"I cannot belive you're doing this!" I shrieked. The council members exchaged several patronizing looks. My mother, Varya Lykaios, the once Alpha female, now the Beta, was giving off waves of anger directed towards me; I could smell it.
"I'm one of your most valuable hunters and you are sending me to a school of humans. This is a job for a youngling, not I. I won't do it."
"Oh, you'll do this, Dimitrix." Varya stood to address me, voice hard. My intense gaze snapped soley to her, a current of electrified tension singing through the air.
"If you don't, I'll have you babysitting pups for four years." She threatened. To anyone else, four years would not have seemed so long; we lived for so long, that four years was like the blink of an eye. I myself had been alive since the dark ages of kings and queens, yet I still appeared young--so young that I was the perfect choice for a hunt at a highschool. But to me, the four year sentence would be torture far beyond the insult of having to hunt a fledgeling in a highschool full of oblivious humans. I would not be able to stand sitting pups. There was no thrill, none of the excitement or violence that I constantly craved and attained while hunting fledgelings. I sighed, half in defeat, half in utter annoyance.
"Fine. It's not like this will take horribly long anyways." I rolled my eyes at Varya. I called her Varya because I did not consider her my mother any longer. I had no parents. I had Taya, my sister, and that was enough. I turned from the Council to return to my temporary chambers at The Court.
"You'll be leaving later tonight. You start school tomorrow.... Oh, and Dimitrix?" I stopped, taking in a breath through my teeth.
"Yes, Varya?"
"Be sure to keep your grades up." She taunted. I growled under my breath, clenching my right hand around my left wrist in an attempt to stay calm. I'd already gotten into too many fights in front of--or even with-- the council. I left the room in a storm of fury. The other wolves, waiting outside for their assigments, scattered out of my way like leaves in the wind. I returned to my rooms and gathered the things I thought I would need: clothes, my scimitars, and books. I muttered to myself as I packed my things, making a mental list of the things to look for. With so many humans in one place, it would definately be easy to find the fledgeling. I was told it was a female, which narrowed it down even more. I would be able to sniff her out quickly. Other signs would reveal her to me as well, sudden nose bleeds, shaking, aggressive outbursts, violence. It was easy to hunt them once you knew them.
I hoisted my duffel bag onto my shoulder and went to the door, where I was escorted by two male wolves. If I remembered correctly, their names were Ferrin and Kern. They were twins, both with dark hair and even darker eyes. I was an albino even among my own people. My hair was a silvery hue of white and my eyes were crimson and silver, though while around humans, I made sure to wear contacts--either blue or grey. Even my skin had snow-white pallor. The fact that I wore black further lightened my appearance. I had tattoos on my throat, upper arms, wrists, back and thighs--as was tradition of my people. I bore another mark under my eye, concealed by my father's magic. It was only shown when called upon.
Outside was a taxi waiting to drive me to the airport. The driver was an older, balding man that was tanned, making his skin look like leather. I guessed he'd worked outside for most of his life. He had large, sad eyes, but a kind smile. He whistled as he looked back towards The Court. To humans it was an organization dealing in all sorts of things, from military weapons, to medical research.
"Big place. What's a young 'gal like you doing in there?" He asked with a chuckle as I got into the back seat. I grinned my most innocent smile I could. Time to play the role of teenager.
"My mother works there. I came to Job Shadow her." I half-lied. The best way to lie is to mix a bit of the truth in along with it. He nodded, popped a piece of bubble gum into his mouth and turned back towards the front.
"Where to honey?"
"The airport." I replied.
I arrived at my location at nearly three a.m. After getting off the plane, I had to drive for another hour, making my time of arrival at around four. I had been given a key to the apartment I would be staying at and as I unlocked the front door, I was met by a very small living room, painted a strange color of grey. The floor was hardwood and it had been furnished comfortably. I set my things on the floor beside the couch and went to explore.
