bound to the moonlight

10.Amy

My eyes snapped open as I felt the presence of another person a second before I heard the sharp intake of breath that was followed by a shout of:

"Matthew Alan Fletcher what the hell do you think you are doing?" this voice turned from a shout to a scream by the end. I squinted slightly as I lifted by head to see a tall red haired women looming over me and Matt who had cuddled up on the floor together and clearly fallen asleep.

"Matt." I whispered shaking his shoulder gently, desperate to not have to face this very angry woman alone. He groaned and shifted and I realised I had my leg slung across his waist and slowly removed it but not discreetly enough as I saw the woman's eyes focus on my slowly moving leg with her eyes narrowed. I very slowly shuffled back from him trying to discreetly rearrange the shirt that had become bunched up under my boobs. Matt opened his eyes and hearing a loud growl he turned his eyes to look at the woman, seeing the horrified look dawning on his features I identified her as his mother. I pushed myself up to sitting. "Hi." I said quietly raising my hand in a vague sort of flick that she could consider a wave if she wanted to.

"Hi Mom this is Amy." he said pushing himself up to sitting and gesturing at me with a vague flick of his hand. "A friend from school." He said clearly deciding to behave as if this sort of discovery happened every day "Amy my Mom, Alice." He said clearly deciding that was the correct sort of protocol for this situation. Alice folded her arms her eyes getting even narrower, "This isn't what it looks like." He said weakly.

"Your school called me again, it seems your still ditching." She said her voice like ice, "Now I see why."

"This is completely innocent mom, were just friends." A smile widened on Alice's face.

"Of course so what your telling me is that you cut school to spend the day sleeping in our deserted house draped around the body of a pretty young girl, in a completely innocent way. "

"Mom." Matt said awkwardly his cheeks starting to burn in an adorable way.

"Although I do have a slight issue with the fact that your fifteen and it has been a while since I was fifteen but believe me I remember what all those hormones flying around your body feels like."Alice turned her razor sharp eyes onto me and I reached for my shoes and began pulling them on staring at them intently as if I found them an intricate challenge. "But you need to go to school we have discussed this and you said you would be going to school not cutting to spend time with girls."

"Can we talk about this later?" matt asked wearily,

"No we are talking about it now because this is important what would have happened if your sister

would have got home first?"

"Well she probably would have crushed me trying to get to the TV."

"This is not funny Matthew." She snarled.

"I'm not trying to make it funny." He said wearily rubbing his forehead as if it was causing him great pain, "but what are you so angry about?" Alice gaped for several minutes as if lost for words and then simply snapped out,

"Are you joking?"

"No." Matthew said gently "I'm not I am actually honestly curious what's upset you so much?" Alice continued to gape at her son, "Lucy didn't see anything not that there was anything to see we both dressed and just" he hesitated and unable to verbalise what we were exactly doing he let the sentence die and just sat looking thoroughly awkward as well as terrified that I would contradict him. But I wouldn't after all what was it I was going to say we had been doing. Matthew sighed heavily as he pushed himself to his feet and grabbed his shirt. "Look I'm going to walk Amy home to give you time to figure out what it is your pissed about." Alice clearly bristled her hair seeming to crackle with electricity.

"No you are not." She said firmly "consider yourself grounded." Matthew raised a single eyebrow, I wished I could do that it had such an impact. "For what?" he said levelly

"You really want an answer, "

"You don't have one." He said with a shrug, "but I'll let you plead your case to my dad and I'll submit to what the coalition decides when I get back."

"So this is it then" she snapped "this is you telling me to shut up because I'm just your step mother." I lifted my eyes to Matthew and just peeked at his face, I saw a muscle tighten in his jaw.

"You said that." He said coldly "I wouldn't even think that," and he roughly pulled his t-shirt on and without even to look to see if I was following him he headed out of the living room.

"Bye." I said weakly to Matthews step mother and hurried out of the room after him grabbing my bag from the floor. "Matt." I said as he strode out of the house slamming the front door behind him so hard that the panes of glass in it rattled. I bit my lip and quickly pulled the door open and hurried after him. "Matt Matt." I called jogging along after him he had pulled on a plain black hoodie and had his hands shoved in his pockets and his shoulders hunched and was striding along with a 'look at me and I'll kick your ass kind of stare', in short he was walking along like a typical pissed off male teenager, but that didn't suit the Matt I had met so far. He was so busy in his life trying to be invisible he didn't seem to fully notice that people were there. I quickly caught up to him but he didn't turn to look at me his eyes didn't even flicker in my direction. "She's your step mother?" I said gently,

"Don't." he snarled, I nodded I hadn't really expected that clumsy attempt to go well,

"You didn't have to walk me-" "I know." he cut me off sharply

"I'm not here to protect you believe me."

