The Most Important Rule

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S NOT A VAMPIRE?!" I hollered into the phone.

I heard Thez wince in pain on the other line as his eardrum popped. "Chase, calm down. I can explain," he said, determinedly keeping his voice steady.

"You have fifteen seconds to tell me what the hell is going on," I stated. "By the way, I count by fives."

Thez sighed into the phone, causing a huff of static. "Chase...You have to understand that...Well..." Thez paused and thought for a moment. "Alright, let me start it this way. Chase, what happens when a werewolf gets bitten by a vampire? Or when a vampire receives a flesh wound from a werewolf?"

"It dies," I answered, impatient with his stupid questions. "The creature - vampire or werewolf, it doesn't make a difference - will eventually perish." Vampire and wolf bites are full of venom, which is the thing that turns the human. But nothing is able to handle the combined effects of both types of venom.

I was basically repeating this from memory. That's what you get when you memorize the Rule Handbook for D.a.r.c. Agents.

"I already know all of this, Thez. You already know this. What's the point in asking?"

"It related to Rustan," he replied. "Do you remember when I said that D.a.r.c. HQ had run a few experiments on Rustan?"

"Yes..." I said slowly. What was he getting at?

"Their main experiment consisted of seeing if it was possible for someone - or something - to survive being exposed to both venoms."

I fell silent. "...You're kidding, right?" I asked in a quiet voice.

Someone who didn't know me might have assumed that my soft, solemn voice meant that I had calmed down. But Thez knew better. He knew that this was just the calm before the storm.

"Chase, hear me through on this," he said hastily, before I could blow up screaming at him. "There were many failures - many deaths - on pervious experiments and - "

"Previous? How many have there been?" I asked frantically. I didn't care if vampires or werewolves had died in the process (oh no, you can be sure I didn't give a damn about that) but I was wondering how long this whole thing was going on without me knowing.

Thez ignored my question. "However, Rustan proved to be quite successful. He was more of a success than anyone could have hoped for, even in other experiments."

"You mean there was more than one experiment?" I said through clenched teeth, struggling to keep my voice down. "What exactly did you do to him?"

"We injected a tiny bit of werewolf venom into him. He was already a vampire, so that now makes him—"

"Both," I interrupted, shocked. "He's a vampire and a werewolf."

"Well, no. He is still a vampire. Just…a better vampire, with the advantage of being immune to sunlight and werewolf venom."

I frowned. "So what is he capable of, then? If he has the strengths of both creatures..."

"He's the only one that has survived," Thez explained. "So...we're not really sure what he can do."

And that's when I exploded.

"WHAT?!"

"Calm down, it's not that dangerous - "

"DANGEROUS? Of course it is! I mean, I'm not one to run away in the face of danger, but this is just idiotic. First you partner me up with a half-breed, and now you're telling me you have no idea how strong or violent he is! Why didn't you tell me any of this before?"

"Because I knew that you would freak out like this," Thez answered, somehow remaining patient with me.

"Oh, you mean like I'm doing now?!"

"Listen to me, Chase. His werewolf genes are the only things that make him a good vampire."

"There's no such thing," I scoffed.

Rule #11: Vampires are cruel and malicious. They are incapable of feeling emotions or guilt for their actions.

That was a proven fact. No questions asked. Vampires enjoy killing and torturing innocent people. Good vampires don't exist - end of story. They were all just plain evil.

"But there is such a thing as a good werewolf," Thez countered.

I frowned. That is true...

Werewolves only change under a full moon. For the twenty-nine days in between that, they were more or less human and capable of making their own choices—they were able to choose whether or not they were good or evil. There were many cases of werewolves who had no desire to hurt humans, who lived in isolation and locked themselves up when the moon was full. Cases like this were indeed very rare, but they still existed.

There were no such cases like these ever seen for vampires.

"So because he's part werewolf, he might actually have..." I said tentatively.

Have what? A conscience? A heart?

No. Impossible. That would be breaking every rule in the book.

"Does he change under a full moon?" I asked, leaving my last sentence unfinished.

"No," Thez replied in a sure voice. "That's one thing we do know. A vampire cannot be fully turned into a werewolf, as we learned from the other experiments. However, we have noticed that Rustan’s strength and agility increase when the moon is full. He might have some...wolfish characteristics, if you will, but that's about it."

Wolfish features? I tried to imagine Rustan as a dog. Sit, stay, roll over. Yeah, I could live with that.

I let out a long sigh. "Well, Thez, it was nice talking to you. Thanks for the fantastic news. Now if you'll excuse me, it's almost dawn, and I'm going to bed." Before Thez could answer, I abruptly slammed down the phone. God, vampires were frustrating as hell.

"I can't be that bad, can I?" asked a low voice from behind me.

I spun around and saw Rustan sitting calmly on his couch in the center of the room.

Yes, his couch. He'd gotten a bit territorial over the apartment furniture after I had stolen the best bedroom. He even told me yesterday that if I put my dishes in his side of the sink, he would personally rip out my esophagus and eat it for breakfast. And he didn’t even use the sink, or anything else in the kitchen for that matter, since he had no reason to cook.

“I happen to be an excellent cook,” said Rustan, pretending to be hurt.

"Don't read my mind," I snarled, and put up a mental barrier that prevented him from using any telepathy on me.

Rustan, discovering that he couldn't hear my thoughts anymore, put on a fake pout. "You ruin all my fun," he said.

"Go back to hell."

"I'm already in it," he replied, his voice as cool as his eyes. "And in case you’ve failed to notice, I'm just as reluctant to be here as you are. I'm only helping you because I was forced to."

"Good to know the feelings are mutual, then," I stated and began to walk up the stairs.

"You sleep during daylight hours? I thought that was a vampire thing?" he called up after me.

"I sleep through the day because I'm up all night killing freaks like you," I replied angrily, and slammed the door of my bedroom.