Deep in the Wilds of Suburbia
Many thanks to my wonderful beta, moonflower333 :)
Fandom: The Gates
Title: Deep in the Wilds of Suburbia
Pairings: Canon
Rating: Call it PG-13
Summery: What if the paranormals had no more clue about each other's presence in the Gates than the Monahans do? Devon gets into some bad Juju and Nick and Dylan team up to track down a rogue vampire.
Disclaimer: I don't own it. I'm just borrowing it, and when I'm done I'll put it back where I found it.
Chapter Nineteen: Third Verse, Different From the First
Simon moved too fast, and Karen had no time to change. Instead, she threw herself back, taking some of the force out of Simon's lunge and managed to get an arm up between them as they fell. She felt hot breath and the sharp pain of his teeth in her throat. In her wolf form, she had a thick ruff of fur around her neck to protect her from such an attack, but it would be useless now even if she changed. His teeth would be in her neck in either form. At any moment he would clamp down on her neck, cutting into tissue and crushing her trachea. If she did not asphyxiate, she would bleed out soon enough. Simon hesitated.
Fights in the pack were rarely lethal, even in such an unusual pack as the one residing in the Gates. Dominance was worth neither dying nor killing over. Simon hesitated, broadcasting his willingness to let her live if she stopped fighting. Karen hardly noticed.
With the protection of her wolf form rendered moot, offence became the best defense. Shifting the arm that pressed against his neck, she jammed her fist into the soft spot under his jaw as she groped for his eye with the fingers of her free hand and gouged her thumb into it when she found it. Simon made a coughing noise that was part pain, part surprise, but loosened his hold on her throat. Karen changed forms at the same moment that Charlotte leapt and landed on Simon's back.
The sudden added weight of Charlotte's stocky wolf form forced the air from Karen's lungs, but a moment later Simon and Charlotte both toppled to the side and Karen rolled, struggling to get her four feet under her. Her ears rang and she gasped for air. Her throat throbbed where Simon had bitten her and her fur felt sticky and wet.
Simon and Charlotte faced each other in the kitchen entryway. The alpha's ears lay flat against his skull and his lips curled back to show all his teeth. Charlotte crouched in front of him, her ears forward and her teeth hidden. She would not fight him on her own, but neither would she roll over. Tammy, as slim and long-legged as a wolf as she was as a woman, stood tensely by the island, waiting for the alphas to act.
Simon lunged forward, snapping and swiping at Charlotte's face with his front claws as the smaller, pale gray wolf snarled and reared up to defend herself. Ignoring the pain in her throat that was already beginning to itch with healing, Karen dashed forward, aiming for Simon's exposed belly. At the same time, Charlotte let out a sharp yip of pain and fell back. Simon surged forward and Karen found her jaws closing on his back leg. Well, needs must. She clamped down and shook her head, tearing skin and tasting warm blood. Her teeth hit the solidity of bone and she jerked his leg out from under him.
Abandoning his attack on Charlotte, Simon twisted and wrenched his leg free of Karen's teeth. They tumbled for a moment, snapping at each others' snouts, legs and throats but unable to land a solid bite. Karen, suddenly underneath Simon, raked her back claws against his belly. The alpha threw his body to the side and rolled away only to come up snarling, red tongue lashing out between white teeth.
Behind him, Tammy trotted forward as Charlotte shook her muzzled, spraying droplets of blood across the kitchen cabinets. For an instant, Karen caught Tammy's eyes and silent communication flowed between them - Follow my lead. Tammy braced for action. Karen whirled suddenly and ploughed through the still-open front door and across the front lawn. She heard Simon behind her, his feet thudding on the turf, his breath coming as fast as hers, and behind that, slim, long-legged Tammy, closing the gap.
Sarah closed the bathroom door behind her and opened the cabinet under the sink. She winced at the twinge of an early cramp and rifled through cakes of soap and extra bottles of shampoo until she found the box of tampons at the back. Damn, only one left. Sarah sighed. She would have to go to the store.
A bass rhythm thumped from behind the closed door of Charlie's room. Sarah knocked, waited for a second or two, and opened the door. Charlie lay on his bed, reading, just as he had since he got home from school. He looked up when she entered, and did not even bother to protest that she opened the door without waiting for permission. Sarah turned the music down so she could be heard.
"I need to go to the store. Will you watch your sister?"
"'Kay."
"That means you'll have to leave your room."
Charlie sighed heavily and rolled off the bed, giving her an are-you-happy-now look.
"Charlie…" Sarah tilted her head, not sure what to say. Dana had told her the news: Andie dumped Charlie. Even Charlie, moody as he was, would get over it eventually but Sarah still remembered those adolescent years and how every little romantic hiccup seemed to matter so much. "She's the one missing out."
"Okay, Mom."
She gave him a sympathetic smile and went to find her keys.
