When we woke up, we got ready for school. On the way there I thought I heard footsteps and I felt like someone was watching me. Class wasn’t nearly as bad as it was Friday.
During lunch we found Laylah. She looked depressed. I asked, “What’s wrong?”
“I’m only fifteen and I’ve already been kicked out of the house. It’s all Mike’s fault, too. If he would’ve killed you or wouldn’t have stopped me from it, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
“Let’s go hunting.”
“Okay.”
I had the same feeling of being watched. I saw a tanned boy I’d never saw before.
I asked, “Who’s that?”
“A new kid I guess.”
“Why is he looking at us like we’re the worst thing on Earth?”
“To him, we probably are.”
“Why?”
“He’s a werewolf.”
“Let’s go say hi.”
“Let’s not and say we did. It’s not a good idea. The war may be over but they still don’t like us at all and we’re not particularly fond of them.”
“I don’t care.”
I walked over to him with Laylah reluctantly following me.
I said, “Hi, what’s your name?”
“What do you care?”
“I just wanted to know you name.”
“Why does a leech wanna’ know for?”
“I am not a leech.”
“Jade, watch it. Don’t get him mad.”
“Are you here alone?”
“No.”
“Where are the others?”
“None of your business.”
“You don’t have to be so rude. I was only trying to be nice.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t think anybody should be left out no matter what they are.”
“You’re young and clueless, ain’t ya’?”
“No.”
I was starting to get impatient.
He said, “Fine, I’ll give ya’ll a chance. My name Buckie.”
“Hi Buckie, I’m Jade. Do you want to come with us?”
“Where?”
“Hunting. Do you want to come?”
“I guess so. Better than sittin’ around watchin’ humans.”
“Let’s go find Mike.”
“Jade, I don’t want to go hunting with a dog.”
“Laylah, don’t be so mean. You know I won’t put up with it.”
I said, Mike, we’re going hunting.
Where?
I don’t know, but you know I don’t like hunting people.
Let’s go to the nature reserve.
Laylah was listening to our conversation. She said, “Come on dog. We’re going to the nature reserve.”
“Why? I thought vampires like human blood over animal blood.”
“Most of us do, including me, but she doesn’t like hunting humans and Mike will give her anything she wants. I don’t argue with them because there’s enough arguing in my family.”
Laylah’s P.O.V.-
Jade walked about ten feet away waiting on Mike.
“Why?”
“Why what?” I asked.
“Why does you family argue?”
“You wouldn’t understand. If I did tell you, you’d call the rest of you pack and go after Jade.”
“You judge fast.”
“I’m not judging. I’m only saying what’s true.”
“How do you know?”
“If Mike hadn’t stopped me, I would’ve torn her to shreds.”
Mike and Jade came walking back to us, hand in hand.
“Tell me, please.”
“No, you filthy dog!”
“Laylah, stop.”
Mike stopped when he realized what stood beside me. He asked, “What does it want?”
“It wants to know why our family argues. Don’t tell him. He’ll go after Jade.”
Jade was getting irritated. She said, “You guys stop talking like he isn’t another person.”
I said, “I’m sorry, Jade. I’ll try to do better.”
“Good. Mike…”
“I’m not going to apologize for something I’m not sorry for.”
“Well, at least you’re honest.”
She kissed him. Although I couldn’t throw up, I still felt nauseated. I said, “Okay, we get the point. You love him and you love her. Wait until I’m not around.”
“Fine, let’s go.”
Mike’s P.O.V.-
We ran to the reserve. It was weird running with a werewolf. When we got to the reserve, I was never no more than twenty feet away from Jade. I didn’t trust the wolf.
About twenty minutes later, Jade looked up and behind her. She saw me watching her and picked her deer back up. There was no way, even if she had super sensitive hearing, she could her someone. We were miles away from any human activity. We were on no human ground. No one was allowed here.
I asked, “What’s wrong?”
She was staring at the deer in her hands. She said, “I killed it. Mike, I killed it.”
