As she drove away from her Grandpa's cabin, an anxious fluttering settled into her gut like she left something very important undone. Stopping on the narrow road leading away from the cabin she almost turned back to check everything once more, but she shook her head and drove on. After all, she had already checked the entire property three times before she was satisfied that it was all in her mind. She thought she should be thankful for something being in her blank mind, even neurotic thoughts.

The urge to look over her shoulder nagged her until she turned off the narrow private road onto the paved public street.

She never saw the tall, dark-haired soul watching her from the lengthening shadows of the tall pines bordering the road.

The trip home proved to be almost unbearable with the sounds of the pa.s.sing vehicles amplified in her ears and the drone of her own truck grating on her nerves. The stench of her Blazer's exhaust and many engine fluids sought out her nostrils until she thought she could taste it as well as smell it. Such a miserable drive. The pounding of her heart kept perfect rhythm with the throbbing of her headache and she couldn't get enough to drink. Joanna poured can after can of soda down her throat and soon she had to pull over to relieve herself. All that liquid had to go somewhere so she kept an eye out for a place to pull over.

The rest stop loomed before her, dark and deserted. Not another soul in the section designed for cars. Farther to the back, secluded by a patch of woods, the hum of diesel engines droned through the night as the truckers caught up on a few hours sleep.

Something didn't sit well with her but she needed to pee so she ignored her sense of foreboding and got out of the Blazer.

Eyes upon her, she felt it. Joanna picked up her pace and raced to the bathroom. Nothing out of the ordinary inside the restroom.

She left the building, alert to her surroundings, and on the walk back to her truck the danger she sensed earlier seemed to have vanished.

From the woods, she watched the chosen one as she got back in her vehicle and left the park, then she growled deep in her chest and finished feasting on the bad man who meant to do harm to Colin's woman before she even had a chance to fulfill her destiny.

The thug's blood made her stronger, but she needed more. Her mind cleared by the moment and very soon she could manage leaving the woods and entering mainstream life once more. She stretched her arms high over head and stood, ah ... such a long time since she walked the earth on only two feet. * * * *

On autopilot, Joanna drove the remaining miles home. The joy she should feel upon arrival evaporated when she turned into her driveway and her dark, uninviting mobile home exploded into view. As appealing as a coffin, a large rectangular metal box on wheels, and she lived in it. After toting the animals into her dismal home, she left the rest of her belongings in the Blazer and went directly to bed. At least that way she didn't have to think about anything.

Sleep overtook her as soon as her head hit the pillow, but dreams upset her rest throughout the night. She awakened with a start, the dream hovering right on the edge of her consciousness, tormenting her with its closeness and yet remaining elusive, just beyond her grasp.

Colin knew he should not be there, and yet he stayed, watching as she tossed and turned in her fitful sleep. It pained him to see her turmoil, for he knew the cause even though she did not. Playing the phantom in her bedroom was foolish, but he was drawn to her like a mouse to the cheese in a mousetrap. A subtle difference in her breathing alerted him and he fled the room. Before he left her home, he placed all the money from his money clip on her kitchen counter, under the cat food bag. Then he crept through the shrubbery outside her window and gazed in at her sleeping form. Oh but his soul ached so to leave her. With heart in hand, he sped away, visible to human eyes only as a streak of light.

Immersed in his own thoughts, he flew along the old ghost road almost sailing right past Ben as he waved from the side of the road.

"Colin!"

He circled back to see what mischief his pupil got into this time.

"What ever are you doing out here, Ben?" What a wicked grin he displayed.

"You want to play ghost? This is, as you know, the Saratoga ghost road."

"Would you care to get to the point some time this century?"

Ben knew just the thing to brighten his creator's black mood.

"Are you thirsty, Creator? Wouldn't you like to have fresh blood instead of the refrigerated stuff?"

"Are you offering me your immortal neck? It is about time that I be your pain in the neck as opposed to you being mine."

