Leviathan

CHAPTER SEVEN

“What do you think it means?” Gabriel asked from the foot of the bed as Aaron stepped from the shower and grabbed a fresh shirt.

He pushed his arms through the sleeves and pulled the red T-shirt down over his stomach. “It was kind of like the dreams I had before this whole Nephilim thing blew up,” he said, fingering his hair in the mirror and deciding that he looked fine. “Where I was experiencing old memories that didn’t belong to me.”

“Like the sword?” the dog asked.

Aaron shuddered as he remembered the amazing sight of the sword that he seemed to have brought over from the dream. He knew he was not responsible for the creation of the blade. He was certain that it belonged to someone of great importance, but the question was who—and why had the weapon been given to him. It had only stayed with him for a short time. As if sensing it was no longer needed, it had dispersed in an explosion of blinding light. “Just like the sword,” Aaron finally replied. “And like the dreams, I think it was given to help me.”

“I thought it was all very scary,” Gabriel said, and sighed as he rested his snout between his paws.

“I agree,” Aaron said, sitting beside the dog to put on his sneakers, “but it all has something to do with this town.”

“Is this a mystery?” Gabriel asked, his floppy ears suddenly perky.

Aaron laughed and gave the dog’s head a rub. “It certainly is. Listen, I’ve got to go to the clinic this morning, but you need to stay here and give that leg a chance to heal. Why don’t you think about all our clues and see if you can come up with some answers.”

“I’ve always wanted to solve a mystery,” Gabriel said happily.

“All right there, Scooby.” Aaron gave the dog another pet and headed for the door.

“Scooby?” the dog said, his head tilted at a quirky angle.

“He’s a dog on television, very good at solving mysteries.”

Gabriel’s head tilted the other way.

“Never mind,” Aaron said as he stepped out into the hall. “It’s not important. I’ll see you this afternoon.”

“Have a good day, Shaggy,” he heard the dog say as he closed the door. And he began to laugh, marveling again at how smart his friend had actually become.

Aaron was busy at the veterinary clinic from the moment he stepped through the door. He didn’t think it possible for a town so small to have that many animals in need of care. Stitches, rabies shots, heartworm tests, a broken forepaw—you name it, he and Katie dealt with it that morning and well into the afternoon.

It feels good to be working with animals again, Aaron thought as he restrained a particularly feisty Scottish terrier, by the name of Mike, who was having some blood drawn.

“No hurt! No hurt!” the little dog yelped as his owner looked on, concern in her eyes.

“It’s okay,” Aaron said to the dog. “When the doctor is done, you can have a cookie and go home. All right?”

The dog immediately stopped its struggling.

“That’s it,” Katie said, placing the vial on the counter and turning to the owner. “I’ll send this out to the lab this afternoon and give you a call as soon as I know something.”

Aaron handed Mike back to his owner and escorted them into the lobby to settle the bill. “And don’t forget this,” he said, holding out a treat as the woman turned to leave.

The woman smiled, and Mike greedily devoured the cookie.

“I never lie,” Aaron said to the dog with a wink and bid them both good-bye.

“Next victim,” Katie said wearily, coming out of the examination room.

For the first time that day, the waiting room was empty.

“We’re good right now,” Aaron told her. “Next one’s”—he glanced at the appointment book—“a rabies shot at four. Gives us two hours to catch up.”

“You know, you’re really good with them,” Katie said, leaning against the desk.

“Why, thank you, doctor,” Aaron said, smiling. “I enjoy the work.”

“No really, they seem to trust you. It’s a talent you don’t see so often.”

“Well, let’s just say I speak their language,” he said with a grin.

Katie shook her head and looked at her watch. “You say we’ve got two hours before the next appointment?”

Aaron nodded.

She moved toward the door, took a ring of keys from her pocket, and locked the front door. “What’s up?” he asked, a little surprised.

“Being a fellow stranger in this burg, I’ve got something I want to show you,” she said, moving past him and down the hall. “It’s in the basement.”

Aaron followed her to the door at the end of the hall. There was a sudden tension in the air that hadn’t been there before, and it concerned him. “Does this have anything to do with your old boyfriend?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she said with a slight nod. “I think it might.” She opened the door and started down the creaking wooden steps into the darkness. “Kevin contacted me, asking me to come to Blithe to help him with something, but he wasn’t exactly clear as to what the problem was.”

At the foot of the stairs she reached out into the inky darkness and pulled the chain for the light, dispelling the darkness to the far corners of the underground room. “So I show up and I find him missing,” she continued, as she waited for Aaron to join her. “The office is in disarray. He hasn’t been here for appointments for at least four days.” Katie ran a trembling hand across her forehead.

Aaron’s curiosity was piqued, but something was clearly upsetting Katie, and that was cause for concern.

“Yes, he was a bit of a flake, and that’s part of the reason we’re no longer together, but he took his job very seriously. I even went to the police to file a missing person’s report, but Chief Dexter said I should give it some time—how did he put it? ‘Just in case he’s out sowing his wild oats.’ ” The vet laughed with little humor.

“What did you find, Katie?” Aaron asked quietly.

She glanced at him, then turned toward an old freezer in the corner. “First I found his journal, and it mentioned—things he had found in town.”

“What kinds of things?”

Taking a deep breath, Katie crossed the cellar to the freezer. Aaron followed close behind her.

“Wrong things,” she said, pulling open the lid on the unit. “See for yourself.”

