There is a rustling in the trees. 

A little boy emerges from the foliage. His skin looks like woven starlight, and his hair and eyes are dark as black. He’s naked, and apparently as utterly unashamed as a nature spirit. 

He’s also holding a bundle of weeds and wildflowers in his hand. He rocks on his heels. “Uh, hi,” he says with a shy smile.

She looks up from the fire at the sound, and blinks in surprise at what she sees. 

"Um... hi!" She offers in return. "...Did someone take your clothes?" She asks, concerned, but not bothered by the nudity itself. She is wearing jeans and has a big hoodie wrapped around herself, but has no shoes or socks on.

He glances down at his bare skin. “Oh, nah, I don’t wear clothes. They’re sucky human crap.” He offers his bouquet. “This is for you, Angela.”

Another surprised blink, but then she smiles, "Oh, pretty!" She takes them, and then... sniffs them? That's what you do with flowers, right? They do smell nice. Sweet and like plants and dirt and nature.

"You're not human?" She asks once she's done smelling them. 

Zeke remembers that humans sometimes... react to his true nature. “Ah, no. It’s way better. I’m really strong and fast and I’m going to live forever and stuff. And I don’t have to wear clothes or go to school or get a job!”

"That does sound nice," she agrees with a giggle. "School is awful, and all that boring stuff adults do to get money sounds awful, too. Are you some kind of forest spirit?" She asks. 

“I’m a... son of Lilith,” he says. “I’m Zeke...” Zeke can’t hold it in. “Wanna be like me?” he blurts. “We could live forever and be mates and stuff. You’re really pretty and nice and—and—yeah.”

Her eyes widen, "You can - make people like you?" And then she registers the second bit, and giggles, charmed. "Um, thank you? What's, um. What's mates?" 

“Sure can! And mates... you know what a boyfriend and girlfriend are?”

"Kind of... An older girl told me once that it's when a boy and a girl like each other a lot and kiss and stuff. She said it's not like me and my twin, though, even though I like him a lot..." She shrugs. "She was kind of confusing."

“It’ll make sense later, promise! So, wanna be like me?”

"...It sounds nice, but..." She hugs the hoodie tighter, "I've gotta find my brother," she explains, "I could still do that, right? Could you make him like you too?" 

"Sure thing!" chirps Zeke. "My sister would like that."

"Okay," she nods, "Maybe they'll like each other and they can be mates, too?" Though she still doesn't quite know what that means. She stands, letting the hoodie fall like a cape around her shoulders, wincing slightly as the cold air hits her belly, "...So how does this work?" She asks, tilting her head curiously.

"Um, you need to drink my blood. It'll taste gross at first but then be really nice, then you'll fall asleep."

Blink, "Like a vampire? Huh. I can do that," she nods.

"Ah, yeah, that's what I am. You don't mind?"

"Don't think so," she hums, nibbling on her lip as she thinks, "It sounds like being a vampire is better than being a human. And I don't mind blood even now."

Oh, this is so much better than he was expecting. "Um... you like kissing?"

"I guess it's kind of nice? We tried it a couple times." It mostly just felt like being close and maybe a bit like when he pet her hair. Soothing. But maybe that was just cause they were also hugging. It's hard to tell! 

Anyway, why does he want to know? "Oh," she giggles, "Mates kiss, right? Okay," she leans in to kiss him. 

Zeke bits his lip and kisses Angela.

And she sucks his blood into her mouth, and drinks it. It's not that bad, at first, it mostly just tastes like when she bites her lip too hard, or sucks on a cut or scrape. Then it gets better. Much better, better than anything she's ever tasted. She drinks and drinks until she can't keep drinking, and then she passes out in his arms. 

Zeke lays her gently on the grass, slipping the hoodie under head after stripping her off. Now, off to get that first meal for her.

She dreams of flight. The whole world is open to her, not a single place forbidden, not a cage that can hold her, and she wings her way from place to place, forever going onward. Others fly beside her, and drop behind her, and fly ahead, and they chase each other, but no one can catch her - she only lets herself be caught. She looks down from her place in the sky and sees a shadow in the water, and she dives to catch it. She closes her claws around her wriggling prey and rips into it, feasting on its flesh, its blood staining the water around her red. Hunger sated for now, she returns to the air, screaming her joy to the sky. She is free. 

When she wakes, everything is different. She stares up at the sky, entranced by the stars, and takes a deep breath, letting in the scents of the forest around her. 

The forest, and... something else. There's Zeke, but more important is the warm, red scent of food. And suddenly, she notices that she is starving. 

Scrambling up to her hands and knees, she lunges for it, ripping into it like the prey in her dream, and drains it dry. 

