Chapter 2: The Journey Begins

Before she could process what was going on she was picked up and thrown back up the path a bit. Feeling defenseless as she felt fists connect with her body all so fast and in different area's but also almost in a pattern, chest, face, arm, abdomen thigh, chest, abdomen, arms. Finally there was a break and she felt something inside of her snap. She sprung to her feet and she could just barely see where her attacker was. She started swinging only catching air but she knew that it wasn't just the breeze, that whoever was attacking was only barely dodging her attacks. Picking up speed she started to feel the slight hint of catching something solid before it slipped back into the night. Suddenly a sharp, white hot pain entered her right side and she dropped swiping her left leg at the cost of her balance when she felt nothing and thudded onto her back making her a coughing mess, the metallic taste similar to iron made its way into her mouth and a thick liquid she didn't know burst from her mouth and onto the ground.

She pulled something from her side, it was her knife. When had she dropped it? How did they get it? She was picked up by her throat and thrown into a tree, hearing a crack as pain exploded all over her body like a bomb had just went off inside of her. She let out the loudest scream she could manage, hoping- no praying someone, anyone would hear her desperate attempt for help. She fell onto the unforgiving and uneven ground holding her side that was bleeding so much it covered her hand within seconds.

She was barely able to keep herself conscious as she looked up and saw two pairs of glowing red eyes were staring back at her. These were no normal vampires. They were so much stronger, so much faster, maybe it was just her, maybe she had just gotten to relaxed in her every day life, she wasn't as cautions or careful anymore. She was so stupid for being so relaxed, now it's going to be her downfall and cost her everything. Fear started taking over the adrenaline only making the pain worse. "How's it feel to fall to us for a change?"

"How did you... When did you figure me out?" She asks spitting blood as labored breaths threatened to collapse her lungs.

"When you decided to kill some of our roost." It wasn't the man who went by Richard at the office, it was only one of the other ones.

"Where's the third guy?" She asked with a smile trying to stay strong and spat some blood onto their shoes.

Her right side exploded in pain as if someone had just let a round of bullets into her. She could feel herself rolling down the hill a bit as spots, or what she thought was spots started filling her vision. It was hard to tell when everything is so dark. "I killed some in your roost cause they killed a little girl that didn't do anything to you."

A boot pressed down on her chest hard and she closed her eyes as she felt her vision failing her. Her body was trying to give up. She had to stay strong, she had to stay awake. "We are going to feast on your blood just like that little girl. You are nothing-"

The pressure from the boot left her abruptly allowing her to breath a deep breath of sweet air in She was so focused on the pain that she almost didn't hear the deep loud growl. Opening her eyes a giant wolf has it's back to her and attacks the vampires with ruthlessness. Just what she needed, something else to come here to kill her. She took this time to get up and make her way farther into the woods trying to get away from the fight.

She managed to get to a point where the fighting sounded distant but was probably just her senses trying to give up so her body could focus on repairing itself. She still didn't feel safe. She couldn't keep going, she could barely catch her breath and it felt like the temperature was dropping drastically and she couldn't stop shivering. She held onto her side and forced some ribbons of energy to enter her body through the wound and wrap around her internal injuries, her hand glowing slightly at the magic healing she learned how to do and perfected over the years. The sound of a large stick snapping behind her made her stand swiftly and turn, a light brown wolf with bright golden eyes like fireflies filled her vision before everything started going dark, her heart wasn't able to keep up with the sudden movement. Feeling her ankles catch something she let herself fall not having the strength to fight it and braced herself for the hard ground but instead hit something soft and... fluffy. She closed her eyes unable to stay awake any longer

She isn't sure how much time had passed by when she woke but she kept her eyes closed. She felt like she was leaning onto something to her left- it was soft. Keeping her breathing as even as she could against her pained ribs. There was something covering her, keeping her warm. She decided that it was a blanket and there seemed to be talking but her senses hadn't all come back to her yet and just as she was starting to make things out she was jolted a little and listened carefully before realizing that she is in a moving car. "I didn't sign up to be a baby sitter." Someone says, the voice belonging to a man.

Survival instincts start kicking in and she tries to asses her situation. There had to be more than one person here, unless this one person is insane, so if there are others how many people were around her, so far she has heard one voice. "Your not a baby sitter." Another voice sounding as though it belongs to a younger man. "We are trying to help her, did you not see how badly she was injured?"

"Helping her would be taking her to the hospital." The pervious man said and she decided to dub him Jack Ass.

