Second Fate

15

"No", I clarified with such force that his eyebrows relaxed a little.

The notion of me trying to turn seemed to unsettle Vine, and it sounded like a dangerous idea, so I didn't feel any desire to test my luck. However, I couldn't deny that I'd wondered about it for a second inside the shack.

If it were the only way to gain Victor's approval ...

"I'm glad you're not thinking about that nonsense", he disrupted my thoughts. "It's painful and messy – and there is no guarantee that you'll survive and be the same person after."

I didn't want to think of Caitlyn when he said that, but my mind naturally went there. The shy, introverted girl I'd met did no longer exist; and although I thought that to be the result of many different influences on her, there'd been a time after her first change where I'd been a little confused and even scared of her irrational behavior.

"How would you even manage to turn somebody?", I asked because my curiosity had been piqued. "Do you just ... bite them?"

"Well, there's a chance with every bite, because what turns you is in our saliva. So, when there's an open wound, and it mixes with human blood, it might cause the mutation."

We were walking along the forest path, which was so narrow that we could only fit one after the other. Vine went first, pointing out large roots and shrubs when they intruded on our path, since it was much too dark for me to see them in time.

"Some have a high chance for the mutation, while others are relatively resistant to it. When a human has had relatives with wolf-blood, then they usually turn after the first infected bite", he went on to explain. "For example, there's someone I know who's been turned in his 30s after getting into a fist fight with a bunch of drunken shifters. One of his great-grandparents was a carrier, so during the next full moon, he turned."

Hearing that gave me a weird feeling; but it didn't make me long for a change. I'd be content to watch Vine and the others go through the bone-breaking and mind-losing while I was sipping lemonade on the porch – as long as that didn't exclude me from his life.

A rough-skinned hand found mine in the dark and squeezed it. "No one goes through it willingly. A human body isn't made for the change."

"I understand", I said to reassure him. "And I don't need it."

"You don't. There are benefits to it, but overall, you're much safer as a–"

He'd stopped talking all of a sudden and his eyes were fixed on a pair of trees nearby.

I returned the hand squeeze from before, to tell him that he'd forgotten the rest of his sentence. "Did you just change your mind or why are you not finishing your thought?"

"I think I've heard someon–"

"Vine."

The unfamiliar voice had cut through the night like a sharpened blade, and I knew without thinking that its owner wasn't a friend. Slowly, we turned towards the stranger whose dark clothing barely offset him from the trees' shadows.

"Is it you, Vine?"

"Who wants to know?", he asked sharply. The vigilance in his posture and voice conveyed that he didn't appreciate the meeting in the dark.

"I have a message for you", said the stranger, without answering his question. "From a worried friend."

The tension spreading through Vine's body was felt down to his fingertips in my hand. I tried to be inconspicuous to the strangers, as I let go and readied myself for conflict. When someone had spent as much time in dark alleyways and clubs as I had, they developed a sixth sense of danger – and the stranger in front of us reeked of it. More and more shadows joined him to either side, until I counted at least six men and women whose faces were hidden beneath hoods and scarfs.

Not a good sign. At all.

Inwardly, I got ready to run – but then I remembered that they were probably all wolves. Did I even have a chance at outrunning them?

"Why isn't this worried friend telling me about it herself?"

Again, Vine's words were ignored. The stranger grinned at him instead and spoke the words he'd been charged to deliver: "She wants you to remember your place, and who you owe your loyalty to. Just ask yourself if what you're doing is right after all you've caused."

Vine's jaw hardened, as his darkening eyes fixated on the stranger.

"Is that all?"

"I'm afraid her message hasn't been understood."

"No. You can tell her that I've understood what she means very well."

"I don't know ... we're supposed to ensure there's no misunderstanding."

One of the men behind the stranger fell onto the forest floor, when his change began. It wasn't a fast and somewhat controlled turn as I've seen it from Vine. His body was shaken by cramps wandering through his bones like an earthquake. The other shadows soon followed his example, turning in the safety of the night.

Suddenly, a hand landed heavy on my shoulder, and I could hear Vine's voice hum at my ear: "If you can, run back to Victor. I'll try to keep them busy."

I was supposed to run and leave him behind?

"I can't –"

"They're not after you." The conviction in his eyes sent a shiver down my back. He knew who'd sent this group and who the worried friend was. "They want me, so they won't follow you. I'm not sure how long I'll last against a group this large."

"Then I can't run away", I hissed back. To run and leave him with a bunch of werewolf thugs sounded even worse than getting trapped in the middle of the fight.

His hand stroked my back in a long, slow motion; the gesture would've been nice in any other situation, but I felt treated like a child in this situation. First Victor, then Neal, then Vine; they all treated me differently from their own because I was human – and I was fed up with it.

If I could only take part in the fight, then – "Stop that."

Vine pulled his hand back without looking at me. His eyes remained fixed at the wolves who'd nearly finished the change.

"I have to turn now", he stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

The calmness of his voice seemed misplaced in the situation we were in. Six against one, that promised trouble.

"Go get Victor, Jamie."

"I have to–"

"Please."

Grinding my teeth, I watched as Vine pulled the t-shirt over his head and let himself fall forward, into the change. The smooth movements were hiding how much training laid behind a turning in a controlled fashion. It was over at the same time as the last of the other shadows rose from the forest floor.

His dark brown wolf was smaller than the stranger leading the shadows, but the working of strong muscles showed underneath the thick, brown fur.

With an uneasy feeling in my stomach, I watched the wolves appraise each other. Could I trust in Vine's ability to handle those strangers?

I was lost in my worries when a growl next to me ended them. There was nothing I knew with certainty apart from the fact that I'd gotten clear instructions from Vine: Go get Victor.

But did I have to run and risk him getting hurt because he was sorely outnumbered?

When my gaze grazed a long branch on the ground, I had a terrible idea. Out of an impulse, I bent down to pick it up.

Its wood was damp, perhaps rotten at the core, but its weight alone could knock out a grown human.

*