Once she's full, she blinks down at the corpse underneath her, and then looks up at Zeke, licking the blood from her lips, "Who was he?" She asks, idly curious but unconcerned. She notices the blood on her hands and starts licking that, too.  

Zeke hugs her. "Just some stupid old guy who was looking for you."

Hug! "Probably one of the fosters or a social service person or something," she decides. She quickly turns the hug into a snuggle, switching the majority of her attention from the blood on herself to curling up with him, humming happily. 

The pair snuggle in the grass for a while, purring. Zeke sniffs her a few times.

She sniffs at him, too, cuddling contentedly.

"...I dreamed about flying and chasing and hunting," she tells him after a bit, "It was good. I've never dreamed about hunting before, though." 

"Feels great, don't it?"

"It was fun! I was flying and then I saw something in the water and I caught it. I tried catching fish in the stream before this, but I wasn't fast enough then." 

"Wanna try now? We can wash up too if you want!"

"Yeah!" 

She scrambles to her feet and bounces over towards the stream, plopping down on the bank and peering into the water. 

"Oh, there's one," she hums, watching the fish as it swims about, nibbling on some plant growing along the bottom of the stream. Quick as a flash, her hand darts out and she grabs it, tugging it out of the water. It doesn't even start wriggling for a long moment, shocked by the sudden change. 

"Woah," she giggles, holding it away from her face as its tail slaps at her. 

"Nice one!" Zeke exclaims, peering over her shoulder.

She holds it in both hands and squints at its face. "It's kinda silly looking," she decides, mimicking its mouth for a second. "Want it? I'm gonna catch some more."

"No no, ladies first."

Giggle, "Okay." She pokes at the skin and then shrugs, ripping into it with her teeth. She chews thoughtfully, "Hmm, the human was better but this is okay." 

"Can't believe humans just burn their food before eating it."

"I think cooked fish was pretty good, too?" She tries to remember, "I haven't had it much, though. We had chicken and ham and baloney and hamburgers, usually. Ham is pig and baloney is..." She squints down at her fish, "I dunno what baloney is," she realizes. "That's weird."

Zeke splashes her.

"Eep!" She drops the fish. Then she lunges for the water, laughing, "I'm gonna get you for that!" Splash fight!

Some of which freezes against Zeke's body!

Ooo! "How are you doing that?!"

"I'm a witch."

"There's witches, too?"

“Vampires and werewolves and stuff with magic.” He turns and wiggles mockingly. “Humans need not apply.”

"Can I learn how to do it?" 

“You either do or you don’t, sorry.”

"Aww." She splashes him again in her disappointment. 

Zeke pokes his tongue out at her and splashes back.

She holds up a hand to keep the water from hitting her face - and then frowns, when none of it hits her. 

"Huh-?" She lowers her hand, then blinks, staring at the droplets hanging in the air in front of her. "Woah!" 

Zeke trills in delight. "I knew I picked a good one!"

She is hugged again.

Hugs!! The water droplets rain down on them in her distraction. 

"I'm magic!"

"You're perfect!"

Giggle, "You're cute!" She kisses him, and then slips out of his grasp, reaching out to sort of tug, on the river, sending a wave crashing towards him while she runs to the shore, cackling. 

Zeke is knocked on his butt, blowing water out his nose. 

"I'll get you!"

He runs after her, he pounces. They tumble into the grass and dirt.

For the rest of the day, the two porceline skinned children romp.

Romping! They can play with the ways water and ice powers mix, and run around, and wrestle, and climb up All The Trees! 

Come night time, though, Angela remembers the dilemma she'd been thinking about earlier.

"I still wanna find my brother," she reminds Zeke. "I'm not really sure how to do that, though."

"Would the people who ran the kid-jail you were in know where he is?"

She giggles at the term. It's appropriate! 

"Maybe! I bet they'll have some stuff in the dad-wannabe's office if they do." 

"And we can get you some dinner!"

He tickles Ang's stomach.

"I am kinda hungry now," she agrees. The fish only really took the edge off. 

She looks around the campsite, which is a bit wrecked by their romping now. Still, there's one thing that's been left untouched.

"Oh!" She picks up the hoodie, stuffing her face into it and sniffing. "Mmmm... It smells like him," she says, hugging it. She glances up at Zeke, a little uncertain, "Vampires don't wear clothes, right?"

"Nope. More fun being naked."

"Yeah, but... It'll be easier to carry it if I'm wearing it, and I don't wanna lose it..." 

"Do what ya like. Not gonna make you less pretty."

"Okay," she slings it over her shoulders and ties the arms around her neck, like a cape. "There!" 

"Let's go?" 

"Sure! Lookin' good!"

"I can use it to be dramatic!" She declares, swishing her cape, before she begins leading him towards town. 

