Thief

I gazed down at the tombstone with cold, almost empty gray eyes. It was pitch-black at the moment, seeing as it was midnight and cemeteries didn't exactly have lights all over the place, but my werewolf eyes could see the name on the simple granite marker perfectly...

Xenox Alexander Garnogg. My brother.

And yes, I had an odd name like that, too. Mine was Xenobia May Garnogg. Now, however, I was more commonly known as X.

My fists clenched at the thought. This was my body reacting to the rage I couldn't feel. My eyes narrowed at the tombstone, but remained unnervingly vacant.

I couldn't feel a thing. I could cry, I could clench my fists, my eyebrows could move to enable a glare, but I couldn't feel any of the emotions causing these things. My body could register them well, and I could react a little, but I never felt more than a slight twinge of anger or a touch of sadness that was so faded I could barely recognize its meaning. Even these short moments of feeling were rare, coming for a split second one day, then leaving me empty for anywhere from two days to two months.

I suddenly realized that my nails were digging into my palms, and I quickly stopped clenching my fists. My hands shook as they strained to make fists again, but I kept them open and focused on a memory that popped into my head.

A warm summer evening in July, exactly a year ago from today...It was sunset, and my brother and I were running...I from him, he after me.

I stupidly glanced back at him as I darted down an alleyway. I barely caught a glimpse of the sunlight flashing in his almost demonic eyes and glinting on the blood matting his short blond hair before my foot caught the edge of a pothole. I squeaked as I hit the crumbling pavement.

"Xenox," I whispered as I sat up and watched my brother slowly approach me. His movements were cautious, not unlike those of an animal who had cornered what could prove to be a dangerous bit of prey, but I didn't care. I was focused on his eyes. They were supposed to be a pale gray color, just like mine, but they were gold. His pupils were slitted, too, giving his eyes an almost catlike appearance.

This wasn't right. He never snapped so easily. Especially when it came to me, his little sister. All I had done was mention his ex-girlfriend, and he had flown into this pissy, half-transformed state. Apparently, she'd meant more to him than I thought.

Besides that oddity, there was also this strange half-transformation thing for me to ponder. He was one of the rare Weres who could stop between his human and wolf states, giving him the strength, speed, claws, and fangs of the wolf, but leaving him with the useful hands of the human. His changes usually only lasted for about tens seconds because of how beastlike and unstable he became, but it had been almost a minute now...Had I really hurt him that badly?

I leapt to my feet when he dove for me, causing the twenty-year-old male to hit the ground instead of me. I turned and took off running again, knowing that his body would have to force him back to his human form eventually. I just had to survive until that happened.

Because humans weren't meant to know about us, I was careful to stick to deserted back alleys and rarely-travelled side streets. I had made it halfway down another alley when I heard my brother's footsteps behind me. Next thing I knew, I was being forced to the ground as the heavy male pounced on me. I was rather small for an eighteen-year-old. Not height-wise, but weight- and build-wise. This left me in more pain than I would have been in if I wasn't anorexic.

I felt long, sharp fangs in my neck a moment later, and all I could do was whimper and hope he killed me quickly. But then, I heard it...The gunshot...My brother released me, then I heard three more gunshots and the sound of a blade being drawn. The heavy body was soon off of my back, and almost immediately, the sounds of a fierce battle began. Snarls mingled with shouts and gunshots...The scent of Were blood filled the air...And I got to my knees just in time to watch a brunette werewolf use his sword to cut off my brother's head.

After the thumps that accompanied my brother's head and body hitting the ground, there was silence. I stared at the headless corpse for a few seconds, watching as blood pooled around the body of my only remaining family, then I looked up at the man who had beheaded Xenox and ended up getting my first look into the deep brown eyes of the man who would come to own me. And then, I passed out.

That snapped me out of my reverie. I once again found myself staring at my brother's tombstone. My fists clenched again as I read the name over and over and over.

Xenox Alexander Garnogg...

Beheaded in an alleyway at sundown.

Xenox Alexander Garnogg...

