Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2004 21:48:44 -0700 (PDT) From: CloseTheCellarDoor Subject: Evil is a Man: Dog Eat Dog No More ---- Chapter 13 AUTHOR'S NOTE After last month's request for e-mails I got an overwhelming volume in response. I'm still trying to respond to you all. Now that I'm certain that there are a good deal of people reading this, I'm going to work hard to finish "Dog Eat Dog No More" as soon as I can. Thanks to everyone who responded. As usual, send comments or suggestions (if you so desire) to "closethecellardoor@yahoo.com." CHAPTER THIRTEEN It had taken all my effort to follow the road to the phone booth, and now I didn't even know who to call. 911 was an attractive option, as my body was cold and weak from the blood loss, but there were two major problems with calling for an ambulance: I was pretty sure that the police would easily be able to connect me with the body in the park bathroom (all they would have to do is follow the trail of blood); secondly I knew at any moment I could possibly start to change into a wolf, and I had no idea what kind of process that was, but I was pretty sure I didn't want to involve any paramedics. I got the urge to call home, call my parents, ask them to come rescue me from this shit, but obviously that idea was discarded as easily as it was formed. I wanted to call the wolves for help less than I wanted to get shot in my other arm, but I knew there was no alternative. There was no way in hell I was going to give in and call Will. Instead, I called the wolf that I had the least amount of dislike for. "Yeah?" Thank God he picked up. "Cougar this is Rick." I slumped down into the phone booth, a shot of dizziness crashing through my head. "Oh, what's up, man? I'm at the grocery store getting--" "Cougar, listen to me," I interrupted, my voice cracking with panic. "I've been bitten. I've been shot. I need you to come pick me up." My vision started to tunnel. "Are you fucking around?" he accused. "No, please, please just come and get me." There was a moment of silence, or perhaps I just couldn't hear anything through the incessant ringing in my ears. "So?" he asked. "So what?" "So, where are you, man? I can't pick you up unless I know where the fuck you are." I tried to focus. Where was I? I had come to this street; there was a gas station nearby. I needed a street sign. I crawled out of the phone booth, trying to make out the signs in an intersection not far away. "Are you okay?" asked Cougar through the receiver. "Hey, are you okay?" asked the woman in the skirt who stopped in front of my body. "You're bleeding!" she shrieked. "Somebody help!" I passed out before my head hit the pavement. ***** "Douglas? Douglas, can you hear me?" I was confused, displaced, and in a great deal of pain. I wanted desperately to go back to sleep. "Douglas, wake up!" I opened my eyes. A middle-aged man with a bushy moustache peered down at me. "Douglas Bellows?" he asked. He was in green scrubs. I was lying in a bed covered with white paper. I was wearing a pale blue gown. Clearly I was in a hospital. "What happened?" I asked. "You were shot, Douglas. In the shoulder." "Why do you keep on calling me Douglas?" I asked. He looked confused. "That's the name on your ID. That isn't your name?" Right, the fake ID in my wallet. "No, it is. I just prefer to be addressed as, uh, Mr. Bellows. Since I barely know you and all." "Oh, I see," he said, obviously thinking me a jackass. "Well, Mr. Bellows. You're lucky to be alive--you could have died from blood loss. The bullet was removed from your flesh, Mr. Bellows. The police are on their way." "The police?" "Yes, Mr. Bellows, the police. They question all patients with gunshot wounds." I rubbed my shoulder. It was bandaged and numb, but there was a cold sort of pain permeating it. I couldn't easily move my arm. "Now, about your foot," said the doctor. "You seem to have a dog bite. Do you remember being bitten by a large dog, Mr. Bellows?" My foot hurt like hell, more so than my arm. In fact, I was having a hard time moving my leg. "Yeah, I remember that," I said, trying to create a story in my foggy head that would explain that bite. "Do you remember if the dog was showing any signs of being rabid, Mr. Bellows?" "Yes, well, no, actually." I said, not at all sure if I wanted them to diagnose me as rabid. He frowned at me. A large crash came from outside, followed by yelling. "Shit, mothafucka, let's do this right here!" I heard a distant, angry voice yell. "I'll fuck you up, man, I'll fuck you up!" replied another voice. A woman stuck her head into the room. "We need help," he said, out of breath. The doctor ran with her out the door. "What's going on?" "I don't know, they must have been rival gang members or something..." her voice trailed off down that hall. In the distance I could still hear yelling, more crashes. Before I could try and guess what the hell was going on, Case snuck into the room with one eye over his shoulder. "You look like shit," he said with an easy smile. "Case, thank god," I said. I hadn't forgotten everything he had done to me--how could I possibly? But right now he was something familiar and safe in a rage on uncertainties. Matt followed a second later, pushing a wheel-chair into the room. "We got like five seconds before they come back," he said. Case started lifting me up, pulling off all the monitors they had attached to me. An digital alarm sounded when my heart monitor went flat. "We're getting you out of here," he said. He yanked out my IV out of my wrist. "Ow, that hurt!" "Sorry." Case lifted me up and set me down in the chair. "Let's go," he said. "Wait, my wallet. Grab my wallet," I said. Case grabbed it from the table as Matt started to cart me down the hall. "Where is everybody," I said. "Cougar and Malcolm created a little distraction," said Matt. They pushed me out of the ER into the parking lot. Night had appeared sometime when I was asleep. "How did you find me?" "Cougar told us what you told him," said Case. "Then it was as easy as calling around to the various hospitals." The Chevy was waiting for me with the engine running and Russ behind the wheel. Case lifted me into the backseat and got in after me. Matt jumped in the front. "Where are those fucks?" asked Russ, drumming his fingers against the steering wheel. "They'll be here," said Matt. "Where's Will?" I asked. Case shrugged. "He's been gone all evening. He has no idea." "No, of course he doesn't," I said with hidden sarcasm. "Here they come," said Matt. The back opened and Malcolm and Cougar jumped in, lying flat to avoid being seen by security. "Go, go!" yelled Malcolm. "Woo-hoo, we did it!" hollered Matt. Russ drove off out of the parking lot and onto the street. I leaned back into my seat, feeling woozy. "Are you hanging in there?" asked Case, putting a comforting hand on my shoulder. "Yeah, I'm okay. I think." "How did this happen?" he asked. "Who bit you? Who shot you?" I told him and the rest of them about the agent who had been stalking me, about going to meet him in the park, about what he told me. I told them about the wolf that bit me, about the man failing to kill me, and about me succeeding in killing him. It made for a riveting story in a horrible sort of way. "It's a damn good thing you called Cougar when you did," said Case. "Otherwise, none of us would have known anything and you'd still be in that hospital. You'll start turning soon." When we got back home, they carried me inside, where Will was sitting in the living room, probably anxiously awaiting my return. "What the hell happened to him?" asked Will as he strode towards me. They set me down in the living room and surrounded me until all I saw were a bunch of faces peering down at me. "He was bitten by a wolf and shot by a man," summed up Matt. "Bitten? Jesus Christ!" Will was a good actor, but I could still tell he was acting. He wouldn't admit the truth as long as there was a chance he would lose me for it. "Shocked?" I asked him, raising an eyebrow. "Yes! Absolutely." His words seemed to me to be covered in slime. Will was smooth, and I knew I would gain nothing by outright accusing him. He was the alpha for petesake. Biting me wasn't against the wolf rules; there would be no retribution for his crime. If I wanted revenge, I'd have to wait quietly and take it on my own terms. "So who the fuck bit him?" asked Cougar. "There must be wolves in the city that we