Chapter 10
Jagged Red Circles
"Okay…so you imprinted on this guy and he's your soul mate?"
"My soul mate, love, other half, basically yeah. It all depends on how you look at it."
"Wow. That's pretty intense."
"Yeah, I know. It really sucks sometimes."
He laughed and nudged me. "I bet it does. So does he know?"
I pushed him back. "Yeah he does."
"So…if he's your other half or whatever…shouldn't he feel the same way?"
I opened my mouth to answer and then stopped myself. The dreams had told me that the answer to that question should be yes, but I wasn't so sure. Then again, the dreams had just explained what I was going through, not what was happening to Keith. And I would think that him being blind would add in a bit of a loophole to the theory. Koda and I had been together for just a few minutes and he had already confused me about my own life. I smiled.
"Why do you have to be so smart?" I asked, prodding him.
"Well, one of us has to be the smart one and we both know that it's not you."
I elbowed him in his ribs and he stumbled to the side a few feet.
"Hey, watch it. I don't think you know your own strength."
I put my hands up to my chest innocently as he caught up to me. "Aw, the big bad vamp can't handle it?"
He showed his fangs and hissed. I growled. He pounced and we both landed in some rose bushes. By this point in our walk, we were far away from the party and free to be our mythical creature selves. I kicked him off of me and crouched down waiting for him to come back up. To my surprise, he appeared behind me and picked me up by my waist. I squealed and wiggled around so that I was facing him. He dropped me but kept his arms around me. Our noses both wrinkled up and we laughed.
"You stink, babe," he whispered.
"The feeling's mutual," I whispered back. I was expecting him to let me go, but he just watched me with curious eyes. "Are you gonna let me go?" I asked.
"I don't have to breathe."
"Yeah well I do and you're making me nauseous."
He lifted his hands up in surrender. "Touché. I want to see you change."
That surprised me. Of all of the things that I had expected him to ask of me, that was definitely the last.
"What? Why?" I asked taking a step back and letting the night breeze clear my brain.
"Are you kidding? Why wouldn't I want to see my best friend change into a furry monster?"
Good ole' Koda. There's never a dull moment. "Okay, how about this, if you can pin me for five seconds I'll change."
"Deal."
He jumped for me and I dodged him. I stepped forward looking for him in the darkness.
"Come on, babe. I know you didn't think that it was going to be that easy."
"No, I didn't." His lips brushed against my ear and I turned and tackled him before he had the chance to hit me again. I bit his shoulder and let my teeth go just barely below the surface of his skin.
"OW!"
"God, baby, you taste terrible."
I felt and heard the snarl split through his chest as he kicked me off the same way that I had done him earlier. He disappeared again.
"Copycat," I yelled into the trees. He rustled branches, trying to confuse me. I took a step forward and then bolted up into the tree that he had unknowingly covered in his leech-ness. I jumped on him with a smile and somehow I was the one who ended up hitting the ground. The breath was knocked out of me as he lay over me snickering. He bared his teeth and I moved my neck out of the way before he could bite me.
"Whoa, whoa, watch the teeth. You bite me and I die."
He stared at me confused and almost as out of breath as I was. "What?"
I swallowed hard and coughed. "I'm sure you know about your venom, right?"
"Yeah, why?"
"That venom kills wolves. Technically it kills humans too, but we don't get to do the whole living dead thing."
He pulled his face up and started laughing. Personally, I wasn't seeing what could possibly be funny about that.
"Did I miss something?" I asked.
He stopped laughing long enough to form actual words. "I'm guessing that Jared told you that?"
"Yeah he did."
"He lied to you, C."
"And you know this how?"
I was skeptical, so sue me.
"I'm still a little new to this, so don't ask me how it works. All I do know is that we can control it. We don't change every human that we bite. We have venom and crap like that but it's easier to get a hang of once you're used to it. I guess the venom might kill you though."
"You're going to have to forgive me for having a hard time believing this."
"You want me to show you?" he asked a tad bit too excitedly in my opinion.
"Um, let me think…no!"
"Why not?"
"You're kidding, right?"
"No I'm not."
