by Jessic Ryan
Paige’s eyes narrowed, focusing on the object she was holding: the moon rock.
“Holy shit!” Paige yelled as she heard the door start to unlock. “Janie give me that!”
She rushed forward, yanking the moon rock out of the little girl’s hands.
“That’s mine!” she protested.
“Trust me,” Paige said. “You just saved our lives.”
She ran back to the window, pressing her face into the bars and looking down at Travis. She heard the door swinging open behind them.
“Get away from there!” William called out.
“Eat this!” she yelled to Travis, dropping the rock out of the window.
She could feel William’s hands wrapping around her shoulders, but she fought, trying to shrug him off. Finally he grabbed her by the hair, yanking her away from the window.
“Trust me, Travis!” she called out. “Eat that!”
She was slung off the window box to the ground. As she was pulled away she grabbed a piece of the glass in her hand.
“That’s the last mistake you’ll ever make you stupid bitch!” William said, leaning over into her face.
“Fuck you!” Paige screamed, swinging up with the shard of glass.
William’s eyes went wide and he tried to speak, but no words came out. Blood began to gurgle in his throat and flow out of his mouth as he grabbed at the side of his throat where Paige had driven the shard of glass into.
The little girls all screamed at the sight of blood, all probably witnessing their first murder.
“What a fool,” she heard from the doorway. She turned to see a tall, older gentleman standing the doorway. His face was finely weathered and his eyes were like cold steel. He was wearing a long black peacoat with a stunning suit underneath.
At any other time Paige would find him to be an incredibly attractive silver fox, but right now he just caused her heart to recoil in fear. His icy stare could freeze even the hottest flame; he was everything you would expect a vampire to be.
She started to back up, trying to get away from him as William slumped to the ground clutching at his throat. The noises he made as death approached were pathetic, just like his life.
Victor stepped into the room, opening his mouth to reveal two pearl white fangs. He didn’t speak; he just kept advancing on them.
“I’ll save you for the main course, brave girl,” he said to Paige. Without another word he turned and yanked Angie off the ground, pulling her in close. “The blood of the meek is always a good appetizer.”
A loud crashing sound reverberated through the house, making Victor stop in his tracks. He dropped Angie and turned to the door, looking down the hallway. The vampire’s entire body tensed up as a titanic roar exploded through the house.
“Oh god he’s in lunar form!” they heard someone yell from downstairs.
“Everybody shift!” another voice screamed.
“Son of a bitch!” the vampire said, walking out of the room and slamming the door behind him.
Paige smiled and looked at the little girls. “Uncle Travis is here to save us.”
Chapter 8
Travis stared at the rock that he held in his hand. He could feel power radiating off of it, pulsing through his body. There was something about this rock, something supernatural.
Dario looked up at him and whined, while Travis considered putting it in his mouth. He looked back up at the window, hearing Paige scream.
His eyes grew wide and a fury unlike the one he had previously felt coursed through his body. The rock went down smooth, easy to swallow like a pill. He stood in place; waiting for whatever effect she had intended to take hold. Then, as like a bomb exploding, he felt power radiate through his body. He began to change, his body growing and twisting as hair sprouted all over. He was shifting, but not into wolf form. In several short seconds Travis stood in front of the house, a seven foot tall abominable twist of man and wolf; he had reached lunar form.
He let out a great roar that shook the house, most definitely alerting all within to their impending doom. Dario growled and barked his approval before following Travis as he stomped for the front door. It only took one blow from his mighty hand to splinter the giant front door into several thousand pieces. Travis’ strength was immense, like nothing else on Earth.
“What the hell?” a surprised person said from just inside the front door. The surprised rat was tall and skinny, not much of a challenge. He began to shift into lunar form, turning into a half rat/half man creature. Travis was on him quickly, clamping down on his head with steel jaws. The rat’s head popped like a watermelon due to the pressure clamped on it.
He became aware there was screaming all around him and another rat came flying forward, holding a machete in one hand. He easily swatted it aside, breaking the rat’s arm in the process. The wounded creature fell to the ground, screaming in agony. Travis quickly snuffed out his screams when he jumped on the creature, ripping and tearing with two gigantic, clawed hands.
In lunar form, Travis’ vision was blurring and the world appeared a ghostly red to him. It was hard to control the power contained in this form as the animal inside tried to completely dominate Travis. All he wanted to do was feast on the soft entrails that had fallen out of the destroyed rat below him.
A loud scream from upstairs brought him back to reality. He turned just as something flew by his face, nearly catching him in the eye. He looked to one side of the foyer he stood in to find a woman standing in the doorway with a gun in hand.
“Go back to hell!” she screamed.
Before she could pull the trigger again a brown blur slammed into her, taking her to the ground. Screams of terror and pain rose from the blur of activity on the floor as Dario ripped and tore at her human body.
“Amy!” someone screamed from the top of the stairs. Two more rats stood above him on the stairwell’s landing, both shifting into lunar form. Travis rushed up the stairs, a mighty roar escaping his lips. He grabbed both rats by the chest, lifting them off the ground as he continued his run. With the might of ten men he slammed them into the wall, cracking the plaster and studs in the process. He heard a loud crack as they hit the wall, both of their spines severing from the impact as his claws dug into their chests.
