Quinn Shalom...

A warm hand touched my frozen skin. It was still dark. The power hadn't been restored; all my plants were probably frozen. The cologne of the person touching me smelled like a warm meadow. I could also smell a strange musk, the cedar shavings on the ground, my dying chrysanthemums, and my own blood. I could feel my blood crusted against my shoulder and back, on my stomach and legs, and between my thighs was something else. I wished I was dead, but a voice whispered to me to fight. I have to find and kill whatever it was that did this to me, to avenge my children and my husband. It was the strange voice that encouraged me to seek shelter and live. My hand clenched over the strange ring on my thumb.

"She's alive," a strangely accented man's voice whispered, "but she won't be for long."

Something warm and coppery was forced between my lips. I swallowed on reflex and almost gagged. It was blood but it tasted oddly sweet, like it was mixed with honey. As I swallowed again, I started sucking slightly. I wanted more as a warm feeling spread through me.

"Should you do that? She's a wolf," a soft female voice spoke.

The slightly gruff voice answered, "We don't have a choice if she is going to live long enough to get to a hospital. She's only the third one we've found alive. I won't lose her. She might be able to tell us something."

"Do you think those were her family?" She sounded like an angel.

"Yes, a husband, wife, and two children lived here." He answered.

"Oh."

I realized the soft voice sounded very young, like Molly, but Molly and Miles were gone. Ken was gone. He said I was only the third they found alive. There were over half a million in our city and half that many in surrounding suburbs and towns.

A new voice shouted, "Gerard! They're coming back!"

"Shut the hell up, Liam, they'll come faster if you shout," the one called Gerard whispered harshly.

"I got this coat from the house," the soft voice said, and my long winter coat was wrapped around me. "There's more dead inside. A wolf and a human, it was him."

I groaned trying to make sense of everything as they buttoned my coat around my wounded body, then I was picked up.

"We're going, hang on, mon petit loupe. Moving is going to feel strange but trust me. I will not let them hurt you further. Petra, Liam, lead them south then catch up. Hurry, it's almost dawn and we will lose the cover of darkness to search and escape."

I shuddered as a howl echoed in the silence, followed by a second. Something screeched, to my muddled brain it sounded like a velociraptor from those dinosaur world movies Miles loved. It was then I realized something was very wrong. In the still air, I heard nothing but my savior's rapid footsteps, too fast for a normal person. As I listened harder, there were no cars, no traffic noises, no planes, no familiar sounds of the city or suburbs, not even a dog barking. Only my savoir talking to someone on a radio or blue-tooth.

In the distance, a helicopter roared toward us. I heard voices and snarling growls as I realized Liam and Petra were both shouting and then it sounded like there were the monsters fighting. They sounded so far away now. I felt Gerard leap, and heard the sound of giant wings beating the air, then we were floating? The pain in my body made me blackout. The jolt of being laid down woke me then an IV was put into my arm. Someone covered me with a warm blanket. Gerard was holding my hand, I know it was him, but I couldn't open my frozen eyes.

"Thank you," I don't know how but he heard my whisper.

"Mon Loupe (my wolf), I am sorry this happened to you, to your family. I will make it right; I promise I will protect you." His accent told me he was from France, or maybe Canada. His fingertips caught in my bloody hair.

"Merci, mon ange (thank you, my angel)," I breathed out the little French I remembered from high school, and he squeezed my hand. I made it out alive again. I was saved and once more my family was lost.

VvvvV

I roused to the sounds of a hospital, but I couldn't move. My body felt like it was on fire, even my bones hurt. I panted for breath, so hot, hotter than any fever I ever sufered. The voices I heard didn't make sense to me.

"She's in her last day, I think. Only mated wolves, fae or human females are allowed in here."

"Yes, Doctor. Her vitals are normal but..."

"But we still don't know why she won't wake up... She was in really bad shape when she was brought in. Be patient, she's healing at the normal rate."

"What about her fever?"

"It's called heat for a reason. Get the Fae, he's the only one that seems to calm her."

Light burned into my eyes, cool skin touched me, then they left. Moments later, a familiar hand squeezed mine, and the fire subsided.

"Hold on a while longer," Gerard whispered as I sank into darkness.

VvvvV

The rapid beeping of machines, screaming alarms, and yells of surprised voices startled me from a nightmare.

