*humming along to "Fantasy"*

~

I walked out of my room quietly the next morning, listening for signs of life. Passing by closed doors in the hallway towards the stairs, it didn’t sound like anyone else was home, which made me wonder if the guys had gone off to work or something. I didn’t spend too much time pondering, choosing instead to hurry out of the house to do what I had planned the night before. I’d already emailed my teachers and the staff director at the library to let them know I had a health emergency that came up, and arrangements were already made so I wouldn’t fall behind in the classes I was registered in but in all honesty, I didn’t care anymore about school. I was a little too preoccupied with my new fantastical reality, and school seemed like a true waste of time when I had bigger things to worry about.

Like turning into a bloodthirsty monster.

Leaving the wolves’ den behind made me realize how strange it was to be going back to my parents’ house. In a matter of days, my life was flipped upside down, whipped around, and finally tipped on its side. I’d wanted change before, but I hadn’t ever imagined it being like this. It was still difficult for me to believe that what was happening to me was actually a reality and not some twisted dream.

Bloodthirsty monsters and twisted dreams led me to think of the one responsible for my new reality, and the dream I had with Jekyll came back with vivid detail.

Recalling how I’d ended up tearing off that silk shirt of his with my bare hands, and remembering how he’d kissed and touched me so sinfully, my face burned a bright crimson. It hadn’t been all that innocent from the start, but the way it ended had been even worse; my head was still reeling. I was ashamed and I felt an intense amount of guilt, even though it’d only been in my head.

It didn’t help to know that he’d been actively participating in the dream, utilizing dark magic tricks.

Sighing heavily, I shook my head at myself, frustrated with the way things were going. Lusting after Jekyll definitely fell into the category of “giving in”, and wanting him made me feel dirty and wretched. I was unsure of how I was going to face the guys after such a lascivious encounter in my dream, an encounter that had occurred under their very roof, to make matters worse. Above all, I didn’t know how to face Taekwoon. I wasn’t planning on telling them what exactly happened in my dream, but I was going to tell them Jekyll was playing dirty (very dirty) and bothering me while I was sleeping. If he could mess with my dreams, then was he really strong enough to take full control over me?

I shuddered at the thought, feeling sick. I’d been helpless during the dream, but awake, I was fighting as hard as I could to terminate the attraction I felt towards the bad guy.

I’m not sure what I was expecting to find when I got to the house. It was just like I had left it, appearing to be truly abandoned despite all its furnishing. I felt wistful as I entered, comparing the house to my own self. I was as desolate as the poor two-story abode, left completely alone by my parents, although one was willing to leave me while the other had been torn out of my life against her will. Now I really was mad at my dad, hating that he was completely oblivious to the hell I was into, so caught up in his own self-pity. I’d made excuses for him before, but the three days that had gone by had really changed my mind for me.

While he was tucked away in the hole he’d made for himself in his room, I was fighting for my humanity.

I walked by the closed door of my parents’ room and went straight to my bedroom, closing my own door behind me. My eyes roamed the place I’d once thought of as my sanctuary, and I found that I couldn’t think of it that way anymore. The room was strange, a place that held nothing for me. Despite all my belongings that were scattered about, it didn’t feel like the room was mine at all.

With a bitter smile, I realized that the stranger was me. I stepped forward anyway, going over to my bed to retrieve a mid-sized suitcase from underneath. I hefted it onto the bed, zipped it open, and then started to fill it up with more clothing, packing it up neatly and managing to fit quite a bit into the dark blue case. I remembered to get my lavender lotion, lady stuff in case of emergencies, and finally packed in my schoolbooks, grabbing my laptop in its own carrier. I gathered my stuff by the door and then decided to take a moment to myself on my old bed. I flopped onto the gray bedspread, throwing my arms out, not even bothering to take off my shoes, and looked up at the ceiling. I listened to my own heartbeat for a while.

Seconds later, I was being jostled. Or so I had thought it was seconds later, but then I realized I’d fallen asleep. I stared up sleepily at Taekwoon, narrowing my eyes a little because my window was suddenly opened wide, the autumn’s afternoon sun shining adamantly. I lifted my hand to shield my face, sitting up slowly to glare at him groggily.

“What was that for?” I demanded, feeling chilly now too.

