by Jeff Sampson
“Dalton!” I shouted, gasping for breath as I ran. I was almost to them now. “Dalton, let her go, now! You can control this! You are not a killer!”
His eyes shot to me, narrowing further. Hating me. Though pheromones identified me to him as his “mate” by day, clearly his wolf self rejected the idea. Getting down on all fours, he began to run deeper into the backyard, toward a line of trees. He did not let go of Megan. He bit down harder, dragging her through the grass as he ran.
She wasn’t screaming anymore. She was gasping for air, grabbing futilely at blades of grass. Her skin was paler than normal, and she looked back at me with terrified eyes.
Then, they disappeared into the woods.
I stopped, fell to my knees, struggling so hard for air that I almost began to gag. I wasn’t going to reach her in time. I wasn’t going to make it.
No. Nighttime in the back of my head. No, the wolf, refusing to give up. No! Daytime me, angry at my mistakes. This wasn’t going to happen. I wasn’t going to lose Megan. I wasn’t going to lose Dalton, either.
My body trembling, I forced myself to my feet. Behind me I could still hear the cheerleaders, tepidly following now, no longer running. Screw them. If it wasn’t for them, I’d have caught up to Megan in time.
I’d deal with them later.
I stalked forward, commanding myself to go hybrid.
Nothing happened.
I kicked off my shoes so that I was barefoot. Grass squelched between my toes. I unbuttoned my jeans, kicked them off, slung them over my arm. Walked in the middle of the day in nothing but my underwear and a hoodie.
“What the hell is she doing?” I heard one of the girls shout behind me.
Go hybrid, I demanded. I concentrated on nothing but making that change. On finding out how to make it happen when I needed it.
I was at the tree line now. Ahead, I could hear the crunching of grass, the snapping of twigs. I yanked off the hoodie, stuck my glasses in its pocket. I pulled off my T-shirt and draped it and the hoodie over my arm with my jeans. I awkwardly unhooked my bra, added it to the pile.
I was almost entirely naked. My skin bristled with bumps. My feet crunched over hard pine cones and rocks. I didn’t care.
Sounds met my ears. Megan’s muffled whimpers. Dalton’s deep, guttural growls.
Go hy—I started to think.
I didn’t need to finish.
Strength surged into my limbs. My vision went crystal clear, gray, aware of every small movement around me. Megan was still alive. Dalton wasn’t a murderer.
Yet.
23
WHAT DID YOU DO?
Energy and adrenaline flooded my veins. I burst into a run, darting beneath branches and leaping over bushes. I shoved through leaves and found myself in a clearing. I stopped, dropped to my knees, and took in the scene.
Megan lay there, to my left, at the edge of the trees. Tears poured down her cheeks and she let out gulping sobs, her hands grasping at her shoulder. Blood gushed from the jagged wound and began to pool beneath her.
And with my wolf vision, I saw something strange above her. An oval distortion in the air, not unlike the one I’d seen back in the BioZenith lab. Only this one wasn’t open, I suppose is the word. I saw nothing through it. It was like an endlessly rippling pool turned on its side. It was such a bizarre, abnormal thing to see that my mind immediately tried to reconcile it as CGI, just some movie illusion. But of course it couldn’t be. This was real, right in front of me. Not even the best James Cameron tech could produce that.
Before I could completely make sense of what I was seeing, Dalton appeared as if from nowhere to my right. He surged forward, snarling once more. He bit into Megan’s side and she gasped, then screamed, so shrilly it hurt my ears.
He began to yank her side to side, struggling to rip her apart.
“Dalton!” I commanded. “No!”
I dropped my clothes to my feet. Stood to my full height. Dalton let go of Megan’s side and rounded on me, his teeth stained bright red.
“No,” I said again.
Dalton roared. And he lunged at me.
I jumped to the side, just in time, and the wolf-boy barreled past me into the woods.
Well, if that was how he was going to play it.
I focused on the hybrid. Chose who I wanted to be: Werewolf.
