2. Hard Lessons
Their scent shook me from my deep slumber. I recognized the smell of Vampires from my First Night in Cancun. I wasn't surprised to encounter them here in the deep woods. The real shock came when I quickly realized that I had somehow Changed back into a human body – sans the clothing. Panic raced through me. Odd to consider that the panic was not for my life or safety from a couple of blood-suckers. Instead, as an insult to all rational thought, the panic that gripped me came from a desire to avoid social humiliation. I didn't want these strangers to see me in my birthday suit!
Although far from being a goody-two-shoes, I had never been slutty or loose. Drinking and partying? Yes. Sleeping around? Absolutely not. It wasn't that I was a prude or anything, I had just never been very suave around the boys. My body was fine enough, I suppose – naturally thin, despite my overall lack of athleticism – but I'd just never felt very comfortable in it. Especially when in a dress or swimsuit. There seemed a direct correlation between my comfort level and my amount of clothing. High heels caused me great distress, a product of my general clumsiness, and bikinis I left to the supermodels. I felt firmly justified in my desire to remain a "T-shirt and jeans" kind of girl.
Such were my thoughts when the Vampires stepped forth. They slithered into the bare moonlight that had fought its desperate way through the thick boughs of the towering pine trees. I was vainly struggling to squeeze my body into the small crack of the giant tree at my back. Surely, as a Wolf, I had slept in the small space quite comfortably. Yet my lithe humanoid body refused to cooperate. The toothy grins of the two Vampires revealed their apparent amusement at my predicament.
"Did little Alice eat the cake that makes her grow bigger?" The blond female smiled at her own little joke.
"Apparently so," said the dark-haired male. Although his partner wore a ragged jacket, he went shirtless. As if preparing his body for a contest, he rolled his wide shoulders and twitched his substantial muscles one at a time. His lack of clothing did not make me feel any better about mine. "Not only can she no longer fit back down the rabbit hole, but she appears to have also lost all her clothes in the process!" A sharp glint in his eyes told me that he was not at all upset by my nakedness. Realizing this increased my panic ten-fold, a fact that made his grin widen considerably.
Not wanting to reveal any more than I had to, I remained in a crouched position. My keen nose told me there were no others, but I still kept my back to the tree. It made me feel safer and, somehow, slightly less naked. At least a part of me is covered, I told myself.
They approached slowly, obviously enjoying every small moment of my fear and discomfort. I tried desperately to press even further into the tree.
"What is it, Evan? It smells like a human, but also like one of us." She put her hand gracefully on the male's thick shoulder and gave me a look that both assessed me and dismissed me, as if I were a flower she was considering adding to her garden, but might bring an aphid blight to the whole plot.
Evan, meanwhile, was giving me a look that spoke nothing of flowers. He lowered his head slightly and gazed at me through the shaggy bangs of his dark mane. "I'm not sure, Bethany. I am more curious about the stench of dog that lingers about her. Do you have a doggy friend nearby, little Alice?" Despite his question, he didn't look around to check for himself. Obviously, his curiosity was in no way tinged with fear of my possible companion. He gave the impression of being in complete control. And he was.
They were mere steps away from me, and coming closer with antagonizing slowness. It was like watching lava flow towards me – destruction seeping towards me slowly, methodically. The tree behind me refused me any more protection, though still I tried to sink into it. In my desperation, the bark rubbed harshly against my skin, producing the smallest amount of blood.
Immediately, I saw the change in their faces. Their red eyes darkened, their faces tightened. Every muscle in their bodies coiled together like a pair of angry cobras, ready for the strike.
The blond spoke again, every inch of her voice dripping with false-sweetness. "Why, little Alice, whatever is the matter? Can you not speak?"
Her mate's voice was sharper, quivering with anticipation. "Perhaps we have it wrong, my love. Perhaps she is not Alice, but the White Rabbit. Rabbits do not need speak. All they need do is run." His crimson eyes widened, never blinking as they surveyed my terrified face.
