In my defense, November is a busy month, what with NaNo and all. [Sidenote: I am never writing in first person again.] My point is, sorry for the delay, and here's the next chapter. Enjoy!
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"That sounds ominous," Jade says with what she hopes is a mocking smirk, but she knows her efforts at nonchalance fall short. Tori's expression is unreadable, giving Jade no indication of what the other girl needs to talk to her about, but it can't be good. Jade wonders yet again what made her offer to drive Tori home, and, even worse, come into her house. Part of her had been hoping to gain some more insight, some clue as to why Tori smells like Beck, like blood and metal and hunters, but it had been more than that.
Tori doesn't respond to Jade's attempt at being light-hearted, which puts Jade on edge. It must be something serious for Tori not to react to that.
"Go on, then," Jade prompts, reaching for another chip but keeping her eyes on her friend. Tori still seems unsure, like she's wrestling with the idea of telling Jade something. A sudden flicker of fear freezes Jade to the spot. Is Tori stalling? As soon as the thought hits her, a scenario blooms in her mind: Tori, the hunter, has told the Alliance about Jade being a werewolf. And now here Jade is, alone with Tori, who's distracting her until hunters come. Tori's in on it. In her shock Jade drops the bowl of potato chips, which at least has the effect of jerking Tori out of her thoughts.
"Careful," Tori says, seeming almost amused as she helps Jade clean up the mess. As they kneel side by side on the ground, scraping up the remains of their snacks and dumping it into the bowl, Jade notices Tori looking at her out of the corner of her eye.
"Sorry," Jade says gruffly, rising to her feet and taking the bowl back into the kitchen, where she empties it into the trash. Tori watches the whole thing, silent, appraising, and Jade can feel her gaze on her back. Finally Jade turns around, and she feels her heart sink.
"So," she says as they resettle themselves on the sofa, "you were saying?"
Tori bites her lower lip, something she only does when she's incredibly conflicted. (Not that Jade has been paying close enough attention to know that, of course.) Then she says, "Okay, what I'm about to tell you is probably going to sound crazy, but hear me out, okay?"
The urge to respond with some kind of witty retort is almost overwhelming, but then Jade notices the look in Tori's eyes. If she's not much mistaken, it looks like fear. Biting her tongue, Jade just nods, encouraging her friend to keep talking.
"Okay." Tori places her hands in her lap, clasping them, fidgeting with them, clearly agitated by whatever this conversation is going to bring. "Werewolves are real," she says suddenly, and it's so far away from what Jade had been expecting that she doesn't know how to react.
Then Tori lifts her gaze to look at Jade, and she realizes that she needs to do something. She can't let Tori know that she knows. But how would normal people react to this? Is she supposed to be shocked? Or should she be disbelieving first? Should she make a joke about it or just laugh or pretend to believe the story?
When she doesn't respond, Tori sighs. "I know, it sounds insane," she says. "But the thing is, it's true. I'm a - well, that doesn't matter. The thing is, there's this," she pauses, uncertain, and then finishes delicately, "this person who thinks you're a werewolf. And I'm scared he's going to do something. Something… bad."
Jade lets this sink in. Tori must be talking about Beck. But how the hell does he know she's a werewolf? Then something clicks. There's this person who thinks you're a werewolf, she'd said, not, I know you're a werewolf. Grim amusement quickly follows shock as Jade realizes that Tori doesn't believe Beck. And that might be her only chance. If she can get Tori on her side, she might be able to keep Beck off her back. She doesn't want any altercations with hunters, and it's a lot safer to pretend to be human than to try to work out some kind of deal with the Alliance (although she's heard of that working in the past).
"A werewolf," Jade repeats flatly, trying to inject as much scepticism into her voice as she can. "Like, baying at the moon, slaughtering villagers, that kind of thing?"
"Sort of," Tori says cautiously. "I mean, I'm still kind of new to this so I'm not sure how it all works, but werewolves are… dangerous."
Jade suppresses a snort, thinking about how much more dangerous the Alliance is. "And this person," she says carefully, "thinks I'm a werewolf because…?"
"He was – he was told," Tori says haltingly, and suddenly Jade's heart slams to a stop. This is bigger than she thought. Her mind flashes back to the letter she'd found in Beck's locker, the one from the Alliance. Giving him orders to take any action necessary. She'd thought that he'd been the one to alert the Alliance to her nature, but if he'd been told… it meant that the Alliance had known about her for longer than she'd realized.
"Right," Jade says, drawing the word out and filling it with condescension. "So let me get this straight. This person was told by someone that I'm a werewolf. For some reason they thought it fit to tell you. They want to do something to me – because they think I'm a freaking werewolf – but instead you chose to tell me about it. Is that about the size of things?"
"Yes," Tori says after considering it for a moment.
Jade raises an eyebrow. "Which begs the question: why? Why would you tell me about all this?'
"Because I don't think you're a werewolf," Tori says quickly, "and I think you're in danger."
Jade feels something shift inside her, and she realizes that she actually feels guilty. She's never had to directly lie to one of her friends about her condition before – but then again, she's also never been accused of being a werewolf by someone she calls a friend – and it doesn't sit well with her. But she can't tell her. She starts to say something suitably dismissive, but then the twinge inside her turns into something sharper. With a sinking heart she realizes what it is.
