I finally opened my eyes but everything was distorted. It looked like...like I was upside down.

I was, I realised. I focused and saw next to me, someone's backside.

"Uh, whose butt am I staring at?" I asked.

"Mine, honey. It's a pretty nice butt, right?"

I rolled my eyes. Why was I even surprised? Christian.

He had me slung over his shoulder as he, Mason and Justin walked. I looked up at Mason who looked down at me. He seemed okay, considering the last time I'd been awake, his brother had declared his love for me. Or like for me. Whatever.

"I can walk now you know," I called up to Christian.

"I don't mind carrying you baby, it's no trouble."

"Put her down."

Mason's threatening words were enough to lay me down on my feet. It was weird, being back on stable ground but Mason took my hand and pulled me to his side.

"It's okay brother, I'm not going to steal your girl. Yet."

We both scowled at him. I leaned in close to Mason, hoping he was the only one who would hear my hushed whisper. "Why did I faint again? I never faint. I'm not that weak."

"It's not about being weak, you're just stressed," he replied. "There's been a lot going on lately."

"Will you two be quiet?" Justin hissed from the front of our group. Silence fell as we came to a stop.

"Where are we?" I asked, to no one in particular.

"Cave," replied Christian, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"Werewolves like cold, dark spaces. These are the safest for us," Mason explained.

I stared below from the ledge where we stood and saw hundreds of werewolves huddled together. "Uh, do we know what we're doing?" I asked nervously.

"Not really," said Justin, biting his fingernails. "The wizards will be here in 3, 2, 1."

The whole cave shuddered as a swarm of wizards burst in from practically nowhere and starting shooting spells left and right.

"Okay, jump!" Christian ordered.

"I am so not-"

Justin didn't have time to finish his sentence; Christian had just pushed him off the ledge and he was falling rapidly to the ground.

Christian turned to wink at us before he jumped as well. Before I knew what was happening, Mason had scooped me into his arms and leapt off the ledge as well. Everything seemed like a blur as we fell; the wind was whistling in my ears. I was actually enjoying myself before it ended all too soon. Mason set me down and I helped up Justin who was face-first in the dirt. He'd hadn't fallen though; Christian had powered down, landed first and caught him, before tossing him to the ground.

"What do we do?" Mason asked, staring at the wrestling werewolves and wizards.

Christian morphed into his werewolf state and grinned. "Attack."

He bounded off and threw himself into the pack. For a minute, I thought he'd double-crossed us until I realised he was attacking both kinds. He swiped a wizard away before clawing at a wolf. He continued to do this, darting in and out, separating as many as he could.

I watched him for a minute before turning to Mason who had already become disfigured. "I thought you could only change at full moon."

"Only the beginners," he said with a crooked grin. He kissed my cheek before leaping off to join his brother.

"Get out your wand Alex," Justin ordered. "Follow me and stay low."

We crept around the edges of the cave, staying relatively unnoticed. We watched Mason and Christian closely, keeping our wands ready to protect them.

It was a pretty good plan. They moved through the packs and pulled apart as many people as they could while we watched their backs. The werewolves begun to catch on and started to strike Christian and Mason but we were always there, set with stunning spells to get them away; I was so glad Justin had taught me this now.

The cave shook again and a bunch of teenage wizards burst in.

"This is not good," I said to Justin.

"Relax, they're on our side." I looked at him in amazement and he shrugged. "I made a few calls."

Most of them I recognized from WizTech, our fake-giant friend Hugh among them. They shot spells everywhere, wizards flying through the air and werewolves being struck back. We eventually managed to worm our way in between them. Half of us faced one way and the other half faced the wizards. Christian was having trouble throwing back all the werewolves; many of them had quickly forgotten the battle and turned on him. We sent as many spells as we could but they had wised up.

One of them got a good hit in on Christian and he stumbled while the others piled on. I was ready to run right in and try to save him when Mason leapt over our heads and started to rip them apart. He was stronger than I'd realised but he was still couldn't hold them all back. Justin and I aimed and shot powerful spells directly at the wolves with a stranglehold on Mason. They let out a whine and fell back, bleeding from everywhere.

I turned to see the wizards on the other side smashing us. They were full wizards against us teenagers; they knew far more dangerous magic than we could have ever dreamed of.

But we weren't giving up. It was chaos, spells flying everywhere, hitting everyone. A spell flew past my ear and singed my hair and my wand clattered to the ground.

It wasn't working, I decided. We couldn't win like this. Something had to be done.

"Stop!"

My voice rang throughout the air, commanding attention. The werewolves froze as did the wizards. They straightened up, both sides tending to their wounds.

I looked over to see if Mason and Christian were all right; they were panting as they held on to each other, both stained with red marks all over them but were relatively okay. I almost smiled at this scene. It was like they had forgotten they were fighting for my affections and had embraced their brotherhood. Except it probably wouldn't last long and as soon as we were out of this life-threatening situation, they'd go back to hating each other.

"There aren't any winners in a war like this," I continued, feeling braver as I went on.

I was so surprised they'd actually stopped to listen to me but I had the feeling both sides were just too exhausted to continue.

"Wizards and Werewolves both die. Tell me who could possibly win?"

"I could," came a voice over the din.

I turned to see Nate, staring at me while licking his lips. He charged at me instantly, his white teeth opened wide. I didn't have time to reach for my wand so I just braced myself, waiting to meet my certain death with a last thought:

I love you Mason.