The foster house is mostly dark by now, all the kids in bed, but there's lights on in the kitchen and the living room. Probably the adults, up late. 

"You wanna leave any survivors or..."

"Hmmm..." she considers. "I kinda liked most of the kids, so I don't really wanna kill them... One of them even helped me sneak my stuff out to the woods, and no one found me, so he must not have snitched," she says. "If we're quiet we could just not wake them up? The kids rooms are on the second floor." 

Zeke laughs. "Heh, I just had an idea for a prank."

"Ooo?" 

"We feed your favourites some blood and leave em' to figure it out for themselves."

"Oo! That'll turn 'em? That sounds fun! We can come back and see how they did after we find Alex!" 

"It's not even mean because we're making them better!"

"Hmm... I think my favourites are Colin and Jack. Jack's the one that helped, and Colin's funny - he kept trying to eat the dad-wannabe, and he's not even a vampire!" 

"So, stealing first, Colin and Jack after that, dinner last?"

"It's a date!"

She creeps up towards one of the dark windows on the first floor, tugging her cape forward to cover the lower half of her face with a stifled giggle.

Zeke follows, showing her some pointers on forcing open windows in relative silence.

Handy! In they go, landing in the empty office. Angela peers around at the room, considering the computer and then the filing cabinet. They probably have to have paper copies of some stuff... she points the cabinet out to Zeke, and then makes for the computer herself, smiling when she sees that it's not locked. 

Zeke rips open the cabinet and rapidly reads through every file, committing them to perfect vampiric memory.

There's six binders in there, containing all the information on the six kids (including Angela) living in the house. Birth certificates, insurance information, medical information, reports and legal documents, and much, much more! Angela's file has her blood mother's name - Lyra Starr - but there's no father listed. Her brother is on there too, noted down as an Alexander Starr, and also includes contact information for the family who took him in. 

“I found him,” whispers Zeke.

"You did?" She hops down from the computer chair, zipping over to look at the file, "You did!" She confirms, quietly but enthusiastically. "And that city's not even that far away." 

“Shall we proceed with the prank?”

"Right. Jack is in the first room to the left, upstairs, and Colin's in the second one. Colin was my roommate, but Jack's got his own. Danny probably won't make a fuss if he wakes up, though - he's super scared of Jack. Which one do you want?"

“I’ll do Jack. I’ll deal with Danny if he wakes up. I have brother-cousin called that!”

"How's a brother-cousin work?" 

“Our moms are twins and we have the same dad.”

"Oh, cool, I didn't know that's what you called that."

She peers out the office door, "Coast's clear," she says, "The stairs are that way."

Zeke treads up to Jack’s room.

And Angela heads for the room she used to share with Colin.

Jack: is asleep. So is Danny, but he doesn't particularly matter.

Zeke bites his wrist and feeds the sleeping boy his blood.

His eyes flutter open briefly, staring blearily up at Zeke, and then flutter closed again as he drinks. 

The vampire watches for signs of pleasure.

He mostly just seems ambivalent, at first, but then his eyes blink open again and he stares up at him with wide eyes. His hands come up to grip the other boy's arm, trying simultaneously to hold his wrist there and tug him down on top of him. 

"Shhh, drink as much as you want."

He does. Soon enough, he falls into a different sort of unconsciousness than before.

Angela is waiting for him out in the hall when he finishes, bouncing on her toes. "He drank a lot. I'm really hungry now," she whispers. 

"Ladies first, then."

Downstairs! 

There's one person in the kitchen, and one in the living room. Angela considers for half a second, and then zips into the living room, sneaking up behind the couch and poking the back of the man's head.

"Mister?"

 "Hm?" He half-turns, but can't get a good look at her in the dark. "What're you doing up, kid." He asks flatly.

"I'm hungry," she whispers. 

 He sighs, "Ka-" he stops, "Wait, you're not Katie." He turns all the way, "Ang-?" 

She pounces, covering his mouth as she rips into his throat with her teeth. Don't want to wake the kids upstairs! She's kinda written them off at this point, but Jack and Colin'll need something to eat when they wake up, if nothing else. 

Zeke watches, studying his new "girlfriend's" enthusiastic, if un-honed form.

She's getting a fair amount of blood on her hoodie cape. She'll be annoyed by that later, but for now she's a bit busy.

The guy makes enough noise to alert the woman in the kitchen, who steps towards the door. "Liam?" She calls, "Is something wrong?" 

"Ang is back!" Zeke calls back in an unnering imitation of the man's voice.

"What, Angela?" She picks up her pace, comig to a stop in the doorway when she catches sight of Zeke (Angela and Liam are hidden by the couch). She blinks, "Goodness, where are your clothes?" 

"I don't have any."

