A tall man rounded the corner and was inches from slamming into me. I took a step back and looked up at him. My heart missed a beat painfully, and I had to stop myself from clutching at my chest. What was wrong with me? The man smiled at me widely and whispered, "You're awake, uh, wow , I-I'm Jake." He stuck his hand out abruptly and it took me a moment to realize he wanted me to shake his hand.

I grabbed his hand and it was warm, abnormally warm. "I'm Annie." He smiled at me and one of my knees gave an involuntary jerk. Oh God what was wrong with me? With everything I've seen, been through and done and I almost fall down because this person smiles at me?

"How 'bout you come into the kitchen, we were just about to eat, it's spaghetti, that is if you're hungry, or like spaghetti." He rambled then turned toward the kitchen motioning me to follow, which I did. God I was stupid, why was I trusting this man. "Hey Dad, she woke up her name's Annie," I saw a man in a wheelchair turn to look at me. He smiled wide and rolled himself up to me.

"It's nice to meet ya Annie, I'm Billy Black Jacob's Dad. I hope you don't mind if the spaghetti is a little spicy, that's how we like it here, it's my own special recipe. Sit down make yourself at home, I think we all have some explaining to get to." It was then I realized stupidest mistake I'd ever made. My wings were fully exposed to two complete strangers, on a reflex I brought them down flat against my back which was pointless, they'd seen them already, plus the sudden movement caused a breeze and had a few papers flying about the small kitchen. I felt myself blush at my stupidity. Again, what the hell was wrong with me? I crossed my arms and watched and Jacob quickly picked up the papers form the floor, he put them in a neat stack and set them on a counter. He motioned for me to sit down which I did before I could embarrass myself anymore.

He sat down next to me, "So Annie, where are you from."

My mean gene decided to kick in then, "What are you?"

He blinked taken aback by my question. "What do you mean?" He asked nervously.

"I mean exactly what I said, you're not human, don't lie either, I know because I can smell you, and you don't smell human, plus don't you thinks it's fair, you know what I am, I'm just trying to level the playing field." I rushed out my explanation. I was such a model guest, these people took me in, cared for me and all I could give back was the third degree.

He shuffled in his seat and thought for a moment before he said, "Well technically I don't know what you are exactly."

I snorted. "Take a wild guess."

He smiled. I guess I'm going to have to get used to having my cheeks forever flushed if he kept smiling at me that way, and looking at me. "Well I only have one theory really. Don't laugh though, I'm not the only one who thinks it. Are you an angel?"

I laughed, really hard, and somewhere in there a snort came out. Lovely. After I had calmed myself I said, "No I'm not an Angel, far from it in fact. I'm, well technically I'm an Avian," I saw the confused look on his face so I continued." Like part bird, well 2% at least. Now, what are you?"

He looked like he still had some questions but answered mine quickly, "Well I guess you could say I am a werewolf."

I looked at him confused, not surprisingly I had never heard of a werewolf, I was luckier than most experiments, I was taught things, but only because they wanted to see if we had a higher learning capability, when they realized I was the same as any normal 13 year old girl, wings being the only exception, they stopped disappointed I wasn't highly intelligent. "I don't know what that is, could you explain it more?"

He blinked in surprise, I felt stupid at my question. "Well, uh, a real werewolf changes, into a wolf once a month on the night of the full moon, but w- I can whenever I want."

I flinched and sat back in my chair. "So you're an eraser." All my muscles were tight. My heart ached. He couldn't be an eraser. He would have killed me sooner.

He scrunched his eyebrows together, "What's an eraser?"

My chest heaved, the tightness in my heart lessened a little, either he wasn't one, or he was, and he was slowly biding his time till he could kill me, I was hoping the later wasn't true. Plus it just didn't make sense, he could have killed me earlier if he was supposed to, but I was alive, so that had to mean something. "Well, an eraser is another hybrid like me, but mixed with dog DNA. Erasers were engineered to um," I looked at him, he was watching me with rapt interest. My hand that was on the table was tense, and I saw his next to mine. His hand was so big, I had never felt so small in my life, I knew the next question I wanted to ask. "um they were engineered to kill me and the uh people like me." His hand tensed too. I looked up at his face and saw how angry it was.

"So that things that was chasing you was an eraser?" I could tell me was trying to keep himself calm. Why was he so upset, was it possible he felt the same way I did about him? What did I even feel for this man? I couldn't describe it and I didn't want to right now. Right now I wanted my questions answered.

"No, there are not supposed to be anymore erasers left anymore, those things just look like they did, that thing that was chasing me was a robot." I watched as he thought. His faced calmed a little. "Will you show me?"

"Show you what?" He asked confused.

"What you look like as a werewolf."

"Uh, well, ok. Just remember," His big hand took mine and I flinched only a little, "I'm not an eraser, I would never do anything to hurt you." I nodded. Not only to let him know I understood what he was saying, but I also believed it. Oh if Eudora could see me know she would have no mercy in her mocking.

Just when Jacob stood up Billy spoke up. I had forgotten he was still here, tending to the noodles. "Let's eat first kids, then you can go play." He chuckled and handed me a plate of steaming noodles.