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“Let's go in the bathroom,
there's more light.” I grabbed a pocket mirror out of my bag and
headed toward the bathroom. I turned on the lights and sat on the
counter – Jett came in slowly.

“Come here.” He came
closer.

“Open up...” I said as
gently as I could. I knew he was feeling a little uncomfortable,
yet he was still trying to act cool. He opened up slowly and I put
the mirror under his teeth.

“Have you looked at them?” I
asked and pulled the mirror out.

“Yeah, it looks like there
are holes in the back of them.”

“It sure does.”

“I get food stuck in them
sometimes too, it feels weird.”

“Do they hurt?”

“When they came in they
did.”

“How come I didn't notice
them coming in?”

“It only took a couple days
and I was in so much pain I stayed home.
I'm not sure if you
noticed but I seem to disappear from everyone around me and get
really anti-social when I'm sick, I do that because I have never
been so – so – worried about anything before in my life. It’s
scaring the crap out of me.”

I let out a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness,
because I have never been more afraid of anything in my life
either. I'm not afraid of you though, but what's happening to you
and me.” He put his head on my shoulder like he was relieved he
could finally talk to someone. I thought I was going to cry and
didn't want to, so I changed the subject.
“Did you
go to the dentist? Do your parents know? Is this why you haven't
been smiling much lately?”

“No on the first two counts
and yes, probably on the last one. You're the only one that
knows.”

“Do you know that this
probably means you're a vampire?” I said with a smile and laughed.
“Are you going to suck my blood some more?” I giggled a little
more. He tried not to laugh but with such a weird situation you
have to keep it light, otherwise, I think you could freak out
easily.

“You really think so?” He
asked with a half-smile.

“No.” I replied. “If there
was such a thing we would have known about it by now, besides look
at you, your tan.” He looked at his arms. “Do you crave
blood?”

He looked at my neck, and
then turned my head the other way. “What the hell happened to you?”
He asked panicked. “Did I do that?”

I quickly responded to him,
“No you didn't, you didn't do it!” I turned his face to look at me.
“You didn't do it.”

“Then how?”

“Ugh” came out of my mouth.
“I'll tell you on the way back home.” I walked into the
kitchen.

“I want to know
now.”

“I am not quite ready. Can I
please tell you in the car?” I changed the subject. “Thank goodness
you came up – I have no money left.”

“You wouldn't have spent all
your money if I didn't come. Don’t change the subject.”

“Still, irresponsible on my
part.” I dug through my bag and grabbed my mom's gas card and held
it up with a smile. “I can fill your tank though. That's if you're
giving me a ride.”

“Of course drama queen, I'll
give you a ride...” he paused tilted his head to the side. “What
happened to your neck?” I shook my head and said “I’ll tell you in
the car, I want to get going.” What I really wanted to do was get
away from Cale, away from here.

We got in the car after Jett
checked all the windows and doors in the cabin and had cleaned out
the fireplace. He pulled out and immediately put his hand out for
me to put mine in his. I did and wrapped my fingers in his. I
turned to him and said “I love you.” He didn't say anything back he
just gave my hand a squeeze.
We didn’t
speak for a while.

“Did you dream last night?” Jett asked.

“Sort of” I replied and the word misvaad rang
in my head and it gave me an unearthly feeling. I shook it off… I
have got to write everything down before I forget.
“After this trip I think I need to learn a little more about
self-defense and fighting.”

“You have me, you don’t need
to learn to fight….you defended yourself against Cale before…..”
Jett said.

“That's a joke – I have no
clue what I'm doing. Plus, you slept like the dead last night. I
couldn’t wake you up. I need to learn self-defense, besides it
won’t hurt anything if I did. You could show me.”

“You couldn’t wake me? Oh my
god tell me what happened to you neck!” I found a good radio
station and turned it up. Jett turned it back down. “What happened
to your neck, the side I supposedly didn't touch?”

I squeezed his hand tightly,
I told him about Cale's visit. As soon as I said the name Cale he
started to speed. I hadn't realized it but I had a death grip on
his hand, my nails left marks in it. He pulled into a gas station
to hear the rest of my story. “You should have woken me up last
night! I can't believe you didn't tell me.”

“I tried waking you and I
even screamed twice but you were like a dead man!” He looked
mortified that he wasn’t able to help. “I mean I thought you were,
it scared me.” A tear escaped from me I wiped it away. “You know
the syringe that Cale stuck in you, I was thinking that was what
knocked you out.” He added nonchalantly “Well not all of it got
injected into me, I pulled it out before he could push the plunger.
However, whenever I feed I always pass out cold.” As soon as the
words passed his lips he looked angry that he let that
slip.

He got out of the car and
walked away from me and over to the pay phone. I assumed he was
calling his uncle with the news. I didn’t mention how bad Cale’s
change was at the end last night, and Jett obviously didn’t see
Cale’s clothing in the garbage either… I’ll tell him when he calms
down a bit. My big question is will Jett change fully now that he
fed from me?

I dug out my pad of paper
and pen and started writing everything I could remember from the
night before including the words “multifarious inbreeds” and
“sanguinary” because they sounded like technical terms. It took me
a few minutes to remember his cousins name Bryce but glad I thought
to write it down. I wrote down the terrible ending Cale had as
well, this way when it came time to tell Jett I could just let him
read my journal.

Next I started to recall my
dream that not only could Cale turn into a Wolf but he turned into
a panther in my dream as well and I just felt it in my bones that
it was going to come true. Thinking all this through made in my
mind made him a shape shifter that needs blood, bringing the term
back to me, Misvaad. Cale and Jett are Misvaad’s now I need to find
out exactly what the means.