just haven't seen yet," said Will. "They could live in the park." I almost laughed at this preposterous rationalization. "I think we need to at least consider," said Case, looking from face to face. "That one of us might be responsible." Yes! Case was had the intelligence to dig for the truth. "What? How is that possible?" asked Will, of course refusing to acknowledge this option. "Case is right," said Russ. "Anyone one of us could have just followed the kid to the park." Malcolm pointed an accusatory finger at Cougar. "You weren't here. Where the fuck did you go?" He was barking up the wrong tree. "I was at the motherfuckin grocery store, man." "Yeah? How do we know that?" asked Malcolm. "And what about you, Will?" asked Russ, obviously suspicious. "Where did you say you were?" "I didn't. I was out having a few drinks. Anyway, I don't have to explain myself to you." "You're one to talk, Russ," chimed in Matt. "I didn't see you all afternoon." "I was in the fucking gym. Where were you?" "Alright, that's enough!" said Case. "There's no point in accusing each other like this. If someone's trying to keep something from us, now's the time to come clean." Case looked around from person to person. Everyone was silent. Will didn't even flinch. "Then we have to assume it wasn't one of us," said Case. I didn't care what lie the rest of them chose to believe. I knew who the culprit was and that's all that mattered. My anger shifted suddenly into nausea. Knowing I needed to vomit, I sat up and crawled passed Matt and Malcolm towards the stairs and the upstairs bathroom. I only got as far as the entry-way before I emptied the acidic bile from my stomach onto the floor in several painful heaves. "Oh, that's rank, man," said Cougar. "It starts," said Will. After I was done, I collapsed onto the floor, feeling absolutely ill and exhausted. I shut my eyes, unable to move. Case put his hand on my forehead. "He's starting to burn," he said. "What should we do with him?" asked Matt. "Put him in the kennel, of course," answered Case. "Otherwise he'll destroy half the house." Somebody lifted me over their shoulder and took me down to the kennel. "What's happening to me?" I managed to say once they had put me down. "You're beginning to turn," said Case. "There's nothing more painful, unfortunately." "But no matter how fucked up you feel, even when you think you couldn't possibly survive this shit, just know that you will live," said Will. Matt set the bucket down next to my head. "Here, try to hurl in this can. Just ignore the smell, Malcolm never washed it out." "You were supposed to wash it out, motherfucker!" The cement floor felt cold and uncomfortable under my body. "I want to go to bed!" I yelled. "I know, I know," said Case. "But you have to stay here, where you'll be safe." I tried to argue, tried to ask more questions, but I only managed to mumble bits of nothing before passing out once again. ***** After drifting through nervous, agitated dreams I woke up, my hospital gown drenched in sweat, and I vomited into the bucket. My whole body ached, and I was so hot I was sure it was a hundred and fifty degrees in the room. I noticed Will on the other side of the bars, a lighted cigar in his mouth, watching me. Of course he was watching me. He was interested in his investment; he was making sure his latest project went smoothly. I crashed back onto the floor and fell asleep. I woke up twice more to vomit, and several times more with fits of dry heaving. There was nothing left in my stomach anymore for me to throw up. The dreams were getting worse, nothing literal or logical, just broken little fragments of nothing that were often seeped in violence or aggression. ***** After many hours of sickness I woke up from a dream screaming with pain. Pain everywhere inside me, pain so intense it blurred my vision. My skin was burning. It felt like the fever had escalated so much that my skin had actually ignited. I started scratching at it, scratching made it feel better. I ripped off my gown and scratched everywhere I could reach. I seemed to slip in and out of consciousness, but I never stopped scratching. One time I woke up and looked at my hands with horror. Small, sharp claws had started to form on my fingertips. I returned to my frantic scratching, slicing and cutting at my skin. But I didn't care. I just kept on scratching compulsively. Cutting through my skin was somehow satisfying to me. Fur started to appear, buried deep in my skin, covered in matted red blood. I kept on scratching. Sometime later I awoke again with another bout of shooting pain. I screamed, feeling like I was going to burst open. Then I realized that's exactly what was happening. The bones inside of me were growing, so much so that they began cutting through my skin. I was bleeding everywhere, and it did pass through my mind that it would be impossible for me to survive this. I passed out again. ***** Sometime later my fragmented dream focused onto something real. Me, asleep in bed. Except it wasn't me, he didn't look anything like me, this young man. Without waking this doppelganger took everything of me into himself. A simple and complete theft that left me empty and ravaged. I hated him entirely--hate was all I had anymore. ***** When I woke up I was already on my feet. I stood taller than before, somewhere in between man and beast. Skin was starting to grow and cover my open wounds, but I could still see the white of an occasional bone shine through. I was angry. I wanted nothing more than to wreak havoc. I kicked over the bucket, spilling my vomit all over the floor. But that wasn't enough. I went to the bars. There was Will, standing on the other side in the darkness. The glow from his cigar brightened with each inhale and illuminated his face. I wanted him right now. I wanted him dead. I wanted to tear him to pieces. I pulled at the bars in front of me. I pushed and I slammed and I roared. Nothing seemed to help. My mouth ignited in pain. Sharp, canine teeth were breaching through my gums. I bit at the bar in front of me, trying to saw it in two with my jagged teeth. But this didn't work either. Eventually I fell back to the floor, exhausted. ***** When I woke up the next time I was lying on a soft mattress. I opened my eyes. I was in Will's bed, naked between the sheets, and freshly bathed. The pain and sickness had gone. The orange light coming through the window told me it was either dusk or dawn. But just looking around the room, the power of my vision shocked and disturbed me. Everything looked different and alien to me, although I knew logically that nothing had changed. Will was in the room with me, talking on his cell phone. He had his back turned to me; he didn't know that I was awake. "I know what you told me," he was saying. "But there's no point cryin over spilt milk, is there?" "Your incompetence disgusts me, Will." It was Hadrian's voice coming through Will's phone, a sound that gave me chills. "Just one simple thing I ask of you, and you fuck it up entirely." I was amazed that I could hear his voice so clearly from the phone. Then I realized how many other noises I could hear. Cars, so many cars. The TV downstairs. Water in the pipes. I was experiencing sensory overload, and I quickly shut all of the irrelevant sounds out. "Yeah, well, he's a wolf now, and nothing's gonna change that." "You should kill him now, before he wakes up." I hated Hadrian, he was pure evil. But at least his villainy was transparent. In that way, Will was a worse enemy to me. "I'm not gonna kill him," said Will. "Fine. You make your own mistakes. But you don't know what happens when one of the gifted gets turned. He could be powerful. Real fucking powerful." I realized I could smell Will. A weird mix of the sweat on his skin, his armpits, his crotch, the vague smokiness of his breath--all of it combined to form a very distinctive smell. I could also smell my own body, not unlike Will's but with slight variations. Other smells drifted through my nostrils; the toothpaste from the bathroom, the cigars in their box on his dresser, his deodorant in the drawer, the dusty smell of the air coming through the vent, Will's sweat all over the sheets that were all over me. "I thought he lost his powers?" asked Will. "Yeah, he lost all his powers as a slayer. He'll never be as powerful as he could have been. But, if he works at it, he could be one damn powerful wolf. I'm talking as