Ballack just watched as the two boys were having their sobrenatural reunion, at least things hadn’t gone wrong, maybe he had miscalculated and under-estimated their friendship, as he thought they would have fought each other, that was why he held off introducing David until absolutely necessary. After reminding David of the full moon coming in less than 15 minutes, he was about to go prepare for the transformation when it happened, David showed off his werewolf eyes to Leo in an attempt to explain, and the surprise of another creature being at close proximity to Leo activated his bloodlust and he entered full vampire mode.
This was what Ballack hadn’t wanted, because he knew that control wasn’t easy for a new vampire, so he intervened before things got out of hand.
David was shocked at what was happening as Leo was literally going all Dracula on him, after he transformed, he attacked and for all David’s power, he could not do a thing as shock held him in place, and just as Leo was going to bite him, he was grabbed on the neck por Ballack.
“Hey kid, calm down” Ballack said while still holding Leo in a headlock.
After some minutes, “My God, what did I do?” Leo asked “I almost bit you David, but what was that with your eyes”
“Shit” Ballack said, and he released Leo and immediately ran up to David, carried him and sped into another room, and there he threw him on the floor and erected various barriers around him just as he screamed.
“No” David thought as pain racked his body, though not as severe as the one in the afternoon but still painful enough to make him scream. From the window por the wall, he saw the full moon outside, and then he felt his coração rate double, then rage so potent that he could touch it started to fill him, then his back started to hunch and the pain was excruciating as his spine was literally being bent downwards – just how much pain could one feel in a day-, and from his hands, claws were emerging, and the back of his feet left the ground so he was standing on just his toes, only they didn’t look like toes anymore with the claws or talons growing out of them, and then his clothes started to rip off as his upper body began to grow, and was that a snout emerging from where his mouth and jaw used to be, or at least where they were a couple of segundos ago, it was like his vocal cord had collapsed as he couldn't scream anymore, then his pants followed suit as his legs were getting bigger, and then he felt a weird sensation in his eyes - not the usual tingle - and then his vision changed, and it was different from before, it was almost like he could detect anything that released heat, then the pain subsided and he got an urge to scream or was it howl, and just as he opened his mouth, he felt his throat constrict and no sound came out, and then he tried running out through the door but he hit some sort of invisible wall, the rage was filling him up so much that he was feeling sick from it, he looked por the door and saw Ballack frowning and Leo’s surprised look and for a moment, he though he heard Leo say something about a lobo and then everything went black.
“DAVID IS A WEREWOLF!!!!!!” Leo exclaimed
“Shut up Leo, you don’t have to shout so much” Ballack said “or do you want me to throw you in there with him so you can ask him if he is a werewolf”
“How come he can’t get out?” Leo asked
“I sealed him in with some barriers” Ballack said “Thank God I included the sound barrier, and I also had to constrict his voice box as I’m not sure if the barrier would keep a wolf’s howl in, don’t want any unwanted company”
“So are you like a wizard or something?” Leo asked
“No, I’m definitely not a wizard but maybe something” Ballack said
“How did David become a werewolf?” Leo asked
“And I repeat, would you like me to throw you in there so that you can ask him” Ballack said
“Are you going to answer any of my perguntas or would you like us to stand here looking at each other all night?” Leo asked
"Don't worry, I won't be looking at you" Ballack said
"That's hardly the point, is it?" Leo said
“I’ve got to stay here with David so that there are no unfortunate “accidents”” Ballack said “and after that, I definitely need to get to bed, as the two of you have made today very stressful for me” Ballack said
“And I, what am I supposed to be doing, as I’ve been sleeping all day, I don’t feel like sleeping again, and it’s not like you would let me go out” Leo said
“I’m a big fã of free will, I let you choose what blood you wanted didn’t I, so if you want to go out, you are free, I won’t stop you. I’m only stopping David from leaving because he’s not himself right now, and I mean that literally” Ballack said “and If you ask me, I’ll suggest you call your parents to tell them why you haven’t been início for over a day” Ballack added.
“You’ve got a point” Leo said “but is David going to be okay and please don’t tell me to go in and ask him”
“He should have nothing to worry about except me, as those are some nice mural plaster that he’s destroying” Ballack said
Ballack knew that he was going to be here for a long time as the boy would probably revert around morning, and he needed to patrol this night as this was the most important night of the full moon.
Leo had just spoken with his mom, and that she was mad at him was a massive understatement. He had told her that he had stayed over at a friend’s place, and she had said she wanted him início now, so he needed to see Ballack to tell him that he was going and he also had an important question. When he got back upstairs, he met Ballack right where he had left him.
“Your Mom is very angry and she wants you início right this minute” Ballack said “So what are you going to do?” he asked
“How did you know?” Leo asked
“Funny, I’ve been asked that pergunta mais times than I’ve been asked “How are you?”” Ballack said “anyways, as to how I knew what your mom said, let’s just say that there is not much that happens in this house that I don’t know about. So what are you going to do about your mom’s request?” Ballack asked
“First I want to ask, would sunlight make me shine or sparkle?” Leo asked
“Yeah sure” Ballack said “You’ll spark all right, and then you’ll definitely shine with fire, and finally, you’ll turn to the finest of ash, so I suppose the only thing you would miss is the “le” in the “sparkle” but that is a small price right?”
“Do you always have to answer that way?” Leo asked
“Do you always have to ask stupid questions?” Ballack asked
“Anyways, I’m going início to my mom, and I plan on telling her exactly what happened” Leo said
“Define “exactly what happened”?” Ballack asked
“I mean, I plan on telling her everything, including the “little” fact that I’m a vampire, and I don’t care if you have a problem with that” Leo said
“That’s okay” Ballack said “It’s even smart provided she is not a Hunter, but just so I know, why do you want to tell her”
“This is not a movie where I have to keep it a secret from my parents because of some stupid noble reasons, and then they end up finding about it later in awkward circumstances.” Leo said “and anyways, like you said, it’s not like she is a hunter or anything”
“That’s an interesting decision” Ballack said “but I don’t believe that is your only reason for deciding to tell her”
“How-. You know what, just forget that question” Leo said “and you are right, the main reason I’m telling her is because I trust my mom with everything as she is all I’ve ever had, and all I can say is that we are a team, always have been.”
