Jake didn’t know what was happening. One moment he was sitting in his room, playing Guild Wars on the computer, and the next, he hurt. The scar on his arm burned like it was on fire. He was on the ground the next moment, writhing as if his body would have exploded. His arms moved to cover themselves, but bones still felt like they were cracking. They were cracking. He screamed, and he could hear dishes breaking in the kitchen, and heels clicking, coming toward his room. Jake heard a high-pitched scream come from his mother, and then his father’s own footsteps from down the hall. His back felt like it was ripping open, and he suddenly felt hungry.

---

It seemed like the world was going to hell. Jake didn’t know what to do, where to go. It felt like there was something inside of him, telling him what to do. He couldn’t think anymore, and it felt like that something inside of him was driving him. Suddenly, he was running faster than he ever had before. He didn’t know where, but his body did... somehow. He saw flashing lights, people, cars that seemed larger than they used to. He then knew what he needed; refuge. Jake needed a place to go now that his home wasn’t safe for him anymore.

Jake’s legs continued to move until he reached a long, dark pathway. This alleyway was deserted, cramped, wet. Not even a homeless person would even think of going down this horrid place. Jake did, though. His nails – no – claws clicked on the ground as he made his way to the end of the alleyway. A tall, bricked wall acted as a sanctuary to him. Cars zoomed passed the alleyway, lights blaring through the darkness. At first he flinched every time the white light and auto-like sounds passed, but once he figured out that they weren’t going anywhere near him, he relaxed. For the first time since standing up from his computer chair, he felt relaxed.

The people in the passing cars didn’t know what kind of a monster lay in that alleyway, and neither did Jake. He didn’t know what he had become. It hurt, somewhat. His joints felt different, and his body felt smaller, but bigger at the same time. He felt warmer, even though he knew that he wasn’t wearing clothes. The taste of blood writhed in his mouth, and flesh stuck between his teeth – no – fangs. It nauseated him, and the entire night’s doing’s flashed before his mind as a siren cooed. The sound increased until it was blaring, then red, white, and blue lights darted by. Suddenly, a black rush came toward him, and he closed his eyes.

---

A wheeze escaped the teen’s lips as a cold drop fell onto his bare torso. It was still night, whichever one it was seemed to be unknown to him. His eyes shot open, though, when a cold breeze blew by, telling him that he was completely naked. At first he tried to jump up and find something to cover himself up with, but that turned into slow movements as the pain shot through his body. He was only able to turn over onto his side to a pile of newspapers that he pushed over his lower body.

That single drop before turned to a hard, pelting rain. Jake would have sworn it was hail if it didn’t then travel down his face like the liquid that it was. He sighed, flinching only when a burst of lightening lit up the sky, and his body was shown outside the alley in a flash. Muscles relaxed, though, as darkness reigned again and thunder boomed. He was facing some sort of tall building, contemplating what to do next. Finally, he closed his eyes to think, bringing his legs up to model the fetal position.

Oceana was walking through the quite residential neighboorhood when she became aware of a large concentration of flashing lights and several news vans driving past here. Flashing lights on their own weren't enough the attract much attention, after all, another crime, who cares. News vans, on the other hand, meant something beyond just an ordinary crime. She supposed someone's house could have burnt down, but she could almost always tell if that were the case. Sighing she poked Barbas awake in her head, Hey, Demon, this could be good. We have flashers and sqwaukers abouts.

The demon inside the girl stretched and did its best equivalent of a yawn, considering it wasn't controlling body functions at the moment to actually do it. It took a moment to communicate with the netherworld. A few moments later and he cackled most evily within his host's head, Oh dear. This is too good to pass up. Chatter in the pit says it's accidental murder. We should see if this can be made advantageous.

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An hour and a half later, and a few illusions later and the pair had the information they wanted. Obvious lycanthrope attack, parents dead, kid missing, presumed lycanthrope based on the mother's final words. She and Barbas had had a brief argument about what to do, but Oceana, with what could very well be the last bit of compassion in her felt a pang of pity for the kid. Her lfie, too, had been shaped by force she couldn't control. I quite agree, Barbas. But I want to give him a chance. The humans will shoot him on sight, and besides, you said yourself we need some mroe capable hired help. He needs protection and help and we need an errand boy and someone to do the whole bloody ground work bit.

