Drawing Blood

Chapter Six

Adam's comment was like a punch to the stomach. I stared at his frame in silence, observing him as he tried to regain control. Somehow, somewhere during our conversation, he had lost it. I wondered what I had said to him that had brought him to that point. I reverted back to what Dan had told me.

'When you get bitten by a werewolf, and live, everything seems to magnify. At first my eyesight got better - then my hearing. I could hear for miles around. After a while, I could pick up smells...It doesn't take us long to change....our emotions intensify....Once you tap into your emotion, once you're triggered....its over....'

"Adam....?"

"Just give me a moment, will you?"

I did as I was told, not daring to move in case the slightest thing triggered him.  The atmosphere, once thick and heavy between us, began to dissolve. He eventually spoke to me, his voice laden with restraint. "You really know how to get under a man's skin, don't you?"

I remained still, rooted to the ground. I did not realise I was holding my breath. "I didn't think anger was your trigger," I said in a low voice.

"It's depends." He let out a deep, uneven sigh, throwing his hands to his hips as he continued to focus on what was in front of him. I found myself becoming mesmerised by the way his upper torso expanded and relaxed. It was as though he had been running a marathon. I would have given anything to know what he was thinking. "It's not usually," he said, "But it doesn't mean you don't have any power over me, Rose, because you do."

He fell quiet once more, and I wondered what he had meant. I had to resist the urge to go over to him, to comfort him. "What are you thinking, Adam?"

"I'm thinking this went better in my head," he answered honestly. He waited for a while, formulating the words he needed in his mind, I assumed. Then - "We have an extraordinary ability to pick up scents," he confessed. "But it's not all we can do."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean we have gifts that can make it easy for us to find people like you."

My eyes roamed the forest floor, as though scanning it would give me the answers I needed. "Gifts?"

"Or curses."

It was too dark, and too impossible to see despite the streams of light flowing through the trees. I caught the faint outline of a gnarly tree stump, and moved towards it, not caring how I must have looked to him. "Dan said he could smell me," I spoke. "Is that what he meant?"

"Yes."

I shook my head. "When he told me he could smell my perfume, I just thought...." I saw Adam turn to face me, and I slumped down, my legs deciding to give out on me. I lifted my gaze, meeting his. "What do I smell like?"

"People with your blood type have a scent different from regular people," he said. "It's like candy. To the untrained werewolf, it's just inexplicably sweet. But to those of us who know...it is a sign."

"Does Annie know?"

He nodded.

My hands went to my head. I used the pads of my fingers to knead the skin below my hairline. I wished I could do more to erase the tension beginning to bubble away under my skull. "I don't think I want to know anymore," I mumbled, queasy again. I closed my eyes, wanting it all to be some sort of bizarre dream. "I know this must be a shock to you," I heard him say, and I lifted my head again, straining to see him lingering in the shadows. "What else can you do?" I questioned him.

"I can hear sounds from far away."

"Are you able to hear people talk?"

"I can hear you, yes," he revealed. "And I don't have to be near you, for it to happen, too."