I saw Katlin from a mile away from one of the highest trees. I could also sense something in the tree near the the guy that she probably had called us about. What was that? I continued to watch the thing in the tree as I pushed my "invisibility blanket" over to Kaitlin and him. The thing in the tree gasped and fell out of the tree, looking for him. I jumped over just as Nicole got to Kaitlin, she was running, of course.
We both looked at Kaitlin silently asking her if she was okay and she nodded yes. She glanced up to ask if we should confront the guy. Thankfully, the dude was too busy worrying about his thing from the tree that was looking for him. But trust me, she wouldn't be able to find him. And he wouldn't be able to see it because I put it in a little invisible bubble that would hold it up in the tree for a while.
I stood up quickly and Nicole had to pry Kaitlin's fingers off her arm before she, too got up and Kaitlin followed. We stood together as the little clan we were, strong and tough, sleek and slick, quiet and mysterious, salt and pepper, night and day, ying and yang, cat and dog. He had heard us get up and suddenly became very rigid. He faced us with a face that was impassive.
"Who are you?" he asked in a husky voice. He was tall and muscular, but we could take him. I'm completely sure that we had never met him, but why did he smell kind of familiar?
"The question, my friend, is who are you to be talking to us?" I smiled back smoothly.
"The answer is that I have a permanent residence here. A question is what did you do to Vanessa?" He replied, face still expressionless. I stared hard into his eyes. I could tell that there was some worry about this Vanessa. Wait, was that the thing in the tree? He could see that I was stalling so he continued, "the child in the tree directly above me before I got ambushed?" He said making his voice slightly louder. Yep, I was right, it was the thing in the tree. I led the bubble down and let her out of it, but I made sure that she was released outside our bubble, so she couldn't see us.
"Jacob? Jacob? Where'd you go?" Jacob was right in front of her and was trying to touch her, but they wouldn't come into contact.
"What did you do to her?" He said with a steely edge to his voice.
"Oh, it's not what I did to her. It's what I did to you. Now, enough with your questions," I said with a note of finality in my voice, "it's my turn." and with that Nicole, Kaitlin and I crouched into our hunting positions and cornered him. Kaitlin and I grabbed his arms and pushed him against one of the massive tree trunks. Nicole put a hungry look in her eyes and bared her teeth, which due to the massive amount of moon light, gleamed wickedly.
"Who are you?" I whispered to him. He struggled, but we had all fed pretty recently so we were strong.
"Why should you care?" he growled back at me. I glanced at Nicole out of the corner of my eye and she inched closer.
"Where do you come from?" I tried again, with a different question.
"Teletubbies Land" he answered and I smacked him with all of my might. I left a dark red mark on his right cheek and my anger grew. What was he hiding that was so important that he couldn't reveal?
Nicole felt my frustration and inched back a little. I just nodded my head vigorously to her and she leaned back in until she was about and inch from his throat.
"Who are you and why are you here?" I asked one more time before I knew my patience would fail me.
He stared back at me with hard eyes and leaned his face in until he was about three inches from mine. "My name is Barney and I come to play with the little kiddies," and with that I nodded once and Nicole tore a large gash down this guy's neck. He squirmed a little bit but then relaxed. Nicole and I held our breath.
"You can hurt me," he said with a sick gleam in his eyes, "but I'll always come back."
I was frustrated and I'll admit it. Very much so.
And I did the most girly-est thing to do.
I threw a fit.
But when I throw a fit, watch out!
Nicole grabbed his arm and I kicked and punched and kneed and did all kinds of stuff that made me feel so much better. After I was done, I could tell that I had broken a few ribs and his right arm. I glanced at his neck, to see if I had broken that too, but I noticed something else. The gash that Nicole had torn on his neck was just a faint scar now. There was still some wet blood (because it didn't even have time to dry yet) and it was not the same scent as human blood.
I knew that smell.
I knew who else could heal that quick.
So did Nicole.
This guy (who I just remembered was called Jacob by the child Vanessa) was a werewolf, like my bestie Kaitlin.