Florence
The act of donating blood had become familiar to me now, a daily process akin to eating breakfast or going to sleep. My place on the couch was comfortable, and I had become particularly interested in a new TV series that aired each day. Steven would visit me after twenty minutes, and take the daily bag of blood. David was kind enough to ensure that I was eating and keeping hydrated, so that I wouldn’t feel faint.
Every second day, Steven would take blood from Kyle – the exact amount that he transfused from me. In doing so, he would drain a bag of ‘toxic’ blood with the serum and virus, and replace it with new, stronger blood from myself. Soon enough, the ratio of healthy, lycanthrope blood to toxic serum would be unbalanced, and the white blood cells would have a chance to fight off the virus.
The process was painfully slow. It had been just under a week, with no visible reaction. Kyle remained in wolf form, and Steven administered frequent doses of the tranquilizer to keep him docile and subconscious.
I had come to know Tobias and David better. David was a little older than Steven – they’d met through family friends – and David had tried his hand at veterinary school before moving on to dentistry. Their shared love for animals united both Steven and David, and they’d become fast friends. David was easygoing, compassionate, and humourous.
Tobias on the other hand, was more reserved. It had taken me a couple of days to be able to have a proper conversation with him. He had somewhat come to terms with me being a lycanthrope, and accepting the supernatural, however he refused to witness me changing shape, and disliked any discussion relating to wolves. Tobias had become endearingly protective, and liked to check in on me while I was donating blood – to see that I was safe and alive. He’d known Steven since high school, and the two had remained friends since.
I’d taken to exercising in the later evening, in wolf form of course. Steven kept reminding me that it was important for me to keep up my health and fitness, so that the blood I donated would be beneficial to Kyle. Personally, I enjoyed the time alone, where I could run as fast and as far as I wished in any given direction.
Tobias’s house was in Helena, Montana. It was more of a family house, he’d said, something he and his siblings shared, though they rarely used it. It was a quaint, double story unit with a small garden space and a double garage. After I’d passed the suburban streets, and run over the hills, I could roam free in Mt. Helena Park, and I enjoyed the vast space to stretch out my limbs.
Fortunately, I was the only wolf in the vicinity, I could tell from the lack of wolf scents. This meant there was no territory disagreements, for which I was grateful, however it was painfully isolating. I was the only one of my kind in the area – save for Kyle, who was practically comatose on the living room table at Tobias’s – and it caused a pang of loneliness in my chest. Not a day went by that I didn’t reflect on my time in Yellowstone, and wish that Erik were here. I could imagine his sarcastic remarks and playful attitude, his familiar voice critiquing my hunting technique and suggesting better ways to explore.
It was four days later that things changed. I had lost count of the number of transfusions that had taken place, and I was lying on the couch donating my umpteenth one, when Kyle moved. The wolf had only twitched, but the movement was so foreign that I flinched in response.
“STEVEN!” I shouted, and three pairs of feet came running to my rescue. Tobias moved to my couch first, his hands out in a protective stance as he surveyed the situation. David recognised my need to move, and kindly removed the needle in my arm, and unhooked the blood bag, which was only half full. I felt slightly faint as he administered a bandaid on my forearm.
