I came to in a poorly lit room, on a hard bed. My heart was beating out a funny rhythm, thanks to the way it stopped earlier. It would take a while more to get it back on a regular beat, so I focused on breathing.

Propping myself on my elbows, I looked around the room, and was relieved to see Vince on a chair near the door, passed out, with his daggers held tight in his hands.

I concentrated on the sounds outside, it was so quiet. A barely audible heartbeat just outside the room betrayed the presence of another person. By the silence of the surroundings and serenity in the crisp air, I realized it must have been quite late, so it was quite unnerving to know Wann was standing guard.

I got out of bed on shaky legs and stumbled into Vince. The boy jumped, daggers ready for attack; both blades nicked my neck. Wide steely eyes met mine in surprised shock. He blew out a relieved sigh when he realized I was the one who was attacking him. He dropped the blades and squeezed me in a crushing hug.

“What the hell happened?” he demanded.

“Ever heard of a heart failure out of immense fear?”

“Your heart stopped?” he couldn’t believe his own words.

“Mhm. That’s how much he scares me, Vince,” I reluctantly admitted, while grasping at his back like to a lifeline.

He held me tighter and apologized for everything I had to go through, even though it wasn’t his fault. Wann entered and looked at both of us in disgust.

“Seriously, get a room.”

“We are in one,” I quipped.

“Tch.” Was all I got from him.

“Sooo, explain to me why I am still not chained to a table in some weird operating room?”

Vince let me go, helping me stand back up. I looked around some more, noting a couple of chairs, ad a table with three sets of first aid kits. The room had no windows, and quite frankly, was absolutely warped by holes between hastily nailed planks.

“I might have stabbed Albrecht’s hand...” Vince was avoiding my gaze.

“I co-convinced Vertig to keep you free,” Wann interjected.

“What? You? Aren’t you the one who wants me dead the most?”

“You can’t die, anyway. And I would not wish the things he did to you not even for my biggest enemy.”

“Aww, how sweet,” I deadpanned.

“Fey...”

“Though, Albrecht gave us an ultimatum,” Wann said, ignoring my taunts. “He’d allow us to carry on with the con as usual.”

“Well, isn’t that kind. But?”

“But if we do not win, he will get you as a com-compensation.”

“Fey is not a trophy, Argent.” Vince wanted to stand up, but thought against it, given the minimal space the small room had. In turn, he just glared at the other man, if you could call that helpless look a glare.

“I know, okay? I know.” Wann sighed deeper than even Vince could. “So you b-better do everything you can to win this thing, and you will be fine. God damn it, what the fuck am I doing?” he cursed under his breath but didn’t storm out the room in a rage. “A-anyway, stay here tonight. In the morning they will an-announce another task. Be ready. And please, deal with your anxiety.” He seemed so tired, but more like his brain was working overtime. If I didn’t know him, I’d have said he was somewhat reluctant to carry on with this whole thing and just wanted to go home and sleep for a week.

The development of the situation was better than I was anticipating, but still not ideal. It just made me more anxious.

Albrecht wasn’t a man easy to fool, he might have had some kind of a trick up his sleeve or a plan to sabotage us and our team just so he could claim me as a prize. I just knew it, there was no escaping the man. Only death would set me free, so it was only one way to get rid of his shadow hanging over my head – kill the damned guy. Last time I was too focused on escaping so he got to live.

Vince’s grip on me returned as he stood up. He smiled shyly and carried me back to the small bed, the both of us now lying on our side, face to face. I was lost for words; it still amazed me how strong this boy actually was, though I wasn’t the heaviest, it still made me wonder.

“So, you stabbed Albrecht?” I grinned at him.

“Yeah...” he admitted, hiding his face in my hair.

“How did that work out for you?”

“I got slapped by Vertig, but got to keep my position,” a sheepish smile graced his lips.

It surprised me how calm he was talking about it. Only then I noticed his lip bleeding a little. The blood had already dried, but the crack was still painfully obvious. I imagined it had to hurt with his jaw still healing after being broken, but he looked as if it was nothing. As long as I was safe…

“You idiot...”

He tightened his hold a bit more, and buried his face in the crook of my neck, breathing in deeply and releasing a shuddering breath. His skin was hot to the touch and I felt his whole body tensing and trembling due to the same tension.

“Hey, you okay?” I asked.

“Yeah… Just- With everything that’s happening, a bit excited- anxious maybe.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to win this shit. And then we can both go back home.”

“Home?” he asked, incredulous. “Fey, where is home? The academy?”

“Is it not? For you?”

Silence stretched a while.

“Not anymore, no.”

“Then we’ll somehow get that thing out of you, and find a new place to be,” I offered. To be honest, I liked the sound of that.

“Can you perform a surgery of the level of connecting blood vessels and nerves?”

I thought for a moment, “No, but I could learn. I’m good at learning,” I grinned. “It’s a good thing Vertig wants the trophy more than to get rid of me,” I chuckled. “Or I would think we would both be dissected right about now.”

