Evil Is a Man

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

If you like what you're reading, let me know: SellarDhor@gmail.com. And let me know where you want the story to go and who you want Jake to end up with. And if you have any ideas for the future, let me know, I might include them.

APRIL 11th

"There's no one here," Alik said, after we had toured Rebekka's parents' cabin, a cozy little thing nestled in the woods. "So, where are they all? Where is my brother?"

"I don't know," said Rebekka. "I swore they would be here."

"I don't think anyone's been here for months," Helina said, looking at the kitchen cabinets. "All the food's gone rotten."

"Jake, does any of this seem familiar?" asked Alik.

"No. I know Vadim was going with his friends to this cabin. But I don't have any memory of him actually getting here."

"Which doesn't mean he didn't," Vlad said.

"No."

"I don't see any sign of an intrusion here," Vlad said.

"My parents believed that Russia was infested with vampires, for whatever odd reason. And they also thought China was. But they considered Mongolia as being as safe haven, and often said that if something were to go wrong here, they'd flee there to some of our friends. They must have somehow been nervous enough to take all of their friends there too."

"But if that's the case, wouldn't they have taken more with them?" I asked. "It doesn't look like anything's missing."

"Maybe."

I found a map on the counter of the nearby town and forest, with the cabin marked on it. I studied the map carefully, finding some other house marked on it. "Rebekka, what is this marking here? It's a place not far from here in the woods."

She looked. "I did tell you I hate maps, didn't I? Oh, but luckily, I know that one. That's the oldest house we have in these parts, a big, creepy old dwelling. My parents used to hike there with me when I was a girl, telling me it used to belong to the man they considered the town's Great Hero."

I got a tingling sensation down my back. "I know this place."

"How could you have? We went a completely other route to their cabin that didn't take us anywhere near there."

"Would Vadim have known what the place was?"

"Probably not."

"He was there. He must have called me from there. He and Petro, I remember now. To them it was just some strange, creepy old house."

"Can you take us there?" asked Alik.

"I don't think I can remember the way," she said.

"I have a compass," I said. "With this map, I could take us there. But it's already afternoon, we wouldn't make it there before dark. Should we just stay the night here?"

Rebekka turned on the water faucet, but nothing came out. "Uh oh, the water's been shut off," she said. "That's the one thing that was always reliable before."

"Are there any other natural sources of water around here?"

"No. And we don't have enough to get us all the way home."

I looked at the map. "In the direction of the Great Hero's house, there's a stream on the map. It shouldn't take more than an hour to get there, and we have enough sunlight left for that. We'll make camp there."

About a half hour into our hike that afternoon, I noticed a change in the scenery. The whole time we had been hiking before, the forest was lush and beautiful, the trees budding with new spring leaves and starting to flower.

But as we started to move in the direction of the Great Hero's house, the forest changed. It felt noticeably colder outside, and I wondered if that temperature change had caused the trees not to realize it was spring, as those around us were leafless and skeletal, making eerie sounds as the wind blew through their dead-like branches. Where there had been grass on the ground, now there was nothing but dirt, reflecting the finger-like shadows the sun was making through the trees.

I started to feel a deep sense of foreboding about our surroundings, not wanting to take another step forwards, but I couldn't share those feelings without feeling like a serious coward, so I said nothing.

"Oh great, it's gone dry!" Alik said.

I looked at the creek bed, and realized he was right. Around us, all the trees looked like they were either dead or dying of thirst as a result.

"I am starting to remember the way now," Rebekka said. "We don't have much light left, but if we took flashlights, we could still make it to the Great Hero's house tonight and see if there's any water sources there."

For some reason, the idea of continuing forward in the dark and exploring the old house at night made me feel deeply afraid. "No, it's too late for us to go any further. We have enough water to get us through tomorrow morning, so let's just camp here for the night."

"Everyone set up camp!" Rebekka said to the others.

Vlad came over and snatched the map away from me. He pointed at mark not far from our position. "There's another cabin there, just a kilometer away from us, straight down the creekbed. You all set up camp, I'll go see if they have water."

He picked up our empty water bottles and headed off.

"I don't like the idea of anyone going off on their own," I said. "I'll go with him. Alik, I'm relying on you to build our tent this time."

"I can help him," said Rebekka. "Both of them. And take my flashlight, it's getting dark."

I hurried off to catch up with Vlad. "I don't want you following me."

"Well, too bad."

"I'm not waiting for your ass. If you can't keep up with me, too bad."

"I'm pretty sure that won't be a problem."

A few minutes into the walk, I noticed how odd it was that I wasn't hearing any bird noises anymore. In fact, I couldn't remember the last time I had heard them. All I could hear when I listened was the sound of our footsteps.

And then there was something else. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"A dog barking?"

"Yes. It's probably coming from the cabin we're moving towards. Probably a good sign that someone is there."

But it didn't sound at all like it was coming from ahead of us. I could hear it from the right.

A few minutes later, Vlad broke our silence. "I have to pee. Wait here."

"Okay."

Vlad left the creekbed, moving to the left, disappearing into the woods.

Being alone made me nervous, as I listened to the dog barks getting closer, louder and louder.

Then, as I listened, the barking stopped completely, leaving me in complete, eerie silence.

I heard what sounded like a fierce, wild animal roar coming from my right. It sounded about as far out as the dog barking had been, and definitely could only be produced by something very large. A tingles ran sown my spine.

Freaked out, I ran over away from the creekbed, moving into the forest to try to find Vlad. I ran until I found him, watering a tree trunk with the penis he had pulled out of his jeans fly.

"There was a roar, did you hear it?!"

"No, I didn't hear it."

"Well, it was off in the distance, but it sounded like a large animal. It sounded fierce. I'm assuming you don't have dinosaurs roaming your forests, so maybe it was a bear?"

"Oh, sure, you ran back here, scared for your life of a bear instead of staying on that trail like a sane person like I asked you too. It had nothing to do with the fact that you had an excuse to see me with my cock out, does it? Well, now that you're here invading my private space, might as well take a good long look at my most private part. You planned to come alone with me just so you could find some lame excuse to eyeball my dick, didn't you, pervert?"

"That's so wrong."

"You must have seen that I had a serious package in my jeans, so here you are, seeing it out in the open, drooling at the sight of my big member."

"I didn't even notice its size. That had nothing to do with this."

He shook his flaccid, uncut dick for me. "What, you never noticed how big this thing was?"

"I never even thought about it or noticed that, no."

"But you admit that it's big and attractive?"

"I guess so, but that's not my motivation for coming back here. I was seriously scared."

""Riiight. You just keep your disgusting hands off my big dick." He put it back in his jeans. "It's for the ladies, not for you, faggot."

"Now that we have that settled, can we please just drop this?"

We headed back to the creekbed and continued to hike. I kept listening for another roar or some other noise that would convince him I wasn't making it all up, but I heard nothing.

Night fell, making the forest around us being lit with nothing but flashlight beams, which was even creepier than ever. And suddenly, my flashlight went out, scaring me half to death.

I was walking behind Vlad that whole time, but without my light, I couldn't see anything but the space illuminated by his flashlight in front of him, and as tripping on rocks. I ran up to stand beside him.

"I don't like you walking so close to me," he said.

"Fine, I'll walk ahead of you then where I can see." I moved to walk ahead of him.

"Oh yeah, I know how your dirty mind is working."

"What?"

"You think walking in front of me, giving me such an eyeful of your ass will make me break down with desire and fuck you in the butt with my big cock."

"What?! I would never!"

"You can't deny it. How come the first time you hike alone with me, you aren't wearing your backpack that would cover up your ass from view?"

"Because I left it back at camp!"

"Oh, right. And I bet you left your only belt back at camp too, and that will explain why your pants are about to fall to your ankles, leaving you bare assed. I can't wait to hear all of your creative excuses why your hole will be all filled with lube."

"Gross, I didn't even bring any lube hiking with me. That's not exactly part of my ten backpacking essentials. The only reason I'm in front of you is because my light went out."

"Let me see that." He grabbed the flashlight for me. He screwed the top on some, and got it to come off. "Oh, how convenient for you that the flashlight came unscrewed."

"I had no idea it just needed to be screwed on, I swear!"

"Oh, sure!"

I walked back behind him, letting him have his space, as we continued.

He stopped walking again. "I need to pee."

"Again? Wasn't it like five seconds ago that you peed? I never recalled you having an overactive bladder before."

"The problem is, last time someone interrupted me and kept me from finishing. Now, wait here."

He walked off to the left of the creekbed again, disappearing into the trees.

Without our footsteps ringing in my ears, all I had to listen to was silence. And then, once again, I heard another blood curdling roar in the distance, sounding like a bear's roar. Again, the sound made my blood curl. But this time, I was staying put, not embarrassing myself by interrupting Vlad.

And then I heard a very large branch break and fall to the ground, not even thirty yards to the right of me. I forgot my dignity and ran away from the creekbed to the left, looking for Vlad with my flashlight.

I found him with his back to me, facing a tree, legs spread.

"A bear, I heard a bear back there, I know it!"

He tilted his head back around to look at me. His eyes went wide with surprise as he looked at something behind me. "Oh yeah, I see it coming, quick, hide behind me!"

He pulled me in between him and the tree and knocked me down on my knees, with me not worrying about the possibility that my shins might be hitting his urine (clearly a testament to how scared I was).

I felt him slap his hard dick against my lips, startling me. "Since you refuse to leave me alone and make up any hair brained excuse to see my big cock, I'm gonna let you make your dreams come true and suck the thing." He stuck it into my mouth.

I spit it out. "You weren't out here pissing, you've been out here jerking off! Listen, I think the two of us think we've stepped into two very different movies. I'm living in a killer bear movie, while you are in some porno movie. A very bizarre porno movie."

He didn't listen to me. "Suck on my cock, like you've been begging to do, and you'd better not tell anyone about this. I said suck it, faggot! Do what your faggot mouth was born to do!"

"No, I refuse!" I got up and started to walk away.

"I know why you're not sucking my dick right now, it's because you hate when I call you a faggot. Well, if you give me one hot blowjob, I promise not to call you names anymore."

"No deal! I'm going back to the camp, I refuse to be with you for a second longer. I'd rather get eaten by a bear that suffer your presence!"

"Good riddance, faggot!"

I walked back to the creekbed and started back the way I had come, walking towards my camp, fuming mad.

Twenty minutes later, I heard another roar, coming from the same direction, this time to my left. The fear returned, made worse by being alone.

I sped my pace up, wanting to reach camp as quickly as I could.

As I continued on, a strange smell started to hit my nostrils, something sweet and faintly smelling of ammonia. Was it urine? Yes, urine, for sure. Was I back to where Vlad had first relieved himself?

But as I kept walking, the urine smell remained. And my light beam focused on one of the trunks I was passing and I saw claw marks there, making me feel sick.

