It was a long day sitting at the hospital with Katrina and her mom. Ms. Morison never brought up the story she told me about him and I’m sure she’s afraid to tell Katrina, but K already knows. Katrina’s very good at hiding her emotions when she really needs to. I got the impression that she always tries to stay strong for her mom, to be supportive rather than a burden.
The doctor said it would probably take a few months for Katrina’s voice to come back. After a few tests, they said there wasn’t as much damage as they once thought. She has a deep bruising in the vocal cords. It would just need time to heal, which is a relief. Katrina did give the police a drawing of what he looked like, but it wasn’t the actual picture.
Katrina told me she didn’t want the police getting hurt trying to catch him.
The police were impressed with her drawing skills. When they asked her, what happened the night of the attack, she wrote down the same thing she told me. I have a feeling she isn’t going to tell anyone the full story. I’m sure it more than traumatized her. Maybe one day we will know the full story, but I think she would rather forget it happened. I didn’t know what Katrina planned on doing once she was released from the hospital. If she went home, I can only imagine what will be waiting, not only for her, but for her mom. I’m sure the police would be posting someone to watch her house with the maniac still on the loose, but I doubt that will help. They didn’t even have the proper image of him. He could kill them in a second anyway even if they did have the correct image. I don’t know what to do…
I’m just glad I’m home. Sleeping in that hard-reclining chair was horrible on my back. It still hurts to bend down. At least they gave Ms. Morison a cot. I’m glad she wasn’t going home to an empty house. She’s afraid too, and I certainly don’t blame her. Maybe that’s why the nurses were letting her stay with Katrina.
I’m glad to be in my own bed tonight with my soft pillows and a warm blanket. I know Katrina and her mom are safe for tonight. I don’t think he would dare go after them in a hospital with so many people around. But then again, I could be wrong. Maybe he had no problem with massacring everyone he came across. No, I don’t think he would go after them in the hospital. He likes his low profile too much and if he went there, he would definitely be exposed, especially when a bullet didn’t stop him.
Somewhere in my thoughts, I drifted into darkness.
Images flashed through my mind, one after the other. The woods, a man, and woman behind a tree, their faces all wrong… then the man’s face… a hand around my neck, and fangs at my shoulder…
My eyes flew open, ridding me of the wretched dream. I’m not sure if I should be horrified, or relieved it was over, then I started to realize that I’m freezing. It felt like someone turned on the air conditioning. I turned over to look at my clock and it said 6:45 a.m. That’s when I saw movement. My heart raced when I noticed my curtains blowing in the breeze. I let out a sigh of relief. Both the doors are open, but how? I always lock them. I’m about to get up and close them, but I have a strong feeling I’m not alone. Someone or something is in here with me, watching me. I don’t want to look, I don’t want to move. I pulled the covers over my head to hide. I did that when I was a kid when I got scared, thinking if nothing can see me, nothing can hurt me. Obviously, that’s not the case. What if it’s the things from my dream, was it really just a dream though? It feels like it really happened, but I don’t know… Then again, maybe it’s him. I laid here frozen hoping he, or they would kill me quickly, I know I have no chance if I fight -
“Lexi, stop panicking and look over here.” That voice rung in my head again. Reminding me of the other night with the wolf in my yard, my forgotten memories…
I gradually moved the covers from my head. I didn’t have to do anything else, what’s in my room is now in front of my face staring at me. All I see are the eyes, the bright golden yellow eyes. Immediately, I thought of those creatures in the woods and let out a scream so loud it could wake the dead. I threw my blankets off the bed and I went right along with them.
“Shut up! Shut up! It’s me, Zach. Lexi! Stop screaming!” The voice hissed urgently.
When I stopped screaming, I looked at the thing that scared me. I’m face-to-face with a wolf. I heard my parents storming up the stairs, and the wolf ran out the doors, disappearing into the night with a sigh filling my mind.
