Suddenly it changes

Violently it changes

There is no turning back now

You’ve woken up the demon in me

--Disturbed. “Down With the Sickness”

It was sort of like being drunk, or taking that first dizzying drag on a cigarette (not that he’s smoked since he was about fourteen), Jez thought, circling in the wood behind camp, waiting to change. His head spun, he felt reckless, invincible, and his senses sharpened frighteningly. He leaned up against a giant oak tree, then sank to its roots, the back of his white t-shirt catching on a shirt, ragged branch and tearing all the way down his back. He didn’t care. He’d have shredded it anyway by the end of the night, along with his pale grey boxers. After dinner he’d pleaded a stomachache and convinced a worried Victoria that if he just went back to the tent alone and got some rest, he’d be fine. He had also employed the help of Johnny, who could hopefully keep Victoria occupied for a while, and perhaps some up with a plausible excuse as to why Jez was not in the tent when she finally wandered off to bed.

He dreaded having to tell Victoria his secret. Just because she was a vampire didn’t make what he was any more acceptable. In fact, it kind of made it worse. Weren’t vampires and his kind supposed to be mortal enemies? Wasn’t it written that way in every comic book, every movie and teen novel? What they were should’ve been wrong, but he loved her so much…

It couldn’t be wrong.

His body began to tingle, pins and needles all over, and he stretched, shaking his limbs and rolling his jaw. His fingers and toes burned. He checked the sky.

The sun, hanging low on the horizon, cast an eerie red glow over the treetops and he was reminded of his own hometown, where it always looked like sunset, autumn, blood.

The still pale moon peeked through a wisp of cloud and his claws shot out. His back arched hard against the tree and he banged his golden head against the trunk.

The sun sank even lower over the trees, and the first sharp fangs pierced his bottom lip. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. Mare fangs slid into place. He clenched his jaw and a low growl issued from the back of his throat. He felt his spine start to shift, the first pricklings of fur all over his body. Then the moon burst completely into view and the sun slipped away.

The pain of changing was indescribable, especially to someone like him who was used to healing at the bat of an eye. His entire body burned, and then it felt as though ice was racing through his veins. His boned melted, re-molded. His muscles tightened.

A deep, powerful, all-over ache, and then, he was changed.

-

Victoria had finally gone to bed in a state of distress, despite Johnny’s reassurances that Jez had probable just gone for a walk to get some fresh air and would be back when she woke up. She certainly wasn’t about to fall peacefully asleep when the love of her life was off in the wilderness, maybe seconds away from being attacked by wolves.

A long, low howl drifted towards her on the wind, and she shivered and pulled Jez’s old crocheted blanket tighter around her thin shoulders, wondering when she’s become so damn dependant on him. She needed the comforting, heavy weight of his arm slung around her in order to fall asleep. She needed to press her cheek to his chest or bury her nose in the crook of his neck and breathe in his sent, like musk and grass and, very faintly, her own perfume.

They spent way too much time together.

Another howl, closer this time – not more than a mile off. It sent a strange thrill through Victoria’s spine, felt almost familiar. Scary, but at the same time safe. Just like Jez.

Everything was silent for a few minutes, and she began to dose off slightly, in spite of herself. Then, suddenly, racing, crackling leaves behind the tent. Someone moving back there.

Or something.

Victoria stiffened, wrapping the blanket so tightly around her that it was almost uncomfortable. She didn’t dare let go. Whatever was out there in the woods, well…It certainly wasn’t anyone she knew.

The footsteps drew closer. It was right next to her, whatever it was, circling the tent on padded feet. It nudged the tent flap, and something made her crawl across the sleeping bags and backpacks, push aside Jez’s All-Stars, and, still clutching his blanket to her chest, unzip the flap.

She stared into two very familiar, big, bright brown eyes, set deep in the golden face of a…

Wolf.

End of Book I.