Tearing through the throng of people impatiently waiting to set foot inside the hippest Halloween season nightclub, Snow White and Blood Red (no one cared if the name wasn’t original since anyone who just got in was overjoyed). So many individuals just wanted inside to set rumors to rest--there were whispers around the city saying that vampires owned and ran the club. Little did they know how true that was, but the vampire workers kept their real identities secret. Fangs were easily accepted as fakes by the party-goers inside. Besides, the drunken mortals were too consumed with dancing badly and doing all they could not to end up alone before their short-spanned lives closed.

Bartending for the fifth night in a row, Terret Brooke, scowled at the intoxicated humans. “Pathetic,” she hissed as she sauntered over to the window that lead into the back. “Beckett,” she hissed.

Graceful as a cat, and as proud as one also, Beckett Raichel, a vampire male with ebony hair that hung down to the middle of his back. Dressed like a male-stripper, Beckett leaned against the bar counter and batted thick eyelashes at Terret. “Yes,” the deep voice held a silky smooth feeling to it.

“I need someone to talk to. I’m ankle-deep in mortality.”

Rolling dark eyes, Beckett laughed. “You need a different job, Terr,” he told her.

“No one believed mortals would actually step foot in here, Beckett. Had I known, I wouldn’t have applied for this job. But, now I can’t get out.”

Leaning closer, Beckett’s breath tickled Terret’s right ear. “The wolves,” was all he said.

Nodding, Terret’s eyes fell upon nothing in particular. “I’m afraid of them, Beckett,” she admitted.

Letting out a humorless laugh, Beckett agreed. “Who isn’t afraid of them--they tear our kind to pieces. Now, they’re starting to morph without the moon’s aid. We’re completely vulnerable to their rampages. Every night, another vampire death is heard of. I fear the day I hear a familiar name.”

“They’re braver now than ever. I see them when I come here, every night. If we didn’t have our guns with silver nitrate bullets, we’d be running scared.” Terret said as she brushed her hand against the cold, hard gun at her side. Like a security blanket, Terret felt comfort set in at the touch of metal.

Leaning evermore closer to Terret, Beckett’s whisper was unheard to all but Terret. “I hear there’ll be an ambush tonight. Keep your guard up.”

Watching Beckett strut into the back, where the weapons were updated constantly, Terret felt the hairs on her neck stand up. Keeping her cool, she eyed the crowd and spotted a suspicious male and female stroll into the doors. The woman had a iridescent blue dress on that barely concealed her private areas, while the male was completely covered with a long-sleeved, navy blue shirt. His dark brunette hair and beard set alarms off in Terret’s head. Werewolves… her brain screamed. The male was enough to tell her that.

Fidgety, Terret played it cool but never let her gaze leave the couple. Until closing time, the two posed no threat by dancing amongst the masses of mortals. But, they had an aura of lively immortals, ones that Terret could feel were dangerous. Old family of werewolves. Not too many left in this city--most are converts that were once mortals. I’ll be damned before letting those mangy animals turn humans in our club.

Trotting into the back, Terret’s urgent voice echoed through the arsenal. “Werewolves, on the dance floor!”

Jumping into action, a group of five vampire males raced out of the back armed and ready for a fight. Beckett was one of them, and Terret trembled when his shoulder brushed hers. For so long, a hunger for him had burned inside of her but was never satiated. Since he joined the hunt for werewolves, she found her attraction to him far more advanced.

Feeling hairs on their necks stand on end, the pair of werewolves turned and saw the group of vampires rushing forward. Letting out a low growl, the male named Gage Farelin, grabbed the female, named Maddox Reynold, by the hand and pulled her for the door. The throng of people didn’t seem phased by being shoved aside by the couple in a state of panic. “Gage,” Maddox whimpered as the vampires increased their speed.

“Just hold on, Mads, I’m working on it.” Gage growled as he dragged Maddox through the front entrance.

