When i heard my name being called I shook off what little I could of my self-loathing and listened until I heard it again.
“Lana!” Uncle Bill called from the front door of the ranch house. I couldn’t believe he was here. Running towards him I noticed his posture was a lot like my fathers had been so I approached cautiously.
“Quinn just called me, he asked if we had a room for you, I figured from the tone in his voice trouble had happened, so of course you can stay with us. Voice left no doubt in my mind that you were in trouble. Get in here before you are seen” I entered the doorway with my head bowed, of course Quinn wouldn’t have told Bill what happened tonight, this was to be my punishment for not changing when he asked. The house had a very cozy look. Pictures of smiling faces lined the walls, mostly hard wood floors, and it smelled of fresh baked cookies. I noticed a few boxes in the corner of the room, meaning they probably hadn’t lived here to long, but long enough and close enough to have come visited.
“Fill me in on what happened” he stated in a calm voice about ten minutes later while we were sitting living room, I was on a throw rug in front of the empty fire place while Bill sat on a brown leather couch. I allowed Bill to see my thoughts; I replayed the events of the whole night, from Brad’s failed attempt to rape me which resulted in his death, to the interrogation of the police, then finally to my dad hitting me. He looked down at me with sympathetic eyes; I could tell though from his facial expressions that he was furious at my Dad’s reaction and lack of understanding of my ordeal.
“Don’t worry you can stay here as long as you like” Bill offered, I was pleased he didn’t ask any questions. The small cozy living room was so compact that Bill had to move his couch in order to make room for me to lie down completely. I listened to Bill as he told Tanya what had happened, I closed my eyes, praying for the nightmare to end.
“Are you hungry?” Bill asked after a while.
“No, I am kind of tired though.” I peeked out one eye in his direction. “Well then sleep but, Quinn should be here soon.” He reminded me as he covered me with a blanker like he had done at my uncle Alan’s.
“Thank you.” I thought. I had never been homeless before, I felt like I had nothing; no friends, no home, my father hated me, and now I was living with a relative I barely knew.
“I didn’t know there were vampires in the world,” I thought as a good conversation starter, I had forgotten to mention them earlier to him. I was not prepared for his reaction; Bill quickly stood up from the couch and began looking around frantically.
“What vampire contacted you Lana,” he said in an angry tone.
“No one contacted me. I saw some at the party,” I thought. He calmed a little.
“You didn’t say anything to them did you,”
“No. I didn’t even know what they were until Quinn told me.” Bill’s agitation seemed to shift to Quinn now.
“Just… . . Sleep we’ll talk more about it after you’ve rested” he said patting me on the head trying to reclaim the little comfort I had earlier.
Bill opened the door before Quinn had a chance to knock once he had arrived, five large trash bags fell to the floor inside the door jam, it was surreal that my entire life was now nothing more than five bags worth.
“No change it seems” Quinn said looking at me.
“No, as you can see” Bill said closing the door.
“I ordered her to change earlier, she should have done it,” Quinn responded, kneeling down to look at me puzzled.
“I don’t think she takes orders very well, no matter which the commander is,” Bill said with a smile Quinn didn’t return.
The night had been a long one; I ended up falling asleep to the soothing voices of the men as they talked about what to do next. It was still dark when I awoke so I must not have been out long but long enough to change back into human. Bill and Quinn were still in deep conversation and didn’t seem to notice I was awake yet. I wrapped the blanket around myself with my back to both of them once I felt their eyes on me.
“So it worked huh, I figured since you changed without the full moon you could do it anytime, seems I was wrong and I’m sorry about that. How is your face?” Quinn asked as I stood up making sure the blanket was secure before I faced them they both gasp loudly.
“WHAT?” I said frantically looking for a mirror, was I horribly disfigured from Brad’s meaty hand hitting me? Did I had a massive amount of drool on my face from sleeping? I found a large mirror down a narrow hallway, the light switch was to the right of it, once I turned it on I too gasped. My eyes hadn’t change back to the way they had been my entire life, somehow my tiger eye color had morphed into my human eyes; the color was now gray with pecks of green. I closed my eyes, trying to feel if there any of the pulling sensation I got when i changed, I felt nothing which could only mean this was how I was going to be from now on. I quickly rand my hand through my hair in disbelief, but this only reviled that my hair was longer than it should have been as well. I tightly wrapped the blanket around myself feeling little comfort from its embrace.
