Half Bitten

“What the hell were you thinking!” Alec screamed as he dragged me out of the alleyway. “You are actually stupid enough to run outside in the middle of a vampire city!” I tried to dig my feet into the ground but his hold on my arm was strong enough to throw me across the street.
“I’m sorry! I didn’t know what I was thinking. All I wanted was to get away from him!”
When we stepped on the other side of the street, Alec stopped to face me still huffing. “Why? What did he do that was so bad?”
I looked into his green eyes with my eyebrows arched down, trying to hold back my tears. “Please don’t make me remember.”
Alec took a few seconds to study my face and after seeing the sadness he sighed and pulled me close enough for an appropriate hug. “God, Jackie. I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”
I stayed in his arms for a few seconds. “How did you find me?”
“Easy,” he smiled and then started to lead the way down the street. “I didn’t smell you at the club.”
“Nice to know I smell.” After glowering, I walked beside him. “But how did you pick up my scent?”
“At the house, when I hugged you.” Alec glanced to me for an answer. After reading my confused expression he tilted his head back and laughed. “What? You think I hugged you because I was expressing a fancy to your person? No. I was getting your scent.”
Somehow, I felt more violated. “Is that why you gave me your coat too?”
He leaned his head from side to side. “More or less. But that was also a cover. See, Lane wasn’t going to let us in with a new person. You either had to be a member of our vampire coven, or a girlfriend. Which explains why Darby held you the way he did.”
I lulled over his words. “Well, why didn’t you act like my boyfriend? Judging by our past…”
“Because Darby called dibs.”
I stopped walking, which caused Alec to do the same, reluctantly. “So, you and Darby talked about who my fake boyfriend would be without my say in the matter?”
“Rufus was the referee.” Alec shrugged and started to walk again. “So, why was that guy following you anyway? I mean, I trust he still thought you were a vampire.”
I bit my lip. “He figured it out. At first, he didn’t know what I was. When he came to realization,” I paused to take a breath. “Let’s just say, I suddenly became irresistible.”
Alec nodded after filtering the information and quickened his pace. “Mmm. Well, we can’t have you being irresistible now can we? Stupid genes.”
“No one else seemed to figure it out though. I guess everyone was too busy dancing, but there was something really different about the bartender.”
“How so?” Alec turned his attention back to me.
“He had a warm quality about him.” I gasped at the thought. “Maybe he was a werewolf.”
“Well, it would certainly explain why two of them showed up so quickly.”
“But why would they voluntarily bring themselves to Darculaville?”
Alec stopped walking for a second. “They must’ve known you’d be there. Who else would be as important? The question is, how they knew you’d bless the place with your presence.”
I strained my mind to think of any way information could have been leaked to the outside world. It wasn’t as if we planned this intently, if anything it was in the spirit of the moment. “Lowlii.”
Alec raised his eyebrows in confusion. “Huh?”
“He imprinted on me. You know how that works—two minds become one.”
“Maybe so.” Alec agreed.
I gasped once again. “What if that werewolf was Lowlii? Oh my god! I told him to get away from me!” at that moment exactly, the tears found their way to the surface of my eyes. “The one person I loved—I told to leave me alone!”
Alec laughed to my distress and began to resume his normal walking pace. “No, that in no way was Lowlii.”
“How do you know?” I whined incoherently.
“If Lowlii caught me with his girlfriend, do you think he’d have the audacity to leave me in one piece? Seriously, Jackie, for a girl you’re very clueless.”
“Then who was the werewolf?”
“Who else? The bartender, Stallon.”
I stared at Alec with what little confusion I had left. “How did you know his name was Stallon?”
In response, he started to walk faster. “Okay, so I admit. I’ve been keeping closer tabs on you than I lead to believe.”
“Why are you walking so fast?” I asked in an annoyed manner.
“Because, our parents are going to be back home in three hours and we still need to get into Canada.”
“I didn’t realize your vacation house was in Canada.”
Alec laughed and walked a couple more feet and stopped at a silver Volvo. “Get in.” he said quickly.
“Whose car is this?” I inquired.
“Please, spare me the guilt trip. Everyone else left already. It’s our only choice.”
I shook my head in protest. He rolled his eyes and laid his hand the car door handle. “Now, do as I say or I’ll leave you here to die.”
