It's a...

"Harper?"

"Yeah?"

"What is that?"

"A dog."

"I know it's a dog, but what kind. I've never seen a dog that big before."

"A Were."

"What!"

"A Bear?"

"No, you said 'Were', first. Is it a Were or isn't it?" Genie pressed herself further into the shadows where the two overgrown lilac bushes met, creating a shallow dome at the base of their branches. Her breath hiccuped in her throat when the ears of the massive beast peaked and swiveled in their direction. Grabbing Harper's sleeve, Genie whimpered, "Harper, do something."

Harper, in turn, grabbed Genie by the shoulders and tossed her nose first from their hidey-hole, an optimistic suggestion following Genie's graceful dive into the open, "Do your voodoo- thingymajig, so we can beat Magda back to the dorm."

Smoothing her hair from her face, Genie jerked up on her elbows, her face flushed a sharp pink but for a smudge of dirt at the end of her nose, "That only works with horses, not Werewolves!"

"Oops..." Harper reached out and grabbed Genie by her slippered feet and started to pull her back into the lilac bushes, "My bad, sorry. Here let me help you."

Genie made a strangled gasp when a drop of salvia moistened the ground in front of her and heavy breathing warmed the air above her head, "Too late..."

"Genie?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't..." Harper dropped Genie's ankles and inched back as far away from where her friend lay sprawled in front of her as she could get without alerting the Werewolf to her presence as it sniffed the air above Genie's head.

"Yeah?"

"Move."

Laying as still as her muscles would allow, Genie started to count down from one hundred in her head. The breadth of the beast who stood above her felt heavy as if there was a weight being held over her head and would drop and crush her at any moment. Squeezing her eyes shut, she waited. And waited. The beast didn't move, and Genie swore she thought she heard a whisper of moving leaves before the stillness of the night crept back in. Leaving her with the heavy breathing of the Werewolf standing over her.

Opening her eyes just as she counted 'one' in her head, she thought, "It's now or never." Gaining her feet at the same time the Werewolf was leaning down the two met in a kiss. Her vision swam as her lips met those of the Werewolf, and when her vision cleared, she saw not the face of a beast, but of a boy her own age with soft brown eyes staring back at her.

"How'd you do that?" he asked.

"I... do what?" Genie's voice almost stuck in the back of her throat.

"Sever me from my beast," His gaze traveled her disheveled appearance, a smirk lingering in his gaze, "with a kiss."

"I don't, I have no idea what you're talking about. I didn't kiss you."

"Yes, you did," Harper said from behind them. "I saw you."

Genie's eyes widened when she saw Harper step forward with a crossbow aimed at the boy's chest. Holding her hand out, she cried, "Harper! Wait! Stop!"