Chapter Eight: In Which Much Chaos Occurs, or 'Secrets Were Meant To Be Discovered'

AN: This is it, dudes and dudettes! The moment of truth! (Plus some yumminess on the Reid/Kat front…)

"Hey, look, man," Tyler said with a grin, punching Reid's shoulder lightly. "It's your girl." Reid looked up from his shot, resting his gloved hand on the base of the pool cue.

"Huh?" Tyler jerked his head to the left. Glancing over, the blond saw Sarah and Kate moving towards the dance floor of Nicky's, each dragging one hand of a reluctant-looking Kat. She was shaking her head, her loose hair (for once; usually she braided it) falling down her back like black water tinged with bone. This thought rang a bell somewhere in Reid's mind, but he couldn't place from where. Suddenly, Kat laughed out loud, and yanked her arms towards her, pulling Sarah and Kate to walk beside her instead of in front. Reid felt a funny twist in his stomach at that laughter. He frowned. "She's not my girl, Ty. Remember the part where I keep telling you guys to watch out?"

"Yeah, yeah, you know you want some of that." Reid glared at his friend, but said nothing, knowing that he was the only one Tyler was ever so openly non-shy with. He shook his head, leaned over, and began to take his shot. "Oh, look, she's found some guy. Never mind, you must be right," Tyler added airily. When Reid tensed, the pool cue slipping just a tad, Tyler started to whistle.

"Cut it out," Reid snapped, straightening.

"Cut what out?" It was Caleb and Pogue, carrying drinks.

"Tyler's being a jackass."

"Why, what'd he do?" Tyler, quieter now, but just as gleeful, took his drink from Pogue and smiled.

"Just pointed out that that chick Reid's obsessed with is dancing with some other guy."

"I am not obsessed with her, and I don't give a damn who she dances with." Caleb glanced at the younger boy, gauging his level of annoyance.

"Well," he commented after a moment, "it'll be harder to keep an eye on her if she's all over another guy. What if he gets possessive?" Caleb kept his tone ambivalent. He still didn't think Reid had much to go on for his Kat theory, but it was clear that the blond did believe it. It was also clear that he was, in fact, jealous, which Caleb took as a very good sign. When he'd talked to Kat, she had been visibly (though he was sure she hadn't thought so) disappointed when he'd told her that he didn't think Reid was attracted to her. Now, though, Caleb wasn't so sure. Thus, getting Reid to go dance with Kat solved two problems at once: it would assuage the blond's temper (maybe) and give him a chance to further his investigation of the girl.

"Good point," Pogue added smoothly. "Might wanna go talk to her, Reid."

"Yeah, you know, maybe you're right," Tyler said, taking his turn. "You don't want her. But you do think she's weird, right? So what better way to find out what's strange about her?" Reid looked from one boy to the next before throwing down his pool cue with an exasperated sigh.

"Will it shut you guys up? Is that even possible? Fine! Whatever!" With that, he stalked off towards the dance floor. Caleb glanced around.

"Well. Usually it's us saying that about him."

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Kat wasn't sure what to expect when Sarah showed up at her house, which Tyler must have given her directions to, and invited her to go to a bar/dance club called 'Nicky's'. She wasn't sure, too, if she should go at all: it was Sunday night. There was no school Monday, so that wasn't the problem.

It was the full moon.

But they'd only be out until eleven or so, Sarah had assured her. Kate, Pogue and Tyler all had to work early the next morning, apparently to make up for too many skipped days. It would be fine. It would be safe.

Gulp.

So she had pulled on her favorite green halter top and black jeans, and had left her hair down. Now, she was on the dance floor, a young man with spiky brown hair dancing close to her, her lupine 'mones acting up like crazy. Tonight was the night. She was ready for anything. She wanted a fight, she wanted sex, she wanted everything. Which was fairly dangerous, but Kat was certain of her control. She'd had years, after all, to perfect it.

Suddenly, a hand came down lightly on her shoulder and spun her around.

"Sorry, man, I didn't know she was taken," the guy with spiked hair said, moving on to another girl in a short blue dress. Kat found herself staring up at an irritatingly familiar quicksilver face, unreadable blue eyes and fine blond hair. Reid's hands slid down to her hips, his thumbs brushing across her stomach. When he'd spun her around, she'd landed so close to him that their legs were touching with every move.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Care to dance?"

"Not with you." Despite her words, her hands were snaking up his chest, feeling the fibers of his gray shirt, and coming to rest around his neck. She forced her fingers not to play with the hair at the base of his neck, forced herself not to purr with satisfaction as his own fingertips brushed the ribbon of bare skin between the waistline of her jeans and the hem of her top.

