As he got up, he momentarily wondered when the full moon was in relation to their exams. Then he remembered that Lee was due back from camp that evening. He laughed to himself.
Such a wally, he thought.
They were on study vacation, finally, and Pet and he were going to visit Lee when the Fletchers got home.
He spent the day studying and doing a few chores for his mother.
Just as he was about to pick up his jacket, his phone rang.
“Pet? I was just about to come over.”
“Oh, Charlie…” She sounded like she was crying.
“What is it? What happened?” He thought hurriedly to all the things that might have gone wrong. “Is Morganna okay? Do you need to go through Mr Coleman’s notes again? Has something happened to Archibald?”
“No, no…it’s Lee, Charlie.” She sniffed loudly. He barely heard her next words as he thundered down the stairs. “He was in a fight at camp. He’s in bad shape. He’ll live, but he’s in bad shape.”
His mother and father gave him an odd look as he careened toward the front door, but they did not try to stop him.
“I’ll be there in a second.” He shut off his phone and jumped the fence between his house and Pet’s.
She already had the door open and flung herself into his arms as ran towards her.
“Who called you?”
“Ben.” She sniffled. “Some wolf called him and gave him a heads up. He was waiting for them when they got home. Rolf gave him a quick rundown as they took him inside. Ben said he was covered in blood and his face was white.”
Charles hugged her tightly. He felt a scratching at his leg. He looked down, saw Archibald, and indicated with his head for the ferret to climb up. He was not sure if Archibald would understand, but it seemed he did.
“Do they want us to go over?”
Pet shook her head against his chest. “Ben said they asked us to go around tomorrow. Lee’s…still not quite himself.”
Charles nodded, understanding.
How long does it take a wolf to heal from wounds like that? he wondered.
He could not, for the life of him, remember if a wolf healed as fast as a vampire, faster, or slower. Surely they did not have to be in their wolf form to heal themselves?
Charles grunted in frustration and led Pet inside. Archibald had curled himself around Charles’ neck but, as Pet sat down, he hopped down and curled up on her lap.
“I just can’t handle anyone else getting hurt, Charlie. First you, then Morg, now Lee.”
“Technically, you were first.”
She smiled slightly for the briefest moment. “It’s not a joking matter.”
“You’re right, I’m sorry. Look, Mum and Dad know we’re studying tonight and expect us to be late…do you want me to stay?”
She smiled at him more fully. “That would be nice, thanks.”
Pet followed him as he made them a hot drink and something to eat. Then, she curled up against him on the couch while they watched some television. Archibald moved around between them; at times he would lie in Pet’s lap, others he would curl up next to Charles.
Charles woke the next morning with a stiff neck, his head resting on the top of Pet’s, which was resting on his shoulder. Archibald lay in a very undignified manner, sprawled upside down across Charles’ lap.
He was just wondering how best to go to the bathroom without disturbing either of them, when Pet sat up abruptly causing Archibald to jump onto the floor, hissing.
“You all right?” Charles asked her, putting a hand on her back.
“Yes…yeah, sorry. Forgot where I was for a moment.” She wiped her eyes and stretched. “Is it time to go to Lee’s yet?
“Pretty much, let me just go to the bathroom first.”
“Boys aren’t the only one who have to go to the toilet you know.”
Charles laughed.
They met back downstairs and headed off to Lee’s.
What they saw when they got there was not quite what either of them could have imagined.
Lee sat up in his bed, obvious pain written across his face, even as he tried to smile at them. His arm was in a cast and Charles saw the top of a bandage around his middle. The bandage on his head was stained with blood and his face was covered in bruises and small cuts.
“Oh, Lee…how are you feeling?” Pet went and sat on the edge of his bed.
“I’ve been better. The broken heart is the worst.” He looked down.
“You’ll pull through.” Charles hoped he sounded as sombre but hopeful as he was aiming for, but he doubted it. Through all his many years, could not remember such a sorry sight of a person still living.
A testament to the strength of werewolves, he thought to himself.
“I know, it’ll just take a while. At least the anger’s gone. All that’s left is a sense of failure and hopelessness.”
Charles thought it was very noble of Lee to admit such a thing to them. It made him appreciate his human life even more, knowing that he had such good friends…even if they were all – he was including Ben now – supernatural.
“Well, we shall visit you every day until you’re better,” Pet said, patting his hand gently.
“You don’t have to do that.” Lee smiled.
“Yes, we do…otherwise we won’t get any study done!”
Charles exchanged looks with Lee and knew the other boy was thinking the same as him; that other werewolf might not have killed Lee, but Pet may just finish him off with study and take Charles with him.
“Exams are two weeks away. We have one week of exams and then about a week until the next full moon. We haven’t got much time.”
“Time for what?” Charles and Lee both asked.
“To get Lee through his exams and ready for his next full moon. I will see him control his wolf if it kills me!”
Ellie and Charles laughed, but Lee looked sombre. The truth hit Charles that Lee’s wolf probably could – and given the chance, would – kill her.
