September 16, 2005

 

Well, we've been through two lunar cycles now. Mona pretty much snoozed through the entire first cycle.  She wasn't so lucky the second time around.

After the first transition, we took her to the not-so-safe safe house. I figure it wasn't much of a risk - no one would recognize her with the fangs and the fur...or partial fur. Ugh - not a good look. I'm not saying werewolves are all cute and fluffy, but a half changed wolf? Unpleasant.

Se remained unconscious for two days. When the final transition back to human came, she even slept through that. Personally, I thought she was a gonner. Just slipping into comas-ville. But Jackie sat vigil over her until she was back in human form for good. And then Jackie crawled into bed with her. I took that as my sign to get the hell out of there.

Not that it helped. They showed up on my doorstep (okay, maybe in my apartment, since Jackie still had the spare keys) three days later when I got home from work. You remember work, right? I managed to find a temp job working nights in a warehouse. Not exactly prime employment, but the bills ain't stopping. But I digress.

With Mona in human form, Jackie decided to catalogue Mona. Don't ask me why. But she wanted my help to determine what were wolf characteristics, what were morel, and what were vamp. To make a long, painful story short - Mona's an enigma. She's got partial wolf changes (more on that soon) based on a lunar cycle. She's got trans-dimensional abilities, though she can't trigger them at will. And she's definitely got the blood craving of a vampire, despite her still-beating heart.

And she's lost a lot of weight. I wouldn't say she's exactly gaunt, yet. But she won't take blood, so that leaves her surviving on human food and occasional raw meat. It's keeping her alive, but she's hardly her happy-go-lucky plump self anymore.

Oh, and she's a strong son-of-a-bitch now. I blame myself for that (heh). I found out the hard way just how strong she is, during her second lunar cycle. I still have the bruises from that one. Mona was in a panic that day, knowing what would happen once the sun set, and the power of the moon came through at full strength. Demon/mongrel mix that she is, she didn't inherit any bravery from it all. Yeesh.

So we took her into the woods again, though it was against her and Jackie's wishes. But I finally convinced them a thrashing raving dimension-hopping creature wasn't the best thing to have on your living room sofa. When the transition came this time, it came with a vengance. Mona's eyes turned first, a deep red. Then with very little warning, she hopped in and out of this dimension.

Jackie was in a state. She ran from spot to spot as Mona appeared in this dimension, thrashing on the ground and getting more and more wolf-like. At one point, I thought she'd go to full wolf form and had to hold Jackie back. If Mona changed in full, Jackie would be dead before I could get to her.

But Mona didn't change, not completely. She settled once again into a mangy half-wolf. Bipedal (mostly) and stark raving mad. At least I thought so. Because she remained conscious this time. Her fangs dripped saliva as she howled. Jackie had the good sense finally to hide behind me, but She-Beast Mona didn't seem interested anyway.

Well, that's not quite true. She did stare at Jackie for a good long time. And then she took off in the opposite direction. And I took off after her. We played a little hide and seek in the Arboretum. I tackled her once when she veered too close to the edge of the mini forest. That wasn't the brightest move I ever made.

Because our dear She-Beast is effing strong. Wolves are wolves, whether natural or unnatural. And I can take a good half-pack in a pinch. But I had two things going against me when I took down Mona - One, she was still tall and bipedal, and two, I couldn't just kill her. Not without suffering a long explanation to Jackie afterward.

And Mona has vamp-strength now. Okay, she is (or would be, if she'd only finish the change) a fledgling. But I've been around for a wee bit of time, and my blood carries that survival strength in it. I'm not saying I'm Anne Rice hard-as-stone vampire girl (cuz that just doesn't happen), but with age, comes power. And some of that power is in Mona now.

So I got me some lumps for sure. Not that I didn't give my fair share back. Well, more than my fair share. I've got some tension to release, ya know? But Mona survived and took the hint. No human buffets tonight.

She went back into the woods and much to her surprise  (and mine) she found a pack of coyotes (in the Arboretum? who knew?). I watched from a perch up in an old maple tree while Mona gorged herself. She got a few nips from the coyotes, but they were no real match for her. But the interesting part - she didn't eat them. A wolf would have eaten them, you see. But not our She-Beast.

She drained them. After maiming the three or four that she could before the rest scattered, she went back to each one and sucked them dry. I dropped down for a closer look. Not so close that she considered me a threat to her food source, but close enough to see the elongated fangs of a vampire come out and sink into each victim. Slurp Slurp.

Now don't get me wrong - I've had to partake of the animal blood once or twice before, you know, to stay alive. But it doesn't compare to human food. It's the equivalent of eating poorly dried, beef jerky. Yeah, it might keep you alive, but it sure doesn't compare to filet minon.

And there's no *cough* sexual element to draining an animal (Thank the lord for small blessings). When a vamp takes a human - well, it's arousing to say the least. But an animal, that's just plain dull sustenance.

But now, here's the odd thing. After draining the fourth coyote, something very strange happened. Mona started changing again. Even with the moon riding high and clear, her body started to shift. She didn't pop to another dimension, luckily, so I got to watch the fur disappear, and the muzzle start to shrink. But it didn't last. She lost some of that wild wolf look in her eyes, but for the most part, she stayed a mongrel for the rest of the night.

She didn't fare as well for the next two nights when it came to non-human food sources. She did scare the crap out of another werewolf on the last night. She tore through his neck in no time. But I wouldn't let her feed. Wow that pissed her off! But given her precarious condition, I didn't think ingesting large amounts of werewolf blood would be a good thing. Might tip her over into pure wolf. Then I'd have to kill her. Just, you know, on principle.

So we managed another cycle. Mona snapped out of it the next day, but she remembered it all, I think. She won't talk about it, but you can see that guilt in her eyes that says she knows what she did. It's not the vague fear of the unknown that werewolves get in human form. The I-blacked-out-but-why-am-I-covered-in-blood-and-oddly-full look. Mona's was more self-aware than that.

I didn't tell Jackie about the near transition back to human. She's the one setting the limits on Mona's feast days. Squeemish about her girlfriend munching down on fellow humans and all that. But next cycle, I'm all for a little experimentation. It's about time Mona took some human blood. If she'll only do it in wolf-mongrel form, then such is life.

My life would certainly get easier if I could tip her over the edge into full vamp fledgling. All this running around with a mutt is getting on my nerves.
 

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