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  Nora studied the scenery, watched birds fly overhead, examined the small cramped space they crouched in. Anything to distract her from reality. A bear walked across the small clearing in front of them. A large brown bear, strolling leisurely though the woods.

  Headed right toward the hunters.

  Oh, no.

  However hypocritical it might be, however utterly stupid, all the leftover human sentiment in her heart went out to the bear as he walked right toward the hunters and to his death.

  Another small blur of motion behind the bear caught her eye. She looked over – and saw a much smaller bear walking behind the larger one. Then Nora realized something; the larger bear was no he, rather, it was a she – a mother bear! And the cub looked very young. She watched as he continued along with his mother, unsure of his footing and stumbling all over the place.

  “We have to do something,” she whispered to Hunter, motioning to the bears. “They’re going to get killed!”

  He shook his head. “We can’t do anything for them, Nora.” The mother bear stopped and looked back, waiting for her cub. The little cub saw his mother ahead and started to gallop toward her. He fell, but got up quickly, and ran again toward her. When he reached his mother, she nuzzled the back of his neck a bit, before they continued on in the same direction.

  “George!” The whisper came from her right. “Over here!” Nora’s breath caught. “This one’s mine, guys. Back off.” Everything was silent for a few moments, and then she heard more movement. The hunters were moving away, except for one.

  “Hunter,” she whispered urgently, “let me hear their thoughts.”

  Hunter looked at her, puzzled. “Why?”

  “I need to,” she said. “Let me listen, please.”

  Hunter shrugged and took her hands in his. Abruptly, her mind opened, and the thoughts of all five hunters rushed in. It wasn’t exactly a flood of thoughts, like had happened back at school, but more of a steady, though somewhat jumbled, stream. She focused on the thoughts of the voice she’d heard whispering earlier.

  Come on, you stupid bear, come to papa. That’s right…stay right there. Steady, and… A sudden crash broke the silence around her, ringing loudly in her ears. A moan immediately followed, a very human cry that could only be of pain. Of death. She started to get up, but Hunter held her back.

  “No,” he said. She sank back. But he took her hands again, and let her into the mind of the hunter.

  Ah, this one’s going to look great above the fireplace. Lisa’s going to love it. What a stupid thing, walking right toward us. This bear deserved to die, with that kind of instinct. Hah! Wait until the boys back there get a good look at this one. Jesus, it must be the biggest one we’ve got yet. Damn, but I’m good – wait. The thoughts cut off as the hunter’s mind went silent. Nora thought she could feel him focusing. What’s this? A cub! Ha, this bear was a bitch! Well, no use sparing the little one. The baby will make a great matching piece.

  Nora couldn’t take anymore. The cruelty of the hunter was too much. She ripped away from Hunter and ran toward the bear and the hunter. They came to sight quickly, the mother bear lying in a pool of her own blood, moving her head weakly. The little cub kneeling beside his mother, nudging her with his nose.

  And she saw the hunter. He was a big man, with a huge round stomach that stood out above all else. His face was round and pudgy, and he was sweating profusely. He was kneeling with one knee on the ground. She slowed, allowing herself to walk out in front of him.

  A look of bewilderment crossed his face when he saw her. Bewilderment, quickly supplanted by confusion, and then irritation.

  “Girl,” he growled, “what are you doing out in the woods?” He started to get up. “Who are you? Don’t you know it’s dangerous to walk alone around these parts?”

  Nora continued toward him without answering. Or slowing.

  “Where are you going?” He frowned and took a better grip on his rifle. “If you think you’re going to interfere…”

  In a single burst of speed, she stood right beside him. Before he even had time to react, she picked him up by the shoulders and threw him to the side. He flew through the air and landed with a loud thud a dozen feet away.

  Anger colored his face beet red. He moved his hand toward his rifle…and stared in shock when he found it missing. He had dropped it on his flight. Nora turned slowly toward him.

  “Run,” she told him coldly.

  The man looked to his rifle, lying six feet away from him, and back at her. She could see him sizing her up in his head. She moved quickly, again, and stepped on the rifle.

