linin closet with spare blankets. He made his
way to the living room and kicked off his shoes. Tyler dropped down on the sofa. He stuffed the pillow
under his head and draped the blanket over himself as he got comfortable. Tyler closed his eyes and
drifted off to sleep.
***
Someone calling her name startled Aster awake. She sat up in her bed and looked around the room. It
was night and dark, but she could see fine without the lights. She sat there silently listening. She heard
her name again. It was a woman’s voice, and it was distant. She had no idea where it was coming
from. Aster walked to the window and pulled back the drapes. She saw a figure dressed in white
outside amount the tree line in her back yard.
“Mom?” It could not be her mother was dead. The figure called her name once more. Aster left her
bedroom and walked down the hall toward the back door in the kitchen. She walked through the living
room on her way to the kitchen. Everything felt strange. There was an intense sense of fear that was
making her anxious. Reaching the kitchen, she opened the back door and walked out onto the porch.
She could see the woman in white at the tree line still. Strange, but the sky was filled with black clouds
blocking out the moonlight. The air was chilly for this time of year, and fog rolled at her feet.
The woman called her name, but it still sounded a million miles away. “Mom?” She started walking
toward the woman. The closer she got to her, Aster noticed the woman’s back was turned to Aster.
Aster walked slower the closer she got. “Mom?” She spoke again as she stood behind the woman. She
reached out and touched the woman’s shoulder. “Mom?”
The woman turned, and she was faced with her mother, whose eyes were glowing, and her fangs
descended as she attacked. Aster screamed and did her best to fight her off.
***
The sounds of footsteps drew Tyler from his sleep. He opened his eyes and lifted his head, and
watched as Aster walked slowly through the living room with a vacant look on her face. Tyler sat up.
“Aster?” He called to her, but she did not respond. She simply kept walking past him and into the
kitchen. Tyler rose to his feet and followed her. “Aster, what are you doing?” He asked, following her to
the door. Tyler stood beside her while she opened the door. He looked at her face and her eyes. He
waved his hand in front of her, but she did not respond.
She was sleepwalking.
Tyler watched her leave the house. He followed her outside and looked around. It was a clear night,
and the moon and stars were bright in the night sky. It was hot as all hell, and it would be nice if it
rained to break up the heatwave. Aster kept walking toward the trees. Where was she going? He
should stop her and get her back to bed. He rushed to catch up, and he got in front of her. “Aster, wake
up.” When she did not wake, he grabbed her arm to give her a gentle shake to wake her.
Suddenly Aster started screaming at him. Her hands flew up to fight him off. She was hitting and
scratching, and then something happened. Something he would have never expected. Her amazing
eyes began to glow liked candles in the dark, her face became something monstrous, and she growled
like an animal complete with fangs.
“Holy shit!” He screamed, backing away, throwing up both his arms in self-defence. Aster lunged at
him, and her jaws chomped down hard on his left forearms, her fangs digging deep into the flesh.
“Ahhh!” He screamed out in agonizing pain, which seemed to snap Aster out of her trance.
She stepped back, his blood dripping from her mouth. It took her a moment to realize where she was,
who he was, and what had happened. Her fingers touched her lips, and she looked down at his blood
on her fingertips. She looked around confused and then looked at the wound on his arm, which he was
now cradling. She looked normal once more. Tyler had no idea what had just happened, but his arm
hurt so much.
“Tyler?” She was confused. “Where did she go?”
“Where did who go? There is no one out here but us. You were sleepwalking.”
“I bit you?”
“Yeah. You turned into… I don’t know what, and then you bit me.”
She reached out for him, and Tyler backed away out of her reach. “Let me help you.”
“You are not going to bite me again, are you?”
“No. I’m going to clean your wound. I’m not going to hurt you unless you make me.”
“What are you?”
“Let me tend to your wounds, and I’ll answer your questions.”
Reluctantly Tyler agreed and followed Aster back into the house. She turned on the kitchen light, and
Tyler took a seat at the kitchen table. Aster opened the cupboard beneath the sink and took out a steel
first aid box that happened to look like a World War Two army footlocker. She walked over and placed it
on the table, then lifted the lid.
Tyler was shocked at what she had in it. The box was chocked full of medical supplies. Everything from
standard first aid supplies to IV bags and other things one could find in a hospital setting. “What did you
do, rob a hospital?”
“Ambulance,” Aster said as she took some alcohol pads and swiped them over and around the wound
site to clean the area. It stung, and Tyler flinched but only for a moment.
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.” He said as he watched her take out a needle and a vial of clear
fluid. “What is that?”
“It’s a numbing agent. Otherwise, the stitching would hurt.” She said, injecting little by little around the
wound site.
“Were you a nurse at some point?”
“Nope.” He was not so sure he wanted her to stitch him up if she had never been trained.
“What do you need with all that?”
