We made it to a city called Alverton in the afternoon, almost six. We had checked in another motel, one room with two beds with the same arrangement as last time. As soon as we dropped our things there, we left the car parked by the building and walked around the town. It's definitely much better looking than the last town. More diverse, more cultured, more peaceful. Alverton is clearly a town that lacks transportation. It's either walking or bicycles.

We rested at a nice park for a bit and let me tell you how wonderful the park is. It has a lot of dogs. People are playing with their pets. Some people even have their cats and exotic pets like snakes and lizards. I made a joke at Lysander. "You should turn to your wolf form and play with those dogs." He just glared at me. Rami decided he had enough of us for the day and pet the cats.

When the sunlight disappears and the moonlight shined down, the city became a whole lot better. More people came out and the pretty lights from the shops glowed bright. The nightlife reminds me of New Orleans and Las Vegas. I love it.

The boys and I had dinner at a bar that has tables indoors and outdoors. Because there are street performers, funny people and music outside by the streets, we had decided to eat outside. Unfortunately, the bar's a bit pricey but in a town like this, I can see why. The food is spectacular though. I ordered spaghetti and I could eat it for the rest of my life. Rami got a steak while Lysander went for a salmon.

"Pick a card, any card." I watched as a teenage boy perform magic tricks in front of a group. He's dressed up as Harry Potter. He already won.

"This is so good." Rami cries happily. "How about, let's not get out of here ever. Let's just live here."

"You know, that doesn't sound so bad." I agreed, smiling at the people dancing at the music played by a street performer singing a wonderful original song. "This town is rad."

After eating, we stayed there for a little while. Rami treated himself with some margarita while dancing along with the others. The music shop has speakers and is playing by Dexys Midnight Runners and I just had to join him because it looked so fun. Rami and I danced together in the beginning, and then we pulled Lysander with us. At first, he refused to move, then he stiffly began to sway and when it came to The Smith's , he let loose and everything was perfect.

Afterwards, Rami stayed at the bar to drink more. Lysander and I walked around the happy town to explore and I loved every single inch of it. I had to hold his hand as we walked. I didn't want him to get lost. We found an art museum that's free at night, so we went inside and fell in love with just about every art work.

"Oh look! I learned about this!" I grinned, pointing at one painting by Constanzo Landucci.

Lysander beamed at the artwork. "It's great. What is the story behind it?"

My smile dropped and my face heated up. "It's about... a man... who... was inspired by a woman... who is very pretty and interesting...." He raised an eyebrow, watching as my eyes searched for any information about the painting. All it says at the side is the artist, date and material. "Okay fine. I don't know. I forgot."

Lysander smiled and held up our entwined hands. Without taking his eyes off the artwork and my eyes off him, he kissed my hand and spoke with passion in his eyes. "It's about a man who saw a woman for four minutes. He was so captivated by her. He only had four minutes before she was taken by another man. Death. He never forgot her face. The man lived for four more months, when he painted this painting, and then he was taken by Death."

In the painting is a beautiful woman standing by a meadow full of red roses, underneath the black sky with four shining stars.

I ran my thumb over Lysander's hand, unable to look away from his eyes. This man is special. Not because he is a werewolf, but there's something about him that I cannot describe but is pulling me towards him like a magnet. Actually, not even. It's a much more stronger force. A nuclear force.

"You know, you're supposed to be looking at the artworks." The deep voice snaps me out of my thoughts.

Lysander is gazing at me deeply with a sea of emotions.

"I am." I never looked away from him. Because that's what he is. An artwork by mother nature herself.

I was so awestruck with the man in front of me and I think it's becoming ridiculous. He gave me his signature smirk and that brought me back to the real world. I was hit with thoughts of what I had just said out loud. I probably sounded weird. He totally thinks I'm creepy now. Well done, Drew. It's okay. Just play it off. "I am trying to, but you keep talking and being an art nerd."

Nicely done. I'll pat myself on the back later.

***

"Well, this is not something that I was expecting."