Taekwoon’s expression was a little easier for me to read, and I could tell he wasn’t super stoked. “You left the house by yourself,” he stated, and I guessed that was the source of his ire.

I nodded and gestured towards my packed suitcase, which was still set in front of my bedroom door. I blinked at him tiredly and mumbled, “I came for more stuff and ended up taking a nap.” I looked at my window. “Did you climb in through there? Why didn’t you just use the front door, it’s open.”

That was the wrong thing to say, apparently. All neutrality vanished from his face and he glared at me without hesitation now. “You came here by yourself and fell asleep with your front door and your windows unlocked.”

Slow from my nap and not fully capable of realizing I was about to get chewed out, I shrugged lightly and nodded again. “Yeah.”

Taekwoon shoved me hard enough to send me back onto my bed, and before I could even think to sit back up, he had his hands on both my shoulders, pinning me down onto the mattress. Looming over me with a dark expression, he murmured calmly in contrast to his sudden aggression and anger. “So you didn’t run away to kill somebody. That’s good.” His eyes narrowed. When he spoke again, his serene voice was even more acidic and patronizing. “Poor girl has no idea. She’s too innocent to realize how dangerous this world is after all.”

I started to struggle against him, miffed with his behavior. I tried wrapping my hands around his forearms to shove him away, but he was much stronger than I was. I kept pushing and pulling anyway, growing more and more frustrated. “Let me go!”

He shook his head. “No. Look at me. I’m in here because you left your windows and your doors unlocked, practically inviting me in.”

I glared at him. “The sun’s out. Vampires can’t come out in the day, so I’m safe—”

“Wrong,” he said sharply, and he put more weight on my shoulders. I sank deeper into the bed, staring helplessly up at him. I didn’t know why he was suddenly so angry and violent, but I was about ready to kick him in the nuts, too.

Jerking me up even more abruptly, Taekwoon held me by my sweatshirt with one hand and grabbed a handful of my hair with the other, rendering me completely and totally helpless, although his hand in my hair was more tender than violent and remained painless when I refrained from yanking myself around. He brought his face close to mine, his eyes blazing, irises a brilliant yellow. “Look at me,” he ordered hotly, and I did, clenching my teeth. “I am one of Jekyll’s servants about to successfully take you to my master because you left your doors and windows unlocked, thinking foolishly that the daylight is your ally.”

Breathing heavily with indignation, I stared at him with watery eyes, so angry that my tear ducts were reacting too. I don’t know how long he held me for, but by the time he released me and backed away, my body was rigid. I dropped onto my bed, bouncing a little, but immediately shoved myself to my feet and continued to scowl at him. His own breath was rather weighty, and his eyes remained like citrines. I charged him vehemently, shoving hard at his chest. He only stumbled back some, not even looking at me anymore, and that pissed me off even more. I shoved him again, and he finally looked at me this time, annoyed with my actions.

“There are other ways to teach a lesson,” I told him through clenched teeth, swiping away the stupid tears that were still pouring from my eyes. Unable to look at him, I turned away and paced over to the window he’d used to climb into my room, slamming it shut and locking it. The sunlight was bugging me, my eyes still sensitive from sleep and now from crying, so I went as far as yanking the blinds and curtains closed, leaving us in a dark room. I balled my hands into fists at my sides, my nails biting into my palms, and I used that to ground myself, focusing on the little stings of pain to calm my anger.

Finally turning around, I found him sitting on my bed, his back to me. Irked that he was ignoring me when I was supposed to be the indignant one, I marched by him without looking at him and stood by my suitcase and bent down to scoop up my laptop case, prepared to execute an Oscar-worthy scene involving me storming out of there.

He threw a wrench in my plans again by saying, “Wait.”

Unable to resist the opportunity to glare at him, I turned and fixed my icy gaze on him. “I’m leaving.” I noticed that I sounded like I was breaking up with him.

Taekwoon’s eyes were lowered, his hands resting limply in his lap. His voice was back to normal: gentle, melodious, soft. His expression was foreign to me, however, because I’d never seen such a look on his beautiful face. He shook his black hair away from his forehead and stared at me with his eyes dark again, his wolf wrestled back into control. My heart beat erratically, although I was perplexed by its reaction.

