Chapter 13: Realization

I entered the room first, its walls were padded and the room smelled of blood and chemicals. I walked and looked around; only two people stood, they wore lab coats, and one looked at me as I walked in. He flinched; the second looked at the first then at me and had the same reaction.

The first figure held up a scalpel at my direction, the other moved backwards. I held my hands up to try and show that I was harmless, it didn't help that the others walked in. The first figure moved away from the table that held Samantha, she could barely move under the straps, she had a bit in her mouth, stopping her from yelling, she struggled in her stretcher.

They moved back as I moved closer to Samantha holding my hands up. The second moved behind a lab coat hanger which removed the figures mask. The mask slid off slowly and fell to the ground. My eyes widened when I saw who it was.

Mrs. Archer, Christine's mother, stood there in shock, feeling her face as she noticed the mask was off. I had a feeling that most of my group felt the same.

I lowered my hands, I expected this to happen.

"Take off your mask." I said to the man who flinched and shook his scalpel. "No, you need to leave."

I felt a hand placed on my shoulder. It was my father, he looked sad. "Show them." He said and started changing back to his human form, I followed. I turned to look as Lily and my mother did the same; their facial features change slightly but enough to look like someone else.

The first figure actually dropped the scalpel when he recognized us, he took off his mask. Mr. Archer, Christine's father, looked at us in shock.

"I... but...Grayson said that all Darkstalkers were bad...But you guys..." He said in complete shock.

"No, we're not all bad." Said my father walking closer to Mr. Archer and placed his human hands on his shoulders.

My mother moved to join them. My parents talked and they listened.

I took the time to release Samantha with Lily's help. She reached out to hug me but stopped when she realized that she wasn't wearing anything and moved to cover herself with her hands. I turned around, took my shirt off and dropped it over Samantha's mid section; two bullets that were caught on the shirt fell to the floor loudly. I noticed Jeff moving to get a better view and I stood in the way.

"Are you ok?" I asked, not looking as Lily helped her put my shirt on.

"Yes, I'm fine." She started tapping my back.

I turned around to see her, the shirt fit me too long, she wore it down to her knees, and she stood up and kissed me. I stood in shock as she stepped back.

"Thank you." She said smiling. "Thank you for helping me...again" She looked around.

"I'm always here to help a friend..."

"I helped too!" Jeff exclaimed from behind Richard and Alexandria who looked back at him.

I looked back at Jeff and the tigers pulled him out of the room

"We need to get out of here." I said as I turned to look at Christine's sleeping body. She was put to sleep, most likely by her parents.

She lay on her side; I moved towards her and brushed her hair out her face, she shifted slightly and muttered a single word, "Jonathan."

I smiled and picked her up.

Samantha looked at me. "You...love her don't you?" She asked looking at Christine and how easily she slept in my arms.

I stood quietly, she knew the answer. We all did...

"I understand...listen...sorry if I-" She started but I cut her off.

"It's ok; I like you...as a friend but she understands me more than anyone." I said.

"I could understand you."

"No, you couldn't, please understand..."

I stared at Samantha, she blushed and nodded as both my parents and Christine's joined us.

"We need to go." My father said as he looked outside to see Richard and Alexandria. "Who are they?"

"Grayson's old guard dogs...err, cats." I started. "They helped us and now they don't have anywhere to go..."

"They could stay with us." Offered Mr. Archer quickly, Mrs. Archer nodded.

"If our daughter could accept Darkstalkers... If she could accept you...then we could too..." Continued Mrs. Archer.

"That's good to hear." My mother said hugging my father as we walked out.

We drove Samantha back home, and then drove back to my house. There, my parents had a long discussion with the Archers about our roots and what my family intended on doing, that being: living regular lives.

I excused myself and carried Christine to my room, I moved to lay her on my bed when I noticed that her bedroom window was still open so I changed to my werewolf form and made my way in. I placed her in her bed as she moaned softly; I brushed her hair away with my werewolf paw.

