CHAPTER 7
Jaden woke up to the sight of John standing at the window naked, not even a sheet wrapped around him. Smiling she propped herself on her elbow and stared at him, not bothering to disguise the lust in her eyes. "Why don't you come back to bed?" She whispered huskily.
John didn't even glance at her. "Someone's out there." He said.
"Someone?" Jaden quickly stood up, wrapping a sheet around her.
"Or something."
"Something?" She stood behind him at the window, peering out. Her keen eyes quickly spotted what John had been staring at and she instantly knew something was wrong. "That's… that's not a person." She whispered, as if it might hear them. "It's a…." She hesitated, the idea sounding quite ludicrous to her.
"What? What is it?" John demanded, not taking his eyes off the shadowed spot the thing stood in.
Jaden quickly filled him in on her thoughts.
"Why not?" John asked simply. "We exist don't we?"
That wasn't all that comforting.
Isis had to bite her lips to prevent a moan escaping and alerting the passing people to what was going on down the alley. She clasped her hands around Mark's neck, gasping when he slammed her back into the wall, smiling slightly.
Mark's green eyes were glowing in the darkness, almost illuminating his already luminescent face.
She tilted her head back against the brick wall, on the verge of ecstasy when out of nowhere something attacked them.
Mark grunted as he was tackled to the ground, shoving whatever it was off of him and righting himself, which included fastening his jeans up, beyond pissed.
Isis had caught herself before falling, grateful she was immortal or else the sudden… movement… could have seriously hurt. She stared at Mark and the… no way…
"Isis!" Mark yelled, trying to avoid getting his throat slashed open. "Get the hell out of here!"
Of course she ignored him.
"We have to find Mark and Isis." Jaden said calmly after the thing had left and they had done a thorough search of the house. "They've got to know what's running loose out there."
"That could've been what ripped the throat out of the guy last night." John was thoughtful, pulling on a pair of jeans and a jersey. "That would explain why the kill wasn't covered up…"
"Isis was right, that Amaranta is too smart to leave something like that lying about."
They quickly dressed and left, locking the house behind them though it felt like a futile gesture.
After a quick look about to make sure nothing else that goes bump in the night was around, Jaden and John hurried towards the city, both trying to pick up Mark and Isis' familiar scents.
It didn't take too long and somehow what they found didn't really surprise them.
"Block the alley!" Isis screamed at them, jumping on the Werewolf's back.
Jaden and John did as they were told, exerting all of their considerable charm to get the people to ignore what was happening.
It was rather hard from them, hearing snarling and grunts of pain, wishing they could tell who was getting the upper hand.
"Don't think vampires can get turned into werewolves do you?" John asked worriedly.
"I have no clue."
Isis grunted in pain when she was thrown to the ground, looking up to find Mark's face covered in slashes that weren't healing like they should. She began panicking when she found that they weren't healing like they should've been. "Mark?"
"Get the hell out of here Isis!"
Isis ignored him, like usual, and leaped onto the wolf's back, wrapping her arms around the things neck, trying to snap it.
Instead the thing flipped her, sending both her and Mark toppling to the ground.
"Shit." Mark cursed, feeling his face. "That fucking stings."
"It's still not healing." Isis said, quickly getting to her feet. "My turn." Snarling, fangs bared and eyes flashing red, she lunged.
The werewolf wasn't used to this tactic and retreated a step or two.
"C'mon ya sonofabitch!" She roared, jumping forward, hands curled into claws, swiping out with her dagger sharp nails.
The werewolf howled in pain when she reached flesh past all the hair, whimpering slightly before snarling angrily and beginning to advance.
Isis was revolted by the smell of this things blood and was tempted to wipe her hands off on her pants but knew better than to lower her defenses. When the werewolf bared it's teeth at her, she bared her own fangs right back.
"Isis!" Mark yelled. "Watch out!"
Isis turned in time to see another one coming at her from seemingly nowhere, only to see Mark tackle the thing to the side.
Jaden and John could ignore the situation no longer and turned to help their friends.
"Oh snap!" Jaden gasped when she seen yet another coming. "We've gotta run!"
John was in total agreement and moved to help Mark, who the wolves seemed to be targeting, except the one Isis had pissed off.
Isis seen the three and joined them. "Let's bolt."
"Two steps ahead of you." Jaden replied.
Soon they were nothing more than four blurs.
When they finally stopped, it was in a new city, merely thirty minutes later.
"Shit, you're bleedin' all over." Isis said, surveying Mark and pulling her ever present bandana out of her back pocket. "Why ain't it healing?"
Jaden walked over to a nearby vending machine and rifled through her pockets. Finding no change she looked around, making sure nobody was near.
"Hey, I got…" John began, only to stop when she punched it. "Change."
Jaden smiled innocently at him, bending down to select a bottle of water from the pile of sodas and teas on the ground, wading out of them to hand the bottle to Isis.
Isis nodded her thanks, opening it and pouring it on the slashes, gently mopping up the excess water and blood with her rag.
Now the gashes were more visible, the flesh gaping obscenely.
"That actually hurts." Mark said, gingerly touching it.
"Here." Isis bit her finger and held it over the wounds, letting her blood drop into them. She smiled in relief when they began to heal. "I wonder why they didn't heal with your blood though?"
"Because the werewolf venom attacks the bloodstream first."
They all spun around to find Amaranta watching them.
"You!" Jaden spat, curling her hands into fists. "What the hell do you know about them?"
Amaranta smiled at Jaden as if she found the much younger woman amusing. "I know that this pack of theirs is getting bigger, which is why I'm here. I deal with these rogues everywhere I go, sometimes tracking them down. In my opinion, there isn't enough room in this world for vampires and our rogue cousins."
"Rogue cousins?" John echoed weakly, not liking wear this seemed to be heading.
Amaranta looked at him now, appraising him openly, apparently liking what she saw because her smile become a bit more seductive and her voice lower. "What did you think werewolves were? What movies portray them to be?"
"Thought had crossed my mind, yeah." He replied calmly, biting back a grin when Jaden possessively wrapped an arm around his waist.
"You're wrong then young one." Amaranta laughed, her voice like warm honey. "Werewolves are vampires gone wrong."
"Huh?" The four echoed together, all sounding incredulous.
"Let's go somewhere warm and I'll explain it."