strong as you or me, only it won't take him years to get there. It'll happen fast." "Yeah, so he'll be strong? What's the problem with that?" "If we have his allegiance, then nothing. But if he turns on us, he could do some real damage." "We have his allegiance," said Will confidently, the presumptuous jackass. "Make sure he knows that if he leaves your pack, the vampires will kill him. The blood-suckers are killing wolves all over the world, and he'll be no exception. Any wolf who tries to go at it alone will inevitably die." "He knows that." "What about this Bridge rubbish you told me about?" asked Hadrian. "Are they coming back for him?" "No chance in hell. He killed one of their agents, and they exist only to kill wolves and vampires, not befriend them." "Then he's bound to us, like we are all bound to each other. Not out of trust but out of necessity." He was right. "Perhaps he should come here to stay with me in London." "No fuckin way." "My pack is much bigger than yours. It's safe here. America is not the place to be right now." "I said, no fuckin way. He's staying here with me." "Fine. You're his alpha, you decide." I got up. He turned to face me as soon as I ruffled the sheets. "He's awake now. I'm going." Will hung up. I walked over to my bag and put on a pair of boxers. The fabric felt somehow more textured than it did before. "You're up," said Will. "I'm up." I kept on dressing, not wanting to look him in the eye. "That was Hadrian on the phone just now." "I heard," I said. "Where are you going?" he asked. "I'm starving," I said, being completely honest. "I need to eat." "I'll come with you," he said. "I'd rather be alone," I said. "Really? Okay." I grabbed my things, carrying them towards the door. "Why are you taking all your shit?" "I'm gonna start sleeping downstairs again." "What the hell for?" I turned to face him. "Look, Will. We've had our fun while I was human, but I'm a wolf now. You hold no interest for me anymore. We're through." He stood their, speechless for a moment. I turned and carried my stuff through the door. "Well, fuck you too then," he said. I kept walking. ***** I took a bite of the ravioli from a can that had become my dinner. The taste was strong and overwhelming--I almost gagged. It was going to take some time for me to get used to being a wolf. As I ate, I thought about what my best course of action was. I hated this house and all the people in it. I wanted to just pack my stuff and leave here forever. But Hadrian had been right. If I tried to go out there on my own, I would be quickly killed. I was a wolf now, and wolves weren't solitary creatures. I needed these guys, unless of course I wanted to fly to London and join Hadrian's pack. That seemed worse to me than staying here. I may have hated the wolves in my den, but at least I knew them inside and out. Especially now that I knew Will's true colors, I was confident that there were no surprises left among the personalities of these men. Obviously, I was angry. From the moment Will sunk his teeth into my ankle, anger started to overshadow all of my other emotions. Now it was the focus of all my motivation. All of them had done me wrong, and I wanted revenge on each and every one of them. But mostly, I wanted revenge on Will. After Hadrian's conversation I knew how I would get it. I would train like hell and fight my way to alpha. Once I had usurped Will's position, I'd be free to retaliate against him any way I saw fit. Perhaps I'd banish him from this den, from this city. I'd never have to see his manipulative, lying face again, and he'd have to face the danger of being out there on his own. If he died out there, I wouldn't pity him. Or maybe, I'd save the vampires the trouble and kill him myself. Once I was alpha that would be in my right to do. No one would question me. It was a bit extreme, but he had killed the human, gifted part of me, so really the punishment seemed fit. But whether or not he deserved it, I didn't know whether I could stomach killing him. I knew I would never forget the image of the man I killed in the bathroom, the blood pouring out of his eye after the bullet hit him. It was nothing short of stomach-cringing horror. I pushed the ravioli away from me. The red sauce reminded me too much of the man's blood. I was not a killer. Was I? I recalled back to when Will told me how he killed the man who killed his father. He told me that I should be prepared to kill anyone who fucked with me. When the time came, would I be able to take his own advice and kill him for his betrayal? I couldn't answer that now. Anyway, I had five fights in front of me before I needed to make that decision. My revenge on Will would have to be put on the back burner for now. Case came into kitchen as I was washing my dishes. He was surprised to see me. "I didn't know you were up yet," he said. I didn't say anything. "You must have a lot of questions. If you want, I can show you how to morph." He was being nice to me, but this was the same man that had taken advantage of my trust not once but twice. I wasn't about to offer it to him again. "Look, Case, I know that you orchestrated my rescue from the hospital, and I'm thankful for that. But if you think that me being a wolf means we can suddenly be friends again, you're wrong." "Everyone needs friends, kid," he said. "Not me. I don't need them." I walked passed him towards the exit, and then turned around to face him. "And nobody needs a friend like you, Case." I walked out and went to bed, once again on the old couch in the study. I considered enacting my authority over Cougar and booting him out of the small room upstairs, but that would have been a rude insult to Cougar. So, even though I made our agreement under different circumstances, I stuck with my word. ***** The awkwardness of my wolf body wore off in the next several days. I got used the heightened sensory capacity I seemed to have, and even began to enjoy it. I was still fast, maybe not quite as fast as I had been before, but still much faster than a man would have been. From the weights I was lifting, I figured I was about as strong as before. Other things were different. My reflexes seemed a bit improved, but my stamina was lower. Also, while it had been a necessity before to fan the fires of my aggression when training, now aggression seemed to be my natural state of mind. I didn't know if that was a wolf trait or just the natural reaction to all the anger I was feeling. Anger and aggression together kept me downstairs in the gym, training through every spare second. I never had been so dedicated to anything in my life. I was determined to be as strong as I possibly could. The others would occasionally cross my path. Case and I weren't speaking. Russ and Malcolm would invariably say something demeaning to me, and I tried my best to ignore them. Matt and Cougar mostly avoided me, whether intentionally or just because they rarely worked out in the gym, I don't know. Will tended to avoid me as well. When we did come into contact, he was cool and mildly hostile. He must have been awfully bitter--here he had turned me into a wolf so that he could possess me, and yet as soon as I was turned, I refused to be his possession. I hoped he regretted his decision. I hoped he knew instead of retaining a lover he had acquired an enemy. ***** One night after another long day of training, I washed my weary body in the shower on the 2nd story. As I soaped up my skin, my attention fell on my dick. It had been lying, unused for several days now. Before I turned, sex had been a daily event. Now, sex was the last thing on my mind. Not that my sexual drive was dwindling, actually it was just as active as ever. But, when you've recently killed someone, been shot, and tuned into a werewolf, sex just doesn't rank high on your list of concerns. I thought about jacking off in the shower, but thought it better not to. The bathroom door didn't have a lock. I was thankful for that decision when a few minutes later Cougar opened the door and stepped right into the bathroom. "Hey--Oh." He seemed startled to see me naked in the shower. "Sorry, man. Thought you were Matt." He turned to go. "Wait up," I said. He peered at me awkwardly, half in and half out of the bathroom. "If had been Matt, what would you have done?" "Nothing, man," he answered defensively. "Just take a piss, that's all." I nodded to the toilet. "You can take a piss. I don't