A Touch of Lunacy

Sweat dripped off my body as I got off the treadmill. I glanced at Joe, still going on the treadmill. He hadn't even broken out in a sweat. It was his way of reminding me that I ought to just give this up and just agree to be Donovan's mate. He'd been my shadow these past few days, doing little things whenever he could that illustrated that I wasn't really a match for a werewolf. I'd start to doubt myself, but then I'd see Daniel, still covered in bruises since my act of rebellion.

I was actually very relieved that Daniel didn't hold any anger towards me. After Donovan had left me be, I'd wandered back into the house, only realizing how huge the place really was then. He'd been at the door, Joe telling him to stay away from me. When Daniel had caught sight of me, I hadn't expected the grin on his face. He'd pushed past Joe and ran over to me. "You're amazing. You haven't even started to develop the speed and strength of a were, but you'd totally kicked my butt. I'm trying to work my way up the pack hierarchy, maybe get to be someone instead of just another pack member. You take any martial arts classes or what? You got to show me what you know. As it is, everyone around here just knows how to throw a bar brawl punch." As Daniel continued to gush, I'd noticed he barely looked into his late teens. I felt a little guilty, beating up a kid, even if he was technically a monster.

"Daniel, shut it. You can just leave her alone right now. Go do your homework or something," Joe said, interrupting the kid. He was puffing up a little and I could see Daniel starting to look nervous. I'd knocked the kid around and, instead of becoming upset or moody, he'd started idolizing me. Now, here was this big bad wolf trying to menace him into going away, probably on Donovan's orders to keep me secluded from anyone with a Y chromosome, or something. I stepped between the two of them, my back to Joe and smiled at Daniel.

"I took a few self defense lessons towards the end of college. I'd thought I'd forgotten everything, but it just happened like instinct." I was talking happily, but I could feel my back prickling, like Joe was glaring daggers. Daniel had gotten a little pale and was looking behind me. I lightly punched Daniel in the shoulder, his eyes snapping back to me. "Maybe we could spar or something. I need to get in some practice."

The kid shifted his feet uncomfortably. His eyes darted between me and the hulking brute in the back. After a second, his eyes looking back at Joe, he nodded. "That'd be great. Many don't agree with how Donovan's been and they think it's completely wrong that you've been dragged into this. I'd be happy to help you anyway I can."

Turning around, I bumped into Joe's chest. I hadn't realized how close he'd been standing... Or how much he towered over me. I shoved him a little, and he took a step back, glancing at me. "So, is there a gym or something here that I can use to turn into Wonder Woman in the next three days?" Daniel snickered, trying to cover it as a cough. Joe looked like he was going to argue, but then he deflated and shook his head. He'd gone from big, bad and tough, to easy going and relaxed with a single breath. I didn't trust that sudden a change.

"Yeah. I'll show you two down to it." As he started back into the house, I glanced back at Daniel. He was positively glowing with anticipation.

It seemed like that was weeks ago, but I knew it wasn't. Joe would disappear every few hours to grab us some munchies and Daniel would start filling me in on everything that had ever happened since he could remember. He told me about how his father was a human and didn't know anything about him. His mother had gone to the state university and met him. They'd gotten married and were happily ever after, until his mom found out she was pregnant.

"Only the sons are born werewolves, but the daughters still have that info locked away in their genes. If a daughter goes off and starts a life away from the pack and has a family and that's that. But, sometimes that woman's sons end up being werewolves." Daniel ran his hands through his hair, pushing it out of his face. "My mom tells me that my dad was great, but she didn't want him to wake up to the sounds of a wolf cub yowling from the nursery. She loved him because of how normal he was, and she didn't want to introduce him to this life. There's always dominance issues and power plays. My dad had been studying to be a lawyer and was always going on about how he loved that the law put everyone on an equal level.