  “I said, run,” she whispered. The feeding instinct started to come over her, and this time she did nothing to stop it.

  The man’s gaze quickly turned to fear. It was like he caught something about her, something…unnatural. With a strangled yelp, he scrambled up. And he ran.

  Nora watched him go and laughed. Let him run, far away where his friends wouldn’t find him. She started jogging after him. He ran with all he had, pushing through bush and low branches to get away. But he wasn’t in the best of shape. Nora slowed so she would match his pace. She wanted him to be far from where he started when she finally caught up.

  He ran, looking over his shoulder, always finding her right there. He gave it all he had, but his breaths soon became ragged. Nora pitied him. He was a pathetic excuse of a man. She would have no problems taking his blood.

  The man tripped, stumbled, but caught his feet at the last moment and kept going, trying desperately to get away. Nora kept pace, not increasing the distance between them but not closing it, either. He was breathing hard, and his ragged gasps rang loudly through the air. Nora didn’t slow her pace this time.

  He glanced back, and his eyes went wide with horror as she closed in on him. His breath gave out, and he collapsed to the ground, gasping for air.

  Nora approached him and rolled him to his back with her foot. He squeezed his eyes shut. Nora inhaled the unfamiliar but immensely tantalizing human scent. Her mouth watered with anticipation.

  The man’s eyes popped open to find Nora standing right above him. Fear, mixed with bewilderment, crossed his face. “What…what are you going to do to me?” he said between gasps.

  “What you did to that mother bear,” Nora whispered unkindly. She leaned in closer, slowly, teasingly.

  The man desperately scrambled away. He pushed himself away from her, using his hands and feet to push against the ground. She let him go a short distance. He didn’t see where he was going, and his back hit a tree. He was trapped.

  Nora advanced toward him. She could smell his sweat, smell the tangy human scent that Hunter had told her about. Her nostrils flared, and her heart started pulsing faster with anticipation. The human smell was completely seductive to her. The man had gotten up, and was looking wildly side to side. His body was pressed against the bark of the tree.

  She came up to him slowly, until she stood right beside him. He was taller and much heavier, but that made no difference. He shied back, falling down again, and whimpered pleas escaped from his mouth. Nora ignored them.

  “Look at me,” she demanded harshly.

  He didn’t move. His hands covered his face, and his whole body shook with fear.

  Annoyed, she picked him up by the shoulders and slammed him roughly back against the tree. His arms hung limp at his sides, unable to fight her grip. He still looked away.

  “Look at me.” She moved her face close to his and deeply inhaled that human scent she so desired, the scent of blood. He whimpered weakly. She was breathing right on his neck, right on the spot where her teeth would sink into his warm flesh…

  “Look at me.” There was command to her voice that hadn’t been there before. Slowly, agonizingly, the man turned his head toward Nora.

  “Do you know who I am?”

  He shook his head. His whole body was shaking, now, but Nora held him steady against the tree, his feet dangling off the ground. “I am call
ed Nora,” she told him, “and today, you are going to die.”

  His eyes went wide with fear, and Nora couldn’t hold off the anticipation any longer. She threw him to the ground and launched herself on top of him. He struggled pathetically against her, but she was strong, much stronger than she remembered. She felt completely invigorated. The man was sweating puddles now. It disgusted Nora, but the sweetness of his blood called to her.

  She drew her lips back, bared her teeth, and like a viper, ripped her mouth toward his neck.

  “AAAHHHHH!!!” he cried, as her teeth started to sink in. It was a distinctly human sound, the sound of terror, the sound of great pain, of…despair. The same sound she heard when the bear was shot.

  What am I doing? Nora’s thought startled her. The man’s cry…it moved something deep inside her. She had lost herself in the heat of the moment, overtaken completely by her newfound instinct. But that cry – it reminded her of what it was like to be human, to feel fear and pain. It broke her out of the spell.