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Still with an unhappy demon, Oceana stopped at the entrance to the alley. It had started pelting rain, not that she was wet, having cause the water to miraculously mover around her body rather than on it. The boy was awake and and frightened she coudl tell. She moved to tower over the boy, momentarily ignoring him and she abused her powers in public to shield the child from the rain as well as herself. She growled down at him as she threw a pair of sweatpants at him, "Up lycanthrope. You mustn't be seen here and I musn't be seen with you. The police are scouring this neighboorhood as we speak with a warrant of execution for you."

Jake’s body had grown so used to the freezing cold rain pelting his skin, that it took him a moment to notice that it wasn’t hitting his body anymore. The side of his body that was facing the sky was numb, but was suddenly feeling warmer than before. His lips upturned a bit, and he was just about to fall asleep when a sudden growl hit his ears. He jumped up... well, onto his arms for support when a pair of sweatpants fell down onto his body.

The boy shivered a bit as warmth started to flow back around his body again, and looked up to the woman as she spoke. As she did, Jake was flowing in and out of surprise, though his eyes went wide as she explained that he had people out to kill him. “What...” he mumbled, hands gripping the sweatpants in his hands. He looked down and nodded, as if he understood all that she was talking about, even though he didn’t. The hyena put a hand out onto the ground and pushed up. With some great effort and a few moans of protest, Jake stood.

With one hand he propped himself up onto the brick wall of the building that he had been facing when he was resting. The other hand was used to pull the pants on, his body facing the wall so that the woman couldn’t see anything. He still wasn’t sure what in the hell was going on, but felt it safest to just go with what the woman was saying. The pants seemed to be a bit too big for him, but he quickly remedied this by tying the drawstring a bit tighter than it was made to be. The pants billowed out a bit, but fit him fine now.

Turning to the woman, he sort of hugged himself, deciding to ask her questions after she told him that he was safe. Because he certainly wasn’t safe here, not now or ever. Then, a thought ran through his mind. If there was a warrant for his death, then his parents couldn't have made it. All of his hope for their possible, but not in any way likely survival was gone. A tear ran down his face, and his head took the same route as he stared at his feet. “...Okay...” he muttered.

Oceana looked at the boy before her and called Barbas forth. She reached out gently and brought his chin up. "It won't do to look at your feet. You've had a bad turn, but you control your own destiny child. You are now a werehyena. Yes, it has its pitfalls but you are now stronger than ever before. Take a lesson from this. The strong can control their fate, the weak are controlled by that which is around them. It is a cruel truth, but one we have to recognize."

The sorceress held her hand out to the young boy keeping the demon well out of sight but present and weaving his magic, "If you take my hand, then my magic will touch you. It will change how you look, how other people perceive you. But if you take my hand, know this, I will take you with me and teach you, but you can never come back to this past. If you try, I will kill you myself, or let the police do it. Do you understand?"

Jake didn’t as much flinch as he did twitch when the woman’s finger tips touched his chin. He did what she wanted, and turned his face up to look at her own, though without a word. The words that then came out of her mouth surprise Jake, but in a different way. Werehyena? Is that what curse has been put upon him? Then, the memories of about a month before flooded into his mind. The large dog-like animal that had attacked him that night. That was what had happened. He had been attacked. Jake’s eyes widened a bit and he tried to look down, but was stopped by Oceana’s hand.

Jake’s chapped lips parted as he found his breath again. His previous shaking, cold body was now replaced with a warm and only slightly damp one. She was somehow shielding him from the wet of the rain, and though Jake didn’t notice it, he somehow appreciated it. “I didn’t mean to...” Jake whispered, cutting the silence like a knife. Even the rain seemed to have gone quiet before. Then, the sound came back, droplets hitting the ground like a slap.

