Howling At The Moon

Another One Bites The Dust

A/N: Don't forget to review !

Saturday

It was another foggy morning in La Push. The red-head walking in front of him turned her head slightly and smiled; continuing down the path she seemed to know intimately. He didn't care where exactly he was being led to, just as long as she was holding his hand. As long as he could feel the softness of her grip, all would be well with his world. He could see the opening in the trees ahead which meant they were at the beach already, and this puzzled him just a little; he could have sworn they needed to walk at least another 5 minutes before the beach hit them. Something was wrong here. Her gentle leading had turned into an urgent tugging on his hand. Towards the strange opening.

This was wrong.

Something was horrifically wrong with this picture. He knew it. Could feel it deep in his bones. A twig snapped, but her normal human hearing hadn't picked up on it. And then he smelled it. That sickly sweet burning, like bleach, that seared his nose and his throat. Terrified now, he grabbed her hand to take her back to the others. To safety. He needed to phase, get his brothers, hunt down the abomination that was hunting them now. But she kept tugging; he couldn't explain to her, with such little time to do it, and he couldn't just phase in front of her with no warning, who knew what the shock would do? In desperation, he tried to stop her, knowing that whichever one of his brothers on patrol would pick up the scent soon enough, and he could defend her until then – shock be damned. Letting go of her hand for a second, he pulled off his shirt, ignoring the quizzical look she shot him, preparing to phase at a moment's notice. As she opened her mouth to ask him what he was doing, he noticed a rustling in the bushes. Immediately stepping in front of her, in a protective crouch, he spotted the blood red eyes of his worst enemy.

The owner of the eyes stepped into the pathway then, grinning like a maniac. He reached for the girl, ignoring the shape-shifter's presence. A terrified look on her face, she called out her companion's name, screaming it when the cold one's hand crushed her upper arm. The shape-shifter in question was frozen. Not with shock, not with fear, but just frozen. Horror and fear for his imprint crashed over him in waves, powerful enough to drown even the strongest shape-shifter the tribe had known. But he could do nothing. He wondered if this was the vampire's power; he knew some of them were gifted. But if he could at least phase, then someone would know what was happening. He tried with all his might to call on that core within himself that would trigger the transformation.

But nothing happened. All he could do was watch in impotent rage and terror, as the evil red eyes got closer to his now whimpering imprint. Her screams were muted now, her throat hoarse, clutching her arm in pain. Red met black for a second, then stony ice cold white lips descended to the exposed throat of the helpless girl in the marble like arms. She went back to screaming his name, over and over and over again. In her fear, her voice even sounded different, much hoarser, much deeper. He started to shake, but not the kind that led to phasing, this was different, like an outside force was holding him and heaving.

"Ryan… Ryan dude, come on man. RYAN !," and with that he jumped up, ready to phase and attack immediately. Only to see the inside of his messy room and a worried Seth, flanked by a set of identical and identically disturbed faces. "What… what are you guys doing here? Whats going on? Where's Michelle? Is she ok? For Christ's sake, will someone tell me what the fuck that was?" He was practically screaming the last sentence, and Seth could only thank the spirits that Ryan's mother had already left for work.

"Dude, calm down. She's fine. I swear. She really is." Brady soothed, while Collin just looked on, wide-eyed. Ryan sat on the edge of his bed, head in his hands and tried to breathe. The realization that his terror was only the result of a nightmare, was slowly allowing the tension to ease out of his limbs.