Dad came through my door like gangbusters with a baseball bat and mom was right behind him with a handgun, flipping on my light. Where did that come from? Talk about taking home security to extremes.
“What!? What’s going on, are you okay!?” Dad said urgently, scanning my room ready to swing with the bat at any moment.
“It’s okay. I scared myself,” I said breathlessly.
“If you scared yourself, why are your doors open?” Dad asked not believing me. He walked over to my closet looking in the door, then over to my bathroom, and lastly over to the doors looking over the balcony.
“I don’t know. I think I forgot to lock them and the breeze opened them. When I woke up I saw movement, but it was just the curtains and that’s why I screamed.” Lying isn’t so bad when it’s part truth.
“You sure you’re okay?” Mom asked peering around the room, gun in hand pointed toward the floor. I looked down at it and mom noticed. She smiled and said, “Just a precaution, and besides you can never be too careful. But, you’re ok?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I just had a wolf in my room that’s all; thank God, he took off or mom… I don’t even want to think about that. “Sorry I woke you.”
Dad closed and locked my doors to the balcony and said, “As long as you’re fine…” He looked at me suspiciously, “You know this stuff going on with you lately is getting concerning Lexi…”
“I know, and I’m sorry. I promise nothing serious is going on.” I tried to smile.
He looked at me with squinted eyes. “Okay then, we're going back to bed and you should do the same.”
“Night sweetie,” Mom added kissing my forehead then turned off my room light.
“Night,” I said still gathering my breath.
Mom and dad went back downstairs. I picked my blankets back up off the floor and slowly walked over to my doors. I unlocked the latch and opened the one door. There on my balcony sat the wolf staring at me. I gasped.
We stood staring at each other for a few moments. The wolf is, even more, striking up close. He’s as tall as my waist. His fur full of browns, grays, and blacks. The blacks and browns swirled across his body like a tie-dyed shirt, and the thin streaks of gray weaved in between the blacks and browns like puzzle pieces fitting together. His eyes are a bright golden yellow and seem to glow, piercing through the night. Across his eyes, a black mask covers them just like a raccoon or a masked bandit. The rest of his face is brown in color. There’s a white patch of fur over his heart. The shape of it is a little odd. It looks like the shape of a sword. I can see the handle, and it maneuvers down into a blade ending at a point. How strange.
I recognized this wolf though. Not only from that night I started to run into the woods, but somewhere else. Where did I see this same, identical… oh my God! I recognized him from Katrina’s room, the painting she did! Everything’s exactly the same about the wolf right down to the white spot on the chest. How did Katrina… I let that thought trail off as I thought of something else.
“Zach?” I whispered breaking the long silence. I’m sure that was his voice I heard in my head a moment ago.
The wolf nodded his head.
“Zach, that’s really you?” I gasped. This is way over my head.
“Yes, it’s me, Lex. So, don’t freak out okay,” He said sarcastically. When he talks, it’s transmitted right into my head, telepathically. It’s strange, but oddly enough, it feels… natural.
“How… are you doing that… the voice?” I asked one of many, many questions.
“Long story. Can I come in or are you going to scream at me again?” He laughed.
“But, you told me not to invite anyone in,” I said sarcastically.
He sighed and said, “Yeah and I also told you to stay out of the woods, especially at night and you didn’t listen then. Besides, I’ve already been invited in, remember?”
“Oh,” I laughed a little. “Right,” I said nervously.
Zach walked around me and jumped up on my bed. He made a circle and sat down facing me.
“Um, Zach, you know you’re a wolf, right?” I asked a little nervous again.
He jumped up on all fours and said, “Wolf!? Where!?” He coughed a laugh.
“Very funny. Now, what is going on Zach? I’m seriously freaked out right now. I’m in my room talking to a wolf that’s on my bed. So obviously, I need some answers, unless I’m just dreaming.”
“Would it be easier if I changed?” He asked.
“Changed?” I don’t quite get what he meant.
“Back to human, since the wolf thing is freaking you out,” He added sarcastically.