“What’s happening to me?” I asked close to tears as I watched Quinn and Bill come up behind me.
“We don’t know” Bill said softly as he placed his hand on my shoulder. Quinn just stared, like I was now a bug under a microscope. I shook off the weird feeling again that everything would be changing and not in a good way as I changed the subject in hopes of not talking about this abnormality.
“How is my dad?” I asked Quinn looking over Bill’s arm.
“He’s beating himself up that he lost control like that and hit you, but he was serious about you not coming home right now.”
I went over to one of my plastic bags shielding tightly so that Bill wouldn’t hear my mental cussing at my dad. After retrieving some clothes from one of the bags Bill showed me to the bathroom so I could redress, the whole time I wondered what was going to become of me now.
The night had not turned out at all, as one would have expected. All I could think was that I wanted to turn back the clock, back to when everything was normal.
When I came out of the bathroom Bill and Quinn were whispering on the couch in the living room, I didn’t want to be rude or intrude on their private conversation so I began walking toward what could only be the kitchen and the sweet smelling aroma that beckoned me. Tanya was busing herself with gently putting oatmeal cookies on a large plate, noticing me she pointed to the table beckoning me to sit. She placed the plate in the middle of the table before sitting across from me. We both ate our cookies in silence.
Eventually Quinn came in, pulling out the chair that was next to me, he didn’t even seem to notice the large plate of cookies. He had his game face on, which I assumed meant he had an idea. The silence was starting to get to me, plus Quinn began grinning like an evil cat.
“So what did you think of Amber?” I asked pulling at straws to get the look off his face, it made me nervous.
“I think I like you better.” He responded. I looked away, not from embarrassment, but because I didn’t want to feel sexy right now. I was saved when a loud thunderous knock came from the front door. Quinn suddenly tensed, Bill looked worriedly at the door, like it might just jump out and say BOO. I leaned back in my chair to get a better look at the door to see what had them all worried when I saw the blonde male vampire from the party peering through the window. I was about to scream, but Quinn quickly clamped his hand over my mouth nearly suffocating me in the process, the blonde vampire was holding the head of the police officer that had interrogated me hanging from his hand. Quinn got up and quickly pulled me with his hand still clamped tight until we reached the garage. You could hear muffled voices coming from the other side of door, Bill must have let the psycho in his house, I could easily hear what Blondie was saying.
“I smell you have a visitor,” said the deep voice that didn’t seem to fit the vampire I had seen, did that mean there were more. My eyes widened as Quinn tightened his grip on my mouth.
“Yes. Quinn, the tiger, he has come to stay the night,” Bill informed the voice.
“Ah yes. I saw him tonight with two young women. One killed a man who tried to rape her,” the voice said coming closer to the garage door.
“Move Now!” Bill mentally yelled at me. I grabbed Quinn’s hand from my mouth and ran to a small locker that was next to a large freezer, it wasn’t big enough for us both so Quinn shoved me inside. I would have protested more if I wasn’t in fear of my life.
“Don’t speak a word or breathe loudly, and please get your heart rate under control” he said through the slats in the locker. His tone was just a whisper, but I heard the plea in his voice. Quinn ended up sliding underneath Bill’s car like it was third base seconds before the door to the garage opened.
“Don’t move!” Bill thought, “Keep your breathing down, and cover your heart with your hand to muffle the sound.” I did as I was told out of fear though that did nothing to calm my heart rate.
“Quinn?” said the voice. With difficulty I was able to make out the form through the slats in the locker and indeed the deep voice belonged to the same blonde vampire I had seen at the party.
“Byron,” Quinn said coming up from under the car, whipping his hands on an old rang like he had been under there for hours.
“What a pleasant surprise,” Byron responded.
