Four weary, hectic hours later all three families were at a rest stop far away from Port Orchard. For now they were still together, their little caravan moving along the highway as Calvin ran a parallel course through the countryside. He could sprint as fast as a car over short distances, but not for any extended length of time. Therefore, Calvin met the others at the rest stop he and Kari had chosen before departing.
“How long until you change back?” Kari asked when she met Calvin behind the rest stop.
“Not long,” Calvin replied. “I’ll need to lie down for the transformation to take place.”
“Then what? Do you think we should split up? If we head in three different directions how well would she be able to track all of us?” Kari wondered.
“Only if all of you take a werewolf with you,” a new voice chimed in.
Calvin and Kari spun around the see a short redhead wearing a cat sweater with incredibly well made fairy wings attached to the back of it.
“She’s not panicking,” Kari whispered. “Any sane person would panic if they saw a werewolf hanging out behind a highway rest stop.”
Calvin took a closer look at the delicate wings. He groaned. “I don’t think this is a person.”
The redhead curtsied politely. “Rhoslyn, of the Oregon Rose Fairy Court, at your service.”
“Fairies. Fairies are real. Great. Why again is it that you don’t know about any of this nonsense?” Kari grumbled at Calvin.
“No one ever told me anything. One day I was a regular dumb kid and then the next night I was left bleeding in the woods until I turned into a werewolf!” Calvin answered defensively.
“Oh, are you on the run from your local Guardian then?” Rhoslyn asked worriedly. “I hear that can happen sometimes when a supernatural is created without the Guardian’s permission. Are you trying to find asylum somewhere?”
“No, I just had to get my friends and family to safety before any more of them were killed by the necromancer that showed up in my territory,” Calvin explained.
Rhoslyn beamed at him. “How thoughtful of you! Werewolves don’t have the best reputation when it comes to taking care of non-werewolves. I’m glad you’re a nice werewolf. What does your Guardian think about all this?”
Calvin shifted uncomfortably. “I think I might be my own Guardian.”
Rhoslyn eyed him suspiciously. “How exactly are you unsure whether or not you’re a Guardian?”
“Well...I live on my own, there are no other werewolves or other supernaturals in residence where I live. At least there weren’t until the necromancer showed up. Evidently I was officially recognized by the Olympic National Forest werewolf pack...so…”
“So you might be a Guardian, but you don’t really know. Weird. You sure aren’t boring, are you?” Rhoslyn laughed good naturedly.
“That’s a fact.” Calvin tried to smile, but he wasn’t sure what that looked like when he was transformed.
“If you two are through giggling, maybe we can get back to figuring out the best way to run for our lives, hm?” Kari interjected.
“Right,” Calvin said. “There’s a necromancer after us with a horde of zombies and two tougher thugs. I’m not entirely sure what they are besides real mean. I don’t suppose you know anything that would be helpful for us to fight them or keep them from finding us. The necromancer always seems to know where we’re hiding.”
Rhoslyn frowned and tapped her cheek thoughtfully. “I don’t think I know anything helpful. We tend to be pretty peaceful here in the rose court. I’ve never even met a necromancer. Sorry!”
“Don’t worry about it,” Calvin told her. “But we still need to come up with a plan. Otherwise-”
Several screams from the other side of the buildings interrupted them. Calvin, Rhoslyn, and Kari all ran around to the other side of the rest stop to see a dozen zombies shambling through the parking lot.
“Every time, dammit,” Calvin swore. He turned to Kari. “Get the others to safety. I’ll hold the zombies off while you escape.”
Kari hurried towards where they had parked their cars. Calvin stepped around the corner and more people started screaming, no doubt even more terrified of a werewolf than they were of the zombies.
“What can I do?” Rhoslyn asked.
“Can you fight?” Calvin replied.
She bit her lip. “I’m not really supposed to…”
“I don’t want to get you in trouble with your Fairy Court. I can handle this many of them, just watch my back and shout if they get too close.” Calvin loped off towards the zombies.
As soon as he tore the first zombie apart, Calvin knew he was in trouble. The sleepy tugging on his eyelids that came over him when it was time to transform back into a human was letting him know that he needed to lie down pronto. He struggled through it though and took care of two more shuffling undead. That left nine still lurching after him. He had cut that down to six when an even more persistent wave of exhaustion came over him. Calvin had never tried to stay awake through the transformation and the sleepiness was becoming a persistent pain right behind his eyes. He snarled as the pain spread, but kept fighting. Four more left. Then three.
Then Calvin felt his skin split open.
The transformation from human to werewolf was not painful. Scary, yes, but that was mainly due to the sudden lack of control. Perhaps that was because as a werewolf he was mostly impervious to pain. But as he felt his bones retracting and reforming from werewolf shape to human, Calvin howled in agony.
Three zombies shambled hungrily towards him as he collapsed to parking lot pavement. There was nothing Calvin could do but watch and scream as his skin and muscles and organs all shot wave after wave of pain up and down his nerves.
A bright reddish-pink beam of light shot through the pre-dawn dimness that burned a hole in the chest of the nearest zombie. Though the undead creature tried to keep shuffling closer to where Calvin lay prone on the ground, each step saw that hole grow wider until its whole torso was lightly flaming ash flaking away in the wind.
A second beam took care of second closest zombie and it too began to burn away. The third zombie was getting closer to Calvin and though the pain in his body was still torturous, he managed to scramble away backwards on his hands and knees. He could see Rhoslyn leaning against the rest stop building, sweat dripping down her face as she scrunched up her face in concentration. She raised her hands and pointed them at the final zombie. A red-pink glow surrounded her hands and then winked out.
Cursing to herself, Rhoslyn darted forward to grab Calvin’s hand and drag him up onto his feet. Then they were running.
“I’m sorry! It takes a lot of energy to blast something with raw fairy magic!” Rhoslyn apologized as they ran. “I ran out of power.”
“Don’t,” Calvin wheezed, “Worry. About. It.” He was still in sorry shape from the hell that had been being awake for the transformation back into a human. “Lets. Keep. Running!”
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