Murdered by a group of stupid werewolves.

Xenox Alexander Garnogg...

Killed to save me even though he could have turned human at any second, and probably fucking would have.

I glanced down at one of my hands, feeling a bit of blood trickling down my palm as my nails bit into my flesh. My eyebrows moved to allow me another half-assed glare. I turned my hand over and unclenched my fist, watching as more blood oozed from the small, nail-shaped wounds.

Xenobia May Garnogg...

Saved against her will and forced to live as a slave.

I gave my brother's tombstone another quick glance, then I walked away.

-

The estate in which my master, or companion, as he preferred to be called, dwelled wasn't too far from the cemetery, but I didn't feel the need to head back any time soon. I wandered for a while, unconsciously leading myself to the alley my brother had died in almost ten minutes later. All evidence of the murder had vanished by now, thanks to my master and the last year's harsh weather, yet I could still remember very clearly where his corpse had lain. I stopped to stare at it for a moment, but quickly began walking again.

I looked down at myself as I exited the alley, comparing the state I'd been in back then to the one I was in now. I'd gone from anorexic, weak, and half dead to healthy, strong, and emotionally numb...I wasn't really sure whether my condition had improved or not. Even though I no longer had an eating disorder, I was still kind of thin. Healthy, but thin. My dark gray T-shirt was tight-fitting, as were my low-rise blue jeans, and both garments showed off my slender but healthy body. I reached back to run a hand through my long blonde hair, but I stopped suddenly when I noticed something. Even my walk faltered.

My shoes didn't match. One was a black sneaker while the other was white.

I began walking again while emotionlessly thinking about how distracted I was tonight. Somehow, these thoughts led to vivid memories of what I had awoken to a year ago, and I found myself taking another not-so-pleasant trip down memory lane.

I opened my eyes just in time to watch a needle get stabbed into my arm. Not a small one, either. The huge thing slid into my vein easily, injecting something into my bloodstream. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't move to get my mouth open.

As the needle was withdrawn, I realized that someone was doing something to my neck, right where it had been injured by Xenox. I couldn't tell what was happening, though.

"You sure this'll work, Ian?" the unseen man I imagined was working on my neck asked worriedly.

"Yes, Ryan," the man who was holding the syringe answered. My eyes darted to him as he filled a second syringe with some clear substance. He laid a warm gloved hand on my stomach, and that was when I realized that I was naked. My way-too-prominent ribcage was out there for everyone to see, as were my rather small breasts and long, frighteningly thin legs.

"But...we're forcing incredibly powerful Were DNA into her blood...Aren't you afraid her body will reject it or something?" the male I still couldn't see questioned, continuing to sound oddly concerned.

"It's her brother's DNA," the other male stated as he slid the needle into my arm again, a hand still on my stomach. "Her body won't reject it. And even if it wants to, the serum I've mixed it with will force it to accept it. Her DNA will bond with his, and it'll fix her. Make her stronger, too."

"But, what if-"

The man's dark blue eyes narrowed and met the unseen Were's eyes. "It. Will. Work," the blue-eyed male almost hissed as he carefully slid the needle out of my arm again without looking.

"Y-yes, sir," came the stammer from my left.

My eyes stayed on the black-haired werewolf with his palm on my stomach as I thought over what he'd said. My brother's DNA...They were fucking putting my brother's DNA in my body. What the hell was wrong with them? There was no way my weaker cells could handle those of my half-transformed brother, no matter what they'd been mixed with.

The black-haired guy turned away from me and moved his hand, leaving a disappointing cold spot on my belly. As he filled yet another syringe with that clear liquid, I quickly looked him over. He was rather pale, like most Weres tended to be, and he was dressed in dark clothing. Plain black pants and a simple, tight-fitting black T-shirt. I couldn't see his shoes. He seemed rather scrawny to me, which clashed with the angry, intimidating look in his pretty blue eyes. He just seemed so...strong...

Then, the needle was in my arm again, and I suddenly passed out.

