Werewolf Bites (Completed)

Chapter 26

Bayne had fallen asleep first. I imagined he was just as exhausted as I was. The sleep I had was uneventful and dark.
I woke up with the sun beating through the tent. I turned to see Bayne's head touching one of my shoulders. It was just barley touching, but it was enough to send a surge of sparks through my body. I involuntarily jerked up, waking him up.

"Sorry." I said, sitting up.

Bayne let out a big yawn.

"Five more minutes." He groaned and turned away.

I let him continue to sleep. I was nowhere near caught up on sleep, so I decided to join him.

We slept almost the entire day. Our bodies both needed it. We woke up hungry. Bayne packed up the tent as we headed back to the apartment that I had temporarily called home.

Nadine was there. She was awake. The apartment looked more put together. She decorated it with posters and lights.

"Looks a bit less dreadful, doesn't it?" She said.

"It looks nice." I looked to a wall to see a picture of her and her friends. A reminder of the life she had before me, a life she could go back to.

The kitchen had no food in it. Bayne and I went to the store and got enough food for a couple weeks. He fried up chicken on the stove, I ate a bowl of meatless spaghetti from the can.

"You still don't want meat?" He asked, turning his chicken.

"Not really. I can resist. I crave it in wolf form but.."

"That's strange. It changes most people's appetite entirely. We need to eat a lot, and to eat a lot of protein." He explained. He took his jacket off. His arms were incredibly muscular.

He seasoned his chicken with basil and lemon pepper.

"You know how to cook?" I asked.

"Somewhat. I don't know if I'd call this cooking."

"I think it does. I don't know how to cook anything. Can you teach me?" I asked.

"You'd have to give up this whole no meat thing of yours. Most of the stuff I know how to cook includes meat." He said, turning the stove off and putting the chicken on a plate. It smelled so good, I was almost tempted to try some.

"Most recipes are adaptable. There's a lot of fake meat out there." I said.

"Not nearly as good as the real stuff." He tore into his steamy chicken with a fork.

"But if you're willing to make the sacrifice of having gross no real meat meals, yeah. I can teach you sometime."

We had begun the search for the items later that  day. Bayne went online and bought what he could, but some of it we would need to find.

"What's left?" Said Nadine.

"A lot, actually. We should start soon."

We did as Bayne said. At night, we would change into wolves. During the day, we spent most of the time looking for the ingredients. We read where we could find them. Some were located deep in the woods, hours away, towards the coast. We planned to leave in the early morning. Bayne and I packed lightly. He brought the tent, just in case we got stuck there overnight.

"I should come too." Said Nadine.

"No, you had plans with your friends today." I told her.

"Finding the stuff for the tracking spell is more important. Please."

I knew she had missed her friends, and she had already wasted too much time assisting me with my problems.

"No. Go with them. You haven't seen them since we moved. It's been a couple weeks. I'm sure Lidia is dying to see you."

"No, I can see them anytime."

I was reminded of how stubborn she could be.

"It'll be alright. Bayne knows what he's looking for. We will try to be back before dark."

She slowly began to agree. I gave her a hug before I left.

It was mid October. We had about two weeks until Halloween. Bayne drove.

"Raven said the Drowsy Windroot should be in the Cudahy Woods. She says it's a small plant, but we have to dig it up."

"Do you have any idea what it looks like?"

"She said it was green with long roots."

"That narrows it down quite a bit." I joked.

We wondered the woods. I could see the beach in the distance. I imagined the water was cold. 

We kept our eyes on the ground. Looking for this mystery plant. The issue was, most of them were green.

"This feels impossible." I said, scavenging the area.

"Don't complain. We'll find it." Bayne reassured.

We spent hours browsing the ground. For a moment, it felt hopeless. I dug in the grass by a massive tree. There was a small plant, maybe the size of my finger. Roots grew over and under it.

"Bayne! I think I found it!" I pointed.

"Perfect. Let's get it so we can go."

I reached for the plant, not realizing it was also covered in small thorns. It gave me a small prick on my finger. A small drop of blood stained the leaves.

"Are you alright?" Asked Bayne.

"Yeah, just a small prick."

"Make sure to get the roots. Here, let me help." Bayne got on his knees and helped me remove the plant. His hand gently brushed against mine. This sending the same electric surge through my body, which caused me to jerk back again. He looked at me, confused. This is the second time that it happened. He finished putting the plant in the bag.

"Sorry, didn't know you were that afraid of touching me."

"It's not that. It's-."

We heard a crash come from up above. Three people had landed on the ground. At first I thought they were wolves, like us.

"Yes?" Bayne said.

Their skin looked like marble. It was two men and a woman. They were all beautiful.

"Smelled the blood, came running. Didn't expect to find two wolves where they don't belong." Said one of the men.

"We didn't know you claimed the area. Our mistake. We'll be on our way now."

"Not so fast." The three began to get closer.

"Bayne? Who are they? They're not wolves?"

"No, something much worse. Vampires."