The change came over me, even quicker than Dalton. I stood like a linebacker, facing the trees and waiting for him. As I did, fur bristled over my body. My muscles twisted into steel. Claws and teeth appeared. My face stretched into a snout. And my tail burst from my spine, tearing free my underwear.
Can’t say you can be all that modest when you’re a werewolf.
Dalton leaped from the trees and aimed toward my chest. His claws met my midsection and he gripped me, intending to tackle me to the ground.
But I’d been ready.
Using his own momentum, I grabbed his arms, spun, and tossed him into the clearing with a roar of my own. He rolled across the grass before smacking into the trunk of an evergreen.
I raced forward, one hand clawing into the earth, sending up clumps of dirt as I propelled myself forward. I jumped on top of Dalton where he’d fallen, and straddled him like I had in the BioZenith parking lot. I growled down at him. Stop. Change back.
He trembled beneath me, his bloody teeth bared, always bared. His eyes darting, angry, manic.
“Help,” Megan gurgled behind me. “Help me….”
I let my guard down, for just a moment. Dared to glance at Megan, still lying prone beneath the strange distortion. More blood seeped from the new wound on her side. I could smell it, warm and enticing.
Enticing.
My stomach roiled as the human sides of me became nauseous.
Dalton kicked up with his powerful legs, shoved with his strong arms. In an instant I was spun over and slammed onto my spine against the dirt. Dalton was on top of me now, growling as he stared deep into my eyes.
Then, before I could make a countermove, one of his hands slashed at my side. Long, deadly claws sliced into my gut, and I howled in pain. Still staring into my eyes, he dug his fingers deeper, deeper, before finally pulling them free from my midsection with a sick squelch.
I was wounded. Badly. I knew that. Dalton knew that. His snarl didn’t seem so much deadly anymore as it seemed like a sick laugh.
Blood gushed from my side, rushing through the tears in my flesh like flaming lava. It was agony. There was only one way to stop it before I bled out. Only one way to heal myself so that I could save Megan.
Except then I’d be even less strong than I was now.
No choice.
I closed my eyes. Slowed my breathing. Told myself to slip back into the hybrid.
The change happened quickly, easily. It was easier every time now. My muscles, my fur, my sharp points faded and receded. The wound in my side sealed itself shut, and I lay there beneath the fearsome beast that was Dalton, tiny and pink and naked, shivering in the cold.
I chose to go back to myself then. Back to my normal, daytime self.
I opened my eyes.
Dalton was still above me, watching me, eyes on my face. They were still manic and dark. But I could remember him from that morning, when his eyes were hazel and sad and afraid. I’d killed a person, or at least had helped to. I couldn’t let that happen to him, too. Not when the idea that he had that in him had terrified him so.
Reaching up, I petted the short, sleek fur of his snout. He almost jumped back, startled, then chose not to move. I looked into his eyes and smiled at him as reassuringly as I could.
“You are not a killer, Dalton,” I said. Our mantra.
He growled.
I grabbed both sides of his snout and forced him to lean in closer to my face. He sniffed at my neck, and his body relaxed.
“This is not what you are,” I whispered. “I know that inside there are things that you want to let go, even though they’re deadly. But sometimes, we need to keep them in p
lace. We need to keep our humanity. It’s harder for you than me, Dalton, I know that. But if I can control this, you can, too. You can.”
Dalton’s eyes went glassy and then shut. He breathed out through his mouth, and hot, stinky air washed over my face. I didn’t move. The fur beneath my palms gave way to warm skin. The heavy, monstrous body above me shrank back into a naked and frightened boy.
Dalton lay on top of me, my hands still cupping his face. His eyes were hazel again. They were thankful.
“You did it,” I whispered. “You took control. I knew you could.”
“I did,” Dalton said, smiling down at me. “You showed me how, Emily, you—”
“Em…” Megan gasped behind us.
“Oh no,” I said, letting go of Dalton. “Oh God.”
Dalton rolled off me into the grass, then shuffled back, knees to chest. I jumped up and ran to Megan’s side. She was still bleeding, still wheezing.
