Cascades of Moonlight (The Parker Harris Series: Book #1)

by Amy McClung

Will sat at one of the picnic tables behind the school. He had a couple of large duffel bags with him. How long did he think we were going to be there? Quinn snickered and said, “You pack like a girl, dude. What's up with that?”

  Will rolled his eyes and said, “One bag is full of clothes, and the rest is food and supplies. We may be shifted for the two nights, but we'll need things to help us get through the before and after until we get our ride home. Of course, I can leave the bag of clothes here if you don’t mind me being naked with Parker for two days.”

  Quinn lost his smile and sternly said, “Don’t be a douche, Will. Things are civil between us, don’t ruin that. “

  Will apologized, sort of. He said to Quinn, "Chillax and pick up a sense of humor while we're gone."

  I interjected this time, “I do think you over packed Will, I don’t usually bring this much for shifting days.”

  Will appeared embarrassed, “Sorry, guess I'm still new at this, just wanted to be prepared for anything that could happen. It’s getting late. We better get to the cave before we shift, and Quinn needs to get far away from here.”

  I hugged Quinn and whispered, “I love you, I'll see you soon, and we'll have a repeat of today.”

  He sighed, "Be safe." He pulled away from me and walked off not looking back. It was like ripping off a band-aid, the quicker you did it, the less it hurt.

  Will and I got in the car and headed off to our destination. We left the car in a secret spot and started our trek into the woods. The cave was pretty well hidden and far enough in that we couldn’t see the road. When we came to the entrance, Will went in first and as I followed I noticed that there were still signs of him living here; empty food wrappers and even a pile of ripped clothes. That explains why he brought so many; he had to have a lot on hand when he was living there. The thing about shifting is that if you have clothes on when you do it, they'll be shredded to nothing.

  Ever since my first experience I’ve always stripped down to wait for the change; I'm not sure how it would work with Will here.

  We sat everything down and used our bags as chairs. It was getting dark and the change would be coming soon. Will put his hand on mine and asked, “How ya holding up, Parker?” I grasped his hand. Truth was, I missed Quinn and I was terrified, but it helped to be with Will. He pulled an oil lamp out of his bag, took it across the room, and stuck it on top of a jutted rock in the wall. “I always kept a light up here. It was high enough that I never reached it when I shifted,” he said as he lit up the room for us.

  He turned and lifted his shirt. I stood up and yelled out, “What are you doing?” He continued to remove his shirt and I had forgotten how ripped he was. I had seen him with his shirt off once before, the morning after we met. Good grief, how did all these incredibly sexy men end up in Cascade, Idaho? It was like an epidemic of hotness.

  Of course, that's an infection I could really get used to. Geez, Parker, chill with the hormones already. What is with me? One drop dead gorgeous man on my arm is enough to handle. “We're going to shift soon and I'm not going to ruin my clothes, I brought sheets that we can sit in and when it starts they'll fall off of us,” he replied as he held his hand out to me with a sheet in it. Wow, he really did think of everything.

  Embarrassed by my outburst, I jerked the sheet out of his hand and went over to a corner that was a bit darker for more privacy. It was difficult to take my clothes off while trying to hold up the sheet. It slipped once, I grabbed it up and whipped around to see if Will saw anything. He wasn't even looking in my direction. The last time I was naked with a man was a few hours ago with Quinn. This felt so incredibly immoral to me.

  Once I was undressed, I made sure the sheet completely covered me. I sat back down on the bag and Will sat beside me again. He took his hand and brushed a strand of hair away from my face, tucking it behind my ear. He had run his fingers along my face for a moment before I shied away, “Will, stop.”

  He dropped his hand. “I'm sorry, Parker. I can’t help how I feel. I'm worried about you though. I don’t know if I can handle watching you shift when I know how much pain you'll be in.”

  My eyes dropped to the ground, “It’s ok, I’ve gotten used to it for the most part. Don’t worry about me.” I kissed his cheek in a friendly way. He turned his face towards me where our lips almost met. I wrenched back from him before that happened and took his hand in mine instead.

  Less light was coming into the cave which meant nightfall was nearing. My hand kept going back and forth rhythmically over his, trying to soothe him. He jerked forward, tearing his hand from mine as he started to scream out in anguish. I held onto him and tried to talk him through it, which was a reckless thing to do. He thrusts his hands forward and shoved me across the room. I slammed into a wall hitting my head and it instantly knocked me out.

  When I came to, I had shifted and Will was gone. When I tried to stand up, my head was woozy and my legs gave out beneath me. Regaining my stability, I ran out of the cave in search of him, running through the woods trying to sniff him out. Will's on the loose and there's a rogue vampire around here too. I have to find him before the vampire does. He won’t know how to take care of it on his own.

  I ran through the woods for quite some time looking for him and don’t understand how I lost him so easily. How long was I out? I reached up; rubbing my paw over my head, there was blood on my fur. My head was throbbing. I should be happy I didn’t have to be awake for the pain of shifting like Will did. He was really violent as he shifted and I couldn't help but wonder if I were the same. I’ve never been around anyone when it happened which I guess is a good thing. I’m glad that Quinn, Mitchell, and Jackie were far away from us. If he could knock me out, then he could have killed Jackie.