Blink, "Well, I'm sure one of the other boys will lend you something- Liam, where did you go?" She comes around the couch, catching sight of Angela and her meal. Her eyes widen and she opens her mouth to scream. 

She doesn't have time. In less than a second, she doesn't even have a throat.

With both adults taken care of, the two children are left to feast in peace.

Angela pokes curiously at formerly-Liam's chest once the blood stops coming easily, "Still hungry," she muses, before looking over at Zeke, "Can you show me the best parts to eat?" She asks him.

"Sure!"

Zeke shows her how to extract a liver.

Nom.

"S'better than fish," she decides. Still eating, she peers around the room until her eyes fall on a little metal tin, brightening, "Does chocolate still taste the same?" She wonders, already bouncing over to find out.

It does!

Yay! She offers some to Zeke, too, "Do vampires make candy and chocolate?" She wonders.

"Making stuff's for humans," he says as he chews on the chocolate. 

"Guess they're good for something, then, never having any chocolate again would be the Worst." Nomnom delicious chocolate. 

Zeke yawns. “Want to go somewhere to yawn?”

His yawning is contagious.

"Yeah," she agrees after she's done, rubbing at her eyes. Outside?

Zeke leads her to a mossy rock hollow. He beckons for cuddles. 

Cuddles! And sleep. 

The next morning, something is proddding Angela with its toe.

"Nnnngh-" she snatches at it, blinking her eyes open to squint at the offender.

A little redhead girl, about as naked as Angela, covered head to toe in fresh tye dye paint. She smells... strong. Not like food at all. Like kin.

She’s also grinning broadly. “Hi!”

There’s bright 60s rock music blaring from an old boom box. A similarly painted boy is dancing in the clearing.

”They awake?”

Ooo, "Hello!" She's up in a flash, looking between them curiously, "Who are you? What are you?" 

Ezekiel groans and covers his ears. “Werewolves.”

“The best werewolves!”

The girl pulls Angela into a wild little dance. “You smell new!”

Eeheehee! Dancing!

"I am! Zeke made me a vampire just yesterday. Or maybe the day before? But I woke up yesterday."

The boy calls over to the vampires. “Oh Zeke, you turn those new boys running around here?”

"They're already up?" She bounces, "Don't tell us what they've been doing! We want it to be a surprise when we come back after finding my brother." 

“Gonna eat him?”

Frown. "No! He's my twin, we're gonna turn him." 

"Oh. That's cool too. I mean, he'll probably be kicking himself when he hears he coulda been a werewolf..."

She pauses, thinking about it. 

"What do werewolves do that vampires don't? I guess you can turn into wolves? Or wolf-people? But what else?"

And suddenly the boy is a tye dye coloured wolf cub.

!!!

She bounces over to him, "Your fur is pretty!"

Nuzzle.

Eeee! Hug! 

"Can we turn into things?" She asks Zeke.

Zeke is bright and awake by now.

"Yep!"

Cat!

She somehow manages to become even more excited than she already was. 

"How do I do that!"

Zeke's... never had to explain that before. "Just... be a cat!"

"Hm!"

Cat?

Cat! 

She wriggles out of her cape-sweater, pauses to roll around in the dirt gleefully, and then tumbles over to Zeke to nuzzle and sniff at him. 

Play-tackle!

Wrassling! 

And suddenly they're being menaced by a rainbow she-cub!

Oh no! Cattack! 

Cub is bigger and keeps rolling on top of them!

The kitten squeaks under her and sets to wriggling out. Once free, she slinks over to the other cub to sniff at him.

He smells interesting! Like a very, very strong puppy. Turns out males and females smell very different to Angela. Kitten gets her nose licked.

Puppy gets his nose licked in return! 

And then Angela turns back so she can hug him.

"Hmmm... Alex would like being a wolf better than a cat, I think..." She muses. 

Joey reverts to human form in Ang’s arms. “And we’re stronger!”

“And faster!”

“Only in a straight line. We don’t have to go to the bathroom!”

Boy instead of wolf! She continues to hug him. 

"We don't?" She thinks back over the past day, "Huh! But peeing's important for wolves like it is for dogs, right? That makes sense." She nods, "I think he won't mind, anyway." 

"Okay, okay, he can be a wolf. Long as these two are up for a bite."

"Sure thing," says Joey. "Always good to add to the pack."

"Better find him soon!" adds Angie. "It's nearly the full moon. Don't wanna have to wait a whole month for him to change, do ya?"

"Definitely not," she agrees. "We've got his address, though! Shouldn't be hard to find. Though I might have to sneak into a library or steal someone's phone to get directions... or just ask, I guess," she adds thoughtfully. "'Cause it's in a big city."

"City?"

"That's right, puppies," Zeke jeers. "Clothes!"

Much groaning ensues.