“Why would they dissect me?”

“Out of spite?”

He let out a short laugh and a groan, as his jaw still hurt in light of sudden and large movements.

Vince dragged the blanket out of under our feet and draped it over the both of us. It was kind of unneeded since the guy was like a furnace, but I didn’t say anything and just snuggled up closer, stealing his body heat.

Morning came much too early and I was feeling anxious about what awaited. Even though I had the pleasure of basking in the daylight pretending I was completely fine with it, it wasn’t all that bad. I had all my attire on to hide me from cold and from the hateful man. Also, the clouds were in my favor since it was lightly snowing, but it couldn’t be considered snowing – one could barely feel it.

So I had nature on my side today, and in most winters, honestly, this was the only reason why I didn’t curse this damned season to hell and back. Winter was the only time when I could bask in the sunlight and wasn’t risking on burning my skin off.

Vince walked me to the dining hall and we got our breakfast. The whole crowd of people already there focused their stares at us. I mussed it was because of last night and the show the both of us put on. I learned quickly on how to ignore the attention, but Vince was doing a little bit worse, so I just patted his shoulder and pushed him towards our table.

The others were already sitting in their spots, expressions worried and sleep-deprived. We ate mostly in silence, occasional praise for the food drifting through. I couldn’t really tell if the food was good or not, I was too distracted by Albrecht giving me weird stares and murmuring sick threats so only I could hear them.

“-ey. Fey?” Vince looked disturbed.

“It’s- I’m fine,” I dismissed his worries. “Did you sleep in the base?” I asked the others.

“Yeah. That was the point of making one,” Rodd answered.

“Wasn’t it cold?” I scrunched up my nose in displeasure.

“It took us a bit to get used to, but it was okay,” Dark supplied.

“Can I die again so I don’t have to sleep under a pile of snow?” I mumbled.

“No, you cannot.” Vince glared at me. “Now, eat up, or you’ll be late for the announcement.”

I pursed my lips but continued to eat trying to ignore the obscenities that psycho was throwing at me over the room. He still scared me like nothing else could, but this time I had time, freedom of movement and a possible way out.

The stage was already prepared for the judges to sit and observe the whole thing. I wasn’t sure how that would work, because the area was enormous, but my biggest money was on the monitors, and the cameras surveying the whole plot.

Every one of the people up on the stage had thick winter coats on and warm steaming beverage filled mugs on the table.

Albrecht stood up and approached the mic. I noticed Vince standing at the bottom left side of the stage with other supervising instructors. He was muttering under his breath, so I could hear him, to make me stop forcing my heart into overdrive.

“Guten morgen,” the man started. “Did you hafe a good night’s sleep?” He drew his hands out of his coat pockets and I saw his right palm bandaged. Bloodstains were apparent and I smelled it – the mix of thick aroma with a tad of nothingness.

The crowd fell into a tidal murmur of ‘bullshit’ and ‘go fuck yourself’, so I guessed they weren’t rested either.

“Vell zen, visout furzer ado, let’s get to zee point of today’s task.”

One out of the group of instructors stepped on the stage carrying large cloths of varying colors. Albrecht thanked the man and pointed to the cloths in his hands.

“Zeese are sixteen flags for each team. You vill receife one of zese and you vill have to put it up somevere near your bases, vich you set up yesterday.”

A sound of grumbles waved through the crowd. No one wanted to reveal the place they were all stationed.

“Please, do not vorry. After today, the location of each camp vill not be of any importance. So, you vill set zese flags up. Since zee number of teams is even, each team vill get only one, I repeat, one opponent to retrieve zee flag from. Zee opponent vill be determined now, by draving lots. So if efery team leader would come up to zee stage and draw zee colored lots, vee could carry on with zee explanation.”

Wann moved up to draw our flag and the flag of our opponent. It seemed logical to go after only one other team, otherwise, it’d be difficult to actually understand what was happening during the retrieval.

“As I vas saying, you vill receive one opponent. Zee factor for your performance ist to get zee flag as fast as possible wizout losing your own. Also, zere vill only be one on one battles, zat ist why only first eight will draw two lots. To make it all fair, efery team will get a supervising instructor to arbiter zee matches. Now, vee vill sound a signal, ven efery team sets up zeir flag. And let zee battle begin!” he cheered.

Wann came back with a black flag in his grasp, in the other hand he held a pale blue colored piece of paper. It indicated our oponents for this match.

As we understood the factor of being able to hide our base was crucial for this day, we all spread in different directions, with me bearing the flag, since I was the fastest. I got back to our base and hung the flag in one of the pine trees a bit away from our encampment.

They did not specify the location of the flag, also if it should be easy to locate or not. To tell the truth, I really wanted to tie it up where it wouldn’t be visible at all, let them struggle, but I decided against it. The sooner this ended the better.