“Oh. Umm, if you don’t mind?” It came out sounding like a question.
“I don’t mind,” He rolled his eyes. “Now don’t freak or faint or scream. I don’t need your mom coming in here with that gun again.” He laughed.
How did he know about the gun? He wasn’t anywhere around, or was he?
“I think you should sit down though. Sit on the bed; I don’t want you to pass out.”
“Ha ha.” I did as he said. I sat on the bed and he got down on the floor by the doors.
Zach took one long whiff of the night air coming through the open door and began shaking out his fur like a wet dog. When he stopped shaking, he closed his eyes and arched his back like he’s stretching. A light started to come from him. I can’t tell from where exactly. It looks like it’s all around him as there’s no exact point of concentration. As the light became brighter, I can see Zach shifting into a human. The fur gradually disappeared, and clothes replaced his fur, coving his skin. He’s still on all fours and I can see his paws turn into hands. My eyes are wide and I can’t blink. I’m fixated on Zach. The light started to get brighter, and in a blink of an eye, the light is gone. We are in the darkness of my room once again.
I’m still looking at Zach unable to move. He stood up as his handsome human self. He smiled at me with the huge grin I love.
I look shocked as I can feel it on my face. Zach, my Zach, he’s here and my heart is whole again, the pain from our separation, forgotten. I got off the bed, standing on my shaking legs and crossed the room. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled his face down to mine. Our lips pressed together, and he wrapped his arms around me, picking me off the ground. I wrapped my legs around his waist and he held me here, supporting me.
I pulled back after a moment of heated passion, looked straight in his eyes and said, “I love you, I don’t care what you are, I love you.” His eyes seem to smile, but before he can say anything I pulled his lips back to mine.
He moved his lips down my neck as he said, “I love you my lovely Lexi, more than life itself.” My face glowed; I have a smile on my face. It’s the first time we both said, ‘I love you’ and it couldn’t mean more than what it did right now.
After a few minutes of our quiet reunion, it was time to get down to business. I still need my answers, though I’m willing to wait a little longer, his lips are so soft… and warm.
“Well, now you know what I am,” Zach spoke softly. We are sitting on my bedside by side. I have my head lying on his shoulder, and he has his arm around my back.
“I know you turn into a wolf, but what exactly are you? I never paid attention to those myths because I never believed in them before.” Well until the Vampire recently.
“Well, some call us Shape-Shifters and some call us Werewolves, which isn’t true because not all of us turn into wolves. There are other animals that Shape-Shifters turn into. It tends to get involved.” He smiled down at me a little reluctant to go on. I figure he needs a push.
“Well, I would like to know, that is, if you want to tell me.” I smiled back hoping he would go on.
“If you really want to know…” It worked. “But, it is based on personality, on what animal you’ll become. I’m a wolf because I’m a protector and I’m loyal. The white spot on my chest is a sword and there’s a reason. I have found something I love so deeply that I will protect until the day I die. It was you that helped me find my true power. Remember every Sunday I would have something to do with my parents?” He asked looking at me.
“Yeah.”
“They were trying to help me find out what my power is, but they couldn’t. It was you who helped me find it. I should have found out what it was when I made the first transformation into my animal two years ago, but I didn’t. When I met you, when I first set eyes on you, I found it.”
“Is that why you would always stare and smile at me before we even met?”
“Yeah, sorry about that.” He laughed. “But, when I first saw you, I knew I had to have you. You had to be mine.”
I laughed. “Well, I’m yours now,” I laughed again. “But, what other animals can Shape-Shifters turn into?” I asked curiously. I was going to ask what abilities he has, but I don’t know if I can handle that yet. One step at a time, I told myself.
“Well, there are wolves obviously and there’s deer, eagles, bears, owls, leopards, tigers and a bunch more.”
There’s a moment of silence, as he looked at my face for any reactions.
I want to keep him talking so I can hear his voice. He doesn’t seem like he’s going to finish what he started. “Since you represent loyalty, what do the other animals represent?”