Increasing to superhuman speeds, the vampires chased the werewolves. Waiting until they were out of the humans’ visual range, the vampire pulled out the guns loaded with silver nitrate bullets. “Fire at will,” the front most vampire hissed before aiming.

Hearing the gun fire, Gage pushed Maddox aside and nearly slammed her onto the ground in attempts to save them both. Panting, he let out a nearly inaudible whimper. “Damn it,” he breathed as he scurried to his feet but staying hunched over behind a row of cars.

“Gage,” Maddox growled, angry at being shoved to the cold, hard concrete sidewalk.

Jerking his head to scowl at Maddox, Gage whispered, “Would you prefer being shot by their bullets?”

Remaining silent, Maddox continued to follow Gage as he swirved in and out of parked cars on the lot until they found a moment to pause. Close as they could be to their territory, and knowing that other werewolves would be gathered nearby, Gage howled to the brethren. Once the call was heard, help would arrive.

“Damn it,” a vampire hissed. “They’re calling reinforcements. Those filthy mutts, on our territory. Pretty ballsy.”

“Or pretty damn stupid.” Beckett added, stirring a chuckle from his fellow hunters. “If they’re going to up the stakes, so can we.” Pressing the flashing button on his cell phone, Becket signaled that trouble was coming. Soon, two dozen armed vampires would flood the area.

Pushing farther and farther to their territory, Gage and Maddox movement in the alleys nearby. Stepping in front of Maddox in a very macho gesture, Gage eyed the shadows. Flowing upon the wind was a strong, familiar scent that Gage immediately recognized as their pack. “Helps here, Mads.”

Turning around, Maddox caught sight of more vampires entering the fight. “There’s more of them,” she said warily.

“Shit.” Gage replied as he saw a vampire aim at him.

Ducking just in time, the SUV’s back glass and back right window blew up in thousands of sharp shards. Glass raining down upon his head and back, Gage was more concerned with the vampires than the glass. Cuts from glass he could live with, Silver nitrate bullet, well, he would rather face the glass. Feeling Maddox brush past him, Gage dropped to the ground and rolled closer to the front of the SUV. Within seconds, rapid bullets bit into the vehicle’s metal shell.

Scrambling on hands and knees, Gage faced the grill of the SUV. Stopping just for a brief moment, he caught his breath then hopped to his feet. Running towards the werewolf territory lines, Gage felt a bullet graze his shoulder. Letting out a cry of pain, he ducked into the closest alley. Squeezing his hand over the wound, blood seeped through his fingers. “Sh-hit,” he stretched the curse out.

Knowing that silver would hold the wound open until the next day, Gage quickly pulled out a roll of gauze and packed the wound with it and taped it down with white, medical tape. “Bastards,” he growled angrily as pain seared through his left arm at even a slight movement.

Soon, a full-blown battle raged in the streets. Guns from both sides blazed and coursed through anything that was in the way of the enemy. Vehicles and buildings lay in ruin the longer the feud raged. It wasn’t until the humans interruption that blood was shed.

Chapter2 ((Please bear with me and pretend that the full moon will occur on Halloween night, thanks))

After spending hours upon end trying to agree on an opening band, before what became an amazing concert, Taylor, Isaac, and Zac Hanson had finally given up on making a decision. Although the opening act would be essential two days later, moods conflicted with the process. It just seemed that Isaac felt the need to be completely contradicting and bitch about everything. After Isaac pointed out every detail that didn’t suit his uncalled-for bad mood, Taylor and Zac folded. Taylor went home and left Zac to “baby-sit” Isaac, with many complaints--the most prominent one being, “Why don’t you have to deal with this shit?”

After much consideration, Zac decided it was best not to leave Isaac alone to reek havoc upon the unsuspecting people around--no matter how much he wanted to. But, his surly older brother proved to be most unpleasant while in Zac’s electric blue Suburu. After arguing over radio stations, Isaac opened the car door, whilst the car was still moving, and attempted to get out.

