Blood on the Moon

by Jennifer Knight

  I saw Vincent lay him down in the snow. He opened his mouth and tilted his wrist over it, letting the blood flow into Derek’s body. I struggled forward, unable to stand and Vincent looked up at me. He was smiling.

  Hatred coursed through my veins, revitalizing me.

  I hated Vincent more than anything I’d ever hated in the world. I wanted to kill him. My whole purpose for being suddenly became centered on the fact that I needed to kill this vampire bastard. And I was going to do it with or without the pack.

  A glint of silver reached my eyes. The gun, laying not two feet away from me. I crawled to it and took it in my numb fingers. I pulled the cylinder open and saw that I had two more bullets. Two chances to shoot Vincent. I’d stun him long enough to retrieve the stake—and then I’d kill him.

  I rose to my feet, stumbling. The adrenaline made me quake violently, but I pushed forward, forcing my feet to move. My body was alive with heat, though my clothes were soaked with freezing snow. I could hardly breathe as I flew at Vincent. I was so close. I aimed the gun—

  But Vincent grabbed me before I could shoot. He beat the gun out of my hand and held me to him. “A valiant effort.” He laughed. “But ultimately so futile. Do not fret, young Faith. This will not hurt.” His eyes were filled with blackness, even the part where the white should have been. He was consumed with bloodlust. And I was next.

  But then there was a vicious growl from right behind us and Vincent spun around, still holding me tightly.

  A creature stood before us. It looked like a wolf, but elongated. It stood on two feet, and it had a chest like a man. Its body was covered in thick, jet black hair, and its hackles were raised along his hunched back. Its face was that of a wolf, bright white fangs dripping with saliva and shining silver eyes glinting dangerously beneath the full moon.

  I knew in an instant that it was Lucas. His vibe, though mangled with insanity, had the essence of the man I loved. But this wasn’t my Lucas anymore. The moon had transformed him into a mutated creature, neither totally man nor wolf. He was truly a monster.

  I looked into the distance and saw the trees banking the field start to shake. Then ten or so creatures of varying shapes and colors ran from the woods to stand behind their brother.

  I’d never been so relieved and so frightened at the same time. The energy bubbling from the werewolves was manic. The same unpredictable, erratic energy my stepdad had when he hurt my mom and shot me. I tried to tell myself that this wild animal heaving in front of me was my Lucas, but I knew better. I knew what it would do to me if it got the chance—if I messed up again.

  Vincent backed up and sidestepped my dying friend on the floor. He snatched my wrist, holding it to his mouth, much like a criminal would hold a gun to his victim’s head when the cops showed up.

  “I’ll bite her,” Vincent said. There was an unveiled note of panic in his voice. “One bite and it’s over.”

  Lucas roared and bent over, scratching at the ground as if itching to charge Vincent. He had claws—like bear claws but longer. I couldn’t believe this was Lucas.

  The werewolves began to encircle us. Vincent glanced around, and I was glad to see the fear in his eyes. I was right—he hadn’t been expecting the entire pack to show up just for him.

  “Stop!” Vincent commanded, yanking on my wrist. “Get back or I’ll bite her, I swear I will!” His voice was harried. He knew he was cornered. He turned on Lucas, his eyes shining with hate. “Am I really so strong that you had to cry to your pack to come and help you? Can you not defeat me on your own?”

  Lucas jerked forward, gnashing his massive jaws together.

  Vincent backed away. “One more step and she’s dead,” he whispered. “Do not test me, old friend. You know I will do it. I have waited much too long to be thwarted now. Even if I have to die to make you scorch with pain for the rest of your days, I’ll do it.” He brought my wrist closer to his mouth, and I strained against his grip, feeling tears drag down my cheeks.

  “Lucas,” I said, breathing desperately.

  My voice seemed to trigger something in Lucas. His big silver eyes blazed and without any kind of warning, he lunged. He was fast, so fast I didn’t see his paw shove me away as his body collided with Vincent’s. I hit the snow and scrambled away, bumping into Derek.

