Cruel and Unusual - serialised novel EXCLUSIVE to Steemit Part 26

Exclusive for Steemit - serialisation of Cruel and Unusual – my second novel

Episodes:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Pictures from Google Images and Pixabay

Jack is playing with fire, poking the tiger, so to speak, and this situation is not going to end well…

“Marcellus, I think I need to feed now,” she ignored Jack’s conclusion.

Marcellus was still watching however. He then began to look a little puzzled.

“Marcellus? What is it?” Almyra asked.

Jack ignored her anxiety, and Macellus’s by now apparent lethargy, and continued.

“This shall be my last question then. How would I kill a Werewolf?”

“Do you really expect an answer to that question, Hume?” Almyra’s voice dripped with venom, her attention diverted from Marcellus for a moment.

“No, I suppose not. I think perhaps that was rather insensitive of me. May I rephrase it then? Would distilled Aconite render a Werewolf helpless, if for example, it was administered slowly over the course of a few hours in and on glasses of wine?”

“Aconite?” Marcellus asked in a voice that was slow and languid.

“Aconite is distilled Wolf’s Bane, Marcellus. It is a poison. It coats your glass. That is why you are in a more advanced state of poisoning than Almyra. She is wearing gloves and so it would not have affected her, but the Aconite inside the glass would,” he drained his own glass.

“You have been quite helpful. I cannot say that you have been extremely helpful, for I knew a lot of the information that you have divulged to me, but your bloodlines were of great interest. I do wonder though; how vindictive can your respective families be? Will they mourn your passing as a ‘Hume’ would, or as an animal? Also, will they wish to exact a terrible revenge upon your murderer?”

Marcellus seemed to have slipped into slumber but Almyra was still conscious although she had to fight hard to stay awake, drowsiness was overtaking her.

Though she was battling to stay alert, she roused herself to berate Jack once more.

“You have ignored my question Hume. I grow weary of your invasive questions. You have not yet told me how you knew the other was Wolf.”

Jack thought about it for a moment then came to a decision. “I shall answer your question. I could tell that he was a Werewolf by the same means that I recognised Marcellus as a Werewolf a while ago and indeed your very good self, last month. My father was a Werewolf - one of your own kind. My mother was a human - Hume - and I seem to have inherited his legacy.”

“You are a throwback?” she whispered, her eyes widening.

“Oh I have a pet name too do I?” he said.

“Still, it is no matter. I suppose that you are wondering how long this poison will take to pass through your body so that you are again well.” he paused as though expecting an answer.

Almyra was beyond answering; in fact, she may have been beyond hearing by that time but, Jack was biding his time, there was no point in rushing, not when he had been so patient all evening.

No, he would wait until he was certain that he would not be injured by a Wolf playing possum. He continued to tell her about his poison.

“Unfortunately, it is not called Wolf’s Bane for nothing. You are dying, Almyra. The poison is cumulative. Your organs, especially your heart, are affected and are dying. Soon your strong heart will slow down, your blood pressure will drop and your heart will falter and soon after, you will die. The problem that I shall have will be in disposing of your bodies in such a way so that you are not recognisable, but I think I have that problem worked out. Oh, I see Marcellus is already gone, will you join him?”

Jack did not turn his back on Almyra once in all the time he was talking to her. It would not have mattered, she was incapable of moving, but Jack did not wish to take any chances.

Once he was certain they were both dead, he began to work. He lifted the body of Marcellus onto his shoulders and carried him down to the cellar. There, he laid the body onto a mortuary table. He sliced off the clothes and dropped them in a heap to be burned in the incinerator.

Curiosity got the better of him and he touched a small silver cross to Marcellus’s cheek. The flesh sizzled and burned, melting away from under the silver, almost in the same way that it would had Jack poured acid upon the flesh.

Jack wrote the findings in a notebook and went back to the task of removing the clothing.

Once the body was naked, Jack then shaved Marcellus. He removed all the hair from the head down. Even the backs of the hands and the tops of the toes were shaved with extreme care. When all the hair was removed, it was bagged and labelled.

Then an incision was made in the vein at the ankle and the blood was collected. As the flow slowed, another incision was made just below one of his ears.

Jack studied the musculature of Marcellus’s whole body. He was so engrossed that he did not realise the time. Only sunlight spiking through the tiny cellar window right into his eyes reminded him that there was still work to be done upstairs.

He brought down Almyra’s body with a great deal of difficulty as she had begun to succumb to rigor mortis during the hours that he had been studying Marcellus.

He dropped her without ceremony onto the cellar floor and went back upstairs to put everything back to rights in time for the maid’s arrival.

He made certain that the cellar door was locked and then went upstairs to bed, knowing that Lizzie would be arriving in a matter of minutes. He folded his clothes over the back of the chair, put his nightshirt on and got into bed, ensuring that he disturbed the covers and made the bed warm so as to look as though he had slept in it.