Wolf's Needs

Chapter Eight

Just as her breathing became slower and her heart thudded softer against Jalyn's chest, she was jerking awake and alert as if cold water had been splashed on her face. She sat up, looked around and then got to her feet, her head swiveling back and forth as if looking for something.

"Meka?" He said and climbed to his own feet. He was actually pretty comfortable down there on the floor with Meka half-asleep and relaxed against him. It wasn't something he would do with every average stranger he came across with, but Meka wasn't an average stranger. And now she didn't look half dazed and sleep and blood deprived like she did twenty minutes ago. What she did look though was scared. She was back to shaking and her eyes darted around the dark room like she expected the shadows to come alive and swallow her whole.

"Meka, look at me." He grasped her shoulders and prevented her from backing away from him. She was shaking her head and keeping her eyes closed. "Meka? Meka, look at me, please."

And suddenly, she stopped moving all together. Her eyes were open and staring not at Jalyn, but slightly off to the left at the barren yellow wall, and her lips were moving slightly but frantically as if reciting her memorized poems two seconds before she had to go on stage and perform it. He let her go and waved a hand in front of her face, and she snapped out of it immediately.

"Jalyn," she was sad again, but there was something fierce in her voice this time, making his name sound like a question, "where were you guys before you came upstairs?"

He blinked and just stared at her. It was like her brain was working frantically to pick up something she had missed before and now that she had it everything just ... clicked. Did he tell her that the Hunters were here, or did he keep to his father's orders and keep his lips zipped? He didn't have a choice.

Before he could answer, Meka was out of the room and running towards the stairs. He ran after her, but she was much faster and halfway down the stairs. "Mr. and Mrs. Baker!" She called frantically, startling the three people in the kitchen. They were feeding Leila as she sat in her high chair by the table and sipping coffee, this morning's excitement had chased away all hopes for some sleep. "Mr. and Mrs. Baker, get away from the windows." Her voice was high and panicked, her stance tensed and alert. She had stopped suddenly on the stairs and Jalyn had almost run into her back.

"Meka, what on earth –" Mary started.

"Get away from the windows!" She tried to get to them, but by then it was already too late.

Everything happened at once. As if the house was imploding, he glass was shattered inwards, and simultaneously Meka, Jalyn, and Mikey had all fallen to the ground screaming. Their hands covered their ears and tears streamed down all of their faces and to the ground beneath them. Their posture resembled a bunch of children at a tornado drill. The window above the kitchen sink had knocked over Mary, and now she lay semi-conscious on the ground on the other side of the island counter from where she had been shoved back by the explosive force. Nobody could get their bearings; nobody could see anything but red blood and a shining white light that seemed to dominate all of their vision.

Jalyn was doubled over on the stairs, his hands shaking and his neck twitching. There was a terrible ringing that seemed to start from the center of his head and work on making his brain pop. He looked up and saw Meka on the ground in front of him, just off the stairs, screaming close to what she was doing yesterday. Only now her body was vibrating and she was rocking back and forth on her knees and banging her head to the ground. Farther into the room his mother lay still on her side, blood seeping down her cheek and along her neck. Glass bits had been embedded into every visible part of her skin making it look like little red connect-the-dots across her arms and legs and face.