Other Fan Fiction / Horror Fan Fiction ❯ Hunted ❯ Chapter 5 ( Chapter 5 )

I woke up the next morning to the sweet smell of cinnamon. It took me a second to remember why I was sitting on the couch. Nikolas and Ryan had come over last night, bringing with them Chinese and a movie. They weren't sure what we liked to eat, so they had a little bit of everything and the movie of choice was The Prestige. Neither Miv nor I had seen it and we weren't about to complain. Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman running around as magicians for two and a half hours is definitely not a sight we were going to have a problem with. The movie had finished and we were still eating - hey, they brought a lot of food! - so the guys rummaged through my movie stash and settled on The Italian Job. I'm pretty sure I had passed out right after Charlize Theron met the guys.

 

Looking around what I could see of my apartment, all traces of the "party" last night were gone. I really hoped they hadn't eaten all the food. That was some good Chinese.

 

Ryan came out of the kitchen and saw that I was awake. Smiling, he grabbed a cup of something from the kitchen bar and walked over to me, handing me the cup.

 

I sniffed and broke into a smile. Coffee. French vanilla cappuccino to be exact. Taking a sip, I had to give him credit: it was perfect. Just enough cream to cover all but a little of the coffee taste.

 

"Good morning," he said, returning my smile. "Is it good?"

 

"Perfect," I replied.

 

"You hungry?" he asked.

 

I looked up from my perfectly delicious coffee to answer. "Depends on what you got in there."

 

He flashed a grin at me. "Miyavi went out this morning and bought you breakfast. She said that no matter how well either of you explained it, we would never get it right."

 

I took another sip of the coffee and asked him, "Can you help me up and over to the bar?"

 

That made him frown. "How about I just bring it over to you?"

 

I bit back a grimace. "Ryan, I've been lying on this couch for over a day straight, with the exception of two pee breaks. I want to move."

 

"Most women would love to just lie on the couch and have a man dote upon her," he argued.

 

"Not when she's forced to."

 

"So act like it's your choice."

 

"Hard to do that when you have to carry me to pee."

 

Pause. "Touche."

 

Carefully, he put one arm underneath my knees and the other around my back. Slowly, and what looked like effortlessly, he picked me up and carried me over to the kitchen, sitting me on one of the barstools. I pretty much drooled when I saw my breakfast.

 

It was a large piece of cinnamon coffeecake with warm icing on the side. At the same time, Miyavi walked out of the bathroom in pajamas and wet hair everywhere.

 

"Danni, where's your blow dryer?" she asked, looking like she really needed it.

 

"Under the sink," I replied, turning my gaze back to the food.

 

She rolled her eyes and walked back into the bathroom, muttering something including the words crazy, cinnamon, and obsessed. "I need help!" she hollered after a few moments.

 

I looked at Ryan with a raised eyebrow. He looked at me, the hallway, back to me, and slowly started toward the bathroom. Poor sucker. It's always the first time that freaks you out.

 

I turned back to my food and dug in. To say the least, it was amazing. Definitely the best part of my day - you know, the one that hadn't even started yet.

 

Nikolas walked into my apartment just as I was finishing the cake. He looked at me sitting at the bar and his expression when grim. "What are you doing there?" he asked, his voice deceptively calm.

 

"Good morning," I replied. "You just missed the best coffeecake I've ever tasted."

 

"Until the next one she eats," Miyavi hollered from somewhere in the bathroom.

 

Nikolas just stood there, staring at me, probably waiting for me to answer his question. Well, sheesh. He could at least be polite and say "good morning."

 

Sighing, I decided to bend a little and answer. The food was too good and the day too early to be unnecessarily stubborn. "Ryan helped me over so I could eat." I took a sip of the cappuccino. Mmmm. I'm really going to have to get another one soon. I saw his frown deepen, and rolled my eyes. "Don't get your panties in a twist over it. I'd have gotten over here with or without the help of Ryan." I glanced over at him and saw him raise an eyebrow.

 

"You can't twist what you're not wearing," he replied.

 

My eyes widened playfully, and I acted shocked. "Sorry. I didn't know you favored going commando." I paused, raising an eyebrow at him. "Don't want to get irritated after shaving this morning?"