As I walked on, I noticed a few more trunks with claw marks, like a bear marking its territory, perhaps. A very large bear, from the size of those claws. And the urine smell only got worse.

When a roar sounded to my left again, this time much, much closer than before, I jumped, and had to force myself to keep walking.

And then my worst nightmare became reality: my flashlight went out.

No, no, this can't happen to me.

It had to have been unscrewed again. I played with the flashlight, trying to screw it back in, but only finding it was already screwed together properly. That wasn't the problem. It must have just gone out of batteries.

I shouldn't have gone hiking alone in the forest, especially not at night. The last time I had made that mistake, back in Tahoe, I had almost ended up getting attacked by a bear.

At least that time there was a bright moon in the sky that intermittingly lit up my surroundings. This time, the sky was overcast, making everything around me inky black, causing my heart to race.

I couldn't continue walking if I couldn't see, so the only thing I could do was be still and hope the bear would never come my way. I sat down and tried to make myself as small as possible on the dusty ground.

As time crept by, I began to hear hugely heavy footsteps of an animal to my left, a ways out. Soon, I could hear deep breathing too. The sounds weren't just moving parallel to me, they seemed to be getting closer. But what were the chances that a bear would cross my path exactly? It seemed very unlikely.

And then something occurred to me. I remembered that animals, especially herd animals, liked natural paths like the one I was on because it was easier to travel through than thick branches. And bears, being predators with more smarts than the average grazer, might patrol those game paths looking for food, especially right at sundown, when the nocturnal animals made their appearance.

Which meant, once the bear got to this dry creeekbed, he wouldn't just cross it and keep moving. He would turn on it and come straight for me. This was the worst place to hide.

I crawled off to the right, away from the bear sounds, leaving the creekbed behind. I tried as hard as I could not to make a sound as I managed to get perhaps fifty yards away from the trail, where I knew it wouldn't be able to smell me. I wanted to find a hiding spot. It was too dark to climb a tree safely, and bears could climb trees too.

Luck smiled on me when I came across a me-sized alcove in the thick roots of a very large tree. On the outside, wood extended around, making a hard casing that only had a slit open that was barely large enough for me to climb through, much too large for a bear to follow. I tested the durability of this wood, and was impressed how hard and immobile it was. No bear was strong enough to break through it.

I climbed into the alcove, with there being just enough room for me with my hands at my sides, not enough to move them. Already I felt much safer.

I heard the bear break through branches along the creekbed, not where I had been, but a ways off towards the cabin Vlad had walked to. Just as I suspected, the bear stopped at that creekbed and walked along it. I could tell because the sound of breaking branches stopped, but the sound of massive footfalls continued, along with the occasional snort. The bear was moving towards the camp, meaning it would have walked right over where I had been sitting if I hadn't moved away.

I could hear it walk down the creekbed. And then I could hear it stop suddenly, exactly where I had once been sitting.

I heard deep sniffs the animal made, inspecting the ground.

Just a human. You don't eat human meat, you just eat human food. And I had absolutely nothing on me that was edible or even pleasantly fragrant that could possibly interest you. Just keep moving down the creekbed.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I heard the bear continue to walk along the creekbed.

And then I felt newly frustrated as I heard branches breaking again and realized it wasn't moving down the creekbed, it was leaving it, and coming in my direction, sniffing out my scent.

Could a bear follow a human's scent for fifty yards? I wasn't wearing any cologne or anything fragrant, so it would just be my sweat it would be smelling, and I couldn't smell myself.

The answer, I discovered, was yes. The bear broke branches, sniffing me out all the way to the tree I was hiding under, until it was right next to me.

Even though I knew I was safely secure, having the bear so close to me, hearing it's heavy breathing right next to me, it made my heart race, and it only made me more afraid that I couldn't see the thing because it was still pitch black.

It found me finally, snorting angrily, sniffing. I could feel it try to stick a paw through the crack and get at me, but I was safely pressed against the other side of the alcove.

I could hear it stick its head through the crack and try to bite me, jaws snapping shut, but once again, it couldn't touch me.

"Go away, bear!" I yelled in a deep, authoritative voice. "There's no food for you here!"

It roared angrily in frustration, and then pulled its head out of the crack.

I heard it pacing around above me angrily, not being able to work out a solution to its problem, huffing and snorting with displeasure.

And then I heard nothing. Silence. Had it left me alone finally?

SNAP.

I heard my wooden cage being torn in two. How could a bear possibly be that strong? I heard more sickening crackling noises as the bear completely shredded through the wood with what must have been its claws and teeth.

Panic overcame me as I felt the bear's wet nose pressed against my face. I wanted too much to get up and run, but I knew running would only set off its hunter instincts. No, I did the only logical decision I had.

I shut my eyes, tried to stifle my heavy breathing, and I played dead.

The bear sniffed down my entire body, then back up again to my face. I could feel warm spit splatter my face, feel hot breath on my skin.

I felt sudden alarm as it lowered its face to my neck and snapped its jaws shut suddenly, but it only bit into my shirt, which it ripped completely off my body.

Next, it sank its teeth into my pants, ripping those and my underwear off too, leaving me lying there in just my shoes. It grabbed all the clothes and set them down a few feet away, sniffing through them carefully. Had I been wrong, was there some food item I had forgotten about there, is that what this was all about? Or was it used to the clothes holding such things in other hikers it had come across, and it was hopeful to find something?

Yes, take the clothes and leave me here.

The animal chewed through my clothes, and then, either satisfied or unsatisfied, abandoned them.

Leave, please leave. There's nothing for you here.

I felt nauseous as I heard and felt the bear shuffle back to me. I could only hope it would take one last look, and leave.

Instead, I felt hot slobber land on my chest. Followed by a long, warm tongue licking my face, almost making me shake my head and give up my playing dead attempt.

The animal licked me from my head down my neck, licking my armpits and chest, completely dousing me in hot slobber.

See? I know I don't taste like food, so make up your mind and let me leave.

It licked down my stomach, through my pubes, and encircled my penis with its long tongue, sending slobber all over it in the process. It licked my thighs, then roared, surprising me by flipping my body over onto my front, with me just managing to stay lifeless the whole time, landing face down in my pile of shredded clothes.

I was hoping it might leave me alone that way, but was dismayed to feel hot liquid start to spill all over my back, and then actual licking began from the back of my head down my neck and my back.

There was something really disturbing about the way it was so interested in licking me. It was almost as if I could see it changing from a predator that wouldn't eat human meat to one that would. Why would it be licking me so enthusiastically, covering me in slime, if this weren't a prelude to biting into me? I saw myself what the dry creek had done to the trees around here, and perhaps that was why there were no more birds, and possibly no more prey for this bear. It could be so starving, it would make anything a meal.

I made a decision and started to, very slowly, try to find the handgun I had been carrying in my pants pocket. Before, I hadn't wanted to use it on the poor bear, and I still felt badly about killing it, but if it was either it or me, and especially if the bear got a taste for human meat and started to attack other hikers in the area, I really had no choice.

It stopped moving down my body when it got to my buttcheeks. It licked them over and over, and then started to lick my crack with its long tongue repeatedly. Thank goodness it was taking its sweet time with that area, because it was allowing me to get closer and closer to the gun underneath me. But why was it so enamored with that part of me? I supposed it was like how dogs were known for sniffing each other's butts, something about my scent there was interesting to it.

So much so, that the bear actually licked inside me, which I found to be hideously disgusting. I could feel a long tongue moving into me, wetting my insides.

Finally, it pulled its tongue out, and when it stopped licking me, I gave it one more chance to leave me in peace.

Instead, I felt fur for the first time all over my back as the bear climbed on top of my back, crushing me with its weight and biting into the back of my neck.

I finally got my fingers around that gun, pulled the safety off, and pulled it with my right arm over my left shoulder, pointing it up. I pushed the muzzle into its fur and started to fire.

The loudness of the blast was muffled by the fur, which was good for my ears. The beast started to roar as I unloaded my entire magazine into its body, not wanting to it to suffer, just wanting to kill it.

The surprised, confused, painful roar continued as it pulled off of me and ran away, moving away as it retreated violently. I felt bad that I hadn't killed it, and it staggered away, first across the creekbed, and then farther and farther back until it was so far away, I couldn't hear it anymore. I tried to put my clothes back on, able to tie torn bits back when needed, and then looked out in the distance.

Up ahead of me, just when I was sure I'd have to crawl on my hands all the way back to camp because I still had no light, I could see a fire come to life and illuminate the ground with just enough light to see me back to camp. And I knew it must have been coming from camp, closer to me than I thought.

"What happened to you?" Alik asked, concerned, as soon as I stumbled into camp. "Why are your clothes all ripped?"

"I bet I know why," Helina said. "Maxim told me there was something horrible that happened to mainstream fashion called the eighties, forcing people to voluntarily cut holes in all their clothes to keep from being outcast from the masses. I'm sure Jake is just trying to fit in."

"Either that, or I almost ended up as bear food on my way back to camp."

"Are you okay?" asked Alik.

"I'm fine."

"What about Vlad? Is he okay?" asked Rebekka.

"Vlad and I parted ways in the middle of the hike because, well, we weren't seeing eye to eye. He hiked on towards the cabin, and I came back. My flashlight went dead, and that's when I was attacked and almost eaten. Thank goodness for the handgun you gave me."

"Do you think Vlad may be attacked on his way back?" asked Rebekka.

"Since I completely unloaded my handgun into the animal, I highly doubt it will bother anyone again."

"No, there's no way it would survive that longer than a few minutes."

"You know what? I feel pain in my neck, all of the sudden. Can you take a look?"

"You're cut bad, Jake," Alik said, looking.

"I'll go get the first aid kit," said Rebekka, moving towards her tent.

Helina took a look. "You want me to lick this away?"

"Let me see, would I rather have you heal it instantly, or have a bandage to worry about for a couple weeks? What do I pick?"

"I don't even know why I bother asking your opinion on anything," she joked.

"But what if Rebekka comes back and sees this?" Alik asked.

"Oh, right, her," said Helina. "I guess her seeing me with my fangs out making wounds go away with my tongue might upset her or something? Wow, the modern world sure can be stupid. Alik, instead of standing their gawking and worrying about Jake's wounds, make yourself useful. I know you know how to be useful, I've seen it before. Go find a way to distract Rebekka."

"I really only have one way to distract women, but that would be wrong of me considering my relationship to Jake, as well as the fact that she might end up being my future mother-in-law."

"That's so not what I was suggesting. I'm sure there must be a second expertise of yours that you can distract her with."

Rebekka came back and handed us the first aid kit.

Alik grabbed her and pulled her away from us. "These people can handle putting on a band-aid without us, I'm sure. Come with me, Rebekka, there's something I'm really excited to go over with you."

"What's that?" she asked, following him, him keeping her back to us.

"Do you know I used to be a boxer?"

"No. That's great," she said, though she sounded completely disinterested.

