It was just an idea, but now it seemed like the only place he would go to. I made him feel like a monster. I provoked him, yes, I admit, to hurt me. But did he want to die? Was he going to frame himself for some kind of man-eating murder? I had no idea. He wasn't dumb. Of course he wasn't. But I couldn't help but think that he would do this. Our lives were falling apart; nothing seemed right anymore. No one could be trusted. Maybe he cracked. Maybe he thought that his life wasn't worth living.
I won't let him do this.
"Chloe, are you listening to me?"
"Huh?"
"What do you mean by ' The Pack'?" Will asked.
I sighed, not really wanting to explain everything now, "There's a Pack of werewolves in Albany. We ran into two 'members'" I made air quotes, "not too long ago, and they wanted Derek."
"'Members? ' " he mimicked my movement. "And why would they want Derek?"
"Well, we entered Pack's territory, who take over the New York state, by accident and these two werewolves who claim their members wanted Derek to frame for man-eating. We ran away but one of them came back for revenge. He joined Ed Group to catch Derek, 'cause it'd be harder to get him than the rest of us, and an adult werewolf would do the job just fine. The other helped us. They both died," I added reluctantly, remembering the awful scene.
Will still looked confused, "Man-eating, gross." he made a gag sign, "Okay, I get that, but why would Derek go there?"
I sighed again in frustration, "He would probably frame himself for the man-eating, and they'd either kill him, or have him join." I paused, "He thinks he's a monster. He got really mad once in a school fight and hurt a boy. Now he can't walk. When he hurt me, as you witnessed," I saw him smile guiltily, " it probably reminded him of that." The more I thought about the possibility of him going, the more convincing it seemed.
"It's likely, but not for sure." I added quickly.
He took it into consideration, "Well, it wouldn't hurt to make sure...." he trailed off in thought. "Where can we find this Pack?" he asked me.
"I-I don't know." Find the Pack? Where the hell are we gonna find them?! I kneaded my forehead in confusion. If Derek was going to go there, we needed to find him.
Fast.
"Well, then how would Derek find them?" he asked. I could see where he was going.
"He would sniff them out." I said. "But how am I going to do that? The Pack could be anywhere in New York!" I walked, hopped the freeway fence, and plopped down on the grass. Will followed, and sat next to me.
"You have to have an idea to where the Pack could be!" Will got up and started to pace, thinking with me. I swore under my breath and tried to think.
Derek first thought the pack was in Syracuse. Liam and Ramon were heading to Syracuse to talk to the-
I jumped up, "That's it!"
Will spun, "What?" he asked urgently.
"The Pack is in Syracuse. I remember that the two werewolves were heading to Syracuse to talk to the Pack." I smiled in relief.
We're going to find Derek. My inner voice chimed. He's gonna be okay.
"We need to get to Syracuse, fast." I said.
"That won't be a problem. I'm familiar with New York. And, well, " he snuck a smile at me, " We can get there pretty fast."
I knew what he was talking about, and I suddenly felt very dizzy. Will laughed. "Unless you'd like to walk-"
I cut him off, "No. We need to get there now."
He chuckled again and grabbed me, "You seem to care a lot about Derek, huh?"
I snorted and surprised myself by my answer, "More than I'm willing to believe."
So we were racing down the freeway, or, at least I thought it was, everything was blurred. I tried not to look at the vague images before me and pressed my head against Will's shoulder, which only made it worse. The strange concentrated smell made me dizzy, and I tried to hold on to my stomach. I didn't think that he would appreciate it if I barfed up my lunch on him.
"You doing okay back there?" he asked. I could picture the grin on his pale face and snorted.
He laughed and started to, impossibly, run faster. "Hey, wanna see something cool?" he asked.
Was this really the time for 'cool' things? I groaned.
"Um, okay, I'll take that as a yes." he chuckled darkly. "Hang on!"
Everything happened so fast, and the world seemed to disappear. My head spun and my stomach turned. I tried to open my eyes, but the air rushing past my face made it nearly impossible. But when I finally managed, it seemed hardly worth the effort. I could see nothing. Nothing. It was all blank; all I could see was Will, smiling so hard that I was afraid that his jaw would pop off. What was happening? I shut my eyes tight and dug my nails into his skin, not that it penetrated or anything. His skin was like rock.
"STOP!" I yelled, and as if I commanded the universe, everything came back into my sight. We were in an alley, dark and damp, unnecessarily reminding me of the depressing nights we'd spent on the streets.
I hurled over and threw up the wonderful lunch Doug had bought me. Will kneeled over me and patted my back. He shook his head sarcastically, "One of the many advantages of not eating," he said. "Are you okay?"
"Does it look like it?"
He flashed his white teeth, "Well, I thought that you'd think that it was cool." he rolled his eyes, "Sorry for trying to be entertaining."
"You call that cool? "
He shrugged. "I thought it was pretty cool. I call it Blinking. I can travel miles in seconds, completely unnoticed by anyone."
I sighed, trying to save this discussion for later, "Where's the nearest bathroom?"
"There's a gas station on the next block," he answered. "Should have a bathroom in there."
I stood up and swayed a bit, still dizzy from the 'Blinking' thing, or whatever. I found my feet again and started toward the sidewalk, "Okay then, lets go."
