Apocalypse Nowish - Hunt
Maybe it was the fact that I'd lived in Southern California for so long that even in the middle of the L.A., the air outside was still 'fresh' air. Maybe it was that the wolf inside me just preferred to be outdoors where it could at least hope and dream of being free to run and hunt. Maybe it was because it was one of the few damn places in this hotel that a person could get some quiet time alone, especially now that we had a whole fucking halfway house wandering the halls.
Yeah, that was probably it.
Xander had dropped a pretty huge bomb, as far as spilling the truth went, and I guess I was even still kinda reeling from that.
And so, I'd left the training room and headed up here. Along the way, I found out all about our new residents from the shelter downtown, which wouldn't have been my move, but I wasn't in charge of anything. I also spotted Lisette's note on the big board, which gave me plenty to think about as I made my way up to the roof.
So Xander definitely got things taken care of with the big exposition to me. And thinking back, I was pretty sure that I'd gotten the spell of my back a long time ago, talking to Dawn, when I 'fessed up about Gwen. So I guess that was the good news.
The bad news, though, was that I still didn't know what the hell I was gonna do about Gwen, and about Harmony, and about everything else. There was the pesky problem about the whole Apocalypse still hanging around, including The First Evil. Plus, I had a nightclub that was currently gathering dust and making me no money.
And then, there was the matter of a little revenge. Okay, a lot of revenge. Taking a deep breath of L.A. air, it got pretty damn clear what had to be done. I didn't even need to find the scent again. It was still locked in my memory the way anyone else would remember the way a person looked, or the way their voice sounded.
I remembered other things. I remembered Lizzie. And the wolf came to me easy then. Humanity slipped away even easier, and that was just the way I wanted it.
I could still smell the white-haired blood-drinker. His scent still burned my nose, and I could remember the feel of his teeth in my shoulder and the feel of every time he'd hit me. Rage felt good and tasted right. I left the top of the tall place and went hunting in the hard, cold city-forest. The shadows were my friend as I searched in all the dark places where the blood-drinkers lived.
Scratchy ground under my paws, so many people, and such a huge forest. And just one white-hair to find. The blood-drinker and the wolf that he hunted with, the one that smelled wrong, the one that felt like a two-leg but walked on four. The ones that killed the yellow-haired girl.
I would find them.
And not very long before the sun would climb into the sky and the hunt would have to stop for the day, I did find them. It was in one of the dark places, a small canyon where the blood-drinker was hunting. He finished with the two-leg he was drinking and threw it away now that he knew I was there. It tried to growl, and its face turned into the real face of a blood-drinker. I showed it what a real growl was.
The blood-drinker's wolf, the wrong-wolf attacked first, but it was only a wolf, not what I was. It did not have the strength or the speed, and when I tore out its throat with my teeth, the blood-drinker began to understand the pain I had felt for so long. The blood-drinker attacked, throwing itself at me. My back hit the hard wall, but I did not care. I threw the white-hair against the other wall.
I did not know how long we fought. I did not know how many times over I should have died, or the blood-drinker should have died. I felt its teeth in my shoulder again, and it knew the feel of my fangs in its arm. Blood sprayed against the sides of the dark dark canyon. My claws dug long and deep in its hide, and I felt my own bones break as its fists beat against my back.
The fight went on until my vision was red with rage and blood. I wiped the blood against the fur of my front leg and looked at the blood-drinker, who was all but crawling on the hard cold ground like me. I saw the last desperate lunge in its eyes before it happened. I knew the blood-drinker would aim for my throat.
The blood-drinker lunged, and I knew I was too hurt to be fast enough to avoid it. And so, I let the wolf slip away as quickly as it would go, and before the blood-drinker knew it, I was just a human-sized adversary, and my throat wasn't anywhere near where he wanted it.
Kyle slammed against the alley floor with a cringe-inducing crunch. Finally, I saw the shards of a couple of pallets that we'd destroyed during the fight. Staggering, then falling on my knees to the pavement, I clutched at a single pointed shard of wood, splinters digging into my palm.
I turned to face Kyle, the vampire, and locked eyes with him. Kyle was as battered and beaten and wrecked aws I was, and we could both be dead in seconds.
"For Lizzie, you bastard," I whispered, raised the stake, and plunged it into Kyle's chest, turning the goddamn thing into a pile of dust.
Dragging my nearly-dead and now naked body into the corner of the alley, I scrounged through a dumpster until I found something to cover myself up enough to stagger back to the hotel. But I couldn't help but smile.