****
Ellie was fairly sure that she wouldn’t have made it through those exams without Lee and Charlie.
She and Charlie went to Lee’s house everyday up until the exams started. Even then, Lee was still healing; it took some complicated magic on Ellie’s part – hesitant though she was – to hide his injuries from the rest of the school.
Wilda approached Ellie as she was making a cup of tea one day.
“Ellie, dear, can I ask you a favour?” Ellie noticed that Wilda rung her hands and she looked nervous.
“Of course, Wilda, anything. What is it?” she replied as she stirred her tea; she didn’t have sugar in her tea, she just liked going through the motions of stirring a cup of tea.
“It’s about, Lee.”
Ellie nodded, “Okay…”
“I… We were wondering if you might be able to help him during his next full moon?”
Ellie thought for a moment but her mind kept churning out the same things it had since she heard Lee was injured.
“I don’t know yet Wilda.” She saw the older woman’s face fall. “No, I mean, I will look into it, I just haven’t had time with the school study at the moment.”
Wilda smiled and nodded. “I understand, dear. If you wouldn’t mind…”
“After exams, it will be the only thing I do.” She smiled to show Wilda she meant that as a good thing. “We’ll get Lee through this next full moon and give him some control one way or another. I promise.”
“Thank you, Ellie. You’re such a good girl.”
Ellie smiled.
“How’s your sister doing?”
“She’s getting there, slowly. Something in my magic suppressed hers and keeps getting in the way of her healing or the witches helping her heal. But, they seem to be making slow progress.”
“That’s really wonderful to hear. I always thought it was a shame that witches didn’t have the supernatural healing o
f other races.”
“It does suck sometimes.” She nodded. “Anyway, I’d best get back to it.”
****
Now that Ellie was waiting for her last exam to finish, she replayed the conversation with Wilda in her head.
Ellie had trouble focusing on her exam, waiting for the moment when she could run up the stairs to her attic and search through the books for a way to help Lee. Surely the witches had a way of doing something!
“Quiet please!” Miss Mayberry hissed at a student near the front of the room; she was supervising their exam. “You have fifteen minutes left.”
Ellie looked around at Lee to check on his wounds. No more blood had seeped through his bandages and clothes. No more than when she’d last looked at him almost two hours ago, at least. She caught Charlie’s eye and smiled. She saw him look at Lee, nod, then go back to his paper.
She was surprisingly pleased with the zeal with which Charlie had taken to their studies. She knew he was saying how much better he felt as a human, but she saw it in the dedication he showed to her and Lee, and to his studies.
She had also been surprised at the intensity of the romantic tension that had built up between them over the past two weeks.
She was sure the only reason nothing had come of it was because Lee – and sometimes Ben – was in the room. As it was, sometimes she noticed Charlie looking at her with a pained look on his face; it looked to Ellie like something between desire and disgust. Ellie was glad to have had Lee there. She wasn’t sure she was entirely ready to launch into another relationship, especially with Charlie while their platonic friendship was going so well.
It’s not really platonic if you both want more, a small voice in her head said. The voice was very reminiscent of Archibald. She scowled and finished writing her sentence.
“Time’s up,” Miss Mayberry yelled, then blew a whistle just to emphasise her point. There was a great clattering of pens and chairs as the students stretched their cramped hand and back muscles. “Quiet!” Miss Mayberry screamed. “Quiet in the hall until all the papers have been collected and you have exited!”
Ellie waited impatiently for her paper to be collected and rushed out the door to meet Lee, Ben and Charlie. Just as she found the boys, Melissa, Gwen and Kim rushed up to her, exclaiming about the exam. She chatted with them for a few moments, knowing she couldn’t really just ignore them; they had been her closest human friends for years.
She barely listened to them as she mentally counted a time she thought might be acceptable to excuse herself. Charlie waved to her, raising his arms in question, and she bounced from foot to foot. Melissa must have seen her looking at him.
“Oh, I see.” She laughed. “Off you go then. Say ‘hi’ to Charlie for us.”
The other two giggled and she was, for once, glad that everyone assumed she and Charlie were dating now. It was amazing how much more understanding girls were when there was dating and romance – and the possibility of lurve – involved.
She thanked them and ran over to the boys.
“Lord, finally,” Charlie said, rolling his eyes. His hand twitched. She had the feeling he wanted to hug her just as much as she wanted him to.
Restrain yourself, she told herself.
“How are you holding up?” she asked Lee.
“With Charlie’s help,” he grunted in reply.
“Goddess... All right... Let’s get back to my house and we’ll see if we can find anything to help you this full moon.
****
It was the day of the first full moon. Ellie had looked through her spell books for the past few days, but very little was helpful. They found notes to secure a werewolf during a full moon, how to kill one during a full moon, how to capture one during a full moon, how to force one to change back during a full moon...the list went on. There was just no mention of how to help him retain his humanity during a full moon.
