PART ONE

ALL HALLOWS EVE

... The knocking barely registered for Caitlin, apparently it did more for Samuel. He slipped his arms from around her and grabbed some clothes. "Caite, hey Caite?" She pretended to be asleep. He could answer the door if he wanted, Caitlin wanted to stay in bed.

... Caitlin heard the voices clearly from the livingroom. The apartment wasn't all that small but it must be tiny from Samuel and Stewart's point of view. Both had grown up in manses where you could literally loose people for days, let alone overhear a conversation at the door from the bedroom.

... Apparently Samuel had called Stewart earlier in the evening and left a message and Stewart had chosen this hour, at Samuel's girlfriend's apartment, to return the message in person. "Hey, what's up?"

... "It wasn't an emergency. You could have waited to the morning."

... "Oh, sorry." Stewart wasn't one of Sam's smarter friends, but did you really have to be smart when you inherited?

... "Might as well come in and sit down as you're here." She heard bodies move around and the door shut. The door shutting shook the wall all the way down the hallway on this floor. The boys had to know she was awake now but apparently they didn't. "Have you ever heard of the Howard Bacchanal?"

... "Hmm? I think so but I can't place it."

... "Howard is one of the old houses at Oxford, its gone now. But every year or so, when ever they can find a place and get things organized, the house still throws an annual bacchanal."

... "You mean like an orgy or something?"

... "Yes, exactly."

... "And just how is it that you associated me with an orgy?"

... "Its not an orgy, it's a bacchanal. They have live music, drinks, drugs are usually a bring-your-own or some one shows up to sell them and during the evening lots of couples drift off to tents set up on the grounds or to the near by woods for assignations."

... "I think I did read about this somewhere. Its supposed to be very expensive and an invitation is highly coveted. Which brings me back to my previous question, what made you think of me?"

... "Because you have the hots for Caitlin" There was a pause while Caitlin sat up and listened more closely, all thoughts of sleep banished. "And I happen to be in possession of invitations for twelve to this year's bacchanal. To be celebrated on October 31, Halloween."

... "Hallow... you mean 'All Hollow's Eve?' The American harvest festival?"

... "Yes, which includes costumes?"

... There was a pause and then she heard Stewart, "And?"

... "And when the six of us finally lead our girlfriends into the woods first we loose them and then we don identical cloaks making us look like death. Then we return to the girls and rape them."

... "Rape?"

... "Not really. We'll stop if they really complain."

... "I'm afraid I still don't see the point."

... "Well you for one have always had an interest in Caitlin and this would be your chance."

... "I'm afraid I still don't see how."

... "Think, we'll all be dressed alike and none of us will speak because that would be out of character which means that any boy could take any girl he wanted. You could have Caitlin and she would never know the difference."

... Caitlin couldn't keep from squirming in bed as she listened. She'd not only had a fancy for Stewart but she'd heard he had ten inches of interest that she wanted to try out.

... "Well I certainly hope that's not the case." Pause "And just how does letting me have my way with your girlfriend appeal to you?"

... "Well while you're busy with Caitlin I will be with Gwen."

... "Uh huh?"

... "And Amos could be finally satisfying himself about Jessica."

... "And you could be having your moment with Amos' girlfriend which I suspect is really what's on your mind."

... "You see the beauty of the plan is that everybody gets what they want and I have a friend in Canada who will supply us with Viagra so its possible that we can sample something of everything and the women can get what they have always claimed they wanted."

... Caitlin had a twinge of guilt, it was likely that she had made Samuel feel less then adequate to fulfilling her appetites on more then one occasion. But if there was a possibility of pulling it off Caitlin would support it. She had her own ideas about whether Stewart would have an opportunity to try other girls, of course that would depend on his performance with her. And if her help was needed to convince the girls to go along with the plan then she intended to give it. It was unlikely though that she would have to say much.

... As it turned out she told most everything to most of the girls. No one told Jessica anything about the expected nature of the evening, the more she knew the less likely she would be to agree. But Caitlin's help hadn't been needed in Jessica's case. Caitlin surmised that Jonathan had simply told her she was going and she agreed. Caitlin didn't like the idea of having that between her legs but she had doubts about the men's ability to fulfill their goal of six even with Viagra. (She had her doubts about anything over three, if even that many.) But that was all right, she didn't need anymore then one to make the evening worth while for her.

