Chapter 2

We’d only had a run-in with these guys once before because we were that damn fast at running.
A little disclaimer though, just because we’d spent most of our lives running, it didn’t mean we didn’t know how to fight. We had to get Tegan back. She was only nine years old and she kept me sane. Charlie regained her composure and rolled up her sleeves,
“Avril,” she began, her voice authoritative, “sick ‘em.” I loved it when she used that phrase - she didn’t use it very often though because it basically meant ‘maim them.’ No, I didn’t enjoy hurting people, but these morons had my sister and I wasn’t going to stop until she was reunited with her family. Jake looked out the window and saw a tall beefy man approaching. The big, heavy iron gates that surrounded the big, white three-storey estate were no match for him it seemed as he moved them with such ease that he looked like he was moving a feather. That was when I knew. This guy that was coming onto this property was definitely not human and it wouldn’t be a vampire, they usually attacked at night and so, this was absolutely a lycanthrope. Exchanging looks with Charlie and Jake, I smiled and we all nodded and had the same idea. Go downstairs and beat the crap out of this guy so we could get our little sister back. We ran as fast as wolves - which technically we were - to greet our surprise guest. I really wanted to answer the door and tell him to give Tegan back and f**k off before I went all super-dog on him. But that would be frowned upon, so Charlie answered instead. The man was a guy who looked to be late-twenties, early-thirties and he had long black, curly hair, stubble, a black trench coat and a scar on the left side of his face, partially covered by his hair. He grinned, his teeth sharp, like a husky’s, like ours.
“Charlease,” he started, his Russian accent was still vaguely evident in his voice, “Now, Tegan Braithwaite; I’m told she is a friend of yours?” He was looking at Charlie cajolingly. That was when I snapped,
“What have you done with her, you moron?” Charlie gave me an appalled look and an exasperated sigh. Oops, sometimes, I have no say in what I do or say. I’m ridiculously impulsive - do now, think later. Mr. Russia wasn’t fond of me calling him a moron and he slapped me - as in a full on b***h slap. And then it was on like Donkey Kong.
I plunged at him but he was quick, dodging every punch I threw at him and then giving me a full on uppercut to the face. I was a little dazed but only for a second and that was when I dodged another punch he tried to land and I caught him by surprise - we were quite evenly skilled in terms of fighting. I had given him a nice clean side-shot to the left eye, blackening it. Regaining his composure quickly, he lunged towards me with great force and I dodged it, but then he caught me by my throat, suffocating me slightly. The cold, fresh London air was piercing my mouth, not being able to breathe it in. He whispered to me something in Russian that sounded like, ‘ostanovit’ I had no idea what that meant and so I punched him in the nose, just to be safe, It began to bleed profusely but then it stopped after a few moments and his nose became fully healed as if nothing happened. My hand wasn’t sore after punching him because well, I’d punched a lot of jerks in my time. Victory was mine. That is yet another perk to being a lycanthrope; we heal fast. I gave up and disappeared around the estate, I was looking for a) Tegan and b) reinforcements Mr. Russia might have had. The horrible sad truth was I could find either of them. Mr. Russia didn’t even have a car. Wherever he came from mustn’t have been far from here.  Thinking I was being a ninja, I snuck in through the back door, but was caught by Jake, who was in the kitchen. He looked at me with an icy glare,
“Avril, what the hell was that?” I looked at him blankly and told him exactly what happened...
“I called him a moron, he slapped me; s**t went down,” I shrugged as if it was the most common thing in the world for me to punch people when they slapped me back and it was the most common thing in the world, aside from Jake being the last to get up in the mornings and yet he was always the most happiest. He was a morning person but he didn’t like to get up. How is that even possible? He rolled his crystal eyes, yanking at the sides of his hair as if to pull them out in frustration.