I don’t know how he managed to open the door without having the car screech and break the silence of the night. I sat in the front passenger seat cautiously. “Now that I’m in the car, will you tell me who is belongs to?”
Alec smirked as the engine rumbled underneath us. “Some idiot named Edward. But it’s okay, he’s supposed to be in Italy anyway.”
When we arrived to the vacation house, it was clear that dinner was about to start. The smell of meat sizzling and vegetables being fried littered the air. Clearly, going through the front or backdoors would cause havoc, seeing as how the first floor was the center of activity.
“What do we do now?” I whispered to Alec.
“Do you trust me?” Alec let his mind wonder.
“No.” I answered truthfully.
He smirked lightly and reached for my hands. “Good. Close your eyes.”
Only after I was pushed through the guest bedroom window, did I know what was going on. I had half a mind to close the window on Alec but he was in the room before I could firmly plant my feet on the carpeted floor. After hearing my dad call my name, I had to overlook my anger and change as quickly as possible. I knew I wouldn’t be able to devise a clever reason as to why I was wearing party clothes and it would only be a matter of time before everything else would slip out.
The vampire drenched city, the almost-raping of my humanity, and the now devoured vampire corpse of the animal responsible for the almost-raping of my humanity.
I was practically sprinting down the hall to the dinning room because Alec held me by the arm, as much as he tends to do.
“Would you hurry up?” he glowered.
I rolled my eyes. “Well, excuse me. I had to change back into your cheap shirt.”
“If your father catches us together…” he sneered.
Of course, his feeble attempt to keep boundaries trailed with lines in the sand withered away when we were the only ones to arrive during dessert. Ms. Rolands and my father both put their forks down as they directed their attention towards us. Rufus and Darby managed to increase the speed in which they ate, while Sadie and Becca looked at us sharing the same shocked expression.
“Where were you?” Ms. Rolands questioned with kind eyes, however, something told me that Alec didn’t perceive it as kindness.
“We were just in the loft.”
“We checked there.” My father stated. “No sign of both of you.”
“Well, how long ago did you check?” I swallowed hard.
My father pursed his lips into a fine line. “Jackie Auburne, where have you been? And what have you been doing with Alec?”
Seeing the hurt in my father’s eyes caused my mind to go numb. I was ready to spill my guts, about everything, and not just tonight.
“I brought her cliff diving.” Alec raised his voice confidently. “It was an apology for the way I acted Christmas dinner. She was the guest, I had no right to behave the way I did.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Rufus conceal his smirk.
“You went cliff diving?” my father’s eyes bulged out in shock. “How—wait—you took her? She went willingly?”
Alec smiled, “she didn’t want to go. She said that she didn’t want to disrespect you by leaving. The fact that we’re both late is my fault. No one else’s.”
I couldn’t believe what was going on. I wanted to scream and tell my dad the truth, but I was selfishly held in my spot, without uttering a sound.
“Well, I guess I can’t punish you for that.” Ms. Rolands smiled. “Who knew I raised such a gentleman?”
What was left of the New Years Eve dinner, the part I was blessed enough to be a part of, went by surprisingly fast. We finished well before midnight and ended the day watching fireworks on the big screen television. I took it upon myself to close my eyes for a few seconds and woke up to the sound of Alec’s watch ringing. I groaned in return.
“Someone’s a little tired.” Alec whispered into my ear after yawning.
Looking around the living room, I noticed that we were the only two there. “Where’s everyone else?”
“Asleep in their bedrooms. They called it a night as soon as dinner was over. I’m surprised you lasted as long as you did.” Alec smiled once again, and then shifted his body slightly to the side.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” I moved away from him after realizing that I was practically sleeping on his lap. “I didn’t know I was doing that.”
He shook his head in protest. “No, it’s fine. It’s the least I owe you. I must’ve been high or something—I shouldn’t have let you go into that club.”
I rolled my eyes. “Stop being that way. You’re sounding like my father.” after finding a comfortable position on the opposite side of the couch, I began to close my eyes. I would’ve returned to picture Lowlii’s face in happiness if it wasn’t for Alec flicking my forehead.
“Uh—just what do you think you’re doing? It’s three o’clock in the morning.”
“Alec, I know vampires are immortal, but I’ll find a way.” I threatened. “Please let me sleep.”
He flicked my forehead once more. “You have to pack, we have school in five and a half hours.”

