Just One Bite

Chapter 14: Jack's POV

"I've done it!" Chris announces in a sing-song voice as he joins us at the canteen table with a massive grin on his face, "I've officially been registered as a Human and tattooed; my name is clear." He rolls up his shirt sleeve and proudly displays a small dressing on the left wrist.

"So have I," Maria replies with a giggle, "I'm so relieved they've finally made a start with the DNA testing; we've had to wait for months!"

"I hear they're going to be here all week," Molly says, twirling her spaghetti around a fork, "Working their way through each class in college."

"What about the kids that don't come into college?" Em asks lowly, who sitting in her usual spot against the wall with her feet resting on Rebekah's lap.

"Didn't you get the email?" Chris asks.

"Yeah. So?"

"If a student does not come in at all, the authorities will contact the family and sort it out from there," Maria replies, "They'll get you registered eventually; it the law, Em."

I can't help to notice the brief glare that Em gives in return. "Whatever," she eventually mutters, burying her face in a Lycanthropy book, "My class isn't being registered until Thursday anyway."

Rebekah swallows uncomfortably. "I've got to be honest," she says while tapping her pen anxiously against her notebook, "I'm not looking forward to it."

"Got something to hide, weirdo?" Molly asks jokingly but I can't help to notice the hidden sneer.

"Of course not," Rebekah replies coolly, narrowing her eyes in warning. Then they drop to her notebook. "I just can't help thinking..."

"What?" Em asks, lowering her book again. I didn't think she was listening.

"No one in this college has come forward," Rebekah states, "But no one's had to prove that they're human until now." She looks about us worriedly. "What if someone gets caught?"

"It's not like anyone can fake the results," Maria says, "They take your blood straight from your arm, fresh, and test it there and then."  

"How do they test it?" I ask, my eyes never leaving Em. She was looking more and more tense the longer we talked about this; it was an expression mixed between anger and physical discomfort.

"When you enter the booth," Maria explains, "They give you one last chance to declare anything in front of an official before they proceed with the DNA testing."

"They add a chemical to your blood sample right in front of you," Chris continues, "If it remains red, you're human. If not, it turns a different colour."

"And what if it does?"

"They take you away," Em replies darkly from behind her book.

"Where?"

"To a government facility," she says without looking up, "Where they test you properly so they can identify what you are."

"Louise and Amy are in there now," Maria announces.

"I wonder if this DNA testing will ever help them find the bitten student," Molly says, almost to herself.

"How do they figure out if a Werewolf was bitten or born?" I ask.

"Traces of the Werewolf's DNA is still inside the Wolferine they inject during a bite," Maria answers.

"So when they bite a human, the Wolferine - containing the Werewolf's DNA - will be inside them, even after they are fully mutated," Rebekah finishes for her.