Part 3

"What the hell?" Alex murmured, coming to a slow halt when he seen two men dart out into the road.

Ashley shrugged, eyes widening. "Hey, he's got a-"

Alex was already out of the car, throwing daggers ready. "Point that damn thing away from my car!"

"Sorry." The gun was lowered.

Ashley hesitantly got out, walking over to stand by Alexander. While she didn't know him all that well, he had saved her a few times, she trusted him more than these two.

"I'm Matt and this pencil-neck fucker is Jeff."

Jeff looked offended, raking a hand through his hair, shaking loose dirt. "I resent that Mattie!"

Ashley and Alex exchanged looks.

**********

"Hey!" Matt slapped Jeff's hand away from his plate. "Get your own damn onion rings!"

"But I ate them already!" Jeff pouted, looking absolutely adorable, before sighing dramatically and leaning back in his chair. He started tapping his feet, looking around the diner, obviously bored.

Matt smiled apologetically at Alex and Ashley. "Sorry bout Jeffy, he's a bit on the hyper side." He took a slow sip of his water, sizing them both up. "So what brings you out this way?"

"Just a little trip." Alex replied, ignoring the scathing look Ashley shot him.

"You two together?" Jeff asked, busy snitching his brother's onion rings again.

"No!" Ashley said instantly, blushing. "We're just uh-"

"Friends." Alex supplied, shooting her an amused grin.

"Yeah, what he said."

**********

"Alex, Alex, would you fucking stop?" Ashley panted, hauling ass to catch up with him as he quickly made his way through the woods surrounding Matt and Jeff's one story house.

Alex groaned, raking a hand through his messy black hair and turned to stare a her, waiting impatiently for her to catch up. "What? You should be asleep Ashley."

"You expect me to sleep in a house with two strange men?" She demanded incredulously.

He shrugged. "You took well enough to me."

"After you saved me from Kane!"

"Whoa, saved you?" Alex arched an eyebrow, barely visible in the moonlight that filtered through the trees. "He interrupted my drinking session with his violence so I killed him, nothing more, nothing less."

Ashley smiled slightly. "You can pretend to be a hard, uncaring, cynical bastard all you want Alexander Blackheart, but I know the truth."

He stared down at her, about to say something, another sarcastic comment no doubt, but was interrupted by a hair-splitting howl throughout the woods, echoing around them.

"What was THAT?"

"The reason I wanted you to keep your ass inside." He muttered, reaching into the back of his pants and pulling out a Beretta 9MM, checking the clip and sighing. "Do you know how to use one of these?"

Ashley stared at the gun with obvious distaste and nodded.

"Good. Shoot to kill, and not me if you please."

"WHAT am I shooting at?"

"A Lycanthrope."

"A Lycan-what the hell?"

"A werewolf Ashley my dear, you know, once every full-" Alex pointed at the round moon over their heads, straight through the leaves. "fucking moon."

"Are you out of your mind? There's no such thing as…" Ashley trailed off, not believing she was about to say that. She of all people should know that the things that went bump in the night were all too real.

"That's what I thought too." Alex shook his head, not saying another word as he led the way.

Ashley however, couldn't be silent. "How'd you know there was a werewolf out here?"

Alexander rolled his eyes, sighing heavily and knew she wouldn't shut up unless he gave her an answer. "For starters, there's old tracks surrounding Matt and Jeff's house, wolf tracks but too big to be from a regular wolf. Secondly, I was listening to the people in the diner today. They were talking about their 'full moon' problem."

"Could've been talking about something else." She muttered.

"Oh yes, I'm sure the men were talking about how THEIR menstrual cycles are ruled by the moon much like most women." Alex said sarcastically.

"You're such a dick!"

"Ssh!"

"Don't ssh me Blackheart, you son of a-" Ashley started only to wind up with his hand clamped over her mouth, her gray-blue eyes widening in a mixture of disbelief and rage.

Alex wasn't looking at her though, his eyes were fastened on something behind her.

With a feeling of dread building inside her, Ashley slowly turned around.

Standing there, roughly around six feet tall, was a werewolf. It was covered in coarse, black fur, acidic drool coming from it's wide open mouth, revealing dangerous looking yellowed fangs.

"FUCK ME RUNNING!" Ashley shrieked, aiming the Beretta at it.

"DON'T HURT HIM!"

They looked up startled to find Jeff running towards them, panic on his face, quite clear in the moonlight.

"THAT'S MY BROTHER! DON'T SHOOT HIM!"

"What!?!" Alex sounded shocked, a first for him in the entire time Ashley had known him.

Jeff was concentrating on the werewolf, a ball of purplish-blue light forming in his hands. He narrowed his green eyes and hurled it at his brother.

The Lycanthrope howled in agony as the ball of light hit him, dropping to the ground, yellow eyes rolling wildly in it's massive head but it seemed unable to move.

Ashley stayed put, watching wide eyed as Jeff dropped to the forest floor.

**********

"He was bitten two years ago." Jeff explained the following morning, looking dead on his feet, dark circles under his eyes.

He, Alexander and Ashley were sitting around the small table in the kitchen. Matt was sound asleep in his bedroom.

"Does… does he know?" Ashley asked hesitantly.

Jeff nodded, sipping his strong, bitter coffee. "Mattie knows about it." He said softly. "He can't leave the woods anymore when he's in that form, there's a warding spell surrounding the forest. He gets too close to it and it repels him."

"So you're a…"

"Warlock, witch, magician, pick your title." Jeff smiled wanly. "Not a very good one mind you. My spells use up my own personal energy, so I have to watch what kind of magic I cast as it takes away from my strength."

"Do you get it back?"

He nodded. "Yeah, in time and with rest."

Alexander had been quiet up until now, busy with his own breakfast: a can of Mountain Dew and a cigarette. "So your brother is a werewolf and you're a warlock. He was bit two years ago you said? By who?"

"Dunno, some passing werewolf. Mattie and I were outside, having a bonfire, when the thing leaped at him outta nowhere. I thought he was going to die but he didn't. Instead, the next full moon, he turned into a furry, drooling lunatic. So I started casting spells, trying to reverse it but nothing worked. Nothing up until that ward around the forest."

"How'd you become a warlock?" Alex asked curiously.

"Natural, didn't find out until I hit puberty though, what a trip. First my voice cracking then magic sprouting out my ass, lemme tell you, my school counselor didn't have nothing in the books for that."

"You mean people know what you are?"

Jeff looked amused, arching an eyebrow. "Nada. He thought it was just me being screwy since my body 'was changing'."

"Anyone else in your family a witch?"

"As far as I know, I'm the first in like, four generations. Matt and I are the only remaining members of our family, we sorta died out."

Ashley frowned, chewing on her thumbnail. "Is there any way to reverse what Matt is?" She asked, looking instinctively at Alex.

Jeff looked at him too, a gleam of hope in his eyes.

Alex sighed heavily, knowing he was about to be distracted from his own mission yet again and nodded reluctantly. "There is a way…"

"Well?"

"Pack up Jeff, you and Matt are coming with us."

TBC with All That Remains.