Trapped in a Tangled Web

I pointed the guys in the right direction before making my way around the house, eyes scanning the burnt wreckage.

"What in the hell are you looking for?" I asked myself softly, my feet halting my movement for a fraction of a second. "There has to be a reason you still want to be here. Think girl," I demanded of myself.

A smile began to form on my lips as a very warm, rounded feeling started to slid up my leg. Looking down, I saw Bella slithering her way up my one calf, finally coming to a rest as her head rested on my shoulder, her body wrapped firmly around my waist.

"Good to see you escaped in time girl," I said softly to the snake.

Beginning my walk again, I had to stop a second time when my animal senses kicked in. My eyes locked on Brittney slithering her way across the ground towards me, rearing upwards as if to strike.

"Brit!" I growled, bending down until I was almost eye level with the reptile. "If your going to bit, just remember that I bite back."

Oddly enough, the snkae let itself fall flat once again, slithering the rest of the way towards me before rearing upwards and beginning to wrap around my torso. Both snakes coiled around my bosy, overlapping each other securely as if they wanted to make sure I couldn't escape, yet still leaving me comfortable.

Laughing to myself now, I stared at the burning pile of wood one last time before taking off at a slow run, being careful not to make the snakes move too much. If I ran too fast, one of them was bound to either bite, or constrict to the point of suffoctaing me.

It was a good ten minute jog to get close enough to see the truck. And what I saw was a funny sight to behold. Brian and Jason were laying up on the hood, Jason snuggled right up against Brian's side. If I didn't know better, I would have thought they were spooning. Kyrian and Gage were laying on their backs on the ground, each one pointing at random stars and saying names.

"That's cleopatra, right?" Ky asked softly.

"Nah. That's orion's belt," Gage corrected. "Over there is Andromeda."

"And over here is Bella, Brittney, and Flame," I stated softly, coming to a stop once I entered the clearing where they could see me.

Gage lept to his feet, staying exactly where he was. Ky on the other hand, lept to his feet and ran towards me. Both dnakes immediately uncoiled from around my body and streched out to curl around him once he got close enough.

"Traitors," I groaned, letting them drift from my body as Ky walked back towards the truck, presumably to check and make sure I didn't poison them. Like I had the time or the notion to do either. They're just fucking snakes after all.

truth be told, while I was looking around the house, I had a feeling that I was looking for something importaint. I guess the snakes were what I was looking for. But come on, doesn't a girl get a "thank you" for not leaving behind two importaint pets?

Guess not. Hell, maybe I should have poisoned one of them. Then atleast I'd have some attention. Granted, it would be in teh form of a very pissed off shifter, but still. It would be better then blatent ignorance.

"Are you going to make us stand out here all night?"

I turned to see Brian standing next to me. Normally I'd be either scared shitless at having another shifter this close to me, or very pissed at myself for being so unabservant. But it was Bri. My Bryan. Every since we were little, I never payed any mind to where he was in comparason to me. I just knew no matter what, he would never hurt me. Well, never intentionally. ...Okay, so never intentionally try to hurt me enough that I would die from it. He might try to hurt me just to put me in my place. But that's just what friends do. Right?

"Anyone home in there?" he was asking, waving a hand in front of my face.

I smirked suddenly, making him take a few cautious steps back. "Oh Bryan," I said in a sing-song voice. "Do you remember the very last plans we made before I left?"

He nodded slowely, taking another step back. "Uh, we were supposed to go see that new movie with a few of our other friends. Why?" he asked slowely, taking another step away from me.

I shook my head. "The other plans."

I couldn't hide my grin as he gulped nervously. "Re-match," he whispered under his breath, letting out a few curses in between breaths.

"Exactly," I chimmed, jumping up and down childishly. "We need to do a re-match. I miss doing that, don't you? I do. Well, do you?"

He whimpered, backing up against the truck before letting his head fall backwards, thumping off the metal roof. "I hated those contests," he admitted. "I never fucking won, and I always had to stay home for atleast two days after that."

"Two day for what?" Ky finally chimmed in. "Knitting matches or something?"

"Fighting," Bryan admitted. "She always had a weird kind of gym/ martial arts place in hrer basement where we would goof off anf fight to stay in shape. We even had our own rules and shit."

"And you always lost to her," Ky asked, arching a brow in confusion. "How the hell could she beat you? You let her win all the time or something?"

I smirked. "I think your forgetting I almost kicked your ass Ky. Along with Gage's."

"But you didn't," Gage jumped in, smirking over at me a he sat down by Jason.

"Only cause the two of you cheated and double-teamed me on a blue moon," I retorted. "Try fighting me now and you'll be very sore in the morning."

