Wolves

Chapter 1

My eyes fill up with water and I don't wanna let my friends know about it. I mean I've never been good at math but this is ridiculous! I haven't gotten one right!

"Do you get it now Jessica?" Alanah asks me. I nod my head even though I don't. I had already realize earlier that hour that I was relying solely on Alanah for all the answers. That was a problem because I wanted to do it myself. I wanted to know the why and be confident that I would get something that's above a C average in this class.

As if sensing my discomfort, and seeing through my lie, she said. "Good, and remember if you have any problem just call me tonight. I'll try to help any way I can."

"Ok, I will, and thank you Alanah.

"No problem, your welcome."

Later that night.

"Ugh!" I throw my hands up in frustration, close to tears yet again. "I can't do this! I don't understand it! It's like a foreign language to me!" I pick up the phone and dial Alanah's number. She picks up on the second ring.

"Hello?"

"Hey Alanah. I'm kinda having trouble with my math homework. Could you help?" Luckily my voice is even and thank God you can't see anyone through a phone.

"Of course! What problem are you on?" Suddenly there's an explosion on the other side of the phone. "HOLY SHIT! God damn it! They found me!" I hear her grunt in pain. I'm to surprised to notice though. Alanah never cusses. That's usually my job. "Jessica?" I snap back to the land of the living. Alanah's called my name at least three times.

"I'm here," I say.

"Good before they find my hiding place; you need to do what I tell you no questions asked. Is that understood?"

I nod my head before I realize she can't see me. "Yes."

"Good. Call the Animal Help Center and ask for Hunter Gear. Tell him Alanah asked for him.He'll understand what to do next." I heard the urgency in her voice and didn't question her.

"Okay. Alanah?"

"What is it?"

"Will you be okay?"

"I've stayed alive for 500 years. I don't plan to die anytime soon." You could her the smirk in her voice.

I called the Help Center and got my dad on the phone. "Hello? This is the Waynesville Animal Help Center. How may I help you?"

"Dad? I need to talk to Hunter Gear."

"Sure. Sweetie? What's going on?'

"Nothing. Dad? Could you hurry? It's a big emergency."

"Sure, hang on a minute." He's gone for like, 5 seconds. "Huh. It looks like he got off early."

I don't wait. I hang up and start getting ready to leave. I can't contact Hunter so I'll just go to Alanah's house and save her myself. I hope so at least.



I'm there in 5 minutes flat.The door is shut, but I can here grunts and crashing inside. How the neighbors don't hear this is beyond me. I look to the left and see a gaping hole in the wall. I run over and jump through; immediately glad I hadn't tried the front door. There's a giant pile of wood, stone, you name it and it was there, just waiting to topple. I here a sound between a whimper and a scream. My head snaps to the left to see an unconscious Alanah her ankle looks broken, and she is bloody and bruised. The only major wound however is her ankle. I hear a growl behind me and before I can turn around I feel a sudden pain in my calf. I whip around to see a thing there. It was pale and had red eyes and fangs. It's name was on the tip of my tongue; vampire. I swing my fist, catching him by surprise. His head snapped to the right. Smiling he slowly swiveled his head to look at me, but it was to late. I had already found a makeshift stake and had it through his heart.

"Take that, bastard."

"Jessica! You weren't supposed to come! I told you to get Hunter!" I turn to look at her and smile in relief. She was alright. My eyes roll to the back of my head and the ground rushes up at me.

Alanah

I woke up to a bleeding, bruised, and unconscious Jessica. "Jesus!" I feel kinda bad for yelling at her when shes obviously been through hell and back again. That's when I see the Bite. "Awww, Shit! With a capital S!" Of all my 500 years I have never been in this situation. I think fast, then it comes to me. It's happened before and completed successfully. Why not? Growing my incisors, I cut my wrist so more blood gushes out. I press the wound to her lips and makes sure she drinks some. Then I lick the wound to heal it. Then I quickly bite her forearms, neck, and ankles. Without pausing I take some of her blood and mix it with mine. I trace the symbol of the Wolf on her navel. It's a circle with a line through it. It represents a knife piercing the moon. Jessica spasms, her back lifting up off the floor and her eyelids fluttering open while her eye balls roll to the back of her head. I'm worried I didn't do it right. That I somehow screwed up during the Ritual of Wolfs. I crawl to a back corner, crying. Out of all the friends I have had, she was the best. I hadn't told her; nobody had known. Now she was gonna die not knowing. I felt like tearing my heart out and dying with her.