At that moment, I made the worst mistake possible. I took his suggestion. I ran. My legs surged forward from my crouched position with the force of a thousand springs. After a moment I thought I might have made it. And then I heard them give chase. The head-start they had given me was far from sporting. I pushed hard through the piney vegetation, destroying more than a few sapling in my haste. I had never run so hard or so fast in my life, but it was not enough.
They caught me easily. One of them, I'm not sure which, jumped on my back, knocking me to the ground and forcing the air out of my lungs. Breathless, I lay on my stomach and wriggled as much as I could without passing out. My body screamed for oxygen. Still, I managed to get one arm free and stuck out blindly at my assailants. The back of my hand landed soundly on a hard body. I heard that body fly through the air and smash into a tree that was not precisely near-by. It must have been Bethany, for Evan cackled at my back. He must have been the one with his knee between my shoulder blades, keeping me pinned to the damp forest floor.
"What an arm!" He exclaimed with great mirth. "She must be a New Born, with that kind of strength. You're a bit of a fighter, aren't you?" His comment was merely salt in the wound, as he knew that he had me locked down. My scarce wiggling was useless against his brawny hold.
Bethany, whose voice revealed she shared none of her mate's amusement, quickly returned to my side. Ignoring Evan's evident pleasure, she spoke only to me: "Strong, maybe. Fast, apparently not." Spurned by her anger at my striking her, she grabbed fiercely onto a chunk of my short hair and pulled my head back to look me in the eye. "You might be faster than a normal Human, but your pathetic little run reveals you are no true Vampire." Bethany shook her blond hair out of her face, now frighteningly close to mine. "And I can smell your blood," she continued as she placed one long finger at my throat. As she said it, I could feel my veins pumping stronger as if they were aware that she had spoken of them. The combination of pleasure and desire on her face rose a calculable notch. "Shall we see what you taste like?"
Fear's grip on me was so strong that I had stopped wriggling altogether. I kept my gaze locked on Bethany's scarlet eyes, expecting her to make the first move. Instead, the shock of feeling Evan pierce the nape of my neck with his fangs caused me to release a scream that bordered on a mad howl. This was the pleasure that Bethany had been waiting for. She snapped onto my shoulder and began to suck greedily. Unlike my previous attack, I was awake and aware of every reaction my body was having. My ears were thundering with blood rush, but it could not block the sounds of their gluttonous moaning as they feasted. The burning was not quite as painful as I had remembered it, but it still seared my veins like acid. I could feel my muscles twitching from the pain. I actually felt my blood leaving my body. My head was starting to feel like a floating balloon, attached to the rest of me by just a thin string. The blood loss was making me woozy. Vaguely, I felt Evan's rough hands begin to explore my naked body, moving methodically from my back to my hip and slowly up my chest. I was just conscious enough to cross the border from fearful pain to terrified panic.
At the precise moment that I felt the goose bumps coming on, Bethany noticed Evan's wandering hands. Her lips broke their contact with my shoulder, leaving a cold in their wake that burned with as much intensity as her sucking had. She snarled her fury wordlessly at her mate and tore him off of me. Another cold wound was left gaping on my back. I shook my head to fight off the wooziness, and realized that this was the only chance I would have.
The burning of their bites transformed into the warming of the Change. It came more violently this time, possibly because of the pain I was already experiencing. Fur seemed to rip through my skin, my muscles tore themselves and realigned into new shapes in a split-second, bones crunched into position as my body snapped its way into a lupine shape.
By the time the fighting couple had realized that their snack was a completely different animal, I was already bounding my way through the star-lit landscape. The rustling behind me could only be the sound of them pursuing their escaping prey. I kicked it into top gear, pushing my remaining blood into my four long legs, forcing them to fall into the ground-consuming pace that I had felt the previous night. To my surprise, the sound of my attackers quickly faded behind me. As a Vampire, I had been overtaken. But as a Wolf, they had no chance of catching me. I bared my teeth in a canine smile as I ran freely under the moonlight.