"So, Ma took off one day while he was in class. She didn't leave him a note or anything. She says it was cruel, but she didn't know of anything to say that could possibly justify her leaving. She came back home. Rules are, if you leave, you leave. But, since she was pregnant with someone that might be a werewolf, they agreed to let her stay until I hit puberty. She had a friend that had recently lost his mate and he decided to propose she be his mate, that way they couldn't kick her out. Also, he had a daughter and was positively terrified of having to be the one to explain to her the birds and the bees." Daniel chuckled. "Jack's great. He's treated me like a son and he's always been good to my mother."

I just nodded when he told me that story. I think it hurt him not to know his real father, but he didn't want to blame his mom. He had turned out to be a werewolf, so his mom had made the right decision for him. She'd given him a culture that'd understand what he was going through and teach him about being a werewolf, but she'd deprived him of knowing his father.

Joe came back early one time and heard Daniel telling me stories. He'd cleared his throat and we'd both jumped. He sat down on the sparring mat next to us and handed us sandwiches.

"I didn't know you were a gossip, Danny boy." Joe took a sip of water and watched us for a moment. "You two don't need to be so secretive. I know Elder Samuel had been coaching you a little about us, but he's a little like a history teacher. He'd been telling you how are pack started and pack laws and that sort of thing, right?" I nodded. "That's all well and good, but a pack is more than history written down in tomes. There's the goings on between people." Daniel and I glanced at each other. Joe was looking off to the side as he started speaking.

"You should probably know a bit about Donovan, too. He's older than me by a few years. Our mother had died when we were little. Nightwalkers had started pushing into our territory." He glanced at me. "Nightwalkers is our name for vampires. They're not undead things. They don't need to drink blood, I think. We don't really know much about them. If they're going to kill someone, they do it by biting them. They have some sort of venom. Anyway, there had been a group living a few miles to the west of here. We'd done our best to ignore them and hoped that they'd do the same.

"One night, they attacked the house. That's the night our mother died. About twenty people died, another thirty were injured. We'd fought them to almost dusk. If the sun hadn't risen, we might have never survived. They retreated back to their land. Father was angry. He called on allied packs from around the area and launched an assault. Their place was empty, though.

"Father burned down everything on their property. As dusk fell, all that remained was ashes. That was it, for almost twenty years. Donovan married Melanie, Judy's daughter. Judy is the woman you met at the diner, that first night. Anyway, everything was going fine. We'd found out Melanie was pregnant and were throwing a party. Everyone was a little drunk.

"The nightwalkers attacked again. It was a smaller number than before. They were mostly attacking the women and children. Our father died defending Melanie. When he was down, the nightwalkers swarmed on Melanie. All of them." Joe sat quietly, Daniel and I staring at him. I couldn't understand it. Why did they target the women and children? Why zero in on the one woman? It seemed so personal, like revenge.

We sat in silence. Joe had a far away look. Daniel was hugging himself. After a moment, Joe continued. "Donovan raced after them. I'd never seen anyone move as fast as he ran then. It didn't matter though. We are built stronger than the nightwalkers but they are much faster. He didn't come back. I hadn't been taught everything Donovan had been taught to lead, but leadership is passed through blood and I was the only one around. I was starting to get a handle on everything after about five years. I was out walking when this beast ran out of the woods and collapsed. Half man, half wolf. We don't do that. We either are human or we transform into a wolf. No one had ever seen someone caught between transformations. We thought there was something wrong with him. The elders researched and found some texts in the library with reference to wolfmen, members of packs that had gone on solitary pilgrimage and able to transform half way.

"He was welcomed back with open arms. I stepped down, naturally. He was stronger and technically it was his birth right. Some time passed. He was brooding and strange, but that was put to the fact that he'd been alone for years. We are pack animals; we need company. Then we found out he was insane."

Daniel cleared his throat and added his two cents. "I think we would have been fine. I think he was even getting better, but Judy was angry at Donovan. Melanie had always called Donovan by his middle name, Alexander. She wouldn't leave him alone. 'What are you up to, Alex?' 'When are you going to bring back the heads of the nightwalkers, Alex?' 'What do you think Melanie would say about that, Alex?'"

