Dark Shadow (Book 1 in the Original DARKNESS Duology) ✔

Twenty-Nine: A Raging Fire

I turned my head slightly, offended by the way she was eyeballing me. I know my appearance wasn't the best, but I still didn't like being looked at like that.

The tall girl bent down to squat in front of the boy and held onto his hands. Her stern look seemed to be a normal expression even with how gentle she spoke to him.

"Emory... You can't just go running off like that! You know it's dangerous!"

She shook her head, frowning, "You do remember how dangerous it is for you, don't you?"

Emory's little face turned into a scowl, looking down at their joined hands. His little shoulders sagging as he nodded. He offered a small apology and waited until Vicky let out a relieved sigh to return to his peppy self.

Emory bounced up and down with a finger in my direction.

"We gotta tell Iota, Vicky! We gotta tell Iota about her! And we can take her back to camp too! She'll keep her safe too!"

I scowled at the mention of this Iota person and the thought of being found out by another person was not very ideal for me. With these two finding me, I'd blown my cover and now had to go elsewhere.

Annoyed at this revelation, I scoffed, "I'm not going anywhere with either of you!"

The boy stopped his hopping and looked at me as did Vicky. The tall girl rose to her full height, raising a brow as she mumbled, "So she speaks..."

I threw her a look, grumbling that I wasn't mute, but more keeping up my defenses. "Not that it did any good!"

Rising to my feet, not bothering hide my nakedness---though Vicky quickly stretched out her hand and slapped it over Emory's eyes---I placed my hands on my hips and huffed, "You're Werewolves."

Emory struggled against Vicky's hand over his face. He was trying to slap her hands away while Vicky scrunched her nose that, yes, they were Werewolves. She let her hazel eyes look me up and down before sneering, "And you are too. I can smell you."

Now it made sense why I thought I smelled Weres. They were the ones sleeping in that last tent.

"Don't you have any clothes to put on?" she snapped, gesturing with her free hand towards the boy beside her.

I rolled my eyes, shrugging my shoulders, "I don't have any. Haven't for the past five days since I've been here. But what difference does it make? We're werewolves. It's natural to be this way."

The girl huffed, shaking her head and muttered that she had a feeling I was going to be difficult.

My eyebrow rose at this.

Vicky looked up at me and stated that it might be natural for me to be in the nude where I came from, but it wasn't all the same in other places.

"Some of us Werewolves have grown accustomed to the coy habit humans have of seeing others in the nude in public."

Vicky pointed at herself then at Emory who was successful finally in shoving her hand away from his face.

The kid raised his eyebrows and looked up at her with a head tilt. "I don't mind seeing her naked."

I narrowed my eyes, turning my head slightly at his comment then looked up at Vicky who sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Of course you don't, you little freaky weirdo! You'd be stark naked now if I hadn't wrestled you into your pjs last night!"

Emory grinned at me, shrugging his shoulders as he shook his head, "She's not wrong."