“Do you have to wrap your arm around my waist before giving me an answer?” Ella frowned at Renzo once her pounding heart calmed a bit.

“Oh… right. Sorry,” Renzo let go of her waist with a look of embarrassment. “I thought it will be more convincing if I show you my vampire charm. I heard your heart throbbed wildly but only for a moment. It should have lasted long. Maybe that’s the reason you are not convinced.”

Ella could not stop herself from laughing out loud, “You have to show me more than your ‘vampire charm’ to make me believe in your words because people with stunning features like you and your friends are no doubt charismatic.”

“You’ve already seen me turn into a giant bat,” Renzo reminded her. “That’s not enough for you?”

“I need to see more,” Ella said with a shrug of her shoulder.

“More?” Renzo took a step closer to her with a mischievous smile that was unnerving.

She had to step backwards and felt the urge to ask, “What are you going to do?”

“I’ll show you more,” Renzo was about to reach out for her waist one more time when they heard a loud thud followed by Kate frightfully yelling Sierra’s name.

Before one of them could react, a strong wind had blown from behind Ella and, in a blink of an eye, Josh and Dan were standing at the entrance of the room where Sierra and Kate volunteered to clean.

Renzo stood behind his friends and peeked inside the room. Ella was tall but not as much as the three young men blocking the entrance. She needed to squeeze through them to see what they were staring.

Sierra was lying unconscious on the floor. Kate was kneeling anxiously beside their while checking her pulse.

Josh knelt beside Sierra and held her hand that Kate was not holding.

“Dan, take care of Sierra. I need to go out,” the anxiety in his face when he said those words bothered Ella and she felt even more restless when Josh preferred to jump from the open window instead of using the door.

“Will he be safe out there alone?” Renzo hesitantly asked before Ella could ask what happened to her unconscious friend that Josh had to hurry out of the mansion.

“He will be safe. Don't worry,” Dan confidently replied as he carefully scooped Sierra from the floor. “Kate, will you please clean the bed?”

Kate nodded and cleaned the bed as swiftly as she could.

Once again, everyone looked as if it was only normal for Sierra to faint and for Josh to jump off the window as if he urgently needed to search for something or someone out there.

“We’ll get the pillows...” Renzo began to say but Dan quickly interrupted him.

“Leave that to me and Kate,” he said after gently putting Sierra down on the bed. “Stop moving around,” he shot a strict glance at his friend. “I just patched up your wound.”

“I’ll be careful,” Renzo promised with a smile that cannot be trusted. “Thanks, Dan. Ella and I had something important to do.”

Before anyone could react, Renzo scooped Ella in his arms and dashed out of the room.

“Renzo will not hurt Ella. Sierra, on the other hand, fainted out of fatigue. She will be fine after a few hours of sleep. Don’t worry. Your friends will be okay,” Dan told Kate because she was staring anxiously at the door which Renzo closed using his right foot.

“I know Renzo will not hurt Ella. I’m also confident that my friend will be okay because you are here. I’m just worrying about the door. I thought it would shatter because Renzo kicked it. But fortunately it didn’t. It appears that your friend knows how to control his extraordinary strength.”

“Ella had been traumatized with what she had seen. Josh told me that Sierra is having difficulty believing his words. Whenever I see you three together, I thought that you will be the first to collapse when you see our true selves. But it seems that you are gracefully accepting everything. You are not even asking for an explanation. Why do you look so calm?” Dan curiously asked.

“Maybe we should talk while I'm cleaning,” Kate observed the room one more time. “I don’t know if I can clean this up within a day.”

“I’ll help you out,” Dan scooped Sierra up in his arms. “But we need to transfer Sierra in my room. There’s too many dust in here.”

“Thanks, Dan,” Kate opened the door for him.

“No need,” he said while walking out of the room. “We are already asking too much from you. Come with me. We should bring pillows, blankets, and bed sheets back in here.”

“Okay.”