The next time I'd woken up, I had been laying on a bed. A big bed, covered with dark blue satin sheets. I glanced around, and that was the first time I'd noticed how numb I was. I should've been feeling confusion, panic, fear...something, but I had none of that. I was just empty. I could feel an odd power in my body, though, a power that had replaced my usual weakness. When I sat up, the blankets sliding away from my torso, I looked down to find that my ribs were no longer visible. My arms weren't disgustingly thin anymore, either, and the pain from my neck wound was gone. I reached up to feel the side of my throat that had been almost mauled, only to find that it was smooth and completely unmarred.

I placed my hands on my stomach and whispered stoically to myself, "What happened to me...?"

I was brought out of this little flashback by the feeling of someone's hand on my own. I laced my fingers with theirs even as I looked over to see who they were. Then again, I didn't really need the confirmation. I'd know the feeling of that warm, smooth skin anywhere.

The blue-eyed man from my memory smiled at me, and I smiled back at him the tiniest bit. We both knew the expression was forced, that it had no real emotion behind it, but Ian didn't care, so I didn't care, either. He was like a lover to me, even though his father, my idiotic master, had forbidden it. How he could even manage to touch me when he knew what his father did to me every night, I didn't know, but I knew I would appreciate it if I could feel nonetheless.

"How are you doing, Xenobia?" he asked quietly. I shuddered when I heard my own name, being so used to the name X that just hearing Xenobia for once was...incredible. Ian was the only one who called me by my real name, doing so in spite of the fact that he wasn't allowed to. No one was...except for my master, of course, though he never used the power.

"I'm...all right, I suppose," I told him simply.

He nodded. "That's good. All recovered from dying again last night?" He smiled as he said this, obviously teasing me again. He did this all the time, getting a kick out of my inability to die, mainly because he hadn't expected me to be quite that tough. He knew I'd be hard to kill, but he hadn't known that I would be able to revive myself within an hour of my death. Something in my brother's DNA just wouldn't let me die...

"Yes. It wasn't too hard to recover from a few bites to the neck." Of course, those 'few bites to the neck' had left my head barely hanging on to the rest of my body, but meh. I'd recovered from worse. Bullets to the heart, beheadings, severe burns...those kinds of things.

Ian chuckled. "That vamp chick did some serious damage, but whatever you say, Xenobia."

I shook my head, still utterly emotionless, as usual. "The punishment your father gave me when I woke up was worse than the wounds I had died from in the first place."

The male cringed. "Oh, yeah. You killed the girl, but the vampire you were actually sent to murder is still alive...so to speak."

"Yes," I said with a nod. "And because I failed that mission, there is now a war going on between the group of Weres who hired me and the group of vampires led by the man I was supposed to kill."

"That wasn't a good mission to fail."

"Not at all."

The large mansion my master resided in came into view after a few silent moments, and I immediately released Ian's hand. We both lowered our arms to our sides, the male seeming more reluctant to do so than I, then we passed through the gates that led onto his father's property.

The place was rather dull, in my opinion. Fancy, but dull. Darkness, creepy decor, stone walls, blood-red rugs everywhere...To some, it may have been wonderful. To me, it was just too common-seeming.

"Ah, X. There you are," Ian's brown-eyed and -haired father greeted me as I entered the house. He walked from a door to my left to stand before me, cocking an eyebrow. "There's blood on your hand."

Ian looked down at the hand he had held mine with casually, nonchalantly shoving both of his hands into his pockets when he noticed my blood there. I merely glanced at my palms and nodded. "So it would seem."

My master seemed annoyed by my lack of explanation, though he didn't pry. "I need you to go on another mission."

"Isn't it a bit soon to-" Ian was cut off by a glare from his father.

"Yes. That's why you will be accompanying her." Ian seemed surprised, for his father never liked letting him hang around me for extended periods of time, but I merely wondered why the man would let Ian come with me. There were other people he could send. Why use his own son? "There's a battle going on across town in vampire territory, and the Weres there need your help."

I nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Walnut Street is where the majority of the fighting is taking place," the brunette male told me. "Go there."