  Lucas and Vincent were a ball of limbs, screeching and yowling. The pack watched, barking in encouragement and excitement. I saw Vincent’s fangs dig into Lucas’s shoulder, and he roared, sending my body into chills. The silver knife raked over his back, blood spurting everywhere. I couldn’t watch. I heard Derek groan and I dragged myself to him, bringing my ear by his bloodstained mouth. He was barely breathing. Sobbing, I put his head in my lap.

  I shushed him as he began to moan and writhe. I guessed the venom wore off once you were fed vampire blood? I didn’t know. All I knew was that the sounds he was making churned my stomach. I combed my fingers through his hair and cried, knowing that he was turning before my eyes into something not quite dead, not quite alive. My sweet, baby-faced Derek was becoming a vampire.

  A loud scream made me look up. Lucas had Vincent pinned to the snow, his claws were forcing themselves into his pale skin.

  “You . . . don’t have . . . the guts,” Vincent spat. I could feel the hatred, the fury in his voice. “You have had over three centuries to do this and you have yet to follow through. Now is no different. You are weak, Whelan. . . . And your weakness will be what kills her.”

  Then I could swear I saw that familiar smirk flit across Lucas’s wolf face. He threw his head back and let out a deafening howl that jarred my bones. It seemed to go on forever, Lucas’s body, shining underneath the moon, his coat stained with blood, his teeth, white and deadly. Then Lucas raised a massive claw and ripped Vincent’s head right off, sending it flying into the snow where it landed with a sickening thunk.

  The rest of the pack began yipping and howling. Some of them darted forward and shredded into Vincent’s dead body. I felt bile rising in my throat and I looked away.

  I knew I should leave. I knew that I was in the middle of a werewolf feeding frenzy and that any second one was going to turn on me. I knew that my best friend was turning vampire in my arms and that he was no longer the Derek I once loved.

  I knew all of these things . . . but I couldn’t accept them.

  I couldn’t accept that Derek would be a vampire. Not my Derek. Not my best friend. There was only one thing I could think to do, one small hope. I wasn’t sure it would even work, but it was all I had. Lucas had to bite Derek. The werewolf infection might cancel out the vampire magic or else save him from becoming undead. It was a long shot, but I had to try.

  Adrenaline began to surge through me again, but this time it was more potent. My body vibrated as though bolts of electricity were shocking me. I recognized this feeling, only now it was magnified ten times stronger than it ever was before. I embraced it, letting it spread and flood through my veins from my heart to my fingertips.

  “STOP!” I shouted, standing up by Derek’s writhing body. Every one of the celebrating werewolves froze. “Lucas!” I yelled. I stepped forward into the mass of colossal werewolves. Some of them snapped at me, but I ignored them, sure now that they wouldn’t hurt me with my connection secure. I went to the one I knew to be Lucas. I looked straight into his eyes, feeling the connection strengthen. I focused my mind on only two words and I spoke them aloud to make sure he heard them this time. “Bite him!”

  My boyfriend just stared at me, but I knew he understood.

  “Lucas, bite Derek! Turn him into a werewolf. I can handle a werewolf. I can’t handle a vampire.” Again, I focused on Lucas’s eyes, willing him to obey me. Bite him!

  Lucas’s silver eyes shifted to Derek. I could somehow feel him hesitate, but I urged him with my mind. Do it!

  Lucas started toward Derek.

  Then the biggest werewolf, who had to have been Rolf, came between them, growling furiously. I tried to make him move, but Rolf pai
d no attention. He was old enough and strong enough to resist me. As he stood between Lucas and Derek, his knifelike teeth barred, I could understand all too clearly what he was saying, though he couldn’t voice it. He was forbidding Lucas from biting Derek.

  “No,” I said, turning to Lucas. “Go bite him. Go save him!”

  Lucas just stared down at me, his eyes vacant and glittering with madness.

  “Save him!” I yelled with both my mind and my mouth. And again, as if I were steering him, Lucas took a step toward Derek.

  But Rolf was having none of it. He let out an endless roar that weakened the connection I had with the pack, and Lucas stopped. The toll the connection took on my mind was exhausting and every second I held on, the task grew more strenuous until I could barely feel the energy anymore. Rolf’s hold over Lucas was more powerful than mine, and I was weakening by the second. It was then that I realized I wasn’t going to be able to do it. I couldn’t make Lucas save Derek. . . . He was going to die. And so was I. The connection was the only thing saving me now, and once I let it go, they would descend on me.

