Page 3 of Fifty & Feral

I smothered a laugh. “No, far from it. Well, I mean, the new episode of Justice Code just dropped today, and I wouldn’t mind watching that. But honestly, there’s a sushi place by my house that has specials on Thursdays, so I usually grab some before I get home, and if I get there too late, the good sushi will be gone.” And now I was info-dumping on the poor guy. Yay.

“Well, I don’t want to keep you from your good sushi. If this is going to take too long, we can wait till tomorrow.”

That was the opportunity for my computer to finally start working. Two minutes ago, I wanted to get out the door, now I wanted to stay on the phone with Mr. Hot Voice.

“Nope, I promise I’ll get everything taken care of this evening. I mean, right now. Sorry, it’s been a long day.”

“You’re fine, Connor.”

Something about the way he said my name sent another little shiver down my spine. That was two for him, and this was officially getting ridiculous. I wasn’t a teenager. Since I was looking at his retirement check, he was clearly an older gentleman, and that didn’t stop him from having a very sexy voice. It wasn’t like he was 80. I did a quick mental calculation based on the birthdate listed on the screen. No, not bad at all. He was fifty-five.

And of course, I might have glanced at his address. He did not live far from me.

Crazy. I was crazy. I’d lost my mind. These were not details I was supposed to notice on customer’s accounts.

“Oh, you’re on Ayrshire Avenue. I’m not far from there,” I said. “Not that you know that. In fact, I shouldn’t have told you that.”

“Really?” he said. “Small world indeed.”

“Okay,” I said, switching back to my customer service voice. “Looks like there was a slight delay in processing of items this morning. Our IT team is currently working through the situation and processing items in smaller batches, but they assure us that the money is there and there shouldn’t be any issues. Everything should correct itself in the magic computer processes that happen overnight.”

“Okay,” he said, almost sounding a little disappointed. “That didn’t take long to figure out. So my money should be there tomorrow?”

“Absolutely, sir. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

Please say yes. It might be 5:01 now, but I didn’t mind talking more. Hell, I might just say yes if he wanted to ask me out for drinks. Even though that was definitely against policy.

“I can’t think of anything,” he said.

It was so weird that I wanted to continue this conversation. But there was something about it. It was silly. I talked to so many people every day.

“Well, thank you for your help, Connor. I truly appreciate it, and maybe I’ll see you around the neighborhood.”

“That’ll be difficult. You have no idea what I look like,” I said.

“That’s true. Maybe next time I’ll do one of those new video calls.”

It wasn’t often that people took advantage of the video calls, and it actually went to a completely different department than the call center, but hey, maybe I would be on shift over there.

“That sounds great,” I said. “Have a great day, Mr. Sullivan. I’ll talk to you soon.”

Chapter 3

Jack

Something wasn’t right. My body shook with chills. My temperature rose, and sweat beaded on my forehead. This time of year, it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility that I was sick. Cold and flu season was winding down, and I was of a certain age… But where the hell would I have gotten sick? I didn’t go anywhere. I went to the grocery store and to the park. That was it. I mean, of course, I could get sick anywhere, but this seemed crazy. Did I eat something bad? I’d had food poisoning only a handful of times in my life, and I couldn’t remember it ever coming with this level of fever.

A thin sheen of sweat coated my body, the sheets clung to me, and I kicked them off my bed. I went to the window to open it. The moonlight shone through the room now that the blinds were open, and it was like the fresh air and light only made things worse. My bones heated like they were filled with molten fire, and the heat radiated through my body. My blood boiled as it coursed through my veins like bursts of lightning going down my limbs.

I tried to take a shower. That didn’t help. The water against my skin was like a million pinpricks.

Lying down didn’t help. I simply thrashed in the sheets.

Somehow, this also came with hallucinations, because I swore the hair on my arms was growing thicker, feeling coarser whenever I ran my palm over my forearms, but then other times I looked and my arm was normal again. What the fuck was wrong with me?

I stumbled out of my bedroom and onto the back patio. Air would alleviate the pain. The cool night air had to provide some relief.

It didn’t. It almost intensified—until I looked up at the bright moon. I let out a strangled scream that sounded more like a howl. It was as if the pain burst out of me, my bones shredding and molding into a thousand different pieces, reshaping, and changing under the glow of the full moon. I fell to the ground, landing on all fours. My knees popped. I threw my head back and let out a howl of pain again. My throat ached and my voice changed, sounding animalistic.