Blood and Beasts

by L. M. Miller

  “They miss you a lot, Seph. Especially your brother and sister, even if they don’t say it,” Bill said, giving her a weak, little smile before Janette nudged him roughly.

  “They can’t come visit you, Persephone. We have to be responsible, foster parents, and you are a danger,” Janette said coldly, and Seph just stared at her, visibly hurt.

  They were on either side of her now, and she realized that Janette was not about to forgive her. She still had a chance with Bill though. She turned her back to Janette, standing directly in front of Bill, who also appeared heartbroken. He missed the girl that he had always viewed as his real daughter.

  “I’m still the same old Seph! That was a one time thing. It was the first time I discovered what I truly was! Please! You have to believe me! I miss them so much! I’m not a monster! I’m just a little different-” Seph’s pleading ended abruptly as Janette’s thoughts shrieked in her mind.

  Seph turned in time to catch Janette’s hand as it came down to stake her, a sharpened wooden post in her salmon-pink nailed hand. The two women toppled to the ground as Bill just stared at them, immobile. They struggled for a few more moments, the stake raking across Seph’s cheek, until she finally remembered her powers. With her great strength and telekinesis, she threw her foster mother off of her, sending the woman tumbling a few feet. They both hopped to their feet again, rounding on each other.

  “DON’T EVER COME TO OUR HOME AGAIN! DON’T EVER TRY AND TALK TO THE KIDS AGAIN! NOT MANNY OR BOBBY! DEAN OR TERRENCE! LAWRENCE! NATHANIEL! OR EVEN PEARL AND PEARCE! YOU’RE AN ABOMINATION!” The screaming, frothing woman whirled on her heel before storming off. “BILL!” She shrieked for her husband, and Bill and Seph just stared at each other a moment.

  He was the father she never had. She had the twins’ father, but he had left. Was he going to leave too? He gave her a sad, little smile before turning and following his wife. She stared at them as they descended the stairs, leaving her by herself and all alone. She turned, bloody tears dripping down her face. She saw two people trying to sneak by, holding hands and hoping that she didn’t see them. Damian and Yolanda… What were they doing on the top floor? Damian was a first year, but he should be on the other side of the dorm area, and Yolanda was a second year.

  “Do you think she saw us?” Yolanda whispered to Damian, who squeezed her hand affectionately.

  “I don’t think she really cares what we were doing up here, Yolanda. It looked like she has her own problems,” he responded, both not realizing that she could hear them acutely with her sensitive hearing and mind.

  “Ya…” Yolanda trailed off as she reflected on the scene they had just witnessed, Seph’s foster parents basically trying to kill her. “That’s why I’m happy that I’m not a vampire,” she concluded, and he nodded before they both snuck away.

  She should be so lucky, Seph thought bitterly.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Seph sighed, leaning back against the door as her tears left red streaks on her face. Now Ruby was going to know, as soon as the full moon was up, and Oglesby and Raul… They would tell Kendall and Misty. She let out a little sob. This was all getting to be too much. She wished so much that she could talk to Francesca or Rodney.

  Suddenly, she just had the urge to run. She just wanted to run and run and run until she couldn’t run anymore. She blinked, appearing at the base of the stairs. Her foster parents were already gone, although their scent lingered in the air. She half-walked, half-ran out of the dormitories and into the courtyard. Then, she just started running.

  She just wanted to feel free again. She loved the sound of the wind whistling in her ears, blowing through her hair and caressing her face. It felt like freedom. She headed for the ravine, for the Room. Her emotions were so jumbled up, tossing and turning in her mind.

  Then she started to pick up new sounds… heavy breathing, saliva dripping onto the ground, rushing footsteps. What was that? Was someone following her? She turned just in time to catch the full brunt of the attack. Hitting the ground, she skidded across the rough earth, rocks cutting into her back while dirt rubbed into the cuts.

  A pitch-black werewolf was on top of her, snarling. It snapped at her face, saliva flying everywhere. She grabbed its jaws, holding them at bay as they strained for her exposed throat. It was strong though, almost as strong as her, if not stronger. Its thoughts were garbled, all over the place and making no sense at all, but she recognized them.