“The eagle is a leader. The tiger a destroyer. The deer represents kindness and love, kind of like a free spirit. A bear is protective and nurturing. The owl is wisdom, and the leopard is aggression. There are many others, but these are the ones that I know of.” He looked at me curiously taking in my face, I’m sure it doesn’t hold its composure. “Freaky, huh?”
“Yeah, a little,” I paused. “So, um, are... Shape-Shifters born?” I wonder. How did anything Supernatural come to be? Were they born or created?
“No one knows for sure where we came from, but I can tell you the myth of it.”
“Okay.” I waited for him to continue.
“It’s said that we originated in South America when a medicine man gathered a group of three wolves and a group of three men. They stood together in front of a fire and the medicine man performed a combining spell. The spell was only supposed to link their minds, animal to human, so they could hear each other’s thoughts. When he did the spell, the fire flared and swirled around the men and wolves, engulfing them. The medicine man did something wrong. Some say he was crazy, and he planned to do the wrong spell. When the fire finally released the wolves and men, something was very wrong. Instead of hearing each other’s thoughts, both the wolves and the men were literally combined. Their bodies became one, one man to one wolf. They were no longer just men, but now they were half man and half beast-”
“What? The wolf and man became one?” I asked slightly confused.
“Yes. That is why when I transform from wolf to human and vice versa I light up like fire. The magic the medicine man performed was so powerful, that when the wolf and man merged, it created a light forged from the fire. When the man-beasts figured out what he had done, they told the medicine man to fix them, but he refused. So, the man-beasts killed the medicine man. I guess that’s where the people came up with Werewolf because they were half wolf, but little did they know when one of them had children years later, when he could control himself, the children too, could turn into animals. They didn’t turn into a wolf though like most would expect. They were different animals. Their children had children and spread the gene. Then here I am.” He stopped to smile then he frowned a little. “I knew you couldn’t handle all of this.”
I don’t know what he sees on my face, but my eyes are wide, that much I know. “No, no, it�
��s okay. It’s just a lot to take in, that’s all.” I tried to smile, but it didn’t fool him.
“Maybe I should go,” he said still frowning.
“No, please don’t. I want to know more. Please?” I begged. I can’t bear if he leaves now. My heart would rip in half.
“No, really, I think I need to go. It’s getting quite late in the day and your parents are bound to hear us, not to mention your sister down the hall for that matter.” He smiled wide. It looks like he has a little evil plan forming in his mind when he thinks of Bree.
“Whatever you’re thinking, don’t,” I scolded.
“I wasn’t thinking anything, nothing that would get me in too much trouble that is,” He chuckled under his breath. He put both hands in the air to surrender. “Okay, okay. I’ll behave.” He must have noticed my don’t-even-think-about-it face.
“Good.”
“Okay. I gotta go now.”
“Won’t you please stay?”
“You better look at your clock before you beg me to stay because you know I will.” He smiled devilishly.
I looked at my clock and it’s 9:00 a.m. Where did the time go? “Okay, I guess you better go,” I said sadly. “but, one more question before you leave. Please?”
“Okay, just one more.”
“Well in the story when you said, ‘when he could control himself’, what exactly did that mean?” I asked warily. It caught my attention before, from the way he said it like he didn’t mean too.
He didn’t answer right away, and it made me nervous.
“Zach, it’s okay you can tell me. I promise I won’t freak out or anything,” I said calmly.
“Uh… hmm. I don’t know if I should.” He looks upset.
I placed my hand on his face and made him look at me. “Zach, I love you no matter what. I just want to know. Please?”
“I hate to see you beg me like this. It just about kills me.”
“So, don’t make me beg,” I smiled.
“Well, it’s not an easy question to answer. It kind of has a story of its own,” he said uneasily. He really doesn’t want to answer my question.
Sapphyre: Burden to Bare (The Sapphyre Saga Book 1) Page 17
