Isaac shouted her name as her ankle twisted underneath her. She gasped in pain, then caught her breath on another gasp as her hands, outstretched to break her fall, scraped across something hard.
Isaac? Why was /Isaac/ out here? He was supposed to be studying! Was he running from these creatures too? And then the pain receded enough that she comprehended what he had said as she was falling.
/Explain/?
She twisted upright, struggling to sit up without touching the hurt places to the ground again, in the leaf litter. “Isaac?!”
Hoping that it was light enough that she would be able to recognise him, but dark enough so that she wouldn’t take note of the changes in his physical appearance, Isaac ducked his head and exhaled a deep, shaking sigh, his hand still outstretched in front of him.
“Summer…just…just get out of the ditch, and then we’ll talk, okay?” he murmured in a low voice laced with fear, terrified that once she understood what was going on, that she’d leave him and want nothing more to do with him.
His eyes glowed too; a vibrant gold unlike either of the others. Hyperaware, she heard a shift in the leaves and snapped her gaze around — there were glowing eyes all around. Swallowing hard, she reached out to take his hand and jerked back in shock.
He had claws. And when he spoke she could see his fangs.
And yet, there was nothing different about the essential Isaac under the skin. He was exactly the same to her other sense as always. She reached out again, and curled her fingers around his firmly.