  I fell to my knees at Lucas’s feet, my face in my hands and Derek’s blood pooling beneath me. I looked up into Lucas’s silver eyes. “Please,” I begged with my voice breaking. “Please, Lucas. Save him.”

  But his eyes were indifferent to my sorrow. They were empty and cold, reflecting the opalescent moon above us that controlled his world. I looked down at my hands, smeared with Derek’s poisoned blood. I knew that it would only be a few more moments before Lucas’s instincts took over. He would smell the vampire blood, and it would drive him to attack. He and the pack would kill us both.

  For a long moment, the only sounds were Derek’s ragged breaths and my desperate sobs. I could feel what was left of the connection waning, the electricity ebbing until there was only a tiny spark left. I felt Lucas and the pack’s erratic energy, their crazed bloodlust. I knew death was coming, and I thought one last time, with every inch of my heart, Please . . . bite him. Please ...

  Then I heard the crunching of snow as something rushed by me.

  I looked up, hardly daring to believe.

  Rolf roared again, but Lucas picked Derek up in his gigantic arms. He gave one harried look at Rolf and then his teeth tore into Derek’s arm.

  23

  AFTERMATH

  Derek began screaming and making these awful guttural sounds. Lucas dropped him, his teeth shining and his eyes bright with the taste of fresh meat. He turned toward me, and I felt fear smother my senses. His eyes no longer bore any resemblance to my boyfriend’s eyes. They were completely and totally feral.

  I had no time to try and stop him. Lucas lunged for me.

  Then Rolf attacked Lucas.

  The rest of the werewolves clashed in an explosion of fangs and chomping jaws. Bodies crushed together, barking, snarling. I didn’t know what was happening, but I did know that I had to get the hell out of there. Now. I weaved through the hairy bodies, tripping and falling several times and narrowly missing the bloody jaws of a spotted werewolf whom I guessed was Julian.

  I dove for Derek. “Get up!” I screamed. I grabbed underneath his arms, hefting him as hard as I could. He barely stood as I draped his arm over my shoulder and began stumbling out of the fray. I was able to steer him away, fueled by the adrenaline pumping in my veins.

  Werewolves tussled and rolled by us. I smelled blood in the air, and it was only a matter of time before they noticed us. I tried to ignite the connection, to make my body electric again, but I was too distracted. I pulled Derek along as he moaned and staggered. My feet slipped in the snow and my muscles protested, but I continued until I reached Vincent’s car.

  It was then that I realized I didn’t have the keys to this car. Derek began to claw at me, gasping. He was fading. Panicking, I pulled at the car door, hoping for a miracle.

  It opened.

  Vincent had left his keys in the ignition—probably having no fear that anyone would steal his car way out in the middle of nowhere.

  Crying out with relief, I managed to stuff Derek into the backseat and slammed the door shut. I heard feet pounding the earth and I whirled around. A black mass of bodies was hurtling through the field straight at me. The werewolves had finally gotten organized again. And they smelled fresh meat smothered in vampire blood.

  I flew to the front seat and turned the key. Derek’s voice rose into a high-pitched scream and I spun around. He was limp.

  “Derek!” I shouted and jostled him. “Derek!”

  Then I heard barking, and the first werewolf skidded to a halt in front of the car, illuminated in the headlights.

  I threw it into reverse and screeched down the dirt road and onto the long, desolate highway behind me. I shoved the car into drive and slammed my foot down on the accelerator. I heard howling behind me and glanced in the rearview. They were chasing me!

  I pushed harder on the gas as the car climbed to eighty, ninety. They could still go this fast. Lucas had said that he could run a hundred miles per hour. I felt something hit the back of the car, and I swerved, almost losing control. I pressed harder on the gas . . . a hundred . . . a hundred fifteen. It couldn’t go faster. This was it.