It wasn’t as if I was looking forward to cramming my head with mind numbing lessons no one needed, or even seeing my teachers. It was because my heart was looking forward to seeing Lowlii, that I was so happy.
“What’s got your panties in a twist?” My father asked as we took our seats in the hummer. We managed to dig up an old lift for the truck so we could ride with the rest of the Rolands. For my father, it was riding with Ms. Rolands.
“He means to ask, ‘what’s making you so happy?’” Alec translated for me after seeing my confused expression.
“Yeah,” My father agreed. “Haven’t seen you this happy for school since kindergarten.”
“Well, at least I’m out of school.” Rufus said with smirk. After crossing his arms behind his head, he closed his eyes and angled his face up as if he was sun bathing. “All I have to do is unpack and sleep.”
Darby, who was sitting right next to him, followed the same action except in a mimicking manner. After Rufus heard my laughter he turned to Darby and punched him hard enough that he lost balance off his car seat.
“Stop giving him hope.” Alec whispered into my ear.
“What are you talking about?”
He rolled his eyes and continued to whisper. “Darby? You know he’s only doing that to get your attention.”
“What are you guys whispering about, back there?” Ms. Rolands moved her glare from the street to the rear view mirror.
“Our algebra homework.” Alec said quickly, “We’ve had the same class for the past school year.”
After hearing his words my eyes widened. Alec noticed and started to laugh. “Don’t worry, you could copy mine when we get to school.”
“Ha!” Sadie snickered. “Can you imagine how much crap we’re gonna get from The Whites after they see her coming out of our car?”
“Bring, it, on.” Becca smiled amusingly. “I can take those stupid dogs anytime or anywhere.”
“Easy guys.” My dad cautioned. “The Whites are still really great friends of Jackie’s. I don’t know why though.” It was clear my dad’s hatred was not going to be erased.
“We’re definitely much more exciting than them.” Rufus muttered sleepily.
“Yeah!” Darby exclaimed. “Especially with what happened last night.” The car suddenly became quiet. I tried not to make eye contact with anyone, regretting the fact that I should’ve known better than to lie to my father. The truth was going to come out eventually and the fear that it would come out sooner rather than later would forever more linger above my head.
“What happened last night?” Ms. Rolands questioned.
Darby was unable to speak due to the concussion Rufus’s hand blessed him with. “Nothing, Mom.”
Before she could question us once more Becca brought up the need for entertainment. “Would you please turn up the volume on the radio? If we’re here for the next five hours, I’m going to need something to distract me.”
The music soon filled the air in the car and even my father enjoyed its presence. One thing that I hadn’t noticed about songs before was that almost all of them were about love. The pain it caused when it was no more in the lives of the lovers. Or the happiness and level of elation it gave that blessed those lives. After about five songs Alec began to grow impatient and urged Ms. Rolands to change the station. She said no, and turned the volume higher. Everyone else was asleep so they were fortunate enough to miss the bickering. I was beginning to fall asleep myself until we entered Port Angeles. At the first sight of food, Ms. Rolands stopped driving. Becca and Sadie were out of the car before it was set to park. Rufus and Darby practically wrestled each other out the car door, arguing about who would get the bathroom first. When I lifted myself up off the car seat Alec stopped me.
“Hey, Mr. Brown, would you be kind enough to order for Jackie and I?”
My father shrugged and after seeing no harm he said he would. Alec watched closely as Ms. Rolands and my father stepped into the McDonalds before jumping into the front seat. “Where’s that dang spare key?” he mumbled to himself while he looked through the storage compartment. After finding it he threw it in the air and caught it once again.
“Alec, I don’t think it’s a good idea to steal your brother’s car.”
He rolled his eyes and put the key into the ignition. “Who said I wanted to steal it? This music station is really getting on my nerves.” I waited till he sorted through the channels to find one likable.
“So, why am I here?” I questioned.
“Well, it’s no fun getting into trouble alone now is it?”
As much as I liked to agree, I didn’t want him to know his own power.
“Well, wake me up when we get to school.” Alec said while closing his eyes. I didn’t bother to answer; in fact, I was waiting until he would start snoring so I could turn off the toneless music he let into the car. After a couple of minutes the music was off and I could hear the sounds of nature. I never really noticed how peaceful Washington was compared to Texas. Although, I never recalled seeing vampires and werewolves there, something about Washington was still very inviting.
