These Streaks of Blood

40

The anticipation has been palpable.

The pack has been writhing with it all day. And now that the moon is up in the sky, excitement is welling over with a vengeance. The procession has stopped, camp has quickly been set up, and now every werewolf is staring up at the orb of light above them, their salvation and their curse. Waiting, waiting for the Shift to occur.

The vampires are fast approaching. Maybe they don't realize the full moon is here. Maybe they just don't care. Hillie finds that hard to believe; werewolves try to avoid confrontations with vampires whenever possible. When there's a rogue, it is their job to put it down, to protect the humans. But they don't want to start a war, so they try to keep to themselves.  

These vampires clearly aren't thinking along the same lines. It scares Hillie that they want the two vampires - the attractive boy and the sad girl - so badly that they're willing to fight a whole pack of werewolves when the creatures are at their strongest. Hillie can't imagine that this fight could go badly for her pack, for her family. But still, the fact that the vampires are coming so eagerly makes her uneasy.

Hillie is close to the vampire girl. The latter is screeching at everyone within hearing range; mostly things like 'Let me go' and 'Is Ryffin okay.' Nobody is responding. Barely anyone is even sparing her a glance; all eyes are fixed on the moon. It is a beacon that they can't turn away from. It calls to them, to their very souls. This is the time of shadows, and this is the time when their humanity is replaced by a mystical ferocity that not many can match.

Hillie knows the Shift will occur any minute now. She needs to put her plan into action.

While everyone is distracted, their gazes averted, Hillie falls back, hiding herself as best she can in the trees as she sneaks towards her mother's tent, where Ryffin was last set down. She pushes the curtain aside, stepping in and glancing around.

There he is. Still bloody, still unconscious. The girl's screams are still echoing outside, and Hillie squeezes her eyes shut for a moment, trying to concentrate on the task at hand.

She kneels beside Ryffin, reaching into her pockets as she does so. She drags out the bandages and small vials of medicine she had snuck out of the medic's tent, quickly setting to work on his neck wound. She pours one of the vials, all of it, straight into the wound, and his eyelids flutter a bit in pain, but he still doesn't wake up. She has no idea how to stitch anything up, but realizes that it won't take long for a vampire to heal on its own... she is only speeding up the process.

Hillie lifts Ryffin's head gently and places it in her lap. Then she begins wrapping the thick bandages around his neck; under, around, over, under, around, over... 

She flattens the end of them down, hoping she wrapped them firmly enough so that the blood will stop flowing, at the very least. He needs to wake up.  

Hillie knows that it's terrible, what she's doing. Her family would hate her for it, for helping the vampire who took their mother away. But she couldn't just leave him like this. Who knows what is going to happen tonight? She thought the least she could do was help him to heal faster, so that he could at least be conscious during the vampire versus werewolf showdown. Nobody doubts that is what's going to happen once the moon reaches its peak.

He should at least be given the chance to defend himself. To fight.

Or at least, Hillie thinks so. She knows that not many pack members would agree with her, which is why she places Ryffin gently back on the ground and gets to her feet as soon as she finishes. She rips her way out of the tent and practically runs to the other side of camp, hoping that she will be far enough away by the time someone realizes Ryffin was helped that Joyce won't be able to blame her.