“What the hell are you doing?” Zac shouted as he pulled the car over.

Without answering, Isaac stepped out of the car and slammed the door. Ignoring the frustrated growl of his freshly twenty-year-old younger brother, Isaac walked around in front of the shockingly blue car. In an effort to get his older brother’s attention, Zac let his foot off the brake and let his car nudge Isaac’s left leg. Obtaining a outraged glare and inappropriate hand gestures, Zac parked and leaned out his window. “Get back in the car!”

Continuing to walk away without so much as a glance back at the car and its owner, Isaac crossed his arms and continued walking. For a day away from Halloween, the weather was mild--fall seemed afraid to get cold for once. Usually Halloween was a night where children dressed up in thin-material costumes and froze their asses off as they went around for the candy, which would inevitably leave them with a sugar high for the remainder of the year. Vaguely concerned, Isaac wondered if Taylor would make his children endure some stupid costume just because it was Halloween. Bitter for some reason even unknown to himself, Isaac shook his head. ‘Dressing up in costumes wasn’t even the point of Halloween,’ he thought. ‘It’s an Irish tradition where the souls of the departed feast and some shit like that.’ Rolling his eyes at the sight of a jack-o-lantern, the aggression raged on… ‘And those! Hell, the tradition started out as radishes used for lanterns at night. Now, they’re pumpkins with poorly constructed faces.’ For a brief moment, Isaac wondered where his inner child happened to be right then. He really hated that he might be forever so bitter and dissatisfied with life.

The sound of a slamming car door and rapid footsteps, and not to mention the high pitched beep beep of the car being locked, alerted Isaac to the fact that Zac was following close behind. “Hey, what the hell is wrong with you today? We kicked ass at the show tonight, but all you’ve been is pissy.”

Remaining silent and gradually quickening his pace, Isaac ignored his younger brother. ’Yeah, that’s all that matters isn’t it? God forbid me have a bad day! Hell, it seems like every time I turn around anymore, Zac or Tay have something else to bitch at me over.’

“Hey!” Zac yelled, finally reached his maximum for being ignored while talking. Grabbing his older brother’s arm and spinning him around until they stood face-to-face, Zac let out a huff of withheld breath. “Tay might put up with your pity-party shit, but I don’t have to.”

Tugging his arm free of his brother’s steel grasp (Isaac seriously considered the thought that Zac’s hands could break anything, drum sticks, remote controls, metal street sign poles…well, about anything), Isaac glared before retaliating. “That’s all you think , isn’t it? I’m feeling sorry for myself? Damn it, that isn’t the case, not now, not for the past year! I’m just having a fucking bad day, you got that?” Turning away and storming away from Zac seemed the best idea Isaac had all day. The blood in his veins pounded against the walls containing it--specifically at his temples. The incessant pounding made his vision askew with weird colors and shapes forming.

Unwilling to let the argument end there, Zac trailed after his brother. “Oh no, you are not having the last say so in this,” his voice carried over the wind, which strangely grew stronger the past few seconds while everything else seemed to grow still. Little did the two rockers know they were headed down a path of a conflict making the brotherly disagreement seem miniscule on the scheme of things. Blood of innocents was being shed. And, two more innocents were constantly closing in.

/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\

“Damn it!” Gage roared as silver bullets grazed his back. So far, he’d escaped with minor gashes from the silver bullets traveling at the speed of sound. He could feel the blood seep out of the open wounds and wet his shirt and skin in warm, sticky streams. “When did these jackasses become sharpshooters?”

