Moon-marked 3: Quintessence

Chapter 7

This feels wrong. To be in the forest, under the cathedral of branches and sky, wasn't something to be done in clothes and shoes. She should be naked like Seth was, crouched low to the ground and waiting for the roiling energy of the wolf to wrap around her bones and stretch her muscles, remaking her into the shape she was in her head. But it was Seth's skin turning to fur, not hers; his legs getting more compact while his jaw stretched out, exposing teeth that could tear her arm from her body.

Watching him felt right, though. For all her reservations, Becky had to admit Seth was as close to a natural werewolf as he could get. Her first few shifts had been far more awkward than his, and he was adjusting to his change in circumstances far more gracefully than she was to hers. Paige was taking it hardest of all, so she had stayed behind, opting to visit the witch again; she claimed she was preparing for the reversal rite, but Becky knew there was more to it than that. It was hard to feel so out of place in your own body and then see someone who was so utterly at home in theirs.

"Don't be too long," Finn warned, leaning against a nearby tree. "The more you bring the essence to the fore, the harder it will be to remove." Then he grimaced. "It will probably be hardest for Paige, simply because she had no choice to do... human things. But you two should both be more careful."

"Trust me: I've only been drinking blood substitute when I have to." Becky knelt on the forest floor and held out her hands as Seth loped over to have his fur ruffled. When she glanced up, she saw Finn roll his eyes, but there was also a hint of grudging acceptance in his gaze too. "Have a good run. We'll just be over by the stream."

Seth tilted his head back and let out a short yip before licking her cheek and dashing off, soon little more than a dark blur zooming through the forest. "He takes to the transformation well," Finn remarked. "Being a werewolf out of the blue would be more of an adjustment for a human than being a vampire. The CrossFit probably helps."

"Yeah." Seth was far out of her sight range, but Becky kept staring off the direction he had gone for a few moments. "Yeah, he's a good wolf."

Finn cupped a hand around her elbow and gently tugged her forward. "C'mon. Let's go to the stream. We'll be able to see his go-bag just fine from there, and I'll be able to sense if anyone's approaching."

Becky knew he was right, but she still hesitated. The forest felt weird under two feet rather than four. I need to go hiking more, I guess, she thought as Finn led her to the stream. Being there during the day, with no full moon peering down at her, almost made her feel like she was on an alien planet. Vampires also had enhanced vision, but it was the barrage of pulses that kept distracting her, from birds to rabbits to even small mice scuttling under the leaves or the bugs burrowing into the trunks of the looming trees. "Why can't I hear your heart the way I could before?" she blurted out, sitting on the ground to untie her shoes.

"Bold of you to assume I have a heart." Laughing, Finn kissed the top of her head as he sat beside her. They left their shoes by the nearest tree and walked the rest of the way to the water barefoot, relishing all the different textures against their skin. "It's your wiring. As a vampire, you're wired to sense blood, so the heartbeat means more to you. Werewolves are also attracted to a pulse, but in a different way." He sat down on the bank and dangled his feet into the water, kicking up a fine spray. "It's not a competition, Bex. In time, you'd be a fine vampire too, I'm sure. And you'll always be a better werewolf than Seth is, at least in my book."

"This feels wrong." Becky took a deep breath, but it was more out of habit than need. As a werewolf, she had needed to breathe the same way a human would; vampires apparently had very different lungs and she still wasn't used to them. "Not wrong," she corrected slowly, rolling up her jeans and dipping her bare feet into the stream. Since she wasn't dressing for ease and comfort after a shift, she had chosen to wear something warmer. "Just...."