• If it wasn’t for the fact that I was frozen in place, I would have run away. But instead; I screamed. And what had stopped my blood curdling scream were Melissa’s laugh and this wolf’s weird bark.

    Imagine the person, or should I say vampire, that your clinging to is cracking up laughing at you while some huge black wolf who’s making some hacking barking noises as your frighten screams slowly melt away to a quiet peep. That was me as I stared, first confused then angrily, at them both. Melissa was the first to come back from the dark side, trying to hide her laughter by coughing. I simply glared at Melissa until she finally pulled herself together and decided to grace me with a good excuse. “I’m sorry, really I am! ” – she paused to look at the wolf who was still making that hacking barking noise before looking at me – “But I just didn’t think you’d have such a strong reaction to Tony.” She said simply, a wide grin on her face as she pointed to the wolf. The wolf looked up at me, his golden yellow eyes showing just how intelligent he was and it was then I realized just how stupid I was. That hacking bark was his laughter, and I realize how true it was when he continued to laugh (though struggling not to).

    The damn thing had been laughing at me this whole time.

    I gritted my teeth with such intensity that I thought they would break. This wolf – Tony as she called him – was now grinning at me like he knew what I was thinking, like he knew he had made me a fool and it pissed me off. It didn’t help that I was partially in awe by him. I mean come on, he was beautiful! His fur was a lovely midnight black that graced his form and his golden eyes were like the light at the end of the road. He stood at, no less than, four feet tall and from nose to tail he must have been seven feet. He stared up at me, eye to eye; unafraid and totally different from what I heard wolves were suppose to be like from Animal Planet. His huge paws and claws owned the ground he stood on and his ears stood erect as his head sat high. He gave out an aura of total calm and authority.

    Stupid wolf making me jealous.

    But before I could even try to think of something to help regroup my hurt pride, I felt so pathetic for envying a canine; Tony did something that made me look like a deer in headlights. He spoke. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Jenessa. Sorry about growling at you before, I got a whiff of your scent and assumed it was an intruder. I smelled Melissa’s scent all the time and assume her scent was from earlier. And about calling me Tony, Actually” – I had, until this moment, searched around like an idiot for the voice only to realize it was Tony – “My name is Antonio and I’m her husband.” He said proudly, rubbing against Melissa like any dog would do loving to his owner.

    This.was.so.wrong.

    I wanted to run, but to where? I ran to Melissa thinking she would be my savior from Mr. evil-I-vhant-to-suck-your-vlood! and Mr. wanna-pretend-to-be-all-innocent-but-I’m-not. Boy was I wrong. But what would I do? What could I do? Running wasn’t an option since, even if Melissa didn’t have those annoying vampire powers, Tony [my bad, Antonio] would snag me up easily and tear me to pieces. I was a trapped crispy nugget dinner. Ugh, this day can’t get any worse. Melissa eyed me for a moment, which I ignored until she cleared her throat as a hint to someone. Maybe me, but at the moment I was thinking about just how in the world I get myself into things kinds of things.

    Antonio stepped closer to me as my mind rant continued on with speeds that could make any race car driver envious. It took me a moment to realize he was just there, staring at me, before I looked at him too. He glanced back at Melissa who seemed to nod, before turning back to me and grinning at me. Well, actually, baring all his teeth to me, in what I assume, was supposed to be a friendly manner. I smiled sheepishly at him and before I knew it he grew. He was already a big wolf, and I didn’t think he would be waiting on a growth spurt any time soon, but what I meant was that his legs got longer. It was like he was turning into something.

    Or someone.

    The more he grew, the more he resembled a human man. I was both fascinated as I was frighten as I watched his black fur melt away into light caramel skin. His golden eyes slowly turned into warm brown ones with small almond shape as his snout turned into a human face. His hair was cut short but his eyebrows were slightly bushy. He had puffy lips, a cocky grin and a voice as smooth as velvet cake floating on a bed of roses. “Uh…sorry about this…” He said and I was in heaven. He blushed slightly, which only made him cuter. My infamous stupid grin slid onto my face before I could help myself. He looked slightly uncomfortable as Melissa spoke up. “Jenessa, dear. Tony needs to get dressed.” I scoffed, why would he need to get dressed? He was dressed perfectly fine in his…

    …Oh my monkey; I see only skin.

