Bite or Howl

Chapter 24

Chase POV

My hands move upwards, tracing my fingers along her side. She's asleep on my bed, laying straight up with her head tilted towards the ceiling. Her lips are slightly parted and her chest rises and falls as she breathes. There are damp black towels placed on her forehead and chest, relaxing her until she wakes up. She's been gone for three days. My beautiful Phoebe.

I lean forward and slowly move the towel off her forehead. Placing my hand on the side of her face, I lean closer and push my lips over her temple, moving upwards to the centre of her head. And then her eyes slowly shift open. Her eyelashes flutter open, curling upwards as her eyes adjust to the darkness of the room. When she'd registered her own presence and status, her face sours in pain. Her eyes squint closed and her mouth turns to a thin line. "Ouch." I hear her mumble. I lean forward, laughing at her behaviour.

"You wake up and the first thing you say is ouch?" I trace, leaning downwards and kissing her nose. When I pull back, we're eye to eye. My hands struggle to keep myself up for so long so I let myself sink down, laying my head over her chest and hearing the fast beating of her heart. "My head hurts." She mumbles. "My whole body is sore." She then adds. "I missed you." I say, breathy as I snuggle deeper into her neck and inhale her scent. She winces when I do, bringing her hands forward and cupping my face, pulling me down. "Does it hurt?" I ask her, motioning to the bite on her neck. It's raw. Still open and all red.

She nods her head slowly. "You've got to sit up. Your body will wake up and it can start healing." I tell her, pulling her up so she's leaning against the wall. "What did you do, Chase?" She asks me. I avert my gaze from hers and look down at my hands. "What I had to do." I mutter. "I had to bite you, Phoebe. I would've killed you if I didn't. You've been dead for three days. I've just been waiting for you to wake up." I explain to her. "What happened to Felix?" She asks, worried. I think back to a few days ago at the mention of his name. The traumatising scene I'd witnessed.

"He's in the dungeons. I got an explanation out of him. He claims that he was corrupted." I start. "What do you mean by that?" She then asks me. "He said that someone had planted a darkness inside of him, identical to mine. I don't know if it's true but-" I stop myself, scared of what is about to come out of my mouth. "He was possessed."

I explained to her about Felix and the encounter I'd had with him a few days back. He too had been knocked out but he woke up on the second day. I volunteered to go down and inspect him because his presence might be too much for anyone of the royal court. When I went there, he was different from the other times I'd seen him. He looked different too. His hair was more of a mess than styled. His cheeks were more outwards and his cheekbones had gone inwards, leaving his face rather round and small. Even his eyes had shrunk, small and brown. Not the dark black orbs he used to. He was completely different. His posture was less aggressive. He sat cross legged on the floor, not leaning against the wall with a foot up like I'd expected.
It was like a completely different person.

Phoebe leans against the wall, perplexed, listening carefully to what I'm telling her. She nods occasionally and her lips part in a sigh. "Wow." She responded once I'd finished. But I didn't want to talk about Felix anymore. Not after what happened back in the dungeons. Leaning over, I stretched my hands out for the goblet on the bedside table. "You're a vampire now, you need to drink to live." I tell her, placing the goblet underneath her nose. She squirms back and shakes her head. "No, I don't want to." She whines. Timidly, I leaned closer and swirled to goblet around her nose, letting the scent fill her nostrils. "Smells yummy, right?" I tease. She shakes her head but I can see the neediness in her eyes. "Come on, baby. You have to." I tell her, tilting the goblet forward and into her mouth. She obeys by pressing her soft lips against the tip of the goblet, placing her hand on mine and tilting it upwards so the blood can flow into her mouth. She stays like that for a few seconds, gulping down the remaining blood that the goblet contains. When she'd finished, she pulled my hand away and took a deep breath, catching her breathing back to a steady beat. I smiled as she licked her lips, wiping the blood off of them. "Better?" I ask. She nods and smiles. "The blood should give you a bit more energy." I explain, placing the empty goblet back on the bedside table. 

