21. Training

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Friday, August 28th
Waning Gibbous Moon (Twenty-Seven Nights to Full Moon)

A high-pitched ringing woke me with a start. Tangled up in my blankets, I fought the cloth to sit up as quickly as possible, ready to battle my attacker. My heart was pounding in my eardrums and I even felt Tala stir from the adrenaline until I realized it was just my alarm. I sighed and turned it off, lying on my side as I stared at the glowing numbers that told me if I didn’t get up and get ready soon I’d be late for class.

I oozed out from underneath the warm and inviting sheets and went into the bathroom, which was thankfully empty. Stephanie was probably still asleep, if she’d come back to the dorm at all.

After my shower, I dressed and ate some cereal. The apartment seemed empty as I munched on my Fruit Loops and watched morning cartoons. I liked it that way. I wanted to stay there in the apartment and just be lazy all day, but I had to go to class. I would be missing too many because of my condition, so I needed to go to the ones I was able to go to.

As I rode my bike to class, I heard someone calling out my name from behind me. I turned to see Randall jogging to catch up with me. I stopped the bike and waited for him. “Hi,” I said as he caught up. I climbed off the bike and walked it as we talked.

“Good morning, how did you sleep?” He smiled, all perky like he’d had a few cups of coffee. He was carrying a few books, but other than that he didn’t have anything with him. Guys, they always packed so light for classes.

“Fine, keeping my door locked,” I joked weakly.

“Ready for some more training tonight?” Of course that’s what this was about. Training, always pack business.

“Sure,” I said, trying not to sound disappointed. A real date would have been more fun. After Lilith’s revelation, I didn’t feel much like playing with the supernatural. I just wanted to be a normal college student. Was that so hard?

“Okay, I’ll meet you outside your dorm after your last class, you get out at two today, right?”

“Yeah,” I said as I climbed back onto my bike and he went in the opposite direction. I was going to be late for class, but it didn’t really matter all that much. I could always sneak in the back of the room and the teacher would never know.

The day passed without incident. I barely paid attention in class as I mulled over the events of the past few days, took sparse notes, and stared into space most of the day. I didn’t want to be in class, stuck in the small box of a room, shifting around in an uncomfortable seat. My life was becoming too strange for this mundane stuff.

After my last class, a lab lecture for Biology that I paid zero attention to, I met Randall outside my dorm. I locked my bike up in the rack and walked with him to his truck. We drove out to his house as he told me what we were going to do. “We have until the next full moon to train. If there are any screw-ups then, it won’t be good.”

I thought about telling him about Lilith, what she had said and the offer she’d given me. It bothered me, because I already knew what he would say. He would tell me she was deceiving me, because of what she was. He would say she was lying just to get me to willingly put my life in her hands. He would say she was trying to kill me.

It was hard not knowing if I could trust her. She was, after all, a vampire, and if she was telling the truth about my werewolf origins, then she was a manipulative vampire. Could she truly help me if I agreed to her terms? Thinking back to the rough start to my training, I didn’t’ know if Randall’s training methods would work either. He was new at this, at least Lilith had some experience, or she claimed to.

When we got to his house, he led me into the woods, back to the clearing where this whole mess had seemed to start. I pressed my palms against the warm stone of the stage, the remnants of energy from the full moon night’s events still soaked into the rock.

“I brought you out here because this training has the potential to endanger others, so this is the best place to do it. I want to teach you something only Alphas have the ability to do. I told you when we first met that my parents looked so young because they were Alpha. All Alphas and only Alphas have the potential ability to completely change their human appearance. You just have to practice at it. This skill, as you can imagine, is immensely useful to help us move around and escape assassins, hunters, or whoever might want to try to kill us. Because of our power and positions, we’re often targeted for malicious reasons. The main reason why I want to teach you this skill though is because in order to do it, you have to use Tala’s power for yourself, but you can’t wake her. If you can do this, you’ll be one step closer to suppressing her.”

“So you want me to use her power to change my appearance?” Did he think I was ugly? I pushed the thought away. This was training, it didn’t mean anything.

“Don’t think of it as her power, but a shared power. She is a part of you.” He paused, “I want to show you something before you try to begin.” He stood in front of me and held up his right hand, the palm facing me. “Not only can you change your human appearance, but you can partially go into wolf form without completely changing. This can be a very useful weapon in a time of need.” I watched as his hand began to change before my eyes. His fingernails grew out into claws, long and sharp, dangerous-looking. Fur covered his hand, but stopped there. I looked at his face; his eyes had changed to yellow wolf eyes, which were staring at me intently.

