“You’ll always seem human to us,” replied Carl.
“I’m going to go find a caribou instead. That will last me a few days, so I don’t have to keep sipping on human blood,” said Phyllis with concern in her voice. “And then I’m going to go stay with Buck for the rest of the afternoon until he wakes up this evening.”
“Would you like us to open and manage the store for you today?” asked Brian.
“Oh, thank you, and I appreciate you asking, but usually, we keep it closed on Saturdays, unless its tourist season or someone desperately needs us to open it in an emergency,” she answered. “No one is hardly around now anyways.” Then she sped off again in a blur, disappearing into the forest, in search of caribou blood.
“Are you okay?” Brian asked Carl as he inspected his arm.
“Perfectly fine,” he answered. “Just look at my arm. There are two puncture wounds but barely any remnants of blood showing, and it wasn’t even painful. I hope she has better success at finding caribou than we did.”
“I sure hope Phyllis will be okay with this whole needing blood thing,” said Brian. “We have no idea what it must be like for her, or how to really help her get through this.”
“What do you say we head back to the bed and breakfast and chill out for the rest of the day?” asked Carl after inspecting the newly acquired dents and damage to the left side of his truck, which also included a broken driver’s side mirror.
“Great idea,” answered Brian as they climbed into Carl’s truck, then they drove toward the bed and breakfast cottage.
CHAPTER 15
Saturday Night, 8:00 PM
Phyllis woke up from her four-hour-long nap that she took while she lay beside Buck’s side, and he also began to awaken from his daylong deep sleep.
“Well hello, my vampire hot girlfriend whom I love,” said Buck as he rolled onto his back and put his arm around Phyllis, pulling her close to him and kissing her. He quickly noticed the time on his clock. “I’ve got fifteen minutes left before I start the whole early stages of my werewolf business again, so maybe you should tell me about this Titus character now.”
“I’m glad you mentioned that,” said Phyllis. “There is something besides that I need to talk to you about, and something to ask you.”
“Anything for you,” he responded.
“Let me start with Titus first,” she said. “He is the 3,000-year-old identical twin vampire brother of Dietrich, who had created vampire minions like me, possibly even a small army of them, and who all could be on their way to Circa even now to avenge Dietrich’s death.”
Buck’s face turned white, and his jaw dropped, along with a worried look in his eyes at hearing her news. “That is not good news,” he said with grave concern. “How does he know about Dietrich’s death?”
“Dietrich and Titus were supernaturally interlinked together, and Titus would have felt Dietrich’s death within twenty-four hours, even having the ability to sense his location,” she answered. “And Dietrich also told me that Titus came from their mother’s womb first, and is slightly more powerful than he was.”
“That’s not cool,” replied Buck. “It took all we could muster up just to bring down Dietrich, and I’m sure we could get Titus, too, but if he brings more vampires, we could be in over our heads, and he’s 3,000 years old. Wow! Just who were their parents anyway? They didn’t do a very good job at training and raising them the right way!”
“Their mom was a prostitute for the Philistine army, who was killed by their father, Goliath of Gath, when they were two years old,” she answered. “They became vampires when he tossed them into a cave to die, where they were repeatedly bitten by vampire bats. They were both born and became vampires on a night of a full moon, which is why he wanted to turn me into a vampire last night at 9:00 PM, because of the full moon.”
“Did you say Goliath? Did you mean the Goliath of the Old Testament, that Goliath? Oh my, ugh!” moaned Buck loudly as he begun to experience painful stomach cramps from the early stage one of his werewolf transitioning.
“You don’t have a lot of time left, Buck, so I’ll explain more about him tomorrow and cut to the chase quickly,” she said. “If Titus and his minions come to Circa when you’re a werewolf, even then, we’ll still have difficulty beating them. But if they come during your non-werewolf period, we’ll definitely have no chance to stop them, and Circa could be in serious jeopardy. The timing would have to work out perfectly for us, with them coming at next month’s full moon, and I just have a bad feeling that they’ll be here sooner.”