 

His grin turned lecherous. "You know what it is? Well, it's only solved by the use of the tongue, and since you have experience with it, why don't you come soothe the pain for me?"

 

I just stared at him, my jaw going slack. Well, crap, Danni. You know your perv comebacks are best at night. Why couldn't you wait until then? Seriously. Before my shower, that part of my brain just doesn't want to function.

 

He laughed at what I guess was my expression. "Not used to people going there?"

 

"Not this early in the morning," I replied, taking another sip from my cappuccino. Well, that one was more of a gulp, and smart one here didn't wait for the coffee to cool down completely. So it burned all the way down. Nice going, genius.

 

He just shook his head in laughter and walked into the kitchen, setting some plastic bags on the counters.

 

"What's that?" I asked.

 

"Groceries," he replied, taking milk out of one of the bags and putting it into the refrigerator.

 

To say I was a little dumbstruck was an understatement. "Why?"

 

He looked at me as if the answer was obvious. And I'm sure it was...to him. "You were running low."

 

Okay, so the answer was obvious, but I didn't word my question right. Yeah, all...one word of it came out wrong. It was not my morning. Alright, Danni. From now on, you're going to seriously examine everything you think before saying it. Deal? Okay, now that we got that straight, you are free to talk. "Yeah, but I could've done it myself," I argued.

 

He just looked at me. I don't know why he was looking at me. The argument made perfect sense to me. Then his gaze dropped to my leg, as if reading my thoughts. Oh. Well...

 

"Okay, so I would've gotten Miyavi to go for me, but that's beside the point." Sheesh. Thinking about everything you say, huh? That didn't last long.

 

He just chuckled and continued putting food away.

 

I just sat there, replaying the last few days over and over again. "Why are you doing this?"

 

He turned to me for a second before shaking his head and cleaning up the bags. For a moment, I thought he wasn't going to answer, but he did. "I feel a little responsible for what happened to you and I don't want to just leave you here in this situation."

 

I just looked at him. There were a couple large holes in that story of his. "What about work?"

 

"I took the next two weeks off."

 

"Can you afford that?"

 

Ryan came out of the hallway before he answered. "Danni, where's your flat iron?"

 

"Under the sink next to where the blow dryer was," I answered quickly, eager to get Nikolas's answer.

 

"I looked!" Miv hollered. "It's not in there!"

 

What happened next was all out of pure habit. I had completely forgotten that there was a reason as to why I was just sitting at the barstool watching Nikolas put food away rather than doing it myself. I stood up to walk to the bathroom. It occurred so quickly I can't really say what happened. One second I was standing, my brain not even comprehending the pain shooting up my leg with Nikolas about ten feet behind me and Ryan fifteen feet in front of me. The next second, Nikolas had a hold of my upper body and Ryan had my waist and they were carrying me over to the couch. They set me down on the couch, pretty much ripped my pants off and looked down at the bite.

 

"How-"

 

"The skin didn't break," Ryan exclaimed in relief, cutting me off.

 

"We'd be in deep shit if it did," Nikolas replied, walking around the living room, running his hand through his hair.

 

"Yeah, but-"

 

"Why did you stand up?" Ryan cut me off again, this time turning to me.

 

"You could have seriously hurt yourself," Nikolas jutted in.

 

"You know you can't support yourself right now."

 

"It was a stupid decision to have you sitting at the bar anyway."

 

They both fell silent at that point, thankfully. I mean, aren't overprotective mothers supposed to be the ones that nag? I mean, this was ridiculous.

 

"I don't nag," Nikolas snapped at me.

 

I just looked at him in complete shock. I couldn't even fully comprehend what had just happened with them covering ten feet in less than a second, but that was completely out of mind at this point, as well as the fact that I was without pants. "I didn't say you did," I replied cautiously.

 

Nikolas froze, his eyes widening. Ryan slowly turned to look at him. "You didn't..."

 

"Fuck."

 

I looked back and forth between Ryan and Nikolas, completely and utterly confused. "What's going on?" I asked the two of them.

 

"Nothing," Ryan replied quickly.

 

"Nothing?" I repeated.

 

They were looking at each other, completely ignoring me. First off, I don't like being ignored, and second, he just lied to me. Put those two together and you're not going to like what you're going to find.

 

"Hey!" I snapped, causing them both to turn to me. "Don't lie to me."