As I was getting down from the tree to wait for others, I felt a deep chill run through me. I blamed it on the weather and continued on my way. A minute later Wann and the others showed up, one after the other.

“We’ll have to split up,” started Wann. “Tear a piece of this paper. To know if the color is the same. I saw two other hues of blue. So just to be safe.”

“And, if we find it? Do we engage? Come back here and regroup?” Rodd asked.

“No,” I said. “We could use my speed, but I know that Wann has comms on him, don’t you?”

Just as I finished, Wann ducked into the base and returned with five earpieces with microphones. The gadget made everything ten times easier not just for me, but for others as well.

Without delay, we all put on the comms and tore a piece of the flag color off. I looked at the paper, tried sniffing it to catch any scent.

“Hey, Wann,” he looked at me irritated, “did anyone from the team with this flag touch this paper?”

“Yeah,” he answered, looking dubious. “The team leader. To compare the colors. Why?”

“Then I can locate it by scent,” I grinned. “Also, we should leave someone here to defend the flag.”

“Ugh, I forgot about that...” Wann was reluctant to admit but still did.

“I could stay on guard and just leave Castor with me, since Seb is a tracker,” Dark decided.

“Let’s do that. Everyone good with that?” Wann confirmed.

We nodded in tandem and dispersed at the drop of a hat. Before I could get too far, the sound noting the start of the competition blasted through the air.

I had a strategy to find the flag quickly, but it required stealth and accuracy, or I risked revealing myself to others. I ran back to the main stage, where the team leaders drew the lots and inhaled the air deeply into my lungs. The cacophony of smells was driving me nuts, but I managed to discern the smell I needed. I noticed the ten judges absent from the table on the stage, but opted to not pay too much attention to it.

“Jun here,” came her small voice through the earpiece. “We got an arbiter. It’s Vince. He said every team got their own instructors.”

“Copy that,” I said and bolted to the direction the hunter with the needed scent headed. “I located the scent, heading to the north of the stage.”

I got a confirmation from everyone and continued on. The scent took a sharp turn back to the south and I realized they were using the same method we did. That might have worked against Wann, since he had only a minuscule advantage of sense of smell, whereas I had a nose about fifteen times more sensitive to smells around than a regular one.

At the spot where he took a sharp turn, I took another deep breath and closed my eyes. The scent trail swirled around me as an object, showing me the whole path, twisting and turning. I was right, the track he left was a fake. His scent took a sharp turn, while his tracks were still heading steady.

Having finished memorizing the path the one I was trying to trail took, I opened my eyes and breathed out. I took another breath, closed my eyes and chased the scent.

“I found team red,” reported Miller, “No sight of team blue.”

“I’m heading up south, yet again. The trail twists, but I managed to get the idea. I’ll be there in five.”

“Heading north. From another side. Meet me there. Do not engage,” commanded Wann.

“O-kay,” I said and stopped abruptly in a thicket of bushes. “On the other hand. Dark, ask Vince if the arbiters are allowed to help the team defend.”

“Sure. Um, can you help us defend the flag?” she asked Vince and waited a beat before relaying the message. “He said, they can’t. But why?”

“I smelled Albrecht.”

The statement elicited a string of curses from Wann and a grunt from Miller. Dark gasped and relayed the message to Vince. I picked up the boy cursing loudly and trying to take the mic away from Dark to talk to me.

“It’s alright, if they can’t. I’ll deal with it somehow. I got this.” I was trying to convince myself, more than anyone.

I certainly did not get this. The scent of him alone made me jolt and stop in my tracks. I had to force my feet to move, unwillingly and heavily. I literally had to smack myself to get a move on.

I kept telling myself everything was fine, he could not hurt me, I was stronger than any of them. Strong, safe, invincible – I repeated the mantra as if it was something powerful enough to make me forget the fear. But the fear was not possible to get rid of. It was clutching at every crevice of my being. So all I could do was brave through it, with my legs shaking like leaves, but moving along nonetheless.

I reached the point where the smell was the strongest and I could finally see the flag, proudly flying at the top of a tall wooden pole, they made out of chopped off branches. The whole base was constructed out of an array of branches and snow. It was more like a shack and not a base. On the further end of their shack, I finally noticed the whole encampment. It was made out of the same materials as the dining hall. It was fortified with snow. Beside the main building, they had a fireplace kindled up to a big enough flame to emit warmth.

Albrecht was standing near the fire, outstretching his hands to the flame. I noticed one of the supervising instructors near the flag, talking with one of the team members. They were cautious, talking in hushed voices and trying to not stand too obviously in the open.

“I’m here,” I announced to the others.

“I’m here, too. Where are you?” Wann hissed.

I looked around the camp and tried to perk up more to see the tree line. I noticed Wann right in front of me, on the other side of the camp, hidden by shrubs.

“I see Fang,” Rodd said, and I heard double, with him right behind me.

“I see one member with the instructor,” affirmed Wann. “Can you see anyone else?”

