Secrets of the Night

Author: stargirl

Rated: PG13

Rating :

I went camping for a week with my parents and guess what? I was pulling out at least 4 to 6 pages a day! Star has been a very good girl this week and has brough a bunch of little goody chapters. ^_^ When I'm impulsed by reviewers or next week, I will post the next chapter. Whichever comes first (though you know which I'd prefer ^.~). Enjoy chapter three! --star

Chapter 3

"Uncle Marcus!" Serena's cry was broken, a despairing and fearful sound. "Uncle Marcus!"

The man before her just chuckled. Uncle Marcus—wherever he was—didn't respond.

Her shaky legs stepped backed when a pair of arms slipped around her and lugged her into the air as if she were a doll. She shrieked like a broken record.

The man who held her muttered. "Can I shut her up at least, Mike?" he barked to the one who found her.

Mike sighed and gave an annoyed nod.

Pierce grinned, turning the girl around as he set her on the ground and squatted. He cupped his hands over her tiny ones with a mockingly sweet smile. She was quiet, staring at him with wide eyes. "Now, you're going to be quiet for us, right? If not, I'm just going to have to break every one of these little fingers of yours."

Mike rolled his eyes at Pierce's antics.

Serena yelped and tore her hand from his. She whipped her gaze to Mike. "Where is Uncle Marcus?" she whimpered.

"_Uncle Marcus_ had to go away. But you can call me Uncle Mike."

Serena was shaking her head, slowly backing away from the two. She turned and ran.

Not worrying he nodded. "Val, grab her."

She barely disappeared in the darkness before a squeal sounded and Val walked up with her over his shoulder with choruses of "Let me down!"

He let himself enjoy a grim smile as they slipped out of the trees and off the grass. Jair drove up in the car with a grin turned to the slightly subdued girl in Val's grasp. Without a word, they herded her inside.

Serena clenched her trembling teeth, fingers curling around her teddy bear. The Mike person spoke to her from in front, but she ignored him and the rest of the drive was silent with only flashes of white light sliding over the interior of the car from streetlights.

Her mind accepted the creatures in the car far easier than an adult's would. Learning and observing the world around her, and yet still not having a grip on the reality that mankind had adapted. Still in the years where shadows seemed to move in her room and nightmares were something to be afraid of. Monsters being real was just another thing to be realized.

Did all adults know that these type of people existed? She wondered, her stomach queasy. Why had Mommy not told her? She had never had that impression. Her thoughts fiddled with images from fairy-tales with monsters. Didn't they eat little girls? She shrunk in her seat between the two men with a silent whimper.

And that was when the driver cried out and the car swerved off the road and barreled a tree on the edge of a small clearing. Serena's body shook as she stared widely into the shadowed car from her jabbing position from the feet area, the hand that wasn't clutching her bear grasped over the cushioned head rest of the passenger seat. Already, the occupants of the car had shot out of the car, alert eyes stretching across the field, through the trees, and down the road.

Serena crawled to the door and peaked out. A breeze touched her face, cool and inviting. Crickets serenaded lightly from the trees, hanging their soft harmonizing sound in the air. She sucked in a breath. The people—they weren't paying attention to the car. The fact laid odd within her but she stumbled out, partly crawling and partly running across the damp grass.

A shout rose from behind her and without even looking she knew they were after her. She gasped on a cry, her legs feeling like Jell-O still from the chaotic jumble in the car. They were going to catch her. She couldn't run, and they were so fast!

But then something resembling a dog swifted by her, only a glimpse in her vision. It stopped once it passed her, a threatening form that growled and bared its teeth

* * *

(A Little While Earlier)

Lita was agitated. She narrowed her eyes into the night that more resembled dawn with the moon glowing above. Cars had grown sparse. She lifted her stern chin and sniffed the air and then studied the lone tire tracks on the road before giving a nod.

She had first traced her brother to the park… an odd place to find him. There she found a dead man, his throat was unharmed—he was simply killed. But why? Then along with the scent of her brother and his friends, there was one she didn't recognize. And then on the road, their scent went faint and it took her longer to track.

But this was it. They went this way. There were no turns for a long time on this road.

And it was time to catch up.

She lifted her head, long neck showing. And with a snapping thought in her mind, as effective as a switch, her body began to change. It rippled, fur growing on her skin like a plague as her clothes melted away and she shrunk to the ground. Her bones shrank and transformed and she lost herself to the refreshing sensation of their cracking and moving. At the end, she shook her head and back, fur jiggling like a dog's after a bath. And she stood on four legs with large paws that hid retracting claws. A tail swished behind her and then she ran, paws digging into the dirt and grass and propelling her far as she followed the road.

