Chapter 10

"You alright, Jason?" James asked running to catch up to me leaving the school.

"I'm just peachy. I've got a family who wants to kill me, a principal that wants to kill me, rogue vampires that want to kill anything they can, I thought the football team would be the least of my worries, but now John also wants to kill me."

"Okay, you're not okay, I get it. I'm sorry, but you know what would make you feel better?"

"I don't see what could possibly make me feel better after what just happened in the locker room."

James looked away and stared into the setting sun, seconds later Mike, Noah, Brandon, and Tyler came our way. He must have called them without me hearing. "We're a soccer team, I'm sure there are a couple ways we can turn that frown upside down. C'mon!"

We all squeezed into James' mustang; thankfully I got shotgun and Mike, Noah, Brandon, and Tyler somehow managed to fit in the back. I'm pretty sure they had to sit on one another, but none of them would admit it if asked. As we rode down the high way James put on some mix tape that involved Theory of a Deadman, Three Days Grace, and for some ungodly reason, Spice Girls. "Just.. don't ask…" James said when I did ask. Either way we were all soon singing at the top of our lungs. Just a bunch of guys smooshed into a tiny muscle car singing as loudly and out of tune as possible, laughing every few minutes; what could be better?

James pulled into the parking lot of the mall and I followed them down to the street and across. The place looked like a general store, like so many others in downtown Toronto, but with one difference; there was a club underneath.

"You'll soon notice this isn't like every other club." James slapped my shoulder and shoved me down the stairs leading to the club.

From the very first impression it seemed like any club one might think of; loud music, colored lights beaming in every direction, and people dancing on a lighted checkerboard dance floor. The further in I moved the more I noticed this was different. People were performing magic either to show off or as a profession to earn money, I couldn't tell. There were werewolves brawling in one corner with many spectators betting. In another corner were vampires drinking blood from various containers. Then of course there were the dancers and the band; not much out of the ordinary there unless you can ignore the oddly shaped forms and some people sprouting wings and horns.

"What the hell is this place?" I asked, amazed.

"Welcome to Night Life, the only place around where it's always night and all sorts are welcome."

Mike shoved between us, "Heads up guys, we've been noticed" Mike warned pointing to a trio of wolves heading our way.

"You," the leader boomed poking me in the chest, "You have the wolfs blood, yet you smell of death."

"Hey, guys, we don't want any trouble. Our friend has just had a rough few days and we brought him here for some fun to clear his head." James said wedging himself between the leader and me.

The leader growled at James, "You puny little pup, you think I care what you have to say?" and without warning the leader slammed a giant fist into the center of James' chest, sending him flying backwards onto the floor.

"Hey!" I yelled, and lashed out at the leader. My hand turned into the paw of a wolf before impact, my claws dug deep into the side of his face. I then braced myself for the leader and his pack to jump on me.

"You little shit," the leader snarled. "You've just scarred me! Into the ring with you! I will destroy you…" the leader turned and pushed his way through to the corner where werewolves were brawling.

"Well shit, I did not expect this to happen." James laughed coming back to my side.

"You're not actually serious about fighting him are you?" Mike asked from behind us.

"What choice do I have now? Besides, I'm not just wolf remember, I should have some tricks up my sleeve." I laughed, but it was a regretful laugh. What have I gotten myself into?

"Right, well let's hope the vampire side of you actually has some power instead of just being a lazy blood drinker." Brandon joked.

"If anything goes wrong, you know we have your back. I don't think they can do math very well, but there's three of them and six of us." James said and looked around. Tyler and Noah had vanished, "Well, we still outnumber them by one."

Everyone cleared the corner to watch this big bad wolf fight a small high school dog. The music changed, more people gathered around, and bets were flying around the crowd.

"Let's go smallfry!" the leader growled and pounced forward, slamming me into the ground. I morphed as he started to claw at me, marking the ground as I dodged his blows. I held him up at arm's length and rolled my legs under and kicked up. He flew into the ceiling and dropped with a hard thud.

"Ooooooh, that looked like it hurt! The new kid's got some moves!" the DJ yelled over the sound system.

The leader got back to his feet and lunged at me again. This time I turned my side to him and dropped my weight, forcing him to hit me and topple over onto the other side. It was my turn to pounce. I jumped on him and held him down with all four paws, then dug my teeth into his neck, drawing blood. His body twitched underneath me as I drained the blood from his neck.

His two other pack members bounded into me, forcing me to sprawl into the crowd. I morphed back to human and bolted into the dancers. I could sense more than two people trying to chase me. God this wasn't good.

"James! Mike! Brandon? Noah? Tyler! Anyone!?" I reached out to my friends.

"Go, we're right behind you!" Tyler replied, and I felt a pushed on my back.

The entire club seemed in an uproar now. People were trying to stop me to congratulate me on defeating Shawn. Others were trying to lash out at me, hissing as I went by, none of them actually wanting to strike me. The vampires who were drinking blood lazily earlier were now standing, giving me thumbs up and started moving throughout the club.

