A Little Bit Of Red

Chapter Seven--Transformation

I looked at myself in the mirror, the reflection revealing someone that I never thought I would have to play. The dark burgundy hair did something strange to my eyes, turning them from their bright blue to an almost violet color. My hair now only reached my chin, and made me look older, more experienced. I added the finishing touches on the thick make-up that made me look like a succubus rather than a human with a hint of human. I could not longer play the innocent girl.

I pulled on the tight jeans and revealing shirt. I had a part to play, and I had to play it nicely. I reeked of cheap perfume and hair color. I took one last look in the mirror, to make sure that I was satisfied with the results and then walked out, to see a waiting Alexander. His eyes went wide when he took in my new look but he didn't comment on anything.

"We need to move now, lingering here would only hurt us. We have slept, it's time to move on." I placed whatever was left over from my adventure last night into the backpack

"New look, still as bossy as ever." He slung the backpack over his shoulder. We left the room and began the walk down the hall. "Are we going to run there?" He asked, pushing the door open to the outside world. The snow had stopped sometime last night and all that was left over was the chill.

"No, we are driving." I said, my eyes scanning for a good car.

"And how are we going to get a car?" He asked, trying to follow my eyes.

"Just how I got us the other stuff." I said, walking towards a car that looked like it was in decent condition. It wasn't too new, and it wasn't too old. It also had chains on the tires so it would be able to withstand the icy roads. I walked up to the driver side and I pulled out one of the knives hidden within my boots and I pried the window open. I slid my arm in and unlocked the door.

"What are you doing?" Alexander whispered, looking around. He looked so nervous. Wasn't he a wolf, wasn't he used to doing this kind of stuff? I thought all wolves were the scum of the earth and yet this one was shaking at the sight of me breaking into the car.

"What does it look like?" I threw the door open and then I tore the ignition out and began to work on the wires.

"It looks like you are stealing a car!" He covered me as his eyes darted around.

"Calm down and get in the passenger seat." I told him as I sparked the car to life. He stomped his way over to the passenger seat and got in.

"Why am I going along with this? I am so not okay with this!" He said, shitting the car door. I shut the door and pulled out of the parking spot.

"Do you know this town? Do you know which way to go because I have never gone this far from the house so I am not sure where I am supposed to go." I admitted, looking at the road. I could see the ice, and the frosted trees but we had left the city boundaries so there were no more structures.Any signs that I saw were frosted over and impossible to read. Not that it really mattered where we went, as long as it was away from there and away from Christian.

"You hunt wolves and yet you have never gone far from the house?" Alexander asked, seemingly distracted by that fact.

"He always made me do close hunts, I never really left area." I said, my eyes locked on the road. It was dangerous, ice was making the road practically frictionless which would be bad if I even lost control of the car for even a moment, so there was no room for error as I drove.

"Didn't that ever make you wonder?" He asked, but I couldn't answer, the road held my full attention. I could feel the hair raise on the back of my neck, something wasn't right. Something was going to happen, my instincts were going crazy and when I glanced over at Alexander, I could see his clenched fists.

"You feel it too?" I asked, my eyes going back to the road. My eyes were darting around, but I didn't dare look away from the road too long.

"They're following us." He said, glancing at the mirror. When I looked, I could see headlights in the rearview window. I wanted to say that it was a coincidence, but I knew better. I considered the options; I could pull over, ensuring the capture of both of us. Or, I could keep going, risking the chance of being run off the road and possibly dying. The second option gave us a chance, so when I applied more pressure to the gas pedal, I knew that I was making the right choice. I could feel Alexander looking at me with wide eyes, surely he didn't expect me to let them capture us.

"We're going to get away from them, I am not going to let Christian get to either of us." I said, my eyes reading the signs that I sped past, looking for something. "The highway!" I yelled, as soon as my eyes caught the sign for highway entrance.

"How are we going to lose them there?"

"Highway means more cars, more cars mean easy maneuvering, especially with those semis out there." I said, my eyes switching back and forth between the road ahead of me and the car behind. They were gaining on us.

"We're not going to make it there Schuyler." He said pessimistically. He was right, but I pressed on the gas, naïvely thinking that it would work. When the car was close enough to my bumper that if I hide my breaks, they would smash into us, the car swerved into the oncoming traffic lane, and tried to push me off the road. I tapped the breaks, putting me slightly behind the car. I swerved, hitting the back bumper of the car, causing them to spin out.

I narrowly missed the car as I struggled to keep the car in control. The ice was threatening the traction on the tires and just as I thought we were going to go off road, the tires caught and car straightened out. I pushed the pedal down as close to the floor as I could, trying everything I could to put distance between us and the car that had tried to run us off the road. My heart leapt the moment that I drove onto the ramp leading to the highway. We were almost free, we were almost out of that town. Almost.

Out of nowhere headlights flashed in front of us.

The next moments were filled with the sounds of glass shattering, metal bending and breaking and the feeling of excruciating pain everywhere. I felt the seat belt catch, and the hard fabric cut into my skin, breaking it apart. The airbag exploding, hitting my face with so much force that even though I should have been flying forward, it forced me back into my seat. The pain exploding through my nose told me that it was broken.

Lights danced across my eyes, before darkness swallowed me.

I resurfaced quickly, to realize than I was in much better condition than I had been expecting. The air bag sat limp, hanging out of the steering wheel.

"Alexander." I mumbled.

"I'm here. The car isn't bad....switch seats...need to keep going." I couldn't quite hear him, but next thing I knew I felt him move me and then we were moving again.