"You've never been to a city?" 

"Not during the day. That means like, pants."

She giggles, "You guys all hate clothes so much! It's kind of funny. Though not having to wear them is better. The fosters were always getting mad at me for not wearing a shirt." 

"Why? You don't even have boobs yet!"

"I know! That's what I said! Humans are so weird about girls," her voice goes all serious and stern, "Sit up straight, Angela, girls don't slouch. I don't care if you don't like dresses, Angela, it's time for church so you'd better put it on! You can't play with that, Angela, that's a boy's toy. Now now, young lady, what are you doing running around in the mud, don't you know you'll get your clothes all dirty?" 

She shrugs, "They aren't all like that, but the last ones were," she adds. 

Angie giggles. "Humans don't even like mud! What's the point?"

"Human kids like it! Most of them, anyway, sometimes the grown-ups convince them it's bad and I can't change their minds. Sometimes human kids are jerks but I usually liked at least one of the other kids. None of them were as good as Alex or Zeke, though." 

"So... clothes."

"I mean, if we get to make another werewolf..."

"You can just hide and I'll do all the things that need clothes? And then I can lure him into an alley or something and you can bite him." 

"Aww come on, it'll be hilarious. We at least need to get them to the alley first."

She giggles, "That's just mean," she says. She doesn't sound disapproving, though. "I guess it's true, though! So... back into town to figure out how to get there, and then we can go?" 

"Do we find clothes first?"

"Can you find my campsite? I've got some there, and then I can just check the library for directions. I think it'd be silly to get clothes for you guys before we get to the city."

"Very wise."

"Yeah, you'd say that."

They head back to the campsite.

Clothes. She tugs on some jeans and a t-shirt, and then sits to pull on shoes. 

"....This feels weird now," she says. The shoes especially. She moves her toes up and down in them and grimaces a bit.

"Told ya," chirps Joey.

She sticks her tongue out at him.

"Okay... Be right back?" She shifts on her feet one more time and then zooms off. 

"Gaze upon your fate, wolflings!"

"I'll unboy you."

She's still close enough to hear that, and giggles to herself in response. 

It's after school, so no one comments on the little girl in the library. She pokes around at a computer for a bit, putting the address in maps and then pulling up some street level images near it to help her remember it better, and then logs off and heads back out to the campsite. All in all she's in the library maybe ten minutes. 

"Okay, got it," she tells them as she gets back, already kicking off the shoes and tugging off the shirt. 

"Shoes look... evil."

"They're almost as dumb as shirts," she nods. She pulls off the pants, picks her cape up, and swings it around her shoulders. "They're all pinchy. I'm not gonna wear anything but this from now on if I don't have to." 

"Smart!"

She bounces, looking around the camp, and then stops, looking at them thoughtfully, "Hey... what're your names, anyway?" 

Angie takes Angela by the hand and spins her. "Angie!"

Joey proceeds to take said hand and kiss it. "Joey."

She giggles, for more than one reason, and curtsies to Joey, sweeping her cape out swishily, "I'm Angie, too! Well... Angela. Alex calls me Angel?" 

Zeke pecks her neck. "You look it."

"Eep," she jumps, not having been expecting that, then turns and throws her arms around him, "Thanks," she giggles. 

"Now, too the city!"

To the city!!! 

If they follow the road she can figure out how to get there. It won't even take all that long at the speed they're running. 

"Weird going into a city in the daytime!"

"You've never even gone in shaped like puppies?" 

"Only fun stuff in cities is for human shaped things."

"Hmmm..." she can think of a few fun things to do while cat-shaped... 

"...Okay, time to steal some clothes." She bites her lip, looking out over the houses on the other side of the road. It looks like a brand new suburb, which is perfect for stealing kids clothes, there's probably lots of families here. "Wanna sneak into a house and grab some?" 

"...Can we do lunch, too?"

"Yeah, multitasking!" 

Zeke proceeds to leap over the fence of a suitable seeming house.

There's a boy in the back yard. He looks up in surprise when Zeke lands near him, and his eyes widen only more as the other three follow. 

"...What..." he stalls, not actually sure what to ask first. What are they doing in his backyard, why are they (mostly) naked, how did they jump over that fence???

Zeke looks back at Angela. "So, what do we do with the kid?"

She frowns, "Hmm... if we leave him he'll go in foster care and..." she bounces thoughtfully, then looks at Angie, "Could you bite him, too?"

Cain steps back from them in the direction of the house, alarmed.

"Sure thing!" 

Angie bounds forward--

Shifting into a wolf cub as she leaps into the boy and bites him hard on the ankle.

Before swiftly reverting to human form and slapping a hand over his mouth.

That's good, it prevents his scream from alerting the neighborhood! He collapses to the ground reaching for his ankle. 

