Chapter 2-Shane and Adrian

"What the hell?" Shane asked.

"Well, that was unexpected." Adrian commented, dryly.

"What?" Roe asked.

"You just shot a wolf, through your car window, while driving. What was that?" Shane asked, leaning forward and holding onto the back of Roe's seat.

"Umm...reflex?" Roe asked, sheepishly.

"No way was that reflex." Shane replied.

"Pulling a gun is not a reflex action to most people." Adrian stated before Roe had a chance to argue.

"It kinda was a reflex."  Roe said, shrugging.  "The gun was already in my lap."

"You already had a gun in your lap?" Shane yelped.

"Well, yeah.  I had just picked the two of you up on the side of the road. I felt the need for a little protection."  Roe answered, like it was the most logical thing in the world.

"I can see that." Adrian said slowly. "A young lady out by herself can never be too careful."

"Exactly." Roe said rolling her eyes. He sounds like my grandpa.

"Well, I guess." Shane said dubiously.

"Okay then." Roe took a deep breath then continued. "I guess we're going to have to have a little heart to heart here guys. I really don't know either one of you, and you don't know me, but before we get to my friend's place in Sunset, we're going to have to get a few things out in the open."

"What kind of things?" Adrian asked suspiciously.

"This sounds like a bad idea."  Shane said shaking his head.  "You can just drop me off at the edge of town. I can find my way from there."

"Well, you see, I can't just drop you off at the edge of town, Shane. I know what you are."

"What do you mean, you know what I am?" Shane asked, leaning forward and discreetly sniffing her.

"I know that you're a werewolf. I saw you when I hit you.  You were a wolf. Then, when I looked back, you were a naked guy laying in the middle of the road."

"I was a naked guy, when you hit me!"  Shane argued.

"No, Shane, you were a wolf." Roe said shaking her head. "Don't argue with me. This isn't my first rodeo. It's also not my first experience with the supernatural community, so just stop right there."

"Hmph. Fine." Shane said, slumping back against the seat.

"As for you, Adrian, I'm not sure exactly what you are, but I know you're not human either, so just wipe that shocked look off your face."

"I am actually quite shocked," Adrian said indignantly, "not that he's a wolf of course, I knew that as soon as you stopped the car. I'm shocked that you, a human, know about us."

"Well, that's a story for another time, but for right now we need to discuss exactly what's going on, and we need to do it before we get to Sunset."

"Why should we tell you anything?" Shane asked snarkily.

"Because I can't help either one of you unless I know the whole story, and" with a glance at Adrian, "what you are."

"How do you think you can help?" Shane asked snidely.

"Well, for one thing, the friend I'm meeting in Sunset is the Alpha of the Sunset pack. I can just turn y'all over to him, if you'd rather explain to him what you were doing being chased by werewolves on the edges of his lands."

As Shane sat there in stunned silence, Adrian said "Personally, I would rather not have to explain my return to the Alpha."

"Okay then, back to my question, what are you?" Dear lord, I wish he would just answer the question. It's not like I don't know he's a vampire, or at least I'm pretty sure he is. I just need confirmation.

"You should know what he is." Shane snapped. "You know I'm wolf, and he's not, so what does that leave?"

"Actually, that leaves a quite a few things ." Roe quietly replied.

"Yes, it does," Adrian said "but what Shane meant is that I'm a vampire."

"Okay, but I still need to know what you were doing out there."

"I was leaving Sunset. I can't inform you of any more of my business than that." Adrian said with finality.

"Did Alpha Rogers know you were here?"  Roe asked him curiously.

"I was just passing through, but yes I had made all the appropriate arrangements."  Adrian replied snobbily.  "However, I should have already left before now."

Roe sighed. "Okay, I can understand that you may not want to tell me what business you had in town, or where you were going when we found you. And for right now, that's fine, but I may need more information at some point."  Roe replied conciliatorily.  "However, I do need to know if you were being chased by wolves, if you know which pack they were from, and why they were chasing you, if possible."