"Yeah, I can tell," he said with a hint of a smirk. Then, it fell away. "I've been wondering about you, Kitty Teague."

"Really?" She heard the throaty sound of her own voice and was horrified. She was coming on to Reid on the night of the full moon. Baaaaad idea.

"Really."

"There's nothing to wonder." She noticed he was maneuvering them somewhere, but couldn't see where.

"You're hiding something. I want to know what it is." She laughed.

"Why would I tell you?"

"So you are hiding something." She stopped laughing. Kat suddenly felt very, very sober. She was still aware of every move they made, but the giddy high of the near-Change was lightened. They were playing what had the potential to be a very dangerous game indeed.

"I'm not the only one," she responded after a pause. "You are, too. You and your friends over there." Reid's eyes narrowed.

"Oh yeah?" She didn't answer. "How about a trade? You tell me yours, I'll tell you mine, this whole stupid thing can just go away." Kat smirked.

"Like I trust you enough for that. Like I trust you at all, actually." As their voices dropped with intensity, their bodies were getting closer and closer together. It was driving Kat crazy, but she couldn't act on it. Not now.

"It would be a fair trade," Reid said silkily. "We wouldn't need trust."

"You wouldn't tell me the truth and you know it," Kat replied, her voice far breathier than she would have liked. Her back was almost the wall, and she realized where he'd maneuvered them. "What are you doing?"

"Screw this," Reid muttered, and without warning, took the last step that pushed her against the wall. She felt his chest against hers.

And then they were kissing, hands grabbing shirts and waists and shoulders, her back pressed against the wall, his body so close that when he breathed in, she breathed out in sync. The wolf exploded out of Kat, senses heightened almost painfully, smelling and tasting nothing but him. Her hands clawed up to tangle in his hair, pressing his head closer. He slid his own hands up her back, fingers tracing along her spine beneath her shirt, his palms warm against her skin. Kat gave a soft moan, her lips parting, and Reid, too far gone to care that he had not intended this to happen at all, took the chance to deepen the kiss. She could feel it building inside her, the Change, her passion tipping her over an edge that she could not resist. Desperately, she pulled away from Reid, who looked just as shocked as she felt, and, ducking under his arm, ran blindly for the door. Had to get out, had to be alone, had to Change. She could still smell him, that metallic-honey scent mixed with lust and a wild confusion, as if he had not meant to kiss her in the first place.

"Kat! Wait!"

"Get away from me," she screamed over her shoulder, racing through the alleys behind Nicky's. Reid was behind her, trying to catch up, and now the smell she caught from him was strong with strangeness and tinged with anger or fear. It was becoming too much. She couldn't run anymore. Fool, fool, fool! Dropping to her hands and knees, she panted. Reid's footsteps were getting closer.

"Kat," he called again.

"GO AWAY! Get out of here! GO!" She could hold it back, but not for much longer. Not- much- Oh god, it was hard!

"Finally," she heard another voice say.

A woman. Oh, no. Not now. Not here.

Heels clicked on pavement. Red hair glinted in the moonlight.

It was her.

"It's been a long time since California, hasn't it, Kitty-cat? Or maybe not that long at all."

"Who the hell are you," Reid asked bluntly. Kat looked from him to the woman who had hunted her down and come so close, so close, to catching her, and now somehow knew her name. Too much. It was too much.

She couldn't hold on.

"I almost had you in California, but now there's no way you can escape. Not even with Mr. Garwin here to help you." Kat stared at her. What? She saw Reid staring too, and there was something weird about his eyes. They were darker, much darker, but she couldn't quite make them out in her dazed state. She needed to Change, and she needed to Change now.

"I didn't get to say this in California," Kat gritted, toes curling with power as she stared at the redhead. "Back off, bitch!" And then she couldn't speak, could only gasp with exquisite pain as her human jaw elongated, her back arching, her knees rearranging themselves with small pops. Fur sprouted across her skin, and she barely had time to throw off her shirt and shimmy desperately out of her jeans before the Change ruined them. A cry of beautiful agony turned into a howl, and brown eyes turned yellow-gold. As she rose to stand on four paws, the redhead pulled out a pistol and fired once. A burning pain spread across Kat's left shoulder as the hit glanced off her. It was too late to worry about Reid. She couldn't afford to worry about what he'd think. She could only try to protect him and herself from- Wait, what?

A pulsating, glowing orb of- of something had just hurtled through the air past Kat in her wolf-form, hitting the redhead squarely in the stomach. The woman looked surprised as she flew through the air, slamming into the ground hard. Kat wheeled around to see Reid standing there, arm outstretched, eyes now clearly visible with her improved night-vision: they were completely, eerily black.