He dropped both and began stalking up the stairs, looking for his alpha mate. He heard another rat cry out from below and turned to see Dario wrestling another to the ground by the throat. The rats were proving to be no challenge at all for the two wolves: he would not be denied his rescue.
One more rat appeared at the entrance to the hallway, an older rat shuffling towards Travis. He snarled as the weak thing reached him, slapping at him with pathetic old claws. He grabbed the creature by the throat, lifting him off the ground and hurling him backwards, down the stairs. He heard the rat let out its last breath as it crumpled in a broken heap at the base of the stairs.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here!” he heard from behind. Travis spun around to see three rats, in human form, trying to make their escape out the door. They were young men, not ready for the hardships of a shifter war. Dario turned and growled, leaping at one and catching him by the ankle. The other two continued to run as Dario yanked the young man back into the foyer. He tried to kick at the large wolf, but Dario deftly dodged the kick and lunged for the boy’s throat, ending his resistance quickly.
Travis felt satisfaction at the death of the rats, they were going to pay for the death of his pack, but he wasn’t done. Paige screamed one more time from somewhere inside the house, down one of the long hallways that lay before him.
He walked forward swinging his arms to the side and destroying the walls with his clawed hands. He stopped at the end of the hallway, with a choice to go left or right. If he went right he would end up at the front of the house. His brain was becoming more primitive the longer he stayed in lunar form, but he reasoned his received the rock at the front of the house so right was the way to go.
He began to shamble down
the long hallway, seeing a door open at the end. He could smell several women, loads of blood and two rats in the room. He snarled and roared as another frightened scream exited the room.
It took him only a few steps to end up in the doorway, staring down on the scene before him. Three little girls and an adult woman sat huddled in one corner, tears streaming down their faces. Close to the window the rat that greeted Victor Dance was slumped over, a large pool of blood formed under his body. In the middle of the room a younger version of the dead rat had one arm around Paige’s throat while the other held a small pistol which was placed to her temple. Blood ran down her chin, her face swollen near her mouth. She was frightened and crying, trying to hold still as he threatened her.
Travis roared again, causing the women in the corner to scream in fear, and he began to try to break through the doorway, which was too small for his massive body.
“Stop right there wolf!” a voice said behind him.
He removed himself from the cracking door frame and turned, taking out part of the wall beside him, to see the vampire standing at the end of the hallway. In one hand he held the staff and in the other he held Dario by the throat.
“I believe this belongs to you,” he said, throwing the older wolf to the ground in the hallway. Travis studied his companion for a moment before seeing his sides begin to rise with labored breathing: he was alive for now.
The alpha wolf snarled and began to move forward, but the vampire held up one hand to stop him.
“I’m leaving with this,” the vampire said. “Your land is mine, wolf. You have a choice. You can chase after me and get your staff and land back, but William Jr. there will kill your pretty little mate. Or you can rescue her, but I’ll be long gone by the time you do so. If you step on your land and try to reclaim it the spirits will destroy you. The choice is yours, wolf, you can’t have both.”
Travis snarled as the wolf in him screamed to kill the vampire. It urged him to take back his territory and reestablish a dominant pack. The human was a decent mate, but she was inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. There would be other humans, taken by choice or force, to foster his pack. This one was strong willed and possessive; she would not allow him to create a diverse pack. He had to reclaim what was rightfully his.
The human part of him fought and scratched to make itself to the surface, trying to defeat the animal that threatened to dominate him. The human begged and pleaded for him to let the land go, it was just land and nothing more. Paige loved him; she was the one he wanted. His human side knew in his heart he didn’t want a diverse pack and that he didn’t need the land to be happy, all he needed was this one special woman. He had thought his feelings for her were lust and a need to mate, but now his heart was screaming at him that there was more there: love. He loved everything about Paige; she was the only woman he could ever love. He didn’t need a powerful pack behind him as long as he had this one woman to love for the rest of his life.
The lunar shifted alpha wolf roared out a powerful scream of anguish, slamming his fists into the walls beside him and shaking the entire hallway. In that instant he made his decision, the decision that would shape the rest of his life.
Chapter 9
Paige watched the doorway after Victor ran out, hoping the rats wouldn’t be enough to kill Travis. The house had shaken when the front door exploded, cluing her in to the power he held in lunar form.
She found herself excited and frightened at the same time. She didn’t know how he would act in lunar form, what it would be like to be faced with such an abomination. Travis had tried to describe it to her during a late night conversation, but it was hard for him to do. He told her he lost a lot of his humanity, and it was hard to remember a lot of what happened when he was in this form.
He had told her the old legends of werewolves attacking humans were based on wolves in lunar form that were unable to control the animal inside. She feared Travis would destroy the rats before turning his attention onto the frightened humans.