"Let's put him in a closet. He'll be able to bust out when the Moon comes out tonight."

"And you can take his clothes," Zeke points out jeeringly.

"...Fine."

Cai is not to busy crying and struggling against Angie's hold to hear them talking. Of course all he can really do about it is struggle harder, but... 

Angel looks down at him consideringly, and then bounces over and starts helping Angie get him out of his clothes. 

"Should we knock him out?"

"If you wanna."

Hmmm... 

"I think it'd be nicer to knock him out so he doesn't have to listen," she decides, and carefully proceeds to do so, over his muffled protests. 

It's much easier to get his clothes off him, now.

Joey dresses, slowly and with much fussing. 

He looks odd, fidgeting in a short and shirts, like someone threw a net on a nature spirit.

"Can't even feel the air..."

She considers him. "Looks weird," she decides. "Anyway, you shouldn't wear them around yet, they might get dirty while we eat." 

He strips. "Oh thank Lilith."

Even if she doesn't like clothes much either, his relief is still funny. 

"Closet for him and then food for us?" She asks. There is someone inside the house, though just the one. He's upstairs, sitting mostly still aside from the click-clacking of keys. 

"Sure."

Joey hoists the future werewolf over his shoulder, drops of blood trailing behind them as Joey walks towards the house.

It's not too hard to find a closet and then shove a shelf in front of it or something. 

That done, they can focus on food.

"There's four of us and only one of him, is that really enough?" She wonders. 

Angie wiggles. "You guys take the blood, we take the meat."

"Sounds good." 

Upstairs! The adult looks pretty young, from what they can see from the back, but his hair is prematurely grey. He's very focused on whatever he's doing on the computer in his office, and doesn't notice the four kids sneaking up on him.

He might notice Zeke biting into his neck.

He does notice that! He shoves his chair back and tries to rip Zeke off of him, but is quickly overwhelmed by a combination of bloodloss and supernaturally strong children as Angel joins in. 

Especially as Angie and Joey straight up start ripping into his belly.

Death is really just a mercy at that point. 

Once he's pretty much drained, Angel flops onto her back on the ground to watch the wolves eat, wiping at her face with the back of her hand and licking the blood off while she waits. 

The wolves gnaw at the insides like pigs at a trough, rumps facing out at Angela. 

Joey stands up first, burping. "At least we won't be dressed on an empty stomach!"

"Hope new boy finds something to eat."

"There's lots to eat around here," she shrugs, "I'm sure he'll find something."

She looks them all over, "We should probably wash off before we put on clothes. Won't matter how human we dress if we're covered in blood."

"There'd be like, a shower in here, right?"

"Should be!" Time to explore the upstairs! It's not very big, so it doesn't take them long to find a bathroom. It contains a shower-bath, big enough to hold all four of them, though only one or two will fit under the showerhead at once. She bounces into it and turns it on.

The other three crowd in, generally shoving each other about and having a good time.

Joey sings as the water around his feet runs brown with blood. "Ain't nothing going to break stride, ain't nothing going to slow me down, oh no, I've got to keep on movin'..."

Scrub scrub, "What's that song?" 

"Our mother sing it sometimes. Music's the only thing humans do kinda good."

"Chocolate!" Angel counters, having pointed that out just the night before. "But music is good, yeah. Alex really likes music. One of the fosters got him a bunch of lessons once, and sometimes the new ones will sign him up for piano again, even though that's not his favourite." She starts tugging some of the water away from where Joey is standing while she talks, rinsing herself off. 

Zeke meanwhile is amusing himself with the scented shower gel. 

Angel notices and slides over to sniff him. She sneezes, "It's all chemically," she complains, rubbing her nose. 

"You get used to it."

Eventually, clean is had.

Clean! 

Unfortunately, this means it is time for the Dreaded Clothing. 

Joey has that outfit they left in the back yard if he wants it, but the rest of them will have to pick out some stuff from not-yet-wolf's dresser. Angel selects some jeans and a tank top. They're a bit big on her, but she finds a belt to cinch the waist a bit. 

Angie dresses in some slightly unseasonal shorts and a top with a skull on it. She is not pleased. "That kid should thank us."

"Oh, quit whining, pants-virgin."

Angel throws Zeke a shirt with a dog on it, stifling a giggle, "It's only for a little while. I know where we're going from here." 

Zeke... tries to hide his utter annoyance at the fabric. 

She notices. She kisses his cheek as she passes him on the way out of the room, because he is cute, and also for putting up with Clothes so she can rescue her brother. 

Downstairs to meet up with Joey, and then onwards toward Alex!

They follow, trying to not be obviously superhuman.

If they make any mistakes no one who catches sight of them seems to notice.

