Florence
Shock prevented the gravity of the situation to hit me immediately. I sat still, my eyes staring straight ahead, though not seeing the person before me. My mind was going into overdrive, and crazed thoughts rushed through me, too fast to comprehend. Was I having an out of body experience?
I felt rough hands on my shoulders, and I forced myself to look at who was shaking me. Steven’s eyes were concerned, and I could see his mouth moving, but I didn’t hear what he was saying. He let go of me and turned to Eric, his mouth moving rapidly now. He was shouting, and the last thing that I saw before blacking out, was Steven’s fist hurtling towards Erik’s emotionless features.
*
When I came to, I was lying uncomfortably on the couch, with my neck bent at an awkward angle. The room was silent, and I could sense that I was alone. It was still daytime – judging by the white hot sunlight that threatened to pierce through the thick curtains – and I took that as a good sign; it meant that I hadn’t been out for long.
Slowly and cautiously, I unfolded my arms and legs and moved to a seated position. Standing up was more difficult, but I reached my goal. Shakily, I made my way towards the kitchen, where I could hear muffled voices. My vision was blurred, but slowly came into focus as I stepped through the kitchen doorway.
“We need a plan,” Steven’s voice was strained. “And we need to keep her out of this.”
“Keep me out of what?” I leaned against the wooden doorframe for support, slowly regaining my strength. Why on earth was I so weak?
The two men crowded the small kitchen. Erik had his back to me, fiddling with something in front of his body that I couldn’t see. Steven was standing by the fridge, closer to me, only a few feet away. The first thing that I noticed was the bloody cut running from the corner of his mouth towards his chin. The skin of his left eye was discoloured, the yellow tinge of a newly formed bruise surrounding the socket. He held a frozen bag of peas to his lip, and his eyes tiredly appraised me.
“Here,” Erik walked towards me, and handed me a cup of steaming hot tea. The minty smell snaked around the room. His face looked flawless, with no signs of the fight that had obviously ensued while I was out.
“What’s this?” I asked Erik accusingly. Now was hardly the time to be making tea.
“A peace offering.”
“For beating Steven to a pulp? How do you think tea is going to make up for an unfair fight?” The venom in my voice made Erik flinch.
“He looked worse before, believe me if it weren’t for that stupid healing…” Steven tried to defend his honour, but Erik cut him off.
“For delivering the news of your friend so bluntly. I should have eased you into it.”
I waved away his reason. “So what’s the plan?” I took a sip of my tea and watched both the boys shift uneasily.
“We’d rather that you were kept out of it-” Steven began.
“-Because it would be extremely dangerous.” Erik finished.
I growled under my breath, but both of them heard it. Steven looked taken aback, and Erik just raised his eyebrows. “Let me spell this out to you two. Kyle has a bullet embedded in his shoulder that chemically prevents him from changing forms. Ergo, he’s stuck in wolf form, running around alone in the wild, while he’s no doubt slowly losing his mind because a mad, power-crazed Lycan initially infected him. You’re going to need all the help you can get to save Kyle from this mess, and that includes me.”