"Are you okay?" Tori asks, genuine concern in her voice. (Which doesn't help with Jade's guilt at all, thank you very much.)
It's too soon, Jade thinks as her body tenses. The last Change finished almost a week ago, but that's not enough time. They may come at random, but she's supposed to have weeks in between them, at least. But there's no mistaking it. She's Changing. "I just," she says, fumbling for an excuse. She needs to get out of here, now. But then her insides twist and turn, and she realizes that she doesn't have time to get to Cat's. She's going to have to wait it out here.
Thinking quickly, she reaches into her pocket, making sure that Tori can't see what she's doing, and presses a few buttons on her phone. A ringing starts up, and Jade pulls her phone out of her pocket and looks at the screen. "It's Cat," she says, although it's not; it's just her ringtone playing to make it look like she has a call. "Can I take this somewhere private?"
It takes all her self-control to get the words out, and as soon as Tori says you can go up to my room Jade's gone, stumbling up the stairs with the phone clutched in her hand. As soon as she gets to Tori's room – which she's only been in once before, and she didn't exactly have permission then – she really does call Cat, who answers on the first ring.
"Hi," Cat says, cheerful as ever. "How are -"
"No time," Jade says, surveying the room and realizing with a hint of irritation that the door doesn't actually have a lock. "It's happening."
There's a gasp on the other end of the line. "Now? But isn't it too soon?"
"Yes," Jade says, sinking to the ground as shudders shoot down her legs and her stomach clenches. "Listen, I'm at Tori's -"
"Tori's?" Cat interrupts in surprise. "Why are you at Tori's?"
"I gave her a ride," Jade says, and then goes on hurriedly, "But that doesn't matter. I don't want her to find out what I am, but I can't leave now." Her words are interspersed by grunts of pain as the Change starts to speed up, limbs twisting and bones turning. She groans as her fingers start to stretch into claws, and grits out, "Can you come here and keep her distracted?"
"Of course," Cat says, and there's the sound of a door closing like she's already on her way. She pauses, her silence laden with meaning, and then says, "Hang in there, Jade."
Before Jade can react, the phone falls from her hand. She looks at it for a moment, but then her vision blurs as wolf senses merge with human, thrusting her into the awkward transition phase. And then, suddenly, the Change stops. Jade stays where she is on the floor for a second, and then slowly gets to her feet. She's still in the transition phase, but the pain has faded and she can't feel anything changing inside her. She looks at her clawed hands – thankfully still furless – and her paw-like feet and frowns in confusion.
This has never happened before. When the Change starts, it doesn't stop. But this isn't an ordinary Change. It feels almost… forced. Something clicks in Jade's mind, which is still more human than wolf. Any action necessary. There's a compound, she knows, a kind of potion, that can be administered to a wolf in order to force them to Change. She's never come into contact with it before, but she's heard of it. And it might explain what's happening now. The Change is a kind of spontaneous process, and if it was somehow chemically induced her body might fight it.
And almost as soon as she thinks that, her body stops fighting. She drops to the floor again, closing her eyes and waiting for the Change to take her over. And that's when she hears a knock at the door. Oh god. Tori. Jade tries to say I'm busy or Still on the phone but the only thing that comes out is a weak whimper.
Knock knock. "Jade? Are you okay?"
Jade stares at the door in horror, wishing that Cat would hurry up and get here, or that she had the power to stall or reverse the Change, or that Tori would just leave her alone.
Jade's over halfway transformed by now, her senses still mostly human but her body almost entirely wolf. She can't let Tori see her like this, not when she'd been so adamant that there was no way Jade could be a wolf. If Beck already knows about her, and Tori finds out tonight, then there's no way Jade will be able to keep the Alliance at bay. They tend to shoot first and ask questions later (often in high-tech labs designed to run painful experiments on werewolves such as her), and Jade does not want to deal with that.
And, she realizes as fur erupts along her limbs and back, she also doesn't want to disappoint Tori. It's a strange thought, but it's still true. She'd lied to Tori, told her she wasn't what Beck said she was, and Tori had believed her. If Tori finds out the truth now she'll never trust Jade again, and that bothers her more than it should.
"Jade?" Knock knock. "I'm coming in, okay?"
And there's nothing Jade can do as the door swings open and Tori steps through, her gentle smile fading at the sight in front of her. And at the sight of her, Jade feels a surge of bloodlust, the kind she normally only gets on the second or third days of the Change, when she's at her most violent. Tori's eyes widen and her mouth parts in shock, and Jade crouches down, interpreting as a wolf now, her mind weighing the words threat and friend as she tries to process the situation.
Then a single word cuts through the mess. Tori.
For a split second Jade's human self takes over, and she growls, "Run." Then in an instant she's entirely wolf, incapable of speech or rational thought, and all she can think is that she wants to hurt the person in front of her. No. She wants to kill her.
Tori stays for a second longer, and then she spins around and sprints from the room, slamming the door behind her. Jade hurls herself at the door, desperately trying to escape. And then, when the door doesn't give, she collapses to the floor.
And she howls.
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Don't forget to review, and I'll see you all soon for the final chapter in arc one.