Hide And Go Seek

Nine

  

         Nine

   “So tell me again why you were trying to take out a member of the pack?” He asks, settling back into his chair.

   I watch sceptically as he presses some wadded up material against his bare stomach. The moment we walked into his house, he’d stripped off his shirt and gone to grab the material.

   “I need the paw of a Werewolf.”

   “Why?” He lets out a hiss of pain and his head falls back on the hair.

   “I just do,” I shrug.

   He looks up at me, raises an eyebrow. “You can sit if you want.”

   I look down at myself, feeling every muscle tensed and tight. Then I look across at the couch opposite him.

   “I’m fine thanks.”

   “You got me pretty bad you know,” he grumbles.

   “Silver...” I slide my hand down and slip the knife out. “You won’t be healing any time soon.”

   “Hmm – maybe. Why did you even stab me in the first place? I was trying to save you.”

   I shrug. “I didn’t know that, did I? All I knew was that I was trying to fight off one wolf and then another wolf rugby tackles me to the floor. I reacted.”

   He shakes his head. “I suppose it looks kind of bad but... I just didn’t want Dennis gnawing your head off.”

   “Dennis. That’s the name of the wolf that attacked me?”

   “Yes,” he says; sitting upright suddenly. “But that doesn’t mean go after him. He’s not a bad guy – a little aggressive but most Werewolves are.”

   I nod my head. “But I need the paw of a Werewolf.”

   He scratches his chin for a moment. “I’m going to get myself a beer. You want one?”

   I shake my head with a sigh. “I don’t drink.”

   He pauses in the motion of standing up and gives me this look. “You don’t drink?”

   “Nope, never have,” I shrug.

   “Wow. You need to loosen up, like seriously,” he laughs and wanders out of the room.

   I let out a small sigh. “You have no idea.”

Mum soars through the air and I find myself – despite my situation – entranced by the way she moves, so graceful and lithe.

She digs a small dagger into the wolf’s back and it whirls around, losing interest in me in an instant. I drop, my head tilted towards mum as Janine runs towards me.

They move around one another – the dance of death until the wolf strikes. Mum moves out of the way but the wolf catches her leg.

She whirls around and yanks her sword out at the same time the wolf digs its teeth into her upper thigh. It shakes her like a rag doll. 

I’m aware of Janine fussing about me, talking to me – but I can’t hear it.

“M – m – mum!” I gasp and point.

She turns and cries out in shock when she notices mum lying on the ground, twisted slightly. She goes to move over but it all ends in a heartbeat when mum lifts her sword and stabs the wolf straight into its throat, twisting it in and ensuring the end of its life.

“Hey, are you alright?”

My eyes jerk in the direction of Monroe - the Werewolf I appear to have somehow ‘befriended’. I blink rapidly and run a hand through my hair. 

“What?”

He shrugs, bringing the beer to his lips. “I don’t know. You spaced out there for like... ten whole minutes. You were just staring at me. Kind of freaky.”

I look around, remembering where I am. I take a deep breath and shake my head.

“I was just thinking.”

“About...”

I pause. ‘About getting what I need.”

“Hey! I told you. You’re not going around chopping off some Werewolf’s paw, okay?”

I roll my eyes. “Like there’s much you could do to stop me.”

In a second he’s directly in front of me, leaning towards me. I grab my knife and jerk it upwards, but his hand is already there, covering my hand and stopping me from finishing him.

He glares at me. “I’m a lot stronger and faster than any normal wolf, okay? Blue-Bloods, as I said, are more evolved. We’re more powerful. I won’t kill you – but I will get in the way every time you try to hurt a wolf.”

“Why are you protecting them?” I snap. “They were going to kill me and they weren’t exactly hesitating!”

“That’s only because you threatened the pack. They normally keep to themselves – they only hunt animals. But you got right in there.”

I sigh. “So how am I supposed to get my Wolf’s paw?”

“If you want this done and done quickly – which I’m sure you do, then we’re doing it my way.”