... When the evening came it was beyond anything Caitlin had imagined. There wasn't just one band, there were three top name rock bands in three separate tents. And Samuel had been right about the availability of libations. What he hadn't mentioned was the presence of male celebrities, there were at least three male members of the royal family present. Caitlin had wondered for awhile why men who obviously had no trouble attracting paramours were in attendance but then she realized that men who lived in the camera's eye might enjoy a chance to do some sampling of their own.

... The men were rather unsubtle in their attempts the draw the women towards the edges of the clearing. They failed to cover their desertion from the women even more completely but Caitlin had to admit when she saw the first figure dressed all in black that the costumes were much more impressive then she'd imagined. Caitlin had expected something along the lines or a nylon sheet pinned around an obviously naked male form. What she saw was something like heavy wool in a dark purple, the color of wine or old blood. Who ever approached her first, and she hoped it was Stewart getting directly to the main course (and desert), managed to move with majestic calm and Caitlin found herself afraid in spite of her preknowledge. According to script the immensely tall figure never spoke but easily made his intentions known.

... Caitlin couldn't remember later how she came to loose her clothes but she knew that the closer the figure came the more the sense of power and fear became a palpable, solid, thing. She found herself hugging a slender tree with the figure behind her. Then it was like a shaft of cold air was shoved into her. Caitlin had intended to reach down and massage Stewart's testicles, Gwen had said they were prodigious, but she found herself bucking against the tree to her first orgasm the moment what ever it was that had slid into her touched her. And the first didn't subside. If anything it became more intense.

... Caitlin admitted to an unusually large sexual appetite, if everything was to be believed, and she was pleased that she was a part of the half of women who enjoyed regular orgasms but she'd never experienced anything like this. If it hadn't been for the tree she felt she would have shaken herself apart. To say her first orgasm started when he touched her was a misnomer. She simply started orgasming at that point and went on from their. Each second was divided into a thousand fractions of building intensity, not intensity building to release because she'd begun releasing from the first fraction but the intensity of her released built.

... When she finally came around she was bathed in sweat. Panting at the limit of her lungs and twitching at every nerve ending. The apparition was gone. Who ever it was, and she hoped it was Stewart (but if that was only ten inches she didn't think she should ever try for something more), or failing that, that she would find out who it was because who ever it was who'd taken her she planned to marry them as soon as she could stand up with out gripping the poor tree. (And she suspected that if she did marry whoever that she wouldn't live past the weekend but that if she spent the rest of eternity aware of just these moments it would be the highest circle of heaven never imagined by Dante.)

... Caitlin had no clear idea of how long she stood hugging the tree before she felt her legs would hold her. She knew it must have been long for the sweat on her body had cooled and almost completely dried and the voices of the boys calling for their missing girls had grown frantic. When Caitlin managed to stagger to the edge of the clearing she saw the six men, each wearing matching cheap death cloaks in a dull red, several with their cowls pulled back desperately calling for them. The other girls it appeared had come to the edge of the clearing at the same time as Caitlin and the boys seemed to have spotted them at about the same moment.

... Smiles sprang up on the boy's faces and they rushed into the woods to take their intended partners. Caitlin was more then willing to be taken again. As she lay on the grass and felt the warm cock enter her she wondered that it felt so small and so hot. Then she was covered inside and out with warm moisture and she concluded that poor Stewart had been as excited as she had. She was drifting off into the pleasure of the warmth between her legs after so much cold when the screaming tugged at the edge of her consciousness.

BLACK

... "I wonder how other people are spending their Halloween?"

... Rachel wondered because she was spending hers with her back to her partner, burning slashes on both of her arms, trying to reload her dual Glock 9s while what looked like several hundred Werewolves tried to eat her.

... The clip rammed home and Rachel sent silver jacketed 9mm slugs into the body of the Were who'd just failed to open up her body armor with what felt like a ten pound sledge hammer covered in claws. The slugs took good sized chunks out of the Were's body but he didn't go down magically as Rachel had hoped. Wasn't silver supposed to be the trick when it came to Werewolves?