  “Help!” She screamed, looking left and right.

  Everybody was still in class!

  “Help!” She shrieked again but to no avail.

  She tried to use her powers, but they weren’t working properly. She was too emotional right now. She needed to get her mind straight, but her thoughts were still whirling around her foster parents and her foster siblings and her real siblings and Nate. Her hand slipped, and his jaws snapped down. She moved her neck to the side just in time as his jaws dug into the earth, snatching up a mouthful.

  It was Rodney… She stared into its golden eyes and remembered him when he transformed the night she had tried to attack Tristan. It was Rodney, and it was the full moon, and he was fully transformed. He was obviously not thinking clearly. He didn’t even recognize her, and he was trying to eat her.

  He was a werewolf, but she was a vampire. She suddenly remembered her powers, the full extent of her powers. She held onto them in her mind. She let herself become weightless, become like mist. She felt herself slowly dissolve away. Rodney fell forward onto all fours, snout bouncing against the ground hard as she became nothingness.

  She simply glided away from him, concentrating intensely on staying in her mist form. He could sense her though, and he followed her. That was interesting. She had time to assess all this as she glided around, Rodney swatting at her mist form and making it harder and harder for her to stay together.

  She guided him towards the warehouse where they kept the werewolves, Werewolf Warehouse or WW, as they called it. All werewolves who couldn’t control themselves were kept in there. The ones that could control themselves, and had spent enough time in the Were Corral, just stayed in their dorm rooms the whole time, pacing or sleeping or doing whatever werewolves did during their transformation time.

  She slipped through the gates of the warehouse, which admitted beings but did not let them out. She wondered how Rodney got out, or if he had thought he could control it and had been in his room. Who knew? Now though, they were both in the warehouse and stuck in it. That was all fine for him, but for her…

  They could sense her. They could sense her just like he could sense her. She glided around them as they swatted at her. It was getting harder and harder to stay in her mist state. She couldn’t let her thoughts dwell on anything else but the here and now. She couldn’t think about Rodney. She couldn’t think about Nate or Pearl or Pearce…

  She found herself slowly becoming whole again as they all slowly prowled towards her. She put herself in a corner, protecting her back from them. She became solid again and looked around herself. She was in quite a predicament. One tenacious, brown and black werewolf launched itself at her. She shifted into her half-bat form and propelled herself into the air. The werewolf smacked into the warehouse wall roughly as she beat her wings higher and higher, reaching the high ceiling in a matter of moments.

  She glanced down at the masses of werewolves below her, nearly forty of them in total. There was probably about every first year werewolf and half the second year werewolves. Their golden eyes followed her hungrily as she zipped backwards and forwards near the ceiling. A pure golden werewolf, Francesca, was busily barking madly at them all, clearly trying to order them back to their senses. However, fresh meat was dancing above their heads, and they weren’t about to be distracted from it.

  Seph studied her surroundings from this level. There were a lot of windows high up here, too high for the werewolves to escape through. They were mere slits which allowed the full moon’s silvery light to filter through t
hem. She stared out at the round, pregnant orb. All of this because of that… She sighed tiredly.

  The werewolves could not jump high enough, but she could certainly fly high enough to escape out the windows. She stared at the diamond-paned glass a moment. It just seemed too easy. She sighed again. Might as well try… Her wings were getting tired. Backing away from the windows, she reached the opposite side of the warehouse as all those golden eyes followed her every movement. Then, she whirled around and sped towards the glass at top speed.

  It felt like she had just slammed her body into a brick wall. She hit the windows, or, more to the point, hit some force field over the windows, and she bounced off of it. Stunned, she plummeted to the ground, wings not easing her fall one bit. She slammed into the ground in a heap, shifting back to her human form. She was in another corner now, kind of near the entrance/exit, but that didn’t matter. What did matter were the aches in her bones as she heard several snarls.

