A.N. If you haven't reviewed by this point, pulease! do! If you get on it right away, you just might be my very first reviewer. Lucky you. I'd really like to know what you think about it. Okay, so here's the next chapter. I also hope to get chapter 10 written by tomorrow, but no promises. I'm in the middle of some hefty exams.

Thanks for reading this far!

Chapter 9

Porter turned the car over to the side of the highway and drove into a stand of trees. He braked. They were still half a mile from her home. He killed the lights to avoid attracting any unwanted attention. In the silence following, Jamie could hear the crickets chirping in the fields beyond the trees. Neither of them spoke for a moment.

Her muscles still felt clumsy and unused, but with a little effort she could hide it. The Colonel would never know that she had been bitten. Or at least she hoped.

Jamie cleared her throat slowly, feeling almost shy. Hesitation emanated from Porter's mind. "So this bite thing," she began, "It's not going to last, right? I'm not going to become a werewolf."

Porter shook his head, swallowing. "No, I didn't give you enough…"

"Venom?" she suggested.

He winced. "Is that what your kind calls it?"

"Sorry," Jamie muttered. "I suppose it's kind of a rude term."

He nodded with a faraway look in his eyes. He snapped back, looking at her slowly. "You're going to be alright?"

She nodded bravely.

"Jamie…when this is over…you don't have to stay with them. I'm sure any one of our families would take you in. You shouldn't go back to that. It's not healthy."

Jamie shrugged uncomfortably. She didn't really want to talk about this. The less she thought about it the less likely she was to burst out in tears. Her emotional levels had been a bit erratic lately. And no wonder; it wasn't everyday she got bit by a werewolf. The scariest thing about it was that it had been almost pleasant while some of her deepest secrets had been ripped from her mind. She had wanted to ask him what he had seen in her mind, but she chickened out.

He seemed to follow her train of thought, his emotions playing along the same patterns. She could still feel him distantly, but the true connection had been severed the moment his lips left her throat. She got vague, blurry images every once and a while like she could with the others. They were now like two wolves in a pack: coordinated but distant. And soon, that too would disappear. There was hollowness in her that could only be equated to loneliness.

"I'm sorry we had to invade your privacy," he said honestly, turning to look at her directly. It was the first time since they'd entered the car. His movements were almost jittery. He rambled, "I haven't bit that many people. You get too close that way; see things you never expected to see."

Something sharp rose up in her. She realized it was jealousy. He'd bit other people. She suppressed the emotion immediately, hoping he hadn't caught it with his acute senses. A wave of embarrassment roiled over her.

She pulled the handle and hopped out of the car before the situation got any worse. She lingered in the door for a second, drinking in his silver-blue eyes. She said, "I'll be back as soon as I get Bella."

He nodded. "Be careful."

She shut the door. The sound of chirping crickets doubled. She wrapped her arms around herself and headed through the trees. Autumn leaves crunched audibly beneath her feet. She couldn't help the sound. It didn't help that she was partially paralyzed. And even if she'd been a werewolf, she could not have quenched the noise of her arrival completely. There wasn't a spot of clear ground beneath her feet.

The stand of trees ended and she found herself in a wide field. She could just barely make out her house on the other side of the field. Her heart jumped into her throat and she swallowed slowly. She had already rehearsed what she would say, but it didn't make her feel any better.

"Hi, dad," she would say with a daring smile. She would make no comment to his earlier betrayal. "I managed to escape. Those martial arts skills came in handy."

She crept a little faster, an object in her pocket bouncing against her side. Her hand moved to rest upon the bulky object. It was a cell phone. Not hers, of course. The adults had insisted upon keeping it in their possession. When the Colonel was ready to list his demands, he would do so through that phone.

The cell phone she had in her pocket was Amber's. The girl had been reluctant to hand it over, but Mrs. Carlyle had insisted. If Jamie was to put herself in danger for her daughter, then the least they could do was offer her contact for emergency situations. "At the slightest spot of trouble," Mrs. Carlyle had instructed. "You call us. We will be there to back you up."

Bella's mother had wanted the whole group to wait out in the stand of trees near the Vince residence. Mr. Carlyle was able to persuade her otherwise. They didn't want to attract attention. Someone was surely to notice if a pack of six cars decided to park alongside the highway. If the person to notice was the Colonel, everything would be over for their daughter.

By the time she reached home, her heart was pounding hard, and it certainly wasn't from the exercise.

Jamie noticed something was wrong from her first step onto the front porch. The welcome mat was missing. It wasn't just any old welcome mat. It was one the Colonel had ordered specially made with miniature cameras interwoven into the fabric. It didn't make sense for him to take away some of his surveillance when he needed it the most.

She wrenched the door open and flicked on the lights. The furniture were all in their proper places. Except for the papers that had been strewn across the table earlier that night, nothing else appeared to be missing or moved.

"Hello?" She called. Her voice echoed in her ears.

No one responded.

She moved further into the house at an uneasy gait. Her shoes whispered against the old wooden floorboards. A portrait of her mother usually hung in the dining room. If it were missing then her father would be also. She moved to the end of the table so that she could get a clear view of the far wall. The wall stood empty.

Her heart dropped into her stomach and she slumped into a seat at the table. She was too late. Her father and brother had left along with their precious captive. And knowing her father, there wouldn't be a single lead to their present location. The Colonel was no amateur.

Jamie sighed, running her fingers along the wooden tabletop.

She considered using the phone to call Mrs. Carlyle with the bad news but thought better of it. She didn't know how many gadgets her father might have left behind to keep watch over the place. If she called the Carlyles, he would know she was a traitor. Jamie would wait until she was clear of the house before she made the call.

She stood and a tiny sheet of paper caught her eye. Not all of the papers had disappeared. But this didn't look like any of the Colonel's plans. It was a note of some sort, folded into a small square.

Jamie picked it up and unfolded it, reading. Her fingers gripped the creased letter as her teeth gritted.

Jamie,

I know I can't trust you. Whether you got away or not, you would lead them right to us. So we decided a change in location was in order. Help yourself to the house. The landlady won't kick you out until the end of the month. Once our mission is through we will come to pick you up, assuming you are alive. If you are not, you may die knowing you helped a great cause.

P.S. We left some money in the second drawer.

Your father

Jamie scrunched up the letter and threw it against the wall. Thanks for the concern, dad. She wished she had something a little more substantial to throw, but there were knickknacks in the Vince household. There was nothing impractical at all. She was just starting to realize how cold and bare it was. Her mother's portrait was the only object that brightened the room…the whole house, even.

She was so angry and she didn't know what to do about it. For once, her father was right. He couldn't trust her. But he'd repeated that phrase in so many different ways for as long as she could remember. "Are you sure she's a werewolf?" "Are you sure that's her house?" "No, you can't come with us. We have a serious mission and you'll mess everything up."

Jamie stood to leave and as an afterthought, hurried to the second drawer. She counted the money and stuffed it in her pocket. It was only three hundred dollars, but it might come in handy sometime.

She quickly hurried from the house. As soon as she deemed herself far enough away from the house, she would make the call.