The Hybrid Series | Book 1 | Hybrid

by Stead, Nick

  “Now, concentrate on his shape. Remember what it felt like to become him under the full moon, and will your flesh to shift into that form once more.”

  I did as she instructed. It was probably the hardest I’d ever concentrated on anything in my entire life, my eyes screwing shut and my teeth gritting with the effort of holding the wolf’s mind so close, and yet still at arm’s length. Minutes passed and nothing happened.

  “Try again.”

  It must have been a good hour of standing there, trying to force my body to do the impossible. Keeping the wolf from leaping into the forefront of my mind was mentally exhausting, and I was almost ready to give up when Vince decided to step in.

  “You’re thinking too hard,” he said. “I bet your thoughts have gotten trapped in an endless loop, something like ‘turn into a wolf, turn into a wolf’ over and over, right?”

  “Yeah,” I admitted.

  “It’s easily done, but it’s the wrong way to go about it. Think back to your last full moon and imagine you’re going through that again. Don’t bother with words your body can’t follow – concentrate on the sensation of fur sprouting and bones changing shape. It will come.”

  I took a deep breath and tried my best to really lose myself in the memories of what that transformation had felt like. And finally there came the sharp stab through my gut that signalled it had begun.

  The wolf seized its chance and pounced. With a startled cry, I drew back and did my best to wrestle it down into its cage. It refused to go quietly and I think I must have blacked out, because I found myself lying on the grass with a vampire on either side, holding me down.

  “I’m okay,” I said, breathing hard.

  They let me up and Lady Sarah instructed “Try again.”

  My body ached from the number of times I ended up thrashing on the ground, until finally I managed to keep the wolf at bay long enough for some visible changes to happen.

  The pain was an even greater enemy. It didn’t seem as bad as it had under the full moon, but it still became unbearable long before my body was even close to fully lupine, and I lost my hold on the transformation long enough for the fur to recede and the few bones that had begun to change to revert to their original form. I then had to learn to distance myself from the discomfort to keep the shapeshift going.

  It grew easier once I managed to pass the point of being more wolf than human. I felt like my body wanted to keep shifting then, as though it needed to be one form or the other and would settle in whichever it was closest to. My flesh didn’t seem to like being in a partway state between the two.

  The moment came when I stood on all fours, experiencing the wolf’s superior senses with the human part of my mind for the first time. It was exhilarating, the way everything felt more intense, every muscle in my body more powerful than anything I’d known before. I felt the urge to run, wanting nothing more than to chase small animals like I had in my daydreams and feel the liquid grace of my new body bounding over the earth. But the hunger was back with a vengeance and the wolf was rising up with it. Staying in control would be my next challenge, the lupine half of my mind so much stronger for being in its true form.

  “Here,” Vince said, tossing me a freshly killed rabbit.

  I snapped up the meagre offering without hesitation, and my hard earned control was lost.

  “Nick?” Lady Sarah asked, searching my eyes.

  I tried to answer yes, but it came out as a growl. My body was still fully lupine.

  “It is him,” she said.

  Vince looked to have been keeping his distance. “Thank God for that. I swear this werewolf’s going to be the death of us!”

  There looked to be a few cuts and scrapes on his limbs, his clothes torn where my fangs had pierced them. I growled an apology.

  “I had to use my powers to calm you down,” Lady Sarah explained. “We will keep trying until you learn a greater degree of self-control, though it will take time to master this aspect of your curse.”

  After a few more attempts of shifting between forms, I was able to devour the animals Vince kept bringing without the wolf taking over. The raw meat tasted surprisingly good and I felt no disgust at ripping into the carcasses.

  Once I’d got to grips with a full transformation, the next step in my training was to stop it partway without losing any of the changes. That proved much harder. It must have taken a further hour for me to succeed in a partial transformation, and I felt like collapsing afterwards. But Lady Sarah assured me the hard work would pay off. It would help bring complete control over my form, she said, except for during the full moon.

  Part man, part wolf, I flexed my clawed hands and snapped another rabbit carcass up with my jaws, barely able to believe this was my body. It was all I’d ever dreamed of. The deadly combination of a wolf’s bite with opposable thumbs and rotating arms – I felt unstoppable. You must think I’m mad by now. Maybe I am.

  Then came the final step, which was to change a specific body part. That was actually fairly easy once I’d learnt to hold onto a partial transformation.

  “Very good,” Lady Sarah said, eyeing the lupine fangs I bared from behind human lips. “There is one more challenge now you have mastered the ability to mould your flesh – to shift without the need to reach out to the wolf.”

  “Is that even possible?”

  “Your body gained the ability to transform the night you were bitten. The wolf merely had a head start on learning how to make it happen when the moon called him forth. Now you must gain that knowledge for yourself, or you risk him taking control every time you shift.”

  “I thought you said not to fear or distrust that part of me?”

  “And that advice has not changed. There may be times when you wish to surrender control to that wilder side to your nature – there may even be times when your survival depends on it – but that does not mean you should let him have free rein all the time.”

  So I went through one final change, concentrating on the physical lupine side to me without touching the wolf lurking in my head. There was a fair bit more of standing around while nothing happened but eventually I did it.

