Hybrid

Appointment With Death

I pulled on her clothing, trying to find where the bug was. It had been sewn in between the layers of fabric, so I ripped it to get the bug out. I held the machine between my fingers, examining it, and then crushing it.

"I've been bugged," Maria said, disbelief and anger in her voice.

"You were their spy this entire time without even knowing it," I whispered.

"I need to be a wolf, now, and we need to run," Maria whispered.

I grabbed her hand, walking us to the doctor. He seemed disappointed to see Maria, his prodigy, returned to him. I had to explain the situation, but he didn't seem very willing to help. It was understandable that he didn't trust her. I wasn't sure I completely trusted her either.

"I need some things from you and I'll run a few tests," The doctor conceded.

He took blood from Maria first. She seemed unfazed by the needle and tried to start a conversation with the doctor, which he ignored. I could see that she wanted things to be back to the way they were more than anything.

The doctor sat us down and started explaining things to us in a quiet voice, "It seems like you have wolf cells and cells with the cure in them. The wolf cells replicate fast, but the cure destroys those cells as they're created. You've got a war going on inside your body."

"What does that mean?" Maria asked.

"I think we should try a blood transfusion and give you wolf blood to help fight off the cure. Maybe the cells can kill it naturally." The doctor looked to me, "We need alpha blood though."

"Why?" I asked.

Of course I was willing to help Maria if she needed it, but I wasn't thrilled about needles.

"She has alpha cells. Any beta blood would cause a mess because both the cure and the alpha cells would attack it."

I hated to agree, but I did. The doctor set Maria up to a machine that was taking out her cure infested blood and replacing it with mine. He said that removing the cells might make it go faster and that I would heal so quickly that I wouldn't need to worry about losing too much blood. I wasn't worried about losing too much blood until he said something.

The machine was taking my blood and Maria was looking at her phone, probably to see what was going to happen when she left the building.

"I didn't hear any bugs on you when I was first bitten, so I think they know I'm a wolf, I just don't think they know you are," I said.

"I've been a pawn to them this entire time," Maria's voice cracked.

"No," I stopped her, "I think they want you back, I do."

"You don't bug your kid's clothes if you trust them." She rolled her head to look at me.

"Maybe they knew you wouldn't be able to leave, which I wish we all knew. They probably just wanted to make sure you were okay," I lied.

"We both know why they did it. I fell for a trap," Maria lowered her voice.

"It's not your fault," I said, reaching my free arm to her side, showing her the palm of my hand.

"I'm the reason that you're a wolf, and now I'm the reason you're going to be hunted," Maria said, her sad eyes connecting with mine.

"Do you trust me?" I asked.

"Yeah," Maria said.

"Then know that everything will be okay." I smiled to reassure her.

She put her hand in mine, giving it a gentle squeeze. I could smell the sorrow on her skin, but at least she wasn't crying. It broke me to watch her suffer this way. I was so eager to have her back that I didn't think about how hard it would be to keep her.