"If there's one thing that would make me happy right now, it would be to give you a boxing lesson."

"Me? A boxing lesson? Whatever for?"

"I'm just itching to pass along my skills. Jake and Helina won't learn it, so that leaves you."

"Why would you think I would ever make a good boxer?"

"Because you've got a wonderfully muscular body already."

"I'm not sure that qualifies as a compliment."

"Oh, from me, it so is. Now, hit me in the chest and let me critique your form."

While the two of them were boxing, Helina's tongue healed my wound.

I got into my tent, took all my clothes off, and got a new set of clothes out. I still felt gross from the animals saliva, but I knew a shower wasn't exactly permissible with our current water shortage, so I got out my wet wipes.

"Alik, are you busy right now?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm having loads of fun teaching Rebekka how to box right now."

"I'm naked in here and could use your help."

"Whoa, nudity, this early in the evening? I'll be right there!"

He hurried into the tent. "I want to wipe my whole body down with these things in order to get me cleaned up. Can you help me?"

"Of course, I'll do it for you." He took his time wiping me down with pleasure.

"Okay, you've spent so long wiping me down that I might never get dirty again."

"How about I get naked now, and you wipe me down?"

"But you weren't even anywhere near the bear, and aren't the least bit dirty."

"So what?"

"Good point. Yes, let me help you get those clothes off."

But right when I started to pull his shirt off, Helina said, "Guys? Can you come here, please?"

"We will, but does it have to be right this second?" asked Alik.

"Yes."

I threw on my clothes, and we both got out of our tent.

"I can hear an animal out there," she said, listening.

"I can't hear anything," said Rebekka.

"I have really acute hearing. And I definitely hear something. Something coming towards us."

"Maybe it's Vlad on his way back," suggested Rebekka.

"No, it's not Vlad. It's not coming in the direction of the creekbed, it's coming from the direction of the Great Hero's house. And it most certainly doesn't sound like a person. It sounds like an animal."

"It's the bear I shot," I said. "Not dead after all and following me here."

"Yes, that could be it. Whatever it is, it's getting closer with every second, coming towards us."

"Guns," I said. "Everyone get out your handguns. If it makes another attack on us, we'll have to kill it. Simple as that."

Helina and Alik pulled out there guns. Rebekka got hers out as well. "Here, take Vlad's weapon, he left it here," she said, handing me the gun until all four of us were armed.

"Are you sure you know how to use one of those?" I asked Alik.

"Point and shoot. Isn't that the concept, pretty much?"

"It would be if you had your safety off."

I showed him quickly how to turn off and on his safety, and to hold it with two hands, not one like he was doing.

"Shh, please be quiet!" said Helina.

Alik and I shut our mouths and put our guns at ready.

"It stopped," she said. "I don't hear anything anymore."

I listened intently, and after a few moments of silence, I could just barely hear a scuffling sound through the eerie woods. Outside the fire lit camp, it was astonishing how quickly those ghostly trees turned pitch black to my eyes. Listening in silence, my heart started to race. Even though I knew four people with guns, not to mention one of them a vampire, would surely be able to take down one injured bear. Still, somehow the fear I felt inside me was not appeased by my reason. I had some eerie feeling that there was far greater danger afoot.

A creature scurried out of the darkness just feet from where I was standing, and let out an angry, high pitched cry. I jumped back, startled.

I focused on animal, and as it came fully into the firelight, realized foolishly how small it was.

"A possum?" asked Alik. "We all just got our guns out for a possum?"

The possum squeaked and scurried into camp, sniffing around curiously.

"It's so ugly," said Rebekka. "Basically a giant rat."

"And it's coming into camp," said Helina. "Does anyone mind terribly if I just shoot it?"

"I mind," I said. "Parker, my ex-boyfriend who died, Rebekka, he and I were taking five-year-old Lewis fishing, and one of these came our way. Lewis commented how ugly and scary it looked, and asked if he could throw a rock at it. Parker remarked how he had been delighted before when a jackrabbit hopped by. He said that a possum can't control how ugly he is, no more than the jackrabbit can control how cute he is. Neither one should be held accountable for things they can't control, and besides, it was us who invaded his territory. And Lewis left the possum alone."

"Well, Parker's not here, Jake, and neither is Lewis. They'll never know if I just kill the possum."

"Just leave him," said Alik. "Just let him go."

"Well, he's going right in my tent! Do I still have to keep him alive?"

"Just scare him out of there, Helina."

She went into her tent with the animal. "Alright, shoo. No, don't you dare go near my food, I'm going to step on your rat-tail!"

What I saw next was so bizarre, I thought my eyes were playing tricks with me. Some form appeared in Helina's tent besides Helina, pushed against the edge of the tent. And that form was growing in size. It grew and grew until it was so big, there was no free space left in the tent, with the tent's canvas pressed against this things form, even starting to rip apart at the edges by the time it finished growing.

"What the?" I asked, and then I started to wonder if I was witnessing some form Helina's special power kicking in, some transformation into something much larger, that would explain what we were seeing.

Helina started to scream.

"What happened in there?" asked Rebekka. "What's in there?"

I heard a loud animal roar coming from inside, and it sounded very familiar. "That's the bear!"

"How did the bear get in there with her?" asked Alik.

"I don't know, but it's killing her!" I yelled. "We have to do something!"

"I'll shoot!" Alik said.

"No, wait, we can't see what we're shooting! You might hit her!"

Rebekka pulled out a knife. "I'll cut away some of this cloth." She bravely moved towards the tent and cut a huge rip in the top of the tent.

As she did, the bear stuck its head out of the rip and almost bit Rebekka's hand before she pulled it back.

Only this wasn't a bear's head snarling at us. It was just as big as a grizzly bear's head, but not the least bit bearish. Instead, it looked like a giant rat's head, a hideously monstrous thing baring its teeth and biting at us.

No, not a rat's head. A possum's head. Only much, much larger, and oddly mixed with some human qualities that suggested that we weren't dealing with just a giant animal but some odd blend. It made my stomach turn just to look at it dripping slobber everywhere.

"That possum turned into a monster," Rebekka said. "Are you two seeing this? A monster!"

"Yes, I see it too," said Alik. "What the fuck is it? It's the scariest thing I've ever seen."

"My parents were right this whole time. There are monsters out there, they were right to worry. I've been such a brat to them."

"We can't just sit here and gawk at it, we have to do something!" I said. "Look, it got its head in the tent hole. Lets all three shoot at its head in unison. Since this is obviously supernatural, be prepared to empty all of our guns into it to kill it. Are you two ready?"

"Ready."

"Yes."

"Shoot!"

The three of us started to unload our guns into the animal's skull while the thing thrashed at us angrily, still trying to get us, but too stupid to figure out it could have ripped through the tent with its teeth. The first few bullets just seemed to bounce off, but we kept on shooting, until the back of its head was completely open, its skull breaking apart, and then we kept shooting.

The creature let out a blood curdling death cry as it fell over limp, and I figured it was dead. But when it started to transform again, I figured it was premature.

But this time, the beast transformed into a person, a man.

"Is he dead now?" asked Alik.

"Looks like it," said Rebekka.

"These things must have once been human," I said. "They must only return that way in death."

"I know this man!" said Rebekka. "That's Olik Zavtsev, one of the people who disappeared with Vadim! What did they do to him?!"

I looked into the tent. Along with Olik's naked, chubby body, Helina was covered from head to toe in animal bites, and wasn't moving. I pulled her out of there with Alik's help and set her on the ground.

"She's breathing, thank God," I said.

"But with that much bleeding, will she come through this?" asked Rebekka.

"I'd wager a yes," said Helina, opening her mouth.

"Oh my God, your cuts are healing by themselves!" said Rebekka.

"Uh, now might be a good time to confess that I'm a vampire," she said. "Sorry, Alik and Jake for letting that little tidbit spill out."

"A vampire!? You're a bad guy?!"

"No, Rebekka," I said. "She's a good vampire. There are many good vampires, something your parents never knew about. Nothing to be afraid of, she's on our side."

"He's right."

"Oh, okay, well good."

"And while we are confessing, I'm something like what your son was, some special human thing. I have the same sort of gene he did that your parents told you about. I actually never knew him personally, I just had dreams in which I was really inside him."

"You're another Great Hero," she said to me. "As my parents would have said."

"If that's what you want to call it."

She looked at Alik. "We've got a Great Hero and a vampire here. What does that leave you as? A boxing angel?"

"Nope, just plain old ordinary human, I'm afraid."

"Helina, any idea what the heck we were fighting just then?"

"It's funny how getting eaten alive will bring back previously lost memories. I seem to remember learning about these things in school. Werebeasts, they were called. They are stronger physically than vampires, and can sniff us out, and seem to particularly enjoy killing us. They are one of the main reasons why vampires have created safe-havens for themselves in large numbers. Because any vampires out in their own like this are always at risk of being killed by these creatures."

"What do they want?" I asked.

"They exist purely to eat flesh. Usually human flesh, but vampire flesh works fine as well."

I realized, I had never been attacked by a bear as I was walking back to camp, I had been attacked by a werebeast. If my flashlight hadn't gone out, I was sure I would have seen it.

And that brought me back to the time in Lake Tahoe I had been hiking alone and came across what I thought had been a bear. That too must have been a werebeast. Stupid Syd must have known the whole time, but pretending like I had seen a bear.

Also, the wolves in the forest. Could those have been more werebeasts in their animal form, like the possum had started in? Syd had pretended like they were coyotes, when it was so obvious to me they weren't.

But why would the things come after me so frequently in such a short period of time of my life?

"It's not just vampire flesh these things can sniff out. They are after me too. They can smell that I'm different, and that sets them off. Oh my goodness, I remember what happened to Vadim now."

I covered my mouth and started to cry.

"What happened?" asked Rebekka.

"The werebeasts were after him. They must have smelled him too. All of them are dead. Your parents. Madina. Petro. They all died saving him. But in the end, they got him too. We should have realized, otherwise if he'd been alive, my gene would have never activated, I wouldn't have had this dream of him at all. I'm so sorry."

Alik started to cry, and I reached over and started to hug him. "My brother and his boyfriend, dead before I ever even knew they existed."

Rebekka had tears as well. "My parents, Vadim, poor Petro. All of them dead, and I'm still here, still alive. I should have been by my son's side, protecting him. I'm a failure as a mother."

She reached over and hugged a very stiff Helina and started to sob into her clothes. I didn't know how to comfort either of them, so I just hugged Alik and reached over and grabbed Rebekka's hand.

We stayed like that, crying and grieving, for a few minutes.

"Is it too soon to complain that Rebekka has a bleeding bit on her hand that no one but me has managed to notice?" asked Helina, her fangs having appeared already.

"If there's any chance those things can smell blood, no its not," I said.

"I don't think they smell bloodtypes or anything like we do, but I think we should close her up, just to be safe."

