pressing my hands against the wound as I watch his face. “Don’t you dare fucking leave me,” I snarl, and I feel the soft, slow beat of his heart as it restarts. He’s alive, just. I look up and meet Thomas’ eyes as stares in shock, and I’m unable to stop it…
My creature takes over.
Drawn by my terror and panic, by the blood and the thought of almost losing Khalid. One moment, I’m on my knees, and the next thing I know, I’m stretching into the sky. Taller, skinnier. My hands hang down at my sides with claws at the end of them. Even my face changes, becoming almost skeletal. Horns twist into the air. Fangs drop over my lips. I am a mix between the creature and me.
Thomas stumbles back in terror as I roar at him, bloodlust and hunger consuming me. My vision turns red as my eyes bleed to black. I am unable to control it anymore, the creature is free.
My wendigo is here, and it wants payback for someone hurting what it claims as its.
“What the fuck?” he screams, raising his gun again. I’m moving, barely able to make sense of what’s happening, as if time is speeding up and I’m losing it. The creature is even taking control of that. The next thing I see is our hand swiping out and knocking the gun away, cutting through his arm with my claws at the same time. He falls back with a shriek, clutching his ruined arm as his wolf flashes in his eyes.
“Mine!” I roar, the declaration shaking the earth. It’s so animalistic, the screechy quality makes his ears bleed and his eyes nearly pop as my hunger shatters the air. To feed. To make him bleed. For the pain.
Blood.
Death.
It fills me and takes over my terror until it’s all I can see and feel.
I have a back seat view as my creature starts to rip into him, shredding off his skin. His screams fill the air, as does the scent of his blood as we tear him to pieces. I cringe as it licks and tastes his blood, but luckily, it doesn’t eat him before we step back and see his unmoving corpse.
Chest heaving and covered in blood, we look at Khalid, our hunger unsated, and that’s when I fight.
No! Do not hurt him, I beg
Feed, it hisses in my head.
Not on him, not ever.
Hurt us. Lied, it growls.
I know, but not him. Not ever, do you understand? He’s off limits.
Ours?
Ours, I agree mentally.
Heading closer, we pick him up and hold him gently in our arms. His heart is still beating, but it’s slow and he’s losing a lot of blood. I don’t know what was in the bullet or how fast he can heal, but we need to get him somewhere safe.
I carry him to the closest safe place. I can’t go back to the misfits because of the blood, it will send the vamps into a frenzy, even though my wendigo is calling to me. Daring me to taste the blood, to eat. Instead, I find an old, abandoned house nearby and rip open the cellar door, plunging us into the darkness below.
I don’t bother with a light, since I’m able to see in the dark, as I move through the long abandoned basement. The floor is a grey, scarred concrete. The ceiling is covered in wooden rafters with spiders in their webs, which hide when they spot me coming. There are boxes and sheet-covered furniture, and I find a sofa in the corner under a hole in the ceiling that lets some natural light in. I place him there gently, sitting him up as I crouch at his feet, watching him. I’m unsure what to do. I need to change back, but my fear and his blood is keeping me frozen this way.
I listen to the sluggish beat of his heart as those nearly see-through lashes flutter open to reveal his black eyes, and only then do I slump a little. He’s not out of the woods, but he’s getting there. I can’t think of anything else at the moment, not what happened…or what was said. Only that he survives.
“Leave me,” he hisses, making me frown.
“No, you didn’t leave me when I was healing. I’ll watch—”
He screams, his body jerking and contorting. The scream flows through me, making me growl as he slumps. Fresh blood drips from the wound until I can’t help it. My creature makes me lean forward, and