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  When we got home I was still feeling dazed. Dad walked Quinn and I into the house, closing the door behind us. I was so caught up with what had transpired tonight that I didn’t hear the warning growl coming from the doorway until my whole body went into the air from a single smack to the face. I landed on the kitchen table breaking it into pieces.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Quinn yelled. I quickly knew that my jaw was broken when I tried to say the same thing. I just laid there in shock and waited the next ten minutes for it to heal, the whole time I spent in and out of consciousness listening to them argue . When I got up a growled resonated from my belly, and both men stopped arguing to look at me, I didn’t feel like myself anymore I was in complete agreement with my tiger at this point, fuck them all, we didn’t have to take this abuse. The growling got louder as I stood up and started stalking my father. Quinn put his hands out in front of him in a defensive manner.

  “Calm down Lana” he said in calm voice.

  “Calm down?” I growled out

  “I was almost raped tonight, and this son of a bitch hits ME for it.” I felt nothing but rage. I wanted to kill him, I had just gone through a terrible ordeal and he was blaming it on me.

  “You shouldn’t have gone in the first place, not only are you grounded for life, you are now on home school” my dad yelled.

  “I am not a child anymore in case you hadn’t noticed, why don’t you look at me for god’s sake” I yelled “Look, what do you see? You still see me as being ten years old’

  “You still live under my roof you obey my rules, I let you go one night and someone is now dead” he yelled in protest.

  “Then I won’t live under your roof or by your rules, tonight was an accident and if you would have told me the truth from the beginning this might not have happened so you can take some of the blame” I said as i began feeling the sensation of the change.

  “Lana No ! ! ! ! ” my Dad yelled trying to stop me, it was too late I had already turned into a tiger. Lots of questions came up but I was still to pissed to ask how the hell I had done it without the full moon. My main object was my father at this point, I began stalking him slowly. When I heard Quinn yell “hey” I looked at him almost forgetting her was here, I expected him to command me or something but instead he opened the front door to let me out.

  “Don’t come back” were my dad’s final words to me. Standing outside looking around my only thought was that I had to get out of this residential area before someone saw me, because seeing a Siberian tiger in Montana would raise alarm, I’d probably end up in a zoo. As I tried to figure out where to go Quinn came outside.

  “I want you to listen to me babe.” he said kneeling not seeming frightened at all. I found out why when he told me to “change back” I felt the pressure from his words like a force yanking my insides apart. I fought against it knowing I wasn’t ready to change back yet and deal with my dad. Not to mention I still had no idea how to change back without sleeping first.

  “I mean it Lana” he commanded louder. I still felt the pull but not at strongly now, like some invisible string was slowly being cut. When he eventually realized I couldn’t change back he took a deep breath for patience I would imagine.

  “Ok fine. I want you to run north for about thirty-five miles, until you come to a ranch. I’ll be there as soon as I’m done here with this mess” I didn’t want to stay for the show down between him and my father either so I began running in the direction he told me to. By the time I got to the ranch that seemed like time had forgotten it I had finally burnt through my anger, I could never hold a grudge to long. The fences along the road were worn down to the bare wood, but you could tell they used to be painted white. There hadn’t been horses or any other animal here for a while. When I began to look at the house nestled in the back, the wave of emotions I had been holding finally erupted. I thought of Brad, Vampires that were real and of course my own father hitting me. Thankfully being in tiger form kept all my hysteric sobs to a dull whine.

  Chapter 6

  When i heard my name being called I shook off what little I could of my self-loathing and listened until I heard it again.

  “Lana!” Uncle Bill called from the front door of the ranch house. I couldn’t believe he was here. Running towards him I noticed his posture was a lot like my fathers had been so I approached cautiously.

  “Quinn just called me, he asked if we had a room for you, I figured from the tone in his voice trouble had happened, so of course you can stay with us. Voice left no doubt in my mind that you were in trouble. Get in here before you are seen” I entered the doorway with my head bowed, of course Quinn wouldn’t have told Bill what happened tonight, this was to be my punishment for not changing when he asked. The house had a very cozy look. Pictures of smiling faces lined the walls, mostly hard wood floors, and it smelled of fresh baked cookies. I noticed a few boxes in the corner of the room, meaning they probably hadn’t lived here to long, but long enough and close enough to have come visited.

  “Fill me in on what happened” he stated in a calm voice about ten minutes later while we were sitting living room, I was on a throw rug in front of the empty fire place while Bill sat on a brown leather couch. I allowed Bill to see my thoughts; I replayed the events of the whole night, from Brad’s failed attempt to rape me which resulted in his death, to the interrogation of the police, then finally to my dad hitting me. He looked down at me with sympathetic eyes; I could tell though from his facial expressions that he was furious at my Dad’s reaction and lack of understanding of my ordeal.

  “Don’t worry you can stay here as long as you like” Bill offered, I was pleased he didn’t ask any questions. The small cozy living room was so compact that Bill had to move his couch in order to make room for me to lie down completely. I listened to Bill as he told Tanya what had happened, I closed my eyes, praying for the nightmare to end.

  “Are you hungry?” Bill asked after a while.