"Then why?" he stopped and tuned to face me I found myself instinctively taking a small step backwards as Matt glared at me.

"Tell me." he said harshly after a few minutes pause.

"Tell you what?" I asked and I flinched as I saw gold flash across his irises, he was REALLY pissed. "Everything you know." He growled.

"About our heritage?" I said a little breathlessly,

"No about the f*****g state of the economy. Yes about our damn heritage."

"Matt." I said gently "my family," I sighed "they died when I was very small."

"I thought you said."

"Scott was a rogue babes when Marcus... I mean he was only about seventeen when he started taking care of me. He didn't have anyone to teach him either everything he had learnt was through life deductions, Google, some very ancient books and rumours in bad bars so he couldn't teach me much. "

"You know more than I f*****g do." He snared. A second later he dropped his eyes to the wet pavement, "sorry." He muttered "I just- this is a lot to take in okay," I took a step forward and reached out to grasp his hand gently. "please." he said to the floor "please I...I"

"I know Matt and I will help you as much as I can."

"Thanks." He whispered.

"Okay you want me to talk to you. I can let you know what I know." He lifted his eyes and gave me a tiny smile,

"That would be good." He said gently, I nodded as we started walking down the wet street again the air threatening further rain. We walked along side by side close but we were very careful by some unspoken agreement not to touch each other.

"Um well the start I don't think matters I know one version but there are many. The different ones of where we came from its like a religion, so it doesn't really matter because each different truth has hints of lies and I don't know which bits are lies so I'm just going to start with the war." I took a deep breath "how it started who struck first of course who knows it depends on who you ask. We say they wanted to kill us out to hold dominion unchallenged over humans and we fought to protect them and ourselves. Of course they say different."

"I'm sorry Amy. The war, they? They who?"

"Sorry." I said with a half laugh, "I forget. They... we were at war... a very quiet sneaky one...in the last ten twelve years we've been under a fragile but enduring although some say fictitious peace. In reality it's more a kind of mutual ignoring of each other, for the most part."

"Right I still don't get who-"

"Vampires." I said simply. Matthew's entire face shone as he beamed and laughed,

"Vampires of course there are vampires" I stopped dead and turned sharply to glare at Matt my eyes harsh,

"A team of Vampires known as the Brethren broke into my house set fire to it in the middle of the night and tore the throats from every member of my family." I snapped "except me, they let me live."

"But they gave you the scar on your neck." Matt put in softly. My hand instinctively went to my neck, covering the ugly scar that I knew was there, nobody but a pire would recognise it as what it was it wasn't even a significant scar but I still hated it, It was there ever visible shouting what had happened to me every time I looked in the mirror. I gave a weak fake smile and nodded mutely it wasn't something I actively tried to hide much anymore as most people assumed it was some kind of birthmark or a scar from an accident and hence not polite to comment on it was just in my imagination that it could be identified as a bite. "Sorry." He said gently "I know that's a shitty thing to bring up and I know your trying to help it's just a lot to process. I mean shape shifters I wouldn't have believed in a little while ago but well with you and well what I'm doing it kind of forced me to believe but now your telling me about vampires and I."

"I get it." I said simply, "I was born in this world I don't know any different, for you well I'm asking you to basically believe in fairytales that most people stopped believing in as children." I shrugged "as for the pires don't worry about them for now." I said flapping my hands about vaguely,

"Of course don't worry about the incredibly seductive super strong immortals who want to suck my blood". I smiled,

"well as delicious as you look they won't hurt you, well the occasional solo roving pire might but for the most part they won't it would breach their covenant for to feed on you, they won't risk it until they are sure they can win. They will play it safe in case your a roving member of the pack or something they don't know how our system really works."

