My heart still beating from all the shock, I turned my head to see through the back window. Black shadows were moving in the darkness. Slowly they stepped in the middle of the road and watched us leave. This figure didn't seem to belong to a human, but I have no idea what else it could be. Its glowing eyes were only things I recognized now. But then we turned around a bend and the silhouette was veiled by the forest.

I eyed the woman who had saved me, thinking through the questions I needed to get some answers to. But then I noticed something. A lonely tear on her cheek. She was concentrating on the road, trying to hold back what was waiting in the corners of her eyes.

"Where are we going?" I finally asked.

She wiped the tear away and blinked a few times, trying to look like nothing was wrong. But she wasn't that good of an actor. "You are... Selina, am I right?"

I nodded. "How did you know?"

"You go to same school with my son," she replied.

"Your son?" I asked, hoping to get the name.

She nodded and seemed a bit hesitant before answering. "Jake."

This name brought back the fear that had started to fade when I got saved. I leaned against the door and rapidly grabbed the door's handle.

"No, no. I will take you to your home. I'm not here to hurt you," she tried to calm me down. I noticed she was ready to hit the brakes. "I wouldn't have brought you from there otherwise. When I... Actually I'm not even sure why I drove there. And when I saw you running, escaping from something, I knew they were there... I couldn't just drive away like nothing happened. I don't want him to do this." Her voice broke with the last sentence and another tear ran down her cheek. I didn't calm down completely, but pulled back my hand and slumped back on my seat. She didn't seem to be lying.

"Did you see him...?" she asked after a few moments of silence. It sounded like she trailed off, but I saw she was waiting for my answer.

"Jake was the one who kicked off that door. He was chasing me," I said dryly.

"But did you see them... different?" she specified. She didn't look at me when she talked.

I shivered when thinking of the memory and took a deep breath. "Their eyes were glowing. Like cats' eyes. And... one had fangs." When the image appeared in front of my eyes again, I slightly flinched.

"And this was all?"

I stared at her. There's something else? "What are they?" I asked, my voice was too demanding. Jake's mum didn't take her eyes from the road, and slightly shook her head. Her lips were pressed together.

"You must tell me!" I had raised my voice, sounding even more demanding. I couldn't let her just stay quiet. I needed to know. I almost got killed tonight.

"Humans can't know about them," she finally mumbled, clenching the wheel. She wished not to talk about that, but I'm not letting that happen.

"I must know. I can't go on with my life like this. I would do research." I'm sure she saw the problem. I had witnessed something, and I won't let it go too easily.

After a few moments she sighed and loosened her tight grip on the wheel. "Well... You have probably heard the myths about werewolves," she said slowly.

"Werewolves?!" I screeched.

"No, they're not werewolves. But... It's something similar."

I waited for her to continue, no matter how weird or impossible it would sound. I've seen enough to believe anything.

"You need to keep your eyes open. There can be people who are keeping things from you. But not all live like they... Like Jake." I saw another tear, which she wiped away. "I'd recommend to avoid walking in the dark alone. And not to trust every stranger. And please, you can't tell about this to anyone. World can't know about them."

"Can't know? He almost killed me!" I can't believe she's even protecting someone like this. "And you still haven't told me what exactly are they."

"I... Sorry, but I'm not hiding it only for Jake. I said they weren't the only ones. You would be surprised to know how many share the same secret. Mankind isn't ready for this. Revealing it would bring too many changes and bad consequences. Besides, not all savannians are bad, and they don't want too much attention."

"Savannians? That's what they're called?"

From her eyes I could read that she didn't plan on telling me this. "Generally, yes," she said silently. "But you won't find anything about it in the Internet," she added before I could start hoping anything.

"But then tell me, please," I asked, forcing myself this time to sound more calm. "Maybe then I'm willing to give you my word."

I saw her bite her lip, when she had a short glimpse at me. "It's not only about keeping the secret," she said. "When Jake believes you can reveal it, he might come after you."

