7 Saul's blood

Saul's mood seemed a tad better, but still, we walked back toward the cabin in such eerie silence that the crack of dirt below our feet sounded loud enough to wake the dead.

I was first to smell it, so I stopped abruptly, and Saul stopped a moment after.

"It's the smell," I urged out of my frightened mouth, and Saul nodded quietly.

"Werewolves." He whispered, and then Oliver was nailed to the ground as well. Certainly, we were all trying to come up with the optimal way to disappear without being noticed, but we go no time to execute our plans.

The door burst open.

But exiting it was not some beast, but Pierce. He stood with arms on his hips, not curious about our cowardly poses.

"Werewolves?" Oliver squeaked. But Saul

seemed to have put two and two together, so he walked right up to Pierce.

"You brought her here?" There was anger, but also something fear-ish in his voice.

"Yes. I thought you'd want to see her."

As no one seemed to be fearing the wolves any longer (though the smell was still there) I straightened up. "What's going on? The smell..."

Pierce gave me a long look - like I was in the way again.

"Margaret's a werewolf. The witches turned her to punish us..."

"To punish me," Saul cut in. He was avoiding our eyes."For my rebellion. They took her... How can you bring her here, isn't she...?"

"I've chained her up. She has better times and worse. It's better at the moment. She's lucid."

"How long have you...?"

"That's why I sent you away. The witches wanted to see that you're done with the rebellion. Those were the terms."

Saul turned red in his face. "But still they leave her like that? I'm done! Why not just fix her?" He was shouting now, hands in fists.

Pierce looked at Saul pityingly. "They haven't forgiven us. They never will. And when you see her, you see that they gave her back only to torture us further."

Saul combed his hand through his hair, so roughly he might have drawn blood.

"They are witches," Pierce continued. "They couldn't care less about us. Or anyone, really."

"Fine! But she's...? Still herself?"

"At times. Go. Talk to her. We'll wait here."

Saul glanced at me, maybe to gain courage. But I was still just trying to deal with the fact that his sister was a werewolf. So, I just kind of stared back with a blank face.

And then Saul entered the cabin, the door shutting behind him.

Pierce took a couple of steps toward me. "You were practicing magic?"

"Yeah. Kind of."

"How did it go?"

I shrugged. "Fine, I guess. For the first time."

"So you CAN do magic? As a vampire?" Pierce looked suddenly very invested. His eyes were digging into mine.

"Does look like that."

Pierce started pacing, scratching his chin.

"You might be able to help her. Margaret. Magic made her like that. Magic can undo it."

I put up my arms.

"Literally day one of magic school for me. I really wouldn't know where to start."

Pierce stopped, staring at Oliver. "Do you know anything about this?"

Oliver shook his head.

Pierce returned to walking back and forth. "Alright. But if I find someone who knows the words or whatever, how to do the spell... Then you can do it?"

At that point, he seemed to be talking mostly to himself. "But who? Who would know? Who would want to help?"

Inside the cabin, loud growls started. They shook Oliver and me, but Pierce didn't seem to even notice.

I wanted to stay close to the door in case Saul needed support or what have you, but the smells hadn't gotten even a bit better. Trying to breathe was plain disgusting.

"Could we move?" I offered, glancing toward the lovely lakeside. "Maybe somewhere with wind?"

Oliver nodded enthusiastically, but Pierce was somewhere inside his mind.

In the end, I just picked up and left, and Oliver followed.

"I don't think it can be done." He said as we were hoping some trenches. "And trying will slow us down."

"Well, it's Saul's sister."

We continued on, already pretty far from the cabin, but the stink stuck with us. So, I just kept pushing toward the lake.

"What happened with the fire?" Oliver asked.

I stopped, turning to him, going through the memory of what I had seen.

"Oh, yeah. It was weird. I was like stuck behind some glass... Or to think of it, it might have been a mirror. Either way, I could see a 'woman. Really blue skin. She had some medallion around her neck. And she was drawling on the mirror. A straight line and a triangle through it. And then it got really drippy. Everything turned bright cold..." I stopped mid-sentence, surprised by the look on Oliver's face. His mouth was literally open and rest of him solid as stone. "Was that something? Was it real magic?" I asked.

"Could you describe her more?"

"The lady? Well, she had rings on her face, nose, and eyebrow. And she had the whitest hair, ridiculous, really."

I smiled, but Oliver did not. He swallowed nervously.

"Do you know her?" I asked.

He started biting his nails, avoiding answering my question.

"Do you know her?" I asked again, even more demanding.

Oliver was suddenly enraged. "I DON'T UNDERSTAND!" He cried, flailing his arms. I took a step back, but his anger seemed to be aimed at someone in the clouds, not to me. He stared upward, yelling and stomping his feet. "THIS CAN'T BE!"

I matched his volume. "WHAT CAN'T BE?"

His head turned suddenly, entirely serious and cold. "Listen, Thomas! What you saw... Who you saw – it's important. And that it was from the fire...?" He shook his head like that had meant something especially incredible." And then his head stopped, aimed at the cabin. "Why does it still smell?"

Slowly, his gaze rushed through the woods around us. "Werewolves," he whispered ominously.

"What?" I looked around as well. I could not see any movement, but the smell did appear even thicker than it was before.

Immediately, I started back toward the cabin. But Oliver pulled from my elbow.

"I can't stay any longer." He spoke dead to my eyes.

And I could see some kind of a waving start under the skin on his face.

"What was that?"

Again, he avoided my question. "Doesn't matter. I don't have much time... You can't trust the vampires!"

"You mean Saul...?"

"None of them. They are not your friends. They have their own agendas. Every last one of them! You need to find the red cove, but you cannot, as long as they are with you."

"How do you...?"

"The woman. You need to hide from her. Do NOT look into the fire again. Under any circumstances."

By that point, his face was waving like crazy. I wanted to back away from that strangeness, but Oliver had turned so strong that he wasn't far from breaking my vampire's elbow.

"Head North, toward Hailenfall," Oliver's voice started to weaken, "and find Krius. He can help you..." And then his grip died, and he fell onto the ground, shaking like he was having a seizure.

Entirely confused, I stood there, wondering if I should drag him back to the cabin, or I should just leave him to the wolves. But then he opened his eyes. And right away, he started to crawl backward. "Who are you?" He demanded. And he seemed genuinely frightened.

And then my vampire senses kicked in, and my eyes were drawn onto movement in the trees. Multiple movements in multiple directions.

The smell of the werewolves more intense than ever, I forgot all about Oliver.

Running toward the Cabin, I could see beasts on four feet, metal chains and collars on, and tall, bear-like monsters behind them, holding their leashes.

And then, as I dashed, the barking and growling started.

I could see Pierce awake from his daydream.

"It's the werewolves!" I called, hoping the trenches like some cartoon bunny. "Run!"