"Taking her to a hospital wouldn't do her any good Kyle." A woman quickly intervened. "I know what I saw in the woods back there, there is something different about her, all taking her to the hospital would do is get us in trouble. Besides she is a part of us now." Three people.

"You say that you saw her hand glowing." The first voice responds confirming the he is the one named Kyle but she still liked Jack Ass better.

'Crap!' she thought to herself 'Was someone walking around in the woods when I was trying to heal myself?'

Thinking back to what happened before she woke up in the car she remembers the vampire, a giant wolf, walking or rather limping away, trying to heal herself, and yellow eyes. her heart rate speed up and she very slowly took a deep breath until her ribs wouldn't allow it and breathed it out just as slowly. she thought to herself. 'How would anyone have seen me and just pick me up, carry me for what seemed like a mile or so to their car and not take me to the hospital?'

"Yeah cause that is totally believable." Kyle says with a gruff.

Sephrina very slowly opens her eyes and let them adjust to the darkness leaving them only half open. "What if she doesn't survive her-" Another female, that makes four.

"Enough." A powerful and firm voice sounds, demanding obedience. "You'll wake her if you carry one with that yelling." That's five.

The voice sounded familiar, it sounded safe. She waited for someone to defy it but no one dared to. Sephrina's eye's had finally adjusted to the dark but she could only see the person that is diagonal from her and she realizes that she indeed is in a car, from the looks of outside its still the middle of the night and she wonders just how long she had been out. Her guard was only just starting to lower when a gentle voice whispers in her ear, "I know your awake, you should go ahead and announce yourself." She didn't move. "They are gonna figure out sooner or later you know."

She thought about it for a moment before raising her head and sitting up straight, her ribs aching at the release of pressure from them. She looks at the one sitting next to her, dark eyes look at her. She holds onto her midsection trying to ease the pain when she notices that the man next to her is reaching a hand over to her. She shrinks into the corner of the car as best she can. "Don't..." her voice came out strained, her throat dryer than the desert.

Her movement and cracked voice alerts the rest of those in the car and she can't help but to look forward to see four other people looking back at her, the driver flicking his eyes between the rearview and the road. "Where.. Am..."

"Here." the woman sitting in the seat that is in front of her hands her a partially opened bottle of water. "It will help with the dryness."

Sephrina looks at it skeptical for a moment before opening it the rest of the way and drinking a little from it, her throat both burning and cooling at the same time. She repeats taking a small drink and she feels it helps as this time it is only a cooling sensation. "Thank you." Sephrina say's lowering her eyes. "Who are you all?" She asks unsure.

"My name is Lillianna." The woman sitting in front of her says.

Getting straight to the introductions, no secrecy. She has long light hair, but in the passing lights on the street that is all she can tell.

"Kyle." the man next to Lillianna says, no hair seems to be reflecting any light.

"My name is Josh." The man to Sephrina's right says, darker hair shining just a little.

The woman in the front passenger waves with a smile. "My name is Hallie."

Sephrina looks to the driver, he doesn't announce himself but his eyes give him away. "Darren." Sephrina says to him keeping his gaze in the mirror. "Where are we going?"

"A place called strawberry island in Canada." Kyle says.

"Why?" Sephrina responds without missing a beat.

"Well..." Lillianna starts but they all look to each other a little uncertain.

"I was just attacked by unnatural vampires so tell me why the fuck are we going to Canada." Sephrina nearly demands.

They all look at her in surprise but she swore she could have heard a laugh from Darren. "How do you know about vampires?" Hallie asks.

"Answer my question and ill see if there is a simple way I can answer yours." Sephrina already had an answer in her mind.

"We are going because you were bitten by a werewolf on the night of a full moon." Kyle said without any hesitation turning back around in his seat.

"Werewolf bites-" Sephrina stopped herself knowing she can't say to much.

Lillianna seems to mistake her holding of information for confusion. "There are two different kinds of werewolves, bitten and born, while the bitten ones are few and far between the subject would have to be bitten by a werewolf on the night of a full moon like how you were, born are those who had just always been born that way." She informs.

"Your wrong, there are three types of werewolves." Sephrina corrected. "No one ever really talks about the third ones though." This causes everyone to look at her questioningly and she knows that she has to explain or risk upsetting her captors. "The third kind are those that are referred to as the cursed ones, they are the bitten who drank the blood of a born for one reason or another and instead of getting the desired effects they were cursed and little is known about them."

