Flash Fiction: Silver & Sunlight

From Mine, 13’s, and Ariel LeAnn’s Asylum Wolves Story.

Darien is the first vampire he’s ever seen. He had no idea they would be so beautiful. Daciana and Areynn had always warned him away from them, the clans in the city didn’t get along with wolves, after all.

But he couldn’t help it. He was curious.

Darien Taylor was by far the most beautiful man he had ever laid eyes on. He had long silver hair and pale greyish skin that made him look godlike. Faizeel supposed that was the point of vampires. To look pretty so they could entice their prey to come to them.

Werewolves were different. At least, in Faizeel’s experience. Instead of preying on people they generally preferred animals. Or at least he did when he was hunting. He hadn’t been a wolf long enough to consider humans prey just yet.

Hell, four months ago he was human himself. He wouldn’t want to be eaten by some giant hell beast. So he would stick to moose for now.

“Greetings,” a man’s voice said from beside him. It was low and filled with amusement.

Faizeel nearly jumped out of his skin. When had Darien gotten beside him?

“For a wolf you’re not very observant,” Darien said.

“Wh-what?” Faizeel stammered, completely caught off guard.

Darien rested his hand on the wall beside Faizeel’s face and leaned into him. His eyes were bright red with a hint of black around the iris. “What brings you out here, wolf?” Darien looked him up and down, gaze lingering on his throat a little too long.

“Isn’t your kind nocturnal?” His gaze flicked back up from Fai’s throat to meet his eyes. He bit his lip, a hint of fang poking out.

“I could say the same thing about your kind, bat.” Fai snarled.

Darien straightened up and flashed him an easy smile. “Bat!” He guffawed, almost taken aback. “I suppose I should have expected that.”

Faizeel narrowed his eyes at him and crossed his arms over his chest.

“I’ll let you in on a little secret though, wolf,” Darien said, exposing his fangs, “Vampires don’t actually turn into bats. Or, at least not all species of vampires. Most turn into mist or wind or something equally as useless. Teleporting would have been so much easier.” He looked wistful.

“There’s more than one species of vampire?” Faizeel asked.

Darien chuckled. “Of course. There are also multiple species of werewolves. Different species evolve in different ways.”

Faizeel hadn’t thought of it that way. Daciana and Areynn had told him there were other wolves out there that were different from them, but he just thought it had to do with what they ate. He never thought there could be an evolutionary thing.

“Your kind of werewolf is severely allergic to both silver and wolfsbane,” Darien continued, “There are species out there immune to both of those with a severe allergy to gold or even the sun depending.”

“I thought a sun allergy was a vampire thing.” Fai said.

Darien smirked at this. “I suppose that is an issue for some vampires, but.” he paused to gesture to the sun high in the sky, “Not all of them.” His gaze settled back on Fai before he continued in a low voice, “You have much to learn, pup.”

Faizeel felt goosebumps erupt on his skin. No one other than Daciana and Areynn had ever called him that before. Something about the way Darien said it made his stomach clench and head rise up in his cheeks.

“You should run along home now,” Darien said, flashing his fangs again, his eyes darting to Faizeel’s throat.

Faizeel’s heart pounded in his chest. Logically he knew he should leave. Vampires and werewolves didn’t mix. He had learned that from TV and books even before he was part of this world. Another part of him desperately wanted to know the feeling of Darien sinking his teeth deep into his neck and draining him dry.

“Do vampires have hypnosis?” Faizeel asked, biting the inside of his cheek, fighting against whatever urge Darien seemed to be pushing on him.

The vampire took in a deep breath, leaning closer. His lips brushed against the shell of Faizeel’s ear. He stroked his fingers over Fai’s arm from his elbow all the way down to his wrist and Fai shivered.

“You were mine the second you started watching me,” Darien whispered.

Flash Fiction: Stitches

From mine, 13’s, and Ariel LeAnn’s story asylum wolves. 

“If you don’t hold still it’s going to hurt worse,” Daciana barked.

Faizeel whimpered under her touch and flinched away when she pressed the needle into the skin of his arm. He had been cut by a silver blade infused with wolfsbane by one of the local wixen.

Daciana had warned him not to get too close to the magical folk. They could easily sense creatures like them and they were NOT friendly.

“Why is it not healing?” Faizeel asked with a yelp when she threaded the needle through his arm and finally began to sew up the wound. It was rare she would ever have to give any of her pack stitches. Mainly because it was only her and Areynn (before Fai) and Areynn wasn’t an idiot.