"But they bit you." I gave a brave attempt at a smile but I saw the concern in his features, "I was unfortunately one of those that slipped in before they all got the memo. But basically we were as strong as one another and obviously struggle to refill our ranks the war was inconvenient enough as if was having to be waged so quietly in the shadows. I'm not sure how long we fought for different accounts gave different timelines and we learned that one of us couldn't destroy the other, we were decimating each other's numbers. They won some we won some they lost some we lost some we are totally different see, Vampires work alone generally and they can fight in little bands the brethren being the biggest. Yet they are still ruled by a central ... um... government sort of they have elders that rule over them but generally if they behave they are left alone. We however fight in groups our strength comes from the pack. We fight in groups we protect each other, there little bands couldn't destroy the packs all they could do was pick off the little individual rogues. We had to birth children and wait till they reached adolescence to increase our numbers since biting can lead to well...issues, Vampires however cant birth live young their only way of reproducing is by siring and turning a human, but do that too many times and well people will start to notice, so both sides had issues with losing too many members. Neither of us would ever win, we were destroying each other. So the council, the vampires elders shall we call them the 'vampire royal family'" I said using the stupid quotation marks "they are the six remaining original vampires. They met and made arrangements with the heads of the major packs and we hit on a deal. They stopped killing us we stopped killing them. They leave us alone we leave them alone. Of course there's not a large amount of governance for either groups so its self policing more than anything else, pack wolves behave or face expulsion pires well I have no idea how much control the originals have now but well it seems to work. If you see a vampire pretend you don't and they shouldn't dare to harm you."

"Right good to know." Matt said with a vague sort of head bob.

"I'm not really sure what else to tell you now I mean you're a rogue like me there are many I don't know how many because we live outside the packs. The packs are exactly what they sound like they are a group of wolves who live in close proximity and live abiding to a set of self imposed rules, I don't know what they are but I am guessing it is mainly related to not hurting humans and hiding our true nature. I don't know if you could be adopted into a pack I mean we don't know their rules but I'm guessing you haven't broken any of them but finding a pack and throwing yourself on their mercy begging for their protection and acceptance I've well I've never dared try. We shouldn't go into their territories anyway. I'll teach you the boundaries as well as I know them anyway they aren't exactly on Google earth, but if your in their territory and you behave they probably won't hunt for you" I shrugged, "but I can't guarantee that, I just can't see why our brothers would kill us for whatever it is our parents or grandparents did that made them turn rogue."

"Ok Good to know anything else?"

"were loyal well we would be if we were in a pack but as were not we'll be loyal to whoever we bond with in my case no one, in your case your family." He nodded but looked slightly confused, "Okay." He said slowly,

"Um... we mate for life."

"Huh?" he said blankly stopping dead again turning to gape blankly at me as if I had told him I had webbed toes... and a p***s.

"If you meet your mate, your perfect mate there will be nobody else ever."

"What like a till death do us part sort of thing."

"Well apparently even if one dies it's rare for the remaining person to be able to move on."

"Oh."

"I mean apparently your mate dies the most likely response is to lie down right next to them and let your heart stop. Romantic huh."

"Lovely." He said looking awkward,

"Don't fancy the whole life commitment thing huh?" I asked

"I'm fifteen. I get palpitations from the commitment required for buying a weekly bus ticket." I laughed

"Relax about that Matt you need to find your mate first and you can have as much no strings s*x as you want with you know humans, you can't form the same bond with them."

"oh good I was worried I'd have to modify my lifestyle," he said dryly, I just ignored him,

" I don't know if you can resist forming a bond if you have s*x with a wolf but if you don't want to form a bond with a human apparently you can resist that and just you know no strings sort of s*x. And believe me once you have moved through your transition you will be a wolf you will exude such strength and power you will be f*****g hot," Matt snorted I wish I didn't understand his amusement at that comment but I did Poor Matt, he was definitely going through an ugly duckling phase and wasn't really showing much potential, but I know he would become a beautiful man.

"Is that why you smelt so good to me?" I smiled,

"In part that and in part the fact that I'm a wolf there aren't many females were a rare breed so we're very alluring to all male wolves apparently." A very cute pink blush appeared on Matt's cheeks but he ignored this and I chose not to bring it up.

"I think I can restrain myself." he said flicking his long fringe out of his eyes though it of course fell back seconds later. I smiled

"Don't worry about mating up yet, it's pretty hard for everyone to find you know the one. I am just telling you not to fall in love to easily because were much more naturally loyal than Humans, they will most likely break your heart and don't try to get into my pants because if you manage it you'll most likely be stuck with me for the rest of your life."

"Right I'll bear that in mind anything else?"

"I...I...I don't know I guess ...um..."

"Why aren't you in a pack... if that's where we belong because we are you know so loyal."

"I'm a rogue." I said gently,

"Because your not in the pack why don't you join one."

"If I draw the attention of the pack they'll kill me just for existing."

"You said they'd leave me alone."

"I said they wouldn't hunt for you not that they wouldn't kill you if you just wander into their path.