" 'Pretty nice for an apartment." I thought to myself with a smirk. I went through a small, arched doorway to find the kitchen, a pale yellow color with plain cabinets and a small kitchen table for one. Down a hallway was my room, a rather small bathroom and stairs leading down to the basement. I nodded as I returned back to my room, duffel bag in hand. The place met my expectations at least. I bathed and then decided that I needed to devote the last two hours remaining before school to sleeping.
The first thought I had about the school, was that it was quite large, with several buildings just for the highschool, not counting the middle school and elementary buildings. There was also alot of students, of very many backgrounds and stereotypes. I could tell already that I'd either be avoided, or completely flooded with attention. I hoped it was the first. I was here to do a job and then leave. I entered the two heavy double doors, already recieving strange stares from the students. I was unsure if I should glare or snicker at how obvious they were being.
In the office, I recieved my schedule. My first class was called "study hall". I had never before had a class called "study hall". My teachings had always consisted of combat skills, magic skills, history, science, mathmatics, and mythology. Dance and Chior were also something that was a must among my people. We were a people who used song and dance to envoke our magic abilities. I was also given a locker, which I found easily enough. I entered the combination into my lock and put my coat, books and other things in their respective places. I discovered that Study Hall took place in the cafeteria, in a small area that had been closed off for this particular purpose. The teacher's name was Ms.Hunt and I could tell by her scent that she was nothing special. She was kind enough however and I could tell by her appearance that she would be. She had spirals of golden hair that fell down her back and light, baby blue eyes that were large and round. Her face was young and bright, like someone who was trying to always look to the good things in life. She dressed in a black pencil skirt and a white dress shirt. She greeted me with a bright, perfect smile, holding a manicured hand out for me to take.
"I'm Ms.Hunt. I can assume you are Ms. Dimitrix Lykaios, right?" She asked in a pleasant voice. I nodded, once again flourishing the same smile I'd used with the Taxi driver.
"That I am." I answered.
"Alright, Take a seat over there please. I'm guessing you won't have any work to do, so you can read or draw or whatever. If you need anything, just ask, okay?" She talked fast and it amused me just how cheerful she could be. I decided that before long, she'd get on my nerves, but for now, I liked her. I sat where she had directed me to and took out a book, though I was not reading it. I was lost in my thoughts. How many students had The Council said attended this school? Several hundreds just in the highschool. I silently sighed to myself. So this might take just a bit more time that I had expected.
It was not long before I heard the bell ring and was following the other students out into the hallways. It was a pressing crowd and that fact annoyed me greatly. The gym was harder for me to find and I ended up being late to class. This teacher was male, stood about 6' 2" and seemed to be intimidating to most of the other students in the class. I snorted as I played out several scenarios in my head. His name was Mr. Connely. He wore an oversized T-shirt and sweatpants. Freckles were splayed across his nose and cheeks, and strands of blonde hair peeked out from under a red baseball cap.
"Alright class!" He snapped.
"Excuse me, Mr. Connely?" I came to stand beside him and found I was tall enough that I came to his nose. I did not have to look too far up to meet his stern gaze.
"Can I help you?" He rose one eyebrow as he scrutinized me.
"Dimitrix Lykaios. I'm here for gym class. " I told him.
"You don't look like someone who would enjoy gym class." He scoffed as he eyed my attire. I smirked up at him.
"You'll find that I'm quite atheletic actually." I retorted evenly.
"We'll see." He turned his back on me to address the rest of the class.
"We have a new student. Her name is Dimitrix Lykaios. Today we'll be playing dodgeball, so listen up while I put you on teams." He bellowed, voice echoing off of the high cieling. Stunned, I tapped on his shoulder and he turned to face me again.
"Dodgeball?" I asked. His jaw dropped a bit as I questioned him.
"You don't know what Dodgeball is?" He asked.
