Night of the Were-Bimbo

Prologue

One month ago...

The young woman skittered away into a corner as a tall figure in surgical scrubs entered the room. Another followed behind, pushing a wheeled cart.

"Time for your treatment, Grace," she said cheerfully.

"Doctor...I don't think I want to do this anymore. I don't feel good." Grace rubbed her shoulders with fingers that had their nails bitten to the quick. "I feel strange. Not right. My head..." She shook it, stringy blond hair whipping her cheeks. "Something's wrong. With me. Please. I just want to go home," she whimpered, her voice fragile and scared.

"There, there." The older woman took her in her arms, her hands stroking her back, calming her. At her unseen nod, the orderly began filling a syringe. "We're almost done. Just one more set of shots. And then a few routine exams, and it's all over. You can go home, and there will be a nice big deposit in your checking account. Won't that be nice?"

"I should have just taken out another student loan." Grace sighed, and her lips turned up in a quavering smile. "God, this has been the worst summer vacation ever. All right." She turned, baring her upper arm, where red dots from a series of shots speckled her fair skin. "Let's get this over with."

"Brave girl. And after we're done, maybe we can go out to the courtyard and have a little talk. It's a beautiful evening. And there's a full moon tonight."

"Sure, Doctor." Grace barely flinched as the needle plunged home.

"Sure."

Chapter 1: Silver-Tongued Devil

"Whoo!" Susan's roommate burst into their apartment with a shout. "Friday night! Let's get this party started!" Laurie set a heavy, clinking bag on the table "I've got wine, beer, vodka, tequila and rum, and even the mixings for those little fruity drinks you like. And Meg and Amber and Drusilla will be here in a little bit with the food! And the guys say they'll be grilling some brats and burgers. Come on! Let's crank up the tunes and get it on!

"What? Oh, no. Oh, no no no." Her shoulders slumped as she saw Susan stuffing books into a backpack. "Please tell me I'm dreaming. Please tell me this is a horrible nightmare. You are not going to hide in the library all night on a Friday night after we spent a week planning this party. Are you?"

"I'm sorry. Laurie," Susan said. She hated the whiny, cringing note in her voice, but she couldn't help it. "Professor Reynolds was all over me in Contracts class this morning. If I don't do something about it, he's not going to give me the benefit of the doubt when final exams roll around. And my transcript is already shaky enough without having that sort of black mark on it."

"Shaky, my skinny Chinese ass. Come on, Susan. You have all weekend. Study tomorrow. Study all day Sunday. For all I care you can pull back-to-back all-nighters and turn into a mushroom. But you can't go on this way. Liam is going to be here tonight. You remember? Liam? Your study partner? The guy you've been crushing on since your first year of law school?" She waggled her eyebrows suggestively. "if you're worried about your grades, why don't you drag him into your room for some really private study time, if you know what I mean? I bet he could help you out. In more ways than one. Maybe if you got your groove on with him, you'd relax enough to keep all that musty, fusty law-school crap in your head."

"Says the med student who barely needs to study. Besides, Liam's not interested."

Laurie snorted. "You just think he's not interested because every time you're in the same room as him you turn into a robot." She held out her arms in a ridiculous, stiff-limbed pose. "The applicable case law can be found in Luther v Borden," she intoned nasally. "Beep. Whir. Beep."

She zipped up her bag, using a little more force than was really necessary. "Whatever. It's easy for you. Even if you come down with a case of brain rot or get hit by a dump truck, you can go back home and your family will take care of you."

She stood up, surprised by the sympathetic expression on her friend's face. "You can't?"

"No." Susan stalked out the door. "I'm never going back there again.

"Ever."

Sure, Laurie. Rub it in my face. Your family has money. Your family has connections. Your family actually cares about you.

Even in her misery, Susan knew she was being unfair. It wasn't Laurie's fault that she was brilliant and was going to graduate from the med school at Great Lakes University at the top of her class, while Susan would do well to place in the top third.

Well, top quarter, probably. Maybe even the top twenty percent if my brains don't start leaking out of my ears from studying all the time.

