Monsters in the Midwest (Book 2): Northwoods Wolfman Read Free Page A

a
vampire.”
    Muted
laughter followed the comment which Dallas pointedly ignored, along with the
visions that followed closely on its heels. He didn’t want to see the inside of
Bay City Bowler’s karaoke bar, didn’t want to see Herb’s face as he realized
there was a two-foot length of lacquered wood extending from his chest, and he
definitely didn’t want to see the slow fire burning his best friend from the
inside out as Herb turned to ash.
    Shifting
his gaze to look for Stein, owner and proprietor of Steinknockers Bar, Dallas’s
eyes couldn’t avoid the framed picture of Helen up on the wall. A decorative
vase filled with plastic flowers rested serenely beneath it, surrounded by
sympathy cards for Stein. Former waitress at Steinknockers and stripper at
Nekked’s, Helen had been one of Herb’s victims. The full sequence of events was
never quite unraveled, but Dallas figured that Herb seduced her, turned her
into a vampire, and then torched her in the strip club’s tanning booth in a
vindictive rage when she interfered with his frat-boy dinner. It was so
completely not Herb that Dallas had
to choke back a harsh laugh. Hell, seemed like the whole summer Herb had been not Herb . It made Dallas wonder how well
he’d ever known the man he’d considered his best friend since their school
days. He missed his friend terribly, but the thing he’d stabbed at Bay City
Bowlers, that wasn’t Herb. He stopped being Herb when someone, some thing turned him into a goddamn monster.
Dallas wished he knew who, so he could bust another pool cue and stab that
vampire, too.
    Stein
made his way over and offered a, “Howdy, Dallas.” Noticing the direction of
Dallas’s gaze, he wiped at an involuntary tear.
    “Yeah,
she was a gem. A right gem, taken a’fore her time. Never late. Always cashed
out even at the end of her shift. Great rack, too,” Stein observed with a shaky
sigh.
    Dallas
just nodded as Stein poured two whiskeys and raised one up.
    “To
Helen,” he toasted, eyes moist.
    “Helen,”
Dallas agreed, whiskey burning away his self-doubts. He’d killed a goddamn
monster. Too late to save Helen, but he’d saved Lois and saved the whole town.
He was a hero. A goddamn hero.

 
    Chapter 3

 
    “You’re
needed.”
    The
nasally voice cut through the whiskey fog, rousing Dallas from his stupor.
Before he could put meaning to the words, turn his head, and identify the
speaker, the person was gone.
    “Haven’t
seen him b-before,” Stanley commented.
    “Stanwee?”
Dallas slurred. “Whend’choo get here?” Stanley had hung around with Dallas and
Herb for years. Wiry, fidgety, and a terrible bowler, he had rounded out their
backwoods version of the Three Musketeers, or more like Two Musketeers and That
Stuttering Guy Who Claimed He Was Abducted by Aliens. Since Herb’s death, he’d
been Dallas’s near-constant drinking companion.
    “J-just
now,” Stanley replied. “Saw you talking to that guy,” he said, pointing toward the
door.
    Dallas’s
bleary gaze followed Stanley’s finger, and he locked eyes with a stranger
across the bar. The two considered each other for a moment before the man
nodded and walked outside.
    With
a shrug and a short belch, Dallas returned his attention to Stanley. His friend
was scrutinizing a business card, a perplexed look layered on top of the
usually perplexed look he wore as a matter of course, making him look
especially… Dallas groped for the right word… perplexed .
    “Crap
on a cracker, Stanley. You looking for the cure for cancer on that thing?
Give’er here and let me help you with the big words.” Swiping the card, he read
out loud.
    “Find
us. You’re needed.”
    Dallas
borrowed Stanley’s perplexed look and tried it on for a moment. He’d heard that
before. Recent like. A nasally voice. For some reason, the face of the man he’d
just been trading looks with popped back into his mind. The voice he recalled
seemed like it would fit the man’s face. Gaunt,