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Description
Beep... Beep...

I opened my eyes to groggily stare at an off-white ceiling. I stared at it for a long while, not realizing where I was and not knowing anything. I had a strange numb feeling for a long while... That color was so peaceful... I never liked off-white before... But as I stared, it seemed very warm. I liked it.

Beep... Beep...

I realized the beeping of the heart monitor, and finally realized where I was. I looked around and let out a good sigh of relief, remembering the night before. I also let out a laugh, but that was cut short by a sharp pain in my side and shoulder by the slight bounce the resulted from it. Here I was in the one place I hoped to never, ever be. I was relieved for it.

I was alive.

I looked around, the room was small, not very interesting, but just fine for a hospital room, I guess. As I moved, just moving my head, my body became more aware of itself and a dull pain was made known... just about everywhere. I didn't know if that should be there. I didn't know anything really. The physical feelings I had though told me that night wasn't a dream...

That monster - there's no other word, it wasn't a dog - flashed through my head, the memory of it's glowing eyes sending chills down my spine. I couldn't believe what happened.

There was also a sudden panic in the pit of my stomach., nervously twisting and pulling from the inside. Where did Andrew go? Where was he? Is he OK?

I wanted to get up and go, I hated hospitals, but I knew by body would immediately punish me for it. I wondered what I looked like. I probably looked like crap.

I was angry. I audibly growled.

Why did that thing have to be where we were walking at that time? What are the odds of that? And it was angry too! Or.. hungry!

Maybe I wouldn't be here if I hadn't run. That was a stupid thing to do. Even if it didn't come after me, it could've attacked Andrew! And then he'd be the one here! But what if I stayed. What if we just had a stare down with that thing? Where would that have gotten us?

How did Andrew even know it was around? He heard it, or saw it, and noticed it mid-sentence. I hadn't heard it. I hadn't seen it until it made itself known.

There suddenly were an innumerable about of questions going through my head about this.

I laid my head back on the pillow, sighing. Any movement I made hurt some part of me - including that sigh.

Which hospital was I in anyway? What time is it? Where were people? I was all alone here. I figured my grandmother should've been pacing the room with the greatest of worried expressions. She quite often expected the worst of situations. What if she didn't know yet? What if none of my family knew yet? Is that possible? How did I get here?

I forced myself to stop thinking. I was going to become dizzy if any more questions went through my brain. I just stared at the white ceiling. The off-white, strangely calming ceiling.

"Good, you're finally awake. I was almost worried there."

Two people entered the room, a man and a woman. It was the woman that spoke. She was thin, with tan skin and a gentle smile pulling her lips up. Her hair was brown, just a little bit darker than her skin, pulled up into a pony tail, strands coming loose here and there. The man looked so serious. He was taller than the lady, with short gray-brown hair that sloppy stood up.

"Finally?" My eyebrows lowered at the woman. "How long was I asleep?"

"It's almost been three days now," she answered, her smile falling a bit. "But you were pretty bad when you were discovered."

"That's a joy to hear." No one could mistake that sarcasm. She nodded. "Where am I?"

"You're at a special hospital in Twenty-nine Palms," the man spoke up.

"Twenty-nine?" I fought back the urge to sit up.

"Yes. You were transferred here after we were able to contact your grandparents."

So it was G-ma's fear of traveling places farther than the local grocery store that kept her away.

"Why was I transferred here? Can't the hospital in the valley handle animal attacks?"

"Not the kind that we believe you endured." Endured, that's a good way to put it.

I got quiet for a minute. "What kind...?"

They exchanged looks.

"My name is Kaiser Cavendish, and this is Sarah Hill." They stepped forward, slowly. "We're with the AWAG of Southern California and you're in the medical clinic of this states headquarters. We think-"

"Anti-Werewolf Awareness Group?" My eyes widened. "What kind of a joke is this?"

"The kind that's not a joke at all." Sarah raised an eyebrow.

"You've heard of us?" Kaiser was taken off-guard.

"Yeah, I read an article that mentioned 'AWAGs' trying to get rid of werewolves about a month ago." I shook my head, needing to say it. "Werewolves don't ex-"

"Yes. They do." He shook his head back. "You were most likely attacked by one. You are extremely lucky to be alive, given the injuries you've received. We drew a blood sample about an hour ago. It'll tell us if you really were the victim of a wolf. If so, we'll be able to stop you from becoming one."