  Placing my nose against the ground, I took things a bit slower and tried to sniff Will out, maybe find a trail to follow that would at least point me in the right direction. My senses were definitely heightened; everything around me was so pungent, the trees, the leaves, the grass, everything. There was a slight wolf scent too. I knew Will had come this way recently.

  Leaves crunched behind me, I smelled vampire and felt the adrenaline begin to rush inside me. My teeth were bared; the smell made me angry and fearful at the same time. Slowly, I turned around growling and…what the hell? It was Quinn. He can’t be here! He was just standing there, staring at me. Does he even know it’s me? The anger that had welled up inside me was dissipating. The smell still burned my nose, but as I breathed deeper, I could smell Quinn mixed in and it wasn’t as displeasing. I didn’t even feel the urge to attack him, which was a first for me encountering a vampire.

  Gradually, I moved toward him. He stood staring until I got closer, and then he knelt down on the ground. Fear took me over; I loved him and didn’t want to attack, but was scared to try and go much closer. Our eyes met and he smiled, putting his hand out. Instead of moving toward him, I began to back up. My back legs folded below me and I was on the ground cowering in fear to go closer to him. He still knelt with his hand extended toward me. All I wanted to do was run to him, but I was terrified.

  “Sweetheart, it's okay, come to me, it'll be fine.” His smile, his words, they ignited the feeling of comfort that washed over me and I walked over and rubbed against him. He patted me and said, “See, I told you that everything would be okay, sweetheart. We could never hurt each other, curses or not.” I nuzzled against him and whimpered.

  He kept stroking me and stood up all of a sudden. There was a growl behind me, it was Will. I maintained a protective stance in front of Quinn growling back at Will, baring my teeth. Will started toward us; I pounced at him, swiping his face with my paw. He jerked back snarling. Quinn put his hands up in surrender. “Will, if you can understand me man, I'm on your side. Everything's ok.” Will whimpered as he walked over and nuzzled against me. I butted my head back against his. Quinn knelt down
again and said, “Look, the vampire has been here, I can smell it. We need to try and track it. Mitchell's in the woods too, but he's further away." I snarled at him because that wasn't part of the plan. “I know, baby. Mitchell was supposed to stay with Jackie, but she's stubborn and wanted him to help protect you. Truthfully she's safer at home than we are here,” he said reassuringly.

  While we patrolled the woods, I smelled another vampire and took off toward the scent. Quinn yelled my name, but I couldn’t stop myself. A man came into sight and I immediately pounced on him. Before I could think twice, I opened my mouth ready to attack until I saw that it was Mitchell; I jumped backwards and yelped.

  He stood up and exclaimed, “Parker, geez, you scared the crap out of me!” I snarled in response.

  Quinn reassured him that it was a nice snarl, not ‘I’m going to kill you now’ snarl. “I tried to stop her man, but she was a woman on a mission,” he chuckled.

  Mitchell gave him an annoyed look. “I’m glad it’s funny for you. I was on her trail a minute ago. I picked up the werewolf scent and it distracted me for a minute and she was gone,” Mitchell stated.

  Quinn look stunned, “She? So it’s a female vampire? Did you get a good look at her face?”

  Mitchell shook his head and said, “She had long somewhat dark hair that’s about all I could tell.”

  Quinn noticed Will and me sitting on the ground panting in exhaustion. “I think it’s time to call it a night, or day whatever. It’s almost sunrise. Parker and Will need to get back to the cave and you and I need to check on Jackie. Let’s get going and get some sleep. We can start again this evening,” Quinn stated.

  We walked back to the cave together; Will went inside. Quinn knelt down and kissed my head goodbye. He left and I headed into the cave to sit with Will. He whimpered at me and began licking my head where the blood was. He felt terrible that he'd hurt me; it was obvious from his actions and the sadness radiating from his eyes. We snuggled up against each other and fell asleep.

  The next morning I woke up covered in a sheet and alone in the cave again. A few minutes later, Will entered and when he saw me, his head went down in a look of shame. “I’m fine, Will. It's not your fault, you didn’t mean to hurt me,” I told him as I sat myself upright careful to keep my body covered.

  “I feel terrible, Parker. I can’t believe I was so out of control like that,” he replied.

  “Where did you go after you changed? I remember waking up and you weren’t here. I remember bits and pieces about Quinn and Mitchell, Do you remember anything? ” I asked.

  He shook his head, “No, I don’t remember. I have vague memories like you, of Quinn and Mitchell. Man, it’s lucky neither of us killed them. They took a huge risk coming around us.”

  We'd slept most of the day so it wouldn't be long before we shifted again. There was a noise outside and Will jumped in front of me in protective mode; Quinn entered the cave. He looked a little stunned at the sight of us. Will had jeans on and no shirt and stood in front of me with his arms behind him, holding me in place. Of course, I was only in a sheet. Fighting with him over Will is the last thing I want to do right now. I started to say something and then he smiled at me.

  My heart swelled and I felt a smile came across my face. Quinn held out his arms and I ran straight into them. He snuggled his head into the curve of my neck. Will cleared his throat and said, “I'm going to leave you two alone for a minute.” As he left, he turned and looked at me. I mouthed 'thank you' to him.

