Adaptation: book I

  Of the remaining two was one youthful wolf that had only seen three adult seasons. The other was much stronger but also much older. Old battle weakness opened in his neck and hind quarters and despite his desire to not only win the prey but to maintain his dominance; the older wolf was finally defeated.

  The winning wolf bared his teeth at the ones that looked on or hoped to scavenge. And they quickly retreated further to the buildings that served as their hiding places. The winning wolf turned his attention to the bloody mass across the street. He scented the air and then lowered his head and eased his strong sinewy body across the street.

  Bilal’s head swam and he fought to open his eyes. His body was renewing the recent damage that he had done to it by dragging himself across the parking lot. But he had lost a great deal of blood and it continued to pump its way through the two holes in his torso; one in his chest, the other in his abdomen. Each time he moved he reopened the recent repairs to the wound. He needed to lie down and sleep so that his body could heal, he needed to heal so that he could get his family.

  His eyes were closing again when he smelled the dank musk of a wolf. His body tensed and then his eyes tried to focus. Wolves. Not just one…

  He tried to reach up for the door again; in his mind’s eye he was opening the door and dragging his body inside the building. In reality he hadn’t moved one inch. His eyes closed again in exhaustion and his body relaxed. It would take over despite his actions to hinder the healing.

  The wolf hurried to the parking lot, head low, eyes scanning the area for movement. He paused at the pool of blood; the smell of it nearly overwhelming the other smells—but not quite.

  The wolf’s tale curled up as he found a scent that he recognized. The wolf remembered being a pup and being introduced to this smell by his father. It was the smell of a human who was the supreme pack leader. This human lived in a dwelling that smelled of his father. When he was a pup the human would lift him in her arms and rub his neck and feed him good food. When he was bad the human would make loud sounds and put him out of the dwelling until he apologized by putting back his ears or approaching her low. She would always reward him with long rubs and kisses.

  His father had taught him that she was the dominant within the pack, even if he was the pack leader. But more importantly, he had been taught that she was not food. Humans were never food.

  He looked at the bloody mass. But it wasn’t human; it smelled wrong. It was food.

  ~***~

  Carmella stood at the foot of the old woman’s bed, unhappy she was still alive. Other than a facial tic, drooping eyes, and a cold compress on her forehead, she looked the same as she did before.

  Sonny sat on the edge of the bed holding his mother’s hand while Earl squeezed Carmella’s arm tightly.

  “I brought her,” Earl said, releasing Carmella’s arm and shoving her into the footboard.

  The old woman’s face twitched. “Is the baby hurt?”

  Carmella blinked. “No.”

  “I dropped him.”

  Carmella nodded. “But I caught him. He’s okay.”

  “I didn’t hear him cry. I thought I hurt him.”

  Wow, Carmella thought. This bitch of a woman did some serious suffering, and she still shows concern for Raj. “He’s fine.”

  The older woman nodded. “Bring him to me. I want to see him.”

  If I put Raj in that hag’s arms, Carmella thought, he’ll sting her again and probably try to sting everyone else in the room. Carmella eyed Earl. But if he stung Earl first …

  “Go get my boy,” Ma said. “Now.”

  Carmella couldn’t risk Raj’s life like that. Raj had had enough “venom” or whatever it was to knock Ma on her ass, but he might not have enough to harm Earl or Sonny. “But you’re too injured to hold him without dropping him, um, Ma,” she said with a smile.

  “I suppose I am,” Ma said. “Daughter.”

  Carmella stifled a shudder and looked at Sonny. “In my truck somewhere in the back seat is a baby sling. Go get it, and I’ll wear it so your mom can watch him. Oh, and bring in his car seat, too.”

  Sonny was so used to being bossed around that he did as she instructed.

  Carmella smiled at Ma. “Thank you for asking about Raj.”

  “I’m going to name him William,” Ma said. “No, Will. Don’t call my son Raj again.”

  If Carmella’s hands weren’t bound behind her, she would have leaped across the bed and strangled the woman. Instead she decided she would kill her slowly. The more pain the better.