  By that point it was getting late and I knew my parents would be ringing Fiona’s family if I didn’t get home soon. I was ready to collapse among the graves when I shifted back to human form for the final time that night, but I had to go back.

  “A word of warning now you have mastered voluntary transformations,” Lady Sarah said as I turned to go. “Spending too much time as a wolf will make that side of you so strong you will begin to forget everything human, and slowly the human part of you will fade away until there is nothing but the wolf left. I have known some of your kindred to live out their lives as animals, trapped in their most primal state.”

  “Yeah, I don’t plan to give up my human form, don’t worry.”

  “I doubt any of you ever plan to. For the time being the risk is probably low, as long as you have Vince or I for company while you are shifted – we will remind you of your humanity and keep the human part of you alive. But be sure to balance the time you spend as wolf and human.”

  “I will,” I promised. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for me tonight. Both of you.”

  Lady Sarah dipped her head in graceful acknowledgement, while Vince waved my thanks away as if it had been nothing. With that, I staggered home. I still had plenty of questions, and I was curious to learn more about Vince as well, but we were out of time that night. The rest of my questions would have to wait.

  CHAPTER NINE

  A Monster is Born

  “So did you have a good time?” Mum asked when I got home.

  Head heavy with weariness, I managed a nod as I made my way to the fridge. I was craving meat again, raw and slippery and dripping blood, and I didn’t want to think about what the hunger might drive me to do if I didn’t eat something. The thought had me licking my lips and it was only then I realised my mouth was stained with animal juices. On any other night
that might have been hard to explain, but as it was no one mentioned it. They obviously assumed it was fake and part of the Halloween fun.

  Dad must have heard the fridge door open from his chair in the dining room. “You can’t be hungry at this time of night.”

  His voice was full of disbelief but his eyes never left the football match lighting up the TV screen, a beer in one hand and the remote by the other. From his tone I could tell he’d been in a bad mood for most of the evening, though the beer looked to be tipping him towards at least friendliness.

  “I haven’t eaten,” I said, rummaging for the pack of beef sandwich slices I knew we had.

  Mum stared. “Didn’t Fiona’s parents give you anything?”

  “Nope,” I grunted. My fingers found the beef hiding under blocks of cheese and snatched the packet as though it were trying to escape. I ripped it open and stuffed the meat into my mouth, immediately feeling better. Better, but still hungry. “I don’t suppose you could cook me something could you, please, Mum? I’m starving.”

  Dad’s anger fired up again. “No she can’t. Why don’t you do it yourself? You’re old enough!”

  “It’s fine, John, we’ve got a spaghetti bolognaise that’ll just go in the microwave for two minutes.”

  “He has to learn someday, Emma.”

  “I bet you never cooked for yourself when you were my age, you bastard,” I muttered under my breath. It didn’t seem to matter what I did – nothing was ever good enough for him. Was I nothing but a disappointment? Was he ashamed to call me his son? Well that was all right, I didn’t feel like calling him Dad unless I really had to. He no longer deserved the title, and hadn’t for a long while.

  Minutes later the spaghetti bolognaise was in front of me, steaming and sizzling with the heat from the microwave. Mum left me to eat, wanting to get back to the TV in the lounge where she’d been watching a soap with Amy. I ate in silence, ignoring Dad for the most part, other than giving him the odd grunt when he tried to make small talk, knowing how it annoyed him. He soon gave up trying to engage me in conversation.

  The energy boost I got from the ready meal was surprisingly strong. It swept away the tiredness and made me want to stay up on the PlayStation, so I ran up and switched on the console. The hunger still wasn’t completely satisfied, but the craving for meat had subsided into nothing more than a vague suggestion. I was able to enjoy an hour or so of gaming without any lupine behaviours getting in the way.

  Eventually I settled down for another sleepless night, my mind full of vampires and Slayers and a burning desire to know more.

  No matter how much I wanted to see Lady Sarah again, I didn’t get chance to talk with her until nearly a week later.

  My thoughts were on the night, determined as I was to visit the cemetery, but I had to survive through the day first. Periods One and Two dragged by, uneventful and dull. Then break came and Lady Sarah’s teachings were to be put to the test.

  I walked into the Geography room, Fiona just behind me, to find a girl called Lucy flat against the far wall, pressing herself into it as though she were trying to force her way through. Jamie stood in front of her with his back to me, holding something up to her face. The look in her eyes when she screamed for me brought a wave of dread. There was real terror there.

  Jamie’s eyes glinted with cruelty as he turned and smirked. The scare I’d given him the previous week had evidently worn off and I could practically smell his desire for revenge.

  Our classmates were watching with interest, some laughing, others chatting and shaking their heads. I stood my ground but uncertainty made my wolf half stir. After the way Lucy had reacted, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what the bully had in his hands.

  “And what’s he gonna do?” Jamie taunted, advancing with a slow confidence, like he thought he was the predator stalking his prey. “You want to see it too, Nick? Will it make you scream like a girl?”

