by Mandy Rosko
“That’s my potion!”
Naturally, she didn’t expect anyone to hear her outburst. Elaine certainly didn’t blink an eyelash her way and there was no indication that Eric had heard her, so when she looked up and saw David staring into her face, mouth open and sputtering, she could almost bet that she had the same look on her face.
Just in case, she turned to look behind her and found nothing there. There was no mistaking it, he really could see her.
“G-Gwen?”
“Gwen’s not here, sweetheart, she’s gone,” Elaine said, taking a step closer.
“She’s dead!?” David screamed, which made Elaine jump back as David’s eyes went from one visible woman to one invisible woman.
“I’m not dead!” Gwen yelled. David blinked at her. He could hear her, too? How was that possible?
“Who’s dead?” Eric rushed in when he heard all the noise, staring up at David accusingly and sticking close to Elaine.
“If you hurt her—”
“No! I’m not hurt and no one is dead!” Elaine cried, her face turning red as she fought back her emotions. “Please, calm down.”
Gwen wasn’t sure if Elaine was talking to herself or David.
“You’re not dead?” David asked her, ignoring everyone else with the enormous swell of relief he felt. Even the pain of his upcoming change was forgotten. For now, at least. That still didn’t explain how he could look right through her.
Eric bristled. “Do I look dead to you?” He was standing right behind her, but Eric couldn’t see Gwen there and naturally thought that David was looking at him.
So that was it, she didn’t know how he could see her, but he could, and to give him such a scare meant he was seeing her as a transparent figure of sorts.
Well, all the better. If he could see her then she could do a lot more than just check up on him. Floating up to where he stood, Gwen touched his cheek that was rough with stubble. He shivered when they made contact. He could he feel her touch as well? Amazing.
“Take what Elaine’s trying to give you,” she said softly.
He shook his head. “No, I don’t know what it is.”
“Who are you talking to?” Elaine was searching around for the mystery guest while Eric crossed his arms.
“He’s faking it, he has to be, hallucinations aren’t part of the change.”
Gwen sneered at him over her shoulder but quickly went back to the matter at hand. “It’s a potion I made for you, it’ll make your change easier if you take it. Please?” she begged. “You’ve already had a dose while you were sleeping, I gave it to you before you …” she hesitated and couldn’t help the giggle. “Before you knocked John out cold.”
David couldn’t stop the smirk from appearing on his face before he became serious again. “There’s nothing in it that’ll weaken me?”
“Who are you talking to?” Eric demanded.
Gwen sighed, caressing his face with both hands now. He made no move to touch her, worried that if he tried, his hand would slip through her face and she would disappear. “You’ll have to trust me. And eventually her, too,” she added, wanting to be sure that Elaine was thought of in all of this.
She was apparently his mother, after all.
There was some hesitation before he nodded. “Alright.” But he didn’t take his eyes away from her or attempt to move. He had a feeling that if he turned his head away from her, even for a second, she would disappear and he would discover that he really was having hallucinations.
Luckily, Elaine did the work for him and put the mug in his hand. In the shock of feeling something there, he took his eyes away from Gwen to have a look. When he looked back, she was still there, smiling at him.
He smiled back and drank down the hot contents in two gulps, grimacing at the taste.
“I was out cold the last time I drank this?” he asked, scowling into the empty mug.
Gwen and Elaine both nodded.
“Thank God for that,” Shepard said. Eric shook his head, still wondering if he was putting on an act for sympathy’s sake.
Shepard turned his eyes back to Gwen and she grinned happily at him, leaning forward to press a feather kiss against his mouth. After all, if he could feel her hands, then why not her lips?
Before she could make that contact with him, her entire body jerked and rippled; it didn’t escape David’s notice.
“What’s happening to you?”
There was fear in his eyes for her. She knew what it was though, she was being pulled back to her body. Before she could tell him this, the jerking in her body turned into a pulling and she was suddenly falling.
Gwen hated this feeling, she’d forgotten all about it, and she screamed her head off as she fell from the sky without a parachute to stop her until she landed back in her body, coughing and sputtering for air. She curled up for a moment to catch her breath and clutch at her chest.
She hated that so much!
She would have to get Evey to teach her spells that didn’t hurt so much when the majick faded next time.
Despite the pain in her chest, she’d done what she set out to do. David had taken the potion and would likely continue to take it as long as Elaine was there to administer it to him. It hadn’t been wasted, that was the important thing.
Gwen’s heart swelled. There was hope. As long as the potion’s majick took hold of him, there was hope.
She wanted to laugh out loud, and almost did until a sound disturbed her from her leafy bed. She stilled her body and concentrated when she didn’t hear it again right away.
She perked her ears and made them listen to every twitch in the woods until the sound came back. A woman, Di, and she was talking to another person. She didn’t sound too happy either.
“That’s enough! That’s enough! Stop it!”
Gwen tried to stand, but a wave of nausea forced her to her knees. She fought the dizziness that threatened to take her. Who was she talking to?
Gwen tried again, slower this time, and crawled to the other side of the tree to have a peek.