“Who would have thought you had a reasonable bone in you” Ballack said as he smiled “anyways, goodbye and my number is in your head if you need to beep me”
“What!!, directly into my head” Leo exclaimed “You really need to teach me some of those Jedi mind tricks, and seguinte time, don’t break into my head or I'll sue you for breaking and entering” and with that, Leo left for home.
Ballack was jumping rooftop after rooftop as he went on his patrol, he had left a double with David as tonight was simply too important to just sit at home. After leaving home, he had followed the Leo boy - while keeping to the shadows - to make sure that he got início safely as tonight was too dangerous especially for his kind; New vampires, what did they call it in that game - Fledglings. Anyways, tonight-the third night of the full moon was usually crawling with werewolves, and the patrol was to ensure damage limitation.
After going around for a couple of hours, he heard a growl a couple of blocks away and he concealed his presence and went to check it out, but it was a dog, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t something sobrenatural around, in fact 90% of the time a dog was growling at night during a full moon was because there was a creature around, and the other 10%, well, maybe it just had rabies. So Ballack decided to look around in a 20 meter radius, and it didn’t take him long to get a visual on the creature. The creature was stalking a young girl, and Ballack was stalking it, after it got close enough, it came out of the shadows and started chasing the girl. The only weapons Ballack had brought with him were the two swords crossed at his back, he really wished he had bought that bow at the weapons store so he didn’t have to reveal himself, because someone or something could be watching and most importantly, it was a pain explaining to the victim, but as it was, he had to.
Rachel was so scared to death that she didn’t dare chance a segundo look at what was chasing her, not to mention the fact that the first look had been terrible enough, she had no destination in mind as she was just running for her dear life, but she could feel the thing, whatever it was, closing in on her and just to confirm, she steeled her mind and turned to look, which – guess what, was a big mistake - , because she didn’t see the piece of wood on the floor. So, as she caught sight of the monster, her foot caught the wood and she went tumbling through the air and landed against a wall, she heard something break and when she looked, her left leg was definitely facing the wrong direction, and still the monster approached, but much slowly, as if it knew she was going nowhere. How could she die here, after all her screaming, no-one had shown up, just as she was sure the monster would kill her, a man literally appeared from thin air, kicked the monster into the air and in a single motion, pulled out a katana and decapitated the monster.
“Thank you so much” Rachel said through gritted teeth “I thought that thing was going to kill me”
“Well it was” Ballack said and he walked up to her and saw that she had a broken leg, he couldn’t just leave her here with the broken leg, what’s to say that another werewolf wouldn’t come to finish the job.
“Yeah, I noticed” Rachel said “So what was that?”
“Something you need to forget about” Ballack said, and he touched her on the leg.
“Hey, careful that....” Rachel said “doesn’t hurt anymore”. Rachel was surprised, how had the pain gone so suddenly, and her leg had been set back in place “How did you do that?” she asked
“Get up and start heading home” Ballack said and he started to leave
“Wait, was that monster responsible for the death of that man on the news” Rachel asked, and then she looked in the direction of the monster and what she saw made her scream.
“What now” Ballack thought, he turned and saw what the girl was looking at, the werewolf had transformed - as they usually did when they died - to human, and on the sidewalk was a headless woman.
Ballack had intentionally transported the body of the werewolf from the anterior night to a place where the cops would see it so that they could at least broadcast it on the news and that would have discouraged most people from going around at night thereby reducing the victims of the werewolves, and he also planned on leaving this one here but the only problem was this girl that was a witness, he could just wipe her memories but he hated messing with free will, mostly because it always came back to bite him in the ass.
“Were you the one who killed the man yesterday?” Rachel asked “was he also like her?”
“You ask too many questions” Ballack said “If you knew someone was killing people, then why were you out alone at night?”
“Well, I was out alone because I’m always alone” Rachel said “and I was out this night because I needed to get some painkillers from a pharmacy, and believe me, it took almost an hora to convince myself to leave the house, but you still haven’t answered my question”
“Okay” Ballack said “Just promise not to mention anything that happened here to anyone” Ballack said
“I promise” Rachel said
“You see that rua over there?” Ballack pointed
“Which one?” Rachel asked as she turn to look at where he was pointing “I don’t know the rua you are talking about” she said, and when she turned she didn’t see anyone. He had tricked her, Rachel was disappointed but ultimately happy to be alive, at least he had saved her, so she started heading home.
Ballack hadn’t meant to trick the girl but it was necessary as he needed to return to his patrol, but there was definitely something weird about the girl.
Ballack made sure to leave his ears wide open – metaphorically speaking - as he wanted to hear anything that sounded remotely like an attack and as a result, he had been forced to hear some unsavoury things, and the height of it was when he passed por a hotel. Something didn’t feel right, there should have been mais lobisomens around but he had only encountered 3 so far; the first he had killed, but the other two had been moving through the shadows ignoring the few people around so he had ignored them, but he should have found mais of them as he had been at it for hours and just when he decided to call it a night, he picked up a scream from almost a mile away, not to waste too much time, he homed in on the scream and then teleported. As he reached there, he watched from the shadows and what he saw made his mouth drop.
Rachel hoped that her scream was loud enough to get the attention of the man that had saved her. Okay, so he saved her like 30 minutos atrás but she had been thinking everything through and just got the childish impulse to retaliate after how he had tricked her. If he heard and came, then she got to kill two birds with one stone; she got to retaliate, and she got to tell him off for tricking her, but if he didn’t come, there was no problem as to her it was a “win-I’ve already lost” situation, so she decided to scream again, and then she heard a sound behind her, Rachel turned to find the man there, and he had an expression between annoyance and amusement.