I inhaled the air again, the cold temperature burning my nose and throat, smelling four strong scents at the camp. “I can’t see the other one, but I smell them.”

“I’ll go first. You two, get the flag,” Wann ordered.

“Dark, are we still clear?” I asked before attacking.

“No movement in sight. But hurry up, I’m afraid, we won’t be able to hold out without you.”

“Roger that.”

Wann got the signal and ran out of his hiding spot, turning their attention to himself. Everyone, but the damned man reacted to Wann. I moved, following Rodd out. I moved. I tried to ignore the impending fear and leaped right to the pole. Rodd was engaged in a fight with the other member of the team, the one who was hiding. And I had clear access to the flag.

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It wasn’t that easy, though. As I was right in front of the pole, with the other two distracted, Albrecht blocked my path and I froze. He grinned with that sick expression of contempt and some sick admiration and refused to move. I had to either expose myself by leaping humanly impossible heights or somehow deal with the fear and get to the flag through the man.

“They’re here,” I heard Dark panic when my legs started to move on their own.

Through gritted teeth and clenched fists, with my body all tensed up, I swerved past Albrecht and toppled the makeshift pole, retrieving the flag in the process.

“I got it. We won,” I huffed tying the flag around my arm so they wouldn’t be able to get it off me.

“They have the flag,” Miller announced, noting the opposing team back at our base.

As soon as the situation caught up to my brain, I tried to rush past the whole scene to get out of the close proximity of the man who made the moment a torture by simply being there. I could feel the panic attack closing in and I only had one thought in my head – run. Just run. As fast as possible, get away from the monster in the form of a man.

I just ran. I didn’t realize where I was running until the moment I crashed into a broad chest of the boy who gave me haven. The gentle smell of oranges enveloped my whole being and I forgot the fear of being chased by a lunatic of a man. Vince, in turn, hugged me closer to him and started whispering calming words to me, making me take deep breaths in and release all the tension I was holding in unknowingly.

“Good job, Fey,” the boy smiled down at me, and once again I really wanted to be angry at him for being this freaking tall, but I couldn’t.

“Thanks,” I grumbled out and burrowed my face back into his chest, trying to shut out everything around us.

“You escaped so fast. These Germans are s-suspicious of us,” Wann’s voice grumbled through the earpiece.

“We can deal with that later, I had no plans of staying and exchanging pleasantries with the crazy turd pie.”

I finally looked around, seeing the opposing team retreating with their tails between their legs. I really wanted to laugh at them, but Vince gave me that look which dared me to be rude. So I opted for talking business.

“So, now that we’re done with this shit, what do we have next?”

“Hmm, by the looks of it, now you can return to the dining hall and have some lunch, I suppose. The game won’t be ending that soon. Knowing, that the ones who came here were actually not your opponents.”

“Wait, what?” asked Miller. “What do you mean?”

“They found your flag, but it wasn’t the one they needed. Your opponents hadn’t even reached your base yet,” He said and waited to continue. “Not everyone has such splendid trackers on their team,” he beamed a smile at us all.

“So this is going to take a while? Can I stroll around?”

“You can’t,” was Wann’s order as he approached us. “One, you will get in the others’ way. Two, I would r-rather know where you are. So you cannot go and take a stroll,” his tone of voice left no space to argue, even if I just wanted to mess with him a bit, the speech he gave drove away all desire to be mischievous.

“But if I go back to the main stage, that man would be there. And I have no desire to be in close quarters with him.”

“It’ll be fine, Fey. I’ll be there to protect you.”

“You? Protect her?” Wann sneered. “You couldn’t even protect yourself, what can you do?”

“Should I remind you, that he stabbed the ass prick?”

“Because he was scared.”

“So what?”

“Hey,” Vince interrupted. “Can we please not discuss this right now? Shall we just go and eat and we’ll deal with what comes when it comes, okay?”

“Fine,” me and Wann answered in tandem, and neither of us liked it.

“Don’t act like little children,” complained Dark. “We’re all adults here. Some more than the others, so just act like it. Also, Vince is right, I am hungry and would love it if we could get a move on and get something warm.”

For some reason, no one dared argue with the small but fierce girl about food. From experience I could vouch, small creatures were dreadfully dangerous when angry, and they were mostly angry because of hunger.

I took out my earpiece and stuffed it in my coat pocket, because it was starting to hurt from the constant static noise, and turned to walk back to the main stage, where the food was. I asked where Rodd disappeared to, and Wann only grunted a displeased ‘eating’ and hastened his pace. I let him race us to the goal and slowly walked to the place as I was actually enjoying the rare sun ray escaping the blanket of thick clouds. Winter sun did not burn as any other season sun. It danced lightly on my reddened from cold skin and I loved the warmth with everything I had.

“As a Half you really enjoy sunlight,” noted Vince.

“Well, yeah. I hate cold. Because my blood is kind of to the cold side, I’m like a frog, if you may. And sunlight, sunlight is something else. I willingly died under it more times than I could care to count.”