But everything came so easy for the Chinese girl that she didn't understand how hard it was for someone like Susan. Back home, in high school, she had been a big fish in a tiny academic pond, and she had been smugly certain of how much smarter she was than everyone else. But every year it got harder and harder for her to keep up with classmates who'd gotten a head start by being challenged before they got to college. Pittsfield might not be in the middle of nowhere, but on a clear day, you could see it. And Susan would be damned if she ended up crawling back there, working as a cashier at the Wal-Mart like her mother, or hacking out her lungs after another day of hanging drywall, like her father.

I'm out. I'm staying out. And if I have to bail on the party tonight so that Reynolds doesn't look at me like I'm an idiot in class next week, that's a small price to pay.

She sighed as she pushed the door to the library open. She really would have liked to hang out with Liam tonight, though. He was smart, cute, funny, and didn't look at her like she was a freak because she was nearly six feet tall and built like a rake. And unlike some of her crustier professors (and even some of her classmates) when she said something, he actually listened. Oh, he didn't agree with everything she said. They'd had some absolutely ferocious arguments when it came to the law. But at least he didn't smile politely and then ignore her.

One more year, she groaned, taking off her hoodie, worn against the late September chill, and sat down in the study carrel. She loved the Graduate Library. On even the hottest days, it was nice and cool, and in the winter, the steamy warmth from the old-fashioned radiators made it a peaceful haven, smelling of paper and leather and the high, heavy wooden bookshelves that lined the walls. When she had told her mother that she had been accepted to Great Lakes, the older woman had wrinkled her forehead and asked why she wanted to go all the way up north.

Third-largest university library in the country, Mom. After Harvard and Yale. That's fucking why. If you even knew what a library was.

She pulled out her textbook and her laptop. Some of the people in her classes sneered at the way she insisted on an actual dead-tree textbook, rather than the cheaper, downloadable versions. But she needed it, needed the heft of the book in her hands to help her study. She couldn't concentrate on something that only existed as pixels on the screen of her computer.

And besides, she thought, uncapping a highlighter with her teeth. Now I don't have to shift between the book and the lecture notes on my laptop.

She took out her headphones and cued up some soft classical on her phone, and started to study.

The dimming of the lights, a warning that the library was about to close, took her by surprise, as it always did when she got lost in the intricacies of the law. But, she thought, taking off her headphones and stowing them in her backpack, she thought she had a better grasp on things than she had earlier in the day.

Is it all worth it? She sighed as she stood up, her long, lanky body creaking after hours spent poring over her textbook and her lecture notes. Another year of law school after this. And then you have to pass your exams. And then the bar. And then actually get hired by somebody. And even then you'll still have a stack of student loans that could choke an elephant. Is it all worth it, Suzie? For the last six years, you have been chasing this dream. What are you going to do if it doesn't matter? If you've just traded one set of chains for another? The soul-sucking drudgery of a working-class life in Pittsfield in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in loans that will take you years to pay off? What good is a college degree if the money you make from it just goes to pay off some bank?

No. She saved her notes and closed her laptop, putting it safely away in her bag. I made my choice years ago, when I got the acceptance letter from GLU. I could have gone to Western Illinois or Illinois State or MacMurray or any other second-rate college around. But I chose to try to be someone. I'm not giving up now. And one night I will roll into my high-school reunion with a sweet ride and a hot guy on my arm and I'll make all of them eat it.

The air was brisk when she left the library, the sky almost clear, with just a few scudding clouds high overhead. She pulled her hood up as she walked back towards the off-campus apartment she shared with Laurie, her long legs eating up the ground. Winters, this close to Lake Michigan, could be unforgivably savage to a woman who had grown up with the milder weather of the Illinois River valley, with the wind howling off the lake and snow knee-deep from November to March. But those nights, thankfully, were still a few months away. The breeze was more playful than cruel, and she could even pick out a few constellations in the sky overhead. Orion had already set, but there was Polaris, and the handle of the Big Dipper. And her favorite, Cassiopeia, riding high in the northeast.

And a full moon, too, she thought, turning right to cut across the quad. Her lips twitched in a grin as she remembered some of the stories Laurie told. About how some of the old hands at the hospital where she volunteered had tried to get their impressionable young charges to believe that full moon nights were unbelievably hectic, with crazies being dragged in by the police and all sorts of violence. Anything from stabbings at the campus bars to full-fledged riots.

