Hey there,
I want to thank you all so much for your alerts and the reviews I have received. I apologize for taking so long to update, I've had a few busy months. Where I live, there has been a lot of bush-fires happening in the N.S.W area of Australia, so my family and I have been pretty nervous about it approaching our area of the state. Hope everyone is safe and happy. And, I do hope you like this chapter and that you're still interested in this story. Thanks a lot!
I promise to update quicker. Sorry about leaving this so long and making you all wait. Hope you're still interested!
Chapter Six
I'm in trouble. Big trouble.
Naturally the wolf is a faster runner than I am.
It growls as it comes after me, and it's definitely a hostile sound. All the hairs stood up on my arms and, before I knew what was happening, the wolf had lunged at me from behind. Since I couldn't see him, I sure felt him. He grabbed me by the ankle, and he held on. Wiggling to get free was not an option. I could feel the skin being pulled off my bones with his sharp canine teeth.
After a bit, I suppose I just surrendered and let it happen. I fall to the ground heavily, and shield my face, while he latches on, growling and making terrible noises at me. I could feel my heart racing, I could feel blood pumping through my system from fear and the pain of his teeth cutting through my flesh.
I wonder where Eric has gotten off to. Isn't he supposed to protect me and come to my aid when I'm being hurt?
Just as that thought passes through my head, it happens. The wolf makes a terrible whining noise, and let's go of my shin, thank Jesus. But as he does, I feel the skin tearing off like meat on a bone. I scream loudly, and when I go to curl myself up into a ball to protect my legs from any further damage, I spot the wolf racing away, it's hind and front legs moving frantically.
Something was coming after the wolf, and it got it frightened. Hopefully, that something is Eric.
There are no words in the dictionary that I've learned possible enough to describe how bad it feels to be bitten by the wolf. Excruciating, seems up to par, though. My ankle stings and throbs, like if someone has squirted lemon juice in an open wound. Or like falling over and scraping your knee, then getting salt stuck in the wound. A bit like that, but maybe a little worse. I have difficulty keeping the tears in, and when I examine my ankle myself by pulling my leg up, it looks even worse than I imagined possible: There is a big circular gash and my flesh looks all torn apart. Blood is everywhere, even staining the back of my shoes. Gross. Ick. Ugh.
I'm not sure if it is deep enough for me to actually die from it, and my head swarms dizzily. I try to focus on my surroundings instead, rather than stressing on the severity of the wound and all the pain. The night has grown eerily quiet after all the excitement and action in the gas station. There is no crickets chirping, no birds or mosquitos. Nothing. All I can hear gradually, through my heart thumping in my ears, is Eric's voice as he then talks on his cell-phone. The wolf has disappeared, and I'm not sure if Eric chased him off or not, or what? I just hope it was him who had, and that the wolf-man has no intentions of returning again. I'm pretty sure he's talking to my fairy Grandfather, telling him about what happened, and Eric sounds stressed and angry.
"Eric," I call desperately, and even to me I know I sound terrified. I am terrified, though. I've never been this badly hurt before. Gosh, what if I turn into a wolf-person now? Can't you get infected if you get bitten by one? I do remember this movie where the guy gets bitten by another wolf, and he gets hairy and his fingernails grow long and he turns into one. Am I going to be one now? I sure hope not!
"Sookie?" I feel relieved to hear his voice calling back to me. He has finished his call, and he steps in front of me, sinking down near me on the pavement and slick gravel. His face looks just as anxious as his voice had sounded on the phone. "Are you alright?"
What a silly question. "No," I say quietly, working real hard not to cry. My face feels wet, though, so something tells me I've failed. "I got bitten by the wolf. Am I gonna turn into one now? Please don't tell me that I am!"
He leans his face closer to mine and takes gentle hold of my wounded ankle between his hands. He lifts it slowly and the pain grows even more intense. I make a horrible noise as he lays it quickly down on top of his left leg. Through my wet eyes, I can see him looking the bite over carefully. He still hasn't told me whether I'm gonna turn into a wolf at every full moon or not.
"Well?" I demand nervously. "Am I gonna turn into a wolf or not?"
"Or not," he says, very gently. "Only those who have the dominant gene turn into Werewolves, Sookie." That makes no sense to me at all. Dominant genes, huh? "You are going to be just fine."
"Good," I sigh, feeling loads better. I can still feel the blood trickling down my shin. "Well, what're we gonna have to do about this? Where did the wolf go? Did you fight him off, like my hero?"
