Werewolves and Vampires

chapter 1

The wooden door had just swung open noiselessly on well-oiled hinges, and I slowly went inside, easing it shut behind me. Silence welcomed me. I grined but it soon turned into a winking when the split in my lip stinged. Eyes watering, I crossed the storage house to the far wall and set the Puppy on the floor. I climbed one of the sturdy shelving units to the ceiling where I stuck my hand under one of the tiles and pulled out a small, grey silver box. Inside the box were a few hundred Rands and a tiny vail of crisp human stock, half the size of the one I’d given Yogan. The human stock was my own personal stash that Shangs insisted I keep on hand for emergencies. I usually healed incredibly fast and hardly ever got sick – a benefit of having healing power – but it wouldn’t do for Shangs to see me with a fat lip.

I bottled the cap for the bottle and tipped it to moist my finger and gobbled the stinging liquid to my swollen lips and bruised up cheeks. Instantaneously came a hot blazing sensation, then blessed numbness as the sting faded away. I didn’t bother to find a glass of reflection to know that my lip was already mending and in no time it would be healed Totally. The human stock didn’t heal broken joints, but it made s***h and swellings disappear in minutes. I dabbed a bit on my cheeks and watched the swells immediately faded from them, trying not to think of Draken who was probably having his nose reset right now. I corked the vial and put the box back in the ceiling, thinking that if anyone should have the human stock right now it was him.

“Come on, Puppy.” I picked him up again and headed for the stairs.

Shangs and I had a whole building to ourselves, which was actually pretty cool. Years ago the first floor used to house a bookstore, but it went out of business when the large chain stores came to town. After that, Shangs decided that being a house manager was too much hassle. He didn’t really need the rent, so he decided not to lease the space again. We lived in the two-story apartment upstairs, and the bottom floor was mostly used for storage now and Shangs’s home gym.

I dragged my tired body up the stairs and slipped quietly into the apartment. Sounds from the den told me Shangs was at work on his computer. I crept past the open door, hoping he was too involved in his work to notice my entrance.

“You missed dinner again.”

I backtracked and stood in the doorway wearing an apologetic smile. “Sorry, I lost track of time.”

Shangs looked at me over the top of his monitor, and I met his green eyes that were so like my own. With the same chestnut hair and golden skin we resembled each other so much that people often mistook us for father and daughter. Shangs’s hair was already streaked with gray, making him look a little older than his thirty-nine years, but I thought the gray suited him. Or maybe I told myself that to feel better about being guilty of putting some of that gray there.

His hair was mussed, and the shadows under his eyes told me he wasn’t getting enough sleep again. He had been working day and night on his latest book, barely coming out to eat and sleep; he always got like that when he was near the end of the first draft. Shangs wrote military suspense novels, and he was on the fifth book in his series. His work was very good. He didn’t know it, but I read all his books.

“Where the hell have you been, I've been worried sick? You look like you’ve been in a fight.” There was no accusation in his voice, just disappointment. I opened my mouth in denial, but he said, “You have blood on your coat.”

“Oh.” I frowned at the spots of dried blood on the front of my tan coat. “This is my favorite one, too. I’d better put it in cold water.”

“Angelica,” he said in warning tone. I stopped, and he sighed heavily. “What happened?”

I made a face. “You say that like I’m out there fighting every day.”

“So you were in a fight.”

Caught. “I had a perfectly good reason.” I held up the Puppy so he could see it over his monitor.

Shangs stared at the scrawny bundle of fur in my arms. “Is that thing alive?”

“Of course it’s alive!” I ran my fingers through the Puppy’s tiny head, and he purred loudly. “Do you think I’d be walking around with a dead Puppy?”

“Do you want me to answer that?”

I made a face. “Didn’t I tell you? I’m into jinx now, and I thought I’d start with zombie Puppys.” I wondered what he’d think if he knew there were people out there who really could resurrect corpses.

He stared at me like he was trying to decide if that was a joke. I used the opportunity to try to slip away.

“Not so fast. You haven't still told me what happened. Sit.”

I took the chair in front of the desk and laid the Puppy on my lap as Shangs maneuvered his motorized chair around the desk. He parked it two feet from me and said, “Spill it.”

I told him about seeing Draken and Fin chasing the Puppy and how I followed them to the beach. With as little detail as possible, I related the alterPuppyion between me and Draken, making the fight sound more like a shoving match than a fight. I still felt so ashamed and afraid of what I’d done that I really didn’t want to relive it.

“So where did the blood come from?”

“Um… this poor little guy is all scratched up. It must have come from him.”

He cast a suspicious look at the Puppy. “Speaking of your new friend – what do you plan to do with him?”

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “Clean him up and feed him for now.”