It was Di alright, but Jimmy was there with her, on his knees. He drank from her wrist while Di pushed and shoved at him to try and break free. Di swayed with weakness as the former hunter refused to remove his fangs from her wrist. He must have been starving to death.
Traitor or not, Gwen couldn’t sit there and let him drink her to death. She forced herself to her feet and, after nearly falling over again, ran toward the pair.
Both were so caught up that neither saw her until she clumsily threw her entire weight at Jimmy, pushing him off of Dianna and to the ground.
He roared and struggled, easily throwing her off and leaping to his feet. Di fell to her knees, weak with blood loss, while Gwen fought her own weakness and returned to her feet.
“Leave her alone,” she said, moving to stand between them.
Jimmy snarled and Gwen got a look at his face from under his hood. Charred nearly to a crisp. It probably would have been worse if not for the canopy of trees above their heads. She almost felt sorry for him, but after the feeding he would have a renewed strength. It would be only hours until his face healed.
“She told me I could!” he defended, sounding affronted.
“She was also telling you to stop,” Gwen snarled back, turning her head just enough to see where Di was kneeling, clutching her bleeding wrist and silently crying.
“Did you tell him he could?” she asked.
Di looked up at her and softly nodded her head.
Gwen put an effort into snarling at her. “Did it make you feel any better?” she asked.
Di’s brows came together, confused at the tone Gwen gave her. “What do you mean?”
Even though Di was still a part of the pack, like a sister, Gwen had to remember that she was the one responsible for the attack on their Moon Night. “You let them find us here, and now he’s a vampire, did letting him feed from you make you feel better?”
Di’s face went chalk white as
she put two and two together. “Gwen, you don’t know—”
“I don’t need to know!” The tiny hairs on the back of her neck stood up in warning, and Gwen spun around to find Jimmy standing a good five feet closer than before. “Stay away from me!” she yelled, her dizziness disappearing and her strength returning.
Jimmy stopped, but not before smirking at her.
Gwen stomped toward Di and knelt before her, keeping Jimmy in the corner of her eye just in case. She didn’t think he was done with her yet.
“Di, this has to have been the stupidest thing you have ever done. Tell me you were drunk when you did it, and—and I’ll forgive you, okay? Just …” Gwen couldn’t think of what else to say. She didn’t want to believe that her best friend could be in the right of mind and still send hunters after her own pack. When Di turned her face away and sobbed, Gwen’s heart sank. Di wouldn’t even look at her and admit it.
“Why?”
“Why do you think?”
Gwen fell back at the outburst.
“You were always braver and stronger, and he always wanted you! He never even looks at me!” Di punched the ground with both fists, screaming through her sobs.
“Who are you talking about?” she asked, open mouthed, as she righted herself. She couldn’t mean …
“John.” Di sniffed and Gwen’s stomach dropped. “He even tells it to my face. I’m not strong enough, I can’t go because I’ll be afraid. He treats me like a—a … a kid sister!”
Gwen couldn’t stop herself. She slapped her. Hard. It was enough to make Di stop crying and stare owl eyed at her, a hand on her red cheek. Gwen wanted to kill her. Instead, she grabbed her by her jacket and hauled her to her feet, shaking her around.
“That’s why? Because you were jealous? You weak—” Gwen forced herself to stop by biting her fist. The pain made her not want to kill Di quite so much.
Then she pushed Di into a tree, afraid that if she stood anywhere near, she would hurt her.
“People died last night! How could you?” Now Gwen was crying. Crying and pacing. All she could think about was the pup and his mother running for their car to escape. The wives who cried over their husbands, Bill in the hospital, and even the bounty hunter who sawed off his hand when Gwen bit him. None of that would have happened if it weren’t for her.
Then another thing came to her. The book. She’d completely forgotten about the address book. If Dianna was the traitor that meant she was the one to take it out of the safe and hand it over.
Gwen wiped the tears from her face. “What am I going to do with—?”
She was cut off when Jimmy used her distraction to grab her around her arms and forcefully pulled her back. Gwen screamed and kicked to make him drop her, but drinking so much blood did a lot more for his strength than she thought it did.
“Let me go!” she screamed, hoping to throw off his hood with her thrashing. But he held firm, slapping a charred hand over her mouth. The scent of burned flesh made her stomach flop.
“Leave her alone! It wasn’t her fault!” Jimmy hissed.
Di stepped forward, her hands outstretched, still crying. “Don’t hurt her,” she begged.
“She has to listen!” Jimmy insisted, which sounded more like a snarl in her ear.
Gwen relaxed in his arms, hoping he would loosen his grip on her so she could attack him and get away.
He chuckled instead. “I’m not falling for that.”
She grumbled under his hand, holding back the knot of fear in her stomach as best as she could. If Di could send hunters after her own pack, what would she do to her for figuring it out? It wasn’t like Jimmy told anyone else that she knew of. He could kill her right now and make off scot-free. No one would ever know what Di had done.
“Will you listen now?” He didn’t sound cocky, but patient. Since Gwen didn’t feel like waiting there all night, she nodded her head. She was curious as to why he would stand up for a Were anyway, a creature he’d made a living out of hunting only hours earlier. Plus, as long as they talked, she was safe.
