In the split second it took for the blade to meet Wolf and claws meet flesh, Izzy knew two things: first, that her abilities had not been enhanced nearly enough to pose any kind of major threat to the White Wolf, and second, a searing, agonizing pain as the Wolf’s strength sent her soaring into the crumbling wall of the school.
	Flashes of white burst over her vision when she smacked into the stone. With a trembling groan, she slid down the wall to the ground amidst weeds, rocks, and bits of broken building, her upper back propped awkwardly against the wall. She had somehow managed to keep a hold of the sword, its hilt held loosely in her right hand. Her teeth grit hard and each quick exhale a pained moan, she tried to force herself to focus. If the wound she had dealt the Wolf did not work, it could be readying its next attack.
	But the sight that met her once the fuzzy haze of agony cleared enough for her make it out made an icy chill seep through her body. What was left of it, at least. She stared, horrified, at Trevor’s writhing form and the pair of legs—[i]her[/i] legs—not far from him. She did not need to look down to know what she would see. They had not evaporated, and the agony blazing its way through her from waist up was enough to tell her that her healing abilities had not increased enough to save her. But her plan seemed to have worked, and that was what mattered. He had risked his life for her. The least she could do was the same, even if it meant she lost hers in the process.
	Until everything went even more wrong. 
	Her breathing ragged and heart pounding erratically in her throat, she draped a shaking arm just above the severed part of her body, thick, warm blood instantly coating her skin. Fighting against the darkness lurking at the edges of her swirling vision, her sight blurring in and out, she watched with confused terror as the Wolf began to manifest itself, Trevor’s cries mingling with the Wolf’s howls.
	“No,” she rasped out between her teeth, a bitter metallic taste in her mouth.
 	Whatever she had done to the Wolf, she had not killed it. She had only made things worse, and there was nothing she could do but watch until the last of her life drained from her. The last thing she would see, she feared, before Death came to collect her was the Wolf’s triumph. Her head thunked back against the school’s wall, her neck tiring of holding it up.
	Then came the impossible voice, echoing in her head. In the partial second between another bout of hazy vision and relative clarity, the vampire child stood over her. She blinked a couple times, unsure if he was really there, or a figment of her imagination. It took her muddled brain longer than it should have to register what he said, if he was even speaking at all. She tried to speak after the second time she thought she heard him, to ask a simple, “What?” but only a pained whimper came out in place of words, her lips too weak along with the rest of her to work properly.
	There was no way he was really there, but when the pain ebbed and her lower half regrew, her body healed by his blood, there was no denying it. While his words may have been a hallucination, the vampire child was, in fact, there. When he took the sword, the back of her hand against the ground, her fingers curled around the empty air.
	When he turned to Trevor and the Wolf, Izzy tried to make herself stand, but her limbs felt like they weighed thousands of pounds. A leg twitched, as if it thought about obeying, but had changed its mind. Though the pain had stopped, the darkness creeping around her vision threatened to take over, her world still seeming to spin as she watched the child drain the Wolf’s life, then disappear.
	At last, it was over. She swallowed hard and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, the unfocused form of Riley stood over her. The world around her felt a million miles away. Only vaguely aware as he picked her up, she groaned, his voice as distant in her ears as the schoolyard seemed.
	The sound of Trevor’s voice followed her into unconsciousness, her body falling completely limp in Riley’s arms.

[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/B63EN2r.png?1[/img][/center]
	The familiar din of her brothers broke through the darkness of Izzy’s slumber. She really, [i]really[/i] hoped that was not what being dead sounded like. Their voices were muffled at first, as if she was hearing them from underwater, her eyelids lead weights demanding she return to sleep for a while longer. The night before felt more like a foggy nightmare nagging at the back of her mind than actual events. Part of her wished, [i]hoped[/i] it really was nothing but a nightmare, a gruesome story her unconscious mind had decided to concoct. But with a groan, she rolled onto her stomach, her comforter draped over her, and forced her eyes open as every last detail came crashing back to her.
	As hard as she wished it, it had been no dream.
	Trevor—or the Wolf, if not both—had nearly killed her. And against all odds, the vampire child had, at long last, moved from the worn, dingy classrooms to come to her rescue. But what had become of Trevor? 
	Her body weighed down from the sleep still clinging to her with a greater fierceness than usual, she forced herself to roll out of bed, taking a moment to make sure her feet,covered by a pair of white socks, were properly attached before standing. She changed out of the clothes she still wore from the previous day, trying to shake off the almost congested feeling sticking to her, then stole downstairs. She tried to sneak out without her brothers noticing her. She needed to know if Trevor was okay, all things considered, and she figured the best place to search for him was the school. If he was not there, then perhaps Riley would be, and she could ask him where to find Trevor.