"She's shifting again."

I wanted to scream in pain as fire burned through my body, I could feel it in my bones, and it felt like they were breaking.

"Where's her mate, that Fae?"

I struggled against those holding me down, hurting me. I want to bite them, kill them.

"He's back working on the search and rescue."

I started to scream and scream and scream before blackness pulled me down. I woke up to the sound of growling. Terrified, I struggled to get up, but I was restrained. The werewolves were back, they were here, and I couldn't even get out of bed to hide. Nothing made sense, a blindfold covered my eyes as I pleaded for someone to help me, but they don't listen, instead something cold went into my IV and the sensation of breaking bones started over. It was a nightmare that I couldn't escape.

Please lord, help me, I prayed as the pain made me scream again. But my agony came out as a gurgling, growling sound. I wondered if I ruptured something in my throat as I passed out again. Why are they torturing me? Please, let me die.

VvvvV

Voices pulled at my consciousness, I recognized one of them. I felt like I was eavesdropping on the real world from my nightmare.

"We found her near the bodies of two children and two dead wolves. Petra said there was also a dead man and a wolf in the house. Her family fought hard. She had a severely broken ankle and crushed collar bone, both looked like mauling injuries. She was bitten and clawed all over. I think she was also violated; she was in heat when we brought her in. I do not know how she survived it all," Gerard was saying. He sounded pained to recount my injuries to the stranger.

"How did you know the extent of her injuries?" the woman demanded.

"The madame was naked, she crawled into a greenhouse. There was the scent of two more wolves in the yard. Almost like scent marks but they smelled abnormal, like something was wrong with them. We have encountered many similar smells since that night. The mad wolves and vampires all have that scent. Do we know who she is, or do I need to send Petra and Liam back to her home?" Gerard offered.

"No, you don't need to send anyone. The Alpha Commander has taken over the search and rescue personally. Her name is Quinn S. Phillips according to the Colorado DMV. Facebook says she was a mom with a son in karate classes and an autistic daughter who loved art. She ran a charity to help parents with special needs children. Her husband was a researcher with some private think-tank trying to clean up the environment from pharmaceutical contamination. He published a paper on it a few years ago. They seem like really decent people. Poor woman, she is going to wake to this world as one of us."

The woman sounded sad for me. "The Monarchy's family was visiting the quarantine area when it happened. The Commander will want to talk to her, an Alpha did this to her, a born pure-blood, he will want to know who."

Gerard squeezed my hand, I could feel the cold metal of the ring pressed in my palm, he must think I'm playing possum, but I doubted if I could move.

"You are not alone, Madame Phillips. Wake up soon," he whispered as he pressed a kiss into my temple. There was a sighing in my head, then it made a whining sound as he let go of my hand.

"Mrs. Phillips, if you can hear me, I'm Dr. McIntyre. My resident, Dr. Trinity will be handling your case while I'm gone. I know you're in there, Quinn. That it was horrible for you, but you're safe now. Try to wake up, I would like to meet you when I get back." The woman doctor spoke so softly and soothingly, her voice had a strange lilt. Then she left with Gerard.

I listened to the sounds of machines and murmuring beyond the door after they left. I wished I could move, but then I didn't want to move, I didn't want to wake up, I didn't want to be alive. Grief howled like a lost soul in my mind.

My children were dead.

My family was dead.

And this was not the first time my only family was murdered violently; it was the third.

My mind repeated it over and over, I could feel myself breaking into pieces as nightmares of that night and another swirled together in my memories. The growling voice in my mind became stronger, louder, and vowed revenge. I seriously began to think I was going insane again. Like I did after Aunt Judith died. Hearing voices, feeling rage, and blacking out. Last time they put me in Elmhurst Mental Hospital, or as I told Kenneth, my personal hell on earth. I wouldn't go back to a place like that, I needed to escape.

VvvvV

Finally, I woke up completely. The ring was still in my hand, I slipped it on my thumb. Evening light was shining golden in the window. The news was on the TV so low I could barely hear it. I fumbled to turn up the volume. I listened in horror as the cheerful blonde anchorwoman recounted the most recent death toll, she tried and failed to have a somber tone. Many hundreds of thousands of humans, vampires, werewolves, and fae were dead. But survivors were still being rescued daily. The most recent death toll put casualties at 900,000, but the toll was expected to grow as the search continued. The area was under quarantine to all species, except Fae, who were unaffected by the contamination. She ended with an off-color comment about how the Colorado Ski season was canceled indefinitely.

