Rendezvous

I waited till after sunset before sneaking out my window. My parents enforced some very stupid rules, including going to bed at sunset.

But my parents aren’t stupid in other ways. And my younger sisters revel in any opportunity to get me in trouble. They would rat me out in a heartbeat. It’s not a surprise I sleep with a noise machine and a radio playing softly in my room. It hides the noise I make when leaving.

They can try all they want to keep me from leaving, but it’s not going to work. I want to see her again.

Is it love? I don’t know. I may be too young to talk about love, I recognize that. But there is something amazingly intoxicating about her, and I just love spending time with her. We talk about everything – school, the future, our deepest fears, our favorite bands.

She smells so good! And in a family where the house smells more like wet dog in the summer, I’ve just got to get out of the house. Rex and Queenie and Trevor hated it when I started closing my bedroom door on them, but what can I do? As much as I hate those stupid teen body sprays, I can see the attraction, after smelling wet dog all the time. They would go and whine and scratch at my sisters’ doors, which is all to the better. More distraction for me!

I’m not the best tracker in the family, but I’m not the worst either. My stupid parents are such doomsday prepper types that it’s been drummed into all of us. Add in their helicopter tendencies, and rewards for my sisters to turn on me, or each other, for rewards and attention, and you can’t figure out why I want out in the worst way?

Riley was waiting at our spot.

She got up to hug me, which I love doing. All that wonderful smell in my nostrils, heady and evocative. No, I don’t talk like that, especially not out loud where she could hear me. But I read poetry, and I can get flowery when I need to. Her skin glimmered faintly in the moonlight, like all the poets talk about. I grinned, took another quick sniff, and let go long enough to sling my backpack off my shoulder.

Snacks and wine were a bit hard to sneak out, but I learned that if I did it in stages – from storage to the backyard, to the hidey hole behind the fence, to my backpack, to my meeting, I could get away with it. I got caught and punished a few times when I used to do it all at once. I thought Queenie would dig it up the one time, but she just gave me a weird look when I told her to chase a squirrel, then dang it if she didn’t turn around and do it! Chase a squirrel, I mean. Like she could understand me or something.

Beef jerky and red wine make for an odd pairing, but it’s what we had. Riley likes them well enough, so we had a snack while we watched a “waxing sliverous” moon set. That’s what Riley calls it, that tiny sliver of crescent after a new moon. It hung in a dark sky, slowly sinking toward the horizon. It was chilly, but we were both comfortable in light jackets. And wine-

So it rather surprised me when Riley leaned over and kissed me.

Was it the wine? The beef jerky? Hey, I wasn’t complaining! She started pulling at my shirt, nibbling my neck, and what do you want me to do? I’m just as horny as any other kid in high school, and if she’s going to be - um, enthusiastic about the opportunity - then I’m more than willing to oblige.

I wanted to be a better lover, but it was my first, and Riley seemed to be having a good time, so I hope she liked it as much as I did.

She sighed happily as she slid into my arms afterward, and I cuddled her contentedly. She kissed me, and I tasted a little bit of blood on her lips. I was worried that I’d hurt her, but she kissed me again in such a way that I couldn’t protest again, and my hand slid down to that beautiful curve at her bottom-

And we both jerked away, and scrambled for our clothes, because we were downwind, and I could smell the wet dog smell coming up the rise.

Soon I heard Queenie yapping up a storm, and Trevor was bounding ahead like he always does. Rex is always silent up till the last minute, then look out. I’ve seen him go for the jugular a few times, mostly the postman, till the poor guy refused to deliver to the house anymore. My parents weren’t happy about having to drive into town all the time to pick up their mail, but the post mistress ripped them a new one about dangerous dogs, and that somehow shut them up.

My thoughts were babbling, but Riley was moving. Her clothes were on, and she was climbing a tree, and urging me to join her. Usually I’m rather clumsy, but maybe it was the sex, maybe it was how the dogs were barking that scared me into action? I got up that old oak just as fast as she did, finding hand- and toe-holds in the dark, scooting up to some nice sturdy branches about twenty feet up.