“What are we going to do with you, Avril?” He muttered darkly. I was thinking along the lines of... Nothing! Let me do whatever I want! But that could most definitely get us into a spot of trouble. Lord only knows it has before. Back at Little Sisters, the sun-kissed Sister Elise told me I could do whatever I wanted before I went to bed because it was my birthday. There was this ice-cream in the orphanage freezer that was my favourite flavour - passion fruit just in case you were wondering... Anyway, Me, being the little ninja-tyke I was, slunk out of my room undetected to go and raid the freezer. Somehow, I found my way and ate all of the ice-cream, but because I was such a bright spark, I forgot to close the door. When we all got up the next morning to have breakfast there was water from the freezer everywhere and then, with her super-nun powers, the strictest nun around, Sister Meredith found out it was me and I got given the strap about four times - that was pretty painful and I don’t recommend it, so word to the wise; always obey the nuns. I was also made to clean the ashes from the bond fire we’d had two nights before. That was how I met Jake. He was a shy kid with scruffy brown hair that always covered his left eye. His skin was pale and his eyes shone like the sky above but he always looked sad. It was cold outside and we had big huge brown brooms to sweep with. I noticed how sad he looked and opted to ask him what was wrong and he didn’t answer. He was just too shy or angry to reply. I kept asking him until one hour, he got really sick of it and he told me to bugger off. We’d pretty much been best friends ever since. In the end, I found out that he was being bullied, so we found the kids that were bullying him and taught them a lesson - and by that I meant we pretty much punched them and told them to leave him alone. Sister Meredith wasn’t too happy with us that day and she made us sweep up yet more ashes and boy, did I sweep them? I swept them alright. Those ashes got swept right into Sister Meredith’s washing basket just to cheer Jake up and to get back at her, of course, but I wouldn’t admit that to her. Again, she was a little mad and she told me that I was banned from seeing Jake for about a week, but we still spoke to each other, via his friend Luke. Yep, I was a troublemaker alright. Luke had died in the fire, along with Sister Elise and even Sister Meredith. Something right then ripped me out of my nostalgia and that was the chime of Charlie’s faint scream. She only screamed when she was being seriously injured or Tegan was in trouble. Instantly, Jake and I looked at each other, rushing into the living room. There, lying on the grey carpet, Charlie was unconscious; her hair sprawled out on the floor and her body motionless. She looked so tranquil... almost too tranquil, almost...dead. She couldn’t be. If she was dead, I would have killed the b*****d that did it right then and there. Nobody kills my family, no matter how buff they are.
“What have you done to her?” I shouted accusingly at Mr. Russia, my voice filled with anger and hatred towards him, so much so that it almost trembled. He had the nerve to grin at me and then he withdrew a pistol from his trench coat pocket. Aiming it at Jake, his wide grin increased and then he pulled the trigger, slowly, as if to make me jump out in front of him too and I would have, but he wouldn’t let me - the noble son of a b***h.
It wasn’t a bullet that came out though; it was a tranquilizer dart, complete with the little red feathers and the sharp pointy gold bit that looked like a needle.
“Oh, April, has no-one told you? Lycanthropes cannot survive in the wilderness - it is simply impossible because they are driven insane by the unwanted urge to kill both humans and vampires. That is not something you want for yourself and your fellow lycanthropes, is it? We will have to forcibly help you, if you do not come willingly.” April? Uh, dude, my name is Avril, just saying. I had to think about what he had said for a minute there because it was not what Charlie wanted - to join that academy but I was unsure whether she wanted us to all be driven insane. I looked up at him, resisting the urge that I got every time I looked at him; I wanted to slap him to give him a taste of his own medicine. Instead of doing that however, I just looked at him with a dumbfounded look and replied with my normal flippant tone. See how mature I was?
“Um, it is really helping if you do it by force?” He was not a very patient man, Old Mr. Russia and he came up to me and whispered in my ear, his icy breath sending shivers right down my spine.
“Close your eyes, little April, this won’t hurt a bit.” My eyes widened. That was exactly what the Russian paramedic from Little Sisters had said to me when he was treating my bite from the husky in the park. His name was Doctor Nikolai Adrik and come to think of it, he looked very similar to Mr. Russian, only Doctor Adrik had lower cheekbones and a more rounded face - rather than having this perfectly sculpted native Russian thing going on. How did Mr. Russian know that my real name was April? Aside from the obvious that it’s English translation from French was April. I’d only ever told that to Jake, Charlie, Tegan and the Little Sisters - no-one else. I didn’t remember introducing myself to him, so I didn’t exactly say my name was Avril, so how was it that this guy knew? Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my neck and then I felt tired and let myself drop to the floor, not really taking much notice of anything else around me, like the coffee table I was about to collapse onto. Charlie and Jake were inches apart from each other unconscious and I felt it was my duty to kick this guy’s a*s, but I couldn’t. I felt too weak, helpless and exhausted. As much as I wanted to help them, I could feel myself giving up and falling to the floor and then what Mr. Russia had done had finally just dawned on me...
He shot me.