  “You can see she’s still hurting,” Earl said. “You need to take care of her … and us.”

  Carmella’s skin began to crawl.

  Sonny returned with the sling and the car seat.

  “Sonny, go get the baby,” Earl said.

  No! Raj would surely sting him. “But I need to change his diaper first,” Carmella said quickly. “You need to untie me so I can do that. I mean, unless you want to do it, Earl. He may only be wet, but his poops are legendary.”

  Earl cursed and untied the rope around her wrists. “Don’t try any shit.” He took her roughly by the arm and led her back into the living room.

  Carmella scooped up Raj, hugging and kissing him as he hiccupped and made quiet whooping sounds. “I love you, Raj,” she whispered. “You’re not going to be someone’s William.” She picked up the diaper bag, laid Raj on the couch, and prepared for the worst. I hope you left me a big, stinky present …

  Earl looked out the window remembering a time when he’d had two children and a wife who loved them as much as this woman loved her child. But that time was gone, and they were living in a new world. He had needs that had to be met. For eight years he’d sought comfort in Linda’s body, but she was old enough to be his mother and there was nothing pretty about her. He had to close his eyes and dream about his wife just to get hard.

  He watched Carmella changing the boy’s diaper and felt a yearning that went beyond sex. He wanted more than a family consisting of a half-dead old woman and her babied son who was older than he was. He wanted to have more children, and he wanted to take care of them. He wanted a real family again.

  Carmella glanced at Earl. “I’m finished.” She cradled Raj in her arms. “He was only wet this time.”

  Earl thought the kid was cute with his curly black hair. He knew the boy was fighting sleep the way he rubbed at his eyes. His children did the same thing, and when they did, his wife and he would load them into the car and go for a ride—

  Fuck! He had to stop living in the past.

  Grimly he gestured to the other room with the muzzle of his rifle.

  Ma’s face lit up when Carmella came into the room with Raj.

  Carmella tied on and deposited her drowsy boy into the sling, placing a pacifier into his mouth. To keep your stingers where they belong for now. Raj protested briefly, but when she gave him her hand to hold, he quieted and seemed to stare at everything at once.

  “He’s so beautiful,” Ma said. “His father was Chinese?”

  Carmella clenched her teeth and swallowed her pain and rage. “Korean and Caucasian.” And Centaurian …

  “Sorry you lost your man,” Ma said.

  “I didn’t lose him.” Carmella glared at her. “Earl killed him.”

  “We all lost somebody.” Ma felt the compress on her head. “This cloth is warm. My migraine’s coming back, Sonny.”

  Sonny picked up the cloth. “I’ll make it ice cold, Ma.”

  Ma rubbed her forehead. “Earl, you go out and see about making dinner. I want tomato soup. I think the baby will like that.”

  “I’m not leaving her alone with you,” Earl said.

  “Then take the baby with you. You can wear that sling thing.” She frowned at Carmella. “You won’t try nothing, will you? Not with Earl holding that boy.”

  “Um, no,” Carmella said.

  “Ma, I don’t want to leave you,” Sonny whined.

  “I know son, but I need
to talk to her. Alone. Woman stuff.” She looked at Carmella. “I haven’t had a woman to talk to in ten or fifteen years.”

  Earl yanked Carmella’s arm roughly and whispered, “You do anything to hurt that woman, and I’ll put a bullet in your kid’s brain. You got it?”

  Carmella nodded.

  Earl released her arm. “Now hold him till I get this sling off you.”

  Carmella patted Raj’s bottom. “You be good, son.” But if you can’t be good, sting Earl directly in his testicles.

  Earl untied the sling. “Give him to me.”

  Carmella put Raj in Earl’s arms.

  “Well, tie me up,” Earl said.

  I’d like to hogtie you, Carmella thought, tightening the knot. “Not too tight?”

  Earl sighed. “Come on, Sonny. Let’s go.”

  Sonny reluctantly followed Earl out of the room.

  Ma patted the bed. “Sit down over here.”

  Carmella sat.