"Are you suggesting stitching me up in the middle of the woods like this? Well, I guess if it must be done, do it."

"I think you'll find my methods of mending much more pleasant," Helina said. "And, bizarrely enough, I will find it even more pleasant." And then something caught her attention, her face looking afraid. "I hear something again! Something coming this way!"

"Another werebeast?"

"Oh no. It's only Vlad, I can see his flashlight in the distance there."

"Vlad! We have to warn him about the monsters!"

"You are in no condition to be running off chasing while bleeding from the arm." Helina said, starting to lick at her wound. "Alik and Jake can tell him."

"Yes, please warn him," Rebekka said.

Helina gave me her handgun, the only one that still had any bullets left, and Alik and I headed down that creekbed with our flashlights on, soon turning the corner and falling out of site of the camp.

There was Vlad, about a hundred yards in front of us, his flashlight in one hand and a big jug of water on the other, walking slowly towards us. "Jackpot! Cabin was occupied with hunters!" He squinted at us. "Oh, it's just the faggots, great."

"Do you hear that?" I asked Alik.

He listened. "A dog barking. To the left, the same direction that possum came from."

"Yes. That dog could be another one of those things."

"It sounds like it's getting closer, real, real fast!"

"Vlad!" I yelled. "Vlad, this path is not safe! There are monsters here, and they've already used this path themselves, and I was attacked here! You need to move off to your right, into the woods there, and hide!"

"Oh, monsters are attacking, I'm sure. Why do I think that the second I get off the main path, out of sight of the women, you two faggots will be all over me?"

"He's not lying about this, Vlad," said Alik, and he added some very strong Russian. "You are in imminent danger!"

"I don't remember asking for your opinion, faggot!"

Right then, a black dog came running out of the right side of the dark trees, right in front of Vlad, this time focusing on Vlad and barking over and over at him. I knew that was the bark I had been hearing this whole time.

"Oh my god!" yelled Alik.

"Vlad, stay away from the dog! It can transform into a monster!"

"It's just a stupid stray dog!" he said, walking defiantly forward, passing the dog on his right side.

As soon as Vlad's head was facing away from the dog, it made its move. It darted towards him, which I could only just barely see since Vlad's flashlight was no longer pointing towards it and the black animal faded easily into the surrounding darkness.

"Vlad, watch out!"

The dog sunk its teeth into Vlad's jeans. I expected the dog to transform at any moment, but instead, it pulled Vlad by his pants into the safer part of the forest, to Vlad's right.

Vlad pointed his flashlight at the dog. "Get away from me, stupid girl!" he said to it. "I am not your master! I'm not going to adopt you!"

But the dog kept on pulling him off of the creekbed.

"I said, get off!" He kicked the dog, and it whimpered as it got knocked back, away from him.

"Wait a second," I said to Alik. "I know that dog!"

"What is it trying to do?"

"She. It's a she. I think she's trying to warn him."

Just then, on the other side of the forest, something even larger than any grizzly bear came out of the dark trees, cracking branches as it came through, making huge footfalls. It was so dark, all I could see was its outline in shadow, but that was intimidating enough.

"Vlad, move it!" Alik yelled, as both of us started to run towards him, but we were so far away.

Vlad turned to his left, finally hearing something, and he shined his flashlight towards the noise. His circle of light illuminated just the head of the werebeast, so much higher up than Vlad, looking down at him. This one looked all canine. Not a wolf, but something like a yellow lab's head, only much larger and again strangely human in appearance somehow. It had it's teeth bared, which were monstrously huge and sharp, and saliva poured down out of its mouth, clearly anticipating something it would like to eat.

I pulled out my handgun and started to shoot, but with me running and the creature being so far away, I never hit it. And the gun sounds didn't seem to alarm it at all.

And then the dog creature opened its mouth, all of its pointy, wet teeth glistening in Vlad's flashlight beam, a vision that was absolutely bone-chilling. These things were the most frightening terrors I had ever seen, making me chilled to the bone.

There came the sickening sound of jaws snapping shut, as the beast lowered its mouth down over Vlad's head and clamped into his flesh, sinking its teeth deep into his flesh.

That's when Vlad dropped his flashlight to the ground, and the head of the animal faded into darkness, with its body never having been seen. What really made me horrifyingly sick is that I could still hear Vlad's muffled screaming from inside the monster's mouth. And the flashlight on the ground was just illuminating Vlad's feet as they kicked furiously on the ground in absolute terrified panic.

Alik and I continued to run at top speed towards Vlad, Alik shining his flashlight ahead of us while I aimed my gun. The black dog barked angrily at the dog monster, clearly repulsed by its actions.

As soon as we got in range, I unloaded my handgun into the beast, trying to get it off of Vlad. The beast cried in anger, clearly hurt by the bullets, but there was no evidence that I had done any serious damage to the thing, even though I was pointing at its head. It reacted more like the bullets were annoyingly painful but not life-threatening, and pulled Vlad's body into the trees and disappearing from sight, with Vlad's legs stopping their kicks and his screams gone.

I started to run into the trees to follow, but Alik grabbed me and kept me from going. "What are you going to do, Jake? You're out of bullets, and Vlad is dead anyway. Let the thing go."

I knew he was right, and didn't try to chase the creature. But I could hear in the darkness the disgusting sounds of it eating Vlad's body as it walked away from us. The black dog ran in to follow it.

"How come the pistol bullets were enough to kill the possum creature, but this one acted like it wasn't suffering from anything worse than some bee stings?" asked Alik.

"Did you notice it was much larger than the possum creature too? All I can think of is, if the possum guy was one of Vadim's friends, he must have been turned by the creatures, however they do that, only very recently, and that could be why he was so weak. I think he was the runt of the pack, unfortunately."

"Which is exactly why we need to avoid running into these things ever again."

Almost as bad as witnessing a horrifying creature kill Vlad in the dark forest was telling Rebekka he had died when we ran back to camp.

"That's it," she said. "I'm all alone now."

"We need to move. Pack up the essentials quickly, but leave the tents here, and put out that fire."

"Where are we going?" asked Helina.

"We're not far from that hunting cabin that is occupied. They have to help us. Shelter us."

As we started to hike along the creekbed, I asked Helina how good her night vision was. I had everyone turn off their flashlights. "I can't really see anything now, can you?"

"Yes, I can still see a bit."

"Great, you're our leader. Let's keep our lights off so we don't draw them to us that way. So far, all three attacks on us have been either in areas lit by fires or flashlights. Let's make a human chain behind Helina to make sure we don't lose her."

Rebekka grabbed Helina's shoulder, I grabbed Rebekka, and Alik was bringing up the rear.

"Let's try to be as quiet as we possibly can without slowing down our pace."

Helina, Rebekka, and I were very going and moving quietly, stepping around rocks and dead branches. Alik, however, always seemed to step on something loud. I shushed him after he cracked apart a dead branch under his feet.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm trying not to make noise, but I'm a bit of an oversized oaf."

The hike to the hunting cabin seemed to take forever, but only took us forty-five minutes. It was a nerve racking journey through the dark in which I was constantly in alert for any sounds not made by Alik.

When we first saw the hunting cabin appear ahead of us in the distance, lit up by outside lights, I almost wanted to cry.

"It DOES exist!" Helina said.

"Uh, I hate to end the celebration, but I definitely hear a dog barking again, from behind us somewhere. And it's getting closer."

All four of us started to run the rest of the distance between us and the cabin, a simple, single- storied dwelling, smaller than Rebekka's parent's cabin had been. We all pounded on the front door.

"Please, let us in, there's flesh-eating monsters out here!" said Helina like that was a believable threat. I should have told her the people might not believe us before she opened her mouth.

A male voice said something in Russian through the door.

"Yes, monsters!" said Helina, saying something back in Russian as well.

"Go away!" said the voice in English. "We never let strangers in here as a rule, especially not ones as crazy as you all are!"

"There's a well in the back if you need any water," said a second male voice from inside.

Alik tried to open the door, but found it locked. He started to bang harder against the door, trying to force it open, but it was holding. "You can't leave us out here to die!"

"Please, they speak the truth!" said Rebekka.

There came a gasp from a female voice inside. "Mrs Ivanov, is that you?"

"Formerly, but now I'm Mrs. Minayev. Who is that?"

"Ganya Balashov, from grade school!"

"Little Ganya, I remember you! Please, let us in!"

"This woman is the most serious woman I've ever known," said Ganya. "She's incapable of any sort of bullshit or flights of fancy. If she says something, it must be true."

"I'm letting them in, Avgest," said the man who had offered the well.

"No, don't, Dimitri!" said he stern man, Avgest.

The door opened by Dimitri, and three Russians in their thirties stood inside, all fairly attractive. "Come inside," said Dimitri.

"We are under attack by a pack of werebeasts," said Helina.

"Ah, okay," said Dimitri.

"How sturdy is this door?" she asked.

"Very sturdy, with three deadbolts. We were always concerned about break-ins here."

"This is totally ridiculous," said Avgest. "We've never let strangers in here. What's wrong with you? These people are obviously insane!"

"They need our help, and Ganya trusts them."

"You and I have been hunting, just the two of us, in this cabin for going on eight years now, coming here whenever we get free. This is the first time you drag along an outside, some woman you barely know, someone who doesn't even hunt! Who just sits around looking pretty! And you listen to her word over mine, after all we've been through? You've betrayed me!"

"Avgest, please calm down," said Dimitri. "These people need help. I would have let them in regardless of Ganya being here."

"I don't believe you. You kick these lunatics out now, or I'm leaving."

"You're going to leave right now?"

"Yes, back to Anzhero-Sudzhensk. I'll hike through the night if I have to, I don't care."

"You shouldn't go, I think that's crazy. But these people aren't going anywhere."

"I'm leaving then." He started to throw together all his things into a backpack. "And I'm taking what's rightfully mine."

He removed two rifles from the wall and put them over his back.

"Why are you taking two of those?" asked Dimitri.

"Because they are both fucking mine. You all can stay in here locked away with your insanity."

He opened the front door and walked out angrily.

"Alright, bye now, have a safe trip!" said Helina with fake sweetness as she shut the door after him and locked the door.

"Is there any way we can cover these windows?" I asked. "That should be our first priority."

"Sure, that can be done," said Dimitri.

The house had two bedrooms and a bathroom in the back, but the bathroom didn't border an outside wall. The bedrooms both had these huge wardrobes, so we all pushed them over until they covered the bedroom windows really well. There was a large room in the front that had a kitchen and living room pushed together, and there was one huge window to the side. We pushed a bookcase in front of that window. That left just a couple small windows that we boarded up with firewood from their fireplace and hammers/nails.

"What about weapons?" I asked.

"I'm afraid there's only one left, and that's my rifle," said Dimitri, getting it ready.

"We have five empty handgun," I said, showing him. "Any chance you have suitable ammunition?"

"Actually, I do."