“You’re a weirdo.”

“Look who’s talking,” I teased, and he laughed.

The dining hall was empty, safe for Wann and Rodd already eating something that smelled very much like a cooked rabbit. At the counter, my guess was confirmed and I loaded my plate with the savory meat and to the side some salad.

I felt relieved when Albrecht never came in, even though I smelled him wander around the building. He was probably observing the other teams. After a while, the team which lost to us also filled into the dining hall and gathered to get some food to lighten the sour mood of losing the battle. They stared daggers at us, but none of us seemed to be phased by it.

We stuck around our dining table until all other teams came rushing in to finally eat. The last team came back when it was way past nine. I would have never thought the simple game of retrieve the flag could be such a difficult feat to handle. I guessed, we had an unfair advantage, but the chairman of judges himself allowed this to be, so they really had no one to blame but themselves for being underprepared.

“Since it ist fery much cold outside at zee moment, I vill conduct today’s closure in here,” announced the host of the convention. “All teams shovved much effort and zeir good points, efery participant displayed a great array of skills for being a great hunter. Hovever, zere vere teams better zan osers and faster zan zee vast majority of you. The black team shovved astounding tracking abilities and hand to hand combat skills. I am much proud of zem,” Albrecht smiled at me.

“Do not get discouraged, my dear hunters, zere vill alvays kome a time vere you vill be faced viz a stronger, faster, smarter opponent and zus you should, from now on, vork on zee vay to hone your skills to perfektion, use any means necessary so zee next time you could proudly say you defeated your opponents and came bak wiz your heads held high.”

The man got so into his speech that everyone around us were clearly trying to hold in their yawns and nodding heads. They were not just hungry, but also tired and half of the people inside were disappointed in themselves for failing the game.

I had half a mind to throw my chair at the man who kept on talking and talking as if he was the center of the Universe and everything he said had any importance to any of us. I noticed some people sleeping, hidden by their less tired team members.

The whole situation made me so amused, I forgot the man drove me to death by his presence alone. I figured, if I could just win this by my own capabilities, the man wouldn’t have a chance to touch me again. Either way, I was still mortified by the fact he was close by and could at any time try and hurt me again.

It wasn’t the idea of getting hurt that scared me so, it was the fact he wanted to make more of me. Make more abominations only because he wanted to win a war humans had created by themselves, using the basis of supernaturals being too dangerous and trying to wage a war, which was complete and utter bullshit.

His speech lasted way past midnight and everyone was basically walking on fumes when he let up and bid all of us a goodnight.

Actually, I dreaded the moment we were all let out because I knew the inevitable was coming. I had to sleep outside. In the camp we made out of light materials and snow. With the other four people.

I was used to Wann and his overwhelming scent, but the others… I was concerned I wouldn’t be able to sleep a wink, and I was tired. I couldn’t really control myself when I was tired.

Either way, I had no way out, especially when Vertig basically ordered me to stay put and threatened me with bad things if I stepped out the stupid base. I was working on an idea of sleeping in the tree, but decided against it since it would be much colder than under the snow.

To my surprise, the base was warm and kind of cozy. My sleeping bag was still unwrapped and I got the spot by the entrance. I wanted to complain but realized no one was happy with the situation so I just sucked it up and went to sleep.

Sleeping without Vince was a nightmare. I kept seeing Albrecht and his cronies attempting to breed me, torture me and kill me. Nothing really worked, but it didn’t make it less traumatic. I kept waking up in cold sweat and panic every some minutes.

Disregarding Vertig’s warning, I left the base and made my way outside. The full moon was in full bloom, illuminating the forest, making the snow sparkle in that magical kind of way. I wondered if Vince was asleep and if I could get away with sneaking in his sleeping quarters.

I asked him earlier where he was sleeping, and it turned out he was sharing a similar construction like the dining hall with other supervising instructors and other guests. I had half a mind to call him outside, since the order of my voice would work on sleeping individuals too, but I didn’t need to do that as he came out on his own.

Though only his tall stature signed of the person being Vince, the scent was completely off. There was this distinct notion that I had smelled this exact scent before. Vince seemed to be completely ignorant of me and turned the other way, walking deeper into the woods. It concerned me, so I followed him without a sound.

He walked briskly, but his breathing was labored and there was an occasional growl escaping his throat. I never knew of humans growling like so.

He stopped abruptly and keeled over, crunching a tree branch with the sheer force of his grip.

“Vince?”

The unexpectedness of my voice near him forced the man into a rigid startled position of half crouching half ready for the escape.

At the bright, cloudless moonlit patch of leafless trees I saw a distorted face of a man screaming inside of pain, and agony, and fear. The face which always had given me a sort of a haven upon looking at now was corrupted by a sordid, vile and crumpled look of disgust and hatred. Those bright gentle eyes now glowered at me in dark defiled colors and a voice, which used to carry far and soft now seemed to be sharp and cutting with a rusted blade.

