The Delacours

fourteen.

                It neared closer and closer to the full moon. Val placed the barrier around the house and then headed downstairs to surround Dylan in wolfsbane. She thought it would help to keep him contained, but in any case she advised all of us to not go downstairs and she spelled the entrance to the basement shut. As the sun set, I could hear the chains rattle around downstairs. Soon after, I heard cracking. Dylan yelled out in pain. Aria covered her ears and ran upstairs. Ray followed behind. The cracking and yelling continued on for hours. When the moon reached its apex, the cracking and yelling stopped. I could hear a dog ruffing. A loud howl followed. It was silent for about twenty minutes.

"Does it always take that long?" I asked Val.

"The first is the hardest and the longest transformation. Each full moon will get easier and quicker, but the pain never stops." I heard howls come from all over the city, sure that one of them was Drew and he was looking for his brother. The cracking began again a few hours later, the yelps became screams. By sunrise everything was quiet, both inside the house and out. Val opened the door to the basement and I ran down.

Dylan was curled into a ball in the corner, his clothes torn off, and the chains broken. His body was very still. I couldn't hear a heartbeat or breathing so I ran over to him and grabbed his arm. He didn't react.

"...No," I said quietly to myself. "No, he can't be dead..." I was about to walk away when I heard a piece of metal clink.

"Liz?" I heard a quiet voice say.

"Dylan!" I ran back to him, giving him a hug. "You're alive!"

"Just barely I think... I'm starving. Can we go on a hunt?"

"Let's get you some clothes first." I asked Chris to bring him a fresh pair of clothes and to bring him upstairs when he was ready. Ray took Dylan out to hunt some deer, a big meal to replenish all his energy.

A few hours had past when Dylan came in the house alone.

"Where's Ray?" Aria asked, worried.

"What? He was right behind me." Ray showed up about twenty minutes later.

"That kid is fast. Holy shit, he's fast," he panted out.

"Must be a side effect of being a hybrid..." I said.

Aria and Ray went out afterwards. They spent less time at home since they felt awkward having sex in the house with Dylan around. When they returned, Aria looked terrified and Ray had a box in his hands.

"Hey! This was on the front porch, so I opened it..." Ray said, worriedly. We ran over to see what it was. Val ran to the trash can to vomit as I closed the box back up.

"Burn this. Outside. Now." Ray headed to the back yard with the box and a lighter. I called Odette and John to the house.

When they arrived, they came with a stack of papers. It seemed we were going to have a lot to discuss.

"We've spent the entire day cleaning up these papers. The humans called the police, complaining of a lot of wolves around their homes last night. The wolves thought it would be funny to put up these posters talking about 'death to vampires', and a 'retaliation for the Hybrid'."

"So they know he survived his transformation," I said.

"I could hear him crying for help from Odette's. They all know, and they all want him dead, too."