We loaded up the five guns and distributed them until all of us were armed. Very teacher-ish Rebekka taught Ganya how to use the gun, quipping that it was the one thing she forgot to cover in grade school.

BOOM.

The sound startled all of us, and we all looked towards the front door. There came another loud boom as the front door rattled and shook.

"Jake, sounds like your friends have arrived for dinner," said Helina. "What polite, pleasant knockers they are."

BOOM.

"I cannot believe how hard they are able to hit!" said Ganya.

"Those must be some seriously big fists," said Dimitri, alarmed.

"Is it holding?" I asked.

"Yes!" Alik said.

There was a peephole on the door, and I looked through. All I could see was fur, that's how close they were to the door.

They kept on pounding on the door, shaking the whole house with their hits, but nothing brought it down. In response, they roared angrily.

"That door won't hold forever, will it?" I asked.

"How long will they try to get in?" asked Dimitri.

"I have no idea."

"I may have a plan," said Dimitri. "I have this massive jar of animal poison. We used to have coyote problems until we covered a chicken in poison and set it outside for the coyotes. It killed them in a matter of minutes. I've got a freshly skinned rabbit in the refrigerator. Why don't we slather it with poison and set it outside? Let them eat it and die."

"Yes, it's worth a shot," I agreed.

We did as he suggested, pulling the rabbit meat out and slathering it with a mixture of maple syrup and poison. The hard part was getting it outside safely. We waited until we heard no more bangs on the door, and it sounded like the animals were inspecting the area outside the bedrooms. I looked through the peephole, and all I could see was an empty porch.

"Now is the time to do it," I said.

Dimitri and I unlocked the door quickly and opened it, while Alik hurled the rabbit out. One of the beasts looked at us and started running our way, still hanging around the front after all, but too far to the left for me to have seen. It was a huge feline looking creature, and its roar was very lion-esque, its teeth sharp and lethal.

We ended up slamming the door shut just before it got there, locking it again, and listening to sound of claws scratching the thing.

I kept an eye on the peephole, and saw nothing but the massive, muscular chest of the cat beast, covered in brown fur. Finally, the furry attacker left the porch, and I could see the rabbit meat, sitting there at the far end of the porch, completely ignored.

"They aren't going for the rabbit meat at all," I said.

"Are they too smart for that?" asked Dimitri.

"They are dumb animals," said Helina. "No, the problem is that they only want human or vampire flesh. No other food drives them."

"We've seen a possum beast, a dog beast, and a cat beast. Can each werebeast turn into different types of animals on a whim?"

"No," Helina answered me. "They only have one type of animal each."

"But they can turn from their monster form into the animal form, which we've seen."

"Correct."

"A flea could crawl in here through a crack in a door. What if one of their animal types was something like that?"

"Sorry, not animals. It's based around mammals only."

"Well, the smallest mammals are still very small, like a mouse or a shrew. What if something out there turns into that? Is it worth going around the house, trying to fill in any holes or cracks we see?"

"This house is mouse proof," said Dimitri. "We've had so many mouse problems in cabins out here, and we are here so rarely, that when this house was built, we made sure it was mouse proof. I've never seen one in here, ever, or anything larger than an ant. We're safe."

I heard a weird, metallic banging sound, coming from inside the cabin, and I looked in the direction of the noise. Everyone went silent.

"What is that noise?" asked Ganya.

A cloud of ash came out of the fireplace, and with it, something that was no larger than a pigeon came down the chimney and started to fly around the room, covered in soot. Even though it was a small animal I was seeing, my stomach lurched at the sight.

Before Ganya could finish yelling, "It's a bat," the creature had landed on the ground in the middle of the room and began transforming into its monstrous, terrifying form.

It ended up being larger than a bear in size, and I already knew this wouldn't be one of the pushovers that possum had been. The were-bat ended up taking up most of the empty space of the cabin's main room, its face shrieking and angry, with dripping fangs. It kept its wings intact in its monster form, covering most of its body in a thick black skin wrap.

Everyone recovered from the initial shock and started shooting. Well, everyone except for Dimitri, who hadn't picked his rifle back up since we had put the poisoned rabbit outside.

The were-bat didn't behave like the handgun bullets were anything more than annoying little pinches.

"The rifle, Dimitri!" I yelled. "It's the only thing that might be able to kill it!"

"I'm trying!"

He finally rolled over and bent down to retrieve the firearm, but just as he did, the were-bat kicked it away from him and knocked him to the ground, looking down hissing at Dimitri like it was about to eat him.

Just before the were-bat was about to bite off Dimitri's face, Helina dropped her gun and attacked the much, much larger creature, pushing him away from Dimitri and starting to wrestle him.

"Open the front door!" she said.

I went and looked at the front door, and I found the feline monster still there, just waiting for us to let it inside.

"No can do!"

"Somebody push this bookcase out of the way!" she said, still wrestling around with the were-bat.

All of us ran over and quickly moved the bookcase to the right, revealing the huge window.

Somehow, Helina was able to push the were-bat through the window, breaking it as they plummeted through. They continued to wrestle on the ground.

"Help me get this bookcase back in place!" yelled Dimitri.

"No, Helina needs help, that thing is killing her!" I yelled, trying to run towards the window.

"It's too late!" said Dimitri.

"No, just let me out!"

Alik grabbed me and kept me from going through that window. "Helina didn't sacrifice herself so that you could just throw your life away, or anyone else!"

Dimitri and Ganya pushed over the bookcase, once again blocking the window, but in their haste, they broke a small hole in the back panel. It was enough for me to see through, and enough for me to aim my handgun through. I started to shoot at the were-bat.

But my bullets didn't seem to have much effect. I remembered Helina saying the werebeasts were stronger than vampires, and here was the awful proof, as the monster got on top of Helina and sliced her throat open, all of her blood spilling onto the ground as the beast kept its teeth firmly embedded. Helina tried one last time to hit the were-bat in the face with her arms, but this did little to help, and soon her eyes were fluttering and her limbs stopping to move.

"No, no!"

I noticed little black specks entering my field of vision. Was I hallucinating? I blinked, but the specks were still there. They were moving all around the outside, moving around the were-bat.

I actually saw a glob of dirt from the ground move up and start flying in the air, and that was the first time I realized just what I was seeing. Floating pieces of earth, a thousand little brown specks of soil.

"She's doing that!" I said to Alik. "Her telekinetic powers are moving the dirt!"

The dirt swirled around the were-bat, and then all at once, descended upon it. In seconds, the were-bat was covered with dirt, and more and more of it was appearing. The monster was trying to knock the dirt away, fight back, but there was just too much of it.

And then, all of the sudden, the whole section of ground under Helina and the were-bat shuffled into the air, causing them to drop a few feet into the newly created hole. Before the were-bat could climb out, all of that spare dirt came raining down on the two of them, and they became totally submerged in it, both of them disappearing entirely, like they weren't ever there.

I turned around, with my back to the bookcase, and looked at Alik. "Well, I think we have one less of a werebeast to fight, thanks to her."

I jumped as I heard a huge crash behind me, the sound of wood splintering. To my left and to my right, I could see two massive, claw covered fists punch through the wood of the cabinet. Before I could even blink, the monster's muscled arms were around my chest, pulling me back.

I realized it had seen or smelled me through that little hole I had been shooting out of, and it now was forcing me back against that very same hole, determined to make me fit whether I survived the extraction or not.

I banged against the cat-monster's fingers and claws, but it did no good. "Shoot at it!"

"I don't want to hit you!" said Alik.

"Just do it!"

He pointed his pistol and shot the animal four times in the arms, but the animal showed no sign of being hurt.

"The rifle!" I yelled.

Dimitri approached with his weapon and shot the thing in the hand. The feline made a huge roar of pain behind me, and pulled both hands back, freeing me.

But as soon as the creature's arms were back through, it shoved the cabinet towards me, knocking it over to the ground with it falling on top of me.

After a couple moments in darkness under the shelf, I could see Alik trying to pull the thing off of me, and I was so happy to have him with me.

A werebeast that I hadn't yet seen appeared, looking very coyote-like, all grey, and it grabbed Alik from behind and pulled him out through the broken window, with the bookcase falling on me again as a result.

I shouted angrily and tried to get the bookcase off of me on my own, managing to free just my head. Outside, I could see the two werebeasts, one feline and one coyote-like, with a third werebeast joining them from the trees, that yellow dog werebeast, followed still by that barking black dog.

Alik was fighting them with his bare fists, surprising them with his strength, before the were- coyote slammed Alik down so hard on the ground, he went unconscious. The coyote monster went in for the kill placing its huge teeth on Alik's prone throat, meaning to start the meal.

I fought to get free, just managing to push off the bookcase and start to run towards him, but I knew I was too late.

Just before that jaw snapped shut, the yellow-dog-beast came in and unexpectedly knocked the coyote-beast in the head, knocking it unconscious. I assumed it was just a matter of the stronger animal in the pack asserting its dominance by eating the spoils, as the were-dog lowered its mouth to Alik and sniffed its body.

Amazingly, instead of biting into Alik, the thing picked him up it its giant arms and ran off into the dark, punching the were-cat in the face as that animal too tried to stop it, and then disappearing completely, along with the black dog, who chased after it barking. After getting excited that Alik was still alive, I had to remind myself that there was a good chance that the dog-beast was just taking its prize to a more private place where it would be able to eat him entirely on its own. After all, I had already seen the same creature kill Vlad horribly, so clearly it wasn't exactly a saint.

What was with that black dog? Was it following around the were-dog because she thought they were the same species? I guessed the fact that those monsters didn't hunger for anything but human flesh did give the dog some degree of safety.

With the were-coyote waking up again and the bookcase completely destroyed, Dimitri guarded the window with his rifle, shooting whenever the things got close, with Ganya and I providing pretty measly backup with just our handguns, but at least we were brave enough to fight right there alongside him, unlike Rebekka, who hadn't been seen for a while and I could hear in the kitchen, probably hiding for her life.

Dimitri was able to shoot them with the rifle in sequence, shooting one, keeping it at bay, then turning to shoot the other just before it recovered again and attacked us.

When a third werebeast showed up out of nowhere, they finally overwhelmed him. They grabbed the rifle from Dimitri's hands and threw it outside, and with nothing to defend himself with, he was the next one they grabbed.

They pulled him outside as Ganya and I screamed and tried to hold onto him, but they were two strong for us. The three monsters snarled at each other, fighting over whose meal this was, and I hoped maybe one of them would run off with him unharmed like it had been with Alik.

Instead, all three of them bit into him at once, one grabbing his left leg, one grabbing his right, and the other swallowing his head. While Dimitri let out screams that rocked me to the core, the creatures started to pull him apart, finally separating him into three separate pieces, and each starting to eat their own piece.