After a moment of doubt, he turned away and tried to further himself away from me, but I insistently followed him, afraid of the worst.

All the missing pieces were coming together and I felt an immense feeling of dread polluting my insides. Before I could lose my own sense and reason, I drove my nails into the flesh of my palms to shake me out of the frozen horror; nails leaving small half-moons of blood in the action.

He was getting further and further away quite rapidly so I jumped to a jog and caught up to him fast, clutching both of my hands around his torso and half shouting an order into his ears “Stop!”.

A body, twice as big as mine, stopped struggling against my force and turned in a desperate plea, eyes now streaming with tears and lips quivering in silent sobs. A man, so strong-willed and confident in his own capabilities, now lay in my hands rigid and pale, deprived of all strength and will to fight back.

“Vince, can you understand me?”

He grunted out an incoherent answer of affirmative and convulsed in my arms as if something was trying to tear its path through the boy’s body.

“Have you turned already?”

A coarse sound escaped his tortured throat in negative as he tried to hold on to me for support, despite his legs and arms refusing to give in to his pleas of ceasing. He was struggling against all odds at the very moment and I couldn’t help the feeling of utter awe and adoration for his continuous effort and unyielding will to not turn into something he knew he could not turn.

“Listen to me, Vince. I am going to bring you somewhere safe so you can wait this out. Do not give in. Do you understand?”

“Ye-yes,” a weak answer and a followed up grunt gave me his consent to take over.

I gripped him tighter and walked deeper into the woods. I knew for a fact there was supposed to be a population of bears in the territory, which was mercilessly slaughtered for the convention, and was banking on it now to make one of their nests our hiding place. I followed a faint smell of the furry beast once inhabiting the area and finally stumbled upon a small opening in the ground – an entrance to the humble abode of a fierce beast.

Vince gave me a chance to try and push us inside before releasing an ear-splitting scream of pain. His fingernails sank into my flesh, piercing the perfectly new winter coat and double layer of jumpers. He was nearing the beginning of a transformation which would have changed his life if he let the instinct take over, and give way for the beast slumbering inside. The beast, however, was all hot and ready to come out to play hence placing my soulmate into this horrid state of malady.

I managed to pin his heavy writhing body under my own, making his sweaty disheveled appearance gaze right into my eyes. His own eyes kept flashing back and into madness again. He was fighting the curse as hard as he could. I could only guess how painful and horrid it could have felt for him. In my time of living, I have never witnessed a person, a human who managed to resist the curse of a beast.

“Was it the wolf? The one who came into the school?” I asked trying to make him focus.

He took a deep pain-filled breath and pushed the air out of his hard clenched teeth in an answer negating my theory.

“Did you get bitten here? While we’re here? Do they have Moon Walkers in the area?”

Vince’s eyes flashed red as he screamed yet again a negative and bit hard down on his own lip to silence himself. The wires once holding his teeth together were torn apart and now only dregs were left in waste, lying uncomfortably in his mouth. I was getting more and more confused. He should have been bitten recently, but I didn’t remember him mentioning any missions for the academy.

“M-my-” he tried through clenched teeth. “My bro-brother...”

Vince doubled over, throwing me off as if I was nothing and roared with such intensity I thought all the hunters in the area would come running, guns blazing, ready to kill the monster. He pulled himself into a tight ball and suffered through it painfully, but nonetheless determined not to let it out.

“But that would mean,” I pressed, “you’ve been fighting this for three years already.” My voice shook upon realizing what kind of feat I was witnessing with my own eyes.

This all explained why I would sometimes lose sight of the man during full moons. Or why, in case of the recent Moon Walker attack he did not listen to my order to find Wann, why he lied to me about being in the shelter, why I couldn’t find his scent.

Vince screamed once more, voice raw and hacked. His lips were bleeding, nails digging into his own ribs and tearing his robes into smithereens, and drawing blood where it sunk to the flesh. More tears stained the cold frozen ground of the cave, and I felt miserable and helpless.

There was absolutely nothing I could have done to help him go through this. All I could do at that moment was be there and keep him steady and focused on my voice, on his own consciousness, on his own self. It would take only one slip and he would fall into the arms of the monster, the beast who walked under the Moon.

I kept talking to him, trying to order him to not give in, but as it went on, it seemed he was no longer responsive. Despite that, he fought on.

I kept thinking on the matter. If it was his own brother who bit him, the same brother he couldn’t kill, that would mean a horrendous possibility. According to some reports I have gotten my hands on, it had been one of the Lupin’s who turned Alfred Bloomer. Who in turn, assuming he really bit his brother, gave the curse to Vince Bloomer, making him, in event that he actually gave in, the last of Lupin’s kind. Which would mean that Vince was possibly the next in line of taking over the leadership of the Moon Walkers all over the world, since, despite them being disorganized and erratic, they always worshiped Lupin’s clan as their king and predecessor.