“So? Be glad it was a deer.” I remember how it felt to take a human down. I took three.
“Mike! I killed something!”
“I heard. Like I said, be glad it was a deer.”
I heard three large heart beats behind me. Jade could hear them clearly, too. She ran over to me and took my hand. She asked, “What are they? They have minds like humans but their hearts sound too big.”
They were still hidden by trees and bushes. I said, “Werewolves, its three werewolves.”
“How do you know?”
“They may look like over sized wolves but their minds are just as capable as humans.”
Three wolves bigger than a grizzly walked into our sight. I heard one talking to another in their heads. It said, I thought I smelled a leech.
They’re young, too. That means they won’t know how to fight.
We’re not going to have much fun, are we?
No, it’ll be too easy.
I said to Jade, Run!
We took off running with them right on our heels. I tried to read Jade’s thoughts, but all I got was panic. I said, Don’t panic.
Yeah right. There are three werewolves hot on our trail and you tell me not to panic!
Calm down.
What if they’ve gotten Laylah?
I’ll check… Laylah, are you dead?
Yes, I’m dead. I’ve come back to haunt you forever
Not now! If you haven’t noticed, we’re kind of running for our lives! Jade, she’s fine.
Can they out run us?
Yes, by a long way.
I got an idea, Laylah.
What about her?
If she can give us headaches, what about them?
Maybe. Laylah, come as close as you can and then yell loud.
She came running behind them. She yelled, HEY, STOP!!!
They stopped and we stopped. They were whining with pain and we were on our knees, doubled over in pain. All of us recovered at the same time except for Jade.
She got the most of it since she was a strong telepath which meant she didn’t just send strong messages but she absorbed them better than a normal telepath. She’d also forgotten to wall her mind. She was still on the ground crying when the wolves were shaking off the last of the pain.
I didn’t know what to do. I thought of something that might give us a slim chance of living. If they know who we were, they might not kill us. They couldn’t know who Jade was, of course; they’d kill her dead.
I said, “Stop, you don’t want to kill us.” One of them changed back. She was, well, hot. Jade was so close to attacking her because I couldn’t stop staring at her.
She asked, “Why shouldn’t we?”
“Uhhh, shouldn’t what?”
Jade was radiating anger. The wolf asked, “Why shouldn’t we kill you?”
Laylah said, “Mike! You’re so stupid.”
Jade said, “Yeah, you couldn’t say a word to save our butts if you wanted to.”
“But…”
“No buts.”
“But she’s hot.”
“I said, no buts!”
Jade was really taking her anger out on me. Laylah said, “Stop it. Both of you.”
We stopped arguing. I looked back at the werewolf and saw her impatient face. I still couldn’t talk to her.
Laylah sighed and said, “You don’t want to kill us because our parents helped you in the war.”
“Which war?”
“The vampire/werewolf war twelve or thirteen years ago.”
“You’re Newlys?”
“Yes.”
Jade didn’t like being in this position. She didn’t like pretending to be someone she isn’t. I said, Relax, you are dating me.
Maybe. I’m still not going to relax until I know we’re going to live.
What do you mean, ‘maybe?’
We’ll talk later.
Girls! You will tell us one thing and leave some out then you leave us confused, trying to figure out what you mean.
Good, it’s fun confusing guys.
The she-wolf asked, “How do we know you’re not lying?”
“Just ask our aunts and uncles.”
“Laylah, all they’re gonna do is say bad things about us.”
“So? I don’t really care what they say. The truth is we’re Newlys and they can’t deny that.”
“What about her? She looks nothing like you two.”
She was pointing a t Jade. I said, “She’s my girlfriend. As long we’re dating she’s considered family.”
“I’ll let you live, but heed my warning, we’ll be watching you. Take one step out of line and we’ll make sure you never take another step.”
She transformed and ran off, leading the pack away. Laylah said, “Let’s get to civilization before they decide to come back.”
We couldn’t go full speed because Jade was still weak. She was quiet all the way home. It took us about ten minutes to get to her house.