“They still aren’t or you’d be dead.” Madrid Klux retorted. Madrid was an “old timer” to Gage since he’d been a member of the pack for a century already. He’d outlasted some great werewolves, and he felt that he didn’t deserve to still be standing while the greats rested in old graves. But only one wolf outranked his age--the leader, the she-wolf, Fauna. She was so old that no one knew her age or her last name. Rarely ever did she speak except to the Wolf counsel, who made ninety percent of decisions. Fauna was the only one who possessed the ability to cure a human that suffered scratches from a werewolf, which were not as dooming as the bites but not exceedingly far from it. A bite left a person furry for each full moon for the rest of their immortal lives, a scratch could raise the blood pressure and irritability of a person or be as extreme as one step below full lycanthropy--a wolf. A wolf and a werewolf were often mistaken for the same thing, but they couldn’t be more different. The wolf appeared as any normal wolf in nature and can be completely controlled by the human psyche. The werewolf was not so kind and would attack its human--relatively speaking--lover without remorse (or at least until the night bled away).

“Forget it kid, we have worse problems.” Madrid’s grave tone of voice alarmed Gage completely.

Gazing out from around the alley, Gage saw the new predicament. Humans were running from all areas to catch a glimpse at the time-old enemies’ battle. Stupid as it was, the people had no idea how gruesome and dangerous their actions were. The beasts within the immortals would eventually take over and pay no attention to the innocents standing around, like vultures or the group of teenagers that gather around the two who are fist fighting in the hallways, constantly egging them on by feeding the raging fire with more fuel. Standing on what was presumed to be the sidelines, hagglers cried out taunts and lies to spark up more passion in the fighting.

Before long, the vampires rushed forward and caught the werewolves off guard. Teeth bared, and eyes glowing icy blue, the undead predators rampaged their furry foes by all means necessary--biting, ripping, spilling blood in any way they knew. True, they enjoyed the sweet nectar of werewolf blood because it was so delectably blended with power and strength compared to the blood of a human which was less bodied and weaker. But, the vampires looked down their noses upon any who dared to taste the blood of a werewolf, the hatred was just that strong.

Given no choice but to let their inner beasts out, the werewolves fought back, tooth and nail (literally). All of the werewolves present had the ability to shape shift--although the full moon was still a day from rising, the moon in the sky held enough potential to allow for shape shifting. Vampire blood stained the streets soon enough, but their reinforcements surged and avenged any that had fallen. The full-scale battle raged merciless until the point that the feud spilled into the sidewalks as humans tried to intervene (for some half-thought reasons, the people actually thought they had the ability to calm the chaos). Dozens of humans lay slain by mistake, and the titans proceeded to rip and tear into each others’ flesh. It was a utter blood bath as the crimson stains flooded the pavement.

/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\

Bickering without a clue as to what lay on streets not far from them, Isaac and Zac stood facing one another. “Just go home and leave me the hell alone!” Isaac finally concluded.

Letting out a humorless laugh, Zac shook his head. “Why should I leave you here to prey on innocent people?”

Not evening feeling the statement worthy of a verbal reply, Isaac merely flipped his younger brother off and stepped out into the crosswalk. Flexing his hands, forming fists then releasing them, Zac had enough. “Fine! Stay out here. I’m tired of your shit!”

Only glancing back once where he heard the Suburu’s engine start, Isaac smirked that he’d outlasted Zac in an argument, usually that didn’t happen. Sure, Isaac could just quit talking and not contribute to the argument when he got to his breaking point, but normally Taylor would try to calm the fires between his brothers (he found himself trying to reason out fights amongst his brothers more and more often in times of late since Zac would grow tired of listening to Isaac’s bitching).If pressed enough, all three of the brother’s fought back with a blazing temper, but Isaac’s fuse left few words and phrases safe. His blow ups would lead to Zac getting pissed off and adding to the blaze; and if the yelling and arguing went on for long enough, Taylor would join the fight and side one way or another. Then feelings would be hurt and sulking would be in order until the mood had leveled out and become civil once more.

