Swan Goin' Wolf

Screams

Jared POV:

I hate patrol. Nothing puts a damper on a perfectly good day more than having to run in circles for a couple hours in case some damn blood sucking leeches comes across the border. I get that we're spirit warriors and that's it's our duty and everything, but this still sucked. I hated having to keep this from Sunny. Paul and I haven't kept anything a secret from Sunny since we were all fourteen and she had beat the hell out of Paul for not telling her that he hadn't eaten in three days because his father had left town for a case and couldn't cook. After she was finished yelling and hitting him she had the chief bring her down to Paul's and cooked a couple meals for him, teaching him how to cook for himself while she did so.

It was amazing how she always knew the answer to any problem you could have and fixed it. It was so much easier to tell her and solve the problem, then to hide it and cause other problems because of it, especially since she would hit you for it before fixing it. At least I had a lot to think about while I patrolled or else I would have to resort to studying the trees that I passed a couple dozen times a day. Sunny had told me about going out with Sam the last two weeks. I was glad that she was happy with Sam and he was ecstatic about the fact she was finally ready to go out with him. She had kept him waiting for the last seven months. She seemed so excited about going out with Sam tonight. He was going to take her out to a restaurant in Port Angeles that he really wanted to take her to.

It was almost the end of my shift. Paul should be phasing in soon to take over till morning when I had to go back on patrol. Sam took a twelve hour shift during the days when Paul and I had school to make sure we got our education. We repaid the favor by giving him the weekends off so he could catch up on some sleep. The schedule would shift again next month when Paul and I graduated and summer began. I started back toward the border for my last lap before I would start toward home I was about half a mile from the border when I came across the smell of bleach and burnt sugar. I let up a howl and it was only thirty seconds before Paul and Sam were in my head.

"Where are you, Jared?" Sam asked as he phased in.

"Half mile from the treaty line, smells not even five minutes old and the scents hanging." I thought to him as I started on the trail. The more the scent hung in the air the slower a leech was moving. Before I had made it a mile following the leech Sam and Paul had caught up and we arranged ourselves in the normal 'v' formation with Sam on point, Paul on Sam's left flank and me on his right. We ran down the scent and caught up to the leech in minutes.

The leech looked over his shoulder as he ran and his eyes widened when he saw us before trying to run faster. He broke for the coast where he was probably going to head out to the ocean where we couldn't follow. Sam gave the order and I darted off to the cliffs to block his escape, but before he got to the cliff he broke right back toward the treaty line and I rejoined my brothers as we raced after him. He tried diving through the trees to lose us only to have us gaining on him. Sam almost had his ankle when he took to the trees and doubled back to the cliffs.

This time Paul broke off to race to the cliffs. As the leech hit the final tree before the ocean he glanced back at us seeing us only seconds behind him. With a devilish smile he made a jump for the water, only to have Paul leap as he flew over his head, grabbing the parasite's leg and flinging him back to Sam and I. I jumped on him and ripped his arm from his torso. The tick screamed and kicked out at us in a desperate attempt to get away. Sam grabbed his leg making it the next thing to go. Paul joined us ripping his other arm off as I pounced on his other leg. Sam ended his screaming as he clamped his jaws around the bastard's neck and yanked it off, adding it to the pile of limbs. We phased back and gathered some pine needles and dry sticks from the forest before igniting the body with Sam's lighter.