“I ran here,” he half-mumbled, and I finally took note of his attire. He was wearing only a pair of black jeans, this pair a little tattered too around the knees and hems. I was suddenly very unprepared for the sight of his bare torso, shocked once again at how incredible his body was with all that smooth, fair skin over hard, defined muscle. He wasn’t beefy or bulky, but he was not by any means scrawny; Taekwoon looked like he could really be somebody’s worst nightmare in a fight. For my admiring eyes, however, he was a straight-up fantasy.

Recalling the last time I’d seen him shirtless, I pieced it together that he’d been running around as a wolf again. It disappointed me a little that I hadn’t been able to see his furry shape, but I wasn’t going to tell him that I wanted to cuddle his wolf form anytime soon. Instead, I muttered, “You were so sure I was going to kill somebody, huh?”

He shook his head, avoiding my eyes. “Just worried,” he told me softly.

My eyebrows furrowed a bit. “Just worried?”

He stood up and strode over, bare feet noiseless over the carpet of the room. He seized my suitcase and lifted it like it weighed 5 pounds instead of nearly 100 and yanked my door open, strolling out of my old room without a second glance in my direction. I caught the rosy tint in his cheeks from admitting his concern for me, though, and my own face gained some heat.

Still, I felt like I had to needle him since he’d been such a jerk about it. Calling out after him, I teased, “So you were worried, huh?”

He ignored me, but it was impossible that he hadn’t heard me loud and clear.

I grabbed an oversized sweatshirt from my closet, one I’d decided to leave behind since it fit me too big, and walked to catch up to him. I walked by my dad’s door, and I paused for a second without really thinking. I stared at the dark wood, and then turned away and followed after Taek; I was convinced that I wasn’t abandoning my father since he’d deserted me first.

Taekwoon was already sitting shotgun in my truck, my suitcase tucked away in the back. I set my laptop carrier in with it and then climbed into the driver’s seat, throwing my oversized sweatshirt so it draped over his head. He dragged it off slowly, looking like he wanted to be annoyed, but I could see he was on the verge of smiling. While I started to drive us back towards the wolves’ den, Taekwoon shrugged into my sweatshirt wordlessly.

I wondered if what I was feeling was like what guys felt to see their girlfriends wear their clothes. I kept my smile to myself because Taekwoon was so the girlfriend.

I side-eyed him, darting my eyes back and forth between his jeans and the road ahead. I cleared my throat in a way to catch his attention, and I saw his head turn infinitesimally in my direction. Taking that as my go-ahead, I asked with unabashed curiosity, “You’re able to keep your clothes on when you change back and forth from a wolf?”

He didn’t answer immediately, and I was about to slap him on his chest to really make it painful if he was choosing to continue ignoring me, but he saved himself. “No. We have additional magic so we can…summon our clothes. It takes more energy, though, so we usually just do pants.”

I was surprised again by how much he was saying so voluntarily, but still, I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. “So does that mean that you only have jeans on right now?”

Taek turned to face me full-on, confused. “Huh?”

“Just jeans?” I asked again, my eyebrows raised. I didn’t look at him, though, keeping my eyes on the road. I was also fighting a grin.

“Yeah, I just said that,” he responded, still not catching on.

I let my grin peek through a little bit, still feeling the need for payback. I let it sink in for him, and when he finally caught what I was implying, and what he was confirming, he scoffed and jerked away, looking out the window indignantly.

“ert,” he mumbled, but I caught it loud and clear.

“Yeah. I knew you were a ert since day one,” I retorted, using my special comeback skills I’d honed thanks to growing up with bullies. “Undies are essential, you know."

He scoffed again, louder this time, and shook his head at me with a half-smile. He pointed out the windshield. “You focus on driving.”

I gasped. “I am focused on driving! Look, I’m a master.”

Taekwoon pointed at the road when I started looking over at him again, and I could see his smile was more pronounced now. “I said to focus on the road!”

I started laughing and he joined in quietly. “I am.”

