Broken

  Then we ran. Jumped the trees and leaped from one branch to another following nothing but a scent, the smell of a kill. I let out a huge roar when I spotted a big deer between the trees. It was running, jumping over fallen branches and bushes trying to escape the danger it sensed approaching. I descended on it from a tree gripping it between my claws. Aiyana jumped in from the side and sank her fangs into its skull. I snarled and stared at her while she finished it off. Then we feasted on the dripping meat. Our eyes met and I felt happier than ever.

  I think we both wanted to stay out there forever. The idea was enthralling. But we had our children to think of.

  We went our separate ways just before sunrise and I made it back to the house as the sun rose from the edge of the Intracoastal water behind my house. I barely made it through the backdoor before I changed back. I fell to the floor in the living room as my human body returned. I felt a thrill like never before and smiled widely. I even laughed.

  I was in love again.

  Sarah must have heard me because she came into the room in her pink bathrobe with a gun in her hand looking scared to death. I got to my feet immediately.

  "Doctor?" she asked and put the gun on the dresser when she realized it was me. "Oh my God. What happened to you?" She covered her eyes when she saw I was naked and ran for the couch where she found a big pillow for me to cover my sex.

  "Please. Sarah. Just go back to your room," I said and grabbed the pillow as she handed it to me still covering her face.

  "Everything is alright."

  When the pillow was in place she looked at me harshly.

  "Well I am certainly happy to hear that the doctor is alright. I know it is none of my business but if the doctor intends to spend thirty-six hours out I would prefer to be informed first." She snorted slightly. "I worry too, you know," she continued. "I am after all human. And when people don't come home then I worry that something might have happened. Something bad. And so does William. And just what am I supposed to say to your sweet secretary when she calls the house ten times to ask where you are? A little heads up would be nice next time. A note, a call, anything."

  "I promise it won't happen again," I said. I was still smiling, overloaded with joy like only someone falling in love could be.

  She snorted lightly again. "Now I think I will make the doctor a nice bubble bath. He looks like he needs it badly, and smells like it too. Smells like he has been drinking in a bar filled with animals escaped from the zoo."

  "That would be really nice. Thank you. And thank you for taking care of everything while I was gone."

  Sarah snorted again before she turned around and started walking upstairs to prepare my bath.

  William was quicker to forgive. After my bath I went to his room and woke him up.

  "Time for school, buddy. Time to get up," I whispered.

  He groaned a while before he finally opened his blue eyes and stared at me. "Far. You can't make Sarah this worried. It's not nice," he said. He sat up pointing his finger at me. "You have to remember to call her next time."

  I smiled. Then I leaned over and kissed his forehead. "I will, buddy. Don't worry. It won't happen again. I promise."

  "Where were you actually?"

  "I'll tell you another day. Now get up or you'll be late," I said and looked at my watch.

  "Okay."

  I observed him closely as he devoured his cereal and I drank my coffee. Sarah was mumbling and tossing things around preparing William's lunch.

  "How long do you think she will stay mad at me?" I asked William.

  He shrugged. "You might need to give her more than flowers this time, I think," he said and took his bowl to the dishwasher.

  Smart kid, I thought to myself and decided to have Julie buy her something. Sarah handed me William's lunchbox and I put it in his backpack while William put on his shoes.

  "Chocolate?" I asked as I held the door for him.

  He shook his head.

  "You were gone for too long; Far. Gotta be more than that."

  I was dozing in my office dreaming of Aiyana when Jamie Allen called me. Julie was still a little snappy when she put the call through to me. She was angry when I got to the office and told me that some of the patients had been cancelled so many times it had become quite embarrassing for her. I promised her that this was the last time she had to cancel any appointments. I was back.

  "I have your results," Jamie said. "It’s been really busy so it took awhile. Plus I had to run several different kinds of tests on it. I did a little experimenting as well. I hope that was okay with you. I think you should come down and take a look for yourself. I’m not quite sure what to make of it."