The weather reporter gave the local forecast, then the forecast for the affected areas of the front range of the Rocky Mountains. The Quarantine Zone stretched from south of the New Mexico border to the north into Wyoming. There was a coming change in the borders and buffer zone next week with milder weather. They expressed concerns of spreading the contaminated snow through the melt runoff after the storm by the unseasonably mild temperatures, but water tests showed no unusual contaminants. There was a chance the Q.Z. would be reduced in size after scientist finished testing samples.

A slightly balding anchorman reported the congressional investigation committee into what they were now calling the Revelation Night found no wrongdoing or purposeful intent on the part of the werewolf or vampire communities. The cause of the werewolf and vampire insanity was still unknown. Doctors and researchers from every community, human and nonhuman, were searching for the reason, but no answers had yet been found according to the latest government reports.

There was a two-hour long segment featuring survivor stories. The first story was about two werewolves, brothers of the American Werewolf Monarch, who rescued a large group of humans that night. Two grateful teenage girls recounted how their dad died. They were saved only a few blocks from my house; the older girl was in Molly's grade. Then their brother was rescued along with a group who took refuge in a bank vault. The pair of werewolf warriors saved a family hiding in a school, and another group which sheltered in the walk-in freezer of the Culver's I took the kids to only a few hours before they died.

The next segment revealed a mated pair of vampires and their werewolf neighbor hiding and fighting to protect humans in their warehouse bookstore; I knew them too. A final story was about how a trio of vampiresses and soldiers from the local army base fought and held the entrance to a local hospital ER against uncounted homicidally insane male nonhumans. So many heroic stories of humans and nonhumans working and fighting together against those who had gone mad. The announcer promised more survivor stories after the next hour of media coverage. I listened to the news cycle repeat itself all night. At eight in the morning, I just closed my eyes when the door opened.

"Good morning, Mrs. Phillips, I see we still aren't awake. But that's okay, I am just here to clean your room again. My Alpha told me to keep an eye on ya." The elderly man talked and hummed as he worked, after a while he patted my hand, "Don't you worry none, we'll be here for you when you wake up. You're one of us now."

Then he was shuffling off to the next room. He was an odd, old man with odder cologne; musk, burnt marshmallows, and tobacco. As I drifted off to sleep, I wondered what he meant by one of us, had he survived the massacre too? And who was Alfa?

There was a noon press conference where the government's press representative claimed they didn't know what happened. Twice nurses came in to check me, but I pretended to be asleep. I wondered how many months I had been in the hospital; my ankle and shoulder were healed, but the news made it sound like only a week passed since the Revelation Night happened. I tried to understand what was going on, but I was so confused.

VvvvV

(trigger warning)

Later that afternoon, a pair of doctors stood over my bed and talked about me like I was brain dead. I was dozing, so I didn't move when I woke. They didn't smell human. I didn't understand how I knew this, but I did. The voice that whispered in my mind kept telling me a lot of strange things like he was a wolf, and she was a fae.

"The only reason she isn't awake is because she doesn't want to be, or she is rejecting her change, Dr. Trinity. She has the markers and the virus matched, she's shifted, and had her first heat even," the male said it like he was reading.

"From the way Monsieur Gerard described finding her to Dr. McIntyre, I don't blame her for not wanting to wake up. Her family died in front of her, and she was mauled, forcibly mated, marked, and changed. It must have been terrible." Dr. Trinity had a horrified tone to her voice. "Dr. Lair, do your females survive such trauma?"

"Yes, sometimes, but it breaks their wolves... They're moving Mrs. Phillips in a few days, maybe then they can figure out who marked and changed her. If he survived the madness, maybe his presence can wake her. Maybe, they can get past this... I'm sure he didn't mean it. She'll need him for the pregnancy despite what happened." Dr Lair sighed heavily.

I started to panic at his words, the monitor beeped faster as I thought horrified, I'm pregnant with one of those things.

My eyes flew open when they touched me, "I... want..." My throat felt like sandpaper as I tried to speak.