Just in time, because Rex appeared at the foot of the tree, and he looked as if he didn’t recognize me. He barked once, deep in his throat, and tried jumping into the tree after me. Luckily he’s a rottie, not a German shep, or he’d be in the tree with us.

Trevor and Queenie joined him, looking for all the world like this was a fun lark. They were happy to see me, jumping around him, bouncing recklessly. Which made what happened next too surreal for my hormone-addled brain, because Rex casually lunged, grabbed Queenie by the neck, and shook her like a rag doll.

We could hear the snap in the following quiet.

“Trevor, run!” I whispered, but he heard me. As a Jack Russell, he stood a chance. He whined and took off, as Rex dropped Queenie’s body and stared at me with dead eyes.

There was a lot of rustling, and my family stepped out of the bushes.

They were insane.

Wild hair, wild eyes. Looked like they hadn’t bathed in days. Even my sisters, with fingers like claws and panting heavily. The hate directed at me was crazy, like, what the hell? I snuck out, took some supplies, had sex, how could that be bad enough for – this reaction?

Dad’s skin was this creepy purple-gray color, and he was twitching something fierce. He looked like he couldn’t remember to speak. He finally growled, “You. You… traitor. We feed you, and clothe you, and this is how your repay our generosity? Theft, and fraternizing with the enemy? You freaking sicko.”

He was staring daggers at Riley, and I glanced at her. She was sitting on a branch opposite me, composed, calm. Hands folded in her lap, swinging her legs a little.

I tried to clear my throat. “Dad, what are you talking about? This is Riley, a classmate-”

“No.” This from my mother, who was shaking in anger. “That is our enemy. That is a monster. You’ve been seeing a vampire behind our backs! Has she marked you? Gah, I should have culled you when I had the chance, you little hairless runt!”

Riley frowned at that. “You just told your only son that you should have killed him, and you are calling me the monster? That’s sick, you little freak.”

“Do not call my wife little!” Dad reared back, and my sisters did the same, and I watched in horror as they changed.

Faces rippled, skin moved. Hair sprouted all over; clothing ripped. And they dropped to all fours as claws sprouted from their hands, paws followed. Rex took one look and raced away, but too late. My littlest sister howled and pounced, and Rex yipped. And that was it for him. My other sister was gnawing on Queenie like she was a chew toy.

Mom and Dad backed up, and I could tell they were eyeing how far they could jump to get us.

Riley shook her head again. “Did you know your family was a pack of rabid werewolves?”

All I could do was shake. My mind was babbling, but the rest of me was trying to think rationally. What was this about? What did I just witness? “I took first place in the science fair, this is not covered in bio class!”

“You’ve never experienced the change?”

“No! Seriously, how can you be this… this…”

“Well I am a vampire.” I could see fangs in the moonlight, with a bit of blood on them. My blood, probably. “But not the awful type. But, wow, your parents-”

Dad let out a howl, and he and Mom launched themselves at the tree.

Riley blurred.

Something big and black dropped from her perch and landed on Dad. Or whatever monster form Dad took. He twisted to get it off, and the black thing shifted with him, and there was another snap, and Dad gasped and dropped. When the black thing lifted, Dad was lying motionless, in a twisted shape.

Mom turned to face Riley, and my sisters had dropped their toys to flank her. The blackness hesitated, then took off.

Well, crap. But I couldn’t blame her. This was a freaking mess, and it wasn’t even her family.

Three heads turned in unison to study me, and I wondered if I could climb higher. If it was even worth it.

All three were backing up again, to see how high they could jump.

And the black thing dropped right onto Mom.

Did I scream? I hope not. This one was a long fight, because Mom was quicker than a snake, rolling and twisting and snapping. My sisters would dart in for attacks, and I realized with a sick feeling that they’d done this before. I had heard awful stories about deer and bear savaged in the woods, and sometimes a horse in some farmer’s field, and a cow here or there, but I never thought- I never would believe-

I guess that explains all the abuse they aimed at me over the years. A werewolf that can’t change, what is that worth?

