She could hear them chattering in loud brazen voices as she lay huddled on the bus seat, hoping they wouldn't see her.  She didn't feel up to defending herself now.  Their heavy footfalls came closer and closer, their laughter felt deafening in her ears.  The scent of dead skunk hit her like a semi truck and she had trouble keeping down her dinner.  They were right beside her now and she cringed.  One had seen her.

 

"Hey guys!  Lookie here!" he bellowed.  A cloud that smelled of sour beer gripped her nostrils, making her stomach churn dangerously--although it wasn't the only factor in her nausea.  The drunkard grabbed her by the back of the neck and yanked her to her feet.  He was a big man around the mid twenties with a beard that put a scraggly bum to shame.  The others saw her and laughed all the more.  She made a feeble attempt to break away but the smell of skunk and beer did not help her queasiness any and she could not twist away from his hold.

 

"Alright!  Let's get this over with and then have some fun!"  The speaker was a young man, probably not even out of high school yet.  Although, by the looks of him, he was probably a drop-out.  The other two shouted merrily in agreement.  She saw something move in the shadows by the door of the bus, but they didn't.  A third, one with a mop of sandy hair, flung the skunk into the middle of the aisle and cackled with glee as it hit with a sickening thud.  They all howled with drunken laughter as the fourth boy, around thirteen with multiple piercings, drew out a bat and began to beat the dead creature to a pulp.  Lynn kept her eye on the shadows.  Something was definately moving there.  Even in the darkness of the bus, with the lights of the football game shining in from the side, she could see a hint of fur and the faint outline of a monstrous shape.

 

A low growl erupted from the darkness.  All of them fell silent and turned towards the doorway.  Lynn smirked.  She knew exactly who it was.

 

Out of the darkness stepped the biggest, strangest-colored wolf any of them had seen.  It stood on its hind legs and had the hands and torso of a man.  Its fur shone dark gray in the faint light with patches of black about the shoulders and a black stripe down the spine and silver about the chest and muzzle.  Its eyes glared golden yellow and seemed to glow.  The tail, with a black strip down the center, lashed about dangerously.  It bared its fangs in menacing grin, glowering at its victims like a cat glares at the mouse.

 

"Oh shit," the large man swore, dropping her in an instant.  She smelled urine, as though the man had wet himself.  The monster took a step forward, claws shimmering like obsidian blades.  The entire group of vandalizers ran screaming to the back of the bus, trying desperately to open the emergency door.  The wolf-creature paused by her seat to look at her, smirking slightly.  Then it advanced.

 

Claws tore the youngest in half.  She could hear his agonized screams and saw the rivulets of blood trickle down the aisle.  The smell of it tore through her body, making her shudder--not from fright, but from desire.  She felt the wings sprout from her back, her legs and arms become more lean, her feet become paws.  Claws snaked from under her fingernails.  Her nose and mouth grew elongated and her teeth became sharper, longer.  The pain of the transformation didn't bother her anymore.  She was used to it.

 

Once finished, she could not fit in the bus seat.  Her wings made it difficult to situate herself; she finally just folded them tightly against her sides and sprang over the seats to the group of men.  The wolf creature was tearing into the high school drop-out, wrenching his arms clean off with a jerk of his muscular shoulders.  The boy screeched and struggled vainly as his blood washed over them.  Lynn took down the burly man with an enraged snarl, burrowing into his chest with her claws and crushing his heart with her teeth.  She tore it out with a jerk of her head and then began to disembowel him.  The wolf grabbed up the violated skunk and forcefully stuffed it down his victim's throat, tail end first.  The boy's screams became muffled in the sea of smelly black-and-white fur as he slowly suffocated.

 

The sandy-haired boy couldn't take it any longer.  He crawled under one of the nearest seats and made his way past them all in that way.  Once he thought he was in the clear, he slipped from under the seats and made a run for it.  The wolf turned, hearing his footfalls on the bus floor.  He raised his hand and shot forth a silvery ball of light.  It hit the boy with such a force that he fell forward and rolled head over heels.  Then, he began to convulse violently.  Blood spewed from his ears, eyes, nose and mouth.  Even the hair folicles on his head began to ooze blood.  Something seemed to be moving inside his chest; Lynn could see it ripple and twist.  His arms and legs began to jerk and spasm, finally to the point where the elbows snapped backwards and the ankles twisted grotesquely to the side.  His ribs heaved violently as the blood began to run down his pants.  Sickeningly, his eyes popped, shooting forth yellowy liquid.  His mouth gaped open wide and a choked scream racked the air as his chest and belly suddenly exploded in a wave of blood and guts.  Then, he moved no more.

 

The wolf grunted, satisfied, and slowly began to shrink and shift until a young man of about sixteen stood before her.  He had black hair matted by blood and a pair of beautiful eyes.  She returned to her form and kicked at one of the corpses, grinning at him.

 

"Thanks, Jim," she said, giving him a big hug.  "I couldn't have taken care of those assholes if you hadn't showed up."  He smiled and hugged her back, nestling his face into her neck.  "How did you know, anyway?"

 

"I didn't," he replied.  "I just thought I'd come check on you."