  Quinn brushed my hair aside. “Didn’t I tell you that there was nothing to worry about?” he asked.

  “I'm still mad that you took such a risk. What if I had killed you? How did you even know it was me?”

  He smiled that charmingly annoying smile that I adored. “I know your scent and when I looked in your eyes, I knew there was no mistake. I'm proud of you…,” he paused as he noticed the dried blood on my forehead. "What happened to your head?” I told him the truth; I felt it was best not to lie. He became outraged and called out Will’s name.

  Placing my hands on his chest, I begged, “Stop, please…Stop! He feels bad enough as it is, he was shifting and he couldn’t control himself.” I was hopeful that Will would stay away a little while longer so that he would be safe. Quinn lets out a yell of frustration and hit the wall of the cave. On reflex, I grabbed his hand to check it. Of course, it was fine. I think the rock was worse off.

  Quinn let out a sigh, “I’m sorry, I wish I had been here to protect you.”

  I put his hand against my heart. “See, it's still beating, everything is okay, nothing to worry about here.” Smiling at him demurely, he kissed me.

  Will came back into the cave a few minutes later looking somberly at Quinn. “I’m sorry, man. I'd never hurt her intentionally, you know that. I feel like a total jerk.” Will started to say as Quinn walked toward him.

  I tensed up, expecting the worst and then Quinn put his hand on Will’s shoulder. Will was more stunned than I was. “I believe you and want you to know that we're still okay.” Will was bowled over by that for sure. They shook hands and Quinn left us alone again.

  Unfortunately for tonight, I got to experience the pain of shifting first and can remember seeing the fear in Will’s eyes as I went through it. His eyes bulged out and he watched with horror on his face. At one point, he had his hands over his ears and his eyes shut as tight as he could. He shook his head back and forth as though trying to force the memory away. My shifting was almost complete when his began. We were both screaming in agony as our bones shifted and cracked and our faces contorted.

  Once in our wolf form, we left the cave and started our hunt for the vampire once more. We both took off running toward the noise to the left of us. There was a shape visible up ahead, it was a woman…it must be her. She was too fast; we tried to keep up, but couldn’t catch her. Will went left and I went right to trap her on either side when we caught up. Vampire speed was much faster than werewolf and she was making a lot of progress in putting space between us. Mitchell appeared beside me. He bypassed me in a flash, making more headway.

  He caught up with her and was able to shove her shoulder to knock her off balance. They struggled and fell to the ground rolling and clawing at each other. She hissed at him and tried to tear at his skin with her teeth. Mitchell kept shifting his body to stay out of reach. He grabbed a handful of her hair causing her to let out a deafening wail. She slashed at his face in response, A roar spilled out of his mouth as his head jerked sideways with the force of it.

  She scrambled to try and stand. Mitchell grabbed her ankles and pulled her back down to the ground. He struggled to get her hands down, so he could restrain her and allow Quinn time to get there to help. It wasn’t working, she was too strong.

  We watched from the sidelines, not sure where to jump in. Will darted off after them. Nervous that he would hurt Mitchell, instead of the woman, I followed. She and Mitchell were in a fight to the death, she had gotten a hold of him a couple of times and bitten chunks from his skin causing him to roar and loosen his grip. Quinn was nowhere to be seen and it worried me. Distracting Mitchell, with her recent bite, she was able to throw him off of her and reached into her jacket. She pulled out a gun and aimed it directly at Will as he leapt toward her.

  A howl of distress flew from me. Inside I was screaming and everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. The bullet entered Will’s chest and he flew back, letting out a yelp and landed with a thud. He didn't move and he didn't appear to be breathing. My breath caught in my throat and stuck there; I was frozen in shock for a moment. Quinn screamed my name and it brought me out of my dazed state. I ran over and nuzzled Will; he didn’t move. His wound was bleeding profusely, but he was a wolf so he should heal. Why isn't he breathing?

  The woman ran away and Mitchell came over to try and help. My body lay over Will as I whimpered. A hand
pulled me back from him. I tried to resist, but the pull was stronger and I was laid onto someone’s lap. There were arms holding me and someone whispering to me. Mitchell checked Will, then turned to us and shook his head, indicating that Will wasn't coming back.

  I’m not sure how long it was before I realized Quinn was the one holding me. My friend was gone. My friend was…dead. No matter how many times I said it, I had trouble wrapping my head around that truth. This could not be happening, he's too young. Quinn lifted me into his arms and carried me back to the cave. Mitchell followed closed behind us. When I woke up several hours later, back in human form, I was alone with Quinn in the cave. He had me wrapped in a sheet and cradled in his arms. Looking up at him, I smiled and wiped the sleep out of my eyes. A sad smile came across his face and I realized that something was wrong.

  “Good morning, beautiful,” he said as he kissed my head softly. His eyes were so sad. He looked at me with sympathy and treated me with such delicacy, as though I could break at any moment. The memory of the night before came back in flashes and I sat up hastily, looking around. This wasn’t the same cave Will and I were in. Wait…Will…that memory had to be wrong.

  “Where are we? This isn’t the same cave…is it?” I asked.

  Quinn shook his head, “We're under the waterfall. I didn’t want to take you back to the other one so I brought all your stuff here for the night.”