I laughed one slow, choppy, nervous giggle of a laugh. "That's... that's... funny..."

He finally cracked some sort of smile. "Which part?"

"The everything part." I shook my head again, looking back up at the ceiling. It wasn't too relaxing anymore. "This is impossible."

"You seem to be taking this better than most others." Sarah's smile grew again. Hers was friendlier than Kaiser's. "Victims usually have panic attacks, everyday people laugh in our faces, and wolves... have different reactions."

"What do you mean?" I didn't look back.

"They're either extremely positive or negative." Kaiser cut of whatever Sarah's explanation was going to be.

Something vibrated in his pocket, I could hear it from across the room. It was a phone, buzzing in a constant buzz-buzz-buzz rhythm.

"Cave," he answered it. He listened. I listened too, but sadly could not hear anything. He frowned, his eyes focusing on me, and then sighed. "Fine, I'll be there in two minutes." He slammed the phone shut, irked.

"What was that?" I think Sarah and I shared the same confused expression.

"Gin," he huffed. "We have two of them demanding her out." The emphasis he put on the word them was interesting. Was he talking about werewolves? I had no clue, but it was about me, I got that from the nod he made when he said her.

She muttered "oh," and glanced at me, then to the ground, thoughts obviously going through her head. Kaiser left us with a huff.

We were quiet. I stared at the door after it shut, and she went on thinking whatever she was thinking.

"Who is them?" I asked after enough silence.

She looked at me, biting her lip. She was unsure if she should tell me.

"A couple of werewolves?" With a groan, I forced myself to sit up, cussing under by breath once or twice, or more. She frowned at my action but did nothing to stop me. "I don't know any werewolves."

She chuckled, a breathy sound that escaped through her nose, and closed her eyes for a moment. "Lots of people know wolves and they don't even know it. You do know one." Her smile turned into a smirk as she walked over to the chairs a few feet away from my bed. "You said you read something about us? What did you read?"

"Some article." I shrugged. I immediately regretted that action, my right shoulder screaming at me. "It talked about this guy, something Webber, who found a cure for TWB, which I guess means werewolves."

"TWB is the contamination of the blood after someone is attacked by a werewolf, but it also applies to natural born wolves. It the condition in general." She said, sounding like a audio clip you'd find on some educational website, or like something you'd hear in an audio tour at a museum.

"So it's real?"

"Obviously!" She leaned back in the chair, chuckling again with that same chuckle. "We've never used the cure on someone this early, though."

"That doesn't build my confidence in you..."

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be fine."

"That didn't either."

She frowned at me. I just stared back at her.

"The government funds this?" I turned the subject back to the article I'd read.

Sarah opened her mouth, but an argument just on the other side of the door broke into the conversation. Whoever was talking was talking at the same time. It was very hard to make sense of the words spoken.

"You can't just do it!"

"We have the right to give it to whoever we can."

"You can't force it!"

I whined when I turned and looked at the door. It hurt! The movement always hurt! I hated this. If it really was a werewolf that attacked me, I was going to kill the asshole if I ever found out whoever it was.

"Do you need pain killers?" Sarah asked, only half interested in the argument taking place. I turned back, as slow as I possibly could so there'd be no sudden slams of agony. Between a lot of pain and a little pain, I'll take the lesser of two evils.

I closed my eyes and took a few breaths, quite deep. "What kind of a question is that?"

"Well, werewolves heal quickly, but I dunno if the pain is any less." She simply shrugged.

"I'm not a werewolf." I opened my eyes, scowling. I still wasn't readily believing this. "As long as whatever you give me doesn't knock me out, yes, I need them."

"You should probably lay back down," she said as she stood, walking over to a set of cabinets on the wall across from the bed. "You're not going anywhere for a while. Especially if you do have TWB."

"Is it really treated like a disease?" I smiled a little bit. "No magic? Just a twist of nature?"

"Yes, ma'am." She opened the cabinet to the far left, simply staring at the small boxes and bottles and bags inside of it.

"Then why is it so taboo? Why isn't it just open to the general public?"

"It is," she looked back at me, "but no one believes it. It's the general public's fault, not ours."

"Or is it the werewolves' fault?"

She smiled. "Probably. They are the ones that keep the secrets."

Suddenly another thought entered into my head. I remembered the presentation Andrew and I gave. There were not just werewolves. "So... Do other animals exist?"