This was the form she loved. As a wolf, her sense of smell strengthened to their fullest, sharp pointed ears sensitive to every sound of the forest. It was like breaking free from chains and finally being able to experience the world.

Even with her speed, it took long. A few miles at least. Finally her dog-ears perked, collecting the thumming sound of a car. She spurred on until she could see the rust-colored vehicle. She slowed, keeping along the trees and just in back of the car to prevent any notice of her.

Now that she found them, it was irritating that she wasn't sure what to do. Just follow them? See where they went? Or take action now?

Lita liked action. It thrived in her blood, made her mind race with the thrill and her body—wolf or human—feel victorious.

She grinned mentally and shot forward and then lunged at the car.

Without even a thought about the pain on impact, she felt like laughing as she slipped off the surface and landed in some shubbery. She laid there, panting as her tail swished. Her gleaming black eyes watched as the car swerved off the road and barreled into a tree.

Who's car was that again? Jair's or Val's? It'd be nice if it was Val's. She disliked him the most.

Mike and his three friends instantly slipped out of the car, eyes dilated and piercing through the silvery darkness. They were quiet, alert, and ready to kill.

She smirked inside, wondering if they knew it was her. Amusement vanished as she turned her nose to the trees. Someone else was in there, watching. Her curiosity though vanished as her front paws pushed her up, ears perked with an inaudible whine from her throat. Something small was scrambling out of the smashed car. A kid. A small girl with sunshine hair and some sort of stuffed animal clutched to her body as if it were her lifeline. What was her brother doing with a kid. She turned to him, eyes narrowed, barely able to contain a growl.

The girl was slipping away and Lita watched her and the others closely. They still hadn't noticed her. But then they did, and Lita took action. With a lunge and sweeping run she reached past the girl, standing in between the shocked kid and the four vampires. Her brown fur arched on her back, the growl in her throat now freely rumbling into the air.

Mike leveled a surprised and angered gaze to her. ‘Lita, what the hell do you think you are doing?' It was a snapping thought sent to her mind, crackling with his frustration.

She could have asked the same of him. She lowered her head, claws stretching into the dirt. It wasn't like her brother to kidnap children, or have anything to do with them. Neither him or his friends found any sport in it. Something wasn't right. But for now, she needed to protect the girl. As she looked at Mike, she couldn't see him as a brother. No feeling would conjure, just a numb sadness that was faint---faint enough to barely notice. Mike's teeth had elongated into fangs. He was only her stepbrother, though she had never really bothered with that fact before. He was a vampire and she a shapeshifter. She had loved him as a sister. And he had loved her too. Long ago, he had.

Yes, long ago. She charged at him.

Serena seemed to curl in on herself, sockless, sneakered feet planted to the ground. A firm thought grew in her mind that she would never fear wolves again.

The wolf was ferocious, but it was protecting her. With bewilderment, she was sure of that fact, and she held onto it in her tiny mind as hard as she held onto her teddy---Mr. Carrots. She hugged him tighter. Mom had tried to talk her out of naming it Mr. Carrots, after her previous stuffed animal that had been a rabbit, but she wouldn't listen.

Serena jumped at a yelp from the wolf as it was thrown by one of the monster-people. But it just lunged back and the chaotic fight with the four bad people continued. Four. Her brow creased in worry.

Vampires, these things were vampires. She finally remembered their name. The boy next door had dressed as a vampire for Halloween the previous year. She had made fun of his plastic teeth that kept falling from his mouth. She hadn't believed they were real then.

One of the vampires didn't get up from the ground—didn't move. The others ignored him. Curses from them and yelps from the wolf melded together as they blurred in her sight. Moving so fast. And then…

The wolf didn't get back up.

Her breathing locked, her impulse to go to it not carried out by her body. The green-eyed vampire was looking at her.

A whinnying sound came from Lita's throat. She could barely lift her head. Her brother was walking to the girl when she remembered. The revelation that she couldn't ponder earlier---that someone else was in the trees. Even as she recalled it, the person was there, in front of the trembling girl, with the grace only vampires seemed to possess. She recoiled in shock as much as her lame position would leave her.

The new arrival on the field stood calmly, unfazed at the three other vampires, but a burning in his eyes. Striking blue eyes that peeked through a shroud of ebony hair. He wore a sleek leather jacket. His face, though pale and beautiful like many vampire's, held an allure all if its own.

