CHAPTER 9: UNLEASH THE BEAST

“Crap!”

                I painfully for the other students to leave the campus before charging for the doors Mr. Thatch disappeared into. I pulled at them but they wouldn’t budge. The sun was beginning to set and I felt the tiny beads of my power trickling into my blood. I bared my fangs and gripped the door handles tighter. I pulled again and heard them creak. With a deep breath I concentrated all my strength on the task at hand.

                “Ah!”

                I stumbled backwards onto the pavement. The doors were still sealed but the handles were no longer there. I stared at my scrunched up metal in my hands. “Great. Just great!”

                I ran to the back of the school looking for another entrance. The doors from the canteen as well as the fire exits were locked as well. Frustrated as I was I steeled my nerves and forced myself to calm down. Then I remembered the stairs to the rooftop where Jesse and I first met. I made a mad dash up those metal steps noiselessly to avoid attracting my psycho teacher’s attention. I was greeted by yet another locked door.

                “Oh hell that’s enough! Screw the stealth!” raising my leg I kicked the door shattering it into pieces.

                The corridors were all devoid of light and I scanned each room sniffing the air for Jesse’s scent. In the stillness of the school there was suddenly the clinking of chains and a low moan that was unmistakably that of Jesse’s. Following the sound of his coughing I ran down the hallway and stopped in front of the chemistry lab. From behind the doors I heard Mr. Thatch’s insane laughter.

                “It’s no use struggling. That’s tungsten - the strongest metal on the face of this planet. You do understand why I need to do this, don’t you?” through the glass I saw Jesse chained to a chair while Mr. Thatch circled him.

                “What’re you talking about?” Jesse replied acidly.

                “Don’t play dumb Jesse. I know what you’re after and I’m telling you right now to give up this crusade of yours. You’ll never win. You know why? Because of me.” Mr. Thatch’s face curled into a snarl. “I was tasked a very important duty and I intend to fulfill it. I’m not about to let some wise-assed punk stand in my way.” and as clear as day I watched as his eyes glowed yellow and his finger nails elongate into claws.

                “I told Sanguine I’d set things straight by the end of the day.” He added.

                Jesse momentarily stopped struggling at the sound of my name. “You told her what?”

                “Don’t worry I’ll give her your regards.” Mr. Thatch raised his arm posing to strike. “Say hello to the Alpha for me.”

                My eyes widened in fury as I took a step back to kick the door open. In one powerful attack the wood gave way. Mr. Thatch was just as surprised as Jesse when I entered the room but little did he know in that brief moment Jesse stood bringing the chair along with him and with all his might smashed it into the teacher’s back. Without wasting any time I helped Jesse untangle from the chains as well as the bits and pieces of what was left from the chair. I pulled him to his feet and led him out of the room.

                “C’mon we’re going through the rooftop. He somehow barricaded all the doors.” I explained while running.

                “Why are you even here?” Jesse asked, not even out of breath.

                “I knew he was going to hurt you! We couldn’t let that happen now, could we?”

                We heard an ear-splitting howl from behind us but we kept running. Amazingly, Jesse was able to keep up with my speed. We broke into the coolness of the night in no time.

                “Sanguine, go now while I keep him busy.” Jesse ordered.

                “Yeah right, like that’s gonna happen.”

                “I’m not kidding! You saw him back there! It’s not safe for you!” he was nearly pushing towards the stairs. “I can’t risk getting you into any further danger. Please Sanguine.”

                “No! Come with me! If I can’t stay here with you then we’ll both escape.” I hung on to his arm urging him to follow. I didn’t want to do it but I locked my eyes with his and glamoured him. “Come with me, Jesse.”

                He was beginning to fall under my influence and even took a step forward when suddenly the teacher, now in tattered clothes pounced on us. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was actually in the presence of a lycan. A full-breed lycan! Due to Mr. Thatch’s unexpected appearance I lost my hold on Jesse and be regained his protective state, using himself as a human shield against our transformed teacher.

                Mr. Thatch laughed and it came out as a half bark. “You can’t possibly think you can defend her from me, do you?”

