Book One; Chapter Three
Mate of the Wolf
Caramel stared at the vampire glide across the bar like some ghoul out of a horror story. His teeth clenched in fear for both him, his customers, and his girlfriend. Rashel was staring at her with wide eyes. Caramel gripped her hand. He felt relieved as he felt the familiar tingle as their skin and fur touched. He couldn't run off. It would cause a commotion and he would get fired. The vampire mare took a seat right next to Rashel and smiled.
"Hello, you two."
"Maxii." Rashel said her name like a warning. Caramel blinked. So, she did know her. Maxii nodded towards Caramel.
"What's with the chump?"
"Maxii, we'll talk about this later." Rashel growled. Maxii eyed Caramel's fingers intertwined with Rashel's. She raised a brow. Caramel's heart was pounding.
"Sleeping with the enemy?" Rashel stood up. She glared at Maxii and grabbed Caramel. She dragged him outside and they were stomping in the cold. Caramel let out a breath, watching it come out as fog and disappear before he turned to his girlfriend.
"How do you know her, Shelly?"
"Don't call me that." Rashel sighed. She stopped. "Do you remember when I told you there were things about me that you wouldn't ever know about me? Things that you couldn't understand?" Caramel nodded.
"Yes. But, Shelly, she's a vampire." Rashel's expression didn't change. "Wait, did you know...?"
"Caramel, you've got to understand. I'm not what I seem. I'm a monster, too. I may not be as bad as Maxii but..."
"You are not a monster. She killed three people! Who knows how much more?" Rashel looked around. She guided Caramel to a secluded part of town and stopped. She took a deep breath. Then, she started to change. Her fur became coarser and her muzzle became wider and longer. Her body looked deformed as she hunched over and she became a quadruped. Her tail got longer and bushy-er. Her teeth got sharper and longer. Caramel went bug-eyed and took a step back.
She was a wolf. A big, chocolate wolf. As chocolate as his dearest's fur. A black stripe ran down this wolf's back. Caramel couldn't believe it was his Rashel. Not until he saw the wolf's eyes. Its eyes were emerald-green and had a non-animalistic intelligence within them. Rashel is a werewolf, Caramel thought, how could have not known?
"R-rashel?" Caramel circled the wolf. "Shelly?" The wolf let out a half-bark, half-growl.
God, I said don't call me that!, a voice said, irritated. Caramel jumped.
"Rashel? Was that you?"
Yes.
"How?"
We're connected. Rashel looked p at him with those wolfy eyes. We're soulmates.
Maxii watched the two from afar. She growled as Caramel wrapped his hands around her friend. That was the first time a human wasn't terrified of a werewolf. She'd expected him to run off, giving her the chance to finish him off. He knew too much. She couldn't have a ruddy little pony knowing all the secrets of the Other World. She didn't understand why Rashel would fall for a pony in the first place. Oh well. She'd have to leer Caramel away somehow and get rid of him. Rashel would thank her later. Rashel barked and growled in her direction.
"Oh, you knew I was following you, Rashel?" A whine and pleading eyes. "Don't worry. I'll take care of your problem for you. Obviously you couldn't shake him." There was a fury of growls and snarls. Rashel almost threw Caramel off of her.
"What's wrong, love?" he asked. Maxii turned to leave. Rashel howled in anger behind her.
Blueblood entered the lonely building. There were groups of people casually talking about one of most dangerous creatures alive. Vampires. He wasn't surprised to see Iona, the lead vampire hunter there. Blueblood walked right up to her table and slammed the bits of garlic down. Everypony at the table simply looked at him. The whole room was.
"What seems to be the problem, Blueblood?" Iona sighed.
"You lied to me! You give me garlic for these bastards and it doesn't even work!" Several hunters exchanged glances. They hadn't given him anything that really hurt vampires because they knew that most people thought they were a club of some sort. To end the cults that pretended to be vampires.
"Maybe it wasn't a vamp." a stallion mumbled.
"No, it was. She was." A couple ponies smiled. Others rolled their eyes.
"And how did you know that for sure, hmm?" a mare giggled. Blueblood glared at all of them. They were toying with him, he knew. He smirked.
"I saw her trying to turn a guy into a meal." Silence. "Oh, no comebacks? Does she sound real enough for ya?" Iona turned to Blueblood.
"What does she look like?"
Flash was surprised that he ran into Caramel. Iona had tried to squander a few details out of him just hours yesterday and hadn't come in the today. He was feeling flustered from the hard work he had to do and anxious. He wondered if Iona would tell anypony about his rant about vampires. Caramel didn't help when he ran right into Flash and gave him an assessing look. There was a pretty raven-haired girl staring at him as Caramel apologized.
"Are you okay?" Caramel asked, worried.
"Yea, yea. I'm fine."
"You don't look fine." Rashel said. She grabbed his arm and started to drag him across town. "Come with me. I'll fix you right up!" Caramel gave Flash a water bottle.
"I'm feeling... down right now. I need a joke or something... not a girl dragging me." he said, drinking heavily.
"You want a joke?" Caramel questioned.
Rashel then said, "I'll give you a joke! Okay, so, a husband and wife are trying to set a new password for their computer. The husband puts "MyPenis". The wife fall down laughing because the computer says"Error. Not long enough." Flash laughed and spit out a mouthful of water in Caramel's face. Caramel sighed.
"No more jokes for you."