SIXTY-SEVEN | CHAMELEON

An hour later, I'm completely spent. The sun's risen in the sky just enough to begin warming the otherwise chilly morning, but not enough to warm me as I shiver in my cold sweat. I'm trying to stay upright, huffing and icy. My shivering muscles are fatigued, bones like lead.

"Geez, Scarlett, wasn't that vamp teaching you anything?" Yuri asks me, frowning as I tremble in front of him. The last of my bruises are healing on my ribs. Over the last hour we've been sparing non-stop. Each blow Yuri landed left bruises, though they've healed quickly enough, and the Wolven hasn't hit me hard enough to leave more than bruises and never once broken skin.

"I've only had a few lessons." I grumble, knowing he can hear me. "And Mikyle was trying to help me use my vamp powers."

"Ooh, powers, huh?" Yuri's dark eyes lighten with curiosity. "Care to demonstrate?" He holds his hands out, opening his arms out.

"You sure?" I ask the Wolven, arching an eyebrow at him. I'm exhausted, not really sure feel like 'demonstrating' anything. It's hard enough staying upright, but I flex my fingers, trying to feel for the vibrating chords I know are everywhere.

"Show me what you've got," Yuri nods, grinning excitedly. Time slows around me, seconds ticking to a stop as the vibrating strings are muffled by my grasp. I'm free like last time, my body less achy, but still heavy. I close the space between me and Yuri, moving his stiff arms into a pose while he's unable to move.

"Tada!" I crow as I release my hold - grinning until I feel everything hit me like a ton of bricks - just like before. Everything echoes in my bones, spikes of pain zinging and thrumming with each beat of my heart. I crumble in on myself, taking in slow hissing breaths to silence the burning in my body and lungs. But now my muscles are more fatigued than before, seizing on my bones. I've wrapped myself up into a ball, arms around my knees and focusing on the thunderous beats of my heart.

"What the-" Yuri booms the second he realizes he's holding his arms in a 'm' over his head - the heart symbol I'd put him in. "You okay?" He questions too loudly as I crouch there with my eyes shut.

"Fine," I choke out, my voice raw and raspy. I feel something touching my hair, fiddling with a particular strand. I open my eyes, squinting up at Yuri as he plays with something silvery.

"Huh, this is weird." Yuri fiddles with the thing until everything comes back into focus and I can actually see what he's holding. Hair. I blink, surprised to see the silvery, curly strand is attached to my head.

"Weird," I echo, taking the thing from him and examining it, my pain temporarily forgotten. "This can't be..." I breathe, blinking hard again and tugging on a few of the silvery hairs. From root to tips, the hairs are completely silver, practically reflective. Then I think of Ivy's hair - silvery gold - and I can't help but draw parallels to this new development and the color of her hair. *Is this a side effect of this power?* And if it is, it only cements my conclusion that it's a Wolven ability and not a vampire one. *What does it mean?*

"Ya know," Yuri begins slowly, face serious as he massages his chin - looking like the Thinker statue. "I've got a thing for blondes." I feel an awkward beat pass between us before I realize what he's just admitted.

"Blondes like Darine?" I grin, feeling my first real smile stretch across my mouth too widely.

"N-no!" Yuri stammers, eyes narrowing as he seems to realize what he's said.

"How is my friend?" I feel the smile tighten, fading until a solemn expression comes over my face. I probably won't be able to be around her for a while. Maybe even years - until I can control my bloodlust. I haven't been around humans yet, and there's no telling how strongly the thirst will strike if I meet up with one.

"Confused. She keeps trying to get me and Zane to give up the reason as to why you're not in school." Yuri's tone becomes subdued. "It's hard to lie to her. And she wasn't buying the lie that you're out sick."

"She can be *perceptive*." I agree.

"Yeah," Yuri mumbles and looks out across the courtyard, suddenly less serious again. "Looks like we've got company," Cole, Misha, and Valeria have entered the area, chatting to themselves and all wearing identical grey track suits.

"Scarleeett!" Misha's serious expression warms when she sees me standing beside her brother and she bounds over to me. I feel my previous sour mood evaporate as I open my arms to the peppy Wolven and catch her as she leaps into my embrace. "I didn't know you were coming!" She crows in my ear, spinning me around, and tightening her arms around my shoulders until I hear my collarbone groan in protest.

"Hey, Misha," I greet in a chocked breath and she quickly releases me - though keeps her hands on my shoulders.

"Sorry, I keep forgetting your fragile-" She apologizes, giving me one last squeeze before backing up a foot.

"Hey!" I protest, pouting when I hear that.