He almost smiled when Ben gulped and stepped back in shock. He would never learn to gauge the seriousness of his creator's tone.

"No, no, look to the road. See the car headlights just turning on the road? It's a group of young ghost hunters on their way to walk the road. I overheard them daring each other in town. There are four teenaged girls in that car, Colin. All yours for the taking.

They'll never know what bit them."

A sly smile did touch Colin's solemn face at Ben's eagerness to please him. The car approached and they melted into the woods.

The girls hid their nervousness from each other with casual comments. "Do y'all see anything? Turn out the lights, Jody."

"Did anybody bring a flashlight?"

"This is a bunch of s.h.i.t. There ain't no ghost out here."

"Come on you chicken s.h.i.ts, I brought a flashlight. Let's get outta the car and walk. It's the only way the ghosts'll show up." The girls emerged from the car and pushed the doors closed.

Arranging themselves in a tight group, they started walking down the eerie dark road. No one said a word and the only sounds to be heard were the crickets chirping and their own shallow breathing. Jody stopped in her tracks, pointing to the road ahead.

"Look..."

Moving at a rapid pace down the center of the road came an ethereal sphere of light, glowing with a phosph.o.r.escent l.u.s.ter. As it grew near, the teenagers lost their composure and scampered into the trees lining the road.

"Oh s.h.i.t, oh s.h.i.t, oh..."

"Shut up dammit! Do you want it to hear you?"

The luminous apparition hovered for a moment adjacent to the group of breathless teens then continued down the desolate road.

They breathed a collective sigh of relief as it disappeared from view.

"Tammy, turn on the flashlight ... Tammy? Tammy, where are you?" She didn't answer. She didn't want to answer. She would do anything the deep melodic voice told her to do. Moist lips brushed her skin sending p.r.i.c.kles of sensation coursing through her body. A stabbing pain on the back of her neck and shoulder followed, but vanished as rapturous languor washed over her. His whisper in her ear soothed like the fondest words of love.

"You will remember nothing of this experience. Go get in the car, now."

Like an automaton, she rose from the ground and stepped out of the trees, past her friends and into the road towards the car.

Enthralled by the handsome young man that appeared out of thin air before them, the remaining three teens paid no heed as Tammy shuffled around them.

Ben smiled wide, knowing they could see his fangs gleaming in the feeble starlight. Nervous, her knees shaking, the taller of the three stepped forward.

"Are you a ghost?"

He chuckled, and stretched out his arm to her. "Here, take my hand ... don't be afraid."

Staring at his open hand she hesitated, then reached for him, just touching his fingers. In a flash he clasped her shaking hand and held her, pulling her closer and closer into an embrace against his very real body.

Colin held the other two girls in check with a hand on their shoulders. With gentle but unrelenting power he pushed them to the ground.

"Relax ladies, your turn is yet to come."

The taillights on the teen's car disappeared around the corner and Ben smacked his lips.

"I wish that it could be like that all the time." His features crumpled into a somber frown.

"No more than I, Ben ... no more than I."

Examining Ben's face, Colin wondered what could give a carefree soul such a troubled expression.

"Do you ever regret your transformation, my young one?"

At first he appeared surprised, then he showed Colin a half-hearted grin.

"Not for a minute. I have never grieved for my human life. You know I wouldn't have lived another six months when you found me anyway."

"I must be forthright with you, Ben. I pray that my honesty does not hurt you, but I drank from you just to quench my thirst. I did not expect you to live through the change."

Ben grabbed Colin's arm and stared into his melancholy face.

"But you still gave me the chance! You could've left me there drained, but you didn't. For that I am eternally grateful."

"What is it then that pains you?"

Looking away, Ben answered. "Nothing pains me, Creator." Meeting his maker's eyes again he felt his heart wrench.

"It is your agony that I feel, Colin. You grieve for the loss of your chosen one and I feel your sorrow too."