... If anything Pandora seemed to be having more success with her simple steal sword, although there was nothing simple about her sword. But it seemed that silver or not even Werewolves had trouble dealing with missing limps, disemboweled heads and separated torsos. Of course Pandora, who disdained body armor -or any heavy clothing in such situations- it got in the way of her freedom of movement, was much worse off in the injury department then Rachel was. But then her friend could take more damage then Rachel could. And while her twenty pounds of Teflon and steel had so far protected her from crotch to chin she wasn't under any delusions what would happen to her if one of those slashes to her extremities hit an artery. At the rate her heart was going she'd be dry in seconds.

... It had seemed like a much simpler matter a few hours before. The two of them had amassed undeniable evidence that a large group of Werewolves were planning to have a Halloween celebration in New England this year. (Never mind where this undeniable evidence had come from.) And when they'd gotten to the upper North Eastern part of the United States the two of them had come across something called the New England Werewolf Club. Pandora and Rachel weren't generally known to crash parties but getting an invitation had proven impossible.

... Their best guess was that the "N.E.W. Club" had at most twenty members and even though there were indications that they were looking forward to quite a party it was unlikely that all the members would be able to attend. After all, most Werewolves had normal lives in which they had to keep up appearances and Halloween had become an even bigger event in the last decades then New Years. (New Years! Rachel and Pandora had been invited to a very fancy New Years party at the Chicago Hilton. Rachel had already purchased the very revealing dress she intended to wear. Intended that is if these slashes, ones that would have rendered her a quivering pile of flesh if she weren't standing standing back to back with a veritable fountain of vitality, managed to heal and not scar by then.)

... Rachel placed the muzzle of one Glock 9 to the forehead of a Were who had sunk his teeth into her right hip. She was gratified to see his head explode and didn't even mind the bit of flesh that flew into her own eye. Well if silver jacketed 9mm slugs didn't outright kill Werewolves where ever they were hit they certainly did nice things to the head. Rachel was now managing to send a jaw bone or piece of cranium flying with every shot. And this meant that she only had to shoot most Weres once which was a good thing because she hadn't liked the way one particularly smarter-then-the-average-Were had been circling the outside of the group centered around her. She had the distinct impression that this particular Were had designs on getting her head between his jaws. (Rachel could see her Teflon helmet laying on their bed in the motel but she held the recriminations until later.)

... Rachel hoped that this new development that improved target acquisition was bringing to her lethality would help her catch up with Pandora. Rachel hadn't actually taken the time to look but the few times they'd shifted positions Rachel had seen enough to tell her that Pandora had at least a dozen bodies, in some form of dismemberment piled around her and Rachel doubted she had more then ten on her own side. Pandora would be impossible to deal with if the gun toter managed to dispatch fewer enemies then the sword wielder. (Rachel found that placing the muzzle under the jaw before firing made for an even more satisfying explosion and that way she was able to direct the bits of bone and brain away from her too. But then again it would probably be wiser over all if Rachel didn't wait until a Were got with in arm's reach. Their arms were longer and had nasty claws at the end. She had already lost one auto pistol to a Were, she pulled out another, already loaded and sent a half dozen slugs up the side of the Were she'd let get too close-she hoped that hurt the Were but didn't kill it, Glock 9s cost almost a thousand dollars and she wanted hers back. She had three more Glock 9s under her armor and a pair of Uzis but Pandora had asked her to lay off the Uzis if she could. Uzis could release something like five hundred slugs a minute and they were unlikely to recover many of those slugs later.)

... It took full-on-daylight, not just a hint of dawn, to drive off the last of the Weres. They seemed to be particularly reluctant to let the two women go. Pandora and Rachel hadn't intended to let any of the Weres go either but after six hours of killing they weren't strongly motivated to chase them either, if they could have. The truth was neither woman was in any condition to chase anything, not even naked, over weight, middle aged, men. When the last naked man ran off for his car Rachel and Pandora simply lied down on top of the parts of the dead, resting their heads on each other's left shoulder and fell asleep.

... It was something in the combination of pain, sunlight and birdsong that finally brought Rachel around. She was covered in blood and bits of flesh (hairy and otherwise). All she could see of herself was her body armored covered chest and below that her heavy lace up hiking books. Beyond her feet of course were the bodies. Some of them were human, the rest Were (Rachel wasn't up on all of the psycho/biological stuff so don't ask her why one body looked human and another not.) The body's formed a small circle around her lower half and an indisdinct one on the far side.