“Yes quite,” Quinn replied.
“Bill, you’re going to need a new muffler,” Quinn said keeping up the charade. Byron started walking around the garage sniffing every once in a while, I knew he was looking for me. He stopped with his back to the locker taunting me with his presence. I was trying my best not to be frightened but come on; having a vampire searching for you couldn’t be a good thing.
“So who was the young woman you were with tonight, Quinn?” Byron asked as he casually as he stalked inspecting the garage.
“Her name is Amber,” Quinn stated not lying but not being completely truthful either.
“Human?” the vampire was eyeing Quinn, measuring his every response.
“Oh yes, quite” Quinn said making a scrunched up face like he tasted something bad.
“Very interesting” Byron stated considering Quinn.
“And we are talking about the one who killed the young boy right?”
“No, she was a friend of Amber’s. I don’t know her name.” There must have been a good reason for Quinn to lie. Bill was looking very tense almost rigid.
“What is going on?” I thought to Bill.
“Lana, don’t move a muscle. I will tell you about all of this later, after he leaves,” Bill thought back. Now, I was more worried about the vampire bill sounded utterly terrified.
“You realize she wasn’t human, of course,” Byron said to Quinn.
“I thought she smelled different.” Quinn was toying back with the cold unfeeling creature.
“Quinn I must be honest here, my bullshit meter is reading red right now.” With lighting speed the vampire had Quinn by the throat and up against the wall.
“WHO IS SHE? Come out; come out where ever you are!” Byron yelled. I was so scared for a number of reasons I was frozen not able to do anything but watch the events unfold.
“I don’t know,” Quinn said trying to catch a breath but only succeeding in gasping. Because of me, this guy was going to kill Quinn for information on me. I couldn’t let that happen.
“No Lana! Don’t move.” Bill thought just before I would have grabbed the child release on the locker door.
“He won’t kill Quinn since he is Pride Leader. Please just wait, Byron is trying to scare you out in the open.” Bill pleaded. It was working, I started to feel tears running down my face I was so upset.
“Very well then; where is the girl she was with then, this Amber?” Byron asked Quinn, I watched Quinn go limp not struggling anymore with the hold the vampire had around his neck. Byron was staring at Quinn in the eyes and Quinn had the look of complete surrender just long enough to give the evil creature her address. I had to hold on to my own mouth not to refrain from shrieking. This vampire was going to visit Amber, and I knew it would not be a friendly visit. Byron released Quinn after he had what he needed, letting his body fall almost lifelessly to the floor. With a turn on his heel like nothing was amiss he gracefully floated back into the house. Floated? Bill looked at Quinn then followed the vampire out closing the door behind him.
“Don’t move until I get back.” It was about thirty-five minutes before Bill came back to the locker and released me. I burst out of it passing Bill like he was a statue to get to Quinn who was still unconscious on the floor.
“Quinn? Please get up” I said sobbing. He began to shiver as I touched his skin around his neck where the vampire had grabbed him. His skin was emblazoned with nasty blue patches of bruises that were already fading.
“I’m fine babe. I’ll heal,” he said in a cracked voice
“Don’t ever do that again, what were you thinking?” I asked looking him over.
“Had to protect you, that’s what Pride leaders do” he responded like I should already know that fact. Deciding not to get into this why he was on the floor I got up and looked at Bill, I wanted answers.
“Who the hell was that?”
“He is a vampire, a very strong and high on the totem pole, type vampire,” Bill stated as an explanation.
“And what does he want with me?”
“You are something different, a toy to be played with. You don’t smell like a human and you don’t smell like a shifter from what I have heard. That always sets off alarms for vampires, fear of the unknown.”
“And what will he do to Amber,” I asked fear closing around my heart, not really sure if I wanted this answer but knowing it before he said the words.
“Information is what he wants and he will do anything possible to get it, even kill your friend” I fell to the floor sobbing. This is not happening, this was the ultimate nightmare, one long continuing, never ending nightmare. I started to rock back and forth trying to calm down. Then I realized Amber would tell them where I live and they would go to my house where my dad was. Uncontrollable Panic quickly set in.
