Animal Nature

Chapter 36

In her embrace, she felt every shuddering crack of bones reforming, she felt the soft fur melt into skin. She held him until he stopped writhing and panting, until he lay there in her arms gazing up at her.

"Shyanne," he whispered, his voice rough.

"I wasn't sure it was you," she gasped. She realized she was crying. "I almost shot you, David."

"I would never hurt you," he said.

"I almost shot you." This time she broke down in sobs, and now David was holding her, running his fingers through her hair. Eventually she could speak again. "I could smell you," she said in wonder.

"Yes." He smiled, and brushed her hair back. "You can feel it now, can't you?"

She blinked through her tears at him. "Feel what?"

"I can smell it on you, Shy. How you're changing."

"Changing?" She pulled away. "What do you mean, changing? You said you would give me a choice. You said a bite or a scratch..." It suddenly made sense. "But if this virus can be transmitted through a bite or a scratch, then kissing would definitely spread it. Right? Is that what you're saying?"

David's smile faded away. "I didn't mean for it to be like this. I didn't know it would spread, not that way. I thought it was like HIV, spread through the blood."

"But it's spread through all bodily fluids, including saliva," Shyanne finished for him.

The implications of what that meant had her reeling. She pulled herself away from David and sat down on the floor, hard. She found herself staring at Heath's glassy, dead eyes only a few feet away, a dark puddle slowly spreading across the floor toward her.

"I didn't mean for it to be like this," David repeated, kneeling to face her. "But please, it isn't a bad thing! I feel amazing, Shy. Stronger, faster... I can hear and smell things I never could before—"

Shyanne winced. "You kill people."

David looked at her. "So do you."

They both looked at Heath's body.

"Isn't it better that he's dead?" David asked. "Like Bart – isn't it better?"

Shy licked her lips. It was better not having Bart around, although there was still the matter of Ron. She thought about how she'd felt earlier, ready to take on the world. She'd felt sexy for the first time in her life. She had thought she had gotten stronger on her own. She supposed if it was the werewolf virus making her feel this way, it wasn't entirely a bad thing.

And if Heath had been a werewolf, then he was probably the wolf that had attacked her and Billy at the shelter, and killed Patches, and the neighbor's cat. He had killed that kid at the Kwik-Stop.

Not David.

Slowly, Shy got to her knees, and looked straight at David.

"So I'm going to be a werewolf."

"Yes."

She nodded. "Okay."

"Okay?" His eyes lit up, though his mouth seemed afraid to smile.

"Yes," she said, and kissed him.

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