mind." "Okay, cool." He shut the door and walked over to the toilet. With a quick zip of his jeans, his dick was out in his hand and he started to piss. There it was, the cock that looked almost identical to my own. After he had finished and put his dick back in his pants, he said, "Watch it, I'm gonna flush." The shower water turned steaming hot as the piss went down the bowl. He noticed that I didn't try to avoid the hot water. "Isn't it hot?" he asked. "I don't mind it," I said. He shrugged and turned to go. "Later then," he said. "Cougar, wait," I said before he could put his hand on the doorknob. He turned around to look at me. "I haven't given you an order since I beat you, do you realize that?" He shrugged. "Yeah, so?" "So here's my first order for you. I want to help me out. I want you to jack me off." It took all my courage for me to get those words out. "What? That's sick, man. Fuck no." "You made me do it to you," I reminded him. "Yeah, but I didn't think you'd ever..." "What? You didn't think I'd ever outrank you? Well, that's just too bad. I outrank you now, and you have to do what I say." He stood there motionless for a second. "Are you really gonna make me do this?" he asked. "Yes." He took a big gulp and walked to the edge of the shower. "Alright, jackass. Let's get this over with." He looked down at my dick. "Shit, man, you're not even hard." "Get some lotion on you're hand," I said. While he did that, I played with my cock in my hand until it was erect. "Okay, go ahead." When his hand wrapped around my cock, I could have sworn it released an electrical shock into my skin. Cougar turned his head away as he started to stroke me, looking straight ahead into the mirror. Then, obviously not wanting to look at himself either, he proceeded to clamp his eyes shut. I, on the other hand, was determined to look. I watched his hand covering my cock, his strokes feeling so much more incredible than anything I had ever done with my own hand. I realized with a certain amount of glee that this was the first time anyone had ever done this to me. If I tried, I could have held back my orgasm to extend my pleasure, but I didn't want to torture Cougar more than I already was. When I started to shudder with climax I just let it come, gasping as I shot into the wet floor of the bathtub. Immediately Cougar's hand was off my dick. He washed his hands in the sink with plenty of soap. "Why'd you make me do that, man?" he asked, bitterly. "I had to. Or else I'd never respect you again." He dried his hands. "Alright. We're even then." "Even," I said. He pointed his finger at me. "Never make me do that again." "I won't." He left the bathroom, and I continued my shower, feeling satisfied in more ways than one. ***** I knocked on Will's door. He opened it up; behind it he was just wearing a pair of jeans. He looked at me coldly, waiting for me to say something. "I'm challenging Matt this Friday," I told him. "Whoop-de-fucking-do." He started to slam the door shut again. "Aren't you going to go tell him?" I asked. "Tell him your damn self." He slammed the door. I found Matt watching TV in his stupid recliner. I promised myself that when I was alpha I'd burn that chair and make him watch me do it. "I'm fighting you on Friday," I said. "I just let Will know." He almost choked on his soda as he started to laugh. "You serious, little man?" he asked me. I nodded. "I beat Cougar. I'm not as weak as you think, Matt." He gave me a disbelieving smile. "You only beat Cougar cause of that weird shit you pulled. You're just a fucking wolf now, kid, an inexperienced, smaller than average wolf. You sure you don't want to back out?" "I know what I have to do," I said. "Fine, then. I'll hand you your ass on Friday, if that's what you want." "Just tell me the form, Matt." He smiled. "We'll fight like true werewolves. See if you can hang with the big dogs." "Fine. See you then, Matt." The fight was on. Only problem was I wasn't exactly confident that I'd be able to beat him. ***** "I need you to teach me how to morph," I asked Cougar, following him around as he delivered a load of clean laundry to various rooms. Ever since I had beaten him, he started getting the shit work around the house that I had grown accustomed to. "You haven't done it yet?" he asked. "Not yet." Truth was, after the extreme pain of turning, I had been reluctant to try and morph. I wasn't a big fan of extreme pain. "But I challenged Matt to a fight on Friday and we're fighting were to were." "Look, man," he said, delivering Malcolm's clothes to his empty room. "I'm not much of a teacher. Why don't you ask someone else?" "You don't understand," I said. "You're the only one in the house that I don't hate." "What the fuck, dude? Why do you hate everyone all of the sudden?" "Because they've treated me like shit. I don't want to talk about it. Just please, please help me." He sighed. "Okay, whatever man." A few minutes later we were in the gym together, beginning my instruction. "Okay, uh--you're gonna have to take your clothes off, dude," said Cougar, blushing a little. I could tell he was a little tense as I stripped naked, probably because the last time he had seen me nude, things didn't end up in his favor. "Now what?" I asked. "What first? Wolf or werewolf?" "Werewolf," I said. He nodded. "It's real easy. Completely mental and shit." He pointed to his head, as if I wouldn't understand the word `mental' without this helpful gesture. "You just have to feel like, like there's something inside of you that wants out. Something big, something that's ready to do some fuckin damage, ya know?" I shut my eyes and concentrated on letting that beast within me out. I found it inside of me, a vague sort of voice demanding to be let out. "Good," he said when he saw my body start to change. "That's it, just let it break loose." I couldn't help but yell as the pain of the transformation took hold, but as the seconds passed, the yell sunk into a deep roar. For a moment, I thought my expanding bones would rip right through my skin, but they didn't. Other things did burst through my skin: claws, a tail, and fur everywhere. When it was done, when the pain was just a vivid memory, the strangest part of this new shape was my new head. I had a long muzzle with a wet nose at its end, sharp teeth and a long, rubbery tongue. My eyes had moved more to the side of my head than my front, giving me an oddly extended peripheral vision. The pointy ears on my head seemed to move around almost on their own, perking up of flattening depending on my state of mind. "Badass," said Cougar, nodding with a smile on his face. "You look just like I do." I took a tentative step. Compared with my normal super-human speed, this form left me feeling slow and cumbersome. Oh well, I knew the advantage of the werewolf was in its strength, not its speed. "Okay, dude, try to turn into a wolf now," said Cougar. "It's kinda similar, but kinda not." I tried to say, "thanks for that brilliant analysis," but all that came out of my muzzle was an odd growl. "Again, you need to let out that creature inside of you, but this time, you have to feel more scared about it, you know?" No, I had no idea what he was getting at. Thankfully he continued. "Like you want to shrink into nothing, like you want to run away and hide." I concentrated, finding another voice within me, one ready to take flight. The morph that followed was just as painful as the last. I shrunk so fast it felt like I was going to suffocate, dropping instinctually to my hands as they turned more definitively into paws. "There ya go," said Cougar when I had finished. Being a wolf wasn't all that different feeling from being a werewolf. The biggest difference, I thought, was the oddness of being smaller than I had been ever since I was a child. I thought that using four legs would be awkward and confusing, but my reflexes took over as I walked around the room, and I realized that four legs seemed just as natural to me as two. "And to shift back to normal," said Cougar. "That's the easiest. You just--yeah, you got it." I had already begun to morph back. It was simply a matter of burying the beast back inside of me. "There," said Cougar, when I stood in front of him again a man. "You know everything I know now. I'm heading back up." "Thanks, Cougar," I said as I climbed the stairs. I quickly turned back into my werewolf form, spending the rest of the night getting used to this new