"Well... maybe I do.... explain." I muttered. Gym had always consisted of combat and magic skills for me. I'd never played games, as I'd often heard was common in human schools. I saw it as a waste of time, personally. But I would have to play in order to blend in. He explained the rules and process of the game to me and I nodded when I saw fit.
"Oh yes, I know what it is now. I'm not very good with names." I chuckled as if at myself and he seemed to buy my lie.He insisted that everyone changed clothes for his class and told me where the locker rooms were. I changed into a pair of black pants and a black t-shirt and was back into the gym.
"Let's get started!" He exclaimed. He pointed to the girl's team.
"You'll be with them." He said. I nodded and crossed the gym's wooden floor to stand in line against the wall with the rest of the girls. Mr.Connely blew the whistle around his neck and I was disappointed to see that only myself and four other girls ran to get any of the balls. The boys however, were all charging, save two or three. A purple ball whizzed past my head, another past my thigh. I sidestepped and ducked to avoid being hit by two others. I threw the ball in my hand and watched as it made contact with a short boy's shoulder. I was always good at physical things, whether it be combat or games, apparently. I caught a ball that would have hit me in the stomach, trapping it in my arms. I counted six boys already out and smiled.
Mr.Connely was yelling at the other girls to start playing and slowly, reluctantly I saw others joining. Most of them got out in a matter of seconds, cringing at the ball instead of dodging. I slid on my knees to catch another ball that was falling low and threw it to connect with a boy's chest. I heard him grunt from all the way across the gym and realized I might have been throwing a little too hard. A look to the bleachers revealed that the short boy's shoulder was starting to bruise already. I sighed inwardly; humans were too weak. You couldn't rough them up any at all.
I watched as a girl to my left took a hit strait to the face. Her head snapped back as she cried out, wavy blond-brown hair flying into the air. The whistle blew again.
"Baker! `You alright?" Mr.Connely asked. The girl was gripping her face for only a moment before she picked up the ball that had hit her and swung it back at the boy, slamming it into his face. The boy's movement mirrored hers and I had to chuckle at the sight. But the outburst gave me reason to suspect her immediately.
"She really needs to learn to control her temper." said a girl from somewhere behind me.
"Yeah, I know. Selene's constantly going off on people." I sighed then. That was just a normality for the girl then; the outburst meant nothing. Selene stormed off the floor and back into where the locker rooms were. Mr.Connely decided to end the game early. We only had four minutes left of class anyways and we all needed to change. We filed into the locker rooms, the males into the boy's, females into the girl's. I found the Selene girl was using the locker next to mine. She was sitting on a bench in front of the lockers, face in her hands. I could hear her muttering to herself about idiots and how guys were immensely stupid in gym.
"Nice job out there." I commented as I opened my locker and took out my other clothes. She looked at me through her fingers, eyes narrowed in a glare. I found one eye was a brilliant, icy blue and the other was steele grey, a rare trait.
"He got what he deserved." I added.
"What do you want?" She asked venemously. I shrugged.
"I just don't see very many girls that are willing to stand up for themself other than I." I grimaced as I started to fall out of modern slang and into more formal speech.
"Yeah, well I do." She pulled a messenger bag onto her shoulder and turned to leave me alone. I chuckled. She was interesting. I changed back into my black jeans and studded belt and pulled my long-sleeved black shirt on over my head. The sleeves were too long for me, but other than that, it fit me well. I laced my combat boots and stuffed my gym shoes and clothes back into the bag I'd brought them in just in case. I had lunch next and I was retching from the smells coming from the cafeteria already. I hated the food that most humans made. I hunted for myself, or made my own food from natural things, not with chemicals and machines.
I sat by myself for most of lunch, drawing on notebook paper. I'd had plenty of time to improve my artistic abilities and I was rather good at several styles I'd come to like over the years and years I'd been alive.