There was another snap, and a wailing cry, and one of my sisters fell back and lay still.

This only angered the other two all the more, and they doubled their efforts.

But Riley was amazing, and was just as quick. Quicker? She wouldn’t stop, and kept coming at them. Could she fly? I wasn’t sure, but there was a beautiful fluidity to her motions, and most of the attacks I saw aimed at her met with empty jaws.

I clung to the oak, and hoped this was all a bad dream.

It took a long time, but it soon became clear that Riley got some kind of feeding from me. Riley was still strong, but Mom and my sister were tiring. I was getting tired too, so maybe Riley was taking something from me? Considering she was trying to save my life, I wasn’t complaining. I knew if Mom won, I wouldn’t last till morning. I looked at Rex and Queenie sadly. I had blamed them for the wet dog smell, but now smelling what was rising from the fight below, I regretted thinking they were at fault. You were the best pups, you didn’t deserve this, well maybe Rex might have, being a turncoat at the end.

Another snap, and my second sister joined the first.

Mom went mad.

Which was impressive, considering she already was when she got to the clearing.

She howled her loss to the sky, and launched herself at the black thing.

I held onto the tree, feeling the bark against my hands, and willed whatever I had at Riley.

And I felt it go somewhere.

However Riley was using it, it worked. The thing she’d become would flex and shift away from the bites, sliding away, striking as well, bending and turning like human bodies can’t. Mom was whirling around, fur flying, trying to get a hold on the blackness, but though she tried, she just couldn’t.

Another long while later, Mom began to tire.

I felt like I was going to drop out of the tree when Mom finally made a mistake, and Riley pounced.

Another snap, and Mom dropped to the ground. And didn’t move.

I was losing grip and sight. My girlfriend had just killed my family, making me an orphan, and I was… glad about it? What did that make me?

Then I tipped out of the tree.

The black thing caught me, set me at the roots.

Riley’s voice whispered from the blackness. “Hold on, this is too much food to just let go to waste. Just sit there, try to relax, okay?”

I couldn’t move. But the blackness hovered over Dad’s twisted body, enveloped it. It was blurry, like a concentrated cloud.

Then it lifted, and what was left was very, very thin.

Science. Facts. Humans are sixty percent water, my not-helpful brain supplied. What percent were werewolves, or vampires?

The blob moved on to Mom, my sisters, even Rex and Queenie. And left freeze-dried-looking remains in its wake.

I began to feel a bit better.

I think I fell asleep, because Riley was gently shaking my shoulder. “Can you help me take the bodies to the edge of the forest? They should be in sunlight when dawn breaks.”

I struggled up, still acting like it was a bad dream. They were very light; the two of us could handle it easily. There’s a rock ledge that gets dawn’s rays, and that’s where we put them. I set down Queenie with a final pat.

We did talk. About the future, where my kinda-werewolf blood would make me a perfect feeder for her. Endlessly renewed, good blood and sex that would sustain her, but not kill me.

About my strange abilities, like heightened smell. And talking to dogs. And being able to see in the dark.

About how she had to sneak back to her parents’ house before sunrise.

How I should stay and see what happens.

How her parents would help smooth over my whole family vanishing, because of course her family knows how to deal with situations like this. They knew about me, a little. She would reach out to their contacts with the police, and lawyers, even a social worker.

She took off before false dawn, and I sat at the edge of the woods and waited.

And as the sun touched the bodies, they started to crumble to powder.

Burnt dog hair smells horrid, but there was no trace of the bodies when full sunlight pooled on the ledge.

I stumbled home with my pack, and heard a whine at the edge of the woods. Trevor was huddled against an old log, looking terrified.

I picked him up, and we headed… not home. To a place we used to live. My home would be somewhere else, some time. A later problem. I hoped Riley’s family would be more welcoming than mine, and willing to help.

But for now, I desperately needed to sleep.