Hybrid

by Wild Wolf Publishing

  Though I usually stayed at school for lunch, Becci believed me without question. I didn’t waste any more time after that: I left form room and walked straight out of school, hoping no one would see me who knew Mum. There were no teachers around so there was no reason why Mum should find out, unless Amy grassed me up, but she was probably in her own form.

  I reached the school gates without being stopped and I passed through them, into freedom. It was tempting to skive the last two lessons, but that would be pushing my luck too far. It was too much to hope that word of my absence wouldn’t reach Mum. That was the main disadvantage of her working at the school. With any of the teachers I could get away with it if I forged a doctor’s note, as long as I didn’t do it often enough to make them suspicious. But Mum would of course know if I was faking appointments or not, and I didn’t want to end up grounded; it’d be no computer games and no internet for a month if I missed any lessons. Back then I used to think I’d never survive if I was deprived of either my games or the Net, so for the most part I kept out of trouble.

  I soon reached the graveyard. It was not until I approached the mausoleum and saw her sleeping form that I realised I’d risked isolation for no reason. I swore at myself. I should have known better: she was a vampire, of course she’d be asleep during the day! She lay there on the coffin, cold and still as death. Asleep she was like a corpse and could easily be mistaken for one, her skin deathly pale, so very cold to the touch, and her breathing to human ears non-existent. If not for my greater sense of hearing and the fact I already knew what she was, I would have believed her to be a corpse. But I could hear her breath like a faint breeze sighing through her body, and her heartbeat, slower than it should be for a living human so that no pulse was detectable. And never once did she move; not a flutter of her eyelids nor a twitch where I touched her arm curiously. Her lips seemed darker than they did when she was awake, almost as if they were darker with the hue of death. Maybe this was a defence mechanism her kind had evolved so that humans would not disturb their sleeping form, believing them to be one of the dead. Maybe her kind were less likely to be killed when sleeping and at their most vulnerable this way. Or maybe it was some other reason connected to her being one of the living dead. I didn’t know what the real reason was then and I still don’t know now. I never asked her, though whether vampires themselves know, I’m not sure of that either.

  I didn’t think I could have awoken her even if I’d tried, and I really didn’t want to face an angry vampire after Aughtie’s lesson. My ears were still ringing with my English teacher’s screams of rage. So I left Lady Sarah to sleep, slightly disappointed, and knew I’d have to wait till dusk to talk to her.

  Since people thought I’d gone home for lunch, I couldn’t go back to school for another forty five minutes when break ended. Fortunately I had a packed lunch that day so I wouldn’t starve, and I sat on a tombstone while I ate it, watching birds fly past overhead, lost in thought. It didn’t take me long to finish eating and I read some more of my book to pass the time, though I stayed alert to my surroundings for sounds of anyone approaching, ready to sneak out of the graveyard if there was any risk of being seen.

  Once I was back at school, the afternoon passed unusually quickly. I had Maths and then PE, which, as I’d predicted, was a lot easier with my new powers. We’d be playing football for the first term, and then moving onto rugby. I’d never been much good at football, probably because I didn’t practise that often. Whenever I played with David he always won. Not that day though. He was on the other team, and was unable to believe it when I tackled the ball off him every time and went on to score five goals. We won easily, and afterwards he wanted to know how I’d gotten so good all of a sudden. I told him I’d been practising over the summer, and made a mental note to make it look like I was having a bad day once in a while so people wouldn’t get suspicious. I’m not sure if he believed the lie, but I didn’t see why he had any reason not to. Whether he did believe it or not, he let it drop.

  Home time came and I decided to do a bit of research while I waited for nightfall when I could go and talk to the vampire. And the longer I spent talking to her, the less time I had to face the nightmares that sleep would bring. I hoped she’d be more willing to talk this time. There was so much I wanted to know from her.

  When I got in, I dumped my bag in my room and went straight to the computer, only to find Dad was on it. Unable to contain my frustration, I let out a loud, impatient sigh.

  “I need to get on there. Got homework to do,” I told him.

  “Well it’s tough, I’m using it for work.”

  “How long are you gonna be?” I asked him sulkily.

  “As long as it takes, Nick!” he said, losing his temper.

  “But it’s important!”

  “So is this!”

  We were both shouting at each other then, fists clenched, anger burning in our eyes. I would have loved to punch him right in the middle of his ugly face, knowing I could do a lot of damage if I really wanted to, thanks to my superhuman strength. But I knew whatever I did to him would hurt Mum and Amy too, and I didn’t want to see them suffer.

  With a deep breath I backed off, relaxing my hands.

  “Let me know when you’ve finished,” I muttered, walking away. Why did somebody always have to be on the computer when I needed it?

  Luckily I didn’t have long to wait before he finished. I searched through countless myths and legends I’d studied before, searching for any truth in them, trying to learn more about myself. A few of them showed signs of traces of the truth, but I couldn’t find any myths detailing everything Lady Sarah had told me or that I’d experienced for myself, and while there was plenty on Lycaon, there were no legends of a time when werewolves reigned. I had to wonder again whether she’d been completely truthful with me or not, and whether I should trust her.