"Come on, before I remember that I'm an asshole who doesn't help anyone," he said, voice filled with an otherworldly, dangerous calm, the kind of calm that was laced with hidden frenzy, that made her quick to listen. Turning, they raced out of the alley.

He led her, ducking through back roads and down town streets, keeping a surprisingly fast pace, to a large, well-to-do house. There was no car in front of the house, and Reid didn't hesitate to lead a wolf inside what she presumed was his home.

"When I come back," he said, backing out of what looked like a living room, "try to have lost the fur."

Kat had to think about it, had to physically and mentally force herself to Change back. Having made the Change already, her body allowed the shift, and in a few minutes, she was human again.

And naked.

Swallowing hard, still in shock, she stumbled over to the couch and grabbed the blanket that was casually tossed over the back. Still bleeding, she pressed the corner of the plaid against the long slash on her shoulder leading down her back, wincing as strands of fabric caught in the wound. Thank God it had only been a graze, though… Wrapping the blanket around the rest of her, she settled gingerly on the cushions.

She heard footsteps, and then the blond entered again from a door to the right of the couch where she sat.

"So," he said, coming to stand in front of her. "We need to talk." His eyes weren't black anymore, and he didn't have that haunted, frenetic menace about him. Instead, he looked angry, and tired, and alert. There was no trace of the Reid she'd thought she'd known, at least a little, and Kat remembered Caleb's voice: 'He's a good guy to have on your side… then he'll pull something completely out of the blue…'

"Uh," was all she managed to say before he caught sight of the red-stained corner of blanket.

"Shit, you're bleeding."

"It's nothing," Kat protested, not wanting to put herself at any more of a disadvantage than she already had, if that was even possible. Reid rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, well, can't have you die on me when I've finally figured out what's so weird about you," he said. "Let me see."

"I said I'm fine, already!" She was tense, too tense. Too much had happened that night, and the pull from the full moon had only gone down a little with the actual physical Change.

"You got blood on my blanket," he stated baldly, and then knelt next to the couch and reached for her shoulder to turn her torso so he could see her back. Before he could touch her, Kat sighed and turned, letting the blanket sag enough to bare her back before it pooled around her waist, holding it up beneath her chin with both hands.

"When she fired, the bullet grazed along my shoulder," she informed him unnecessarily. Judging by his soft curse, Kat figured that what had happened was pretty apparent. Suddenly, the accusatory rush of the chorus of Tool's 'The Pot' rang through the silence of the room, and Reid flipped open a cell phone.

"Not now, Caleb," he said tersely. Kat's enhanced hearing picked up the other boy's angry voice.

"You used! Are you insane? You only have-"

"I'll explain later," Reid snapped, and flipped the phone closed again, slipping it into the pockets of his jeans. When it rang again immediately, Kat saw him turn it off. He turned his attention back to her wound.

"So," Kat tried, "I guess I need a band-aid?"

"Wait here. Don't move." Yeah, because of course I'm going to run out of your house in nothing but a blanket. He brought a bottle of disinfectant, a packet of gauze, and a roll of white medical tape. Off her look of surprise, he gave a slightly sheepish half-grin.

"When you get into as many fights I do, you learn to keep this stuff handy." She hissed as he cleaned the cut, but he worked quickly and efficiently, and in less than a minute, he was pressing strips of medical tape against her skin to keep the gauze bandage over the slash. Looked like he did have some practice with this kind of thing after all.

"Thanks," she said reluctantly. Reid shrugged, capping the disinfectant and pulling a chair over from across the room and sitting, crossing his long legs at the ankles. His left arm he folded over his stomach, cupping his right elbow in the palm of his left hand, biting the nail of his right thumb.

"So. What the fuck was that?"

A loaded question if there ever was one.

"Uh, which part?"

"All of it."

"Well, you did some pretty freaky stuff, too. I deserve an explanation just as much as you do."

"You first," he granted, gesturing at her with his right hand before bringing it back to hover pensively in front of his mouth. Kat sighed.

"True confessions, huh? Fine. As you've seen, I'm a werewolf." Reid nodded. Kat frowned. "Why exactly aren't you in the least bit unnerved by this? I just turned into a wolf in front of you!" He shrugged.

"I've seen some pretty scary shit," he said. "Couple months ago… well, that's over, but when I first figured out there was something weird about you, I thought you were… something else."

"How did you know I wasn't perfectly normal?"

"You sniffed me. More than once. And you just struck me as off, somehow." She blushed bright red.