"I was expecting it." Lysander disagrees, grinning from ear to ear at the very drunk Rami singing at the karaoke of the bar we ate at earlier. We left him drinking margarita and we've returned to learn that our friend has had Einstein knows x amount of shots. After Rami finished singing , Lysander clapped the loudest, completely amused by the curly haired drunk nerd. I wish I caught some on video.

Rami then sat down with a group of old people, who he must have been sitting with all this time. "How did I do?"

"You did amazing sweetie." A woman cooed, running a hand through his curls.

I giggled at that. Lysander sat down on a chair by the counter, close to Rami, and I took a seat next to him. "May I get you anything?" Asked the bartender holding two empty glassware. "It's on the house for first timers."

"I'd love to, but I'm the responsible friend." I sigh, suddenly wanting a margarita.

Lysander shrugged his shoulders. "Sure."

I almost gasped at him. "What would you like, good sir?"

"Anything."

"I'll give you our seasonal special. One shot is all it takes." The bartender smiles. I watched as he put on mixed drinks on a cone-shaped glassware. There's a lot of strong liquor in that. "We call it Twilight."

I couldn't stop my laughter at that, even if I tried. I laughed so hard, I snorted, completely making a fool out of myself as the two men shot me puzzling glimpses. I am so immature sometimes. How the hell am I responsible for taking care of a werewolf again?

The bartender awkwardly slides to the other side of the counter to talk to another customer. Meanwhile, the werewolf smells his drink and cringes. "Aw, do you not like it?" My fingers touched the body of his glass. "Maybe I could drink some and -- " I was not able to finish my sentence because Lysander drank everything all at once. He furrowed his eyebrows and turned to me confused. "What?"

"Was something supposed to happen?"

"Well, kind of. I don't know. Do you feel anything?"

He bites his lip and looks down at his chest, putting on his attractive concentrating face. "Uh. My heart is racing really fast and everything feels hot."

I put a hand on his forehead to check his temperature, but I didn't feel any difference from his normal body heat. He's always hot. "Well, are you buzzed? Light headed? Do you feel like vomiting?"

"No."

"Hmm."

"I'll try again." He called for the bartender, who made sure to stand away from me. Whatever, muggle. "May I have another one of that drink you made?"

The bartender's eyes widened. "Really? No one's ever lasted for another shot." He happily poured Lysander another Twilight. "You, my man, are pretty strong."

Rolling my eyes, I spun my chair to check at Rami. In the group of old people he's sitting with, an old man is telling a story. More specifically, a story about the existence of supernatural beings at his childhood times. Apparently, he's lived old enough to live with the presence of werewolves, vampires, witches, and other beings like fairies, mermaids, and such.

"When we hear this loud alarm, it meant a vampire has been seen and we would hide in our houses and take out our silver daggers. Oh! And the story about a wolf replacing a grandmother, all lies! Werewolves are quite monstrous, yes, but not to humans. Though they did hate humans. They are very territorial and possessive of whatever they own. Humans took everything, like they owned the planet. It's mostly the vampires who always mess with those werewolves." Rami nods as he listens, drinking even more alcohol. The others around them look quite bored, so I'm guessing this old man shares his supernatural stories often.

"Territorial and possessive, huh." I spun my spinning chair back to Lysander, who just got another drink.

He paused from drinking the blue drink to look at me. His eyes wandered down to my neck and red flashed for a quick second. "Very." I put a hand over my neck self-consciously and looked away. There's nothing in my neck, is there? I don't think so? I pulled out my dead phone from my pocket and used the reflection of the screen to check my neck. Nothing.

From the corner of the phone's reflection, I watched as a group of middle aged men entered the bar, looking pretty snazzy with their leather and jeans. I was about to leave them alone, but then I saw something on the arm of one man. A horizontal line with three vertical lines across it. The hunter's tattoo. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. No. Not now.

"Lysander." I took the drink away from him. "Lysander we have to go."

"Why?" He followed my gaze and observed the men carefully. "Hunters." He immediately puts a hand around my waist. "We have to get out." The two of us made our way towards Rami, who is just about on the verge of passing out. "We have to go." Lysander whispered to Rami, grabbing an arm to take him out.