“Really” Ballack said “so you decided to trick me too”
“Well, I’m sorry but you tricked me first” Rachel said “I wasn’t happy with the way you left”
“Well then, this time I’ll leave normally” Ballack said and he turned and started walking away, he could hear the girl calling him but he didn’t even look back, from her mind, he knew she was called Rachel, he had read her mind because he wanted to find out why she gave him a weird feeling.
Ballack had left Rachel over five minutos atrás and was walking back início when he heard her scream again, but this time, it was filled with pure terror. So he decided to pick up a scent since he wasn’t too far from the place, and he confirmed that a werewolf was there with her. ‘How many times could one person be attacked in a night’ he thought as he ran towards the scream, when he got there, she was cornered to a mural por the werewolf and to say that she was shivering was an understatement, and as the werewolf raised it paws to strike, he moved to intervene and the werewolf went flying across the street, Ballack charged towards it and before it could get up, he decapitated it, but there was only one problem, he wasn’t the one who had thrown the werewolf across the street, and unless there was someone else around, Rachel had just thrown the werewolf across the rua “I guess I just found out the reason for the weird feeling” he thought, and he turned and walked up to her where she was shivering against the wall, but was it a coincidence that two different lobisomens had attacked her, was it because of what she could do, or probably because she was too annoying -though he doubted that-, but right now, he had to help her and he knew he couldn’t let her go início as the lobisomens could simply follow her there, so like yesterday, there was only one option left but what the hell, just how many people had he brought into his house in the last 24 hours, he might as well just open a shelter for strays, but anyways he needed to know why the lobisomens were after this girl other than the obvious reason.
“It's alright, it’s dead now” Ballack said
“What do they want from me?” Rachel cried “That’s two times you have saved me, thank you”
“Don’t worry about it” Ballack said, but what he really felt like telling her was - think of it as the segundo time you’ve almost died.
“I was so scared, I thought you weren’t going to come because of the little stunt I pulled earlier” Rachel sobbed “I figured that you would think I was joking again”
“Well it’s lucky that I didn’t” Ballack said “okay quit sobbing before one of those things come here”
“I’m sorry” Rachel said, wiping her face with the back of her shaking hand “s-so are you going to t-t-tell me what those t-things were?” she asked
Ballack considered whether to tell her or not, but if he was going to protect her, then she needed to know what they were dealing with, as it was like Leo said, you couldn’t protect someone without telling them the danger you were protecting them from because they would just walk
straight into the danger. “I'll explain everything, and you have my word this time” Ballack said “but first, we have to get out of here”
“My house is not far from here” Rachel said
“We can’t go there, not unless you want them to come looking for you there” Ballack said
“So where do we go?” Rachel asked “your house?”
“Exactly” Ballack said
“I don’t visit guys’ houses” Rachel said
“And I don’t like guest in my house, but life doesn’t take into account what we want” Ballack said “and if you insist on not following me, then I won’t force you, return to your house and face them when they come visiting”
Rachel was terrified and then some, she didn’t even understand what was going on, she had managed to convince herself to come out alone at night - despite the killer - to get her drugs, and after the first attack, she had been really scared of walking início alone but she had been even mais scared of staying there, after managing to force herself to head início por thinking of the man’s trick, she was attacked again, and this just shattered her, if someone didn’t accompany her home, she doubted she would be able to go, not to talk of the fact that she couldn’t stop shaking, just how much could a Necrophobic girl like her take in a single night. So she decided to go with her best option.
“Alright, let’s go” Rachel said and they both left the place, and just before they turned a corner, Ballack snapped his fingers and unknowingly to Rachel, the body of the werewolf spontaneously combusted and everything cleaned itself, no use in leaving two bodies in one night, and then he and Rachel continued to his house.
“WHAT ARE YOU TELLING ME LEO BENNETT” Jane screamed
“You don’t have to scream” Leo said
“YOU ARE A .......” Jane screamed
“MOM, KEEP IT DOWN” Leo interjected
“Okay, I’ll keep it down” Jane said
Leo was surprised that his mom had listened to him, he had expected her to scream until the government came and took him away for experimentation.
“So mom, as I was saying, it wasn’t my fault, at least not entirely” Leo said
“Wasn’t your fault, not entirely” Jane repeated
Okay something was definitely wrong with his mom “Mom, are you okay?” Leo asked
“Yes I’m okay” Jane said
“It’s just that you acted a little weird” Leo said still not entirely convinced but a little relieved por her response
“I acted a little weird” Jane said
Something was definitely wrong, so Leo examined her and noticed that she had a vague expression
“Oh no, what have I done” Leo said, he was beginning to panic
“Mom, return to normal” Leo said, but nothing happened except his mom just muttered “I’ll return to normal”, but there was nothing normal about how she was behaving, could he have done something to affect her mind? In the real world would it be permanent?, all these perguntas were going through his mind
“Mom please return to normal, please return to normal, PLEASE RETURN TO NORMAL” Leo pleaded and then
“YOU DON’T WANT ME TO SCREAM” Jane screamed “HOW COULD I NOT........”
Leo was so happy that he didn’t care she was screaming at him, he just went forward, hugged her and started sobbing on her shoulder, he couldn’t believe what he had done to his mom, and it scared the living hell out of him, what would happen if he couldn’t control his powers, he would die before he let anything happen to his mom.
Jane stopped screaming as her son hugged her and started crying, she patted him on the back and found herself saying “There’s no need to cry”. She hated herself for screaming at him because as a rule, she didn’t scream at him until absolutely necessary as she always tried to give him the amor of two parents, and she didn’t know what he was going through.
“So how do you feel?” Jane asked
Leo released his mom “I feel a bit better now, thanks” Leo replied
“Not that, I mean with your new .......condition?” Jane asked
“Oh, It actually feels great, I can do all these cool things” Leo said “I actually ran here when I was coming and I didn’t feel tired or even remotely fatigued”
“Leo” Jane said “You know what I’m talking about, how are you dealing?” she asked
“Mom, I’m really scared of what I can do” Leo cried “What if I ever hurt you?”