                In what sounded as a pretty convincing growl, Jesse attacked Mr. Thatch. He pushed him backwards and started throwing some major punches. I studied the situation, thinking of a way I could help. I could have easily beaten Mr. Thatch but I couldn’t risk having Jesse see my true form. The two of them were busy beating each other’s brains out. In all fairness, Jesse was a skilled fighter but then Mr. Thatch had claws, which he used to slash and hack with every chance he saw.

                “Argh!” Jesse flinched as he received a slice on his arm.

                I spotted a long piece of wood from the door I had broken earlier and ran to fetch it. Without a second thought I plunged it deep into my teacher’s side. He howled in pain and retreated into the corner. Before we could approach him, he leaped off the side of the building. We ran to the edge just in time to see him scramble towards the trees and fully disappear from sight.

                “Wow, detention is pretty violent these days.” Jesse joked.

                “Are you okay? Let me see your arm.” I gingerly handled his injured limb and examined the damage done. My mouth suddenly started to water but I kept my bloodlust at bay. “It’s an ugly cut. We gotta disinfect it and apply some clean bandages.”

                “Alright but let’s do it someplace else. With the racket we made, the police will be here any minute now.”

                Jesse’s house looked different from the last time I had been there. He must have noticed me staring so he answered my unspoken question.

“I had the place redecorated. Especially the kitchen since it was totally crashed.”

The kitchen, where I had first been attacked by a shade and almost dragged to the basement. Such fond memories.

“Yeah, sorry about that.” I muttered.

“What’re you apologizing for? It’s not like you did any of that.”

He was washing his incision in the sink while I prepared the medicine. I dressed his wound and remained silent for what felt like an eternity. I occasionally stole a glance at him and tried to strike up a conversation but the grim line on his lips made me have second thoughts.

                “Sanguine, what’s on your mind?” he asked out of the blue.

                “I was just wondering the same for you.”

                “I really can’t explain what I’m feeling right now.” He sighed. “Have you called your dad yet?”

                “Yeah, told him I was grabbing a bite to eat.” which was nearly close to, ‘I’m going hunting’ as I could get. “He just said to be home before dawn.”

                Jesse’s eyes widened in surprise. “He sure is very lenient for a father of an only child, and a daughter at that.”

                I winced, realizing I had told him real Gustav’s reply. “I-It’s just one of our inside jokes. Oh come on, you don’t actually believe that do you?”

                “Ah…of course.” He laughed. “That’d be ridiculous. C’mon I wanna show you my room.”

                “I really hope that’s all you plan to show me or I’m really gonna kick your a*s.” I warned.

                Jesse chuckled merrily and led me up the stairs. There were three doors in the hallway and we stopped at the very last door to the right.

                “Whose rooms are those?” I asked.

                “Oh those are my brother’s rooms. They’re out of town right now and they’ll be back by next week. They found Toby in that room.” He said pointing to the door right in front of the staircase.

                “Ah must be nice to have someone die in your house, isn’t it?”

                Jesse smiled and shook his head at me.

                “Whoa!”

                I was greeted by the colorful graffiti themed wallpaper which might have been real spray paint. There was a mahogany desk off to one side and beside it stood a beautiful acoustic guitar and a drum set.

                “You play these?”

                “Yup!” he answered proudly.

There was a clutter of magazines and CD’s on the floor but it brought out the whole musician aura of the place. To my opposite side were the bed and the nightstand which had a lava lamp atop it.

                “Hey! I have one like that at home.” I exclaimed.

                “You don’t say? Guess we’re really meant to be.” came Jesse’s snide comment.

                “Ha.Ha.”

                Jesse sat down on his bed. “How are you holding up?”

                “What do you mean?”  I took a seat beside him.

                “I mean the whole Mr. Thatch thing. He transformed into that creature. Aren’t you even a bit disturbed or freaked out for that matter?” Jesse regarded me with more than a hint of suspicion. “You know, most girls would be throwing a fit right now if they were in your shoes.”

                I hitched up my leg and wrapped my arms around my knee. “Yeah well, I’m not like most girls. I’m not that squeamish.”

“O…kay I admire your remarkable yet disturbing courage but that doesn’t change the fact that we encountered something supernatural tonight. That was a �"”

“Lycan,” I concluded. “or more popularly known as a werewolf. Yes I know what we saw. But we can’t tell anyone.”

“Why not?”