Unforeseen by Isaac was the fact that Zac nearly tried to run him down with the electric blue Suburu. Leaping to the side of the crosswalk to avoid being a speed bump, Isaac just glared at the annoyingly obvious car. ‘You could spot that car for miles,’ he deduced. ‘I hope he never tries to pull any fast speeds in it because the cops could spot that sucker from anywhere. They’d have his ass in no time.’ Grinning at the thought of Zac’s reaction if he was ever stopped by the police, Isaac heard a slight splat noise beneath his low top, black, Converse Chuck Taylor shoes.

Glancing down at the asphalt, Isaac noticed it was wet. ‘Odd, it hasn’t rained lately,’ he thought, his mind wild with confusion. Stepping up onto the sidewalk, Isaac saw the crimson stains his shoes were making upon the pale gray concrete. “Oh shit,” he breathed as he backed up into a building wall.

Chapter 3

“That’s not blood,” he whispered to himself, failing to reassure any part of his mind. He was almost twenty-five and knew damn well that nothing was that red but pure oxygen exposed blood.

Glancing up, he saw it. The feud, the all out battle amongst immortals that was constantly contributing to the crimson pools. “What the fuck,” Isaac whispered as he watched with a numb mind as two leather-clad figures, with immensely elongated canine teeth, leaped up onto and over a SUV.

Although his mind screamed for him to just get the hell out of there, Isaac couldn’t control his body. What he saw wasn’t as unfathomable as he realized--he had witnessed a werewolf shape shifting before. But, he’d promised himself never to reflect upon that after it happened. Like the saying goes, “Out of sight, out of mind.”

‘You should have listened to Zac and got back in the car,’ a voice deep inside Isaac’s head said. ‘Great,’ he retorted. ‘Now my inner child decides to return from holiday.’

/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\

Maddox had suffered a taste of silver on her right cheek. The bullet just grazed her, but it left traces of silver that kept the wound from closing as it should. After scurrying away from the battle, she wasn’t the best fighter (she was rather a coward with all things considered), and hid in the farthest alleyway. Pressing the handkerchief one of her pack had handed her against her damaged cheek, Maddox curled up on the ground. ‘Where is Gage,’ she wondered hopelessly as she shook in terror. She prayed nothing had happened to him.

Gage was relatively fine as fine went. He was bleeding like mad from his back and shoulder (where a vampire had sunk its teeth into his neck before he tore open its chest). The shoulder was mending while the other wounds were silver crusted and refusing to heal. If he didn’t get out of the line of fire, figuratively, he would bleed to death. Indiscreetly, he pushed back towards the human residence. None of the pack tried to stop him, in fact they were headed the same way. The vampires were too dense in numbers to fight with only a portion of the pack (most of them were sound asleep in their homes or the “Den”).

In his escape-driven focus, Gage failed to notice the vampires awaiting him further down the sidewalk. He was sideswiped before he knew what happened, and the vampires wasted no time before sinking fangs into his back and shoulder. Snarling in fury and pain, Gage’s claws (he was not in full-wolf form, just enough of his wolf was present to have claws and razor-sharp teeth) tore at the undeaded. But, the creatures just held on tighter, making Gage roar out in frustration.

/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\

A roar range out loud and clear through the still night air, and Isaac knew enough from the past moment or two to realize it was definitely not an animal or even a human per say. Darting across the highway, but not without cringing at the quiet splats of his shoes hitting the damp-with-blood asphalt, Isaac spotted someone, a woman, curled up on the ground. Without thinking, he drew closer to see if she was in need of assistance.

This was mistake number Two. Number one had been leaving the utter safety of Zac’s Suburu. Had Isaac known the outcome of the night prior to walking away from Zac in anger, he would have definitely reconsidered his actions. Even escalated disagreement was better than what he faced.

/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\

Maddox, hearing acute and fuctioning, heard someone approaching. Tensing up, she feared the worst had come to pass. She feared vampires had found her at a most vulnerable time. But what she looked up to see shocked her more.