"Z's words, not mine!" She laughs, raising her hands defensively. "Anyway, got some work to do, so I'll leave you to it." Misha sighs, glancing over to where Valeria is stretching on the other end of the courtyard, her back to me. Cole's doing some weird dance on the adjacent corner, moving gracefully, face screwed up like he's concentrating on something in front of him.

If he'd had a partner, I'd think he was sparing. But he's alone, moving sharply around his corner of the courtyard.

"Don't worry, when this is all over, we'll have some fun. All six of us." Yuri tells me, clapping me on the back gently. I raise an eyebrow at him.

"Six?" I question, counting only five of us here. And I'm pretty sure Valeria hate me.

"Yeah. You, Z, Cole, Mish, Caly, and me." Yuri counts off on his fingers. I roll my eyes, then pause, looking him full in the face so he won't be able to lie to me.

"Speaking of which- Where *is* Caly? I haven't seen her since I got back." I say to Yuri. The Wolven blinks at me and looks over to where Cole is doing his weird dance. Then I do a double-take cause he's not alone. Caly is suddenly there with him, matching his movements easily, eyes laser-focused on her opponent. "What the-?"

"Caly's power has to do with something like hiding-"

"Void," I correct, my stomach giving an uncomfortable flip as I turn back to the mountain-like man. "Craven can do it, too." It was why he became an Enforcer for the Reiniers. One of the main reasons facing him in a fight is akin to leaping off a cliff.

"That's why she's been practicing." Yuri tells me. "She'll be our secret weapon when the time is right." *When the time is right*.

"So...how long has she been there?" I ask slowly, watching Cole and Caly spar.

"The whole time. And she was there when you freaked last week. Didn't you see her?" He seems a little surprised.

"No, I didn't even realize she was missing until now." I admit sheepishly and Yuri grins. It was like I'd forgotten about her these last few days.

"Awesome, that's what we were going for."

"We?" I ask, frowning at Yuri.

"Cole and I are in charge of the younger generations training so we've been pushing her to expand the use of her abilities. But we weren't sure it was working - kinda hard to forget about a Packmate who's also your cousin." Yuri explains. "So you and the rest of the Coven have been the subjects of our experiment."

"You can't tell me the goal was to make us forget about her," I say incredulously. "It's not like I completely forgot about her, I just didn't notice her." There were times I wondered where she was when I was here or why I hadn't seen her, but this explains it.

"Exactly." Yuri continues to explain. "Your psycho-cousin already met Caly, so he can't forget her completely, but the rest of your old Pack hasn't. Which will give us a major advantage in the future."

"That's..." I begin slowly, looking back at Cole and Caly. The air around her warps the longer I look until she starts blending in with the background, her face screwed up in concentration. "That's pretty ingenious." My eyes begin to hurt so I have to look away. When I glance back again, the Wolven has disappeared and it's like Coles fighting air.

"Thanks." Yuri grins, puffing out his chest with pride. "We'll have to have her work on expanding her range next." He says quietly, tilting his head to the side, like he's deep in thought. I smile at the goofy man, surprised to find out he's not just a royal flirt, but actually quite smart. Maybe there's a thing or two I can learn from this tactician after all. "Anyway, let's get back to it!" Yuri shakes his head and claps his hands together, redirecting my focus. "Now that I've seen your weird power, I'm going to have to ask you don't use it until I can talk to the Beta about it-"

"What?" I gape at him, both annoyed and surprised he's saying this. If anything, I'd have thought he'd like to see more of it.

"It's obviously hurting you to use it," Yuri tells me seriously, concern in his eyes. "So you're either not using it right or it's a double-edged power that could kill you." I open my mouth to protest, but he holds up a hand to silence me. "Just give me a day or two to research it before you do something irreversible." He insists and I sigh heavily.

"Fine, but only because this freaks me out," I growl, tugging on the silvery strands in my hair. I run my hands through my curls until other strands show in the center. I blink again, freezing when I see them. Three in total then. That matches with the amount of times I've messed with time - when I felt pain after. Maybe he has a point after all.

"That's all I ask." Yuri relaxes a little, but he isn't looking at me, instead he's watching the others. "Now, back to business." He shakes his head and I release my hair before he notices the other silvery stands. "Let's drill some basic forms."

For the next two hours, I mirror the strangely agile mountain-of-a-man as he leads me through a series of dodging moves - followed by a run-though of defensive maneuvers. The once joking man is nothing but serious the entire time - completely focused. He's a pretty good teacher, if I'm being honest, much better than Mikyle.

When he finally ends the lesson, it's almost dark. My body is exhausted and sore, but not in a bad way - more like I got a really great work-out. My mind's racing through the defensive maneuvers he's drilled into me all day, easily recalling each one. For once, I actually feel like I've had a productive day.