Charlie, Lee and Ellie were sitting on the floor of her living room, rifling through the books for what felt like the millionth time
“We could try the one where we lock him in a room?” she said.
“That would just make him angrier,” Charlie said around the pencil in his mouth, not looking up from the book he was flicking through.
Ellie shrugged, knowing he had a point.
“How about that one that tames him?” Charlie asked, although Ellie could tell by the tone of his voice that he didn’t really think that was a viable option.
“No, no... That might help,” Lee said, looking up from the pile of books he was covered in. “If we can tame the wolf, maybe that will help me control it?”
“But, will that help the next time?”
Lee sighed. “I don’t know. I guess we can put it in the best-plan-so-far pile?”
“Okay,” Ellie looked around for the list of ‘best-plan-so-far’ spells.
Ellie fished around, moving various books and pieces of paper from one pile to another and often back again.
“Do we even have a best-plan-so-far pile?” she asked the boys.
Lee shrugged. Charlie was less unhelpful. “I don’t think so. I didn’t realise we had any piles yet.”
“Except the bloody big no pile,” Lee grumbled.
“Well... We haven’t totally ruled anything out at this point, have we?”
“A couple of things, but most of it seems to be on standby,” Charlie answered, flipping through the book in his lap.
Ellie looked at her watch. “What time’s the full moon?”
“7:59,” Lee answered, looking at the clock on the wall.
“Right, we’ve got a bit less than six hours.” Ellie sighed. “We’re no closer than we were a week ago.”
“A week ago, we were sitting our examinations...” Charlie said.
“My point exactly.” She stretched her back, then lay flat on the floor, trying hard to think of something they may have missed.
“Did your parents have no ideas?”
“None that we hadn’t already tried.”
“Archie’s with them now?” Lee asked.
Ellie nodded. Lee was concerned about Archibald being around in case something went wrong, so Ellie had sent him off to see how Morganna was doing. Needless to say, Archie was more than happy to oblige; he didn’t really want to be around when Lee turned into a ravenous beast either.
Which he will if we can’t find a way to help him, Ellie thought miserably.
“I think I need a food break,” Ellie said, standing up. “You guys want anything?”
“Yeah, we’ll come help,” Lee said, holding his hands out.
Ellie hauled him to his feet.
She turned and helped Charlie up, holding his hands a little longer than necessary once he was standing. She smiled at him and he smiled back.
Just as she was about to head into the kitchen, the front door burst open. More correctly, she watched it fly past the living room archway on its way down the hallway. Lee and Charlie both turned to stand in front of her. She wondered if they realised what they were doing, or if this was an unconscious action.
A figure – presumably a man – walked into the room. He was wearing a billowing, black cape with a hood pulled over his face, shrouding it in darkness.
“Petronella Cooper.” A voice came from beneath the hood – yep, it sounded like a man. “I have been waiting for this day. Your eighteenth birthday.”
“You didn’t tell us it was your birthday!” Lee cried. He and Charlie backed away from the man,
“We had other things to worry about,” Ellie shrieked back.
“Your friends will not be able to help you, Petronella.”
Ellie felt like the voice was somehow familiar to her, but she just couldn’t place it. She thought hard; like it was on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn’t quite put a name to it.
“What do you want with Pet?” Charlie asked.
Ellie bumped into the couch and the boys backed into he
r, their arms crossed over her. She put her hands on their shoulders to peer between them. Charles had always been taller than her, but Lee had grown lately.
“What do I want? I want her.”
The boys were ripped out of her grasp and flung against the wall, landing one on top of the other. Ellie winced, thinking that the added injury wouldn’t help Lee’s recovery.
The man came towards her and she tried to fend him off using her magic. Not only was her magic weak due to a lack of confidence and practise, but she hadn’t done any battle training with Miriam so she had no idea what to do.
Not, she reflected as her third attempt still didn’t reach him, that it matters since this man is obviously way more powerful than I am.
She was stuck. She felt the couch behind her legs and knew running into the kitchen would lead to a dead end. She heard a moan and saw the boys waking up. Almost as one, they took a running leap at the man. Ellie had no idea where Lee had learned those sorts of combat moves – she had no idea what they would even be called – but she had no doubt that Charlie’s skill came from centuries of practice and learning.
No matter what the boys did, it didn’t seem to matter; the man was faster and stronger. When they landed a hit on him, he didn’t flinch. When he landed a hit on them, they were flung back to the walls of the room. She saw the boys bleeding and bruises forming on their exposed skin.
The man suddenly kicked out, ramming Charlie’s leg. There was a horrible cracking noise and Charlie went down, crying out in pain. Lee took one last run at the man, only to be punched straight in the face. He fell and didn’t get back up. Charlie swayed where he sat for a moment.
“Haven’t felt pain like this since...” He fell unconscious.
The man laughed evilly. “I have had enough of this.” He waved his hands towards Ellie and said something in a language she vaguely recognised but she didn’t know the words.
Then, Ellie fell backwards. There was just enough time to register that the couch caught her before she blacked out.
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