"You should not share the burden of my anguish." Colin touched Ben's handsome face with feather light strokes as if he could take that feeling away with a touch of his fingers.

"Let us return to the cabin now. Can you bear a game of chess?"

Her head pounded as she raced toward the noisy city. Too many thoughts tried to sneak their way into her tired brain, pounding, pounding, at her consciousness with relentless tenacity. After a while she had to stop and catch her breath. Pressing her forehead with the tips of the first three fingers on both thin hands she tried to staunch the flow of thoughts. Now she remembered the main reason she chose to leave this life behind.

Linnea cringed in the doorway of a deserted quickie mart. The putrid odor of rotting food emanating from the dented cans at the curb tickled her nostrils and she felt for a moment like she would heave. She had not thrown up in over a century, but yet the tight feeling in her throat and queasiness was there as real as the fingers still pressing on her forehead. She hated the city. She would only do this for her favorite, her Colin.

As she thought back on when she last saw him, the pounding in her head eased and the voices dimmed, almost unheard. He did it ... He brought his chosen one to him and she would not allow him to fail. Linnea grew weary of being hunted and the only female of her kind. She came out of her form of hibernation just for Colin. She could endure the torture of 'being aware' for her beloved child. The risks he faced, that they both faced, were high and she knew that he would indeed need her. It felt good to be needed.

Humans approached from her left and the heady aroma of their combined life forces replaced the stench of the garbage in her olfactory senses. Her fangs descended on their own volition. It surprised her at first. Such a long time since she shifted back into this world and after the initial shock it delighted her. Vestiges of her other form remained with her and she growled, low in her throat, the vibration rippling through her chest...

Nuh! Too many for her to take one without notice so she fell back into the shadows and let them pa.s.s her by. Forcing her breath to slow, each draw and each release timed and precise, she calmed herself and closed her eyes as she melted into the shadows.

Her time as the wolf helped her gain composure that she never would have thought possible in this anthropomorphic form. The wolf practiced patience, or died of hunger. She waited, crouched and ready to spring, for her prey to come close enough for the kill. If she springs too soon, the quarry is alerted and she goes hungry for another day, another week.

As the wolf she had none of the problems she faced now. Even in this cruel world, animals had an easier life than humans did. In her human form she faced such complications! Forming relationships, craving power and wealth, bowing to authority, clothing ...

and she did not like it. She craved the uncomplicated world of the wolf. Her whole purpose then, to exist.

Linnea lifted her face to the wind, she sensed the coming storm, smelled it's wondrous clean scent as it approached. She waited for it, waited and then the rain fell. With a girlish giggle she stepped into the rain and lifted her face towards the sky. Drenched, the water dripped from her hair and plastered the stolen shirt to her human form. Oh how she loved the summer rain. Every nuance of the storm pleased her ... the deep rumble of thunder, the flash of brilliant light as lightning streaked across the sky and the steady beat of the rain. In the wild, rainfall was a song, best listened to from the safety of her den but it was also a lifesaver. The precious water meant the difference between lying sunken and weak or running free through the woods, fully hydrated and bursting with vigor.

Her thirsts in this form differed. Water would not satiate this thirst that grew stronger with just the thought of the warm refreshment she needed. Linnea put her head back down and sniffed the air, searching with her eyes as well as her proficient sense of smell for the quarry she needed. Although not the week of the full moon, she was beyond that anyway, she still needed nourishment. Her normal menu of blood relatives might be difficult to find and she was simply too starved to be picky. Sensing no one stirring, she walked through the city in search of a lone human. It seemed the storm drove all the humans inside their shelters and her stomach growled. By concentrating on just her hunger, she kept her jumble of thoughts in order, almost as if she still maintained the wolf persona.