I nodded once more, took the weapons the man handed me, then walked out. Ian did the same and followed.

"We'll be walking, I assume?" Ian said as he got his weapons situated, still walking. He had a pair of gold pistols, one filled with holy water bullets and the other stocked with UV bullets, and a single gold-bladed dagger. The guns were secured to his belt in their black holsters and the knife was tucked away in a black boot.

"No," I answered, finishing up with the situating of my own weaponry. My two guns were silver, their holsters strapped to my thighs and their ammo consisting solely of UV bullets. I carried no knives. "We'll be running."

"Wha-" Before he could even finish the word, I was sprinting out the gate and down the street. "You suck!" he called after me, though he followed like a good boy.

-

When we reached Walnut Street, I found that Ian was out of breath. We had to stop at the end of the road, before we even got close to the fray, so he could rest for a moment. I wasn't winded in the slightest.

At my raised eyebrow, 'you're pathetic' look, Ian laughed and panted, "We can't all be Super Bitch, ya know."

"Damn right," I stated with a short nod, causing the breathless male to laugh again.

Eventually, he managed to catch his breath, quickly arming himself with both of his guns. I only drew one of mine, knowing a gun in my other hand would only get in my way.

"Should I Were now or save it for later?" I asked, glancing at Ian.

"Later. You might find yourself in trouble." He gave me a quick kiss, then ran right into the masses of moving bodies and bloody corpses. I watched him for a second, following only when he had disappeared amongst the fighting vamps and werewolves.

It was almost too easy. The vampires were all distracted, so I faced no resistance. I just shot every vamp I passed in the head, the UV bullets causing their bodies to crumble and turn to dust only seconds later. This continued until almost all of the vampires were gone, but then, another wave of the bloodsuckers rushed out of the shadows, this crowd twice as large as the last.

I found myself pitted against four vamps almost immediately after their emergence. I took the first one down with a shot to the throat, but the remaining three all rushed at me before I could finish them.

I snarled, feeling a set of fangs in my neck and a knife in my stomach. The third vampire went for my gun, but a bullet to the hand stopped him. He shrieked as cracks spread along his pale flesh, soon leaving his entire arm to turn almost ceramic and fall to the ground. The rest of his body would soon meet the same dusty fate.

I turned my attention to the one digging a knife into my intestines next. He soon found himself in the same situation his companion had just been in, though the bullet was in his foot instead of his hand.

As he cried out and stumbled away from me, I yanked the dagger out of my belly, then rammed it back into the stomach of the vampire behind me. When he still wouldn't let go, I pulled the knife out and aimed lower. This time, he let go of my neck with a satisfying scream. I whipped around and shot him in the forehead a split second later.

Now, I was free to find myself a few more opponents.

It didn't take me long. I quickly found Ian trapped in the middle of a hellacious battle, trying to fight off six vamps with just his dagger. His two pistols were laying on the pavement several feet away. Without thinking, I rushed into the fray.

This time, I took two vampires down with UV bullets before I was noticed. I had to switch guns afterward, though, now that my first was out of ammo. During this whole two seconds, I was left vulnerable to attack.

A vamp lunged at me, knife in hand and aimed at my throat, but a male's body was quickly put in front of mine. It was Ian's, of course, and the already beaten-up male ended up getting the vamp's knife embedded in the arm he had used to block it. The blade went in deep, and Ian winced. I shoved him aside and shot the man who had stabbed him right in the eye.

I heard Ian cry out behind me, and I turned to see that he was being attacked by another large group of vampires. Fighting them off was hard for him now that his right arm had been sliced open, so I jumped in.

I fired wildly at the bloodsucking bastards, not stopping until I had no bullets left. Then, when I noticed that Ian was crumpled on the ground, bloody, panting, and possibly fatally wounded, if the gash on his stomach looked as bad as I thought it did, I dropped my gun and turned. The change was instinctive, driven by a massive amount of worry and protective rage that I could barely feel, but it would be worth it.