We’d only been out of school for around forty-five minutes and EEE was still going on. Ms. Redfield asked, “What’s wrong? Why aren’t’ you in school?”
Jade said, “We went hunting.”
“Why didn’t you go back to school?”
“I didn’t think it was a very smart idea.”
“Why? What happened?”
“Nothing, don’t worry about it.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Why are they here?”
“They’ve got nowhere to go, besides the streets.”
“Why?”
“They were kicked out of their house.”
“Why?”
“Family problems. Can they stay here?”
“Why not the streets? It’s not like someone is going to kill them. Not even an axe murderer could.”
“Wanna bet?”
“What are you talking about? The only thing that could harm them is werewolves.”
Jade gave her mom a look that said, no really? Why do you think they want to stay here?
Her mom said, “Ohhh, there’s wolves out there. Ain’t there?”
“Yeah, that’s why we came here and not back to school. Can they stay?”
“I guess. If it makes you happy.”
We headed up to her room. She had posters, posters, and more posters on her wall. I asked, “Really? You’ve got a boyfriend and you have all kinds of posters of a guy?”
“It’s not all of them.”
“Who is he?”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“No, I’m not.”
“How, in the world, do you not know who he is?”
“I don’t know. I don’t pay much attention to human stuff.”
“He’s Justin Bieber, one of the hottest stars there is.”
“Whatever. Where can we sleep?”
“In here.”
Laylah said, “This isn’t exactly a spacious five star hotel room.”
“We’ll figure something out.”
I asked, “When are you going to tell you mom about us?”
“I don’t know. What about now?”
“Might as well get it over with.”
Jade’s P.O.V.-
I took his hand and led him down stairs. Mom was cooking her supper. I said, “Mom, I… I have to tell you something.”
I let go of his hand before she could turn around when she did turn she asked, “What?”
“I... I broke up with Ash.”
“Poor boy. I bet he’s heartbroken. He was a nice kid. Why’d you do it?”
“I couldn’t live with myself if I ever killed him. It almost happened twice and next time he won’t be so lucky. I decided if there were no us there wouldn’t be a next time.”
“Why’d he come down with you? Do you not trust him alone?”
“I trust him that’s the other thing we have to talk about.” I took his hand and her eyes got big.
She said, “No! Why Jade, why? He’ll only get you killed. Don’t do this to me. I don’t want to lose you like I lost my husband. Don’t do this. Don’t. I love you. Why are you doing this?”
It brought tears to my eyes. I said, “I love you, too, but I love him, too. I love you both. Don’t make me choose, because I can’t. He won’t kill me.”
“I didn’t say he’d kill; I said he’d get you killed. I forbid this! They are to get out of this house. NOW!”
Laylah came running downstairs. She grabbed Mike’s arm and led him out the door.
I watched them leave. I looked at my mom with watery eyes and asked, “Why’d you do that?”
“It was for your own good.”
I ran to my room and shut and locked the door. Well, more like slammed it. I lay on my bed and cried myself to sleep.
The next morning, I got ready for school. I ran there, wanting to avoid as many people as possible. Maggie saw me at lunch and walked over to me.
She asked, “What’s wrong? You’re all depressed. What happened to my perky Jade?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Okay, you want me to leave?”
“Yeah, sorry.”
She walked away. I hadn’t seen Mike or Laylah today. I saw Buckie walking toward me.
I asked, “What do you want?”
“Someone sounds like she woke up on the wrong side of the coffin.”
“I don’t want to hear any of your sass.”
“Will you tell me why I’d want to kill ya’?”
“No.”
“What’s wrong with you? I thought you were the nice one.”
“None of your business.”
I was getting irritated. My fangs were coming out involuntarily. I stopped them before they were full length and if anybody saw me now, I couldn’t shrink them back because my eyes turned pink when my fangs came out. If they were full length, they’d be plainly visible. They wouldn’t go back because I was still irritated.
He knew they were growing because my eyes changed from dark brown to bright pink. I tried to make them go away before anyone noticed my eyes.