"Wanna go?" Ky asked, finally putting both smakes into the back of the truck before shutting the hatch and facing me. "I'd love to work off some of this energy. Especially on you," he half growled. "Your still not forgiven yet."

I shrugged. "I didn't ask for your forgiveness, so you can keep it, " I muttered. "If you really want to test me, then get your ass in that truck. We might as well go back to my place for the night anyways. Tomorrow I need to return the hummer to Kayd, so we can check out this Angela girl then."

"Who's Kayd?" Jason finally spoke up.

I shrugged, walking towards the truck so I could start the two hour drive home. "Just a long time friend. He found me when I escaped and helped me out. If itt wasn't for him dragging my unconscious ass off the street and back to his, I'd prolly be dead by now."

Gage had enough common sense to duck his head and blush. Unfortunantly, the other three didn't.

I hopped into the drivers seat and slung the belt over him torso before slamming the key into the igntion, savoring teh feeling of the truck humming to life beneath me.

Grudgingly, I hit the button to unlock the other doors, and leaned my head back against the headrest, waiting for the assholes to get into the truck.

Ya know, for being so annoyed by tehir attitudes and the mere presence of them near me, I couldn't seem to keep away from them. Maybe I really was beginning to lose my fucking mind. If I hadn't already.

"If you keep staring at the road, it might lead us home," Bryan sneered into my ear from the backseat.

Without blinking, I slund my arm backwards as hard as I could, slamming my fist right into his nose.

A curse escaped past his lips as he pushed back into his seat, obviously trying to put as much space as he could between his body and mine.

"What the hell did you hit him for?" Jason asked, staying in his seat. Atleast he was smart.

"Remember what I said that day in front of ya'll's house when he called me a hooker?" I asked.

"Uh, if he said something you don't like, you'd kick his ass yourself. Or something like that?" Jason asked.

I nodded. "He said something I didn't like," I answered back, flicking my gaze into the rear-view mirror to see Jason, then Kyrian, and lastly Bryan curled up in his corner.

Snickering to myself, I shifted the truck into drive, barely putting my foot on the gas before slamming on the breaks.

"Who the fuck owns a dog?" I blurted out.

"We owned two of them," Gage replied hesitantly from the passenger seat next to me. "Why?"

Without consciously doing it, my eyes transformed and sharpened until my view was atleast ten times better then normal.

"There's a very small dog running towards the truck. I'm assuming from where the house is. It's coming from that direction."

I heard one person suck in a deep breath of air.

"Is it a small dog, or a big dog?" Ky questioned.

Looking into the mirror again, I couldn't help but grimmace at the thought. Two barking dogs, and two snakes cramped in the back of Kayd's truck for two whole hours. I was going to get a headache.

"A golden lab, and a puggle, by the looks of them," I admitted in annoyance. "If they're the lind that yip and yap with each other, they're either chasing the truck all the way back, or they're staying here."

"Boomer can't bark," Gage said quickly. "The lab."

Jason leaned forward, his hand grasping my shoulder lightly. "Dreamer barks once and a while," he admitted. "But please don't leave her here. She's really a good dog. You'll see. I promise she won't be a hassle."

My head fell back once more as I turned the engine off, waiting for the two fucking dogs to run to the truck. It was going to be about another five minutes till they got to us.

"Any other fucking animals I have to wait for?" I growled out.

"Nope," Gage said on a sigh. A sad sigh, if I'm not mistaken.

"What's your malfunction?" I snapped. "Four pets not enough for you or something?"

His eyes locked onto mine, instantly making my heart constrict. I suddenly felt like the biggest bitch in the world.

"We had over twenty animals," he whispered softly. "The only ones that managed to leave the house were the ones that the gas didn't kill the first time around."

"Oh," I said weakly. "So, only these four?"

"Only these four," he agreed tiredly, just as two bouncing dogs made their way to the truck, circling around it and yipping wildly.

Well, atleast one of them was yipping. Amazingly enough, Gage was telling the truth so far. The big lab wasn't making a sound.

How odd.

I watched through the mirrors as Gage lept out of teh car and popped the trunk, letting the two dogs leap into the back with the snakes.

My eyes practically bugged out of my head as both dogs layed down and got comfortable...and let both snaked wrap around them securely.

"Those snakes won't kill them, right?" I asked outloud.

"Nope," Gage said once he got back into the passenger seat. "They sleep together all the time. The only animals we ever had to watch was the snakes if we let Jassie out of her cage."

"Jassie?" I asked, turning the ignition once again and pulling out onto the road.

"Our bird," Ky said softly from the backseat, once he saw that Gage wasn't going to answer. "She didn't make it past the gas," he said just as softly.

Nothing came to my head to say after that, so we all made the two hour drive in silence.