Chapter 6: Busted?

Irina woke up in the middle of the night, gasping for air. Her icy fingers scrambled for the bedsheet to twitch it around her sweaty body that was violently shuddering with terror. It was the same dream again, fourteen nights in a row. She didn't understand it.

A full moon. A howling wolf with skin as dark as midnight. Two men in the shadows. She never saw their faces but every fiber of her body could feel their ache for her. They kept trying to reach out to take her hand.

At first, their fingers were well-manicured but whenever she reached for either of them, their fingers turned furry with sharp claws that sliced her wrist open like a faucet of blood. She always woke up before the cold hands of death snatched her away.

"Nyla? Are you okay, dear?" A voice called from outside her door. Irina recognized it to be her new mom's voice. She was still getting used to having a family in this new life. It was so much easier not having one in her previous lives. The closest she had had in her fourth rebirth was a distant family. She'd hate to have people mourning for her once she found a way to get out of this body.

She dabbed her sweaty brows and cleared her throat to mask the terror in her voice.

"Yes, mother. I am fine."

"Another nightmare?"

"Yeah, but I'm fine. Don't worry about me."

A little pause. "I will leave your tea in the kitchen. It will help. Take it before going back to bed, okay?"

"Thank you, mother."

The green tea always did the trick. When she took it, Irina's trembling hands got steadier and her pulsating heart calmed down. She even fell right back asleep shortly after although she suspected her mom laces the tea with sleeping pills. Right now, she didn't care. She needed to get the dream and the fear clawing up my gut out of her system.

She climbed out of bed and headed to the bathroom to spritz some cold water over her face. Sighing, she ran a towel over her face. When she stared into the mirror, the color of her eyes was unnaturally yellow again, a sharp contrast to her usual dark colored eyes as Irina. She bit down on her lips to stifle another scream. She blinked severally but it didn't go away.

How was she supposed to make it stop? She stared down at her nails. Will they turn to claws too? Will her velvet smooth skin soon be riddled with fur? She pinched herself and it hurt. It was sadly not a dream. What was she going to do? How was she going to survive in Nyla's body as a werewolf in a city that hunted werewolves, living with a family that despised impure humans?

Now, she wished she had delved deeper into werewolves and Nyla Stark during her research. She had never thought she would need the knowledge. Like most humans, she didn't know enough about them except that they were feral monsters that were to be killed once detected.

She chose a random name from an old archive of dead supernatural beings and didn't expect to be burdened by this new life. Was this how other species constantly lived in fear? Being a human was so much easier.

Sandgate was a hotbed for over twenty mafia gangs who made it their mission to rid the city of all monsters, from human criminals to supernatural ones. In return, the authorities didn't hassle them and turned a blind eye to some of their illegal dealings as long as a decent portion of their revenue was invested in the city's coffers. For all that investment, Sandgate was richly developed and crammed with people.

Irina's heart thudded in her chest. Xander just had to give her the worst body in the worst city surrounded by a loving family who would alert the authorities the second they knew what she really was. Her new father was a police detective working to depopulate the city of supernatural beings and criminals alike.

"Keep it together, Irina." She encouraged herself, drying her eyes which had now returned to a natural black color. "You're the same human who managed to beat the rebirth system six times! You've faced worse. I trust you'll find a way out of this mess. You always do. You'll find a way to get back to the rebirth station undetected. I don't care how long it takes. You'll not stop until you find what you're looking for. Right now, you'll have to learn how to survive in this body. You won't be one of those unfortunate werewolves splashed on the news, okay? You're a survivor. You're strong."

She slammed both hands over her ears as the sound of screeching tires and sirens whished through the air. Did she just hear an accident happen? She feared she would go deaf as the screams and crashing sound persisted. Scrambling for the kitchen, she grabbed her mother's special tea and guzzled every last drop. The relief usually kicked in after a minute or two.

"What are you doing up?" Her brother, Matt, asked grabbing some water from the fridge.

"How can I possible sleep with all that noise."

He stared at her in bafflement. "What noise?"

Her eyes zeroed in on the cap of the bottle water he was forcing open. It was painfully loud in her ear.

"I uh, think there was an accident close by. Didn't you hear the screeching of tires, ambulance and police sirens?"

With a brief laugh, he sipped his water. "There was no such thing. I've been awake for the last five hours, working. I think I would have heard something like that. Go to bed. You must be dreaming again."

She watched him leave. Shit. Was super hearing a werewolf thing? She had to brush up on all things werewolf if she was going to survive here.

"Mom? Could you pack me some of that tea for school? It tastes really good." Irina begged her mom in the morning when she strolled into the living room dressed for college. Her mom and brother stared at her in surprise.

"Sure thing, dear." Her mother didn't know which was more surprising; the fact that Nyla was strong enough to resume college so soon after her accident or the fact that she was pretending to enjoy the green tea she made for her.

As for Irina, she was thrilled to learn that the owner of her body, Nyla, was apparently a twenty-three years old college student. Her brother, Matt, had been kind enough to spend the last few days filling her in on all things Nyla Stark, since Irina claimed she lost all her memories following her accident.

Matt, with their mother's help, handed her a diary of Nyla's likes and dislikes, friends, favorite things and so on. That little playbook was her saving grace for now, till Nyla's memories returned.

Irina was glad she was a college student. College would serve as her escape from the prying eyes of her family members for now and fortunately, she would have access to the university's library for werewolf research. She couldn't wait to arm herself with that knowledge.

"Where's father?"

"Oh, he already left. He got called in early this morning. There was some accident in the wee hours of the morning, I think. Lots of lives were lost."

"A-Accident?" Matt repeated and stared at Nyla. Her jaw tightened. "I guess you weren't dreaming."

Just then, the news was aired on the TV. Irina stared in horror at the ghastly accident scene. It happened over ten miles away. How the fuck did she hear all of it so up close? She grabbed the tea and dashed through the front door, ignoring her mom's protest for a goodbye kiss.

She didn't stop running even though she wasn't late for the bus. She plucked dark sunglasses from her bag and covered her eyes. Despite jogging over five blocks, she realized she could still hear her brother and mother's conversation from the living room. Every sound outside, from people's phone calls to music from earphones and even the pop of soda drinks inside cafés filtered into her ears. All she had to do was tune in to any conversation or sound and she would pick up details.

She halted and chugged down some of her tea. After a minute, her ears were normal again.

"Fuck you, Xander. It'll take more than this to stop me."

A ruckus ensued as a man burst out of a coffee shop, yanking a woman by her hair. He threw her into the middle of the street and spat on the ground.

"She reacted to the wolfsbane extract in her coffee. That one's a werewolf!"

Immediately, the passers-by stopped and pounced on the poor woman who was already reacting to whatever was in her coffee. Everyone, both old and young wanted in. They kicked and threw things at her. More people filed out of the nearby stores to lynch the lady, knocking Irina down violently in their bid to punish the victim. Irina stayed horizontal as fear filled her.

Her elbow was bleeding from grazing the hard ground but that was the least of her concerns at the moment. Just a little ahead of her, the bottle that contained her mother's special tea lay broken. Its content was spilled all over the ground.

"Oh no." she gasped.