It was a mistake, coming out on a night like this, when it was so close to the full moon. It was getting harder to control the urges, the instincts...the fifteen shots of pure whiskey he had downed didn't even damper the feelings simmering inside. Then it hit him like a fist, the crawling on his flesh like a hundred ants traveling over his skin, the body temperature rising, and the bile rising in his throat. He doubled over, moaning, clutching his stomach and squeezing his eyes closed tight. "Don't change, don't change, not here..."
It became his mantra, repeating over and over in his mind, as he rocked back and forth, fingers clutching his sides so hard his knuckles were white. His inhuman hearing picked up the men snickering all the way at the other end of the bar, calling him a "featherweight" and joking about how the pretty boy couldn't hold his alcohol. He heard the women across from him whispering if he was okay, and the bartender mumbling something under his breath about "damn college kids".
He tried to block it out as he fought to keep under control, and then strong hands were grabbing under his armpits, dragging him to the back door of the bar. He heard the door open and felt the rush of night air engulf him, then he was being set down against a wall outside and heard someone tell him to head home, to walk it off. And then he heard a voice that was pure sweetness, telling the man who had dragged him outside that she would stay with him until he was better enough to go home. The bar door slammed shut again, and he felt a woman's cool hand touch his forehead.
"Sir, are you alright?" He wanted to scream at her, tell her to take her ass back inside before she got hurt. That was the human side of him. Instead, the animal side of him opened his eyes, and focused on the concerned woman leaning over him. She was a waitress for the bar that he'd just been thrown out from, barely past her twenty-first birthday. The starched white shirt and tailored black skirt that the bar dress code demanded could not hide the youthful beauty of her body, and she needed no makeup to enhance her pretty face.
"Are you alright?" She repeated, her green eyes crinkling at the corners as she smiled, brushing a stray strand of blonde hair from her eyes.
"I'm fine." His voice came out huskier than he planned it to. The tingle was getting harder on his flesh, more like bee stings than ants now. The rest of his abnormal senses were kicking in now, and he found his mouth watering as he stared at the girl. He could smell her perfume, and the sweat on her brow, and the deodorant she had put on that morning. And beneath all the cosmetic scents, he could smell her essence, the dusky fragrance of her sex. It made human thought slip away a little faster...if he didn't get her away from him, she'd be at the mercy of the beast that was going to claim him soon. "You can go back to your job now, I'm fine."
"Are you sure?" She asked, and squatted down beside him. "I thought you were going to be sick there. That much whiskey will make anyone drunk, and Murphy dragged you out here because he thought you were going to puke in his bar." Her chatter made his head ache. He stared at the way her blonde hair billowed and tangled in the night breeze, the way that same chilling wind made her nipples strain against the thin man-like shirt. He couldn't summon the strength to push her away anymore; it was all he could do to keep the last shred of humanity about himself. She took her silence for a cue for her to keep talking.