WILLOW MANOR

Chapter Eighteen

"What is it you have to say, Bill?" Katie made no move from the sofa. She kept her eyes on Bill. A little voice in her head was telling her not to ask, not to question things, that she wouldn't like the answers she received.

He looked upset, maybe frightened. "I think you know. You have to suspect."

"About why you were in the graveyard this morning?" She nodded carefully. "You weren't drunk last night, were you?"

Bill shook his head. "You know I would never hurt you."

The terrible realization from before started scratching at the back of her mind again and the little voice grew louder. Don't ask. She tried to push that voice down. "What happened to the vampire?"

"You know what happened. You saw what happened." Bill drew a deep breath. "You saw me."

"I saw... I saw something else..." Katie struggled with the idea. She did not want to believe what he was telling her, what her own thoughts were telling her.

Bill shook his head.

"No, Bill." She tried to force away the idea. It was crazy. It was impossible. But it was the only explanation. And the scars on his back, the evidence of surviving an attack... Run, the voice said. But it was Bill! Her trusted friend... "How could it be you?"

"It's a long story. And not a nice one." His eyes revealed enormous emotional pain. "I never would have hurt you, Katie. Never."

Her hands trembled and she clasped them together, hoping to create calm. Her eyes betrayed her. They filled with tears. "I was so scared. You chased me out of the mausoleum. You... you..."

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't even be here." Bill hung his head, ashamed. "With normal people."

Run! The voice in her head insisted. What he said was impossible. Still, she sat, not moving. Werewolf. Impossible. But hadn't she already seen impossible things here at Willow Manor? Ghosts? A vampire? And Bill! He was in torment at the thought of hurting someone. He could never. She knew that. The voice began to get quieter.

"It's just a lot to take in right now. You're saying you're some kind of..." Katie couldn't say it out loud yet, but her mind was rapidly accepting it as fact. "But how is that even possible?"

"How is a vampire possible? How is a ghost possible? It just is, I guess." Bill shrugged, a little annoyed. "Why do you believe those things are real and not werewolves? Do you think I wanted to be like this?"

"The scars on your back." She shook her head, remembering the violent white and pink stripes on his upper body. "I saw them this morning in the cemetery."

"Remember I told you I was attacked..." Bill nodded. "The werewolf ambushed me as I was leaving a..."

"A bar?" She nodded.

"I'd had a few and was not really paying attention to the surroundings. It jumped on my back just as I reached my car." He looked down at the floor, the memory causing its own kind of pain. "I guess I was just so relaxed that I collapsed right out of its grasp. Before it would spring again, I opened the door and got in the car."

Katie almost laughed at the absurdity of it. "So, being drunk saved your life?"

Bill was not laughing. "I wish it would have killed me."

"Don't say that." Katie started to reach for Bill, to offer comfort. Her mind had fully accepted that Bill was the werewolf she saw last night and that he had killed Davicus with his own hands and teeth. But then a worse thought struck her. She withdrew her hand and stood suddenly.