‘A human,’ she realized the moment she saw him, caught his scent (beneath the cologne was a normal human scent not the distinct stench of hidden death of a vampire or the sage and forest-like aroma of a werewolf, just sweat, nature oils, and testosterone). Still unsure of how to react, she didn’t want to give away what she was or to startle the human before her. He held a vibe that created a thick tension without adding the reaction to her werewolf nature.

Rising up to her feet, Maddox turned her head and pulled away the handkerchief. ‘Covered in blood,’ she thought as her stomach tightened. ‘Surely, he’ll notice something’s amiss with that. Human’s can’t bleed this much and not lose consciousness.’

Steadying her stance and placing the handkerchief back over her wounds, which were not fully healed, Maddox stepped back into the darker shadows. Knowing the streetlights couldn’t reach that far, she felt safe from exposing her true nature to the human.

/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\

Pausing before proceeding into the dark alley, Isaac noticed the woman stare up at him, eyes probing the darkness to rate him to be a potential threat or not. Confused when she scurried onto her feet and into the darkness, he couldn’t help but notice her eyes. ‘They’re exotic. Contacts perhaps?’ Reflecting upon what he had witnessed, the woman’s eyes could not have possibly been contacts since they changed colors upon watching him. Starting out a shimmering amber gold, they had darkened to a brass color as she rose onto her feet.

With a cold, sinking feeling, Isaac cut through the dimensions of fact and fiction. ‘No person has eyes like that,’ his brain told him. That’s when everything came crashing down.

/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\

Managing to free himself of one vampire attacker, Gage spun around and slammed the remaining vampire against walls in vain attempts of knocking her off of his back. During the scuffle, one of her canine teeth broke off into the flesh of his shoulder and was burning like a red-hot knife in his skin. Reaching behind his head, Gage sunk his claws into the creature’s neck. Hearing a strangled cough, he tightened his grip until a sickening snap sounded. The lifeless body grew limp and fell away, and Gage quickly pulled out the lodged canine from his skin.

Seeing more vampires racing towards him with their superhuman speed, Gage ran like hell. Cutting across the street, Gage turned and saw the vampires leap up into the air, heading straight for him. With his back turned, Gage had no idea what was behind him. Or who was behind him.

As the vampires slammed into Gage’s chest, they knocked him back. Before falling back against a wall then crashing onto the concrete alley floor, Gage’s claws had gotten hung up on…something, or so Gage thought. But the pained cry had told him he was mistaken. He even thought he heard Maddox’s panicked voice over the chaos in his own head.

Chapter 4

After nearly twenty-five years of life, Isaac had a certain understanding of the world. More often than not it lead to the point of “Shit happens.” Not the most respected way of putting it, but everyone understands it and accepts it. Only the philosophers try to fancy it up, but no matter the words involved, the meaning remains exactly the same. Even though “shit happens,” Isaac figured he had witnessed his fair share of problems--little trivial things like trying to run for his life out of that packed-to-the-brink Paramus Park Mall when he was about seventeen to the incessant aggravation (putting it nicely) of dealing with the assholes at IDJ, and even dealing with the pressures of owning a company with his brothers. Problems, not all life-altering (although the IDJ one was an exception), but the term didn’t suit what had come to play.

Realizing seconds too late that chaos was behind him, Isaac had slightly turned just in time to see a man with what appeared to be claws being bombarded by more figures with elongated canines. With no time to react and step out of the way, Isaac felt several sharp pains tear across his right shoulder before the battling “people” fell to the ground beside him. Searing pain crept in, and Isaac stumbled back against the opposite wall. Clasping his left hand to his injured back, Isaac winced at the white-hot pain that shot through him at the slight brush of his hand.

Pulling his left hand back, Isaac’s eyes widened at the thick, crimson stains covering his palm. “Shit,” he whispered before black spots started to fill his vision and fog began to settle in over his mind. Sliding down the wall to the concrete ground, Isaac saw the woman from the shadow’s rush forward towards him. Then, darkness consumed every single one of his senses.