skin, running, swiping, clawing, and biting at an invisible enemy in the gym. ***** The next evening, Cougar interrupted my stoic preparation for my fight with Matt. "You need to get out," said Cougar. "All you ever fucking do is work out." "I need to train," I said. "Come on, take a break. We'll go get drunk tonight. It's been forever since we've done that." While I knew I needed more practice, Cougar's request seemed reasonable. I hadn't left the house since I had turned, and what's more, I hadn't done anything social since that point either. If Cougar was offering, I was going to accept. "Fine," I said. "Let's go." "Should I invite Matt?" he asked, teasingly raising an eyebrow. "Please no." He laughed. "I don't know why you hate him so much all of the sudden, but whatever. He's been getting on my nerves lately anyway. Honestly I hope you kick his ass this Friday." I nodded appreciatively. Cougar wanted to go to our usual dive, but I wanted to go somewhere nicer for a change. I outranked him, so in spite of his sulky quarreling, I made him go where I chose. As we walked down 2nd street, looking for a possible club to go into, I got my first smell of regular old non-wolves. "They smell real different than us," I said to Cougar. "Not as strong, and just different." "Yeah, well they're humans, they're supposed to smell different." Three women walked passed us. "Mmm-mmm. Can you smell them?" The women did have a different smell than their male counterparts. It was a combination of their crotches, their perfume, and the fragrant shampoo in their hair. "Yeah, sure can," I said. Cougar was obviously more into their scent that I was. I picked out a club and we started to drink. After the beers started to pile up, Cougar's boasting and bantering became as sharp as ever, while I could barely keep up. He decided to break up the monotony of beer by getting us shots of Tequila. "Here ya go, man," he said, putting the shot in front of me. "Oh no," I said, remembering how much I hated Tequila. "I don't like shots." He looked exasperated as he finished his own shot. "What the fuck's the matter with you? You don't drink shots, you don't eat pussy. Please, for my sake at least, dislodge the stick from your ass and try something new." How could I say no to that? I took my shot, the alcohol tasting bad but less so now that I was already buzzed. "You know what I like about you, Cougar?" I asked. "Uh-oh. I don't want to hear it, just when you start acting like a man, then you start getting all sappy." "I'm not being sappy." I decided to tell him regardless of his complaints. "You always just outright insult me, and technically, I outrank you. You do the same to the rest of them too, even though you know they could beat your ass at any moment. That's pretty cool." He laughed. "That's not true. I hardly ever fuck around with Russ, and never with Will. Those two would beat my ass if I did." Once my buzz had started to fade and it felt like it was about time for us to head home, a strange, sharp smell hit me suddenly. I looked towards the door at its source. "Fuck, man," said Cougar. "A vampire." He was a good-looking man with a manicured goatee and a signature stylish suit. But what really made him stick out to me was his smell. There was an odd spiciness to his sweat that was hard to describe but very apparent to my sensitive nose. "Should we go?" asked Cougar. "Wait," I said. "I want to see what he does." Cougar sighed impatiently as I watched the vampire order a drink. This wasn't like that vacant vampire that Will and I encountered, this one seemed to have a purpose. Soon, he was drifting around from woman to woman. "He's picking up chicks, man," said Cougar. "He just wants to get laid, let's go." "Wait." The vampire found an attractive blonde woman who was sitting at the bar by herself, slowly drinking a colorful cocktail. He must have said something charming because she smiled and asked him to sit down. They started to talk, but their voices were drowned out by the rest of the crowd. Then, he was buying her another drink. "Look at that stud go," said Cougar. "We should do something," I whispered. "Warn her or something." "There's nothing we can do with him right there." After a few minutes they were leaving together. I got up to follow them. "Are you fucking nuts man?" Cougar asked when he realized what I was doing. "I just want to see where they go." Cougar huffed all the way out of the bar, but he still came. We ended up following them as they walked arm in arm a few blocks into a residential area. The woman was clearly heavily intoxicated; he was supporting her and pulling her along the whole way there. But she was the one leading, telling him where to go. Cougar and I stayed a long distance behind, out of sight completely. "This is plain retarded, man," whined Cougar as the couple turned a corner ahead of us. When we turned the corner, the woman was pulling the man into a house by the tie around his neck. "Look, he's going inside," I said. The lights of the house flicked on. "What do you think he's gonna do to her?" I asked. He shrugged, obviously uninterested and annoyed that I had dragged him out here. "I'd say he's going to fuck her." "That's it?" "I don't know, man." I was concerned. "Can a vampire drink someone's blood without killing them?" "I don't know." I didn't believe him and I made it clear with my eyes. "Really, I don't!" I started to walk towards the house. "Come on," I said. "You're not really thinking about going in there, are you?" "I just want to have a look through the windows. If they're just having sex, we'll go." "And if not?" "You think we could scare him away?" I asked. "I don't know. Maybe. Vampires are just like wolves, they get stronger with age. What if it's an old fuckin vampire? What then?" But I was already at the window, looking through the opening in the curtains. There they were in the living room. Both of them had discarded their clothing, and he was on top of her on the carpet, obviously copulating. "See? They're just fucking," whispered Cougar. "No, they're not. Look." He had his mouth plastered to her throat, and the way her eyes were shut and her head tilted back, I was sure she was unconscious. "He's going to kill her," I told Cougar. I started walking towards the door. "I can't just watch. I'm going in." "Aw, fuckin shit, man. I can't let you go alone. Hold on, let me get these clothes off." He started to undress in the flowerbed. "No time!" I tried the knob of the door. It was locked. Could I break down the door if I tried? I rammed against it hard with my shoulder. I heard the sound of wood cracking, but the door held. I rammed it again, harder. The door flew open. I ran into the house. The vampire had gotten up off of her by the time I ran into the living room. He stood their over her body, naked except for the blood dribbling down his chin and the look of angry surprise on his face. "I don't want to fight you," I said. "Just leave her alone, and get the hell out of here." "Who the fuck are you?" he asked, his face lowering into an evil sneer. "The big bad wolf?" I held out my arm and started to morph. He looked at my arm expanding in my sleeve. "A new dog to play with," he said. Then, he charged me, tackling me, hitting me. I forgot about morphing and my body quickly went back to my normal state. I tried to fight back, but he was so much stronger and faster than I was. I heard glass breaking, and looked to see Cougar the werewolf burst through the window and land gracefully on his feet, apparently being smart enough to morph outside. He growled and snarled and knocked the vampire off of me. The vampire retreated into the kitchen but Cougar gave chase. Cougar tried to hit him, but he ran around, darting from here to there, tossing every dish and pan he could get his hands on at Cougar. When I had gotten back to my feet and started the painful process of morphing again, the vampire had a large knife in his hand. With a couple of careful attacks, Cougar was sliced and bleeding all over the kitchen floor. My body burst through my clothes as I finished taking shape. I ran into the kitchen and knocked the vampire off Cougar before he could drive the blade into his throat. The vampire felt at his forehead. My claws had left four bloody gashes across him. He stuck his fingers into his mouth, licking the blood as he smiled obscenely. He screamed, holding the knife out, and came at me with all of his