Rogues are by nature the packs enemies as they live by very strong rules which they think we all flounce whether we do or not is irrelevant they see us as threatening to expose them."

"do you know this or is it a guess?"

"I know very little." I said gently, "I'm just not willing to bet my life on that."

"Well how do you know what you do know?" He asked frowning at me.

"Me and Scott read a lot." I said even to me this sounded weak but I couldn't tell him about Marcus, that wasn't something I wanted to think about around him. But as if he could hear my thoughts his face appeared in my mind, Marcus his soft baby face features, his soft blond locks I lost my fingers in, his sparkling ice blue eyes as he looked at me the soft kisses and licks he drew down my neck. Then I saw his fangs that made me tingle in anticipation and fear, I felt the pain as he pierced my neck growling in his hunger and all but tearing my neck out. Ripping our chunks of my flesh. I saw Marcus' fangs stained crimson with my blood, as his eyes flashed scarlet intense with rage and I saw him leap forward a vampires body limp in his hands as he ripped the vampires head off blood fountaining out spattering all over him. I felt the smile slide from my face; I shook my head gently dismissing the images.

"Why are you lying to me?" he asked gently his head tipped to the side painted with honest curiosity, there was no anger, hostility or even accusation there it was just a question,

"I... I'm its...it's complicated." I said lamely. "I'm not lying there are just some aspects of my past that... I can't tell you about..Well not yet."

"That I believe he said gently,

"look I really don't know much and I know it's not all true after all I shouldn't talk to you, as it all says any rogue I encounter will either kill me or r**e me before killing me,"

"Well I'm not going to do that."

"Would you confess to me if you intended to?" I smiled, Matt smiled,

"Yeah I would I'm very honest."

"Well basically what I'm telling you here is that you have to avoid other wolves, once you have our loyalty its forever but before we will fight and rogues have no loyalty to anyone and so they don't play nice with others, they won't r**e you though they'll just kill you."

"Why are you helping me then if you believe I will kill you."

"Well one you don't have your powers yet and two." I smiled slightly "I think my sources maybe lying to me. Well not lying more stereotyping."

"You don't think he's just totally bullshitting you?"

"I hope not he's." I stumbled to a halt realising what I had said a second to late as Matt smiled looking far too pleased with himself at having caught me out.

"Smart ass." I muttered under my breath but his smile showed that he'd heard me fine.

"So who is He?" Matt asked still looking far too pleased with himself,

"Do yourself a favour and don't ask."

"I already asked and I'm a bit self destructive when it involves what's good for me."

"He's someone who unfortunately saved my life."

"How is that unfortunate?"

"I mean unfortunate for me." Matt frowned, "I can never be rid of that debt so I can never be properly rid of him. He's saved my life he's got my f*****g loyalty and that is a big thing for us. He has made it impossible for me to ever find sanctuary within any pack believe me, so I'm going to be eternally adrift aside from an individual who makes my skin crawl there is nobody else."

"You've got me." Matt said I lifted my eyes to smile at him as he glowed a fetching shade of crimson, and averted his eyes looking everywhere but at me. "You helped me when you could have left me in the shit." he said to the pavement which he scuffed at with the toe of his shoe. "I mean you had no reason to have to help me so I reckon that's a pretty good reason to give you my loyalty." I reached out and gently touched his cheek he lifted his eyes slowly to mine, the deep brown was again flecked with gold.

"Don't give your loyalty away so easily. You might need it." I whispered "we are very loyal by nature so loyalty is a big thing for us and you barely know me, and hell if you knew me better you would probably be even less eager to throw your lot in with me."

"I don't see many other wolves queuing up to be my BFF."

"Well forever is a really long time, and like I said you don't really know me." Matt just sighed,

"So how many times do I have to see you naked before we are classed as knowing each other?" I just smiled, "Look it doesn't matter I would never hurt you." He said sincerely "never I promise."

"I believe you." I said reaching out and grasping his hand briefly, quickly releasing it when I felt his hand twitching awkwardly inside mine. "but your not a wolf yet."

"You said you keep a sense of self so I'll never hurt you ever. You can trust me." I smiled at him,

"I'm not worried about you losing your mind and forgetting who I am and accidentally hurting me sweetheart." I said softly Matt looked honestly troubled by that declaration and I realised I had said too much

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow." I stood up on my tiptoes and pressed a gentle kiss to his cheek. I gave a tiny fake smile before I hurried away leaving matt blushing sweetly and gaping as if he was trying to remember how to breathe.