/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\

Rushing forward as the human fell to the concrete, Maddox gingerly touched the gashes on his back. “Damn,” she whispered after pulling her hand away and discovering how much blood clung to her hand. Glancing over to her right, she saw Gage was in serious peril as the vampires bit and tore into his flesh.

For once, her cowardly behavior subsided and she let out a deep growl. Focusing, she felt her body begin to shift into its werewolf form. Bones snapped as skin stretched and molded to the body taking shape. Before the change could take place, a rush of werewolves leapt into the alley and attacked the vampires until blood stained the pale concrete. Letting her body shift the little that had changed, Maddox stretched while watching her fellow werewolves finish their attack.

Dropping back down to the concrete, Maddox examined the human’s wounds closer. ‘They’re terribly deep,’ she thought to herself.

Movement distracted Maddox, and she looked up to find Gage hovering near her. “Look what you’ve done,” she cried out, voice wavering.

Taken back, Gage just stared at the distraught werewolf. “I didn’t mean for it to happen,” he muttered.

“We should have never come tonight, Gage. I told you we shouldn’t go into vampire grounds, I told you!”

“I didn’t know it would escalate this far.” Gage growled.

Pulling the ripped button down shirt away so Gage could see his claws’ handiwork, Maddox watched Gage turn a little green. “He’s going to bleed out if we don’t stop it.”

Like magic, Madrid appeared and handed Maddox his jacket, which was already stained with blood. Applying pressure to the wounds, Maddox glanced over at Gage (who was cursing silently). “Gage.”

“It was an accident, Mads. I had no time to look behind me when being attacked.”

“I know.” Simple as that. Maddox knew Gage hadn’t scratched the human on purpose, but it didn’t make the situation better. All of the werewolves knew what the gashes meant since Gage had been semi-morphed at the moment of the incident.

“He’ll turn tomorrow, like all of us.” Gage whispered to no one, his eyes screwed up to stare at the clouded over moon. A shiver ran through his body at the thought of what had happened--he never forced the life of a werewolf on anyone, and the vampires had changed all that.

“What will the council say?” Maddox whispered, drawing Gage from his thoughts.

‘Counsel,’ he thought worriedly. “Oh God, Mads. They’ll surely banish me. We’re not suppose to foul up around humans.”

Trying to be reassuring after realizing she happened to be stressing Gage out, Maddox eased her voice back into a soft but normal conversation tone. “They won’t banish you, Gage. It couldn’t be helped.”

Face in hands, Gage rocked back and forth upon his heels. Everything had been so good for him lately, and being banished would tear apart all of his dreams. Just recently, he and Maddox learned they were mates. Banishment would force him away from her, and Gage was frightened at the thought. “What have I done,” he whispered to himself, inaudible to all else, even Maddox.

/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\

After another werewolf picked up the human, Maddox laced her arms around Gage’s waist and leaned her head against his shoulder. “Gage,” was all she said.

“What are we going to do if I’m banished, Mads?”

“I’ll go with you.” Maddox hated the thought of leaving the pack, but Gage was her mate. Werewolves had favored one mate for their immortal lives, and Maddox knew if she wasn’t with Gage, she would never find another mate meant especially for her. Fate doesn’t make mistakes, and Fate had lead her to Gage. He’d been a werewolf for a few years before Maddox was born; unlike his mate, Gage had suffered a werewolf bite at ten and ran away from his home to join the local pack. It had been a rogue werewolf who’d attacked him, and it had been one last effort to show the others their approach on fighting the vampires was all wrong. The message was heard loud and clear, but it didn’t not affect the fighting. So, Gage’s curse ended up meaning nothing, which left a lasting emotional scar.

Gage was about thirty, in human years, when Maddox reached twenty (a legal werewolf age for hunting or wandering about alone). It wasn’t long before they realized they belonged together. But, Maddox still hadn’t reached total maturity, and she wouldn’t until the following evening. Halloween would be the start of her mating period, as it would be to many more female werewolves. All Hallow’s Eve, as it was called by several elder immortals, left much of the werewolf clan preoccupied. A perfect time for the vampires to come together and form an attack upon their foes. They knew it, and the creatures of the night already worked on end to create the perfect plan. It wasn’t until they saw the slip up Gage made that their plans furthered. Opposition pauses for no one and no time.

