Chapter 2

Yumi's attention was arrested immediately by the human howl of astonishment, outrage and fear, especially since she recognized it as William's. Curious, she sought him out and quickly spotted him by the snack machines with the rest of the Lyoko Warriors – minus Odd.

"You bit him?" William demanded of Ulrich, only a little quieter than his earlier shout.

"Shut up," Ulrich replied. He was sitting on the ground just outside the doorway.

"Hi, guys," Yumi put in, "Who bit who?"

"Hi, Yumi," Aelita nodded. "Ulrich had a nightmare last night and bit Odd."

Yumi's eyebrows lifted. "Goodness, the supernatural population's hard on Odd. First me, then Ulrich – what is he, a fang magnet?"

William seemed to have gotten himself back under control. "Ultimately, how's this going to affect Odd? Is he a werewolf now, too?"

"I hope not," Ulrich muttered.

Jeremy looked up from his laptop. "Probably not; according to this, just the bite of a therianthrope is almost never enough. Ulrich would have had to be born a werewolf, preferably from a long line of werewolves, and Odd would have to be something other than blond, preferably with some kind of therianthropy in his family. As it is, Odd would have to spend at least two weeks in rituals before he'd be turned."

William gave Jeremy a weird look. "What kind of website is that?"

"I gave him the link after the runaround with Elder Mandy," Yumi told him. "It's got stuff on both vampires and werewolves. It's pretty accurate, too – I think vampires and werewolves contribute to it."

Aelita cocked her head. "So, what's with the blond?"

Yumi lifted her arms in an elegant shrug. "All I know is that one never sees a blond werewolf."

Ulrich shrugged in response. "I know that werewolves try to avoid turning blonds. I just don't know why."

Jeremy suddenly grinned, obviously amused by what he found. "Evidently, blond werewolves come with behavior problems."

That got a reaction. They all stared at Jeremy with similar expressions until Ulrich asked, "What behavior would a werewolf consider a problem?"

"They call it 'Golden Retriever Syndrome.' I gather that means…"

Yumi suddenly burst out laughing at the thought of Odd turning into a werewolf – and then rolling over and begging to be petted, or jumping up on somebody to cover their faces with licks.

Ulrich slowly grinned, probably thinking the same thing. "So…I guess that means Odd won't change at all even if he does become a werewolf."

That made Yumi laugh harder, and Aelita choked as she tried not to laugh herself.

"Hey, what's so funny?" Odd demanded as he swung in.

Yumi snapped her fangs shut on the rest of her laughter.

"Oh, nothing," Aelita gasped. "So, how did it go with Yolanda?"

The purple-clad boy showed them his bandaged hand. "Magnificently; she told me that I was in very good time for getting it treated, and that I just might have prevented myself from becoming a werewolf at all." He glanced at Ulrich. "She, uh, also said that I couldn't room with you for the next two weeks, Ulrich…to avoid residual…something or other."

Ulrich nodded. "I thought she might say that. My magic might not be strong, but I do have magic, and it sticks around for quite a while wherever I hang out for a long time. And since I sleep in our dorm room, it's all over the place in there." Ulrich hesitated for a moment, and then added, "Besides, you really should avoid other werewolves as often as you can for a couple weeks. When my dad turned me, he had me sleeping on a wolf pelt – apparently, it encourages the shift. Being around a living wolf is probably about the same thing."

Jeremy clicked a few keys and said, "You're right; there's a record here of a girl who was bitten by a hostile werewolf, and then rescued by a pack of friendly ones. They didn't do anything to make sure she turned, they were only helping her to heal, but she turned anyway because she was around all those wolves."

"Will you be sleeping in the infirmary?" Aelita asked.

"For the first week; after that, I can go back to a dorm…one without a werewolf resident. Jeremy, William…do I get any invites?"

William opened his mouth and hesitated. Yumi felt a mild sympathy for him.

Jeremy nodded. "By all means, you can stay in my room until that's over. Just leave Kiwi with Ulrich, all right? The last time he was in my room, he made a mess."

Odd looked anxious. "Uh, I wasn't…" Obviously he hadn't planned on leaving his dog anywhere.

"I won't kill the stupid dog," Ulrich growled.

"He's not stupid!" Odd protested.

"He knows I'm a werewolf, and that I could kill him, and he jumps up and leaves his messes on my half of our mutually divided territory. He's stupid."

Yumi smirked. Who could really argue with that logic?

"If you're really that worried about it, Odd, I could take care of Kiwi," William suddenly said. "I kind of like the little fella."

Odd beamed at William. "Would you? That would be awesome, thanks!"