Katie reached inside the frosty innards of the freezer and withdrew a plastic bag. She let the lid slam shut, then placed the bag on top and opened it, spilling out the frozen contents. The corpse of an animal fell onto the hood with a heavy thud, and Aaron recoiled, startled and a bit repulsed. “What is it?” he whispered as he studied the frost-covered body.

It was the size of an average house cat and bore some resemblance to—of all things—a raccoon, but it wasn’t either. Not really. The body was covered in long, gray fur, but the limbs were scaled, like a fish. Curved talons like that of some bird of prey grew from three of its feet—the fourth ended in a stunted tentacle.

“What is it?” Aaron asked again, unable to pull his eyes from the freakish sight.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Katie replied. She pulled a pen from her lab coat pocket and began to poke at the corpse. “This wouldn’t happen to be what bit your dog, would it?”

Aaron shook his head. It was as ugly as an Orisha, but it had no connection to Gabriel’s injury.

“Looks to be a little bit of everything—a real evolutionary blend.” Katie shrugged and continued. “We’ve got some bird and rodent attributes, as well as fish—and there’s also a little bit of cephalopod thrown in for good measure.” She pulled the pen away and wiped it against her pants leg. “And that’s just this one.”

He looked at her hard. “There’s more?” he asked uneasily.

She nodded, gesturing at the freezer. “There are at least seven others in there—each more grotesque than the last. One, maybe two, could pass as a random Mother Nature having a bad day—but this many?”

“What do you think it means?” Aaron asked, gazing at the monstrosity atop the freezer and imagining with disgust how the ones inside looked.

“What do I think it means?” Katie repeated. She started to put the pen back in her pocket, then seemed to think better of it and tossed it into an old barrel beside the furnace. “I think something in this town is making monsters.”

Aaron and Katie hurried up the cellar steps, as if the disturbing creatures in the freezer had suddenly come to life and were chasing them. Quietly, lost in their own thoughts, they returned to the lobby, where Katie unlocked the front door.

“So you can see why I’m a little freaked,” she said, rubbing her arms with the palms of her hands as if to eliminate a winter’s chill.

“Do you have any idea what’s causing it?” Aaron asked, leaning against the reception desk. The memory of the previous night’s dream and his run-in with the strange raccoon yesterday suddenly flooded his mind and made him flinch. Could this somehow be connected?

“It appears to be some kind of mutation,” Katie was saying. She had walked around the desk and was pulling open the bottom drawer. She fished around inside for a moment, then removed an unopened package of Oreos. She tore open the bag and stuffed one in her mouth. “Sorry,” she said, her mouth full. She offered him the bag. “I have an incredible craving for these when I’m stressed.”

Aaron took a few cookies as Katie continued with her theory.

“Maybe some kind of illegal chemical dumping or drug manufacturing.” Katie nibbled like a squirrel on an Oreo, eyes gazing off into space. “Something that could change an animal on a genetic level…”

“Here?” Aaron asked, surprised. “Is there even any industry around here big enough to cause that kind of damage?”

Katie finished her cookie and grabbed another one. “Not anymore, but there used to be a business in town that made boats. It was Blithe’s major employer until it closed about fifteen years ago. The abandoned factory is still standing out by the water. Evidently the owners wanted to expand, but the land there is unstable because of underwater caves that honeycomb the coast. So they took the company to California.”

“What, are you an expert on Blithe? I thought you were from Illinois.” Aaron laughed, licking the crumbs from his fingertips.

Katie shrugged. “I was going to move here with Kevin before the split, so I did some research.”

“You think some kind of toxic waste from the boat factory seeped into the soil?” Aaron reached for another Oreo.

“When I first came into town the other night, I got a little lost and found myself on the road that leads to the old factory.” She closed up the bag and returned it to the drawer. “There was an awful lot of activity around there, especially for a place that’s supposedly abandoned. I think there’s something going on in Blithe, and I think my ex figured that out and that’s why he’s disappeared.”

Aaron recalled his run-in with chief of police. Is it paranoia talking now, or does this tiny, seaside town really have a deep, dark secret? he wondered. But there was something—something that seemed to speak to the inhuman side of his nature. It had spoken to Camael as well, and now, like Katie’s former boyfriend, he, too, was missing. “Maybe you should go to the state police,” he suggested. “That would probably be the smartest thing to do, especially if you think that Kevin might have—”

Katie shook her head emphatically. “No, not yet. I’ve got to be sure of the details before I start making crazy accusations.”

Aaron felt a knot begin to form in the pit of his stomach. “And those details are …?”

“I want to check out the factory—tonight.”

The knot in his gut grew uncomfortably tighter. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Katie.”

“It’s the only way I can think of to prove that something’s up here. Don’t worry,” she added with a nervous grin. “I’ll be fine. I’ll just poke around a little, get the evidence I need, and be back here in no time.”

Alarm bells were ringing in Aaron’s head, but he doubted there was anything he could say to sway the woman’s resolve. The voice of reason told him he was going to seriously regret what he was about to say, but he hated the idea of Katie going alone even more. “I’ll go with you,” he said quickly before he could change his mind.

Katie approached him, a look of genuine gratitude in her eyes. “You don’t have to,” she said, and reached out to touch his shoulder. “This is something I have to do, just in case Kevin—”

“No, I’m going with you,” Aaron interrupted.

He shrugged. “After all, we out-of-towners have to stick together.”

Before they could say any more, the door opened and a mother and two children entered with a pet carrier containing a yowling cat.

“The four o’clock, I’d guess,” Aaron said, looking at his watch. “A little early.”

“Thank you, Aaron.” Katie looked hard into his eyes before stepping out from behind the counter to escort the family into the examination room. “What would I do without you?”