The Change by Mathew Harrison (free ebook reader for ipad TXT) 📖

of our blood." She explained, "It helps with the healing proccess, put a couple drops on the bite marks, and give her a few sips and she'll be fine in roughly ten minutes." She demonstrated, and before my eyes the bleeding stopped, and the wounds were scabbing over within minutes. I stared amazed, then the girl opened her eyes and focused on me, Shit! I thought, struggling to focus on entering her mind again, but finding another presence in there that prevented me.

"What the hell?!" I practically shouted, "I can't get back in her head!"

"Really?" Lilith asked, sounding interested, "It usually takes weeks for newborns to discover that ability, of course, they usually don't have the restraint to stand in a crowd of humans without feeding immediately either. But don't worry, I've got it handled"

"Wait," I said confused, "if that's the case, then why were you telling me to come to school?"

She laughed, and the girl continued to sit on the floor, staring blankly as if she was stoned. "I wanted to make sure that you were in my sight the entire day, I figured risking the lives of your classmates was better than risking the lives of others in town, especially since I wouldn't have been able to cover your tracks."

"WHAT!" I shouted, feeling my fangs shoot out and my face changing. "You mean to tell me," my voice was turning rough and animalistic, I was seeing red and starting to lose control, "that you would prefer to have me kill people I've known for three years, just so you could cover it up?!"

"Yep." she answered, looking wary, but confident she could handle me. That one word was enough to send me over the edge, I roared and charged her, noticing that even though I could see everything that I was doing, I had no control over it. She tried to jump over me, but I reached out with a clawed hand and flung her down on the cement floor hard. I didn't even stop as I heard a sickening crunch when her head hit the ground, I was too consumed with rage, so I flipped her over on her back, and started slashing her with my claws, relishing as her blood sprayed up into my face. I slashed her repeatedly, then grabbed her throat with my right hand, and put my left on her shoulder, ready to rip her head off. I tightened my grip, about to follow through, and then I heard a roar that made me freeze in my movements. I turned slowly and saw Emma as I did the night I was turned, and I felt the power she held in that roar, forcing my body to revert back to human and the rage to slowly ebb aout of my mind.

"WHAT THE HELL!," she screamed as soon as she reverted back to her human appearance, "IS GOING ON!?"

Lilith sat up groggily, blood flowing down her temple at a steady rate. I felt my fangs legthen, and I struggled to resit the urge to pounce on her and drain her dry. What the fuck is wrong with me? I thought violently, I had no problems with controling my thirst, but now I want to drain everyone dry! I turned to face Lilith and said, "That's actually a good question, all I know is I somehow entered that girl's thoughts, convinced her to come in here with me, and I was only planing to take a small amount of blood." I laughed blackly, "Of course, I had almost killed the girl, Lilith showed up just in time to stop me, but I almost killed her after our conversation pissed me off to the point I couldn't control my transformation." I focused on reigning in the anger that was building up from remembering, I knew that turning now wouldn't help me where this convorsation was going.

Lilith shook her head and said, "Yeah, I don't get what his problem is though, he had no problems feeding on me this morning after you left, but he damn near killed that girl and ripped me in half!"

Emma groaned, "Great, this is just how I wanted my day to go! Do I have to worry about her turning? I know Jake isn't an alpha, so he can't turn her into a wolf, but I don't need her turning into a vampire either."

For the first, and quite possibly only time I have ever seen, Lilith reassured her, "No, in order for us to turn someone, we have to have the intent of turning them when we bite, mindless feeding doesn't qualify."  I sighed in relief, that was one of my fears, condemming this innocent girl to a life of darkness and death. "However I do think that we should all get to school."

I gaped at her, thinking back to what she said about my classmates, and growled feeling my claws and fangs extend again. "Why would you even suggest that?! You already told me that you expected me to kill somebody today!"

Lilith smirked, "True, but you've fed, and it seems like you are maintaining control over your temper, so I don't see any harm befalling anyone by your hands today." she reached into the bag she left leaning against the door frame, since the door was now in splinters, and pulled out two plastic hospital bags with red fluid in them, I felt increased pressure in my fangs  "However, I want you to keep these in your bag at all times, and if you start to feel thirsty, sneak off to the bathroom or manipulate the minds of your classmates, whatever you need to do to feed." I took the bags from her, careful not to let my claws puncture them and at the same time not looking directly at them as I put them in my bag. Lilith smiled and continued, "You are already showing more restraint than the common newborn, most of them wouldn't have been able to resist feeding even from a glance of seperated blood."

Emma sighed and said, "Okay, now that we have his feeding issues handled for today, we seriously need to work on helping you control your shifting." She reached into her pockets and pulled out a small pendant with a strange triple spiral on it. "This is known as a Triskele, it is the symbol of my pack and everyone of us has one of these." While she was talking she handed it to me, just looking at it helped to put my mind at ease, and I put it on as she continued, "These pendants often help us when we first develop our shifting abilities, the main way to control the shift is to find an anchor, something that helps you think more with your human mind than the animal. My anchor is anger, I remember all the wrongs that I have suffered in my life," she shot an ugly look at Lilith, "and the anger helps me reign in the shift. Before that however, we are taught a chant that holds a different meaning for each of us, but has the same result." She reached out and took my hands, "Now I want you to repeat after me, The three things that can't be hid..."

I echoed, "The three things that can't be hid..."

"...the sun...the moon...the truth"

"...the sun...the moon...the truth." As I finished the chant I thought about what it meant, the sun obviously will always come out just like the moon when it is hidden by clouds, so that means that the truth will eventually come out. I paled, Shit! I thought, If

Imprint

Publication Date: 09-28-2014

All Rights Reserved

Dedication:
I want to dedicate this book to my friends Phil, Emma, Rachel, Dennis, Michael, Trevor, and Christian. Without your input, and your faith in my way with words, I never would have been able to do this.