  “No, I am kind of tired though.” I peeked out one eye in his direction. “Well then sleep but, Quinn should be here soon.” He reminded me as he covered me with a blanker like he had done at my uncle Alan’s.

  “Thank you.” I thought. I had never been homeless before, I felt like I had nothing; no friends, no home, my father hated me, and now I was living with a relative I barely knew.

  “I didn’t know there were vampires in the world,” I thought as a good conversation starter, I had forgotten to mention them earlier to him. I was not prepared for his reaction; Bill quickly stood up from the couch and began looking around frantically.

  “What vampire contacted you Lana,” he said in an angry tone.

  “No one contacted me. I saw some at the party,” I thought. He calmed a little.

  “You didn’t say anything to them did you,”

  “No. I didn’t even know what they were until Quinn told me.” Bill’s agitation seemed to shift to Quinn now.

  “Just… . . Sleep we’ll talk more about it after you’ve rested” he said patting me on the head trying to reclaim the little comfort I had earlier.

  Bill opened the door before Quinn had a chance to knock once he had arrived, five large trash bags fell to the floor inside the door jam, it was surreal that my entire life was now nothing more than five bags worth.

  “No change it seems” Quinn said looking at me.

  “No, as you can see” Bill said closing the door.

  “I ordered her to change earlier, she should have done it,” Quinn responded, kneeling down to look at me puzzled.

  “I don’t think she takes orders very well, no matter which the commander is,” Bill said with a smile Quinn didn’t return.

  The night had been a long one; I ended up falling asleep to the soothing voices of the men as they talked about what to do next. It was still dark when I awoke so I must not have been out long but long e
nough to change back into human. Bill and Quinn were still in deep conversation and didn’t seem to notice I was awake yet. I wrapped the blanket around myself with my back to both of them once I felt their eyes on me.

  “So it worked huh, I figured since you changed without the full moon you could do it anytime, seems I was wrong and I’m sorry about that. How is your face?” Quinn asked as I stood up making sure the blanket was secure before I faced them they both gasp loudly.

  “WHAT?” I said frantically looking for a mirror, was I horribly disfigured from Brad’s meaty hand hitting me? Did I had a massive amount of drool on my face from sleeping? I found a large mirror down a narrow hallway, the light switch was to the right of it, once I turned it on I too gasped. My eyes hadn’t change back to the way they had been my entire life, somehow my tiger eye color had morphed into my human eyes; the color was now gray with pecks of green. I closed my eyes, trying to feel if there any of the pulling sensation I got when i changed, I felt nothing which could only mean this was how I was going to be from now on. I quickly rand my hand through my hair in disbelief, but this only reviled that my hair was longer than it should have been as well. I tightly wrapped the blanket around myself feeling little comfort from its embrace.

  “What’s happening to me?” I asked close to tears as I watched Quinn and Bill come up behind me.

  “We don’t know” Bill said softly as he placed his hand on my shoulder. Quinn just stared, like I was now a bug under a microscope. I shook off the weird feeling again that everything would be changing and not in a good way as I changed the subject in hopes of not talking about this abnormality.

  “How is my dad?” I asked Quinn looking over Bill’s arm.

  “He’s beating himself up that he lost control like that and hit you, but he was serious about you not coming home right now.”

  I went over to one of my plastic bags shielding tightly so that Bill wouldn’t hear my mental cussing at my dad. After retrieving some clothes from one of the bags Bill showed me to the bathroom so I could redress, the whole time I wondered what was going to become of me now.

  The night had not turned out at all, as one would have expected. All I could think was that I wanted to turn back the clock, back to when everything was normal.

  When I came out of the bathroom Bill and Quinn were whispering on the couch in the living room, I didn’t want to be rude or intrude on their private conversation so I began walking toward what could only be the kitchen and the sweet smelling aroma that beckoned me. Tanya was busing herself with gently putting oatmeal cookies on a large plate, noticing me she pointed to the table beckoning me to sit. She placed the plate in the middle of the table before sitting across from me. We both ate our cookies in silence.

  Eventually Quinn came in, pulling out the chair that was next to me, he didn’t even seem to notice the large plate of cookies. He had his game face on, which I assumed meant he had an idea. The silence was starting to get to me, plus Quinn began grinning like an evil cat.

  “So what did you think of Amber?” I asked pulling at straws to get the look off his face, it made me nervous.

  “I think I like you better.” He responded. I looked away, not from embarrassment, but because I didn’t want to feel sexy right now. I was saved when a loud thunderous knock came from the front door. Quinn suddenly tensed, Bill looked worriedly at the door, like it might just jump out and say BOO. I leaned back in my chair to get a better look at the door to see what had them all worried when I saw the blonde male vampire from the party peering through the window. I was about to scream, but Quinn quickly clamped his hand over my mouth nearly suffocating me in the process, the blonde vampire was holding the head of the police officer that had interrogated me hanging from his hand. Quinn got up and quickly pulled me with his hand still clamped tight until we reached the garage. You could hear muffled voices coming from the other side of door, Bill must have let the psycho in his house, I could easily hear what Blondie was saying.