I hovered over her, panicking. Then, I took in a breath. I could keep it together. I could. I had to. I was the alpha, right? I could handle this.
“Hold on, Megan,” I pleaded. “Please hold on.”
I darted back to the bushes where I’d dropped my clothes. I quickly pulled on my T-shirt and jeans, then ran back to Megan’s side. I pressed my hoodie against her bleeding side and shoulder, holding it in place as tight as I could.
“I did that to her,” Dalton said behind me. “I…”
I looked back behind me to see the naked boy rocking back and forth, his eyes now distant.
“Dalton, she’ll be okay,” I said. “But we have to hurry. Go call for help.”
“I can’t believe I did that,” he said.
I let out an exasperated sigh. I pulled one hand free from applying pressure to Megan’s side, and she groaned. Her eyes were closed now. She was fading into unconsciousness.
I felt the pocket of my jeans. My phone wasn’t there. I felt the other pocket. Not there either.
It had fallen out.
There came a crunching behind me as several people stomped through the trees. Nikki and the triplets appeared then, their eyes wide as they took in the strange scene.
“Dalton?” Nikki said. Then, running to his side, she screamed, “Dalton!”
“What did you do?” Amy Delgado demanded of me.
I ignored her. “You,” I said, pointing a bloody finger at Casey. “Come hold this against her. She’s bleeding really bad.”
The girl nodded and came to my side. She cringed at the sight of the blood, but made no complaint as she pressed my stained hoodie against Megan’s side.
Leaping to my feet, I shoved between Amy and Brittany and looked in the bushes where I’d dropped my clothes. There, by my fallen bra: the phone. I reached down and picked it up.
“This is so weird,” Brittany said behind me.
“Hey.” A strong hand grabbed my shoulder and spun me around, just as I flicked the phone open to dial.
Amy. In my face. As usual.
“What did you do to Dalton?” she demanded.
I yanked myself free. “I didn’t do anything. You saw exactly what happened, I know you did. He turned into a werewolf and tried to kill my friend. Which I could have stopped if you hadn’t gotten in my way!” I shoved my finger into her chest.
Hands balled into fists, Amy shook her head and came forward, ready to swing at me.
Before she could, both Nikki and Casey cried out.
“Something’s happening!” Casey shouted, looking at me frantically.
“Dalton?” Nikki said. “Dalton, what’s wrong? What are you doing?”
Without even thinking, I slipped back into the hybrid state. Almost as if it was instinctual. I blinked, and my vision went gray.
And I gasped.
There were shadowmen here now, several of them. Behind them, another distortion, only this one was different from the one above Megan. It was more like a rip in the air, like a torn movie screen, and the clearing was just a projection. Through the rip, there was nothing but blackness.
All three shadowmen held Dalton by his arms. They were pulling him backward toward the tear in the clearing.
And on the opposite side of the clearing, the rippling oval distortion had opened. Through it I could see that same dark, frightening city of spindly spires and flying shapes, some other world made up of darkness and fear. Another world where the shadowmen lived when they weren’t stalking me here.
Something was coming through.
One dark arm, bent at the elbow, climbed through. Then another, the limbs long and jagged, a spider emerging from its lair.
Another shadowman.
As I watched, the shadowman dug one of its sharp hands into Megan’s chest, and its solid-but-not-solid, smoky, hazy limb disappeared inside her. Megan’s back arched up in startled pain, and she began to convulse. Foaming spittle seeped from her mouth.
The shadowmen were back. And they were no longer content with just standing and watching. I stood, frozen, not sure what to do.
To my left, the long and slender shadow, flatter than the others I’d seen, almost seemed to ooze out of its distortion. Both of its spindly arms disappeared inside Megan’s chest now. Her back arched even higher, and her jaw went slack. Casey fell back from her, and my bloodstained hoodie fell to the dirt.
To my right, Nikki was screaming and grabbing onto Dalton’s legs and arms. The naked boy struggled, kicking and shouting as the three solid shadowmen dragged him faster and faster toward the rip in the universe.
I had no time to save both of them.
Blood wept from Megan’s wounds.
