Chapter One
"Hello? A.J.?" Isabella Ryan poked A.J.'s shoulder. The wolfa jumped at the touch and looked at the girl. Izzy's eyebrows furrowed. "Are... you okay?"
A.J. blinked rapidly a few times and shook her head to clear it. "Yeah, fine. Why?"
"Well, I just mentioned Simon and Kai in the same sentence and you didn't laugh," Izzy replied, smirking slightly.
A.J. didn't seem phased. She didn't look away from her locker door, which she still had her hand resting on.
"A.J.?" Izzy said quietly, bringing the girl back into the conversation. "Something wrong?"
A.J. hesitated before smiling tightly at Izzy. "Naw, just tired. I didn't get much sleep last night," she answered before pulling her locker open without any difficulty. "And I can't shake the nightmare I had either."
"Oh. I hate it when that happens." Izzy shuddered. "I had one about my dad a few nights ago. And an operating table. Wasn't fun." She grimaced as she thought about the dream.
"Yeah..." A.J. took the books out that she needed for her next class before closing the locker. "Glad I'm not dreaming about your dad any more. No offense, but he gives me the creeps."
"None taken. He gives me the creeps too. Especially since the Guys In White are practically on full alert now." Izzy sighed and leaned against the lockers. "And lucky me, Dad's the leader of the whole thing." She grimaced. "I'm so paranoid now, I practically short-circuit everything on accident."
A.J. wasn't really paying attention as she flipped through her books, sliding her homework into the front cover of her American History text book.
"Hey, Kai."
A.J. looked up at the sound of his name and saw the white-haired boy strolling toward them. He paused, his amber eyes showing slight surprise, before continuing up to them.
"You got your locker open." He observed, not bothering to greet Izzy or look at A.J. as he spoke.
"Guess it doesn't hate me today," A.J. answered plainly.
He looked up to meet her eyes for a brief second before looking at Izzy. "Colin's looking for you."
Izzy smiled tightly at him. "Guess that's my cue to leave, huh?" She sighed, ran her fingers through her brown hair, and smiled at A.J. "I'll see you at lunch."
A.J. nodded and watched her leave. She looked back at Kai, who was looking at her strangely. "What?"
"There's something wrong."
She rolled her eyes. "Oh, for Pete's sake. You're the second one to tell me that today."
"Am I wrong?"
She hesitated, glanced at the clock, and shook her head. "I gotta go. If I'm late again, Mr. Hartford is going to kill me." She kicked off of the lockers and headed down the hallway.
Kai watched her leave before opening his own locker to exchange his books.
"Sheesh, in a lovers' quarrel or something?" Colin Rowe chuckled as he walked up to Kai. "What's up with A.J.?"
Kai glanced at the brown-haired boy before replying, "I wouldn't know."
Colin raised an eyebrow. He wasn't bothered by Kai's usual grumpy attitude. It was common for him. Instead, he simply shrugged. "She's not as... erm... bubbly as usual."
Kai shut his locker. "Izzy's looking for you," he said smoothly before sauntering away.
Colin pursed his lips. "Guess that's my cue to leave."
~~~
"Miss Courman, would you be kind enough to repeat to me what I just told the class?" The nasal-voiced teacher stood with his arms crossed, leering at her from his front desk.
A.J. looked away from the window. "Huh?"
The class snickered.
Mr. Hartford rolled his eyes and pinched the bridge of his long nose with his bony fingers. "Is it so difficult to listen to me speak for one hour?" He asked.
"Ohhhh, he set himself up good for that one," Dash Baxter snickered behind her.
A.J. cleared her throat. "I'm sorry, Mr. Hartford," she said sincerely. The whole class, including the teacher, looked astonished at her reply. "I'm... just not feeling very well today."
Mr. Hartford, still a tad surprised that she hadn't hit him with a witty retort, didn't know how to respond. His voice was soft as he asked, "Do you need to go to the nurse's?"
A.J. gathered her books. "I think so."
"Well... certainly, Miss Courman," Mr. Hartford said. "Do feel better."
"Thanks." A.J. walked slowly out of the classroom and down the hall to her locker. She rested her forehead against the cool, metal door.
"Skipping class again?"
The voice startled her and A.J. dropped her books as she spun around to face the person.
Kai stared at her with one eyebrow raised. "You certainly won't pass if you keep skipping."
"God, Kai. You scared me half-to-death." A.J. sighed as she bent down to pick up her books.
"I shouldn't have," Kai replied evenly. "You did hear me coming, didn't you? Smell me?" He squatted down next to her. "You're not easy to surprise."