  “I thought I was having another stroke,” the old woman said. “Had one of those and couldn’t speak right for weeks.” Ma sighed. “I’m getting older. I’ll get better, but I’m not a hundred percent sure that I want to.”

  Oh, woe is you, Carmella thought.

  “My son needs a woman, you know.”

  “You’ve made that clear,” Carmella said.

  “But Earl wants you and means to have you.” Her face twitched. “I know he don’t want me no more. And I expect tonight he’s going to take you, and that might just damage my family because Sonny wants you, too. Sonny can’t go up against Earl.” She sighed. “Earl would stomp him like a bug.”

  And Sonny would be one less asshole I’d have to worry about, Carmella thought.

  “Earl’s always taken good care of us,” Ma said. “We just let him.” She reached out and touched Carmella’s hand. “If I could, I would blow your brains out right now.”

  Carmella’s eyes flitted to the shrunken, cold fingers of this ancient, cold-blooded thief of children.

  “Just to stop the pain that is about to be visited on my family,” Ma said. “We had a good thing going before you showed up. You’ve made them want the same thing, and only one man can win.”

  Carmella jerked her hand away. “You hijacked my family and yet I’m an inconvenience to you? You are a monster, lady. A real monster.”

  “You can’t talk to me that—”

  “I can and I will,” Carmella interrupted. “Let me explain to you how this really works. I don’t have to let your son fuck me. In pack terms, he’s nothing but an omega. Earl is the alpha of this fucked-up ‘family.’ And he’s already made it plain that he means to have me. I’m going to choose him. This way I’m not passed around from man to man like I’m some whore. That’s the only way I’m going to survive this situation that you put me in when you set eyes on my child and said you wanted him for your own.”

  Ma frowned. “You’re not leaving my son without a woman.”

  Carmella crossed her arms in front of her. “If Sonny was the head of this group, then I’d choose him. I’m sure I’d get pregnant quickly.” If hell froze over. “I can have a whole lot of babies before I get too old. And they would be your grandchildren, made of your own flesh and blood.”

  Ma’s eyes lit up.

  “Sonny and I could have a real family, and you could help with our babies. Humans have to be packs now. We can’t make it on our own. I need a pack, but I’d be a fool to take Sonny the omega as my mate when I can have Earl the alpha.”

  “You’re going to choose the man who shot your man?”

  Carmella felt hot tears behind her eyes but she swallowed back the pain as she glared at the old woman. “It’s bad enough being the whore for one man. I won’t be a whore for two.”

  “We’ve all been whores at one time or another,” Ma said. “Before those space alien demons came to Earth, Sonny worked at the bank. He was security guard.”

  “Once that virus hit, Sonny brought me to the bank. We stockpiled the vault with food enough to last a few months, and then Sonny locked us in. At first I thought he was crazy and that we would suffocate, but he said that air circulated and the vault could be opened from both the outside as well as the inside. We stayed holed up in the bank, just sleeping in that shiny steel vault.” She shook her head. “We heard the riots, but we were safe.” She cackled. “We were safe in the safe!” Ma laughed until she started coughing.

  Please choke to death on your laughter, Carmella thought, so I can have something to laugh about, too.

  “Time just seemed like it didn’t exist anymore, you know?” Ma said. “The only way I knew time was moving at all was because we began seeing fewer and fewer people whenever we went out to find food.” She sighed. “We shouldn’t have stayed so long in that safe, because something happened to Sonny. He just … changed into a child again. He needed to be taken care of all over again. All he wanted to do was drink beer and eat sweets.”

  And play with himself, Carmella thought.

  “One day we had to leave the bank because the fans stopped working,” Ma said. “And the smell was horrible. But we weren’t equipped for what we found out in the rest of the world—death, burned-out cities, everybody scared, people who would just as soon shoot you as say hi to you. And those gray Blobs were everywhere, trying to stop the rebellion.” She shook her head. “We wouldn’t have survived any of it without Earl. Scavenging is hard when you don’t know how to shoot.”

  That’s why you get you a gun and learn, Carmella said.