"We can't look at this," I said, grabbing the hysterical Ganya, who was still fighting me, trying to run out of the house to help him, and forced her to look away. Anymore looking and I would finally pass out, something that my head had almost done over and over again during that evening.

That's when Rebekka reappeared from the kitchen finally, just in her underwear, every part of her skin covered in maple syrup, rambling over and over to herself in Russian.

"Rebekka, what are you doing?" I asked, at first wondering if the stress had caused her to lose her mind finally, which wouldn't have been the least bit surprising for anyone under these circumstances. "Have you lost it?"

"No, I've found it, found it! I realized that the rabbit idea was a good one, it just needed the right kind of bait to make it work. Human bait."

"That's the poisoned maple syrup, isn't it?" she said.

"Yes."

"Mrs. Ivanov, you can't sacrifice yourself like this!" said Ganya.

"We can still wash the syrup off," I said.

"No, it's too late, I've already drank about a quart of poison, just to coat my insides as well. I'm already dead. I'm going to run as fast as I can away from here, to lead them away. This is for both of you, who are such good people, and deserve to live happy lives."

Ganya and I started to cry.

Rebekka ran towards the door. "Maybe this will make-up for being such a bad mother to Vadim."

She ran out through the window, and all three of the were-beasts chased after her just as she planned. The four of them disappeared into darkness in the trees, and soon later, their sounds faded away too.

"Ganya, help me unplug and move the refrigerator."

The two of us moved the frig from the kitchen area to the broken window, barricading it up again with it nicely.

"There's no sign that Rebekka's plan didn't work. I'm going to go out there. Lock this door up behind me."

"Okay."

Once I was outside, I surveyed the area. There was no sign of any werebeasts in any direction. There was very little left of Dimitri for me to see, which I was both thankful for and disturbed by. I walked to where I had seen Helina bury her and the werebeast in dirt. The ground was extremely loose there, and I found a shovel in a shed around the corner and started to dig it up.

I got to a naked man's body first, not anyone I recognized, and clearly it was the remains of the were-bat. He looked like he had died of suffocation, as the dirt was packed so densely around his face that no air would ever get through.

I found Helina next. She was so pale, I thought she was dead, but when put my hand to her chest, I could feel her heart beating, slow as it was, and I thanked God for keeping her alive. I realized that around her head, she had somehow carved out a sphere of air in the dirt, keeping her from suffocating, and she was taking shallow breaths. I shook the dirt off her as best I could and carried her in my arms, grabbing the fallen rifle as well.

I handed Ganya the rifle and went into the bathroom, stripping Helina down to her underwear and cleaning her off in the shower.

I expected to find wounds that would need cleaning and treating, but they were already scabbed over and healing.

"I need you to look after her," I said to Ganya after I had dried her off and put on a new pair of clothes from her bag.

"I will."

I fished around in her bag until I found blood packets. "She's unconscious like this because she's lost so much blood, but the fact that her healing ability is still working fine means she'll be okay. I don't see any needles in her bag, so we can't give her a blood transfusion. Do you have any here?"

"It's not my house, but I can look and see."

"If not, she'll still be okay, just might be out for a while. When she wakes up, get her to drink some of this blood, got it?"

"Yes."

"And I'm leaving you this rifle. I don't think the werebeasts will come back to bother you again, but if they do, that was our best weapon against them."

"Wait, where are you going?"

"To see if I can rescue Alik. I'll be back."

"Good luck, then."

I brought with me a loaded handgun, a flashlight, some water, a first aid kit, a compass, and a flashlight. I walked down the creekbed at first in the direction of our abandoned camp. Then I took off my shirt as I started to hike off into the trees to the right. As I went, I wiped as many branches with my body as I could, wanting to make sure my scent would lead the beasts to my position, not to Ganya and Helina.

I was operating under the assumption that Vadim, the One before me who I had dreamt about, and this yellow were-dog were in fact the same person. That would explain why Vadim's black dog would be obsessively following the beast around, and why the were-dog hadn't gotten sick of the dog and killed it by then. And it would explain why the beast wouldn't let the others kill Alik when it smelled him. Since Alik looked so much like Petro, I was all but certain they would smell the same as well. That would mean the were-dog might be confused and think it was Petro he was saving.

The real question was, where would the were-dog take Petro after breaking away from his pack possibly for the first time?

I approached Vadim's grandparents' cabin an hour later, standing twenty yards away, and shined my flashlight into the large glass doors in the back. I felt vindicated by my reasoning as I could see the furry flesh of a large werebeast inside. Now, where was Alik?

I saw the were-dog notice me from inside the glass, looking at me. And my stomach lurched as the beast broke the glass door as it ran through it, coming straight for me with teeth bared, snarling.

Before I could reach my gun, the yellow were-dog was upon me, growling and showing off those scary white teeth, made to kill. He knocked me to the ground.

"Vadim, please stop!" I said, holding my hands over my head in a defenseless position.

But the were-dog gazed down at my bare upper body, obviously getting a smell of me and wanting to eat my flesh. It drooled all over me and then opened its jaws and pressed its teeth around my upper body, digging into my skin painfully.

"Vadim, no!" Alik appeared suddenly, pushing the werebeast in the nose. "No, he's a friend! You can't eat him!"

The were-dog let me go with its teeth, but still looked down at me, growling fiercely.

"You cannot hurt him, that's an order!" said Alik.

The were-dog's face looked strange, as if struggling to fight conflicting urges. But then that passed and the werebeast made up his mind, and moved in to make the kill again, making me shut my eyes.

I opened them again as I felt Alik put his body on top of mine on the ground. "If you're going to eat him, then you'll need to eat me first. You decide."

The beast snarled at him angrily, and then moved away, putting away his teeth.

Alik rolled over and kissed me happily. "For a while there, I thought I'd never see you again."

"As thrilled as I am that you're alive and well too, I don't think you should kiss me. I'm worried doggy-Vadim over there will get jealous."

"Are you serious?"

"You look and smell just like your little brother. He thinks that's who you are. Petro and him were in love, so you'd better not show any affection to me or anyone else, just to be safe."

He helped me to my feet. "Don't think that just because it isn't killing me that thing is really Vadim. We saw it kill Vlad in the most painful, sickening way possible."

"His own stepfather, though he never met him. I believe he wouldn't have killed his mother, if it had been her that they had pulled out instead of you. But the rest of us, he would have killed and eaten along with the other werebeasts, I'm sure."

"I wonder just how many people he's killed."

Alik and I walked into the grandparents cabin. While Alik went over to the were-dog and patted him on the head to let him know all was fine between them, the black dog came up to me and started to smell me.

"Hello, Pavlov," I said. "That's your name, isn't it? Pavlov?"

The black dog became excited by that name, wagging her tail. She also seemed particularly interested in the way I smelled, seeming to like me much better after that. She licked me appreciatively, as if we were long lost friends, even though she had never seen me before.

"I have another theory," I said.

"Hit me," said Alik.

"The One has a particular smell to animals."

"But I thought vampires couldn't smell any difference between you and anyone else?"

"That's because they can only smell bloodtypes. But I think being the One changes their smell somehow. That would explain why, when Vadim first awoke from his dream of the last One's death and changed into the One, Pavlov bit him before getting a good look at him. Because to her, he didn't smell anything like the Vadim he knew. But once she realized he had changed smells, she got used to the new smell and likes it. And that's why she's so happy to smell me now, because I have that scent."

"Was that why Vadim over here seemed particularly keen on eating you?"

"Maybe I smell particularly tasty to the werebeasts. Maybe that's why Vadim and his friends were so relentlessly attacked by them."

"You know, I've taken a liking to this dog, Pavlov. Clearly she loved my brother dearly, as she too seemed to know my scent as well. I'm going to adopt her in honor of my late brother."

"I think that's great."

"And you weren't the only one whose brain has been working overtime tonight. Guess what I discovered just now?"

"What?"

"Werebeast saliva heals wounds."

I looked up from Pavlov and looked over at Alik. "What on earth is going on over there?"

The were-dog had Alik in his arms, and was licking him with a massive, pink tongue all over his (clothed) body.

"I think Vadim is apologizing to me for almost eating his friend," said Alik. "But the good news it, all my cuts are gone."

"He loves you, clearly! You don't know how thrilled I am it's you he's in love with you and not me! I don't think I could ever pretend to appreciate such a gross tongue bath."

"Well, so many of my sex clients wanted me to do so much worse to them, this is a piece of cake. Just please tell me I won't be expected to fuck that thing. I wouldn't want to end up with a fur-burn on my dick."

"Oh, come now, with his magical saliva you were bragging about discovering, why should that stop you?" I looked at a door that went off into the rest of the house. "I'm going to look around. I swear there was supposed to be some important back room around here."

I left the main room of the cabin and found a hall leading to the bedrooms and bathrooms. But I also found a door to the very back room of the house, and went in. It was dark, but I found a light switch and turned it on.

I gasped in awe. The room was totally filled with interesting relics. "Alik, take a look at this!"

He followed me into the room, followed by Pavlov. "It's a proper museum, isn't it?"

"Totally."

The room was huge, every wall space holding an old photograph or painting, most of which had historical significance, preserving local history. There were free-standing tables and shelves all over the place absolutely filled with artifacts.

Vadim decided to follow us into the room, but couldn't fit through the frame completely, and looked at the door angrily, snarling, until he finally realized there was a different way he could get in, and started to transform. He shrunk in size and turned into a large yellow lab, running through the door unimpeded.

As soon as he made it in, he started to transform back into his huge form for who knows what reason. I certainly would have felt a lot safer if he had stayed in his small form. And as soon as he was large again, he started knocking over everything, not having any concern at all about the delicacy of all these pieces of history.

"Wow," said Alik. "That thing is even more clumsy than I was cooped up in my tiny apartment."

"He's destroying everything! Can't you make him stop?"

"Yeah, let me just get the world's largest choke-chain-collar I left in the other room."

I grabbed some pictures on one of the shelves in small frames of the family. "Look, Vadim, these must be of your grandparents. Oh, here's your mother. And this is your dad and mother together, doesn't that bring back memories?"

He looked at the people in the frames, but made no evidence of recognition. He took them from me and started to chew on them like I had just given him a dog bone. What a stupid animal.

The sound of glass breaking, so close to me it felt like it was right beside me, made me jump and shriek. All of us looked to the side of the room. Curtains were being forced open, and another werebeast tore through them from outside the house, snarling at us. I hadn't even realized there were more glass windows in this room, but that's exactly what the new werebeast had broken, and was coming into the room, the window just large enough for the thing to climb through.

Vadim growled and went to attack the werebeast at once, both of them clawing and biting into each other. It was hard to say which one was would overpower the other, they seemed so evenly matched. Pavlov adorably started to attack the werebeast as well, though it wasn't like she could do much to help her master at all.

"We should go out the front door now, make a run for it while Vadim has it distracted!"

But Vadim's fight with the werebeast knocked down the curtains completely then, and through another glass window just waiting to be breached, I could see another beast in the shadows, locking eyes with us angrily.