She looked away from him. "Yeah, well maybe my senses aren't as developed as yours." She grumbled as she stood back up, avoiding his eyes.
"I'm not arguing that." He smirked at her.
"Where'd you come from anyway?"
"I was running an errand for Lancer. I guess he figured since I have the highest grade in the class, I could catch up on what I missed." He cocked his head to the side. She had her back to him as she struggled with her locker. "Let me help." He reached out to touch the door, but she smacked his hand away.
"I did it this morning, I can do it again." A.J. tugged on the handle but the door wouldn't budge. "I hate this stupid thing!"
Calmly, Kai reached around her. He wrapped one strong, pale hand around her wrists and pulled her arms away from the locker as he opened the door with his free hand.
"There. Much easier if you just let me help."
"I don't need help." A.J. shoved her books in too hard and slammed the locker door.
"That's debatable." Kai sneered.
A.J. spun around to glare at him. "I'm not in the mood for jokes today, okay?" She snapped, irritation touching her expression until she realized that Kai's arms were still surrounding her. His palms pressed flat against the lockers, trapping her there.
"Usually you're the one cracking jokes."
"So you decided to compensate for my lack of hilarity?"
"I never said you were hilarious."
"Thanks, Kai." A.J. ducked to step under his arms and stood back up.
"Is something the matter?" Kai asked as she started walking away from him.
"Yeah. I'm sick." She retorted before walking into the school office.
Kai furrowed his eyebrows. He knew his girlfriend, perhaps, better than he knew himself. One thing A.J. would never do willingly was go to the nurse's office. But he also knew that she was incredibly stubborn. If she didn't want to tell him what was wrong... he wasn't going to find out.
From her, anyway. He thought as he strolled back to class. There was only one other person in the world that A.J. would ever spill her guts to. "Corpsey," he whispered to himself.
~~~
The lunch bell rang, releasing the students into the cafeteria. Izzy and Colin had already found their table and were discussing a book they'd had to read for Literature class.
A.J. brought her empty tray to the table and sat down across from them. The conversation died down. She looked up to see both of them staring at her. "What?" She asked.
"You don't have any food." Colin observed, pointing at her tray.
"So?" A.J. shrugged.
"So, don't you need it?" Izzy asked, taking a bite of her apple.
"No. I don't eat human food," A.J. replied. "You should know that."
"Well, duh, A.J." Colin rolled his green eyes. "We just meant as a prop. You're already so skinny, if Nurse Melonie sees you without food, she'll come after you again."
A.J. looked down at her empty tray and shrugged. "I don't care." She knew that the threat Colin spoke of was very real. She'd already been talked to by the medical staff of the school twice about not eating. Of course, A.J. didn't blame them. She was extremely skinny, close to the level of anorexia, but she wasn't dying. It was one of those annoying things she had to hide from the human eye. Being a traditional-breed werewolf, her diet consisted of fresh, wild meat, not MSG-filled, carbohydrate-ridden hamburgers or spaghetti.
"Here." Colin tossed her a bag of chips. "Just keep it there."
"Oi! You could have bloody well picked me up!" Xander shouted, stomping up to the table and slamming his tray down. His dark brown eyes glared at Kai defiantly, who simply ignored the green-haired boy as he sat down next to A.J.
"I could have. If you'd been at the front door when I was leaving this morning." Kai growled back.
"It's not meh fault I got trapped in your freakin' labrynth of a house!" Xander shouted back.
"It's two stories, Xander. Twenty-two hundred square feet. It's not that difficult."
"Hi, Xander." Izzy smiled at Xander and he reluctantly sat down across from Kai, mumbling something incoherent.
"Missed the whole first half of the day 'cause I couldn't find the school again." He pouted. "Had to beg a ride off a truck driver who stuck me in the back with his bloody dog!"
Izzy and Colin chuckled at him, but Kai and A.J. were silent, each looking away from the other.
"Ooooo, so what's eating the Furballs?" Erik Traliacs asked as he walked up with his tray. He beamed at the others.
Izzy just shrugged, but Xander grinned. "Ah, just a lit'l lovers' spat is all. They'll kiss and make up soon." He chuckled.
Kai took a small chunk of his apple and flicked it at the green-head. The piece hit Xander directly between the eyes and hard. He howled and fell backward, out of his seat.
Erik shrugged and took his spot. "You guys gonna watch that new vampire movie tonight?" He asked.