"How do you know that sleeping beauty?" This time Kyle asks.

"I know way more about supernatural things than you think I do." Sephrina responds to him as her side flowers in pain. "I am far from any normal human." She can't help but chuckle at the thought of calling herself a human only causing her side to hurt more. "If you can even call me that."

"What's that mean?" Josh asks curiosity sparking in his eyes.

Sephrina pulled her hand away from her side feeling something wet covering it making it warm suddenly. "That will have to wait until later." She says getting quieter as her sentence goes on letting the lull of sleep pull her and darkness surround her vision.

"What's going on" She can hear Darren ask faintly, almost like a whisper but that's all she could hear before letting the darkness take her.

When she wakes up again she is in a bed under purple covers. She listens but doesn't hear anyone, only the sound of the shower going. She opens her eyes and the light is now shining outside making her squint. She looks to her left to see another bed but it was empty, slowly looking around the room and no one else is there except her. She looks back down at herself and slowly pulls the covers off. She is covered in white bandages just like in the movies, well her midsection is. She undoes the bandages and looks at her side, it looks as though its been stitched but there is bruising indicating to internal bleeding. She carefully moves her hands to cover her side and focuses ribbons of energy into her wound as though it is water running through her fingers, she wraps it around herself taking the pain away and speeds the healing process up to an incredible rate feeling any damaged organs close and bruises evening out. She finally stops when her head feels as though its going to burst from her skull and only takes a moment before sitting up, taking another moment; only a little longer to help her headache go away, to look around.

Standing on shaky legs she begins to make her way to the door when she notices a tank top laying on a chair near the door. She pulls it on, her side burning at the movement and just as she reaches for the door it opens and knocks her back landing with a thud on the floor yet she was careful to make sure that she didn't hit her head and make her thundering headache worse. "God Damn it." She heard the voice of Kyle. "I really had to be the one to hit you with the damn door. What are you doing anyway? Your supposed to be resting."

Sephrina makes herself get up despite the headache and looks to the man in the doorway. His blonde hair is buzzed to maybe a half inch, blue eyes looking at her, he is not too tall, perhaps about five foot eight dressed in a jean jacket that is buttoned up, blue jeans, and green sneakers. "I need air." Sephrina answers while getting to her feet.

Kyle rolls his eye's. "No chance princess. You shouldn't even be walking in your condition."

"I'm fine." Sephrina says and tries to push past him however he just put his arm up and started herding her towards her bed.

"I am going to say this once. Get back to bed." He growled.

Sephrina leaned left closer to the second bed and when she saw Kyle leaning left to stop her she instantly barreled right and broke past him and outside. She didn't realize that she was barefoot until her feet hit stone. She breathed in and Kyles hand met her arm. Anger surged through her and centered on where his hand met her skin. Kyle let go of her and shouted in pain. "Ow. What the hell was that?" He asked confused, holding his hand.

"Don't touch me." Is all she said in regards to that. "I need air."

"What are you doing out of bed?" She heard an upset voice belonging to Darren ask.

"I needed air." She repeated and then looked to Darren with a glare.

Darren is still dressed in his leather jacket but has a blue shirt and blue jeans on this time, he is holding some grocery bags that had a couple of things inside. "You were bleeding out in the car, you shouldn't be up and moving about." Darren growled.

"Come now, let's look at your wounds." Lillianna said as she got out of the car. "Once we look at that wound Ill bring you back out. Sound good?"

Sephrina can now see her clearly, she has Black hair like Darren but its cut short in the back, has long side bangs towards the front with the rest of her bangs in the front cut straight. Her eye's are almost a golden color like the eyes she had seen in the forest, she is dressed in an orange crop top and high waisted black leggings. Darren let out a growl of disapproval. "Yeah." Sephrina said a little caught off guard by the sudden ultimatum.

Lillianna grabbed her hand and walked her back into the motel, sitting her on the farthest bed she lifts up the tank top and as soon as she realized that there are no bandages she pulled it back down and looked for any of the males. Kyle was plopped on the other bed stretching out. Sephrina watched as Lillianna grabbed the blankets from the bed and started pinning it to the celling with thumb tacks. When she was out of blankets from that bed she turned to Sephrina. "May I?"

Sephrina stood with no problem and Lillianna gave her a questioning and curious look but continued to put the blankets. "You shouldn't be moving so fast, you had a couple of broken ribs, you were internally bleeding, not to mention the enormous gash on your side." When she finishes speaking she has finished her makeshift hospital room. "Now lay back and let me see your side."

