Once Bitten: Twice Mad

Chapter Sixty-six

Chapter Sixty-Six: Damn Tainted Meatballs

He swung that knife until he had no strength left and then he simply fell backward and let the rabid fall upon him. He felt their teeth and nails sinking into his flesh. Fiery pain filled his body and he closed his arms as his body succumbed to the bites and a rabid began to gnaw on his cheek.......

Colt jerked awake and yelled out as he shoved the rabid gnawing on his cheek off of him. Colt leapt from the bed and stared in shock at his ten month old daughter lying on the bed with drool hanging off her chubby chin.

She smiled up at him and then stuck her fist into her mouth and began to gnaw on it now that her daddy's cheek was no longer on the menu.

Colt's heart was beating fast as he looked around the bedroom. His bedroom. His bedroom that he shared with his wife Evangeline.

A dream? It had all been a dream?

"Colt, are you okay?" Evangeline asked with amusement as she stepped into the room. She wiped her hands on her apron and smiled as she pressed her hand against his damp cheek. "Looks like Loralie ate you up."

Colt didn't speak. He couldn't. His thoughts were jumbled and his heart was racing. He looked Evangeline up and down. She was whole and well and beautiful and unbitten.

Colt threw his arms around her and pulled her tight against his chest. "I love you, Evangeline. God I love you, sweetheart."

"I don't think you've ever said that before." Evangeline whispered as she hugged him back. "Did you have a bad dream?"

"Yes." Colt kissed her hair and pulled away. He rubbed at his face. "It was terrible."

"That's what you get for eating those meatballs Frankie made. I warned you not to eat anything she cooked but you wouldn't listen." Evangeline patted his bare chest. "Now get your clothes on and get out here. Everyone else is already awake and I'm expecting Aunt Rachel and Uncle Jedidiah to be here any time."

"Okay." Colt mumbled. Evangeline pressed a kiss to his cheek and gathered Loralie up into her arms before breezing back out of the room and closing the door behind her.

Colt fell back onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling.

A damn dream. A tainted meatball inspired dream.

Shit.

He could hear his friends and family talking and laughing outside the cabin. Comanche and Colt had been friends since childhood when Colt had rescued him from a rich family that thought injuns made good pets. Comanche had met Frankie several years ago and while the two of them fought more than any other two people Colt knew they had been attached at the hip since.

Charlotte's soft voice drifted through the open window and Colt smiled. She wasn't dead. Silas laughed and a baby cooed. Charlotte's husband, baby Grace's real father, had died of too much drink and Silas had found the woman nearly seven months along with Grace. Silas and Charlotte had fallen in love and been together since then and little Grace was nearly seven months old now. Charlotte was Evangeline's cousin and the gentlest woman that Colt knew.

Colt heard Ox calling out to Susette and smiled. Colt had met Katherine nearly ten years before in a brothel. She had been beaten nearly to death and Colt had saved her and taken her away from that life. They'd become fast friends and she was like a sister to him. She had been by his side five years before when that bullet had torn through his chest and nearly killed him. Thankfully they'd been close to a plantation home in George.... A plantation home that had an angel named Evangeline and a giant named Ox living in it.

Evangeline had nursed Colt back to life much to her parents displeasure and somehow, Colt still wasn't sure how, she had fallen in love with a wandering outlaw that had nothing to offer.

They had run away together, Ox and Katherine had run with them, and they had married and built this cabin together. Colt had changed his life around for Evangeline and now they had a small farm and a few more heads of cattle every year. Ox and Katherine had adopted Susette from an orphanage and the girl had been an instant hit with the family.

Once a year the large group of friends gathered together at the farm to help with the harvesting and canning and also just to spend time together.

Colt pushed himself up off the bed and slid into a clean shirt. He slid on his gun belt. He didn't wear it every day but his dream was still too fresh in his mind to allow him to go without it.

He walked outside and smiled with relief at the sight of all his friends alive and well.

"You look like hell there, Colt," Frankie smiled as she walked over to him. "Did ya sleep bad or somethin'?"

"What the hell did you put in those meatballs?" Colt grumbled.

"A little of this and a little of that. The injun had some peyote laying around."

Colt shook his head and rubbed his face. That would explain that.

"There's Aunt Rachel and Uncle Jedidiah." Evangeline pointed to the approaching cart.

"Great. The witch and the crazy ass old man." Colt sighed. Evangeline smacked his arm but a smile was pulling at her lips.

"Be nice."

Colt slid his arm around her waist. Rachel hated him. He hated Rachel. It was a well-known fact. "I always am." He assured her.

***

That night, after darkness had fallen, everyone was gathered inside the cabin as rain fell outside. The children had fallen asleep and were in the one spare bedroom. The other guests would use the loft and barn for sleeping but for now they were sitting around playing cards, chatting and reading a newspaper that Silas had brought along with him.

The paper was dated a month ago so the news wasn't exactly new but it was new to Colt. It took a while for information to travel all the way to east Kansas from New York and Colt didn't make it to town very often.

"Really, Evangeline, if you'd married a more respectable man you might have a home more suited to guests." Rachel grumbled as she came down the loft ladder.

"No one forced you to come here, Rachel. If the loft doesn't suit you I got a bull that awful lonely and would share a stall with you I'm sure." Colt informed her.

Jedidiah laughed and Rachel glared at him.

"Read this," Ox said handing the newspaper to Katherine. "Does it say what I think it does, Miss Kate?"

"It says: A new Elixir to heal all that ails you. The Murphy Brothers have developed an elixir guaranteed to prevent and or cure all illnesses known to man. From the common cold to heart palpitations, nothing is too much for Murphy Brothers Elixir."

Colt felt a shiver run down his spine. He kissed Evangeline's hand and then stood from the sofa. "When did you say that paper was dated?"

"Nearly a month ago." Silas replied. "How ridiculous for folks to think something like that would work. I'm sure no one was dumb enough to fall for it."

"I sure to God hope not.' Colt mumbled.

Then he heard a thud. His horses began to kick up a fuss in the barn. Colt's feet felt as if he'd weighed them down with bricks as he walked to the window and glanced outside over the horizon.

"Colt what's wrong with you?"

Colt swallowed hard, clenched his fist and his eyes darted toward his barn. "Shit."

                                        The End