He cracks up laughing hoarsely at that, and I see his fangs glistening in the dark. He's gotten excited himself. "I was about to kill him, and I followed him around the back of the gas station, because he was insistent on getting away before I did." He sounds very calm considering. "But he explained everything to me, out of fear. Apparently this was one big set-up."
I feel my eyes widen. "A set-up? By whom?"
"Just hold on a minute, Sookie," he exclaims urgently. "Let me fix this up for you first."
I hope he isn't thinking of giving me some of his blood, because only the good Lord knows how much I hate that. But, just my luck, he doesn't. He does something far more surprising; He starts unbuttoning his shirt, and for a second there, I don't understand, until it hits me. Oh, of course. He's making a tourniquet? Bandaging up my wound with his shirt? He pulls the shirt off his shoulders and crouches over my leg to tuck it underneath my ankle. Eric shirtless offers me a pretty good distraction from the pain and what he is doing, at least momentarily. I hear my breath hitch in my throat. I've never seen a man without a shirt on before. Well, sure... I've seen Jason go shirtless in the summer and on especially hot days, but he isn't half the man Eric is. Jason is only sixteen, he just turned sixteen last month, and he's so scrawny and tanned. But Eric... whoa, he's like one-hundred percent real man. He isn't like a scrawny teenage boy one bit.
He doesn't even have breasts. I know men usually don't have breasts, of course. But it's just... different. He's brawny and broad-shouldered, flat chested, completely flat-chested. He's very pale, too, which I guess is because he's a vampire. What is there instead of breasts is... two flat nipples, a bit of hair like I'm assuming real men get on their chests, and lots of muscles. It's kind of... nice in a bewildering way. Very nice, indeed.
"You don't have boobs," I blab, without thinking. My face flushes. Sometimes my mouth just refuses to be quiet sometimes. Gosh, embarrassing!
His hands pause dramatically from whatever it is they're doing. I think he's going to tie the shirt over my wound, real tight. He is already halfway through rolling it up. He turns his head to look at me. It's a very peculiar look. Both his eyebrows are raised. "Of course not," he says, sounding a little embarrassed himself. "I'm a man, Sookie."
"You sure are," I mutter breathlessly. I definitely sound on the appreciative side over the sight. There goes my mouth again! Stupid!
This is one heck of an awkward conversation. I think he looks just as uncomfortable as I feel.
"Sorry," I say quickly, hoping to repair everything between us. Usually, we never feel this weird in front of each other. "I think it's just the fear doing my head in."
"Or the adrenaline," he says, putting his two cents in. "It's normal, healthy. Adrenaline is what makes you feel alive."
Yeah, it's definitely adrenaline then that's making me so silly. That, and something else... I feel a very weird feeling. Just like I don't feel grossed out about seeing a man shirtless. It looks... nice because it's Eric. Is that weird? I must be going weird. It's probably the bite doing it to me.
"I'm going to tie this up over your wound now," he explains calmly. "It'll be fairly tight, so it might hurt a bit. But it'll help staunch the blood."
"Sure," I gasp, bracing myself. "And thanks."
"No problem, Sookie."
It isn't exactly a painless process. It does hurt, exactly like he said it would. It digs into my skin, the material of his shirt, as he ties it around my leg real tight. But after a bit, it starts feeling so numb that I no longer feel anything.
"So, what's all this about a set-up?"
Eric sighs heavily through his nostrils. "Niall set this up. He employed a wolf and plotted this whole scene. He wanted to see how you would react, and whether me helping you actually has helped any. He didn't mean it to go this far, though. You getting bitten was not the plan. He told me to send you his most sincerest apologies on that."
"Well, he should feel bad," I tell him, not at all happy. "What kind of Grandfather stages a crazy wolf-man to attack their granddaughter, and gets her painfully bitten in the process?"
"A very smart one," Eric says confidently, after a beat. "He knows this is the best way to make you learn how to defend yourself, in placing you in these situations. Unfortunately for you, it backfired."
"You can say that again," I grumble petulantly. "How am I meant to explain this to my Grandmother, just why I have this big gash on my leg?"
"I don't know. But you're going to have to make something up. Something very convincing, Sookie. She can't know about this."
"I know." Sad thing is, I've been lying to my Grandmother all along, about all of this. About my frequent night-time visits from Eric, about my Grandfather, about everything. You'd think you would get used to deceiving the most important person in your life by now, but even I still had days where I felt terrible and ill with guilt. It never changes.
LOL hoping you enjoyed this one and that you're still interested? Sookie observing that Eric doesn't have breasts and feeling a bit strange over seeing a half-naked fellow, is that weird? :P