"You're asking me to willingly let you experiment with something that could completely kill me!"
"But I know that it won't."
"You think that it won't," I shot back.
"No, I know. If I couldn't control it then there would be tons of undead dead people walking around right now, but there isn't."
He was staring at me with anxious eyes. I felt bad for him but my life was in danger enough these days without me voluntarily risking it. He let out a sigh against my cheek and I had to fight the urge to lose consciousness and not gag at the same time. My head started to spin and my body temperature rose the way it used to before I changed. I held my breath for a second and the feeling passed.
"Are you dead?" he asked quietly.
"What?"
"Are you dead?" he asked again with a smile pulling at the corners of his lips.
"No I'm not dead."
"Then I think that you owe me an apology. Look at your arm."
I glanced down at the spot just below my shoulder where he was looking to see a circular bite mark. It went just far enough below the surface of my skin for little spots of blood to pop up that he licked off quickly. I don't care how long I've known him, that will always be creepy to me, but he looked back up at my face as if nothing had just happened.
"Well, that could've been bad," I whispered as the smell from my own blood tickled my nostrils. I sneezed. He smiled at me devilishly.
"Okay, so do you want to do this now or wait 'til we get to the spot?"
"What are you talking about?" I asked.
"Don't think that just because I could've accidentally killed you just now, that you get out of changing for me."
"Fine, whatever. Where is this spot that you keep talking about?"
I pushed him off of me and he bounced up like a three year old hopped up on tons of sugar. "Come on. I'll show you. Just try to keep up."
We both started jogging and he disappeared in front of me. I thought that I was really starting to get a better grip on this whole supernatural thing. That is, of course, until I crashed into a lake. My brakes still weren't exactly perfect just yet and in my own defense I don't know this area. Koda was laughing at me from the edge of the water. Ignoring the slight burn on my skin from skidding on the top of the water so hard, I sunk under and waited for the splash letting me know that he had joined me. Silently, I snuck out of the cold water, stripped and changed before he finally poked his head back up. I dug my claws into the grass, laid myself out on my stomach and watched him climb out. He ran over to me and started playing with my fur. I couldn't blame him. The fuzz was one of my favorite things about all of this except for when it's me who's changing. Fur isn't exactly a sexy trait, but it does tickle.
"Interesting, you're a bit bigger than I would've expected."
I growled and he laughed while flipping the ends of my ears between his fingers.
"Hey, it's a full moon tonight. Shouldn't you be howling or something?"
I looked up at the moon over the lake. It wasn't hard to tell why he had led me here. The exotic flowers were beautiful and made the place smell amazing. The water was perfectly serene and there was even a comfortable breeze rather than freezing night air. It was all so pretty that I couldn't help but to humor him. A long howl ripped its way through my lungs making him jump beside me. Neither one of us had expected it to be that loud or strong, but I loved it! Sadly, I didn't really get much time to enjoy it. My ears swiveled at the sound and smell of one of his fellow leeches coming our way. I jumped up and snarled. My body lowered instinctively preparing to attack. Koda took in a deep breath and then stepped in front of me slowly. He put his hand in front of my nose.
"Relax and wait," he whispered. My fur stood on end and the snarling kept right on going. The footsteps that came were practically silent as a small figure ran through the trees and stopped a few feet away from us. It was a good thing that I had already changed, because if not then I would be shaking freakishly hard right now. My growling got worse and I had scared the black-haired girl that they called Christina. She stared at Koda with wide eyes and he hit me in my nose. I barked at him and he stared me down. He couldn't possibly be mad at me for disliking the girl who killed him. I wasn't supposed to like him period considering what he is but I can only make but so many exceptions in my life.
He ran behind me and threw my bathing suit at me. He's my best friend and all, but he's really starting to piss me off. I took all of the pieces in my mouth and shot Christina another glare and a growl before leaving to change and strolling back. Koda had his arm over her shoulder by then and he looked up at me. By this point, I was aggravated for a whole new reason. There was a hole at the bottom of my sarong from one of my teeth.
"You didn't have to freak her out like that," he scolded.
