SAM
the heat made my shorts stick to my body and my shirt feel like it was chocking me. i hate being outside during the summer, when its most painful for me to be in the sun, let alone look out at its light. i wish isabel was here with cole. i wish they would be the ones stitting out in the heat with me, instead of beck and ulrich. isabel would have notoriosly cruel yet endearing things to say to cole and hed take it in stride, then profess his love for her and her remarks just as he has done a million times before when she implied he didnt feel that way. i knew they loved each other with more feelings involved than any other couples i have ever witnessed.
i hate being outside like this. hot, sweaty, smelly, and faintly nauseous from recently drinking water from an un clean cup beck had given to me. "its dirty." i stated. "stop being such a girl and just drink what you have out of what we can salvage at the moment." the car had broken down on the high way and there wouldnt be a station for another six miles. i hated having to put up with these two while in these weather conditions. they were cranky, i was irritable, and i missed grace like a limb had been cut off and the ghost of it haunted me. it was as if it was laughing in my face at the novelty of not having something i desperately wanted, needed, missed terribly. grace left her human life behind after cole had tried to cure her, regardless of her inability to change. when she did though, she almost died, and i almost died from almost losing her. shes lost in the woods she left us for. i pray to a god i almost dont believe in to bring her back to me, but alas, as my faith was ill placed, she has yet to return to me.
ISABEL
sam should have been back by now. i called his cell and left empty threats in his now full voice mail box. i paced my bed room, cole laying on my bed. he was a secret i kept from my parents; they didnt need to know he was here until they could do nothing about it. i loved cole and he loved me. he says it often enough for me to believe it. the only time he doesnt say it is during sex, which is a good sign id guess. i paced faster, cole stared harder, i worried more.
"your going to wear out the rug, then whos going to get you a new one? not your parents, that would mean you would have to reveal me to them. which your not ready for."
"i told you, cole. not until im eighteen, then we can tell them. its just a few weeks away so chill out."
i said this a little more sharpley than i had intended to, so i layed next to cole and pressed my body against his side. i could hear is heart through his veins. i could feel his pulse as he breathed slowly.
"you need to relax. im sure hes fine. probably had to do something or talk to people before he could come over." cole turned and faced me, his breaths hitting my face and making me shiver. i loved this man.
" i know, but it could be anything. he couldve died, he could have forgotten. damn, he could just not want to come get his girlfriend after being separate from her for months. he could have found some one else and not told us-" the look on coles face said i was crazy for thinking any of those things. he was probably right too. i was crazy.
"we should check on her." cole said and got up. the bed sighed from his relieving his weight from the old mattress. i got up too and followed him down stairs to the basement where grace and her many heaters were. apparently the heat makes the wolf in her stay calm and subsidence to her demand to stay human so she could see sam again.
COLE
grace looked sad, but in the "i wish my life was better" kind of way. she didnt deserve to live lke this, it should be me whose out there, running around trying to catch my identity. not grace. grace was too fragile to be out in the dangerous world, braving it alone. with out sam. i dont know where same is. i hope hes okay. isabel called him almost thirty times. m sure his phone was dead and hes on his way while i stare in pitty at the girl he loves with his whole soul, as she shakes in pain, trying not to change back to the wolf thats inside her. *flashback*
"why do you need inside my moms lab?" isabel asked from across the juice bar in sams house. "cause i need the microscope thats in there, its the only one around that can get so close to the cells that i might be able to see the wolf cells and how hey interact with the other cells. the word cell has lost all meaning to me now." isabel didnt react to that last comment. she sighed in exasperation and handed me a cup of orange juice. "fine. but youll have to work as fast as you can. my mom comes in early on week ends." i rolled my eyes at that. what a sad way to live, having to go to work early on the weekend when you should be sleeping in and doing nohing for forty eight hours.
sixteen hours later we were walking down the hall in isabels mothers clinic, towards the research lab. i walked in and it was like i had died and gone to heaven. i couldnt believe her mom could afford this stuff with out help from some one else as far as paying for it goes. i went straight for the microscope, using what time i had to do what i needed. i sliced open my thumb with a scalpel i found in a deserted drawer. i also found a box of glass slides in a cabinet full of them. i turned the light on and put the blood on the slide. the acrylic glass was cool against my swollen thumb. i slid the slide into the slot and began searching. i knew it. "yes!" i yelled unintentionally. "what? what are you so excited about?" isabel sounded frustrated, or maybe just tired. "the wolf strain, it acts like malaria." i almost jumped up and down like a little girl, i was so excited. "then its not curable. grace is doomed, your doomed, sam was never cured and is now still doomed. what do we do?" i hadnt thought that far. but i guess now is good. "we can leave now. im done." *flashback over*
"cole, cole!" i heard snapping and yelling in front of me. "what?" i asked, she looked mad. "i was just thinking. i might have a permanent cure for the wolf strain virus."
SAM
we had finally reached the gas station. beck was in the bathroom, ulrich was carrying as many packs of gum as he could in both arms. ive never seen what was so appealing to the stuff. its just flavored mold. i walked to the back and grabbed three water bottles. i missed grace. i went to the trak-fone stand and picked out two that had the lowest price and the highest quality. i handed one to beck as he came from the bathroom. "whats this?" he asked. "i need to get back to mercy falls, isabel has grace. i need to call her to pick me up. your phone is so you can get in touch with me in case something happens at the peninsula." grace, cole, isabel, and i had to move the other wolves to another area a few weeks ago so isabels father couldnt get to them. cole cured beck and ulrich even though it was too late for them. "fine. but make sure you get cole to cure her too. we dot want her changing in the middle of classes at school. besides, i think you two have taken enough time off from college. no need to take any more it you want to graduate." beck smiled and i smiled back. ulrich came up to us with pockets and arms full of gum. i shook my head as beck explained my current plan to get to grace before its too late.
we paid for our things and sat outside. i dialed isabels number and waited for it to go through.
ISABEL
"hello?" i answered. i was a little annoyed at the moment so my hello sounded more like a curse than a greeting. "its sam." i heard, "sam! why havent you been answering your phone?"
"it died. i had to buy a new one. i cant talk long, i need you to come pick me up." he said.
sam gave me the coordinates and i left. i called the house on my way, cole answered. "i need you to put that cure in grace as soon as possible. as soon as she turns."