  My thoughts were a bit muddled, “The waterfall? Our waterfall? What about Will?”

  Quinn’s look of sadness deepened, “Sweetie, Will's gone.”

  Shaking my head, I cried, “No, that isn’t true, it can’t be. He’s my friend, he…he’s too young…he…I…No.” The tears continued to flow from my eyes. My thoughts were so befuddled I didn’t know what to believe.

  The sheet fell from me as I jumped up. Instantly, Quinn was beside me wrapping it around me again. The only thing I was sure of is that I'm in pain and I missed my friend. Quinn held me in his arms and rocked me, trying to assure me it would be okay. I knew that it wouldn't be okay though. Will's only sixteen and he spent the last year of his life by himself, leaving everything he loved behind. I was the first friend he had in all that time and I expressed my friendship by getting him killed. All I could think is, it could've been me; actually…it should've been me.

  The full moon cycle was over and we could go home, back to reality and a semblance of normality. Quinn took everything to the car and told me to stay put and relax for a few minutes and he would be back for me. I walked out of the cave and found a spot where Quinn and I had been two days ago. The grass was wet with dew as I sat down and stared out at the waterfall. For a brief moment, I closed my eyes and hoped that when I opened them it would be the other day and none of the bad stuff had ever happened.

  Quinn’s voice made me open my eyes. The moment I turned to face him, the tears came again. In a flash, he had his arms around me as my body trembled with grief. He carried me to the car. Placing me in the front seat, he buckled me in and put a blanket over me.

  It wasn't long before I had cried myself to sleep. I woke up in my own bed with Quinn lying next to me. I looked up at him and smiled. This is the way I always want to wake up, next to him. He smiled back and said, “Do you need anything?”

  My throat felt dry and my voice was scratchy. “Something to drink would be nice.”

  He headed downstairs to get me a drink. I got out of bed and went over to my vanity, taking a seat in front of the mirror. My hair was a mess of tangles, the joys of naturally curly hair. My face was streaked with dried tears. My head ached from all the crying.

  In less than a minute or so, Quinn was back. He observed my attempt to fix my hair and face. He walked up behind me, moved my hair to the side and kissed my neck. “You're still the most beautiful woman I’ve laid eyes on.”

  Smiling, I managed to laugh a little, “Vampires have excellent hearing, but terrible sight apparently.”

  He rolled his eyes and handed me a glass of water and a sandwich with it. I pushed the plate away. “I’m not hungry, just thirsty.”

  Quinn pushed it back towards me. “You need to eat. Keep up your strength. Jackie's coming over in a little bit to sit with you. She's called every five minutes to check in. If she comes over and finds you haven’t eaten, she'll probably have my head.” I chuckled at the thought that Jackie could do anything to Quinn. I ate a few bites of the sandwich, but it was like trying to eat when you're stuffed. I couldn’t take in too much. My stomach twisted and turned with butterflies of anxiety.

  Around one o’clock, Jackie and Mitchell showed up at the house. By this time, I had taken a shower and freshened up. I didn’t feel like working too hard to get ready. I threw on some jeans and a t-shirt. I didn’t even dry my hair; it was wet and curly. I tucked it behind my ears and walked downstairs. Quinn grinned up at me as he waited at the bottom of the stairs. That grin gave me strength. We all gathered in the living room. Jackie sat on Mitchell's lap, in the recliner, and I snuggled up against Quinn on the couch. There was a feeling of deep sorrow in the room and it seemed that no one wanted to talk about it at first.

  Desperate for closure, I opened the topic. “So, did you guys get a good look at the vampire that killed Will?” My voice choked on the word 'killed.' It was like a foreign concept to me that my friend was murdered in front of my eyes. No one should ever have to witness something so horrible. Everyone’s face fell into a gloomy expression and Mitchell’s was the worst. I didn’t even think about how he would feel. He probably blames himself, but he shouldn’t.

  “It all happened so fast that I couldn’t get a clear picture of her face. I know she had dark hair and she was about Jackie’s height. She was strong, so she has to have been a vampire for a while. She was much stronger than me and it takes time to get that way. I’m sorry, Parker. I liked Will. I considered him a friend and I didn’t want…” He stopped as his voice choked. “I’m really sorry,” Mitchell stated sadly.

  Quinn spoke next, “It’s not your fault Mitch. You were taking on someone with more strength. If I'd known that it was an older vampire, I would've left you out of it. It’s my fault, I should've never involved you guys in this. I'm the oldest, most experienced creature, and I should've taken care of her myself.”

  I stood up and interjected angrily, “Stop it! Just stop, both of you. No one is at fault for Will’s death except for that evil witch that killed him. I don’t want to sit here and let everyone feel guilty or try to rehash what happened. The fact is, Will is dead, there's nothing we can do about it besides track her down and let me kill her.” My hands shook with rage and I felt my bones ache. The last thing that I needed to do was lose control right now with everyone in close quarters. I needed to regain my composure. I took deep breaths and could feel my mood calming.

  Everyone looked at me with astonished faces. “You won't be the one that kills her. In fact, you're out of this hunt as of now," Quinn stated firmly. He stood in front of me and pointed his finger angrily toward the ground as he made his demand.