"Oh, hey that's really good!" A male's voice came from in front of me. I looked up through my hair, glaring without meaning to. The boy was taller than I and had black hair that came just past his chin. His skin was pale, though not as white as mine and his eyes were a dark grey. He was all nuetral tones, even his clothes. He wore all white, a stark contrast to myself. He was my opposite. He leaned on the table for a moment, staring into my eyes with a sort of smirk that reminded me of a cobra.
"Can I help you?" I growled. He let out a chuckle, a sort of hushed laughter.
"A bit touchy, aren't we?" He asked.
"I like my privacy." I replied evenly. I pulled a chair up and sat next to me, far too close for comfort.
"You aren't eating." He stated.
"Way to point out the obvious, eagle-eye." I retorted. Again he chuckled and this time I noticed his canines. They were not like a normal human's; they were longer, sharper in appearance and it suddenly smacked me in the face that he was a vampire. I was so set on looking for a wolf fledgeling that I had dulled my senses out to any and all other species save humans and other full blooded wolves.
"I think you and I should get to know each other, wolf." He said. There was a strange gleam in his eye that unnerved me.
"Why are you risking the sunlight, Vamp?" I lowered my voice to a whisper, narrowing my eyes at him.
"I'm not a vamp." He neared my face in a dangerous taunt and I felt like raking my claws across his face.
"Then you are a vampire's toy." I spat. I had no respect for such people. Anyone who would willingly give themself to a vampire was weak in my eyes.
"And you are a werewolf." He countered.
"A fact I can easily point out... a fact I can easily tell everyone..." He warned. My face went cold as he spoke. It quickly heated as my temper flared.
"You wouldn't." I snarled.
"Really? And what do I have to lose? My life? As soon as I'm killed, I become a full-fledged vampire. Go ahead, threaten me." He dared me. I bristled, suffocating a growl that had formed in my chest.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"This is my mistress' territory, wolf. This is just a warning. If you--"
"Listen here, Leech. I'm not here to hunt humans. It's against our laws. I wouldn't want to feast on them anyways, they have a strange, foul taste. Trust me, I prefer to whet my appitate with worthy prey." I interrupted, voice a deadly calm. He looked astounded that I was not going to prey off of a human.
"I thought..." He stammered.
"You thought wrong, now leave me alone... unless you wish to also be a wolf's chewtoy?" I asked innocently, as if I were interested. I remained calm, which was not something we wolves were reknown for. I heard him stop breathing for an instant and I nearly smiled.
"I have let my mistress know you mean not to intrude on her hunting grounds. She thanks you for your time." He stammered, quickly standing and making a retreat. I had wasted my time with the plaything and the bell rang, ordering students back to class.
I found nothing the rest of the day that could possibly spike my interest. I had science class, mathmatics and english after lunch, all of which I found easily enough. The Selene girl from Gym was in English with me. I found she was rather intelligent, though she seemed to already dislike me. It mattered not, I was not there to meet friends. I was there for a specific reason: to hunt down the feldgeling and bring her back to the council.
***********
I woke at midnight after taking a nap for a few hours. I was not used to a daytime schedule. My life was ruled by the night, and I still had things to do after the sun set. The urge to run was making me anxious. I also had not eaten yet and decided to go on a hunt. I shuddered violently. The chill started at my shoulders and danced its way down to my tailbone, which writhed with life until it broke though skin and formed into a tail bone, which robed itself in flesh, then in silvery white fur. I leaned forward, landing on my hands and knees. From my rib cage a loud crack resounded four times before it quieted. My feet were soon padded paws, and my hands were soon clawed, but not yet paws. A light, silvery fur trailed down my back and as it grew, felt like a tingling sensation all over. I shuddered again before emmitting a low scream. My jaw tightened, forming a muzzle not fit for speaking human words, not that I would need to. With the last bit of consiousness, I tensed my whole body, squeezing my thighs, the secret squeeze to finish the transformation from girl to wolf. I lifted my muzzle, sniffing the air as I sat back on my haunches. Then everything faded from dim, to comeplete darkness...