Christine slowly opened her eyes and looked at me, "Jonathan, where am I?" She stood up, looking around cautiously.

"At your house." I replied looking at my window, two pair of eyes stared at us, one being white and the other being light blue.

"Who's that?" Asked Christine seeing what I saw.

"Your two new pet white tigers." I said.

She stared at me. "Am I missing something?" she asked.

"Kind of..."

"Jonathan, why did you come for me?"

I didn't answer; instead I looked at a picture she had of us in the eighth grade.

Lily took the picture, I remembered that day...It was a sunny Friday morning, she didn't know about me yet. I smiled as I stood behind Christine with my arms around her neck; my hair was long and shaggy. Christine had braces and wore some glasses too big for her face. We were happy then; simple...I also remember the sleepover with the full moon the following night...

"You could have left me there." She continued.

"No, I couldn't!"

"Jonathan..." She started but paused.

I turned around to look at her and she quickly pressed her lips against the lips if my muzzle. I turned to human form and kissed her back. I've been waiting to do that for years. She passed her hands through my long, black human hair. I moved my hands around her waist and pulled her close. I enjoyed the moment.

She finally moved away and looked at me, "you kiss better as a wolf." She chuckled.

"Shut up!" I replied, smiling.

"Jonathan..." She turned serious, "Can I...can I call myself your girlfriend?" She looked away when she said that.

I sat next to her.

"Do you really need to ask?" I replied placing my arm around her. We kissed one more time.

I heard yelling and whooping from my window, I turned to see two more pair of eyes; both were different shades of green. They belonged to my mother and sister.

"Took you long enough!" Lily yelled from the group.

Christine chuckled and stood up, lost her balance and landed on me. I looked at her.

"You always were a klutz." I said.

She pushed me and stood up.

We walked back to my house. Mr. and Mrs. Archer looked at us holding hands as we walked in; they smiled approvingly. It would take some work before they started seeing us as humans... but this was a start. My mother was downstairs again; she sat next to my father looking at us in awe.

We walked up to my room where Lily, Richard, Jeff, Alexandria, and my cat, Aracia, sat on my bed. Lily immediately moved to hug Christine and congratulate her. Nobody invited her into the family, we did that years ago.

She noticed the white tigers that looked back politely, still wearing nothing more than their furry black attire.

"This…" I started "… is Richard and Alexandria Oblivion... I'll get you some collars, leashes, and a very large litter box tomorrow." I added.

They simply smiled and introduced themselves.

"Your parents agreed to take us in." Alexandria stated.

"Hope that's okay?" Richard asked.

"Yeah, that'll be cool!" Said Christine.

"Keep your hands off her though, she's mine." I said placing my arm around her again. She laughed; she had been waiting a long time to hear that.

The night ended and the Archers went home with their new Darkstalker companions. Jeff had called his parents earlier and told them that he was going to spend the night so he slept over. He tried convincing Lily to let him sleep in her room, she agreed with the condition that he'd help her sharpen her claws with his body; he then decided to sleep in my room.

"It'll only hurt for a bit." I said.

I lay in my bed as Jeff slept on the couch in my room.

"That's ok..." He replied.

"One day, maybe..."

"You think so?"

"Yeah...she likes you but she doesn't want to."

"Why's that?"

"She doesn't want to believe that nice guys still exist."

"Hmm... Good going on Christine, by the way."

"Thanks, you've grown on Lily. She likes your company."

"I grow when I see her. You wouldn't mind if I asked her out... I mean seriously ask her out."

"I'd think she'd like that… That's good enough for me." I said. I opened my phone and searched my contacts for Lily's cell number and tossed my phone to Jeff.

"Sweet." He replied as he copied her number on his phone.

"Thank you." I heard Lily whisper from the other side of the wall. Our rooms are right next to each other, we normally talk when one of us can't sleep, this way, had for years. She had asked me to tell Jeff how she felt a while back. I finally did it because I'm now convinced that he's right for her.

I smiled as I drifted asleep, I felt like I did some real good today. The clock hit 2am and I turned over and went to sleep.