By the late afternoon we decided to hike down again. I was dicking around with Creek when he abruptly stopped, the pupils in his eyes became the size of pinheads, and they paled. He turned more grey than rich brown. Their whole expression became very catatonic to look at and I was so confused. What was happening here?
"Creek?" I tried, making the others who had been walking ahead of us stop and turn around. I gently touched his hand, but they didn't even flinch.
"Oh fuck, cover-" Abel started but was interrupted by the absolute worst sound I had ever heard.
Creek's mouth was wide open, the sound coming from him almost bursting my ear drums. Scratch that, one burst, I was sure. I could feel something sticky run down my throat from my ear.
I fell to my knees and tried covering my ears, but it was impossible to keep the sound out. And then the tips of my fingers felt as if they had been dipped in molten lava. My nails turned several shades darker and then started growing. It moved on to my teeth as well.
I was nowhere near the full moon here and it was in the middle of the day, but I was shifting. The wolf was tossing and turning in my chest, trying to break free. Then the horrific noise finally stopped.
Abel was by my side immediately, grabbing me and pressing me to his chest. I was heaving, trying to breathe through it but everything was pain.
He took my hands in his and gently kissed my fingers as I whimpered and pressed my face to his chest.
"What happened?" Cal asked and gently got Creek up from the ground. They must've collapsed.
"Body," Creek said with a slurred voice and raised his arm, pointing at some bushes.
"Hold on," Abel said and placed a quick kiss on my cheek before going to investigate. He flinched and looked back. "We gotta call the cops. There's a body here. And don't go looking at it either. Just stay there."
Fred had been on her way over but stopped and nodded. If the vampire said we should stay away, it was probably wise to heed his command.
Abel came back to where I was sitting and squatted down, letting me lean against him, while he called the authorities. He put his phone away after a brief conversation and sat down properly next to me.
"They're tracking my phone so we gotta stay here. You alright?"
I shook my head, still looking down at my nails. They were back to normal, but my fingers felt as if I had just shoved them down into a pot of boiling water. I didn't even really notice how much my ear hurt nor that my teeth were aching. There was just so much pain in my fingers.
"We should get you cleaned up a little, Gael," Abel said softly.
Fred rummaged through her backpack and handed Abel some wet wipes. Abel was careful when he wiped the blood off my throat. He swallowed hard and clenched his jaw.
"You know this is hard, right?" he murmured with a low voice so the others couldn't hear.
I looked up at him with a question mark basically painted on my face.
"Like putting away cake and not being able to even have a single slice."
I snorted and looked back down again. "One track mind much?"
"Can you blame me?" His voice was thick, and he pressed me back against him. "Besides, please help me keep my mind off the body. There was a lot of blood and I'm not proud of it, but my first thought was diving right in there."
I could smell it too. The metallic smell of blood. I could also smell rot or decay, so the person must've been dead for a while. I didn't wanna focus on it. I wanted to focus on just breathing through the pain and Abel's dumb jokes.
"Should we move further away?" I asked then.
"We need to stay put. I don't wanna move if they've geo-locked my phone to here now."
"Right."
"Did they say how long it would take?" Cal asked as she was getting some water in poor Creek who was still looking very pale.
"Not really no. Just told me to hang tight. Like I'm expecting them to hurry?" Abel grimaced.
"I need to go home," Creek said with a tiny voice. I wouldn't have been able to hear them if it they hadn't been sitting so close to us. I also couldn't hear anything in my left ear. The one that had bled.
"We'll get you home soon, alright?" Fred said so softly and took Creek's hand in hers. "Just gonna wait for the cops and then we'll go home."
They nodded and then looked over at me. "I'm so sorry about your ear."
"It wasn't your fault." I tried to smile but I was in so much pain. "It's not my ear that's bothering me." I tried to be reassuring at least. I didn't want him to feel guilty over something that wasn't at all their fault.
"Did you shift a little?" Cal asked and handed Creek the water bottle again, urging them to drink more.
"Yeah, it was weird..."
Cal frowned. "No, it's not weird. My first urge is to shift too whenever Creek screams. Or any banshee. It's a warning call after all, and humans or anyone without animal affiliation won't react like we will. We've got a whole other set of instincts, and no animal likes danger. I also suspect frequencies are different that we pick up on."
I nodded a bit. "Makes sense. But I usually only shift during the full moon. Kind of part of the whole deal."
