-1Chapter 2

Here's a driving tip for you. If you ever find yourself in this situation, this is what should go through your head:

Swing right, shift down, swing back left, too far! Don't hit the wall, shift into reverse, right yourself, don't hit the truck, brake, pray the truck doesn't hit you, pull onto the shoulder, stop.

Sounds simple, right? Yeah, try doing that at a hundred miles an hour, and then get back to me on how easy it is.

My hands had white knuckles. My eyes were wide and staring straight ahead. I took a moment to calm my panicked breathing, and looked back in the rear view mirror at the kid, a girl. She looked about fourteen, but rather tall for that age. But the facial features screamed young teen. I didn't see any blood or entrails, so I didn't hit her, and neither did any of the other sparse traffic on the road. But then again, I wasn't even sure if she was alive to begin with. She fell, probably, a hundred feet, but her wings seemed to slow her descent up a bit. But that didn't change the fact that she hit concrete. So, I ask you, does it matter that nothing else hit her?

Apparently, yes! I saw slight movement as I stepped out of Layla, and made my way over to the girl. That little driving show I did put me about a hundred yards down the road from her. This presented another problem, knowing that there was still life there. Because coming up to her rather fast, was a gigantic Peterbuilt 18-wheeler. She was too dazed still to notice the driver practically pulling the horn line out of the ceiling, and the sickening squeal of the tires beginning to lock up.

In short, I didn't have much time to do probably one of the stupidest things I've ever done. And I've done some pretty stupid stuff in my life, i.e. getting myself shot up, as referred to earlier. Running to her, I cut off some more oncoming traffic by positioning myself in the lane next to the one she was in. I had to get the angle right, and I had to put on some speed. I started a small part of my transformation, signified by my iris' turning yellow, so that I could utilize the animal's speed I had in me. In full hybrid form, I could run about as fast as I was just driving. And, like I said, I needed it.

The back end of the truck began to jack-knife slightly, I imagine the guy was using two feet and pulling the e-brake at the same time to get it stopped. I cut back towards the shoulder with her directly in my trajectory. She lifted her head and shook off some of the haze, only to see the gigantic grill, about ten feet from the tip of her nose. Sure, now she realizes where she is.

I scooped her into my arms mid stride, and dove for the shoulder. We hit the ground, on my back, at the same time the truck flew through that now empty patch of space. The squealing stopped and I heard the engine rev up, the driver trying to straighten out his trailer before he ended up taking anyone out. She was shaking slightly in my arms, still trying to process what had just happened. I reversed the transformation so that my eyes would return to normal. She didn't need to be freaked out anymore than she already was right now.

I sat her up against the concrete barrier dividing the two directions of the highway. My hands on her shoulders, I caught her eyes with my own.

"Hey, it's over. You're safe now. Are you okay?" I said in a soft, soothing, and calm voice.

I was answered by a punch to the jaw that sent me reeling. I'm talking Mohammad Ali, here. Man, she had a heck of a right hook. I leaned on the barrier, adjusted my now fractured jaw so that it would heal correctly quickly, and spat a bit of blood onto the ground.

I wasn't angry like I normally would have been, if someone just took a cheap shot on me. No, because I probably would have done the same thing if I was her.

She got up and stood over me, her amazing thirteen foot wingspan shading me from the sun. I could tell she was posturing, trying to make herself look more intimidating, and it almost worked, almost.

How did we miss this? I thought to myself, thinking about how public she was with her abilities.

"Where are they?" She growled at me.

The reason I said her intimidation almost worked, is because I managed to catch an even more intimidating sight in the sky behind her. A black dot, quickly getting closer, and bigger.

"Duck." I mumbled, my jaw still not fully healed from her haymaker earlier.

"What?"

I finally realized what the dot was, one of those flying werewolf…things. "Duck!" I dove for her, tackling her to the ground as the dog man swooped over us. He pulled off a nice cobra roll, pulling up into a half loop until he was upside down, then into a barrel roll to right himself, followed by a dive towards us again.

"Come on, get up." I said to her as I helped her up, my jaw finally healed. I pushed her gently to get her running toward Layla. Thankfully she followed. But the wolf man was coming on fast. I would have to save the small talk for later.

I pointed towards another dark spot in the sky to the south west. "They're over there, you better play catch up."

With out even a thank you or a nod, and almost taking my head off when she beat her wings next to me, she was up and gone. So much for gratitude.

It was a truly beautiful sight, seeing someone really fly without any help. If I was a poet, I'd probably be able to make millions describing it. It was then I remembered what I was running for.

I glanced behind me. He was so close that I could see the saliva dripping off his yellowed fangs. I hit the dirt, just as he flew over me, and after her. I took a moment to watch them shrink towards the rest of the winged crew. Then I got into Layla and gave chase towards the city.

Curiosity was going to have a good chance to kill this cat.