Page 103 of Healed
“Na, she’s just taking a little nap,” Lucien said.
“I’ll kill you. I’ll kill all of you!” the professor screamed, struggling up from his knees to teeter over to Bane, who struck him another four or five times in the face, the chest, the gut and the face again before he could even lift an arm to even consider striking back. He stumbled backward and fell, writhing in painas he struggled to get up despite his inability to even defend himself at this point.
Footsteps could be heard echoing across the tiled floors inside the house, announcing Havoc and Charlie as they returned from erasing the security footage from any data bank that may have been connected.
“Got it. He even logged into the security data base and erased the last three days. Cheap bastards aren’t even on a security website that could be backed up. It’s just sending video from motion activated cameras to a spare desktop computer in the office. It’s alright, we crashed the whole system. Ain't nobody getting a damn thing from the security footage. We even located the external hard drive it was backing up to and destroyed it. There’s nothing electronic or computer based left working in there,” Havoc said.
Charlie looked down at the couple, lying in the shadows of their own yard. “You killed them already?”
“They’re alive,” Bane said. “Let’s go.”
He leaned over the professor’s unconscious body and slapped his face until the man finally regained consciousness. “Hey! Just thought I’d let you know. When I get home, and everyday until Daisy sees things clearly, I’m going to encourage her to file charges against you. And we’re going to find other women you did the same thing to, and we’re going to encourage them to file charges too. We’re going to file a complaint with the university, and we’re going to file stalking and harassment charges against your wife. We’ll contact the media and make sure it makes headlines. You’re finished. And if the justice system is fair enough, you’ll never teach or be around any student of any age again. And if you are, we’ll be sure to be there and we’ll announce to everyone exactly what you’ve done, just the same way your wife tormented my daughter, despite the fact she was the victim and you were the predator. Just wanted toleave you with that.” Bane hit him again, then turned and walked away.
“Y’all go ahead. I’m gonna clean up real quick to make sure there’s no finger prints or anything,” Lucien said.
“I’m sure we didn’t. We were careful. But, I’ll show you where we were,” Charlie said.
“Y’all got this? I’m going to keep up with Bane,” Havoc said.
“Yep, go,” Lucien said.
Havoc followed Bane, and Lucien followed Charlie into the house.
“Did y’all even think that you might be leaving behind fingerprints?” Lucien asked as he followed Charlie to the downstairs office.
“Yes, actually. I said we were careful. We didn’t use our hands for anything we didn’t have to. Turned on lights with our elbows and all.”
“Good. Less to clean up. Now, turn off the lights and show me everywhere you went.”
As Lucien followed Charlie through the darkened house, he used his Gator’s thermal vision to look for remnants of heat on fingerprints left on any of the surfaces they might have touched. There were only slight indications of remnants of heat in a place or two since it had been a while, but he wiped off any surface that Charlie indicated they touched regardless.
“Alright. I got it all. Let’s go,” Lucien said.
“How do you know you got it all?”
“Thermal vision, my dude. I’m a Gator.”
Charlie just shook his head and grinned as he followed Lucien back out of the house, stepped past the woman still lying on the ground, despite the whimpers and stirrings she uttered as she started to wake up.
“The man’s gone. Didn’t Bane knock that bastard out again?” Lucien asked.
“Yeah, but I was leading you inside. I don’t know what happened after that,” Charlie said.
“Hell, he might have decided to throw the fucker in the bayou,” Lucien said with a laugh. “Let’s go catch up with them and head home.”
They took their time getting back to the footbridge, knowing they’d have to cross it individually anyway. But by the time it came into view, they realized that there was a threat they didn’t bargain for. The professor lurking far behind Havoc and Bane. He was unsteady on his feet, but still posed a threat. He was keeping far enough behind that he wouldn’t loose them, but hopefully wouldn’t be seen either.
“Look at that dumb bastard, thinking he can take on Bane. He can barely fucking stand,” Lucien said.
“It’s like he just wants to die,” Charlie said.
Then the real threat was realized. The professor leaned his thigh against the waist high support column for the pier gate protecting one of many privately own piers along Bayou St. John, and aimed a gun at Bane’s back as he walked further into the distance. Havoc was with him, but there was no doubt that Bane was the one he had it in for.
“Oh, hell, no!” Lucien exclaimed and broke into a full out run.
Charlie’s heart dropped when he realized the man might actually manage to injure Daisy’s dad. But then, as he watched, Lucien neutralized the whole situation in what seemed like one smooth move, but was actually a combination of actions. Charlie had never seen anything like it in his life.
Lucien ran as quickly as he could, launching himself into the air as he shifted to his Gator, his clothes ripping and falling away from his muscular, reptilian body as a threatening hiss and bellow left his throat and chest. The professor turned just in time to see the remainder of Lucien’s human likeness as it fullyshifted into the Gator that lived inside him. His huge jaws were stretched wide as he glided through the air like a missile, the professor his target.
