I Smell Like Wet Dog, Apparently...

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I decided to run the otherwise ten-minute walk to Will Jackson's house.

Every Saturday we had band practice in his basement. Angels/Sinners. Yeah, the name was a work in progress, and we lacked any musical direction, but we believed our band was the next big thing. I did not want to be late and miss my fifteen minutes of fame. That would just be bloody typical.

Also, I really didn't want to take the consequences of being late in my current state of mind. No way. The last person to turn up for practice was made to play the drums as none of us wanted to be in the background. My sense of rhythm was awful at the best of times, although, my voice made up for it.

My mind was currently more focused on not panicking. Maybe something as routine as band practice would help me see sense after the weirdness of the morning so far?

The blood, the scars, Kian... The image of me attacking Dylan brought my thoughts screeching to a halt

Yeah, somehow I don't think it will help.

As I finally got closer to the door I slowed down and stepped onto the well-worn welcome mat. It was something that I had done so many times before. It was rough-hewed, with a sweet picture of a hedgehog on it. The slogan: Home Sweet Home was printed underneath.

Maybe I could do this.

Both my feet hit the doorstep, and suddenly, I felt the ground beneath me give way and disappear. I had no time to properly compute what had just happened before I was free-falling down into the earth.

It took a second for me to realize I had dropped down below the front steps of Will's house. Something that should have been impossible. As I looked up, the light from the hole I had fallen through dimmed until there was only darkness above me. My short fall ended abruptly as I landed hard on the familiar but worn, brown leather sofa that usually sat in the corner of Will's basement.

What the fuck just happened?

The familiar surroundings where our band practised slowly appeared as my eyes adjusted to the darkness of the deserted room. Strange.

Where was everyone? Where the hell was Will? And, why was there a bloody great hole under his welcome mat?

As I looked around a voice I knew instantly spoke from the shadows.

"Alec?" Will asked from the darkness, "Is that you?"

I tried to focus my eyes to see where he was, but as I did, the basement lights blazed causing my eyes to burn with the sudden brightness. I fought back the urge to swear.

"Would be nice if you didn't try to destroy my eyesight!" I replied, trying to shield my eyes from the light.

Will was about as tall as me, with messy dark hair to match. He looked concerned, not happy to see me like he usually was. Something was off. I knew it as soon as I fell through the welcome mat, and I sure as hell wasn't going to get caught out again. No bloody way. This morning just kept throwing weird things at me.

"I don't understand, how did you manage to fall into my trap?" Will asked, "It's specifically set up to catch..."

He then stopped mid-sentence and sniffed the air. I'm not kidding. He full-on sniffed it like a bloodhound searching for its prey. So weird.

"Trap?" I asked him, getting creeped out by his odd behaviour, "You're acting really weird, dude."

Seeing my best friend suddenly decide to act like a wild animal was a sure-fire way to make me question my sanity. Or maybe his. Will's eyes flashed red and in a blink of an eye, he was standing right next to me, making me jump up off the sofa.

How the fuck had he done that?

"You can't be here," Will said, sounding concerned as he got closer. He continued to sniff around me. "Alec, you've been bitten by a Lycan, a werewolf."

"I know that." I told him, now totally freaked out. Even more so than I had been before. "How the hell did you know? I only found out about it myself this morning."

He continued to look at me weirdly, but somehow, Will seemed to be holding it all together.

What was going on with him?

"I-I..." he stuttered as he struggled to form the words he needed, "I know because I'm a vampire, and my senses are heightened. More heightened than a human's. I can smell it on you, kinda like wet dog."

"Wet dog?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at him. "Do I smell that bad then?"

Will dodged the question, "You don't seem too surprised, considering I've just admitted to you that I'm a vampire."

"No, I am surprised," I said, "Trust me, I am. I've already met one vampire this morning, so in that sense, it doesn't really surprise me. You lot seem kinda like rabbits or Kardashians, you pop up every few minutes acting all weird and wanting attention."

At my words, Will turned completely white in the face, and his fangs seemed to become even more prominent. "You've already met a vampire?" he growled, "Did they give you a name at all? Mention a Church? The Council?"

Will had been my best friend since he started at my secondary school three years ago, but, right now he was stranger to me. All those hours laughing, joking, hanging out and it was all just a lie. The creature staring back at me now was not the Will Jackson I had come to know.

In the moment, I decided not to tell him anything about Kian. I trusted Kian. I really had no idea why, but just the thought of him made me feel at ease.

There was no way I was going to sell him out just because Will was pressuring me to. He could flash his bloody fangs at me all he wanted. Kian had straight up told me that he was a vampire the very first time I met him. Will had never even mentioned it. Not once in three bloody years! I thought we were close, but I guess that you can never know people. Not really.

"No," I replied sharply, "They didn't, and I wasn't really in the right frame of mind at the time to ask. I was too focused on the part where I was attacked by a freaking werewolf!"

"You were out last night, right? Ryan's party?" Will asked, "Do you remember what happened?"

"No," I replied, "I don't remember anything after throwing my guts up. You should have come with me, loosened up a bit. Sam said he said he invited you."

"I was busy, and you could have bloody died." he sighed heavily, "Alec, I didn't know if you would want to see me. That's why I chose not to go last night."

"We had a disagreement, Will. That's all." I said softly, "Of course I would have wanted to see you."

I could see that he was weighing up whether I was telling him the truth or not, but, before he could ask anything else about Kian, the party, or my suddenly being a werewolf we both heard footsteps coming from upstairs. They were heading down to the basement. Straight for us.

Will looked at me, his eyes widening in fear as he grabbed my arm, "Shit. It's my dad," he said. "Come on, follow me!"

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