Claws formed, fangs elongated...I felt my body strengthen. I stopped halfway into the transformation, remaining in my half human, half beast state, the same one my brother used to go into, though I had more control over myself than he had. I knew the change was complete when my eyes changed.

From gray to gold with slitted pupils...

I knew this part of the change far too well. My brother's eyes had always terrified me when he turned.

And just like that, I was a werewolf powerhouse. These vampires didn't stand a chance. Not unless they managed to outrun me during the minute in which I was able to remain like this. I doubted they would be able to, though. After all, along with my strength, my speed increased in this state.

Again, these vampires didn't stand a chance.

I rushed forward, tackling a female who was going to finish Ian off. As soon as she hit the pavement, I had her throat torn out and her head slowly rolling away from her body, then...poof. Nothing but dust.

A few more vamps came after me, thinking they could take me. I ripped them all to pieces. Blood spattered everywhere, mixing with the ashes of the vampires I slaughtered.

A bullet hit my shoulder, but I ignored it and finished off another vamp. A second bullet pierced my flesh, this one biting into my upper arm, but I disregarded it just as I had the first, taking down two more vamps.

Then, I heard Ian cry out in pain, and I stopped dead.

I looked over at him and found him clutching his leg, wincing. Blood oozed from between his fingers, probably from a bullet wound like the ones I bore on my left arm.

I snarled at the vampire holding the gun, and his pasty face would have paled even further if it could have. He turned to run, but I pounced on him before he could take the first step. Then, I introduced his neck to my teeth, and I was sure they made one hell of a first impression.

Once he was dusted, I slowly stood, panting as I felt my body turning back. I looked around and found that all of the vampires were gone now, just little dust particles blowing along the street as a light breeze blew past. The other Weres were now busy gathering up the dead and the wounded, carrying them to cars and houses.

I studied the scene for a moment, then walked over to Ian, falling to my knees beside him. He was sitting now, still clutching his injured leg. Luckily, his stomach wound was already halfway healed, so I knew he wouldn't be dying from that any time soon.

He offered me a pained, but genuinely amused smile. "Thanks a lot, Xenobia. You just saved my ass about fifteen times."

I gave him one of my forced smiles and said, "Well, that's what people do for those they love, right?"

At that, he broke into a grin, the pain vanishing from his face. But then, suddenly, his eyes darted up to something behind me, and his face fell, turning deathly pale.

"Love, huh?" came his father's voice, along with the cocking of a gun. I froze. "I always knew there was something going on between you two."

"No!" I cried, throwing myself forward, toward Ian, but it was too late. The bullet entered his forehead, and he fell back onto the road, dead.

I was utterly dumbstruck for a moment, so many emotions hitting me that I didn't know what I was really feeling. It was like Ian's death had opened up some sort of emotional floodgate, letting in all of the things that I had been unable to feel for so long now...

As I laid across his son's corpse, my master said calmly, "I don't need anything standing between you and your duties." Tears began spilling from my gray eyes, and he added, "Now, let's go, X. There are other things I need you to do." I let out a sob as I listened to his footsteps retreating, my fingers clutching Ian's bloody shirt tightly.

My Ian...Gone. The only person I had left to care about...Taken from me. Just like my brother had been on this very day one year ago...

I sat up, threw my head back, and howled. The rest of the Weres along the street stopped to stare at me, the female in human form who could still tap in to her werewolf voice box, but I didn't care.

I poured all of my sadness, my guilt, my hatred, my...everything into this howl. This one long, lonesome, sorrowful howl, the only sound to be heard in the warm July night...The only thing I had left to give to those I had lost...

No. The only thing I had left to give to those that had been stolen from me. Stolen by that bastard who called himself Ian's father. He'd stolen my brother and my lover, and now he was all I had left.

As my howl died away, I turned to glare at the car in which my master was waiting. So calm and uncaring, even after all he'd done...

I stood slowly, my glare never leaving that black car. Rage and hatred began to replace my other emotions, building up inside of me until I swore I was going to snap. Now I knew what I had left to live for.

Vengeance.

The thief had to pay for what he'd stolen from me...

He had to die.