The Haunting

Chapter Eleven

Aunt Lauren leaped over to help Derek. Tori leaped the other way to grab a big stick looking thing, and hit Adrian across the head with it. She leaned down to see what kind of shoes he was wearing. She looked up with a grim look.

"Steel-toed boots. I'm not even a guy and I can feel that." She winced as she said the words. I gasped and leaned over to help Aunt Lauren.

She shook her head gravely. "I am afraid he might have a ruptured scrotum."

Tori and I were looking at her blankly. "What?"

"He is in immense pain because his manly parts have been squished really hard because of a pissed off werewolf," Simon explained, before Aunt Lauren could. For some reason that made it worse.

After about three minuets Derek started trying to get up. He was holding onto himself for dear life and was panting a little bit. But what really broke my heart was that his eyes were watery. Like he was about to cry. I looked down on the floor and saw a pool of blood, then looked closer at his pants. They were soaked in his blood. I went over to help him.

He held up his hand and I stepped back. I whispered so that only he could hear, "You know you can lean on my shoulder whenever you need to." His eyes flashed to mine and a small smile lit his face up. If only for an instance, for his face grew pained, quickly, once more.

We look back outside to see what was lurking there. I didn't see anything but I couldn't trust my own normal senses. I was about to ask Derek what he thought, but Tori just came out yelling.

"Hey, assholes! We're over here! Come and get us!" I grabbed Tori and yanked her back.

"What the hell Tori? What were you thinking?"

"Since when do you cuss?"

"Since now, and answer the question," I hissed.

She sighed. "I figured it would be better if we got them all at once."

"She has the right idea," Derek rumbled.

I lifted my arms in defeat. After the flopped back down to my sides, I heard the distinct scrabbling of claws on the floor. I sighed and got Nigel to cover our backs. My horde of woodland creatures was there, too.

Soon I saw the quickly approaching balls of fur that were the werewolves. Only something was wrong with them. They had, something reminiscent of shock collars around their necks. And they didn't look angry they looked almost...scared.

Tori was taking up a defensive stance and I put up my hand. I looked back at her, she hadn't put her hand down, but she looked vaguely confused. She looked over at me and I shook my head. I was pretty sure that these poor werewolves were being forced to do this.

They were soon at our throats and they were scratching and clawing at us, albeit feebly, as if they didn't want to hurt us. Kit and Simon were standing defensively in front of Derek, since he wasn't in the best condition.

While Simon, Tori, and Kit were fending them off, I told Nigel to try and get the collars off of them.

He moved lightning fast and soon the collars were off of them. They stopped attacking us, and started shuddering. Slowly one by one they started to transform back into humans. I heard the crackling of tendons and the grating of bone against bone while they made the transformation back to human. No vomiting, though, well that's a plus!

One of the first to fully make the transition back was a woman, a naked woman. There were about five other werewolves there, and all of them were almost done.

I took her shoulder in one hand and looked her in the eyes, which was pretty hard, because she was about six feet tall. She was really pretty, with blue-black hair that swung around her waist. She had wide black eyes and tanned skin. Her skin was hot to the touch and she was sweating.

"Adrian and Ash are in there if you guys want to take some of their clothes. They have enough dignity to supply a whole house full of people. It would be nice of you to humble him." She smiled and walked over to where the last wolf was struggling to finish changing. He was dry heaving, and looked like he was in immense pain.

Once that was all done they headed into the interrogation room and shut the door. When they reopened it they all had the necessary parts covered and headed back out to where we were.

The leader of their little pack came towards us, she was the pretty tanned lady.

"We thank all of you. We owe you our lives and we will repay you in any way possible. And if you would allow it, we wish to stay with you."

I looked back at the others and they all shrugged, all except Derek who was bristling with the tension.

"That's fine with us, though Derek is a werewolf, too, so there might be some tension."

She just shrugged. "We can feel the presence of an Alpha among us, we do not mind. We would love to become his pack, for we do not have any Alpha's in our pack."

I looked back and Derek was visibly more relaxed. I turned around and smiled at her. "Welcome to the band of misfits! Hope you enjoy!" I blushed bright after I said that. It sounded so much better in my head. Like many things did, unfortunately.

"What are your guy's names?"

"I am Roxanne, and these are my fellow wolves."

A petite boy who was the last to change came forward. "Hi, I'm Brady!" He was a sweet looking kid and I was surprised at how young he looked. He appeared only to be around thirteen or fourteen.

Another boy stepped forward, although he seemed to be more mature than Brady. "Hello I am Alexander. You can call me Xander, though."

A rather young girl came forward next, but she seemed to be rather petite for a werewolf. "I am Sara." No hello or anything. Hmm.

And last but not least a large woman who appeared to be at least six foot seven came forward. "Hey y'all I am Sandy. " She had a southern twang and flashed us a smile that was almost as bright as Ash's.

"Well, I am Chloe, and these are my friends."

"I'm Tori, and don't get in my way." Smooth Tori. Real smooth.

Simon grinned and stepped forward next to Tori. "Hey, I'm Simon and I'm a sorcerer." I blushed 'cause I forget to tell them my power.

"Right, I am a necromancer and Tori is a witch." I said quickly.

Kit was the next to step forward and he smiled to. "I am Kit and Simon and Derek are my sons."

Derek waved at them and made a semblance of a smile. "I am Derek as you already know."

Then Aunt Lauren stepped forward. "Hey, I'm Lauren. I am Chloe's aunt and a necromancer. Oh, and a doctor, too."

Roxanne stepped forward again and she smiled at us. "We have never had the chance to go anywhere, so we do not know where the exit is. I am sorry that we cannot give you more assistance."

I waved my hand. "No worries, Tori and the rest of the gang came in to help me and Derek, anyways." Suddenly I heard a harrumph and a felt tap on my shoulder.

"Oh, I forget to add someone else. Liz, our friend and ally, is a ghost. A poltergeist, to be exact."

They all looked a little uneasy at that, but they would have to get over it soon. I smiled at all of them and we waked through the hallways again. Twisting and turning the way we came. Soon we found the exit again, and we all headed out into the world.

"Um, now that we're out of that hell-hole, can you tell me why Derek was a fucking lion back in there?"

"Were you not just listening to Adrian back there?"

"Oh, right. Well, sorry I forget. And it's totally different between seeing and hearing these things."

"Whatever. Hey look is that the forest over there?"

Derek sniffed the air. "You bet. I have no clue where we are what-so-ever."

"Well I do," Kit said. "We are in an old warehouse in Maryland, near Gathland State park. Near Rhohersville. There is a base there, where we have parked our van. Soon we will be going to a safehouse in Oregon."