“That’s a great point, Phyllis. Then, somehow, we need to find a way to help us even the odds and be ready to kick their asses when they show up,” exclaimed Buck as his body started to sweat, along with having mild muscle spasms. “Ugh!” he moaned from increasing discomfort.
“There is a way, Buck. A way that we could even the odds, and be more prepared to fight them on our terms.”
“What’s your idea?” asked Buck, as he now sank to the floor of his cabin, beginning to writhe around in ever-increasing pain.
“Let me bite you, Buck, at 9:00 PM during the beginning of the full moon, as Dietrich had done to me last night, and turn you into a vampire, too!” she pleaded. “If you’re also a vampire, you won’t need the full moon to fight them, but will be able to defend Circa at anytime. Both of us will be fighting against them together. I’ll explain to you tomorrow about the full moon story and why it’s needed to create vampires, but for tonight, I’m asking you to trust me.”
Buck lay on the floor in silence, carefully pondering what she asked of him.
“And I don’t know how long you will live, Buck,” she went on to say, “but I will probably live as long as the Earth remains, and alone after everyone I love grows old and dies. If you choose not to, then I’ll understand, but please don’t let me spend the rest of my existence alone and especially without you!” Phyllis she began to cry.
“Ssshhh, ssshhh, it’s okay, Phyllis,” said Buck as he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her on the forehead, trying to provide comfort for her despite his own stage two transitioning pain. “I would do anything for you, Phyllis, because I love you more than anything, and there is no one who I would want to spend eternity with more than you. I don’t know if your plan will work, but it sounds like a great idea to me, and I say, let’s go for it. My life has already changed drastically from being a werewolf, so I doubt adding a vampire to my personality collection will make much more of a difference.”
“I love you so much, Buck, and I’m sure this will work!” she replied as she kissed his lips and caressed him.
“We better go outside now, before my werewolf tears my cabin apart. And please be careful when you bite me at the same time that I’ll be transitioning. I don’t want you to get hurt,” said Buck with concern.
Phyllis helped Buck up from off the floor and supported his sweat soaked body and weight as he staggered out of his front door.
9:00 PM, Near Buck’s cabin
“Ugh! Do it now, Phyllis, quickly, before I wolf out completely! I won’t be able to fight against it much longer!” Buck said with desperation in a frightening, deeper voice, and with low pitched growls.
Phyllis bent over as Buck lay on the snow-covered ground, and gently slipped her fangs into his neck and veins, which now was covered in rapidly growing, brown wolf’s hair, biting and releasing him after fifteen seconds, hoping she had injected him with the vampire saliva and infection curse, that was now completely active with the full moon. She held her breath as she watched Buck’s werewolf cease its transition, and then he faded into unconsciousness, which also happened with her after she was bitten by Dietrich. Phyllis, who was also feeling weakened herself from her transformation of Buck, staggered up and sped to the trees behind Buck’s cabin, grabbing a caribou carcass that she killed and hid earlier, which was still full of blood, and dragged it over to Buck for the both of them to feed upon after he regained consciousness. Phyl
lis was surprised but also excited, as the nearly transitioned werewolf just moments earlier had now re-transitioned back into Buck and his human body. Buck slowly regained consciousness and started to move cautiously as, if he just awoke from a deep sleep.
“How do you feel, Buck? Are you okay? Do you feel different?” asked Phyllis.
Buck slowly stood up while looking at himself, and responded, “I feel weird, but I think I’m fine.” No sooner had he finished his words when he started to transition again, back into his werewolf.
Phyllis gasped and felt helpless as she watched Buck slowly regain his beastly werewolf form under the full moon. The werewolf began to take aggressive steps toward Phyllis, snapping its jaws and teeth, but then suddenly ceased its aggressive behavior.