Without even thinking, I ran through the house and out the front door. I barely noticed that it had begun raining as I started to feel myself change, I didn’t even need to kneel, I was jumping over a log as a human and when I landed I was on four legs. I pushed myself to run faster than I had ever run before. If I wouldn’t have been so panicked, it would have felt great to stretch out my legs and push myself like this but in the present I was still feeling like it was in slow motion, taking too long to run home.
I arrived at my house about twenty minutes later. Sniffing the air I caught the scent of Byron; he vampire was near but not at my house yet, quickly running up to the front door I scratched, tearing huge bits of metal shavings from the door in a frantic attempt for Dad. “Hold on” I heard him growl, looking behind me i made sure it was safe for my dad to open the door. Thankfully there was no vampire there to suck my blood yet. When the door swung open my dad froze, with a relieved look he dropped to his knees.
“I am so sorry Lana,” he said through the tears. We didn’t have time for apologies and making up, I gently grabbed his shirtsleeve with my teeth and began to pull him in the opposite direction of the door we needed to get out of here.
“What’s wrong?” he asked whispering. Thank God, he didn’t resist as I lead him into some trees across the street. We could still faintly see the house from where we now hid behind a large pine.
I watched as Byron came out of ambers with her in tow. I could tell she had been badly beaten, sobbing hysterically saying “There, There” she was nearly dead from the amount of blood pouring out of her leg, but kept pointing to my house.
“Awe, Thank you my dear you have been most helpful” Byron stated looking at my house like he had found the treasure. I figured this would be the part that he would bite my friend but instead the son of a bitch grabbed the back of ambers neck with one hand and the front with the other, giving it a vicious twist, I watched ambers head pop off her shoulders like a cork exiting a wine bottle.
I would have screamed if I were in human form, but being a tiger I could only make a horrible mournful noise.
“SHHH… Lana. He will hear you,” Dad said in a frantic but hushed whisper. I watched the vampire walk up to my front door, he knelt down to look at the metal shaving I had left than sniffed the air like he was trying to track me. With no luck he casually kicked the door in, I was waiting for him to say “Lucy I’m home”.
“Come on lets go while he’s in the house” Dad told me as he started walking north. I couldn’t make my feet move, Amber’s body lay lifeless with her blood pouring onto the sidewalk were we had drawn butterflies as kids, her head was thrown like a bad of trash in the middle of the street were we had skinned our knees while learning how to ride a bicycle I felt a rage take hold inside me that making my body feel like a super nova without thought of my safety, I growled while charging towards the house. I heard my dad yelling my name from behind me giving up my element of surprise to the vampire that came dashing out the door and on to the lawn.
“A White Siberian tiger,” he stated in admiration.
“Funny, you don’t smell like a tiger, Lana is it?” he said. He must have gotten my name from Amber or heard Dad yell. He finally realized I was there to play games, I watched his fangs lengthen and his eyes turn a flaming red, seconds before I hit him full force. We began fighting for the dominate position, he caught me off guard with a hit on my left side, wrapping his legs around me then flipping me over, till my back slammed hard into the ground. I felt the impact but it was a dull pain compared to the one in my heart. I rolled over with all my strength making him the one to lie on the cold ground.
“You are strong for a tiger, but I doubt your strong enough” he said trying to get his hands free from under my paws, I leaned in until I could smell his foul breath. His eyes widened in fright as something he saw, later I would wonder about it right now my soul called for him to die, letting instincts take over I bent my head lower, opened my mouth wide until I felt the soft tissue against my teeth then ripped his head off, offering him the same death he had Amber. The body under my paws began cracking and splitting, it was falling apart as I stood upon it, this was my kill and I would not move as my enemy flaked away like ashes from a fire caught in the wind.