I had third block with Buckie. When the teacher called roll, Buckie was surely to recognize my name. She called my name and he let out a low growl that only my sensitive ears could hear. It wasn’t human at all; it sounded like an enraged animal.
I said, Calm down before you blow your cover.
He was shaking; he was so close to phasing. Apparently, my voice in his head didn’t help. In the hall, he came up to me and said, “You’re dead meat, Redfield, dead. Your boyfriend can’t save you now.”
“You know what? I don’t care. Right now, all I want is all the violence and prejudice to stop!”
I started crying again. His hard face softened. With all the stuff that’s going on, my emotions was way out of control. Emotional imbalance weakened my control.
Ash walked by. His heart was beating hard from gym. The smell and sound filled my head. Buckie was blocking anybody from seeing me. It was a good thing because my fangs were out all the way and my eyes were a blazing, hot pink.
Buckie asked, “Are you okay?”
I had enough sense to say, “No, don’t let me hurt him.”
“Hurt who?”
“Ash, he just walked by from gym.”
“Oh, come on, I think we have fourth together.”
He took my hand and led me towards the art room. I could still smell Ash. Buckie had a very tight grip on my hand. He wasn’t letting go.
I broke loose and ran. We were both running too fast for anyone to see us. We made it to the edge of the woods, beside the school, before he caught up and tackled me.
This far away and I could still smell and hear Ash. I said, “Let go, let go of me, you filthy dog!”
I squirmed out of his grip and ran again. I heard him phase and start running too. He quickly caught up this time. He had me pinned down before I knew it. He was snarling and growling.
I stopped struggling when three more wolves came into view. I recognized the light brown fur of the she-wolf. I heard them talking to each other in their heads.
She asked, Why is she pinned down?
She was running. I’m sorry, but it’s just instinct to chase a runner.
Young fool, why was she running?
I remembered the smell, the sound, and the nagging sensation of wanting to hunt. I started mumbling to myself while taking shallow breaths, “The smell. The sound.”
I started crying again and said, “Buckie, don’t let me hurt him. I’d be begging you to take me if I ever do. Don’t let me!”
I lay on the ground, sobbing, while they just looked at me. She finally asked, Hurt who? What’s she talking about?
There was a guy that walked by that came from gym. Apparently, she cares a lot ‘bout him.
That’s stupid. Those things only care about blood.
I said, “Let me go, now!”
She said, Let her go. Follow her, don’t let her out of you sight.
They turned and ran back into the deeper parts of the woods. Their large hearts beating harder from exertion drew my thoughts to blood.
Buckie’s paws were on my shoulders, in biting range. I turned my head to look at the inside of one of his ankles. I saw the main vein and the pulse as blood passed trough.
I bit so fast that he had no idea that I was going to bite. He yelped when my fangs sunk into his flesh. I drank in deep, soothing gulps. I didn’t get many because he flung me off. I went flying through the air and slammed into a boulder. I didn’t do anything but sit on the ground and listened.
I took a deep breath and smelled… Mountain lion! I jumped up and followed the smell. I found it stalking a deer up ahead.
The hunter was about to become the hunted. During the struggle with it, it managed to get a death grip on my throat. I felt its teeth sink into my neck. It didn’t hurt but it was uncomfortable. I yanked it off and bit into its neck. I drained it dry. I looked up and saw Buckie looking at me. I asked, “Why are you staring at me?”
He changed back and said, “That has to be the most disgusting thing I ever saw.”
“Whatever. Come one, let’s find something else.”
“Something else?”
“Do you want it to be you?”
“No.”
“I didn’t think so. Let’s go.”
We found a black bear. It was the biggest black bear I ever saw. I didn’t kill it but I did the next one. Who knew these woods were so full of bears?
We ran to my house and stopped on the porch. I said, “I have to tell you something. My mom, well, she’s not a vampire. She’s human.”
He started laughing. He said, while trying to get his breath, “You’re. A. Half-breed!”
I punched him and said, “It’s not funny.”
