CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Jessi was tall and dark like his mother, but wore the permanent scowl of one who has been promised the world and received a globe on a key-chain. As a supervisor, he was efficient and short. As a server, he was friendly and welcoming. He made no attempt to disguise the shift from one attitude to the other. He simply had no more cares to give. Micah, armed with a massive order, marched up to him. Zeke was just behind him and to the left, but Micah wasn’t sure he was really...here. He spent a lot of time staring at nothing. Micah only hoped that he would snap out of it before it was time to pin Jessi to the wall.
“Welcome to Chick’n Mash, how can I serve you today?”
“Hi there...Jessi,” Micah said, as if he needed to read the name tag. “We’re going to get twenty of the number two sandwiches, twenty of the number four sandwiches, twenty of the number five sandwiches, two gallons of potatoes with gravy, and...hm. I don’t know, Zeke, do you think that’s enough?”
“Your mom said most of them left,” Zeke said absently. “Should be plenty.”
“Alright, that’s it then I guess,” Micah said.
Jessi’s eyes widened slightly, but he gave them their total with a smile and immediately turned to the kitchen and barked orders about staggering their massive meal with the drive-through orders. Micah earned plenty of glares from the kitchen, but he only smiled benignly and paid. He took one step away from the counter, then turned back.
“Oh! I almost forgot. Jessi. There’s a problem with those puppies you were breeding. You got a second?”
Jessi looked utterly flabbergasted for a second, then realization crossed his face followed closely by horror.
“There’s something...wrong with the...the puppies?” He stammered.
Micah looked around with a pained expression on his face. Jessi understood, called to the back for someone to man the register, and slipped out of his apron. He followed Zeke and Micah outside to a quiet, private alcove behind the emergency generator at the back of the restaurant. Jessi was beginning to sweat, and kept looking as if he were about to bolt. Micah and Zeke flanked him in the alcove, blocking every exit except up, and Micah met his eyes forcefully.
“What...what’s this all about?” Jessi asked, clearing his throat.
“Well, Jessi, it seems that the dozen or so kids you infected went on to infect a bunch of other kids, and now there’s an epidemic,” Micah said angrily. “Now tell me, Jessi, why would a teenager be messing around with a bunch of elementary school kids in the first place?” Micah crossed his arms and glared.
“Look, man, it’s not like that,” Jessi said quickly, raising his hands. “I babysat, that’s all. I never did anything to no kids.”
“You call transmitting the werewolf problem ‘nothing’?” Micah demanded with clenched fists.
“No! No. I mean, I did that, yeah, but it wasn’t like...a fetish or anything, you know? This dude...shit. I can’t tell you.”
“You better.”
“He’ll kill me.”
“I’ll kill you first.” Micah took a step toward him, pulling himself up to his full height.
“I wouldn’t mess with him,” Zeke said, sounding bored. “He’s allergic to bullshit. Gives his fists seizures all over the nearest asshole.”
Jessie swallowed hard and looked wide-eyed from Zeke to Micah and back again. Micah flexed as if to throw a punch and Jessi held up his hands and ducked.
“Alright, alright! Look, when I was sixteen I went for a hike. There’s this place in the mountains with this sign...it said there were monsters, so I was wondering if I could find someone like me, someone who would actually talk about it.”
“Did you?” Micah asked, his eyes narrowing.
“Um... yeah,” Jessi told him with an embarrassed little cough. “And he taught me all kinds of shit. Well, he almost did, anyway. He’d tell me what I was capable of doing, and then promise to teach me if I did him a favor first.”
“What was the favor?”
Jessi coughed and shifted on his feet. “To, um...turn some kids,” he mumbled.
“So you just did it, just like that, for no reason other than some weird old guy took an interest in you?” Micah was really ready to hit this guy.
“No! I thought it was sick, so I didn’t do it. But then...he threatened my mom. He said that he’s her sire and so he has some sort of blood magic control over her or something, I don’t know, it’s not like I can say magic isn’t real anymore, you know? So he tells me if I don’t do this he’ll do all these terrible things to my mom, and make her do all kinds of terrible things to other people, and I couldn’t let that happen.”
“So? How did you do it?” Zeke asked.
Jessi looked ashamed and muttered something that neither of them could hear.
“What was that?” Micah asked.
“I said, I started babysitting,” Jessi shouted at the ground. “Whenever someone booked on a full moon, I’d bite the kid. But it was stupid though because every time I got him one, he wanted another one. It’s not easy to turn kids, dude. It’s hard as hell. The wolf doesn’t want to, you don’t want to, nobody wants to do this thing so I had to sit there and talk myself into it every time. I kept turning them and he kept wanting more turned, and threatened me every time I didn’t want to do it anymore. I finally just walked away, I just quit, and next thing you know this asshole is in my house.
“He demanded more kids, right in front of my mom. She left the room. Didn’t even want to know what he was talking about. So I’m in there, alone with this creep, and he tells me that I have twelve hours to get him another kid or he’s going to kill her. I had a gun, though...when he stepped toward me, I fired. I was aiming for the heart but I never fired before and this gun literally knocked me on my ass. First bullet hit the wall, second hit his hip. Then he started like...leaking and glowing blue stuff? I don’t know. I figured it was werewolf mystic shit.”
“Sort of,” Micah agreed, thinking it over. “Silver bullet?”
“Yeah,” Jessi said in a tone that meant “of course”.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure your guy and the guy behind my shitty night are the same guy. That bullet didn’t kill him, but it has kept him from turning into a werewolf for however many years. God, he lies about everything.” Micah scowled intimidatingly at the smaller man, who cringed. “Which begs the question...what are you lying about? Why should I trust anything you say?”
“Because he cheated me,” Jessi said bitterly. “I don’t give a shit about that old geezer. He promised me wealth and skills and an army to do what I said...but he didn’t come through with any of that, just left me hanging. Just one more kid, then another, then just one more...it never stopped until I made it stop.”
“Did he tell you what he wanted the kids for?” Micah demanded.
“Not really,” Jessi said with a shrug. “Just talked a lot about saving the species or something. Had this whole tangent about numbers and pure blood that I didn’t really follow.”
Micah nodded thoughtfully, then remembered his role. He gripped Jessi’s collar and shoved him against the wall, snarling in his face.
“Is there anything you aren’t telling me?”
“Dude! No!” Jessie trembled under Micah’s hands.
“Good. You gonna tell Kenneth we were here?”
Jessi shook his head adamantly.
“Very good.” Micah let his hands drop, then glanced over his shoulder at Zeke. “Am I missing anything?”
“Forgot to beat him to a pulp,” Zeke said with a lazy shrug. “But I guess we can save that for another time.”
“Yeah,” Micah said with the creepiest grin he could manage. “Looking forward to it. Better stay off my radar, Jessi. I hold you personally responsible for screwing with the lives of two hundred kids. Don’t cross me.”
Jessi shook his head dumbly, and Micah walked away from him, making a point to wipe his hands on his trousers in disgust. They walked back into the restaurant just as the harried woman behind the counter called out the number for their order. They thanked her, earning a slightly softer glare, then piled the food into the truck. Micah took the wheel again. Zeke still wasn’t looking like himself, which was completely natural. As he pulled out of the parking lot, he noticed that Jessi was still outside...with his cellphone to his ear.
“Think he’s calling Kenneth?” Micah asked.
“Yep,” Zeke said. “Not even a little bit of doubt. He’s still terrified of the guy, probably has a standing order to tell him about stuff like this. We need a plan.”
“No,” Micah said grimly. “What we need is a gun.”