"So I'm a vampire now." She says not exactly to me but more to herself. Like she's stating something that she can't believe. When you say something out loud so you get used to hearing it. "One of the most powerful. Alongside me actually." I state, pushing myself up against the wall. She turns to face me, her mouth gaping open and her eyes wide. "No." A tint of excitement in her tone. "Yes." I finish, leaning forward and pressing my fingertip against her nose. "Werewolf and vampire. Those two combined creates a power no one could even imagine. Hybrid, I guess. Besides me, you're probably the most powerwolf being in all of Mount Verona." I state, relaxing my back against the wall and folding my arms over my chest while shutting my eyes. A small wow escapes her lips in shock. She then leans forward, removing her back off the wall and bringing her weight onto her hands.

"You've got to go with Lupus to the werewolf castle. Just to check on some things. The guards need a guide to navigate through so go with them at sunrise." I tell her. She crawls over me and turns around, letting her feet take her weight onto the floor. "Where are you going?" I ask, peeking my eyes open and watching as she struggles to come off of the bed. "Holy shit I'm naked." I hear her mutter. "Makes things easier." She adds, still keeping her tone down. "I'm gonna show you what I'm capable of." She replies, feeling proud of herself. "Which isn't much, really, but I mean, you've never seen my wolf before, have you?" She's showing me her wolf.

I shake my head and motion for her to go on. "Okay, turn around." She says, holding the towel close to her chest as she moves away from the bed. "Why?" I question, confused on why she wants me to look away. She huffs and steps forward, taking her palm and placing it over my eyes. "It'll be too much, trust me. You don't want to watch." I can feel her other hand moving around the bed, scavenging for something. Before I could ask, she'd taken a sheet and tied it around my head, blocking my sight. "Count to five and then you can take it off." She says before pressing her lips against mine for a short kiss. My sight had gone so by the time I'd processed her lips presence on mine, she'd already stepped back. "Alright, you can start counting now." And so I did.

It sounded just like Felix's. The snapping of bones and the long breaths that lingered around for a while. Phoebe's was shorter, there were less bone cracking sounds. Just a lot of heaving breaths, gasping for air. "...5" I count, bracing myself for the sight that has been placed before me. I feel a wave of panic, what if she was like Felix? Would she try to attack me? Do werewolves have control of their wolf? But I lifted my hands anyway, slowly reaching for the blindfold that captured my sight and ripping it off. It took awhile for my eyes to adjust to the room so for the first few seconds, it was all misty with black splotches in my vision. But when they disappeared, I found myself face to face with the most beautiful animal I had ever seen in my life.

She was the complete opposite of Felix. She wasn't fierce and overpowering, she was mid-size, quite tall but not as much as Felix. I somewhat understand why her family must've neglected her. She looks nothing like them. She stands on four paws and not on her feet. She has elegant white fur that covers her entire body. This fur is thick and soft, the type that looks like a cozy rug or blanket that you want to wrap yourself in. Her ears stand upright on her head, covered in fur. Her fur is so thick, it creates a mane around her face, making her look like a husky. Her eyes are identical to Felix's. They're dark orbs that are so circular and large. They basically bounce out of her head, glowing under the urban light. She steps forward and looks at the space beside me. Moving back, she wags her tail like a dog and pounces forward, landing just at the end of the bed where my legs lay. I don't think she can talk.

Werewolves can't talk, right? "Hey." I start awkwardly. "I don't really know what I'm meant to say." I add, watching as she stares straight at me. She moves forward and I lay my hand out, waiting for her to step closer so I can lay it on her forehead. She moves closer, taking small steps towards me while navigating herself through the bed, careful not to step on me. She licks my hand with her tongue then quickly hides herself in my chest, laying on top of me while I stroke her precious fur. She's like a dog seeking attention, snuggling closer into me when my hand stops moving. "You're a beautiful wolf, my love." I whisper into her ear. "But you're such an attention seeker." Her head shoots up and growls at me, threatening me with her teeth. They're as sharp as Felix's, crisp white and shiny. I laugh at her remark and keep patting her head. We lay like that for the entire night. Me and my wolf. My Phoebe.