“For moments like this or worse.” She said, threading a needle with medical suture thread. She took a
seat next to him and bulled his arm toward her. “Do you feel numb yet?” She said, tapping the needle
against the skin. He nodded yes. Whatever she had given him was great. He could not feel a thing.
Aster proceeded to stitch. As Tyler watched her technique, he realized she had some talent at this. It
made him wonder how she had learned to do this.
“So, do you want to fill me in on just what the hell happened outside?”
Aster was quiet for a long time. It was like she could not decide what to tell him. “Can I trust you?” She
asked, looking him in the eye. “I mean, really trust you? What I’m about to tell you can never be told to
anyone else. Not ever. Should you break my trust, it will have grave consequences.”
“I would never tell anyone about what just happened because no one would even believe me.”
“I’m serious, Tyler. I would have to kill you if you betrayed my trust.”
“You just threatened the life of an officer. Is your secret really worth ending up on death row?”
“Yes.”
He did not know what to say. Whatever she was about to tell him was going to be huge. “If you are
about to confess to a crime, I think you should not say anything at all.”
“It’s not a crime. But people will die if you expose me.”
“Ok, I’m listening.”
“You give me your word?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m not human.”
Had she really just said she was not human? How did he respond to that? “What are you?”
“I’m a Lycanthrope?”
Tyler could not form a thought for the longest time. The absurdity of what she had just said was
staggering. “You think you’re a werewolf?”
“I don’t think I am. You don’t believe me?”
“No.” Aster closed her hand around his wounded arm and grew claws. Tyler cried out in pain. “I believe!
I believe!” She released him and returned to the stitches. The numbing agent was not as good as he
thought because he had felt those claws cut into his flesh.
“Don’t worry. I can stitch those too.” She promised.
He looked at his wounds and began to panic. “You bit me. Am I going to become…?”
“No. It’s not a virus. You can’t be turned into a Lycanthrope. I was born just like you. You either are or
aren’t.”
“Is it typical for you to sleepwalk?”
“I used to sleepwalk when I was young. I have not had an episode in eight years. I have no idea why it
has started up again.” She tied off the thread and cut it, then picked up a needle to give his arm some
more freezing so she could stick up the five new holes she had made in his arm. “I’m sorry I bit you.
Haven’t you heard that you are not supposed to wake a sleepwalker? It could end violently.”
“I didn’t realize I was waking a sleeping bear.”
“Wolf?”
“What?”
“I’m a wolf.”
“I was speaking metaphorically.”
“You are not going to tell anyone, are you?”
“Who would believe me?”
Aster grinned. “I have no idea why I told you any of this. I should have just killed you and tossed you in
the river.”
“Oh, that explains a lot.”
“Explains what?”
“A lot of bodies turn up in the river. Homicide never could explain why. Coroner always said it was
animals, but I’m guessing it was you.”
“They were all threats to the pack.”
“Pack? There are more like you.”
“Fifty.”
“Fuck me.”
“We are the largest pack in the last four hundred years. For the most part, we mind our own business.
We don’t hurt anyone unless they become a threat to the safety of the pack. When it comes down to
them or us, you better believe we will take them out. Hunters are a huge problem. That’s why it is so
important that our secret doesn’t get out. Secrecy saves lives, theirs and ours. Are you going to run us
all in for murder?”
Tyler thought about it. He should. They had killed a lot of people, and probably the men on the road.
However, people were often forgiven by the courts if they killed someone in self-defence. And it
sounded like that was the only time this so-called pack took a life when theirs was threatened. If that
wasn’t self-defence, then he did not know what was. He could run them in and let the courts decide
what to do with them, but what would he tell people when the coroner’s report said the animal attack
was the cause of death. He could not tell them they were werewolves. He’d be put on suspension
pending a psychiatric evaluation.
Arrest them or look the other way?
He had never looked the other way for any reason, but this was very unusual circumstances. Things
were not exactly black and white in this case. Giving the matter some thought, Tyler decided to look the
other way for the first time in his life. “You swear it was self-defence?”
“I guarantee it.”
“Ok, I’m just going to pretend you never told me any of that.”
“Thank you.” She yawned.
“It’s late. We should go back to bed.”
“I don’t want to go back to sleep.”
“Why not?”
She cast her eyes down and blushed with embarrassment. “I had a nightmare.”
“You are afraid to go back to sleep?” He chuckled. “Isn’t that a little childish?”
“It was a very bad dream.”
Tyler wondered what had her spooked, but he was not going to ask. He did not think she would tell him
even if he did. “I could sleep in the bed with you and hold you. You might feel safer.”
“Oh, and you take advantage of the situation?”
“I promise no hanky-panky, just support.”
“You swear?”
“I’m a cop. I don’t lie.” He smiled. “Then in the morning, I will take you to the impound and help you get
your ride out.”
She considered his offer. “Ok, but if you try anything… I’ll bite you again.” She grinned.
Tyler laughed. “I consider myself warned.”
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