speed. I knew he was too fast for me to dodge his thrust. All I could do was open the refrigerator door, using it as a shield in front of my body. It worked; he smashed into the other side of the door instead of me, dropping the knife. I shut the door and kicked the knife aside. He came at me again, trying to tackle me, but I held him at bay. "Don't let him bite you!" yelled Cougar. Both me and the vampire looked at Cougar, who had changed back into a man, and whose wounds had healed. I pushed the vampire away from me before he even had the chance to bite into me. The vampire paused, looking from Cougar to me. Then, he turned on his heels and ran out through the same window Cougar had used as an entrance. I panted, changing back to my normal state. "We did it! Are you okay?" He grabbed the bloody the knife on the floor and handed it to me. "We have to go after it," he said. "Why? It ran off, isn't that enough?" He grabbed a knife for himself. "It's seen our faces. We have to kill it before it tells the others like it what we look like." "Kill it?" I asked. "Now you're talking crazy. It almost killed us, Cougar, we're not going to be able to kill it." "We have to at least try. Come on. Even when we're in this form, he'll still be faster." Cougar ran through the window and I followed him. Thank god the street was deserted. I don't even want to guess what any bystander would have thought of seeing two naked, bloody pedestrians running with knives in their hands. "Can you smell it?" asked Cougar as we ran. "Can you follow his trail?" I could smell him, just slightly, and my nose knew Cougar was leading us in the right direction. Just when I thought we'd never catch up with him, we followed his scent into an alley. He had probably ran into it in attempt to avoid the commercial center that was coming up ahead on the street we were on. Even a vampire, I reasoned, wanted to avoid being seen running naked and bloody through the street. But running into the alley was his mistake--it was a dead end. As soon as he realized this, he turned around, but there Cougar and I were, at the entrance, running towards him with our knives leading the way. The vampire kept on running to the back brick wall, and then started to scale it, using the mortar between the bricks as hand and foot holds. I was positive I would not be able to follow him. Cougar must have realized the same thing, because he dropped the knife and morphed back into a werewolf. With his extra height, he was able to leap high into the air and grab the vampire's feet, pulling him down. Cougar threw himself upon him, not letting him move. Cougar bit into the vampire's cheek as he screamed in pain, but then vampire gave Cougar a bite of his own, right into his furry neck. Instantly, Cougar rolled his eyes in back of his head and fell onto the vampire. I was shocked, Cougar had just suffered a small bite. I clutched my knife in my hand. I had to act, I didn't want to kill the thing, but I had to do something before it did anything worse to Cougar. The vampire laughed sinisterly. "Really, you must be out of your minds, both of you." He tried to get out from under Cougar, but he was completely stuck. As he struggled, I knew what I had to do. I ran towards them, screaming, and gave three sharp hacks to the vampire's neck. He stopped smiling before the third hack, when his head became no longer attached to his body. I dropped the knife and backed into the wall, the horror of my action hitting me. I was disturbed, but I had done what had to be done. I shook Cougar until he woke up. He looked around, dazed, before he turned back into a man. As soon as he noticed his dick was pressed against the dick of a decapitated vampire, he jumped off of him. "Son of a bitch stunned me," he said. "Who killed him?" "I did," I said. "No shit? You actually had the balls to cut off his head?" I nodded as he patted me on the shoulder. "What should we do with the body?" I asked. He lifted up the guy's head by the hair. "We'll take this. The rest will just seem like an ordinary body." "You're just going to carry around the guy's head?" I asked, following Cougar out of the alley. "Why not?" We trotted back to the woman's house and went back inside. I checked her vitals while Cougar found a garbage bag for the head. "She's okay," I said. "Should we call an ambulance?" "No," he said. "She's just stunned. She'll snap out of it eventually, just like I did." He started putting on his clothes, which he had neatly placed in the bushes before morphing in the first place. I looked at the tattered remains of my own clothes on the floor. "What the heck am I going to wear?" I asked him. I left that house wearing a very stylish suit that was several sizes too large for me. ***** The next morning Cougar's tale of how we (well, mostly HE) killed a vampire and saved its victim from certain death had spread through the entire house. Will called a den meeting that morning, and as I walked into the dining room to take a seat, Cougar was still bragging about how he had jumped through the window and came to my rescue. I sat down, and everyone seemed to ignore me. "Full moon's tomorrow," said Will, and at the sound of his voice everyone else shut up. I hadn't realized it was so soon. "Anybody got any potentials?" "I do," said Malcolm. "Who ya got?" Malcolm picked at his teeth. "Three drug dealers from West Philly." "Now that Rick's here we'll need four," said Case. Malcolm sat back and raised an eyebrow. "You want four, I'll get you four." The gravity of the situation compelled me to speak. "Wait a second," I said. "You're going to kill these guys just because their drug dealers?" Malcolm glared at me. "They're bad motherfuckers, those four." Case stepped in, looking at me. "When we kill, we try to scrape the scum off the bottom of the human population," he said. "Yeah, but, how do you know these guys deserve to die?" It became apparent to me how ironic it was; last night I had saved the life of a vampire's victim, and tomorrow I'd be taking the life of my own. Will's voice came clear and angry. "Rick, do you have any replacements to offer?" I looked down. "No." "Do you suggest we just grab four random souls off the street?" "No, but--" "That's it. I don't want to hear anymore complaining." He looked at Malcolm. "I'm putting you in charge tomorrow. Take whoever you need with you." Malcolm nodded. "Dismissed," said Will. ***** The next morning Cougar, Malcolm and I were driving through West Philly, trying to find our first target victim. Malcolm haphazardly tossed me a heavy handgun. "You know what to do with that?" he asked as he gave another to Cougar. I looked at the gun. It was different than the other one I had handled, but still navigable. "Yes. This would have been useful the other night with that vampire." "No, it wouldn't have," said Cougar, peering back at me from the steering wheel. "Bullets aren't much more than an annoyance to vampires and us wolves. They won't pierce our bones, you know. And the only way a bullet can really do any damage to an organ if it gets lodged into it. That's why vampires always fight with swords and shit." "Remember, the guns are just to scare them," said Malcolm. "They'll do what we tell them to when they see one of these pointed at their faces. But we're not gonna kill them just yet." He nodded at me. "You know how to knock them out without killing them?" I shook my head; I had no idea. Malcolm looked annoyed. "Cougar pull over. I don't want this fuckhead messing this shit up." He pointed his gun at me. "You. Drive." Cougar and I switched positions in the Chevy, which I was thankful for because it meant I didn't ever have to leave the car that day. This is what our day consisted of: first, we would track down one of our potential victims by staking out their homes or places of work until we were sure they were there. Then, Cougar and Malcolm would attack the victim, knock him out, and drag him into the Chevy. For three of them, the attacks took place as they were walking or standing alone on the street. For one of them, however, Cougar and Malcolm actually busted down the door of his house and removed him forcibly. The victims were all men in their twenties. I had no idea what kind of people they were--the only contact I had with them was watching their unconscious bodies being stuffed into the back of the truck. All I had to go by was Malcolm's claims that these were "bad people," although