I was so caught up in my victory I didn’t notice our next-door neighbor Mr.Wington peering out the window. He was already on the phone with animal control telling them there was a tiger running loose. I glanced towards my Dad who was kneeling in the middle of the road frozen with fear. I figured he needed a little time to compose himself so I went into the house to find his truck keys. Once I had them safely in my jaw I made my way up to him slowly since he was still in the same spot I had left him in. Dropping the keys at his feet to snap him out of it I began staring with pleading eyes for him to drive away. Finally, I ended up growling in agitation, I could hear the sirens coming closer.
“What have you done?” he said snapping out of it and starting to shake. He picked up his keys and went to his truck slowly backing away from me like I had the plague. Once he was safely in the truck, he rolled down his window and said he would follow me to Bills. My body didn’t make it past the door after we arrived.
I awoke in a bed that was not my own and surrounded by the opposite sex of my family. Bill, Quinn and Dad had been keeping a vigil over me while I slept, apparently passing out was also abnormal for a weretiger. It appeared as if Dad had been crying, his voice was husky and his eyes were bloodshot though that could also be from lack of sleep.
“Honey, you ok?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said rolling over. I was wearing grey sweat pants and a white t-shirt, I just really hoped it had been Tanya that had dressed me while I was unconcious.
“Babe, we really need to talk,” Quinn said smiling at me.
“Can we do it later? I’m still kind of tired,” I said yawning trying to get them all out of the room so I could have some private panic time.
“Yeah, but not too long” Bill stated while moving a lock of hair out of my face.
Yeah I was afraid of that.
After a restful sleep of eighteen hours I felt a lot better than I thought I would have, though what I had done the other night I wouldn’t think about.
I got up, took a shower, dressed, and brushed my teeth like I would have any other day.
When I came downstairs, Dad was reading the newspaper at the kitchen table like he would have been at the house, nope wouldn’t go there right now. As I approached him; he tossed the cover page my direction. The headline read “tiger kills teenager”. The article said the tiger had broken in the back door of Ambers house and proceeded to tear the family apart. There was a shoot to kill order issued by Animal Control’s Authority. I sat down heavily next to my dad, holding my head in my hands I began sobbing once again.
“I didn’t kill her. You were there. That fucking vampire did”.
“I know, but watch your language your still not an adult yet.” he said rubbing my back trying to be dad again, like nothing terrible had transpired.
“Lana, I want to know how you killed Byron.” Quinn asked walking into the kitchen, no paliminarys to the subject I wanted to forget.
“An eye for an eye. He… killed my best friend, I didn’t think it was appropriate he got to live and she didn’t” Quinn’s eyes opened widely.
“Your dad says Amber was decapitated” Quinn pointed out, I gulped down the vomit that threatened to erupt.
“Yes, I am well aware of that”
“You were able to rip a vampire’s head off?” he questioned, making it sound impossible.
“Yes I was, not if you would be so kind as to not say that again I would be most grateful”.
“Lana, I don’t think you quite understand how impossible that should have been,” Bill said, as he began to pace to and from the hallway. “Babe, he’s right. No one of our kind has been able to kill a vampire. They are able to burn with a touch and can capture you in their gaze” Quinn stated.
“So that’s why his eyes turned red? He was trying to capture me?” I asked curious
“No their eyes turn red when there burning you with touch but you don’t have a lasting burn mark on you” frantically he searched my hands and face.
I heard my dad gulped this time.
“Lana what happened when he died?” Bill asked.
“Well, he kind of, just started to flick away like ashes from a fire,” I said removing my hands from Quinn’s still searching eye. I was grateful my hungry stomach took that moment to make its demands be known
“I guess it’s time to eat.” I stated as I patted my stomach and jumped up from the table with a picture of a huge roast beef sandwhich on my mind. I was personally quite happy the damn vampire was dead.
I could feel the eyes of all three men watching me as I merrily went around the kitchen in search of food since there didn’t seem to be any roast beef.
“Hey can I cook some eggs?” I asked while my head was still inside the fridge.
“Sure.” Bill said still amazed at my “eased emotional state”. I was being to “calm” about the whole thing. I hadn’t noticed my shields had dropped that much to catch his thoughts, but after hearing that I stood up and glared at him.
