Hybrid

by Wild Wolf Publishing

  “Where’ve you been? I’ve been looking for you!” I rasped, my throat feeling a little sore. Before she could answer I was aware of Fiona’s and Jessica’s eyes on me and wondered what to tell them. They looked at me uncertainly, so I said “Hey guys, this is my, er, cousin Sarah, and this is one of her friends. It was meant to be a joke but he took it a bit too far.”

  I glared at the vampire who lay on the floor where Lady Sarah had struck him down. I don’t think they believed me, so I suggested they take Hannah home while I spent some time with my ‘cousin’. They didn’t argue and as soon as the door closed behind them I turned back to Lady Sarah, waiting for an explanation.

  “My friend needed help. It was no longer safe for him to feed in his usual hunting ground so I brought him back here,” she said to me, before turning to him. “And I told you not to hunt children! Will you ever learn your lesson? It would still be safe in your own territory if you did not prey on children so often. We have enough with the Slayers hunting us; we do not need the police on our trail as well. And you know preying on children always makes them search harder for the killer. By rights you should be dead by now.”

  He looked away from her as if he knew she was right, but would never admit it. When he looked back his face had changed; he looked like Lady Sarah, a human with a face too perfect to be a mortal man, who had been around the same age as her when he’d been turned. He got to his feet and studied me, the hunger gone from his eyes now. Without it, his eyes were very different to Lady Sarah’s. They were much more human, as if, like myself, he had recently become undead, and he dressed so differently to the Medieval vampire too.

  “Sorry about that mate, I guess I let the hunger get the better of me,” he said. I was too surprised by the difference between his speech and Lady Sarah’s to reply. “If we were still living in the Middle Ages like Lady Sarah here, I would be Sir Vincent of Desmodontidae, but since we’re in the new millennium you can call me Vince.”

  He held out his hand. I took it dazedly, unsure by the turn of events.

  “Vincent chooses to live amongst humans when he’s not hunting,” Lady Sarah told me with obvious disapproval. “Most of us leave the human world behind after a decade or two, if not sooner.”

  After a pause she added, almost sadly, “Though I do miss All Hallow’s Eve.”

  “Well I’m glad you’re here, I’ve been wanting to talk to you,” I said, snapping out of it.

  “Not here, you never know who might be listening,” she told me.

  When she led us back to the graveyard I hesitated before telling her about the past couple of months, still unsure whether I could trust either of them. Particularly Vince, after the close call with Hannah. Yet there was no one else there for me and I couldn’t survive alone; I needed to understand more about the new world I had been plunged into. So I told her everything that had happened since we last met.

  “Understand this,” she said when I’d finished. “Dreams are more than mere random thoughts and images conjured up by the brain in a semi-conscious state. Yes, sometimes they have no meaning, but sometimes they are much more than that. Dreams can be images from the past, present or future, though what you may see in the future may not necessarily be what comes to pass. Do not disregard any of your dreams, for some of them may have a meaning. However, with you it is more complicated. Some of the dreams will come from the human part of your mind, while others come from the wolf. Some may hold meaning for one but not the other. The wolf may already know about the potential power of dreams, therefore it was scared by what it saw in the dream about the hunter, and the fear was enough to trigger the change. As for teaching you to control it, I promised to help where I can and I will, but it is really something you must learn for yourself.”

  Over the next hour Lady Sarah talked me through becoming a wolf at will. I can’t really explain to a mortal how it’s done or how she taught me to do it. All I know is, somewhere in those sixty minutes I concentrated on transforming into a wolf, willed it to happen, and finally it did.

  Of course, to transform that meant I needed to strip off, so I could dress again when we’d finished and return home. The vampires sensed something of my discomfort at being naked in front of them and stared fixedly at my face. I cupped myself to protect my modesty as best I could while I was still human. But I soon forgot my embarrassment once the transformation began.

  The first time I began to change, the pain, while not as powerful as at full moon, became unbearable and I lost control long enough for the fur that had begun to appear to melt back into my skin. The few bones that had begun to change in size and shape returned to their original form. I had to learn to distance myself from the pain to keep the transformation going. I soon found it became easier once I was more wolf than human, because my body seemed to want to keep going, and after several attempts I stood on all fours, experiencing the wolf’s superior senses with the human part of my mind for the first time. I also had to learn to remain in control once in wolf form, as the lupine half of my mind was much stronger and I could feel it clawing its way up into my consciousness, crawling up out of the darkness in my soul. It was exhausting work, mentally and physically, and I felt the hunger as powerful as during a full moon. The vampires had to keep catching small prey to keep me going, though it was far from enough to satiate that unnatural hunger.