there was no evidence to support this as far as I could tell. By the time we got back home the sun was already dropping towards the horizon. We carried the four men into the kennel, and Malcolm started to rip off their clothes. "What are you doing that for?" I asked him, getting the guilty feeling that we were violating them, and then realizing how idiotic I was being since we were about to kill these men. "I don't like the clothes," he said. "It gets stuck in my teeth." Everyone was in the kennel now, getting behind the bars. Russ locked the door from the inside. "What's to keep us from just unlocking it when the moon's up?" I asked Cougar. "Because we're too fucking stupid to even know what a lock is." He started to undress, and then nodded at me. "Better get those clothes off if you don't want to ruin another outfit," he said. "Oh, right." I stripped off my clothes and threw them through the bars like everyone else was doing. A still hush passed over the room as we waited for the moon to rise. I wished for a window, so I could have some sort of warning before it begun. Cougar's face twitched suddenly in pain. "Here it comes," he said. Then I felt it, the pain of transforming. As my body grew larger, my mind seemed to grow smaller. Logical thought was stripped to a bare sort of confusion, and then even that escaped me. I lost any sense of identity or personality. The only thoughts that seemed to occur to me were as basic and instinctual as could have been imagined. Instantly all I felt was hunger, so much hunger, and anger at my hunger. My nose told me that there were people here, no, not people, meat. I would eat, I must eat. I dove at the man nearest to me, biting into its leg. The flavor was neither pleasurable nor repulsive; I wasn't there to savor a meal, I was there to devour. I ripped off a shred of skin off the leg; it was chewy, but I had swallowed it quickly enough. I bit into the thick, bloody flesh underneath. This was the real substance. Then another was biting at the meal, pulling at an arm. I was angry. This was mine. I snarled. It snarled back. But I knew not to hurt it. It was one of me. As it started to eat the man's arm, I returned to the leg, too hungry to fight. I kept on eating, not just the skin and the flesh, but everything else as well--the intestines, the liver, the stomach, the bladder--I ate everything but the bones. And then I chewed on those too, lying down to do so. When the sun finally rose and I turned back to myself again, I still had a finger bone in my mouth. I spit it out, and vomited immediately against the wall. Blood, red bits of meat, black hair, and other disgusting bits of my victim came out of me. The others had unlocked the door and were moving towards their clothes. "Don't worry," said Case, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Everyone pukes the first time." I shook him off, throwing up a little more blood mixed with bile. "Rick, Cougar," said Will. "You two are on clean-up duty." "Yeah, yeah, yeah, what else is new," said Cougar, who obviously was used to the job. Everyone else went upstairs, yawning, ready for bed. All there was to clean up were a bunch of human bones, and my horrific vomit. "You're cleaning up your own puke," said Cougar. Cleaning up the gory mess that had come from my stomach almost made me throw up again, but I kept it down, hating Will more and more with each stroke of the mop for turning me into this. When I had finished, we carried the bones into the Chevy so we could drive them to what Cougar called the `graveyard.' He brought along the garbage bag with the vampire head in it. "You still have that?" I asked, grossed out. It must have been in bad shape by now. "Yeah. No point going to the graveyard twice." Cougar drove a long ways east until we came to a grass-covered field that looked like it might have once been farmland. We drove off-road a good ways until we came to a place where the earth was soft and the road was out of sight. Then we got out our shovels and started to dig. We buried the four skeletons and the head together unceremoniously. After we shoveled the upraised dirt back into the ground, it occurred to me that I hated Will even more. "This sucks," I said, patting down the dirt in front of me. "Not just that we murdered four people, but also that there's so much work involved." Cougar nodded. "It's a pain that comes around every month. Kind of like a woman's period, but this is a hell of a lot more bloody." After we had driven back, I didn't even consider going to bed until I was showered and clean. When I was finally able to rest, I sunk into a deep, dreamless slumber. The guilt didn't hit me until I woke up that evening. Even though everything in the house seemed to be back to normal, the horror of last night's activities seemed to lie right beneath the surface, as if the veneer of normalcy could easily be pulled back, like the skin of the man I had killed, to reveal flesh and blood underneath. I had to get out. I considered inviting Cougar out with me, but thought it would be better not to. Cougar may have been a friend but he didn't exactly have a good ear. So I went out alone, just to walk through the city. The setting sun cast a red curtain across the sky; what would have before been beautiful to me now just seemed menacing. I walked away from the happy crowds of people going to eat or going shopping until I ended up in an older part of town that I had never come across before. If there had been any doubt before now, last night had solidified it: clearly I was a killer. The agent in the park, my first kill, had been right to try and exterminate me. I was a menace. One murder a month for the rest of my existence. 12 kills a year, 120 a decade. If I was truly noble and courageous, I would have killed myself right then. But I wasn't. I would keep on living, keep on killing, and keep on feeling this guilt. I stopped walking. A familiar, frightening smell passed through my nose. Vampire. I looked ahead. There it was, another like any other, up ahead across the street, leaning against the building. It was staring off into space. I kept my cool and kept on walking. It couldn't recognize me unless I did something to give away my wolf identity. I don't know why my heart started to race as I approached him, but it did. Then, as I walked in front of him, I thought I saw him move out of the corner of my eye, but I didn't dare turn back to look at him. I kept walking. I turned the corner and walked back towards an area that had more activity, and the smell of vampire faded away. But then it was back, faintly. Somewhere behind me. I turned back to look, but didn't see anybody. Then I smelled another vampire ahead of me, but saw nothing. Then, a block up, I saw one turn a corner and start walking my way, hands in his pockets. Another came from a side street to my left, headed right towards me. A laugh came from behind. I turned around, and the vampire that I had passed before was walking my way, a knife in his hand. I knew I was outnumbered; fighting would surely get me killed. There was only one course of action. I took off at my fastest pace down a street to my right, out of their view. I ran and I ran, turning whenever I could to keep them out of sight, but they were keeping up, I could smell them behind me, they were faster than I was. As I ran, I began to morph into a wolf. I moved from two legs to four as I left my clothes behind. At least I wasn't any slower in this form. I came across an old homeless man, sleeping off the sidewalk in front of a large pile of junk. He didn't wake as I crawled behind a box and an old tire. The vampires were right behind me, four of them now. I stopped panting when they came towards my hiding spot. One of them stopped and kicked aside a couple of the man's bags. "Hey, have some respect, son!" yelled the old man obstinately after waking up. The vampire continued to sift through the man's belongings while the others watched. "Hold it, this is my stuff!" The old man kicked at the vampire. "What the hell the matter with you rich folks? Isn't enough that I'm livin on the street, now you want to take the only shit I got?" He kicked at the vampire again. Then, apparently convinced I wasn't there, the vampires all started on again, running down the street. I held my hiding spot for a good long while. When my heart stopped racing and I felt safe once again, I crawled out of the man's