“Yes it is.”
We walked in and I said, “Mom, I’m home.”
I worked hard on trying to make my fangs shrink. When they did, I walked into the kitchen where she was fixing dinner. She was making too much food for just her.
I asked, “Who’s all the food for?”
“Jack and Bill are coming over for dinner to tell me if I got the job.”
“What is the job exactly?”
“A high position in the blood bank department at the hospital two blocks from the school. Who’s he? More importantly, what is he?” She asked when she noticed Buckie.
“This is Buckie. He’s a werewolf.”
“Great, we’re only missing a witch and you would’ve brought every creature into my house. Why don’t you bring the whole council and their families?” She said sarcastically. “Why aren’t you in school? You need to stop skipping.”
“Yes, mother.”
“Don’t roll your eyes at me.”
“Mom, I made up my mind. I’m going to Aunt Claire’s.”
“Why?”
“I wanna go.”
The door bell rang. I went to answer. I said, “Mom, there’s a surprise at the door.”
It was surprise, too. Auntie Bet was here and I hadn’t seen her since I was ten. She said, “Don’t just stand there. Give your Auntie Beth a hug.”
I gave her a hug and said, “I missed you, Auntie Beth.”
“I missed you, too. Where’s my little sister?”
“She’s coming. Oh, Auntie Beth, things have changed so much.”
“For the better I hope. Now, can I come in?”
“Of course. I don’t know if they’ve changed for better or for worse.”
We made our way our way to the living room where we sat on the couch. Mom walked in as Auntie Beth asked, “What has changed?”
Mom gave me a look that meant a very strong NO.
I said, “I’m sorry, Beth, but I can’t tell you.”
“Why not?”
“Because she can’t. Leave it at that, Beth.”
“Mellanie! It’s so nice to see you.”
“You too, Beth.”
The door bell rang, again. I said, “I’ll get it.”
Mom said, “Jade, that’s not such a good idea. You know that.”
“She’s just getting the door. Why are you so tense? You’ve always been so loose and fun.”
“Like Jade said, things have changed.”
I ignored them both and opened the door. Jack and Bill’s eyes widened. I gave them a bright, pink eyed, fang filled smile.
I said, “Come in, I won’t bite. Yet.”
I heard their hearts seed up. They walked in, clearly uncomfortable about me being behind them. Mom said, “I’m back in the kitchen.”
I led them to the kitchen. Mom saw me and said, “Jade, it’s not nice to give people heart attacks. Make them go away right now.”
I said, “Okay,” and they were gone.
I helped Mom carry the food into the living room. We had a fairly large coffee table so the food would fit.
I said, “I want to show you something Auntie Beth. They’re awesome contacts.”
I went up stairs and made my fangs come out the slightest bit. No one would notice them unless they were looking closely or know what they were looking for.
I came back down and showed Auntie Beth my pink eyes. She said, “Them are pretty awesome.”
Mom asked, “Was Mike at school today? Was Ash?”
Mentioning Mike’s name brought back anger and Ash’s brought back hunger. A deadly combination.
Auntie Beth’s, Jack’s, and Bill’s eyes widened as my fangs grew to full length. All the hearts’ sounds in the room magnified.
I attacked the nearest person which was Bill. I drained him dry. I tossed him to the side.
When Buckie saw me looking for someone else he phased and pinned me down. His furry body took up most of the living room
We were snarling. I heard Auntie Beth crying. I think that was what brought me back. My sanity came back very slowly.
When I was in control again, I said, “Get off me, mutt.”
He phased back and said, “Ya better run while ya can.” He ran out the door to get the other wolves.
I turned to Auntie Beth. She flinched when I looked at her. I said, “I won’t hurt you.”
Mom said, “It was my fault for mentioning Mike’s and Ash’s names.”
Beth said, “Y-you killed him!”
I said, “Mom, call the cops and say you found him dead in the woods. I have to go. They won’t take long to gather. They’ll kill me, Mom.”
She choked back sobs and said, “I know.”