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  Cascades

  Of

  Moonlight

  The Parker Harris Series

  Book One

  Written by: Amy Kathleen McClung

  This book is dedicated to my amazing husband Daniel who taught me what true love really is, a mixture of fairy tales and reality. He inspires me every day with encouragement and praise and I would be lost without him.

  Chapter One

  Vampires and Werewolves have been myths turned into movies, books and plays for hundreds of years. Everyone has heard of them, everyone has their own interpretation of what they are and the ways you can kill them. Some people say that Vampires are creatures of the night that can’t walk in the sun and are killed by wooden stakes, burned by holy water or torn apart by other vampires. Some say vampires can’t go in the sun because their skin sparkles like diamonds. There are stories of vampire slayers and there are werewolf hunters. As many stories as there are, you would think more people would believe these creatures exist. I mean, how else would there be so much talk about something that never existed? How would there be so many ideas that are so closely related? Maybe some people just don’t want to believe because they are scared of the possibilities it could bring, scared to face the reality that monsters are real. Of all the myths, the part of how to kill a vampire is quite limited. There is no easy way to kill a vampire unless you are a master vampire or a werewolf. Luckily, I am a werewolf.

  OK, so maybe lucky isn’t the best way to describe it, after all it is a curse. In fact, I guess you could say I am one of those monsters that people are scared to admit into reality. When I was fifteen, I was bitten and it happened in the woods just behind my house. I have lived in the same house my entire life. My parents and I live at the end of our street which allows for a fair amount of privacy. Our house is a light blue Victorian that is two stories with a wraparound porch and even though we have neighbors, you can’t see their houses because of all the trees surrounding it. There are woods that go on for miles behind our house and it has been known that wolves lived in them. Just regular wolves as far as the people in town knew, and as far as I knew prior to being bitten. Never would I have imagined werewolves existed anymore than anyone else.

  As a fan of fantasy novels about these creatures as well as vampires, witches, fairies, etc, my secret hope had been that fairies were real, that is what I would really like to be. Fairies that I have read about are beautiful beings with wings that spread love and kindness and feel no physical pain. Sounds mushy and disgusting doesn’t it? To me it sounds amazing, especially compared to my life these past couple of years. Never in a million years did I imagine becoming a werewolf. The physical pain that comes with shifting into a wolf is indescribable. No one can truly understand how bad it is unless they experience it themselves. It’s my own fault though. I was warned, repeatedly by my parents, to stay close to the house and away from the woods, not just because of the wolves themselves but the hunters as well. However I am not always the best listener, some have called me stubborn and I resemble that comment, but I have never really been someone that is scared easily. One day I went strolling into the woods just to do some reading and get some quiet time to myself because my parents had been driving me batty. They tend to be overbearing and tend to smother me at times. I guess you could say that is my other curse, being an only child. My dad travels for work a lot so my mom gets bored at home and was always trying to bond with me and butt into my life, that has eased off a bit over the years though, thank goodness. Now she tends to travel with him and I get time at home alone which is nice.

  The day I was bitten, I was just strolling along looking for a good place to sit and I came upon a wolf that was injured and at first I froze petrified where I stood. It was a beautiful grey wolf with light blue eyes. I stood there staring at it, and then, like a dummy, I started towards it because I got the feeling it was summoning me and its eyes looked, well…kind. It was like I couldn’t control my own body, I couldn’t resist moving closer to it, the wolf seemed more like a sick puppy than a dangerous wolf to me. Well, being the dummy I am, I knelt in front of it to try and help. Everything was fine at first. It was like a puppy being cared for, it nudged me and whimpered and then even licked my hand and then Voila! It bit me. My hand jerked back in pain and I stood up stumbling backwards afraid it was going to attack me further. It just laid there licking its wounds. Once able to get to my feet I took off running towards my house. Fear just took over, although the wolf was so injured I knew it couldn’t follow me, yet I didn’t stop running till I was safe inside my house.

  At first I had no clue that there would be lasting effects so I just cared for the wound myself. It was not a terrible bite, really just a nip. Of course I never imagined it was a werewolf, my thought was that it bit me because it was scared. If it had bitten me based on animalistic nature than it would have done worse damage then it did. It was like a bite you would get when you try to take something away from a dog and it snaps its teeth at you. I couldn’t let my parents find out and have them or anyone in town get even crazier over the wolves. Just knowing one bit a human would make them gung ho to hunt them. Hours after being bit I developed a dangerously high fever that incapacitated me and then the wound was gone after little more than a day, which was the first odd thing to me. During the full moon of the next month, I changed for the first time as I was walking home from my best friend’s house. Looking back now I am thankful that I didn’t feel good that night and ended up leaving her house before dark. The first shift was very painful and very scary. As I was walking I felt a stabbing pain in my stomach and I lurched forward and screamed out. The pain was agonizing as my bones cracked and broke and started to shift in opposite directions, my face contorted, I could feel my teeth elongate in my mouth and eventually I even blacked out from the pain.

