The Werewolf Stages by S.C. Taufa (top ten books to read txt) 📖

Vince. You asked if I could come over. Let me in Michelle. I’m not going to hurt you,” That’s an odd thing to say coming from Vince.

“Why would I think you’re going to hurt me?” I knew the answer before he said. Because it was my natural instinct to think that a vampire would hurt me.

“Because it’s your natural instinct to fear being hurt by a vampire, Michelle. At the moment all your senses are heightened, including your instinct to survive. Please Michelle open the door, I can help you. This is what your parents wanted me to do in case of them not being able to do so – to help.” Before I could think things over I raced to the door, threw back the locks and swung the door open to reveal a worried and almost fearful Vince. He was standing there still with the earpiece, which is a portable hands free phone, still on. He reached up slowly to turn the earpiece off and then he raised his other hand to show me he has nothing in his hands. It broke my heart to see him showing me he was weapon less and that he was leaving an opening for any attack.

“Vince you don’t have to do that, your family.” Even with saying that all my instincts were telling me to back away slowly until I reached the lounge room then run in there where it would be easier to defend myself. I fought to control these instincts as I waved him in while I stood ridged beside the door.

“Michelle I can tell from your body language that this is not comfortable for you. It is important that you see me as not a danger if I’m to help,” he leaned down so that he was at my eye level. “Remember Michelle, I will never hurt you.” As he was speaking memories of Vince and Molly protecting us from a grizzly bear and then a mountain lion when we had ignored their warnings about going into the forest alone when we were little. Also a few years ago when two vampires had come to the house while Mum and Dad had been away, Vince and his family had protected me and my brother. Whatever instinct that had been telling me to run was now overridden with the feeling of family . . . of pack . . . of protection . . . of safety. I suddenly lost all the stiffness from my body and slowly fell into unconsciousness. I was vaguely aware of Vince moving with vampiric speed to catch me before I fell.

**************************

Slowly my sense began returning and with each sense came the feel of something warm cradling me, of the dryness of my mouth, of the sound of a heartbeat and breathing close to my ear, of the smell of someone I knew and the slightly blurry image of Vince looking down at me. “Hello sleeping beauty. Decided to wake I see.” He smiled as I barked out a laugh that ended in a cough. He reached for something beside him as he said, “you probably need at drink before you can say anything.” He carefully poured some water into my mouth from a plastic cup.

I grimaced as I swallowed it. “Yuck, where did you get that water from, it’s disgusting? You didn’t get it from the. . .” The look on his face stopped me from saying the rest. He looked really, really worried. “What’s wrong?”

In the silence after my question I took in my surroundings and I was in my room on my bed cradled against Vince’s body. This was starting to feel weird, very, very weird. As I was about to repeat my question I suddenly could smell something out of the ordinary and it was close by. It smelt like something . . . something from the forest . . . I just couldn’t put my finger on it. The thought of the weirdness of being in my room being cradle by Vince on my bed faded to the back of my mind as the smell started to get stronger.

“Michelle . . . can you smell it too?” His voice was soft and low.

I lowered my voice to the same low pitch as his and looked at him with a puzzled expression. “What is it? I . . . . . know the smell from somewhere I just can’t put a name to it.”

“Michelle . . . the smell . . . it’s coming from you. As soon as you realised we are in your room and on your bed that smell appeared. What is going on in that head of yours?” He looked at me in a way he had never looked at me before, with an intensity that almost made me blush.

“Nothing is. It just feels . . . weird for some reason . . . I . . Never mind.” I looked away before I started to wriggle out of his arms when his grip tightened and he gently grasped my chin to make me look at me. He stared into my eyes. To me it looked like he’s searching for something in my eyes that would tell him what I’m thinking.

“What’s going on with you?” he whispered the question not really asking me but this time as he asked me I did blush.