 

"We're not," was Ryan's reply.

 

"Bullshit," I snorted. "You both just covered a large amount of distance in an impossibly short amount of time and Nick over there just read my mind. What's going on?"

"It's none of your concern," he snapped. He was getting aggravated. Good.

 

"The hell it's none of my concern! I let the both of you, complete strangers, come into my home and allow you to help me while I'm hurt. You're under my roof! If it's none of my concern, get the hell-"

 

During my tirade it became increasingly harder for me to speak, as if my mouth was suddenly to small for my tongue and teeth. As I was yelling at them to get out, I pointed at the door and caught a glimpse of my hand - if that's what you can call it. Small, thick, white hairs had started to sprout from the back of my hand and knuckles. My nails had grown and now looked more like claws. I was now looking at my hand in horror. I tried to scream, but nothing came out. Instead, I heard this dark, guttural growl resound through out the room. I turned to look at the two guys and their faces were ones of complete shock and surprise.

 

I didn't even have time to do anything after that. My spine, knees, and elbows buckled, causing me to roll off the couch and onto the floor. Bones rearranged themselves, hair grew from all parts of my body. My clothes ripped and fell off of me in shreds. I could feel every painful detail. I cried, I screamed, I tried to stop it. Howls filled my elongated ears and I heard claws clicking and scratching against the tile as my limbs flailed around. Suddenly, voices filled my head. I distinctly heard Nikolas and Ryan, and a little bit of Miyavi's.

 

The pain stopped almost as quickly as it came. I was laying on my side on the tile, hands and feet sprawled out in front of me. I looked up at the guys, only to find myself looking down a black snout. I looked at them and realized I had lost all the color in my sight. I was colorblind. I sat there in shock and horror for a second before the pain started again. My back started straightening out. My arms and legs got longer. My nose shrunk. It was the same pain as before, but in reverse, as if I was fixing myself. The howls became cries and sobs. Instead of claws scraping the tiles, I heard the thumps of hands and feet. My hands and feet. Again, the pain stopped abruptly, but my tears sure didn't.

 

Tears streaked down my cheeks, snot was pouring from my nose, and my muscles wouldn't stop twitching. I just lay there on the floor, trying to catch my breath. I was about to get up, when everything started again. My back buckled, the pain started, the hair sprouted.

 

***

 

He stopped reading, noticing that the handwriting trailed off mid-page. Turning the page, he saw that a new set of handwriting started up again. Looking up at the woman, he waited for her to answer his silent question.

 

"Nikolas picks up at that part," she told him. "My part of the story here isn't important. Nikolas and Ryan are."

 

Nodding, he took a sip of coffee from the mug someone had set on the table in front of him, then immersed himself in the book once more.

 

***

 

Danni was sprawled on the ground, turning back into the magnificent wolf she had just transformed from. Ryan looked at me. What's going on, Nikolas? That's only supposed to happen once, and under rare circumstances.

 

I looked back at him, thinking. Remember reading about what happens when we bite someone who isn't born with the wolf, but the biter is an injector?

 

Ryan eyes widened to an extremity as he looked back to Danni, now finishing her second transformation as a wolf, which just shocked us more.

 

She was just white. And now she's...

 

I don't know, Ryan. I've never heard of this happening.

 

"Shit," I heard him mutter. What are we going to do?

 

We're going to have to wait for her to choose a form, then get her out of here.

 

What about Miyavi?

 

You do anything to her, and I'll kill you, came a very familiar voice.

 

We both looked down at Danni in complete shock. How could she participate in our mental conversation? Wolves aren't supposed to gain that particular ability until after the chip is implanted. Black eyes stared back at us, teeth bared and growling fiercely, making her threat completely believable. While she would never be able to take either one of us in a single, fair fight, an enraged wolf looking for revenge will always get their blood. Females will do so in any way they can, brutally and bloodthirsty. So while neither one of us had anything to fear while we were ready, turning our backs to her like that could be the very last thing we do. The growls turned into howls of pain as she started transforming back.

 

Nikolas?

 

I thought for a moment, wondering what we could do with Miyavi. As I watched Danni slowly turning back to her human form, I realized that we might need her. Knock her out and bring her with us.

 

Ryan looked at me. And how are we going to explain this?

 

I returned his gaze. I don't know.