“How do you want me to feel? Yes I know what happened last night was beyond terrible, I know I did something monstrous to an evil demon. But will me sitting here sobbing, thinking about how I could have saved Amber really make all of this go away?” I said with one hand on the counter looking at Bill.
“You just read my thoughts?” he asked puzzled and still not listening to me. I through my hands in the air frustrated, beyond all reason.
“Yeah, it was a stray thought. It won’t happen again I know how much you hate it” Bill stomped over to me; put both hands on my shoulder and looked into my eyes like he was trying to figure out a puzzle. I soon realized he was pushing at my shields.
“Owe. Hey you don’t like it when I do that so quit.”
“Lana, I was shielding you from my thoughts just now. You shouldn’t have been able to hear anything.” Since Bill was very experienced in using his ability, I was a little scared.
“Maybe you weren’t shielding as tightly as you should, like I said it was just a stray thought” I pointed out while making my way to the oven. Everyone was watching Bill for an explanation as he sat down stunned.
I ended up making enough food to feed an army. I offered some to the men, but they declined saying they had already eaten. There wasn’t an even a crumb left over, good thing I had a fast metabolisim.
“Got you’re tiger appetite I see,” Quinn said chuckled.
“Yeah, maybe because I changed twice last night. How does that work anyways? I thought we only changed with the full moon” I said as I got up to clear the dishes.
“Usually only the strongest can change at will, there aren’t many of us that can do that without the full moon let alone twice in one night” I had changed in the middle of running to save my dad, no kneeling to the ground involved. I opened shields enough to show Bill what I had done. Bill gave me a gentle smile.
“You are learning how to use your new abilities thought I haven’t heard of anyone doing that before. But you need to be careful, you were seen last night. And now that Byron is no more, the other vampires will be asking a lot of questions,” Bill said.
I didn’t want any more vampires coming around but the thought that I might be stronger than the average weretiger gave me a powerful feeling. I was smiling as I walked into the living room the men followed behind me.
“Okay, so we need to talk about what we are going to do with you Lana,” my dad announced.
“What do you mean” I asked. “Why can’t I go home with you? I mean, that is if you want me to.” I said lowering my head in shame.
“Lana I want you to live with me more than anything, but you can’t anymore not after what happened last night. Your physical appearance is changing to quickly, people will notice.” I would not cry, I would not cry.
“Don’t cry” he said wiping a damn tear from my face.
“I love you. But it isn’t safe for you to be around here anymore, not until this thing with the vampires is dealt with. I would like you to stay with your Uncle Allen until at least next month. It’s secluded, safe and no one knows about it because Allen is paranoid. The full moon fall on your eighteenth birthday, we can be together again then,” he said smiling at me like everything was going to be alright.
“I don’t want to go to Uncle Allen’s. They hate me,” I said sounding like a child even to my ears.
“They don’t hate you. They just don’t know what to make of you. Allen would never let anything happen to you, and he lives far enough out in the country that you can’t get into too much trouble. You can even finish out your school year on home school, I know it is not what you wanted for your senior year, but it is the safest for everyone” he gently stated.
“Please don’t make me do this.” I said hugging him, for what felt like the last time. He held me tight as if he also felt an omunos future ahead . I knew he didn’t want to let go, but he finally pulled away and without looking at me or saying good-bye to anyone, walked out the door.
“He is right,” Bill said standing behind me.
“Allen’s house would be the safest for you right now.” He placed his hand on my shoulder like my father not even telling his only daughter good-bye was ok.
“He can’t say goodbye to you Lana. That would be permanent. He is trying to do the right thing by letting you go.” It didn’t feel like the right thing, it felt like I had been left on the side of the road with nothing but the clothes on my back. Watching Quinn pick up my bags with one hand to carry them to his truck confirmed my thinking.
“Come on babe.” he said taking my hand, gently leading me outside. Feeling the cold water on my face, I realized it was still raining. Quinn opened the driver side door so I could slide into the seat. It felt like the door to my life was just slammed in my face, with a closed for business sign permanently mounted. I didn’t say thank you to Bill or Tanya for their hospitality, being in emotional shock apparently would do that.