Van

Van promised Luca she'd be fine, but after an hour, she realized she'd lied. She was going to die. Cause of death: boredom.

She chewed on the end of her thumbnail while staring through the windshield. What was wrong with her? Why was she being so dramatic? Most people would appreciate a little boredom after going through hell and back for the last few months; instead, the more time that passed, the antsier she got.

On the console by her elbow, her phone and the radio remained silent. That was a good thing, right? No news was good news and all that? And an hour wasn't so bad. They'd talked about time expectations, and Luca made it clear to everyone it was unlikely this mission was a simple in and out retrieval. There was a reason the vampires hadn't killed Brantley, and it wasn't to gift wrap him as a thank you present for taking down the Asylum.

But the longer she sat there, the more discontent she grew. It wasn't that she wanted anything to happen–not really. It was the being left behind that put her out of sorts. She'd already spent three weeks being left behind.

Van understood the reasons for it, and when she watched the group disappear into the damp, gray woods, she'd been sure it was better that she stay behind. After all, she'd passed out in the car almost as soon as it started moving, though she blamed the sudden exhaustion on her recent shift and not the fact she woke up from a coma the day before.

The leather beneath her creaked as she sat up to get a better view of the area. When she was certain no one was nearby, she opened the door and slipped out, drawing in a deep lungful of the cold, piney scented air. Stretching her legs couldn't hurt.

Except it didn't end at stretching her legs. Van made three loops around the car, pausing each time in a different spot to peer through the trees, hoping to see her friends coming back to her, the baby brother she'd only seen in pictures among them. On the fourth loop, she exhaled and thumped her fist on the trunk of the car.

"Maybe," she whispered and held her hands out in front of her.

Searching for that spark inside of her that had lit when Luca was in trouble, she urged her body to shift back into the wolf. Livy had warned her to start small and simple, but surely an animal she'd already been would be the easiest. It didn't hurt that a wolf stood a better chance against vampires than something puny, like a mouse or chipmunk did.

Unlike previous attempts, Van felt something this time. It wasn't much, just the sense that there was something else inside her. In her mind's eye, everything was darkness–she shivered. It was far too much like the void she'd lived in for weeks. Shoving that thought away, she imagined moving her hands through the black until something brushed against her knuckles.

Gasping, she opened a single eye and suppressed a squeal of delight when she saw her skin rippling. "Focus, Van."

She reached for the thread, imagining her fingers pinching together over it. Imagined pulling it. And then–

"Van!"

It all slipped away like water through her fingers as she opened her eyes. To her horror, Hailey limped between Bane and Livy, blood dripping into an eye nearly swollen shut. The shifters on her side wore twin expressions of worry whenever they glanced at the girl, but it was what Van couldn't see on Livy's face when she turned to look over her shoulder that nearly broke her.

"Where is Luca?"

"We were ambushed," Hailey explained.

They opened a back door and eased the injured Slayer inside. Livy stepped back. Reluctance settled on her like a second skin, but already her steps were taking her back the way she came. Bane bellowed when he looked up from Hailey.

"Livy, no. We have to go."

Van held her stomach. She was going to be sick.

Livy snarled and a dozen different colored furs broke through her skin. "Since when do you follow orders?"

"Someone tell me what is going on."

Bane closed the door, cutting off Hailey's slew of protests. "You saw what happened. Going back there won't save anyone. We did what we came for, anyway. They got Brantley."

"Oh, thank god," Van said, pushing her palm against the cold taillight as she steadied her thumping heart. Luca had to be with his family. He must have been separated then. "Who did we lose?"

Livy finally looked at Van. Her rage receded, turning to sorrow. "It was a trap. Th-they–"

Her speech faltered through tears, and Van saw the moment Livy accepted what Bane had been saying and gave up the idea of heading back into the woods. Tan arms went around her chest. It would be easy to mistake the move as an attempt to protect her naked form from the cold, but Van saw it for what it was–an attempt to hold herself together.

"Say it," Van demanded. She knew what happened, but she needed to hear it.

"They had collars, Van," Bane spat out. "They put one of those fucking collars on Brooks."

Memories of collars and leashes hanging on the walls in her father's basement surged forward. The excruciating pain she'd felt when she touched them only to learn later, the Slayers made them with the flesh of Proteans. And then in the cemetery, when Luca told her, "When they're put around a shifter's neck, we can do nothing but obey."

"N-n-no."

This time, when she shifted, she paid attention. Between the twisting bones and flesh falling away, she felt an unraveling in her chest. Like everything that made her Van fell away until she was a creature of teeth and claws, fur and fire.

The scent of wet earth filled her nose as she dropped to all fours, but as her nose elongated to a snout, layers of smell piled on top of the single odor. Dried leaves. The musk of a rodent. An incoming storm. But it was the sharp, sulfurous odor pushing in from the direction her friends came that called to her. It still clung to their skin, and she committed this scent to memory.

Vampire.

"Van, stop," Livy shouted, pacing after her. There was a dark object in her hand. She must have picked it up while Van was shifting. "Bane–the bastard–is right. We can't do anything right now."

Van growled and snapped. She wanted nothing more than to bolt ahead, but as much as the animal instincts in her fought for control, her need to see Luca safe gave her just enough of an edge to give the reins to her human instincts.

"Please. Luca is like a brother to me. I will not let him rot with those monsters, but I need you to help me save him."

Livy's fingers curled into the gray fur, and she tugged. Van froze, bristling as she fought the urge to bite the hand touching her. She hated she couldn't speak to her, but as soon as she had the thought, there was a shift in her throat and mouth.

"Livy, shift and help me or get out of my way." Only a little of Van remained in the guttural growl. Tears pooled in Livy's eyes. "That's the only answer I need."

Terrified she'd allowed too much time to pass since they collared Luca, Van pushed her paws into the ground and prepared to run. To let the wolf lead until it brought her to the boy who sat with her for three weeks. The boy she refused to lose after just getting him back.

But a sharp pinch in Van's neck sent her stumbling, and the last thing she saw was Livy standing over her, her hands trembling as she lowered a gun.