Unleashed

"Well, no more holding back, or if I do turn into a big wolf during the next full moon, then I'm eating you first." She stood up from the table and walked around to me.

I felt her lips against my cheek and then her teeth lightly nipping at my ear.

"No more holding back." I agreed.

"My mum and dad are going out tonight. Come see me after seven, ok?" Her annoyance with me had melted into a low lusty purr.

"I pity anyone who gets in my way." I turned my head and our lips met, the kiss was slow and I savoured the last touch of her I'd get for hours.

"I'll see you later then." She smirked and walked out of the library.

I totally checked out her butt as she left. It was still amazing.

I turned back to the books and sighed, flicking over a page and getting back to work. I took notes on all the so-called cures. I didn't find much that I'd be willing to try on Jenny since most of those "cures" were thought up in the medieval period and let's just say if it was me, I'd prefer staying as a werewolf.

I scribbled down some notes. I had two stops to make before I headed on home. The first was the nearest open surgery which turned out to actually be in the city hospital. I barely got there in time to make an appointment and had to sit there for two whole hours whilst the GP's saw all the other patients who'd had the sense to make an appointment beforehand.

Finally my fake name was called out and I followed a corridor from the waiting room to room four where I was told the doctor would see me. He was quite a severe looking man in his mid-to-late twenties who gave me a very forced yet amiable smile as I entered his office.

"Hello there." He gestured to the seat opposite from him.

"Hey." I sat. "Just so I'm not wasting your time, I'm here kind of on behalf of a friend I'm worried about. Is that ok?"

The doctor gave a short nod in the affirmative, his eyes immediately looking me over for signs of drug use. I guessed a lot of young users came for advice "just for a friend."

"Alright. Well, my friend was hurt recently when she was attacked by a stray dog. She got checked out at the hospital and they gave her the shots and some painkillers." I said as the doctor's brow furrowed. Clearly this wasn't the sort of questioning he was used to under the circumstances. "The wound from the bite happened a few nights ago but now it's almost completely gone. This thing took a big chunk out of her leg as well and now you can just see a little scar. She's also gotten a heavy appetite and she's... er... a lot more sexually active." I was trying to put "she's almost humping my leg" into more scientific language.

"I see." The doctor's brow was still quite deeply furrowed. "Well, there are certain drugs that can cause increased appetite and sexual hyperactivity."

"It's not drugs." I calmly stated. "The only things she's taking are some light pain medication which she probably only took a few of. She showed me a picture of her bite and her parents confirmed when it happened. Do you know anything that could heal it almost completely in a day or so?"

The doctor was less puzzled now and more cautiously intrigued now.

"Well, firstly I would advise you to check again for drug use. However if she really isn't taking anything then I would suggest you have her examined. I obviously cannot tell you any more without her here but I don't know any case of skin miraculously healing itself like that, especially if the wound was as severe as you say."

"Alright then. Just one more thing. Now this is going to sound crazy. I know it is. I'm not joking and I'm not trying to take the piss either, alright?"

The doctor's brow quickly re-furrowed but he nodded slowly in the affirmative.

"Is there anything in the idea of lycanthropy? Like, any real science behind the myths?"

The man's severe features softened somewhat and he chuckled softly. I did not take that as a good sign that I was about to find some answers.

"No, lycanthropy is just superstition I'm afraid as far as science is concerned. There's a website that explains these kinds of things." The doctor reached for a slip of paper and a pen and scribbled down a URL. He slid the paper across the desk and I glanced over the writing.

I recognised the site immediately. I'd come across it whilst I was in the library. It might as well have been called "Things that are total bollocks dot com." It had been very helpful in showing how early reactions to mental illness had created a number of strange myths about lunacy and moon madness but it was useless in providing anything that might help Jenny out.

"Thanks for your help, and thanks for not calling the men in white suits." I said.

"That's quite alright. It's what I'm here for after all. I must stress to you the importance of treating drug addiction however and you must understand the need for your friend to be examined properly if what you say is indeed accurate. I see many strange quirks of human biology every day here, and I've yet to see one that improved the life of my patient for very long." He said with an obvious stress on the importance of how I should admit it was me I was talking about and how I should lose my cocaine addiction.