Laurie is too smart to believe in that sort of bullshit. Her steps quickened. Hopefully the party is still going on when I get back, and they all didn't take off for the bars. It's not too late. I could use a drink. And maybe a burger if the guys got the grill going. It would be nice to sit back, relax, listen to some tunes or just watch a funny mo-

She barely saw it, a glimpse of white and pale green out of the corner of her eye. A slim, hurtling form, eyes wide, mouth panting, face in a bizarre rictus. Before she could do more than flinch, arms came around her waist in a bruising tackle, throwing her sideways.

Stumbling, staggering, she bounced off a tree trunk, tripped over a protruding root and fell. Her head hit the ground and everything went black.

When she woke, it was to a delightful feeling in her middle. The air was chill, but the sensation between her legs was amazingly soft and warm.

Liam, she thought drowsily, fighting though the pounding in her head. Had she drunk too much and was having a sexy dream? But the slippery, sliding touch was way better than any dream she had ever had.

And if it's a dream, she thought woozily, why is it so damn cold? Am I outside?

Then her eyes opened and her gaze fell between her legs, and she nearly screamed. A woman was there, her tongue busily lapping at her pussy. Tousled blond hair fell in charming disarray to her shoulders. What little she could see of her clothing was torn and ripped -- a white t-shirt that did little to hide a pair of sweet, golden-skinned breasts which were really just a bit too large for her slender frame, and thin, foam-green trousers that looked like they had lost a cage-match to Wolverine.

"Stop!" she said, trying to back away, her hands and feet scrabbling on the cold ground. "What the hell are you doing? Leave me alone!"

"Pussy," the woman laughed, raising her head from Susan's groin. "You've got such a sweet-smelling pussy." Full lips pouted in an angelic face as she grabbed her hips, pulling her back towards her over the lumpy ground. Damp tree leaves, fallen over the last few days, skidded under her bottom. "Tasty, too. I wanted cock. I looked all over for cock. But I found you first. Don't worry," she giggled. "I'll eat you real nice. And then you can eat me. And then we can go and find some hot young studs to fuck us. Doesn't that sound like fun?" She crawled up her body, her hands reaching under her hoodie. Her fingers were feverishly warm, and just for a second, Susan's body screamed for her touch.

And then the spell of her voice broke. "Get off of me!" Susan shouted, swinging her arms. Her elbow caught the woman in the temple, and she fell off of her with a startled whimper. "Crazy bitch!" She scrambled to her feet, dragging the ruined remnants of her jeans back up over her hips. "You want to get laid, there's dozens of guys at the bars right now who will be happy to do it," she panted at the figure on the ground, who was holding her head and looking at her confusedly. She backed away on shaking legs. "Just leave me alone. You come any closer, and I scream rape."

"Rape? But...but...but I just wanted to make you feel good. And then you could make me feel good." Those full lips trembled, and tears glittered on her lashes. What color were her eyes? Blue? Green? Gray? In the darkness, Susan couldn't tell. "I'm so horny," she whined piteously, rubbing herself through her trousers. "Why won't anyone make my pussy feel good? My fingers aren't enough." Her lips pulled back again in that strange, feral smile. "Cock. I want cock. So much cock."

"No cock here," she snapped. "But you won't have to look hard to find some on a Friday night. But if I were in your shoes, I'd go home and sleep it off."

"No. I can't sleep. Not when I'm so horny." With liquid grace, she rose to her feet. "Full," she whispered, tilting her head back and staring at the moon. Through the ruined shirt, Susan could see the way her nipples hardened. "She's full. I need to be full, too."

She sprang away, running over the ground like a deer. For a second Susan glimpsed her, darting between two of the buildings, her blond hair trailing behind her like a silver banner in the moonlight.

And then she was gone.

Chapter 2: Blue Moon

"Susan!" Laurie's voice was shocked when she entered the apartment. "What the hell happened to you!"