Lita's thoughts raged liked an animal set loose, more bewildered than the actions of her brother. It couldn't be. But it was him---protecting a human girl… Before that night, she never would have thought it possible. There were so many rumors and talk of him, too much for it all to be false, and too many knowing first hand. This man was far worse than any vampire. It defied all logic.

And so she just watched, unable to help with her aching wolf body and too stupefied to think.

Serena couldn't move from where she stood. She recognized that man. The one from the park! She had to bite her lip to quell the impulse to run to him.

His eyes were dangerous, holding a glint she hadn't seen before. He looked odd in the moonlight, less natural. Her breath sucked in with a sharp realization. Two pearly white teeth in delicate fangs protruded onto his lower lip.

She watched him with wide trusting eyes.

A smile suddenly filtered across his lips and his hand leveled with his chest, fingers moving in smooth motions as if he were caressing them together. He looked down to his hand with a grin. The three vampires looked down as well, all frozen and seeming as if they would beg if given the chance.

Serena's eyes stuck on the rose that was now in the smooth pale hands. A black rose with sharp thorns, the green drifting to red at the points. It crackled. She didn't know how, but it was as if lighting were dancing through the petals and around the stem, unharming his skin despite it seeming very capable of being lethal. And lethal it was.

One minute, all Serena could see was the rose within his hands, the next, a blur of motion and the sharp thorny stem of the rose lodged in the shoulder of the closest vampire who's breaths after a sharp cry went strangled. His body had jolted as if he had been shot with lightening.

And then the vampire's body collapsed. He didn't get back up. She doubted he ever would again.

She trembled as the deathly roses shot towards the other two, pounding into their flesh with the same reaction as the first. Death.

She felt cold. Scared. Worn. But grateful. The bad guys were gone.

The man from earlier didn't look at her, but slipped into the forest as silent as he had come. Mr. Carrots slipped from her fingers, the teddy bear sadly flopped in the wet grass as she went to the brown wolf laying on the ground. Its chest heaved with steady breaths, and it turned its dog-like head to he. There was red puddling in the silver-brown fur.

There was something about looking into the eyes of a wolf. Something disconcerting and alluring at the same time, filling her with a sense of awe. She hadn't seen many wolves in her short years---just the ones at the zoo. She had pressed her hands and nose against the bars and looked down into their habitat area with wide eyes. The wolves had captivated her… but looking at their eyes, she didn't feel the pull like she did now. It wasn't a connection with another, like this felt. Maybe it was because the wolves at the zoo hadn't returned her gaze, maybe because they weren't that close. But inside she knew that wasn't it.

When she reached out to pet its head, a wash of bright light slid over her form from the road. Tires screeched to a halt and she recognized the light as headlights of a car. She watched widely from where she sat as a middle aged couple scurried out. The woman's arms were lifted, heeled feet demure but fretting as she made her way down the small slope. "Oh dear, oh dear…" was murmured under her breaths. Then she called, "Are you all right?"

The thin man with a glasses set on a beaky noise was inspecting the car. "Sam," the woman called. "Sam, call the ambulance!"

The woman made a move towards Serena when she recoiled with a strangled gasp. "Sam, get over her quick!" She was eyeing the wolf with a horrified expression. "Honey," she turned to Serena with a coaxing voice, "honey, come here. Slowly." She waved her hands to beckon as if Serena were a cat or dog.

"But it's hurt," Serena retorted.

"I can see that, dear, but it's dangerous. Please come over here." The woman's eyes were terrified. Serena couldn't understand it. The bad people were gone.

She looked awfully worried though. Serena cast an apologetic glance to the wolf and reluctantly stood up and crept towards the woman who kept urging her forward.

The woman instantly whisked her onto the road and fretted over her while the tall man with the beaky nose shone a flashlight on the wolf while talking on a cell phone. Serena wanted to protest, but the woman's hand stayed firmly on her shoulders. She wasn't sure how much she liked these people anymore. If that man poked the wolf with a stick she would blow a fit. But her mouth stayed shut, and her feet firmly in place.

There was a commotion from the couple when they came across the bodies in the field. The woman looked as if she wanted to throw-up. Her thin red lips were tight, eyes strained as she tried to keep Serena from looking. She acted as if Serena hadn't already seen the bodies, let alone witnessed their demise into that motionless form. But Serena kept quiet and let the woman try and keep her vision away.

"Is the wolf still there?" the woman asked.

Serena glimpsed the flashlight swinging over the grass and the man answer, "Yes."

