Samantha

I shouldn't have given him the book. That thing filled me with energy and magic, and now that it was gone I realized that all that power came from it. I could still do a little magic now, but nothing big.

He turned into a flash of fire and I bolted for the door. The shadows weren't attacking me, but they were running along, trying to keep up. I decided not to worry about them. I just needed to get out.

Fumbling through the darkness, I find my way to the glass double doors at the entrance. One of the shadows flew ahead of my and stood by the metal detector, waiting. I didn't think it could touch me, so I ignored it and kept running.

That was my first mistake.
The shadow grabbed me, raised me high in the air, and threw me at least 20 feet away. After fighting my sister, this didn't hurt me as much as I thought it would. I quickly got to my feet, and looked around. The shadows were taking slow steps towards me, and their bodies looked like it was shaking and vibrating with each step.

"You're lucky I have no intention of killing you. Surrender, so we can talk as equals."

Me? Surrendering? Not a chance in hell. I looked everywhere, trying to pinpoint his voice, but I just couldn't seem to find it. I know it wasn't coming from one of the shadows, they didn't make a sound.

"Why won't you kill me, huh? Isn't practicing magic without​ proper teaching outlawed? Forbidden? Don't you think that deserves punishment?"

"Oh, yes, it does." said a voice behind me.

He materialized from behind me and put me in a choke hold.
"The problem is, everyone's a little short on magic now, and we need every mage we can get."
I tried to stall him while I conjured up something I could use to defend myself. I tried to summon fire, but nothing came. Lightning, wind, earthquakes, storms, nothing would work. I doubted I could make a flower grow with the amount of power I had now.

"How can everyone be short on magic? That doesn't make sense."
I felt the hilt of a knife appear in my hand, and I held on tightly.
"Magic has weakened." The old man spoke in my ear. "We don't know how, or why, but everyone is feeling drained. Some have lost magic completely. I assumed that's what happened to you?"

I shook and wrestled to get myself free. He wouldn't budge, so lashed out with the knife and stuck him in his mouth. He screamed in pain and let go. I kicked him hard in his stomach and knocked him onto the floor.
I turned and started walking towards the door. If I ran, he could do a sneak attack and paralyze me. Or those shadows would attack again. I slowly started conjuring something similar to a knife, but much longer.

"I transferred my powers to someone else. It was the only way I could survive."
The object started to take shape, and it was a long, silver gray javelin.

The old man kept holding the side of his mouth, but stood back up. "That means you still have your full potential! Your reservoir is just empty. Let me help you." He sounded desperate, and i could see a thirsty look in his eyes. It wasn't lust, I had seen that look in men. This was greed. He wanted my powers and potential for his own. He must have lost lots of magic to be this willing to teach me.
I pointed the javelin at him, giving me plenty of distance.

"No thanks. I don't think I'll need it."
His eyes turned cold. "Isn't that what you came here for?" he snarled.
He began to shine, probably about to teleport again, so I launched the javelin as far and as hard as I could.

The  javelin struck him as soon as he vanished. Only half of it disappeared with him. The other half clattered on the floor. Then the old man appeared in front of me, a pained look on his face. He looked down, but besides a bloody​ hole on his shirt, there was nothing. The rest of the javelin was sticking out of his back, and when she stepped to the side she could see it.

"I... I'm done." He said, reaching back to pull out the javelin.
"Really?" I asked.
"Yes. I don't have enough magic to continue wasting in a fight. But that doesn't mean you will get away with this."

"Oh really?" I looked behind me
I didn't see the shadows anymore. The lights were still out, and the books were in piles on the floor, but I didn't sense any danger anywhere. It had gotten even darker outside, it must have been near midnight.
"The door seems pretty open to me."

He winced and pulled it out. He dropped it and looked at me. "Do you want to get your powers back tenfold? We all, the legitimate mages and I, we are going to convene in the sky. Our first time accessing it since the werewolves lost control. We are going to take it from the vampires and elevate ourselves to our former status... wizards."

"I don't have any reason to believe you."
"Then don't. But when we gather at the summit, you will feel our power. We'll be discussing several things, including the remainder of vampires and werewolves in this region. With any luck, the vampires will all have died or been killed by each other by the time we gather. We have foreseen it, so it will happen."

"Good for you. But I'll taking the book."
As soon as I  that, he glared at me with malice, but it only lasted for a second.
"Go ahead. I can't stop you."

Marissa

I woke up too early, but at least I didn't have nightmares. Jocelyn was curled up beside me, Jamie was flat on his back, and Donovan was sleeping in an awkward, upright position. I was surprised they weren't sleeping in their wolf forms. That's they normally do in places they aren't familiar with. I looked around for Isaac and Kim. I could smell them, but they were nowhere in sight.