  She looked up to see three werewolves immediately charge at her. She managed to pull herself to her feet just as they attacked her, one of them Rodney. She gave them her back and ducked into a ball, unable to focus her powers. She screamed in pain as one clawed her across her back. She whirled around, catching sight of the jet-black werewolf that was Rodney with blood on his claws. That was when the sandy-brown one bit her left forearm, and she hissed at it, tossing it aside as her strength filled her muscles. The last werewolf, that same brown and black one, mauled her right thigh viciously. She shrieked, blood flowing and eyes darkening as the hunger began to overcome her.

  She suddenly shook herself once as they continued to claw and bite at her. The hunger came over her. Her eyes swirled to pitch-black. She bared her fangs and became just like them. She became a monster. With a burst of telekinesis, she sent them all flying away from her, ebbs of her power rippling over the werewolves.

  The persistent brown and black one that had mauled her leg instantly hopped to all fours and rushed her. She faced it aggressively, hissing, and backhanded the creature across the face powerfully. She sent the creature flying into a dark-blue werewolf and an off-white one that were becoming a bit dogged, leaning too far towards her. She growled at them as well, teeth gnashing ravenously.

  She tossed her red hair out of her eyes, facing forward again, just as Rodney came at her again. She hissed, sending another punch of telekinesis in his direction. The heavy, black werewolf went spiraling through the air with a nasty howl. Another werewolf, a russet-toned one, took this distraction as an opportunity to attack her. She turned to it in time and bestowed the majority of her mind domination powers on it, instantly employing the feeble-minded werewolf into her business of survival.

  The russet one prowled around her, snarling at any werewolves that dared come too close. At the same time, Seph was constantly sending ebbs of pain towards Phin, wherever he may be. He would be the being most prone to her emotions and feelings, and she was feeling pretty desperate and fearful right about now. She let down her shields, praying that he would see through her eyes and come help her, come rescue her. She did not care for being the damsel in distress one bit, but she was in a lot of trouble.

  Francesca jumped forward, assisting the russet werewolf prowling about Seph’s perimeter, guarding her. She growled ferociously at any werewolf that dared look twice at her. She was going to protect her best friend. She was thinking clearly at least.

  A light-grey werewolf, seemingly intelligent, rushed at Seph when the russet werewolf was guarding her other side, and Francesca was distracted with a yellow werewolf. It knocked her to the ground, and she cut her left eyebrow on the hard flooring, warm blood trickling down her face. With a force she did not know that she even possessed, she seized its great head violently and slammed its neck to her face, immediately biting into it and guzzling down some blood for strength. She then tossed it casually aside.

  She rose to her feet just in time to be bowled over by the russet werewolf, whose mind she had lost as she drank from the light-grey one. She knocked the back of her head against the ground, but she used her momentum to head-butt this particular werewolf firmly in the snout. She saw stars. He saw planets. Suddenly, he was wrenched off of her by Francesca. They rolled away, entangled with each other, biting and snarling viciously.

  Again, Seph turned to see Rodney jumping at her once more. Her lungs were searing with each breath. Blood was pumping all over her body. However, she still managed to pull to the side at the last minute. He crashed into the wall behind her before slumping to the floor. She picked her leg straight up and dropped her heel violently down on his back, nearly breaking his spine.

  She whirled on the rest of the pack all slavering to devour her. Red was eating away at her vision. She could barely stand up straight. She couldn’t possibly take all of them. Had Phin not received any of her feelings… messages… whatever? He could sense her in the hallway when he walked by, and she had not even intentionally sent those emotions out. He should have been able to receive her emotions. She was going to die. She was actually going to die. There was still so much left to do…

  Suddenly, there was shouting. They all turned to face the entrance. Without warning, a certain light shined brightly as several persons entered the tense, hot, cavernous room. Seph hissed, backing away into the corner and cowering away from that vicious light. She stayed there, huddled, with her eyes squeezed shut tight. She stayed like that until she felt somebody scoop their arms underneath her. They picked her body up, slick with blood, and carried her out. She tensed, waiting for werewolves to slash at her flesh, but nothing happened.