Her obedience of the two people wavered at the need to go and comfort the wolf. She looked at the woman with pleading eyes, but the woman wasn't paying attention to her. Then she heard loud whooping sounds---sirens. And then she saw the flashing lights as the vehicles headed towards them like a parade. The man with the beaky nose waved to them.

Her eyes squinted at the painful bright lights and noise. Shouts and instructions could be heard as men piled around the area. Bright white lights flooded the grass clearing. On the crushed car. And on the bodies.

It was then that Serena realized that they looked like ordinary teens. A rough gang, but still human teens. There were no pearly pointing teeth that she could see as she inspected their still faces from where the woman kept her on the road. With some of their eyes sickeningly open, she saw nothing odd about their eyes, eyes that she would have sworn were like an animal's, the colored and black parts taking over most of the white. Men were over their bodies, feeling their wrists and examining their faces. She could have told them that they were dead if they had asked. Right now though, she wanted to tell them that they were monsters. But they didn't ask, and the words lodged in her throat as the woman's arms rested on her shoulders.

So she watched. They were shaking their heads at the scene, grimaces directed at the hurting wolf. And then she knew what they were thinking. Her eyes widened in alarm. They were putting tape around the wolf's mouth and moving it into a large carrier. They hefted into a van. She yelped, ducking away from the woman and ignoring her calls.

A bad feeling was in Serena's stomach. Strong hands gripped her from all around even as she thrashed to get out. She stopped short. The doors to the van shut, cutting off her sight of the wolf, and the van started down the road. "No!" she shouted. They had it all wrong. These people had it all wrong.

The woman squatted down before her, the men's grips still holding. She was making soothing noises, trying to calm Serena down. Serena looked her in the eyes, the blue depths showing her desperation. "What are they going to do with him?" she asked.

The woman shook her head, as if unable to understand Serena's actions. "Everything will be okay, honey. These people know what they are doing." The woman soothed down Serena's blonde hair.

Serena didn't respond. Her lips stayed stubbornly pursed, eyes alert and yet dull. And that's how she stayed as the people around her brought a blanket around her and hoisted her into an ambulance. Only one thought slipped through her mind in her silence. They had it all wrong.

In the surrounding trees, a set of cool eyes watched as the ambulances and other vehicles pulled away. Slowly, the stragglers of the crew that seemed set to hover their lives away on the field, dispatched, and the area was quiet. He stepped into the clearing, a cool breeze on his face. He crouched and rose with something in his hands. A teddy bear.

* * *

It was too cold. The air-condition seemed on overdrive, and her skin numbed with the coldness. She swung her bare legs over the chair once. Only once. More then that would be a happy gesture, like a dog wagging its tail.

Her arms wrapped around herself, a fighting retaliation to not having Mr. Carrots. She looked to the gray carpeted floor and then to the walls of the room. They were filled with happy pictures. A smiley face, flowers, a girl holding a kitten, colorful abstractions.

When the pudgy man behind the gleaming desk shifted, she looked towards him. Her gaze locked on a plastic smiley face ball on the end of a spring that stood on his desk. The man had a teddy-bear face, but she didn't want to be here. And he was supposed to make her talk.

Her mom looked at him with rapt attention from the chair next to her.

The man shuffled papers on his desks before looking at Serena with a gentle smile. "I hear that you have been through quite the ordeal, Serena."

She nodded numbly.

"Your Uncle Marcus was found dead in the park," he said, a bit more serious. "How do you feel about that?"

Tears stung her eyes and her throat constricted. The man sighed at her silence, and she was only vaguely aware of him asking her mother to leave the room and the tired woman doing so.

"Do you recognize this, Serena?" the man asked and she turned her gaze to him, her brow furrowing at what he held up. A sheet of paper with crayon drawings---_her_ crayon drawings. One was done in gray and brown, forming a body, a front leg and back leg, distorted head, and vibrantly scribbled tail---black zigzags made sharp teeth. Another had a peach circle under a mop of hair colored in with a face. She had colored in the eyes completely black, and drew two small triangles hanging down from the line of a mouth.

"Why do you have it?" she asked.

He set down the paper. "You're mother gave it to me. She was a bit upset by it."

Serena's brow drew together. She didn't want it to upset anyone.

The man leaned back, a hand tapping a pencil on his desk as he watched her. "Do you understand what happened the other night?"

"I think so…"

"Will you tell me?"

She was quiet and he leaned forward. "How about I tell you what I think happened… and you can tell me if I am right?" He didn't wait for an answer. "I think… that when you were in the park, those teens came up to you." Dr. Lockner paused and after a moment she nodded. "And they killed your uncle."