... She heard Pandora's breathing and knew her friend had only been resting. Some how, though she knew they were each resting their head on the shoulder of the other, some how Rachel thought they, or at least-she, was propped a little high. Rachel tried to simply sit up but her body wasn't having any of that. So she rolled to her side and used her right arm to help her up. Rachel's right arm took great exception to this plan but Rachel ignored it (Rachel's body was not a democracy).

... Rachel found that she and Pandora had been lying on another dead body, or two, Rachel wasn't inclined to count parts. Rachel stumbled to her feet. He legs worked but they screamed to her that she had dozens of slashes across her muscles. Rachel found that Pandora had a similar circle of bodies around her lower body. And if Pandora's circle was higher then Rachel's it was less deep. (Most of Rachel's victims were in most of one piece.) In fact, as Rachel looked at their circles she thought that they formed a figure eight. And a moment later Rachel was wondering if Pandora would see it as the symbol for infinity.

... "Come on, lets get going before the police get here."

... "Sounds like a good idea Rache, only I've got a problem." Rachel looked down at her friend. "I've lost my right foot."

... Rachel made the mistake of looking, a bit of bone was protruding from above where Pandora's right ankle should have been. The bleeding had stopped which was good because Rachel didn't think she was up to putting a tourniquet on. Rachel could see the teeth marks, in the torn flesh and tubing. "Shit Pandora, why'd you let them do that?"

... "Let them? I assure you I didn't 'let them.' In fact, I'm pretty sure I severed the spine of the one who did it, he should be over there on the right. If you could check to see if he still has my foot in his mouth, I'd appreciate it.

... Rachel nodded but she found she had problems of her own when she tried to stuff her pistols under her body armor. Only her thumb and index finger were working on her left hand. She slash that had taken her watch and her other pistol seemed to have taken most of her tendons too. But she was able to work around that and get the pistol put away. The right hand though was worse. The fingers there were broken and Rachel had to ask Pandora if she could pry her gun out of her hot broken fingers. (Pandora didn't get the reference.) The process proved to Rachel that not one, but apparently all of the fingers on her right hand were broken. Just how she'd managed that Rachel didn't know, maybe she'd used her pistol as a hammer a few times.

... Rachel wasn't very swift in the moving bodies aside aspects of the search, she found kicking was more efficient and took less time then trying to pick things up with two fingers. Rachel found the guy with the severed spine. Pandora had cut him just above the tail bone. He was human and naked. He must have bleed to death and probably after sunrise (or moonfall, or what ever). He was about nineteen, very muscled, probably a football player and his package was over sized enough for Rachel to spend a moment regretting she hadn't taken him up on the one night stand offer he should have made for her. His mouth was empty, no foot here. Maybe there was a bit of Pandora flesh between his teeth but Rachel didn't really feel they had the time to spend on small stuff like that.

... Rachel looked but she didn't find the foot anywhere around the body. "Probably going to be used as a paper weight on somebody's desk for the next couple of months. Help me up."

... Rachel saw that the stump was now covered with a layer of fresh pink skin, except for the bone spur, that made the wound look at least a month old. Rachel helped Pandora to vertical and then she got under her friend's left shoulder. They proceeded in this fashion far more smoothly then even a casual observer of any three legged race would ever expect. The truth was they practiced this procedure about once a month or so back in Chicago. They would in fact go through all the permutations of one loss limb between the two of them and two lost limbs between the two of them. They looked as stupid as Rachel had always felt practicing this in their second apartment but Rachel wasn't complaining as they made their way through the woods this morning.

... "What happened. I thought there was only going to be maybe twenty of them?"

... "I don't know. Maybe associated chapters came to town, clubs from different parts of the country, maybe this is just werewolf country. I don't know."

... "How many do you think there were?"

... Rachel had estimated about a hundred complete bodies on the ground if you put all of the parts together but she didn't know how many had escaped. "I think something like twenty escaped, I don't know how many may have left by your right side, It was dark over there and I couldn't see too well."

... "You shouldn't have been looking at my side anyway. That's probably how you lost your foot."

... "Naw, that jerk bit me early on." Which Rachel reflected meant that Pandora had spent most of the night fighting on one foot, which meant no matter how close their body counts were, Pandora had won again. Rachel found herself growling.