When Jett came back to the
car, I was leaning on it waiting for him. He was calmer and wrapped
his arms around me tightly “Are you sure you're okay? If anything
would have happened to you….” He put his face in the crook of my
neck.

“Mmhmm.” I muffled into his
shirt.

Jett shook his head and gave
me another squeeze.

On the way home I kept
thinking, does Cale need me to change, did my blood change him
forever and will Jett change now. I inhaled sharply as I realized
that Cale is trying to change people to be like him and experiment
on them to cure them. Logan for one and Jett for
another.

We stopped at Jett's house
before getting me home. His parents weren't home. I stood in the
kitchen, Jett pulled his shirt off as he walked into his room. I
couldn't help but smile from the view. I knew he'd be awhile; he
wanted to shower and to call his uncle again.

I flipped back through my
notes and then called Nic, asked her if she remembered the
technical term that Sheila told us the other day,
“
vehements acting as demons”
she told me. I put those terms behind the others
because they looked like they belonged at the end of sentence. It
read “
multifarious inbreeds sanguinary
vehement acting as demons, MISVAADS”.
Cale and Bryce were misvaads, ‘mis’ as in misfit and ‘V’ could
stand for vampire, ‘D’ for demon or dancer and moon dancer is
another term used for werewolves. Misvaad is very fitting. I turned
around and Storm appeared. He stood right in front of me with his
arms crossed, “What are you doing here?” he asked.“Jett needed to
shower and call your uncle.” I replied. '”What are you up to
today?” I asked trying to make small talk.

“Can we talk?” he asked. I
swallowed, I wondered if this was more bad news. He turned and
walked into their formal living room, I sat in the wing back chair
next to the couch. He planted himself on the coffee table across
from me but then got up quickly, I let my eyes follow him
cautiously. “Is everything alright?” I asked. There was a long
pause.

“No Addie, I don't think it
actually is.” Looking into his green eyes was like getting lost in
a sea of water. They were solid and trusting, yet serious right
now. “Addie, I think you have feelings for me.” Gulp! My eyes got
big, I didn't know what to say. He came and knelt in front of me
and put his hand on my knee. “I love you Addie and I think you know
that I do. And I know you feel what I do every time we're in the
same room.” He looked into my eyes; he was expecting me to say
something.

I put my hand on his and
after a moment I said softly “You're not wrong, but I love your
brother and I'm with him.” He got up and sat on the edge of the
coffee table and ran his hands through his silky sand colored hair
and rested his face in his hands.

“What if what we feel isn’t
real….. I break up with Jett and you find out you just wanted me
because you couldn’t have me?” He stood up, “No, it’s not like
that, I have never felt this way about anyone else before. Break up
with him Addie, be with me, I love you.” He held his hand out for
me to take, but I was glued to my chair.

“I can't Storm. I'm sorry,
but I can't. Your brother and I are together and I'll stay with him
until he doesn't want me anymore.”

“But Addie,” he said and
turned around, started pacing a bit, his arms were crossed over his
chest again. “I don't think he loves you like I do.”

I was trembling, I believed
him, he turned his back to me. “So you don't think Jett loves me?”
I asked. He turned his head just a bit “No he does,
but...”

“Addie?” Jett called for me.
Seeing the look of anguish on Storms face made me feel sick, he
stormed out the front door.

“I'm in here!” My voice
trembling, I cleared my throat.

“What are you doing in here?
I thought I heard ‘tow head’.”

“Tow head?” I
asked.

“Storm was born with very
blonde hair, I mean it was white.”

“Storm used to be blonde? He
and I were just...talking about school starting next week.” Jett's
hair was wet and disheveled, I smiled at him.

“What did your uncle say?”
“The Michigan police actually found Cale and followed him to the
Indiana border. So they called the Indiana State police but they
never found him.”

We had a long awkward pause,
I walked over to him and helped him pull his shirt on, he pulled me
in for a hug. “What else?” I asked.

“He had a passenger in the
car.”

I fell asleep hard that
night. When I woke startled at 3:17a.m. sitting straight up in my
bed feeling a scream stuck in my throat, I had to look around and
see where I was. My wolf had turned into a panther. “Shape
shifters,” I said aloud. I finally got it; Cale and Jett needed
blood to replenish their bodies. Since they needed blood they
thought they were vampires, but they fought themselves from
changing into one because they didn’t want to be
monsters.

As soon as Cale gave up on
the notion he was a vampire, which was after he stole my journals
from Nic’s room and read about my wolf he started to believe he was
a werewolf. So somewhere between him convincing himself he was a
werewolf and my blood he can now change. But they’re not
werewolves, they are part vampire and part shape shifters –
Misvaads…

# # #

I sat there and pondered for a while, but
then reached for my flashlight in the nightstand to read Jett’s
note which was under my pillow…. I know I have to read it even
without his permission.

“I could feel every drop of water coming out
of the spigot as though it were trying to pierce my skin, pelting
me deliberately. Although the heat burrowed deep into me it felt
great in the end. The bathroom filled with steam throughout and I
couldn’t even see myself in the mirror which was fine; to hide my
monstrous face from me was perfectly fine. I’m not sure how much
longer I could take these episodes filled with horrible
excruciating pain.”

“Every occurrence worsens leaving me battered
and feeling defeated that there is no end. Knowing that every time,
feeling like my body is burning from the inside out and every bone
in my body starts to morph and crack. I don’t think I can keep this
up. I especially don’t think I can take it if my body starts to
change physically into a more monstrous form. If I were to ever
scare away Addie or my family that would be it for me. I know then
that I’d rather be dead than alive.”