“It’s important not to lose control. Concentrate on what you want to change and change it using your power you share with Tala. Then, change back.” As he spoke, the claws began to shrink, reverting back to normal, human fingernails, dull and normal. When he looked into my eyes again, they were still yellow, but fading back to their normal blue-grey.

“Your turn,” He grinned.

I glared at him, “It’s so easy for you.”

“I’m Alpha just like you,” He shrugged, “But I’m not nearly as powerful as you are. A power like yours is hard to control, which is why the others are so scared. Just try it, though. Try tapping Tala’s power without awakening her. We’re doing this in full daylight, so it will be harder for her to awaken.”

“I’ll try,” I sighed. Randall migrated back to the pile of rocks and sat down. I stood in the middle of the clearing and tried to mimic what Randall had done. I stood and concentrated on my arm. It was a strange feeling, trying to force a change, even a partial change. It was easy for Randall to say all these things, this wolf stuff seemed to come naturally to him, but it was as if he was leaving out a step, maybe not on purpose. He just didn’t know how to explain it to me in a way that I would be able to understand.

As I concentrated, I felt Tala stir. Oh? What’s this?

Training, I said to her in my mind. Go back to sleep.

How boring, She yawned, making me yawn as well. As I habitually brought my hand up to cover my mouth, I scratched myself with a too-long fingernail.

She giggled as I gasped in pain and surprise, That’s what you were trying to do, right? Or maybe this? I watched as my hand became a claw, then white fur began to flow down the length of my arm. I felt muscles grow and bulge. My teeth were growing slightly sharper and my other hand began to change as well.

“Selene,” Randall said worriedly. I looked up and he was right beside me, reaching out to grab my arm.

“Back off,” I growled. “If you touch me, it will probably get worse.”

“Control her, Selene. You must,” His eyes were yellow again; he seemed to be fighting at his own inner wolf.

Yeah Selene, control me. If you can! She laughed again as I doubled over in pain from trying to fight against her. Why did it always hurt more to fight?

“You thought the sunlight would make me weaker?” She said through my mouth to Randall. I felt her focus on him. She was doing what she’d done to the Pack on the full moon night. He was fighting, but she was forcing him to change. “It just makes it more painful when you fight against me, little Alpha,” She laughed through my sharp teeth.

I heard him gasp in pain as he gritted teeth that were growing sharper, a mouth that was elongating into a muzzle. His body was growing larger and more powerful.

“You call yourself Alpha?” She giggled at him through me.

Enough, Tala, I told her in my mind. I didn’t have control of my mouth. I fought against her with what little power I had of my own, trying to revert back to human form. I won’t let you hurt him anymore. I focused all my energy into just getting control of my body again.

“He’s too weak,” She snarled at me, but she knew I was slowing her down as I fought. She had to let go of her control over him to try harder to push me back down.

When she no longer had control over him, I choked out, “Run! Get away from-“ A wrenching pain in my back stopped me from saying more. Tala was more than angry. She was majorly pissed off. All she wanted was energy and power, be it violent or sexual, and I didn’t want her to get either.

Randall took the hint and ran when I told him to. He was a smart boy. I focused my power to keep her in place, to keep her from chasing, and when he was gone, Tala had no one left to torment, except me. Once he was far enough away, I stopped fighting her, but her power had begun to wane. The moon’s distance may not have weakened her as much as Randall thought it would, but it still had an effect on her that was for the worse. She finally gave up after some complaining and then went back to sleep, leaving me with torn clothing and a general soreness, like the aftereffects of a bad muscle cramp over my entire body. But I was human again, and that was the most important thing. I had also come to another realization. Randall was simply not strong enough to help me control Tala. The only other person I could rely on would have to be Lilith, even if she was a vampire.

Barefoot – Tala had somehow managed to destroy my shoes, probably on purpose – I walked in the direction Randall had gone, which was back towards his house. When I got there, he was curled up in a ball, shirtless, passed out on the couch in the living room. Too tired to wake him, I laid down on the other end of the couch and fell asleep as well.

Next Chapter
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A/N: I finally feel better and have time to work on Bitten! I'm reallyreallyreally sorry for the delay and I hope I didn't lose too many readers. To show how sorry I am about this, I am going to post four chapters this week. One a day till Thursday. I thought about originally just posting three, but you'll get a fourth as an apology/Christmas gift. If you don't celebrate Christmas, then it's a happy winter gift!

Tomorrow's chapter will be a little shorter than this one, but it's got some sexy action in it.

Enjoy! (If there's anyone left.)