Catrina Billowson

“What’s the price?” I asked again as I evaded Von’s lunge toward me. It was purely instinctual; I hadn’t planned on moving my feet. A chill worked its way up my spine. It’s like I didn’t know my own body anymore. Had becoming a Vampire changed me that much?

He skidded to a muddy stop and turned back around, half morphed into a Werewolf. A half-smile appeared on his elongated face.

He smiled, taking a hunched step toward me.

“It’s a price placed upon my head until I pass it along. Do you know why my eyes are this color?”

“No. And I don’t want to know,” I said, taking step back. “But nothing changed. Koby told me this story… this played out exactly how it was supposed to—”

“I’m a Seer, Catrina,” he said, returning to the apparently rhetorical question he’d asked. “I can see the past or the future at any given moment. And I can change them both—at a price.” He walked around me, as if to size me up. “And you are a Listener. You can dig into people’s brains and hear what they are thinking whenever you want to and hear whatever you want.” He chuckled darkly, licking Koby’s blood off of his teeth.

“Well, if I can do that, then why can’t I hear your thoughts?” I asked, backing up from his rancid breath.

“Ah! Because all Werewolves have the power to block Listeners out of their heads at their will. Only Werewolves have special abilities though.” He smiled at me with an evil grin. It made me uneasy. He started walking toward me, pushing me back farther into the woods. “Now why would a Vampire have special abilities, I wonder?”

“Maybe I’m just different. I haven’t even tasted any blood yet—and don’t really plan to, either—so maybe there are different rules for Vampires like me,” I said, more to myself than to him. However, something deep down was telling me that there’s something more to it, something I’m missing.

“Isn’t that a... Werewolf bite on your hand?” he asked, chuckling.

I lifted up the hand the wolf had bitten me on. It was still scabbing over, slower than a usual human’s wound would be, mostly from the slowing down of the organs in my body because I haven’t replenished the blood I lost.

He laughed, fire burning in his eyes. “So it is?”

I hid my hand behind my back and backed away as he stepped forward. “So it’s possible you’re both a Vampire and a Werewolf?” He smiled, curiosity filling his eyes. “Only three different Vampires or Werewolves survived the cross-process out of fifty-thousand and three tries. We even tried crossing Unicorns and Leprechauns, Vampires and Mermaids, Kelpies and Werewolves, even Fairies and Elves. Then we came across the two most powerful beings on the planet earth: the Werewolf, and the Vampire. We called their mesh the Verepire.”

“Who’s ‘we’?” I asked, still backing up, stalling.

“The scientists of the mythological world. One creature from each species is in it.”

“In what?” I said, feeling my back hit the tree behind me, stopping my backward motion. Koby should be safe and sound in the house by now. No need for stalling anymore.

“The Mythological Science Group.” He said dryly.

“So you’re saying I’m this Verepire creature, right?” I asked quickly as he took two more steps toward me.

“Yes.”

“And I’m like one in a million?” I said, going through Koby’s story in my head. He’s almost done getting stitched up.

“Actually, you’re one in two million fifty-thousand and three.” He took another step, closing the gap between us even more.

So precise, huh? I thought to myself. Let’s see how precise you are without your scientists!

“So we’re actually here, right?” I asked. “This isn’t a dream. This… is really happening.”

“Yes. We are.”

“Okay,” I smirked, and then dashed around the tree as he lunged at me and hit the trunk. I heard the loud THUMP and crrrrack! of bark as it connected with the tree. I took off to find the white mansion Koby should be at. It only took a few minutes to finally find it, Von Sought a hundred feet behind me. I ran up to the door and frantically knocked on it until Burton answered it. He opened the door, and immediately fell into a defensive stance.

“What do you want, blood-sucker?” he snarled between his teeth, his accent heavy.

“The young man that showed up earlier, I know him. I know what happened. I was brought here from—”

“Burton, who’s at the door now?” I heard a soft voice within the house draw near, her German accent just as strong as the man’s. Holly’s face appeared behind him, and also fell into a defensive crouch. I could hear Mr. Sought slowing down, chuckling to himself.

“What is a Vampire doing here?” she spat at her butler.

I pleaded, “Please—let me in! I can explain! There’s a Werewolf right behind me and—”

“Good. We should let him have his feast, then!” Burton said, and started to close the door with a disgusted face.

“No,” Holly said as she stopped the door with her hand. She looked at me like she’s seen me before, and like she’s known me for a long time, just like Von Sought did. “Let her in.”

“But Miss Holly—”

“I said, let her in.”

Burton relaxed a little bit, sighed, and let the door swing the rest of the way open, but I could tell he was still tense from having a Vampire in the room with them.

I leapt in. “Thank you! Thank you!” I said, on the verge of crying.

I was terrified that Mr. Sought was going to find me and rip me to shreds.

“What do you want?” Holly asked me.

I told her everything.

The whole story.

From the beginning.