In some way the peacefulness many ignorantly saw was a sugarcoat concealing the true creatures that parade around in the night. Finding the air soothing, I closed my eyes and began to hear the sounds of the outside world.
“So, you mean no one knows where she is?” footsteps accompanied the hearty voice as it spoke in a hushed tone. “What if they really got her?” he wondered in dread.
“They didn’t.” another warm voice matching the same tone protested. “Trust me. Every member of the pack who is as healthy enough is looking for her. James said he saw their truck drive out of town to Vancouver around Christmas time.” The second voice continued to state its opinion.
I tried to make sense of the words being spilled into my unready mind. What pack?
“She won’t be fine.” The first voice growled a familiar rumble, causing a shiver to go down my spine. “If the vampires caught her —there’s no telling how powerful they’ll become, who they’ll attack next.”
I tried not to gasp or let my heart fall to the pit of my stomach. Judging by the voices, I knew that the people talking were part of the Hopi tribe and I knew all to well that the girl they were talking about was me.
“What if they’re not looking for her? What if those attacks weren’t committed by vampires?”
“No,” the second voice protested again. “ They’ve always been looking for her, for centuries they searched. And have you seen the bodies and the bite marks they carried? Those puncture marks could only be made by a vampire.”
I could barely handle my nerves. I glanced over to Alec in fear. He didn’t look as if he could be the one to take someone’s life despite his attitude or the words he spoke with, and that was what scared me the most.
“What’s that smell?” one of the voices questioned.
“They must be back in town. Let’s go meet the rest of the pack and tell them.” The next answered.
After the footsteps disappeared, tears started to trickle down my cheeks. Because of my dad’s cunning ways, no one knew where I was.
Lowlii didn’t know where I was.
For a person like him, it would only take a couple of seconds to come to the conclusion of death. Even the way the pain of his death would affect me would cause my body to sleep until my heart could not function once more. The fact that I was selfish enough to love him did not give me the right to impose on such a beautiful creature’s life.
After the rest of the Rolands and my father made their way back to the car I waited as patiently as I could until we arrived to school. Rufus exercised his power of free will and practically mocked us out of the car as Sadie and Becca snuck off campus. Darby stayed in the car seeing as how he wasn’t old enough for high school.
“Hey, Jackie! Don’t worry, just six more months and I’ll be there! We could party then, babe!” He yelled out with a smile.
I couldn’t find the strength to respond nicely.
“Well, have a good day.” Alec wished a couple of seconds before the bell rang. “I’ll see you in class right?”
I nodded lightly to his smile and walked away. I couldn’t bear myself to go. My whole day comprised of checking the halls for Lowlii then waiting for lunch only after not finding any familiar faces in the hall between classes. Even Steph, Amber, and Kindle were gone. I thought I saw Nathan but the guy looked battered up and tired that after a second glance, he didn’t look like Nathan at all. Since I didn’t report to fourth period, I ended up to be the first and only person in the cafeteria waiting for the lunch bell to ring. After arriving at the table and not being able to see Lowlii’s face, I allowed my heart to fall into pieces.
“I lasted long enough anyway.” I muttered to myself while wiping the tears away. Realizing that it was only seconds until my eyes were to turn puffy and pink, I made my way to the cafeteria bathroom door and stopped.
“Hello? Is anyone in there?” I asked in response to the pained panting on the other side. After no answer I pushed the door open slightly. “Are you okay?” The breathing that responded back to me made me realize that the person behind the door was truly hurt. I pushed it open and allowed my eyes to search the bathroom floor. On it stretched a battered body, almost lifeless.
“Nathan?” I mumbled in shock after crashing down on the floor next to him. Turning him onto his back, I noticed that he had a gash on his stomach in which the blood was flowing out of. I looked to his face, trying to see if he was still awake. “Nathan—tell me who did this to you?”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for anyone to see me in here. The bell hasn’t rung yet, and I thought no one would come in until then.” He sighed wearily after recognizing my voice. “ Jackie? What—where have you been?”
I tried to explain briefly. “My father, he’s been dating Ms. Rolands. I was out of state most of the vacation. We stayed at their house up in Canada.”
“We thought they kidnapped you.” he remarked, closing his eyes once again.
“No, no they didn’t.” I put my hand on his chest to feel his heartbeat. It was slow and unsteady. “You need a doctor.”