Jessica

I came awake to crying. Opening my eyes I see Alanah curled up in a fetal position crying her beautiful, dark brown eyes out. Struggling to my feet I half crawl half drag myself over to her. "Alanah? What's wrong?" She looks up and gives a strangled cry. I can barely register that her eyes are now golden from their usual brown; before she launches herself at me and gives me a bear hug. I pat her hair uncertainly. "Is there something I should be aware of?"

"I thought it hadn't worked. I thought you had died."

"What? Of course not! I would never die on a friend! Least of all you!"

Suddenly she brakes the hug and wipes furiously at her tears. "We should call Hunter now." She says in her serious tone.

I smile because I know she's hiding something from me. It's okay though because I know in her own time she will tell me. "Okay," I say.

Chapter 2

Hunter Gear turned out to be pretty cool. He was this tall Asian man with his long hair in dreads. I always liked rebels. He told me he had ran away when his mom started dating this man who had wanted nothing to do with him. We rode in a limousine to my house where they dropped me off.

"Tell no one what happened tonight. Got it?" Alanah said leaning through the car window.

"Gotcha, but Alanah?"

"Mm?"

"Will you be okay? What about your house?"

Alanah held up her hand to stop my questions. "I will explain and answer your questions tomorrow at lunch." With that Hunter peeled away from the curb and drove into the night. Tired as hell I dragged my sorry butt into the kitchen. Drank a liter of milk and went upstairs. I hopped into the shower and cleaned all the blood off. I crawled under my covers and went to bed not even feeling the numerous bites everywhere on my body. I dream of flying monkeys and a vampire shooting them while a wolf stalks the vampire.

The next day at school I stalk out Alanah. I have completely forgotten about my dream by now. "Alanah!" I have finally spotted her. "When can we talk?"

Alanah

I knew it was coming but I hadn't been prepared myself enough for what was coming. Already Jessica's skin was getting paler; which I had no idea why. Lord, my life had become permanently screwed. Ladies and gentlemen, buckles your seat belts for the roller coaster called my life! Also she hadn't noticed, but her scars were clearing up, and her skin looked better. Less oily and less acne.

"After school, lets meet at your house. I'll explain everything."

"Ok. Just one question."

"What is it?"

"Do you want orange juice or cranberry?"

"I like milk, thanks."

Later at Jessica's House

I'm in her room, drinking milk. She's drinking iced water.

"So are you gonna explain?" She asks after awhile.

"Ok," I say putting down my drink. "Here it goes: Wolfs and Vampires have been living together for some time. However, recently the Vampires have become restless. They've been killing humans, and braking the compromise we have set up over the last century. You have seen proof of this; at my house that Vamp was trying to drink my blood. If one of them drinks you blood, not only are they absorbing your soul, they absorb your very essence. The reason you live. The do not need blood to live like the legends tell you. They need sunlight to survive. Ironic as it is, it is true. Then there are us: Wolfs. We don't need anything to survive. It's quite simple really; we are the same, except we have similar traits to the wolfs. Our sight, hearing, smell, etc. are enhanced. We can change into wolfs, but it takes a lot of Mana to do it. Once you get changed into one of us there's no going back. Or switching to the other Side. You are a special case though. Once you were Bite by the Vampire, I had two choices: Let you Turn and kill you later. Or try to cancel out the Vampire blood with my own Wolf's blood. I chose the latter; I just don't know if it worked. The Turning takes 48 hours to fully circulate. So tomorrow at around midnight we should know if it worked or not. Good news is its a full moon tomorrow which works in your favor." Throughout the entire explanation, Jessica has been eerily silent. Now she turns to me with determination glinting in her eyes.

"Of course it worked. I trust you with my heart and soul. Tomorrow, since it's Saturday, I'll spend the night at your house to make sure it works. The worst that can happen is that I die right?"

"Yeah," I smile. This was gonna work. Jessica has made me believe for the first time in 300 years. I actually believed.