Her eyebrows furrowed at me.

"I mean, like, weretigers? Werehyenas?"

"Oh." She turned back to the cabinet. "I've heard stories. But I don't know. I've never met any, that I know of."

"How can we both be supported by the same people?" A man growled, forcing himself through the door. It was almost amusing. Kaiser was shoved in at the same time, probably from trying to block the person. I didn't even register who it was that came in for the first few seconds.

"Vienna, are you alright?" He asked.

"What kind of question is that?" No question could be more described as 'in stereo' as that one right there. Sarah, Kaiser, and I all said it, each of us having a vaguely different emotion and meaning behind it.

"Lokene!" I said immediately after the question, not giving him time to process the moment or try to answer any one of us. "What are you doing here?"

He stared at me for a long time, tapping his top and bottom teeth together. He whipped around, pointing stiffly at Kaiser. "What are you planning on doing? You really think that's what it was?"

"Look at her, dude." I almost wanted to laugh at the man's reaction. That didn't seem very public-secret organization professional. "And I was given the confirmation on my way to meet you."

"You can't do anything." I hadn't noticed Sam Harper standing in the doorway. "You can't force it on us; she's part of us."

I didn't understand what was going on. Not one thing. Sure, I probably would've been able to lay it all out if I just stopped to think about every little detail I'd been given. But it was all coming to my knowledge so quickly. It was so fast, I couldn't keep up.

Tons of questions starting pouring through my head again, and I was starting to get a headache from it. It all just needed to slow the hell down! It did, though, once I came to one snapping realization, hitting me like the crack of a whip.

Lokene actually was a werewolf.

I woke to an itch in my side and hushed voices.

"You're the only unny around here," the first one said, slightly forceful.

"I know. I was in the hills, and I woke up in the hills. I never roam far from where I change."

"You could have returned. I've followed you once or twice. You're not as grounded as you think."

"It wasn't me! Ask Zeke and Tex." The second voice growled. "There has to be another one in the area - unless it was one of the nats."

"The rest of us were together. You and Zeke and Tex were the only ones that were separated. And we'd know if there was another one in these the two valleys. Do you remember anything?"

My eyes stayed closed as I listened to them. Unmistakeably, the second voice was Lokene. I'd never be able to confuse him as anyone else or anyone else as him. The first was Sam, I was pretty sure. I'd only heard him speak a couple of times, but his voice seemed pretty easy to recognize. It was slightly hollow, with a pitch a tad higher than most men's.

"Of course I don't." Lokene was annoyed.

I knew what they were talking about, but didn't really think of it.

"Then how do you know?"

"Because it's Vienna."

"I thought things like you don't care about stuff like that when you're not human?" I finally opened my eyes, looking to where they stood in the corner of the room.

I half expected to be some place else, but it was the same room. The same room as last time with the same ceiling that should have seemed pleasant. I was back to disliking that color.

When I moved, I noticed I wasn't in half the pain as last time. Sarah or someone else must have given something to me after I passed out. I guess I had fainted. The last thought I remembered was realizing who slash what Lokene was. Awake now and feeling a hell of a lot better than I was feeling however many hours before, I was actually aware of the bandages on me. They were around my upper torso, of course on my shoulder, and there were a few on both of my arms. Then there was that itch. It was so hard not to give in to the desperate want to scratch.

The men looked at me, both surprised by my sudden interjection to the conversation. They obviously had no idea I was awake.

"Depends on which of us you're talking about." I don't know what the point of that statement was, but I know Sam knew I wasn't talking to or about him.

"That's not completely true, Vida." For once, I couldn't properly make out the tone of Lo's voice. "Even we have a bit of mental coherency in that state." He ignored the other guy just as much as I did.

"So you'd recognize me and walk away?"

He paused a moment, silent and still, then nodded. He turned back to Sam. "I remember the night. The guys were having a ball herding me around."

The skinny man stifled a laugh. I wouldn't doubt that he was imagining the scene.

"Well, either way," he walked to the bed, leaning over me to try and look at my wounds, "we'll know in a month." His nose flared and twitched.

"How?" I stared up at him, a little uncomfortable with him being right there.

"We'll be able to smell him." He smiled at me like I should have known that already.

"And you can't now because...?"

He stood up straight again and backed away a few steps. "Because you've been cleaned and you're healing already. I'd say your injuries'll be completely gone by tomorrow night or the day after..."