"They almost always attack in large groups," I said. "You can count on us being surrounded. Vadim might be our only real offense."

"There's no way he can take on even two of those alone, Jake."

"Wait, there's weapons back here somewhere, hidden so that children won't hurt themselves!"

"Are you sure?"

"Madina told me so in my dream! She told me there's a safe back here, hidden behind the grandparent's most important picture!"

"There's dozens of pictures in this room, an endless amount!"

I started to panic as Alik and I just started pulling paintings off the wall at random. And then it hit me when I saw a huge photo portrait of Vadim on the wall. I ran to it and pulled it down. "I found it!"

Alik came running. "But the safe has a keypad with code. Do you know it?"

"No, I have no idea! Let me try and think!"

I looked at the keypad, and just started punching things at random. I noticed that once I hit eight buttons, the little screen told me, "Incorrect Code." That must have meant it was eight digits long.

I also deduced from the fact that the ten buttons had numbers on them but no corresponding letters, the code was most likely in numbers. That made me think it was a date.

"Jake, you need to hurry!" said Alik.

"Given that this safe was behind Vadim's picture, I bet it's his birthdate!"

"And do you know what that is?"

Glass broke, and a second werebeast entered the room, this one not being stopped by Vadim and being able to come in our direction.

"He said he was twenty-four. Oh, and that he had just turned twenty-four eleven days ago. But what day was it?"

"You have to try to remember what day you had that dream!"

"Halloween. It was on Halloween."

I quickly did the math in my head and punched in the corresponding dates. I was thrilled when the safe finally opened.

Only two weapons were within. In front, there was a massive sword. I grabbed it and tried to pull it out, but I couldn't even do anything more than push it around. "That's way too heavy!"

"I can get it."

Alik was just able to lift the massive weapon with two hands on the hilt, and he pulled it out and turned just in time to keep the werebeast from biting into my shoulder, swinging the sword at its face. Blood gushed on the floor and the angry animal retreated. "Ooo, I like this thing."

The other weapon was a lot more manageable: a shotgun.

The werebeast attacked Alik again, but this time when Alik swung his sword, the beast avoided it by stepping behind him and clawing at his side. "Maybe I spoke too soon. This weapon is just too slow to be effective."

"Let me help."

I picked up the shotgun and shot it at the beast. I wasn't so close that the blast would be deadly, but the buckshot did far more damage to it than a pistol bullet ever could, freezing it in its tracks and littering its body with wounds.

"That's just what I needed, thanks."

Alik swung down his sword with all his hefty arm muscle, decapitating the huge beast's head. I had to look away in order not to faint, and only saw furry feet turn human as the thing met its end.

Another werebeast went through the window and started to attack Vadim, who was still in his fight with the first werebeast, so Alik and I moved in that direction. I shot my shotgun at the new beast, stunning it, and Alik moved in with his sword, killing it.

"Who would have guessed you and I would make such a deadly pairing?" he asked.

A new werebeast approached from the outside, one I had never seen before. His animal type must have been a bull, because he had the look of a Minotaur. He was by far the biggest werebeast I had ever seen, much larger than I had guessed they could come, and something about him made me tingle with eerie, afraid recognition.

The were-bull tried to fit through the broken window like the others, but found it too short. Instead, he just pushed his head and upper body through, save for his left arm which he couldn't squeeze in, swinging the massively muscled right limb at us.

At first glance, I thought he was mostly hairless, but upon further examination, I realized most of his body was covered with such a short, even covering of sandy hair, it only made him appear like he had light-tan skin. In contrast to this were areas where his hair was longer, straight, and dark brown that was in places where human hair would have been, but was actually denser and more protective than human hair was.

His golden horns were almost totally straight, coming out of the side of his head, huge and sharp. His head was mostly bull, with bovine pink ears sticking out under those horns, and a hairless, wet bovine nose, pink in color, at the end of his snout. But there were some human features mixed in, notably his hard blue eyes, with the help of a creased brow ridge, were making a very expressively angry look at us. His lips had a touch of humanity to them as well, helping him form a scowl. Longer, straight brown-hair stuck out around his cheeks and chin, making him look bearded, and that beard ended in a point on his chin. Along his sharp jaw-line that beard melded with head hair that reached down to his upper back. He had bushy, brown hair that parted at the center of his head and fell behind his horns and tapered away at his upper back.

Beneath his head, his upper body looked a lot more human, though again what looked like tan skin was actually a very short layer of fur. His muscles were absolutely enormous, putting Alik to shame, and were shaped like a bodybuilder's physique. A neck thick and veined led to huge pecs with human, pink nipples. A smattering of that longer, brown hair like the kind on his beard was on top of those pecs in the middle of his chest, and there was a little tuft beneath his pecs too. It looked odd to have such straight, thick hair on one's chest, but that's what it was. His abs were huge and totally fatless, his navel human, and he had more of that brown hair running from the hair on his pecs down in a treasure trail.

His right arm was intimidating to look at. Huge delts, bis, tris, and forearms, covered with veiny muscle, a massive machine. There was another tuft of longer hair under his arm in his pit, which was dark brown like all of his body hair, and therefore really stood out from the lighter fur. His forearm began to be sporting that longer hair too, and it was the first time that the long brown hair wasn't mimicking human male hair, as his forearm was covered with such a thick matt of the stuff, it looked more animal than human. It was only on the outside of forearm and hand, covering his elbows and sticking up in a pointed tuft over his triceps. His hand was absolutely huge, with massive fingers that weren't quite human that ended in fingernails that were almost a bit hoof like, but with an opposable thumb.

I aimed my shotgun at the beast and pulled the trigger. I was standing at the same distance as the last two beasts, and thought I would have similar results, but there was something different about this were- bull than the others. The buckshot seemed to cut into his skin with only minor damage, making it emit a roar louder and more fear-inducing than anything I had ever even fathomed, but other than that seeming to be unharmed.

Alik, either not seeing the were-bull's incredible resistance or seeing it too late to stop himself, swung his giant sword at the creature's face. He did cut him, but only superficially, and the were-bull retaliated by hitting Alik with his hand, making him drop his sword and causing him to fly backwards into the wall.

I ran over to Alik. He seemed fine, but was knocked unconscious again. At least he was well out of range of the were-bull, who was angrily trying to fit through the window, wanting to come after us.

Vadim killed the other werebeast he'd been fighting finally, and that was when he noticed the newcomer for the first time.

"Get him, Vadim, protect us!" I urged.

Instead, as soon as Vadim saw or smelled the were-bull, if I hadn't known its animal type was a canine, I would have wondered if it was a sheep, that's how terrified he was acting. He emitting a series of yelps and ran over to cower in the corner with Alik and I, standing over us with at least some protectiveness. Or, I should say, standing over Alik, as I had to force my way under its protection as well.

The were-bull punched empty air with his huge mitt as it hissed in frustration at not being able to pummel us to death. With every roar he made, Vadim yelped and even was shaking violently with fearful tremors, obviously not able to understand the concept of walls.

The were-bull looked down at the giant sword Alik had dropped curiously, thumbing it. I realized that the giant sword was about the size of a small throwing knife in his huge hands, and worried that he would throw it at us. But instead, he only pushed the sword around on the floor angrily, any concept of a throwing weapon eluding it completely. It looked like we were safe, and the were-bull seemed to come to that conclusion as well, pulling his head and arm back out of the window.

And then I heard bangs and booms as the entire wall started to be knocked away, the were-bull proving to be stronger than I could ever dream anything living and not mechanical could ever be. The wall disappeared in a cloud of drywall pieces and wood splinters, and I was able to see what lay beneath the creature's waist for the very first time.

First of all, standing up, the creature was amazingly tall, perhaps thirteen to fifteen feet. But it wasn't like a giraffe's height, where most of the mass of the animal was stretched upwards. Imagine the biggest bodybuilder alive, and increase him in size until he is fifteen feet tall without distorting any of his proportions. And even then, add in more muscle. I couldn't even fathom how much he weighed.

For a moment, I saw the were-bull from behind. His long brown head hair only just covered his trapezoid muscles; the rest was covered with that short, tan fur that looked like skin. His back muscles were ridiculous, covered in veins. His tail was thicker and longer than a bull's tail would be, but otherwise the same. Beneath that tail was a butt as muscular as his back, covered in that short fur. I was just looking at the huge balls when the beast turned around to face us, giving me a view of his whole front.

His feet grabbed my attention first; well, not feet at all really, but more correctly, great big hooves. His lower legs were somewhere in between bull and human, covered with that straight brown fur. But that fur disappeared above his knees, and his upper legs had that short, tan fur that looked like human skin, and were totally muscled and vein-covered. His treasure trail of that longer brown fur turned into his pubes, which was just as straight as the rest of it, not the least bit curly, and those pubes covered the top of his dick stalk. His soft penis was mostly human, though monstrously huge. There was a not very human sheath that covered about a third of his dick around the base, which must have been his foreskin, and this was much darker in color and textured than the rest of his dick. Also blending into this rough skin were his enormous balls, these parts the darkest of the whole beast's body. There was a sharp end to this darker skin about a third of the way down his dick, a dark rim. Beyond that rim was a slightly less girthy, more human looking dick that was light tan in color and a sharp contrast to the dark skin above. This part of his dick glistened. At the end of the dick. This was All and all, the instrument hung well passed his knee, practically threatening to scrape the ground, and even though it had an mighty girth, the length was realty the most impressive, hanging straight down with almost no curves.

Without the annoyance of that silly wall finally clear from his path, the werebeast began to move through the room, having to crawl because the ceiling was too low for it.

With me lying on top of Alik, trying to protect him with my shotgun, Vadim covered us with his body, craning his neck behind him to growl and snap angrily at the were-bull, as Pavlov did the same, clearly recognizing this monster as well.

Before the were-bull could start to attack Vadim, Pavlov was attacking him with her bites, and the beast punched the dog, sending it flying across the room and into a wall, landing in a motionless heap. And then the were-bull started to punch and bite at Vadim himself, who fought back but was quickly knocked out by the much larger, more muscled animal.

I thought the were-bull would kill Vadim, and perhaps eat him right on top of me, but he did something I was not expecting at all. Instead of his mouth moving to the were-dog's throat to end its life, he moved it to under Vadim's furry tail, right to his butt. He started to lick and lick at this sensitive part, and I could see the monster's huge penis start to harden. Seeing the werebull's soft penis was frightening enough, but seeing that impossibly long piece somehow totally harden and stick straight up totally erect, it was a penis that could bulldoze a house with. Soon, it was absolutely dripping precum on everything, and the were-bull let it squirt all over Vadim's hole.

The were-bull mounted Vadim, amazingly getting that massive unit inside him, and he started to totally force himself on him with animal brutality.

