Dance of Moonlight

The door to Jacob’s apartment was thrown open and a man stepped in. He looked down on Jacob and Brett on the floor. He went over to them and knelt down beside Brett. He forced her twisting body onto her back and put his hands on either side of her face. His hands grew warm against her flesh and slowly the pain started to seep away from Brett. Her body stopped its violent motions and lay still against the floor. Her screams had faded and she looked up at the man with half focused eyes. He smiled down at her and then did the same thing with Jacob. As he moved around them glass crunched under his boots. He raised his eyebrows and headed back to Jacob’s bedroom and grabbed two blankets. He wrapped Brett in one and helped her to the couch and helped Jacob too.

Brett leaned back into the couch and rested her head against it. Her body ached from the pain that had just been running wild through her. She felt like throwing up, almost.

“Kristian?” Jacob said, his vision still blurry.

“It’s good to know that you can still remember me.” Kristian said with a grin. He sat down on the table in front of them and turned to Brett and extended his hand.

“Kristian Mali. It’s nice to meet you…”

“Brett Whitmore.” She said taking his hand and shaking it with a small smile. Kristian let her hand go and his grin faded.

“Alright, I can pretty much guess what you two were doing on the floor. What I want to know is why the two of you were screaming and why there is glass all over your floor?” He asked. Brett and Jacob exchanged glances.

“I’m not really sure,” Jacob said. “You know how I was supposed to use Brett to get the orb and scroll for…him.” Jacob really didn’t want to say his name or call him master, so ‘him’ would just have to work. Kristian nodded.

“Wait, how many people knew you were going to kidnap me?” Brett asked.

“Oh, not that many. You two of course, myself, him,” Kristian said ‘him’ with emphasis. “A few other wereanimals and pretty much everyone that he has told.”

“Great.” Brett said sarcastically.

“Anyway,” Jacob cut in. “The glass is all that’s remaining of the orb.” Kristian’s eyes widened and he stood up suddenly.

“Kristian sit down.” Jacob said.

“No. You broke the orb? Don’t you know how much trouble and shit you’re going to be in because of that? And he’ll think I was in on it since I was here!” Kristian’s eyes grew wider and he headed for the front door. Brett shot up and jumped across the table and put her back against the door.

“No, we didn’t break it. It broke itself.” She told him.

“It broke itself? You know he’s not going to buy that, Jacob.”

“Please come sit back down, Kristian.” Brett said. He was about six-four and she had to crane her neck up to look him in the eyes. He clenched his teeth together before following her back to the couch. They took their seats again.

“Fine, how did it break itself?” He asked.

“Well, we were, doing what you guessed we were doing when it started to glow different colors. Then it let out some really annoying sound and then shattered.”

“If it broke, then where’s the information that’s carried in the colors?” Kristian asked looking from one to the other.

“Inside us, I suppose.” Brett said.

“What does that mean?”

“The colors, the yellow and gold went into Jacob and the red and orange went into me. The colors, the information as you put it, is inside the two of us.” Kristian let out a frustrated laugh.

“You two are probably going to die now. You know this right? He’ll skin you two alive to get that information.”

“He probably will by the way he sounds, but he won’t get it.” Brett said.

“How do you know? Do you get premonitions?” He said a little mockingly.

“No. But how can you get information out of someone if they don’t know what it is? I can’t tell you, or him for that matter what
I know because I don’t know what it is.” She told him.

“Me either. I know it’s there, I can feel it inside of me, but I don’t know what the information is. And if he wants it he can torture me. I won’t let him anywhere near Brett. Not after everything he has done to her through me. I won’t let him get his actual hands on her.”

“You won’t be able to stop him, Jacob. What Mathayus wants, Mathayus gets.”

“Don’t ever say that name out loud again! Not after this much magic has been used in one space. He’ll be able to reach through it and listen, or worse. And you know this.”

“I know. Sorry.” Kristian said. “It’s just that-” He stopped. The hair on the back of his neck, on all their necks rose. The air seemed to grow thick and chill. They looked around the room, trying to see something, anything.

“Jacob,” whispered a voice into his ear. Jacob shook from the sound of the voice.

“Kristian,” the voice whispered into his ear too.

“Brett,” again the voice whispered but this time, it was physical. Brett could feel something running up her arm to her neck. It felt like…like lips. She could feel someone’s breath against her skin. It was hot. She could feel teeth against her neck and the sharp pain as they bit down.

“What the hell!” she said covering her neck with her hand. Jacob looked at her and made her move her hand. There was a perfect imprint of teeth on her neck. And the teeth weren’t human looking either. They looked almost like a set of tiger’s teeth only smaller. He knew who had bitten her. Knew who was whispering in their ears.
Blood started to seep from the wound on her neck and Kristian sniffed the air.

“What type are you?” Brett asked him.

“Panther.”

“Blue, black or pink?” She asked with a half smile.

“Black.” She nodded at Kristian and her hand went up to the mark on her neck. It stung horribly. Brett didn’t know of a time when she had been bit so hard in her life.

“Kristian, you don’t think she could catch it, do you? I mean, he’s not really here.” Jacob said.

“What? Catch what?” Brett said.

“Lycanthropy.” Jacob said. “If you get scratched or bitten by a wereanimal then you have the chance of becoming what ever attacked you. There is more than just a chance really. You’re either made one or you die in the attack.”

“Which means, baby sister, that at the next full moon you could become like one of us.” Kristian said.

“Don’t call me baby sister. You’re not that much older than I am. And I will kill you both if I change into something with fur.” Her voice held a small thread of panic in it.

“Don’t kill us, Brett. Kill Mathayus.”

“Damn it, Kristian what did I tell you!” Jacob said angrily. Brett shrugged off what they were saying.

“But…he…isn’t here right now, right? I can’t become one since he didn’t actually bite me.” She said hoping for a good answer.

“He can make his presence known in a room, make it become something physical. Like he did just now. But I don’t know if
you can catch it like that even though he did really bite you and you’re bleeding.” The air in the room became cold enough that the three of them could see their breath.

“You two have been very bad. So very bad.” The voice whispered to them all. “I cannot let you live after failing me.” It said.

“We need to get out of the house. Now!” Kristian said. Jacob got up off the couch and helped Brett up. Kristian made the door first and threw it open.

“Hurry up you two! He’s not going to let this house stand much longer!” Jacob was behind him and he turned around. Brett was running back into the room.

“Brett!”

“The scroll, Jacob!” She ran back to the table and picked it up in her hand when the apartment started to shake. It shook so violently that she lost her balance and fell to the floor.

“Damn it!” Kristian yelled. Jacob ran back into the shaking room, and made his way to Brett. He dropped down to the floor and covered her body with his own. Kristian ran after and went to Brett’s other side and covered the rest of her. Over her head Kristian and Jacob shared a look. If they stayed in the house they weren’t going to live.

“Brett, we have to get out of the house now! Come on, get up!” Kristian said getting off her. She reached her hand out and brought him back down over top her. Her body started to get hot. It wasn’t hot enough to burn either of them, but it was pretty close. The house was shaking more violently and the walls started to split. All of them shoved their heads down towards the floor when the apartment building exploded. At the same moment it exploded, Brett reached out with her mind so she could feel every person in the apartments around them.