Joe nodded, but didn't say anything. We sat silently for a minute. Daniel eventually broke the silence and prompted me back onto the treadmill. I ran as fast as I could, but he still went faster. I blinked in surprise as I saw his speed climb up to twenty miles an hour.

"Do all of you run that fast?! I'll never get away from him!" Joe turned Daniel's machine off, laughing.

"Stop showing off, Danny. He's the fastest wolf here. Normally, we can get up to ten or twelve. Danny looked very proud, panting at having ran that fast. He grinned at me. "If I go at my absolute most, I can get up to twenty-two. I'm working on raising that up." His face fell a little. "I wish I was as strong as the others, though. I'm always a little behind them. I'll never win a challenge if I rely on brute strength." He brighten up a little. "You can show me more moves, right?"

Someone cleared there throat at the door and Elder Samuel was smiling at us. "Well, how are you getting along? Ready to outrun a wolf?"

I hopped off the treadmill, walked calmly to the sparring mat, and let myself fall back on it. The impact shot the breath out of me, but I lay there as still as I could, hoping to get the message across. This was a terrible idea, and a terrible system.

"Does everyone have to outrun a god damn werewolf while they're still weak little humans? Because, after seeing these two in action, I must say it is completely biased system." The elder shrugged.

"I suppose I must agree. However, we can't exactly let angry humans that are turning into werewolves a chance to run off and inform the world of our existence. It's much too dangerous and we have families to think of."

"So, I guess there isn't any loophole that'd let Speedy Gonzalez here take my place." Daniel paled a bit.

"You do remember what happens if you get caught, right? I like you, but I'm about to let a guy rape me for you."

"Oh lighten up. As though Donovan could catch you!"

Elder Samuel sat down at a bench and waited for silence. "I doubt you'd run off to the authorities. I think you've gotten close to Daniel at least that you wouldn't want to endanger him. I'll talk with the elders. The meeting is tonight. Don't wear yourself out. There are a few elders that sympathize with you. We are thinking of delaying the meeting's end. The closer you have to dawn, the better chance you have. You'll get one hour head start. There's a river to the east. I'd try running in it for awhile to make your scent a little harder to track."

"I have a stopwatch. You can set it to keep track of time," Daniel added. "It'd take you maybe twenty minutes to reach the river. I say, spend the forty minutes left before Donovan gets out running through the river."

Joe looked uncomfortable, like he wanted to say something but was having some sort of battle inside. Finally, he said, "The river might slow you down a little. Angle into the river one way, run across. When you come out the other side, pay close attention to the path you take. Go a few meters away from the river bank, then go exactly back into the river. Try to keep your scent a single trail. Go back into the river and continue, either the way you'd been heading when you first entered or double back. He'll lose time trying to follow the scent and then he'll have to double back and try to figure out how you'd go. If you're lucky, he'll guess wrong and go in the opposite direction. That should gain you some time."

I blinked at him, unsure of how to respond. Was he an agent of his brother or could he be trusted? He didn't tell me which way to go. It sounded like good advice.

"I need to get back to the other elders. Don't work yourself too hard. Save energy for tonight. Try to squeeze in some sleep before the meeting."

Daniel hopped to his feet. "I'll be back. I'm going to go get you that stopwatch." He sped out of the gym. Shaking my head, I glanced at Joe.

"So, you and I haven't sparred. You'd be a better example of what a fight with Donovan would with." Joe laughed and shook his head.

"Katherine, you'd be better off not be caught by him. You've fought him before. A fight with one of us ends with you on your back pinned. You don't need me to show you that unless you want me on top of you." He blinked in surprise, as though he hadn't meant to say that. "Sorry, but Elder Samuel is right. You should get some sleep. I'll take you back to your room and get you something to eat.

I watched him get up and leave the gym, not even waiting to see if I would follow. I hadn't thought about it before, but Joe was good looking; very good looking. I sat where I was. Daniel was going to come back with the stopwatch and Joe could very well wait for me. Damn it all. Werewolves and vampires aren't supposed to be real.