"Okay... I think I can give you that information without compromising what I'm working on. I was on my way out of town, as I told you. A few miles before where I met you, I started hearing the howling. I saw your headlights just before one of them ran into the side of my car, causing me to wreck. I barely had time to jump out before the car went over the cliff. I don't know what pack they belonged to, or exactly why they were chasing me. It may or may not have anything to do with the business I was dealing with in town and that's all I intend to tell you."

"Is that why you don't want to deal with Sunset's Alpha?"

"Yes, mostly."  He replied cautiously.  "I don't know if they were from his pack or not, plus as I previously said, I was supposed to have already been out of town before now."

"Hmm. My best guess is that they weren't, but I'll find out for sure later."  She told him.  "Shane? Do you have anything you would like to add to this discussion?"

"I guess." He replied sulkily. "The ones chasing me weren't from the Sunset pack. I think they were from the Oakland pack. I don't know that for sure, but some of them were talking about trying to stay away from Sunset's borders, and herding me into their territory."

"Okay, number one, how did you hear that? Number two, if it wasn't the Sunset pack, it either had to be the Oakland or the Ridgeline pack. Those are the only other packs whose lands border the neutral territory where I found y'all."

"Well," Shane said uncomfortably, "they were chasing me, and I doubled back trying to get behind them and stay in the neutral zone. When I did that, I almost ran into another group that was looking for me. I hid while they went by, and overheard them talking about it. And" he asked suspiciously "how do you know so much about what packs are around here?"

"How exactly did you hide from a bunch of werewolves, and do you know why they were chasing you?" Roweena asked, ignoring his question.

"Umm, I'm not sure. And you didn't answer my question."

"You didn't answer mine, either."

"Fine."  He grumped.  "I climbed a tree.  Now answer my question."

I'm assuming he means that he changed into his human form and climbed the tree.  A wolf climbing a tree would be ridiculous. "Well, as I said, I'm friends with the Alpha of the Sunset pack." Please just drop it. I really don't want to get into this right now.

"Uh huh, and what makes you so important that the Sunset Alpha tells you this kind of stuff?"  Shane asked, disbelief evident in his tone.

"Well...that's a long story, and it will have to wait a bit."  She hedged.  "For now, let's just say that I'm on good terms with all the packs around here. And before you ask any more questions, I have to call Joe, and warn him that I'm bringing y'all into his territory."

"Who's Joe?"  Shane asked suspiciously.

"The Sunset Pack's Alpha."

"You're on a first name basis with the Sunset Alpha?"  Shane asked as if he couldn't believe his ears.

"Yes."  Roe replied shortly.  I'm getting annoyed by his attitude.  "I'm going to need y'all's last names."

"Why?" Adrian asked.

"So I can tell Joe. He's not going to allow y'all into his territory without last names."

There was nothing but silence from the back seat.  "Seriously, I really do need to tell Joe your last names. If I don't, he will send part of his pack to meet me, and make y'all go with them.  I'm your best chance of not being detained right now."

"How will he even know we're with you?"

"For one thing he's my friend, I'm not going to lie to him. For another thing, I already told him I would call him when I got close to town, and if I don't call him soon, he'll send somebody to find me. Also, he's going to have to deal with the fallout from me shooting that werewolf, and he'll probably find out y'all were with me then."  Roe shook her head.  "I'm not dealing with him being mad at me over you two.  I don't know either of you well enough for that."

"And why exactly should we cooperate with you? And not just make you forget the whole thing, or overpower you and take your car?" Adrian asked coldly.

"You could try." Roe said with a shrug. "But you're not going to get very far with that."

"And why is that?" Adrian asked leaning up against the back of the seat.

"Go ahead and try it."  Roe told him nonchalantly.

"You're immune to vampire powers aren't you?" Adrian hissed.

"Yes, I am."

"How?" Adrian demanded.

"That's a story for after I talk to Joe."  Roe replied, unruffled by his attitude.

"Hmph." Adrian huffed, leaning back in the seat.

