There weren’t many windows in the hospital, so when the power shut off suddenly, despite the fact that it was still light outside, Sasha was bathed in inky blackness. Then there was a hum and the backup generator kicked on, but it was tasked with running the life-saving equipment and not the lights, so instead emergency lights came on, cold and blue and spaced well apart.

“What’s happening?” Sasha asked a nurse as she cut through the waiting room. It was dim, and her eyes strained to see.

“I don’t know, everything will be fine though, this place can run without regular power for quite some time.”

Sasha nodded as the woman continued on her way. She thought then to go to her grandfather, to make sure he was alright, and she grabbed her coat from a nearby chair.  It was one of those Chicago habits. You could leave your belongings in Tall Tree, and no one would take them. She went from the waiting room and out into the hall.

She was only steps from her grandfather’s room when she heard a scream. Sasha paused, one foot held up off of the ground, and she swiveled her head.

“No!” someone screamed, a woman, from a hallway over. “Leave me alone!”

Fear gripped Sasha’s heart within its icy hand, and the beautiful young woman realized she hadn’t taken a breath. She sucked one in, ragged and too loud.  Setting her foot on the floor, she spun away from her grandfather's room.

Somehow Sasha knew it was Kurt. It was him, he had come for her, or for her grandfather, or for both of them once again. She also knew she couldn’t fight the wolfman off. And neither could her grandfather or anyone else in the hospital. Hunter and his friends had seemed to think that Kurt wouldn’t have dared attack a place with so many humans, but they had been wrong.

She had to keep him away from her grandfather. She had to keep Kurt busy until help could arrive. She pulled her phone out of her pocket, and she dialed Hunter.

“Sasha, what is it?” he asked. He sounded tired.

“Kurt is here, at the hospital.”

“He wouldn’t!” Hunter said.

“He did. Well, people are screaming. I’m going to check now. I think it’s him. I know it is.”

“No, stay away from him!” Hunter said.

“I have to keep him away from my grandpa,” Sasha argued.

“No, you can’t!” Hunter said.

“I have to do this, Hunter,” the young woman said. She smiled then, to herself, as she thought of the man she had fallen for. He was so handsome, and gentle, and loving. She thought of his shaggy hair, his charming smile and those perfect teeth. She thought of how he held her, and how he had turned into a wolf, giving her that part of him, letting her in on the secret just before the first time they had made love, and then how she had taken control and rode him the second time.

“Hunter,” she said after a small pause. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“Come save me,” she said, and then, before he could respond, Sasha hung the phone up. She put it on silent and slipped it back into her pocket. And then, with a part of her brain practically screaming at her not to do it, she turned and rushed towards the sound of screaming.

As she neared a corner, she heard gunshots, and she peered around the corner and into the hall beyond. The nurse’s station was there, looking otherworldly in the soft blue light of the emergency lights. A wolf, the same one who had attacked her a couple of nights ago, Kurt, was on the station, blood dripping from his jaws. A nurse lay dead by the station, another injured and crawling away. Near where Sasha was peeking stood the one guard the hospital employed. He had a gun, and it was trained on the wolf. Without a word, he fired again, but the bullet missed.

Kirt leaped down from the station and ran for the guard. The man was overweight and old, and he began to backpedal as he fired two more shots. Both tore up chunks of linoleum, missing their mark, and then the man stumbled and fell back, and the wolf was in the air, leaping upon him.

On the wall next to Sasha was a fire hydrant. She grabbed it as the man and the wolf skid into her view once more, and just as Kurt was about to rip the poor guard’s throat out, she swung the hydrant and caught Kurt right in the side of his canine neck, hitting him hard enough so that he fell sideways off of the man.

Sasha turned and ran, betting that Kurt would forget the guard and follow her. She had never been sorrier to be right, screaming as she heard the wolf paws pounding on the glossy floor behind her.

She ran away from her grandfather’s room, attempting to lure the wolf outside, seeing the entrance down one hall, stretching impossibly far in front of her.

Wham! The wolf hit her from behind, his front paws slamming into the small of her back, knocking her forwards and to the ground. She didn’t bother to see where the wolf was, she knew she had to just go, she knew she had to always keep moving, or she would be an easy target for Kurt.

There was an opened door to her right, and she scrambled through it, sliding onto her back as she slid into the room and using both feet to slam the door shut behind her. Just a second later there was a thump against the door, Kurt having leaped after her before he knew she was closing it.

Sasha looked around, taking in the room. It was a patient room, empty, the bed sitting made nearby. There was a sign nearby, cabinets underneath, and Sasha moved to him, throwing the doors open and checking inside. There was a box of syringes, and she pulled three out and tore them from their plastic just as the door was pounded on again, and this time it opened, and the wolf came flying in, skidding to a stop on his paws.

Kurt had been looking towards the bed, so he didn’t see her in time, and Sasha jumped forward and slammed her fist down, the fist that held the syringes, and the steel needles embedded themselves into Kurt’s neck, and he roared and shook the girl off.

She was up and running once more, out of the room, and she heard someone yell for her to stop, and she did, spinning to see the old security guard coming towards her, his gun drawn.

“Watch out!” she screamed as he neared the open doorway, and Kurt jumped out, but her warning had caused the old man to pause, so the wolf missed and slammed into the wall opposite the empty room. The old man swiveled and fired and this time his last two bullets found their mark, slapping into the wolf’s side with loud wet smacks.

Kurt growled and turned, stumbling just for a moment, and then he jumped at the guard, and Sasha didn’t wait to watch. Instead she turned and ran, feeling shame course through her body as the man screamed a hideous high pitch scream.

She hit the exit like a bat out of hell and kept running. The parking lot was small, and she had no car there, but luck was on her side and just as she was running out a man was pulling in, driving a station wagon. She ran to his car, and he rolled the window down.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Go!” she was screaming, running around to the other side of the car and wrenching the door open. The man was confused.

“Now wait just a minute, who the hell do you think you are?” he asked, looking at her. Sasha’s eyes went wide, for over the man’s shoulder she could see Kurt charging at top speed.

“Watch out!” she said, but it was too late, the wolf jumped up, it’s front half going through the open window, its jaws closing around the man’s shoulder, and with a great yank backward the man’s seat belt tore and he pulled out into the parking lot.

Sasha was running on pure instinct and adrenaline, and she slid into the driver’s seat, slammed the car into gear and punched down on the gas.

In the rear view mirror she saw the wolf finish the poor man off and then take chase after her, but as she watched and pulled out onto the street it seemed to think better of it. Instead, the wolf began to shift back into a man. Kurt stood watching her go, naked, his penis inexplicably hard, and he waved to her with a smile on his face.