“We can’t risk anyone else getting hurt and besides no one will believe us.” I finished.

“You do have a point but what about Thatch? He’s still alive and on the loose. I don’t think he’ll be coming back to teach at school and that makes it worse.” Jesse said.

“How so?”

“Because then, we can’t keep an eye out for him. He’s probably hiding somewhere waiting for the precise moment to attack and get revenge.”

I let out a long sigh and lied back on the bed. “Revenge for what, for stabbing him? Well he had it coming for him. Hurting you like that. He met me after class as well but it was outside the school right after you left. He told me you were the wrong person to be with.”

“What?”

I could hear Jesse’s blood pumping and his heart rate getting faster. His nostrils were flared and his breathing was rapid but shallow. “Hey relax, you’re hyperventilating. I don’t want you passing out on me.”

“It’s just �" I’m not �" w �" why would he say that?”  Jesse had his fists balled up ready to punch someone if he had the chance.

“No clue. He just didn’t want me socializing with people who aren’t academically active.”

“Well that’s a load of bull!” Jesse absentmindedly kicked his books on the floor.

There was a lot of stuff lying around the room but most of them were books. Mr. Thatch was wrong. It looked like Jesse indeed loved reading. My attention was diverted to his nightstand again. I didn’t notice at first but beside his lava lamp were two jars of cookies.

“Uh…what’re those?” I said pointing at the pastries.

He laughed. “That’s my guilty pleasure.” He smiled when I raised my eyebrow. “I love cookies.” He shrugged.

“Riiiiiight…”

“What, it’s not like I haven’t noticed your pizza fetish either!” he countered.

“Hey! Pizza is the healthiest food in the universe! It has the components of all food groups in it!”

“And it’s greasy too!” Jesse said flicking my nose.

“Why you�"!” I growled.

Jesse ignored me and continued with his ranting. “Cookies are the healthiest because they’re low on cholesterol and fat. You’re sure not to go hungry and you can enjoy them without the fear of gaining weight.”

“Ooh Mr. Health-conscious in the house ladies and gentlemen!” I snickered. “Could you be more gay?”

“Oh really?” Jesse narrowed his eyes. “I’ll show you who’s gay.”

At that he began tickling me and countered each of his attacks by hitting him with a pillow. I hate to admit it, but for a vampire I was pretty ticklish. I squirmed and squealed beneath him until he finally stopped. He was staring at me with hungry eyes and his breathing was becoming ragged. My cheeks were flushed and I couldn’t move. Jesse had my wrists pinned above my head with one hand and he had both legs on either side of me. I felt the bulge in Jesse’s pants pressed against me. When he noticed I was aware of his hard-on he rubbed it further onto my leg.

“Who’s gay now?” he whispered in a raspy voice into my ear.

The deafening and thump of our hearts along with our breaths were too much for me to handle. I licked my lips and parted them tentatively. Jesse saw that movement and moved in for the kiss.

“Heel boy!”

Someone called from the door which we left unlocked. I immediately pushed Jesse more forcibly than I intended and he bounced off the bed landing smack on the floor sending some of his books flying around the place.

“Where’s the fire, hot-stuff?” a bulky blonde guy said while leaning against the door jamb.

“W-what’re you doing back so early?” Jesse stuttered.

Another blonde stepped into the room. He was slimmer than the latter, had longer hair and was dressed up in Goth “Well our trip got cut short and the boss called said he needed us back in town due to some emergency.”

“Yeah, we decided we’d spend more time with our little brother since he might be getting lonely.” The first blonde said.

“But lo and behold, he wasn’t getting lonely…” the slim one started.

“He was getting laid.” the bulky one teased.

Jesse turned a darker shade of red. “Shut up!” he looked up at the man towering over him. “What happened to your face?”

“Mr. Congeniality here got into another fight. I told him to stay away from those bars but no, he just wouldn’t listen.” guy number two said.

“How could I? It’s my little piece of heaven.” guy number one returned while focusing his gaze on me. “Aren’t you even gonna introduce us to your girlfriend?”

Jesse picked himself up and turned an embarrassed face to me. “Sanguine, these are Monroe…” he motioned to muscle guy. “…and Stephen.” He pointed to the Goth. “They’re my brothers.”