  That made me furious all over again. “The hell I am! Will was one of my best friends. He was the only one that understood the pain I go through as a wolf. He deserves his death to be avenged and I can do that easier than anyone. I just have to find her and bite her and its over.”

  Quinn’s mood switched from anger to panic as he grabbed my shoulders and looked in my eyes. “She has silver bullets, Parker! It would be over in a second for you, just like it was for Will. I refuse to stand by and watch that happen. Mitchell and I will find her and I'll be the one to kill her. Is that understood?”

  My response was to jerk free of his arms and walk out of the room. I stormed upstairs to my bedroom and slammed the door. Throwing myself down on the bed, I screamed into my mattress to expel my aggravation. My bones were aching again. My face throbbed, I could feel my skin pulling and stretchin
g. This cannot be happening to me, I can’t shift right now it's too dangerous for everyone. This was torturous. This was worse than a full moon change, because fighting it elongated the pain.

  My skin stretched so tautly it felt as though I would explode at any moment. The rage and grief ate away at me and I writhed around on the bed, trying to keep my human shape. Taking deep breaths while trying not to scream and alert the others, trying to think good thoughts, trying to focus on anything positive, I could finally feel myself tranquilizing. My back felt sore against the bed from where my spine had bent and reformed. I rolled to the side, to get more comfortable as I stared out the window and thought about Will.

  The bedroom door opened and, without looking, I yell, “Get out, Quinn, I don’t want to see you!” The door shut and I felt someone sit on the bed. I turned around, ready to shout again, when I saw that it was Mitchell and not Quinn. “What do you want Mitchell?” I asked crossly, still feeling my insides shaking.

  “Quinn's right. You can’t go after this woman.” I opened my mouth to disagree when he continued by saying, “Jackie's freaking out. She has been since she found out about Will. She's worried to death about you. She didn’t sleep last night and she called Quinn a million times to make sure you were alright. It took everything I had to keep her from coming over here until this morning…and I have freaking vampire strength. Please, for Jackie’s sake, let Quinn and me take care of this.”

  I sat up, hugged Mitchell and said, "I promise. I won’t push the idea anymore." As we were hugging, Jackie walked in and looked a bit stunned.

  Pulling out of Mitchell’s arms, I got up and hugged Jackie next. “I'm sorry you worried all night. I promised Mitchell and now I promise you that I won't go after this vampire on my own. I'll let the guys take care of it, okay?” Jackie nodded and pulled back out of my arms. Something seemed a bit off about her, she seemed different somehow.

  The three of us went back downstairs. Quinn and Mitchell said they were going to take off and patrol and see what they could find. The thought entered my head and I spoke before I realized what I was saying, “Where's Will?” Quinn‘s face had a look of alarm and his body tensed up. I didn’t think about how my question sounded, so I rephrased, “Where's Will’s body?”

  He relaxed at my rephrasing. “In the cave. Mitchell and I took him there and closed it off so it could be his…grave.” I guess that made sense. A fresh grave would've looked suspicious if someone came across it in the woods. It wasn’t the type of burial I would have chosen for him. He deserved a hero’s funeral with family and friends. No, I take that back, he deserved to be alive and standing at my funeral instead. It was me that got him killed and I'll never forgive myself. He died saving Mitchell’s life and now he was decomposing in a cave where he spent so many of his days in pain and alone.

  Mitchell put his arm around me and said, “I know what you're thinking. I would've liked to do more for him too, he saved my life. We didn’t know where else to put him without exposing us all. We were very respectful of his body. We wrapped him in a sheet and left a type of memorial in there for him. He was buried with respect and honor.”

  I wrapped my arms around Mitchell and nuzzled my face into his neck. “Thank you so much, I needed to hear that.”

  Jackie spoke up, “We need to go, Mitchell. I have to get home, I feel sick to my stomach.”

  She jerked his arm, pulling him away. She seemed irritated, but I was unclear as to why. Mitchell looked at her as though she'd lost her mind. He thought she was acting strange too, but he shook it off. “Hey man, I’ll take Jackie home and catch you later to patrol, okay?” Mitchell said. Quinn nodded and when they left and it was just the two of us standing there. The silence was awkward between us. We had a screaming match less than an hour ago and hadn’t been alone to talk about it. Fighting with him always makes my heart hurt and my stomach cramp.

  Quinn stepped toward me, I backed away from his advance. I couldn’t stand to be coddled right now. He was hurt and confused, by the look on his face. Grabbing my jacket and keys off the table, I turn to him, “I'm going to the cave to say goodbye. You can come if you want, but you aren’t going to stop me from going so don’t even try.”

  Quinn stepped forward, opened the door, and motioned for me to lead the way. We drove in silence back to the spot in the woods where I left my car that night. My mind flashed back to walking to the cave with Will, he was so protective and caring. It was almost as if I could feel his hand brush the hair out of my face, feel his hand squeeze mine, as we prepared for the inevitable pain that we were about to face.

  We started into the woods. My heart raced as the cave came into view. It was open, I wasn’t expecting that and apparently Quinn wasn’t either. He stepped in front of me, stopping me from going further. “We blocked the entrance off with rocks, that shouldn't be open like that,” he stated. “Stay here and let me check it out first.” I stood there, for what seemed like an eternity, while he searched the cave. This was taking too long and it’s not that big of a cave. I hesitated to go in, I didn’t know if I could handle the sight of Will’s body. Inhaling deeply, I headed toward the cave entrance.