  “Earl found us pushing a shopping cart filled with beer and soup.” Ma smiled crookedly. “That was generally what we ate. Soup. He helped us with the cart and invited us back to his house. He started doing things like hunting for fresh meat. He had guns and knew how to use them. He found places for us to rest our heads and protected us from the wolves.” She closed her eyes. “And for eight years I’ve been his whore.”

  ~***~

  The wolf crept closer to his prey, which hadn’t moved for a long time. He stayed low to the ground and crawled within inches of his prey’s feet. He eyed the tender neck. Once he sank his teeth into that neck, he would crush the larynx and twist.

  The wolf leaped.

  Bilal’s body bowed forward as the wolf flew through the air, and two sleek, new talon-tipped tentacles shot from the holes in his chest and abdomen to impale the torso of the young wolf. The tentacles held the wolf high in the air while the talons pumped poison into the wolf’s body.

  The wolf writhed briefly before the tentacles retracted and the wolf’s body dropped to the ground beside Bilal.

  Sensors sprouted from the tentacles, waved in the air, and pointed southwest.

  They had found the fading scent of Carmella and Raj.

  Chapter 29

  ~Escapes~

  Bilal turned his head and looked at the furry carcass next to him. A moment of confusion overtook him and he reached out weakly.

  “Wolf … what did I do … ?” He pulled the dead animal to him feeling the warmth radiate from him like a furnace. He pressed his face into the animal’s fur and clutched him with stiff fingers. Without another thought he released his new tentacles as if he had always had them. In fact, reaching through them felt safe and familiar.

  He remembered the last time that he’d saved the wolf; after stinging him in battle. Carmella would never forgive him if he hurt her child. His tentacles arched around the still body of the animal finding the entry points and then he latched on. Filaments quickly entered the body and sought the damage.

  Bilal’s awareness moved through his filaments in a familiar way. He felt comfortable but the damage he had done had been bad. He had to force the wolf’s body to imprison the poison so that it could be expelled and then he had to find the trigger within the cells to make them begin healing.

  His filaments thinned until they were invisible to the naked eye. Just one stem cell is all that was needed and if he could find one that was still viable then he could ‘
turn it back on’. If he found the trigger in time then the others would learn and adapt because that is all life was—a series of adaptations. It would be a rapid wild fire in the dead animal; but only if he caught it in time.

  He ‘saw’ the animals body crashing like a row of dominoes, moving swiftly and turning everything grey but he also saw that there were still areas of pink; life! He allowed a filament to surge forward and bury itself into the nucleus of a bright, living cell. Other filaments did the same. As the grey closed in to extinguish the last bits of life there came the smallest spark from one lone cell. The grey of death came to a skidding halt; waiting, and soon the spark spread to the other cells and life arose like a goliath forcing the grey of death to retreat.

  Bilal knew that in order to get the blood to circulate so that it could feed the life the heart must beat. Bilal worked on the animal, sapping the little strength that he had but not caring, perhaps not even realizing. Exhausted he again lost consciousness and yet his body continued its work on both himself as well as the wolf that had only moments before intended him to be its next meal.

  ~***~

  Ma’s bedroom walls seemed to close in on Carmella. After they ate tomato soup, Earl and Sonny were hovering around Ma until she fell asleep. Carmella had fed Raj and laid him in his car seat where he soon fell asleep.

  As she sat in a chair in the corner, Carmella thought about smothering that hateful bitch with a pillow after the men left, climbing out the window with Raj, and running off into the night. Instead she patiently bided her time until she could take away everything that Ma loved.

  Ma’s eyes finally drooped and her snores announced that she was sleeping deeply.

  A spike of fear rose and fell in Carmella. This was the eleventh hour. Sonny continued to hold his mother’s hand, so it seemed raping Carmella was the last thing on his mind.

  But it wouldn’t take much to make it the first thing in his mind, Carmella thought. How am I going to get out of this?

  Earl stood near the bedroom door, his rifle slung over his shoulder, Carmella’s nine-millimeters in her holster around his waist. He shifted his stance and stared at her.