There was a moment of silence, something coming to his realization, and he stiffly turned to Lokene and looked back at me.

"Which is really fast," he continued his thoughts. "You must have an impressive immune system."

I nodded. "Yeah, I guess so. I haven't had the flu or anything like that for a couple of years."

"I wonder..." Sam's hand went to his chin, eyes on the floor. Another silence and contemplative look. I saw Lokene's eyebrows furrow through the corner of my eye. He didn't know what was going on either.

"What's an unny? What's a nat?" I changed the subject away from me. Since I was privy to the world now, I was going to find out this information.

"Unnatural and natural," Lo answered.

I thought about the first sentence I consciously heard just a few minutes ago. "So you're the only one in your... pack or whatever that wasn't born this way, then?" He nodded. "Why would that matter to the situation?"

"Looks. Temperament. Control." Sam made it sound like I should have known that too. "Don't you pay attention to any part of werewolf lore?"

Immediately, my mind went to the research Andrew and I had done. "Well, yeah... but that's legends and crap. That doesn't necessarily make it tr-"

"Legends come from truth."

"Where the fuck is that ass, I want to get out of here." Lokene suddenly went for the door. Why was he so irritated?

I didn't understand anything. After I asked myself that question, I realized I didn't exactly want to know. There was too much to think about already. I was attacked days ago - on a full moon - by a werewolf. Lokene was a werewolf. Sam was a werewolf. I... would become... a werewolf...

Suddenly I felt hot, and lightheaded. "The cure," I mumbled and sat up. Probably not the best thing to do when lightheaded, but at least I wasn't trying to stand.

"No." I think Sam jumped toward me a little. "No, you don't want it."

"Why not?" I rubbed my eyes then glared at him. "Once a werewolf always a werewolf? I'm not one yet, I have until the next moon."

"No, no. It's- Uhm..." He seemed to backtrack as he literally took a step back. "We need to find out who it was. You can have take it in a month if you still want to then."

I watched him. Something was telling me that wasn't the true reason, but it was a reasonable reason none the less. If they could find who it was by just sniffing me... "Fine."

But I wasn't looking forward to changing. I've seen the movies, read a shitload of stories. It's not pleasant.

Description
Beep... Beep...

I opened my eyes to groggily stare at an off-white ceiling. I stared at it for a long while, not realizing where I was and not knowing anything. I had a strange numb feeling for a long while... That color was so peaceful... I never liked off-white before... But as I stared, it seemed very warm. I liked it.

Beep... Beep...

I realized the beeping of the heart monitor, and finally realized where I was. I looked around and let out a good sigh of relief, remembering the night before. I also let out a laugh, but that was cut short by a sharp pain in my side and shoulder by the slight bounce the resulted from it. Here I was in the one place I hoped to never, ever be. I was relieved for it.

I was alive.

I looked around, the room was small, not very interesting, but just fine for a hospital room, I guess. As I moved, just moving my head, my body became more aware of itself and a dull pain was made known... just about everywhere. I didn't know if that should be there. I didn't know anything really. The physical feelings I had though told me that night wasn't a dream...

That monster - there's no other word, it wasn't a dog - flashed through my head, the memory of it's glowing eyes sending chills down my spine. I couldn't believe what happened.

There was also a sudden panic in the pit of my stomach., nervously twisting and pulling from the inside. Where did Andrew go? Where was he? Is he OK?

I wanted to get up and go, I hated hospitals, but I knew by body would immediately punish me for it. I wondered what I looked like. I probably looked like crap.

I was angry. I audibly growled.

Why did that thing have to be where we were walking at that time? What are the odds of that? And it was angry too! Or.. hungry!

Maybe I wouldn't be here if I hadn't run. That was a stupid thing to do. Even if it didn't come after me, it could've attacked Andrew! And then he'd be the one here! But what if I stayed. What if we just had a stare down with that thing? Where would that have gotten us?

How did Andrew even know it was around? He heard it, or saw it, and noticed it mid-sentence. I hadn't heard it. I hadn't seen it until it made itself known.

There suddenly were an innumerable about of questions going through my head about this.

I laid my head back on the pillow, sighing. Any movement I made hurt some part of me - including that sigh.

Which hospital was I in anyway? What time is it? Where were people? I was all alone here. I figured my grandmother should've been pacing the room with the greatest of worried expressions. She quite often expected the worst of situations. What if she didn't know yet? What if none of my family knew yet? Is that possible? How did I get here?