"I'm having a hard time believing that I did, but I'm sorry if I seem a bit hostile," I said, rolling my eyes. "So, what are you doing here?"
Koda was still glaring but he can yell at me later. Christina relaxed in his arms when she noticed my sudden lack of wolf-ness.
"I heard you howl so I assumed that Koda would be here," she whispered. How did this girl manage to survive in that house? She was absolutely nothing like her 'relatives' that I had already met. I couldn't help but to feel at least the tiniest bit sorry for her.
"And why would you assume that?"
I started flicking dirt out from underneath my nails while watching her. That seemed to make her nervous all over again. I guess that makes sense. My nails weren't wolf-like or anything but they had grown and they didn't break as easily as they used to.
"Well, Koda talked about you a lot when I first met him and all of the other dogs are at the party. So it had to be you."
I smiled, making sure that she could see my fangs, and stepped closer. Her whole body seemed to tense.
"You can relax. I'm not going to jump you or anything. Besides, even if I wanted to I'm sure that Koda here wouldn't let me. Or at least he would try to stop me. But it would be nice if you wouldn't use the term 'dog' around me. If anything, I prefer wolf." She nodded quickly. I traced a line from Koda's left shoulder down to his right while she watched. They both trembled. My finger felt frozen when I pulled it back. – "So what's the story here?" I asked.
"You already know," Koda growled. She gasped as I flicked a piece of her hair. Jeez this girl was jumpy. Am I really that threatening? I strolled back around and stopped in front of Koda staring directly into his eyes. They seemed dark even in the dark. And I know that that should make sense, but for Koda it didn't. Before all of this his eyes had always seemed bright no matter how much lighting there was. I sighed and crossed my arms stubbornly in front of him. His expression relaxed slowly.
"No. I know how you ended up turning into a leech and how you two met. Obviously there's more to it," I said.
He let out a deep breath through his nose that ruffled my hair and we both smiled. I noticed Christina watching us curiously from the corner of my eyes.
"He's a great guy."
I smiled even wider. She had finally said something with confidence tonight. I turned to her and she stood her ground. Something in her head must've finally clicked.
"Yeah, I know. So you better take care of him,"- I smiled back at him yet again. –"especially since I have enough guys to babysit let alone having to watch your ass like old times."
He smirked. "You know you love my ass."
I gave him a quick shove. "Don't flatter yourself, babe. Now, I'll just leave you two alone. I have an asshole of a boyfriend to check on."
I readjusted my top and then ran back down the path that Koda and I had taken to get here. The party was still going but it seemed like there were a few less people than before. As expected, my cousins weren't in the same places that they had been in earlier and Dominic was making out with some random girl that I had seen once maybe twice at school. I know that Dominic is never on his best behavior when he drinks, but he was downright horny tonight. I yanked him up by his arm this time and started dragging him to his truck. My grip tightened the more he struggled.
"Chanelle, what the hell is your problem? Why should you care if I have a little fun? It's not like I was screwing her."
I swung him so that he was in front of me and heard a small pop from his shoulder. His hand shot up to it but he was just being a wimp. There was no way that it was dislocated. At very worse it probably stung but if it was anything worse then he was probably too drunk to feel it. He was really starting to push my anger levels off of the charts. It was like he wanted me to go off on him tonight.
"Yeah, you weren't screwing her when I walked up but were you planning on it? We have a rough patch and suddenly you can't keep it in your pants? What the hell is that about, huh? Just how many whores were you planning on sleeping with tonight? Come on, tell me. I'm dying to know!"
"So I was with one girl tonight and I made out with a few others. How many of the guys in that little group of yours have you done lately?"
"Most of them are my cousins you pervert and I haven't slept with anyone tonight!"
My voice was impossibly loud and I was fighting to keep the trembling under control. I took a few deep breaths while he glared at me. Wait, just how many is a few?
"Everyone knows that that's a lie, Chanelle. I can believe that some of the others are related to you, but I've seen the way that you look at that really huge guy. You've never looked at me that way."
"And I never will," I hissed. He stared at me like I had just shot him in the heart.
"So it's like that now?"
I shifted my weight from side to side and crossed my arms.