“Easy, Buck, easy,” Phyllis said softly to the beast with her hand on its muscular, furry chest. It didn’t work! she thought to herself while feeling discouragement. But then, just several seconds later, Buck fell to one knee, as he re-transitioned back into his human form in just a few seconds. She gasped. “What happened, Buck?”
“I’m not sure,” he answered while scratching his head in disbelief. “I was turning into my werewolf, and then I thought in my mind how I didn’t want to transition. I was even able to fight against the transition after becoming the beast and turned back to wonderful me again! It’s as if I controlled my own transition with mere thoughts and will power.”
“If that were true, Buck, do you know how wonderful that would be?” asked Phyllis with great excitement.
“Let me do a little experiment and see,” said Buck. He stood still as he closed his eyes and concentrated. Seconds later, he began to transition into his werewolf form and became fully transformed in under ten seconds. Howlooooooooooooh. The sound echoed loudly through the night as Buck’s intimidating werewolf beast howled thunderously at the moon, but then easily re-transformed into his human form again soon after. “No way!” he exclaimed excitedly. “I can choose to transform or not to transform just with intense focus and thoughts! And I can even seem to control the wolf’s aggressive predatory instincts now just from sheer will power, when before, I was helpless to control or stop my beast from doing whatever it wanted!”
“Oh, Buck, do you know what this means? This is such fantastic news for both of us!” exclaimed Phyllis with joy. “I had no idea that this would happen when I turned you!”
“This is the best gift that you could have ever given to me, Phyllis!” exclaimed Buck.
“For me also,” she responded as Buck and her quickly began to hug and kiss each other with joy and tears. “You should drink some caribou blood, Buck,” she said. “We both need to feed, but whatever it takes, please be careful with your blood consumption. So far, I’m finding blood to be very euphoric and potentially addictive, and it frightens me. Especially with human blood, as it is even more satisfying and potentially dangerous for us.”
Buck held her hand before softly replying, “We’ll need to help and protect each other at all costs, and keep one another accountable. And I know we both don’t want to hurt any humans unless absolutely necessary, in self-defense, or for the protection of our loved ones.”
The two of them hugged again, and then quickly bent down to drink blood from the caribou carcass, inserting their new fangs into the neck of the animal and swallowing down a few mouthfuls of blood before forcing themselves to stop.
“I see what you mean, Phyllis,” responded Buck. “I got some nice, instant energy going on now, and the blood tasted great! I also wonder if this means that I’m half werewolf and half vampire now. Like a hybrid or something, especially since I now seem to have and feel the characteristics and strengths from both species inside of me. I just can’t wait to see if I can turn into a werewolf tomorrow, during the daytime, and with no full moon.”
“What a weapon you could be against Titus if that is true,” replied Phyllis. “Even if you can’t, you still already could be double your normal strength!”
“We should drain the rest of the caribou’s blood out into a container and put it into my fridge, before the carcass becomes frozen or eaten by scavengers. As of now, though, I got all this energy that I need to put to good use,” said Buck as he swept Phyllis off her feet and carried her in his arms at blazing supernatural speed to his front door, where it felt as if he had hit a brick wall when he tried to enter into his own cabin, catching him by surprise and causing him to stumble backward.
Phyllis began to laugh loudly. “Looks like we both forgot that you can’t enter into your own cabin without an invite,” she said. “It’s the downside of being a vampire.”
“Good thing I already invited you in earlier then,” quipped Buck as he let her down, so she could step inside and invite him in. He quickly scooped her back up in his arms again once inside, kissing her on her lips, before closing his door and the world behind, leaving Phyllis to glow with delight.
CHAPTER 16
February 20, Sunday
Carl hung up the room’s phone inside the bed and breakfast after talking with his wife Jessica and daughter Cindy for thirty minutes, and telling them that he loved them. “Good news, Buzz!” he exclaimed.
“What’s the word, Grizz?” asked Brian.
“Jessica said the summit’s road is cleared again, and we can go home!”