Then, the woman held out a hand to him. He was just about to take it immediately when she spoke a word of caution. There was a contract in the palm of her hand, whether visible or not, it would take Jake’s life away. Of course, he had no life anymore, anyway. He had murdered his parents, ruined any chance of college, and had been running from the police. There was no way of going back, or erasing what he had done. This brought tears to his eyes as he looked down again. He didn’t mind the fact that she told him not to, because he couldn’t help it.

Without a reply to her question as to if he had understood her, he picked his hand up and placed it over hers. It hesitated a bit, but Jake pushed his thoughts out of his mind. She was offering him safety, and he had nothing else to live for. The teenager had used to live in the future, and thought everything through to learn of how it would effect his life on. Now, he was living in the present; the here-and-now. And there was no turning back. Jake finally placed his hand in hers.

Oceana smiled as the boy's hand grasped her own. Her eyes blazed suddenly with the light of the flames of hell. Immediately the voice of the demon spilled forth from her mouth, his voice deep and commanding, "Come ye as the charm is made, king of the earth, king of hell, hornèd hunter of the night, lend your power unto the night, and work our union by unholy might! By the power of the land and the sea, by all the might of the world and hell, I call the powers to bind our fates. Airs to speed it well. Hard as Fire shall it glow. Deep as tide of Water flow. Count the elements fourfold, In the fifth the spell shall hold."

Through the night a crack of thunder sounded and a bolt of lightening cracked through the night. A fourfold rope of power wound itself around their joined hands and burned into them. Oceana breathed hard for a few moments, "Now, let's get out of here and inside. They're looking for you and I need to work a spell to hide you from them."

Oceana led the young boy out of the alley after making sure the immediate coast was clear. She looked at the boy, "You know, sblomie, this is going to be an interesting adventure. My bike is 4 blocks from here. If we make it that far..."

The demoness cut herself off as she pushed the young hyena the side of the building as a sqaud car drove by them, mercifully paying little attention to what looked like, well, questionable but not outright illegal activity. "Bloody Hell."

____

Forty-five minutes later, the two were finally back to Oceana's motor bike. Unfortunately, at that point an actual beat cop decided to stop by and comment on the illegally parked vehicle. However, he didn't actually say anything about it as his eyes came to rest on the Hyena, "Hey, aren't you..."

Oceana held up a hand and growled out, "Sod off mate. He's my date tonight. We was just headin' to me place, if you get my drift." With that she grabbed hte Hyena and kissed him, mentally thinking, "This is so vile. Eww..."

Not too soon after Oceana’s little spell that had hurt Jake’s hand, the demoness grabbed his arm and started to walk him out of the alleyway. She was talking more to herself than anyone else about what a pain it was going to be to get to her motorcycle. Though Jake was listening, he was more worried about the fact that he was going to be riding on a motorcycle with a biker woman he had only just met while the cops were after him. This was just getting better and better.

“I think we can make i–” Jake was cut off in his sentence as the woman pushed him into the wall of a building. If this wasn’t disorienting enough, she pressed her body to his in a very... interesting look between the two of them. Heat rose to Jake’s face, and he was just about to question her motives when a police car drove by them. The hyena closed his eyes, not wanting to know what was going to happen next. To his astonishment and glee, the car passed, not even taking a second glance at the two.

---

It took them a good thirty to forty-five minutes more to find the woman’s bike. Jake was glad, at first, that they had finally made it, but his emotions made a quick and sharp turn when a police officer actually got out of his car and walked up to the two of them. Sweat beads formed on the boy’s head as his eyes met the officer’s. When the officer started to speak, though, Jake only got out a troubled, “Ah–” before the woman’s lips crashed with his.

Jake made a gasp through her nostrils, as his lips were a bit preoccupied at the moment. He closed his eyes, hoping that this would work on the officer and also cursing that his first kiss was from a scary biker woman who put a weird spell on him. Cracking an eye a few seconds later, the officer waved a hand at them, a disgusted face planted there as he walked off. When he was clean out of shot, Jake pulled back from Oceana, his face beet red. He bit his lip, not knowing exactly what to say, but not wanting to insult the woman, either. It wasn’t that she didn’t kiss well, it was that Jake didn’t want to kiss in the first place.