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Chapter 6

The oddities of humanity never fail to amaze me. Those who are surrounded by darkness seek the light. Those who are surrounded by light seek the darkness. The children in this place are warm, safe, and secure in the idea that they will not be harmed. It was not so, a century ago, and it is still not so in countries where groups of marauding men rape and kill without hesitation or restraint. In such countries, no one would seek out the monsters in their lairs just because they are bored.

My little Angela has become a radiant piece of starlight. In a few short months their small group has doubled. I am told they are social rejects, bullied by the world and made to feel safe by my thralls. All of them have the emptiness in them. They would leave their society to become part of ours, if I needed them. It is a shame I need so few.

Tammy is still not all that interested in the paranormal group but she goes for Angela's sake. The love between them is easy to see but Tammy still resists letting Angela fully into her heart. Even I am relegated to the Greek philia and storge types of love. In her there is a separation between sex and the true eros that can come with it.

Angela calls her pack mate a soon-da-ray. Tammy is afraid to love fully, feeling it to be a sign of weakness, but that simply means she is not yet comfortable with who she really is. I have conditioned her to eventually warm up to the idea of eros but it will take time.

Time ... time ... we need to find our third. It takes at least two years for a young mortal to fully embrace the change. It can take another three to five years for them to learn what it truly means to be one of us. We are granted more than a single mortal lifetime and that wisdom builds over time. Still, it occasionally requires us to move quickly.

I have been spending time sitting among the mortal students and I have smelled their peaked desires. Vibrant youth ... minds of logic barely containing mammalian desires to fight and fornicate. It is the perfect hunting ground and it is time to hunt us a third. I have sent forth my thralls with their mission. They must seduce a third and bring her to me. Only then can we be the family which will raise a new generation who will be born as werewolves without ever knowing the burden of humanity.

*****

"You are such a Tsundere. Tammy," Big-Blond Terry said this with amusement.

"You mean I'm a bitch?" Tammy asked waspishly.

"Well, he's not wrong," Angela said and her grin gave everyone around them permission to explode into the laughter they had been holding back. The breath of a dozen young people puffed in the winter air and some of them leaned against tombstones or trees.

"Don't those Tsundere girls always warm up to the objects of their affection in the end?" asked greasy and dark haired Matt in his usual insufferably smug manner.

"Yeah, but it's a little different with us," Angela told Matt. "You see, Tammy and I are already super yuri yuri, she just doesn't like to show it to others."

"I really wish you wouldn't talk in code," Tammy grumbled as nearly all of the people around them grinned lecherously.

"I'm telling them how much you like to lick my cooch but you've never said, I love you," Angela told her haughtily.

"Thanks, Angie," Tammy said darkly, "because I really wanted everyone to know about that."

"All you have to do is watch more anime with us and you would get all of the things we're talking about." Angela said smugly.

"I'm too old for cartoons!" Tammy barked, but everyone around her gave off explosive groans that said she had committed a great faux pas.

"Those cartoons," Matt said with pure contempt dripping from his lips, "cover every genre Hollywood has ever come up with and several others they never heard of!"

"Humor, horror, and hentai," chimed sparsely red haired Donald.

"It also includes romance, science fiction, fantasy, and mostly every other variety," Matt said with a haughty sneer. "There is anime for both adults and children. What you need to do is identify your tastes and then tell us. I am certain one of us can find something you will like."

"I know, I know," Tammy said as her scowl reddened. "I kind of liked that one show with the samurai where everyone seemed to be filled with fifty gallons of blood under high pressure. I also kind of liked that one with the half-cat-rabbit thing-"

"Cabbit," five people all said at once.

"Right, that thing," Tammy said dismissively, "yeah it had a good mixture of action and tits, but I'm just not into it like you guys are."

"You don't have to be," said Keni, whose scent told Tammy that he was female though he demanded to be treated as male. "You can be into whatever you're into, but we reserve the right to give you shit about it."

"True enough," Donald chimed in.

"It's alright ... to not like things!" Angela began to sing and then everyone in the group joined in. "It's okay ... but don't be a dick about it-"

"Alright everyone! Bring it in!" Heather's potent voice cut off the rest of the song. Heather had been checking out the opposite end of the cemetery with the other half of PASS and had lingered for a few minutes before interrupting the conversation. Her word was law, though, and so the various members of the Paranormal Activity Student Society stood a little straighter and gave her their attention. "This side is clear. What did you find?"

