Chapter 14 – Attacked - Revised

Jacob said goodbye about a half-hour later and I went back out into the yard. The clothes were dry so I brought them inside. Unsure what else to do, I decided to walk over to Emily's. I walked slowly, taking in the fresh air and the forest scene. I was about to step onto Emily's porch when a sudden high pitched yelping rent the air. The yelps turned to screams in my head and I turned to look at the forest. One of the pack was in trouble. Emily came running out of the house.

"What was that, I heard yelping," she said.

"Emily get back inside and lock the door," I said, taking off my clothes.

She did as I told her and the door closed behind me and I heard the lock click. I ran into the forest and phased mid-leap. The yelping had stopped, fear coursed through me, was whoever had been screaming ok?! I tore off in the direction I had heard the yelping, praying I would get there in time. My head was a storm of voices, the other pack members were close but where exactly was unclear and I tried to block them out so I could focus. I heard a scream. Whoever was hurt or being attacked had phased back. I ran faster, bounding over leaves and sticks. What exactly I would do if something that I couldn't take down was attacking the other member of the pack, I had no idea. Another scream came from just in front of me and I slowed down. I stalked slowly towards a small clearing encircled by large trees. Emma was on the ground naked and bleeding from a huge gash running across her hip and halfway down her thigh, she whimpered in pain as I walked towards her.

"Emma, what happened," I asked.

"Vampire," she whispered, "It went off towards the reservation. She's fast. I'll stop her though, I just need a minute, don't worry about it." She looked pale and I worried the blood loss was making her delirious.

"You can't kill a vampire in that state! Get on," I said, laying down so she could climb on. She got on rather awkwardly and held on tight.

I stood and ran towards the reservation as fast as I could. If a vampire got back before me if it could do this much damage to Emma, what could it do if it got to Emily.

"Emma was attacked by a vampire. We are in pursuit, heading towards the reservation," I thought, hoping the others could hear me.

A sudden rancid smell wafted into my nostrils. It smelt like something was rotting, but the smell was layered with a sickly flowered perfume. I stopped in my tracks as a beautiful woman stepped out from behind a tree. Well, she would have been beautiful had she not had blood dripping from her fingertips and streaked across her blouse. I felt Emma loosen her grip and then she leapt off my back, flying over my head, and phasing in midair. She went straight for the woman who didn't even flinch, but just stood there, a wicked smile on her face. I didn't know what to do, but it seemed my wolf did because without consciously making the decision, I had run toward the woman too.

The woman raised a hand, grabbing a handful of Emma's fur, and threw her up against a tree. Emma yelped and collapsed to the ground. I dodged the woman's other hand and clamped my jaw down on her arm. I threw her like a rag doll and she hit a tree, but her arm was still in my mouth. I spit it out disgusted and looked up at the woman just in time to see her fly at me at top speed. She leaped onto my back and dug her nails into the skin. I yelped and tried to throw her off but my attempts made her cling on harder and the pain mounted. An idea struck me and I jumped into the air and came down hard on my back crushing her underneath me. Pain shot through my back. I rolled over and stood over the woman, lying on her back, her hip stuck up at a weird angle and her chest caved in. She looked at me, fear in her eyes.

"Arianna, kill it! KILL IT!" screamed Emma trying to get up, but she staggered, blood pouring from her side. I looked down at the woman and growled. I felt my wolf take over and I clamped down on her head and tore it off; a faint hissing sound like a hot kettle on the stove and then silence.

I spit out the head and then I heard voices, "They're over there, I can see Arianna, and, Emma!"

I stood there as the rest of the pack came running towards us.

Sam bent first over the vampire's body then looked at Emma and then me.

"Did you kill it?" he asked.

"Yes. Sam, I think I'm going to throw up," I said.

Jacob came over and brushed his shoulder against mine, "You ok," he asked and then he spotted the marks on my back from the vampire's nails.

It was hard to miss as Jacob was taller than me even in this form.

"Sam, Burdette should look at her back, she's pretty banged up," he said. Sam nodded.

The only sensation I could feel at that moment was overwhelming nausea. I moved off towards the woods, past Paul who was bending over Emma and phased behind a tree. And then I started to retch. I clutched the roots of a tree with my hands and held on for dear life. A warm hand pulled my hair back out of my face, but I didn't look up. It didn't stop until I was dry heaving and started feeling dizzy from lack of air. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand slumped onto my side. Jacob knelt and pushed pieces of my hair, plastered to my face with sweat, out of my face. I didn't even care that he was seeing me naked; I just wanted to lie down.

"Come on," he said, "We need to get you to Burdette."

I nodded but stopped because it made me even dizzier.

"Can you stand?" he asked, his eyes filled with worry.

"I'd love to tell you, yes, but I'm not sure how far I'll make it honestly," I said with a slight moan. Now that I was done being sick I was beginning to realize how much pain I was in.

"Okay, stay here for just a second," he said. He got up quickly and walked into the clearing. In a moment he returned holding clothes wrapped in a belt. He removed a t-shirt from the bundle and knelt, helping me to pull it over my head. Then he fastened the jeans to the belt, leaving a big loop for him to step into.

"When I phase, the belt will hold my clothes to my leg," he explained.
"Clever," I said, shifting carefully onto my knees.

"Ready?" he asked.

"As I'll ever be," I said.

He knelt down right in front of me, reaching his hands over his shoulders to help pull my arms around his neck. I whimpered in pain but was able to pull myself onto his back. He phased and I wrapped my fingers in his fur.

"Sam, I'm taking her to Burdette," I heard Jacob say.

"Ok, we'll clean up here," said Sam.

Jacob began walking towards the edge of the forest and as we walked the pain in my back seemed to get worse.

"What did he mean by clean up? Can't they just bury the body?"I asked.

"No, you have to burn the body of a vampire or else it will slowly reform and be as good as new. So they'll set a fire and burn the parts and then Paul will take Emma to Burdette too," he said.

"She didn't want my help, you know, she said she could kill it herself," I said.

"Emma is like that, don't take it personally," he said, "Once she's done being furious that it got the best of her, and the newbie killed it, she'll be grateful. Well, sort of."

"Great," I said rolling my eyes.

"How are you feeling? Still dizzy?" he asked.

"I'm okay for now. It's my back that really hurts. I couldn't get it off me so I jumped into the air and landed on my back. That seemed to do the trick, but I would not recommend trying that at home,"I said, wincing as I tried to turn my head to look at my injuries.

"Well, on the bright side at least we know your fight-or-flight response leans heavily towards fight," he said, trying to sound encouraging, but I could feel him pick up his pace slightly.