  Amy came in while I was searching, took one look at the screen and said “You scare me sometimes. Why can’t you be normal like everyone else?”

  I didn’t answer and she left me to it.

  I gave up after a while and searched for chat boards supposedly run by lycanthropes. I loved the internet and the sense of freedom it gave me. I could be anyone or anything I wanted and no one would know any different. I had passed myself off as a werewolf before in chat rooms full of people claiming to be real life lycanthropes. I’d always thought they were all nutters like I was, obsessed with werewolves to the point where they wanted to undergo the physical transformation, or even to the point where they believed it to be true. But now it had become a reality for me, I had to wonder. How many of them had really been werewolves, just looking for others of their kind to talk to and learn from, much like I was then?

  I had many different identities on the Net, many different usernames on various different websites, and several email addresses. I was sure it would be safe to ask around without the Slayers being able to trace anything back to me if they worked out I was for real. But I wasn’t taking any chances so I mixed truth with lies, claiming to be researching the subject for a school project. It generated a lot of interest in the lycanthrope chat rooms I joined that day, but a quick scan through their replies told me they were all human.

  After a while I gave up and went on the virtual pet site I played on with Lizzy and Fiona. Lizzy was online and we spent some time roleplaying before Dad came and kicked me off, lecturing me about the amount of time I spent on the Net. He was adamant I’d ruin my eyes and damage my hands if I spent too long on games. He complained if I spent most of the day reading too, lost in a good horror story, or if I was watching horror movies, saying I didn’t get enough fresh air. I think he just enjoyed making my life Hell. Everything I enjoyed doing he didn’t approve of, and if it wasn’t for Mum I’d have never been allowed to do any of those things. He’d probably have locked me out of the house just so I spent some time in the ‘fresh air’ if Mum hadn’t taken my side. I always argued there was no such thing as fresh air anymore
anyway, since humans continued to pump it so full of poisonous fumes.

  Dinner was ready not long after I’d come off the Net. Mum had done the beef joint, but there would soon be more raw meat to tempt me when the hunger returned next full moon. Since that morning after my first transformation the hunger seemed to have died down to the point where it was no stronger than it had been before I’d been a werewolf. Just before becoming a werewolf I used to complain about being hungry all the time and often claimed I was starving, but that had been nothing compared to the hunger straight after the transformation, when I’d truly felt famished.

  After I’d eaten dusk wasn’t far off and I decided it was time to pay Lady Sarah another visit.

  My parents didn’t like me wandering the street alone after dark so I was forced to sneak out through my bedroom window. I told them I was feeling ill again and I was going to bed so as not to be disturbed, then once I was in the safety of my room I climbed out the window. It would have been awkward if I was still human, but my greater agility made it easy. I wanted to jump down, but if anybody saw me they’d know I wasn’t human, falling from that height with no broken bones, so I climbed.

  It wasn’t long before I stood amidst the tombstones for the second time that day. I hadn’t met anyone on the way to the graveyard, and the streets beyond the gateway to the resting place of the dead were empty. The graveyard itself seemed deserted, save for the silent inhabitants beneath my feet. I hadn’t expected any of the living to be there, except for maybe animal life, but I was disappointed to find Lady Sarah wasn’t anywhere to be seen. She wasn’t in the mausoleum and she wasn’t in the graveyard. There was no trace of her. Perhaps if I understood how to follow scents I might have been able to track her, but I had only been a werewolf for two days, and while the wolf might know how to use my enhanced senses, my human mind couldn’t make any sense of what my nose was telling me. I was only just adjusting to the greater sense of hearing.

  Disappointment turned to anger. How could she just leave me alone in the world without explaining everything fully? She must know how difficult it was to adjust. I was willing to bet becoming a vampire wasn’t all that different to becoming a werewolf, and yeah, it might have been a long time ago when she’d had to deal with it, but she had to remember what it had been like. She might not have mentioned it when she’d told me her own tale, but she could have had help adjusting for all I knew. It seemed unfair that I had to do it on my own. I needed help and if she wasn’t going to give it freely I decided I was going to force her to help me, somehow. I might not be able to find her that night, but if she couldn’t be there for me when I needed her in the hours of darkness, she’d have to face the sun’s deadly rays. I swore to myself I would find some way to wake her the next day, and then she’d have to answer my questions. My survival depended upon it. I had to learn to control the transformation but I needed someone to help me do it.

  It was happening again, my stomach ached and I could feel the itching where fur was beginning to grow. Fortunately this time there was no one to see, but I dreaded the thought of it happening again in school. What if I couldn’t stop it next time? I desperately needed the vampire’s help and she had to know that, so where the hell was she? I kicked a tombstone in frustration with all my strength and yelped at the sharp pain in my toe, which helped stop the change. The tombstone came off worst though. I’d kicked it so hard it uprooted and fell over, the stone cracking and crumbling where my foot had connected with it. Snarling as if it was all the tombstone’s fault, I left the graveyard to wander the streets for a while, not wanting to go back home and face sleep. The night was still young, but if I went home my parents would only make me stay in bed after I’d said I wasn’t feeling well, and tired as I was, I really didn’t want a repeat of the previous night, or the nightmare in Aughtie’s lesson that had scared the wolf bad enough to induce a transformation.