"Graveyards are shitty places to live," Tammy said acidly and Heather blew steam out of her nostrils like a bull.

"And where would_you_ want us to look?" Heather asked with equal scorn.

"In January?" Tammy asked as she dramatically posed like a thinker. "Let me see ... if I was a werewolf or a vampire, then I'd be someplace warm. Like ... maybe the haunted mansion out on Rainbow Road? I hear that's haunted ... and indoors ... and heated."

"Can't," said Mariana a painfully skinny Hispanic girl who did not smell quite right to the lupine nose, "Delta Omega Sorority is doing one of their haunted challenges for Rush Week."

"Fuck Delta Omega," Tammy declared witheringly, "I'm cold."

"Did you even look for signs of disturbed graves or recently opened crypts?" Heather asked despairingly.

"We looked," Angela said quickly, stepping between the two women before fur could fly. "It's a cool place, Heather, but there's nothing here."

"Something is here," spoke a monotone voice. Everyone turned to look at a girl whose eternally pale skin and tendency towards black everything got her declared, most goth member of PASS.

"Abigail?" Heather asked. "What do you know?"

"The dead are restless," the goth-girl said as her dark eyes seemed to track something unseen. "Something has disturbed them."

"Something like a bunch of dumb kids stomping all over their graves?" Tammy asked scornfully.

"That may have brought them here," Abigail said without inflection, "but this is different ... more. Someone or something is stirring them up. I believe someone is casting spells and using them as a source of power."

"Oh?" Tammy asked with a mocking grin but all of the young people around her moved in to listen to their resident enabler who claimed to be psychic.

"Is it a sorcerer?" Terry asked.

"This isn't Dungeons and Dragons, Terry," Matt said scornfully. "What do you think Abby?"

"I think we should leave," the girl said and suddenly everyone began looking around them as if they had heard something.

Herd instincts flared and every human moved closer together. Tammy noticed the behavior and took note of the people who did not engage. _Abigail, Heather, and Angela ... hmmm ..._Silence stretched on for many seconds as fight or flight instincts caused the clouds of student breath to thicken.

"Alright, we're done for tonight," Heather announced, causing everyone to jump and look at her. "Try to stay with other people tonight. If we got noticed by something spooky then it will be best to face it with friends."

There was a general murmuring of agreement and the group began breaking up.

"Rock Band at Donald's place," Terry announced. "Mariana? You coming?" The painfully thin girl flinched and responded in Spanish.

"That ain't a yes," Dustin drawled with a leer that caused both Terry and Mariana to blush beyond what the cold was causing.

"It wasn't a no either," Angela cut in, then she turned to the slight girl. "Mariana, you should just go out with Terry and save us all the disappointment."

The girl's head was still too swirled to respond in English and her response caused Dustin to give a patronizing, "Ooohhh, dang girl. Terry, you just keep bein' you. She'll come around." His laughter caused Mariana to walk quickly away but Angela moved to keep pace with the girl.

Atta girl, Angela! You'll set her straight! Tammy became unreasonably embarrassed when she realized she was cheering for some awkward nerd romance. Well ... why not cheer for it? I've been with these people for three months and they're all a little broken. Like me ... they don't have anyone to go home to. Either their parents don't like them or they just don't understand them. While they're both dumb it would be kind of fun to see Terry and Mariana get together.

"Any of you ladies want to join us?" Donald asked with a little too much leer in his voice.

"I'm in," announced Caylee and the boys were slightly better at hiding their wince. Caylee was horribly overweight, terribly ugly, and she smelled of fried food. She also tended to be a bit of a kill-joy and Tammy could not help but wonder if Master's intense personality training could be applied to this poor girl.

"Sure," spoke Emily in her typical one word answer. The weirdly skinny ferret-faced girl with no personality moved over to stand near Caylee but did not smile. The boys hesitated, shrugged, and then looked at Keni.

"Fine," Keni said as if this were a great sacrifice. "No one will have fun without Keni. I call base."

"Fuck you," Donald scoffed, "I bought the base so I could rock out properly!"

"I'll roshambo you for it," Keni said with a knowing grin.

"Ooohhh," several of the boys said at once.

"He's got you there," Matt said in his insufferably smug tone. "All in favor of not letting Donald sing?"

"Aye," said everyone at once as they began to walk in the direction of Donald's house.

"Hey!" Donald shouted. "I'm not that bad!"