Brilliant.

"Right, well like I said. Thanks for your time." I stood up and walked out of the office without much to show for my troubles.

Then again I wasn't really expecting to get all that much. "Total skin and muscle regeneration from a gaping flesh wound? Why yes! It happens all the time. The only reason we don't tell people about it is because we'd be out of a job." Yeah. That was a little too much to hope for.

So, the realm of science didn't seem to have much it could do to help me. It was then that I reluctantly trundled out of the hospital in search of that bane of humanity, that ever-present annoyance to common sense: the modern new age shop.

I found three. Here's a rough summation of my experiences in the first two.

"Wolfsbane? That sounds cool! What is it?" Was the response from a slightly spaced out cashier in the first store. I whirled about for the door immediately.

"No, you don't want that. You want a box of these, two of these a day and make sure you smell this before going to bed." The second store attendant told me sagely as she plonked down a box of candles, a bottle of pills and some scented oil in front of me. I sighed and walked away again.

I was thinking about catching the bus home when I caught sight of another store in a small, Victorian-era shopping arcade. It was a small, single-room place that surprisingly didn't feel like it was trying to chemically cauterise my tear ducts shut with harshly scented candles, soaps, and God knows what else when I walked inside. I looked around and saw a notable absence of neatly-boxed crystals or flowery healing oils. Instead there seemed to be mostly shelves filled with odd statues from various cultures and stages of history. There was no one around and a small bell was resting on the small wooden counter in the corner, presumably to call for service.

I found myself looking at a statue of the Greek goddess Aphrodite crafted in porcelain or a very good imitation of porcelain. She was pale, beautiful and bare breasted amidst her sheets. Her position was settled in a relaxed inviting pose upon her small plinth and I had a hard time believing something so beautiful and well crafted could be found in a little new age shop. I don't know how long I stood there looking at that little model of perfection. I could probably have watched it for days on end.

Then it winked at me.

I jumped backwards into a stand that was topped with a very expensive looking glass jar. Quickly, I whirled about, caught the falling vessel as it plummeted from its perch and unbalanced myself. I landed squarely on my back with the surprisingly unbroken jar on my chest and found myself looking up between a pair of very long legs. If the woman standing over me had been wearing a skirt instead of pants then I'd have been in for quite a show. I looked up at her stupidly. My fumbling with the jar and her sudden appearance had brought me crashing back to reality.

"Uh, hi," I practically squeaked.

She was somewhere around the age of thirty with long black hair and a silver ring piercing her left nostril. From her skin tone and her pleasant exotic features I could tell she wasn't from a family of English natives, but I had no idea where to place her. Possibly somewhere in the eastern Mediterranean. Also, I thought, why in the hell am I thinking about this whilst lying on the floor?

I sat up and checked the shelves to make sure I hadn't damaged anything. I hadn't. Even the long thin stand on which the glass vessel I'd caught had rested hadn't toppled over. I stood and carefully placed it back where it came from before turning to the woman who so far had remained silent. She had a faintly disapproving look on her face as she eyed me and she soon crossed her arms over her chest when I looked at her.

"What were you doing?" She asked in a very lightly accented voice.

The lilt of eastern Europe in her voice combined with her features showed her heritage clearly. She was a gypsy. A real one. Or at least she was doing a damn good job of looking and sounding like one.

"Sorry, that statue..." I suddenly remembered the statue winking at me and turned to look at it. Aphrodite was leaning forward now on her arms, perfectly still and perfectly serene with a smile settled upon her intricately carved lips.

"Pfft, that statue, always that statue with the men." The woman walked behind a counter and plucked up a dust rag before walking over and dropping the rag over the goddess's perfection.

"There, it is a party amusement. Makes people think it moves." The woman dismissively said before walking around behind the counter. "What do you want?"

Well this was customer service at its finest.

"Erm. Wolfsbane? Aconitum?" I elaborated.

"Why you want that?" Her eyes narrowed accusingly.

"It's for my girlfriend," I dodged.

