Full Moon Madness

Lavinia was sweating and panting as well, the vibrations of Helen's convulsing, orgasm-wracked body creating friction, until the room was like a furnace and the two of them were roasting together in the heat of one another's bodies.

"Oh god...oh god...I love you..." Helen said, gaping, panting.

But Lavinia shook her head. "Not yet you don't," she said. "You don't even know what love is right now." And she parted Helen's legs again before sliding down her on the couch.

Gasping, Helen said, "No, no, no, wait, not yet..."

"I've waited long enough," said Lavinia, and she pressed her hungry mouth to Helen's throbbing pussy. Helen wilted and practically died even before she really started. The taste of her hapless desire filled Lavinia's mouth. It was the only thing she'd been hungry for all night.

An hour passed. They lay together for a while, naked except for the few bits and pieces they hadn't bothered taking off in the heat of the moment, murmuring in the dark and talking about whatever came to mind. The old clock in the room ticked every second away; it was annoying, but Lavinia liked it. It reminded her that what happened next would have to come soon.

Almost dozing, at first Helen didn't notice when Lavinia stood and began putting her clothes back on. But when she finally did see she woke up entirely and sat upright.

"You're leaving?" Helen said.

Lavinia rolled her stockings up. "Of course I am," she said, then gestured to the clock, that ever-ready sentinel. "There's just a few hours until Ray's flight gets in, and he may even be early. If I'm not there in the morning there'll be no explaining it."

"But curfew is on. It's—"

"Not this again," Lavinia said, slipping her shoes back on and taking an experimental step to get used to the extra elevation again. "Look, what choice do we have? I wouldn't be taking very good care of you if I let anyone catch us together, would I?" She went to the mirror again.

"Then I'll come too," Helen said, standing and fumbling for something to wear. Lavinia spun around on a dime.

"No!" she said. "Then how will you get back here before morning? Honestly, don't you have any sense at all? Look darling."

Lavinia sat on the edge of the couch and put a hand on Helen's exposed calf.

"We're women. The world is dangerous. Every time we walk out of our front doors we're taking a risk. The only difference with this scare is that suddenly everyone else pretends to care more. But when this all blows over we'll be right back where we started, and hardly anybody will notice. You aren't going to spend your entire life just staying in here, are you?"

Sighing, Helen shook her head.

"Then we'll just have to do what women like us have been doing for thousands of years," Lavinia continued. "Take the risk, because that's the hand we're dealt. Now give me a good night kiss."

The taste of Helen's lips lingered on hers for a long time. Lavinia told her good night three times at the door and then slipped back down the hall. Out on the street, the blackness of the night sky refused to give way to even a hint of dawn.

Now there was no chance at all of getting a ride anywhere, but Lavinia decided she'd rather walk anyway. The cool night air would refresh her, and she wasn't afraid of the cops. Or of anything else.

Poor Helen really didn't have the sense of even a kid, Lavinia decided. She was brilliant, of course; successful, dynamic. Everything Lavinia wished she'd been at that age.

She crossed the street, not bothering to wait on the traffic signals, as the streets were deserted.

But Helen was naïve too, Lavinia thought, more even than she'd realized when they met. It wasn't a charming quality at the end of the day, but so far it wasn't such a hassle that it was spoiling things between them. Not yet, anyway.

The walk home took a long time, but although it was cold and dark out it wasn't entirely unpleasant. The solitude was a rare thing, and it relaxed her after such a busy night. Life was always so busy, one day after the next. How rarely she could take time to be alone, collect her thoughts, enjoy the feeling of being just herself for a little while...

It wasn't until two blocks or so from her building that the screaming started, a long, jagged sound that put the spring of adrenaline into Lavinia's steps instantly.

Somewhere nearby some person, some woman, was screaming blood and murder, and at the sound of it the lights came on in every apartment window, like an eerie electric false dawn. Lavinia nearly ran the last two blocks to her building, keeping to the darkest side of the street.

Don't panic, she told herself over and over, even as the screaming grew louder, hysterical and half-crazed. She knew already what must have happened: someone had been lying dead somewhere out there, and now finally another person had come along and stumbled on it. And now everyone would know.

Everyone would know...

The flashing lights of police cars pained the block red. In the morning, huge crowds would huddle, all pale and anxious on the other side of police tape, pressing each other forward and jostling in hopes of getting a better view of what had happened. Please, please, please, just let me get inside without anyone stopping me, Lavinia thought.

She went through the alley this time, in the back door and up the stairs in spite of the heels and her shaking knees. The hallway door stuck like it always did, and then at her own front door she had to fumble in her purse for the house keys, trying not to jingle or rattle—

But the apartment door was already open. Just a crack, but it was open, the gap painting a terrible black line down her field of vision as she approached.

Terror stuck halfway up her throat. Moving as if in a dream, she pressed the door with the tips of three fingers, and in the yellowy light from the hall she saw it: footprints in the entryway.

No, not footprints.

Paw prints.

The coppery stink of blood hit Lavinia's nostrils at once. The trail led all the way to the couch, which now looked larger and more misshapen in the dark than it should have.

Without thinking about it, she switched on the light. The huge, heaving bulk of the werewolf was curled up on the couch. Its bright yellow eyes sprang open.

Streaks of gore painted its body, turning its dark fur red. It pulled its lips back, and its enormous nostrils twitched as they sniffed the air.

Lavinia imagined its stomach rumbling as the monstrous body dropped off of the couch to pad toward her on huge paws, one silent step at a time.

She stood frozen in the doorway, unable to speak, unable to move, unable to think as the monster stalked forward, the scent of its bloody breath wafting across the room to meet her.

It was halfway to her before Lavinia's voice came back to her.

"Ray!" she said.

And then, quieter, remembering the neighbors: "How in the hell did you get out again?"

The werewolf paused and laid its ears back. It gave a little whimper. Lavinia closed the door and snapped all of the locks, then threw up her hands.

"And look at the floors! The couch! Out of the living room, right now! Out!"

Tucking its tail between its legs, the beast let Lavinia take it into the bathroom. Looking sheepish, it clamored into the shower. Once she turned the water on, the porcelain underneath the werewolf's huge body washed red and then black. Lavinia hastily undressed so as not to spoil her outfit.

Sitting on the toilet in hear underwear, Lavinia did her best to scrub the animal clean. It was a tough job.

"For god's sake, Ray, how do you always manage?" she said. "I put two locks on the bedroom door this time, and three on the apartment door, and I know you didn't break the windows."

The wolf's gigantic pink tongue lolled, and it looked at her with guileless eyes. He couldn't understand a word she was saying, of course, and he wouldn't remember any of this in the morning. He never did. No help at all.

She turned the water off, dried him as best she could with the fresh towels, then sent him off to fall asleep at the foot of the bed. Within minutes his snoring filled the whole apartment.

The flash of police lights outside seeped through the blinds. I'm not the only one cleaning up after you tonight, Ray, she thought.

Going to the liquor cabinet, she fixed herself a nightcap and drank it one sip at a time while watching him sleep, his paws twitching and his flanks rising up and down as he dreamed. Men, she thought.

Out loud she said, "Well Ray, for as much as a pain in the ass your as your 'episodes' are every month, at least they always give me time for a girls' night."

Sitting next to him, she stroked the werewolf's long, shaggy, clean fur.

"If it wasn't for that, just imagine what a beast I'd be for the rest of the month."