Moon Blood (COMPLETE)

Chapter Thirteen: A Wolf at the Door

James laughed first.

Not a malicious laugh, but a goofy, snorting one that hissed from his nostrils.

"Wait, hang on a minute, so you did it with her? You were a wolf in the sheets, is that it?"

"What? No!" Neil's cheeks were burning. "Well we slept in the same bed but -"

Neil realised his mistake too late. He saw both their faces light up in expressions caught between thoroughly impressed and manic surprise.

"No need to be coy with us, Lowell, we can keep your secret. Dave, he's left us behind in the V camp."

"I haven't had sex!" He paused so as not to get too angry. "...Well, not yet."

A small but loud part of Neil was talking, from somewhere inside, a desire and need to be like the things he recognised. Normal people with normal problems.

"You're right. Me and Ruby have been hanging out and... " he shrugged. "I guess we almost did, maybe."

Mercifully, his accidental confession had been gleefully misinterpreted and inwardly, Neil breathed a huge sigh of relief. He needed to be more careful.

"That is so cool! So is she your girlfriend now?"

"No." She was much more than that, on a level Neil was only just beginning to fathom. "I dunno, we're just hanging out right now. Can we talk about something else, please?"

The conversation ebbed and flowed, and carved a new canyon of conversation. Neil's virginity sank into the afterthoughts and he couldn't be happier to see it go. They spoke of many things: sex and weed and school and siblings and girls, long into the night until, in the darkest hour of the night, Neil decided to call it quits and go. He wanted the comforting smell of his own room, despite James' offer of hospitality. He waved and set off into the darkness.

The moon was high and full. Neil looked at it as he walked down the pavement and past the eerily quiet roads. Normally, during rush hour this particular junction caused a horrendous din but now it stood silent and scary. He saw a gaggle of people hanging out by the bus shelter, a group of maybe two.

He stopped dead.

Something in the air wasn't altogether right. There was something familiar that tickled his nostrils, but he couldn't quite discern its location. It was like remembering the remnants of a fever dream during the middle of an exam. A coldness crept down his back as he walked by the bus stop, its dim and flickering lights offering comfort only to the lost moths that fluttered around its radiance. Neil shoved his hands into his pockets and quickened his step, but he could feel eyes watching him. His mouth was dry.

"Good evening, pup."

He recognised her voice immediately, and whirled round to face the one who had so mercilessly chased and pinned him down only two weeks ago. "You!" he accused.

"Now, now, there's no need for such animosity, is there? I was only greeting our newest member to-be." She pulled back her hood and for the first time, Neil saw her human form.

Beautiful, flawless skin and piercing eyes. The woman was at least half a foot taller than Neil when she stood to her full height. Neil could barely command his body to step back.

"Now don't worry, little pup, we don't intend to do anything to you. In fact, right now, you don't smell ripe at the moment; you're still a few weeks off your season."

She took a step towards him, the other with her right behind her like a ghost. Neil took another step back, trying to will his body to move more than it seemed able. "What do you mean, newest member?" It was a stupid question, and the woman smirked at it. Like a flash, she grabbed the front of his sweater and pulled him close. With her lips, she touched his neck and inhaled. Neil shivered.

"You do smell good though. I can smell women on you. Strong women. It suits you very well. Soon enough, you will be begging to be between my legs."

Neil kept still, feeling her hot breath making his neck damp. Her lips brushed against his skin and before he could pull away, she left a slight indentation with her teeth.

"Before long you'll come crawling back, and not before you consume another poor soul."

That last comment before she stalked off into the shadows gnawed on Neil's mind. Consumed? What exactly was that supposed to mean? Despite it being late summer, the nights were still cold, and Neil shuddered once again in the large woman's wake.

He ran home, and didn't look back.

*****

A few weeks passed, and as the darkness encroached on Neil's town, the moon was nowhere to be seen in the sky.

Neil had heeded Ruby's advice, and had sequestered himself back with the three women as the night drew in, and with it the cold and the oncoming autumn air.

Neil shivered, his stomach not quite satisfied from the platter of raw meat that he had gorged on like some kind of animal; it was as if he couldn't help himself, it smelt like the finest gourmet meal. He wanted more.

He couldn't have more. Not yet anyway. He looked down at himself as the three women circled his cage.

"Are the manacles really necessary?" As Neil asked, the chains connecting him to the floor clinked in response.

"Not for our protection, but for yours," said Ruby. "The Masc clan will come tonight, lured by you. We will remind them that this is not their turf."

"Great, thank you for reminding me that I'm essentially bait right now." Neil slumped down on the floor, sweating and hot, despite being relieved of his shirt. Ruby, standing over him, smiled.

He had yet to tell her about his encounter at the bus stop. If he was being honest with himself, it was because he was far too afraid. Afraid of the Masc clan, and afraid of Ruby and her clan too. He was all alone in this new world, and not even confessing to his best friends had helped.

As he sat there pondering, his mind returned to that night after the cinema as it usually did. The police had long dropped the case, but it had never left the recesses of his mind.

Rachel. The smell of her long hair, her lips.

Her insides.

A chill juddered down Neil's back. An uncomfortable truth was blooming in his gut and it terrified him. What had happened that night, why no one had found a trace of her. Why the ribbons dedicated to her memory still clung to the branches of the big tree. Threadbare, faded memories, shredded by the sharp twigs and beaten by the wind.

Rachel's scent was far harder to forget than rotting ribbons outside their school. It was always during this time, before he turned, that she would appear like a ghost. Haunting him and tormenting him. The days before were utter hell: he would be plagued with nightmares or an inability to sleep. Sometimes even sleep paralysis would grab him on the worst nights, a vision of Rachel's bloodied body, reaching out to him, begging him to help her. Several times he had woken up screaming and drenched in sweat, his mother rushing in and wondering what was wrong with him.

A bang, ripping Neil from his worries of the past to the worries of the next few minutes. The door pounded again. A wolf was at the door, demanding payment for something she hadn't paid for.