Angel leads them through some backstreets and up onto some roofs as they get closer to the downtown area, taking the shortest path from the suburbs to the old townhouse where Alex lives. 

There's a couple kids drawing on the sidewalk with chalk out front. Neither of them is Alex. Angel instead points to the tree in the front yard. 

There's a boy about eight feet up, curled up in the branches and reading a book. 

"So how do we do this?" whispers Joey.

"Um... you guys wait in that alley, and I'll wait here," just in sight of the tree, for a human, "And Zeke can go toss a pinecone at him or something? Careful, though, he's still human." 

The wolves dart into the alley.

Zeke dutifully tosses said pine cone with freak accuracy. 

"Ow!" He reaches up to cover his cheek, dropping the book in the process, and then scrambles up to look in their direction, scowling. 

...and then he loses the scowl, expression turning surprised when he sees them across the street. 

"Ange?" He whispers, staring. 

Once she's sure they have his attention, she grabs Zeke's hand and tugs him into the alley with her. 

And shortly, Alex follows, coming around the corner at a run. 

Zeke is busy pulling Angel into a dumpster.

Angel is... sort of cooperating? She's stalling enough that Alex catches a glimpse of her sweater-cape as she vanishes inside. 

He slows down a bit now, approaching the dumpster more carefully. Something about this seems really weird, even considering the fact that his sister isn't supposed to be here. 

"...Angel?" He calls quietly from just outside, "That you?" 

She makes a small unhappy noise. She wants to go out and see him! But she doesn't pull away from Zeke.

A voice calls behind him. 

"Hello."

He spins around, "What- who are you?"

Angie is standing beside her brother. "The best thing that's ever happened to you!"

Joey darts over and pulls Alex to the ground, pinning him with a hand to his mouth. "Quick, bite him!"

Angie runs over and proceeds to bite down with suprising force on Alex's shoulder, drawing blood.

He struggles, trying to kick the boy off of him, and then arches with a muffled scream when the girl bites him. 

Angel flinches at the sound, going tense from a rush of conflicting emotions. Her Alex is hurt, she doesn't like that (...she doesn't, right?). But he's gonna be strong and fast and free, and no one will ever separate them again. But he's going to be so mad she did it without asking. But he might have said no, if she had, and then what? Ugh. It's too late for second thoughts, anyway. 

She jumps up to peer down at them from the lip of the dumpster. 

The wolves are running out the other side of the alley, hooting and laughing.

They leave Alex half-curled on his side with a hand pressing down on the bite, gasping in pain. 

Angel clambers out of the dumpster to go throw herself at Alex, "Sorry, 'msorrysorrysorry," she shoves his hand away and replaces it with her own. 

He squints at her, confused, "-'ngel, wha-" 

"...I met a vampire, and some werewolves," she says. "The bite'll change you." 

This does not lessen the confusion. He did just get bit by a random girl, though. "...Why didn't you ask?" 

(...Cause he's not gonna like some stuff about it.)

"...We'll explain later," she says, and knocks him out. 

Zeke climbs out of the dumpster, a black banana peel clinging to his hair. “So, take him to that dusty old apartment till he changes? Then we’ll meet up with the wolves?”

"Yeah..."

She stands, reaches over to tug the banana peel out of his hair, and then hugs him.

"He's gonna be really mad," she says. 

Zeke cuddles her reassuringly. “Not he won’t. He’ll be too busy feeling amazing.”

Cuddles.

Once she feels sufficiently reassured, she lifts Alex up and they can go off to the apartment in question. 

It’s full of cobwebs and the floor looks like a snow storm.

They lay Alex down on a smelly mattress, and Zeke at least strips. “Never seen a werewolf change. Do we leave him in his clothes? They’re gonna tear if he turns in them.”

She also tugs hers off, shaking her head, "That would probably be uncomfortable." Once she's got rid of hers she starts pulling his clothes off, too. 

The pair lie on their bellies and wait.

Meanwhile, as the sun sets, the wolves return to their other recruit’s home, throwing his clothes over their shoulders as they trapse back to his closet prison. Outside, the sun is setting.

“Wonder if he’s woken up in there,” ponders Angie.

There's a thunk from the closet, and then absolute stillness but for some panicked breathing. 

Joey knocks on the door. “Hey kid, don’t worry, you’re gonna be awesome soon. Will hurt first, though.”

...No answer. 

(Inside the closet, Cain squishes himself further into the corner, curled in a ball with his head against his knees. His ankle hurts and he thinks the headache is from the blood loss, and the way his head spins when he moves too much. It's kind of hard to make out what they're saying out there, in his state.)

The full moon emerges from behind a cloud.

“Aroooo...”

It hurts. It feels like every bone in his body is snapping at once, and all his muscles are tearing, and his skin is ripping open- 

He writhes in agony, screaming in the darkness.