  When I stepped inside, Quinn’s back was to me and I could see the sheet in front of him. I gasped, Quinn whipped around and put his arms around me. I peered over his shoulder and saw that it was just a sheet, there was nothing else there. “Where is he?” I asked.

  “I don’t know, we left him right here.”

  With elation, I said, “So, he’s not dead, that must've been something other than a silver bullet!”

  Quinn shook his head, “It’s impossible, Parker. We checked his pulse and there was nothing. He should've gotten up in the time it took for us to bring him here and bury him. We even sat with him for a few hours to be sure he was really gone. We wanted so badly for him to wake up. I felt sorry for the kid, he was so young and no one should die like that.”

  None of this made sense to me. I don’t understand what happened to his body. I walked around the cave looking for something, anything at all, to clue me in to what happened. There was nothing there, other than an empty sheet. I picked it up and sniffed it; it was definitely Will’s sheet. There was another scent there too. Vampire. “It was her, this sheet smells like vampire,” I said.

  “Of course, it does, Mitchell and I held it at some point. You smell us, sweetie. In your wolf form, you could probably notice a subtle difference between one vampire and another, but as a human, we all smell about the same,” Quinn replied.

  I held the sheet close to my face, taking in the scents and thinking about the last time I was with Will. He spent the evening apologizing to me about smacking my head into the wall when he shifted. We did a lot of bonding in that cave and I missed him. Now I don’t even know if he is dead or alive if I should grieve or look for him.

  As I was putting together my memories of the previous night, I paced the cave. The only explanation was that they made a mistake and he must have had a faint pulse. Quinn put his hand on my shoulder and I jumped in fright, not of him, because I almost forgot he was there. “You're sure he was dead, Right? If that's the case, where's his body, Quinn?”

  He shrugged his shoulders, “I have no idea, Parker. Maybe we made a mistake, but I don’t think so. If it weren't a silver bullet, he would've shown signs of life within an hour or two of being shot. We gave him at least three to four hours. Mitchell stayed here while I took you to the other cave to shift back. I came back here, while you slept, to help him close the opening. I don’t know what else to tell you. All I know is that we left him here wrapped in a sheet.” He lifted his arm and pointed toward the spot where we came in, “and we blocked up that opening so that no one would get to him. I can’t give you the answers you need. But think about it, if Will is alive, why hasn’t he come to find us? We were all getting along great. He has no reason to run from us.” r />
  Picking the sheet up again, I turned to Quinn. “I need to be alone, I can walk home…I just need to be with Will right now.”

  Quinn looked stung, “I’m not leaving you here, I wi…”

  I shook my head, “Please, just leave. I need to do this alone. I'll call you later, I promise.” He kissed my cheek and I turned away from him as he left.

  Sitting in the cave alone, I thought again about Will’s expression of agony as he watched me change. We had such an instantaneous bond of friendship that no one could match. It hurt that I didn’t get more time with him. Maybe he is still out there somewhere, maybe we will find him again. One reflection that I had was if I was this devastated by the death of a friend of just a few weeks, how will I survive losing Jackie, or my parents. The general idea of it made me think maybe Will got the easy out. He doesn’t have to endure the pain of shifting anymore and he won't have to suffer through his sister's, or his parents, imminent death. Even though they couldn’t accept him as a wolf, they're still his parents and it would be hard. It’s sad to think death is easier than life. My thoughts kept me engulfed for over an hour. At last, I said goodbye to him and made promises to avenge his death no matter what it took.

  Feeling like I had said all I could, I stood up and folded the sheet, laying it on the rock where he kept the lantern. I walked out ready to start my way home. When I stepped out of the cave, Quinn was sitting next to the entrance, which startled me. He stood up abruptly and put his hand up as I was about to speak.

  “Please don’t be mad. With the bod…sorry, with Will being gone I couldn’t leave you alone here in case someone came back. You're too important to me.” How could I be mad at someone for caring so much about me? I didn’t respond with words. I put my hand out to him and he wound his fingers in mine.

  As we walked, I thought of something, “Did you take the lantern when you closed up the cave?”

  Quinn’s reply had me wondering further, “I didn’t grab any lantern and I don’t remember Mitchell getting one either; it may still be in there. Why?” That was weird.

  “It wasn’t in there. Will put it on top of a rock up high so we couldn’t knock it over when we shifted. I placed the sheet on that rock, before we left the cave, and there was no lantern there.”

  Quinn shrugged again, “I don’t know. We can check with Mitchell though if it'll make you feel better.” He brought my hand up to his face and kissed it. He has an amazing ability to calm me, but now my head was swimming with all sorts of scenarios as to what happened to Will’s body.

  I let him drive again, but said, “Take me to the waterfall. I want to be at a place I love right now, with the man I love.” I ran my fingers through his hair as I gazed at him. His face seemed to light up. I knew that he needed to hear that since I had been so preoccupied with Will and because of the fight we had earlier. When we got to the waterfall spot, Quinn grabbed the blanket from the back seat and laid it out for us. I lay my head in his lap, enjoying the sound of the water and being with him. I closed my eyes as his fingers stroked my hair. With my eyes closed I replayed memories of Will, hearing the gunshot, seeing him flying through the air, the memory of his body laying there motionless. I opened my eyes and tried not to shut them again; I wanted happy thoughts right now.