Dalton’s face was chiseled into terror, his frantic eyes on me, pleading for me to help.
Megan’s shadowman was almost halfway into her body. Dalton was almost to the doorway that led to nothingness.
I leaped forward, to Megan. Shoving Casey out of the way, I grabbed Megan’s arm and leg and began to drag her away from the distortion. “Use your powers,” I screamed over my shoulder at the cheerleaders. “They’re trying to take Dalton. Use your powers!”
I caught a single glimpse of the girls raising their hands, focusing and struggling to pull Dalton back toward them. But my focus was on Megan, poor abandoned Megan, leaking red and being invaded by … whatever these things were.
I dug my heels into the ground and pulled as hard as I could. The shadowman inside her clung on tight, refusing to let go. Megan coughed, hacking horribly. I refused to let her go. I’d let things get this far with her by keeping her in the dark. She would not be hurt because of me. She would not!
“Aaargh!” I screamed. With one last tug, Megan flew up at me, slamming into my gut and knocking me into the ground. Like a rubber band pulled to its limit, the shadowman that had been digging its way through her skin popped out and was flung back through the distortion. As it did, the image of the city went black, and then the distortion swirled into those same pulsing ripples in the sky.
“No!” Nikki screamed. “Help him! Emily, help him!”
I pushed Megan’s unconscious body off me as gently as I could, then jumped up and spun to face Dalton.
The shadowmen that had been clutching at his limbs had already disappeared into the blackness through the rip in the air. Dalton was almost through. He was silent, resigned. Still looked at me with sad eyes.
I took a step, thinking maybe there was still time, maybe I could save him, too.
Then he was through the hole, and in an instant it was as if nothing was there.
For a moment, the five of us who were conscious in the clearing stood there, gaping at the spot where Dalton had been only moments ago. Nikki and the triplets lowered their hands one by one, their faces disbelieving.
Nikki fell to her knees. Opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. She gulped in a breath, then wailed, “No!”
“Dalton,” I whispered.
Another one of my pack. Gone. Taken by the shadowmen to who knows where. How? How? How was this pos
sible?
“What did you do?” Amy roared at me. She stomped toward me, rage distorting her features into an ugly mask. “Where did he go?”
I was still hybrid. But daytime me was devastated, and werewolf me too busy howling inside my brain about the shadowmen.
I pushed Nighttime forward. Color filled my vision once more as I coalesced into one distinct person.
Snapping my head to face Amy, I stepped to her so that we were nose to nose. In a low voice, I said, “So you know what I am, right? And you know what Dalton is, too. Well, sweetie, I’m not in the mood to hear more accusations from girls like you who are clearly up to something.” I shoved her shoulder, but she stood her ground. “I did nothing to Dalton. It was the shadowmen. If you don’t know who they are, I suggest some research. That’s what I had to do. All I know is that if you hadn’t gotten in my way, I could have stopped all of this. All of this. Now if you’ll excuse me, my friend is bleeding to death.”
She didn’t respond. Daytime me knew I hadn’t exactly cut her down. Which meant, as I suspected, that she knew more about this than she’d let on.
The cheerleaders, including Casey, did nothing but stare at me uselessly as I collected my hoodie and pressed it against Megan’s side once more. Nikki cried silently where Dalton had disappeared.
Megan’s wounds wrapped as best I could, I lifted her in my arms, then walked barefoot through the woods back into Dalton’s backyard. Daytime’s internal numbness threatened to seep back into my consciousness, but I kept her down for now. She was a strong girl. She could deal. But later. Later.
I hiked around the side of Dalton’s house, past the fallen garbage bags. Spencer was parked there, looking at his phone. Catching sight of me, his eyes went wide and he raced to my side.
“Holy crap!” he said. “What happened? Oh my God!”
I gestured toward the car with my chin. “Open the backseat. We need to get her to the hospital.”
He ran ahead without any further questions. Reaching the van myself, I gingerly set Megan in the backseat, then crouched beside it. Before I could close the van door, I heard a voice shouting from across the lawn.