... "Stop that. I thought they'd turned you for a second."

... "Can they turn me, I'm pretty-"

... "Nah, Not as long as we stay close for the next few days. My DNA should protect you from lupus infections. Now if you piss some whitch or somebody off enough to curse you, well that's a whole different thing."

... Rachel slowed and gave her friend a serious look. All the strength had drained out of Rachel's face. "If that happens, ... promise me you'll-"

... "Oh, fuck you bitch."

... Rachel was laughing so hard she was opening up cuts on her legs and sides. "I'm sorry, I couldn't resist."

... "Yeah, yeah, yeah."

... Rachel noticed Pandora was pushing them in a direction away from the parking lot."I thought the car was that way?"

... "It is, but I remember a pond or lake or something this way and I'd like to get a little cleaned up before we drive back into town."

... "Oh!" That sounded like a good idea.

... The water was cold and the bottom of the pond must have been covered with a foot or more of bird shit but it would suffice. Pandora had helped Rachel get out of her clothes. Initially they'd entered at one end of the lake and after the initial wetting they'd swum to the center of the lake were they hadn't already kicked up the bottom, for the main cleansing and before the got out they swam to the far end of the lake for a rinse. They then stumbled back to their clothes.

... Rachel insisted on Pandora putting on one of Rachel's boots. Tightening the lacings required three hands but the high leather lacings took most of the pressure off of the bone spure at the end of Pandora's right leg.

... Later Rachel put it down to mutual exhaustion and a feeling that they had to get out of there before the police showed up. Either way Rachel felt that she should have seen the trip wire long before she felt it. "Shit!" Pandora forced Rachel backward with her right arm and herself forward with the same (Pandora actually landed on top of the trip wire). The claimor mines fired over them. The only injuries were to Pandora. Some particularly ruthless lowlife had felt that two claimores by them selves weren't enough so he'd covered them with broken glass, P gravel and any other shit (literally) that he could find. It was this extra that struck Pandora's back and sides.

... Their rental car was engulfed in flames by the time they got back onto their feet. This had just been a matter of vengeance. The car had been on a timer and the trip wires and claimors had been placed all around the parking lot. Pandora was pissed. Rachel wasn't any too happy either. The thing was, they were werewolves. So they had to expect people to try to kill them, that was part of the deal but this claymore and burn the car bit, that was ... well five years ago Rachel would have said spiteful but the concept didn't exist anymore, so maybe they really were trying to kill them.

... There were other cars in the parking lot, too many dead for even twenty guys to drive away all of the left over cars. But after the trip wire and timer on their own car Rachel felt it prudent to perform a painful and time consuming inspection of the car they did choose to steal.

... When Pandora insisted that Rachel drive, even if she did have only two working fingers, Rachel had a pretty good idea what that meant for the future. Pandora had Rachel drive right up to the front doors of the city police station and keep the motor running. Pandora took a pair of Rachel's Glocks and limped up the ramp to the door. Pandora jumped into the air and kicked the steel doorframe loose with her good foot. As she walked down the main hall of the police office a young officer that Pandora didn't recognize came running out of his office. Pandora parted his hair on the right side with a 9mm slug and left him unconscious. She found the only other officers on duty that quiet First of November in the Chief's Office. Three of them were gathered around the big desk saying unpleasant things about Pandora and Rachel. When Pandora left the mortician was going to have to perform some serious post mortem surgeries if anyone was going to request an open casket.

... The next stop was the high school. Class was already in session so no students saw Pandora come in the front door. The principal's secretary tried to stop Pandora from disturbing her boss. Pandora smelled the grimy smell of dog on her. Pandora's hands had become huge and her nails were now rounded into claws. The secretaries' head bounced into the Principal's office with Pandora right behind it. The Principal looked up first in shock and then with a sneer his head carried into the after life. Pandora left the Principal's office through the wall facing the parking lot. She was no longer limping.

... It was a futile gesture at best but they went to the motel to check on their stuff. The room was a mess with bodily excretions added just to let them know what type of cultured "people" they were dealing with. While Rachel was paying the lady who owned the place her husband stepped up behind her. Pandora reached across the woman and sent her husband's head flying into the living room.

... They drove to the West and crossed the border into Canada near Kingston before taking a plane home to Chicago.

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