stopped. He heard the sound. A woman screaming, a woman terrified, a woman who had become her scream in fear of her life.
He was down on the ground before he even willed it, landing soft and soundless on the greasy pavement, the walls rising up on either side, the light from the sidewalk showing in horrifying relief the figure of a man tearing off the woman,s clothes, his right hand clutching her by the throat, strangling her as she kicked at him helplessly.
Her eyes rolled in her head. She was dying.
A great effortless roar came out of Reuben. Growling, snarling, he bore down on the man, ripping him loose from the woman, Reuben,s teeth sinking into the man,s throat, the hot blood spurting in Reuben,s face, as the man screeched in pain. A hideous scent rose from the man, if indeed it was a scent. It was as if the man,s intent was a scent, and it maddened Reuben. Reuben tore at the man,s flesh, growls coming out of his mouth as his teeth tore at the man,s shoulder. It felt so good to sink his teeth deep into the muscle and feel it split. That scent overpowered him, drove him on. Scent of evil.
He let the man go.
The man fell to the pavement, the arterial blood pumping out of him. Reuben chomped at his right arm, tore it almost loose from the shoulder, and then flung the helpless broken body by this arm against the far wall so that the man,s skull cracked on the bricks.
The woman stood stark still, her arms crossed over her breasts, staring at him. Feeble, choking sounds came out of her. How utterly miserable and pitiable she was. How unspeakable that anyone would do such evil to her. She was shaking so violently that she could scarce stand, one naked shoulder visible above the torn red silk of her dress.
She began to sob.
"You,re safe now," Reuben said. Was this his voice? This low and rough and confidential voice? "The man who tried to hurt you is dead." He reached out towards her. He saw his paw like a hand reaching for her. Tenderly he stroked her arm. What did it feel like to her?
He looked down at the dead man who lay on his side, his eyes gleaming like glass in the shadows. So incongruous, those eyes, those bits of hard-polished beauty embedded in such reeking flesh. The scent of the man and the scent of what the man was filled the space around him.
The woman backed away from Reuben. She turned and ran, her loud shrill screams filling the alleyway. She went down on one knee, rose again, and continued, running right towards the traffic of the busy street.
Reuben easily sprang up out of the alley, gripping the bricks as surely as a cat might grip the bark of a tree as he went straight up to the rooftop. In less than a second, he had left the entire block behind, bounding towards home.
There was only one thought in his mind. Survive. Get away. Get back to your room. Get away from her screams and from the dead man.
Without a conscious thought, he found his house, and came down from the roof to the open deck outside his bedroom.
He stood there in the open door staring at the little tableau of bed, television, desk, fireplace. He licked the blood on his fangs, on his lower teeth. It had a salty taste, a taste that was ugly yet tantalizing.
How quaint and small the bedroom seemed, how painfully artificial, as if it was fabricated from something as fragile as eggshells.
He moved inside, into the dense unwelcome warm air, and closed the windows behind him. It seemed absurd to slide the tiny brass lock shut; what a curious little thing it was. Why, anyone could break one of the small white framed panes in the glass door and easily open it. One could easily break all of the panes, and fling the window, frame and all, out into the darkness.
In this close place, he heard his own easy breathing.
The light from the television was flashing white and blue over the ceiling.
In the full-length mirror on the bathroom door, he saw himself, a great hairy figure with a long mane covering his shoulders. Man wolf.
"So this was the manner of beast that saved me in Marchent,s house, was it?" He laughed again that low, irresistible rolling laughter. Of course. "And you bit me, you devil. And I