Taking the last bite of the ruptured meat ball held in his hand, he meandered a seemingly interested gaze at me; dropping the remnants of heat tissue onto the metal floor with a gush. Step by step, imitating a practical procedure one would if carefully walking upon a field full of hidden mines; tiptoeing from triggering a devastating explosion.

Crawling up my body little by little till the metallic aroma reached my nostrils; Jensen's hot breath bathed on my fair like skin.

A soft chuckling cooed along the higher point of my cheek to just pecking along the entrance of my ear.

"Did you know... our little Jensen here has a magnificent secret... a tantalizing feat that he's been keeping all to himself..."

I shifted as mush as possible away underneath the stocky shell; but it made no use as the iron vapors were still stirring my intestines into a twisting sensation.

He giggled like an insanely stalkerish schoolgirl fawning over the school heartthrob.

"...want... to... know... what... it...is...?" he poked at my nose with every syllable.

My lips parted from the dryness plaguing them from the muggy air surrounding the area.

"Why would I care about his secret?" I sassed.

"Hmmpphh..." he jested; removing his chin from the school picturesque pose.

"Well, it involves your hairy little beast friend... and that my dear, should garner some attention... for I do believe you care for him!"

He had been right in his assumptions, but I wasn't about to allow him to gain any leverage over me.

"He's hardly a friend, simply a dippy hound to use." I stifled at the last word but found my assertiveness within the fractioned second.

"Good..." He gleefully clapped.

"...very good!" Immediately stifling the odd joyfulness, he had been showcasing, to a brooding scowl replacing the dimpled smile. "Then you won't mind if I scamper over and pay our toothy Ben a sinful visit?"

My chest hammered out of beat, afraid of what I may have unleashed on Ben... my friend, but he was a fiercely strong-willed guy; possibly more so than Nikki ever gave him the credit for.

"Not at all..." I grumbled.

"You're ruthless... which is why you will always end up alone..." His wailing laughs morphing to a growl.

Speeding off me and out the nearest window, crackling and splashing through the glass; taking off into the murky fog building off the ground's warmth.

We were left to our own defenses as tree limbs incessantly broke from far off in multiple directions; huffing breaths thronged closer and eventually over the crickets and frogs' musical banters.

"What do we do?" The Professor's wife whimpered; finally leaving her spouse's body's side; and joining me at the front entrance way.

I jerked in a slight retraction of her hand and from her sudden appearance; I had almost completely forgot she was even here till just now.

"I have one idea..." I proposed.

I sighed in disbelief of what rolled through the reasonable cognitions trampolining up and down.

"We are going to have run for it; the campus isn't that far from here, at least if we take a shortcut through the cemetery."

A sentence every girl dreams to utter; Disney would be proud.

**

"RUN..." I badgered. "...RUN... DAMNIT!!

Our feet patterns were sporadic as it was clear she'd been out of the practice of running for some time now. Short; tall; small; large headstones; mausoleums; oak trees galloped by.

I held onto her as we were halfway through the graveyard until her huffing and puffing became wild; as she started to chortle in coughs; suddenly breaking apart our entwined hands, as she bent over to hold her top heavy side on her knees.

I understood why she wanted to stop; I could feel my chest building up leaping fires as air wasn't returning as much as I was heaving out.

"We...uuhhff... can't... stop..." I exclaimed between exhales.

"Sweetie... I am too old... to be running like I was still in high School..." she stated. "... I don't even think I did this even when I was in high school."

I bowed over to her, hands still hooked onto her knees.

I placed a hand onto the middle of her grey and red blotted cashmere cardigan.

"If we stop... we die!" I had no better way to state it; it was completely fact.

Disagreeing with me as her hand waved me off; her head swinging repeatedly back then forth.

"Just ...go..." she huffed in a rough cough.

"I can't do that... I can't just leave..." I belled back.

"GO... YOU STUBBORN SHIT!!" Shifting her head towards my erratic gaze, suddenly I realized why her need to run had no emergency; her irises flamed with the amber glow as Jensen's had. A bullet singed my chest as I paced backwards; foot by stumble.

"RUNNNnnn...grr... grr" her syllables slowly devolving to a lower registered growl. I grimaced, then the confounded conclusion spat directly into my eye, only from the inside.

Who the hell else in this town isn't in some form of a monster?

I could hear the others growling and snarling just beyond the crypt that we had not passed but five minutes ago, they were quickly approaching (why wouldn't they – they are all on four paws) and I need to put more distance between me; them; and now – her!

I jumped, then shifted; turning down two rows over, then running to more to the left, in hopes to at least get their noses confused in where I could have truly run off to. Sweeping underneath the large branch of a live oak just on the verge of going into hibernation as fall vastly approached; the huge ball of flame caught my attention; as even from this distance the heat could be felt; it felt good; comforting; safe; as I could make out a group encircling the enormous bomb fire.

PEOPLE! Hell... FIRE! Would surely get these bone gobblers off my case.

**

Drawing up closer to the pyro loving group, staying hidden just out of view behind one of the older gravestones in the yard, oddly curious I was huddle next to, the name: Talmadge rang a slight bell somewhere in the back of my swarming brain; a name that sounded familiar but was coming up empty with conclusions as to the source.

Just one those names, I suppose; kind of like when someone says I have one those faces; where you can't exactly pinpoint to where you knew it, but it still gnawed at you.

I gave up the mind boggle search as a recognizable voice yelled. Angry; empathic; passionate in the conviction for the words he had been projecting towards the middle-aged woman and the hooligans that surrounded him and her.

"You had so much many opportunities to stop him... to hold me when I was afraid to go back to bed..." he huffed between a sniffle and a whimper. "... why do you lie to everyone... to me... to yourself... in what I promise is the truth?" His voice fell even lower, as the woman never faltered from the sternness frozen on her face.

She reached her right hand up, holding it in a stop sign form; as saying enough without bothering to say it. Her sharp nails reaching higher and pointier than the rest of her flesh colored limb; motioning with her other hand towards a heavy chested girl, yet her face was anything but human, as the stripes and pointy ears... WAIT! there's whiskers protruding out a freakin' muzzle?

What the hell?

Am I looking at a cat... err... girl... a girlcat?

What the hell is the crap called when a werewolf crossbreeds with another species... shit! I've never been the one to soak up knowledge in one sponge from those mildew laced books Nikki had.

Watching the soft reflexes of the were-cat... werecat – that's it! She brought over a rounded shape to the woman, handing the slick looking ball to her; instantly I thought of Dean biting into the professors still pulsating heart – that's what it is! I'm looking at another heart... but who's?

Quick as a breath comes and goes, I knew instantly who the heart belonged to.

Nikki.

It's hard to imagine going back into the apartment with her not going to be there... okay, snap out of it, Danni!

The horrific recognition sped up just how stupid I could be, letting myself get caught up in a random thought when all these things were lurking in the shadows behind; hell, probably even beside me; damn perfume may be great for attracting a date, but not when it comes to hiding in a musky cemetery; I may as put my hands up and scream 'I'm here... right here!'

I covered my own muzzle by both hands, in protest of squealing; only the hands held tighter as a crackle of leaves and snarl scooted goosebumps from my ass crack and up to the base of my spine. I tremored from the sensation, with the snarling caressing closer to my right ear.

"If you dare move... I bite that pretty little jugular of yours." The hot breath assured. Rasping just an inch from the right side of my neck.

"Let's go..." he commanded; snatching me up like a small twig that had been broken off one of the Oak's towering nearby; hooking both arms behind my back; securing them with only one tough grip. We pushed forward and closer to the roaring fire, and to the group.