Chapter 5

Hovering around while the medical team, which belonged to the werewolves and consisted of werewolf members, examined the human, Gage and Maddox were jittery. The counsel had been alerted to what had happened and what had lead to the attacks. Gage feared the worst, as did Maddox (who kept her opinions silently in her bewildered brain). Once the team had appeared to conclude their examinations, Maddox spoke up. “Will he be all right?”

“If all right means not turning completely werewolf, but still infected with the lycanthropy genes, then yes, he is all right.” One of the medical specialists snapped.

The nicer of the team said gently, “We really should keep him until after tomorrow, in case our diagnostics turn up wrong. He appears to have missed the majority of the disease, but he will still be affected by the full moon tomorrow night.”

Maddox and Gage nodded like good little school children before their teacher. Once they left, Maddox refused to leave the room. Intensely determined to watch over the human, she curled up in the sturdy, but comfy royal blue armchair. Zoning in and out, Maddox would watch the unconscious man’s back rise and fall with deep slumber. The poisons carried in the lycanthropy disease put all humans under. A few cases even resulted in humans not waking back up, but those were scarce cases. ‘That won’t happen.’ Maddox tried to reassure her still shaken mind. So much had happened in the past few hours that she was exhausted. ‘If something goes amiss, Gage will be sentenced to exile, or even worse, death.’ Shaking her head, Maddox attempted to rid herself of negative thoughts. ‘Don’t think like that. Nothing will go wrong; if it was going to, it would have already happened.’

Staring closer at the man, Maddox was curious to his identity. ‘I wonder who he is.’ In the back of her mind, she certainly believed him to be someone famous. People just aren’t so attractive and not famous--well, sometimes, that isn’t true, but that was besides the point. Maddox didn’t know that Gage was solving out who he had attacked while she wondered. While mulling over her suspicions of who the man could be, Maddox fell asleep.

/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\/*\

Hearing familiar music playing, Isaac felt himself starting to wake up from a slumber. The closer and closer that he got to the surface of consciousness, Isaac realized how well he knew the song being played. Hearing, “Sitting on the side/ Waiting for a sign/ Hoping that your luck will change,” made Isaac scrunch his face up. He was most definitely not in the mood to suffer through “Weird.” Some days, nothing is pleasant, not even people’s own accomplishments. Upon realizing the source of the music sat only a foot away, Isaac knocked the high sitting table over with his foot.

When the music stopped, he sighed in relief. His head felt like it was splitting in two parts. Little did he know something rather similar was occurring within his entire body. It was attempting to connect to itself but was being rejected by the lycanthrope genes. An equivalent would be trying to arm wrestle with Superman or any person with superhuman strength. Eventually, the human genes would subside and let the lycanthrope ones take over. That, quite simply, was the problem. The change could not be stopped, and nightfall would pose the biggest threat that Isaac had known his whole life.

“Well, Mads, even he doesn’t like his own music.” Gage joked while stretched out upon a couch.

Remembering what had happened before passing out, Isaac bolted up and stared at Maddox and Gage. “Who are you, what the hell’s happened to me?”

Glancing over to Maddox, Gage waited to see if she would go first for introductions. She didn’t volunteer to do so, so Gage went first. “My name is Gage Farelin.”

“I’m Maddox Reynold.”

Eyes darting from the open Cd player on the floor to the two strangers in his presence, Isaac knew from the fact that they knew about “Weird” that they knew who he was. “I guess you already discovered who I am,” he said cautiously. He waited for their nods, then went straight to digging for the answer to the question burning in his brain: Where was he? But there was another question that should have been more important: Why was he there?