The streets were empty as Sarah drove home from the convenience store, a plastic bag filled with little pasteboard boxes in the seat next to her. She shuffled through the local radio stations and finding nothing good, reached down to get the CD case from the floor of the passenger seat. She slowed and tried to keep one eye on the road as she groped for the case but still she missed the gray shape of what she took to be a large dog running into the road until it was too late to avoid hitting it. She sat up straight and slammed on the brakes but still the dog hit the SUV's grill and rolled up the hood, smearing blood on the windshield. The vehicle skidded to a halt.
"Oh," Sarah breathed, her hands shaking with adrenaline. The poor thing.
She opened the door and stood on the running board, a little wary of the dog. It was enormous, and if it was still alive it might attack her out of fear. The fur rippled as she watched and she thought it was moving for a moment until the whole animal began to shrink. The limbs lengthened and the joints popped as they changed positions. The fur rippled again and disappeared, revealing tanned skin and blond hair.
Sarah stepped onto the pavement and walked around the front of the SUV, her eyes wide and her body cold. It seemed to her that she could feel her bones shaking. A woman now lay naked in the caustic light of a streetlamp and blood oozed from numerous bites and scratches on her body. The wounds on her neck were the worst by far; there was so much blood that Sarah could hardly see where the skin was torn and where it was whole. Between the blood and the strange setting, it took Sarah several seconds to recognize Karen Crezski, and even when she did, she doubted her own eyes.
A canine yip-yip of pain carried across a lawn and Sarah realized she had come to a stop by Karen's house. She squinted into the darkness beyond the harsh orange glare of the streetlamp, frozen in fear for a moment, and saw only the movement of dark on dark before an even bigger dog - no, wolf, some primordial part of her mind screamed, wolf! - seemed to fly out of the darkness at her. Time slowed and Sarah dove forward, under the creature's leaping attack, that same primordial brain thinking, If it only gets my feet I might live.
The weight of the animal landed on her legs, but was only present for a moment before another, smaller, shape leapt out of the gloom from Sarah's left and slammed into the larger wolf, burying its muzzle in the thick ruff of fur at the thing's throat and shoving it hard into the grill of the SUV. The new wolf was coal-black and slender but had enough momentum to pitch its weight at the bigger animal. Sarah scrambled away, trying to stay quiet despite her breath coming in sobbing gulps.
Sarah stopped and cowered by the front tire on the passenger side. From here she could just see Karen's blond hair where it trailed over the hood. The engine was still running. No one could blame her for saving herself when she could not even know for sure that Karen was still alive. She could call 911, animal control, something. Her phone was still in the car. Sarah moved back and reached up for the door handle, touched it. Her hand still on the handle, she looked back at Karen's hair.
"Karen you are such a bitch," she whispered and crawled forward again, toward the fight, cursing herself for a fool. Yips, growls and barks sounded from around the front of the SUV, and Sarah could not judge how much longer the animals - wolves! - would stay occupied with their fight. The whole vehicle rocked as one of the wolves slammed into it. Slowly, Sarah's knees unbent and she braced herself against the side of the SUV, not quite brave enough to fully stand. "IhateyouIhateyouIhateyou," she chanted under her breath, channeling her fear into anger and from there to action.
She hooked her hands under Karen's shoulders and pulled on her arms. The woman groaned and Sarah pulled even harder. She risked a glance at the fight just feet away from her. A third wolf, a stocky, gray animal, had joined the fray. All were bleeding, and the big one was now favoring a back leg and having trouble maneuvering around the two smaller animals.
With one last burst of strength, the larger animal threw the black wolf off its back and lunged at the other one, forcing it back. Now that it was momentarily clear of the other two, the large wolf turned and loped into the night, still favoring its back leg and leaving the two smaller ones behind. The darker animal danced on its paws, as if it would give chase but at a coughing bark from the gray wolf, it turned back. After one last regretful look into the night, it leapt lightly onto the hood of the SUV, where it spotted Sarah for the first time.
Sarah froze and stared up into startled and intelligent brown eyes. Then the fur on the wolf's back rose and it bared its teeth, a low growl issuing from deep in its chest. Slowly and without taking her eyes from the wolf that stood barely a foot and a half away from her, Sarah slid her hands out from under Karen's shoulders.
As soon as her hands were free, Sarah stood up straight and screamed wordlessly into the animal's face. She lunged forward as far as the hood of the car allowed and swung a fist at the wolf's muzzle. The beast stopped snarling and ducked the blow, nearly losing its footing on the slope of the hood. It reared back and stared at Sarah as if it could not understand what had just happened. Sarah screamed and swung again, and again she missed the animal and got only a quizzical cock of the head in response. She began pulling desperately at Karen's inert body, convinced that the wolves were going to kill them both and forgetting in her terror that she had seen Karen herself transform from a wolf to a woman.
"Hey! Will you chill out?"