This thought scared me. And I also remembered something else. "But we go to same school. If he sees me again...?"

"Jake won't attack in public. And they don't hunt very often. At least not... humans. If he wants to keep you quiet, he can also do it be threatening." This didn't sound too well either. She continued. "Jake and his gang are... They're jaguars. He got those genes from my great grandmother. But her husband and children were all humans. And their children's children were humans too. What further savannian's genes stay, the smaller the opportunity that they ever show up in this bloodline again. But parents still gave their children the knowledge, in case it should happen." She sighed. "When Jake was born, I loved him right away. Like mother always loves her child. It was until few days later that I noticed his... symptoms. It was a shock to me. And I know what many human parents do when they discover this." New tears appeared in the corners of her eyes. "They get rid of the child as soon as possible." She said this sentence hurriedly. "But I couldn't do this. I decided to teach and influence him as well as possible. I knew it might not be an easy task. But back then I believed in myself.

When he was little, it was easier. I taught him what is right and what is wrong. I told him how to behave. But when he grew older and started going to school, things started to go downhill. At first it was fine. But it was too late when I learned about the gang he started to go around with. And when I learned who those boys were, I did everything I could to not let him be with them. But it didn't stop Jake. They had too much bad influence on him. It only took them few months to turn around everything I had taught Jake over the years. He was too young when he already acted like a teenager. He didn't listen to me, remonstrated. Very soon I learned that I wouldn't ever be able to keep Jake apart from them. But I still tried." Now she wasn't able to keep her tears back any more, and her voice became shaky. "One day he got angry at me. He... He changed. He growled at me and for a moment I even thought he would..." Her voice broke. "I thought he would attack me. He was very close to doing this. And at the same time, savannians don't have troubles with self control. He knew exactly what he was doing." Tears rolled down her cheek, and it seemed like they won't stop again. She had to take deep breaths to keep her voice under control and keep talking. "After that I didn't have the courage to try anymore. I couldn't do anything anyway. No matter what I would have tried. And then... Then the worst thing came." I understood it was hard for her to keep talking. I didn't say anything. "Jake came home. And he wasn't even trying to hide it from me. He talked about it like... like something completely casual. He told me how his friends had told him about this. Jake described me how they had... how they had killed a girl." There her voice broke again and she burst in tears stronger than before. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to comfort her. It made me sad to see her like this.

"It was long ago already. Years ago," she said when she got her voice back. "And even after all that, I still love my son. He has a great personality actually. He is sweet; helpful... he's a good person, otherwise. And I know this isn't just a pretend. It's just that he is too good at controlling his emotions. And... every time he takes someone's life, I feel like it's my fault. Like I didn't raise him as well as needed..." She started crying again.

I still didn't say anything. Just waited until she stopped. For some reason I felt guilty. Maybe because of what I thought of her when I learned she was Jake's mum. I had no idea what she has been through. She had clearly been needing to talk to someone about this.

"I'm scared," she said after a while. "I'm scared of him. Even if he has never caused me any physical pain, I'm scared of him. I've tried my best not to show it out."

When she didn't talk anymore, I thought it all over again. "So... You mentioned jaguars. Is it some name of a group, or...?"

"I said that savannians is their general name. They are different. Jake and his gang are jaguars."

I nodded. "Okay then. I... I'll think about this promise. Sorry, but it's all just too new and strange to me. I need to think. But I promise that so far I won't tell anyone."

"Of course," she said quietly.

I then noticed lights from the distance and realized we were back in Blue Mist. I gave her directions to my home and soon we were there. I was about to open the door, but stopped.

"But..."

"Claudia," she said, giving me her name.

"Claudia, I was thinking that... if Jake saw me coming in the car, did he realize it was you?"

She nodded. "Probably."

"But wouldn't he then... get angry or something?"

Claudia shrugged. "I wouldn't have let him kill you just because of my fear. Whatever comes, I can handle it."

I nodded to her and opened the door to step out from the car. She drove off when I reached the front door of my house.