  I sat up abruptly. Quinn's face looked worried at the sudden movement. “We need to do something enjoyable, all four of us. We're going to start planning it now. We have less than three weeks.” The look he gave me clued me in that I was too vague and he wasn't following. “Halloween. There's a costume dance at school that night and we should go. It would be fun and we can all use some fun.”

  His face kind of scrunched up as he said, “I don’t know. I’ve never been much into Halloween and the whole costume thing. And you know the last time I went to a high school dance was in the 50’s.”

  I pouted my lips at him, “Well, it would be the first dance I actually went to with a date. It would mean a lot to me.” He still had the scrunched up look on his face and was being stubborn about it.

  “Please, please please, it would make me so happy.” I batted my eyelashes at him and put my hands together in a praying fashion.

  He laughed and pulled me to him. “You play dirty,” he kissed me and replied, “I'll do it, anything to make you happy.” I cheered and clapped; it did make me happy.

  My text went off, it was Jackie.

  Jackie: I won’t be staying over tonight, feeling worse, sick to my stomach, and don’t want you to catch it. Have fun with Quinn.

  Me: Hope you feel better, make sure Mitchell takes care of you.

  I showed Quinn the texts. “Hope it’s nothing serious.” I was disappointed that Jackie wasn’t coming over. I needed my friends around me right now. “Will you stay with me tonight? My parents won’t be home for a couple more days and I don’t want to be alone.”

  He smiled, “Of course, I'll stay as long as you let me.”

  Nightfall was drawing near. We drove back to the house and when we got there, the door was unlocked. I could've sworn I locked that, but then again I wasn’t thinking straight when we left. Quinn went first to make sure no one was inside that shouldn't be. With lightning speed, he ran up the stairs and came back down and said he found nothing, but the usual scents. It's possible I just walked out and forgot to lock it.

  Quinn was working hard to keep me happy. He made us popcorn and grabbed some cokes and the movie Love Actually which is one of my favorites. It's a bit of a chick flick, I think he secretly likes it though. This was definitely helping take my mind off things. We cuddled on the couch where he fed me popcorn and rubbed my shoulders.

  The doorbell rang, interrupting our bliss. We paused the movie and Quinn went to answer the door. Mitchell stepped inside and said, "I'm sorry to bother you guys. I wouldn't have come if it weren't important. I'm worried about Jackie. Ever since the first night of the full moon she's been acting strange and distancing herself from me. We've always been very affectionate and now she barely holds my hand. She keeps saying she's sick to her stomach and doesn’t want me to come over because she is afraid of giving it to me. I tried to explain to her that I'm a vampire and I can’t get sick. She just acted like she forgot and made some other excuse about wanting to be alone. I don’t get it.”

  This was all news to me. However, Jackie did seem less affectionate when she was here earlier. I thought it was because of the situation at hand. “She told me she was sick too Mitchell, so she may be. Maybe a little space and things will be back to normal in no time. Some of her actions may be coming from Will’s death. He was her friend and we all feel bad that we couldn’t help him; I'm sure she feels bad too. You know she feels inadequate because she is the only 'normal' one," I told him.

  Not knowing what else to do, I walked over and leaned my head against his shoulder and rubbed his back for comfort. “Maybe you're right, I'll be patient and give her some space,“ he replied with a sigh.

  Mitchell and Quinn needed to talk. I excused myself and went to the kitchen to make Mitchell a drink. While I was in there, I heard a noise outside. I looked toward the door to the living room expecting the guys to come running, but they didn’t. I grabbed a flashlight from the kitchen drawer, quietly opened the back door and headed outside. I saw that the top had come off the trashcan. It could've been nothing more than a raccoon or a stray dog, but I kept looking. I searched around the yard and my light caught something as I passed over it. I went back over the spot and saw a set of eyes, wolf eyes, in the woods.

  The wolf stepped forward and strolled toward the house. My heart beat fast as I backed up trying to make my way back to the door. We were staring each other down, it knew what I was. Wait…I know those eyes…”Will?” I called out, “Will, is that you?” I started toward the wolf again and it growled and crouched into a position ready to pounce. This is crazy, Will's dead. I slowly backed up to the door, when I
went to turn the knob, it was flung open behind me and I was yanked inside.

  “What the hell are you doing, Parker?” Quinn exclaimed as he slammed the door and locked it. “You shouldn't be outside by yourself. What were you thinking?”

  Exasperated, I replied, “I heard a noise and went to check it out. I’m fine, nothing happened. Geez, you aren’t the only one with abilities around here. You've got to realize I'm not that fragile.” I pushed past him and went back to the living room. No one was there.

  “Where did Mitchell go?” I asked him.

  “He went home and said he would check on Jackie tomorrow and fill us in if there's any change. Look, I'm sorry I overreacted; I just don’t want anything to happen to you. You're safer on this side of the door because without an invitation…”

  I finished his sentence for him, “She can’t come in, I know the drill. It was a wolf out there though, not a vampire. I can handle myself with another wolf.”