“Because wixen carry silver,” Daciana growled, “Like I warned you before. Normally silver wouldn’t do this much damage, but this one was particularly smart and infused her blade with wolfsbane.” She bit the suture off with her teeth, severing it from the needle.

“I warned you, Faizeel. I told you they were dangerous. You’re lucky you got back to the asylum before it started festering.” Daciana just barely resisted the urge to hit him.

“She didn’t seem so bad,” Fai argued.

Daciana rolled her eyes. Sometimes she regretted turning him. “I hope you’ve learned your lesson.”

Fai’s face flushed and he glanced at the mess of black sutures on his arm. “I don’t really understand,” he said, much to Daciana’s dismay, “I wasn’t even doing anything other than talking. She seemed lost, I wanted to help.”

Daciana’s hard expression softened and she patted Faizeel’s shoulder. “I know, pup,” she said, using hers and Areynn’s nickname for him. In many ways Faizeel was similar to a youngling. He was too trusting, not yet hardened by the world in the same ways she and Areynn were. It was frustrating, but also heartwarming in small doses.

Fai smiled weakly at her, leaning forward and nuzzling his face into her neck for a brief moment to show his gratitude.

Daciana froze. This was the first time he had expressed any sort of pack intimacy towards her. He had been with them such a short time there hadn’t really been any cause for it. She patted the back of his head. He was going to fit in just fine.

Short Stories: Moon Cycles

From mine and 13’s Asylum wolves werewolf-verse. 

Faizeel had never been so acutely aware of the moon before. He couldn’t stop staring at it, watching as it cycled through from full, to waning, to quarter, crescent, new. Each day he felt anticipation and excitement welling up inside of him. The closer he got to the next full moon, the more excitement he felt.

He stood by his bedroom window, leaning out into the pale moonlight where the waxing moon lit the dying grass of his uncle’s back garden. He felt exhilarated, a wave of excitement bubbling up inside of him and escaping as laughter.

On the day of the actual full moon, he felt euphoric; manic. He imagined his tan skin glittering in the sun and on more than one occasion he could have sworn his brown eyes flashed golden in the mirror. He felt stronger than he could ever remember feeling and more awake, more alert.

Faizeel had never really thought of himself as all that charming or attractive. He mostly kept to himself and he preferred to observe rather than socialize. Now he felt like he could do anything, talk to anyone. People smiled at him on the street, sometimes even blushing and looking away when he winked at them. He couldn’t remember any days ever being like this.

As the sun slipped down over the horizon, though, his alertness turned to something else. His skin felt tight, almost suffocating. His eyesight blurred and burned. The darker it got, the more visible the moon, the worse his symptoms became. He felt like he had waited an eternity for this moon, but now it was too much.

He withdrew into himself again, busying himself at work until his shift ended. It was still light outside when he walked out of the store and followed the familiar path home. He didn’t live far, a short trek through the woods. The path was illuminated by the moon, which hung fat and round in the sky. The sight of it was almost agony, the moonlight washing over him so brightly he could taste it.

He had barely stumbled into the woods, his skin on fire when he heard voices. He couldn’t make out what they were saying, but they sounded close.

He was hunched over a boulder sticking out from the ground, low groaning noises escaping his mouth. A long thick line of bloody spittle dripped from his mouth.

“The first one is always the worst.” a feminine voice said from somewhere beside him.

“It’ll be over soon,” a different voice said, she sounded louder, closer to his ear. He flinched.

Beneath his skin, his bones shifted and broke and he cried out in alarm.

“We would have been here sooner,” the first voice said, “but we had a hard time finding you, after…” He focussed on her words, trying to keep himself tethered to it. There was something about her that seemed so important.

“Also some nosy vampires we needed to evade,” the other voice said. Her tone was harsh, barking.

He had no idea what she was talking about. There was no such thing as vampires.

Fai bit his tongue to keep from screaming when his bones shifted again and he felt like he was growing. At some point he did start screaming, he thinks. Though it came out as more of a snarl, a growl, and eventually a loud eerie howl.

“Good,” the important feminine voice said, “you did good.”

Fai panted, tilting his head back and looking at the moon. He howled again, the same euphoria from earlier prickling on his skin, the fur on the back of his neck standing straight up.

This time two more howls joined his.