"Not on the tone-deaf songs," Terry said. "You can get a turn during Smashing Pumpkins or Dave Mathew's Band."

The friendly bickering faded into the distance and Tammy realized she had not moved. "Tammy?" The voice caused her to turn and she saw Heather watching from a distance while Abigail approached.

"What?"

"Is there anything you want to tell me?" The gothic girl's eyes felt like twin portals to the abyss. Tammy felt herself being drawn forward and she forced herself to take a step away.

"No," Tammy declared as she shook her head. "What are you talking about?"

"You know," she said mysteriously. "It is part of who you have become and unlike anything you have ever known. Giving it up might ruin you ... yet you run from it."

What does she know? Does she know? What is she? "Don't try your tarot card bullshit on me, Gothy," Tammy sneered in self-defense. "I'm not telling you my innermost issues."

"You will in time," the girl said haughtily. "I believe you will wish to speak to me about your ... hunt."

Tammy broke out in a cold sweat. She did not want to give anything away but the girl simply gave her a little nod as if she had confirmed her deepest secrets.

"Hunting Heather may not be to your greatest advantage," Abigail said as something resembling a smile made its way onto her face. Tammy shivered but forced herself to not run away. "There is a party at Iota Phi Theta, this evening. Will you meet me there?"

Tammy found herself nodding but she did not speak. The spooky girl gave her a nod that resembled a bow and then turned to walk away. Heather was lingering in the background and she began to follow the smaller girl out of the graveyard. They walk like Master and Thrall, Tammy realized as she watched them. Soon she was alone and the creepy feeling of being watched grew to an extremely uncomfortable level.

When she caught up with Abigail, Tammy almost did not notice she was still talking to Mariana. The poor girl nearly bolted when Tammy arrived and Angela had to put one hand on her shoulder and shush her, like a frightened animal. "It's okay, Mariana," she said soothingly. "Tammy's my Big Bad Wolf and I won't let her hurt you."

Tammy froze, stared at the pair of them for a moment and then let out her breath. "Sorry."

"For what?" Angela prompted.

"Sorry ... I'm such a bitch sometimes," Tammy told the slight girl. "It's something I'm working on."

"Oh ... okay," Mariana said, her voice still tinged with her Spanish accent. "You just scary."

"Yeah, well ... that's usually the point," Tammy said with a slightly sheepish grin. "Monsters can't get me if I'm too scary to go after."

"It's all about body language," Angela said with a slightly too bright smile. "I was just telling Mariana that her body language is not going to let Terry ever go out with her."

"Does she even ..." Tammy began to ask but Angela's pointed look stopped her. She changed tactics. "Well ... why didn't you say yes? Terry obviously likes you. He wants to hang out with you so that he can flirt and maybe get you more comfortable being around him. I'm sure he wants to fffind common ground. So ... why did you say no?"

"I'm ... nervous in crowds," Mariana confessed as she continued looking at the ground.

Once again Tammy's senses told her something was not quite right about this girl. Focusing on her werewolf senses, Tammy took in the girl's shape, her scent, and her body language. Everything was just a little off. Her shape was too skinny, her body language was too reserved, and her scent was too muddled to get a reading on. Is this a cultural thing? Is she confusing me because she's from Mexico? Why can't I read her?

"Oh ... he just ... won't understand ..." That was all Mariana said. Tammy clenched her jaw in frustration but stayed silent as Angela talked to her in a low whisper. Patience was quickly running out but the two surfaced from their conversation in time.

"We're going to walk back to campus together," Angela announced and the three of them fell into a group together. Tammy knew better than to try and dissuade her pack-sister from this action but she also did not want to talk about her concerns in front of the normal girl. It took the better part of an hour for them to get into the lobby of Mariana's dorm and she insisted on going up alone. The werewolves waved goodbye and then Tammy turned to her pack mate.

"Something's up."

"I could tell," Angela said seriously.

"Abigail ... knows something," Tammy said carefully. "So does Heather."

"Do you think they know about us?" Angela asked but Tammy only shook her head.

"I don't know. Maybe ... she said something about us hunting Heather. Abigail said she wanted to meet at Iota Phi Theta."

"So ... we're going to a party to hunt for our third?" Angela asked, her grin turning positively feral.

"Don't get your fangs out yet," Tammy warned her. "I say we check it out. Only way to know for sure."

"Ooohhh, a mystery!" Angela squeaked as she did a little happy dance. "I can't wait!"