“Leo” Jane said “It might be naive of me but I don’t think you’ll ever hurt me......intentionally”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence mom” Leo said while sniffing and wiping his eyes “but what if I’ve already hurt you?” he asked
“Then I know you didn’t mean it” Jane said “but is that all that you feel as I can tell something is still bothering you”
“The part that bothers and scares me the most, aside from hurting you is that I can never walk in sunlight again” Leo said
“You are joking” Jane said “How are you supposed to live your life?”
“Mom that’s the point, I’m dead” Leo said
“Oh, yeah, but you know what I mean” Jane said a little embarrassed “but how do you know this?” she asked
“The man that saved me was the one who told me” Leo said
“So this man, is he a you-know” Jane said “A vampire. Is he also one?”
“That’s the thing, I don’t know and it’s not from lack of trying either, as I asked him and he refused to tell me” Leo said “but he felt human but kind of weird”
“What do you mean por he "felt"?” Jane asked
“One of the things I’ve noticed is that I can tell if someone feels human or not” Leo said “Is that weird or what?”
“Definitely weird” Jane agreed “I’m never going to get used to this”
“So what am I going to do?” Leo asked “How am I supposed to return to college when the holidays end if I can’t even walk around until nightfall?”
“We are going to have to find a cure” Jane said
“How are we going to do that?” Leo asked
“Two ideas come to mind; first, you’ll give me a sample of your blood and I’ll go examine it in my lab, and the second, we’ll both go to the man’s house and find out if he has a cure” Jane explained
“Is it seguro to have my blood in your lab, what if someone gets a hold of it and traces it back to me, I don’t want to become a lab specimen” Leo said as his mom was going for her syringe.
“Don’t worry, it’ll be safe” Jane said “Now stretch out your arm”
Leo did as he was told and stretched out his arm and his mom took a sample of his blood, then she took two mais and went to keep it in her room.
“Let’s start heading to his house” Leo said
“Do you realize what the time is” Jane said “It’s already past midnight”
“You have nothing to worry about as I’ll be with you, and I don’t think there is much out there that can take me” Leo said, but even as he said it, he had a weird déjà vu, probably because he had told David the same thing before getting them into trouble but he dispelled the feeling, this time he was a vampire and nothing was going to mess with them.
“Leo, Leo can you hear me?” Jane asked
“Huh, what did you say?” Leo asked as he pulled out of his thoughts
“Hon, are you okay?” Jane asked with concern in her voice.
“Yeah I’m okay, I was just thinking of something, anyways, what did you say?” Leo asked
“I said why can’t we just go tomorrow or later in the dia since its past midnight” Jane said
“Well it probably has something to do with the fact that I can’t walk around during the dia anymore” Leo said
“Oh yeah that’s true, but I’m still not comfortable going now” Jane said
“Mom it’s going to be okay, we will get there safely” Leo said “but Mom, what if there is no cure?” Leo asked
“I guess it’s my turn to tell you now” Jane said “It’s going to be okay Hon, we will find a cure, just remember that as from now, we are in this together. Alright?” she said.
“Alright” Leo replied “Thanks mom, I really amor you”
“I amor you too” she said “Okay, completely off the matter, I can’t believe you actually died, you’re like a living scientific miracle”
“I was wondering when you would bring this science stuff up” Leo laughed “We better get going before it gets any later”
Ballack was watching the werewolf boy along with Rachel, he was surprised that she was able to stay here and watch the werewolf with him given that two lobisomens had attacked her in the o espaço of an hour, but it was no wonder that she was holding onto an arm of his and he knew she was scared.
“Why are you still here with me even though you are scared” Ballack asked “I showed you your room you know”
“I’m not ready to sleep yet” Rachel said.
Rachel was really shaken por the ordeal she had been through tonight, and the Necrophobia just made it all the terrible, so sleep was definitely the last thing on her mind as she was scared of being alone right now and she only felt seguro around this man, hence her clinging to his arm, and she thought back to how she had gotten herself into this situation, she had been alone as usual on a typical Saturday night in her house after returning from work, her headache had gotten really bad that she had even bled from her nose, so when it subsided and after she managed to convince herself , she decided to go get some painkillers from a pharmacy, she had to walk for almost 40 minutos to get there, and on coming back, the dia just went wild literally. After Ballack had brought her into the house, he had made her a cup of chá and taken her to a room to sleep in but he had refused to explain anything to her as he kept insisting that she sleep and deal with everything tomorrow, he had reluctantly told her his name. Rachel really wanted an explanation because
knowing the logical reason for something that scared her usually helped her deal with her Necrophobia, so her reason for wanting to know wasn’t because she was nosy or curious.
“You know I can handle whatever you want to tell me” Rachel said
“I know you can, but not tonight” Ballack answered “you need to go and rest”
“At least let me know whose house I’m going to be staying overnight in” She pleaded
“You already played that card and I told you my name” Ballack answered
“So you expect me to sleep in a stranger’s house just because I know his name?” Rachel asked
“It’s not enough I know but you can be rest assured that nothing would happen to you ........ Probably” Ballack said.
“Gee, thanks for the assurance” Rachel said
“You are most welcome” Ballack chuckled
There was a knock on the door and Ballack really didn’t fancy having anymore guests, and who comes visiting at this kind of time, he picked up the scent of Leo and a human; probably one of his parents, but what would they be doing here at this kind of time, so he got up leaving David who was still parading around destroying things in the room and as he was leaving, not surprisingly, Rachel tagged along and as they descended the step, he created a double to watch over David and he didn’t let Rachel see him do it as he didn’t want to renew her determination for finding respostas this night. He had done the same thing when they arrived so that he didn’t freak her out just yet, as soon as they had entered the house, he had removed his double to avoid any drama.
When Ballack and Rachel got downstairs, Ballack went for the door leaving Rachel in the living room and as he got to the door, just to act normal, he asked “Who is that?” and he heard Leo say “It’s me Leo and my mom” and he opened.