  The blood test! I had completely forgotten about that.

  "I'll come right over once I’m done with my patients here."

  "See you then."

  Chapter 27

  "I can't say I have ever seen anything like this. I don't know whether to raise my hands and do a little victory dance because it’s such a huge scientific discovery, the discovery of a century - or to be seriously worried about your health."

  Jamie was looking at me from her chair as I entered her lab. She seemed both concerned and a little startled as well. She looked at me like she was expecting me to answer, to clarify to her what she had seen.

  I stepped closer dripping water on the floor as I walked. An afternoon thunderstorm had hit just as I arrived and parked the car. I was soaked from the quick run from my car to the main entrance. My hair was dripping; the freezing air from the air conditioning caused me to shiver in my wet clothes.

  "Here," she said and threw me a towel. Then she pulled up a chair and next to hers. She stared into a microscope. I dried my hair then sat on the chair next to her. She put in a sample and pushed the microscope towards me. It had been many years since I had studied blood in a microscope, not since medical school but I quickly recognized this as a sample of blood, my blood I assumed. I saw a lot of red blood-cells moving around then some purple almost blue cells that I didn't recognize and to my huge surprise only one single white one.

  "This is a clean sample of your blood. Your immediate reaction is that this person has to be very seriously ill, right?" she said behind my back. "I mean there are only a few white cells left and no one can live without white blood cells. We all know that."

  "A few? I see only one," I said. "A very small one."

  "Wow. Then it is actually less than yesterday when I last looked at this one," she said with unintended enthusiasm. "It's like they are speeding up the process. Like they're getting stronger and stronger. Very interesting. Let me have a look again," she continued and pushed me aside. She put her eye on the instrument. "You're absolutely right. At this pace the last white blood-cell will be gone by this time tomorrow."

  "So what do you make of it?" I asked.

  She leaned back in her chair. "I don't know. You're definitely not sick. I have tested for anything and everything and there is nothing. All results show a healthy young man. I mean you would immediately think that it might be some kind of blood-cancer affecting the amount of blood-cells and that was what I thought at first. I thought those purple cells were some kind of cancer in your blood. Maybe a new kind we had never seen before. And they are the ones affecting your production of white blood-cells. It's like they have kind of ... taken over. It seems they are slowly eating your white blood-cells, taking their place and function in your body."

  "But what are they?"

  "I don't know. I have never seen them before or anything remotely like them. I have run all kinds of tests on them and in form and structure they are very similar to our normal white ones, but they seem to be a whole lot stronger and resistant to all kinds of diseases. I have infected your blood with everything from chickenpox to HIV and even cancer cells like leukemia. Every time the same thing happens. The purple blood cells attack it ferociously and kill it within seconds. I have never seen anything like this. It could be the biggest breakthrough in medical sc
ience since the penicillin."

  I stared at her, startled, speechless. Then I spoke: "Are you telling me I am carrying the cure for cancer and HIV?" I leaned back in my chair. My heart was beating fast. The possibilities this contained and the problems it carried as well.

  "I can't say that for sure. But if I am right then you carry the cure to all diseases on this planet. You simply can't get sick."

  I got up from my chair and started walking in circles. My head was spinning. How was this possible? It had to be The Fountain of Youth. I had received the fountain from Aiyana when she bit me ten years ago. That was what gave me the ability to predict things and hear people's thoughts. Later on it had turned me into the black jaguar. When she bit me she had somehow contaminated my blood with these new purple cells. I had only received a few, only a little saliva from her bite so the amount of purple cells was very few. Since then they had multiplied and gradually taken over. Could it have taken them ten years to finally take over my blood stream? Ten years to make me who I was now? Was that why I hadn't experienced the transformation until now?

  It could very well be.