"I sniffed you because you guys smell different. All four of you, but you especially. It's been driving me crazy. That's why I avoided you, because I couldn't afford to risk being found out while I tried to figure you out." He snorted.

"That went well."

"Yeah, well, none of this would have happened if you hadn't… at Nicky's…"

"Hell, I don't know where that came from," he admitted, sounding annoyed. She shifted, and noticed that his eyes, almost involuntarily, followed the movement, clear blue narrowing as the blanket slipped subtly from her shoulder. Heat burned slowly, sweetly in her stomach, and she forced it down as he continued. "And it was just as much your fault as mine. And what about the redhead, the one who shot you? Does that kind of thing happen often?"

"No," Kat replied, folding her arms. This action pulled at the wound on her back and shoulder, and she bit her lip with pain. "She… in California, before I came here, some stuff happened, and I almost got caught. She was the one who almost… She tried to kill me. I figured since she didn't know my name or anything, I was fine, but… Now she's here, and apparently she knows a lot more than I thought."

"How did she know my name?"

"I have no idea," Kat said honestly. "I didn't even know she was in Ipswich at all…" She trailed off, remembering the black car she'd seen idling in front of Spencer Academy. "Or I didn't realize it was her. So now I've told. Your turn."

"The Sons of Ipswich are witches," Reid said with a bluntness that rivaled her own. "Or warlocks, I guess it would be. We're descended from the Salem witches that survived the burnings and then fled here." Honestly, what does one say to something like that?

"Oh," she managed. "Uh, what exactly can you do?" Kat remembered the glowing orb that had quite possibly saved her life. Her breath caught as Reid's eyes turned black again, the whites eaten up by darkness, and the couch she sat on lifted into the air a few feet before gently setting back down again. His eyes bled back to their normal blue, and he smiled slyly.

"Anything." Kat swallowed.

"Oh," she said again. Her secret seemed like small fries now... then again, she was the one being shot at. "Is that what Caleb called about? You… what did he call it, using?"

"You heard that?" She tapped her ears.

"Enhanced hearing."

"Right. Yeah," Reid admitted, frustrated. "I'm not supposed to use until a few days from now."

"Why not?"

"The ascension. Addiction is a no-no."

"Huh?" He shook his head.

"Doesn't matter. Caleb's gonna be pissed anyway when I tell him about this." Kat panicked.

"Wait, tell him? You're going to tell him about me?" Reid spread his hands.

"You know about us. You've got blackmail aplenty. Relax, Kat. They'll find out eventually anyway, and you know it. That bitch knows who I am, and she obviously knows what I can do. She doesn't seem to give a damn about murder, so I doubt I'm any safer from her than you are. Plus, if she knows about me, chances are she knows about the other Sons, too. You don't get to have all the fun by yourself anymore, babe."

"Damn," she cursed sarcastically. "And don't call me that. Fine. I guess you're right. We have to tell them."

"I'll call them in a minute. I want to let Caleb stew for a while." There was a brief silence.

"Oh," Kat said awkwardly. "By the way. I, uh, at Nicky's…"

"What, you mean the part where-"

"It was because of the full moon. It heightens my senses and amplifies any emotion." Reid grinned.

"Meaning you want me anyway, and just acted on it because of the moon or whatever."

"No," she said haughtily. "Meaning it was a mistake, and it was out of my control, and it won't happen again." He rolled his eyes, mouth tightening just a tad.

"Whatever. Like I said, I don't know where that came from. You're right. It was a stupid mistake. I'm gonna make those calls now," he continued, expression smoothing over as if nothing had happened. Kat swallowed.

"Where are we going to meet them?"

"I can get them to come over here," he offered.

"Won't your parents mind? Or do they know about… about you?" Reid snorted.

"My dad's been dead for years."

"What about-"

"Oh, she knows," he said lightly. "She just doesn't give a damn about me. She's not here, anyway. Don't worry about it. I'll call the others now." Kat wanted to say something, wanted to sympathize, but something told her that trying would be a very bad idea. So she just sat in silence, clutching the blanket around her, as Reid went into another room, talking quietly into his turned-on phone. He came back with two sodas, and tossed one to her.

It seemed like mere moments before the door banged open, and three teenaged boys spilled into the house.

"What the hell, man?" That was Pogue.

"Where'd you go?" Tyler.

"Why is Kat naked on your couch?" Caleb, of course. After that choice comment, there was a moment of utter silence. Reid smirked at her.

"Oh, don't worry," he said silkily, "they know I'm irresistible. It's not your fault." Kat hurled a couch pillow at him, yelping when she tugged the skin of her back. Caleb sighed.

"All right, people. What is going on?"