  The memories are foggy, I can remember crying and being frightened because I thought I was going to die in the woods and no one would find my body. I imagined being on missing posters around town, being featured on the evening news, my parents crying their eyes out with worry over me. I am not sure how long I was out but I vaguely remember waking up standing on all fours and staring at my paws unsure of what was happening to me. This went on for two days, human during the day and wolf at night, and on the third day I woke up naked in the woods. Inside I thought I was going crazy, thought I had lost my mind because of the fever and not getting medical help. There was no way I could go home until I was sure I wouldn’t hurt anyone. With my knees pulled up to my chest and covering myself as best as possible, I stayed cowering under a tree until nightfall to make sure I wouldn’t change again and when I didn’t, I made my way back home.

  Most of my time spent as a wolf is hard to recall. There are flashes here and there and certain things will cause memories to surface but for the most part, it is a blur. Even during the time I was human, I was so fatigued that I slept through most of the day and usually woke up just in time to experience the unbearable shift again. It was pretty obvious that a good bit of time had passed by the way my parents reacted when they saw me. It may have had something to do with the fact that I was stumbling, naked, starving and I was covered in dirt and grime. At the side of the house there was a trellis that went straight up to my window, I tried to make it there to avoid seeing my parents till I cleaned up and dressed. That plan failed because my knees gave out from exhaustion and I fell forward onto the sidewalk and when they hit the hard concrete I cried out and my dad came running out the door, saw me and he yelled for my mother. He lifted me up and carried me into the house, my mother was an emotional basket case and my dad just kept demanding to know what happened. He laid me down on the couch and my mom threw a blanket over me. They fussed over me checking for scrapes and br
uises, both crying and telling me they loved me over and over again. They thought I had been kidnapped and raped and it was difficult to convince them I hadn’t been based on my appearance.

  My parents had been worried sick because they didn’t know where I had been for three days. I tried to say that I was at my best friend Jackie’s house but they had called her and she didn’t know what happened to me either. Once I saw her again she gave me a pretty good once over as well after she laid into me for making her worry. The best I could come up with was to tell them I ran away because some kids were picking on me at school and I needed time to think. They didn’t believe me and wanted to know why I was so dirty and where my clothes were. My story became that I was staying in the woods and didn’t have a change of clothes so they got messed up. They didn’t believe that, can’t blame them it was a lame excuse. They took me to the hospital and made them use a rape kit on me and of course it came back clean. My parents begged the doctor to run a second test, just positive I had been violated, so the doctor finally just told them it was absolutely correct because I was a virgin. Of course they were super thrilled to learn that. Two birds, one stone in their minds I am sure. They grounded me for a month for running away and for being dishonest with them, which I couldn’t blame them for either. If I had known I would be gone so long I would have had a better story. If they knew the truth they couldn’t blame me since I just spent two nights in the woods experiencing the worst pain imaginable and hadn’t had a bite to eat in three days. Situations like that make it hard to think clearly and come up with plausible stories. They forced me to see a psychiatrist for the next two months. Downright threatened that if I didn’t they would send me off to boarding school. They even tried to do family therapy a couple of times but found that they didn’t get the results or answers they were hoping for.

  That was two years ago, I am now seventeen and have been dealing with this all on my own the entire time. When it comes to the full moon cycle, when I shift, I tell my parents I will be spending the next few nights with my friend and then I have her cover for me. Then I spend two nights in the woods all alone, it’s not something I look forward to at all. The one good thing is I found an abandoned cabin I can stay in for those days and it is a little more home-like than just sleeping in the woods. There is no furniture or anything inside it to break which helps. There is a wooden window box that I use to keep a sleeping bag there and some food supplies so that I when I am human, I can be comfortable. There were even books stored in the window seat. After the first couple of months I would get bored during the day so I started bringing books to read. It’s a one bedroom cabin with a bathroom, living room and kitchen, no running water but it has the comforts of a home. During the first few months I even brought cleaning stuff and during the day when I was human I would kill time by cleaning the place up. It actually got to be pretty decent looking. There is a stone fireplace in the middle of the living room that I used in winter months. The cabin had a lot of potential and I felt really safe there, like a safe haven.

  Unfortunately, during one of my last shifts I went to the cabin to prepare and there was someone there. Smoke was coming from the chimney as I pulled up in my car. Sneaking up to the window I peaked in and saw a man stoking the fire. It looked as though he had fixed the place up and moved in. He looked young and I couldn’t help staring because he was stunning, and then he turned to the window and I ducked. Afraid of confrontation I ran off and I spent the moon cycle sleeping in my car during the day which was parked in the woods where no one could drive by and see it. Guess I will need to find a new place to spend my shifting nights. Staying in my car is not really ideal. The thought made me really sad, like my home had been stolen out from under me.

  Another thing about my shifting time that I have to figure out is my friend Jackie, there is no telling what sort of theories she has come up with about what I do each month, because she has no idea what really goes on and could not possibly guess the truth. Luckily she is my very best friend, since childhood, and she trusts me, I have told her that I will explain eventually but have yet to get up the nerve. One day I am sure she will grow tired of lying for me and I will have to tell her the truth or find someone else to help me. Of course I can’t tell my parents either. Who really wants to hear “I told you so” from your parents of all people? Besides that, I am afraid of how they will react and I’m getting used to dealing with it on my own.