It wasn't a long walk; only about five minutes, which I was thankful for. I felt totally disgusted from my barf scene back in the alley, and my super- smelling abilities weren't really helping.
It was dark out, the moon high in the sky illuminating the dimly lit streets. The chilly weather made me shiver. Will had offered me his jacket, but I refused, telling him that his scent would make even more dizzy. Not that I meant any offense. It wasn't his fault that the way he smelt was somewhat repulsing to me. It wasn't even his fault that he was a vampire. Or at least that's what he told me. I wonder what had happened...
We arrived at the gas station, and I hurried inside. The bathroom was extremely small (and not so pleasant) but it would do. It's not like that really mattered at the moment. I turned around to face the mirror and jumped.
My still gross black hair was standing up in all directions, and had some leaves stuck in it, making me look like I came out of the movie Twister's set. I still had some scrapes and cuts on my face, but they were healing, fading into light pink lines, others still scabbing. I had dark circles under my eyes, and my skin was off color. I looked completely emo. I felt a sting of sorrow, looking at my appearance. I shook my head, realizing how shallow I sounded, and I tried to focus on other matters, other than my unattractiveness. I turned on the tap, washed out my hair and cleaned up my face. The warm water felt good on my cold, dry skin. I rinsed my mouth, took one last glum look in the mirror and left the bathroom.
Will was browsing through the snack bar. I walked to him and saw him starring at a Butterfingers candy bar.
"You must really like Butterfingers, huh?" I said, trying to break him out of his trance.
"Yeah, I guess I did." he said. I didn't say anything, so he continued. "This was my favorite snack. It probably sounds weird, but it makes me kinda upset knowing I can't eat them anymore. Makes me want my old life back." he paused, "Correction: It makes me mad that I can't have my old life back. Really mad." His last words came out as a growl, and I couldn't help but back up a really didn't seem to be making any of this up. Maybe I could trust him. Well, I have been trusting him, but with extreme caution. But the way he expressed his emotion; the way he talked about unfair it all was? It was like what happened with Tori. Her expression couldn't be faked. It was just too real. Just like Will's.
"It makes me mad too. I wanted to be a director. But now, from the point I'm standing, it doesn't look like I'm ever gonna make that dream come true."
He looked at me and smiled a bit, "You want to be a director?"
I grinned, "Yeah. And I was so looking forward to become one. Now, well, I just wanna be normal." He didn't say anything, but the unspoken words between us were clear. We all wanted the same thing. Just to be normal. Not to be caught up in this giant mess. Not to be chased and hunted down like animals. Not to be on the streets, looking for a place to spend the night and try to stay warm. Normal.
I exhaled and decided that moaning over the whole 'normal' issue wasn't going to help now. Now, we needed to find Derek, get the others, and end Edison Group.
Easy said then done.
My stomach growled. I looked around and in seeing the wide range of yummy snacks, grabbed my sack. Funny how it didn't fly off of me when we were running. And neither did my necklace. I pulled out ten bucks, just enough for a couple of chocolate bars, three juice boxes and two bags of chips. I handed the money and food to the cashier and looked at my necklace while he checked my items out. It was turning into a deep shade of lavender. I wondered why it kept changing color. Was it's power wearing out? I could only guess.
I put my necklace back inside my shirt, grabbed my 'very healthy snacks' and put all of them into my sack, leaving one Snickers bar to satisfy my rumbling tummy. I walked out of the station with my vampire friend in silence.
"Where are we?" I asked Will, looking at the map in confusion. We were walking along the road, freezing to death. Will didn't seemed bothered by the weather, but I on the other hand felt like my fingers would fall off. The bitter wind blew against my face, flurries tickling my nose.
"East Syracuse." he said. I stopped and looked at him for a second. "What?" he asked.
"How do you know?" I said, the doubt apparent in my tone.
He ran his fingers through his hair and shrugged, "Vamps are just good with directions."
I didn't turn away.
"What?" he asked again, sounding annoyed. He synchronized my expression for a moment, and his face became saddened. "You think that I'm leading you into a trap?"
I blinked, "No, it's just that..."
"Yeah, I get it. No worries." he started to walk, and I caught his arm.
"I trust you, Will. Okay? But please don't make me trusting you the biggest mistake of my life."
He grinned slightly, "Thanks, Chloe."
We started walking again and I sniffed the air, trying to pick up a trace of werewolf. I remember Derek smelling like the forest, a woody and refreshing smell, but with a touch of something I couldn't put my finger on. Something familiar that I recognized deep inside of me, like it had been there my whole life.
The scent of a werewolf.
"What are you doing?" Will asked. I heard a smile in his voice.
"Sniffing around."
He chortled, "You look like a dog when you do that,"
I frowned at him.
He looked at me and spoke quickly, "Oh! Sorry. No pun intended."
"None taken."
We kept walking. Lights in houses started to go off, and my eyes started to droop when I finally smelled it. Deep, powerful, au fait.
Will's eyes widened, and I guessed that he caught it too.
"There!" we both said automatically, pointing toward the eerie-looking forest.
We walked swiftly, careful to not cause so much attention, until we finally arrived at the opening of a candle-lit cave.
