Running with Shifters (completed)

Chapter 11 Isadora

Chapter 11

Isadora

We've settled in to our campsite quickly; the guys setting up the tents while Lanny digs a pit for the fire (unfortunately for Kate it's only about noon so she doesn't get to start a fire) and the kids chase each other around the perimeter of the clearing while they collect sticks for the nonexistent fire. We'd found two five-person tents in Mrs. Remus's (pft, I still can't keep a straight face when I think of his name) garage; which is beyond perfect, almost eerily so.

The clearing we've set up in isn't that large, not nearly as big as the one we spent the night at. There's just enough room for the two tents and the fire pit between the thickly vegetated forest and the stream that cuts across the corner farthest from the car.

Romulus says we aren't that far from a small town and we're going to walk over once everyone finishes lunch. Unfortunately it's that disgusting deer from last night- and just like last night I decline the offered steak. I'm surprisingly not even hungry, which is most likely from accidentally drinking the blood. Which leads to me to wonder if I can subsist on blood alone. I mean, why not? Vampires have to do it, and I'm part vampire (apparently more so than I am human), so it would only make sense if I could. I'm going to try it and see how long I can go without human food.

I scoot closer to Meg where she's sitting on the ground with her back against a tree and quickly tell her my plan. She doesn't look too happy but agrees to catch me if I pass out from starvation. I'm so lucky to have a friend like her to go along with and help me pull off my wild schemes. Not that I've really had any, but you never know. In my old life the only person I could have remotely trusted to tag along was Robby, but I'm pretty sure even he would have thought I was insane with this new scheme.

The image of his drunk face when he saw me in the alley, fanged and blood splattered, suddenly pops into my head and I shudder. I could have so easily killed him. If I hadn't drank that vampire's blood I probably would have and that would have haunted me forever, even more so than everything else that I've done still does. Meg, misinterpreting my shudder for nerves, wraps an arm around my shoulders and suggests we go catch a rabbit (to give me a better gauge of how long I can make it).

Nodding, I stand and help her up before thinking about what she said. "Wait. We?"

"Of course. I want to come. It'll give me something to do, we get some time away from the guys, and I've always wanted to see a vampire hunt- even if it is just a rabbit." Her eyes shine with excitement and I cringe. Is that all she thinks of me, that I'm a vampire? She seems to understand how that must have sounded and quickly corrects herself. "I know you aren't a vampire. Not fully, anyway. But you must have some instinctive hunting skills similar to that of a vampire's."

"Okay, yeah, that makes sense. I'm sure I do, there's no way I could have taken down that buck without some at least. But how are you going to tag along? There's no way you could possibly keep up with me. Unless I go at a human pace, which, since I've been able to run as fast as I now can, is just boring."

I give a little pout and she laughs and thinks for a second. In a flash she's run around me and jumped on my back, latching her legs around my waist and her arms around my shoulders. I stagger, from surprise, not the sudden weight, and she shrieks in my ear. "Ow. You know, I have sensitive hearing."

"Oh, sorry. Is this okay? Am I too heavy? And you better say no, I know I'm nothing compared to the deer."

"You're fine. That deer must have been... what, three hundred? And you can't be more than one-fifty. I can hardly feel you at all, not that I could really feel the deer either."

She laughs and her stomach rumbles against my back, "you're such a freak. And for your information: I'm one-forty and pure muscle."

"Oh, I'm soooooo sorry." I do jazz hands to make it even more dramatic and she slaps my shoulder as she laughs even harder before shrieking as I launch us into the trees.