"I get you roses. She will like you more." The woman turned to walk through the open doorway into the back of the store.

"No, it's got to be wolfsbane. She's turning into a werewolf." I smiled uneasily. If I couldn't sound crazy in a new age store, where could I sound crazy?

Strangely, the woman didn't laugh back at me. She stood still for a moment, then turned to look me in the eyes. Her own eyes blazed with an emerald fire so intense that I had a hard time meeting her gaze. Yet there was something else there too, she was quite obviously trying to discern if I thought I was telling the truth or not. My smile vanished and I offered a small nod.

"How do you know this?" Her tone had shifted. Polite inquisitiveness with a consistent underlying edge of fresh urgency.

"She was bitten out in the woods on a camping trip two days ago. The thing that bit her had really cut into her calf. When her family took her to the hospital, she took a picture. Then, when I saw her this morning, the bite had almost completely healed up. She's also been acting a little strange. I've just been to dinner with her where she ate a full mixed grill for two to herself and she's been very, kind of, amorous?" Amorous? Yeah I said it. What a dork.

The raven haired female looked at me for a long moment and then started to tap her fingers on the countertop.

"Aconitum is very poisonous. I'm not going to let you brew it into a drink for some poor girl." She said.

"God, I'm not going to let her eat the stuff!" I looked as horrified as I sounded. "I just read somewhere that if you keep it near or maybe rub it on the skin it staves off this thing. I'm kind of swimming in deep water here without a lifeboat."

My shoulders sagged as the utter insanity of what I was doing began to weigh down on my shoulders. I felt tired. My eyes hurt from reading and I thought about leaving this shop too but there was something about this woman. It wasn't that she was beautiful. She struck me as someone who had a very low tolerance for bullshit. She was definitely not someone I'd expect to find running a store like that.

"Alright then. I will give you wolfsbane." She nodded.

"Great! How much?" I reached into my back pocket for my wallet.

"I require the seed of a virgin." She promptly replied without a hint of trepidation.

Well I sure as hell didn't keep that in my back pocket.

"What?" I wasn't a virgin! Blowjobs totally counted as sex, right?

The woman rolled her eyes and walked around the counter to me. On her way, she picked up an empty glass bottle from one of her shelves and approached me with it.

"I will assist you. I will fall on my knees and suck you until you spill over onto my tongue. I will dance for you, sing for you, moan for you. I will even take your virginity afterward, if you like. I will be yours for the day. I just need one bottle of a virgin's seed." She breathed between heated lips, her eyes smouldering with promise. "And then you can have all the wolfsbane you want."

Alright, I guess I still was a virgin then. Damn.

The sultry woman walked over to me, discarding her tank top and revealing two beautiful round breasts encased in a silky, burgundy bra. I stared on like a deer caught in the headlights as she reached out and grabbed my shirt before pulling her body up against mine. She smelled incredible, sweet, sharp and fresh. I'm not ashamed to admit that when she lifted those luscious lips to mine and kissed me with enough heat to melt cold steel, I momentarily forgot why I was there. The strict, aggressive posture she'd maintained beforehand was unnerving but this wanton display of desire made her seem like raw sex appeal poured into a voluptuous female shape.

Then Jenny's smiling face popped into my head. It was all it took to steamroll over any appeal that this woman had. I lifted my hands to her shoulders and pushed her away. Our lips unlatched with a resistant sucking noise and I found myself looking into her obviously surprised expression.

"Yeah. I don't know if you heard me properly but I said my girlfriend is turning into a werewolf. Don't get me wrong, in any other girlfriendless circumstances, I'd be very happy to supply any and all of the 'seed' you wanted. As it is, I'm taken and I'm worried about her. Now either get me this stupid plant I've been after and let me pay you for it with cash or I'm gone." I not only found truth in my words but also anger at her actions. That anger was not helped any when she laughed in my face. I growled with frustration.

"Oh, oh. I'm sorry, sugar." Her accent had miraculously disappeared, being replaced entirely by a fresh English lilt. "Just testing you. Boy, you really are the world's last decent man aren't you?"

This wasn't helping my frustration any. I let go of her bare shoulders and made for the door.