Sarah and the black wolf both turned to face the new voice. Charlotte stood, hand on hips and naked in the street, and scowled threateningly at both of them. "Tammy, get off the goddamn car." Tammy obeyed and disappeared from Sarah's view for a moment, blocked by the hood. When she reappeared, she was in human form and also stark nude.
Sarah stood panting over Karen, her mind blank and her whole body shaking. She stayed bent over the vehicle for fear that if she moved, she would fall to the ground.
"We should get her to Zach's house," Charlotte said. "He might come back." Tammy nodded and the two women moved forward. Sarah backed away and let them pick Karen up as gently as they could. Charlotte gave her a pitying glance.
"Go home, Sarah," she suggested. "Forget this ever happened. We won't tell if you won't." Tammy stifled a laugh and Charlotte glared at her.
Tammy cleared her throat and said, "He parked us in."
"What? Ugh. I hate him all over again. Fine. So we'll just have to find his damn keys." A wolf howled nearby and all three pairs of frightened eyes turned toward the spot where Simon had disappeared down the street. While still scanning the darkness, Charlotte said, "Sarah? Change of plans."
"It's not personal," Dylan explained in an infuriatingly reasonable voice as he drove through the winding streets of the Gates toward the Monahans' house. "It's just that objectively, when you put on fifteen pounds of protective gear just to play rugby, it's a little… pansy."
"I played football in high school. There's nothing sissy about it."
"Well, sure. From your rather ignorant perspective, I suppose there wouldn't be."
"That's pretty smug coming from the country that brought us cricket."
"Those matches lasted for days. You had to have superhuman stamina just to watch."
"Yeah, well, there's no tea breaks in football."
"There's no need! You take a five minute breather before every play. You even stop the clock. Now, in real football there's none of that standing around to catch your breath business. Those are serious athletes."
"Yeah, right up until they take a fall to get a sympathy call from the ref."
"Touché."
Dylan slowed at a stop sign, ready to roll through it despite Nick's sharp glare, when he jerked the car to a stop as a canine blur streaked through his headlights. He frowned at Nick.
"I think that was a wolf," Dylan announced. "What the hell's it doing in here?"
"You sure? Could just be a big dog."
"I know what a wolf looks like."
"Hell. I'll call animal control, but they won't be here 'til the morning. Hey." Nick bumped his arm. "Follow it."
Dylan nodded and was out the door in a flash, not bothering to take his keys.
"I meant with the car!" Nick shouted as Dylan passed through the headlights to the darkened street beyond.
The wolf ran with a slight limp, but Dylan stayed at a steady distance behind it, enjoying the chase. He darted from shadow to shadow, a blur of shadow himself, emerging from one pool of darkness and disappearing into another. Dash. Rest. Dash. Rest. He hardly cared what would happen if he caught the wolf. Maybe he would play with it and let it go. The point was, the hunt was on and after tonight's near disaster and the frustration of being denied his expected bloodshed, the vampire felt the need to blow off a little steam.
The wolf soon realized it had company and veered right, onto grass and between two houses. Ignoring its injured leg, it leapt one fence and then another. Dylan followed, knowing it was dangerous, that he might be seen. It was late, though, and the chase was too good to give up now.
After cutting through a residential block, they hit the street again. Dylan had fallen behind in the obstacle course of backyards, pools, fences, and swing sets, and was tiring quickly. The wolf loped ahead, easily outpacing the vampire, and Dylan suddenly realized the trap he had fallen into. The thing had been wearing him down. He stopped and gazed after it until it disappeared around the corner of the next house, caught somewhere between frustration and respect for the animal that had so handily outsmarted him.
"Dylan? What are you doing?"
Dylan jumped and whirled around to find Ben McAlister and his… wife? Girlfriend? Dylan had never been quite certain of Ben's relationship with the dark-haired woman he lived with. They stood at Ben's Mercedes, dressed for an evening out and apparently just leaving for the night. The woman stared in open and impolite curiosity at Dylan.
"Nothing," he called, trying to seem as friendly as possible. Ben was a big man on the Council. It would not do to have him think Dylan was up to no good, especially the one time he genuinely had nothing to hide. "A wolf got in from the woods."
"Uh-huh. You want to get off my lawn?"
"Hm? Oh." Dylan stepped back and onto the sidewalk just as Nick pulled up in the BMW. "Sorry. Ehm… Good night, Ben. Lauren."
"Yeah."
Dylan climbed thankfully into the sedan.
Ben and Lauren watched the car pull away.
"That guy is so weird," Lauren said. "I'll bet the kid was his idea. Poor Claire must be a saint to put up with him."
"Yeah. Wonder what he was doing chasing Simon? It's not like him."
"I think the better question is, why doesn't Simon get chased more often?"
"Hey, you don't think he actually thought it was just a wolf, do you?"
"Of course not," she said. "I can think of a dozen reasons someone might chase Simon down the street. Why would anyone chase a wolf?"