Shadow Breeds

Chapter 19

I pushed my lip out of the way and grazed a finger over the two fangs with my free hand. I let my lip go and smiled, sure enough my fangs were easily noticeable. I needed to learn how to retract them. I scanned the rest of my face, noticing my jaw seemed sharper and my eyes were much brighter than before. My skin still had its natural texture but, it somehow still appeared more flawless. For the first time since learning what I was, I actually felt like this was all real and it felt right.

Turning to face August and the girls, I realized Oakley and Clovella were still staring with open mouths. What else could've changed? I looked down at myself, first noticing that I seemed slightly taller and then noticing the long stiletto shape my nails had grown into. "Huh," I remarked mostly to myself.

"You almost look like a different person," Oakley said in awe, Clovella only nodded in agreement as they both seemed to finally be able to close their mouths. "Do you feel any different?" She asked after a short and awkward silence.

I shook my head, "not really, my muscles feel like they've been overworked but, other than that I'm fine." August crossed his arms with a proud smug on his face, I rolled my eyes. "Are you sure? Because the energy that was swarming this room when we opened the door was vibrating with love," she pressed lightheartedly. August chuckled and I shot him a glare before turning back to Clovella with a smile, "yeah, well, I've accepted something about myself that triggered this weird, consistent feeling of fullness but, that's it."

Oakley looked completely lost but Clovella seemed to catch on immediately. "Oh my god! This is so great, I've always wanted to help plan a wedding," she squealed happily. I felt my face burn as soon as the word wedding crossed her lips. 'Wedding? Is that part of this whole thing too? I didn't read that anywhere,' I thought to myself as excitement crept up my spine.

"Um hello, what the hell did I miss?" Oakley asked while waving her hands in the air, "you're getting married?!" I glanced at August who seemed more than amused at the conversation, "if that's part of accepting August as my eternal lover, then yeah I guess so." I couldn't get myself to stop blushing. Another sequence of squeals came from the two girls as they swarmed me into a hug.

"So about that training," I mentioned to Clovella, I couldn't stand anymore of this attention and needed to focus on something else. "Right! We can start whenever, just make sure you eat a good breakfast first," she said cheerfully. "I never skip on breakfast, speaking of it though, when do we eat?" I asked while facing August. However, Magna made a quick appearance, "it's finishing up now if everyone wants to come find a seat at the table." She smiled warmly and we all followed her back into the kitchen.

"Oakley and I already ate so we're going to go ahead and hit the field, meet us when you're done," Clovella cheerfully chimes in. August and I just nodded in response. Oakley had a big smile on her face, it made me glad to see my best friend so happy. We waved them off and said our bye's.

The weather outside was rather warm for an October morning, the air still had a cool crisp to it though. This is what I consider the perfect weather, if only it could be autumn all year round.

'Today would be the day I got some real training started,' I thought to myself. I was both nervous and excited, completely unsure of what to expect. I'd assumed the training would be extreme and intense compared to human defense and offense combat. Neither August nor Clovella would even hint at what we'd be doing though, which was rather frustrating but added to the excitement regardless.