His screams slowly turn into howls. 

When he comes to some time later, things are... different. It doesn't hurt, for one thing. For another, he can see - the closet was pitch black, before. Only, everything seems... much larger than it should be. 

"Yip-"

He jumps. He'd tried to say 'What happened' but he'd barked, instead??? 

He looks down at his feet. Paws. 

The closet bursts open a moment later, shattering the lock and sending the shelf slamming into the wall, quickly followed by a ball of snarling fur and teeth. He bounces off and flops onto his belly on the floor, but quickly gains his feet and turns to growl at the nearest strange wolf.

Joey proceeds to shift into wolf form, panting happily. 

Wolf Angie is sniffing.

He stares at Joey, shocked by the shift, and then jolts when he notices Angie sniffing at him, whirling around to look at her. 

...Sniff?

Three way mutual sniff!

Friendlies?? He guesses. So the sniffs suggest. He doesn't investigate very long, quickly distracted by a gnawing hunger growing in his belly. He huffs, turning to sniff for possible food sources instead. 

Joey changes to human. “You hungry?”

That gets him this small wolf's attention. Yes, yes he is hungry.

Tabby reverts too. “Hungry buddy?”

His attention turns to her at the shift and the words. 

...What, do they want him to bark or something? He's not barking. 

His tummy growls. He looks down at it, betrayed.

Luckily, the air is filled with tasty scents. In every house, in fact.

Oh good. He will select one and hare off in that direction. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch the apartment, Alex is going through his own change. It looks quite grotesque from the outside, his body writhing and snapping in ways bodies usually don't without outside interference. 

Angel watches antsily, tense from his whimpering and cut-off screams. (He can't fight this at all, and she doesn't like that. Even if he's hurting, he's always supposed to be able to fight.)

"Why does it hurt to turn into a wolf?" She asks Zeke, "It didn't hurt for me."

"It's how it is," Zeke explains. "Rat-kings get super sick before they change."

"Rat-kings?" She's partly distracted from her brother's chage by this line of thought, "I guess if there's two kinds of people besides humans there should be more," she muses, "What else is there?" 

"Um, mermaids, mermen, unicorns, dragons, fairies, bird-folk, selkies..."

"Wow! That's so many!" She wants to meet all of them. Dragons!!

“Maybe Lilith will make more.”

"Lilith's an actual person? You said you were a Child of Lilith before you turned me but..." didn't really explain what that meant. 

“First and best woman!”

"Cool! So all the kinds of people you mentioned are her children, too? And humans aren't." 

"Yeah! Humans are Adam's children with stupid Eve!"

"That's a church story," she notes. "I didn't know those were true. I thought it was just-"  

Her words are cut off by a crunch, and a scream which can't be supressed, which turns into a howl half-way through. Angel turns her attention back to her brother at the sound, scrambling up to her hands and knees to get a better look.

There's a small black wolf where Alex was. He's breathing hard and still whimpering a bit from the fading pain, his snout pressed between his paws and eyes tightly closed. 

One ear twitches as she moves, and he lifts his head just a bit and... stares at her, transfixed.

"Hi 'lex," she whispers, creeping closer. She looks his new form over closely...

"...You make a cute puppy," she informs him, giggling. 

"Ooh, black. Neat."

His head whips around so he can stare at Zeke when he talks, making a small angry-confused growling noise.

"This's Zeke," Angel introduces him, shuffling even closer. "He's great! He turned me into a vampire and then helped me find you. I thought you'd like being a werewolf better, though?" 

Zeke shrugs. "It was her call, man."

He pushes up to his paws, a little unsteady for a moment, but getting his balance quickly. He sniffs the air, padding up close to Angel and leaning into her as he tries to acclimatize.

(Angel hugs him around the neck, burying her face in his fluff.)

"Bet he's hungry."

-hungry, yes. He also has many, many questions, but now that he mentions it he is very, very hungry. Hungry enough to eye Zeke consideringly, actually, being the closest non-Angel foodlike object, even if not a very appetizing smelling one. 

"I'd taste like crap, wolfie."

Hmmm he speaks sense. There's better-smelling food nearby, anyway. He licks Angel's face, and then shakes her off him so he can go find one.

Angel transfers her hugs to Zeke instead, "Wanna eat too? I'm still hungry." They had shared that one guy between the four of them. 

There's a loud crashing noise elsewhere in the apartment.

"...Also someone should probably open the doors for him so he doesn't slam them all down and wake up the whole neighborhood or something."

"Sure thing, mate." 

Gosh, saying that is fun.

She giggles, pecking him on the lips, "Come on then, mate." She takes his hand and starts running after Alex. 

Zeke follows eagerly.