  The prospect of possibly carrying the cure to all the diseases on this earth frightened me. I remembered what my father in law, Dr. Kirk had said when he examined my eyes. I could end my life in a lab as an experiment. A lab rat for doctors from all over the world to examine, my blood used to cure diseases all over the world. I was a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands. But I also contained the cure for people in need, people dying. I could save someone's mother. I could be the one arriving in the last minute as an answer to some child's prayer and cure her, like I had dreamed would have happened to my mother. But it never did.

  Oh my gosh! I could cure Heather! Could I possibly save William's mother from dying?

  I stared at Jamie. She looked at the samples taking each little glass up and studying it closely. "We need to run a lot more tests to be sure that I am right, but I really think we are on to something," she said.

  When I heard her call my name I was already out of the front door.

  It was still raining heavily as I started the engine and left the parking lot in front of the lab. With the wiper's hypnotic rhythm in front of my eyes I drove around the streets of St. Augustine. I had no idea where I was going. I wanted to find Heather and tell her everything. But how could I? I didn't know where she was. And what about the secret? Could I reveal Aiyana's secret? Would she let me reveal it if I told her what was at stake? Would she let me reveal her family's long kept ancient secret? The secret they protected for thousands of years. And with good reason. They knew it would cause more trouble if they revealed it than if they didn't. Could this world cope with such a discovery now? Was it even ready for it? And even if Aiyana said no would I do it anyway? Or would that be too selfish of me? Could I be that selfish? Could I defy my beloved like that just to save my wife from certain death? Even if I could, just how was I supposed to save Heather? By biting her? By giving her a transfusion of my blood? And then wouldn't that mean that she would become what I was? Wouldn't she also become a jaguar? Did she want that? Did she have a choice?

  I hit my hand hard in the steering wheel when I stopped for a red light. Damn it! She would have to do it. For William's sake!

  A loud thunder roared outside. The sky above me was pitch-black. I drove downtown and passed the Spanish fort - The Castillo de San Marcos - with cannons on the roof overlooking the bay on one side and the old historic town on the other with its closed off streets only for pedestrians that always reminded me of my home country. Denmark’s cities all had streets only for pedestrians. Flocks of tourists ran to avoid the rain. I took a turn without even knowing why and was led past the old buildings of Flagler College. I had always adored its Spanish Renaissance architecture. It was the first major poured-in-place concrete building in the United States also known as Ponce de Leon Hall and is a National Historic Landmark. I had grown to love this city and its historic diversity, but right now I wanted out. I wanted to drive far away from this human anthill of tourists. I wanted to go home to William and hug him for a long time.

  So that's exactly what I did.

  Chapter 28

  I spent the entire afternoon with William, drinking hot chocolate playing his favorite game RISK on the small table in the living room sitting on the thick carpet while the rain slowly wore off outside. I wasn't paying much attention to the game and it didn't take long before William noticed.

  "Far. You're not even listening," he said.

  "I'm sorry buddy. Is it my turn?"

  "Yes. I just took Africa from you. You're losing."

  I chuckled. "So I am."

  William paused. Then he looked at me. "Were you thinking about Mommy?" He asked with a small gentle voice.

  I smiled. "Yes, I was."

  He nodded. "Me too." He placed a small figure on the board. "I do it all the time."

  I sighed deeply. Then I pulled him close. I stroked his hair and held him in my arms. "It's okay, buddy. It's okay to be thinking about her."

  "Do you think she is okay?"

  "Hey. Of course she is. She’s with the dwarves, remember? What are their names again? Sleepy ... Dumpy, Humpty?"

  William chuckled. "No,Far. It's Sneezy, Sleepy, Dopey, Doc, Happy, Bashful and Grumpy." He paused and looked away. "But I know she’s not really with them."

  I exhaled deeply. Then I pulled him tighter.