  She tore away, heaving herself aside. Away from him. A tiny trickle of blood started to crawl down his neck from the wound, and she could taste a little bit of it on her lip. It only whet her appetite. That small drop of blood on her lip sang out to her, its sweet, seductive warmth calling for her to drink deeply. Calling her like a drug calling an addict, like liquor calling an alcoholic.

  She spun around and ran, unsteadily, not caring where she was going. She had to get away. Away from the call of her first feeding. Away from where she nearly committed murder.

  Chapter Three

  ~A Third Companion~

  Nora stayed in one spot, terrified to move lest the feeding instinct take over again, until the humans were gone. She heard the hunter’s companions gather around him, heard them worriedly wake him, and heard them laugh as he told the story of what happened. They decided he had too much to drink.

  Once they’d all left, Hunter approached her.

  “You didn’t take his blood,” he said. She shook her head. Hunter squatted down beside her and brushed aside a strand of hair that had fallen in her face. “You’re strong,” he said, “much stronger than anyone I’ve known.” He looked proud.

  “As are you.” She reached up to touch his cheek.

  He smiled. “They’re gone now, as I’m sure you know.”

  “Yes.”

  “But I have something else for you.” He rose, and Nora looked at him curiously. “Wait here,” he told her and was gone.

  A few seconds later, he came back, cradling something in his arms. Nora gasped in surprise. The baby cub.

  “If I had just left him there,” Hunter explained, “he would have died quickly. I was sure you wouldn’t like that. So, I took him away from his mother’s corpse…to see what you wanted to do with him.”

  Nora stretched her arms out, and Hunter gently lowered the cub to her. He was warm, and looked scared. Nora brushed her hand against his back to calm him down. His fur was matted, a mixture of light grey and brown.

  “What is this?” She frowned. “Is he sick?”

  “No.” Hunter studied the spot where Nora pointed and shook his head. “I don’t think so. It looks like he’s albino. He’ll shed the brown and become grey before he’s grown.”

  “A grey brown bear?” Nora tilted her head to examine the fur from another angle.

  “So you’re going to keep him?”

  “…yes,” she said finally. “That’s why you brought him, isn’t it?”

  He shrugged. “I wanted you to make the decision.”

  “Then I decide to keep him.” The cub nuzzled up against Nora’s armpit.

  “Well, if that’s what you’re going to do, he’ll have to have a name.”

  “A name?”

  “We can’t have an unnamed third companion now, can we?”

  “No…you’re right.” She smiled. “A name. Hmm.” She picked the cub up and held him out in front of her face. To her surprise, he stuck his tongue out and licked her nose. She laughed. “I think I’ll call him Gray.”

  “Hah. Fitting.” Hunter knelt down beside her. “He can be a symbol of your strength, for overcoming the instinct and fighting away the craving.

  “How about that, Gray?” Nora twined her fingers through the little cub’s fur. “How would you like to be my symbol of strength?” In reply, Gray playfully swatted at Nora’s nose. “The man…” She kept her gaze averted. “Will he…become like us? I mean, I bit him, didn’t I?”

  “I saw him leave.” Hunter’s eyebrows drew together. “Whatever you did, it wasn’t enough to maim him. He looked frightened, but not much else. Did you even bite him?”

  “Maybe a tiny bit,” Nora admitted. “I tasted a drop of blood on my tongue.”

  “And you managed to pull away after coming that close?” A new sort of reverence entered Hunter’s tone. “The frenzy that takes over once you’re so close to blood is nearly impossible to stop. You’re even stronger than I thought.”

  “What about the man?”

  “Hmm? No, I don’t think he’s anything to worry about. You may have bitten him, but you haven’t been in your new form long enough to be able to convert others. You have to bring him to the very edge of death and then pull him back from the brink right before he slips. Only then can you create a new member of the Vassiz.”

  For a moment, silence stretched between them. Then the cub caught Nora’s attention. “Look,” she said, “Gray’s yawning.” The bear yawned widely and snuggled deeper into Nora’s arms.

  “He likes you,” Hunter said, smiling. “A rare talent, that.”