Moving deeper and deeper yet into the bowels of Houston, she found what she sought. A lone human trudged through the rain, kicking up water as he plodded along. His trousers hung low on his hips and she almost laughed at how ridiculous he looked with his underwear sticking so far out of his pants. Instead of laughing, she sighed as she watched the water wash over his dark skin, highlighting the muscles in his arms and broadcasting the smell of his blood to her greedy sinuses. Appearing at his side, she nudged him over to the alley between two tall buildings with no protests from him. She knew he felt no threat from her small female form and on the contrary, her attention excited him.

"Hey Baby." He flashed her a sly grin, his single gold tooth glistening in his mouth, a gauche status symbol that instead made him look rather foolish.

His dark eyes roamed down her lithe frame. She noticed the heat in his eyes as he saw that she had very little clothing on ... a large man's shirt soaked by the rain the only thing covering her naked human flesh. Although the shirt hung nearly to her knees it was almost transparent when wet, and it was indeed wet. She might as well have been nude.

She smiled back, stretched up and pushed his head to the side, touched his neck with her lips and pinned his arms down to his sides. He started to laugh, a nervous t.i.tter, but she cut off his sound when her fangs drove through the tender flesh on his throat. His laugh strangled into a soft grunt, then a sigh as he slid down the wall with Linnea still attached.

She meant to stop before she emptied him, but it had been too long for her. She drank and drank and drank until the human's heart stopped and even then she was reluctant to leave him. Moving down his lifeless body, she searched for more blood pooled in other parts of his body. His arms, his legs, his chest.... she bit and sucked and bit until he was an empty vessel, a dry husk that had moments before been human. Only then did she gather herself and leave him behind in the alley. Unfortunately for the lone members of the city, she wanted more.

Fourteen

Early Monday morning Joanna drug her weary body in to work. Before she could even get the door unlocked her sense of smell convulsed as the familiar animal scents invaded her nasal pa.s.sages. The stench of various animal excrements reared up like an angry cobra and spat in her face. Fighting the rising bile in her throat, she entered the store and ran to flip on the ventilation system to air out the unpleasant odors. After turning on the air, she left the store and walked the mall waiting for the smells to disperse.

Her chest began to ache as she glanced in the little shops. She wondered if she had a heart problem, but this wasn't that sort of pain ... more like she left a piece of herself behind in each store and she experienced separation for those forgotten pieces. Her soul ached with emptiness beyond her understanding.

Returning to the store, she found the air much easier to breathe. Thank goodness for that efficient ventilation system. Cathy walked out of the office with her coffee cup in hand. Joanna saw her shocked expression.

"Oh my G.o.d, Jo! You're as pale as a ghost! You better sit your a.s.s down, now!" Joanna smiled at her friend's concern and shook her head.

"I feel fine, really I do." Cathy put down her coffee and moved closer, examining her face.

"You look like s.h.i.t."

"Why thank you, Cathy. And you look beautiful today too." She didn't even smile at Joanna's joke, but took her arm and felt her forehead for fever, her mouth drawn into a frown with worry for her friend.

"I think you should go see a doctor, Jo. Today."

Joanna snorted. "I told you I feel fine! I just didn't sleep too great last night that's all! I kept having these weird dreams, but only when I woke up I couldn't remember them. Know what I mean? Anyway, I can't afford to miss any work. Did Richard miss me?"

Cathy looked back at her as she rambled until she mentioned Richard, then her face blanched.

"What is it? Is he all right?"

"He's fine, Joanna."

"Then what the h.e.l.l is it?"

"I don't know how to tell you this." She squirmed, looking with obvious distress at Joanna's terror stricken face.

"It's hard to explain. He just changed one night like someone had flipped a switch in him. He didn't flirt with any of us anymore and he didn't mention your name, even when we did!"

Joanna squeezed her bottom lip between her thumb and forefinger until she felt the pain and let go before it burst and splattered blood in her friend's face.

"So where is he this morning? Aren't Mondays his days to open?"

Cathy dug a chocolate bar out of her pocket and unwrapped it shaking her hand at Joanna's disapproving expression.