  "So where do you think she is?" he asked. "Cause I have a lot I need to tell her. She doesn't even know I can ride my bike without training wheels. She hasn't seen how much I’ve grown. I can't even fit in any of my shoes anymore. Sarah says that I'll outgrow all of you in a couple of weeks if I keep up this pace. And I'll probably have my first loose tooth soon cause Bradley from my class just had his first and soon it will fall out and the tooth-fairy will come. And I'm going to have one too. Soon. I can almost wiggle mine now. And she is going to miss all that." William took a deep breath, fighting back tears. "Do you think she is still sick, Far? Doesn't she want us to take care of her anymore? Don't you think she needs us?"

  I hugged William tighter. "I don't know, buddy. I really don't know."

  "I thought you knew everything," William said and broke out of my arms. Then he ran towards the stairs while yelling: "I thought parents were supposed to know everything! I thought mothers were supposed to be with their kids!"

  I felt like dissolving into tears as he disappeared up the stairs while still yelling at me.

  Later that evening when William had calmed down and I had comforted him while putting him to bed by reading Snow White once again, I ran as fast as I could towards the swamps. It was a Friday night and lots of tourists were in the streets of St. Augustine even in the outer areas where I used to run. At one point I had to stop in order to not be seen and jump onto a tall building to try and sneak past them before I could jump back on the street again and run towards my goal. I never made it that far before someone behind me screamed.

  "A black panther!"

  I had just landed on the asphalt from the tall building. I froze, turned my head and saw a woman standing on the sidewalk in front of a closed store. She was pointing at me while screaming. A few seconds later more had joined her. They were shouting and pointing at me. Flashes were lightening as they took my picture.

  "A real live black panther," one said.

  "It's a black jaguar," another man said. "Don't go too close to it. A real savage predator, that's what it is. It’ll eat you alive."

  I snarled as one man tried to impress the rest by walking really close to me. He jumped back with a small shriek. More flashes lit up in the dark as they took pictures of me looking aggressively at the man.

  I turned my back on them and ran like the wind knowing that the news of a jaguar scaring the tourists would be on the front page of the local papers in the morning. And soon the swamps would be invaded by hunters with the insatiable thirst for killing us.

  I longed to be with her agai
n and ran towards the spot inside the Twelve Mile Swamps where I usually found her at this time of night. The anticipation me shiver and drove me to run even faster. I pictured her there waiting for me. I happily imagined how she expected me to jump out and show my glowing blue eyes in the darkness at any moment now. I was late. The incident with the tourists had slowed me down and at first I thought that was why she wasn't there when I arrived. I ran and leaped over a huge bush but found the clearing completely empty. I stopped and turned to see if she would appear from behind me or maybe she was waiting in the top of the tree. I tried to catch her scent which normally led me directly to her if I lost track of her during our hunt. But I caught nothing. Only an old scent from the day before when we had made love in that exact clearing. Where was she? Had she not been able to restrain her hunger any longer and therefore went out to hunt on her own?

  I roared loudly to make my presence known to her and all other animals nearby. It caused a flock of birds to take off from a treetop. I stared at them as they made the sky cloudy for a short while before they were all gone. I roared again and heard animals flee from bushes and hide in the water. I looked with my night vision for her paw prints to see if I could figure out in which direction she could have gone. But there were no new prints. The heavy rain earlier that day had washed the ground clean of any old ones. My heart was racing and I felt sick. Where could she be? I leaped onto a branch and jumped to another one higher up until I was as high in the tree as I could possibly go considering my weight. From my high place I could see far, but I didn't see her. Not a trace. I jumped down to the ground and started smelling my way, running through the swamps searching, to try and find her track. If she had been there she must have eaten something. I looked for tracks indicating that she had run here, or an animal had been chased here. I picked up the scent of a half-eaten prey but recognized it as one we both had eaten the night before. The stench of decay made me feel worse. Birds were picking in it, worms and maggots were crawling all over it. My heart stood still for a second. If I couldn't find her, did that mean that she hadn't been there? Could she be on her way? Maybe she was back at the clearing now waiting for me?