Sephrina slowly lifted up her shirt but did not take it off and laid back. Lillianna looks closely and presses on the side around it making Sephrina flinch away a little, it's still sore, it will be for another couple days but it wouldn't bother her any. "This is interesting, how is it that you have healed so swiftly?"

Sephrina just smiled and began to pull her shirt back down when Lillianna stopped her. "I'm not done yet." She said and moved away from the gash and up to her ribs.

Again she pressed but a little harder and Sephrina hissed a little at the soreness but didn't flinch away. "So tell me what you did." Lillianna said however Sephrina only looked at her confused. "To make those vampires come after you like they did. It seemed pretty personal."

"Oh, some of their roost went after a little girl, scared her bad and nearly drained all of her blood when I happened by and decided to step in. I wasn't fast enough though, the girl didn't make it. They didn't even bother looking at the site of the girl, only their dead roost mates." Sephrina responds as she remembers that night and holding the poor girl in her arms as she saw the light in her eyes fade. "The vampires that came after me though, they weren't normal, one of them found me where I worked a few days before they came to attack me. I think he may have used some..." she thought better of it after a moment. "They found some way to track me."

"Track you like how, casting some sort of spell." Lillianna asks.

It was Sephrina's turn to be surprised. "I'm not sure." The whispering that the man was doing came back to her.

"So how did you manage to heal so fast?"

"Stubbornness." Kyle says from beyond the sheets.

Sephrina just rolls her eyes not saying anything else making it clear to Lillianna that she wasn't going to talk about it. With a small smile Lillianna stands and lets Sephrina drop her top as it lays uncomfortably on her upper back. Lillianna takes down the blankets and Sephrina stand and walks back to the door and outside. She breaths in and realizes that she doesn't recognize where she is other than being outside a single story motel next to a gas station. She takes a seat on a bench out front of the motel, the cold metal hits her warm skin where the shorts she is wearing stops and she notices a woman dressed in green shorts and a matching green tank top come jogging up to her all sweaty, her hair a platinum blonde with matching pale yellow eye's. Sephrina watches her closely and see's a water bottle strapped to her hip in a bottle holder.. "Hey. How are you feeling." Her voice matches that of Hallie from the car last night

"Better." Sephrina answers shortly.

"I'm guessing Lillianna has dubbed you healthy enough to walk." She smiles but Sephrina just stares to the road looking into the bushes to think.

"My sister is going to notice me gone, so will my mom and my family. How are you getting around that?" Sephrina asks not meeting her eye's.

Hallie sits down next to her. "People go missing all the time and are never found, after a few years while your family will still miss you, you will be presumed to be dead or just not recoverable and everyone except for your family will forget that you were ever missing."

Sephrina could feel tears in her eye's as she thought about how- no matter how much she hates to admit it; Hallie is right. Eventually everyone, even some if not most of the people in her family will have forgotten about her. The only people she was really close to was the oldest of her younger sisters and her mom. She could feel the tears fall but she didn't pay them any mind, she didn't even bother to wipe them away, Hallie looks at her with a not so sympathetic face before getting up and going inside. As she thinks she realizes the only person she has not seen was Josh. Raising her head she looks around, notices that she is the only one outside and a sudden plan forms in her head. She stands up and looking around, when she doesn't see anyone she makes her way to the SUV and looks inside, not seeing the keys in the ignition she opens the door and starts searching in the glove compartment, then the mirror, then the middle console but her search is fruitless. "Looking for something?" A deep voice asks.

Sephrina pushes herself hard away from the car her feet sliding on gravel and staring back at her is Darren, the keys on a belt clip that is in his right hand. Sephrina doesn't say anything but can feel some heat making it's way to her cheeks, she felt like a child who had just got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Without saying anything Sephrina closed the car door and started walking back to the motel not making eye contacts with Darren, but as she passes he grabs her hand stopping her, instinctively she looks at him, her eye's locking onto his, the bright green eye's looked at her, they seemed sad, sympathetic, maybe even... sorry?

She realized that without her consent or knowing her body had relaxed when their eyes met, she quickly straightened herself and pulled her arm away and continued back into the hotel. When she walks in she see's a lean young man scratching his head furiously with a towel wearing blue basketball short's with bare feet. When he notices her he stops drying his hair and pulls the towel from his head. "Hey there." He was the only one she hadn't seen that day and his voice matched that of the one that called himself Josh in the car, his wet hair a deep brown.