“Where’s your car?” His voice was hoarse.
“I’ve parked over there.”
“Show me.”
Bea held him, half supporting his weight as he trudged towards her van. He sunk onto the passenger seat and immediately passed out.
Oh, Jesus. Bea sighed in frustration. Now what am I going to do?
She couldn’t call nine-one-one. He had forbidden her. But Alex seriously needed medical attention. Bea scurried to the other side and climbed in, rummaging for something she could use to stop the bleeding. She had her clothes in plastic bags in the back of the van. She began pulling at random. Shorts. No. Dress. No. Blazer. Hell no. She didn’t have many decent clothes to wear for work. An oversized Hello Kitty T-shirt that she usually wore to sleep. Hmm.
Bea pondered for two seconds. Fine. She could sacrifice it.
She got into the driver’s seat and yanked open Alex’s shirt. The wound still oozed blood. She balled the shirt and pressed hard on it to suppress the bleeding. Alex jerked and flailed. Bea yelped in surprise. She was thrown out from the driver’s seat. Tawny fur and something with paws flashed across her vision.
Her ass landed on cold, wet ground. Her back hit a rock. “Shit!” she wailed.
For a moment, she couldn’t believe what had just happened.
As a matter of fact, what had just happened?
Bea hoisted herself off the ground and froze.
A huge, male lion covered in tattered pieces of Alex’s clothes growled.
“Mr Larousse?” Bea called, unsure.
A pair of luminous yellow eyes cut to her direction.
Fuck. That’s a stupid move, idiot!
Bea thought the lion was going to pounce on her and eat her as a snack. To her relief, the big beast leapt away and disappeared into the bushes.
Bea numbly put her hand on her chest. Yep, her heart was still pumping. No, she hadn’t died from a heart attack.
She blinked.
What the hell was that?
Was that lion Alex?
Impossible.
Then, how could she explain where he had gone?
Forcing her legs to cooperate, she dragged herself to walk around to the passenger side. She found torn pieces of fabric. White. Light blue cotton. Black Italian wool that used to be Alex’s expensive suit. Torn black leather of his shoes. Alex had gone totally Incredible Hulk on her. Only, he hadn’t turned into a green giant with a terrible temper. He had gone lion.
It just didn’t make sense. A man didn’t just transform into a lion. It was scientifically impossible. That lion must have weighed roughly about six or seven hundred pounds. He was way bigger than any lion she had seen in the zoo. Alex weighed roughly one hundred and ninety pounds. He was tall and very well-muscled. A two-hundred-pound mass couldn’t just shift into a six-hundred mass without gaining it from somewhere. Like those Transformers movies. Cars morphed into huge robots. Didn’t make sense.
She must have been having one hell of an hallucination. She’d got high on Harlem River water.
But how about this evidence?
Alex’s blood was smeared over the passenger seat and some had got onto the dashboard as well. Bea noticed something on the ground near the front tyre. She bent down to pick it up. It was Alex’s wallet—a brown leather Gucci. Bea found his driver’s licence, credit cards and insurance cards in it. Money. A few hundred dollars, it seemed.
Bea slowly exhaled her breath through her clenched teeth. She was cold, wet and bewildered.
Alex, where are you?