Jade Taylor.....

“Sorry, I don’t remember much. How did I get here?” Amanda had no idea of how she could have survived and made it to a hospital.

“A couple of your friends brought you here, or at least they said you had been at the same party.” She kept studying the various machines and equipment around Amanda and writing down her findings on a clip board. “You were pretty messed up and like I said had lost a lot of blood.”

Amanda could not remember any of that. All she could remember were the eyes, those demonic yellow eyes. “Did they mention anything else?” she asked, hoping she’d dreamt it all.

“No,” the nurse said, seemingly uninterested. “Just brought you in and said you’d been attacked by some kind of animal.”

Shit, it hadn’t been a dream! “Did they see what kind of animal?” she asked.

“Probably some kind of wolf judging by the depths of the claw marks and the bite,” she tapped Amanda’s leg.

She’d been bitten? Amanda groaned loudly. How in the hell was this possible? “How long have I been here?” She asked, suddenly aware that she had parents who would have been sick with worry by now.

“Today is actually your one week anniversary,” the nurse joked, “but don’t worry, your parents have been by to see you. In fact, your mother is just down the hall getting some coffee. She’s been here the whole night.”

“Yeah she can be really protective at times.”

“Oh and your boyfriend stopped by too. He’s the one who brought the flowers.” She indicated the vase of pink roses sitting by the window. “He’s a charming young fellow.” She left the room before Amanda could say anything.

My boyfriend, Amanda thought. She and Pete had broken up weeks ago. Why would he bother coming to see her? “It’s not like you tried to kill each other,” she said out loud. Maybe he was just being a friend but then why identify himself as her boyfriend? Anyway, that was just water under the bridge. Her mother walked in and Amanda had to endure the Jerry Springer show; her mother crying and scolding her at the same time for driving alone at such a late hour before fussing over her injuries and making sure she was okay. She smiled though, and her eyes twinkled when she mentioned the mystery “boyfriend” who had come to see her.

When she described him, Amanda realized in horror that it was the same guy she had found lying beside the road. At that moment, she did not know why she didn’t just tell her mother the truth. Something held her back. Why did the man come to see her? She’d read that werewolves, (she couldn’t believe she was using that word) did not often know what they did when they shifted and were mostly remorseful of what they had done. Maybe he wanted to apologize about almost tearing her to shreds (yeah right). Or maybe he was scared she would reveal what he was and had come back to finish her off. Like anybody would have believed her. Let’s face it, she was curious but didn’t they say curiosity killed the cat?

The next day, she was discharged and allowed to go home but not before she asked the nurse if her “boyfriend” had been around again. The nurse said he’d been to ask how she was doing and upon learning she was to be discharged, said he would see her at home. Does he know where I live? Amanda thought. Three days passed and Amanda could not get the incident out of her head. Worse still, she could not discard the fact that she’d been bitten. If what they said about a bite from a werewolf was true, then she would soon be howling on all fours as well. The only consolation was that there had been no full moon as yet, and with luck, perhaps it wouldn’t appear for a few days yet. Amanda did notice though, that her behavior changed. She was easily annoyed more often than not, opting for aggression anytime she could and her mouth was always dry.

 

One day, she was in the school library, looking up werewolves on the internet when one of the many simpletons at her school (every school has this kind of people) walked by and handed her a note. He said he’d been given fifty quid to deliver the note to her. She quickly surveyed the library but had little hope of seeing the person she wanted. She opened the note gingerly and read the words hastily scribbled on it. She noticed he did not have a very good handwriting. I know you know what I am and that it will happen to you too. Let me help you through the process, you won’t be able to handle the change by yourself. I promise I won’t hurt you but if you don’t let me help you will hurt a lot of people. Meet me at the Arena at 7pm.

 

Adam

 

Amanda was a little disappointed that his name was Adam. She had always imagined it would be something like Wulfric or Kane or maybe even Lucius from that Underworld movie. “Adam” just seemed a little wimpy, nothing like that ferocious terrifying beast she’d met. She calculated that he obviously could not try something dangerous in a bar full of people. Unless everybody in the bar was a werewolf of course then he could pretty much do anything he wanted. But she doubted that, she and her brother spent a lot of their weekends at the Arena and would have noticed anything strange. Well then if that was the case, there was nothing stopping her from meeting Adam (wimp).

 

The Arena was a sports bar and grill, big, with TVs mounted on the walls so people could order their favorite poison and enjoy a ball game or whatever was showing from wherever they were sitting. Pool tables occupied the middle of the bar and there were a couple of slot machines and an old juke box right in the back. It had large windows running the length of the grill area, a mixture of seating booths and tables catering for the frequent ravenous individual. There was also an area where people not interested in the hooligans playing on the TV or their drunken supporters could just have a quiet time and talk about werewolves. This is where she saw Adam, sitting there casually like he wasn’t the giant monster that had wanted to rip her apart only a few weeks ago. She approached him, oblivious to the fact that she had stopped breathing.

 

Adam watched as she walked towards him. His keen werewolf senses could smell the fear off of her. It was why he had asked her to meet him in such a public place; she would never have agreed to meet him alone. He felt relieved that she had accepted. It was a very stupid and very dangerous thing he’d done but he somehow hadn’t been able to control himself that night. Now she would have the curse and it was all his fault but he vowed he would help her get it under control. It was extremely dangerous to shift for the first time without someone to keep you in check. There was a lot of harm a werewolf could do in a little town like this. He would have to be quick though, there was bound to be a full moon any day now and that was when she would shift. He had to admit he did not envy her, that first shift was always the most painful and the most dangerous.

 

Amanda sat across the table from him, making a mental note of where all the exits were despite the bar being filled to capacity tonight. “Well you’re not ugly,” she said, not knowing what else to say. How do you talk to a werewolf?

 

He chuckled. “Not all my werewolf qualities reflect in my human demeanor. It’s kind of easier to blend in that way.”

 

She asked the question that had been foremost in her mind. “Are you the only one, in town I mean or are there others, like some sort of pack or something?”

 

Adam hesitated but then decided to hell with it. By next week she could be one of them. “There are others,” he said. “Some are here, some in the nearby towns. We’re a closely knit group; we like to keep in touch with each other.”

 

“So people here don’t even know you exist?” she asked, amazed at how she had never noticed anything herself.