The Change

3

Vince

She blushed. “I don’t know what’s going on.” She whispered back. She buried her face in my chest and started to cry. I held her as she cried and I thought about what was going on with her. She had never felt weird with me holding her this way before and she had never blushed when I had stared at her like I had done before she started to cry. And not once had she ever buried her head in my chest before. She only did that with Molly. Something is wrong. The fact she had rang me instead on Molly had also surprised me that is the reason why instead of say ‘hello, who’s this?’ I had asked what was wrong. She had she was scared and that someone was outside watching her through the windows and lurking in the dark. Actually . . . he had smelt something as he came rushing over . . . it had smelt like Will’s cologne and . . . blood, human blood. Could he have been lurking around the house? Would Will do that after swearing that he would stay away from her? Yes, he would. His own brother had said he wouldn’t stay away because he had been told to not go near her and so he would do the opposite. His own brother! Obviously Will’s brother doesn’t like him. It must be something to do with Will turning him into a vampire.

** **********

Michelle

Even though I had my head buried in his chest with his arms tightly hugging me to him I could tell he was thinking hard about something. The tears had slowed to a stop and I sat there shivering in his arms. Suddenly the temperature dropped and Vince tensed as he thought of something. A low rumbling started deep within his chest I could only hear it because I had my head against his chest. “What’s the matter?” I mumbled into his chest and he moved slightly.

“Nothing, I just had a thought about something.” He mumbled in reply and I knew then that whatever it was that had made Vince growl was – is going to face his wrath. Vince never growls like that unless something deeply angered him. I started to move away from his chest to look at him but I found I could not move. His arms around me had turned into a vice but it is not because of what he is feeling but what I am feeling or I should say hearing.

Crack! My whole body went numb with the sound just before I howled in pain. Followed seconds by another howl from Vince. He is feeling the same pain I am. His sixth sense is that of feeling. He could numb the pain but the pain, my pain, had put a barrier up to stop any numbing that could have be done. “Michelle . . . I’m sorry but I can’t numb the pain . . . I think. You’re. Going. Through. The first . . . Change!” He had to push the words out through gritted teeth.

“Let . . . Go. It would . . . be . . . easier if . . . you . . . did.” I had trouble getting those words out and they are going to be the last I will be able to say until IT is over. Vince tried to let go but he physically couldn’t let go. He had turned into an unbreakable solid rock of a person. I started screaming and I couldn’t stop. Suddenly my whole body as if it is on fire!

. . . .

In the distance two wolves skid to a stop. Their ears swivelling around listening. They had heard something howl in pain. They did not move they only stood there waiting for any more noise. Then came the scream. Deep down the two wolves felt an agonising pain within their chests. They knew who the scream belonged to! It was their daughter, their pup! Their pup was with another. The guardian they had been teaching to take care of her. Vince Muller the Vampire was with her. She is safe. Yet in pain. They needed to be there. With that single thought resonating in their minds the two wolves raced towards the house they called home. They howled.

. . . .

I barely heard the howling of a wolf, or is it two?, over my own howling of pain and of the howling of  Vince echoing my cry. My hands are curled into tight fists and I swear my whole body is trying to curl in on itself. There came a crash from the front door as something big hit it causing it to crash to the floor in splinters. I may not have been able to see this but I could hear the unmistakeable sounds of splintering wood. The sound stopped and replaced by the scratching of claws on the wooden floor boards. One minute I was being held tightly to Vince’s chest on my bed and the next I was curled up like a kitten when you pick it up by the scruff of the neck clutched to his torso in the corner of the room with Vince crouched and curled around me protectively. He’s visibly shaking from the pain he could feel from me because even now he is still touching me when he could have put me behind him to stop anything from getting to me without the haze of pain clouding his mind. Two wolves come into the room on the other side of the bed and they are so big that they could see us over the top of my bed without lifting their heads held too high. They both bared their teeth at us and growled. One slowly stalked around the bed while the other leaped onto my bed.