“Good, now let me tell you—”
Di screamed. “Look out!”
A hard fist smashed into the side of Jimmy’s head, throwing him off of her before he fell to the ground, much like he’d done when she’d tackled him, only his attacker still stood while he scrambled to cover his face with his hood.
Gwen turned, fully expecting to see John, but David stood in his place, massaging bruised knuckles. Her jaw dropped and heart fluttered.
He seethed at his brother, his entire body tense and shaking. Elaine stood right behind him, making it obvious as to what had happened.
“She let you out?” Then, what had happened to Eric?
David stopped shaking and looked at her, as if just remembering that she was there. Yanking her into his arms, he crushed her with his embrace. She would have hugged him back, but her arms were pinned to her side and she couldn’t breathe.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
She squeaked.
Startled, he dropped her to her feet. “I’m sorry, are you okay?” He was hovering over her know.
“I’m fine,” she wheezed, still gasping but finding the strength to throw her arms around his neck. He hugged her back, gently this time, and savored the feeling of having her there, skin tingling where they touched.
Abruptly, he pulled away. “He didn’t bite you, did he?” Without waiting for an answer, he began searching all the usual bite spots, tilting her neck to have a look and bringing her wrist up for him to inspect.
Gwen tried not to laugh, she should have pulled her arms away from his inspection, but having him so close to her was too appealing to tell him anything that would make him pull away. Still, she didn’t want to worry him. “Weres can’t change into vamps, you know.”
“I know, I just want—” he cut himself off and stared at her before clearing his throat. “I wanted to be sure he didn’t hurt you.” He suddenly felt sheepish, standing there holding her hand while his other hand was halfway up her sleeve, searching for punctures marks.
Gwen grinned, leaning up to kiss him.
“Nice to know whose side you’re on.”
They pulled away almost before they had a chance to start. Jimmy was on his feet again, glaring at them angrily from under his hood.
David stepped in front of Gwen. While she was sure she could handle him despite her failed attempt earlier, she was glad for the protection.
Shepard didn’t glare back. “Well, I had to get you off of her.”
“By punching me in the head? You don’t think I look bad enough?”
He winced. “What were you doing anyway?”
“Trying to tell her about…” he trailed off, pointing at Di.
“Oh,” David said quietly. That was something that needed to be explained. He scratched the back of his head and thought about how he would do it.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” Elaine asked, putting an arm around Di’s shoulder. The redhead shrugged her off and walked away.
“You can’t go back to the cabin, Di,” Gwen called after her, stopping her in her tracks.
“Why can’t she go back?” Elaine asked, looking at all three of them with a cautious curiosity. “What’s going on?”
Gwen forced herself not to feel any pity for Di, who was cringing away at such innocent questions. “Did you want to tell her?” she asked. Di only looked away and shook her head in response.
Shepard put a hand on her shoulder. “Gwen—”
“No! I know you’re going to say I’m overreacting, but if it weren’t for her—”
“If it weren’t for her we wouldn’t have found your Moon Night spot and attacked. I know,” he said softly.
“What did he say?” Elaine covered a gasp with her hand, staring with wide eyes at Di’s cringing back.
Gwen’s breath hitched. She’d almost forgotten that David was there as well. He gazed down at her with sad eyes and sighed.
“I’m ju
st as responsible as she is. If anything, you have to remember that.”
Gwen swallowed hard and nodded, leaning into his chest for comfort, happy when he held her.
“For what it’s worth,” he started, and she looked up at him, “she honestly didn’t think what happened would happen.”
“What?” Gwen asked. Di bravely turned her head to look at them all when Jimmy and David Shepard explained the nature of her visit and what had happened after she left.
“That still doesn’t excuse her,” Elaine said cautiously, shaking her head. “I’m not sure what Bill will do when he finds out.”
Of course, Elaine was too new to the pack to know, and even though David and Jimmy were hunters, nearly experts on the area of werewolves, they wouldn’t know either since every pack had its own set of laws.
“She’ll be lucky to get banishment,” Gwen said. Di’s face went a ghostly white.
“But—but I’ve been with this pack my whole life!”
“Bill’s not going to give you a slap on the wrist for this,” Gwen argued, silencing her immediately. She had to steel herself for the next question. “Did you give them the address book?”
Di was already radiating guilt and shame, but the intensity of it when she’d asked the question was answer enough. Gwen clenched her fists and wished there was something around she could dig her claws into.
She turned to David. “Tell me she gave it to you,” she begged. If he had it then at least one problem would be solved.
He shook his head. “No, I’m sorry, but I never took it.”
“Then …” She pointed her finger at Jimmy hopefully.
“Our father has it,” he said, shifting under his hood. “I don’t even know if he’s alive anymore.”
“Dear God,” Elaine gasped, stepping away from Dianna in shock.
Gwen had to force herself not to feel pity for Jimmy or David just yet, an act that was already made hard by the fact that it was also David’s father they were talking about. But if he was dead, the pack had nothing to worry about.
Gwen wasn’t sure she wanted to know, but she had have something to say to her father. Any information was useful. “Why would you give them the book?”
Dianna shrugged and sobbed helplessly.