“That’s great news! I hate to go home without a caribou, but we did far more important things here this weekend, and I’ll return home satisfied.”
“Amen to that! I still haven’t figured out whether to tell her what really happened here, but I think its best that my family doesn’t know. They would start worrying about vampires and werewolves, and Jessica wouldn’t ever want me to come back here again. By the way, she also told Nancy that we’ll both be headed back, and they each called our employers, so our bosses know as well.”
“What’s Jessica going to say when she sees your badly damaged truck?” asked Brian with a chuckle.
“I’ll tell her that I let you drive it and that you rolled it on its side,” answered Carl with a laugh.
“I wonder how Buck and Phyllis did last night with their vampire transition thing,” Brian said. “Tonight is the last full moon, so by tomorrow morning, Buck will be free for a little while, but I, at least, hope that Buck agreed to try it. I’d really worry about Phyllis if he didn’t.”
“We should say good-bye to them before we head back, and thank Phyllis for letting us stay here,” said Carl.
“Agreed,” responded Brian. “And clean up our mess, and leave her some money.”
They each pulled out $250 in cash from their wallets and left it on the counter in an envelope, on which they had written her name and a big thank you.
After eating breakfast and spending the last hour cleaning up the inside, Carl and Brian locked the front door of the bed and breakfast, then they walked outside.
“It’s going to be a beautiful day today,” said Brian after taking a deep breath of fresh, cool air, and looking toward the morning sun on the horizon, which was slowly creeping up over the distant trees.
Carl didn’t have a chance to respond before they saw Buck and Phyllis walking toward them, holding hands, and both displaying big smiles on their faces.
“Well, good morning to you both,” said Carl. “We were just going to drop by and say good-bye before we head back to Fairville this morning. My wife, Jessica, said the summit is finally cleared.”
“That’s good news!” responded Buck as he shook both their hands, followed by Phyllis giving them both a good-bye hug. “We can’t thank you two enough for all your help, and I’m especially grateful for the help you’ve given to Phyllis.”
“And thank you for letting us stay at your uncle’s bed and breakfast,” said Brian to Phyllis. “We left you some money inside and cleaned the place up for you.”
“Awesome!” she excitedly responded. “And thank you!”
“No problem. And I almost forgot to give you the keys back for his cottage,”
he said as he tossed her the keys for the bed and breakfast.
“Will you need us to invite you inside the store before we leave so you can get in?” asked Carl.
“That’s a great thought,” laughed Phyllis, “but since I was turned into a vampire inside the store, I won’t need an invite, and I can invite Buck inside myself.”
“Please promise that you’ll call us when or if Titus shows up,” said Carl to Buck and Phyllis. “When we get back home, we’ll start preparing for that possible day by finding appropriate weaponry that can best help us to aid you in the fight. Hopefully, that day would never come, but if it does, hopefully, we’re still around to help.” Then he joked, “Brian and I are going to be hunters of evil vampires.”
“Speaking of vampires, are you now a vampire or are you still a werewolf?” Brian asked Buck.
“Actually, I’m both,” answered Buck. “Phyllis was successful at turning me into a vampire last night, but I’m also still a werewolf. And here’s the great news! I can now control my werewolf’s violent and predatory nature with strong will power, meaning it won’t attack anything unless I allow it to. And even greater news is the fact that I can decide to transition or not to transition into a werewolf just with my thoughts. I have to concentrate and focus hard when I do, but it works.”
“Wow!” responded Brian. “That’s incredibly great news!”
Carl nodded in agreement. “Can you turn into a werewolf anytime that you want to now?”
“No,” answered Buck. “I tried transforming this morning, just for kicks, but couldn’t, as I still need the full moon in order to bring the werewolf side completely out. But I now feel all of its power and strength inside of me, much more than before, combined with the strength and power of the vampire also, which makes me feel twice as lethal now!”
“If Titus shows up in the daytime, do you think you can handle him in your present form, without the full werewolf?” asked Brian.
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