A/N: OK, some of my reviews are bugging me more than my fic is bugging the reviewers. Things like: jamie - "right, 'cause we haven't seen anything as cliche as this before. -.-." and Vampiric Soul - "I do belive i hear a Mary-Sue" are not helpful in the least. If you take the time to review, do us all a favour and tell me what you think can make my fic better instead of just telling me how much it sucks, all right? It's hurtful to me, and a waste of both our time. And I'm trying to avoid Mary-Suedom, so tell me how I can do that too.

Chapter V

A richly accented voice whispered gently, "As darkness falls, Night unfolds ebon wings to wrap the world in its dark embrace."

I opened my eyes.

I felt so strange, so weak. There was blood in my mouth, but I couldn't tell if it was mine. It didn't taste like mine – I had iron-deficiency anemia so my blood tasted like salt instead of like copper the way most people's blood tastes. I'm not kidding, this is something my doctor told me, about the way healthy blood is supposed to taste. Not wanting to think about blood right then, I simply swallowed hard and sat up. It was around five-thirty by my pentacle clock, so I crawled out of bed and stretched slowly. Pretty much all of my joints cracked loudly, but I felt nothing. Anytime I moved something cracked or snapped or creaked. I just ignored it. It only sounded like it hurt.

My stomach growled loudly, and I decided to head downstairs. It was almost time for dinner and Mom would be up any minute to get me up anyway. I'd probably pass her on the stairs. However, I met someone else first. He was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs.

"Fenrir!" I said. "So that's where you went to. I wondered when you didn't greet me when I got home." Fenrir didn't respond, just wagged his tail. Fenrir's my…well, my wolf, you see. I thought the name Fenrir was appropriate, seeing as how Fenrir was the wolf-monster son of Loki, Norse god of destruction and slayer of Baldur. I know it's a little odd that I have a wolf for a pet, but I found him in the woods, the sole survivor of a hunter's massacre. My family sued the hunter for hunting on our land, and I adopted Fenrir. He's blacker than night with tawny eyes and a fierce disposition. If he thinks I, or someone I care about, is in danger then he will first growl threateningly at the offender, but he will never attack without my signal, unless I'm bleeding or something. Wolves, you see, are smarter than dogs.

I smiled and knelt down to scratch him behind the ears. He made a rumbling sound of pleasure in his throat and licked at my wrist. I made a face, but still smiled. The other thing about wolves is that they have thicker saliva than dogs, making it somewhat less adorable when they lick at your hands and face. If they do at all. But I didn't care. Fenrir was my closest companion and I didn't care how messy his ways of expressing his love for me were, provided he didn't bring anything dead into the house. He knew better than that anyway.

I rose and signaled him to follow me to the kitchen, which he did, trotting by my side. He kept looking up at me in wolfish concern. He always seemed to know when something was wrong, but animals have a sense of these things. I smiled at him reassuringly. Mom was in the dining room setting the table when we came in. As usual she didn't notice me, so I just stood in the doorway waiting. She glanced up after a while and gasped in shock at seeing me there. I have the uncanny ability to just appear silently and disappear as though I was never there. It startles those who aren't prepared for it, i.e., Mom. Catching her breath, she looked up at the clock.

"Oh dear, I'm sorry! I meant to go up and get you, but I must have forgotten," she said.

"Everyone either forgets me or never knew I was there to begin with," I said indifferently.

"Don't be like that. How are you feeling?"

"Better." No point in telling her about the strange weakness I woke with, or the blood in my mouth. She would just insist that I had bitten my mouth in my sleep and the blood was mine no matter how it tasted.

"Thinking at all about your birthday party?"

"Definitely. It's going to be nice on Friday, so I want to have it out at the Falls. We could hang balloons and stuff on the tree and set up a table with snacks."

"Sounds great. Would you get the plates over there please?"

I handed her the plates and helped her with the rest of the table, preoccupied with my own thoughts of how blood had gotten into my mouth. I half didn't want to know, but the half that did want to was stronger. I've always been possessed with an insatiable curiosity. But I couldn't think of any logical explanation for blood that wasn't mine being in my mouth. Well, when you've explored the logical explanations and haven't found the right one whatever's left, no matter how unlikely, must be true. But that would mean that someone bled into my mouth while I was asleep. I could imagine Daman pulling a prank like this on me, but he wouldn't go this far. So who did that leave?

"Soul, are you listening to me?"

"What?" I asked. Mom rolled her eyes.

"I asked you if you wanted rice," she said with exaggerated patience.

"Yes, please," I said. I realized I was sitting in my chair and didn't remember having seated myself.

"Are you sure you're all right?" asked Mom. "You're not yourself. You haven't been these last few weeks."

"Exams are coming up," I mumbled. Mom just looked at me. She knew I was hiding something. "I'm fine, Mom. Really. I just have to sort some things out, is all."

"Anything I can do to help?" she asked.

"'Fraid not," I said with an apologetic smile. "This is something I have to try and puzzle out myself. Thanks all the same." Mom looked skeptical, but nodded. There was nothing else she could do.

"Are you inviting Joe to your party?" she asked, seeking to cheer me up. I smiled, giggling a little.

"Yes," I said. "I hope he can make it."

"He'd better," said Mom in mock fierceness. I laughed outright this time. I knew she wanted me to, and I wanted to now. After dinner and declining dessert, I returned to my room and got to my homework. Fenrir came with me, lying at my feet under my desk protectively, comfortingly. His warm weight against my legs was certainly a comfort, and I smiled, rubbing his side with my toes as I worked. I didn't have much to do, and I didn't have History homework, so I was finished quickly. For a while I just sat back, relaxing, enjoying the feeling of Fenrir's breathing, his warm body pressed against my legs, lying over my perpetually cold feet. My feet and hands are always cold for some reason. I didn't care, really. I decided to take a bath, mostly to kill time before bed.

After an hour-long soak in delightfully hot, Moonlight Path-scented water under a good six inches of thick bubbles, I came out of the steam-filled bathroom. I felt much more relaxed and at ease as I put on a black silk nightgown and rubbed scented lotion on my legs. I forgot to worry about what new strange dreams sleep would bring, what new injuries would appear in the morning. I didn't care. Fenrir jumped on the bed beside me as I massaged the lotion into my long legs. He sat there for a time, just looking at me, making sure I was OK. I smiled, leaned over, and kissed his nose. He licked his nose and then mine. I laughed, finished with the lotion and went back to my private bathroom (did I mention that I had my own bathroom?) and proceeded to brush my teeth and dry my hair. That took a while, considering how thick and long my hair is. It retains a lot of water, but I didn't care. I was in no hurry. When I was finally through, I was tired and ready to go to bed. I put my homework papers in my backpack, went downstairs to kiss my family good-night (Dad and Daman had come home by now, though they hadn't been able to join Mom and me for dinner), and went to bed. Fenrir slept in my bed with me, perhaps hoping to ward off bad dreams or what- or whoever it was that inflicted the small lacerations on my body while I slept. A futile attempt, as it turned out, but one meant in love nonetheless.