  My eyes were on his hands held out before him, one cupped over the other, my heart beating faster. I could feel my wolf form waiting to take hold, alert and ready for my command. It was tempting to at least grow my fangs and claws, but some rational part of me argued the risk wasn’t worth it. We were school kids. Could the thing in his hands really be that bad?

  A snarl formed on my lips as he invaded my personal space, extending his arm until it was inches away from my face and revealing the source of Lucy’s terror. My snarl melted into a sigh of relief. I don’t know what kind of threat I thought it might turn out to be, but this was something I could deal with.

  Crouching in his palm was the biggest house spider I had ever laid eyes on, its body taking up most of the space and its legs resting on the very edge. No wonder Lucy had been terrified – I remembered then she was as arachnophobic as Amy; a monster like that must have been her worst nightmare. Jamie seemed disappointed when I didn’t show him the same fear, and he turned away and moved back over to his original victim. Lucy shrank back in horror, eyes screwed up tight, probably wishing she could fall through the wall and escape. She screamed my name again.

  “You’re wasting your breath. What’s he gonna do, huh? Fight me with those skinny arms? He hasn’t got the balls.”

  The room went quiet. All eyes turned to me and I could practically hear them wondering what I was going to do – whether I was going to put up with the insults any longer. Another growl rumbled through my throat.

  “Come on then, weakling, you gonna try and stop me? Oh I forgot, you can’t ’cause you got peas for muscles.” Jamie seemed to be enjoying having an audience, putting the spider down on the nearest table as he addressed the room. “Do you know he needs a crane to lift a pencil?”

  Rage was boiling up inside me, pulsing through my veins with such force it was painful. I wished I could’ve come up with some clever retort but the anger was fogging my mind. Then the itching started on my skin and I realised the pain I was feeling was the change, not the anger. The wolf was riding my fury and beginning to take control. I could feel its desire to hunt, its thirst for blood and hunger for the kill.

  Beating it back into submission was no easy feat, and my fists clenched tight with the effort, my nails sinking into flesh and drawing blood. Jamie didn’t seem to know what to make of the situation. Uncertainty looked to be plaguing him now, until he appeared to reach the conclusion I wanted a fight. And in truth I did.

  Somehow I managed to subdue the wolf and reverse the slight changes it had caused, but just for a few seconds my two halves had almost become one. We both wanted to hurt this pitiful human boy with the audacity to challenge our strength. Anger continued to rule me, and the wolf was already making another assault, breaking through the thin barrier in my mind and roaring for blood.

  “You’ll take that back!” I shouted.

  Jamie laughed. “Now look who’s the big man. You been hiding your balls from us all this time, Stead? You gonna start waving them around for us all to see?”

  I snarled again and took a step towards him. He stood his ground. Adrenaline and testosterone pumped through my veins, driving me another step. He wasn’t laughing anymore. There was a similar need for violence in his eyes, and I was about to close the last of the distance between us when I felt someone gripping my arm. I looked round to find it was Lucy.

  “No, Nick! Don’t break the rules now. You could be thrown out and you’ll fail your GCSEs. Just get rid of the spider; that’s all I wanted.”

  Rules! To Lucy, rules were like the law that governs you humans, the law that was already beginning to mean little to me by then. Such laws were laid down by human society, for humans. But I was no longer human. I’d proven that by mastering the transformation. And then came the realisation: I was bound by no laws. Not even the ultimate law to which every living thing must obey, the law of time. I alone in that room could wander the ages without suffering the pain it inflicts on mortal flesh, unchanged by its ravaging claws.

  I still felt very much a part of the human world, still longed to b
e a part of it, but that was perhaps the first sense I was given of beginning to drift away. And as the distance started to grow, with it came the realisation of my own immortality. I felt young and alive and rebellious. Eternity was mine to do with as I pleased, infinite years open to me to explore as an outsider, an outcast, if death didn’t claim me first. And there before me stood a stupid mortal boy who dared to taunt me. Me, an immortal creature more powerful than he could ever know. I could have broken him so easily, could have brought him a death so terrible even his parents wouldn’t recognise him. It sounds arrogant now, but back then, in that moment, with the realisation of what I had become came contempt. I believed myself to be above my classmates in the same way humans think they are above the cattle they slaughter. It was a mindset I would fall completely into in the coming months and I would have to learn again to respect those who died for me, those whose lives I took for the continuation of my own. But that would take time.

  “To hell with the rules,” I snarled, breaking free of her grip and taking that final step.

  Jamie pushed me away. “Get out of my face, freak.”

  “Fight, fight, fight, fight.”

  Someone began the old playground chant, and it was soon taken up by everyone else in the room. Everyone except for Lucy. She was probably standing with a worried look on her face, unsure what to do, but the world had already narrowed to that small space in reality filled by my opponent and I wasn’t paying her any attention.

  “Fight, fight, fight, fight.”

  “Why, you afraid?” I stepped up to him again and pushed back. Angry as I was, I forgot to measure the strength of it, or maybe I just didn’t care. Either way, Jamie would have fallen over if the wall hadn’t been in the way. He was thrown against it, his head cracking into it with force. A thin trickle of blood slithered down from his hairline.

  “Fight, fight, fight, fight.”