My heart raced as my anxiety grows stronger. The men sat down on a table beside Rami. I stood closer to Lysander, making sure to hide his face as much as possible. "We have to go." I shook Rami's other arm roughly.

The old man speaking smiled at us. "Oh, hello there! Are these your friends?"

Rami nodded, his eyes lighting up. "Yes! This is Drew. She's small but cute and evil and genius and that's Lysander. He's big and also cute sometimes and scary and strong."

"Nice to meet you sir. Unfortunately, we have to take him with us now. We have work to do and he just got a little out of control." I laughed nervously, using all my strength to push Rami up.

Rami frowned at us. "But he's telling me a story about werewolves and vampires! He thinks they aren't dead! Can you believe that?!" He punches Lysander's chest lightly. "Your friends could be alive!"

From the corner of my eyes, I noticed the hunters snap their heads towards us.

"It's just a joke." Lysander glares at Rami.

Still focused on the the hunters, one of them pulled out their phones. They opened the images app and showed the group a sketch image of Lysander. The sketch does not look exactly like how Lysander is now, but if one takes a good look at him, he'll be recognized and we're fucking dead.

"Alright. Let's go. Goodnight."

Lysander pulled Rami away from the table. I blocked the hunter's view from Lysander as we exited the bar, as calmly as we could. We made it outside and continued to walk until we were at a spot where there are no people. As I said before, this city doesn't sleep at night so it was difficult to lose the crowd. But, we had to go through an alley as a shortcut to return to our hotel. Lysander had to drag Rami the whole time, as the poor drunk boy couldn't move properly.

As we arrived at the hotel, we started to pack everything. Lysander and I packed everything after leaving Rami in the car, which we left in front of the room. I called the office that we will be checking out now due to an emergency. We almost escaped. Not long after making it to the hotel, there were three knocks. "This is the police. We would like to do a search."

Taking a deep breath, I opened the door to see the group of hunters from the bar. Their eyes landed straight at Lysander, causing my blood to turn cold. This cannot happen. We were doing so well. We made it so far.

"Alright." Lysander says, towering behind me. We made way for the hunters to enter our room, but that wasn't what happened at all. No. I was grabbed by one man while another pulled out a ring-like object the size of a tennis ball and pressed it against Lysander's exposed skin, on the face. Lysander was caught off guard at the hunter's action and was not able to fight back. The silver ring had burned Lysander's skin, causing a round burnt mark on his left cheek.

My eyes watered and my heart raced even more.

"He's the wolf."

Lysander was suddenly cornered by five men. One holding the silver ring, another holding a gun, one with a silver stake and two empty handed. The man holding me cackled as his grip on my shoulders tightened. "I can't believe we found him! We are going to be so rich!" He screamed to the men, who are too busy trying to fight Lysander, who is desperately fighting back but outnumbered.

I'm hearing his groans and I couldn't do a damn thing about it because I'm fucking weak. My eyes wandered around the room and caught Rami's bag. I'm going to try something and I hope the universe is with me to make it work.

Without thinking, I elbowed the hunter behind me and kicked him as he crouched down in pain. I then made a run for Rami's backpack and unzipped the pocket of it. While I was getting what I needed, the same man had grabbed my leg and pulled me down, making me hit the ground hard. Still, I clutched on the object while the man grabbed me once again. He slammed me against the door and screamed at me for hitting him. While he did, I thew the little white round device on the ground and held my breath.

After a few seconds, I heard bodies hitting the ground. I opened my eyes just to see the smoke clearing out. All hunters are down on the ground. And fucking shit, so was Lysander. Rami had passed out in the car so he cannot help me. I'm on my own.

Without wasting another precious second, I took all the bags in the hotel and put them on my shoulders. It took a lot of energy to drag Lysander out of the motel room, but I succeeded. I couldn't lift him up by myself, so I dragged him on the floor like a dead body. It's the best I could do.

As soon as I got to the car, I had to put even more effort in putting Lysander inside. Rami is in the backseat already, but it's so much easier to put an unconscious body in the backseat because it has more room, rather than the front passenger. I started from Lysander's upper body. I pulled him up and laid his head by Rami's lap, then shoved the rest of his body on the empty space. Doing that alone took me a lot of time that more hunters had arrived. They must have called for backup because a car came at the motel and a woman screamed for me to stop, with a gun aimed at me. There were a few more hunters in her car.