Glancing at one of Isaac's computers, I saw that it was only one o'clock, I had barely slept at all. But Allen still wasn't back. Jocelyn looked pretty comfortable where she was so I decided to leave her there. I took the elevator back up and ran outside. The air was so refreshing I wanted to turn into my wolf form and roll around in the grass, but I didn't. I tried to find Allen's scent and went in that direction.

I have to admit, after that vampire named Elijah came into Isaac's facility, I was kinda paranoid, even if he was somehow friends with Allen. I was constantly looking over my shoulder as I walked, watching out for every car that passed. We've been hunted for so long. I'm sick of hiding.

Finally, I came to a bar. I knew it was a supernatural bar because I could sense fairies, mages, werewolves, and a couple of vampires there. I almost didn't want to enter, but if there were vampires in here, they'd most likely be friendly. Or weak enough to be easy to kill.

When I entered, nobody paid me any attention. I saw Allen, talking to the bartender, and one lady was carrying a tray of food in one hand and a drink in the other. I walked over to Allen and tapped his shoulder.

"Hey." I said smiling. "Are you okay?"
He stared at me for a second, clearly intoxicated.
"Yeah, I guess."
The bartender said him another drink.
"That's not what you've been telling me, Al."
Allen shot him a look. Was he mad at the nickname, or did he want the bartender to keep quiet?

Allen reached for the beer but I pushed it aside.
"How many have you had?" I asked.
He looked at his hands, counted to five, and laughed. "I've had enough."
But he still reached for the beer.
I snatched it up and sat it on the waitress's to when she walked past. She stared at me for a second before walking away.

"Allen, let's go."
He stayed in the seat, but balled his hands into fists.
"No, I'm going to stay a little bit longer."
The bartender looked at me, and then him.
"Which one is this?"
"Marissa."
"Oh"
I looked at him like he was crazy.
"What do you mean oh?"
"Nothing, nothing." Here held his hands up defensively, and Allen acted like he was blind and death.

"I said let's go." I demanded.
Allen stood up, and it looked like he was straining from the effort. He walked past me and headed towards the door without a word.
The bartender took Allen's drink and said to me, "That's one of his problems now... You're gonna make that boy snap some day."

I rolled my eyes and followed Allen out, but then I realized what he meant. I was controlling Allen the same way Donovan controlled me. I understood what it felt like when am Alpha exerted their powers on you. I shouldn't have forced him to leave, even if I wasn't trying to use my alpha powers.

"Hey," I caught up to him outside. "I'm sorry."
"Sorry for what?" He responded. He didn't stop to chat, he kept walking, probably because I hadn't commanded him to.
"I'm sorry I made you leave the bar. I... I didn't mean to control you."
He stopped moving and looked at me. "It seemed like ​it, but it don't matter. Not that I'm out..." He looked up at the sky and took a deep breath. "I can really feel how drunk I am. Like, I don't even... I can't...ugh." he laughed.

"I'm gonna take you hom- to Isaac's place." I corrected myself. "It's late, you should rest. We all need it."
I grabbed his hand and tried to lead him to the lab, but he nudged me away.
"No, I don't wanna go back there, with them. I wanna stay out here in the fresh air, where we can talk."

"Well, that's fine with me." I squealed on the inside, trying to hide my excitement. "Where do you want to go?"

"Nowhere in particular, just as long as the sky is above us and the wind is blowing." He opened and closed his hand repeatedly and slowly made it grow fur. I guess it must have been weird transforming while drunk. I had never experienced it.

"Before we go, don't you think you should go pay for your drinks?"
He frowned, thought about it, and shook his head. "No, they were free. I think."

I smiled and bent down, like an athlete preparing to run. "Race me."
"To where?"
"The park. First one to the big tree wins."
"Deal." He cracked his knuckles, but didn't get into a runners position like me.
"Let's go."
I shifted into my wolf form and completely took off, thinking I left him in the dust. I heard gigantic, thudding footsteps next to me and saw his huge wolf man shadow looming over me, trying to keep up with me. Even though I could make him do whatever I wanted to he still creeped me out in that form. Donovan had it too, but I didn't know if he could summon it as easily as Allen could.

When we got close to the park, I could hear Allen gasping for air. He might look all tough, but he didn't have as much endurance as I did. I beat him easily to the tree. I hopped on it and howled info the night sky. When he finally reached me he dropped to his knees and fell forward, looking exhausted.

Still in my wolf form I jumped on him and gave another howl, mocking him. I could tell he was slowly changing back, he's shoulders were getting smaller and his clothes started to reappear. I changed back to, but at a much faster pace.
"I bet you wish we went to sleep now, don't you?"