Leo was surprised that Ballack asked who they were, as he just assumed that with those freaky powers of his, he would know who they were instantly. Anyways, he heard the lock click then the door swung open and then he went deaf.
“OH MY GOD” Jane screamed “BALLACK IS THAT YOU”
“J?” Ballack said
This was what Ballack hadn’t wanted, because he knew that control wasn’t easy for a new vampire, so he intervened before things got out of hand.
David was shocked at what was happening as Leo was literally going all Dracula on him, after he transformed, he attacked and for all David’s power, he could not do a thing as shock held him in place, and just as Leo was going to bite him, he was grabbed on the neck por Ballack.
“Hey kid, calm down” Ballack said while still holding Leo in a headlock.
After some minutes, “My God, what did I do?” Leo asked “I almost bit you David, but what was that with your eyes”
“Shit” Ballack said, and he released Leo and immediately ran up to David, carried him and sped into another room, and there he threw him on the floor and erected various barriers around him just as he screamed.
“No” David thought as pain racked his body, though not as severe as the one in the afternoon but still painful enough to make him scream. From the window por the wall, he saw the full moon outside, and then he felt his coração rate double, then rage so potent that he could touch it started to fill him, then his back started to hunch and the pain was excruciating as his spine was literally being bent downwards – just how much pain could one feel in a day-, and from his hands, claws were emerging, and the back of his feet left the ground so he was standing on just his toes, only they didn’t look like toes anymore with the claws or talons growing out of them, and then his clothes started to rip off as his upper body began to grow, and was that a snout emerging from where his mouth and jaw used to be, or at least where they were a couple of segundos ago, it was like his vocal cord had collapsed as he couldn't scream anymore, then his pants followed suit as his legs were getting bigger, and then he felt a weird sensation in his eyes - not the usual tingle - and then his vision changed, and it was different from before, it was almost like he could detect anything that released heat, then the pain subsided and he got an urge to scream or was it howl, and just as he opened his mouth, he felt his throat constrict and no sound came out, and then he tried running out through the door but he hit some sort of invisible wall, the rage was filling him up so much that he was feeling sick from it, he looked por the door and saw Ballack frowning and Leo’s surprised look and for a moment, he though he heard Leo say something about a lobo and then everything went black.
“DAVID IS A WEREWOLF!!!!!!” Leo exclaimed
“Shut up Leo, you don’t have to shout so much” Ballack said “or do you want me to throw you in there with him so you can ask him if he is a werewolf”
“How come he can’t get out?” Leo asked
“I sealed him in with some barriers” Ballack said “Thank God I included the sound barrier, and I also had to constrict his voice box as I’m not sure if the barrier would keep a wolf’s howl in, don’t want any unwanted company”
“So are you like a wizard or something?” Leo asked
“No, I’m definitely not a wizard but maybe something” Ballack said
“How did David become a werewolf?” Leo asked
“And I repeat, would you like me to throw you in there so that you can ask him” Ballack said
“Are you going to answer any of my perguntas or would you like us to stand here looking at each other all night?” Leo asked
"Don't worry, I won't be looking at you" Ballack said
"That's hardly the point, is it?" Leo said
“I’ve got to stay here with David so that there are no unfortunate “accidents”” Ballack said “and after that, I definitely need to get to bed, as the two of you have made today very stressful for me” Ballack said
“And I, what am I supposed to be doing, as I’ve been sleeping all day, I don’t feel like sleeping again, and it’s not like you would let me go out” Leo said
“I’m a big fã of free will, I let you choose what blood you wanted didn’t I, so if you want to go out, you are free, I won’t stop you. I’m only stopping David from leaving because he’s not himself right now, and I mean that literally” Ballack said “and If you ask me, I’ll suggest you call your parents to tell them why you haven’t been início for over a day” Ballack added.
“You’ve got a point” Leo said “but is David going to be okay and please don’t tell me to go in and ask him”
“He should have nothing to worry about except me, as those are some nice mural plaster that he’s destroying” Ballack said
Ballack knew that he was going to be here for a long time as the boy would probably revert around morning, and he needed to patrol this night as this was the most important night of the full moon.
Leo had just spoken with his mom, and that she was mad at him was a massive understatement. He had told her that he had stayed over at a friend’s place, and she had said she wanted him início now, so he needed to see Ballack to tell him that he was going and he also had an important question. When he got back upstairs, he met Ballack right where he had left him.
“Your Mom is very angry and she wants you início right this minute” Ballack said “So what are you going to do?” he asked
“How did you know?” Leo asked
“Funny, I’ve been asked that pergunta mais times than I’ve been asked “How are you?”” Ballack said “anyways, as to how I knew what your mom said, let’s just say that there is not much that happens in this house that I don’t know about. So what are you going to do about your mom’s request?” Ballack asked
“First I want to ask, would sunlight make me shine or sparkle?” Leo asked
“Yeah sure” Ballack said “You’ll spark all right, and then you’ll definitely shine with fire, and finally, you’ll turn to the finest of ash, so I suppose the only thing you would miss is the “le” in the “sparkle” but that is a small price right?”
“Do you always have to answer that way?” Leo asked
“Do you always have to ask stupid questions?” Ballack asked
“Anyways, I’m going início to my mom, and I plan on telling her exactly what happened” Leo said
“Define “exactly what happened”?” Ballack asked
“I mean, I plan on telling her everything, including the “little” fact that I’m a vampire, and I don’t care if you have a problem with that” Leo said
“That’s okay” Ballack said “It’s even smart provided she is not a Hunter, but just so I know, why do you want to tell her”
“This is not a movie where I have to keep it a secret from my parents because of some stupid noble reasons, and then they end up finding about it later in awkward circumstances.” Leo said “and anyways, like you said, it’s not like she is a hunter or anything”
“That’s an interesting decision” Ballack said “but I don’t believe that is your only reason for deciding to tell her”
“How-. You know what, just forget that question” Leo said “and you are right, the main reason I’m telling her is because I trust my mom with everything as she is all I’ve ever had, and all I can say is that we are a team, always have been.”