Chapter 3

The door bell rang and I knew who it was. Jessica was here; and was in for a night of supreme discomfort. I opened the door to reveal Jessica standing there with her Tenor strapped to her back, and a suitcase by her side. Upon seeing me she grinned like a fool and hugged the life out of me. She waved to the white SUV that was pulling away from the curb. She came inside and started chattering away about her life. Mostly about her cat and her brother whom she said was such an ass to her other siblings that she wanted to choke the life out of him. We arrived at my bedroom. It was huge with a majestic, poster, king sized bed. and a walk in closet . Jessica didn't even stop she put her stuff on the bed and started talking about the awesome bed. "It's so huge! Your family must be rich! Either that or you have one hell of a job."

"Aren't you scared?" I ask. 'Cause quite frankly I'm amazed at the fact she seems so calm and collected. "Aren't you terrified this won't work out? That you'll die? Aren't you nervous? You're about to leave your entire life behind."

She looked at me and smiled. "Of course I am. No sane person wouldn't be peeing his pants right about now. But I have something different: Hope. I have Hope that this will work out fine. Where's your hope Alanah?"

"It died with my family."

Jessica

As soon as Alanah said that,I knew; I knew that this would work out, and that we would become a family. I don't know how I knew. It was based purely on instinct. I got up and walked over to Alanah. Her head was down, so I took her chin and supported her head for her. I looked deep into her eyes. Her lower lip trembled and she began to cry. I couldn't imagine the heart break she had to have gone through to get where she was. I pull her close and hug her. She collapses on my shoulder and I carry her to the bed where we sit and Alanah cries her heart out. I smooth her hair back and let actions speak louder than words. Eventually Alanah cries herself dry and falls into a deep sleep. Not wanting to disturb her I lay her down and tuck her in. Not feeling at all tired I walk to her window and look out. Alanah's bedroom is positioned just so that you have a view of practically everything. It's then that I notice something: I was probably never going back to my old life. And even though I had been practically begging for a life that would be interesting and adventurous. I don't think I'm ready for this. The Fates have a sick and twisted sense of humor. I've never needed anybody in my entire life, but right now I could use a hug. Maybe when this is all over me and Alanah can move to Germany. I've always had an obsession with German people. Suddenly I'm exhausted; so I lay down on the bed next to Alanah and shut my eyes to sleep. I have the same dream except this time the Vamp's chasing me and the wolf is Alanah; whom is racing beside me, urging me on. I wake up covered in sweat and wondering what I had been dreaming about.

"Mornin' sunshine!" I open my eyes to reveal Alanah. Her hairs still wet from the shower and she's holding a heaping tray of food. I open my mouth to talk and laugh about all the food. And to question why there's so much. But instead of a human voice; I bark. I feel my eyes widen in shock. Alanah laughs. "Congratulations! You have survived the Turning!" She walks up to the bed and sits down next to my head. Meanwhile I'm trying desperately to sit up. Smiling Alanah reaches out and helps me. Together we manage to sit me on my rump. Alanah sets the tray in front of me. It's then that I realize exactually what's going on. I had changed. I was a Wolf. I was changed forever. Looking for something to do to distract me, I dove into the heaping pile of food in front of me. When I was done eating my new Wolf muscles suddenlly caved under my weight. I just layed there; fighting the urge to cry. I feel the bed sink as Alanah sits down. I lay me head on her lap and cry. Finally I run out of tears and drift off to sleep. This time my dream is about two handsome guys. One has a ugly, foul, rugged scar across his face. It went from his ear to the corner of his mouth. Kinda like he was slapped with a sword. The other one look just like the first one. Except this one was noticeably younger. Also minus the scar. The one without it, had shoulder-length, black as midnight. The scars one hair, though, was silver with black streaks. They were engaged in a fight so intense, whenever they connected, the entire building shook. I couldn't see their faces. Once again I woke up covered in sweat.

"Jessica? Honey? We gotta go." Alanahs face hovered above me. I just looked at her, because I had still not changed back. "Yes, I know! Here's what you gotta do: Just simply, will yourself into your other form. If you have Magic then you will be able to do it. If not then you are simply no more or less than a plain old wolf. It has been known to happen." She had put on her game face again and was packing a backpack. I had tuned her out about halfway through her nervous ramble. I had tuned her out because I was already transforming. I had simply... I don't know..... Wanted kinda, to change back, and boom! I was there sitting, butt-naked, on the bed. Alanah turned around, saw me there and smiled. "Good to know you have the Magic flowing through your veins."