AEGIS ↠ EMBRY CALL [R.U]

48| THE TRUTH

     Callas groaned after hearing Sam's reply, leaning her head back against the back of the sofa with her eyes closed. There was a part of her that wasn't sure how much more she could take. In fact, she surprised herself with how well she was taking in all the information that Sam and the others were telling her. Albeit, it wasn't the strangest thing she had heard, Henry said weirder things to her before during their late-night Skype and call sessions. Sometimes she wondered if he was a A.I. or maybe just computer generated considering some of the things he rambled on about were far too strange. But, then again, he wasn't as strange as Will, or as strange as the sight of seeing her brother transform or 'phase' into a wolf. That was a thing, apparently. Reed wrapped his arm around the back of the sofa again, squeezing her left shoulder, while resting his head on the right side of her head, with a small chuckle. A sigh left her lips as she continued to stare at the ceiling. It was crazy for her to think that a completely different world existed out there, that only a few people knew about, and now she was one of them, and that it had been kept hidden from everyone else.

"You guys have scents. That's so strange. I don't even know how to process that. The only one who smells nice out of all of you is Quil, and I'm only saying that because I spoke to him after he had a shower after P.E. once, because it had been cancelled due to the rain, although, that could have been Paul or Jared seeing as they were there too, but, I'm going to say it's Quil and hope it was Quil. I'm mean... sure, Reed smells okay too, but that's because he lives with me so I'm used to it, and Anya has candles on like all the time so we all smell relatively like an ocean breeze." She brought her head back up and stared at the fireplace. "Yeah, okay, Seth you smell okay too. Jake, you don't. It's gross. Like please take a shower." Her nose scrunched up. "The only reason why I'm not throwing up or gagging is because I have Reed separating the two of us and I can still smell Emily's cooking."

"Freaking out?" Reed asked her shortly after she finished her sentence.

"Just a little bit. It is obvious?"

"Yeah."

"Can someone else take over from talking because I'm going to start crying if you don't."

Sam shook his head, gaining his concentration back. "Yeah, okay then. Um, continuing on with what I was saying... The senses of shape-shifters rival those of vampires. Like vampires, we can see, hear, and smell things from miles away. Our sense of smell is adjusted to help us identify our one enemy, vampires. It is heightened in other circumstances, like when Seth was able to hear your heartbeat before you fainted, but we certainly know vampires at a distance, finding their smell sickly sweet and repellent."

Callas turned her head to Seth. "So, at the dance when you said you had the best hearing out of everyone—?"

"Improved hearing." Seth nodded.

"Do you all have a special ability?"

Paul shook his head. "Not all of us."

"So, you don't?" Paul shook his head at her again. "Who does?"

"Sam has what we call 'alpha command'," Embry finally spoke up after sitting in silence. "We basically have to listen to him no matter what, but even more so with the alpha abilities." Callas finally understood why he couldn't tell her anything.

"So, all that 'it's not your place to say' or 'Sam won't let you' was because he's got the ability to be bossy? Well, that's unsurprising." She looked towards Sam with a sarcastic smile before looking back at Embry. "I'm not going to apologise for my behaviour back at the house, I had every right to be pissed, but maybe my words of encouragement might have been a little overboard."