  Once I had mastered the change, I had to learn to control it to the point where I could stop it at any time, without it reversing straight away. That part was much harder. My body wanted to be one form or the other, and whenever I stopped the change halfway it wanted to either return to human or keep going to wolf, depending on which form I was closest to. It took a further hour before I could stop the transformation at any point without losing the changes that had already taken place. Lady Sarah told me this would help give me complete control over my form at all times except for the full moon, so there would be no further problems if I started to turn again in public.

  After the worst of the pain was over it was a great experience for me. Part man, part wolf, I flexed my hands before my eyes, barely able to believe this was my body. I enjoyed the feeling of power, the knowledge that I could crush those who had bullied me for so long without any real effort. You must think I’m mad by now. Maybe I am.

  By that point it was getting late and I knew my parents would be ringing Fiona’s family if I didn’t return soon. I was ready to collapse among the graves when we’d finished, hungry and tired, but I had to go back.

  “A word of warning now you have mastered transforming at will,” Lady Sarah said as I turned to go. “Be careful with the amount of time you spend as a wolf, for if you spend too much time in this form then the wolf in you will grow too strong. If that happens 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, forcing you to live out the rest of your life as an animal. If you are with me or Vince most of the time when you are transformed you should be alright, for we will remind you of your humanity and so keep the human part of you alive. But be sure to balance the time you spend as wolf and human.”

  I nodded and tiredly made my way home. There hadn’t been time to ask Lady Sarah any more, despite all the questions I still had, and I was curious about the new vampire who had been mostly quiet once we reached the graveyard. I knew I would find them again the following night.

  Chapter Eight

  A Monster Is Born

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

  I nodded wearily and went straight 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. I realised I’d spilt some blood from the small carcasses Vince and Lady Sarah had been supplying me with, but since it was Halloween no one questioned it, assuming it was fake blood staining my skin.

  “You can’t be hungry at this time of night,” Dad said di
sbelievingly. He had a beer in his hand, sat in front of the TV in the dining room watching football. From his tone of voice I could tell he’d been in a bad mood, though with the help of the beer he was bordering on at least being friendly if I didn’t piss him off.

  “I haven’t eaten,” I replied, while looking for a pack of beef I knew we had.

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

  I shook my head. I found the beef slices we’d bought in for sandwiches and ripped open the packaging, immediately feeling better as I gulped down several slices of the meat. “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,” Dad said, almost sulkily.

  “I bet you never cooked for yourself when you were my age, you bastard,” I muttered under my breath. He was always having a go at me, but never at Amy, even when she asked people to get her a drink because she was too lazy to get it for herself. She was the favourite and he made no attempt at hiding it. It didn’t matter what I did, nothing was ever good enough for him. Sometimes it felt like he was so disappointed in me he was ashamed to call me his son. That was alright, I refused to call him Dad unless I really had to. Someday I’d find a way to sever the blood link that bound us and I’d be free of him forever, but until then I had no choice but to live with him.

  Minutes later the spaghetti bolognaise lay on a plate in front of me, steaming and sizzling with the heat from the microwave. Mum had been watching Eastenders with Amy, and she left me to my meal while she went back to the TV in the lounge. I ate in silence, ignoring Dad completely. If he spoke to me I grunted or gave one word answers. I knew how much that annoyed him, and he soon gave up trying to engage me in conversation. As soon as I’d finished eating I retreated to my room and switched on the Playstation. I was feeling better after the meal. The weariness had all but left my body and the hunger, while not completely satisfied, had subsided enough that the craving for raw meat was then only a vague suggestion from somewhere deep in my brain directly linked with the wolf’s thoughts and instincts.

  About an hour later 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 and learn more, as fate had it 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 graveyard, but I had to survive through the day first. The first two lessons 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 hard against it as if she was trying to force her way through. Jamie stood in front of her with his back to me, holding something near Lucy’s face in an outstretched hand: the source of her terror. She looked up as I came in and screamed my name. Jamie turned and smirked at me, his eyes glinting cruelly. The scare I’d given him the previous week had evidently worn off and he wanted to get back at me.

  Lucy relaxed slightly once Jamie had turned towards me. I wasn’t entirely sure what was happening, but after the way she had been pressed against the wall, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what he had in his hand.