By the time I gained consiousness again, the sky was already slightly turning orange with the rising sun. Already I had changed back. I yawned, scratching the back of my head as my tongue curled. I had to sneak in through the back door of my apartment. I took a long shower to warm my skin and clean the muddy snow away. I could still taste deer on my tongue, though I specifically remembered hunting rabbit. I brushed it aside as I finished and started to get ready for school. I dressed in a pair of baggy, black pants that were decorated in silver D-rings and loops, zippers and chains. I had come to like that sort of fashion since I started seeing it. I donned a black hooded t-shirt with a dark grey long-sleeved shirt underneath. They fit to my curves and were warm. I tied my hair at the nape of my neck with a black strip of leather. Two thick, strands of silver framed my face. Throughout my hair already, was silver runes and black beads of metal threaded into the long strands. It was common-place among my people, even for the males in some instances.
I disliked that the tattoo on my throat showed, but thus far, no one had asked about it. I was glad that in this weather, I was allowed to wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants in order to fit in. Wolves were not often effected by temperature and our markings--and scars-- were supposed to be something we took pride in. But not I. I saw them as imperfections. I was in no way shape or form perfect; I had that fact beaten into my mind by a demon who had made himself my master. Dravyn was as cruel as he was beautiful. Like a rose, he too had thorns, vicious, lethal thorns. The only reason he kept me was because he had insisted he liked the fact that I was stubborn and fought alot. He said it made for an interesting meal, which was my purpose-- I had to give him blood when he was weak. Certain demons lived off of flesh, others fear, but in rare cases, they lived off of blood, like a vampire.
Pushing the bad memories out of my thoughts, I went into the kitchen and gathered my school things into my book bag. I set off for school soon afterwards. When I entered the building, I found people crowded around the section of the hall where my assigned locker was. I pushed my way through the crowd, until I reached my locker. Four sets of claw marks worked their way down the dark blue metal of my locker door. I could tell simply by looking at them that they were wolfen--or fledgeling in this situation. I was glaring intently at them when a firm hand clamped down on my right shoulder.
"Looks like the ghost has marked you, new girl." The voice was male's. I glared daggers at the boy, who was my height and had dark hair that hung in green eyes. He was wearing clothes that were of the same fashion as my own and had full lips that formed a nice smile. He had a dark complexion, as if he possibly had Native American in him. The only severely off thing about him was his eyes, so emerald green that they seemed bottomless. A pale white scar marked his left earlobe as if he'd had an earing ripped out. Several other contrasting scars marked his throat.
"Scars from a recent wolf attack?" I questioned. Of course I had to scratch him off my list; he wasn't female, obviously.
"Ghost?" I quickly recovered, eyeing my locker door again. He nodded once, sharply.
"Yeah. Rumor has it that there's a ghost in our school. It's been acting up lately. Our cafeteria food's going missing--not that any of us are complaining-- and people's lockers have been ending up like yours. Every now and then, something bizarre will happen during class. Like one time, right in front of my eyes, the chalk picked itself up and started drawing on the board!" He told me.
"It sounds like something a disgruntled student would do...What about the cameras, has anyone checked them?" I asked, instantly suspicious.
"Yeah, one moment the lockers will be fine, the next, you're watching the metal indent like someone's clawing them. It's really cool watching, but it kind of creeps you out, you know?" He shrugged.
"You've watched it?" I asked, startled.
"Yeah, everyone did. The principle thought that if he showed the video, that the "culprit" would show themself. He's convinced it's somehow a student, but now, none of us are sure. It's happening again and again, and there's no sign of any student being involved." He was shoved roughly out of the way as a shorter boy tried to get to his locker.
"Hey!" I snapped instantly grabbing for the boy's throat.
"You say excuse me." I snarled into his face. The far shorter boy looked up at my informant and stammered an apology before wrenching free of my grasp and hurrying on towards his locker, which was four away from mine.
