Blakemore

Ch. 5

The next day at school Jia heads down a hall towards the art room when she hears someone calling her name. She turns to see Cash walking towards her, "What is it Cassius?" Cash rolls his eyes, "You know, you can call me Cash." Jia smiles, "Okay Cassius." He laughs, "So why aren't you in class?" She looks at him and rolls her eyes, "I could ask you the same thing." He chuckles, "True. It's my gym period. Sometimes Coach lets me skip since we have practice later. They're just running laps on the track outside" Jia nods. "Your turn, why aren't you in class?" "Jia smiles shyly, "I have a free period, so sometimes I go to the art room " "You an artist?" Jia looks at him, "Aspiring." Cash smiles, "Well maybe you can draw me sometimes." He poses. Jia laughs and turns to him, "You're funny." Cash steps closer to her, "Well maybe I can make you smile a little more sometime." The two share a gaze and begin leaning into one another when they are interrupted by a crash coming from the gym.

They run to see what's happened and find the stalker guy leaving the boys' locker room. "Hey!" Cash shouts. He looks at them and locks eyes with Jia before running off. She notices a tattoo on his shoulder. Jia and Cash run to the door of the locker room where they stop and stare at one another. Jia speaks with a trembling voice, "Do y- do you smell that?" Cash pants, "Yea. It's blood, fresh blood." They slowly walk into the locker room to find a trail of blood. They hear a distant groan and run to find a bleeding Brayden on the ground. His chest was full of scratches. Jia runs to his side, "Brayden! Oh my God, what happened?" Brayden tries to sit up, "I'm fine Jia. I'll be okay." Cash looks worried, "We gotta get him out of here. Help me take him to my car." Jia looks confused, "Are you crazy? We need to call an ambulance!" Brayden groans, "No! No hospital." Jia looks scared, "What? What do you mean—" Cash cuts her off, "Just trust us Jia. Look, help me get him to my car before somebody sees." Jia gives in and helps Cash lift Brayden and they take him to Cash's car. Cash opens the back door, "Here, you lay his top half down and I'll get his legs." Jia lays Brayden down and gets into the passenger seat. She hears Cash on the phone outside the car before he gets in and begins to drive, "Where are we taking him?" Cash turns off the road into a wilderness path, "Someplace safe." Jia turns to the backseat to see Brayden breathing heavily. His flesh bleeding through the tears in his chest. She begins to cry, "Don't cry J. I'll be fine, I promise." Brayden lifted his hand towards her. Jia grabs his hand and holds it until they pull up to a cabin in the woods.

Cash stops the car, "We're here." Jia turns to see a house sitting next to a big lake, "Where exactly is here?" Cash gets out and opens the back door, "Just trust us. Help me bring him inside." They bring Brayden inside and Cash directs Jia to a couch in the living room, "Set him here. Madame Risse!" They lay him down and Jia begins to look around as she sits next to Brayden. She looks up to see a brown- skin girl with long locs walking out, "I've told you to stop calling me—" she stops in her tracks when she sees Brayden on the couch, "What happened?" She walks over to him and looks over the scratches, "Cash, go grab me a warm towel." Cash goes into the bathroom and grabs a warm towel. The girl looks over at Jia before going into another room, "Who's the witch?" Jia looks confused, "Excuse me?" Cash comes back with a towel and places it on Brayden's head. "That's Jia. Jia, this is Mama Risse." The girl comes back out and cuts her eyes at Cash. He rolls his eyes, "This is Clarisse." She and Jia smile at one another. Clarisse begins to pull herbs out and rubs them on Brayden's scars. Cash looks worried, "What do you think?" Clarisse looks up at him, "He'll be fine. He just needs some time to heal." Cash sees Jia sitting with tears in her eyes, "Why don't we give them some time." Cash gestures her toward the patio. Jia stands, "Time to heal? What does that mean? I want the truth." Cash looks at her sincerely. He begins to speak, but is interrupted by Brayden, "Cash, it's okay." Cash takes a deep breath and looks at Jia, "Brayden's a werewolf." Jia's face drops, "A werewolf? You're a werewolf? That's the big secret?" Cash gestures her outside, "Look he may need some time to fully heal, but he can't do that if you're asking questions. I'll tell you everything you want to know." Jia huffs and looks off for a moment, "I just don't know why he would keep this from me. We tell each other everything. You know, he's the only person who knows about me?" "Look, I know it's a lot to take in, but think about how Brayden feels." Jia cuts her eyes at him. Cash clears his throat, "I- I just mean, imagine how hard it's been for him to keep this from everyone." Jia softens her eyes, "I guess I understand. I just wish he would've told me. I mean, why would he tell you and not me?" Cash huffs, "He didn't really tell me. I sort of found out." Jia looks at him, "We were at practice and one of the guys was just being a jerk to B. He was getting really mad and the guy pushed him. We bumped into each other and when we were getting up I noticed his eyes were changing color. I've been helping him control it ever since." Jia walks to the edge of the patio and leans on the railing, "I just— wait control it? What do you mean? I thought after they turn werewolves have full control of their senses." Cash rubs his head and looks off, "Well, he uh- he hasn't exactly um." Jia's eyes widen, "He hasn't transformed? I thought werewolves transform at 16." "They do. Risse says he's just a late bloomer." Jia looks inside at Risse grinding herbs and placing them on Brayden, "And she is..." "She's the pack witch. Her family has been supplying magic to the Malroux pack for centuries. Legend is one of her ancestors married an alpha and they've stayed loyal to the pack ever since."

Clarisse came outside with Cash and Jia, "Alright, he'll be fine, but his healing will take some time." Cash and Jia take a deep breath, "So either of you wanna tell me what happened?" They look at each other. "We don't know. When Cash and I got there Brayden had already been attacked." Cash chimes in, "We saw a wolf, but I don't know who it was. I've never seen him before." Clarisse nods, "Did he say anything?" "We weren't exactly having a tea party, Risse." She cut her eyes at him. Cash sighs, "I yelled at him, but he ran." Jia steps up, "I did see a tattoo he had on the back of his shoulder." Clarisse looks at her, "A tattoo? What did it look like?" "It looked like a dragon, but it was in a circle. Like it was eating itself." Clarisse looks worried and goes inside. Jia and Cash follow her to a room where they see her rummaging through some papers, "Is this it?" Clarisse holds up a photo of the tattoo Jia saw, "Yea, that's it." Clarisse looks worried, "Okay, this is bad. We've gotta find this wolf."