I forced myself to stop thinking. I was going to become dizzy if any more questions went through my brain. I just stared at the white ceiling. The off-white, strangely calming ceiling.

"Good, you're finally awake. I was almost worried there."

Two people entered the room, a man and a woman. It was the woman that spoke. She was thin, with tan skin and a gentle smile pulling her lips up. Her hair was brown, just a little bit darker than her skin, pulled up into a pony tail, strands coming loose here and there. The man looked so serious. He was taller than the lady, with short gray-brown hair that sloppy stood up.

"Finally?" My eyebrows lowered at the woman. "How long was I asleep?"

"It's almost been three days now," she answered, her smile falling a bit. "But you were pretty bad when you were discovered."

"That's a joy to hear." No one could mistake that sarcasm. She nodded. "Where am I?"

"You're at a special hospital in Twenty-nine Palms," the man spoke up.

"Twenty-nine?" I fought back the urge to sit up.

"Yes. You were transferred here after we were able to contact your grandparents."

So it was G-ma's fear of traveling places farther than the local grocery store that kept her away.

"Why was I transferred here? Can't the hospital in the valley handle animal attacks?"

"Not the kind that we believe you endured." Endured, that's a good way to put it.

I got quiet for a minute. "What kind...?"

They exchanged looks.

"My name is Kaiser Cavendish, and this is Sarah Hill." They stepped forward, slowly. "We're with the AWAG of Southern California and you're in the medical clinic of this states headquarters. We think-"

"Anti-Werewolf Awareness Group?" My eyes widened. "What kind of a joke is this?"

"The kind that's not a joke at all." Sarah raised an eyebrow.

"You've heard of us?" Kaiser was taken off-guard.

"Yeah, I read an article that mentioned 'AWAGs' trying to get rid of werewolves about a month ago." I shook my head, needing to say it. "Werewolves don't ex-"

"Yes. They do." He shook his head back. "You were most likely attacked by one. You are extremely lucky to be alive, given the injuries you've received. We drew a blood sample about an hour ago. It'll tell us if you really were the victim of a wolf. If so, we'll be able to stop you from becoming one."

I laughed one slow, choppy, nervous giggle of a laugh. "That's... that's... funny..."

He finally cracked some sort of smile. "Which part?"

"The everything part." I shook my head again, looking back up at the ceiling. It wasn't too relaxing anymore. "This is impossible."

"You seem to be taking this better than most others." Sarah's smile grew again. Hers was friendlier than Kaiser's. "Victims usually have panic attacks, everyday people laugh in our faces, and wolves... have different reactions."

"What do you mean?" I didn't look back.

"They're either extremely positive or negative." Kaiser cut of whatever Sarah's explanation was going to be.

Something vibrated in his pocket, I could hear it from across the room. It was a phone, buzzing in a constant buzz-buzz-buzz rhythm.

"Cave," he answered it. He listened. I listened too, but sadly could not hear anything. He frowned, his eyes focusing on me, and then sighed. "Fine, I'll be there in two minutes." He slammed the phone shut, irked.

"What was that?" I think Sarah and I shared the same confused expression.

"Gin," he huffed. "We have two of them demanding her out." The emphasis he put on the word them was interesting. Was he talking about werewolves? I had no clue, but it was about me, I got that from the nod he made when he said her.

She muttered "oh," and glanced at me, then to the ground, thoughts obviously going through her head. Kaiser left us with a huff.

We were quiet. I stared at the door after it shut, and she went on thinking whatever she was thinking.

"Who is them?" I asked after enough silence.

She looked at me, biting her lip. She was unsure if she should tell me.

"A couple of werewolves?" With a groan, I forced myself to sit up, cussing under by breath once or twice, or more. She frowned at my action but did nothing to stop me. "I don't know any werewolves."

She chuckled, a breathy sound that escaped through her nose, and closed her eyes for a moment. "Lots of people know wolves and they don't even know it. You do know one." Her smile turned into a smirk as she walked over to the chairs a few feet away from my bed. "You said you read something about us? What did you read?"

"Some article." I shrugged. I immediately regretted that action, my right shoulder screaming at me. "It talked about this guy, something Webber, who found a cure for TWB, which I guess means werewolves."