"Mrs. Phillips, please try to calm down, your heart is still recovering. You had a great deal of blood loss." The young man was trying to calm me, but nothing would.

I grabbed his hand, crushing it in my desperation, "I want an... an abortion. I want it... I want it dead."

He yanked away, cradling his limp hand. The woman doctor's hand flew to her mouth as Dr. Lair announced, "I'm sorry, Mrs. Phillips, but we can't. Not only is it illegal to terminate a pure blood werewolf pup, but it would kill you. Your wolf won't let you abort your pup." His voice was too calm as he declared my fate. I wanted to hurt them as tears poured down my face.

I screamed at them, "Then I die. It raped me, it chewed me like meat. They killed my son. Tried to rape my daughter before I shot her. Then it still..." I choked on the memory. "I don't want that thing's offspring inside of me."

I was hyperventilating and shaking as I clutched my shoulders. Suddenly, my skin burned, and my bones cracked. In my mind, something howled. Claws came out the end of my fingers, and I hallucinated myself turning into one of them, then I was one of them. If they wouldn't help me, I would harm them. I would force them to kill me as the voice argued with me to stop.

Three large young men ran in and shifted into werewolves, trying to restrain me. As the nurses and doctors scattered, my rampage spilled out into the hall. I maimed two and killed one of them, it was almost too easy. Miles said the only way to make sure they were dead was to remove the head. MILES! At the thought of my son, I hesitated. I stared horrified at the werewolf head I held in my hands, as it turned back into a young face, surprised wide eyes stared at me in death.

I dropped it, killing him had been almost too natural. I was a housewife, not some hand-to-hand combat specialist. I just ripped his head off his body. I murdered him. In the reflection of the glass behind the nurses' desk, I saw a brown wolf-like creature, a thing from my nightmares. It was me. I somehow knew it was me. I was one of them now. A werewolf.

"Quinn...Quinn...mon loupe, you need to calm down." Gerard was glowing golden. His aura made it almost look like he had wings. Pale blond hair created a halo around his perfect features. He wasn't human either.

"Whaa arrrrr uoooo?" The words sounded strange as I forced them out of my throat, more a growl than language.

"I am an Angelus, a type of Fae or Fairy. Please Quinn, try to imagine your human body and change back." He begged me. "No one wants to hurt you."

The angry, wild thing inside of me wanted to comply; his glow made us feel warm and safe, but the human me wanted to die. The change was less painful this time and at the end of it, I was kneeling naked, covered in blood, and sobbing.

"I killed him. I didn't mean to."

"It was an accident; you don't know the power of your wolf." Gerard gently placed a blanket over my shoulders and hugged me as I begged. "Please, Gerard. It raped me, and I don't want this thing inside of me."

"I know, Quinn. But it cannot be removed, or you will die." His tone was so gentle as he held me.

"I don't want to be alive. I don't want to be the only one to make it out alive again," I confessed, deciding revenge was not enough to keep me going. First, my mother, father and baby brother, then my aunt, and now my husband and children. I couldn't do it. I couldn't go on.

"Quinn, what happened to you?" Gerard murmured the question.

Dozens heard my heartbreak as I sobbed out the details of the Revelation Night. That we thought the warnings were a Halloween hoax. That the power went out and how my husband was killed first, then my son, then I was pinned down in the snow. I broke my son's sword so she could get away. Being autistic, Molly had frozen in her panic and the other had pinned her down, so I had used my last bullet to spare her from what then had happened to me. I told them why I couldn't run, because IT had crushed my ankle when it bit me. I remembered the feeling of the bones grinding together as it dragged me back toward IT. I confessed how I prayed for death when I saw how the other violated her dead body while the bigger one raped me.

I don't know how long we sat there but several others, including my Fae doctor, were sobbing at the horror I endured. Finally, Gerard carried me back to a room, but not to my destroyed room. He took me to the one next to it. He sat me on a bench in the shower and washed the blood off, probably ruining the expensive suit he was wearing. I couldn't even make myself lift my head. He gently dried me and dressed me, brushing my hair, murmuring soothing words and promising to always stand by me. I just stared out at the sky as I lay in bed. My mind did not want to be in my body.

I was a monster now, and a monster was growing inside me.