Thank goodness I was. I slammed on the accelerator and jerked the wheel to the right, avoiding the cherry red pickup in time so only the rear end of my truck got clipped. I was able to keep control of the steering, fishtailing only a little, and I ended up turning onto a different road, no longer heading north but east, away from the wolves’ place. Taekwoon unclipped himself from his seat and turned around onto one knee, his other leg pressing down into the floor of his side of the truck. He stared out the back while I used my rearview mirror; the cherry truck was still following after us, having regained its own momentum to give chase. I looked at the wolf-man beside me, speeding up and pushing the truck to its full capacity. I had no idea what I was supposed to do other than lose the ones following us, but I suspected Taek had different plans.

“Keep driving,” he told me, settling back into his seat. He didn’t bother with the seatbelt again, he kept moving around in his seat too much to look back at our pursuer.

“Jekyll’s guys?” I asked, trying to keep myself calm despite the urge to find a hole to crawl into.

Taekwoon looked at me pointedly. “Most likely.” So he was definitely right about me being an idiot for coming out by myself, and I was super lucky I had him with me now. He refocused on glowering back at the truck chasing us and then told me to, “Turn into the gravel lot up ahead without signaling.” He shifted his gaze to me. “Don’t slow down.”

I swallowed the knot in my throat and channeled my inner daredevil.

I noticed how Taekwoon’s hand went to the handle on his door, and my face fell. “You’re not going to do something stupid, are you?” I whispered, suddenly terrified. I was channeling my own daredevil to work up the guts to speed onto loose gravel, but Taekwoon… Well, the wolf-man was channeling a daredemon.

Looking calmly out the windshield, seeing his target was near, Taek nodded towards the destination. “Be a master. Focus.”

Having no other choice since the truck was gaining on us, I nodded once. “Don’t get hurt,” I ordered and had the pleasant experience of getting a smirk from Taekwoon.

It was a matter of seconds. I jerked the steering wheel with one hand, gripped my gear shift with the other, and launched us onto the gravel lot Taekwoon had told me to drive into. As soon as my tires hit the loose rocks, the truck started to swerve some, skidding and sliding haphazardly, testing my driving expertise. I checked in the rearview mirror and saw the truck had followed after me and was doing a horrible job of maintaining control, and I knew it had to do with the red vehicle’s weight and size. I swerved less and less until I finally got a good handle on my truck, speeding ahead in a straight line now towards the other end of the lot.

My eyes widened. “There’s no exit,” I said, beginning to panic. “Taek, there’s no exit!”

Calmer than a fine spring day, Taekwoon turned to look at me and said again, “So be a master.”

Then he grabbed onto the steering wheel and jerked it hard towards him, sending us into a mad tilt-a-whirl. The only reason why I didn’t scream was because I was too scared, and I realized I had more survival instinct than I thought; shifting gears, I forgot about using brakes because that would just make things worse on the rocks, so I focused on slowing myself down enough to quit the tilt-a-hurl, and Taek… Well, he was smiling pretty brightly.

Noticing the red truck approaching us again, I panicked thinking it was going to ram into us, but something more shocking occurred. A gust of wind kissed my face, and then Taekwoon’s black-clad body was catapulted into the air. I caught the entire show mid-spin, gawking out the windshield of my ballerina truck. The person flying, his arms spread, wasn’t human despite his human form, and he sure didn’t look like a normal human being with the huge smile on his handsome face while he tore through the air. He landed with an audible bang on the hood of the red pickup truck that’d been chasing us, the metal groaning and screaming loud enough to pierce my ears through the roar of my own vehicle; he punched his fist through the windshield, shattering the glass instantly, sparkling bits flying everywhere in a shower of glitter, and lunged in to snatch the passenger. I totally forgot about my truck and it stalled out as I watched with fascination, the truck slowing enough on its own as if it wanted to watch the show too.

Taekwoon threw one guy over his shoulder like a piece of garbage and then reached in for the other goon, the one that had been driving so crazily. This next goon was petite, thin to the extreme, and her long brown hair was the only thing remarkable about her.

The crazy driver was a girl. I facepalmed mentally.

Forcing my truck’s E-brake on, I threw my door open and jumped out, jogging towards Taekwoon and the two offenders. The driver was looking pretty shaken up, obviously fearing for his life, but the girl was starting to swing at Taekwoon, looking pretty vicious with how angry she was. I watched anxiously as she swiped with her nails, trying to use them as weapons, preparing myself to strike at her if she dared land a hit.