It made clear why the wolves invaded the school when they did. They came for Vince, who was emitting the smell of a true Lupin, even if at the time he had still not completely turned.

I stayed with Vince throughout the night keeping him awake and contained. He gave up on controlling the screams escaping his throat, so I worked as a cushion to absorb most of it. His head was buried in my arms and I felt him sobbing and trembling due to tension and pain. I could only imagine what kind of excruciating ordeal he was going through trying to not let the beast out.

By the minute I kept being surprised how strong he actually was; I never imagined it even possible to fight the curse, to top it off, he had been doing this for three years. It made me physically ill to even think how every time a full moon rolled around he’d need to go through this on his own.

Around the dawn, Vince calmed down considerably and with the first rays of bleak sunlight, he fell into a light slumber, occasionally whimpering in pain or huffing out a held-in breath.

He was covered in sweat, and I had my coat sleeves torn in places. His own clothes looked as ragged as I thought he would feel when he woke up. His sharp face was covered in salty dew and carved in wrinkles of pain. Cheeks tinged with worry and exhaustion were beginning to stain in red. Nonetheless, I couldn’t help but be awed by how beautiful that face looked. I could feel my heart squeezing with affection and the overwhelming need to protect the human nestled into my chest.

To be honest, when I realized what he was to me, I wanted to run away; I loathed the idea of him ending up as the rest before him. I should have just left the first time I felt something off about him, but I didn’t. I was pulled toward him and I couldn’t get rid of the need, the obsession of being near the soul which promised companionship to my lonely existence. I could deny it to myself all I wanted, but I just couldn’t move away, I couldn’t leave or forget. As much as I didn’t want to be dependent on anyone, I longed for it, too. I couldn’t fight the desire to stay with him, to spend my days with that someone who would be willing to swear upon their death to love me no matter what.

I didn’t notice when I fell asleep beside him until I was shaken awake by a sharp intake of air right under my chin, but it wasn’t me doing the breathing. I felt lean arms around me tense and the body nestled close to me shiver in fear. Instinctively, I held him tighter and kissed the top of his head, soft dark hair tickling my lips.

“I think we need to talk,” I broke the silence, which was stretching into the daybreak and we had to be moving or we would get really suspicious when we came back.

He took another shuddering breath, “I think so, too...”

“Show me the bite?”

He lifted his face to awkwardly gaze into my interested eyes. Pale face tinged with scarlet and steely eyes swimming like oceans. He didn’t want anyone to know about this. I could have bet everything on the fact he was embarrassed and ashamed of himself.

“Please?”

Vince shimmied out of my hold and turned his back to me, slightly lifting layers of clothing to reveal pale smooth skin of his back. Just below the last rib, there was a nasty scar resembling a seesaw print left there by an accident of falling down the ladder while holding the said seesaw. Two lines of teeth had been etched into his flesh with a rib shattering force, leaving the scar like a row of canyons engraved into the porcelain plane.

I brushed my fingers atop it, feeling his body shiver with every ghost of a touch. He was holding in the cries; muscles tense, skin cold to the touch. Or was it my hands that were cold, maybe he was shivering because I was causing it?

“I couldn’t go home,” barely a whisper left his lips, but I caught it.

“You waited it out.” He sobbed at my statement.

“But I couldn’t take another son away from them, either.”

“Vince, look at me.” He shifted covering his back but kept his head down. “Please?”

Those eyes met mine again and the dam broke releasing every hidden emotion, every single thought that had been haunting him, every word which was stuffed deep down inside; everything came crashing out like waves in a storm and all I could do was take it all in, to accept the pain, the longing, the shame, the desperation, to take him whole in.

“You were scared. I understand. You didn’t ask for it, no one would. But you did so great. You fought so well, Vince. You are the strongest person I have met in my life. And the bravest.”

He let out a sob mixed with giggles as if he was laughing at the thought of him being brave. It broke me inside to see him so… so damaged, vulnerable.

“Hey, I wouldn’t lie to you. Ever.”

I hugged him again and cradled his head to my heart, it was beating a steady rhythm, it seemed to calm him down a tad.

“Every time I met you, the previous you, if I can say so, you were so brave and strong. So kind and smart, so beautiful. Three times before you made my heart beat a certain beat. For someone. It had a cause then, it does now, once again. For you. So no matter what, you turn, you resist, you live or you die, I’m here with you. To the very end of my own existence.”

“But you can’t die.”

“But can you call it living, when a heart beats without a cause? You die – I die. It’s as simple as that.”

“So I’ll just have to keep living, then.”

I let out a surprised chuckle. He really was the bravest. Even braver than me.

“However much I’d like to stay here and talk, we should get back to the camp,” I changed the topic.

“Oh no...” Vince tensed again. “Oh no, no, no, no. I had to be there to help prepare. Oh no. What time is it?” he sounded panicked. The boy looked at his wristwatch and let out a deep sigh. “Why is it so bright? It’s still only six...”