"Look, even if I could explain this to you, I don't know if I would. With everything that you've done tonight, I don't think that I can trust you the same way. You can't just go off and get drunk every time something goes wrong. That's dangerous!"
"So are you telling me that we're officially done because that's the vibe that I've been getting from you for a while now?"
"I'd rather talk about it in the morning, but for now, you're going home."
Before he had a chance to throw a fit, I found a pocket on his shorts that was holding his keys, opened his door, threw him in, and started speeding to his house.
"H-how did you do that?" he stammered.
"Do what?" I asked innocently. He stared at me and then shook his head. If he weren't drunk then I seriously wouldn't have gotten away with that. He was silent in the passenger's seat for the entire ride. When did it all come to this? We were so happy together and now we do nothing but fight. I know that love isn't exactly common in these high school relationships these days, but I thought that maybe Dominic and I could get there eventually. But who am I kidding, right? No matter how hard I fight it Keith will always be in the picture. He may see me the same way at some point or he might not. Either way, we both felt something tonight that we couldn't explain and couldn't forget. It's just a matter of time until we confront it. As long as we're wolves, we can't deny it and I'm pretty sure that that's a permanent thing.
I parked in front of Dominic's house and handed him his keys.
"Here, now go inside and go to your room. I'll come up to check on you in a second and don't say anything to your parents if they're up."
Slowly, he took his keys and stumbled his way into his house while I sat in the car and tried to listen for any signs of his parents being awake. I smiled weakly. He got his snoring from his mom. It was a sad fact but true none the less. I couldn't hear any sounds coming from any of the TVs in the house so his dad was most likely asleep too. I stepped out of Dominic's truck, locked it and headed around back to his balcony. He opened the door and grabbed me the second that I was in his room. His lips shot to mine but what he didn't know was that he was undeniably making me sick. He tasted like spit, leech, and alcohol. The thought of where his mouth has been tonight honestly repulsed me enough to make me unintentionally push him away, knocking him onto his bed. He got excited for absolutely nothing.
"Have I told you how unbelievably sexy you look tonight?" he asked. I rolled my eyes, walking past him to scan his house for a bucket and towel. Bored with walking, I ran and made it back in less than a minute to see him sitting up on his bed rubbing his head. Leaving him in his shorts, I pulled him up and put him in the shower and ran cold water on him. He just stood there staring blankly at the wall and blinking while the water hit his eyelids. His reaction time was starting to scare me. Surely he should be doing something right now, I felt the water myself and it was freezing! His hand shot out to the wall and he lowered himself down to the floor of the tub. Come on baby move. I just needed some sign that he was feeling the water. He pulled his knees up and leaned on them. I sat on the lid of the toilet and kept watching him.
How much alcohol had he had tonight? He had been in there for over a minute now. I dropped down on my knees beside him and he turned his head towards me. Come on. Come on. Finally, his body jolted in one huge tremor and his teeth started to clash against each other in his mouth. I jumped up and turned off the water. He tried to stand up and I practically dragged him back to his room. I dried him off and laid him under the blankets before wetting the towel with warm water. His eyes bounced back and forth while he watched me dab his cheeks and forehead. What happened to him? This wasn't the Dominic that I had come close to falling in love with. This wasn't the Dominic that I dated for over a year. And this certainly wasn't my Dominic. He had been my first in every way that counts and I think that that was what was hurting me the most.
Sure, I was going through some changes, but I wasn't his only one anymore. And if he would've slept with one of the human girls at the party then I guess that that would be one thing. But he slept with a vamp and even after his shower there were still traces of her scent on him. My free hand traveled down the skin of his chest and stopped about midway. The trembling started again as my nails slid across the bite mark that was right next to his slowly beating heart. I could see it clearly and it was smaller than the one that Jared had left on Sheila.
This one was perfectly clean and already starting to heal. By now it was almost nothing more than a jagged, red circle that stood out against his caramel tone. I watched his eyes flicker before kissing his forehead and standing up to leave. He was snoring by the time that I made it through the door. I stopped and glanced at the clock on his dresser through the glass. Fabulous, it was two seventeen. I'm as good as dead.