  “And what’s he gonna do? You want to see it too Nick? Will it make you scream like a girl?” he taunted, advancing slowly like a predator stalking his prey, holding the thing in one hand, cupping the other over the top to hide it from view. When he was close enough, he extended his arm until it was inches away from my face, taking away the other hand at the same time to reveal the source of Lucy’s fear.

  I looked at it and almost laughed with relief. I don’t know what I thought it might be, but it was something I could deal with.

  The biggest house spider I had ever seen sat in the palm of his hand, its body covering most of the palm, its legs resting right on the edge. And that was its size crouched. When I showed no fear, he turned away and moved back over to Lucy, perhaps aware that she had relaxed. She shrank back again in horror, eyes screwed up tight, wishing she could fall through the wall and escape. She screamed my name again.

  “Don’t waste your breath, he ain’t gonna do nothing. Come on then weakling, you gonna try and stop me? Oh I forgot, you can’t ’cause you got peas for muscles,” he said. He began to address the room which had gone deadly quiet, putting the spider down on the nearest table where it remained crouched, as if awaiting its chance to escape. “Do you know he needs a crane to lift a pencil?”

  Rage was building up inside me, coursing through my veins and making them throb painfully. I wished I could’ve come up with some clever retort but the anger was fogging my brain. I felt the itching on my skin from the growth of fur and realised the pain was from the change, not the anger. I tried to build a barrier in my mind against the rage, which was giving the wolf enough strength to take control. I could feel its mind and its hunger, its thirst for blood, for the kill. My fists were clenched tight with the effort and I think some of the pain and the anger must have showed on my face. Jamie didn’t know what was going on. He took my actions to mean I wanted a fight. In truth I did. I managed to keep the wolf at bay for the moment, managed to reverse the slight changes that had already begun, but just for a few seconds the wolf and the human had almost become one. I had wanted to hurt Jamie for a long time, make him pay for the pain he had caused me over the years, and both parts of my mind wanted the same thing. I might have controlled the change but I couldn’t control the anger, and I could feel the wolf clawing its way through the thin barrier in my mind, breaking its way through and roaring for blood.

  “You’ll take that back,” I shouted.

  “Now look who’s the big man,” he laughed. “What, you gonna fight me now? You and who’s army?”

  “You were the one who needed an army last week,” I sneered.

  I took a step towards him. He stood his ground. Adrenalin and testosterone pumped through my veins. I took another step. He wasn’t laughing any more, but I could see the cruel light in his eyes now he had a reason to hurt me. There was a spark of anger there too, in response to the reminder of when he’d been at my mercy on Halloween. I was about to complete the final distance between us when I felt someone gripping my arm. I looked around to find Lucy had hold of me.

  “No, Nick! Don’t break the rules now, you could be thrown out and you’ll fail your GCSE’s. 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 had already begun to mean little to me by then. Such laws were laid down by human society, for humans. But I was no longer human. I had proven that on the Halloween night when I became a wolf at will for the first time. 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 depths of time and never once feel the pain it inflicts on mortals, unchanged by its ravaging claws. I still felt very much a part of the human world, still longed to be a part of it, but I was slowly drifting away. And as the distance started to grow, with it came the realisation of my own immortality. I still clung to the human world, but bit by bit my fingers were slipping away from the edge, only to plunge me into the deep, dark, uncertain void that awaited below. I felt young and alive and rebellious. I had eternity, could feel it stretching out ahead of me with no definitive beginning or end, 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 s
o 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. 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. I believed myself to be above them as humans think they are above the cattle they slaughter, but in time I would be proved wrong.

  “To Hell with the rules,” I snarled as I broke free of her grip and closed the final gap between me and the bully.

  “Get out of my face, freak,” Jamie growled and pushed me back.

  The world around me ceased to exist, and all that mattered was the small space in reality filled by my opponent, though I was vaguely aware that someone had begun the old playground chant which was soon taken up by everyone else in the room. Everyone except for Lucy who stood looking worried, unsure what to do.

  “Fight, fight, fight, fight.”

  “Why, you afraid?” I said and pushed him in return. 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 and cracked his head painfully.

  “Fight, fight, fight, fight.”

  With a roar born of anger and pain, he pushed himself away from the wall and charged at me.

  The chant was getting louder. Jamie was almost upon me. I took up a defensive stance ready to absorb the power of it, when a cold, stern voice suddenly brought silence to the room.