“Who would have thought you had a reasonable bone in you” Ballack said as he smiled “anyways, goodbye and my number is in your head if you need to beep me”
“What!!, directly into my head” Leo exclaimed “You really need to teach me some of those Jedi mind tricks, and seguinte time, don’t break into my head or I'll sue you for breaking and entering” and with that, Leo left for home.
Ballack was jumping rooftop after rooftop as he went on his patrol, he had left a double with David as tonight was simply too important to just sit at home. After leaving home, he had followed the Leo boy - while keeping to the shadows - to make sure that he got início safely as tonight was too dangerous especially for his kind; New vampires, what did they call it in that game - Fledglings. Anyways, tonight-the third night of the full moon was usually crawling with werewolves, and the patrol was to ensure damage limitation.
After going around for a couple of hours, he heard a growl a couple of blocks away and he concealed his presence and went to check it out, but it was a dog, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t something sobrenatural around, in fact 90% of the time a dog was growling at night during a full moon was because there was a creature around, and the other 10%, well, maybe it just had rabies. So Ballack decided to look around in a 20 meter radius, and it didn’t take him long to get a visual on the creature. The creature was stalking a young girl, and Ballack was stalking it, after it got close enough, it came out of the shadows and started chasing the girl. The only weapons Ballack had brought with him were the two swords crossed at his back, he really wished he had bought that bow at the weapons store so he didn’t have to reveal himself, because someone or something could be watching and most importantly, it was a pain explaining to the victim, but as it was, he had to.
Rachel was so scared to death that she didn’t dare chance a segundo look at what was chasing her, not to mention the fact that the first look had been terrible enough, she had no destination in mind as she was just running for her dear life, but she could feel the thing, whatever it was, closing in on her and just to confirm, she steeled her mind and turned to look, which – guess what, was a big mistake - , because she didn’t see the piece of wood on the floor. So, as she caught sight of the monster, her foot caught the wood and she went tumbling through the air and landed against a wall, she heard something break and when she looked, her left leg was definitely facing the wrong direction, and still the monster approached, but much slowly, as if it knew she was going nowhere. How could she die here, after all her screaming, no-one had shown up, just as she was sure the monster would kill her, a man literally appeared from thin air, kicked the monster into the air and in a single motion, pulled out a katana and decapitated the monster.
“Thank you so much” Rachel said through gritted teeth “I thought that thing was going to kill me”
“Well it was” Ballack said and he walked up to her and saw that she had a broken leg, he couldn’t just leave her here with the broken leg, what’s to say that another werewolf wouldn’t come to finish the job.
“Yeah, I noticed” Rachel said “So what was that?”
“Something you need to forget about” Ballack said, and he touched her on the leg.
“Hey, careful that....” Rachel said “doesn’t hurt anymore”. Rachel was surprised, how had the pain gone so suddenly, and her leg had been set back in place “How did you do that?” she asked
“Get up and start heading home” Ballack said and he started to leave
“Wait, was that monster responsible for the death of that man on the news” Rachel asked, and then she looked in the direction of the monster and what she saw made her scream.
“What now” Ballack thought, he turned and saw what the girl was looking at, the werewolf had transformed - as they usually did when they died - to human, and on the sidewalk was a headless woman.
Ballack had intentionally transported the body of the werewolf from the anterior night to a place where the cops would see it so that they could at least broadcast it on the news and that would have discouraged most people from going around at night thereby reducing the victims of the werewolves, and he also planned on leaving this one here but the only problem was this girl that was a witness, he could just wipe her memories but he hated messing with free will, mostly because it always came back to bite him in the ass.
“Were you the one who killed the man yesterday?” Rachel asked “was he also like her?”
“You ask too many questions” Ballack said “If you knew someone was killing people, then why were you out alone at night?”
“Well, I was out alone because I’m always alone” Rachel said “and I was out this night because I needed to get some painkillers from a pharmacy, and believe me, it took almost an hora to convince myself to leave the house, but you still haven’t answered my question”
“Okay” Ballack said “Just promise not to mention anything that happened here to anyone” Ballack said
“I promise” Rachel said
“You see that rua over there?” Ballack pointed
“Which one?” Rachel asked as she turn to look at where he was pointing “I don’t know the rua you are talking about” she said, and when she turned she didn’t see anyone. He had tricked her, Rachel was disappointed but ultimately happy to be alive, at least he had saved her, so she started heading home.
Ballack hadn’t meant to trick the girl but it was necessary as he needed to return to his patrol, but there was definitely something weird about the girl.
Ballack made sure to leave his ears wide open – metaphorically speaking - as he wanted to hear anything that sounded remotely like an attack and as a result, he had been forced to hear some unsavoury things, and the height of it was when he passed por a hotel. Something didn’t feel right, there should have been mais lobisomens around but he had only encountered 3 so far; the first he had killed, but the other two had been moving through the shadows ignoring the few people around so he had ignored them, but he should have found mais of them as he had been at it for hours and just when he decided to call it a night, he picked up a scream from almost a mile away, not to waste too much time, he homed in on the scream and then teleported. As he reached there, he watched from the shadows and what he saw made his mouth drop.
Rachel hoped that her scream was loud enough to get the attention of the man that had saved her. Okay, so he saved her like 30 minutos atrás but she had been thinking everything through and just got the childish impulse to retaliate after how he had tricked her. If he heard and came, then she got to kill two birds with one stone; she got to retaliate, and she got to tell him off for tricking her, but if he didn’t come, there was no problem as to her it was a “win-I’ve already lost” situation, so she decided to scream again, and then she heard a sound behind her, Rachel turned to find the man there, and he had an expression between annoyance and amusement.
“Really” Ballack said “so you decided to trick me too”
“Well, I’m sorry but you tricked me first” Rachel said “I wasn’t happy with the way you left”
“Well then, this time I’ll leave normally” Ballack said and he turned and started walking away, he could hear the girl calling him but he didn’t even look back, from her mind, he knew she was called Rachel, he had read her mind because he wanted to find out why she gave him a weird feeling.