"We're finally done with it, sweetheart. It's finally over."
I looked up into the slowly lightening sky and howled long and loud. Now that Lizzie was gone and avenged, I could finally breathe again, really breathe. Once my ribs and probably my lungs healed, of course.
Yeah, that was probably it.
Xander had dropped a pretty huge bomb, as far as spilling the truth went, and I guess I was even still kinda reeling from that.
And so, I'd left the training room and headed up here. Along the way, I found out all about our new residents from the shelter downtown, which wouldn't have been my move, but I wasn't in charge of anything. I also spotted Lisette's note on the big board, which gave me plenty to think about as I made my way up to the roof.
So Xander definitely got things taken care of with the big exposition to me. And thinking back, I was pretty sure that I'd gotten the spell of my back a long time ago, talking to Dawn, when I 'fessed up about Gwen. So I guess that was the good news.
The bad news, though, was that I still didn't know what the hell I was gonna do about Gwen, and about Harmony, and about everything else. There was the pesky problem about the whole Apocalypse still hanging around, including The First Evil. Plus, I had a nightclub that was currently gathering dust and making me no money.
And then, there was the matter of a little revenge. Okay, a lot of revenge. Taking a deep breath of L.A. air, it got pretty damn clear what had to be done. I didn't even need to find the scent again. It was still locked in my memory the way anyone else would remember the way a person looked, or the way their voice sounded.
I remembered other things. I remembered Lizzie. And the wolf came to me easy then. Humanity slipped away even easier, and that was just the way I wanted it.
I could still smell the white-haired blood-drinker. His scent still burned my nose, and I could remember the feel of his teeth in my shoulder and the feel of every time he'd hit me. Rage felt good and tasted right. I left the top of the tall place and went hunting in the hard, cold city-forest. The shadows were my friend as I searched in all the dark places where the blood-drinkers lived.
Scratchy ground under my paws, so many people, and such a huge forest. And just one white-hair to find. The blood-drinker and the wolf that he hunted with, the one that smelled wrong, the one that felt like a two-leg but walked on four. The ones that killed the yellow-haired girl.
I would find them.
And not very long before the sun would climb into the sky and the hunt would have to stop for the day, I did find them. It was in one of the dark places, a small canyon where the blood-drinker was hunting. He finished with the two-leg he was drinking and threw it away now that he knew I was there. It tried to growl, and its face turned into the real face of a blood-drinker. I showed it what a real growl was.
The blood-drinker's wolf, the wrong-wolf attacked first, but it was only a wolf, not what I was. It did not have the strength or the speed, and when I tore out its throat with my teeth, the blood-drinker began to understand the pain I had felt for so long. The blood-drinker attacked, throwing itself at me. My back hit the hard wall, but I did not care. I threw the white-hair against the other wall.
I did not know how long we fought. I did not know how many times over I should have died, or the blood-drinker should have died. I felt its teeth in my shoulder again, and it knew the feel of my fangs in its arm. Blood sprayed against the sides of the dark dark canyon. My claws dug long and deep in its hide, and I felt my own bones break as its fists beat against my back.
The fight went on until my vision was red with rage and blood. I wiped the blood against the fur of my front leg and looked at the blood-drinker, who was all but crawling on the hard cold ground like me. I saw the last desperate lunge in its eyes before it happened. I knew the blood-drinker would aim for my throat.
The blood-drinker lunged, and I knew I was too hurt to be fast enough to avoid it. And so, I let the wolf slip away as quickly as it would go, and before the blood-drinker knew it, I was just a human-sized adversary, and my throat wasn't anywhere near where he wanted it.
Kyle slammed against the alley floor with a cringe-inducing crunch. Finally, I saw the shards of a couple of pallets that we'd destroyed during the fight. Staggering, then falling on my knees to the pavement, I clutched at a single pointed shard of wood, splinters digging into my palm.
I turned to face Kyle, the vampire, and locked eyes with him. Kyle was as battered and beaten and wrecked aws I was, and we could both be dead in seconds.
"For Lizzie, you bastard," I whispered, raised the stake, and plunged it into Kyle's chest, turning the goddamn thing into a pile of dust.
Dragging my nearly-dead and now naked body into the corner of the alley, I scrounged through a dumpster until I found something to cover myself up enough to stagger back to the hotel. But I couldn't help but smile.
"We're finally done with it, sweetheart. It's finally over."
I looked up into the slowly lightening sky and howled long and loud. Now that Lizzie was gone and avenged, I could finally breathe again, really breathe. Once my ribs and probably my lungs healed, of course.