  I wandered aimlessly long into the night and returned home only when it began to rain, after checking the graveyard one more time. The rain didn’t bother me, but if I came back soaking wet Mum and Dad would know I’d lied to them and they’d want to know what I was doing out at night.

  The next day I returned to the graveyard but Lady Sarah still wasn’t there. There was no way she was walking around in daylight. Had she left the graveyard? The terrifying thought occurred to me that perhaps she had left the town, leaving me all alone. The night before when I’d calmed down and had time to think things over I’d decided she’d been hunting, but she couldn’t be out in direct sunlight. So she’d either chosen somewhere else to sleep, moved on to new hunting grounds, or worse, the Slayers had her. And if the Slayers had her and she talked, they’d find out who I was. I still didn’t really know whether I could trust her or not.

  She wasn’t anywhere to be found that night either, or in the days and nights to follow. Practically a month passed and still I hadn’t seen her. What little sleep I had was full of nightmares, but no more to cause another transformation, and slowly I was growing used to them, no longer waking up screaming, no longer afraid. No one had any reason to suspect I was no longer human, and despite not being able to find Lady Sarah, everything else was going great. I knew it wouldn’t last forever and something would go wrong eventually, maybe even sooner than I was expecting, but the need to find her became less urgent. Still, I checked the graveyard every time I was passing by, with no luck. And before I knew it the moon was growing fatter, the wolf growing stronger, and I would be completely alone this time. If the Slayers hunted me again there would be no Lady Sarah to come to my rescue, and so I was forced to put my trust in the wolf to keep us alive through the night. Intelligent as it was, judging from what Lady Sarah had said they had already outsmarted it once. If they did so again and she wasn’t there to save me, I was doomed.

  Chapter Six

  A Blood Moon Rises

  September had become October and the moon was almost full. Autumn was well advanced and with my superior senses I could feel, more so than a human, that winter would soon be here.

  The morning before the full moon dawned bright and clear. It held no hint of the gruesome events that would take place that night.

  I hadn’t been able to sleep again, and it wasn’t just down to the nightmares. I was restless, unable to lie still enough to sleep. I’d tossed and turned until eventually I gave up and decided to risk watching an eighteen, needing something to occupy my mind. I had to turn the sound right down so nobody heard it and I watched in the dark. But that was okay, I’d always liked the dark. It held no fears for me, not even as a young boy, and I enjoyed watching horror movies with the lights off, feeling it added to the atmosphere. Even though it was a film I’d seen many times before, there was a certain thrill about watching the film in the dead of night while everyone else was sleeping, knowing at any moment a character might scream too loudly and wake someone. It set my nerves on edge, making me listen hard at every little noise, trying to determine if someone was coming. If I disturbed Dad there’d be hell to pay, and Mum wouldn’t be too pleased either. I didn’t much care at that point. The same reckless energy I had felt before, just after the full moon of the previous month, had filled me again. The film had finished about an hour before daybreak and I’d been back in bed, feigning sleep long before Mum had come in to wake me.

  That morning I stood in the bathroom looking at my reflection, wondering if anything about me had changed. I felt different inside somehow, and I knew it was the moon’s cycle affecting me, but I was surprised to find my appearance had barely changed. The eyes were still my own, brownish green, full of laughter and warmth and human emotion, if a little bloodshot from the lack of sleep, so different to the eyes of Lady Sarah. And somehow that didn’t seem right. My face was still the same, though round the eyes it looked bruised, the sleepless nights beginning to tell. There was nothing lupine about it, however. Not yet anyway, not till later that night. My ears were still rounded, despite my mind telling me that wasn’t right. Every t
ime I heard a noise I instinctively wanted to swivel them like animals do, but they were in the wrong place on my head. I kept feeling the need to sniff the air, even though I still couldn’t understand everything my nose was telling me. It did seem like my canines were slightly longer and more pointed than usual, but maybe that was just my imagination.

  School went slower than usual that day. I couldn’t concentrate on my lessons. Not that I ever paid much attention, but that day my thoughts were somewhere else, running through the woods somewhere, chasing something, like in the nightmares. Only in my daydreams, while the wolf was certainly influencing them, I was still in control. During the day the prey was always animals.

  I wanted to run and when it was time for PE I enjoyed it more than ever, though I had to fight the urge to drop to all fours, no matter how much more comfortable my brain kept trying to tell me it would be.

  We were already overrun with coursework and we had PD (short for Personal Discipline) that day, a free period for the teachers to sort out detentions and isolations and things, as well as signing off credits in our planners, given out to reward good behaviour. PD was spent in form, and it wasn’t timetabled; it took place when we should have had another lesson, but the time and day changed each week so that we didn’t miss the same lesson all the time. Lower years were meant to read through PD when they’d sorted out everything with the teachers, but with the GCSE exams drawing closer by the day we could use the time to catch up on coursework. I was too distracted to do any work and sat gazing out of the window, watching the birds fly by and fighting the instinct to hunt.