We reached the surface and backed into a nearby alley to wait for the rest. The door to the general store opened and Noah and Tyler went around the corner to check out who was coming out. Seconds after they turned the corner they were thrown backwards into the brick wall by a large cloud of fire. I ran to the opening to see who caused this. No one was there.

I turned around to see if my friends were okay and they too were missing, mere seconds after being thrown into the wall and now they were gone. What was happening? Who was doing this?

"All in due time." A voice came from behind me. I turned and saw no one, smelled no one, but I could sense a presence. The sense came a little too late though. There was a cold prick in the back of my neck and my entire body felt frozen in minutes. I lost consciousness soon after.

I could hear whispers, but not with my ears. I could feel the whispers, as if they were in my head, tickling the axons of my brain. They were telling me things, or trying to anyway. There were images too; images of other people, of actions, plans, blueprints. I didn't know what any of it meant until there was a violent surge of electricity flowing through and around my body.

I lashed out in pain and involuntary muscle contractions. My eyes opened but everything was blurry. There was water, cold water, and bubbles. I was in a tank!

"Ah, look who finally woke up." Someone said outside the tank, but I couldn't make out who or what it was.

"Awe, you don't seem too happy to see me. After all the fun we had last time, I thought you might like a little swim."

I was in Mr. Que's lab, in one of his tanks. I was one of his test subjects now. But how? How could he have gotten a hold of me? I wondered if anyone at the club could have worked for him.

"You son of a bitch!" I gurgled through the oxygen mask.

"Give him another dose, I want to test out the new serum on him as soon as possible." Within seconds I was fast asleep again.

The next time I woke, I woke on a freezing metal table. There were metal and leather straps holding me down, and to make things easier an IV drip which cause me to still be just drowsy enough not to focus.

"Alright then, Jason" Mr. Que said, picking up and flicking a rather long slim needle, "This will hopefully give you a little more juice to add to that already impressive power grid you got going on." And with that he started inserting and pushing the clear liquid into my body.

The pain was excruciating! It felt like every nerve in my body was on fire, every cell in my body exploding, imploding, and rearranging themselves. I lashed out the best I could, but the IV drip was still fogging my brain. I all was crystal clear about was pain. Pain and the rage heat that surged through my body.

Some minutes later the pain and heat subsided and I stopped lashing out. "Knock him out." Mr. Que commanded his fellow scientist.

"Jason! Jason! Jason!" a voice yelled over and over and over. It was getting really annoying. I really need to come up with some anti-losing consciousness device.

I opened my eyes to see Katie shaking me once again. Why was it always Katie to wake me up? Was everyone else to afraid?

"Guys, he's awake!" she squealed.

"What happened to you, man?" Mike asked coming forward.

"I…" what did happen to me? I was outside the club with Noah and Tyler when they got attacked then I blacked out. "I don't know. Where's Noah and Tyler, are they okay?"

"Could be better, but we're alright." Tyler's voice came from the background. Noah grunted in response.

"Were you kidnapped by my father?" a new voice asked. A blonde girl came forward from the left.

"Your father? Who's your father?" I asked sitting up against the wall. We were in the abandoned house.

"Jason, this is Rose. She says you too have met before at school." Katie snorted.

"In the front office, I introduced myself as Clary, it's the name my mom calls me but I prefer my middle name, Rose."

"You had brown hair and green eyes if I remember right, how come you look so different?"

"I dyed my hair brown last year and I decided I wanted to be blonde again, and the green was because of my contacts, my eyes are naturally blue though."

She was much more beautiful this way. The blonde hair and blue eyes suited her much better. And the way her hair fell over her face, gave her an almost cat like look.

"So who's your father?" James asked, making his presence known. I must still be under the drug's effects because I didn't even know he was there.

"The male principal, Charlie Que."

"So your name is CRQ? That's interesting initials." James said.

"You're more interested in her initials then what she just said?" Katie asked, glaring at him.

"I think he's interested in more than her initials." Tyler laughed.

"Very mature, Tyler!" James started going red.

"I'm sorry to say boys I already have my eye on someone." Rose answered.

"So back to the issue at hand, can you remember anything about what my father did to you?" Rose asked.

"I don't remember anything, I'm afraid."

"Nothing, nothing at all?"

Just then, as if on cue, I felt the heat and pain surge through my body. "AAAAAAHHHHH!" I screamed. I lashed out. I seized. My body grew hotter and hotter until it felt like the heat was leaving my body.

"Everyone get out!" James yelled.

I felt fire eat away my clothes, and lick at my skin. The flame didn't hurt me from the outside, but it did begin to swallow the wooden floors and wall behind me, and as the floorboards burned away I fell. The flame started out as an orange, then a blue, but now was a steady green color, as if my body was covered in a layer of copper.

"Jason, you have to control it!" Rose screamed at me. The house was burning down and she was standing in the middle of it.

"Rose get out! The house is going to fall on you!" I yelled back waving my arms, which was a bad idea because flames flew off my arms and from my hands and started devouring the floor I was on.

Rose threw her arms out and her body engulfed itself in the same green as mine! Was she a mutant that could control fire, or was she, like me, a test subject?

"Calm your mind, Jason. Focus. Control the flame, don't let it control you!"