"TWB is the contamination of the blood after someone is attacked by a werewolf, but it also applies to natural born wolves. It the condition in general." She said, sounding like a audio clip you'd find on some educational website, or like something you'd hear in an audio tour at a museum.

"So it's real?"

"Obviously!" She leaned back in the chair, chuckling again with that same chuckle. "We've never used the cure on someone this early, though."

"That doesn't build my confidence in you..."

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be fine."

"That didn't either."

She frowned at me. I just stared back at her.

"The government funds this?" I turned the subject back to the article I'd read.

Sarah opened her mouth, but an argument just on the other side of the door broke into the conversation. Whoever was talking was talking at the same time. It was very hard to make sense of the words spoken.

"You can't just do it!"

"We have the right to give it to whoever we can."

"You can't force it!"

I whined when I turned and looked at the door. It hurt! The movement always hurt! I hated this. If it really was a werewolf that attacked me, I was going to kill the asshole if I ever found out whoever it was.

"Do you need pain killers?" Sarah asked, only half interested in the argument taking place. I turned back, as slow as I possibly could so there'd be no sudden slams of agony. Between a lot of pain and a little pain, I'll take the lesser of two evils.

I closed my eyes and took a few breaths, quite deep. "What kind of a question is that?"

"Well, werewolves heal quickly, but I dunno if the pain is any less." She simply shrugged.

"I'm not a werewolf." I opened my eyes, scowling. I still wasn't readily believing this. "As long as whatever you give me doesn't knock me out, yes, I need them."

"You should probably lay back down," she said as she stood, walking over to a set of cabinets on the wall across from the bed. "You're not going anywhere for a while. Especially if you do have TWB."

"Is it really treated like a disease?" I smiled a little bit. "No magic? Just a twist of nature?"

"Yes, ma'am." She opened the cabinet to the far left, simply staring at the small boxes and bottles and bags inside of it.

"Then why is it so taboo? Why isn't it just open to the general public?"

"It is," she looked back at me, "but no one believes it. It's the general public's fault, not ours."

"Or is it the werewolves' fault?"

She smiled. "Probably. They are the ones that keep the secrets."

Suddenly another thought entered into my head. I remembered the presentation Andrew and I gave. There were not just werewolves. "So... Do other animals exist?"

Her eyebrows furrowed at me.

"I mean, like, weretigers? Werehyenas?"

"Oh." She turned back to the cabinet. "I've heard stories. But I don't know. I've never met any, that I know of."

"How can we both be supported by the same people?" A man growled, forcing himself through the door. It was almost amusing. Kaiser was shoved in at the same time, probably from trying to block the person. I didn't even register who it was that came in for the first few seconds.

"Vienna, are you alright?" He asked.

"What kind of question is that?" No question could be more described as 'in stereo' as that one right there. Sarah, Kaiser, and I all said it, each of us having a vaguely different emotion and meaning behind it.

"Lokene!" I said immediately after the question, not giving him time to process the moment or try to answer any one of us. "What are you doing here?"

He stared at me for a long time, tapping his top and bottom teeth together. He whipped around, pointing stiffly at Kaiser. "What are you planning on doing? You really think that's what it was?"

"Look at her, dude." I almost wanted to laugh at the man's reaction. That didn't seem very public-secret organization professional. "And I was given the confirmation on my way to meet you."

"You can't do anything." I hadn't noticed Sam Harper standing in the doorway. "You can't force it on us; she's part of us."

I didn't understand what was going on. Not one thing. Sure, I probably would've been able to lay it all out if I just stopped to think about every little detail I'd been given. But it was all coming to my knowledge so quickly. It was so fast, I couldn't keep up.

Tons of questions starting pouring through my head again, and I was starting to get a headache from it. It all just needed to slow the hell down! It did, though, once I came to one snapping realization, hitting me like the crack of a whip.

Lokene actually was a werewolf.

I woke to an itch in my side and hushed voices.

"You're the only unny around here," the first one said, slightly forceful.

"I know. I was in the hills, and I woke up in the hills. I never roam far from where I change."

"You could have returned. I've followed you once or twice. You're not as grounded as you think."

"It wasn't me! Ask Zeke and Tex." The second voice growled. "There has to be another one in the area - unless it was one of the nats."

"The rest of us were together. You and Zeke and Tex were the only ones that were separated. And we'd know if there was another one in these the two valleys. Do you remember anything?"

