Chapter 8

His mouth moved to her neck, the way the vampires did in all the movies. The only difference was that vampires only had two pointies while he had a whole set of them. He didn't transform all the way to wolf. He controlled the change carefully. In one instant, his teeth went from normal human teeth to sharp, slicing points. He stopped the change there.

She squeezed her eyes shut, feeling the hot breath on her throat. Then, before she could cringe, he struck. As he removed his teeth from her, the air drifted over the open wounds, making them sting. His tongue flicked over the incisions, abating the sting a little.

The werewolf saliva began to work its way down into her bloodstream. It made her weak and helpless, nearly freezing her limbs. She could hardly move at all. If she hadn't been so terrified she would have felt almost languid.

His teeth moved back into the incisions and he began to expel the poison from his venom sacs. A type of venom that would move through her body, destroying what was most human about her cells. It would slowly revert her cells to lycanthropic ones.

This is it, she thought, her stomach sinking. They've lied to me. I'm going to pass out and when I wake up, I'll be a werewolf. But she didn't pass out. She almost wished she could as the minutes ticked by and she heard the drone of the others talking in the background. They seemed to have completely forgotten about Porter and Jamie.

She wanted it to hurt more, so that she could hate it. But the saliva was working on the open wounds until they no longer stung. She wanted to hate herself for feeling so peaceful and calm. And Porter wasn't helping by being so gentle.

In one moment, everything changed. The world began to sparkle with a whole new color. She could smell Amber's fear, Alec's anger, and Leigh's disgust. But most of all she could smell Porter's worry. It was like a blazing beacon. He was standing too close, so close that she couldn't block him out. She wanted push out that worry that was clawing at her mind; because the more it washed over her, the more it became her worry.

She realized that it wasn't just smell. She was feeling their emotions.

So this is how it was for them, she realized. This was how they all moved in one accord—as a pack. Without this, their hunts would be so uncoordinated. Nothing could ever get done so well. This is why they had attacked her on the road into town. One emotion from Porter and they were all in attack mode.

She realized that Porter was sniffing out her emotions as well. That's why it was an information bite. He was extracting emotions from her mind. But how would that help him? All he could feel was her fear of being bit and her protective feelings for Bella, for her brother…and her dad. She hated to admit it, but the feeling rose up on her, unquenchable. He might never love her, but she would always love him.

Images suddenly lit up before her closed eyes. Porter at five-years-old, finally getting the training wheels off of his bike. A boy a little older, sneaking out the back porch to meet Amber and Leigh in the woods for scary stories. A boy, fondly cuddling a cat to his belly. Sharing a Christmas moment with his parents. Competing in math tournaments with his human friends. Rolling up with a good book. Alec moving in from the city…

He's not evil. He was normal like her. More normal even. She'd grown up so strangely; so cut off from a normal childhood. She didn't even know how to have normal friends. The concept was so foreign to her.

She felt his arms moving to wrap around her, to comfort her. He was seeing images from her too! She could feel the emotion in him, the longing to make everything better—to make up for the past she didn't have.

He was just too good. Too honest to let her hide behind the hard wall she had created.

No! She thought angrily. She didn't want him to feel sorry for her. She didn't want his pity. She didn't want to realize how bad her past was. If she just considered it normal then she wouldn't have to cry about it. She wouldn't have to feel the pain.

She wanted to push him away, but her body still would move properly.

"It's okay," he whispered. "Sometimes it's just better to confront things. Get them out in the open."

"Oh, so now you're an amazing psychologist?" she managed to say.

And then an image sped from his mind to hers. Porter slinking around the side of the neighbor's house at age seven. Seeing that little girl playing in the sandbox. She had such pretty soft skin with delicate pink toes squirming in the sand. He could feel his teeth sharpening. He was hungry and he wanted to eat her.

But his mommy had told him not to. He wasn't supposed to eat humans.

The temptation was nearly overwhelming. His vision was turning red and his breath became labored as he tried not to think about her. He tried to crawl back to his house because his legs weren't obeying him. But he couldn't. He was so transfixed by her form.

The next part was a blur and when he came to, he had bitten her. The girl was screaming and crying and blood was pouring from the open wound.

"What is it, honey?" a mother cried out. "I'm coming, baby! I'm coming, Lacey!"

Porter ran and hid under his bed. He refused to come out for days. His parents brought raw steak and chicken to his room everyday. They kept tabs on the little girl who had been sent to the hospital, making sure she was all right. When she finally came to, she didn't remember what had happened.

A police report called it a wild dog attack.

When Porter finished grieving over it, he was no longer the child he had used to be. Inside, he had grown years. From that moment on he promised that he would never go so long without eating. He couldn't risk hurting someone again. The next one might die.

Porter pulled back from her neck regretfully. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "You didn't need to see that."

But she had needed to see that. The uncertainty that had been clunking around in her mind had finally settled. He had bad tendencies, a predatory nature, but he wasn't evil. He was real and vibrant and living; just like her. He wasn't just some evil creature to be bunched up in a black and white category.

She was now slumped against the wall, only held up by his firm grip. He lifted her into his arms and carried her over to the couch. He set her down gently, untying the belt that bound her wrists.

"The paralysis should wear off in a few hours," he said.

She managed a weak nod.

The three glanced up from a deep discussion and looked at Porter expectantly. "Well?" Amber asked. "Did you find out where she is?"

Just then a burst of noise came from the front part of the shop. Frantic adult voices discussing the matter at hand. People poured into the room at an exponential rate—yes people. Because whether or not they were werewolf or human, they were still people. She knew that now.

A blond woman in her mid-forties hurried up to Amber and pulled her into a tight hug. "Oh, honey," was all she managed to say.

Then Amber lost her perfect cool and began to cry. "Mom, I'm so worried about her! What if they hurt her?"

"I am too!" The woman stroked her teenager's back. "I am too."

Several of the adults were still shouting over each other to be heard. Finally, a man who looked like he must have been Amber's father bellowed. "Quiet!"

The voices died down.

"Now," the man said, turning to the teenagers in the room. "Who bit her?"

Porter raised his hand slowly. "I did, Mr. Carlyle."

"Do you know where my daughter is?"

He nodded slowly, "But I don't think we should go. I probed Jamie's mind and her father keeps that house on pretty tight surveillance. If we go near the house, he might just kill Bella outright."

Mr. Carlyle took a deep breath and dragged a hand through his short gray hair. His dark and angry thoughts left blotches in Jamie's mind. "Then what do you think we should do?"

"Let Jamie go," Porter replied, nudging a shoulder in her direction. She was still too frozen to move or respond very well. She decided not to answer. It just took too much energy. "She can sneak Bella out."

Amber's jaw dropped. "You're going to trust her?"

Porter nodded firmly. "I've seen her mind. We can trust her. She wants to see your sister safe as much as the rest of us."