Taekwoon was faster than she was, though, and kept dodging and blocking, and finally sidestepped so she fell forward with her own momentum, landing on her hands and knees. I noticed a weird fragrance, sweet and sharp, come off of her when she fell, and I stared at her intently.

She caught me staring and glared at me with unbridled malice. Taken aback by her obvious hatred for me, I looked to Taekwoon to escape the uncomfortable glowering.

She didn’t like that and spoke up when my attention left her. “I can’t believe you’re the one he’s after.”

I looked at her again, my eyes wide. “What?”

Getting up slowly from the ground, she kept her eyes on me even when Taekwoon moved to put himself between us, a silent protector. Paying no mind to the wolf-man, she continued on in an acidic tone of voice, “I expected someone with class. Someone close to royalty, even, with how he speaks of you. Not some little girl with a vampire .”

It was like hearing Jenna my high school tormentor all over again bringing up my preference for dark clothes—and I hadn’t even put on eyeliner today. Even Taekwoon turned back to look at me curiously, scanning my appearance. I felt a little having him look me up and down, so I glared at him and got him to stop with my look alone.

Addressing the human girl in front of me, I said in as calm a voice as possible, “I do not have a vampire . And as you can see, I’m avoiding the hell out of your master.”

She took a step towards me, even angrier all of a sudden. She stopped when Taekwoon held his hand out, just about to shove her back. He wasn’t being openly aggressive with her, and I wondered if he had a thing about hurting women.

Which ticked me off because he hadn’t held himself back at my parents’ house.

“You’re unworthy,” she spat. “You don’t even know how lucky you are to have his attention.”

I arched my eyebrow. “Make up your mind. Do you want me to want him back or do you want me away from him?”

“Far away,” she ground out, her eyes glistening with angry tears.

I caught on. Frowning, I shook my head slowly at her. “He doesn’t deserve you, lady. He’s evil.”

She sneered at me. “Don’t talk as if you know him.”

I tapped my temple with the tips of my fingers. “I kind of do.”

The guy on the ground decided to participate in our conversation, hissing directly to his comrade, “Shut up. You’re in enough trouble as it is.” He looked at me, bowing his head in deference. He spoke much more politely to me. “We weren’t supposed to hit you. We were only given orders to find you and you home.”

“Home?” I repeated, shivering involuntarily.

He nodded. “To Lord Jekyll.”

Jekyll really was taking the master and servant thing pretty seriously, as were the two in front of me; I was impressed with the way the guy spoke with a straight face and 100% sincerity. Not impressed with Jekyll, though, I shook my head and told him, “That’s not my home. I don’t have one,” I told him seriously and looked at the girl again. “I’m not his and he sure as hell is nothing more to me than my worst nightmare.” Her hate for me seemed to dissipate a little when I said that, but my next words got her to glare at me again, and I was fine with that. “The only time I’ll ever go to Jekyll is when I’m ready to kill him.”

On the same page as I was, Taekwoon strode over to the red truck they’d been driving and finished tearing apart the hood with his bare hands. He reached in with both hands and tugged, and more noise ensued. Metal grated and groaned, a loud hissing erupted, and fluids poured messily out from the undercarriage. He pulled out a great hunk of metal from the engine and tossed it to the side carelessly, his hands stained with the black guts of the machine. He walked back towards us, looking like a disinterested misfit; all he needed to do was draw the hood of my sweatshirt up over his head.

The two humans looked back and forth, switching to stare at me and Taek. They knew they were screwed, so they remained motionless, the girl standing with her posture rigid, and the guy sitting slumped on the ground. I backed up, walking with Taekwoon towards my truck again. Sometime during my whirling, his door had slammed closed, and mine was the one that was still sticking open. I jumped into my seat, ready to get the hell out of there, and Taekwoon joined me, closing his door with a gentle slam at the same time I shut mine. I spared the two stranded humans one last glance before driving away, relieved to be alive.

Remembering that weird fragrance the girl had, I brought it up to Taek. “Did you smell the alcohol on her?”

He looked at me, eyebrow twitching once. “Alcohol?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I think it was wine I smelled on her.” When I caught him frowning deeply, I stared. “What?”

Taekwoon looked out his window. “She was bleeding from her hands.”