And so, I jumped in the driver's seat and got the hell out of there, firing my car away as fast as a bullet.

***

I am driving as fast as my car goes. I'm sure I've gotten the attention of nearby cops but honestly that's the last of my worries. There are a group of hunters chasing me and I could only hope I'm going as fast as my heart is racing right now. I'm just about to pass out from it. I drove and drove until I couldn't see anymore cars. I took so many detours that I don't even know where the hell I am anymore. I did everything to lose that grey Aston Martin. It's almost midnight. Earlier, I had imaged that by this time, I'd be on a bed cuddling with a werewolf but I guess that's not happening anytime soon.

"Alright." I breathed out slowly, calming myself down. I slowed down my speed to observe my location. I ended up in a place full of big trees. I'm in a forest. Okay. This should be a good place to stop. I've driven far enough from the town so I'm confident about staying here overnight. I found a good spot to hide my car. It's covered by bushes, if anyone passes by it won't be out in the open.

I closed my eyes and rested for a few minutes. We can't stay inside the car. We need air and space. Glancing at the backseat, I found a mess, but a pretty good view. Lysander's legs are on the car's floor, his back is on the seat and his head remains on Rami's lap. Rami's head had fallen against the cold window.

What a damn mess we are indeed.

I found a nice clean place not far from my car. I took my tent, which I knew would be useful to bring, and set it up there. It was a piece of cake setting it up, but the bugs and insects surrounding me was just horrible. Something bit the tip of my nose and now I have a red spot on it. Then, I brought Rami inside the tent first, since he is easier to carry. I went under his arms and carried his weight as I walked the two of us to the tent. As for Lysander, I almost cried because I couldn't even carry him a few inches from the car. He is so heavy! I wanted to drop him on the forest ground and drag him again but that'll be mean.

While I was on the ground whining to myself out loud about how heavy the werewolf is, Lysander woke up and scared the atoms out of me. I was talking and talking and I just hear a "Where the fuck am I?" If I was a cat, that would be a moment where all my fur goes up and I jump and cry.

"Thank goodness you woke up! You're so heavy, I was about to drag your body like a wheeled backpack." I cried happily, embracing him tightly. He put hands on my cheeks and scanned me, just like that time he almost got us killed on the road because he was checking me for injuries or something.

"How -- "

"I'll explain later. Right now, let's go to the tent."

Holding his hand, I lead him to where I set up the tent that hosts a heavy sleeping Rami Nazari. Lysander studied the tent from the inside and out. "It's smaller on the inside."

"Well I'm sorry my tent isn't a Tardis." I huffed, sitting down on the dirty ground. "It's for me and Eva only, when we would camp out for concerts and stuff. Not for runaways who get chased by evil hunters and hides in forests kind of situations."

The only light we have is from the third quarter moon and bright stars. It's enough for me to see Lysander's beautiful face turn from confuse to angry. The burn from the silver is still on his face. It hasn't healed. It's there on his left cheek. The man clenched his jaw and shook his head before walking away. "We need to make a fire." I caught his hand before he could go anywhere. He softened his gaze. "An, we need fire. Otherwise we'll get cold."

I couldn't help but smile at him. I've never been called 'An' before.

"You're right." I agreed, making him confuse.

"We need some woods and -- "

"Hang on a sec." I ran inside the tent where I dropped off our bags. I got an empty gum wrapper from my bag's pocket and an AA battery. Always carry batteries. I returned outside and performed my magic for the puzzled Lysander. Using the metallic wrapper of the gum, I wrapped both ends of it to the ends of the AA battery. Right away, fire emitted. I quickly put down the wrapper on fire to the ground and threw a bunch of small twigs with it. There's a bunch of them around us, so there was no need to go far. Once the fire grew and settled down, I smiled at Lysander victoriously.

"Voilà!" I bowed while the wolf rolls his eyes.

"Wow, you're so smart."