  Quinn nodded, “I know, I know. I'll try and be a little less overprotective.”

  We headed upstairs to call it a night. Neither of us was having much success sleeping. Quinn turned on the lamp beside the bed and we sat up cuddled together. “I need to ask you something, it’s been bothering me a little since the day we were talking about changing Jackie.” I sat up thinking he was going to try and broach the subject again and I was prepared to argue when his question surprised me.

  “Do you want to have children?” A short laugh escaped me,

  “My goodness Quinn, it’s a little early to think about that isn’t it?” His expression didn’t change, he was quite serious.

  I responded, “Sure, I used to dream about being married and having kids, the whole shebang. But once I was changed to a werewolf, well, I figured it isn’t possible anymore. I'm not even sure I could have children now.”

  I’m not great at hiding my emotions and he knew what I felt when my eyes fell away from his. He lifted my chin to face him. “It’s possible. I’ve seen it happen.” My mood lightened.

  “What? How? Would they be a werewolf too though?”

  He shrugged, “They might, it’s like a genetic disease, they could have the gene or they may be perfectly normal. Vampires can’t have children though…” He stopped at that and I understood where this concern was stemming from. If it was my dream to have children, he would be a gentleman as always and leave so that I could pursue that with someone who could give me that child.

  Well, that was not what I wanted so I had to put a stop to his thinking. I leaned over and gently kissed his lips. “I want you, that's where my dreams are right now. There was a time I wanted children and it’s nice to know that it is possible, but if they're born with the werewolf gene, I've sentenced them to a life of terrible pain. If they don't have the gene, I've sentenced myself to the agonizing pain of watching my children grow old and die in front of me. Neither of those scenarios sounds like a dream life to me. So I understand what you're thinking and that you just want the best for me…but you're what's best for me.”

  That must have been exactly what he needed to hear because he grabbed my face and kissed me with such enthusiasm. I could hardly catch my breath as I was overwhelmed by the passion of this kiss.

  Quinn spent the next few nights with me and then it was time for my parents to come home. Things were still the same with Jackie, she kept making excuses not to come around and she was standoffish with Mitchell. She would only send me text messages with excuses why she couldn’t meet up with me. She didn't even show up for school and, when I tried to go to her house, her mom would tell me that Jackie didn’t want to see anyone. It was a bit frustrating. I began spending more time with Mitchell because Quinn was searching for the female vamp and didn’t want me left alone. He only had my best interest in mind and I understood that, but it was a bit annoying at times. He wanted to look for the vamp on his own after the run-in Mitchell had with her because he didn’t want to take a chance at her overtaking him again.

  Quinn and I hardly had alone time together anymore. When he was around, Mitchell was hanging out too because he had nowhere else to go. It wasn’t bad that he was hanging out more, I like Mitch and we were growing closer as friends, but three can be a crowd. For everyone’s sake, I had to figure out a way to get him and Jackie back together, to get my best friend back, and alone time with my sweetie too. The Halloween dance may be the answer to that. I needed to coordinate costumes for everyone and make sure that night would be perfect. There was only about a week to get things together.

  Since my parents were home, Quinn had to stay at his house but he texted me every few minutes to check in. I guess he felt better when I had a vampire babysitter instead of two normal humans. Spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread was the dinner I made for my parent’s first night back so we could catch up and I could hear all about their vacation.

  They had a great time in Seattle. They went to museums and up inside the Space Needle. They went to the Pike Place fish market and did a lot of shopping. They brought me home a t-shirt and a shot glass which has become a tradition when they travel. They also brought me a Starbucks coffee cup, the first one was opened inside the Space Needle. They took pictures of some of the spots around town that were featured in 10 Things I Hate About You which is another of my favorite movies.

  After hearing about their trip, and thinking about my week, I wished I had gone with them after all. Maybe if I had, Will would still be alive.

  They wanted to know about my time and what went on. Omitting all the dangerous stuff, I said that Mitchell, Jackie and Quinn stayed here with me most of the time. I told them that Quinn insisted on staying after Christine was murdered which is why I invited the others too so that we could have safety in numbers. And I told them that I knew they would feel better about me having a boy over if there were other people around as well. They bought that and actually said they were glad to hear it. I think I just won Quinn even more brownie points. They even suggested I invite him over for dinner soon so they could get to know him better. At this point, he would have to do something pretty bad to make them dislike him.

  Being the wonderful daughter that I am, I offered to do the dishes while they unpacked. Standing at the kitchen sink I looked out the window and there was the wolf again, watching me from the edge of the woods. I dried my hands on a dish towel and grabbed a bag of trash out of the can to take it outside. When I opened the trash can, there was a blood sheet inside that looked like the one we left in the cave.

  My body turned to face the direction of the woods and my eyes met with the wolf. It stood there watching me. There is no way it could be Will, he hasn’t been a wolf long enough to be able to change whenever he wants, he barely could contain himself when shifting. A full moon or uncontrollable anger is the only thing that could change him, so there's no way that could be Will. I was desperately trying to convince myself that I wasn’t crazy. If it isn’t Will, who is this wolf and why does it keep watching me?

  Chapter Thirteen