I listened to her. I stopped moving and focused on the flames surrounding my body. I pictured it just flickering inches from my skin. I imagined a cool flame licking my body without spreading to cause harm to anything around me. A minute later I could feel a rush of warmth surround my body at once, and I opened my eyes to see the green flame wavering on my body, not consuming what was left of the wood around me.

Rose came up and took my hand. She led me out of the house where James threw a towel to me. I would have thought it was crazy to imagine wearing a towel while my body was engulfed in flames, but I remembered Rose being on fire and her clothes not being devoured.

"Dude, I'm proud to call you my friend and all, but I have to admit you have some issues." James laughed.

"Don't be mean, James, my father has given him something he wouldn't be ready for in years. Let alone having it forced upon him along with being a wolf as well." Rose replied sounding rather annoyed.

"Hey, I didn't mean any offence by it! I was just trying to lighten the mood." James said, defeated.

"Please don't fight guys. The last thing I need right now is to step in between some ungodly battle because you two lost your cool." I growled at them both. The green flame licking my skin began to fade slowly. Rose caught sight of this and her flame disappeared instantly.

"You'll learn to control it and it will become second, or third, nature to you." Rose must have caught me looking with questionable eyes when her fire went out instantly.

"I wish I could learn it now so it wouldn't have to be a pain to everyone."

"You, a pain to us?" Tyler slammed a heavy hand on my shoulder from behind, "Think a burning building will scare us away that easily? We're a team man, and the team always sticks together."

"I wish John would act like that."

"Screw John!" James exclaimed loudly. "He doesn't deserve to be captain if he treats his players like crap."

"I don't mean to interrupt this stimulating conversation guys, but we have a stalker."

The usual tall stature of my uncle Richard came towards us. "Good evening, everyone."

"How is it you always seem to find me whenever something bad happens?" I asked.

"What, did something bad happen? I was merely going for my evening stroll." He smiled.

"Because you just go for leisurely strolls every night."

"I consider myself a sort of neighborhood watch." He paused as he moved closer to wait for Tyler to move away so he could wrap his arm around my shoulder. "So what kind of trouble have you all gotten into this time?" he asked eyeing what was left of the abandoned house, some of it was still smoldering.

"Jason here caught fire, along with his new girlfriend, Rose." Tyler scoffed. Katie shot him a look as if to say 'he's not taken yet, so shut up'.

"You didn't tell me you had an interest in a girl." Richard said squeezing my shoulder. My face felt so hot after that I couldn't tell if I was blushing or catching on fire again. But since Richard wasn't jumping away I decided I was blushing. Did I really like this girl? I just met her for the first time really.

"Well this is awkward." James sighed, scratching his head.

"Is this your dad?" Rose asked, her voice rather squeaky.

"Young lady do I look like a father?" Richard joked, but decided to correct himself. "No, I'm not his father. Although, I suppose I am old enough to be. No, I'm his uncle. Uncle Richard." He held out his hand for her to shake, but instead of pulling away after a second or two he stood there holding her hand and staring deep into her eyes.

"Richard?" I asked touching his arm. He snapped out of his trance with a shock and leaned back against my side.

"Sorry, I seemed to have got lost in thought." He said but I didn't believe a word of it, but I guess I'll find out what went through his head later. "It's very nice to meet you Rose."

"Likewise." She didn't seem very talkative at all now. Something happened when they shook hands. "I think I should be heading home now." She said and began to walk away.

"Don't be silly, I'll give you a ride. Come on Noah. See you guys tomorrow!" Tyler jogged off to his VW Passat.

"I didn't know Tyler drove." I said surprised.

"He does, he just never advertises it because he catches rides all the time." James answered. "Well, no point standing around here anymore, especially considering this place just burned down. It might be a good idea to skedaddle."

"I couldn't agree more." Katie agreed.

Back at my house, Richard and I snuck in through my bedroom window. Well, he snuck; I just kind of sat in his arms as he carried me. Said we could move more quietly as well as quickly that way.

"So what happened when you shook Rose's hand?" I asked before he even finished shutting my window. I saw down on my bed in the darkness, not daring to turn the light on incase mum noticed and decided to bring the entire British army storming into my room.

"She…" he paused to think, leaving his mouth open. What he wants to say must be hard to put into words. "She's has evil about her."

"Are you saying she's evil?"

"I'm not saying she's evil. I'm just saying there's evil about her. I sensed a great darkness within her, but that could be produced by something else, something she's keeping bottled up inside."

"Well her father is Mr. Q. so I'm pretty sure that's where the evil darkness comes from. She, herself, helped me when I caught fire and burned the building down around me."

"I was going to ask about that. So you burned the house down?"

"Accidently, of course."

"How did you gain the power to produce fire?"

I sighed. "It's a long story. I'll give you the short version." I took a deep breath and started telling him briefly about our trip to the club, being captured by Mr. Q. and having something injected into me, then waking up in the house just to burn it down minutes later.

"I've heard about people controlling the elements naturally, but never having the power induced into one's own body. This is remarkable, as wrong as it may be."

"As scary as it is, I think it will come in handy. Especially if I have to fend off family members later on, I'll be like a one man angry mob."