"Wait! Wait, I've got just what you're looking for." She called after me. I stopped and turned around.

She was still topless in her lacy bra, though she was now rummaging in a box on one of the bottom shelves of her cabinets. I watched her, trying very hard to avoid the hypnotic sway of her shapely bottom as she wiggled it in front of me.

"Ah hah!" She stood up, holding an old loop of black string around which hung a coin-sized silver amulet. "Here we go."

I looked at the amulet, I was less than impressed.

"It's very old and it's made of pure silver to keep the curse at bay. You wear it against the skin and..." She popped the amulet open to reveal it was in fact a locket. "Your wolfsbane goes in there. Just a few leaves should do. The way it's made keeps them set against the skin so it's more of a constant treatment."

That took the wind out of my sails a little. I cautiously stepped back over to her and held out my hand to examine the locket. As I looked it over, the strange lady slipped through the doorway and came back a few minutes later with a sachet of seeds and a few clippings of the plant I'd been looking for all day.

"These should do you fine until the next full moon and the seeds are so you can grow your own. That'll be a tenner." She rested her hands on the counter and took on a more businesslike tone.

Less angry now and slightly more confused, I approached the counter still holding the locket.

"And how much for this?" I dangled the locket in question between us.

"Tenner for the lot." She said.

"That's a... surprisingly good price." I suspiciously noted.

"Hey, it's actually worth about fifty grand to certain people. But I believe in karma and you..." She leaned over the table and poked me in the chest, her boobs bounced in her flimsy bra as she did so. I made an effort to look anywhere else. It was a hell of an effort. "You just could have had a days worth of sex with a sexy older woman and you said no because you love your girlfriend. Baby, I think you just restored my faith in humanity. The locket's the least I can do. Plus, you sound like you need it more than anyone else does."

"Well, thanks." I pulled a ten pound note out of my wallet and set it down on the counter.

"No problem. My name's Tisha by the way, come by if you need anything. Oh and if it doesn't work out with your girl, my offer still stands." She said as she slipped my items into a small paper bag and pushed them across the surface with a seductive lick of her lips.

I grabbed the bag and got the hell out of there as fast as I could.

As I stepped back into the arcade, I realised that there had been a smell in Tisha's shop. It was subtle, pleasant and I didn't notice it until my nose met the contrast of the fresh air outside. It was that same clear air that made my head stop spinning around the taste of the woman on my lips. I quickly wiped away that taste with the back of my hand and made quickly for the bus stop.

I know, wolfsbane. Not exactly a very scientific treatment, but it was the most frequently-mentioned cure I could find in amidst all those books. Besides, I was operating on a theory that the person I loved the most was going to turn into a wolf in just under a month. I was open to new ideas.

I got home shortly after five o'clock and quickly hit the shower before my mind started to wander to thoughts of Jenny again. If her invitation was any indication then I had a hell of a lot to be excited about. Waiting until seven o'clock was going to be a nightmare. I tried to keep occupied by watching some TV but it's difficult to concentrate when you know you have the girl of your dreams waiting for you. At ten minutes to the hour I practically bolted out of my house like a bat out of hell.

Jenny's house was in walking distance, and I had a hard time not running through the streets like a lunatic in my freshly-pressed trousers and my old blue button-up cotton shirt. I'd remembered the bag for her, of course, with a little something else in there for good measure. Once I arrived near Jenny's house I opened the bag and removed the single red rose I'd plucked from my dad's garden.

I turned the corner onto her street and was quickly punched in the gut. Well ok, I wasn't literally punched in the gut but in truth I'd probably have preferred that option.

Stuart Davis's motorcycle was resting on the sidewalk outside Jenny's house. He wasn't on it. My insides suddenly felt like a very small black hole had taken up residency as I walked toward her front door. I reached up and knocked three times, waited, and only heard silence from the other side.

The images of them together upstairs running through my mind right about then were making me feel slightly nauseous. Jenny wasn't the type to cheat. My rational mind was screaming that fact at me. My irrational mind, however, was having a field day spinning up images of them on her bed and reminding me that Jenny definitely hadn't been herself recently.