"Are you kidding? There's no way I'm watching the movie." Izzy exclaimed. "Don't watch a movie that's come from a book."
"Isn't it called Moonlight or something like that?" Colin asked.
"Twilight." Xander grumbled as he stood back up, rubbing his head. "It's called Twilight."
"And the vampires sparkle." Izzy chuckled. "Poor Simon."
Erik looked over and cocked his head at A.J. and Kai. "Hey Mutts," he called.
Kai sent the boy a glare, but A.J. snapped back to reality.
"Huh?" She looked at him. "Oh, hi Erik."
"What's up with you, Courman?" Erik asked, taking a bite of his hamburger.
"She's been like this all day." Colin raised an eyebrow at her.
"Heard you went to the nurse's office, eh?" Xander asked, also looking at her.
A.J. shuffled a bit in her seat now that everyone was staring at her, waiting for an explanation. "I... uh..."
"She's not feeling well." Kai piped in. "Drop it."
The other four looked at him and then quickly got onto another subject. They knew better than to deal with Kai when he was defending his girlfriend.
Said girl looked at her boyfriend shyly, but he had his head turned away from her. "Thanks," she whispered.
He jerked his head in the customary fashion he used to acknowledge someone.
"Sorry I've been kind of a jerk...." She continued in such a low voice that only Kai's sharp hearing would catch her words.
"You haven't."
"Yeah. I kind of have."
He turned his head to glance at her. "You don't feel well. You have every right to be grouchy."
She chuckled quietly. At least he's honest.... "It's just that..." she paused.
He turned more fully toward her, curious to hear what had been bugging her all day but not showing that curiosity on his carefully-placed mask of no emotion.
"I've been having these... nightmares lately." She finished, practically in a whisper.
Kai was silent for a second and she almost thought that he wouldn't reply. But after a few moments, he asked, "For how long?"
She shrugged. "A few nights. But it gets worse everytime. Simon's had to practically sleep with me to keep them away."
Kai couldn't fight the widening of his eyes at this statement. He felt his lips curl back to show his fangs.
Immediately A.J. realized her folly. "Near me!" She amended quickly. The next part came out in a rush as she tried to compensate for her error. "Sleep near me. You know, just to watch me. I'm afraid to go to sleep at night and having him there helps."
Kai's eyes narrowed. "Having him there helps?" He asked calmly, evenly.
A.J. put her hand on his shoulder. "Kai, you know what I mean. He's my best friend, of course he helps." She looked quickly at the others to make sure they weren't listening before she leaned closer to him and whispered, "I'm sure I'd never have another nightmare if you were with me."
A.J. saw the reaction her words caused through his hands rather than his expression. He accidentally crushed the bottle of water in his hand when she spoke, but his expression softened only slightly. She could also see the red blush creeping across his cheeks, but he looked away to hide it. He cleared his throat and switched bottles with Xander while the boy wasn't paying attention.
Kai took a bite of his food and chewed slowly, waiting for the blush to disappear. Unlike A.J., Kai wasn't a traditional-breed werewolf. He was the carrier of a demon wolf spirit named Zamorax, which gave him werewolf-like powers and an unusual ability to manipulate fire. Luckily, Kai was in control of this "alter ego" most of the time, but Zamorax was the reason Kai's appearance was so... strange: red-streaked white hair and amber eyes. So, unlike A.J., Kai was able and willing to eat human food.
"If..." he began, unsure if he should continue, "If you... need me to... um... come over some time..." He let the sentence hang in the air as he dared a glance at her.
She smiled shyly back.
"Oi, mutts!" Xander threw a french fry at A.J. and Kai to get their attention. "Have you heard a word we been sayin'?"
Erik smirked. "Doubt it."
Both A.J. and Kai looked away from each other, each blushing furiously now.
"Leave 'em alone guys." Izzy reprimanded. She rolled her eyes and mumbled something about immature teenage boys. "A.J., Kai, we were all going to hang out at the park after school. You want to come?"
A.J. smiled softly. "Sure."
Kai just shrugged.
"I'm taking that as a yes." Izzy warned him. She took the last bite of her food as the bell rang again, and lunch was over. "See you in Gym, A.J." She stood up from the table with Colin following.
"I'll help you get to class, Xander." Erik offered as they stood up too.
Kai rose from the table silently and waited for A.J. to stand up. "Did you complete your Lit homework?" He asked as he dumped his tray.
A.J. smirked. "Do I ever?"
"Great to know." Kai sighed sarcastically as they left the cafeteria. "Because I'm your partner for the reading...."
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