  After my first shifting I started doing research on werewolves in hopes that I wouldn’t have too many more surprises. Mostly I read the different myths and legends online and tested certain aspects for myself to determine truth from myth. During that research I came across information about vampires and was shocked to find out that it was my obligation now to kill them. This would only be the hardest part to deal with. It was hard enough dealing with the fact that I was a freak and all alone with no one to talk to about what was going on with my body. Now I had to deal with the fact that there are vampires and I was one of the few creatures who can kill them. No pressure.

  At first I didn’t want to believe it was true, but it is hard to negate the fact that Vampires exist just because I hadn’t seen them, I mean hello…I’m a werewolf! I ran into my first vampire in the middle of winter about six months after my first full moon. It was the last day of my shifting and I have slight recollections of seeing him. He was pale as the snow and ran so fast I barely could tell what I was seeing at first. There was an odd smell to him, it was sweet, not a bad smell, just different from regular human smell of cologne or soap. The smell made my nose burn though, and it made me feel angry inside. He was hungry, you could see the desperation on his face, and I watched as he attacked a deer and his teeth ripped at the skin like biting through butter. Images flooded my head of what he would do to a human passing by. I can remember being frightened but then felt this urge to attack and the next thing I knew he was dust in the wind.

  Since that day I have only killed one other vampire and it was just two months ago. My memories seemed to get clearer each time a shift happens, I have gotten to the point where now I only lose bits and pieces instead of only remembering that much. That day, I wish my memory would escape me. I came across two of them in the woods on that day. It was a male and female hunting together. I was able to kill the female but the male escaped my clutches because I wasn’t quick enough to take down both at the same time. Luckily I was able to creep up on the female and when he saw what happened to her, he was gone in the blink of an eye, literally.

  It was weird, I actually felt bad about it because they looked like they were a couple. Once I saw them though, this urge took over and it was like being threatened, adrenaline washed over me and I attacked with barely a thought. Afterwards I could remember bits and pieces, the way they looked ravenous and desperate. They were holding hands, almost as a lifeline, as they frantically searched for food. They only let go of each other for a second and he stepped away from her just enough for me to pounce. Then I can remember, after she turned to dust, I looked back and the male was standing there with a stunned look on his face that then turned to pain with anger mixed in. If it was possible that Vampires could love, I am pretty sure they were soul mates. I felt pangs of guilt, but I couldn’t let it overcome me because if I didn’t kill her she could have hunted some of my friends or family in town. I was afraid he would come after me for a moment but he just disappeared in the other direction. The look that was on his face has haunted me though; I wouldn’t be surprised if we crossed paths again one day. If he killed someone I love, I know I would be hunting him down. The thought sent shivers down my spine.

  It’s rather easy to kill a vampire as a wolf, if you are fast enough. The bite of a werewolf is deadly, to a vamp that is. It causes the vampire to immediately perish; it’s like an infection that travels through their blood stream so rapidly that it reaches their heart in seconds and causes them to explode into dust, kind of cool to watch actually. They are demons after all, should I feel bad when
they die? Surely there is no such thing as a good vampire. I mean that would be crazy, right?

  Ok, I guess I should explain a little about the human side of me. I’m Parker Harris and I am seventeen, red hair with blue eyes and a rocking body. Ok, so that’s not exactly true, I do have red hair and have blue eyes, but my body is not that rocking. I guess you could say I have a full figured body, not overweight really, think Kate Winslet in Titanic. Oh yeah, and freckles, lots of them. Despite the freckles that I absolutely hate, I have pretty good self esteem and I am a people person. Sounds great right? Well not so great when you are a werewolf, one thing you need to do is stay away from people as much as possible for a couple of reasons. One reason is so that you can keep the secret easier, and another is so that people don’t get hurt if you shift in front of them by accident. I know, everyone thinks werewolves only turn once a month at the full moon, blah, blah, blah. That is partly true. The full moon is the only time you cannot control shifting. However, if someone makes you mad enough, you can turn anytime you want. Some of the snotty girls at school have gotten pretty close to seeing my wolf side. So far, I have never bitten a regular human being, only vampires. In two years, I have killed…2 that I can remember clearly. Yep, that’s right, what did you expect, Buffy? I am dealing with this on my own. I can’t be expected to end the population of vampires all by myself!

  Somehow I am going to have to find out if there are other werewolves around. Surely I can smell them, eww that just sounds gross and weird. However, the vampires I met had a unique smell about them that made me realize they were different, so surely I can smell another wolf. I figure the only way to figure this out is to find another werewolf and learn from them. It would have been easier if I could meet the one that bit me, but I have not seen that wolf again. I tend to avoid the woods except for full moon cycles and if I have run into one while I was shifted than I have no memory of it. I am going to find a way to figure this out though, wonder if I can Bing it?