"Well, that's not going to stop me." Shane said lunging towards the front seat and Roe.

Zap! A flash and a loud noise like thunder crackled through the car, as Shane was thrown backwards against the back seat.  "What the hell was that?" he yelped.

"Honey, I'm not stupid." Roe spoke as if she was talking to a small child . "This car has protection spells on it."

"Well, shit!" Shane exclaimed, sounding exasperated.

"Yeah, so now that we've got that out of the way, would you please tell me your last names?"

"Why should we tell you ours when we don't know yours." Shane said petulantly.

"Fine. My name is Roweena Cavenaugh, but my friends call me Roe, as I already told you."

"Adrian Vladimescu."

"Fine."  He said sulkily.  "Shane Gerrard."

"Thank you.  Now that we're all formally introduced, I'll call Joe."  Roe picked up her phone and called Joe. "Hey Joe."  She said when he answered.

"Hey Roe, what's taking you so long? Can't you drive any faster?" Joe jokingly asked her.

"Well, there's been a slight change of plans." Roe hedged.

"What kind of change?" Joe asked, getting serious.

"Well, I picked up a couple of hitchhikers along the way."

"Roe,"  Joe fussed, "you know better than to pick up strangers."

"I had to, Joe. They were being chased by werewolves."

"What!" Joe exclaimed, then asked suspiciously, "Is there something you're not telling me, Roe?"

"Well..."  Roe hesitated before continuing.  "Not really. I just haven't finished the story yet."

"Roe", he growled.

"Okay, okay. If you'll give me a minute, I'll tell you everything."  Roe hurriedly reassured him.

"You'd better."  He replied grumpily.

"I found two guys stranded on the side of the road. They were both being chased by wolves, and neither of them is human."

"Wolves?"

"Yes, Joe wolves were chasing them."  Roe replied cheekily.

"Roweena."  He growled out warningly.  "You know that's not what I was asking."

"Sorry, Joe.  I couldn't help it."  She replied then sighed.  "One is a wolf. The other one is a vampire."

"What are their names?"

"The vampire  is Adrian Vladimescu."

"Hmmmm. I know that name, but I'll have to think about it for a bit. Who's the wolf?"

"Shane Gerrard."

"Shane Gerrard...Do you mean Shane Girouard?" Joe asked, using an odd accent, and sounding like he was saying Zhir-ward.

Roe noticed Shane stiffen when Joe said that.  "Umm...maybe." Roe said.

"Roweena! Do you have any-"

"Joe!" Roe interrupted loudly. "Little pitchers, remember."

"What?" Joe asked, sounding confused.

"Little pitchers, Joe. Remember?" Roe said. Come on, Joe. think about it. Little pitchers have big ears. I have an audience that can hear both sides of our conversation, so don't say anything you don't want them to hear.

"Umm. Okay Roe, I hear you. I guess I'll talk to you when you get here."

"Actually, Joe, one more thing... Some of the wolves that were chasing these guys got an up close and personal look at my car."

"How up close and personal?"

"Umm, well, I may have killed one of them, and they definitely got a good look and smell of my car."

"You did what!?" Joe exclaimed.

"Well, one of them tried to get into my car through the window, so I shot them." Roe said shrugging a shoulder. "What was I supposed to do, Joe? Let it eat me?"

"Well, no."  He grumbled.  "But dang it, Roe! We talked about this. You promised me that you'd stay out of trouble."

"Hey! I promised I would try to stay out of trouble, and I did try. This time trouble found me, I wasn't looking for it." Roe said petulantly.

"Roe, you know you've got to stay under the radar right now."

"Joe, I know that, I really do, but I was driving with my window down so they could smell me, and I yelled at it to stop twice, but it just kept coming, straight into my window. Either it didn't recognize me, or it had orders to not let me get in the way." Roe paused then finished solemnly. "And the way it came at me, I'm guessing it's the second one."

"Well, shit Roe. That means whoever's out to get these guys doesn't want you involved, one way or the other."

"Yeah, Joe. I figured that." Roe sighed.