“No.” he protested. “We heal fast. I’ll be fine in a couple of minutes.”
“In a couple of minutes?” I tried not to cry. “Are you kidding? Do you know what could happen in a couple of minutes?”
Still continuing to breathe heavily, he let the corners of his mouth stretch up. “I could scarf down three cheeseburgers.”
My tears suddenly turned into drops of anger. “Nathan! You’re dying and all you could do is make jokes! I’m bringing you to a doctor.”
“And tell the guy what?” Nathan asked with no intention of hearing my answer. “I got this gash because I was fighting a vampire. By the way did I mention I’m part dog? That means your meds wont have any affect on me. But please, prick my skin with your needles until you find something worthwhile, I insist.”
After overlooking my anger I paid attention to his words. “What do you mean, you’re part dog? I thought you had to be full Hopi blood to change.”
“No.” Nathan shook his head after finally taking a strong breath. “I’m a half breed. My mom was a human that fell in love with a werewolf. Honestly, I barely remember her. Lowlii found me after three hours of lying in the shrub and dirt. I was attacked by a vampire coven because they thought I was a helpless human, and that was the first night I ever changed. I was hurt so much, however, that I was told I would never be able to change again after turning back into a human.”
“Wow.” I stated. “But you fit in so well with all of them.”
Nathan smirked. “What? Lowlii hasn’t told you any of this yet?”
I shook my head. “He barely tells me anything about himself. He said I wasn’t ready yet.”
“Maybe its cuz he doesn’t want you to fall out of love with him. There’s a lot more to his past than all of us combined.”
I took a glance at Nathan’s gash and was filled with serenity knowing that the blood somewhat ceased to spill out. “What do you mean that there’s a lot more to him? What’s does he have to hide from me?”
Nathan soon realized his words and tried to divert my attention away from the subject. “Oh, who cares about his past? All that matters is that he stays sexy, right?”
“Nathan, please.” I urged patiently. “Where is he now?”
Before answering me, he opened his eyes, and after they caught the childish spark they more than often held, he sat up. “We had a meeting about five hours ago.” Nathan stated solemnly.
Out of instinct, I leaned towards him. Feeling the warmth of his skin made my mind flashback to Lowlii’s face. “And?”
“Two wolves didn’t show. Including him.”
I brought my hands up to my face to conceal the fact that I was sobbing uncontrollably. “He’s dead—isn’t he? I knew it!”
“No, he’s not.” Nathan protested after pulling my hands away from my face. “Trust me. He loves you too much to let that happen. Besides, it takes more than three vampires to kill a wolf as big as him.”
Somehow his words failed to uplift my heart. I knew more than three vampires. I knew a whole town! “Then where is he? Why isn’t he here?”
“I don’t know but I’m sure that when word gets out that you’re back in town, he’ll show up again. He’s more likely to be searching for you than dead, anyway.”
I brought my hand back to my face stubbornly. “No. I don’t believe you.”
“What are you doing wearing that?” Nathan asked angrily.
I glanced back to him. “What kind of an odd question is that? I’m crying and you’re checking out my clothes?”
“No, Jackie.” He brought my hand down and pointed to the broken vial attached to Sadie’s bracelet. “Who gave you this?”
“Sadie gave it to me and Becca said it was repellent.”
“Repellent?” Nathan repeated the word in an acidic tone. “Damn right it’s repellent! It keeps werewolves away.” He wrapped his finger around it and tugged hard enough to pull it off my wrist without hurting me. “This is why we couldn’t find you. It masked your scent.”
“Why would Becca and Sadie give me something to repel werewolves? They know I’m with Lowlii.”
“I have no clue.” He took a whiff and scrunched his face in response to the foul smell. “Guess they must’ve known we’d come to save you.”
“Save me from what?”
“I smell another person on this. Where did you go Sunday night?” he questioned while disregarding my curiosity.
“Uh—Last Supper Club. Becca and Sadie came up with an experiment to see if I was actually the girl from the Legend. The whole place was drenched with vampires.”
Nathan turned to me with shocked eyes. “Jackie, this doesn’t just repel werewolves. It attracts vampires.”
I could barely hold myself up coming to the same conclusion Nathan had already realized. It was no wonder why they were so shocked when I appeared back at the vacation house standing beside Alec.
“Why would Sadie and Becca want me dead?”