    And with that, Ladies and Gentleworms, I fainted.


    Yup, what could be more embarrassing? Not realizing your ogling someone else’s naked husband with a stupid grin on your face or fainting from the fact that you did?

    Quite frankly, I’m not sure.

    But as I was waking up from that embarrassing episode, my faced automatically lit on fire as the first thing my eyes met was big gold ones. I didn’t know where I was, or even why Antonio had changed back, but the urge to scream again was there. So I willed myself not to scream (and imagine my wonder at how well it worked; not even a peep!) as Antonio was pulled out of my face by Melissa.

    That girl was truly my savior on earth.

    Antonio whined, his eyes watching me still as Melissa practically threw him out the room and locked the door. For a moment it was silent, except for Antonio’s whines every now and then. “Good sweet man, but stubborn as a mule” Melissa muttered to herself before coming to my side and sitting down. “Sorry about earlier, I thought he was going to take a different… approach to telling you then just going all poof in your face.” She explained, her hands demonstrating vaguely Antonio’s change from wolf to man. “He’s sorry though. The main reason he won’t shut up now.” She said a tad bit too loudly for a certain someone to hear. But I ignored her tone, shaking my head politely since I couldn’t find my voice.

    I agreed that Antonio's method was best.

    Don’t get me wrong! I could have gone my whole life not seeing that sight maybe, but any other way and I might have excused it. If he had gone into the bushes a wolf and came out a man, I could say he was waiting there to whole time. I'm pretty damn stubborn, as I've said before. I wouldn’t have believed it unless I seen it; and boy did I see it.

    “So how about you get out of…those clothes and freshen up.” Melissa said, breaking me away from any visuals my mind might have came up with. I hopped up a little too readily, almost crashing towards the floor in the process and was saved, once again, by Melissa. Boy, what would I do without her? She examined me silently for a second, her face stone still before a deep set frown showed on her pretty face. “Where’d these bruises come from exactly…?” She asked softly, though her eyes harden the longer she stared at them.

    And I don’t know why but I started shaking.

    “Um…” I muttered, biting my lower lip nervous and acting like a child who knew which sibling broke the cookie jar but not wanting to rat on them. But soon I became pissed. Why was I protecting them? Of all people Markus? Had he not dragged me into this in the first place? Had he not literally dragged me by my hair to meet James? Or tried to attack and successfully scared to living bull dog out of me? Hell no, I will not succumb to Stockholm syndrome!

    I slowly stopped shaking, looking Melissa in the eye as I made sure I said his name loud and clear. “Markus. Markus is the one who kidnapped me in the first place. I ‘m not sure who put me in the dungeon, but judging by James’ shocked look at my condition he didn’t do it. ” I said, spilling the beans quickly, glad that this was off my chest. “Oh? Is that so?” Melissa said, her eyes hardening more and more the longer I spoke. But no matter how much she was scaring me now, I continued on; not able to stop myself. “Yes. When I woke up, I was chained my neck and when Markus came to get me, he dragged me by my hair into the living room. It was like he was ripping them out one by one. He even tried to attack me! Twice! Though I think he just wanted to scare me...” I rambled off, not paying attention to her or even how quiet it had gotten.

    But when I had noticed; Oh boy.

    Melissa was seething mad. I swear if she wanted to she could shoot fiery lasers beams from her eyes and burn half the planet with just an ounce of her fury. She was trembling with anger and though she tried to hide just how angry she was, it radiated off her in waves. We were both quietly staring at each other; me at her trembling hands and her at the bruises around my neck. “Jessie, come with me. I’ll show you to the bathroom so that you can use to freshen up.” She said coolly, getting up too swiftly for a human’s body (though I did try and almost fell over again). She walked quickly to the other side of the room, grabbing towels and soap from a small closet before handing them to me and practically shoving me into the bathroom. “When you’re done, feel free to borrow any clothes in this room. You won’t be bothered by Tony…he’ll be down stairs. I have to…go handle something for a second.” She said, showing me a kind smile that sent chills down my spine before shutting the door.

    Shakespeare was right; Hell has no fury like a woman scorned.

    Thanks to my big mouth, I’d caused some trouble and Markus will not be happy about this. Though I wonder; should I be scared as well?