  I glanced in the rearview again and saw the werewolves falling back. A big black one stood at the front and let out a shrieking howl. I saw its eyes glint silver in the moonlight. Then I rounded a bend in the road and lost sight of my boyfriend and his family, baying to the full moon.

  I drove all night and didn’t stop, even xhen I got to civilization. At first Ididn’t know where I was going, I just knew I couldn’t stop until daybreak. I pulled over on the side of the road somewhere around four a.m. to check onDerek. He was unconsvious, it through this. If Derek dies because of me...

  Then I vegan heading in the direction of Gould. It was the only place I could think to go. I couldn’t take Derek to the hospital-a vampire and a werewolf bite would be hard to explain-and I knew that the pack would be normal again by morning. They were the only ones who could help now.

  About an hour after the sun had risen, I reaches the werewolf mansion. There wwawno one around-no sounds, just me. I couldn’t carry Derek, so I left the keys in the ignition and went to the front door. Iknocked uding the big wrought iron doorknocker and waited.

  A woman answered the door. She waw easily the oldest person I’d seen around there, but she could only ve forty or so. She had a warm smile, but it wa tainted with concrn and mayve even suspicion.

  “Yes?” she asked. She had a deep voice like an owl’s cry. Somewher in the back of my mind Iwas surprised to find that I couldn’t feel her vibe... but mayve I was too fired to feel anything anymore.

  “Is Lucas back yet?” I asked.

  “Who are you?”

  “I’m Faith. His girlfriend.” The woman made a face like my name meant something to her. I wondered what they’d been saying about me. But I didn’t care anymore. I cast a look back at the car and said, “My friend got hurt last night. I need to bring him inside and see if there’s anything ... anything they can do.”

  “The pack should return shortly,” the woman said. “Come in and I’ll get the boys to carry him.”

  “No, I’ll wait here.”

  The woman looked me up and down for a moment and then said, “As you wish.” She closed the door, and I walked back to the car. There was no way I was leaving Derek alone here. Part of him was possibly a vampire, and I didn’t want the werewolves getting any ideas. I opened the backseat up and put my hand on Derek’s skin. It was like ice, cold and clammy.

  Like dead skin.

  I felt tears springing up into my eyes and I grimaced, looking around into the early morning light. The sun’s gentle rays warmed my skin, melting the ice in my heart. I worried briefly about whether the sunlight would hurt Derek’s skin, but I pressed the thought away, refusing to accept that as a possibility. He couldn’t be a vampire. He just couldn’t.

  I heard the door open and looked around. Thr
ee boys a little younger than me strutted forward. They all looked close to identical—tall, black hair, kind of gangly, but muscled.

  I stood back and watched two of them lug Derek out of the car. I followed close behind them up the front steps, into the living room, and up the stairs to a bedroom. Inside were the older woman and two other younger girls bearing washcloths and first-aid equipment.

  The boys lowered Derek onto the bed and stood at the back of the room, eyes wide. The older woman waved her hand at the girls, and they started unclothing Derek.

  I looked away and then felt someone stand in front of me.

  “What happened?” the older woman asked.

  “He was bitten by a vampire and fed his blood.... Then he was bitten by a werewolf.” I didn’t want to tell her which werewolf had done the biting.

  The woman’s gray eyes crinkled into little slits. “No werewolf would have done that. Vampire victims hold no interest for werewolves.”

  “Yeah, well ... one bit him.”

  The woman scrutinized me for a long while and then turned to the boys. “Out!” she barked, and they scurried away. She turned around on her heel and went to Derek. I let out a long breath and leaned against the wall, exhausted. I watched the woman inspect the wound on Derek’s throat and the one in his forearm, the latter of which looked much worse because of the size of Lucas’s teeth.

  She began shaking her head and clucking her teeth. “Stupid . . . stupid, stupid . . . ,” she muttered to herself. “A few broken ribs, but that will heal itself.” She continued her examination and then looked around at me. “There is nothing to do but wait.”

  I took a step forward. “What do you mean?”

  “I have never seen two bites from both races on one being. There is no telling what the result will be. He might die from the mixed magic. One magic might overpower the other, or they will blend and he will be the start of a hybrid race. God only knows what that means.” She shook her head almost sadly.