From the Dust

From the Dust - Part 3

When Joel got home, the first thing he did was yell, "ALEX IS COMING??"

"Alex who?" Leo said calmly, looking up from where he was washing the blender.

"AERO ALEX, THAT'S WHO."

Realization dawned in Leo's eyes and he swore under his breath. "Perfect."

"Who's that?" I asked, looking up from the book I was reading.

"A friend," Leo said.

"He ... doesn't get along well with strangers," Joel added, pacing back and forth.

He must be another supernatural. Tonight was definitely going to be interesting.

"When are they coming over?" I asked.

"Any second now. Leo give him a call. Some ... heads up."

"I would," Leo said regretfully, "but ... you know ..."

Joel sighed in frustration. "Right. Whatever. I'll do it. Just ... don't let Braken do anything stupid."

I frowned and snapped my book shut. "I'm not going to do anything stupid," I muttered, slightly offended.

"Don't take it personally," Leo said, calling after me as I went to my room.

I ignored him and shut the door, wishing for a lock. I glanced at the bag under my bed and the silver dagger concealed inside, and retrieved my notebook and pen. I added as much information as I could to my lists, but the information I had for Leo heavily outweighed the list for Joel. It made me wonder if Joel was even a supernatural at all.

I don't remember much after that, because I fell asleep, exhausted after staying up all night. I knew exactly how Leo felt. Putting up an act and pretending to sleep at night took its toll. I was just glad I only needed a few hours of human sleep. The moonlight did the rest.

I woke up to the sound of voices - and a lot of them. I climbed out of bed and put my notebook away, glancing at the alarm clock. It was just after eight o'clock. I'd slept for that long?

I shuffled out of my room, rubbing sleep from my eyes, and was hit by a physical blast of music and laugher. Leo and Joel sure knew how to host a party. There were at least a dozen people crammed into the living room kitchen, and one of them, I noticed, was Raz from earlier that morning. He caught me staring at him and scowled, as if warning me to stay away. He didn't have to tell me twice.

"Hey, Braken's up!" Joel shouted to be heard.

"Alex, put those things away," Leo grumbled, and I could have sworn I saw big, black wings on the back of the person he was talking to.

Alex laughed drunkenly. "Ahh, you mean you're gonna ruin all my fun?"

"He doesn't know yet," Leo said, grabbing Alex's shoulders.

"You haven't told him?"

"Told me what?" I asked.

"Nothing!" Joel and Leo said quickly.

"If he's gonna live with you, he should know," Alex said, shrugging. Sure enough, I saw those black wings rise and fall with his shoulders.

"Alex ... has wings?" I pointed, as if I'd just noticed them.

"Just a costume," Joel said.

"Just like your claws," Alex giggled. "And Leo's fangs."

Joel had claws. I added that to my mental list and quickly went over it in my head. Joel had an extremely good sense of smell, dogs followed him home, he was very protective of Leo, even if he wasn't willing to show it, there was something important about the next moon, and now he had claws? The next moon could only mean the next full moon, which was in five days, on November fifth. Full moon and claws ... There was only one thing I could think of that needed a full moon, and that was a werewolf.