Ballack had left Rachel over five minutos atrás and was walking back início when he heard her scream again, but this time, it was filled with pure terror. So he decided to pick up a scent since he wasn’t too far from the place, and he confirmed that a werewolf was there with her. ‘How many times could one person be attacked in a night’ he thought as he ran towards the scream, when he got there, she was cornered to a mural por the werewolf and to say that she was shivering was an understatement, and as the werewolf raised it paws to strike, he moved to intervene and the werewolf went flying across the street, Ballack charged towards it and before it could get up, he decapitated it, but there was only one problem, he wasn’t the one who had thrown the werewolf across the street, and unless there was someone else around, Rachel had just thrown the werewolf across the rua “I guess I just found out the reason for the weird feeling” he thought, and he turned and walked up to her where she was shivering against the wall, but was it a coincidence that two different lobisomens had attacked her, was it because of what she could do, or probably because she was too annoying -though he doubted that-, but right now, he had to help her and he knew he couldn’t let her go início as the lobisomens could simply follow her there, so like yesterday, there was only one option left but what the hell, just how many people had he brought into his house in the last 24 hours, he might as well just open a shelter for strays, but anyways he needed to know why the lobisomens were after this girl other than the obvious reason.
“It's alright, it’s dead now” Ballack said
“What do they want from me?” Rachel cried “That’s two times you have saved me, thank you”
“Don’t worry about it” Ballack said, but what he really felt like telling her was - think of it as the segundo time you’ve almost died.
“I was so scared, I thought you weren’t going to come because of the little stunt I pulled earlier” Rachel sobbed “I figured that you would think I was joking again”
“Well it’s lucky that I didn’t” Ballack said “okay quit sobbing before one of those things come here”
“I’m sorry” Rachel said, wiping her face with the back of her shaking hand “s-so are you going to t-t-tell me what those t-things were?” she asked
Ballack considered whether to tell her or not, but if he was going to protect her, then she needed to know what they were dealing with, as it was like Leo said, you couldn’t protect someone without telling them the danger you were protecting them from because they would just walk
straight into the danger. “I'll explain everything, and you have my word this time” Ballack said “but first, we have to get out of here”
“My house is not far from here” Rachel said
“We can’t go there, not unless you want them to come looking for you there” Ballack said
“So where do we go?” Rachel asked “your house?”
“Exactly” Ballack said
“I don’t visit guys’ houses” Rachel said
“And I don’t like guest in my house, but life doesn’t take into account what we want” Ballack said “and if you insist on not following me, then I won’t force you, return to your house and face them when they come visiting”
Rachel was terrified and then some, she didn’t even understand what was going on, she had managed to convince herself to come out alone at night - despite the killer - to get her drugs, and after the first attack, she had been really scared of walking início alone but she had been even mais scared of staying there, after managing to force herself to head início por thinking of the man’s trick, she was attacked again, and this just shattered her, if someone didn’t accompany her home, she doubted she would be able to go, not to talk of the fact that she couldn’t stop shaking, just how much could a Necrophobic girl like her take in a single night. So she decided to go with her best option.
“Alright, let’s go” Rachel said and they both left the place, and just before they turned a corner, Ballack snapped his fingers and unknowingly to Rachel, the body of the werewolf spontaneously combusted and everything cleaned itself, no use in leaving two bodies in one night, and then he and Rachel continued to his house.
“WHAT ARE YOU TELLING ME LEO BENNETT” Jane screamed
“You don’t have to scream” Leo said
“YOU ARE A .......” Jane screamed
“MOM, KEEP IT DOWN” Leo interjected
“Okay, I’ll keep it down” Jane said
Leo was surprised that his mom had listened to him, he had expected her to scream until the government came and took him away for experimentation.
“So mom, as I was saying, it wasn’t my fault, at least not entirely” Leo said
“Wasn’t your fault, not entirely” Jane repeated
Okay something was definitely wrong with his mom “Mom, are you okay?” Leo asked
“Yes I’m okay” Jane said
“It’s just that you acted a little weird” Leo said still not entirely convinced but a little relieved por her response
“I acted a little weird” Jane said
Something was definitely wrong, so Leo examined her and noticed that she had a vague expression
“Oh no, what have I done” Leo said, he was beginning to panic
“Mom, return to normal” Leo said, but nothing happened except his mom just muttered “I’ll return to normal”, but there was nothing normal about how she was behaving, could he have done something to affect her mind? In the real world would it be permanent?, all these perguntas were going through his mind
“Mom please return to normal, please return to normal, PLEASE RETURN TO NORMAL” Leo pleaded and then
“YOU DON’T WANT ME TO SCREAM” Jane screamed “HOW COULD I NOT........”
Leo was so happy that he didn’t care she was screaming at him, he just went forward, hugged her and started sobbing on her shoulder, he couldn’t believe what he had done to his mom, and it scared the living hell out of him, what would happen if he couldn’t control his powers, he would die before he let anything happen to his mom.
Jane stopped screaming as her son hugged her and started crying, she patted him on the back and found herself saying “There’s no need to cry”. She hated herself for screaming at him because as a rule, she didn’t scream at him until absolutely necessary as she always tried to give him the amor of two parents, and she didn’t know what he was going through.
“So how do you feel?” Jane asked
Leo released his mom “I feel a bit better now, thanks” Leo replied
“Not that, I mean with your new .......condition?” Jane asked
“Oh, It actually feels great, I can do all these cool things” Leo said “I actually ran here when I was coming and I didn’t feel tired or even remotely fatigued”
“Leo” Jane said “You know what I’m talking about, how are you dealing?” she asked
“Mom, I’m really scared of what I can do” Leo cried “What if I ever hurt you?”
“Leo” Jane said “It might be naive of me but I don’t think you’ll ever hurt me......intentionally”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence mom” Leo said while sniffing and wiping his eyes “but what if I’ve already hurt you?” he asked
“Then I know you didn’t mean it” Jane said “but is that all that you feel as I can tell something is still bothering you”
“The part that bothers and scares me the most, aside from hurting you is that I can never walk in sunlight again” Leo said
“You are joking” Jane said “How are you supposed to live your life?”