Vadim woke up then, roared in awful pain, and then started to fight back again. But the were-bull bit into the back of his head with his teeth, forcing him down, and using his arms to hold him around the middle, locking Vadim's puny by comparison arms against his body, and entrapping Vadim's legs with his monstrous, bullish legs.

I was looking right up into Vadim's face as the rape continued and only started to worsen, and there was something in it that told me this wasn't the first time this monster had done this. I gathered that Vadim had been this alpha beast's bitch all these months, raped and raped over and over again. There was such pain on his face, it made me sad.

At that time, some sort of recognition flashed through Vadim's eyes, some part of the old person came through. He put his mouth on the barrel of my gun and looked at me with tearful eyes, begging me to have mercy and end his abhorrent existence.

I had to do it. I pulled the trigger, my blast practically knocking Vadim's entire head off, his headless body turning human again.

The were-bull pulled out of Vadim's body and shook the corpse angrily, clearly upset by this turn of events, probably because he just lost his favorite rape victim. I knew with Vadim dead, it was only a matter of time before he would start to eat Alik and me, and so I tried to keep myself under Vadim's body as best as I could while I fumbled with reloading new shotgun shells.

Finally, the were-bull was done with Vadim's body and pushed it away. He saw me under it and let out a fierce roar, opening his mouth right over me, his hot breath hitting my face.

I finished reloading just in time, pushing the barrel of the shotgun right into the beast's mouth.

I pulled the trigger, and the blast occurred, with me all but certain I would end up with one more decapitated human body upon me.

But the were-bull didn't die. Instead of having his head blown off, he roared and pulled his head back as if he had just accidentally bitten into something really spicy. He chewed at the buckshot and spit it all out, what little cuts I had caused him already healed and gone.

His gaze returned to me, and he roared again, this time even more enraged than before. He grabbed my shotgun, I thought with the intention of shooting me with it. Instead, he held each side with a hand and bent them towards each other, flexing all of his massive arm muscles as he first bent and then broke the weapon in half, throwing away the useless parts aside.

He looked down at me, his roar continuing, slobber dripping off his huge white teeth and hitting me in the face. I knew he was about to kill me.

And then he sniffed me for the very first time, and he stopped roaring suddenly, almost like a pleasant, knowing chill went up his spine. He used his hands to pull off all my clothes, ripping the cloth pieces to shreds and even pulling my shoes off, until I was totally naked except for my underwear, my clothes no longer impeding his sense of smell. And he sniffed me again, this time my skin bare, grunting excitedly at the result, clearly smelling my pleasant One scent.

In the meantime, Pavlov the black dog woke up, found Vadim's body on the floor, and started to howl sadly.

"I'm sorry, girl, but it had to be done. He's better off this way."

The were-bull grabbed me with his huge hands and pulled me against his chest, and then started to back out of the house. "Yes, that's it. Take me from here, just as long as you forget that my boyfriend is still alive and waiting to be eaten back there."

I didn't fight him when he climbed free of the house finally and stood up on two feet, holding me against the huge, furry pecs as he walked away from the house. About a dozen other werebeasts were around as well, but the were-bull called to them as we passed and they started to follow us, leaving the cabin completely safe for Alik.

Pavlov then appeared as well, only she was so dark I really could only tell she was following us by her barking at the were-bull's heels.

The were-bull managed to support me with just one muscled arm when he needed to pummel a tree out of his way, and he was capable of single-handedly knocking smaller trees completely uprooted. But he certainly wasn't nearly as fast as the vampires were capable of going, that was for sure.

After we were a mile or so away from the cabin and I knew Alik was safely behind us, I started to fight back, as weaponless as I was. I started to hit and kick him suddenly, surprising him enough to almost make him drop me.

But his second arm stopped pushing trees and came in to help the first one, and those two arms together completely incapacitated my whole body, smashing me against his hard chest and abs. The only weapon I had left were my teeth. I tried biting as hard as I could into his nipple, but he showed no sign of being the least bit hurt. No, clearly biting this beast was off the table completely.

Which meant he successfully took me wherever he wanted to take me, with my fighting proving futile totally, though at least it made me feel a little better about myself. I ended up telling myself not to waste calories fighting him pointlessly. If I were going to beat him, it wasn't going to be with my muscles, but with my head.

With me so closely pushed into his chest, I was getting a bit overwhelmed by the BO smell coming from his pits. Come to think of it, all of the werebeasts had this body odor smell, not really like an animal smell but much more human. Obviously these things were too stupid to use deodorant.

As we walked, the clouds broke, sending silvery moonlight down from the sky; meaning my eyes could make out the features of the trees, even if the colors remained a mystery to me.

After a long travel, we came to a mansion that I had never seen with my own eyes and yet seemed sickeningly familiar: the Great Hero's house. Tall and imposing, the sight of the decaying structure standing there on the hill in the dark sent chills through me. There were a couple dozen other werebeasts just roaming the grounds around the area.

I knew right away by the familiar way the were-bull looked at these grounds that he had not only been here before, but that he had turned this house into his personal den. Why would this creature chose to live there, of all places?

Why had Vadim been compelled to hole up in his Grandparents' cabin? It was familiar to him as home even though he didn't seem to understand why he had those instincts.

"You're the Great Hero!" I said, putting it all together finally. The Great Hero, who had been a One hundreds of years ago, but whose end was cut all too short, apparently when he was turned into a wolf just as Vadim had. That's why he was compelled towards this house. "I don't know your real name, so I'm calling you Hero."

There was a creek immediately to the south of the house that actually had running water, and I was surprised when he waded into the water and then tossed me into the foot deep current. The water felt like ice at first.

Hero stood there looking down at me expectantly, and then he grunted in frustration when I failed to perform.

"What do you want from me?" I asked him.

He only grunted in response.

I looked down at myself, and in the moonlight, I could see that my skin was covered with something that looked like dried blood. "Oh, you want me to clean off." I started to wash off the blood off my skin, all too happy to get rid of it. "This better not be about getting my skin cleaned up so I'll taste better when you eat me."

But even when I was totally clean, he just looked at me and grunted, just as frustrated as ever.

He bent down and lapped a bunch of water into his mouth with the help of his giant tongue, which although his lips looked a bit human, his tongue really didn't at all. And then he held my body down with his legs, making me stay still while he lowered his mouth to mine. He used his hands to pull my mouth open and hold it that way while he lowered his tongue into my mouth, which made me squeal in total disgust. He deposited the water from his mouth into mine, and then finally removed his mouth from mine and went back for more water.

"You want me to drink!" I lowered myself in the water and started to drink. "I'm drinking on my own now, see? Please don't force it on me again. I'm drinking!" I gobbled down the water in an exaggerated way just to show him.

He made a new grunt, this time making the sound happy somehow, and then picked me up from the creek when we both finished drinking and carried me towards a grassy field. He set me down in the grass, and this time, when he started to urinate himself, I got the picture that he wanted me to do my business there was well, which I complied with. He picked me up again, and headed towards the house.

Pavlov caught up to us then, but Hero and the other werebeasts would not let her follow us in the house, and she just had to live with barking outside.

There was a huge gap in the wall right where the front door should have been, and he pulled me inside. There were other werebeasts in the house too, but he was clearly in charge, kicking or biting them as he came in to make them move aside. Most of them seemed to automatically leave when he would enter the room. The house was filled with junk, and the beasts looked like they were chewing random objects and just generally ripping apart the place for their pleasure. The whole house reeked of urine.

The whole first story had every door widened and made taller by breaking through the walls, clearly to allow Hero to fit through them all. The stairs were completely blocked off with a barricade made of broken bits of furniture, plainly preventing me from ever going up them. Hero noticed I still had underwear on and he ripped them off me and threw them over the barricade somewhere into the upper story, evidently not wanting me to have access to anything I could possibly use to cloth myself.

"It's not like I could have used it anymore anyway now that you ripped it to shreds."

He took me into one of the larger rooms on the first story, what used to be the dining room before someone pulled the table on its side against the wall, and set me down. He kicked away all the junk the room had collected, creating a clear spot on the floor. He grabbed a nearby cushion and dropped it next to me. He then went around the house, coming back each time with more and more soft things, like old pillows, blankets, old mattress innards, old clothing. Every time I tried to get away when he left me alone, he appeared and pushed me back to the center of that room. I realized he had made us a massive bed of all the soft materials in the house.

Although the bed was big enough for both of us, I could only assume that it was really intended for my comfort, otherwise he would have made himself a bed before I had arrived, and there was nothing like it in sight in the house. But if he was just planning to eat me, why would he care how comfortable I was? Was he fattening me up for the slaughter, so to speak?

I realized he was starting to urinate on the bed. "Eww, what are you doing? I thought you just proved that you were housebroken!"

He paid no attention to me, but I realized he was only dripping the smallest bit of urine on the bed, and only along the very outside edges. He wasn't relieving himself, he was marking his territory. That explained the urine smell this whole place had, clearly Hero had been staking out his claim in here. Was that why no other werebeast came into the room?

Hero noticed the water still on my body and started to lick it up, perhaps concerned I'd get a chill. But then he continued to lick my body even after all the water was long gone, annoyingly getting me even more saturated with saliva than I had ever been with creek water. And that annoyance only rose as his tongue settled on my hole, and his dick turned hard.

He stood up and lifted me up against his chest, and he looked back and forth at his hard penis and my body, surely connecting that there was no way he was ever getting that inside me.

And so, he worked with what he could: he moved his arms up and down, rubbing my back against the underside of his dick, rubbing me from the back of my head to my legs.

Clearly that felt good to him, because he started to make very bullish noises of pleasure, going faster and faster as he went on.

Soon enough, he climaxed, shooting his copious seed all over everything, most of all on me, an elephant's amount of it, grossing me out.

And then he curled up with me in the bed, completely surrounding me with his fur, keeping my naked skin warm even in the frigid night air, even though we were both covered with slime. My warmth was clearly his priority. At least our dip in the creek had reduced the BO smell coming from his armpits, and his hooves didn't particularly smell bad.

Soon, I could hear him fall asleep. I was so totally trapped, there was no way I'd be able to run off while he was sleeping, so I just gave in and did what he clearly wanted me to do: fall asleep myself.

As I drifted off, I realized that Hero probably wasn't going to eat me. There must be something about my smell that turned him on, as he clearly wanted me around for sexual reasons. That had been the fate of Vadim as well. While Hero had chosen to eat ordinary people like Madina and Petro, he couldn't resist the smell of Vadim, couldn't kill him, and instead turned him into a werebeast. As long as Hero didn't turn me into one of those monsters, and so far he showed no sign that was something he would do, I was safe.

And though he would rape Vadim after he turned, there just wasn't the possibility with me since I was way too small. All he could do was lick me and rub himself against me to get himself off, like he had just done. That was a gross experience, but at least the sex didn't involve me getting physically hurt, so it was tolerable. And when opportunity presented itself for me to make my escape, I'd take it.