Vince stood up on shaky legs and had to bend so his head wouldn’t hit the top of the cave we were in. He was mumbling under his nose something about how far we were from the camp, if he looked proper or if he could manage to get something to eat, all the while trying to pick out the wire and other pieces of the braces out of his mouth.

I followed him out of the cave and silently watched him find the way back to the camp. The snow had covered most of our tracks by now, so I was surprised how easily he located the right direction.

I followed a couple of paces behind to give him some space to come to terms with the whole thing. I figured he’d have some difficult stuff to think over, to decide on what to do from then on. He stumbled slightly, but I held myself back from helping. I didn’t think he’d want me to baby him.

When we reached the camp, he stopped abruptly and turned around. He smiled at me, a piece of wire still stuck uncomfortably between his teeth, but his puffy eyes and reddened nose betrayed the emotion-filled morning. His eyes, in a long time, shone brightly, the demons he was fighting on his own now were released into my confidence. Finally, the storm clouding his eyes was over and once again, I could see those bright steely blue orbs smiling at me. Warmth filled my chest and I returned the smile, tried my best not to lie to him, he didn’t need to know how horrified I was. Scared of losing him again. Scared of simply losing him.

“I’ll see you later at the next task,” he said and turned to leave.

His retreating back betrayed how tired he was, how pained and tortured he felt. His hunched shoulders and head held low made me want to punch someone in the face, but there was no one near enough I would want to actually punch, besides Albrecht, but I was still too scared of that bastard to have gone through with that.

I waited a couple of moments more before he disappeared inside the assistant instructors cabin, and went back to the base where the rest of my team was still sleeping soundly. Dark was slightly shivering in her sleeping bag, so I covered her with mine.

I couldn’t make myself go back to sleep after witnessing Vince fighting the curse. It was my first time seeing something like that; the curse of the beast had never been beaten or resisted, and this boy had been doing just that, against all odds, he was fighting an unprecedented battle and winning it. Despite the fact, it left him shattered and broken, he held on with everything he had, with every ounce of his humanity he resisted the monster inside and that alone was to be considered impossible for a human being to achieve.

Still, the impending danger of Moon Walkers figuring it all out was imminent and I had to think of a way to stop whatever was to come. I knew for a fact they would try to get to him again, even with me by his side, they would insist on taking him for themselves, after all, he was an important part of their existence, even if he wasn’t fully turned, yet.

The morning did not take too long to come, and everyone in the base were stirring and getting up and ready to face whatever the next task was supposed to be. All of them seemed to be less cheerful and more disgruntled than the day before. I could only blame it on the sleeping arrangements.

The sun was blazing brightly throughout the clearing and I opted to get my goggles on. Dark had a cap on which helped block the sunlight out her face. I noticed small light freckles peppering her cheeks. She caught me staring and blushed. Dark didn’t talk to me lately, it seemed she was trying to avoid me, and I couldn’t quite figure out why.

After we all washed up some, we went to get breakfast. Rodd, apparently, wasn’t in such a big hurry as the rest were, he leveled his step with mine and we walked in silence for a few moments. He looked shifty, somewhat uncomfortable.

“What is it?” I broke the silence.

“Do we have a problem?”

I looked at him searching his face for some clues on what he might be getting at, but all I could see was a blank stare, a poker face.

“What do you mean? If it’s about Albrecht-”

“No. You were gone the whole night.” He inspected my face, but I didn’t think he could gauge out my reaction through the face mask and goggles. “What were you doing to get your coat all messed up? And is that blood?” He picked at my coat with his gloved fingers.

I couldn’t help but look at myself; the boy was right – I looked as if I had just returned from a roughing up. My sleeves were torn, there were holes in the side of my new winter coat which was now dusted with minimal droplets of dry blood. Well, it was pretty obvious I wasn’t sleeping, but I couldn’t just come out and tell him what I was doing.

“None of your business.”

“Is it, now? You do realize you are incriminating the whole team, and because of you, we could get eliminated. Do you want that?” his voice did not betray any emotion.

“I was not doing anything incriminating, just so you know. I was taking a stroll.”

“And fighting bears while you were at it?”

I leveled him with a stare and hesitated for a moment. He was sharper than I gave him credit and it kind of impressed me. But this was, really, none of his damn business, and not my secret to tell, so I said nothing and marched on.

He caught up swiftly, but instead of launching an interrogation, he just walked beside me. He started whistling a light melody and it looked like he was trying to make some kind of a point, but even if he was, I did not get what kind of point.

“Can you stop?” I snapped.

“You did not answer my question. Do we have a problem?”

“No. We do not have a problem. But we will, soon, if you don’t stop annoying me.”

“It is impossible to not annoy you since everything annoys you. Well, maybe except our assistant instructor...”

“Is there a point to all of this, or are we done with this useless talk?”

He scanned me, silently wondering, weighing and nodded to himself. With a shrug of his shoulders, Rodd hastened his pace and joined the others. I was left in the back, confused and freezing.