junk. "Shoo, dog, there ain't no food back there anyhow," said the man as I removed myself from his belongings. Then he jumped back suddenly. "Jesus, that ain't no dog." I ran off, found my discarded clothes, morphed back into a man, and got dressed. I took a taxi home. ***** "I don't know how but they knew who I was and they attacked me with organization." I was anxiously describing my getaway to Cougar in his room. "I could have easily been killed." "That doesn't make one bit of sense, man. We killed the only vampire that saw us, remember?" "Well, obviously the rest of them know us too," I said. "Maybe there was another one nearby that saw us and ran off before we could smell him." "Yeah, maybe," said Cougar, clearly unconvinced. "But if that's true, how come the vampires haven't been after me? I've been passing them left and right in the city and none of them give me a second look." "I don't know," I said, frantically. "Maybe they only saw me the other night. Crap, I'm in trouble, aren't I? "Hey, calm down, man, you're still alive after all. I'll ask the others if they have any clue why the vampires seem to be gunning for you. In the mean time, I wouldn't go outside much if I were you." "Yeah, thanks." "You ready for tomorrow's fight, man?" asked Cougar. "I don't know. I have no idea what to expect." "Well, good luck." ***** For the second time, I walked passed the kennel bars into the fighting ground marked by blood, same as before, only this time everything was different. This time I could smell the blood stained into the cement. This time I could smell my opponent and the rest of them. I still had one ally among enemies, but this time my ally was Cougar, encouraging me from behind the bars. Will, who had before taught me most of my fighting skills, was now my enemy. His normal composure was there, but cracking through the surface was his desire to see me lose, to see me lose hard, so that I would know that the only reason that I had ever won was because of his efforts. "Clothes off," he said, and Matt and I both abided. There was Matt in front of me, so much taller, with an impressive musculature. He smiled wickedly at me and scratched his beard. Then, subtly, he reached down and scratched his cock as well, still smiling at me. To the others, it was just a mindless itch. To me, it was his reminder that I had once been forced to worship his dick. "Transform," said Will. Along with Matt, I turned into my full werewolf form. Each time I had to it seemed to hurt a little less, but that was little comfort. Then, there I was, a big black werewolf overshadowed by an even larger golden one. "Go!" I charged at him right out of the starting gate, using my sharp claws to my full advantage. Matt was genuinely surprised, probably expecting me to be as subdued and defensive as I was in my fight with Cougar. I scratched at his chest and face, spilling blood. The sight of red clotting up his golden fur shocked me at first, but I quickly got used to it. This fight was all about spilling blood, and whoever lost the most was sure to lose. His surprise only lasted momentarily as he came back at me, fangs and claws extended. Soon blood was clotting up my fur as well. There was nothing graceful or tactical about that fight. It was pure, brutal violence. We spent a good fifteen minutes cutting and scraping away at each other's bodies until one of us had a clear advantage. I was tired... the were form felt slow and cumbersome to me. As I pulled back into a corner, trying to catch my breath, Matt drove upon me. Suddenly his teeth were deeply embedded into my throat. After I fell to the ground, he let go of me and backed off. My throat had been ripped open. The pain wasn't nearly as bad as the sudden suffocating feeling. I gasped deeply, big werewolf gasps, as the blood poured out of my throat and all over everything. "Stop the match," said Case from behind the bars. "Why should I?" asked Will. "He's a new wolf, Will, he won't be able to recover from that," said Case. "He shouldn't have challenged Matt to a fight then," said Will, mercilessly. "The match continues until someone's unconscious, like always." But my throat was already recovering. My empty gasps turned into wheezing, and then into normal breath as my throat rebuilt itself. Matt roared, and ran upon me, towering above me and ready to make his final attack. He had me trapped underneath him, there was no escape. In a last ditch effort to save the match, I leaned forward and snapped my jaws against his flesh, his blood trickling into my mouth. Matt roared louder than he perhaps had ever roared before. In between my jaws was the cock that Matt was so proud of, expanded to werewolf size. I held on with all my strength. "Come on, that's just plain cheap," yelled Russ, but I wasn't breaking any rules. Matt tried to pull away from me but ended up just losing his balance in his haste and fell onto his back, still roaring. Finally, I let his dick go and pounced onto his body, scratched everything I could get my hands on and biting deep into his throat. Once again I held on as Matt struggled against me. This time his blood flooded my mouth as he gasped and twitched under me. And then his movements stopped. "Match over," said Will, with decidedly less enthusiasm than the last time. It wasn't until I heard those words that I let Matt's throat go. I backed against the wall and turned back into me as the others ran into the room. I was completely breathless, but I was fine considering. Cougar didn't offer me a helping hand, that wasn't his way. But he did say, very plainly, "Damn, man." That's all I needed to hear. I laughed and got to my feet. Matt was revived and back to his man form as I left the kennel. He rubbed his wounded cock in his hand, but it was fast healing. I went upstairs to shower, feeling better about myself than I ever had. ***** Later on I walked into Matt's room. He was shirtless on his bed. "Hey chompers. Here to make peace with me?" he asked. "Hardly. I'm here to tell you to remove yourself from my room." He was definitely surprised. "You let Cougar keep his room." "You're not Cougar. Be out by the end of the night." I left then. Not long after, I heard Matt storm angrily out of his (my) room and across the hall into Cougar's. "This is my room now," he said. "What?" "Yeah, sorry, you'll need to be out by the end of the night." I felt bad that I was causing Cougar to become room-less, but I wasn't going to stay on the couch forever. He packed most of his stuff in boxes which he was stacking in the corner of the study as I walked into the room that night. "I hated that couch when I first slept there, but I got used to it," I offered him. He put on a jacket and slung a large backpack over his shoulder. "I won't need to. I'm leaving." "What?" I asked as I followed him towards the kitchen. "I'm out of this shithole, I'm leaving for good." I was at his heel as he walked out into the garage. "Don't you think your overreacting? It's just a couch." "It's not just the couch," he said as he straddled on his bike. "I'm sick and tired of everything. Of constantly being last place. It wasn't so bad before, when all of us were more like a family, you know? But things have changed around here, man. Seems like nobody gives a shit about me anymore." "I give a shit about you!" I protested. "You can't leave. You're my only friend here. Only friend period." "Stop gushing, man. You'll be fine," he said. "Really, it's me you should worry about." "Wait!" I said, feeling a stroke of genius. "I'll come with you." I'd just grab my stuff and I'd be ready. My revenge on Will and the rest of them would have to wait. "You must be insane. No, you can't come with me. The vampires know you and they're after you. You come along and you'd probably get us both killed. No, the only way I'm gonna survive is if I stay out of vampire radar." He slipped his helmet over his face. "What should I tell the others?" I asked as he started his bike. "Tell them the truth." He rolled out of the driveway into the dark street as I waved a pitiful good-bye. Whatever glee my victory against Matt had brought me melted away at that moment. Once again, I was alone, forced to occupy this tired old house amongst my enemies. "Shit!" I exclaimed out loud, something I had never done before. But I had been alone for most of my life. Maybe it was inevitable for me; I was just meant to be in solitude, now and forever. TO BE CONTINUED