My eyes stayed closed as I listened to them. Unmistakeably, the second voice was Lokene. I'd never be able to confuse him as anyone else or anyone else as him. The first was Sam, I was pretty sure. I'd only heard him speak a couple of times, but his voice seemed pretty easy to recognize. It was slightly hollow, with a pitch a tad higher than most men's.

"Of course I don't." Lokene was annoyed.

I knew what they were talking about, but didn't really think of it.

"Then how do you know?"

"Because it's Vienna."

"I thought things like you don't care about stuff like that when you're not human?" I finally opened my eyes, looking to where they stood in the corner of the room.

I half expected to be some place else, but it was the same room. The same room as last time with the same ceiling that should have seemed pleasant. I was back to disliking that color.

When I moved, I noticed I wasn't in half the pain as last time. Sarah or someone else must have given something to me after I passed out. I guess I had fainted. The last thought I remembered was realizing who slash what Lokene was. Awake now and feeling a hell of a lot better than I was feeling however many hours before, I was actually aware of the bandages on me. They were around my upper torso, of course on my shoulder, and there were a few on both of my arms. Then there was that itch. It was so hard not to give in to the desperate want to scratch.

The men looked at me, both surprised by my sudden interjection to the conversation. They obviously had no idea I was awake.

"Depends on which of us you're talking about." I don't know what the point of that statement was, but I know Sam knew I wasn't talking to or about him.

"That's not completely true, Vida." For once, I couldn't properly make out the tone of Lo's voice. "Even we have a bit of mental coherency in that state." He ignored the other guy just as much as I did.

"So you'd recognize me and walk away?"

He paused a moment, silent and still, then nodded. He turned back to Sam. "I remember the night. The guys were having a ball herding me around."

The skinny man stifled a laugh. I wouldn't doubt that he was imagining the scene.

"Well, either way," he walked to the bed, leaning over me to try and look at my wounds, "we'll know in a month." His nose flared and twitched.

"How?" I stared up at him, a little uncomfortable with him being right there.

"We'll be able to smell him." He smiled at me like I should have known that already.

"And you can't now because...?"

He stood up straight again and backed away a few steps. "Because you've been cleaned and you're healing already. I'd say your injuries'll be completely gone by tomorrow night or the day after..."

There was a moment of silence, something coming to his realization, and he stiffly turned to Lokene and looked back at me.

"Which is really fast," he continued his thoughts. "You must have an impressive immune system."

I nodded. "Yeah, I guess so. I haven't had the flu or anything like that for a couple of years."

"I wonder..." Sam's hand went to his chin, eyes on the floor. Another silence and contemplative look. I saw Lokene's eyebrows furrow through the corner of my eye. He didn't know what was going on either.

"What's an unny? What's a nat?" I changed the subject away from me. Since I was privy to the world now, I was going to find out this information.

"Unnatural and natural," Lo answered.

I thought about the first sentence I consciously heard just a few minutes ago. "So you're the only one in your... pack or whatever that wasn't born this way, then?" He nodded. "Why would that matter to the situation?"

"Looks. Temperament. Control." Sam made it sound like I should have known that too. "Don't you pay attention to any part of werewolf lore?"

Immediately, my mind went to the research Andrew and I had done. "Well, yeah... but that's legends and crap. That doesn't necessarily make it tr-"

"Legends come from truth."

"Where the fuck is that ass, I want to get out of here." Lokene suddenly went for the door. Why was he so irritated?

I didn't understand anything. After I asked myself that question, I realized I didn't exactly want to know. There was too much to think about already. I was attacked days ago - on a full moon - by a werewolf. Lokene was a werewolf. Sam was a werewolf. I... would become... a werewolf...

Suddenly I felt hot, and lightheaded. "The cure," I mumbled and sat up. Probably not the best thing to do when lightheaded, but at least I wasn't trying to stand.

"No." I think Sam jumped toward me a little. "No, you don't want it."

"Why not?" I rubbed my eyes then glared at him. "Once a werewolf always a werewolf? I'm not one yet, I have until the next moon."

"No, no. It's- Uhm..." He seemed to backtrack as he literally took a step back. "We need to find out who it was. You can have take it in a month if you still want to then."

I watched him. Something was telling me that wasn't the true reason, but it was a reasonable reason none the less. If they could find who it was by just sniffing me... "Fine."

But I wasn't looking forward to changing. I've seen the movies, read a shitload of stories. It's not pleasant.