  “I smell you have a visitor,” said the deep voice that didn’t seem to fit the vampire I had seen, did that mean there were more. My eyes widened as Quinn tightened his grip on my mouth.

  “Yes. Quinn, the tiger, he has come to stay the night,” Bill informed the voice.

  “Ah yes. I saw him tonight with two young women. One killed a man who tried to rape her,” the voice said coming closer to the garage door.

  “Move Now!” Bill mentally yelled at me. I grabbed Quinn’s hand from my mouth and ran to a small locker that was next to a large freezer, it wasn’t big enough for us both so Quinn shoved me inside. I would have protested more if I wasn’t in fear of my life.

  “Don’t speak a word or breathe loudly, and please get your heart rate under control” he said through the slats in the locker. His tone was just a whisper, but I heard the plea in his voice. Quinn ended up sliding underneath Bill’s car like it was third base seconds before the door to the garage opened.

  “Don’t move!” Bill thought, “Keep your breathing down, and cover your heart with your hand to muffle the sound.” I did as I was told out of fear though that did nothing to calm my heart rate.

  “Quinn?” said the voice. With difficulty I was able to make out the form through the slats in the locker and indeed the deep voice belonged to the same blonde vampire I had seen at the party.

  “Byron,” Quinn said coming up from under the car, whipping his hands on an old rang like he had been under there for hours.

  “What a pleasant surprise,” Byron responded.

  “Yes quite,” Quinn replied.

  “Bill, you’re going to need a new muffler,” Quinn said keeping up the charade. Byron started walking around the garage sniffing every once in a while, I knew he was looking for me. He stopped with his back to the locker taunting me with his presence. I was trying my best not to be frightened but come on; having a vampire searching for you couldn’t be a good thing.

  “So who was the young woman you were with tonight, Quinn?” Byron asked as he casually as he stalked inspecting the garage.

  “Her name is Amber,” Quinn stated not lying but not being completely truthful either.

  “Human?” the vampire was eyeing Quinn, measuring his every response.

  “Oh yes, quite” Quinn said making a scrunched up face like he tasted something bad.

  “Very interesting” Byron stated considering Quinn.

  “And we are talking about the one who killed the young boy right?”

  “No, she was a friend of Amber’s. I don’t know her name.” There must have been a good reason for Quinn to lie. Bill was looking very tense almost rigid.

  “What is going on?” I thought to Bill.

  “Lana, don’t move a muscle. I will tell you about all of this later, after he leaves,” Bill thought back. Now, I was more worried about the vampire bill sounded utterly terrified.

  “You realize she wasn’t human, of course,” Byron said to Quinn.

  “I thought she smelled different.” Quinn was toying back with the cold unfeeling creature.

  “Quinn I must be honest here, my bullshit meter is reading red right now.” With lighting speed the vampire had Quinn by the throat and up against the wall.

  “WHO IS SHE? Come out; come out where ever you are!” Byron yelled. I was so scared for a number of reasons I was frozen not able to do anything but watch the events unfold.

  “I don’t know,” Quinn said trying to catch a breath but only succeeding in gasping. Because of me, this guy was going to kill Quinn for information on me. I couldn’t let that happen.

  “No Lana! Don’t move.” Bill thought just before I would have grabbed the child release on the locker door.

  “He won’t kill Quinn since he is Pride Leader. Please just wait, Byron is trying to scare you out in the open.” Bill pleaded. It was working, I started to feel tears runnin
g down my face I was so upset.

  “Very well then; where is the girl she was with then, this Amber?” Byron asked Quinn, I watched Quinn go limp not struggling anymore with the hold the vampire had around his neck. Byron was staring at Quinn in the eyes and Quinn had the look of complete surrender just long enough to give the evil creature her address. I had to hold on to my own mouth not to refrain from shrieking. This vampire was going to visit Amber, and I knew it would not be a friendly visit. Byron released Quinn after he had what he needed, letting his body fall almost lifelessly to the floor. With a turn on his heel like nothing was amiss he gracefully floated back into the house. Floated? Bill looked at Quinn then followed the vampire out closing the door behind him.

  “Don’t move until I get back.” It was about thirty-five minutes before Bill came back to the locker and released me. I burst out of it passing Bill like he was a statue to get to Quinn who was still unconscious on the floor.

  “Quinn? Please get up” I said sobbing. He began to shiver as I touched his skin around his neck where the vampire had grabbed him. His skin was emblazoned with nasty blue patches of bruises that were already fading.

  “I’m fine babe. I’ll heal,” he said in a cracked voice

  “Don’t ever do that again, what were you thinking?” I asked looking him over.

  “Had to protect you, that’s what Pride leaders do” he responded like I should already know that fact. Deciding not to get into this why he was on the floor I got up and looked at Bill, I wanted answers.

  “Who the hell was that?”

  “He is a vampire, a very strong and high on the totem pole, type vampire,” Bill stated as an explanation.

  “And what does he want with me?”

  “You are something different, a toy to be played with. You don’t smell like a human and you don’t smell like a shifter from what I have heard. That always sets off alarms for vampires, fear of the unknown.”

  “And what will he do to Amber,” I asked fear closing around my heart, not really sure if I wanted this answer but knowing it before he said the words.