"Probably because of an age-old affiliation with the moon. Not necessarily because you can't shift outside of it. But that's when you're the weakest and the wolf is the strongest." Cal shrugged a shoulder and refused to take the water bottle back from Creek, sending him a look that was very strict. They took another sip almost dutifully. "Or it's when you're both the strongest. I mean, I don't think there's a big divide between our animal selves and our human selves. Just like when you act one way in front of family and another in front of friends, like both are you, but two different sides. Does that make sense?"
I nodded again. "I have no control though."
"You could learn. I could help you."
I smiled gratefully. "That'd be nice."
We waited about an hour before the cops finally showed up. Abel was there to greet them and filled them in. There was only a couple of them. I was confused when they didn't even wanna take statements from us. Then one slid his aviators down, showing off cartoonish black eyes and winked at me.
Well then.
I guess even the cops had supernatural infiltrators.
We drove everyone home, straight to their doors. No one felt like walking anymore and Creek desperately needed the support of his family straight away, so yeah. No one objected to dropping him off first.
When we got to Cal's and Fred's Abel turned in the seat. "Y'all alright?"
"I don't know. You wanna come inside for a beer for a bit?" Fred asked and fidgeted a bit with her fingers in her lap.
"That sounds like the absolute best idea," I said before Abel could say anything. Cal snorted and jumped out of the car, helping Fred out next.
"You sure?" Abel asked after Cal had closed the door.
"Yeah. If it's alright with you?"
He nodded. "I'd actually really love a beer right now."
So we went with the girls to their backyard and Cal got us all beers.
"Will Creek be alright?" I asked, opening my beer can.
"Yeah, but it might take a while. They'll need to get over this though and their resting period varies. They'd be happy if you texted them though." Fred smiled a little. "He likes you."
"I'll make sure to text 'em then," I said and wrote a mental note to remind myself later.
"How are you feeling?" Fred asked, her brows crinkling her forehead.
"Not good. My fingers hurt." I put my hand on the table, showing them my fingers. There was nothing there and they looked completely normal again. But it still felt like someone had shoved pins under every single nail.
"Can't imagine it feels super great to rapidly grow out claws." Fred looked up at her girlfriend and Cal cringed.
"I mean, it doesn't feel like a massage or anything. But it shouldn't hurt this long after. It must be because you're so blocked."
I nodded a bit. "Yeah... What about you guys? Everyone's alright?" I glanced up at Abel.
He shrugged. "I'm okay. It's not my first rodeo."
I frowned a little. His first rodeo with Creek's scream or with dead bodies in the woods? I wasn't sure I wanted to actually know the answer to that.
"I'm honestly freaked. Like yeah there has been some crime here but it's usually not a serial killer leaving bodies in the woods." Fred shivered a little. Cal put her arm around her, and Fred leaned against her.
"It's freaky alright. My pal promised to keep me updated on it," Abel said.
"Actually, about your 'pal'," Fred started and then took a deep breath. "Vamp cops?"
Abel shrugged. "Wherever there's a larger community of vampires, accidents are bound to happen. So, there's always people on the inside to clean up those accidents. Are you guys not organised?" He arched a brow at Fred.
"We have very simple rules: stay off social media, stay off any media, stay out of any trouble at all times. Whatever happens then is on you."
"Seems short-sighted."
"We haven't had like hundreds of years to infiltrate the common society – not to mention, even if we did, we'd have to insert new people all the time since we don't have unlimited lifespans."
"That's a good point," Abel murmured and bit down on his lip, a fang slipping over the thin skin. "We're paranoid though. Kind of part of our culture I guess."
I realised there was still a lot to unpack when it came to knowing Abel and his background. I wanted to know more, and I wanted to be as openminded as possible, but I felt we needed to have a conversation about it. I needed to make it clear that it might take me a little time to accept every part of him and his culture. Or not accept but understand. I needed time to properly wrap my head around the fact that there was a whole parallel society that was run by ancient people. Even just thinking that out loud sounded like something from a bad movie. I wondered how Abel would react to me airing these thoughts. If he'd think I was nuts or super judge-y.
I decided to show some support in my own way and took his hand in both of mine. He smiled a little at me and squeezed my hand.
It'd be alright. I just needed to listen and come at this with an open mind. I had never been in a relationship with someone who was a completely different species, so honestly, it was expected there'd be some hiccups. And maybe there really weren't any hiccups. All of this was happening in my head. Maybe I didn't actually need to vocalise any of it, but just work through it on my own. Possibly bring him in if there was something I needed help understanding.
I thought that sounded like a solid plan going forward. It was also a nice distraction from everything that had happened that day. I needed to process it at some point, but not right now. Right now, I was just focusing on sitting in my friends' nice garden, drinking some nice beers with them.
And nothing else.