The Night's Delight - 5. Changing Into Something New

I froze and shut my eyes, listening for any little sign. I heard some scuffling and then someone kick aside some branches, swearing hotly all the while. “That damn little bitch will get his fill of me, I tell you! That little fucking prick, escaping with the damn wolves.”

I sucked in a quick breath, my heart picking up speed and my stomach quivering. Laurence’s voice was projected just as clear as day towards me. I quickly started to pick my way in the other direction and pranced around twigs and other dangerous items, treating the forest floor as if I was stepping on landmines. I could hear their footsteps getting closer, as if my every step forward was two for them. “Damn it! Think Ben, think!” Then it hit me like a truck, head on.

“I can use my powers.” I didn’t know where it came from, but then I felt a swelling in my chest and a fire burning in my gut; hot embers that had to be blown on. The heart spread from my chest towards my arms and legs, and then tingled down to my fingers and toes.

A searing pain in my back made me cry out and I fell forward, putting my palms out and catching myself on the trunk of moss-covered tree. “I hear him!” “Well, go get him you daft fool!”
The words were yelled out and I struggled to stand, but every time I got close to standing all the way up, then I would just double over in agony. The heat had turned into a white hot fire and was channeling through my core to a spot right between my shoulder blades.

That is when the taste of copper filled my mouth. As I licked at my lips, I realized that two good sized fangs had curved out of the top of my mouth, like miniature tusks. With a shuddering feeling, I spit the blood from my mouth and whipped around, baring my teeth, at a sound in the woods.

“Holy fucking shit! ...LAURENCE!” The man that stood in front of me had a lithe body and a small tranquilizer gun. I saw a spot spreading in the front of the man’s pants and I realized that the guy had just pissed himself from seeing me.

I grinned at the guy and easily strode over, almost a blur with the speed of my movement, and smacked the small toy from his grasp. The guy went to his knees sobbing and begging me to let him go, that he had a small family of children and a wife to go back to. I just crushed the weapon in my hands and walked around the clump of trees, watching Laurence pick his way to us.

“Did you get him you bloody fool? I told you he was an easy shot...” I watched with satisfaction as Laurence looked up and all the color drained from his face. His body started to shake and a groaning sound erupted from him. I realized that I was staring at him intently, and that I was the one who was making his brain hurt. Laurence fell to the ground and started to sob and whimper, clutching his head and moaning softly, his shaking always increasing.

Then, when I realized how to stop what I was doing, I was horrified by the sight of blood streaming from his ears and nose. I took a few steps towards him, feeling bad for what I had done, but not knowing what to do. Then Laurence let out a shrill shriek and charged at me, whipping out a silver sword and brandishing it at me with a cruel sneer upon his face.

“Come at me you freak!” Laurence yelled out the words and kept coming, swiping a glancing strike my arm. In my shock, I hadn’t moved fast enough and the blade just nicked my bicep before I moved.

I bellowed in shock and pain, then leap towards him, feeling my new fangs extending towards his throat. “Go for the kill!” One part of my body yelled at me to slice him to shreds right then and there, but the other part of me wanted to do the right thing and just teach him a lesson and let him go. “Which side should I listen to? Dark or light?” I was horrified at this choice. I was not a beast!

Laurence came at me again and I blocked his attack, kicking out my leg and catching him on the chest, and pushed at him until he was just a blur and his back hit against a tree and made the wood groan. I crouched down, waiting for his next attack, but then realized that he wasn’t getting up. I walked over and noticed that his neck was bent at a funny angle and then the horror struck.

“I had just killed one of the most powerful vampires ever.” Yes, in war I had killed many people, but not to this degree, or in these conditions. The weight of it all fell on me heavily and I staggered to my side and dropped to my knees.

I heard paws hitting the ground in quickly soft thuds, then the whole pack broke into the clearing. Erebus walked over to me and I heard him gasp. He quickly recovered though, resting a hand on my shoudler and telling me to rise, that he knew that it would be hard, but that it had to be done. And then he told me to come with, that he needed to show me something.