The Dehumanization of Ethan Brown

Ethan stayed in his room the rest of the day until it was time to see Juan. “Leslie, I’ll tell you everything that happens.”

“You’ve always been there for me.” Leslie’s voice had a tone of sadness.

“Then trust me.”

“Coming from you those are the scariest two words in the English language.”

“Verdad. Hasta luego, amiga.” Ethan left the loft and drove away in the Chevy. Ethan, me confias is just as scary. Trust me was frightening in any language. Later, that night, when Leslie heard barking, she opened the balcony door to the smell of wet dog. A happy but rained on wolf was standing there.

“You climbed the fire escape?” Leslie tried to keep her voice normal. She was a lonely middle-aged woman, who saw a relationship where there would never be one. Wanting a man, who had never given her more than a friendly hug or kiss, was pathetic. Not that a man and woman couldn’t be friends, but she should have realized he must have had a powerful reason for holding back, but this?

The wolf nodded.

“You better come in and dry your fur by the fireplace. The wet look is out.”

The wolf followed Leslie inside. As Leslie put another log on the fire, the wolf shook out his fur, getting the floor wet.

“You understand what I’m saying. The only reason you aren’t mopping the floor is lack of hands.” Leslie mopped up the puddle while the wolf warmed himself at the fire. After she put the mop and bucket in the kitchen, she rubbed the wolf’s tummy. Then she rested her head against the timber wolf’s side.

Leslie heard light footsteps and a gentle banging on the balcony door. A naked Hispanic girl, slender about 5’3”, stood on his balcony. Couldn’t anyone use the front door? Leslie opened the door. “You must be Sara Maria Lopez?”

She shook Leslie’s hand. “My friends call me Ria. You must excuse me. After chasing your friend in the rain, I didn’t have time to stop for clothes.”

Leslie handed her one of Ethan’s t-shirts. “He won’t mind.”

Ria put the shirt on. “Thanks. We need to get a scrap of the victim’s clothing. We should be able to sniff him out as long as he hasn’t left town.”

“You want me to steal from the evidence room?”

“If we don’t find him, he’ll kill again. He’s got a taste for human blood.”

“Can’t this wait till morning?”

“Papa says we should sniff him out tonight.”

“You’re lucky that people in forensics like me. You stay here with Ethan and try not to make a litter in my living room.”

“Lady, I’m not in heat.” Ria crossed her eyes. “All you humans think about is sex.” Ethan humped his male cousin in front of me and all us humans think about is sex.

Leslie grabbed her wallet and keys. “Why do I feel like I entered the Twilight Zone?”

“We try to keep humans out of our business. Ethan trusts you and that is good enough for me.”

“Stay here. I’ll get something with the perp’s scent on it.” Leslie locked the door behind her. Ria was pretty in a jailbait sort of way. She had long black hair and thick black hair on her arms and legs like Ethan and Juan. The heavy body hair could be a werewolf thing or a Lopez thing. Ethan had said Juan was his cousin.

Leslie told Chang, who was finishing paperwork, that she needed to borrow the victim’s shirt. “Why?” yawned the pathologist.

“A dog might be able to follow the scent and locate the perp.”

“A car will ruin the trail,” said Chang.

“We can try.”

“Return it before nine o’clock tomorrow morning.” The Chinese-American woman rubbed her eyes. “Douglass, you don’t work with the K-9 unit.”

Leslie left before Chang could confirm her suspicions. She came back to the townhouse with the torn shirt to find two wolves were lying on his floor; the smaller female changed shape, returning to human.

Ria slipped on Ethan’s tee shirt. “You got the shirt. Drive us to the park.”

“You’re a teenage girl. I’m a cop. You don’t tell me what to do. I give the orders.”

“The human wants to be in control.”

“Little Miss, what do you think we should do?”

“You should drop us at the park and then go to my father’s house and let the others smell the shirt. Twenty noses are better than two.”

Leslie suddenly realized Ethan’s smartass genes came from his father side of the family. “Ethan’s okay like that.

“Right as rain,” said Ria. “Ethan, we need you to help us find the rogue. He passed his academy courses and his detective exam. That’s makes him as much of a cop as you.” You asshole, the asshole part was understood.

Ethan got into the truck after Ria. She put the window down, so Ethan could feel the wind in his face.

Leslie turned the ignition. “A creature that killed those three people won’t think twice before killing you and Ethan.”

“Then, you better get help.”

“Are you going to boss Ethan around?”

“I’m a hot Spanish bitch. He could do worse than me.”

“You want him?”

“He’s a bit older than me but he has a young spirit, besides he’s a good hunter. You humans hunt with a gun. Where’s the chase? Ethan is only armed with his wits, teeth and claws. Any bitch would be lucky to have him. You have never seen him with fresh-killed beaver in his mouth.”

Ethan, with fresh-killed beaver, squirrel or rabbit in his mouth, wasn’t a picture Leslie needed in her mind’s eye. Ethan never said he hunted alone. What little Leslie knew about wolves was they hunted in packs, the alpha male and female had all the litters and the other wolves watched the young. Ethan hunted with his pack that included Ria.

“Sugar, he spends more nights with me than he does with you. He’ll take good care of me and the cubs, and if Bonnie messes with me, she’ll learn what a real bitch can do.”

Leslie stopped the truck at the park. Ria pulled off the t-shirt and returned to being a wolf. Leslie gave the two wolves the blood and saliva covered shirt to smell then took the evidence to Juan’s house. She didn’t know what Chang was going to do once she realized that Douglass wasn’t working with the K-9 unit. When Juan opened the door, he didn’t have his bathrobe on this time. In the living room were twelve naked people and eight wolves. “Leslie, what brings you?”

“I have the shirt. Sniff it. Find the killer.” Leslie, recalling scenes like this in the Howling series and other movies, knew being a sole human surrounded by a werewolf pack was not a healthy situation.

“Your heart rate is through the roof and you’re flooding the room with adrenaline,” said Juan.

“I’m not comfortable with the werewolf thing.” Leslie handed Juan the ripped shirt. “I need it back. Do other werewolves have Ria control?”

Juan smiled with those too white teeth. “She’s my daughter. Her children will be ng. ng. She and Ethan are a good match.”

Standing at the doorway frightened her enough, Leslie didn’t walk inside the house. Juan had admitted to smelling her fear. Every second, she sat in the truck felt like hours as her heart raced. If they were going to eat her, getting herself into a nervous sweat wouldn’t stop them and Juan’s smile seemed to say that he liked her fear. In fifteen minutes, Juan handed Leslie the shirt. “You don’t like me very much.”

“I’m not used to taking orders from a naked man.” A hairy naked man, something about him was preternatural. He was shorter than Leslie, but stocky. It wasn’t his body hair, his almost lupine nose, his white teeth or any particular feature that made Leslie unable to pass the threshold to enter his house.

“I don’t need to get dressed for people that invade my fucking territory,” Juan said.

Leslie took the shirt and drove her truck toward the townhouse feeling helpless. She couldn’t stand in the way of supernatural creatures. She got halfway to the townhouse when she decided to go against her better judgmA¨