^#######################################^

Sierra closed her eyes as tightly as she could to stop the bloody images from flooding her mind. That was when she felt a familiar force pulling her backwards, away from her body, distracting her from the bloody images.

When she felt her back gently touched a hard surface, she finally opened her eyes and found herself back beside the ancient tree.

That used to be her sanctuary but when Josh told her that it was not a place in her dream but actually a real place, everything had changed. Someone like Josh and his friends could find that massive tree at any time and attack her. She should stop coming there. She should have stayed inside the house.

But those memories…

“Did my son tell you?” Sierra’s heart nearly jumped out of her chest when someone grabbed her wrist and pulled her away from the ancient tree.

It was the wicked woman she had seen with Josh. The one he revealed was his mother. But the wickedness in her eyes had been replaced by a desperate look.

“Don’t believe him. He didn’t want to kill them but he had to do it. He did it all for you, Sierra,” as the wicked woman tightened her grip around Sierra's wrist, those revolting bloody images she was refusing to see had resurfaced in her mind, more vividly this time.

Bloody corpses scattered in front of her. Hearts were savagely pulled from chests that were brutally cut open. Fragments of her past were all blurry to her, even the face of her family. But at that moment, everything was painfully clear to her. Each lifeless body lying on the floor was her family. They were her beloved parents, closest aunts and uncles, and dearest grandparents. All of them slaughtered in front of her by a monster that looked like a giant wolf walking on its hind legs.

“Don’t come near her ever again,” she heard Josh warned in a deadly voice, causing the repulsive images to blur and fade from her mind.

She had finally seen Josh grabbed his mother’s hand away from her wrist before angrily roaring, “Leave!”

“Remember what I told you Sierra. That’s the truth!” the wicked woman screamed in desperation before disappearing into the darkness.

“Return to your body, Sierra. Your friends are worried,” Josh told her and he also seemed anxious.

“Are you concerned about my friends or are you worrying about what your mother had told me?”

“Have you remembered everything?” Josh asked back and the remorse in his face was sickening.

Horrible fragments from her past began flashing in her mind. She wanted to refuse believing in any of it but the memories were vividly detailed, the rage and disgust she felt while witnessing that horrendous event were intensely raw, like it only happened recently.

“You…” her voice wavered as tears trickled from her eyes. She shook her head that felt heavy and painful with the continuous resurfacing of unwanted memories. “You did that to them?”

“Yes. I killed your family.”

Those words echoed in Sierra’s mind, breaking more delicate walls within the depths of her brain, making her nauseous and dizzy.

“Take back what you just said,” she weakly commanded, unable to stop her hateful memories and tears from pouring. She wanted to run away but her trembling knees wavered and she nearly collapsed.

Josh quickly caught her arm and the locket glowed at the contact.

That light should keep Josh from transforming into a werewolf but, this time, it worked the other way around.

Josh turned into a horrible monster.

His eyes were filled with thirst. His fangs and claws were ready to pierce somebody to death.

She was wrong about Josh.

His monstrous side could seize someone’s heart out without a trace of hesitation. His monstrous side could kill anyone.

“I killed your family,” Josh repeated in his growling voice and he was proudly smiling at what he had confessed.

“I hate you,” Sierra scrambled to her feet and pulled the knife that she hid between the thick branches of the ancient tree. Her head was terribly painful and everything around her started spinning. She had to lean on the massive tree for support.

“Hate me. I won’t mind,” the monster had coldly spoken while moving closer to her.

“Don’t come near me!!!” Sierra was frantically waving the knife until Josh grabbed its blade and pulled it away from her hands.

He tossed the knife on the ground and tried to grab Sierra by her shoulders but the latter strongly willed herself not to be touched by the former.

She succeeded for his hands passed through her body.

“I hate you, Josh. I HATE YOU!!!” Sierra yelled out loud before sensing that strong force pulling her away from that hateful monster.

^#######################################^