Her lip trembled, but she nodded.

"Did you see it happen?"

She shook her head and mumbled, "He told me to run."

Dr. Lockner nodded. "Yes. But then those teens caught you and kidnapped you." She didn't nod this time, but he took it as a yes and continued. "A wolf was in the road and the car crashed. Those boys got out and the wolf attacked them." He ended slowly, watching her carefully.

She was looking at him now, but her voice was still soft. "It was protecting me." The teddy-bear faced man didn't theorize aloud that the wolf had killed the boys---just attacked. And it had attacked them.

He put on an encouraging smile, but inside he sighed… almost wistful. It would be nice to believe that things like that happened---that a wolf would protect a child. There were rare circumstances of course, but he couldn't believe that this was one. The wolf had merely attacked the boys and she had interpreted it as it protecting her from them. It was a miracle she was alive. Perhaps between the car hitting it and the boys' attempts to protect themselves from it, the wolf was maimed enough.

He stared at the simple drawings on the paper before him and once again lifted it to her. He pointed to the almost human figure with a cautious gaze. "Do you know what you drew here?"

She nodded.

"Why did you draw it?"

She only looked down. He thought she wasn't going to respond, but then she spoke. "'Cause that's what they were."

"Who?"

She lifted her chin a fraction though she still didn't meet his gaze. "Those boys." She wouldn't mention the man from the park. They would say he was in on it too. She couldn't let them think that.

Dr. Lockner nodded his head, beginning to make some notes. Another twenty minutes were spent, though nothing more accomplished. His gentle proddings were only answered in silence or short words and he wouldn't push any further. Besides, he didn't feel it was necessary. A smile stretched on his face as he stood and leaned down with his hand outstretched to her. "Well Serena, it was very nice to meet you."

A reluctant smile crossed her face for a moment while she shook his hand, though it didn't reach her clouded young eyes.

He smiled as she scrambled to the waiting area when he opened the door, idly fiddling with the games and toys there. Mrs. Talen stood before him in the hallway, hands fidgeting as her eyes looked at him with worry. A look he was far used to by parents. He gave her a reassuring smile. "Everything will be fine, Mrs. Talen."

She nodded, not speaking as if her throat were too tight.

"For the vampires… I'm concluding that she must have a great fear of them and since those boys I'm sure left a traumatic impact, that she associates them in those forms. I don't think it's anything to worry about."

"Okay," she said with a wobbly smile. "Thank you, Doctor."

"Of course. How are you fairing with all this?"

Her eyes rolled on an exasperated sigh. "I feel like a wreck. When I think of what she went through." She shut her eyes tightly. "Her uncle was very dear to both of us. I'm almost thankful to that wolf for causing that car crash to stop those boys—I… I don't know if I would have seen her again if not. But when I think of how it killed them…" She took in a shuddering breath. "I'm scared stiff of wolves now, even dogs that resemble wolves. But God, I still can't get over it. She's almost obsessed with wolves now. She loves them. If that had been me…"

Dr. Lockner nodded. "Yes, she believes it was protecting her. Her actions are understandable. She's too young to realize and I wouldn't want to force to acknowledge it." They both started walking to the front. "The wolf has been put to sleep by now, I'm sure."

The girl in the waiting room obviously heard him. She shot right up and gave him her attention more then she had the entire time she was with him. "Is it okay? Is it awake? Can I go see it?" she bombarded them with questions. Her mother wouldn't tell her what happened to the wolf. But the man said they put it to sleep. That didn't sound too bad.

Dr. Lockner's gaze skittered to the girl's mother who seemed at a loss.

Irene looked at her daughter, trying to push away her helplessness. She wouldn't explain what being put to sleep was. It wasn't needed. "Serena… the wolf got away."

Joy spread across her daughter's face, her cheeks dimpling. For the first time, she seemed happy since the incident. Despite Irene's horror at first hearing the news of how the wolf had surprised them by leaping out of the truck and oddly disappearing into a crowd of people—no screams to be heard, she was grateful.

* * *

Kia watched the six-year-old blonde that scrambled out of the building and into the car with a clear gaze, her mouth a thin line. But her ice-blue eyes seemed to laugh. A breeze carried through the peaceful setting, ruffling her silver hair. Sooty lashes drooped over her eyes as she turned, slipping a grape into her mouth and crushing it between her teeth, rolling around the sweet liquid.

The wild grin that Mike had admired so much stretched across her face.