"I'm...I'm not really sure," she stammered as she let her bookbag and laptop case fall to the floor. She swallowed against a surge of nausea. The air in the apartment seemed too hot, too thick, too full of smells. Alcohol and grilled meat and the slightest whiff of pot. The heavy, thudding beat of the music on the stereo was too loud, pounding into her aching skull with bruising force, until she felt as if she might vomit. "It's been...I was..."

She stuttered to a stop, unable to speak. The trip across campus had been agonizing. Every shadow, every building, had seemed like a potential ambush, a place where the woman could attack her again. She had shuffled along, her head twitching at the slightest sound, one hand holding her jeans up. The seam on the left leg had parted from hip to knee, and her panties were torn as well. "I was..." She gave a jagged laugh. "I guess I was sexually assaulted."

"What?!" The Chinese girl's face drained of color. "How? Where?" Anger filled her face as a burst of drunken laughter drifted by from somewhere else in the apartment, and she turned to shout. "Hey! Can you fucking assholes turn that stupid fucking music off? We've got someone hurt over here!"

Dead silence fell as the music ceased, and everyone turned to look at her. "No. No." God, this was even worse. She just wanted to crawl into a hole and hide. "I'm fine. Really."

"No. You are not fine. Look at you, Susan. You're shaking like a damn leaf. Sit down. Over here. Liam," she called over her shoulder as she guided Susan to a couch. Other people scrambled to get out of her way. "Can you get Susan something warm to drink? Tea? Or maybe hot chocolate? There's packets in the cupboard over the stove."

"Now," she said, as other people drifted close, curiosity winning out over other, less interesting diversions. "Tell me about it. Unless you'd rather not. And then we call the police and file a report."

She nodded shakily. Her stomach was cold, her hands trembling, and her legs felt like overcooked spaghetti, limp and strengthless. "I was...I was walking back from the library. Through the quad. You know, that little group of trees right by the Foreign Language Building? I think she came out of there. She tackled me and I hit my head, and the next thing I knew she had my jeans off and was touching me. You know." She swallowed. "Down there."

"Wait." A stocky young man, his face flushed with cold or beer, laughed. "A woman? You're telling us that a woman tried to get into your pants? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"

Laurie traded a long-suffering look with her lover, Meg, who was hovering close by, then stood up, anger radiating from every line of her body. "Get out, Jason."

"Wait? What?"

"You think a woman can't rape someone? That it's only big, strong, manly men that we have to be afraid of? It's not funny. Shut up or get out." It would have been almost funny, to see Laurie, all five-feet nothing of her, bristling with anger like a tiny, fierce, black-haired cat. "Oh, good. Thanks, Liam." She took the mug from him and pressed it into her hands. "Here, Susan. Take a drink. And the rest of you find something else to stare at, all right?"

She sipped gratefully, the hot chocolate thick and rich on her tongue. Thick enough to plow, in the words of her grandfather. She gave Liam a weak smile as he sat down at the other end of the couch. "Two packets, right?"

He shrugged, the light catching the frames of his glasses, making them twinkle briefly. "I've pulled enough all-nighters with you to know what you like," he said quietly. "Are you okay? I'll leave if you'd rather not have me around."

"No." She shook her head. "It's all right." To be honest, she'd rather Liam be quite a bit closer. Maybe then she could be brave enough to put her arm around his waist, to pull him close, and to see what that black, floppy, too-long hair felt like in her hands.

"So." Laurie's voice brought her back. "Some woman attacked you by the FLB. And then?"

"I hit my head. When I woke up she had my pants around my ankles, and my panties, too. And she was...touching me." Her skin blushed violently, and she took another sip of hot chocolate to hide the way her stomach was shaking. "I managed to get her off of me." She swung her arms in demonstration, nearly spilling her drink. "And when she got up, she was talking all crazy. About how...how horny she was, and the moon, and all sorts of weird shit. Do you think she was on drugs?" she asked. "I mean, the only sort of people I've heard talking like that are some of the homeless people in the city."

"On drugs, maybe," Laurie nodded. "Or not on drugs, maybe. That's a possibility. If someone has a mental disorder and needs medication, if they stop taking their pills they might have a really bad time of it." She shared a look with Meg, who nodded. The blond woman, Susan recalled belatedly, was also in the medical program.