  “What do you mean?” Nora frowned. “Animals have always loved me.”

  “Loved you when you were a human, maybe, but now that you’re part of the Vassiz… most animals sense something unnatural about us and tend to shy away. They don’t run, like they sometimes do for humans, and they don’t attack, either. They just…keep away. It’s almost like we’re invisible to them and they to us.”

  “Not this one.” Nora snuggled her face into the cub’s fur.

  “No.” Hunter chuckled. “It appears not. But, you know, he won’t stay this small forever.”

  “I know, but he’s my responsibility, now.”

  Hunter smiled. “I think he became your responsibility as soon as you chased after the hunter.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You have a big heart, Nora. You have to be careful not to let it hurt you. You pitied the bear cub, and going to avenge his mother’s death only strengthened that point. You wouldn’t have done anything else except keep him, after.”

  Maybe he was right. Was she being weak? She didn’t think so. Keeping the cub was just how things turned out for her.

  “I guess we can spend the night here,” Hunter continued. “In any case, our third companion has had a hard day, and he’ll need some sleep.” He reached to ruffle Gray’s fur, but the bear snapped at him. Hunter pulled his hand away just in time. “Looks like he’s taken a liking to you more than me.” He laughed. “Although I couldn’t imagine why, after I took him away from his mother. It seems like he’s truly yours, now.”

  Nora smiled. “You hear that, Gray?” she whispered. “I’ll be taking care of you from now on. I’ll be your mother.”

  Chapter Four

  ~An Unexpected Encounter~

  They set up camp for the night in a clearing. Hunter sat with an arm wrapped around Nora while she leaned comfortably into him, enjoying the silence of the night and the crackling of the fire.

  A noise sounded behind them, and Nora jumped to her feet. She twisted around instantly, only to find Hunter standing beside her.

  Two shapes emerged from the forest. A man and a woman. Nora wondered briefly why neither she nor Hunter had heard their approach sooner.

  “Who are you?” Hunter’s body tensed.

  A smooth, confident voice answered him. “We come in peace, friend.” The couple moved closer, until they stood just at the edge of the fire’s
reaches.

  They were beautiful. They appeared to be somewhere in their early thirties, although their faces had an agelessness to them that was hard to place. The man had stunning blond hair that sat atop a perfectly chiseled face. Hard cheekbones and a strong chin gave him a very masculine look, while delicate eyes complimented it with a dash of femininity.

  And if the man were stunning to her, Nora could only imagine the woman’s effect on most men. Blonde hair streamed down to her hips, and her eyes glistened with magnificence. She had a small nose that was perfectly centered on her face, just above delicate, rose-red lips. She wore a beautiful white dress which was completely unmarred. The hemlines were touched by threads of gold, and the bodice bore elegant designs.

  “We bring a gift.” The man lobbed a dark piece of cloth toward them. Hunter snatched it out of the air. Nora watched over his shoulder as he unfolded an elegant black shirt. “We thought you might like to have a new piece of clothing.” The man gestured toward Hunter’s still bare chest. “Seeing as how you haven’t worn anything for days.”

  “How did you know?” Hunter’s projection of ease was only slightly spoiled by the threatening undercurrent.

  “We’ve been tracking you for five days.” The woman’s voice took Nora’s breath away. It rang like bells, and the only justified description Nora could give it was…angelic.

  The couple took another step forward, and their flawlessness was only magnified from closer up. They both had completely perfect, milky white skin. And, she realized with a start, they had no scent she could pick up.

  They were Vassiz! Had she and Hunter been found? Her breath caught, and her heart rate ratcheted up considerably.

  “How did you find us?” The effectiveness of Nora’s demand was somewhat diminished by the unsteadiness of her voice. If these two had gotten so close and avoided notice, what was to stop a whole army of the Vassiz from encircling her and Hunter right now?

  “You have nothing to fear from us, dear girl.” The man spread his hands. “As to how we found you…we were told of your coming by an old friend. I believe you’ve met. Were it not for him, I do not think we would be speaking now.”