Furs & Fangs: A Complicated Love Story

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

One of my favorite books of all time would have to be Romeo and Juliet. I don't know why, it just was. Always has been. As far as  can remember, at least.

And for some reason I found myself reading it today. I sat on the swinging bench on the front porch flipping threw the pages and recalling my favorite parts. Reading books always felt like returning to an old friend for me. You feel like you know the characters so well, and its comforting to return to them.

And maybe returning to old friends was what I needed. Tomorrow night I would become something so special and so powerful, and I had no idea how to prepare myself for something like that. And I felt like no one else did either, like people were going to get hurt trying to help me. And if people got hurt because of me, there was no way I could live with myself...

So, I decided to relax and not think about it. What else could I do? The feel of the smooth, old pages and the creaking of the swinging bench made me feel at ease and forget what was on my mind. Right now I was on the part of the book where Juliet just figured out her love Romeo was a Montague, an enemy to her family.

My only love sprung from my only hate

To early seen unknown, and known to late

Prodigious birth of love it is to me,

That I must love a loathed enemy.

I snapped the book shut when I herd the screen door creek open and looked up to find Patrick standing over me. He gave me a faint smile, and I gave him one back. His eyes drifted past me onto the book I just placed down. He reached over and picked it up, examining the front cover.

"Romeo and Juliet?" he asked, more like a statement.

"Ya...I like the book. Is there a problem?"

He gave off an awkward laugh and shook his head. I didn't see what was so funny.

"What? Whats so funny?" I asked grabbing the book back from him, feeling a bit insecure for him making fun of my reading.

"Nothing, nothing...it's just you always read that. I mean even before all this."

"You mean I still read this before she took my memory and stuff?"

"No, I'm talking even before you became the guardian wolf. When you were a normal werewolf."

Now I was the one laughing. Okay, I could see how that would be funny if I've been reading the same book over and over again for the past two hundred years.

"And how did you know that?" I asked him, elbowing his side.

"Well, let's just say I knew you more personally back then...." His words drifted off into the air and never finished. All of a sudden he became tense and didn't look me directly in the eye. I could see from his jaw line he was clenching and unclenching his teeth. I wasn't laughing anymore.

"Patrick...what's wrong?"

"Nothing...it's just...when you shift tomorrow, you're going to get some of your memory back. Hopefully all of it, but...you might not like everything you remember."

"What do you mean?" I asked, pleading in my voice. He seemed hurt by whatever he was thinking.

He pursed his lips then finally looked at me. "You're just going to know some things that might scare you, might make you confused. But you deserve to know the truth about those things. But when you do know, I just want to let you know...I'm sorry."

I had no idea what those things were, but whatever they were, I knew it'd be okay. It  was the past, and whatever he did, I had already forgiven him for.

"Its okay. I know there would be some things you wish I wouldn't see, but it's also my life. I need to know, to be 100% me again...and I forgive you."

He scrunched his eyebrows at me. "Why are you forgiving me? You don't even know what I've done."

"Doesn't matter. You're here now, and your on my side now. Nothing can change the past so lets just leave it like that. Deal?"

He gave a sigh and then put out hid hand towards me, a gesture for me to shake it. "Deal."

And, of course, I shook it back. Once I released my hand from his grip I craned my neck over to the door. Strange...I didn't hear any of the hustle and bustle usually going on in the house. Mrs. Florence was always cooking and cleaning while the rest of the pack members hung around and filled the house with talking and goofing around. Now, I heard nothing.

"Where is everyone?" I asked Patrick, still listening for any form of life in the house.

He shrugged at me. "Um, I'm not sure. I think they were all out on patrol to check to the border of the forest or something."

I raised an eyebrow at him, not satisfied with that answer. "Even Mr. and Mrs. Florence? And COME ON, the whole pack? What happened to everyone keeping an eye on me?"

"You know what...your right. It's kind of weird for all of them to just get up and leave like that..."

I sprung off the swinging bench and motioned for him to stand up to. "Come on, lets go check inside."

He got up and both approached the old screen door and I turned to the rusty knob, entering the quite house. All the lights were turned off, giving the house an eerie, creepy vibe. I slowly walked in followed by Patrick into the dark living room.

"Hello?" I called out, my voice echoing off the walls. I felt a shiver go down my spine as I walked further in. Something in my gut told me something was wrong. Very, very, wrong...

I approached a mirror in the front of the living room above the fire place. There was a big crack in the middle of it than ran through the whole thing.

"Patrick, come here..." I hissed under my breath. He silently followed up behind me. I touched the  jagged cracks in the mirror, the smooth surface once beautiful, now fractured and ugly. Broken. My face being reflected multiple times in between each crack.

But there was another face in the corner of each image...

A Million little Eva Amber's.

I turned around and screamed. It was so loud it shook my voice and got Patrick to turn around as well. He sprung at her, but she ready. It was a whirlwind of them both fighting, grabbing each other and trying to hold one another down to sink their teeth into the others flesh. And all I could do was freeze up, panicking. Not knowing what to do.

Patrick held her down for a second and then yelled at me through clenched teeth. "Elsie, RUN!!!"

I couldn't leave him like this, not with her. But I had nothing else to do, no where else to go. I was defenseless, an easy target. Their main target. So I headed for the door, not noticing the shadowed figure standing next to hit.

Just as my hand reached the knob to the door, I was pushed to the side by some heavy force and sent tumbling to the ground. The door was slammed shut by Jake just as I tried to stand back up, only to be pushed back down.

He came down to level with my ear. "Your not going anywhere..." His breath was hot and smelled like death. I don't know how I found the courage to do so, but I somehow found the strenght to muster enough saliva in my mouth to spit him squarely in the face.

He scrunched up his face with annoyance and wiped it off with a grunt. He then raised his arm and slapped me right across the face. I let out a gasp as my face burned, this slap even more painful then when Eva slapped me. I fought back tears and kept my face steady with his, not moving an inch from where I was.

I could still hear the sounds of Eva and Patrick fighting in back of the room. I tried to crane my neck to see what was going on, only to watch as Eva lifted him off the ground and threw him into the already cracked mirror. The sound was an ear splinting, high sound, that landed with a thud. He lay unconsience below the fireplace, blood trickling from his forehead.

"PATRICK!" I screamed, I tried to get up and get him only to  feel something hard hit the side of my head once again, and felt myself go cold and quite. Darkness was my only sight.