Free Neophyte / Adept by T.D. McMichael Page A

you or your double, the soul animal, a vehicle for
the spirit. I don’t really understand it myself. Gaven keeps telling me about
something called metempsychosis , it
takes a while. Like he would know. Everything comes so easily for him. I’m
running to keep up.”
    I soon wanted to know what werewolves could do and what they
couldn’t do.
    “Do you believe in the sharing of your soul?” he asked me,
in a tangential line of questioning that had me searching for its roots.
    “I believe in soul mates ,”
I said, “that two people can be together forever...” I quickly steered us
someplace else. “What you’re talking about sounds like something different.”
    The smolder in Ballard’s eyes died somewhat. “Forgive me,”
he said. “There’s a reason we like to howl at the moon.”
    “What d’you mean?”
    “This. All of it. Our behavior. Everything. It’s a
hereditary condition. Invulnerability, speed, strength, falling from great
heights is also not a problem. Of course, there is also aggressiveness,” said
Ballard, “and we have certain urges ...
of the sexual variety.”
    “Nether regions...” I said.
    “It goes with the territory,” he said. “Sad but true.”
    “So, is that a problem, with so many males and females, in
the Pack?” I asked him, being somewhat facetious, but curious all the same.
    “It explains one thing,” he said. “Why they all seem to pair
up. But you know.”
    “No. I don’t,” I said.
    “How can somebody like us ever be with somebody who isn’t...
like us?” he said. “They don’t understand. Take what’s-his-face, that vampire
guy.”
    “His name is Lennox, and I don’t want to talk about him,” I
said. I glared at Ballard like a silver bullet.
    “All right. Point taken. But I’m just saying. He didn’t seem
to have anything in his life, until you came along. Where is he anyway?”
    I started to tell Ballard about the Agonies––but
something interesting happened. I wasn’t sure Lennox would want me speaking to
a werewolf about something so private that concerned vampires, even if that
werewolf happened to be my best friend. It was the first time I had ever been
faced with choosing sides, and I didn’t like the feeling.
    “He’s hunting Marek,” I said.
    “The other bloodsucker, you mean?”
    “Ballard...” It was important I change the subject. Even
though Lennox and Ballard had fought this summer side by side, Marek’s betrayal
had put Ballard off them permanently, including the rest of the Immortals. “I
wanted to talk to you about... something. These dreams I’ve been having,” I said.
    He leaned forward.
    “But first, will you wipe your face? You have spaghetti
sauce all over your mouth.”
    “Oh right.” He wiped his face with a paper napkin. “What’s
up?” he said.
    I had to proceed with caution.
    “I think I’ve been having dreams about you,” I said. He
beamed.
    “It’s been really weird actually.”
    “But you have been dreaming about me?” he said.
    I blew the strand of hair out of my face. He quietened down.
    “I’ve been getting them since I left Rome, last month. At
first they were just impressions, they didn’t make much sense. But now the
dreams are starting to,” I said.
    “You mean you get them every night?” He thought about this.
    “Something’s after me, Ballard. And I think, whatever it is,
is a shapeshifter...” I said.
    “You mean like me?”
    I nodded.
    “But that’s impossible. I know I Gatti. They wouldn’t do
that,” he said.
    “Of course not. But you said yourself. There are other shape
changers in the world besides I Gatti.”
    I didn’t tell him, but I had just figured something out. The
creature that had smashed through the stained-glass window and defended me from
Marek wasn’t a werewolf. It was
something else. If I had to guess, a cat. It had black fur, and yellow eyes.
But who was it, and why had it tried to save me?
    “I haven’t told you the worst part,” I