“Mom that’s the point, I’m dead” Leo said
“Oh, yeah, but you know what I mean” Jane said a little embarrassed “but how do you know this?” she asked
“The man that saved me was the one who told me” Leo said
“So this man, is he a you-know” Jane said “A vampire. Is he also one?”
“That’s the thing, I don’t know and it’s not from lack of trying either, as I asked him and he refused to tell me” Leo said “but he felt human but kind of weird”
“What do you mean por he "felt"?” Jane asked
“One of the things I’ve noticed is that I can tell if someone feels human or not” Leo said “Is that weird or what?”
“Definitely weird” Jane agreed “I’m never going to get used to this”
“So what am I going to do?” Leo asked “How am I supposed to return to college when the holidays end if I can’t even walk around until nightfall?”
“We are going to have to find a cure” Jane said
“How are we going to do that?” Leo asked
“Two ideas come to mind; first, you’ll give me a sample of your blood and I’ll go examine it in my lab, and the second, we’ll both go to the man’s house and find out if he has a cure” Jane explained
“Is it seguro to have my blood in your lab, what if someone gets a hold of it and traces it back to me, I don’t want to become a lab specimen” Leo said as his mom was going for her syringe.
“Don’t worry, it’ll be safe” Jane said “Now stretch out your arm”
Leo did as he was told and stretched out his arm and his mom took a sample of his blood, then she took two mais and went to keep it in her room.
“Let’s start heading to his house” Leo said
“Do you realize what the time is” Jane said “It’s already past midnight”
“You have nothing to worry about as I’ll be with you, and I don’t think there is much out there that can take me” Leo said, but even as he said it, he had a weird déjà vu, probably because he had told David the same thing before getting them into trouble but he dispelled the feeling, this time he was a vampire and nothing was going to mess with them.
“Leo, Leo can you hear me?” Jane asked
“Huh, what did you say?” Leo asked as he pulled out of his thoughts
“Hon, are you okay?” Jane asked with concern in her voice.
“Yeah I’m okay, I was just thinking of something, anyways, what did you say?” Leo asked
“I said why can’t we just go tomorrow or later in the dia since its past midnight” Jane said
“Well it probably has something to do with the fact that I can’t walk around during the dia anymore” Leo said
“Oh yeah that’s true, but I’m still not comfortable going now” Jane said
“Mom it’s going to be okay, we will get there safely” Leo said “but Mom, what if there is no cure?” Leo asked
“I guess it’s my turn to tell you now” Jane said “It’s going to be okay Hon, we will find a cure, just remember that as from now, we are in this together. Alright?” she said.
“Alright” Leo replied “Thanks mom, I really amor you”
“I amor you too” she said “Okay, completely off the matter, I can’t believe you actually died, you’re like a living scientific miracle”
“I was wondering when you would bring this science stuff up” Leo laughed “We better get going before it gets any later”
Ballack was watching the werewolf boy along with Rachel, he was surprised that she was able to stay here and watch the werewolf with him given that two lobisomens had attacked her in the o espaço of an hour, but it was no wonder that she was holding onto an arm of his and he knew she was scared.
“Why are you still here with me even though you are scared” Ballack asked “I showed you your room you know”
“I’m not ready to sleep yet” Rachel said.
Rachel was really shaken por the ordeal she had been through tonight, and the Necrophobia just made it all the terrible, so sleep was definitely the last thing on her mind as she was scared of being alone right now and she only felt seguro around this man, hence her clinging to his arm, and she thought back to how she had gotten herself into this situation, she had been alone as usual on a typical Saturday night in her house after returning from work, her headache had gotten really bad that she had even bled from her nose, so when it subsided and after she managed to convince herself , she decided to go get some painkillers from a pharmacy, she had to walk for almost 40 minutos to get there, and on coming back, the dia just went wild literally. After Ballack had brought her into the house, he had made her a cup of chá and taken her to a room to sleep in but he had refused to explain anything to her as he kept insisting that she sleep and deal with everything tomorrow, he had reluctantly told her his name. Rachel really wanted an explanation because
knowing the logical reason for something that scared her usually helped her deal with her Necrophobia, so her reason for wanting to know wasn’t because she was nosy or curious.
“You know I can handle whatever you want to tell me” Rachel said
“I know you can, but not tonight” Ballack answered “you need to go and rest”
“At least let me know whose house I’m going to be staying overnight in” She pleaded
“You already played that card and I told you my name” Ballack answered
“So you expect me to sleep in a stranger’s house just because I know his name?” Rachel asked
“It’s not enough I know but you can be rest assured that nothing would happen to you ........ Probably” Ballack said.
“Gee, thanks for the assurance” Rachel said
“You are most welcome” Ballack chuckled
There was a knock on the door and Ballack really didn’t fancy having anymore guests, and who comes visiting at this kind of time, he picked up the scent of Leo and a human; probably one of his parents, but what would they be doing here at this kind of time, so he got up leaving David who was still parading around destroying things in the room and as he was leaving, not surprisingly, Rachel tagged along and as they descended the step, he created a double to watch over David and he didn’t let Rachel see him do it as he didn’t want to renew her determination for finding respostas this night. He had done the same thing when they arrived so that he didn’t freak her out just yet, as soon as they had entered the house, he had removed his double to avoid any drama.
When Ballack and Rachel got downstairs, Ballack went for the door leaving Rachel in the living room and as he got to the door, just to act normal, he asked “Who is that?” and he heard Leo say “It’s me Leo and my mom” and he opened.
Leo was surprised that Ballack asked who they were, as he just assumed that with those freaky powers of his, he would know who they were instantly. Anyways, he heard the lock click then the door swung open and then he went deaf.
“OH MY GOD” Jane screamed “BALLACK IS THAT YOU”
“J?” Ballack said