A shuffling sound in the doorway drew her vision up to a squat, greasy, little man. For all intents and purposes he looked like a younger version of William. His eyes were a wild mixture of anger and insanity as his right hand gripped the handle of a pistol so hard blood was beginning to drip from it.
“A fine mess we’ve gotten ourselves into,” he said, looking at Angie. “Right dear?”
“Go away!” she screamed. “Leave us alone!”
“That’s no way to talk to your dear husband,” William Jr. said. “Especially in front of our daughter, she doesn’t want to see mommy and daddy fight.”
“I hate you!” Janie screamed before retreating back behind Paige’s nieces.
“That hurts daddy when you say that, pumpkin,” he said, mock sadness crossing his face. “Be a good girl and shut the fuck up while daddy takes care of business.”
He quickly crossed the room, backhanding Paige across the face and taking her to the ground. The coppery taste of blood filled her mouth as she tried to get her bearings. He was on her quickly, yanking her to her feet by the hair. She tried to struggle but he brought one knee up into her back, sending pain shooting up through her spine. She was taller than this man, but he was still stronger.
“You try to fight me off again and I’m going to knock your ass out with this pistol,” he whispered into her ear.
She quit struggling as he wrapped his arm around her throat and pulled her in close. She could feel the cold end of the pistol press against her temple, effectively ending any thoughts of escape-she was trapped.
“That’s a good girl,” he purred in her ear. She could smell his foul breath wafting into her nostrils. It took everything she had not to begin retching and heaving. She held it together, choking back the bile that was forming in her throat.
“You’re not going to get away with this,” she said.
“Someone’s getting away with something,” he said, snickering into her ear.
All she could do was cry as he held her there, laughing silently right beside her face. She couldn’t see Angie or the girls, but she could hear their silent sobbing.
Just as she was about to give up hope the entire room shook and her eyes darted up from the floor to take in the sight of the monstrous werewolf bearing down on them. Fear welled up inside her as her eyes darted across his monstrous form. He was at least seven feet tall, his upper body hunched over slightly. He walked on two thick, canine back legs that didn’t seem large enough to support the mass of his upper body. The low light in the hallway framed him in shadows, but he seemed to stand out amongst them all. His head looked like that of a giant wolf, but it lacked hair in spots, making him appear close to human. His eyes remained the same orange color that she had fallen in love with; she could see Travis behind them, but they were still clouded with rage.
He started to break his way through the doorway, forcing Paige to cry even more. She knew the trigger would be pulled at any moment, William Jr. would kill her right in front of Travis or he would make Travis stop as he threatened to kill her if he came any closer.
She closed her eyes, expecting it at any moment. The moment never came, instead William Jr.’s breathing calmed and she heard a voice from somewhere outside the room, towards the end of the hallway.
She opened her eyes, hardly able to see through the blur of tears. Travis had wheeled around, his back facing them now as someone at the end of the hallway spoke to him. She could barely hear what the man was saying, but whatever it was it gave Travis pause.
The hulking wolf monster stood in the hallway, his horrific head pointed towards the ground. He turned sideways, forlornly gazing into the room like he was trying to decide something. She could definitely see Travis in his eyes now, a scared version of Travis she had never seen before.
Past him she could see Victor Dance standing at the end of the hallway, a smug and confident look on his face. In one hand he held the staff while his other hand rested behind his back. Her eyes caught
something else, something brown on the ground. As the tears fell away she realized it was Dario, broken and crumpled on the hallway floor.
The next few moments seemed to drag until the end of time. The air was so thick she could barely breathe. It wasn’t just her, the girls had quit sobbing and William Jr. was holding his breath in anticipation. The only person that seemed in control of the situation was Victor, still standing confidently at the end of the hallway.
Then everything snapped back to reality. The thick air, the slow motion and the silence was all gone as Travis roared and slammed his fists into the walls beside him, sending them crashing to the floor.
He spun around barreling through the doorway. William Jr. threw her aside and lifted the pistol to defend himself, but he was too slow. Travis grabbed the hand that held the gun and pulled, ripping his arm completely off. The girls shrieked and Paige covered her face as blood splattered onto her. After she moved her arms she looked up to see Travis holding William Jr. over his head. The werewolf’s muscles popped and strained as he pulled, finally ripping the wererat in two. Blood showered the wolf’s black fur as he dropped both halves to the side.
He roared again, driving his fists into the ceiling above them. Her eyes darted out into the hallway, Dario was struggling to stand but Victor was nowhere to be seen. Travis became even more enraged when he noticed the absence of the vampire.
“Travis, stop!” Paige screamed, running up to the abomination. “Please stop!”
He snarled and leaned forward, his hot breath blowing in her face. It smelled coppery, like the blood she had tasted earlier. His eyes studied her up and down as she stood before him.
Please recognize me, she thought. Please.
He had obviously made the decision to save her over stopping the vampire; he had to recognize her at this point. Unfortunately the bloodlust he had from destroying the rat seemed to trigger the animal in his brain to explode back to the surface.
He flung his arms to each side, roaring in her face in the process. She took a step back and he took one forward, advancing on her and the girls.