  She could barely see. Everything was red and fuzzy. She could barely move. Everything hurt. She was bleeding so much. Her right leg was in shreds. Her back probably had not fared much better. She had a wound on the back of her head that was still bleeding. The cut above her left eyebrow was not too bad, just annoying as the blood caked around her eye. It also hurt every time she blinked. Then again, it all hurt. Her left forearm still bled deeply from the bite on it, and she was missing a hunk of skin there, by the looks of it. Could she really die? Vampires did not die though. They lived forever, right? At least a very long time, and sixteen years was not that long.

  “Werewolf bites and scratches affect beings differently. They don’t ever heal on humans. Wizards can barely heal them. They have to go through intensive recuperation for months. Werewolves heal easily from each other, and vampires take about a week to heal. You just need blood, Miss Black. A lot of blood,” Sir Sanzio noted as he carried her to the infirmary.

  “Would I die…” She managed to ask, hearing him despite the fact that his heart seemed to be reverberating in her head.

  “No, Miss Black. Vampires don’t die that easily, as you… thought. However, as soon as your wounds heal just a little more than they are right now, give it about another hour, then you would become a monster similar to the one that attacked Mr. Solitto. That is why we need to get you to the infirmary,” the blue-haired teacher explained, and she just nodded, head lolling to the side.

  It was so hard to lift anything. She felt so weak. Her limbs felt heavy, as though they were filled with lead.

  “What in heaven’s name happened, Leo?!” She heard the nurse screech as soon as Sir Sanzio kicked open the door.

  “Werewolves,” he answered crisply, a grim expression on his face as he set her twitching body down on a cot.

  “Werewolves…” the nurse muttered, immediately setting an IV in Seph’s arm and hooking it up to a sleeve of blood.

  It began to steadily drip into her body. Seph looked up with bleary eyes to see the nurse shaking her head morosely. Sir Sanzio was looking down at her as well, but she could no longer focus on his face enough to recognize any facial expression. Everything hurt.

  “You did put something that will sedate her in there, correct?” Sir Sanzio asked as his voice began to fade in and out.

  “Of course, Leo. I’m not a complete dolt,” the nurse responded impertinent
ly.

  “I know that, Molly. I was just making sure. When will she wake up?” He asked her curiously.

  “In about an hour. She’ll have enough blood by then to at least not be dangerous. I heard she takes a lot of blood though…” Nurse Molly’s voice faded out.

  About one hour later, Seph was blinking her eyes rapidly at quite a prestigious crowd surrounding her bed. They had their backs turned to her and were talking in hushed tones. She started to listen intently, but immediately Sir Sanzio turned around, smiling. Her shields had long since fallen, and he could read her thoughts word for word. His smile broadened, and immediately, she flung the shields up.

  “Very good, Miss Black. I see you have your strength back,” he commented, nodding at her as two other familiar persons turned around to face her, namely Phin and Sir Cosmos.

  She slowly pulled herself up to a sitting position, and the nurse, Nurse Molly Hapgood, hurried over to put a pillow behind her, assisting her. She also patted down Seph’s hair. She could only imagine what she looked like. If she looked so horrendous that the nurse was trying to spruce her up… that was just sad. She noticed a bandage wrapped around her forearm. She slowly unwrapped it, even though the nurse started to jump forward and stop her. There were marks on her, pearly-white teeth marks. She grazed her fingertips over the markings. Why had she not healed?

  “Oh, sorry about that, dear. You’ll heal in about a week’s time completely. Those scars developed in just one hour. Very decent healing powers, young lady. I know how you vampires heal though, and those will slowly fade over time. The hardest part was clotting the blood, healing the wound, and developing new skin, but you vampires do that very quickly and then heal the blemishes over time. You needed quite a bit of blood. One gallon, that’s eight pints mind you, to stop the bleeding, and another gallon for the healing process. Sixteen pints of blood. You could drain a whole human practically,” the short, frumpy nurse exclaimed, and Seph and Phin caught each other’s eye.