Julian and I made a game out of our chores. A game that involved us shifting.

I stood across the field, red eyes glowing and canines elongated. We don't burn in the sunlight. That's what fiction also got wrong. Our skin is so very pale the in the sunlight we appear translucent. Almost like ghost. Almost like we don't exist.

Julian gave a howl, knocking me from my thoughts and back into our cold reality. Snow crunched at my feet as I stepped and threw in the same motion, my shadow not even catching the action.

"Fetch that, Pup," I sneered, almost certain it was going too fast for him to catch. My words were illustrated in a puff of white.

The log lunged at Julian, like a missile with a mission. He opened his massive jaws, showing off those deadly teeth, and clamped down on...air. He whimpered in disappointment, trotting off to retrieve the rogue log and put it in our pile.

While Julian did that, I laughed; full out hold-your-stomach-in-tears laugh. I heard the angry crunch of approaching paws, but I was too busy wheezing to do anything.

Soon enough, my view was changing and I was seeing the sky, trees stretching upward to greet the clouds. Like the ground, they were coated in white where it was thick enough to pile up. My eyes drifted to Julian where he promptly sat on my chest.

"Get off of me, Julian," I chuckled. The snow pressing into my exposed neck didn't bother me any. He huffed in defiance.

Julian was a tall wolf, around 5'7 on all fours. His coat was a mix of sandy greys, tan browns, and not-so-clean whites. He still had his hazel eyes in this form too, though they were lighter as I stared into them.

Julian attacked my face suddenly with his wolf kisses. I couldn't help the pathetic giggles that escaped my lips at the tickle of his rough tongue.

"St-stop i-it," I tried to say, but it sounded slurred and incoherent.

"Get off your sister Julian," Jackson called from somewhere. With one last slimey lick, he obliged and trotted away with his signature wolfish grin. I wiped my face with the back of my hand, still laying there.

I wondered if it snowed in Another Land. I wondered if the trees were pink, perhaps gold like the flowers. Or glass like the rocks. Maybe- maybe they were just normal. Maybe my imagination was too vast for my own good.

With a sigh, more white smoke blowing into the air, I got up and brushed the snow off my leggings and jacket. I didn't need much against the cold, because we vampires weren't always cold necessarily, but rather we weren't affected by it. I couldn't really even enjoy the snow anymore.

I met Jackson and Julian in the clearing. Julian remained in wolf form, chasing his own tail, while Jackson was inspecting the logs we had found. "They look good," he said, not looking up at me. "We're going to go hunting to stalk up for the next couple weeks and see if we can find a store. The power might go off for awhile so we'll need candles and batteries for the flashlights."

"How long will that take," I asked nervously. I hated being alone while they hunted. He must have known, because he turned towards me with a sigh. Jackson was 51 in human years, but he didn't look it. He looked about 45 in truth. Just like his son, he had black/brown hair, though his was coiled with curls and speckled with the white and grey of age. The wrinkles of time shown on his chocolate skin when he smiled or his face furrowed in anger or confusion.

Jackson brought me in for a hug, kissing my forehead. "Hey, don't worry Kid," he murmured, his rough voice muffled in my sea of black curls. "We'll be back in a day or two, before the blizzard even blinks." I nodded my reluctant agreement.

"Promise me you'll come back whole," I demanded, looking him straight in his dark brown eyes.

"June...I-"

"Promise me. Father, please." He knew I was dead serious as he looked between my blood red eyes. I let them fade back into their natural, grey green.

"I promise," he paused, "If you promise to hold down Fort Vargo until I get back."

A smile stretched my face almost painfully. "I promise."